3.26

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The Ame Orphans greeted me with smiles, but upon noticing Minato behind me, they all rose from their seats, preparing themselves for battle. Minato, naturally on guard, simply moved his hand to his kunai holster, but stopped there.

The man's fucking scary.

Not wanting this to turn into a bloodshed, I quickly raised my hands, pacifying the two sides, "He comes in peace, no need to throw hands."

Konan frowned and said, "But he is from Konoha. What if he is here to finish the job?"

Minato frowned back as he defended himself, "I have not heard of anything about any kind of attack on your village. I am only here to negotiate with you, and hopefully reach an agreement."

Before they could continue and start fighting, I decided to reveal what had actually happened.

"We weren't attacked by Konoha per se. However, we were attacked by ninjas from your village."

The two sides immediately got silent, and after a second Minato muttered, "Root?"

I would have nodded, but I wasn't supposed to know about that, so I said, "They were dressed as Anbu, but I recognized their leader. Danzo Shimura, an elder of the Leaf."

Minato's frown deepened as he turned to the Ame Orphans, and tried to explain, "This attack was not sanctioned by the Hokage, and you can be sure he will look into this matter."

Yahiko was not easily convinced however, "So what, are we supposed to simply forget about you killing our men and nearly wiping us out? About you helping Hanzo in his tyrannical rule?"

Minato sighed, understanding this wasn't leading anywhere. Fortunately, I was here.

"Maybe you can't trust his knowledge, but you can trust his word."

This seemingly came out of the blue, and so they all looked at me strangely.

Nagato was the first one to question me, "You do know this is the Yellow Flash, right, Alexander?"

Before I could answer, Minato suddenly exclaimed, "Alexander? I thought you died killing Hanzo?"

I flashed a grin at the man, replying, "Isn't Jiraiya head of Konoha's spy system? I would have thought he would have taught you not to trust reports so easily."

Minato gasped for a moment, before Yahiko exclaimed this time, "You know Jiraiya-Sensei?!"

"What do you mean, Jiraiya-Sensei?"

The two stared at each other, so I chuckled and presented the two to each other, "Minato Namikaze, meet Yahiko, Konan and Nagato, three orphans of Amegakure who were taught the ninja ways by Jiraiya. Guys, meet Minato Namikaze, student of Jiraiya in Konoha."

As I spoke, the Force seemed to move along with my words as I passively used a weaker form of the Jedi mind trick.

It wasn't as powerful as the actual technique, but it made my words sound more agreeable to those who listened. This wasn't a new technique I had developed, but with the Chosen Force Sensitivity, I had grown so close to the Force that my every action now had a certain influence over the Force.

It wasn't anything big, but it made small differences, like here, for example.

Whether because of this or because of the shock of the revelation, neither side asked me how I knew of their relationship with Jiraiya as they looked at each other with wide eyes.

Coughing into my fist, I continued, "With that said, I think we could find a good way to cooperate, one that would achieve both of our goals."

They looked back at me, and I turned to look at Minato as I asked, "Between making an ally for the war and ending it today, what would you choose?"

Minato did not even hesitate, "End the war of course. It has killed and broken too many people already."

He was speaking of his students, wasn't he?

Team 7, before being Naruto's Team, was Minato's. And by now, Obito was supposedly dead, Rin was actually killed by Kakashi, and the latter was in a bad place after being forced to kill her.

I then looked at the Ame Orphans, whose faces had hardened as I asked them, "With the Yellow Flash on our side, along with Mifune, and the four of us, we should have more than enough credibility to address all the villages."

The Ame Orphans looked at each other, communicating with their eyes only as they weighed their options, while Minato commented, "I find your plan to be hardly feasible. Ignoring the fact that my presence might make things harder, none of the Kage will be coming here. While the villages will certainly send important Jonins, I doubt they will have enough authority to decide to end the war."

I would have agreed, had I not done some research about the current world situation. However, I had discovered that the war had not been stopped because all five villages had decided on making peace, but simply because Konoha and Iwa had signed a peace treaty.

"Not necessarily. What if I told you that it was everyone's dearest wish to end the war?"

They looked clearly doubtful, so I explained, "Kirigakure recently received most severe losses when they tried to unleash Three Tails in Konoha and the plan backfired, killing dozens of Chunins and Jonins. And the Third Mizukage, while powerful in his youth, is now an old relic of the past who wants nothing more than a successor to pass on."

Minato looked livid as he muttered, "H-How can you know that?"

The reaction was understandable, not only was he personally involved through his students, I also clearly knew more than I was supposed to. Fortunately, outside of missions I would no longer get Points taken out for spoiling.

"The Force is a pathway to many abilities some consider to be unnatural." I said this with an internal smirk, but that only served to make them more confused.

Shaking my head, I explained, "How I got this information doesn't matter. Kirigakure wants nothing more than getting out of this war, and the Mizukage is losing influence. Next is Sunagakure. While they haven't lost as many men, their Kazekage is currently missing, and is actually dead."

"What?!" All four of them exclaimed, clearly struggling to believe my words. I would have preferred for my three allies to at least act like they knew, that way I could have made Minato believe that the Akatsuki was behind this intelligence gathering, and not simply myself.

"Yes. But even worse than the loss of their strongest Shinobi, is that they are on the brink of bankruptcy. They literally cannot afford to continue this war, and so whoever comes here might very well be the closest thing they currently have to a Kazekage.

"Then there is Kumo and Iwa. Unlike the first two, they aren't in as bad of a spot. Kumogakure is actually doing great, with the Fourth Raikage having proven to be a competent war leader. They have received some losses, but they probably are the only ones I would consider it impossible to broker peace with."

Minato frowned, "So peace can't be made then?"

I shook my head, "Just because a peace treaty is not signed with Kumo, doesn't mean that the war can't be stopped. Iwa, while in a better situation than Kiri and Suna, has received quite the losses from the destruction of the Kannabi Bridge, something you should know quite a lot about."

Minato showed no response to the statement, but it didn't matter.

"Finally comes Konoha. As things stand, if the war goes on, you are the ones who stand to win the most. If you stretch this war for even one more year, Suna very well might end up crumbling, with Konoha swallowing up their contracts. That's why it would be that much more impactful if Konoha were to agree to peace."

Assuming my intelligence was correct, which it was, but they didn't know that, then peace really was the best outcome for two of the Great Villages. Thus, as long as Konoha managed to broker peace with Iwa, then they would follow, and the only hostilities left would be with Kumo, but with the other four villages no longer fighting, everything would recede to tensions, at best.

It might also seem like I was reaching, as it had been proven that God was capable of changing the worlds that we were sent to, but it was thanks to the actions of one man that I felt confident that this world was faithful to the canonical work.

Danzo. If he had been brave enough to implicate Konoha in a battle between the Akatsuki and Hanzo, where the odds weren't 100% in his favor like they were supposed to be, then he had confidence Konoha could take whatever backlash would appear were he to fail. Which he did.

The man was hated by the community, but he was a mastermind.

Minato merely sighed however, "Even if the people coming could decide for their villages to end the war, which they can't, making peace with either Kumo or Iwa is hard enough on its own. I doubt I have enough leverage to push for the end of the war."

I smirked at that.

"All you need is a catalyst. One known as the Akatsuki."