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CHAPTER 10

South-Eastern region of Grass Country

Close to the Fire-Grass Country Border

Mikoto called Kurama again and was met with silence.

For as long as she had been alive, she had never felt so alone.

The girl sat on the roof of the destroyed bomb shelter, drawing her knees to her chest and blankly looking out into the night. Her arms coiled around her legs and her chin rested on her knees, peering at nothing and everything at the same time, surrounded by dozens and dozens of grassland.

At her back was their camp for the evening; a large portion of the grass was cleared in a wide circle and ten or so tents were raised in the clearing, with one of those tents standing somewhat taller than the rest, coloured white and bearing a large red cross at the front entrance flaps.

The camp was buzzing with activity, distractedly conversing on anything else than their present predicament and the uncertainty of the future.

Half a kilometre away, the Sand delegation—the ones that didn't follow the Kazekage to Iron country—were setting up their camp, more sullen and keeping their voices low as they tiptoed around the Sand siblings.

Mikoto would have been mistaken for staring at them if not for the emptiness of her gaze.

The cold wind nipped at her face, reddening her cheeks and the tip of her nose, and briefly drawing her out of her spiralling thoughts to notice someone clamber up the abandoned bomb shelter, careful not to move too quickly else the flattened, pimple-shaped building would crumble into itself. The shelter was a relic of the Second Ninja War; it was a mystery why it hadn't yet fallen.

Mikoto tugged her hoodie and pulled her sleeves to cover her hands, pushing her dry lips onto her knees.

Kyuubi, she called again, speaking in her mind and imploring her long-time companion to answer her, searching her core for even the tiniest sliver of the beast's chakra. A sob clogged her throat. Please, Kyuubi. I need you…

A sheen of tears covered her eyes when the great beast didn't answer her.

It couldn't be possible that the Kyuubi was gone.

After thirteen years of going on and on about "Glorious Death", it couldn't have been taken out by Gaara's explosive sand.

It just wasn't possible.

Asuma Sarutobi squatted and sat on the bomb shelter, perching in place on that sloping roof with chakra at the soles of his feet.

Mikoto didn't look at him.

The man brought out an already opened pack of cigarettes and tapped the top with his pointer finger, flicking out a single cigarette and holding it between his lips, returning the pack to a pocket on his jounin vest. He then proceeded to pat his vest and pants pockets, mumbling under his breath until his eyes lit up, pulling out an old lighter from somewhere on his left ankle.

He cupped the cigarette, blocking the chill and the wind of that evening, and flicked his thumb against the spark wheel, muttering something unintelligible when the third time flicking the wheel only resulted in futile sparks hitting the end of the cigarette. He shook the lighter and peered at it with a squint, shaking it again and retrying.

The fifth time, a flame sparked to life and Asuma held the end of the cigarette through it, shallowly inhaling twice and exhaling a thin stream of smoke from a corner of his mouth, tucking the lighter into a vest pocket and dragging a lungful of cigarette smoke, snorting out the smoke from his nose and sagging with relief.

He glanced at Mikoto and saw that she wasn't looking at him.

He shrugged and took out the cigarette pack from his pocket and nudged her shoulder with his elbow, shaking the pack in her direction. "Want one?"

The girl didn't answer for a moment, but another jostle of the box by her face forced a tired reply, saying in a quiet voice, "I'm thirteen."

"Well, alright then." The man hummed and pushed the pack into a vest pocket, taking the cigarette from his mouth between his pointer and middle fingers, blowing out a stream of smoke and gently tapping the middle to shake off the softly glowing red butt of the cigarette ahead of him, pulling his arm back and setting the cigarette back in his mouth. He blew smoke from the side of his mouth again and asked, "So…what's going on?"

The girl shrugged, casting a brief side eye to her oddly behaving senior.

Before then, she hadn't so much as exchanged a total of five words with Asuma Sarutobi, the jounin-sensei of Team Ten.

Whenever her father hosted a family get-together at the Hokage's Mansion, Asuma mostly kept to himself, wandering in the background and privately smoking two packs of cigarettes on the outside balcony until the end of the night, when he had to take his nephew back home.

The man scratched the back of his neck, chuckling at his awkwardness. "So…this is a first."

Mikoto hummed. "Yup."

His hand twitched to his pocket again, as if he was going to ask the girl if she had changed her mind about smoking, but a quick look from Mikoto brought his hand back down.

"Kakashi-sensei put you up to this?" Mikoto asked in an even tone, her voice muffled against her knees.

"Yup," Asuma droned in a bored monotone. "He doesn't want you feeling lonely."

"That's…very Kakashi-sensei of him, I guess…"

Asuma grunted in acknowledgement.

Kakashi never wanted any one of his genin to feel alone, and although the man favoured Sasuke more during team training sessions, he made it a point to visit each of them and casually inquire about their moods.

Now, though, since Kakashi had left with Minato and Yugao to attend the Five Kage Summit in Iron country, the responsibility was apparently now on Asuma's uncomfortable shoulders.

Sasuke had gone with Gai, Shino, Kiba and Tenten to hunt for food, and Sakura was with the Hidden Chill medics attending to Hinata.

Hinata, the girl thought with a weathered cry.

Mikoto wilted and Asuma grunted, uncomfortably patting the girl's head. "Yeah, I know." The girl didn't move to shake off the man's hand, too emotionally worn-down to do anything other than to hunker deeper into her wallowing spirits. The man frowned, blowing out a stream of smoke. "Hinata didn't deserve this. Kurenai hasn't stopped crying."

"You should go and be with her," the girl said lowly, looking out over the grassland to the small Suna camp, highlighted by a small campfire and scarce movement. "She'd appreciate it."

"Kurenai mourns alone. She knows the stages of grief and works her way through it. That's the kind of person she is," Asuma answered the girl, taking his hand off her head and leaning back, looking up at the moon and breathing out thin smoke from his nose. "I've learned to respect that."

"…What if I like to mourn alone?"

"You're not mourning." the man smirked, lighting another cigarette. "You've barely even accepted that Hinata…might not make it to Konoha to be with her family, not to talk of surviving through the night." Her glanced at her from the corner of his eye. "I'll be blunt; your denial makes you a flight risk."

"I'm not a flight risk." Mikoto frowned, pressing in a strong voice. She and Hinata had spoken about dying plenty of times. It was just more difficult to accept now that Mikoto was faced with Hinata's imminent passing. Even if her friend wouldn't ever wake up to see her, Mikoto needed to talk to Hinata. "They won't let me see Hinata. It's important. I want to see Hinata."

"…Can I tell you something?" the man said after a short pause, sitting forward and resting his forearms on his knees.

The girl didn't answer, keeping her vacant eyes on the Suna camp.

"Something similar to this happened to your brother."

The girl didn't move to acknowledge Asuma's words, so the man continued.

"I was about your age when the Kyuubi attacked the village," he took the fresh cigarette from his mouth and hesitated, closing his eyes and blowing out smoke. When the man didn't speak for a full minute, the girl flicked a look at him from the corner of her eyes, jolting the man out of his memories. "I don't want to go into details…but the Nine-Tails really did a number on your mom."

He put the cigarette back into his mouth, inhaling once and holding his breath for a short while, blowing out the smoke with a deep sigh.

"I can still remember some of the clan heads and civilians talking about keeping Naruto from seeing his mom." He air quoted. " We don't know how he would react."

"Why…were they scared of his reaction? He was five."

"Naruto mastered his sharingan by the time he was five, his other bloodline makes him faster than a thought, and by then he was pretty handy with his chakra construction." The girl's expression dipped with contemplation, recalling that chakra construction was her brother and sister's unique ability to physically manifest their chakra. Asuma went on, "For all they knew, seeing his mom like that would bring about the second coming of the Kyuubi."

"I'm not my brother," the girl muttered darkly, narrowing her eyes and gritting her teeth at the Suna camp. "Stop comparing me to him."

Once upon a time, Mikoto adored her brother and simpered after him wherever he went, but constantly being compared to him ate away at her patience.

She loved Naruto very much, yet she was tired of living up to the impossible expectations unintentionally created by her "genius" brother and her "angelic" sister, or their "legendary" father.

She could never reach their level and it infuriated her.

"No, you're not him," Asuma agreed with a slight smile. "You might just be better."

Mikoto scoffed.

The man chuckled. "I'm serious."

"What does this have to do with me not seeing Hinata?"

"Everything." He took out a kunai from his pouch and passed it to her.

Reluctantly, she collected the blade and stared into it.

Her eyes widened.

Glaring back at her weren't her normally blue eyes, but rather a pair of red, vulpine eyes, dark with murderous intent.

Asuma had touched her head twice and he hadn't been harmed, and she wasn't expelling killer intent from her pores. She was sure she would have noticed this change.

"How-…How long had I been like this?" she asked Asuma and the man pursed his lips. "I-I-I swear—"

"It's not your fault, I understand." He nodded, collecting his kunai from her trembling hands. He returned the blade to the pouch and lit another cigarette, inhaling and exhaling coolly. "I don't know how, but your chakra and the Kyuubi's are more intertwined." She turned to him with an alarmed, questioning look, and he said, "Kakashi told me so."

Mikoto didn't feel angry.

She didn't feel anything inside her was out of place. Except for the glaring silence of the Kyuubi and the disappearance of its chakra, Mikoto's seal was still intact.

"He's worried the Kyuubi now has a closer effect on your mind, and you'll be pushed to do something… uncharacteristic. Like, for example, become vengeful."

Although Mikoto often told Sasuke that she owed him a broken arm for breaking her arm during the Chunin Exams, she didn't mean it. Her grudge was more on her loss against him, especially since she had never once lost to him before.

Asuma faced her with a serious look in his eyes. "Prove to me that you won't explode, and I'll get you to Hinata. You have my word."

This made Mikoto gnash her teeth, forcing her eyes shut and sitting with her legs crossed. She placed her palms together at her chest height and slightly dipped her head, searching for calm within her chakra.

Kurama! She bellowed in her head. Kurama, where are you?!

She heard a weak grumble at the back of her mind.

Mikoto tumbled into her mindscape and ran headlong to the feeble sound.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Mikoto's Mindscape

Mikoto landed squarely in her mental projection of the Uchiha clan compound, scampering up from a crouch and looking around.

It was empty, which was normal. The air was still and the sunless, moonless sky glowed a soft shade of orange-red, casting clear light across the entire clan compound.

Each house along the street and across the entire clan compound bore tally marks instead of number plates; this was where Mikoto sorted her memories and any other knowledge the Kyuubi entrusted to her.

The apartment building she and her siblings lived in was intact, though an odd red light ebbed from the windows, beating and thrumming like a heart.

She approached it cautiously, lifting her left hand to grasp the doorknob but standing back half a step when the door creaked open.

She frowned at that.

Out of all the locked houses in Mikoto's mindscape, this particular one was sealed shut by the Reaper Death Seal.

A slight backdoor to the seal was discovered a handful of years ago when the Kyuubi reached an agreement with Mikoto on sharing its aeons of knowledge in exchange for the girl becoming strong enough to grant the ageless beast a glorious death.

Outwardly, the seal was intact, but a careful observation would reveal that the girl had managed to create pathways that could stream Kyuubi's chakra into her chakra network. This was how Mikoto could force up to seven tails of chakra to manifest, yet the form was still rough and incomplete.

Only Mikoto could freely walk through the seal. The Kyuubi was barred from even touching the door.

The girl pushed through the door and shut it after herself, standing in the corridor and observing the living room space, pricking her ears for anything out of place—

A low growl snapped her head to the staircase and she cautiously walked toward it, softly easing her feet on the staircase and keeping her left hand on the railing, ascending the stairs in complete silence.

Getting to the top of the stairs, she saw that the trapdoor of the attic was hanging open and a slim ladder was unfurled from the door, leading upwards to the attic.

That was where she kept the Nine-Tailed Beast.

The girl stifled the urge to call out to her long-time companion.

She raced up the stairs and was met with a different scene to the residential home.

Instead of the apartment's attic, she stood in a vast desert.

The trapdoor snapped shut and she whirled around to the banging noise as it slammed closed, hurrying to her knees and packing away the sand from where the trapdoor was supposed to be, only to discover that the door was completely gone.

The hot wind howled in her ears and sunless heat pierced her skin, baring down on her brow and forcing her to squint. Standing back to her feet with a slouch, she pushed against the directionless wind as it made to tear her off the ground.

"Kurama!" she yelled, hissing as a wave of heat hit her. Sweat broke out over her brow and she cursed, shading her eyes from the blinding light shining down from above, pushing against the wind toward the sound of tired whimpering, calling out again, "Kurama!"

Gradually, the sand hardened to glass and the girl focused her footing to keep from sliding backwards, progressing closer and closer to the faint sound, until a hand gripped her collar and pulled her back, keeping her from toppling into a blazing pit of glass and magma.

"Easy there!" the person yelled, dragging Mikoto back a few feet before not-so-gently forcing Mikoto onto her belly, carefully nearing the mouth of the glass pit. The person chortled with a carefree grin, leaning a bit over the edge and looking into the pit with shimmering purple eyes. "Kurama's gone and done something reckless all on his own!"

Mikoto chanced a look into the pit, spotting a curled-up thing residing at the distant bottom of the pit, but her attention quickly leapt around to the person in her mindscape.

She was a woman that looked to be in her late thirties, pale and beautiful. Light laughter lines crinkled at the corners of her mouth and her purple gaze twinkled with boundless emotions. Her hair was fiery red, tied in a messy ponytail that cascaded down her back and slightly blew in the heavy wind, as did the skirt of her black and red battle kimono. At her lower back was a larger-than-life scroll, slung there by a smooth rope across her torso. Looking lower, Mikoto saw that the woman wore a pair of normal running shoes.

"Mikoto," the woman called in a loud voice, jerking the girl's shocked eyes up to meet her mother's. The smile and joking air were gone, replaced by stoic seriousness and urgency. "Kurama's about to explode."

The surprise lifted off Mikoto's mind and she spat in horror, "He's about to what?"

"Explode," the woman repeated, motioning for the girl to calm down when Mikoto began to hyperventilate. "Long story short, Kyuubi saved you from that sand explosion by merging his chakra with yours. Unfortunately, his chakra control is now shot to hell and he's reverted to a younger state of mind. This is serious. We need to act quickly to stop Kyuubi's chakra from overcoming yours."

Tailed Beasts were clusters of near-limitless, sentient chakra. That meant that their consciousness controlled the chakra to maintain their form and intelligence.

The suddenness of combining its chakra with Mikoto's shifted chakra control from itself to Mikoto.

This realization made Mikoto's eyes widen. "What are we going to do?"

Kushina smirked and faced into the pit, patting her daughter's back. "I hope you weren't planning on sleeping tonight."

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Oda Region

Iron Country

To the Hokage, the Kazekage and their guards, Iron country might as well be on another planet.

The first glaring thing that stood out wasn't that the country was effectually run by samurai, but the tranquillity of the general surroundings.

Minato exhaled hot air into his gloved hands and rubbed them together as a light powder of snow fell on him and his two guards. Under his Hokage's robe, he had on the same thick winter clothing he took with him to Hidden Chill; a thick grey and white camouflage parka, black pants and thick snow boots. Shading his head was the wide-brimmed ceremonial hat of his office.

Kakashi and Yugao, and the other guards, were dressed similarly, huffing shallowly as they trudged after the Hokage on the snowy path. Yugao gripped the sheath of her katana in her right hand and Kakashi laxly kept his hands empty.

Rasa had chosen to wear a thick sweater under his ceremonial Kage robe. His hat was in his right hand.

The miles and miles of snow and light powder were only broken by the common villages and other fairly larger settlements dotted all across the nation, as well as the wide paths connecting them. A frequent stream of horse-drawn carts and carriages filtered here and there, passing through villages.

These settlements stood out against the world of snow by the controlled smoke stacks ebbing from them, billowing from swordsmith forges, melting most of the snow in the environment and warming the settlements enough for people to leave their homes, casually or deliberately plodding about their daily functions.

Minato counted ten villages and a town as far as he could see on their approach to the Samurai Bridge, the bridge that crossed the treacherous canyon between Iron country and Snow country.

The system of government the samurai used wasn't so different from the system used everywhere else on the continent, though with some hierarchical differences in power and structure; while the Daimyo of other nations preferred to think that they possessed absolute power, their power only ranged as far as their appointed officials cooperated. Any attempt to remove uncooperative officials would result in a prolonged and wasteful political conflict that could quickly turn bloody soon.

All power and authority flowed from the Iron Daimyo, delegated in a controlled flow to his Retainers—Village Heads and Town Mayors. These Retainers were directly appointed by the Iron Daimyo, and they saw to local administration on behalf of the Daimyo.

It was the duty of the Iron Daimyo's extended family to constantly be on the move, representing the Iron Daimyo and inspecting these settlements, reporting any discrepancies directly back to the patriarch.

The Iron Daimyo, for his part, was more similar to the Hokage and Kazekage—and the recent Mizukage—in regards to the way he ruled; their will was absolute, they were the final judges on matters, they could act independently, and they never only resided in their offices, always meeting diplomats or casually supervising their territory.

Other Kage had certain limitations, like historically, the Raikage favoured private businesses running important industries with his government merely supervising these businesses, and the Tsuchikage's territory was too vast for him to personally supervise the affairs of his people.

Mifune and his family held a firm grip on the goings-on of Iron country.

They had eyes and ears everywhere on these snowy lands.

At the stone bridge, they were met with one of the Iron Daimyo's Retainers.

He was a portly man that stood at level height with Minato, wearing a dark blue overcoat, a black bowler hat, and thick boots. His large shoulders and the rim of his bowler hat had a sprinkling of snow on them, standing in the Snow countryside of the bridge with a narrowed expression, despite his face being round and doughy. His blade was nowhere in sight.

His five guards wore heavy ponchos and other thick winter clothing, cautiously gripping the handles of their swords sheathed at their hips and maintaining a firm look at the Hokage, glancing ever so frequently to Kakashi and Yugao.

The man wrinkled his red nose and proceeded to walk three steps to the approaching Konoha delegation, leading with his gloved right hand on his third step and strongly clasping Minato's right hand in a handshake.

"Lord Hokage, Lord Kazekage" the man greeted, dipping his head with a nod, "I am Ken Oda, Honoured Right Hand of Lord Mifune."

Minato smiled, releasing the other man's hand. "Nice to meet you."

Rasa shook the offered hand, grunting.

"I was directed by Lord Mifune to escort you and your people to the meeting place." Disdain saturated his tone and Minato's eyebrows lifted, glancing over his shoulder to his guards and receiving weary shrugs from both of them; any delegation from shinobi-centric nations was never allowed past the border villages or towns, and this time was no different. Minato turned back to Ken. "The others are waiting."

Ken Oda jerked his head to the bridge and spun around. "After me."

The guards snapped to attention and shifted aside as their lord marched to the bridge, facing each other with blank expressions. Two of them broke out of the formation and marched five steps ahead. Minato half-smiled and briskly walked after the man, his guards following close behind him. The three guards still at the bridge shifted and marched a step neared, whirled to the bridge and neatly swept behind the Hokage's guards, always staying five steps behind them.

Minato idly watched this display from over his shoulder. He muffled a smile and threw a look to Kakashi, and the Hatake dully rolled his eye, clearly unimpressed by the display. Rasa shared Kakashi's blasé sentiments, scoffing at Minato's apparent excitement.

"This is nothing special," Rasa said, making the Hokage chuckle.

The group strode across the bridge and crossed into Iron country through the stone gates on the other side.

They proceeded to walk on a stone path. A fresh layer of snow dusted the path. Minato and his guards had to take care not to slip.

Ken Oda and his guards didn't lose stride, walking with clipped, firm steps on the stone path.

"I was made to understand," Ken Oda suddenly said, bringing Minato and Rasa's attention from looking out the right side of the path, at the smoke pouring out of chimneys a handful of kilometres away and the low murmur of voices coming from the village, "that this is your first time this far inside Iron country for both of you. Is that correct?"

Minato raised an eyebrow and nodded. "It is." His shoulders lifted and fell, casually admitting, "Iron country's neutrality makes it one less thing I have to worry about. It's these troublesome nations that preoccupy my time."

"The woes of leading." Ken Oda shook his head, still not slowing down or turning around, walking ahead of the Hokage with his gloved hands in the pockets of his overcoat. "As detestable as your ninja way of life is, some sort of formal agreement between our nations would have been beneficial."

"I approached your Daimyo some years after I was named my father's successor, and he told me the exact opposite of that." Rasa's expression was unreadable, and he turned his dark stare back over the countryside, observing the village in the distance. "It's too bad. We could have benefited so much."

"If only shinobi weren't so…abhorrent. Pardon my bluntness," he added as an afterthought, throwing the words over his shoulder without bothering to be polite. "A compromise could have been reached."

Iron country was neutral to any nation whose army was dominated by shinobi.

Their disgust of ninjas wasn't news to anyone that had encountered them before.

"The meeting will take place in my village," Ken Oda said as their group strolled into a village.

Something Minato noticed was that even though there were sentry posts manned by samurai scattered evenly around the landscape, the villages and towns didn't have gates or gatekeepers, merely a wide opening and a distinct path leading into the settlement. The only other indications of where they were going were road signs, pointing in the direction of the nearest settlement.

The sign they passed read Ubari Village.

The bellow of forges and hammers beating down on iron rang in the background. The buildings were all made from stone and wood, not rising higher than one storey tall.

A boy in his early teenage years hurried after a woman, carrying a bundle of tanned leather on his head as the woman strode with a dignified lift of her chin, the bottom of her overcoat swept the snowy ground and her thick boots crunched the thin sheet of snow on the sidewalk. The front of her overcoat was open to show she wore dark clothing—a black shirt and skirt—and the katana strapped to her right hip. The base of her right hand sat on the butt of the sheathed blade.

The adults of the village wore similar overcoats and boats, most of who were armed with their blades, and what children weren't in school had on sweaters or jumpers.

The lady Minato and Rasa had been observing stopped and stood aside for Ken Oda, dipping her torso in a deep bow as he passed, acknowledged only by a brief look and a nod. The boy following her shifted behind the lady, unable to bow but lowering his eyes to the ground.

When the Hokage and Kazekage passed by her, her hidden expression twisted with disgust and she stood upright, spitting to the ground and flicking her head for the boy to keep after her.

A laughing smile and a wave over his shoulder from the Hokage kept Yugao from confronting the samurai.

The normally cool woman's heckles were raised and she grits her teeth, a tick thumping on her brow.

Men and women in overcoats and boots wordlessly watched the procession cross through the village, some standing on the roofs, some lingering around street corners, and some watching from the sidewalk, always bowing to their lord but turning their irritated faces away from the shinobi procession.

"We couldn't have asked for a warmer welcome," Minato commented with a short laugh.

"It is becoming unreasonably comical how wary you samurai are of shinobi," Rasa grunted with a heavy frown beneath his turban. He tucked his hands behind his back and kept his eyes forward, not caring much about the seething looks he received from the samurai of the village.

Ken Oda grunted and took his right hand from his pocket, waving the samurai away.

Slowly, they obeyed and slipped away.

"They could at least pretend not to hate us," Yugao mumbled with a simmering look at Kakashi. The woman made it a point in her life to not waste her words on anything, so the unnecessary animosity of the samurai was pushing the wrong buttons.

"Don't let it get to you." Kakashi hummed, staying professional but giving his comrade a reassuring eye smile.

They reached an unassuming wooden structure halfway into Ubari village; it was a wide, six-sided hut with six windows on each side and a flat, red-coloured roof. There were three steps leading onto a raised porch. Instead of a door, there was a clean, white curtain with the symbol of Iron country tidily sewn on it.

The building looked newly constructed and polished.

Ken Oda stood at the bottom of the stairs and shifted aside, wordlessly sweeping his left hand up and motioning to the curtains.

Minato took off his Hokage cap as Yugao and Baki jogged up the stairs. The swordswoman used the end of her sheathed katana to slightly move the curtain aside, peering inside and flicking her eyes left and right. She leaned back, still holding the curtain open a bit for Baki to check the occupants of the room. They turned back to their respective Kage and nodded.

Ken Oda snorted, sharing a mocking look with some of his guards.

Minato and Rasa stomped up the stairs side-by-side.

The Hokage rolled his shoulders, steeling his eyes and hardening his expression. He and his friend exchanged resolute looks before Rasa ducked through the curtain and Minato followed, entering the meeting venue.

The interior looked as simple as the outside, unadorned but polished.

Sunlight poured in from the six windows and a cool breeze harmlessly whistled into the meeting house. The floor was covered by tatami mats and the ceiling was made from smoothened wood. The place could easily accommodate up to twenty people, although it already contained sixteen people.

Minato's attention didn't stay on the décor though, zeroing his blue eyes on the four people already in the hall around a round table.

Their ceremonial Kage hats rested on the table.

All of the guards—two for each leader—stood with their backs to the walls on their leader's side of the room.

The Iron Daimyo sat at the head of the table, closing his eyes in meditation. The Tsuchikage was at his left, pointedly staring at the Hokage, grinding his teeth. The Raikage was on his feet behind his appointed seat, gripping the backrest of the wooden chair and coolly bobbing his head in greeting to the Kazekage.

The Mizukage was seated on the window of his side of the room, fixedly looking at the Hokage with a stoic look.

Rasa went and took his seat beside Oonoki and Ay sat on the chair on Mifune's right, Minato didn't move from the door, standing there and staring back at the young-looking Mizukage.

Yagura easily hopped off the window and crossed his arms, facing Minato and frowning.

The stifling silence was broken by a polite cough.

"Gentlemen," Mifune said, not rising from his seat but still somehow standing between the two Kage. "Please, settle down. Let us get to the matter at hand."

"…Of course," Yagura answered with a delayed smirk; a deceptively pleasant expression that didn't hide the twitch at the corner of his right eye. "Lord Hokage," the Mizukage said as the corners of his lips evened out, barely maintaining his formerly agreeable countenance, "you look well. How are the kids?"

Minato's upper eyelids lowered halfway and his lips screwed to the side, replying with an eerily calm, "They're fine."

"On your children's last escapade in my country, I recall injuring your boy," Yagura said with an apologetic chuckle. Minato narrowed his eyes and Yagura gave a carefree shrug. "I might have been too eager in my actions. Oops."

It would have been nothing if Yagura had used a blade to dig into Naruto's side, but the Mizukage had jammed his fingers into Naruto's side. The digits had been coated with Three Tails chakra and had put the Hokage's son in critical condition, at risk of terminal beast chakra poisoning if not for Rin's quick thinking.

No.

It wasn't something Minato could easily forget.

Without another word, Minato went to the table and set his cap down, pulling out his seat and sitting down with his back to the entrance.

Yagura laughed airily and walked with his hands behind his back to his chair—between Oonoki and Mifune—, easing himself down and smoothing his hands on his knees.

The room was electric with tension.

"Without further delay and given our familiarity with each other, I will not waste our time with meaningless pleasantries," Mifune said, commencing the meeting. "You all know the rules of this meeting; violence or aggressive behaviour will not be tolerated, and all attendees must adhere to diplomatic protocol and show respect for each other's positions. You may disagree with an opinion, but let us respect our esteemed positions."

For this one, the Iron Daimyo pointedly look at the Tsuchikage, who hadn't so much as removed his glare from the Hokage.

"We will resolve any conflict civilly."

The Five Kage nodded.

The Iron Daimyo gestured to the Hokage, the one that called for this meeting, and said, "The floor is yours, Lord Hokage."

Minato took a moment to gather his thoughts.

Then he began.

Authors note

Chapter 11 is where Yagura stabs (and poisons) Naruto.

What do you think?

I'll see you when I see you.

Foy