.

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It's Obito's first time setting foot in a civilian village, and he looks around, shocked at how urban and advanced it is. Their buildings are tall and every inch of ground is covered in concrete, civilian men and women walking in business suits and talking on their phones.

Thank god he didn't wear the Hokage robes. He glances at his advisors around him who look similarly out of place. By comparison, he and his coterie of shinobi look like backwoods idiots who have never been to the city.

"As you can see, we've completely divorced ourselves from needing chakra; everything in this city is based on the latest technologies." Their escort smiles, holding a tablet and leading them to the conference room. "Of course, the Fire Country as well as Konoha are major players; we believe we have much to offer."

She shows them to the conference room, where she sets the tablet down and attaches a thin keyboard to it. Obito frowns and glances at his advisors, who are similarly at a loss as to what she's doing.

The laptop buzzes. A face flares onto the screen. "Ah, Hokage-sama, welcome. You seem much younger than we anticipated. I admit we thought you were older when we saw the white hair."

"Er-" Obito glances again at his advisors, but they seem to be similarly at a loss. "Minister. Thank you for having us. Is there a reason why you're not present at this meeting?"

The minister chuckles. "I do apologize," the minister says. "But I was advised by my shinobi expert that your, ah, rather unique set of abilities might put us at a disadvantage."

Obito frowns. "You're afraid I would genjutsu you to agreeing to unfavorable terms?"

"Well." The minister spreads his hands. "It was at the advice of my experts. Please don't take offense, it is only a precautionary measure that we do this remotely."

Obito scoffs. "Minister, I'm afraid your 'experts' gave you bad advice," Obito says, and he opens his eyes to briefly show the Minister his Sharingan, before deactivating it again. "If I wanted to genjutsu you, I could do it right now, but as a matter of trust I choose not to. I would have hoped you'd extend us the same courtesy," he says, and on the computer screen, the Minister's face goes pale. "Negotiations should be done in good faith, should they not?"

The Minister ducks down, an advisor frantically whispering in his ear. Shit. Obito shouldn't have done that. He's too used to tossing off mocking one-liners and then stupifying his targets. If he were in the Akatsuki, he would layer his words with a thin genjutsu, plying them with pretty compliments and manipulate them into trusting him. But he's not in the Akatsuki, he's supposed to be diplomatic, but it's difficult to be neutral when he sees the Minister's advisors whispering off-camera.

"My apologies, Hokage-sama," the Minister says, "but my advisors are telling me to conduct this meeting over conference call."

He is a scared little man, Obito thinks, and instinctively he can pinpoint all the fault lines in his psyche. The nervous tick, as the Minister butters him up with apologies. The slicked back hair with too much hair gel, obviously masking other insecurities. He is a man who would be easy to intimidate.

Obito takes a breath. He shouldn't be doing that. Manipulating people is what he used to do and he's Hokage now, he really shouldn't.

"Minister, if it would put you at ease, I would be glad to take a phone call." So annoying. The Minister smiles.

"We will be in touch. If you could give us a moment...?"

The phone rings. Their escort puts the phone on speaker.

xXx

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"They made you conduct trade negotiations over the phone?" Kakashi's eyes are wide while Obito tells him. "Are you serious?"

"Apparently their advisors told them about my Sharingan." Obito taps the side of his head. "It was so irritating. And we still haven't come to terms."

"What are you going to do?" Kakashi asks. Obito shakes his head.

"I'll have to delegate the task to my subordinates. My advisors are already vetting people to be lead negotiator."

"Huh," Kakashi says. There's a knocking at the door.

"Hokage-sama." An assistant pokes his head in. "I have some bad news."

"What is it?" Obito says. The assistant clutches his papers.

"Konoha has been formally disinvited from the Land of Rivers summit."

"What? Why?"

The assistant hesitates. "They would like you to participate in the meetings via conference call."

Kakashi snorts. Even with his mouth covered, Obito can tell Kakashi is sporting a shit-eating grin.

"Wow, Obito. Maybe I should have been Hokage after all."