Council of War and Provocation

_________ POV Narration _________

The Tsuchikage felt unease as he looked at the military tents that were set up in the distance.

He had only brought a few people with him, those that he could spare. Around 10 Anbu members.

Onoki had thought of also bringing Kitsuchi, his son, along. But decided against it since the meeting in itself seemed to be quite spontaneous.

Most of their Shinobi were still actively engaged in conflict, and the sudden military meeting that the Raikage requested left them somewhat open.

The Kage of the Waterfall, Yusuzo, was also in a very similar position.

With him, he only brought around 5 Anbu Members and 2 Shinobi Squads of Jonin leading Chunin. A total of only 11 people.

It wasn't much, but the Jinchuriki doubted that the Raikage was going to launch an all-out assault against their enemy with only the forces they brought to the meeting.

But Yusuzo, much like Onoki, felt extremely uneasy. Granted, the Jinchuriki always felt uneasy near the Raikage ever since that 'incident'.

This, however, was different... The two of them looked at each other, their gazes meeting and eyes narrowing.

It was not something they could explain... Just a strange unease, the type a wild animal would get before a disaster occurred in their forest.

Immediately, their minds jumped to the worst conclusion...

'Did he find out?'

But it was impossible... In the Tsuchikage's mind, the only evidence that existed was destroyed that day. And the Raikage was not so brash as to act without proper evidence, right?

Yes... He was likely just overthinking things... The Raikage was his ally for now. He was going to stay cautious, as always, but he didn't need to worry too much over things that were unlikely.

Unlike him, Yusuzo was not able to calm down effectively, internally, he was panicking a lot, his mind running on overdrive trying to think of ways that the Raikage 'could' find out.

The only feasible one to him, was if he contacted the Gray Fox, or the Gray Fox contacted him... But the Raikage wouldn't be so stupid as to believe an enemy and turn against his allies...

The Gray Fox, even if he witnessed those events with his own eyes, had no way of proving anything...

The burden of proof was his to bear, and since he was an enemy, it was unlikely that the Raikage would take his words over theirs.

Unfortunately for the Jinchuriki, no matter how careful and intelligent one person was, they always missed something.

In this instance, Yusuzo didn't consider the possibility of a 'trusted third party' collecting the information from the Gray Fox, and vouching for its credibility...

Regardless, the Jinchuriki opted to tread carefully while in the camp.

And right behind them arrived the Mist...

A party of around 20 Shinobi, Anbu and Jonin, all trailing behind one man.

He was handsome and tall, with black sclerae and no visible pupils. He also had long black hair that reached down to his back, and on his head, he also wore a blue Kage Hat.

He wore the standard Kirigakure attire complete with pinstriped arm and leg guards over which he wore an open white coat that covered most of his back.

That man was the Mizukage, and he was also planning something, but it wasn't going to go in line with Yusuzo's 'Thread Carefully' dogma...

No, he had invited himself to that meeting in order to ask for an explanation. A good reason why the Cloud had interfered with their operations and had gotten the 7 Swordsmen killed...

The evidence he had was scarce, but all signs were pointing towards the Cloud, and he had no other lead to go after, hence his appearance there.

He planned to inquire about the situation, as well as ask for a proper report regarding the situation from the Raikage, who was supposed to be watching over the front with the Leaf Village.

All of the Kage greeted each other outside the camp, before proceeding.

It didn't take more than a few seconds for them to realize that the Raikage had pulled in a lot of people in that camp...

There were easily around 30 Anbu in there, which was a bit excessive.

The Mizukage raised an eyebrow when seeing just how many of them there were. Somewhat confused since the Cloud was supposedly fighting on quite a few different fronts.

'I guess it's a show of strength...'

That was his best guess. It wasn't like the presence of a few Anbu made that big a difference, at the end of the day, the Raikage alone was enough of a threat to keep them all on their toes.

Yusuzo and Onoki thought the same, but something else was welling up inside them as well...

Suspicion and paranoia were mounting, but it was already too late to back off.

The worst had yet to come, unfortunately... As they all left their troops in the middle of the camp and walked inside the biggest tent...

Inside greeted them a few chairs, 5 of them, to be exact. And some people were already waiting inside...

On one seat sat the Raikage, his arms crossed and expression bordering on impatience. Behind him stood Killer B, the Jinchuriki of the 8 Tails...

Yet another massive Red Flag for the Rock-Waterfall Kage duo...

But an even bigger red flag was sat down right across the Raikage.

A tall man with long spiky hair reaching all the way down his back. His body was mostly covered in an open black coat, only revealing a few bits of red samurai armour.

He also wore a pair of steel-toe boots and the most recognizable part... A white mask with a large red dot in the centre of it.

'... The Red Dot...' Yusuzo and Onoki both stared at the man with narrowed eyes.

At that moment, the Jinchuriki also remembered his suspicions of the Red Dot being related to the Gray Fox... The pieces started slowly setting themselves into place... But he didn't have all the time in the world to consider things...

"Sit down... All of you..." The Raikage's voice urged them to take a seat.

The Kage didn't immediately listen, instead, they started questioning the assassin elephant in the room.

"Why is he here?" The Mizukage was the first one to do so. He was already well aware that the Dark Brotherhood were the ones to kill the 7 Swordsmen of the Mist.

His presence there may as well have been the Raikage declaring war on the mist, it was offensive to that level.

The most annoying part was that the Mizukage had 0 hopes of being able to kill Ken at that moment even if he tried.

Killing someone at their level required a lot of planning and preparation, one couldn't just jump headfirst into such things...

"Ken here is an ally of mine... I invited him because I wish for him to join us." The Raikage was the one to answer, keeping his tone cold while speaking.

The other Kage all seemed shocked when hearing that. The Mizukage especially.

But before he could open his mouth and disagree with such a decision, the Masked Assassin moved, turning his head towards the Mist Kage and finally speaking out in a gruff voice.

"Lord Mizukage, I presume...

The situation with the 7 Swordsmen of the Mist was nothing more than a personal matter, they killed people I held dear...

I have nothing against the Mist itself."

His explanation was short, his tone almost emotionless. The Mizukage raised an eyebrow, taking a good look at the Assassin.

'... A personal vendetta... Huh? I guess acting recklessly eventually caught up with them... Still, he still dealt a blow to the mist by killing them.'

"Fine... But I wish to speak more with you later, alone. I also wish for the blades to be returned to the Mist... They are the treasures of our village, after all."

The Mizukage could only sigh and accept defeat. It wasn't like their village had the resources to even go after the likes of Ken. They were in the middle of a bloody war, they couldn't afford to spare any resources at all.

"Of course... We can speak about that later on." Ken simply nodded, agreeing on a one-to-one conversation seemingly on a whim.

The Raikage looked at the assassin for a second, before the corner of his lips turned upwards and he shook his head.

'Later all of you will be dead regardless...'

The Raikage smiled internally as that thought wriggled in his mind for a few seconds.

The Mizukage eventually nodded and sat down, taking the seat furthest away from Ken.

The Tsuchikage soon followed, taking the seat behind him while eyeing the taller assassin with a quizzical gaze.

'Wasn't he reportedly smaller?... A fake? Doubtful, he feels too dangerous to be one... Maybe some sort of appearance-altering jutsu that's not detectable even by us?'

The Tsuchikage couldn't quite put his finger on it, but he didn't like looking at the strange assassin.

His presence was fleeting, a ghost in human clothing... Exactly as the rumours described him in all aspects but his size.

Now, the only one left standing was Yusuzo, who seemed transfixed on Ken for a few seconds. His tailed beast screamed warnings in his mind.

'Don't get close to that thing! Get us out of here!'

The 7-Tailed Beast seemed completely against the meeting now. It seemed to be completely unnerved by the assassin's presence.

Chomei wriggled inside Yusuzo's mind, trying to comprehend what it was looking at. But it felt like she was looking at an unsolvable rubix cube.

A human that was more nature energy than man, being almost entirely made out of the energy that was supposed to be extremely fickle and dangerous to control for humans...

"Anything wrong, Lord Yusuzo...?" Before the Jinchuriki even realized The Red Dot's mask was already facing him, almost as if he was making eye contact.

Almost as if on instinct, the Jinchuriki looked away, his back filling with sweat. He concealed his anxiety as he shook his head and stepped forward, sitting down on the chair closest to the abomination.

"..." He felt uncomfortable even sitting near him. It was almost as if he could constantly feel something crawling around his neck.

The others looked at the scene and felt a bit odd...

'Why is he putting so much pressure on Yusuzo?...' The Tsuchikage raised an eyebrow, unsure what to think of the situation.

He assumed it was because of the fact that Yusuzo was a Jinchuriki, maybe some sort of prejudice of sorts.

The Mizukage had similar thoughts, while the Raikage was a bit confused.

Meanwhile, Ken just 'stared' at the man and the Jinchuriki in him with a small smile on his covered face.

'He seemed pretty smart... Better not give him the opportunity to think too much...'

The pressure he was putting on Yusuzo was nothing more than a form of 'killing intent' projected outwardly using Nature Energy.

It gave the atmosphere around him a gloomy vibe and made for a very good scare tactic. Ken was not expecting it to work so effectively on a Kage however...

He had no way of knowing that he was being inadvertently helped by the Tailed Beast within Yusuzo, who was unnerved and scared of him before he had even started projecting that aura.

"Now that everyone is seated... I think it's time we start this meeting. I'm sure everyone is curious why I called it in the first place..."

The Raikage decided to start speaking not dwelling too much on why Ken was intimidating the spineless Jinchuriki.

The other Kage immediately started paying attention to him, Yusuzo included. He was still uncomfortable but seemed to have somewhat accustomed to Ken's intimidation tactic after a bit.

"I assume it's to announce bringing Ken in... I am a bit offended that you didn't call me as well, however..." The Mizukage spoke out, his eyes turning towards the Raikage.

The Cloud Leader just shrugged. "Honestly, didn't know how you'd take the news. I wanted to talk with the others first... Then address you formally as well..."

The Mizukage nodded, seemingly accepting that explanation for now...

"But in all honesty... It was something else that I wanted to discuss, and it mainly just concerns the other two, not you..." The Raikage narrowed his eyes towards the Tsuchikage and the Jinchuriki.

At that point, both of them seemed to be taken aback, gulping slightly as the words they hoped to never hear left his mouth...

"Why did you kill, and hide the remains of my son...?"

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Hope you enjoyed today's chapter!

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