"My lord, a letter just arrived. It from the Hokage"
"Bring it here" spoke the most powerful man in the Land of Fire. The Fire Daimyo is an elderly man with a clean-shaven face and look to be in his thirties instead of his ripe age of sixty.
He doesn't let his job get to him, believing that stress will cause him to drastically age. So he lets his advisers do most of the work, and when there a hard choice that needs to be made;he simply lets his advisers make the choice for him. And if that choice comes back to bite him, all he has to do is simply shift the blame to his advisers since they did technically make the choice for him.
The only thing he personally has to do is attend the occasional meetings between the other countries Daimyos, but those meetings rarely happen. The most recent one being when the Land of Earth's Daimyo asked for their help. His country was facing a famine and his people were rioting in the streets. He feared that his country was on the verge of a collapse.
He and the others were reluctant to help the Earth Daimyo and his failing country. He wanted to help him out but it was too much work and stress, so he let the other Daimyos to take charge of the meeting. The Land of Lightning's Daimyo was the most vocal out of the five there.
"Why should we help you and your country? How does helping you out benefits us? What do we get in return, will you give us land in compensation for our help? Tell me, what do we get."
"Please, my people are starving. We need your help, millions of lives are at stake."
"You still haven't told me what we get in return for our help."
"Maybe we should help him out."
"What nonsense do you speak. Don't tell me you feel sorry for him. I can't believe that the Land of Wind elected you to be their new Daimyo. Your predecessor wouldn't have let emotions to affect his decisions."
"You misunderstand my intentions, I don't want to help him because I pity him. No, I want to help him because if his country collapses it would cause trouble for us."
"What are you talking about?"
"I would also like to know what you mean. How does his country problems affect us?" asked the Land of Water's Daimyo.
"If his country collapses, then chaos will spread. We will face large influx of immigrants, seeking to escape the famine that affects their country. We will also face a power vacuum. With the collapse of one of the five superpowers, it will created a mad rush to claim the remains. Minor countries will fight to claim the land and I also suspect that you won't stand by and let it happen when you can claim it for yourself. Next thing you know we are in a fourth world war. I don't know about the rest of you, but I don't want that to happen."
"Don't you claim that you know me and my intentions, I don't want another world war as much as you do. But I still believe we deserve compensation for our help."
"How about this then, I know that the Raikage has been bugging you to allow him to send shinobi to investigate Iwagakure silence. So, in return for our help the Earth Daimyo will allow a joint operation task force to enter his country to investigate Iwagakure. And he will also agree that in the event that Iwagakure is discovered preparing for war, then he will allow us to use his palace as a staging ground to invade Iwagakure."
"Hmm, that will certainly get the Raikage off my back. Very will, if the Earth Daimyo agrees to those terms, then I will send relief supplies to his country" The other two Daimyos agreed with the terms. Well one of them agreed, the other just nodded as he could care less. He just wanted this boring meeting to be over with, so he could head home.
...
The Earth Daimyo agreed to the terms and the meeting was adjourned. As the Fire Daimyo was heading back to his palace, he sent a messenger hawk to the village hidden in the leaves. Telling Tsunade to go meet with the other Kages to form their task force to investigate Iwagakure.
A week passed, and the task force was formed and sent on their mission. The Fire Daimyo continued doing what he does best, lazed around doing nothing but read Jiraiya's excellent Icha Icha Paradise series, while his advisers do the paper work for him. He was about to start on the third book before he was interrupted by his servant with a letter from Tsunade.
As his servant brought him the letter, he thought of the current Hokage, remembering his disappointment when Jiraiya wasn't selected to be the next Hokage when Hiruzen died. Instead Tsunade was selected, not that he has a problem with her being Hokage. It just that Jiraiya is more fun to be around and he is also a Sannin. Plus he also wrote that excellent work of literature; he has the complete Icha Icha series given to him by no other than the Toad Sannin himself. "I wonder when the next novel is coming out" he thought to himself as the servant handed him the letter.
He quickly read the contents on the letter to see what the Hokage wanted. It seem that the joint team that was assembled to establish contact with Iwagakure, has failed to respond and the Hokage was requesting him to call another Daimyos meeting. She want him to request that the other Daimyos send another joint shinobi team. He didn't want to attend another boring meeting, but he would call for this meeting anyway since he owes Tsunade a favor.
"I want you to send a message to the other Daimyos. Tell them that I call for an emergency meeting."
"It will be done my lord" said the servant as he bow to the Fire Daimyo. The Fire Daimyo watch as the servant quickly exit the room. When the man left, he sighed to himself wishing that he could just skip this meeting or at least send one of his advisers instead.
...
Three days has passed since Tsunade sent the letter, and still she hasn't receive a response yet. And worse she hasn't even started on the paperwork, by now the papers tower over her. No longer can she continue ignoring it. Just thinking of doing all that work was giving her a headache, or maybe it was because she was hung over. Ever way, she is not going to do all that work by herself. Maybe she can convince Shizune to do it for her. Speaking of her she just enter the room.
"Lady Tsunade, a message has just arrived from the Daimyo"
"Was he successful in convincing the other Daimyos?"
"I am sorry Lady Tsunade, but they refused to send another team. They don't want to risk anymore of their shinobi. They believed that the task force was either captured or executed. They were planning on mobilizing their shinobi and declare war on Iwagakure. But the Fire and Earth Daimyo manage to convince them that declaring war on Iwagakure without proof that they kill or capture the task force was a mistake."
"The last thing we want is another shinobi world war."
"Even though the other Daimyo refused to risk more of their shinobi. The Fire Daimyo has allowed us to send in our own shinobi to find the missing task force."
"So we are on our own it seems."
"Yes Lady Tsunade"
"Alright, bring me Kakashi, Yamato, Yugao, Anko, Gai, Hana, and Shikaku. Tell them I have a mission for them."