Events...
The samurai guards slowly made their way on the smooth open area that remained from the conference room. The remaining space was so smooth, concrete cut as if it was butter, and the depth reached the dirt below the foundations of the building.
"Captain, there's nothing left her…" – As the samurai talked, the captain suddenly raised his hand, making him shut up and become alert on the spot.
It was but a moment later that everyone felt the slight vibration beneath their feet, quickly standing back to back with each other as they raised their swords.
As seconds passed, a hand shot out from the dirt as a gloved hand pierced through it, grabbing the ground around it and pulling itself out.
As the samurai quickly encircled it, the captain quickly studied the hand, knowing that the only gloved individuals in the meeting were the Hokage and Tsuchikage.
The arm was clearly thicker, dressed in black clothing as opposed to Tsuchikage's red. It was clearly the Hokage's previous attire so the captain decided quickly.
"It's the Hokage. You call the medics, the others, help me pull him up."
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While the events on the faraway land of iron transpired, in Konoha another figure took the opportunity to start moving while the Hokage was away. This figure was exactly Tsunade Senju.
Moving fast, she soon found herself dashing through the rooftops of Konoha, her experience allowing her to avoid the patrols at ease, finally reaching her destination, the Uchiha Compound, the Hokage's current house.
Just looking at it incited the kunoichi to destroy the house in one hit… but being rash would only have one ending for her. She knew she wasn't as smart or as powerful as Kei. Hell, even her knowledge of Kei Uchiha was so shallow that this was all she knew. Months of investigating hadn't yielded any fruits.
But this was a given with her pathetic run-of-the-mill sources outside of Konoha. Trying inside would be certain suicide for her. Connections, political or otherwise were nonexistent for the Tsunade who had spent years outside the village. All of her possible backers were dead or tied to Kei, meaning that she was on her own on enemy territory.
That's how she came to the conclusion that her only possibility was a weak point… and between the morally questionable little brother of his, and the kind and softhearted daughter of the Hyuga clan, the choice was easy.
While staying with Kei over these long periods of time had slightly changed Hinata, made her aware of the harshness of the world, even she had her limits. Tsunade merely needed to show her what Kei was really like. Affection created from the image he maintained could be easily crumbled down, but not without hard evidence… and now she had it.
The secret facility guarded by root anbu she had managed to infiltrate contained dozens of human experimentation subjects. Even a rather small training facility for exceptional children that managed to catch the eye of the root anbu, even proof that these shinobi were nothing more than slaves.
Jumping into the backyard, she quickly found herself staring at another kunoichi, Hinata Hyuga.
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(3 Days After The Attack on The Summit.)
It didn't take long for the news to travel, the Hokage's sudden ambush at the summit, and the reveal that in expectation of such, the Hokage had warned the Kazekage to stay behind, bringing only a copy to the meeting.
The suicide attack of the Tsuchikge took the shinobi world by storm, but not due to the grief of their fallen leaders… but due to fear for their lives.
With the exception of Suna, all the other villages had already made an enemy out of the Godaime Hokage… and now no one remained on his path. If it wasn't for Iwa's Tsuchikage signature Jutsu, many would have thought this to have been an ambush prepared by the Hokage… but then again that wasn't possible. It was Kumo that proposed this meeting in the first place, and it was held under the supervision of the Samurai.
Any other shinobi might have pulled something underhanded, but the Samurai would rather die than sully their reputation like that.
Rumors of the Hokage's wounds traveled as he was admitted to a hospital on the Land of Iron, the entire hospital transforming into a fortress as more than 500 veteran Samurai were recalled to act as guards for the Hokage, a duty they took very seriously as they had already failed five times over.
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And just like that, without even letting the populace recuperate from this news, another one hit them.
Konoha had tracked down and rescued one of the Kumo Jinchuriki, the two tails Jinchuriki, Yugito Nii.
With the Hokage not able to travel in his current condition, using the already set up Yamanaka communication system, he appointed Danzo as the temporary unofficial commander in chief of the Konoha shinobi forces with Shikaku being the official commander on the surface.
The message was pretty clear for Shikaku though. Danzo would be the puppet that relayed the intentions of the Hokage.
'The official status of Danzo should be as a prisoner… clearly, he must have been running an important operation using the root or anbu. Were it not for his excessive greed towards the Hokage position, it would make sense that the Warhawk would stand beside the war god. Did Kei use his Sharingan on Danzo?' – Looking at the silent Danzo, Shikaku merely turned around to leave while shaking his head.
'Damned if we do, damned if we don't. What is one more atrocity on the life of a shinobi.' – Shikaku thought to himself.
After Shikaku left, it took but a moment for a shadow to appear and rush towards Danzo. Just a moment later it slowly landed on his shoulder, a big crow that was a dark as the night, yet two red Sharingan glowed dangerously in his eyes. In the weeks that had passed, it had grown enormously and gained a rather arrogant attitude towards others.
As the crow stared at Danzo, Danzo merely stared back at it for a few seconds in a slight Daze before bowing his head slightly.
"Relay to the lord that it will be done."
As Kei had investigated the disappearance of the majority of the agents he had near the Daimyo's before the start of the war, he had decided to immediately cut his use of the clones, the use of which required at least half of his chakra, which now was so above even Biju level, having only half of it was a disadvantage he couldn't even begin to cover with his current physical prowess.
If his enemy was even half as good as he expected, the first thing they were going to do was cut his supply of chakra from replenishing and cut him from the outside world… meaning he could be attacked at any time and be forced to fight with half of his chakra. Using the meeting he created an opportunity for them to attack him, using the Samurai to relay his 'critical' condition to the world. Should they approach, this would end swiftly, should they not, he would have to rely on his crow quite a bit longer.
The good thing was that using the Sharingan, the crow could 'record' everything he said and then relay it by putting the other side on a genjutsu. While the crow was highly intelligent, all he could do while far away from Kei was merely sense his intentions.
While Kei was unaware how or what it was actually thinking, a simple test he had done had taught that the crow could actually think. It was not mere copy and paste, but actual logical thinking that the crow had picked up while always hanging around him. Granted right now it was rather simplistic but Kei could still see the potential.
As looked at Danzo one more time it huffed it quickly left.
As Danzo snapped his fingers a root shinobi appeared right beside him.
"Prepare 'it' for transport. Make sure every seal is triple-checked and there is no leak. In a few days, Sasuke Uchiha and the two tails Jinchuriki, Yugito Nii, will launch a retaliatory strike on Iwa and wipe the entire village off this world. The tailed beast bomb and Sasuke Uchiha's Susanoo should be enough to wipe every trace that the experiment ever took place."
'They will be retaliating on a dead village.' – Danzo thought as a smile rose to his face at the thought of Iwa's fate.