"..."
Before the battle with Iwagakure, the four-village alliance was hyped up and full of speechifying. Even the Kumo shinobi who'd lost, surrendered, and then joined in were all shouting about "showing Iwa what's what," completely ignoring that Iwa had been their ally just a short while ago.
The lack of scruples, cruelty, and pettiness of shinobi was on full display. Looked like once he became Emperor of the Shinobi World, Uchiha would have to modernize how ninja think—upgrade their mental OS from "tool theory" or brain-fried lunatic to something like "regular citizens who believe 'the fate of the world rests on everyone'."
Not just like now, where they either lose themselves in "ninja are just tools," or snap and turn into lunatics at the slightest trigger.
…
On the alliance side, they were already arguing over how to split up Iwa's future war reparations and spoils before the war was even over.
Konoha would obviously take the biggest share. But the smaller chunks? Kumo, Kiri, and Suna were all bickering.
Suna insisted they were Konoha's most loyal ally.
"I've worked with the Fourth Hokage's 'father' for years."
Kiri insisted they'd played an enormous role in this war.
"When I was marching in with Yorin-sama during the invasion, you lot were still up in the trees being monkeys."
Then there was Kumo. Even though they were defeated, surrendered, and only then joined the fight, they showed no sign of humility.
What caught Yorin's eye was that this time, leading the Kumo delegation wasn't Fourth Raikage A, but Yugito Nii.
Uchiha Yorin found that pretty funny.
What, did they think he was the type to melt just because a pretty girl begged him?
Seriously.
Even if there were extra benefits to hand out, Yorin would take care of himself and his more reliable allies first. It's not like sharing one failed matchmaking dinner and getting held in his arms once meant you could use that as leverage to do whatever you want.
Fortunately, Yorin had more than enough benefits to go around for his allies.
Kumo included.
Until the five feudal lords and their five councils of geezers got toppled and the feudal system smashed, the alliance of the five hidden villages needed to stay solid.
So after a brief shouting match, everyone managed to leave the table smiling.
Watching this, the Third Hokage's feelings were complicated.
On the one hand, he hadn't seen a Konoha this strong, this close to being the leader of the Five Great Villages, since Hashirama died.
On the other hand, it wasn't him, or anyone from his line, who'd revived Konoha and opened up a new golden age.
Even though Minato was still nominally Konoha's leader, almost everyone felt the one really leading this alliance wasn't Namikaze Minato—it was Uchiha Yorin.
"So it really is only the Uchiha? Aside from the Senju, only the Uchiha can make Konoha strong? We really don't have what it takes?"
As the situation evolved, the Third Hokage could feel himself sliding into a kind of fatalistic thinking he didn't like.
"…Still, I suppose it's a good thing."
Though he was bitter—very bitter—he told himself: as long as Konoha prospered, even if the future Hokage came from the Uchiha, maybe that wasn't… unacceptable.
Even if it would make his old master roll in his coffin, this was the reality of Konoha now.
…
Meanwhile, over in Iwagakure, while the four-village alliance happily discussed their plans, the leaders there just wanted to cry.
What did Iwa ever do to deserve being the target of everyone's rage?
Wasn't Konoha supposed to be the one the four other villages "took turns serving"?
Iwa didn't have Konoha's fertile land. Even if they ravaged Iwa down to dust, what would they squeeze out of it?
With that kind of "we want to cry but the tears won't come" mood, Ōnoki and his top brass could only stare at one another, speechless. It felt like the right time to cry.
But they couldn't just sit in silence during a war council.
After a while, Ōnoki finally broke the awkward silence.
"Let's hear it. What do you think we should do next?"
"Fight. We have to fight. If we don't, we won't even survive! We have to show the four-village alliance Iwa's strength, or we'll have no leverage at the peace talks!"
The one who said that was Ōnoki's beloved granddaughter, Kurotsuchi.
When Lady Temari got retconned by force majeure into an 18-year-old beauty, Kurotsuchi got the same treatment.
The black-haired girl with the "best legs in the ninja world" was perfect for delivering water coolers on a trike—and also a very confident, aggressive fighter.
Even though the situation was clearly unfavorable to Iwa, Kurotsuchi still believed they had to fight to the last.
Unfortunately, after her impassioned speech, almost no one supported her idea.
After a beat of painful silence, Ōnoki's loyal disciple Akatsuchi finally spoke up, gritting his teeth as he voiced what everyone was really thinking:
"Sensei, I think… at this point, continuing to fight doesn't really make sense anymore…"
Kurotsuchi: "How can it not make sense?!"
Akatsuchi: "Listen, Kurotsuchi—the daimyo has already issued his order. We can use it as grounds to negotiate peace with Konoha and bring this war to an end."
Kurotsuchi: "But the enemy already sent a formal challenge! If we don't accept the battle, we'll be mocked as cowards!"
Akatsuchi: "But we can't just throw lives away for the sake of 'face'."
Kurotsuchi: "That's not what I meant, but—"
Kitsuchi: "But… we don't really have the initiative anymore. Isn't there any way we can have it both ways?"
Everyone silently thought the same thing: we'd all love a perfect solution, but if there were one, someone would've suggested it already.
"If only Konoha would voluntarily propose stopping the war."
"That's impossible. Konoha's got all the advantages right now. I bet that Minato bastard is feeling pretty smug."
"But I heard Minato isn't the one leading Konoha's side. It's some young Uchiha instead."
"Uchiha Yorin."
"That guy, huh…"
Even though they hadn't sent envoys to Konoha before the war—they'd kept a more flexible "fence-sitting" diplomatic posture instead of forming alliances—the Iwa leadership hadn't been slacking on intel.
Everyone here knew it was Uchiha Yorin who'd engineered the situation where four villages were now besieging Iwa.
He didn't hold the title of "Kage," but as the de facto assistant to four different Kage, he was more powerful and authoritative than most of them.
Iwa's higher-ups hated him to the core—but at the same time, someone couldn't help but voice a desperate fantasy:
"…If we reached out to Uchiha Yorin directly, is there any chance he'd agree to end the fighting?"
Everyone immediately turned that guy into a target of ridicule.
"You kidding me? We don't have any relationship with the Uchiha. Why would he lift a finger for us?"
"Well, actually… I've heard Uchiha Yorin is an incurable womanizer."
That upper jōnin continued,
"In Kirigakure he seduced traitor Terumi Mei, then backed her as the new Mizukage. In Kumo, he forced Nii Yugito to drink with him. Before that, he demanded Konoha hand over the traitor Pakura, but when they refused, he flipped it on Suna and forced them to hand over the Kazekage's daughter as compensation…"
If Yorin had heard that, he would've exploded on the spot:
"You're slandering me! That's slander!"
But, sadly, he wasn't here to correct this "creative" intel. He could only hope the others wouldn't take it at face value.
So—would they believe it?
"Ah-hah, I see, I see…"
"So that's how it is. If we send him a beauty, might he let us off easier?"
"That's easy enough. There should be plenty of kunoichi willing to fight for the village…"
"Yes, but I doubt any random woman would satisfy someone like him. Think about it: Suna sent their Kazekage's daughter and a war hero. Kumo sent a jinchūriki. And Kiri—well, they went all the way and sent their Mizukage.
So if we want to please Uchiha Yorin, doesn't that mean we in Iwa should…"
Bang! Kurotsuchi slammed the table and shot the guy a murderous glare.
"What do you mean by that?! Are you saying I should go 'serve' the enemy? That we should throw our comrades at them as tribute just to beg for peace? Shameless!"
"I didn't mean it like that, I just… Ōnoki-sama, what do you think?"
The jōnin who'd raised the idea mumbled a couple more words, then gave up and looked helplessly to Ōnoki.
Everyone's gaze followed, waiting for the old Tsuchikage's ruling.
Up to this point, Ōnoki hadn't spoken much. No one knew what he was really thinking—whether he wanted to hold fast to the end, or offer up his granddaughter for the sake of peace.
If it were the latter, some would definitely deride him as soft; if the former, others would resent him for shielding his own family while asking the rest of them to sacrifice their loved ones.
Either way, he would catch flak.
Fortunately, he was a seasoned, hardened Kage. This kind of pressure was nothing to him.
"I'll go, personally. I'll see this man for myself."
Ōnoki finally said.
"For this last battle, no one else needs to make extra sacrifices. It'll just be me and that Uchiha."
His voice was cold and heavy as he spoke.
Hearing that, both the hardliners and those who wanted peace fell silent. They could only look at him with respect and answer in unison:
"Yes, Tsuchikage-sama!"
~~
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