Seeing that the Elder of Kumogakure was being rather cooperative, Shinju silently pulled back the leg he had resting on the conference table.
"Alright, since the Elder himself said so, I guess this matter's settled then. ┐(´-｀)┌"
"As for the rest of the diplomatic stuff, Konoha will have its own people talk to you about that… ╭(￣▽￣)╮"
The Elder, standing beside Shinju, instantly lost his smile.
He had thought that two hundred million ryo would settle the whole issue once and for all—but apparently, that was just Shinju's "compensation fee"!
And with Shinju saying it like that, he couldn't even argue back.
The elder could only keep up his forced smile and say,
"Alright… but I have one more favor to ask of you, Shinju-san."
Since getting swindled was already a done deal, he could only try to make the two hundred million worth something.
Shinju said heartily, "Go ahead, speak. Helping others avert disaster while taking their money is what I do~ヾ(●´∇｀●)ﾉ"
The Elder: (||๐_๐)
He caught the meaning behind Shinju's words—the "helping others avert disaster" came first, and the "taking their money" came after.
Meaning, if he wanted Shinju's help again, he'd have to pay extra!
Hiss~~
Truly worthy of the Glutton of Konoha!
Knowing he was in no position to argue, the Elder swallowed his frustration and said,
"We've confirmed that B is safe, but the Raikage-sama, who's now in the Land of Iron, hasn't heard yet. So, I'd like to ask Shinju-san to deliver the message…"
Shinju's eyes brightened.
He was already planning to go to the Land of Iron after settling things in Kumogakure.
Now that the Elder was paying him to deliver a message—this was basically free money! (ﾉ∇︎〃 )
He waved his hand casually. "No problem, a small matter…"
Then his waving hand froze midair and subtly turned palm-up.
The Elder got the hint and sent someone to fetch the payment.
Soon after, the two hundred million ryo "mental distress compensation" plus "mission fee for finding Killer B," along with an extra one million "courier fee," were all converted into gold and placed before Shinju.
Watching Shinju seal the gold bars into a scroll, the Kumogakure officials standing nearby couldn't help their eyelids twitching.
That amount of gold… probably equaled several years of their collective salaries.
After packing the gold away, Shinju gave them all a cheerful wave.
"Bye-bye then! I'll be back next time. վ--0027ᴗ--0027 ի"
And with that, he vanished.
...
Inside the Kumogakure office, the Elder turned his gaze toward Killer B.
"B! Tell us everything that's happened over the past few days, in detail! Don't leave out a single thing! (｀･∧･´)"
Hearing the elder's harsh tone, Killer B muttered,
"You guys are the ones who picked a fight with Konoha without figuring out the truth, why take it out on me? (*￣3￣)"
The Elder grew even angrier. "You—you—you—!"
Just then—"Creak~"—the door to the Raikage's office swung open.
Everyone turned their heads to see the visitor—it was Yugito, the Two-Tails' jinchūriki.
The Elder frowned. "Yugito, what brings you to the office right now?"
At the moment, Yugito had taken off her shinobi armor and was wearing casual clothes. Her thick blonde hair was tied into a scorpion braid hanging down her back, her lips rosy and her face lightly made up—it looked like she'd gone through quite some effort to dress up.
Hearing the elder's question, Yugito said shyly,
"I heard Shinju from Konoha came to Kumogakure… Where is he now? (´つヮ⊂︎)"
The Elder: (ꐦ ಠ 皿 ಠ)
"You—you—you—!"
Just from her tone, even a fool could tell—she had feelings for Shinju.
At that moment, the Elder just felt utterly exhausted.
Why were all of Kumogakure's jinchūriki so damn troublesome?! (´இ皿இ｀)
Killer B saw right through Yugito's expression and rap,
"Yo yo~~ the old cow of Kumogakure's got her eye on Konoha's tender grass… (◔◡◔)"
Yugito's face flushed red with anger and embarrassment.
"Shut up, you stupid octopus! You wanna die?! (╬￣皿￣)"
...
Meanwhile, after leaving Kumogakure, Shinju didn't rush to deliver the message to the Raikage.
When he first went to Kumogakure, the Raikage had just departed—by now, he probably hadn't reached the Land of Iron yet.
So Shinju decided to use this spare time to search for Sasuke's whereabouts.
Even if Sasuke had been taken away by the masked man… what about Jūgo, Karin, and Suigetsu?
There had to be at least one of them left!
For half a day, Shinju traveled all across the Land of Lightning searching for traces of Sasuke, using chakra sensing to cover nearly ten million square kilometers of land!
Eventually, he sat down on a rocky ledge of a mountain, gasping for breath. The massive drain on his mental energy left him utterly exhausted.
"Didn't find a single person!" he groaned.
"Where the hell did that masked man take them?! (꒪⌓꒪)"
"Guess I'll have to search again in a few days."
"By now, the Raikage's probably reached the site of the Five Kage Summit anyway. I can use the Flying Thunder God mark I left on Naruto to teleport there… and after that, I really need to get some sleep… (ー_ー)!!"
...
At that same time, in the Land of Iron—
Inside the grand hall of the Five Kage Summit.
Once all five Kage of the great nations had arrived, the meeting officially began.
Around the semicircular table sat the Kage of Wind, Earth, Fire, Lightning, and Water.
Opposite them, at a small table, sat an elderly samurai with a sword at his side—the neutral nation's representative and the host of the summit.
Behind the curtain next to the table, each Kage's guards waited alertly, ready for any sudden conflict at the negotiation table.
For Konoha, the guards assigned were Naruto and Kakashi.
Naruto carefully lifted a corner of the curtain to peek at the solemn faces of the five Kage gathered around the table.
Then, glancing at the elderly man sitting opposite them, he whispered to Kakashi,
"Kakashi-sensei, that old guy with the bandage on his head—why does he get to sit across from the Five Kage? (‧_‧?)"
Kakashi sighed. "First, put down that curtain you're lifting. This is a formal summit. All the other guards are standing properly—do you have any idea how ridiculous you look? →_→"
"As for that old man with the bandages—he's Mifune, the general of the Land of Iron. The Land of Iron doesn't have shinobi—it's a nation of samurai. His status there is extremely high, second only to the daimyō himself."
Naruto nodded. "Oh, I see… So, Kakashi-sensei, are we just gonna stand here and wait till the whole meeting's over? That sounds so boring. --003d_--003d"
Kakashi: "Shut up. ￣へ￣"
...
Inside the meeting hall—
The summit had officially begun.
The hot-tempered Raikage spoke first.
"This meeting isn't for me to ask for your help—it's for me to hold you all accountable! (ꐦ ಠ 皿 ಠ)"
"The Akatsuki organization is made up entirely of rogue ninja from your four villages!"
The elderly Tsuchikage, Ōnoki, the most senior among the Kage, frowned and replied unhappily,
"Accountable? We all understand your pain over losing your brother, Raikage, but don't let that pain cloud your judgment! ╰_╯"
Raikage slammed his fist on the table.
"What did you just say, old man?!! （｀Δ´）!"
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Pls Drop some Power Stones
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