Mei Terumi felt both gratified and pained by the loss.
"The Seven-Tails was an extra piece of 'spoils' we obtained when we defeated the Akatsuki last time."
Seeing Mei Terumi looking distracted, Uchiha Minamoto chuckled twice and offered a brief explanation.
"Lady Mizukage, the next time your village's two jinchūriki need 'recharging,' remember to contact Konoha."
"You-"
Mei Terumi gritted her teeth and conceded defeat.
"You devil from Konoha! Get out of Kirigakure!"
"Haha!"
Uchiha Minamoto laughed twice, and his figure vanished on the spot.
But he did not leave Kirigakure as Mei Terumi had told him to. Instead, following the perceptions of the Heavenly Net, he arrived at another location in Kirigakure.
This was Kirigakure's Great Love Group Branch, where Kakashi Hatake was leading a Great Love Group Squad in learning about the branch's situation.
Uchiha Minamoto summoned Kakashi Hatake and gave him a few instructions.
Only then did the Fifth Hokage leave Kirigakure with Divine Lightning, under the admiring gazes of the Great Love Group members.
He returned to Konoha.
Uchiha Minamoto appeared out of thin air inside the Hokage's Office.
He sat back down in his chair and casually picked up a document scroll from his desk.
Before Mei Terumi contacted him, Uchiha Minamoto had been handling the selection of the Seven-Tails Jinchuriki.
A few days earlier, after defeating Hashirama Senju, Uchiha Minamoto had released news of the variant tailed beast weaponization strategy within the village.
Everyone knew how powerful tailed beasts were.
And the strength of jinchūriki had been demonstrated to the fullest in past wars.
In other villages, ninja might still have worried about jinchūriki losing control and going berserk.
But in Konoha, from the first Nine-Tails Jinchuriki, Mito Uzumaki, to the third, Naruto Uzumaki, no jinchūriki had ever lost control.
A natural disaster like