Chapter 36: The Thunder-Fire Summit
The next day, Dodai and the reinforcements arrived in the Land of Hot Water. When he had received the news of Dana's abduction, he had immediately set out with a larger force. By the time they arrived, the crisis was over, but now they were tasked with handling the aftermath.
The sudden appearance of the Third Raikage, the leader of a great hidden village, in the Land of Hot Water required a certain degree of diplomatic courtesy. And it was clear that there would be a tense negotiation with Konoha in the near future. So, A decided to stay in the Land of Hot Water for the time being and ordered a temporary outpost to be established.
With the arrival of Dodai's forces, Tsunade's life of being tied to a tree finally came to an end. The Cloud ninja used their clan's ancestral Iron Armor Seal to completely block her chakra. This was a sealing jutsu originally designed for tailed beasts; restraining Tsunade was a simple matter. With her chakra sealed, her imprisonment could be handled in a more conventional manner.
Tsunade, still unaware that her identity had been exposed, continued to play the part of an ordinary ninja, and she played it well. The Cloud, for their part, remained strangely silent. They sent no protests to Konoha, nor did they make any threats. It was as if the Raikage and his entourage were simply on vacation.
And in a way, they were. A was now spending his days personally training Dana and Arashi. The other Cloud ninja in their party were also fortunate enough to receive the Raikage's generous instruction.
As a result, the Cloud was perfectly relaxed, while Konoha was on edge. After days of cautiously searching the border area and finding neither a body nor any sign of life, Konoha finally sent an envoy to meet with the Cloud.
The envoy was an unremarkable, ordinary ninja, and his attitude was firm.
"Lord Raikage," he said, "the recent conflict was a misunderstanding, an outcome neither side desired. If the Hidden Cloud has no intention of escalating this conflict, it would be best for both sides to take a step back, lest the other villages profit from our strife."
After delivering his message, the Konoha ninja left, stating that he was merely a messenger and that someone of higher rank would be sent to negotiate.
"They're testing us," Dana said, stepping out from behind the Raikage's chair. He had been channeling his inner death-god elementary school student, hiding behind the massive chair and listening to every word. "They didn't even mention Senju Tsunade. They're trying to see if we've realized how important she is."
The Third Raikage looked at his son's sly grin with amusement.
"Tell me," he said, "what are your thoughts on this?"
"That depends," Dana said, flashing his small canine teeth. "Does Father want to strengthen the Cloud, or weaken the Leaf?"
"What's the difference?"
"If we want to strengthen the Cloud, then we ask for things that will build our foundation: secret jutsu, research data, influence, resources, or just plain money. Konoha has a lot of good stuff. We can demand some things openly, and take others in secret. But if we want to weaken the Leaf, we can try to stir up conflict between their clans. If we play our cards right, we can significantly hinder their development."
Personally, Dana favored weakening the Leaf. As the strongest of the hidden villages, a breeding ground for overpowered ninja, Konoha's greatest enemy was itself. If he could use this incident to create internal problems for them, that would be the best possible outcome. Now that the first blow had been struck, Dana had firmly placed Konoha in the position of an adversary. He was going to make them pay for their recklessness.
A ruffled his son's hair. "Only children make choices," he said with a grin. "An adult takes it all!"
Three days later, the Konoha delegation arrived in the Land of Hot Water. To avoid making the meeting too formal, they didn't call themselves a delegation, but a "negotiation team." It was led by the rising star of the Jonin corps, Sakumo Hatake, and the Third Hokage's right-hand man, Danzo Shimura.
Dana didn't hide. He stood openly by his father's side, observing the Konoha ninja.
The handsome Sakumo was sharp and reserved. Danzo, now in his prime, was not yet covered in bandages, but his gloomy and sinister aura was already taking shape.
Most importantly, to Dana, Danzo seemed weak.
If Sakumo was like a razor-sharp dagger, ready to slit an enemy's throat at a moment's notice, then Danzo was like a dull, rusty sword that hadn't been maintained in years. Even displayed on a fancy rack, its shoddy quality was obvious.
Dana had always assumed that Danzo in his prime would have been an elite Jonin, at the very least. He was surprised to find him so... ordinary. He supposed Tobirama Senju had more reasons than just cowardice for not choosing him as the next Hokage. No wonder that, twenty years from now, his fight with Sasuke had been such a display of tactical incompetence. No wonder Hiruzen Sarutobi had trusted him for so many years, allowing him to stir up trouble in the village, even after he had tried to have him assassinated.
He's so weak, what kind of real trouble could he cause?
In the ninja world, strength was everything. For Hiruzen, having a "right-hand man" who was so weak, so transparent in his ambitions, and so willing to do the dirty work was a valuable asset. If he were Hiruzen, he wouldn't want to get rid of him either.
As Dana was sizing up the "ordinary Jonin" Danzo Shimura, Danzo was sizing him up as well.
So this is the boy who started all this trouble. The Second son of the Third Raikage, rumored to possess a special Kekkei Genkai.
As the leader of the Konoha delegation, Danzo carried himself with a certain gravitas. He walked with a stern expression through the lines of glaring Cloud ninja and stopped before the Raikage, his face impassive. But the meeting place had clearly been arranged to give the Cloud the advantage. The Third Raikage sat on a raised platform, while Danzo and Sakumo had to walk between two rows of hostile ninja and stand below him.
Though the Raikage was technically of a higher rank than him, Danzo didn't see it that way. He was already annoyed, but the negotiations were the priority.
The Raikage looked down at him. "I remember you," he said. "You came to the Cloud with the Second Hokage."
"Yes, Lord Raikage. It has been a long time." Years ago, Danzo, Hiruzen, and the others had accompanied the Second Hokage, Tobirama Senju, to the Hidden Cloud to negotiate a peace treaty with the Second Raikage. But their meeting had been interrupted by the rebellion of the Gold and Silver Brothers. The Second Raikage had been killed on the spot, and the Second Hokage had been fatally wounded while covering their retreat. In Danzo's mind, it was in that moment, with that single hesitation, that he had lost his chance to become Hokage.
More than a decade had passed. Technically, the Cloud had been at fault. The Gold and Silver Brothers were their ninja, and they had failed to protect the leader of another nation who had come in good faith. But the Cloud had paid a heavy price in reparations to secure the peace. The ones who had handled that affair were the newly appointed Third Raikage and Third Hokage.
There was bad blood between the two nations, but it wasn't a deep-seated hatred. Their relationship was more one of tense rivalry, a product of the general political climate. Which of the five great villages didn't have grievances with the others?
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