The Tsuchikage building stood tall and ancient in the center of the Hidden Stone Village. Built tough enough to survive disasters, the massive structure remained an enduring symbol of their pride and resilience. Inside one of its large meeting rooms sat several old advisors. Some of them were already nodding off, even though it was only the middle of the afternoon.
The heavy doors opened. The Third Tsuchikage didn't even bother walking. He simply hovered into the room. He was a ridiculously short, withered old man floating a few inches off the floor, likely to spare his famously bad back. A huge red nose took up most of his deeply wrinkled face, framed by a thick mustache and a sharp, triangle-shaped beard. He wore a stubborn frown. He looked as though a strong wind could snap his brittle spine in half, but the sheer weight of his chakra made the air in the room feel dense and hard to breathe.
His son walked closely behind him. If Onoki was a floating pebble, Kitsuchi was the entire damn mountain. The man was built like a brick wall. He was massive, with wide shoulders that easily towered over everyone else in the room. He wore the standard brown flak jacket of their village, but his chest and arms were so thick they looked ready to rip the tough fabric apart. A dark, rough beard covered his heavy jaw, and his flat eyes gave nothing away. He walked with his feet planted firmly on the floor, radiating a quiet, crushing physical strength that was terrifying even without him needing to form a single hand sign for any jutsu.
Onoki drifted to his chair and very carefully lowered himself into it, fearing his back would snap if he sat too fast. His son took the seat next to him. With a heavy sigh, Onoki threw a mission report onto the table. The sharp smack of paper echoed loudly in the almost completely muted room.
Several of the older advisors jolted awake, the sharp light of focus returning to their eyes just as the Tsuchikage started speaking.
"The elite ANBU force we sent to establish a presence in the Land of Waves missed their scheduled report. I sent for our shinobi spies in the land of waves to check on them right away, and..."
Anticipation rose in the room. Onoki leaned forward to loom in his advisors' faces. However, the sudden movement caused his spine to pop loudly, and he almost screamed in pain. "My back!"
Kitsuchi immediately reached out to support him. Onoki groaned but waved his son's hand away dismissively. Kitsuchi stepped back, giving his father space to recover.
"They discovered that our entire force was wiped out," Onoki finished, his voice slightly breathless but entirely serious. "None of them remain."
Gasps of genuine shock rang out. One of the advisors leaned forward urgently. "How is it possible for an entire force to completely disappear without a trace? Not a single survivor? We didn't even see losses like this during the catastrophic Third Shinobi War."
Most of the advisors nodded in agreement, their faces drawn and grim as the heavy implications settled over the room.
Another advisor spoke up, his voice tight. "Did the trackers discover anything that could reveal what happened? Our forces are not easily broken. Sekka led that team, an experienced veteran of the Third Shinobi War and one of our most powerful Jonin. And with Kuzan there, one of our greatest sensors, how could those two and the entire force under them simply disappear or be killed?"
Kitsuchi answered, his deep voice heavy and grim. "I knew both of them very well. Losing them is a catastrophe. However, that is exactly what the investigation confirmed. Our spy shinobi found no bodies, but they sensed the residue of our shinobi chakra and enough blood and battle damage to confirm that they are gone."
A dark, oppressive air descended on the council. Another advisor asked, "Do we know who is behind this?"
Rage was clear in Onoki's tone. "Our ANBU found survivors from a battle that occurred at a nearby city, right at the headquarters of a local criminal syndicate leader named Gato. From the descriptions they gathered, it is clear that it was that damn…"
His volume rose in anger, and his posture jerked upward with it. Once again, his fragile spine couldn't handle the sudden movement. It cracked loudly, and Onoki screamed, "My back!"
Before the Tsuchikage could recover from the spasm, Kitsuchi calmly finished his father's sentence.
"Those who witnessed the fight from afar, and those who survived, all gave a matching description. It was Shisui of the Body Flicker."
The stoic look on Kitsuchi's face contrasted heavily with the genuine fear now visible on the advisors' faces, who instinctively sank deeper into their chairs. Finally, one of them found his voice.
"That demon Uchiha child. His covert operations have caused us untold losses over the years. How does Konoha have so many overwhelmingly powerful shinobi?"
Onoki almost shouted in return. "It is because you are all slacking! The era of relative peace made you and this new generation soft. If you..."
His son tried to intervene, but Onoki had already overextended himself again. He gasped, screaming in pain for the third time. "My back!"
Kitsuchi was about to speak for him, but Onoki pushed through the agonizing pain while gritting his teeth. His voice turned ice-cold and absolute. "We cannot confirm what happened or accuse Konoha of anything without revealing that we sent a military force into their backyard. But there is a way to get answers. Shisui was observed with one of his students, a brat named Noa. The boy uses Lightning Release. The overwhelming destruction near where our forces landed was covered up as much as possible, but we could still identify residual lightning damage. That brat must have been involved."
An elder hesitated before asking, "Lord Tsuchikage, should we send an extraction force to bring him in for interrogation?"
Onoki exhaled slowly, shaking his head. "If Hiruzen were still in charge, I would have considered it. Ever since the Nine-Tails attack, he has been too careful, desperate not to disturb the peace. He avoids war at any cost, which would have allowed us to get away with something that aggressive."
Several of the advisors, and even his own son, internally screamed at the sheer hypocrisy of Onoki, the ultimate fence-sitter, saying such a thing. However, they wisely kept their mouths shut, allowing the old man to continue.
"But this new Hokage, Fugaku, is a war veteran. He was just appointed and should be treading carefully, yet he is already making heavy moves. His standing within their village must be incredibly strong if he is that confident. First, we need to increase our spy presence in Konoha to get the full picture. As for the Noa brat, we cannot risk sending our own ANBU. Fugaku might use it as an excuse to strike back aggressively, leaving us in a weak political position. Instead, let us use a contact in a neighboring village to anonymously place the boy in the Bingo Book with a massive bounty. Let the black market send a powerful assassin to apprehend him, if possible, to get details on what happened. If apprehension proves impossible, they are to kill him and everyone else there without leaving any witnesses to send a message to Konoha."
The Tsuchikage's advisors nodded in solemn agreement. Although Onoki was old, relentlessly stubborn, and rarely listened to others, he was undeniably the most experienced leader in the shinobi world. He knew exactly how to manipulate the bloody, ruthless system they lived in to Iwagakure's advantage.