67 Naruto : Domination: Chapter 67
We could keep the other as hostage of some kind.
Danzō's eye reached again the toad sage: "There will be resistance, I'll deal with the clean up before the jinchuriki is ready."
...
Nobody missed the light hostility that oozed off from both Jiraya and Kakashi, my chakra turned scorching, heating me considerately and making the air out of my mouth waver. Fire natured chakra would never stop surprising me. Easy to create, difficult to contain, easy to direct, impossible to tame.
"Iwa will more than likely put Onoki's son at the rudder, peace with them is out of the picture, and while Kumo gained a bloody nose during the exams, not managing to place a single one of their genin in the third stage. Still, they won't lose the opportunity to hunt for some of our clans. The Raikage has an obsession for the Byakugan and other of Konoha's bloodlines." I went on.
"Well, that's all nice and dandy, but we can't cover every front with our numbers, they'll swarm us." Jiraya butted in.
"We need Kiri." I nodded, looking at the map of the elemental nations: "As you know very well." I added looking pointedly at my father.
"What do we know about the hidden villages which are not part of the great five?" I asked, looking for ready numbers to throw into the equation.
"That they don't like the major hidden villages." Kakashi pointed out. At least he had put away his smut. I considered.
"They'll side with the more likely winner, they have a council made of the Heads of their clans, but it translates to a single upper-tier jonin calling in the shots." Jiraya helpfully elaborated.
"What do we do about Ame? If Hanzo chooses to move he'll cut through regular shinobi like they were grass." Shikaku reminded us.
"Ame will not move." Danzō said.
Everyone narrowed their eyes and stared at the one-eyed, bandaged bastard. Stay the fuck away from Ame. I recalled Sensei's words from the black book of bullshit.
"Kiri is in the middle of a civil war, the Yondaime Mizukage is the Sanbi jinchuriki and is leading his people against the bloodline users. Konoha has a lot of those. If he wins we'll be alone against the great Four and whoever they'll manage to rally behind them. Meaning everyone." I quickly spoke.
Everyone looked at me with open curiosity. "How do you know of this?" Shikaku asked, his lazy attitude vanished.
"Sensei used to chat foreign politics with me." I simply shrugged, it was even mostly true.
"We don't have the resources to enter another country's civil war." Danzō shot me down.
I brought my hands in a steeple, crunching through plans and countermeasures.
"The resistance is being led by Terumi Mei. She holds two bloodlines." Jiraya seriously said, clearly enjoying going against the elder. What is he, a child? I rolled my eyes.
"Placing a puppet in Suna is one thing, but Kiri ninja are notoriously xenophobic, if they smell a puppet they'll fall on our backs like a ton of bricks." Shikaku pointed out, "And organizing a country that is just out of war is a nightmare."
I looked at him for a long moment, then dropped the bomb: "We need a small team of bloodline users to place Terumi as the next Mizukage, or at least help her achieve her title. Elders, could you write down some kind of treaty? It's really not something I'm capable of."
Tsunade snorted, if it was because of my carefree admission or the fact that I had blatantly thrown a bone at them, I couldn't say.
"One does not simply walk into Kiri." Tsunade drawled, in such a perfect imitation that I couldn't not ask, a grin sprouting on my face.
"Have you been reading my sensei's books, Tsunade-sama? he would have been flattered." I asked.
She put down her jug of sake, it was curious how much she suddenly reminded me of Shin.
"He is the one who wrote the Lord Of the Swords?" She asked bewildered.
"Yup." I nodded happily. In that story, an Iwa blacksmith had forged the 'eighth sword' to dominate the seven swords of the mist, and the only way to destroy it was tossing it into a volcano in Iwa. I had read it, finding the final confrontation between Frodo and Gollum strangely insightful.
"He used a lot of pseudonyms. If a book fails to sell he would drop the author's name, you see." I explained.
"Returning to the topic." Homura cut in, bringing us back to the problem we were facing. "Not only how do you plan to reach Kiri, but how do you plan to find the resistance?"
"Kakashi's team fought the wielder of Kubikiribōchō in their C-rank, put its restitution into the treaty, in exchange for something we don't really need, so we can pretend we are gifting it back in good faith." I informed the elders snapping my fingers suddenly, as I had just remembered about it.
"And I was kind of hoping they would be the ones finding the ones we send, we are really pressed for time, so we can't exactly enact guerrilla tactics, we need to be flashy and show them why siding with Konoha is the best option.
So ... I was thinking Jiraya-sama could go barreling through their border?" I finished with a question that almost sent Jiraya rolling on the floor in laughter.
"Bold." Tsunade nodded "And it will most certainly kill him, but Kami knows I'm tired of having him around."
"Goddamn brats these days..." Jiraya mumbled saddened.
How is her reaction my fault? I wondered.
"Still, neither Kumo nor Iwa have made moves to jump us, I still disagree with the general purpose of this council." Jiraya had stopped laughing and had intervened with a somber voice, staring at me without wavering.
I raised an eyebrow in the direction of Danzō, hoping that he would tackle it. I know this is all a farce to see how I react, but do I have to? I almost whined in my head, my eyes finding Shikaku, or at least the impassible mask he had put on.
When the one-eyed bandaged bastard remained impassible and everyone looked at me for an answer, I sighed.
"War is bad for my sensei's side-business, of which I inherited a cut after his death." I shrugged. Music, games, books and restaurants were hardly going to have an easy time during war.
"But even so, Konoha hosted Chunin exams during which Onoki died along several nobles sent as representatives from Kaminari no Kuni's Daimyo." I tilted my head.
"There will be retaliation, if only because Konoha broke the treaty or looks weak enough to no longer deserve her place at the top of the food chain." I looked intently at Jiraya at that moment, "If I'm here for this mock war council it's because our spies have reported a mobilization in Iwa and Kumo."
Shikaku cleared his throat: "How would you proceed?"
I rolled my eyes: "Divide and conquer. We should perform a series of false flag operations between Tsuchi no Kuni and Kaminari no Kuni. Iwa is far from broken, but without Onoki they are weakened.
Let's make them believe Kumo wants to obtain hegemony over the Great Five. And we should also ensure Tetsu no Kuni stays out of the fight.
Kakashi-sensei has the skill for the first task, and I would send Hyuga to the second. If Kumo gets greedy and assaults them in Tetsu no Kuni, the samurai will shut down their border with minimal assistance from us."
"Who strikes first, strikes twice." Tsunade quoted another of my sensei's books, her sake raised in a mock toast.
And with what was definitely a drunken drawl, the war council came to an end.
"My orders then?" I asked.
Tsunade arched an eyebrow at me, she was still somewhat skeptic that I was as strong as the facts suggested, I could tell: "You're on leave for the next week, then I'll have your orders, enjoy it, because then you won't be able to take another until this war is done.
And congratulations, for your actions during the Betrayal, everyone on your team is promoted to chunin."
...
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