The Deva Path had been gone for a long time, yet the place where the Five Kage stood remained utterly silent.
At last, someone broke the silence. It was Kankuro:
"Could this guy be lying? If he's that powerful, why even declare war? Why not just attack and be done with it?"
But no one present could answer. Someone that powerful would generally disdain telling such a lie.
Then Minato Namikaze spoke:
"Regardless of whether what he said is true, we absolutely cannot hand over the Eight-Tails and Nine-Tails. We must prepare to face an opponent of that strength. If he's lying, we'll only have wasted some supplies and manpower, which would still be a good thing for us. But if it's true, we'll have to fight with everything we have. Handing the world over to someone like him would only turn the Shinobi World into hell."
Gaara spoke up as well:
"That's right. Our only option now is to form the Allied Shinobi Forces. That way, we'll at least stand a chance of fighting!"
The Fourth Raikage added:
"We absolutely cannot let someone like him toy with us. We'll establish the Allied Shinobi Forces and settle things with them once and for all!"
Ōnoki spoke then:
"In that case, Iwagakure also supports forming an alliance."
Minato Namikaze spoke at the appropriate moment:
"Then the proposal to form the Allied Shinobi Forces is settled. As for the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki, I'll have him secretly escorted to Kumogakure and placed under the Raikage's protection."
Just then, Mei Terumi suddenly said:
"Wait. The leader of the Akatsuki seemed to keep talking about the Eight-Tails just now, without mentioning the Nine-Tails. Could that mean they've already obtained Nine-Tails Chakra?"
Hearing that, Minato Namikaze couldn't help smiling:
"That's impossible. The Nine-Tails Jinchuriki is my son.