The wager
The handover ceremony took place in the council hall of the Mizukage Building.
Both sides took their seats. On Kirigakure's side, Mei Terumi and Kaguya Yama sat beside one another at the head of the hall, with Ao, Wolf Demon, and Bear Yaksha seated to their left in that order.
On Kumogakure's side, the Raikage and Dodai took the foremost seats, while eight Hidden Cloud ANBU stood straight behind them.
The clerical staff of the Mizukage Building served tea and refreshments, then withdrew. The doors closed, leaving only the core members of both parties in the hall.
Neither side spent long on pleasantries.
At Dodai's signal, the Hidden Cloud ANBU placed the iron chest bearing sealing talismans on the table, released the seals, and opened the lid.
Inside lay neatly arranged stacks of ten-thousand-ryō notes issued by the Five Great Nations Bank. Each stack bore a sealing strip, and the total came to five billion ryō.
Mei Terumi accepted the chest and closed it without so much as looking inside, then gave a slight nod.
Just then, a side door slid open soundlessly, and Yugito Nii stepped into the hall.
She wore a clean set of new clothes, her long, sandy-blond hair tied neatly behind her head. Her complexion was rosy, her expression calm.
Though they had not seen her for several days, she looked neither haggard nor thinner. If anything, her cheeks seemed a little rounder than before.
The Raikage stared at her for a full three seconds, his gaze sweeping from her face to her wrists, then to her ankles, making sure she was uninjured, unsealed, and had not been tampered with in any way.
Then he slowly rose and strode over to Yugito, looking down at her.
His towering, iron-built frame, over two meters tall,