The Land of Iron was known as a permanently neutral nation.
There were no ninja in this country, only samurai.
Its presence in the shinobi world waxed and waned.
As a neutral nation of samurai in a shinobi world that revered ninjutsu, it rarely drew much attention.
But whenever the Five Kage Summit convened, this normally overlooked nation became the focus of the shinobi world.
This time, the unremarkable Land of Iron had once again become the center of attention.
It was the second day of the Five Kage Summit.
After a full day of arguing, the five shinobi villages' highest leaders had nearly come to blows.
Right from the start, the Raikage and Tsuchikage had kept pressuring Tsunade, pinning the blame for the Akatsuki on her.
But Tsunade had prepared herself before coming.
Through constant rebuttals and explanations, she had kept the Raikage and Tsuchikage from making their accusations stick.
However, Ōnoki, an old fox of the shinobi world, had prepared for this in advance.
He had brought out Takigakure, whose representative immediately launched into a tearful denunciation of Konoha.
He described how deeply Takigakure had trusted Konoha, only for Konoha to betray that trust.
Takigakure's appearance had put enormous pressure on Tsunade, but fortunately, Jiraiya had stepped forward to recount everything that had happened, barely holding off the accusations.
The summit had dragged on through an entire day of arguing without reaching a conclusion.
On the second day of the Five Kage Summit, the arguing resumed as soon as all five village leaders arrived.
"Hokage! Are you still going to make excuses?"
The hot-tempered Raikage opened by shouting at Tsunade. Whatever the truth was, he would pin the blame on her first.
"I told you, I'm not making excuses. The Akatsuki has nothing to do with Konoha!"
Ōnoki