The Five Kage Summit was one of the rare major events in the entire shinobi world.
So far, it had only been convened once, during the First Hokage's time.
The reason this important event was being held in the Land of Iron had to do with the Land of Iron's own status.
The Land of Iron was one of the few neutral countries in the shinobi world.
In the shinobi world, neutrality didn't come from slogans but from strength. The Land of Iron didn't have ninja, but its samurai were powerful enough to let it maintain neutrality.
Right now, inside a fortress-like building in the Land of Iron, in a conference room simply decorated yet heavy with gravitas, a lot of people had already gathered. The desks were arranged in a semicircle; the Five Kage and that samurai named Mifune were seated, while the rest of the guards stood.
The meeting had been called, but the atmosphere after it started was not very good.
Putting aside the fact that someone had been late because they'd been having too much fun, which delayed the meeting by two days, the relationships among those present were already somewhat complicated.
Onoki, though acting unruffled, kept glancing at Kurotsuchi who was standing behind Tsunade.
She was supposed to be his granddaughter, yet she had come to the meeting trailing behind the Hokage.
He nearly spat his tea out when he saw it.
The one standing, Kurotsuchi's father, likewise scowled at his daughter, while Akatsuchi looked all cheerful.
Under the double pressure of her father and grandfather, Kurotsuchi was shrinking behind Tsunade.
She had only told Tsunade she wanted to come in and take a look, and Tsunade had just dragged her in, she hadn't expected it to turn out like this.
As for Aoba, he was standing between Tsunade and Mei Terumi.
On his calf, without him noticing when it happened, a delicate little foot painted with light pink nail polish had crept up and was still climbing.
Although the owner of that foot showed nothing on her face, Aoba immediately recognized whose it was.
He was the one who often painted that exact color of nail polish for her, and then... Now Mei Terumi sat with her arms crossed, angled toward him, right leg over left, inching that foot upward little by little.
Somebody must've spread the gossip that he liked girls' feet, because the rumor was already circulating in small circles, even Ino and the others knew.
Utter nonsense. He had never boasted about it; at most he occasionally used it to…
Aoba dared not move now; if this got out, his reputation would be ruined.
But this was the scene of the Five Kage Summit, and everyone here was among the top fighters in the shinobi world.
Doing little things like that, even if the table blocked it from view, there were always places you couldn't hide.
For instance, Kurotsuchi on his other side kept glancing over now and then.
That Kurotsuchi really didn't know how to behave, eeveryone else, like Zabuza and Haku, were pretending not to see, but she kept staring.
Aoba glanced instinctively at Tsunade.
She was watching him with a very kind look, grinding her teeth.
If this were anywhere but the Five Kage Summit, if it were his own home, Tsunade would have already kicked him properly.
But this was an important summit.
"Hmph!"
During the Five Kage Summit, Mei Terumi the young Mizukage was really daring to do such a thing.
At the same time, Aoba couldn't help but feel a little resentful, 'The Land of Iron was really stingy, couldn't they have arranged a bigger table?'
'Otherwise, how could Mei Terumi so easily stretch her foot over?'
Only Gaara truly remained calm; he only needed to echo Tsunade's ideas when she made them, obediently acting as the junior. Though it looked bad for the village, after all, thanks to Konoha's help this year, Sunagakure had changed a lot.
At least everyone could eat their fill now.
As for the Fourth Raikage, his tailed beast had been stolen, his two strategists had been abducted, and now someone was late to the summit, he was furious.
But as one of the conveners of the Five Kage Summit, he still opened his mouth.
"Everyone, the reason we invited you to this summit is for our common enemy."
A standard opening, but when he finished, it fell flat.
No one seemed willing to respond.
The Fourth Raikage had a vein of stress at his temple.
"Ahem! Raikage-sama, please get straight to the point."
In the end, Mifune couldn't bear it and helped dissolve some of the awkwardness.
The Fourth Raikage had to swallow his anger and looked around, then aimed at Tsunade, "Hokage, the report that Uchiha Madara captured tailed beasts first came from Konoha. I want to know whether the Akatsuki organization is connected to him."
When those words came out, everyone's attention shifted to Tsunade.
Now that was information worth noting.
Well, Mei Terumi was an exception, she seemed not to care about heaven and earth at the moment.
Tsunade didn't hold back; she revealed some of the information Aoba had told her, "The Akatsuki was Madara Uchiha's contingency for resurrection, but the current Akatsuki has already broken free of his control."
The first half of that sentence made everyone tense, but the second half let them breathe a little.
"Hokage, could you elaborate?"
Seeing that Onoki was asking, and considering he'd been reasonable this year, Tsunade briefly explained.
"The leader of the Akatsuki has the ability to bring the dead back. After Madara died, someone used his name to guide Akatsuki's actions from the shadows, the plan was to gather the tailed beasts to resurrect him. But that man was captured and executed by Aoba a year ago when he was capturing the Three-Tails."
Silence fell over the room again.
The information in that statement was enormous.
Putting aside whether Madara truly had a resurrection method, Konoha had killed the agent who claimed Madara's name.
Giving that intel also showed off some of their strength.
The Fourth Raikage considered Tsunade's words and said seriously, "It seems the Akatsuki's goal remains all the tailed beasts; they are therefore our common enemy."
"I believe the villages should share intelligence on the Akatsuki and jointly eradicate them."
Tsunade couldn't help frowning at that and felt her pride pricked, "On what grounds?"
If she didn't care about appearances she'd have pointed at the Raikage and scolded him.
'Share intelligence? This guy expects to freeload Konoha's information with one line, dreaming big, huh.'
'Does he have nothing but muscle in his head, unable to read the situation?'
Three of the five great villages were aligned with Konoha; Onoki's granddaughter was standing right behind her.
She could even call a Four Kage meeting and see who wasn't invited then.
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