While Indra enjoyed the entertainment before the Ten-Tails' revival, the Five Great Shinobi Villages had all received a message from Amegakure!
In Konoha, the newly appointed Sixth Hokage, Kakashi, sat with his brow furrowed.
"Naruto, Naruto, you really know how to put me in a bind!"
Of course, Kakashi fully believed the contents of the letter.
What troubled him was how to act on it.
"Setting aside whether the village's ninja will believe this letter is genuine..."
"Even if we decide it's better to be safe than sorry, moving ninja on a large scale requires the Daimyo's consent. Otherwise, it's considered rebellion!"
"Even if we overcome those obstacles, what do we do with the village's civilians? Just leave them to fall under the Infinite Tsukuyomi? That's hardly defensible!"
"Civilians can't travel nearly as fast as ninja. If we take them along, they'll slow our march to a crawl. We'll probably be caught on the road before we can reach Amegakure..."
Shikaku Nara said, "Kakashi, this isn't the time to worry about those things."
"Dwelling on those obstacles will only cost us our chance to act."
Kakashi asked, "Then are you saying I should issue an order as Hokage and force everyone to comply?"
Click!
Shikaku lit a cigarette and watched the clouds drift past the window. His gaze was clear as he said, "Perhaps it isn't that complicated. Sometimes, if you don't treat something as a problem, it ceases to be one."
"We won't publicize the letter. We'll mobilize the ninja and send them out of the village under the pretext of an exercise."
Kakashi asked, "But our destination is Amegakure. Everyone knows that's Naruto's territory. How do we explain that?"
Shikaku smiled. "Amegakure borders the Land of Fire, the Land of Earth, and the Land of Lightning. We can