Taking Kirigakure's firm stance as the catalyst, the matter soon reached a result: the "Five Kage Summit" would be held in the Land of Iron one month later.
Not only had all the major hidden villages agreed to attend the summit, even the date and specific arrangements were quickly settled. Although the plan had worked, Tsunade could not bring herself to make the expression of someone whose plan had worked, because her original plan had not been like this.
Although the result was the one she had envisioned, the process was not the same. Heaven knew why the Mizukage's attitude was so resolute.
After Kirigakure, Sunagakure also expressed its approval. With that, they were only one person short of filling a card table. So when the Raikage and Tsuchikage saw this, they thought: fine, we'll participate too.
Being diplomatically isolated was clearly an extremely undesirable thing. After all, it was just a meeting. Who was afraid of whom? They might even get to see an enemy they thought about day and night.
Those two did have quite a bit in common, after all. One had lost a younger brother, and the other had lost a son.
In short, the tradition of inter-village meetings that had flourished during the First Hokage's era, when the hidden-village system had just been founded, had now revived in his granddaughter's generation.
It was also thanks to that tradition that communication was possible this time… The First Hokage might have seemed a little foolishly cute, but he had still established quite a few real institutions.
However, for now, they had only just set up the stage. As for what would happen next, everything remained unknown.
In this summit, Konoha's first objective as the proposer was very clear: to reach a consensus with the other villages on the matter of the tailed beasts before Akatsuki did, and strive to resolve the hidden danger brought about by the tailed beasts in one go—in other words, to resolve the very "existence" of the tailed beasts themselves.
After all, Hagoromo's personal tailed-beast-hunting operation was extremely inefficient, and it was very easy for him to neglect one thing while attending to another. Kirigakure's previous experience had just happened to prove that point.
Moreover, letting him run around courting death could easily trigger other problems. Kumogakure and Iwagakure definitely would not remain silent after their tailed beasts were taken.
So if this problem could be solved through a summit, that would naturally be for the best. But in truth, the probability of the summit succeeding was extremely low.
Although, in theory, tailed beasts were things that harmed both others and oneself, and eliminating all of them would naturally be a good thing for the entire shinobi world, the problem had to be viewed separately. Asking others to give up such powerful weapons did not seem like an objective that could be achieved through words alone.
To put it bluntly, Konoha's attitude was this: all villages that still had tailed beasts should each bring them out, let our White Yaksha give each beast one slash, and then the whole world would finally be quiet.
Indeed, if that happened, the world would be quiet.
But why should anyone trust Konoha?
Reaching trust between villages was far too difficult. Even so, Tsunade still decided to talk first before anything else. If they could gain understanding and peacefully achieve their goal, that would naturally be best.
In reality, without realizing it, the Five Great Shinobi Villages had already formed two major camps. Because Hagoromo had already dealt with the One-Tail, Seven-Tails, and Nine-Tails, while Kirigakure had now also lost the Three-Tails and Six-Tails, Konoha, Kirigakure, and Sunagakure had already formed a natural alliance in terms of whether or not they possessed tailed beasts.
The remaining Iwagakure still possessed the Four-Tails and Five-Tails, while Kumogakure possessed the Two-Tails and Eight-Tails. They counted as the other faction. This imbalance over who had tailed beasts and who did not would very likely lead to different villages leaning toward different positions during the summit.
"According to the arrangements from the Land of Iron, each Kage is only allowed to bring two guards into their territory. The guards will be responsible for the Kage's personal protection, while the surrounding security will be entirely handled by the samurai." Tsunade lightly tapped a document on the desk with one hand as she spoke.
That was something that had just been sent over from the Land of Iron.
Hagoromo nodded to show that he understood. In reality, this sort of thing did not matter to Konoha. Was there any difference between a few guards? In any case, he was definitely going to accompany Big Sister Tsunade to the Land of Iron.
"Will this summit be able to reach any consensus? In terms of probability… In short, I'm not optimistic." Hagoromo's view of this matter was undoubtedly much more realistic.
Although Tsunade had proposed this summit in an attempt to resolve the current crisis brought by Akatsuki through peaceful means, while at the same time eliminating the crisis the tailed beasts posed to the entire shinobi world, Hagoromo was not optimistic at all about whether that goal could be achieved.
"Rather than saying we're going to discuss the issue, I feel it's more like we're going to 'issue a routine notice.'"
"A routine notice?" Did Tsunade not understand what Hagoromo meant? No. She was merely subconsciously somewhat resistant to it.
"We are definitely going to dispose of the remaining tailed beasts. But if Iwagakure and Kumogakure refuse to give them up even at the cost of their lives, then from that point onward, they and we will be in fundamental opposition. What kind of consequences will such a simple and unsolvable contradiction bring?"
"Hagoromo, are you trying to start a war?" Tsunade's tone carried an unprecedented seriousness.
Hagoromo did not answer her question, because the result was obvious. It was not because he wanted to start a war. Rather, the way things would proceed from here on was already extremely clear.
First, Akatsuki would not give up on the tailed beasts.
Second, Iwagakure and Kumogakure would not give up their tailed beasts.
Third, Hagoromo would not give up on the tailed beasts either.
Going a step deeper, Konoha, Kirigakure, and Sunagakure, which had already lost their tailed beasts, would likewise not allow Iwagakure and Kumogakure to possess tailed beasts… Tailed beasts were the sort of thing where either everyone had them, or no one got to play. If others had them while one side did not, the side without them would never allow that situation to exist.
One could imagine that if Konoha demanded Iwagakure and Kumogakure hand over their tailed beasts, Sunagakure and Kirigakure would become the firmest supporters of that position.
In other words, a new round of war might occur next over the tailed beasts… As of today, the balance system established by the First Hokage through the distribution of the tailed beasts had been completely broken.
After weighing things for a long time, Tsunade still let out a long sigh. Reality did not allow escape. Sure enough, the problem was truly unsolvable.
She gently propped up her chin with both hands, then said softly, "Looks like we'll have to summon Jiraiya back…"
Hagoromo: "…"
Big Sister Tsunade was rather interesting too. Once she confirmed the seriousness of the problem, as Hokage, she still had the resolve to make decisions.
Hadn't the Land of Iron only requested two guards? Then she planned to bring Hagoromo and Jiraiya along… In that case, adding herself into the mix—well, Konoha was not going there to hold a meeting at all. They were going to wreck the place, weren't they?
Dragging powerful weapons to the negotiating table should have some effect, at least. Sometimes peace was built on armed deterrence. One look at Hagoromo's face, and perhaps everyone would be able to imagine the consequences of war.
Moreover, Konoha did not only have nuclear weapons. They also had thermobaric bombs and fuel-air explosives. Under such circumstances, even if Kumogakure and Iwagakure still had jinchūriki, what use would that be?
The Fifth Hokage was gripping the neck of the peace dove with one hand, while holding all kinds of knives, pots, pans, and utensils capable of turning that peace dove into dove soup at any moment with the other. She wanted to overwhelm the others in momentum, while also making them realize that Konoha could beat them flat in a fight.
"Good idea. Then I'll go notify Uncle Jiraiya now." What else could Hagoromo say?
Of course it was a good idea. If there was a chance to see mature beauties, Uncle Jiraiya would definitely be overjoyed beyond measure.
Besides, Tsunade had already started considering the problem from both directions. That was very good.
It was just that if these three people went out together, whether the other villages could still feel Konoha's sincerity in negotiating was hard to say. This could completely count as a parade of battleships.
…
Although Jiraiya was currently at Mount Myōboku, it was still quite convenient for Konoha to contact him. Because he also understood that the shinobi world was now complicated and tangled, he had set up quite a few summoning toads in Konoha in order to guard against unexpected situations that could occur at any time.
If Tsunade wanted him to return from Mount Myōboku, then Jiraiya would naturally return very quickly. After all, her words counted as something on the level of a "Call of Duty" for Jiraiya.
"Lord Hagoromo, this way."
After leaving the Hokage's Office, Hagoromo went straight to the communications team. The summoning toad was being kept there.
After a shinobi led him into a certain room, Hagoromo saw quite an astonishing scene… Several shinobi were serving good food and drink to a green-skinned toad half the height of a person. From the looks of it, the toad was enjoying itself to no end.
Seeing this scene, Hagoromo suddenly felt that all his years of living had been wasted. Look at this toad's quality of life. It was far higher than his, a bipedal primate.
Then, after Hagoromo entered the room, the toad looked at him with an expression that said, "What business do you have?"
What are you looking at? Did I disturb your enjoyment?
While thinking this, Hagoromo had already walked forward, cleanly and efficiently stuffing a scroll into the toad's mouth. Immediately afterward, he formed hand seals with both hands and released the toad's summoning.
Now that it had finished enjoying itself, it should at least do its job properly, right?
Presumably, once this message was delivered to Mount Myōboku, Jiraiya would be able to return very soon. Since he had received Tsunade's summons, his actions would not be slow to begin with. And after Hagoromo took certain measures, this uncle's return speed could be made even faster.
Because the message he had left on the scroll just now was brief and terrifying. There was only one line written on it:
"The Fifth Hokage Tsunade will immediately participate in the Five Kage matchmaking summit. Return at once."
This was what one called treating the illness with the proper medicine. As far as Jiraiya was concerned, the incantation Hagoromo had written was eighty-nine percent more urgent than the most urgent command spell.
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