»Hashirama is fine. Apparently, the injuries from his fight are just hard to recover, so Yumiko will continue healing him.« said Tobirama.

Toka wondered: »Is that really all? He is looking worse each day.«

»Well, I am sure he will soon be better.«

The Kage summit was over. The tailed beasts were distributed and Tobirama made sure that Konoha would benefit from it. But now, there was a different problem to deal with. Tobirama assigned 5 trusted ANBU Shinobi to protect Hashirama and 2 ANBU Shinobi to protect Yumiko. But none of them knew what the true reason for that was.

Other than Hashirama, Tobirama couldn't tell anyone what Yumiko told him. Hashirama seemed concerned but not so much about himself. After he learned someone was poisoning him, he would often just look at the village from the top of Hokage's office. One could tell from his look that he was troubled but he voiced none of his thoughts. Tobirama was there, making sure his brother was okay. As long as he was safe, even if he said nothing, it was alright. But Tobirama wanted to know what he was thinking. Did his brother finally realize what the world was like? Did he learn you can't trust everyone? Would he now be more careful?

»That aside, there is something that does not make sense.« Toka interrupted Tobirama's thoughts.

»What is it?«

»So, if I understand you correctly, Sunagakure will keep the one Tail. Two and eight Tails will go to Kumogakure, three and six Tails to Kirigakure, Iwagakure gets four and five Tails and we will keep the nine Tails.«

»That is correct.« Tobirama said.

»But that does not explain the seven Tails. All Tailed beasts went to one of the 5 major villages. Why does the seven Tails go to Takigakure?«

Tobirama knew she would ask this. He said: »Do you remember the Takigakure Shinobi that has attacked Hashirama recently? Apparently, after Hashirama defeated him he returned to his village. There he killed the elders, stole their forbidden Jutsu and joined the Kumogakure bounty hunters. So, Takigakure blames Hashirama for not stopping him, which is ironic since they were the ones that sent him to assassinate Hashirama in the first place.« he paused for a moment, » Anyway, Hashirama tried his best at the summit. As a compensation, he offered them seven Tails and they gladly accepted.«

»They? Were they present at the summit?« Toka asked.

»Well, since they had nobody to represent them, the Samurai in charge of the summit made sure to speak in their interest as is usually the case for the smaller villages.«

Tobirama went to the Hokage office to meet Hashirama. He opened the door and saw Hashirama looking at the window. As he entered Hashirama turned to him: »Hi Tobirama. It is good you are here.«

Tobirama listened carefully.

»As you know, Takuma and the others were on a mission, where they have gotten their hands on a highly classified letter. It was carried by Iwagakure messenger but Takuma stole it before it was delivered.«

Tobirama was aware of that. Such situations were quite common but in this case, something seemed unusual.

Hashirama continued: »The content was encrypted, so I sent it to our information center. It took them a long time, only to realize that they can't decode it. That was when I got an idea. Do you remember Akane?«

Tobirama looked with a surprise as her name was mentioned.

»She used her Sharingan and she easily read the content. What I could understand from reading it, it seems there is a high chance that a secret organization was formed. Apparently, Iwagakure wants to cooperate with them and attack Konoha.«

Hashirama did not have much to say. Whether this organization existed or not, it could not be denied Iwagakure would try to attack Konoha. Tobirama urged him to make sure the strongest Shinobi stayed in the village. But there was no immediate concern for the safety of Konoha. Launching such an attack is not easy and Konoha was prepared for the attack of any village. However, Iwagakure had to be dealt with.

Tobirama had access to another classified information. Iwagakure messenger would be delivering a letter to a Kirigakure Shinobi next week. In Konoha information center, it was speculated that in the letter there would be a peace treaty document. Assuming this letter was delivered, it was likely that Iwagakure and Kirigakure would form an alliance.

Such an alliance was not in Konoha's interest. So, Tobirama decided to take action. This was a mission that had to be done, so he decided he would complete it himself. Without his brother knowing about it.

Tobirama went to the forest where the two Shinobi were supposed to meet. First, he had to find the Iwagakure messenger before he delivered the letter. He tranformed himself in a Kirigakure Shinobi. This way, maybe he would mistake him for a messenger. He sensed someone, it was probably who he waited for, coming in his direction. Soon, Tobirama heard him as well. A few moments later, an Iwagakure Shinobi appeared.

He looked at Tobirama suspiciously.

»What happened to the previous one?«

Tobirama said: »He was injured in a different mission. I am replacing him.«

»The moon is bright but the water that reflects it ripples because of stones.«

Tobirama charged quickly towards him before Shinobi even managed to react. He covered his mouth and started putting him under Genjutsu. A few moments later, he told him exactly how the document was supposed to be delivered. Tobirama was ready to deliver it. Before that, he made sure to hide the corpse. It would be suspicious, if the Kirigakure messenger came across a dead Iwagakure Shinobi.

Before meeting with the Kirigakure messenger, he transformed once again. This time, into the Shinobi he killed. He also altered his voice. When the Kirigakure messenger appeared, he started: »The moon is bright but the water that reflects it ripples because of stones.«

»May it ripple as long as the mist is covering the earth.« the messenger answered.

After the messenger confirmed the answer was correct he asked for the letter.

Tobirama gave it to him and said: »Make sure only Mizukage reads it.«

The messenger left, leaving Tobirama satisfied that the mission was completed.

When Tobirama returned to village, Hashirama asked him where he was. He explained that he had some things to do outside the village. Hashirama believed him and Tobirama did not really lie. Of course, if he told him exactly what happened, Hashirama would probably try to stop the messenger. But now, the messenger was already far away.

The two of them talked about what they should do in case Iwagakure attacked them. They made plans to make sure that any attack could be stopped. The Shinobi were prepared to react very quickly, if anything happened. Both Hashirama and Tobirama believed Konoha was the strongest village. They may not have had as many Shinobi as Kumogakure but they did have the best Shinobi with an incredible will to protect the village and people in it, the will of fire.

However, if the secret organization was formed, they had to get more information. This wouldn't be the first time such groups were formed but if they were strong enough to actually be asked for help in attacking an entire village, they had to be stopped. Also, how could such an organization be formed and how did Iwagakure discover it? And why was Akane able to decode their letter? These were the questions Tobirama had no answer to.

The messenger would probably reach Kirigakure soon and deliver the letter to the Mizukage. The letter that would not allow alliance between Iwagakure and Kirigakure. In that letter there was a document Mizukage would never read. Because the moment the letter was opened, the 5 exploding tags in it would explode.