The Best Laid Plans

Arun

Chapter 25: A Ruse of War AKA A Daimyo Conned

Disclaimer: Wish the rest of the world were as stoic as the Japanese.

Flanked by two advisors, but no guards, the Daimyo of Wind sat sullenly at the table while Sakura read him the riot act.

"This is the second instance that Wind country has made war against Hi no Kuni without a formal declaration of war. While you were at the helm, need I remind you? During the prior invasion three years back, you argued that the action was the late Kazekage's fault and decried his actions as seditious. Fire country was willing to buy that story then because we were desirous of peace and we valued our friendship with Kaze no Kuni, but it is well documented that Suna went along with Orochimaru's plans because you hamstrung their economy for your own petty reasons. The Noble Daimyo of Hi no Kuni overlooked that crucial factum because of the longstanding relationship between our nations.

"But the events of the past couple of months and your collusion with foreign powers to weaken my country have convinced our decision makers otherwise. There is no shadow of doubt in the halls of power that Hi no Kuni's policy's towards Kaze no Kuni need revisiting. The purpose of this meeting today is to lay down the terms of our new relationship," Sakura spoke serenely.

The Daimyo and his advisors remained silent. They could argue the Leaf Chuunin's opening statement, but the capital of their domain lay defenseless and the girl's three companions looked ready to kill.

"Our first order of business is the formal surrender of Kaze no Kuni to Fire country and the standing down of your forces. The surrender will be unconditional, of course."

"Preposterous!" the Daimyo's advisor and confidante, Shogun Hosokawa Yoriyuki stated in an offended tone. "By what right do you call upon the surrender of our nation to you and your companions."

"By right of having the power to reduce your stinking capital to dust and grime," Naruto replied offhandedly.

"Please, Danshaku Yoriyuki," Sakura drawled, addressing the Daimyo's friend, but holding up a finger to silence the blonde. She wanted Naruto by her side to cow the opposition, but she did not want him opening his mouth. Addressing the Daimyo, she continued, "Let us not harbor delusions at this table. The gates of your city are rent asunder, and you and your people are defenseless. This is sufficient reason to surrender per the natural law of war. If you are inclined to debate the point and deny historical precedents, we can burn down your capital and then start this meeting anew. It really doesn't make much of a difference to my team and I. The same won't be true for you, of course. Under the circumstances, we'll require every surviving member of your extended clan within the walls to be stoned to death as one of our conditions for the surrender of Kaze no Kuni."

Yoriyuki glared daggers at the pink-tressed chunnin and would have exchanged words, but the Daimyo stopped him with a gesture.

"What do you require?" he asked.

"As I'd stated, the surrender of Kaze no Kuni, Daimyo. You'll also abdicate your throne. You needn't worry about the safety and security of your family, however. You'll move your clan to Hi no Kuni where you'll be amply protected from external threats. Wiser heads among the nobles will be raised to your throne to ensure stability of Wind country, which is in Fire country's best interest."

"In essence, you plan to replace me with a puppet."

"If you're inclined to be crass, let us examine the facts in detail. You initiated this unjust war, Lord Daimyo. And apart from Orochimaru, you were the responsible party for the previous altercation as far as my superiors are concerned. It is clear that allowing you to remain in power is foolhardy from Hi no Kuni's standpoint. There is no doubt here that you will continue your treacherous behavior in the future. So, yes, we want to replace you with someone else. We want peace on our borders. And we will continue our search until we're satisfied the replacement isn't an idiot unlike his predecessor."

Naruto choked back a laugh at Sakura's statement. The Wind party goggled. This wasn't how you conducted negotiations. Not if you wanted to reach a compromise. And that was the rub. Konoha's killers were not looking for one.

"I…"

"Tut tut, Milord. Not one word out of your mouth arguing against our primary demand. On this point, we're immoveable. Your removal is the sine qua non for peace today. If you're inclined to doubt, we'll mount your head on a pike to demonstrate our intransigence on the subject. So, do you yield?"

"We will require some time to consider your proposition," the Daimyo replied with great dignity.

Sakura looked ready to argue, but Sasuke touched her shoulder. She hesitated a moment and then nodded.

"You have thirty minutes."

The Daimyo and his associates left the table for the walls of the capital a half a mile away. Once they were out of earshot, Sakura turned her attention to Sasuke.

"Why did you do that? You know those bastards are simply trying to mark time until the reinforcements they'd called for arrive."

Sasuke pointed at Naruto, who had a message scroll in his hands given him by one of his toad friends. The blonde's expression turned pale as he read through the missive.

xxxx

The demands of the war had kept Kakashi at his desk into the wee hours of the morning. With all the decisions that he had to make made, he turned in at the morning twilight for some much deserved rest. An hour into his sleep, his aide woke him up.

The news he heard was terrible. The renegade Akasuki was working with the enemies of Hi no Kuni. They had the Eyes of Samsara. The capital of Tea destroyed. The redoubtable Sandaime murdered. Thousands of civilians massacred pitilessly. Hundreds of precious shinobi and samurai killed. And last, but not least, the Daimyo missing in action. Likely killed with the rest of the capital's inhabitants.

The implications were much more terrible. There weren't enough forces in Tea anymore to fight the resistance. Much money was going to be sunk in Tea to take care of the refugees and to rebuild the economy. And far from becoming a net supplier of men for Hi no Kuni's armed forces, precious trained units would have to be sent to Tea to control the situation there. But those very same units were needed on the Wind border, the Grass border, the Rice border and of course, the high seas to ensure Water did not take advantage of the opportunity. From a strategic standpoint, the war that Fire had spent so many years preparing for was come and it was almost certain to overwhelm his nation.

Furthermore, if the Daimyo were dead, there was also the issue of succession. The man had no known issues from his loins and though the line of succession, there were three claimants with the power, prestige and following to lay claim to the throne. The ensuing civil war would leave Hi no Kuni vulnerable to all comers and seal his nation's fate.

The future of Fire country had never been darker.

And on the personal front, the death of the Sandaime and the decimation of the forces he commanded meant that Kakashi's three children were sure to be buried in an unmarked grave somewhere…

xxxx

"What's the matter, Naruto?" Sakura asked.

The blonde handed his teammate the scroll and signaling Sasuke, started for the Wind continent.

"What's going on?" Sasuke asked quietly, keeping stride with his friend.

"They killed the Sandaime and nuked the Tea capital, Sasuke," Naruto choked back.

"Who did?"

"Sensei says Akatsuki."

Sakura took a deep breath. Akatsuki would have had to go through the entire Tea contingent before they got to Sarutobi.

"Casualties?" she asked. She would mourn the kind old man later. Now she wanted estimates on how the losses in Tea would affect the war.

"Massive. Reading between the lines, I'd say that we'd lost thirty percent or better of the forces in the capital. The Daimyo is also MIA – most probably KIA – and the city's been reduced to a series of craters. Whoever Akatsuki sent after the city wanted maximum civilian casualties."

"Was there any message from Kakashi-sensei for we three? Nevermind, I'll find out myself," Sasuke spoke, unrolling the scroll. "Danzo-sama's to pull back to Hi no Kuni's borders and resist the forces of Kaze no Kuni with the forces in hand. There will be no reinforcements. We're attached to Danzo-sama's command for the duration of this emergency."

"Which is why we have to end this siege now," Naruto nodded at the others. "If we can have peace on this border, we can shift the forces deployed on this front to the others."

"Provided we can be sure Kaze no Kuni won't backstab us at the earliest opportunity," Sakura appended.

"Yes, there is that," Naruto replied, "But we know the solution for that problem, don't we?"

Sasuke snorted.

"Yes, we do."

xxxxx

"What is the meaning of this?" Yoriyuki asked, facing the advancing Leaf nin with his hand on his sword.

"The situation has changed," Sakura replied, "We come to apprise you of it and to issue new terms."

"How has the situation changed?" the Daimyo asked.

"That is of no importance," Sakura waved him off. "What is important is that you will remain in power and you will surrender Kaze no Kuni. The terms of the surrender will be negotiated at a later date, but we want five hostages each from the immediate families of all nobles and leading merchant houses within your capital in the next thirty minutes."

"And in return, we get?"

"A truce that goes immediately into effect. You will compose messages to your units and we will send them to their commanders."

"What of Danzo?"

"We'll send messages to Danzo-sama regarding your surrender."

"That's not enough."

"Is your capital burned to ashes enough?" Sakura asked pleasantly.

"If Danzo stays, it doesn't matter how many hostages you take. Not all my nobles – not even a majority – are in my capital right now and I expect many of them will go to war so long as that man is on Kaze no Kuni soil. You want me to surrender and rule, I will surrender, but to rule, that man must be gone."

"Even if we burn your capital?"

The Daimyo nodded.

Sakura looked deep in thought for a minute. The Daimyo's words were the partial truth, of course. Yes, the Daimyo's loyal adherents wanted Danzo dead, but there was a lot of anger at the ruler of Kaze no Kuni as well. It took some doing to ruin a stable nation as badly as Wind had been and most anyone would point the accusing fingers at their Daimyo.

"Very well. Troop deployment on that level is not for me to negotiate. I'll send a message to the Hokage with your reasons, but he, the Daimyo or their designated representative have to make the decision. We'll have the hostages now, however. They should motivate you to convince your nobles to keep the peace until things are finalized."

"And if your Hokage or the Daimyo or their representative doesn't agree that Danzo needs to be withdrawn from Kaze no Kuni?"

"We'll cross that bridge when we reach it. The hostages?"

"We need some show of goodwill on your part," the Daimyo insisted.

"And you have it. You don't see my colleagues burning your city down."

xxxx

An hour and a half later…

"We're late," Sakura said to her companions.

Naruto hawked and spat on the ground.

"Yeah, we are. Nothing we can do about it. At least the hostages are assembled now. The Suna reinforcements won't be here in force for another till sunset, so we're good."

"I suppose. What do you think's going to happen when the Wind Daimyo realizes he fell for our ruse."

"Hopefully, he won't have a heart attack. We need the bastard in power until things settle down on the other fronts," Sasuke murmured.

"Anything we got to do?"

"Danzo-sama's been mailed. He'll leave a portion of his forces with his Wind allies to safeguard them from any backlash from the Daimyo and pull back the majority of his forces to Fire using alternate channels of extraction. Kakashi-sensei's also been apprised of the Kaze no Kuni situation and he'll be expecting the hostages soon."

"What about us? Do we deliver the hostages personally or let the toads do it for us?" Naruto asked.

"Our orders are to attach ourselves to Danzo-sama's command," Sasuke said offhandedly, pretending not to notice the interest the oldster's lapdog took in the conversation, "but there's nothing that says we can't deliver the hostages ourselves via toad express and report to our commander later."

Sakura nodded.

"Works for me."

"And what of our dear, beloved Daimyo, the asshole who rules Kaze no Kuni?" Sasuke asked.

Naruto snorted and Sakura guffawed.

"Isn't it obvious? While camel-sodomizer has wet dreams about how he'd have his troops intercept us before we ever cross the border, we'll be debriefing in Konohagakure with our hostages safe and sound. Imagine the look on his face when the great plotter finds out he's been outsmarted by teenagers," the blonde said.

"That gives a warm and fuzzy feeling," Sakura said, grinning maniacally.

"I bet it does," Naruto replied. Turning to the gathered noble personages, he addressed them, "All right, folks, gather around in a semi-circle."

The hostages shuffled into a condensed mass.

"Right. I guess you all know you're to be hostages in Konohagakure. Now, I know that many of you dread the prospect, but the majority of the denizens of Hidden Leaf are ordinary folks just like you. You'll be well-treated and you certainly won't be abused by anyone because that'd reflect badly on Hi no Kuni and it might threaten the fragile peace between our nations. So, cheer up. Once the situation improves, we'll repatriate you to Wind," Sasuke informed the crowd.

xxxx

As the dark-haired youth spoke, Naruto summoned a number of toads and shared the plan with them. He had to promise them some hefty bribes – just as humans did not like being inside a toad's belly, toad's did not like swallowing a man just to puke him out alive later – that Kakashi-sensei would pay, but after hemming and hawing for a couple of minutes, his allies agreed.

"We don't like being used like this, big brother Naruto," Gama Ryuu, the eldest brother in the ranks of the summoned said. "First, old man Jiraiya wanted us to transport a shitload of strangers and now you do."

"I'm sorry, little brother," Naruto replied, "I wouldn't do us unless the circumstances were unavoidable."

"My brothers and I will do it this once because you asked, but I'm going to raise this up with Boss. We aren't beasts of burden. We toads aren't to be treated in so demeaning a manner. If you or old man Jiraya want to repeat this in the future, you have to incur the fees beforehand."

"I understand. I and Jiraiya-sensei meet with the Boss at the earliest to discuss the terms."

"Good."

"Now, I'm going to split this crowd into teams of thirty and ask a single team to climb into the mouth of a brother. I'm sure they'll refuse. When they do, grab them and swallow them. Then we'll depart."

"Yes, big brother."

Naruto nodded and turned to address the crowd, an expectant smile on his face. He was going to enjoy the look on the Daimyo's face when his family and relatives were swallowed whole.

xxxx

Kakashi smiled benignly at the angry complaints of the guests from Wind. He had never been more proud of his students than he was at that moment. For the first time in history, a team of three had forced the surrender of one of the Five Elemental nations.

The Hokage shifted slightly to avoid the stench as the stink of a couple of dozen nobles puking upwind and chuckled. The day had started out as a nightmare and the Daimyo of Fire was now confirmed dead. Future that had looked so bleak in the morn was less baleful with the surrender of Wind and he even thought he could see the hint of daybreak on the far horizon. He would ensure a peaceful succession to the throne and then deal with the other threats. In fact, the germ of an operation to deal with Grass was already forming in his mind.

We shall win this war yet. The Will of Fire shall not be quenched so long as there are leaves to lend strength to the flames.

xxxx

Author's note:

Sorry about the long delay. When I wasn't mired in RL or work, I was too lazy to write. Still, new chapter's up and the story's not abandoned. Oh, and my wife gave birth to a baby girl last month. So, congratulations are in order. ^_^

Shortest chapter yet. But it brings the Wind campaign to a close. Mostly. The peace, as Sasuke informed the hostages, is fragile – especially as the Daimyo does not know the disaster that befell Hi no Kuni in Tea, but it'll hold. Wind will be split into three camps – the nobles whose families are hostages in Konoha, the nobles who want Danzo dead and the nobles who worked against the Daimyo – and they cannot risk an external war while a civil war threatens. And remember, they've also lost the Nibi, which means Cloud is going to be pissed at them. So, the prospect of Fire as a friend again isn't going to look so bad so long as Danzo is kept out of sight.

Now, as to whether Fire can avoid a civil war… you'll just have to wait for future chapters, won't you? The body count is going to shoot skywards again next chapter and the war's going to edge towards an end. I'll leave you to guess how.

Last, I thought I'll share some stats about TBLP. I find it curious. There are now more than 400k views of the story – all chapters combined. It's on 165 communities, has ~780 reviews and has ~1050 story alerts and favorites against it. So, thanks to all the readers out there.