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The Third Tsuchikage sat perched on a tall stool, his short legs dangling freely in the air, swinging back and forth like a child's.
The conflict with the Hidden Cloud Village was steadily escalating, and deep down, he had no real desire to let the fighting spiral any further out of control.
He had lived through the First, Second, and Third Great Ninja Wars. He had personally witnessed the sheer devastation those conflicts unleashed—landscapes reduced to barren wastelands, bodies strewn across battlefields, rivers of blood flowing freely. The phrase "not even a blade of grass survives" was no exaggeration; it was simply the grim reality of total war.
Precisely because he understood that horror so intimately, the Third Tsuchikage wanted to spare as many innocent lives as possible from being dragged into yet another meat grinder.
But when the surviving Iwagakure shinobi returned and delivered their report from the front lines, a cold chill crawled up the old man's spine.
The Hidden Stone Village possessed two jinchūriki, the same number as the Hidden Cloud. However, the Four-Tails jinchūriki had long since parted ways with the village due to irreconcilable differences in philosophy. That left only Han as a reliable combat asset among their tailed-beast hosts—and Han truly had been one of their most dependable warriors.
Yet now he was being told that Han had simply vanished. The Third Tsuchikage found the reality almost impossible to accept.
"There shouldn't be anyone capable of matching him, right?" the Tsuchikage asked quietly.
"That was what we believed… until…"
"Are you saying the Hidden Cloud sent someone of equal strength?" the Tsuchikage pressed.
"It was the Eight-Tails jinchūriki, Killer B…"
"You mean to tell me Killer B killed Han?"
"No… I'm not sure. The two of them fought, and afterward… neither of them came back."
"And none of you followed them?!" The Tsuchikage's voice rose in anger.
"We couldn't… We were pinned down. He killed almost every jōnin we had. I only survived by sheer luck—by slipping away at the right moment," the shinobi explained, voice trembling.
"Who? The Raikage himself? Who else could take down nine jōnin?" The Tsuchikage's tone was filled with disbelief.
"His name is Asachi Midorima. He's from the Hidden Mist Village. He came specifically to the Hidden Cloud to form an alliance with them," the shinobi said through clenched teeth.
"What? The Mist Village is planning to ally with the Cloud?" The Tsuchikage's brows furrowed deeply. He turned to look at the young woman standing beside him—his granddaughter, Kurotsuchi, whom he had carefully groomed as his successor.
The short-haired kunoichi brushed a few strands of black hair behind her ear and spoke up. "Are you absolutely certain?"
"Positive. That man slaughtered our rescue team without hesitation—brutal, cold-blooded, ruthless!" The shinobi's fists tightened until his knuckles turned white.
"Look at me," Kurotsuchi ordered calmly.
The shinobi hesitated for a split second before shifting his gaze toward her. In that instant, Kurotsuchi closed the distance in a blur and seized his wrist in an iron grip.
She channeled chakra directly into his body.
The shinobi's eyes suddenly cleared. Then he collapsed to his knees, clutching his head in both hands as an agonized scream tore from his throat—raw, guttural, the sound of someone being ripped apart from the inside.
"What's happening?" The Tsuchikage leaned forward, staring at the writhing shinobi.
Kurotsuchi crouched beside him, gripping both of his shoulders firmly. "Calm down. Tell me exactly what happened."
The screams gradually subsided, though faint, pained whimpers continued to escape his lips.
Kurotsuchi leaned close to his ear and listened carefully. Over and over, the shinobi repeated the same desperate phrase in a broken whisper: "Don't kill me… don't kill me…"
"You're safe now. No one's going to hurt you," she said gently, helping him sit upright. "Just tell me what really happened."
The shinobi's terrified eyes locked onto Kurotsuchi's face. He looked around the room in confusion, still trembling uncontrollably. Eventually the Tsuchikage signaled for two guards to escort the traumatized man away to rest.
"Well?" the Tsuchikage asked once they were alone.
"It was definitely a Sharingan genjutsu," Kurotsuchi confirmed, frowning. "If we hadn't received that detailed letter from the other Mist shinobi explaining everything that's happened in the Hidden Mist over the past several years, we might actually have fallen for it completely."
The Tsuchikage remained silent.
When he first heard that the Mist had sent an envoy to negotiate an alliance with the Cloud, he had felt a surge of genuine outrage.
They had only just dispatched their own messenger to the Stone Village—yet behind closed doors, they were cozying up to the Cloud? It felt like a blatant betrayal.
But once the initial anger cooled, reason returned. Hadn't the Mist also sent an envoy to them? The situation was far more complicated than simple treachery.
Kurotsuchi, however, had seen even deeper into the matter.
The letter delivered from the Mist Village had contained one particularly alarming detail: both of their recent Mizukage had been placed under powerful genjutsu control. That single piece of information had led her to suspect that this surviving Iwagakure shinobi might have suffered the same fate.
Why else would the enemy—who had clearly been strong enough to slaughter nine elite jōnin—deliberately allow the tenth to escape and return home?
The only logical explanation was that the survivor had been sent back intentionally, carrying carefully planted "intelligence" that would benefit the killer.
And now her theory had been proven correct.
"So it really is Akatsuki?" the Tsuchikage asked quietly.
"We still don't know for certain. The Mist did send shinobi to explain their side, but they didn't provide any concrete details linking this incident directly to Akatsuki. We're still operating in the dark," Kurotsuchi replied, brow furrowed in thought. "The best course of action I can think of is to contact the Mizukage directly—ideally arrange a face-to-face meeting. Since Akatsuki has already reached into our village, we need to learn exactly who they are and what they want. As for Lord Han…"
She took a slow, deep breath. "Since Lord Han fought Killer B directly, the only person who might know what truly happened to him is Killer B himself. If we can speak with him, we may finally get some clarity."
The Tsuchikage nodded slowly. "But will the Hidden Cloud even agree to negotiate with us?"
The root cause of the hostility between the Stone and the Cloud was the death of the Second Raikage's son—and the fact that the culprit had been a jinchūriki made the entire affair politically explosive.
"If you trust me, leave this matter in my hands," Kurotsuchi said seriously. "I have a way to arrange a meeting between you and the Raikage."
"Go on."
"Let me go to the Hidden Cloud Village."
"Absolutely not! You'll be killed!" The Tsuchikage rejected the idea immediately.
"If I don't go, then who will?" Kurotsuchi countered. "You already know that if Akatsuki is willing to target our shinobi, they're just as likely to target any messenger we send. Among everyone available, I'm the most suitable person for this… If I die on the road to the Cloud, or if word reaches you that I was killed inside their village, then you must meet the Raikage in person and demand answers."
The Tsuchikage slowly closed his eyes. He sat in heavy silence for a long moment before finally speaking again.
"You're not going. I will."
"What?!" Kurotsuchi stared at him in shock. "You're going yourself?"
"Yes. If I go personally, you'll have nothing to worry about, right? But I will need to bring one person with me…"
Before he could finish the sentence, a deafening explosion rocked the building. The entire roof shook violently.
Kurotsuchi steadied herself against the wall. After a brief pause, she rushed out of the room. In the distance, along the defensive perimeter, an Iwagakure shinobi came sprinting toward her.
"What happened?" she demanded.
"The shinobi who just returned… his upper body just… exploded…"
"How is that possible?" Kurotsuchi whipped around to face the Tsuchikage, who had followed her outside. "The shinobi who just came back—he's dead?"
The old man rubbed his forehead wearily. "Looks like I really will have to go alone. A bomb… That feels awfully familiar. This wouldn't have anything to do with Deidara, would it?"