"Hmph, brats of Konoha, don't get cocky!" The hot-tempered Fourth Raikage was no pushover. Though Sasuke and Naruto's sudden speed initially forced him back step by step, once he adjusted, their taijutsu couldn't get near him again—at least not unless they truly cut loose. Without going all out, they wouldn't be able to close in.
"Damn Konoha." Not everyone praised Sasuke and Naruto's strength. At least the Raikage's two elite guards, C and Darui, didn't see it that way.
Though the two of them stopped the Tsuchikage's and Kazekage's bodyguards, Konoha's pair actually attacked the Raikage right in front of them. No matter how strong or fast the enemy, that wasn't an excuse. As the Raikage's guards, it was their dereliction of duty.
Although both were elite jōnin at minimum—C was a versatile elite jōnin, and Darui would go on to become the Fifth Raikage—facing Sasuke and Naruto as they stood now, they didn't measure up.
They could handle ordinary opponents, but up against the two who had taken down the Six Paths of Pain, perhaps Darui could trade a few blows with them, but C could not.
"Hmph." Though he wanted to test the Raikage, Sasuke ultimately did nothing. He merely snorted to show displeasure and obeyed Musashi's order.
But that look in his eyes—"The Raikage is nothing much"—made the Fourth Raikage burn with anger.
For a mere Hokage's bodyguard to look down on him like that—already hot-tempered, the Raikage nearly lashed out.
Still, though quick to anger, he wasn't a fool. He knew several Kage were watching him like hawks. If he struck now, it would be more than a spat between him and Konoha.
Naruto's attitude was much better than Sasuke's—due, of course, to the gold cicada gu on his head expressly forbidding him to cause trouble.
Otherwise, with Naruto's lively personality, he would probably have lit the Raikage's powder keg.
"Everyone, calm down. This is a summit. Please show restraint." As the neutral host of the Five Kage Summit, Mifune spoke to defuse the standoff.
"Say… Mizukage, you're even younger than that boy Kazekage. I have to ask—did the Land of Water run out of people and just send you? Could you sit properly rather than like a child? Didn't your elders teach you basic etiquette?" With the immediate threat of a brawl past, the habitually sharp-tongued Tsuchikage, who looked down on the young, shifted his fire to Pitou.
To be fair, Pitou's posture wasn't great; she sat cross-legged as before, and had been nonchalant from the start. Most importantly, she and her party were the only group not to move on the Raikage earlier, making them look easy to push around.
"Ugh… you're annoying. How about I just kill you, meow?" Irritation flickered in Pitou's eyes as the Tsuchikage droned on. Felines have little patience to begin with. Especially for a shabby old man—Pitou had none.
Though her strength had yet to return to its former peak, her killing intent was very real. It instantly overwhelmed the Tsuchikage's two bodyguards, Akatsuchi and Kurotsuchi; elite jōnin though they were, they were too weak before killing intent of that caliber.
The Tsuchikage, after all, was Kage-class. He too was shocked by Pitou's fearsome killing intent, but he wasn't going to be swayed by it.
"Since when did these villages churn out so many monsters? Konoha aside—how does Kiri have one too? I'm getting old." The Tsuchikage folded his arms across his chest, ready to fire his Dust Release at any time.
"Pitou." The miniature Meruem stayed her hand and calmed her. With Pitou not yet back to full strength, a fight with the Tsuchikage would be a losing proposition.
With Youpi here to anchor them, Meruem had no intention of letting Pitou take a beating.
"Lord Tsuchikage, that's enough," Musashi, who had kept silent, now cut in.
"Hmph."
"Enough. I didn't come here to listen to your nonsense. Konoha, Iwa, Suna, Kiri—Akatsuki's members all came from your villages' defectors. How do you expect me to trust you? Not only that, some were even former Kage. My investigation shows someone among you once used Akatsuki! How am I supposed to trust you? Don't even talk about joining forces. I called this summit to ask you face to face—what do you call good faith?" The hot-blooded Raikage, disgusted by the farce, erupted again.
He proceeded to berate the Kage in public. Since Gaara was a newly minted Kazekage and unfamiliar with Akatsuki's past work as mercenaries, the Tsuchikage explained it to him—though the words were high-sounding.
"The most suspicious is Kiri—you've isolated yourselves from the world, and rumor says Akatsuki was founded there!" After scolding the others obliquely, he turned his guns back on Kiri, represented by Pitou.
"Meow? Akatsuki? What's that?" As everyone turned to look, Pitou replied with genuine confusion. She really didn't know what Akatsuki was; Meruem had always handled such matters.
"Ah—mmph." Right then, the towering Youpi behind Pitou let out an enormous yawn, a tear springing to his eye.
He was bored. He understood none of this. If it was fighting, he was good at that. These thinking things—he had no desire to tax his few brain cells on them.
"…" At the sight, not only the other four Kage but even Mifune, the neutral host, were left speechless.
It was unbearable to watch.
Hey, they're discussing your village right now. Don't act like it has nothing to do with you.
"Ahem. I'll explain." With no other choice, Meruem's miniature clone stepped forward to speak.
He concisely explained that the Fourth Mizukage had indeed been controlled by Akatsuki and that Akatsuki had been founded in Amegakure. He then denounced Akatsuki tearfully for using despicable means to control the Fourth Mizukage and for the devastation it brought to Kirigakure.
Given that Kiri was exposing its own scars, even the Raikage couldn't say much. Everyone present knew full well about the Bloody Mist years. That policy gutted half of Kiri's foundation, and the bloodline-clan purges had cost them dearly as well.
No one could accuse them of colluding with Akatsuki after that.
That was a true blood feud.
Mifune then seized the chance to propose forming a joint shinobi army.
They immediately fell into a spat over who would lead it. The Raikage argued that since no one from Kumo had joined Akatsuki, he was the most qualified to lead. The others unanimously rejected that.
Why would not having defectors to Akatsuki make you the most qualified? How are the two related?
Kiri had a mortal grudge against Akatsuki—that made them suitable too, didn't it?
And the Third Tsuchikage had the highest seniority of them all!
"Hello, everyone!" As the argument raged, a bald head—cough, White Zetsu—popped up from the floor.
"The horn of war has sounded. Are you ready?" he said cryptically.
The Raikage killed him in a flash.
"It's just a spore clone—one of a hundred thousand White Zetsu." Musashi hadn't moved at all. This wasn't like the original; Sasuke was still in Konoha, and the timing of the Summit was different.
Yet Zetsu had appeared all the same. The most likely explanation was that Obito had sent Akatsuki's remaining members to attack, intending to spark a shinobi world war.
If Sasuke wasn't here… then would the attacker be… Itachi?
No—impossible. Without his bond to Sasuke, Itachi wouldn't follow Obito's orders blindly.
"Greetings, Kage!" At some point, a man in a spiral mask appeared before the five.
"I am Uchiha Madara!" A bold declaration—but meaningless. Except for Kiri under Pitou and Konoha under Musashi, the other three villages' Kage and guards attacked the masked man who called himself Madara.
All their attacks melted into nothing before Kamui. Obito wasn't scratched. Even with his cells hyperactivated to the limit, the Fourth Raikage couldn't touch him.
With intangibility, Obito was happy to face more opponents like the Raikage. He could deliver a harsher warning that way.
He then launched into an MLM-like spiel about his and the real Madara's Eye of the Moon Plan.
"So… hand over the Nine-Tails?"
(End of Chapter)
[Get +20 Extra Chapters On — P@tr3on "Mutter"]
[Every 100 Power Stones = 1 Bonus Chapter Drop]
[Thanks for Reading!]