"Stop! The Kazekage is receiving guests. Unauthorized personnel..."
Before the Sunagakure ANBU could finish, a dense storm of metal bullets brutally choked off his words.
"Rat-a-tat-tat-tat-tat!"
The station corridor instantly became a battlefield, sparks flying everywhere. More than a dozen female bodyguards in skimpy bikinis and oversized black sunglasses showed no restraint whatsoever, unloading their guns wildly at the ANBU's feet and the walls.
Thousands of bullets poured out, sending shards of stone flying and filling the air with choking dust. The elite ANBU were briefly thrown into disarray by the completely nonsensical assault.
Those madwomen did not dare actually kill anyone—once blood was spilled at the station, this would go from a "friction" to a "war."
"Don't be so tense, gentlemen. We're all civilized people here."
The heavy oak doors were violently kicked open, and one half of a door flew away with a miserable creak.
Amid the rapid flashes of blinding camera lights, Colonel Ka strode in with a cigar clenched between his teeth, surrounded by a crowd of civilians wearing "war correspondent" badges.
He had hired those refugee extras as reporters for five hundred ryo a day. They held old-fashioned cameras bought from the black market; most did not even have film loaded inside, but their presence was enough to push the atmosphere to its peak.
The meeting room instantly fell silent.
Hiruzen Sarutobi held a teacup in his hand, his gaze as heavy as a stagnant pool. The stopper on Gaara's gourd popped open by itself, and fine yellow sand gathered in midair into a beast claw ready to devour someone at any moment. The killing intent was almost tangible.
As though blind, Colonel Ka completely ignored the sand claw hanging above him and walked straight to the end of the negotiation table. He dropped into