Inside the conference room, the Four Kage voiced their doubts almost simultaneously.
"Escaped? How could you let them escape?"
Burūi's voice was the loudest. He pressed his palm against the table. "Once enemies from the Ōtsutsuki Clan go into hiding, we won't even know where they are."
"If he launches an attack on the Land of Lightning's border, who will stop him?"
As Kumogakure's Raikage, his greatest concern was naturally still the Land of Lightning and Kumogakure.
Kurotsuchi was even more direct in her questioning. "We traveled all this way to Konoha to attend this Chunin trial with the intention of strengthening cooperation and trust between the five nations."
"Yet a battle of this scale broke out on the Land of Fire Border last night, and we only learned about it afterward through intelligence reports. Did Konoha have no intention of informing the other four villages before the battle?"
All four Kage fixed their eyes on Jiraiya.
Jiraiya fell silent for two seconds.
He could feel the cold sweat against the chair back soaking through layer after layer of his clothing.
Shihōin Naraku, whom he was impersonating, never needed to explain anything to anyone.
But he was not Naraku.
And today, of all days, he had to provide a reasonable answer, one that would neither arouse the Four Kage's suspicions nor reveal that Naraku himself was absent from Konoha.
"Everyone, please remain calm."
Seeing that Jiraiya had not spoken, Shikaku Nara hurried to take control of the discussion.
"Regarding the intelligence..."
"It was an emergency. The enemy appeared so suddenly that we had no time to initiate the five nations' joint notification procedures."
He paused there, looking first at Burūi, then at Mei Terumi, before finally settling his gaze between Kurotsuchi and Gaara.
"Moreover, it was only with great difficulty