371 Urgent Meeting

"No no…. There is nothing like that going on among us. He was just showing me around the village so that I could implement some of those ideas in our village." Temari said with a flustered face.

"Alright alright…stop explaining yourself. You are just making it worse for you. The Hidden Leaf has always been known as a land of prodigies. Recently after Tsunade became the Hokage, the hidden leaf is regaining its strength again which imbalances the power dynamic. If our village and the hidden mist hadn't suffered through calamities of its own and hadn't received help from the hidden leaf, we would now be planning to attack them." Chiyo said. She was someone who had lived through the previous wars and knew how the villages kept each other in check.

"Elder Chiyo the times of war and enmity are over. I want my people to live in peace no matter what is going on in the other villages. I believe me and Naruto and together bring peace to the shinobi world and not let anyone else suffer the same fate as us." Gaara said firmly. Lady Chiyo looked into his eyes and smiled after seeing them.

'He has truly grown up. He will be a better Kage than his father ever was or any of us could ever be. I hope his naive thinking doesn't drown the village in an illusion of fake security.' Chiyo thought.

"As the Kazekage it is your decision that will be the final decision. Start packing your bags we are going to the hidden leaf in a few hours. Kankuro and my brother will take care of the village while we aren't here." Chiyo said as she walked toward the door to leave.

"Lady Chiyo…we are happy to see that you have started taking an interest in the village matters again. I hope we can learn from you." Baki said to which Chiyo just chuckled and said "Don't flatter me…I won't make things any easier for any of you." And she left.

"I have never seen you act like this Baki." Temari said to which Baki felt a little embarrassed as he said "You are saying this because she hasn't trained you. It was practically hell for us while we were in the academy."

Just as Baki was about to explain more, they felt a knock on the door. "Come in" Baki said to which a sand shinobi pushed open the door and said "The hidden leaf shinobis have notified that they will start the travel in an hour."

"So early?" Baki asked as he looked at Gaara who nodded and said "It is the right decision to act quickly. We must not drag them down any further. Make the necessary preparations and we'll meet in an hour." Baki and Temari didn't question any further and just left the room.

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Hidden Leaf (A day later)

The Hokage's office

The letter that Sasuke had sent when they took in hostage had just reached in the hands of Tsunade. She had a grim expression on her face because she didn't know how to break the news to the respective clan leaders.

"Shizune...call in the clan leaders and the elders for an urgent meeting." Tsunade said as she got up from her chair.

"Milady, I understand that you want the parents to know about their children's kidnapping but why all the clan heads and the elders?" Shizune asked.

"I don't want to call a different meeting to discuss the 2nd matter mentioned in the letter. A meeting of the Kages can be organized if all the elders agree to it." Tsunade said to which Shizune nodded and left the office.

An hour later all the clan heads and the elders of the village sat in a conference room. Danzo wasn't one of them and it wasn't even clear if he was invited to the meeting or not.

"Why have we been called here tonight?" The Hyuga clan Patriarch, Hiashi Hyuga asked. He wasn't asking the others sitting at the table but to Shizune who was the one that welcomed them in the room and was now standing beside the door.

"Kindly wait for a few minutes. Milady will come and explain everything." Shizune said hesitantly.

"Do you know something Shikaku? What is going on?" Inoichi Yamanaka asked his friend who was sitting beside him.

Shikaku shook his head and said "Seeing that not just the clan heads but also the elders are here and the matter is urgent, it must be something that just doesn't concern our village but likely the entire shinobi world."

"I think so too. Princess Tsunade isn't the kind of person to bother us all for something minuscule. Let's wait for her and we will get all the answers we need." An elder chimed calming the atmosphere.

Just as they were all getting relaxed, Tsunade walked in with the letter in hand.

"Thank you all for coming at such short notice. I wouldn't have called you if it wasn't urgent." Tsunade said as she placed the letter on the table close to the elder who had just spoken.

"What's this letter about?" the elder said as he picked up the letter.

Tsunade knew that everyone was a bit restless due to this and she didn't want to drag this any further.

"Team Kurenai and Team Asuma have been kidnapped." Tsunade just broke the news causing the clan heads to suddenly widen their eyes. The Hyuga Patriarch who was leaning on the chair suddenly sat up straight and immediately asked "Who kidnapped my Hinata?"

"According to the information we received from Team Kakashi and Team Guy it seems that the hostages were taken by an Akatsuki member named Tobi. We don't know much about him except the fact that he has the ability to suck people and himself into a completely different dimension and even evade attacks due to this." Tsunade said.

As she said this she suddenly felt a fluctuation of chakra from the ceiling. This wasn't noticed by anyone in the room since they weren't as sensitive to chakra as she was.

'What was that just now? Is it some kind of spy? But it is impossible for some spy to get to close inside the Hokage building without being noticed. I don't want to alarm others though.' Tsunade thought.

She then proceeded to look at Hiashi and said "Clan head Hiashi can you just make sure that we aren't being spied upon by anyone using your Byakugan? I just want to be sure that the information we discuss remains among the people that it is intended to."

The request was a little odd but Hiashi wasn't going to care about it when his elder daughter had been kidnapped. He just nodded, activated his Byakugan, and looked around.

After a few seconds, he deactivated his dojutsu and said "No there is no one close to this room except the 2 guards standing outside."

'That's good. I may have been mistaken when I sensed the chakra fluctuation.' Tsunade thought. By this time the elder who had picked up the letter had already read it entirely and had kept it back on the table.

"I don't know whether to be happy or sad after reading this letter but I am definitely worried Princess Tsunade." The elder said.

"What is there to be happy about when our kids are kidnapped elder?" Inoichi asked. Seeing this worried Choza, Choji's father comforted his friend and said "Don't worry Inoichi wherever our kids are, they are together and I am sure Asuma and Kurenai are protecting them with their lives."

"I apologize for my outburst elder." Inoichi apologized which the elder accepted right away.

Tsunade brought back everyone's focus to her and said "The 2nd part of the letter iterates that the Akatsuki had threatened to kill the hostages if we the hidden leaf didn't arrange a meeting of the 5 Kages and the Akatsuki."

"Have they accepted the conditions ?" Shikaku asked. He wasn't one to let his thoughts flow with emotions as he knew that this wasn't a good condition on their end.

"No not right away but they had a massive fight with two notable conclusions. Firstly was a fight between Naruto and Kakuzu which ended with Kakuzu's death and the other fight was between Yami vs. Tobi and Akatsuki member Konan which ended up in Konan being taken hostage."

"That indeed is good news but 1 hostage against 8 doesn't seem to good for us." Hiashi interrupted to which Tsunade nodded and said "Yes it doesn't but it looks like this woman Konan is very close to the Akatsuki's leader and is not someone they want to lose so they have decided to hold a hostage exchange at the hidden leaf just before the 5 Kages meeting."

The clan leaders whose kids had been kidnapped sighed in relief as they heard this but Shikaku's reaction was completely opposite "This sounds like a recipe for disaster."

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