A special thank you to my patrons:
—Cain, Jacob Mooe, kevin Williams, ZaberZ, Jose Sierra, Salim, Archer, Acedia, kurtis newman, Nithin Samuel, Soumya Ranjan Pathy, Bob, Little Sand,Angel Rodriguez.
ad 30 chapters ahead of everyone on p@treon.
P@TREON - [email protected]/lessaservantofcosmos
(just replace the "@" with "a")
ps: Please support me on P@treon. I can really use your help!
-------------------------------------------------------------
A team was quickly dispatched to examine the remains of the returned Iwagakure shinobi. His upper body had been completely obliterated in the blast—nothing left above the waist but shredded flesh and bone fragments. After painstakingly sifting through the gore, they recovered several small, faintly glowing pieces of clay. The material was smeared with blood, making it difficult to identify at first glance, but there was no mistaking its unusual texture and residual chakra signature.
When the Third Tsuchikage, Ōnoki, laid eyes on those fragments, his brows knitted into a deep frown. Even Kurotsuchi, standing beside him, felt a cold knot of unease tighten in her stomach.
Unless someone else had somehow mastered that exact technique, only one person in the world was known for wielding explosive clay in this manner: Deidara.
Years earlier, Deidara had abandoned the Hidden Stone Village in pursuit of what he called "true art." After his departure, his whereabouts had remained a complete mystery. Ōnoki had always assumed the young man was holed up somewhere remote, obsessively refining his clay bombs in isolation. Never had he imagined those same explosives would turn up in the Land of Hot Water, used against their own people.
Ōnoki immediately called together Kurotsuchi, her father Kitsuchi, and several other trusted advisors to discuss the situation in detail.
His original plan had been straightforward: take the surviving shinobi straight to the Raikage, have the man recount everything he had witnessed under strict supervision, and hopefully extract some concrete leads on Akatsuki. On a personal level, Ōnoki genuinely wanted to prevent further escalation between the two villages. A face-to-face meeting might allow both sides to finally address the chain of misunderstandings and grievances that had fueled the current fighting. If they could at least agree to de-escalate, both sides might avoid the kind of catastrophic losses that neither could easily recover from.
But now that the surviving witness had been murdered in such a dramatic fashion, that path was closed.
Although Han and Killer B had clashed directly, it was obvious that Killer B had no knowledge of Deidara's involvement in slaughtering the rest of the Iwagakure team. The Eight-Tails jinchūriki had been locked in combat with Han the entire time.
Still, Kitsuchi and Kurotsuchi—the father-daughter pair—supported Ōnoki's broader idea. Using Akatsuki as a pretext to arrange a meeting with the Raikage wouldn't necessarily produce a formal ceasefire, but it might at least allow both leaders to pour cold water on the flames before the conflict spiraled completely out of control.
Unfortunately, good intentions were one thing; actually carrying out the plan proved far more complicated.
A summit between two Kage-level leaders was no small matter.
Setting aside whether any meaningful agreement could be reached, simply guaranteeing the personal safety of both men was a logistical nightmare.
The ongoing war between the Hidden Leaf and Hidden Sand had been triggered precisely because the Kazekage had died while visiting Konoha. No one wanted history to repeat itself.
That meant the meeting site could not be located inside either the Hidden Cloud or Hidden Stone territories.
The most neutral and geographically convenient options were the Hidden Sound Village and the Hidden Hot Water Village—both situated roughly midway between the Cloud and Stone. Both sides could reach either location without excessive travel or vulnerability.
Yet both locations were swiftly rejected.
The Sound Village was still in recovery mode after years of turmoil. Orochimaru and Kimimaro's actions had left them deeply suspicious of all the major ninja villages, and they had no interest in hosting high-stakes diplomacy. The Hot Water Village's refusal was even simpler: the massive explosion that had recently devastated part of their main settlement had left them wary of both the Cloud and the Stone. They wanted nothing to do with hosting a meeting that might draw more violence to their doorstep.
After weighing every possibility, Ōnoki decided to stop hesitating. He boldly proposed the Hidden Leaf Village as the temporary meeting site and ordered a messenger to carry the suggestion directly to the Hidden Cloud.
Meanwhile, the Raikage was grappling with his own frustrations. The inexplicable deaths of four elite Cloud jōnin had thrown the front lines into chaos. If the war dragged on much longer, both he and Killer B would have no choice but to take the field personally. Once that happened, one of the two great villages would almost certainly suffer devastating, long-term damage—perhaps a setback from which it would take more than a decade to recover.
Having lived through the Third Great Ninja War, the Raikage understood better than most just how ruinous large-scale conflict could be for a hidden village.
So when word arrived that the Hidden Stone was willing to talk, he had no objection to making the journey. And choosing Konoha as the venue was acceptable to both sides. The Leaf Village possessed the military strength and reputation necessary to ensure the safety of two visiting Kage.
The only real question was whether Konoha itself would agree to host.
When the joint proposal from the Cloud and Stone reached the Hidden Leaf, the response was swift and unequivocal: No.
Their stated reason was straightforward—they were currently locked in full-scale war with the Hidden Sand and simply did not have the manpower to spare for providing adequate security detail for two foreign Kage.
But there was an unspoken layer beneath the refusal. The Kazekage had died on Leaf soil. If anything happened to either the Raikage or Tsuchikage while under Konoha's protection, the political fallout would be catastrophic. The village could ill afford another diplomatic disaster.
That said, rejection did not mean disinterest.
On the surface, the proposed summit was about sharing intelligence on Akatsuki. In reality, no Kage would travel across borders just to exchange a few rumors. Something far larger was at stake.
Hiruzen Sarutobi, having survived multiple world wars, was acutely sensitive to these undercurrents. He also recognized that if the current trajectory continued unchecked, the Fourth Great Ninja War could ignite at any moment.
So rather than simply turning the idea down flat, he saw an opportunity.
If the Cloud and Stone were already willing to sit at the same table, why not expand the guest list? Pull in the Hidden Sand as well and turn the bilateral meeting into a four-way summit.
He had expected the Sand to refuse outright. To his surprise, when Konoha quietly floated the expanded proposal to Sunagakure, the Sand accepted almost immediately.
Once four villages were involved, the next logical step was obvious. Why not invite the Mizukage too? After all, the official reason for the gathering was to discuss the threat posed by Akatsuki—and no village had suffered more at their hands than the Hidden Mist.
And so, what began as an emergency meeting between two warring Kage quickly evolved into the first Five Kage Summit in living memory.
After several rounds of back-channel negotiations, the location was settled on the Land of Iron. Its position far from any of the five great ninja villages made it acceptably neutral ground.
Under normal circumstances, the five parties would have spent weeks or even months carefully negotiating the exact date before setting out.
But the Hidden Cloud and Hidden Stone were actively at war. So were the Hidden Leaf and Hidden Sand. Every additional day of delay inflicted mounting casualties, economic strain, and resource depletion on the involved villages.
With the venue decided, the Kage wasted no time. They gathered their personal escorts and set out for the Land of Iron at once. As for hashing out the details concerning Akatsuki—well, they could do that once the Mizukage arrived and all five were finally in the same room.
If they could resolve—or at least suspend—the multi-front wars tearing the ninja world apart, dealing with Akatsuki afterward would no longer seem so insurmountable.
While the five leaders and their guards traveled toward the Iron Country, a sealed intelligence report reached Konan's hands.
After reading it, her normally composed expression flickered with rare concern. Without delay, she ascended to the highest level of their tower and found Pain waiting.
"What is it?" Pain asked, turning to face her.
Though Konan's face remained calm, a faint shadow of worry lingered between her brows.
"Intelligence just came in from the Hidden Mist."
"The Mist?"
"Yes. You remember—Madara left an informant embedded there years ago."
"What did he report?"
"The Mizukage has already departed for the Land of Iron. It appears the five great ninja villages have become aware of our organization. They intend to take coordinated action against us."
"Against us?" Pain's Rinnegan narrowed slightly. "They're only noticing our movements now. Is it already too late for them?"
"What should we do?" Konan asked.
"Go find Madara. Since they've started moving, we need to respond in kind."
"You mean…"
Pain's lips curved into a faint, chilling smile.
"Now that the five Kage have left the safety of their own villages… it's time for us to begin our own operations."