As the Envoy team from Kumo are making their way to Konoha.
Elsewhere, the air in the Tsuchikage's office was thick with the scent of old parchment and the bitter chill of the Stone Village's high-altitude winds. On a chair far too large for his diminutive frame, Onoki... the Third Tsuchikage... sat hunched over a mahogany desk, where his eyes matches the height of the desk.
In his weathered, calloused hands, he clutched the complete casualty reports from the front lines in the war which has ended two years ago. Each page was a eulogy of ten thousand shinobi... sons, fathers, and brothers of Iwa... had been buried by Kumo.
But it wasn't just the loss of life that fueled the smoldering rage in his chest; it was the humiliation. The Four-Tails jinchuriki had been snatched away, and with him, a significant portion of Iwa's military sovereignty.
"Kumo..." Onoki hissed.
He thought of the Raikage, that arrogant, muscle-bound bull, and the rising power of the Hidden Cloud. For months, Onoki had dispatched envoy after envoy to demand the rightful return of their Jinchuriki, threatening the "Wrath of the Stone." Yet, every attempt had been met with silence or mockery.
The reality at the frontlines was grim: Iwagakure was bleeding, its strength flagging, while Kumogakure sat perched like a predator on a mountain peak, now possessing three Tailed Beasts to Iwa's remaining one.
His gaze drifted to a sprawling map of the Five Great Nations. His eyes skipped over the bloody skirmishes at the Kannabi Bridge against Konoha. He didn't care about the minor skirmishes there today. Instead, his pupils locked onto a small, isolated patch of territory: Takigakure, the Village Hidden in the Waterfalls.
With a low groan, Onoki's body began to shimmer with a faint aura. He defied gravity as he slowly floated into the air. "It is time I make my move," he whispered to the empty room.
He summoned Gari, the formidable head of the Explosion Corps. "Gari, maintain the pressure on the Konoha front. Kitsuchi is holding the line against Jiraiya of the Sannin; tell him to maintain the current skirmish rhythm. No retreats or advancements. We must keep Konoha's eyes fixed on the battlefield."
He knew the importance of Kannabi Bridge, but at this moment, the bridge was a secondary concern. Without Roshi to rival Kumo, Iwa would eventually be erased after my death. Leaving his office through the high window, Onoki soared into the sky, climbing until he was nothing more than a speck against the clouds, invisible to the spies below. He set his course for Takigakure, as the dwarf of destruction flew.
~~
The atmosphere in the Konoha Medical Ward smelled of antiseptic, and the lingering, sweet scent of blood.
Tsunade Senju leaned against the cold tile wall of the ICU, her breath coming in ragged hitches. For twenty-four hours, she had performed a delicate surgery to Kaien, the hostage.
His mind had been a shattered mosaic, a chaotic mess of trauma and severed neural pathways. With the precision of a master artisan, she had stitched the fragments of his consciousness back together, layer by layer.
She was mentally and physically spent. Her hands, usually steady enough to crush boulders, had a faint, uncontrollable tremor. Kaien's mind was repaired... structurally, he was whole.. but he remained in a deep, silent sleep.
She peeled off her blood-stained surgical mask and discarded her gloves, stepping out of the ICU. Waiting in the hallway was a figure clad in the standard gray flak jacket and porcelain mask of an ANBU. But Tsunade wasn't fooled. The rigid posture and the oppressive, cold aura gave him away... this was a Root Ninja, Danzo's eyes and ears, stationed here to monitor the "hostage."
As she moved toward the exit, she felt the root ninja's presence trailing her. Her patience, already frayed by exhaustion, snapped.
"He is stable," she barked, her voice echoing in the sterile corridor, "but he has yet to wake up. Now, if you continue to follow me, I will break your face."
The Root ninja stopped dead. His masked face remained expressionless. Without a word, he flicked away, retreating to report to his master.
Tsunade kept walking, her pace quickening as she reached the residential wing and made her way to her son who was bought back by Shizune, from the west of Land of fire, a while ago because Saruto has been crying for her non-stop. So, Shizune had to carry the one and half year old baby back to Konoha and Kakashi who was eager to return back tagged along.
Shizune was waiting there, cradling a fussy, one-and-a-half-year-old baby. Saruto. At the sight of his mother, the boy's crying ceased, replaced by a reaching, desperate whimper. Beside them stood Kakashi Hatake, looking uncharacteristically angry.
Tsunade took her son into her arms, pressing her face against his soft hair. The child in her arms was the only thing grounding her in a world that felt like it was spinning toward a precipice. Her thoughts were pushed aside by a dozens of chibi-Jiraiya, they were shouting "What about me?" "Me?". Few were crying for her attention, few were circling her.
~~
In the Hokage's office, Danzo Shimura sat behind the desk that should have belonged to a more capable leader.
On the desk lay a fresh report from the Land of Hot Water. "The Kumo envoy are moving fast. They would arrive in less than twelve hours. This peace treaty mission was headed by the Raikage himself, along with the "Lightning Princess" Aya and along with them was Hostage, the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki, Kushina Uzumaki."
"So, they have started," Danzo mused, his fingers drumming a rhythmic beat on the desk. "With the Raikage personally attending, the pressure on Konoha will be immense. I cannot allow Tsunade to return to the western camps against Suna just yet. She is a vital asset.. both as a medic and as leverage."
A Root ninja materialized, kneeling before him. "The hostage is stable, but remains comatose," the subordinate reported.
He looked toward the window not minding the report, his mind calculating the pieces on the board. "Summon Orochimaru back from the front. We should negotiate with the Cloud from a position of strength."
The Root ninja vanished. As the room fell into a brief silence, a figure stepped out from the darkest corner of the office.
He had a long bi-colour hair (half green half white) with matching eyebrows along with heavy-lidded eyes that give him the appearance of being very tired. He had a purple mark in the shape of a diamond down the right side of his face. He wore the standard attire of the Kumogakure shinobi including a flak jacket, over a long-sleeved v-neck outfit with bandages underneath and carried a fairly long sword strapped to his back. He had pupil-less eyes and grey sclerae.
"This," Danzo whispered, looking at his bicolored ally, "should be more than enough to put myself in the position of strength."
~~
A/N: Guess who this Kumo shinobi is? He is a fairly important canon character. And Onoki makes his move towards Takigakure, not Konoha, not Kumo but Taki.
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Thank you Kyyate.
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