Well I hope you liked this chapter, since I have written so much of my next story idea I have decided to start posting the story. So please go check it out. Now enjoy this chapter.
Chapter 70 Talk and War
Most people would expect Naruto Namikaze to be sitting behind a desk planning the moves of the war he was in fact sitting on a small bench in the basement of his house doing laundry. Even doing this ordinary task he was working in some way, he was reading reports from the twin battles. On the surface, it had been a resounding success no dead, only a few wounded and the worst of the wounded had broken bones. In return for that they had crushed two divisions of ninjas sent those who lived through the attacks running and killed at least one maybe two Kages.
The surface may look great but it was far from it, to get that victory they had fired Tenten's weapon system which while very powerful took a long time to make and could only be made by the most skilled people. So far only ten people could make it and it took on average a month to make a single one. They had enough stored up for four more battles on a similar scale to the battle at black snake pass.
Naruto lifted his head out of the paperwork as he heard Ino's footsteps on the floor above him. She walked to the front door and opened it, that told him instantly that it wasn't Hinata coming home from shopping since she would have just opened it and Sakura was covering a shift at the hospital so it wasn't her. The second pair of footsteps moved across the floor before heading down the back stairs and him.
"Greeting Lord Onikage." said Shino as he walked up to his kage. Naruto was not dressed in his Kage's robes or even his normal every day cloths, instead he wore a simple orange sleeveless shirt with black shorts, he did not even have shoes on.
"Shino I am not in the office you can drop the official titles," ordered Naruto as the washer finished and he stood up. He walked toward the washer and began the process of moving the cloths over to the dryer and starting the next load.
"Very well." said Shino "Well I have confirmed that Onoki did make it back to his home nation alive but is still on the edge of death."
"What happens if he dies?" inquired Naruto as he double checked to make sure he had everything right before starting the washer.
"Unclear there are no clear choices to replace him and the fact that he isn't dead and didn't resign raises legal issues, their village doesn't have a medical discharge option for a Kage and since the Kage has to sign off on laws he can't pass a new law," explained Shino. "As for Kirigakure that is clearer I would bet Ao or maybe on an outside chance Chojuro one of the Seven Swordsman of the Mist."
"And real chance that they will pull out of the war?" inquired Naruto
"Unlikely but the village and the nation as a whole was never that stable and we could break them." offered Shino
"An offensive attack?" inquired Naruto as Shino nodded his head, both of them knew the plans that Shikamaru and Temari had come up with before the war even started. Together they had planned attacks on every ninja village including the Wind and Leaf. "I will think about it."
"Very well." said Shino as he took a breath "I have also learned something else that you may be interested in."
"That is what?" inquired Naruto as he started the dryer and went to start the next load in the washer. With those started he moved to start folding the towels which had just come out.
"I have found Kabato," said Shino
"And what is that snake up to? I hope it is rooting in a cell somewhere?" inquired Naruto
"No, he is in charge of a bank," explained Shino as Naruto blinked as if he had not heard Shino.
"A bank?" inquired Naruto "Why would he have any interest in a bank?"
"He is making loans to the Daimyos and if the numbers my informers have told me are correct he is playing a long game." explained Shino "A very good game in fact, he gets the Daimyo in his debt and then with this war they aren't getting the money they normally get in."
"So Kabato gets more power," said Naruto as Shino confirmed it with a nod of his head. "Anything we can do to stop it."
"Nothing he is doing is actually illegal, he is only playing the game and unless we want to surrender so that the Daimyos gets the money to pay the loans there is nothing we can do." explained Shino as Naruto felt like punching something.
"So while we fight for our freedom Kabato is gaining power?" inquired Naruto
"Yes and all legally." explained Shino "It is actually a very nice plan."
"Beside surrender is there anything we can do?" inquired Naruto
"The other option is to win this war as fast as possible," added Shino
"And how do you want me to do that?" inquired Naruto
"That is a question for someone with more combat experience then me, I am the spy master remember." Explained Shino
"Alright is there anything else?" inquired Naruto
"Nothing of note, unless you want to hear about the political fallout that is happening because one of the leaders of a Knightly house of the Land of Animals slept with someone who wasn't his wife?" inquired Shino, the look Naruto gave him was enough to answer that question for him.
Meanwhile the Leaf train station was packed with mourners as the train carrying the remains of all those killed on the battlefield so far away returned home. The remains had been held up in the land of Winds as the remains were split up into different trains, which would take them to the different lands. While most of the dead came from the Land of Lightening, the Leaf had lost ninjas as well. The train had been delayed so long that the survivors of the battle rode on the same train with the dead.
As the train came to a stop, the civilians almost rushed the train to find out if their son, daughter, husband or wife was alive or dead. While others embraced their loves ones and looked at their wounds, others broke down in tears as they found out their loves returned in body bags.
Lee stepped off the train and watched as his students where embraced by their parents, then he turned to leave the station only to be sucker punched in the face.
"You son of a bitch, demon lover you betrayed us didn't you?" yelled the wife of a dead ninja "My husband is dead because of you."
"Stop!" yelled Tsume as she moved off the train and stood between the woman and Lee. "He didn't betray us, he is lucky to be alive just like all of us."
"Why should we believe you, your son is a demon too," snapped the woman
"And so are my granddaughters but just because I have relatives who are demons doesn't mean I betrayed my village." said Tsume "Does every Nara clan member have to be question because Shikamaru is a demon, does every Yamanaka clan member have to be questioned since Ino is one too. If you go off family and friends relationships then everyone in the village could be questioned as traitors."
That got the woman to shut up as she moved to take the small container holding the remains of her husband home.
"Well that was a nice welcoming," said Lee as he rubbed the red mark from the sucker punch of the woman.
Elsewhere in the Leaf Village Hanabi Hyuuga was sitting behind her desk looking over the reports from the battle. The reports was not good, they had confirmed that somehow the demons of the Land of Granite somehow managed to get ahold of a large amount of Aldhard. This meant that all their weapons and their armor was stronger than their strongest counterpart in the ninja nations.
"So have we figured out what this justu they used on us is?" inquired Hanabi as she looked at Shikaku Nara.
"Judging from all the reports I don't believe it is a justu." Stated Shikaku as the elder Nara took a breath "I believe it is pretty much a giant firework that they fire and then somehow it breaks apart and rain small bombs down on a target area."
"Is such a thing possible?" inquired Hanabi
"Yes, but I am not sure how it would work fully." explained Shikaku
"And if what you said is true then how can this be used against us." Inquired Hanabi
"Sorry but there is just too many unknowns, we don't know it's range or what is all required to launch it." stated Shikaku "I would believe it is more of a defensive weapon to be fired from stationary defense lines such as walls."
"I see and how do we counter this?" inquired Hanabi
"Best option would be not to admass our forces because it is a weapon to take down large groups." Explained Shikaku "But given the terrain we are fighting one that would be next to impossible."
"There has to be a way pass all their natural defensives," stated Hanabi as she thought about it for a moment. They had been crushed on land at black snake pass and on the sea at black spear point. They had defenses along the coastal road, which would likely have the same weapon; the same went for the other land route.
"Could we summon flying animals and do an airborne landing?" inquired Hanabi as she thought through her idea. "No, we wouldn't be able to land enough in force to do any good."
"And a water landing is out because the only place to land is at their port and that is where they defeated us earlier." confirmed Shikaku
"Are we sure about that?" inquired Hanabi
"The rest of the coast is cliffs that are made out of those black stones which repel chakra, we can't climb them using chakra." stated Shikaku
"We focus too much on chakra." said Hanabi with a grin "Haven't you heard of ropes?"
Temari Nara sat on the top floor meeting room of one of the five star hotels on the Land of Savannah side of the city of Celen. She had a drink in her hands sadly it was only water and not something stronger but it was still too early in the day for that, also she needed her mind for this meeting. The room was simple and had a modern design style with a glass table and a lot of chrome. The doors opened as a man Temari was actually happy to see walked in. It was her brother Kankuro, he was taller now but still had the stupid looking face paint covering part of his face. He wore a simple jonnin uniform of Sunagakure, a beige flak jacket and dark brown shirt and pants. Coming in behind him was the person Temari did not want to see it was one of the fat faced wind Daimyo. Coming in after them where two guards, Temari herself had a knight standing behind her.
"Welcome." said a government official from the Land of Savannah; she was severing as a go between for this meeting.
"Kankuro." said Temari as she stood up and took her brother's hand, she offered her hand to the Daimyo out of respect but as she expected he did not take her hand.
"Can we get this meeting started?" inquired the Daimyo as they all sat down.
"I am sure you all know why we are all here, we are here in hopes of ending this war peacefully." said the Savanah member.
"We don't want this war to go on but we will not surrender our freedoms." Said Temari as she took a breath "We are willing to offer terms which we hope are acceptable to everyone."
"And what are those?" inquired the Wind Daimyo
"In return for ending the war and accepting us as the ninja nation we are, we will limit any missions we take in the future will not go North of the boarder of the Land of Savannah." offered Temari, she didn't expect them to accept the terms but the offered had to be made. "Also we will not try to reclaim any of the property taken by your forces when we fled to our new nation."
"While I thank you for offering those terms they are unacceptable." stated the Wind Daimyo "You have only won two battles and we have the numbers to over run your people. We can roll over you like an unstoppable tide."
"You could." admitted Temari as the Daimyo grinned "However as I am sure your own experts explained with the natural defenses we have and our weapons it would cost you hundreds of thousands of lives on top of untold amount of money. Also there is a strong possibility that you would fail in your task."
The grin had disappeared from the Daimyo's face.
"So tell me what would be the good for anyone," inquired Temari "I know that you know this because if you didn't then you wouldn't have agreed to this meeting. So will you tell me what your terms are so that we can start the talks for real?"
"Very well." said the Daimyo as he took a breath "We have decided that we will grant you the gift of peace, in return you will disarm yourselves and the Daimyoship will be handed over to a human. You will be able to live your lives as you wish."
"While I am pleased that you finally accept that we have the right to live free but as for your other demands, we will not be giving up our sovereignty." stated Temari "You know or should know by now that we can mass produce Aldhard, in fact my clothes are lined with the stuff just like all our combat cloths. We have better weapons, we have better ninjas and we are behind a natural defense on our home nation. You should realize that there is no real hope that you can win this war without destroying yourself."
"We will not surrender to you." Snapped the Daimyo
"We don't want you to." countered Temari "We lived down in the Land of Granite for four years before you knew who we were and it had no effect on the ninja nations. Let's return to that so that everyone can live out their lives in peace."
"You are demons and are a threat to humanity," said the Daimyo
"No we are humans with demons joined with us and most of us are civilians only a handful are actual warriors but we do have some of the strongest warriors like Naruto Namikaze and Sasuke Uchiha." Explained Temari "If we really wanted to we could add that we be considered the 6th great ninja nation but personally we don't want that…right now."
"Now?" inquired the Daimyo
"Now, maybe in a couple decades but we have so much other stuff to focus on then that at the moment." explained Temari "First let us have peace."
"We will have peace when you give in to our reasonable demands," snapped the Daimyo as he slammed his fist on the glass table.
"I don't see how giving up our sovereignty is a reasonable demand." stated Temari calmly as the Daimyo's rage kept building up.
"You cannot win this war." said the wind Daimyo "How will your economy run under a trade blockade?"
"Most of our trading is done with our allies or neutral nations, we grow all the food we could need and on top of that we have a large gold mine," stated Temari "So can we please stop with the threats and see if we can come to an agreement."
"I didn't come to negotiate the terms I gave you is the best you can hope for." Stated the Wind Daimyo
"Well then…" said Temari sadly "Maybe after a few more defeats you will learn the error of your way."
The daimyo slammed his hands on the table before storming out leaving Temari with her brother, their guards and the Savannah government leader.
"So how are you doing sister?" inquired Kankora
"I have been better." Confirmed Temari "I would say we have a private dinner but I don't want people back in the Sand to think you're a traitor. If your aid wasn't here I wouldn't even talk to you for that reason."
"Well your too late for that." Countered Kankuro "The Village council is considering removing Gaara, the main issue that there is no one to replace him."
"I can see that." said Temari "I think if Naruto did fall Kakashi would become the second Onikage. Maybe Sasuke but most people would feel unsafe under his leadership, including himself he doesn't want to be Kage."
"How is my nephew?" inquired Kankuro
"Good, I wish I was home but Shikamaru is watching over our little boy." said Temari "He moved two blocks together to spell UP when he wanted to be picked up."
"Are you sure it wasn't just an accident?" inquired Kankuro "He could have just two blocks together."
"Well considering who his parents are I don't think so," countered Temari with a smile.
"Someday I hope to see the little guy in person but I don't think that will come any time soon." Admitted Kankuro "The average person is either scared of you because demons was the main cause of the last war or they are angry because you killed their loves one in battle."
"And when people are scared or angry they tend to lash out." confirmed Temari "Since we have only defended ourselves they have no reason to fear us at home."
"Well I had hoped it wouldn't come to this." Thought Temari as she stood up, she had to make a call to Naruto.
Thanks Wilkins75.