"They want money again?"
The Second Raikage threw the letter demanding payment onto the floor, his brows knitted tightly.
The two thin letters were filled with elaborate diplomatic language, but their central message boiled down to a single sentence: the war reparations were due.
Where had these reparations come from?
That went all the way back to the first Five Kage Summit.
At the time, [Black Zetsu] had suddenly appeared, and the Second Hokage had died after failing to defeat him. After the enemy withdrew, the Four Nations had set their sights on the drastically weakened Konoha, preparing to join forces and divide up the Land of Fire.
Then the reigning Uchiha Clan Head, Uchiha Ichiro, had suddenly struck, killing the First Raikage and the Mizukage outright and changing the balance of the Shinobi World once again.
Tobirama Senju, who had been in charge of Konoha at the time, had seized the opportunity to join forces with the Land of Earth and the Land of Wind to pressure the other two nations. He had also made those two countries bear most of the losses incurred at the summit, paying war reparations to Konoha, the Land of Earth, and the Land of Wind at a ratio of 4:3:3.
With its domestic situation currently stable, Konoha was in no hurry to collect that money. It had given the Land of Lightning three years of breathing room, allowing it a temporary respite.
The other two nations were different, however. The Lands of Wind and Earth each had their own domestic troubles and urgently needed funds to keep their countries running.
Previously, the Second Raikage had paid part of the reparations to free himself up to deal with the Shadow Organization. But now, after repeated blows had weakened the Land of Lightning's morale, the