Land of Rain, Six Paths City.
After Orochimaru led the team into the city, they were quickly received by the Ninja Sect.
The Ninja Sect was, after all, the official Ninja Force of the Land of Rain. Before Orochimaru and the others came, Sarutobi Hiruzen had already contacted the Ninja Sect, making clear that they wanted to resolve the issue through negotiations.
However, the Konoha Ninja in the negotiation team did not relax because of this.
They knew that their demands were somewhat excessive from the Ninja Sect's perspective; their goals had already doomed this round of talks to be anything but easy.
Considering that Orochimaru and the others had traveled a long way and were exhausted, the Ninja Sect first brought them to a reception area to rest and informed them of the specific time for the negotiation meeting.
After resting for a while, Orochimaru gathered the members of the negotiation team for a meeting and once again emphasized a few things they needed to pay attention to.
"Our attitude must be tough. We have to show the bearing of the strongest Ninja Village." Orochimaru said.
If they wanted Sosuke to agree to their terms, they had to apply enough pressure.
So even though in reality Konoha couldn't easily send troops, they still had to act like, "If you dare refuse, we'll immediately dispatch a large army to crush you."
"I wonder if the Ninja Sect in the original history was wiped out because of this." Shisui thought to himself.
From the history they learned from future Yamato, apart from Mokgetsu's death, there were three other major events worth noting: the Nine-tails chaos that caused heavy losses to Konoha, the brutal Uchiha massacre, and the lawless, calamity‑bringing evil Akatsuki that ravaged the Ninja World.
According to their calculations, Mokgetsu's death should have already been changed.
As for the remaining three, their plan was also to change them as much as possible, to leave fewer regrets in the future.
For the Nine-tails night and the Uchiha massacre, Shisui and the others already had ideas and were taking action. Only for the evil Akatsuki did they have no idea how to change things and, for now, no ability to do so.
There were many reasons; one very practical one was that they weren't in the same country, so a lot of things were inconvenient.
Another was that this matter was extremely complicated.
Before the Ninja Sect was founded, Yahiko and the others had already established Akatsuki, running around for the peace of the Land of Rain; at that time, Akatsuki was unquestionably a benevolent Ninja Organization.
After the Ninja Sect was formed, Yahiko and Nagato became Sosuke's disciples, and all of Akatsuki joined the Ninja Sect. For the time being, there was no Akatsuki as a separate Ninja Organization in the Land of Rain; that was the current reality.
Yet in the future where Naruto and the others lived, Akatsuki was a thoroughly evil Ninja Organization that not only seized Tailed Beasts but also killed wantonly.
Based on the information they had, Shisui and the others speculated that the birth of that later evil Akatsuki was very likely the result of the Ninja Sect being destroyed during its development.
But right now, Shisui and the others were just a few Konoha Jonin with slightly above‑average strength; they had no power to decide the existence or demise of a Ninja Force like the Ninja Sect.
What made it worse was that the party clashing with the Ninja Sect was Konoha itself.
As Konoha Ninja, were they supposed to side with the Ninja Sect instead of helping Konoha?
The mission had come so suddenly that Shisui hadn't even had time to discuss it with Kakashi and the others before he was dispatched to the Land of Rain.
At three in the afternoon, Ninja of the Ninja Sect arrived at the reception area right on time and escorted the Konoha negotiation team to the Ninja Sect's conference room.
After they reached the building, the assembled Ninja Sect negotiation team and the Konoha negotiation team met.
The Ninja Sect Ninja who had led the way stopped and gave a brief introduction of the Ninja Sect negotiation team.
Orochimaru took the opportunity to size up the Ninja in the Ninja Sect's negotiation team.
At their head was Kakuzu, the number two figure in the Ninja Sect.
Normally, the leader wouldn't personally attend this kind of negotiation, so the fact that Kakuzu was here already showed how seriously the Ninja Sect took this matter.
Besides Kakuzu, Orochimaru also noticed that Nagato, hailed as the greatest genius in the Ninja World, was present.
"Seeing you in person is even better than your reputation. You truly live up to the Sannin title Hanzo bestowed on you; your presence is extraordinary." Kakuzu said with a cheerful smile.
"Not at all, I'm still far inferior to Senior Kakuzu. When you were making a name for yourself in the Ninja World, this junior hadn't even finished Ninja School. Being able to sit down for talks with you today is an unexpected honor." Orochimaru replied with an impassive, mocking tone.
If it had been the old Hanzo, then what Kakuzu said could be taken as praise.
But later Hanzo turned treacherous and was defeated by Sosuke, and now they were in the Land of Rain; clearly, this was mocking them for the three of them losing to Hanzo back then.
So, naturally, Orochimaru wasn't actually complimenting Kakuzu for becoming famous early, but calling him an old fossil.
Kakuzu didn't get angry; wearing a calm expression, he walked into the conference room.
Orochimaru also said nothing more and led his team into the conference room.
Shisui had originally intended to sit in the middle of the long side of the conference table; he was too young and lacked seniority.
Before he could walk over, Orochimaru called him over and seated him on his left.
Shisui wasn't very clear about Orochimaru's intention, but he still sat down as ordered; after all, Orochimaru was the captain.
"According to our investigation, our former Hokage Assistant from Konoha was on a friendly visit to the Rain Village when he was killed by your sect leader, Sosuke. Tell me, is the Ninja Sect planning to go to war with Konoha?" Orochimaru seized the initiative, face cold as he questioned them.
Although Shimura Danzo's trip to the Rain Village had been a private action, in negotiations you always had to say things that were advantageous to yourself.
From the moment Sarutobi Hiruzen decided to resolve this through negotiations, Shimura Danzo's visit was no longer a private action but a "friendly visit" with official backing from Konoha.
Hearing Orochimaru's words, Kakuzu almost burst out laughing in anger. A "friendly" assassination, huh.