chapter 119

"Are you sure you aren't a ninja from here?" Tsunade asked, looking around with a rather amused expression. Not that Eiji could blame her. For people that were more familiar with the enmity that the Stone held towards the Leaf, it must have been quite the sight, to see people waving at him and children coming up to greet him. Hell, some even came for an autograph.

"I mean, might as well be, with as much time as I have to spend here lately," Eiji said with a shrug. It wasn't like he cared about that all that much. He only wished he could see the rest of his friends too.

"Good to see that you love your village," The newly appointed Fifth Hokage commented sarcastically.

"You should already know that I give no actual fucks about Konoha," He told her bluntly and honestly. It was how it was, plain and simple. He loved his family and his friends, but he didn't care for his village as much as he probably should, in others' eyes. The most he could muster was when he considered that, as citizens of the place, his friends and family depended on it. "I'm sure that must be written in a report somewhere."

"It is," Tsunade easily admitted. "It's another thing altogether to witness that though. Your girlfriend has been rubbing off on you, huh?" She added afterwards, looking rather amused once more as he gazed between the two of them. He guessed she wasn't entirely wrong in a way, but it was more that he'd started caring less and less for acting his part. It was much easier to just be brutally honest.

"He always had that in him, Old Hag," Tayuya said, speaking for the first time since they started their little walk. "I know it gets difficult to keep up as you get older but sti-"

"I suggest you try and keep your worse half from speaking at all, brat," Tsunade said, her eyes growing intense as she all but glared at Eiji. He guessed if she were to turn to Tayuya, she'd smack her none too gently. The twitch in her expression certainly seemed to indicate that, at least. "She is treading dangerous waters."

"I mean, she's not wrong though," Eiji commented, his tone even, as if he were speaking about the weather. Red started to color the Hokage's face and that's when he decided it wasn't worth the hassle to keep it up. "But I guess we can leave your midlife crisis unaddressed."

"Midlife crisis, Fearless Leader, more like-"

"And with that said," He continued, before his girlfriend could doom them and the surrounding structures and people. "Is there anything I should… look forward to, as it were?" He asked, making the blonde woman take a deep, calming breath in before she labeled him with a glare. He just blinked innocently at her.

"Oh, how do I despise you," She growled, turning to side-glare at Tayuya.

"The feeling is mutual, Old Hag."

"Fifth?"

"Please, call me Tsunade," The woman said, her eye twitching. "If you are not gonna mean the respect, don't even bother."

"Sure thing, Old Hag," He replied with a smirk as her eye twitched once more. "So, about the question?"

"Kumo called for this meeting," She said, immediately going all business on them. "My guess is that they'll grovel for forgiveness and blame someone for their mess. After that, they'll want tentative peace once more, just like we've had for a while."

"Sounds about right," Eiji nodded.

"After they are done doing that, there'll be talks of achieving actual peace. Everyone but them wants it, so they can either join or be left out. They'll hate it either way, but we all know which is the safest option for them, and that's likely what they'll take."

"For some reason, I doubt it'll be that easy," Eiji commented with a wry smile.

"That's because you are not an idiot," Tsunade replied with a solemn nod. "The wrong comment, a word out of place, a misunderstood expression, will ruin any chance of getting what we want. Just the smallest thing could make our efforts crash and burn, that's the thread we have to walk."

"A reassuring person, you are not, Old Hag," Tayuya pointed out with a grin. "Makes me wonder how your bedside manners are as a medic."

"Terrible," Eiji told her blandly, having first hand experience with that.

"Just to let you know how hard this will be," The blonde said with a sigh, completely ignoring the other part of the conversation. "I'm fully expecting this to fail, but it's still our best chance. We'll be hard pressed to get another one anytime soon."

"So, keep Tayuya's mouth shut, is what I'm getting from all this," Eiji commented as they continued walking, the building that was their destination coming closer.

"The fuck did you say?"

"Exactly," Tsunade agreed with a nod.

"Well, good thing you've mentally prepared yourself for failure," He said with a defeated sigh.

"I was afraid you'd say that."

"I'm right fucking here, you know?" Tayuya growled, glaring at them.

"Yeah."

"Your point?"

If looks could kill, both of them would be dead several times over, Eiji would bet. Fortunately, they couldn't. 'Or at least Tayuya's can't, one never knows in this god forsaken world,' He thought to himself before shaking his head.

"In all honesty, do try to keep your mouth shut, Tayuya," Eiji said, shoulders slumping. "You know I like that you speak your mind, but I'd really like to have peace. Just think about all the time we'll have to do whatever the fuck we want."

"Whatever, huh?" Tayuya asked, narrowing her eyes at him. "I can think of a lot of things, Fearless Leader."

"And I'm sure we'll have lots of fun with whatever that is," Eiji continued with a half-smile. "Just think of all the places we can visit. All the things we can try."

"This better go well then," Tayuya said before huffing.

"Hm," Tsunade hummed as she considered the two of them. "I don't think Naruto will mind being an uncle, at all."

Tayuya's face exploded in red and even Eiji didn't come out completely unscathed by the comment. He made no effort whatsoever to reel in his girlfriend as she started cursing at the Hokage, who looked entirely too proud of herself. 'Peace… could it actually happen?' Eiji thought to himself.

[}-o-{]

"Did you have to make us wait, Tsunade," Mei Terumi greeted them first, for a definition of greeting, at least. The Mizukage liberally expressed her annoyance in her face.

"Typical Konoha nin, thinking they are more important than the rest," Onoki grumbled under his breath, but there was no actual malice in there, Eiji found. There was no resentment and if the look on the Tsuchikage's face was anything to go by, he seemed as anxious as Eiji felt about the whole thing.

Formalities were spoken, but he didn't pay attention to any of them. Instead, he looked around the room. There was the Konoha side, with Tsunade, Tayuya and himself. There was the Iwa side, with Onoki, Kurotsuchi and… 'Akatsuchi, was it?' There was the Kiri side, with Mei, Chojuro and a man with an eye patch that Eiji didn't recognize. There was the Kumo side with A and his two guards. There was the Suna side, with the three siblings he was familiar with.

Temari gave him the slightest of nods that he returned. It wouldn't make a difference if they had tried to be more discreet. Everyone knew that she'd been in his team before, after all. It was a very not subtle way of pointing out that Konoha and Suna were working together regardless of what they did.

Eiji didn't focus on her too much though, because there was something more important to look at. That was A, the Raikage. Kumo was the one that caused a mess and the one that called for the meeting. What was going on and what would they do? Konoha, Suna, Kiri and Iwa wanted peace, as far as Eiji could tell, some more than others but they did. Kumo was the unknown in the equation though, they were the ones he didn't know what they'd want or do.

"Are we boring you, Weaver?" Onoki asked then, drawing attention to him and Eiji gave the man a flat look.

"Yes, can we get on with it?" He replied bluntly, because he really, really didn't care for formalities. Was it stupid to say things like that at a moment so crucial? Maybe, but he didn't care. What would change if the summit failed to get the results he wanted? Nothing, really. It was a chance to get the peace he wanted, and he was grateful for it, but he still didn't care all that much, he found.

If the peace was so weak that a few words could make it crumble, then he didn't want it. He wanted it to last, to be strong and firm. He didn't want to live fearing when the peace would be broken. That'd make all his efforts pointless.

Besides, if it failed, he was just where he'd been before the meeting, wasn't he?

"And here I thought we were going to go the polite route, Fearless Leader," Tayuya commented, a grin spreading over her face. Tsunade, meanwhile, brought a hand to her face and let out a suffering sigh.

"Well, the brats aren't wrong," The blonde said, deciding that she wasn't going to care either as she straightened her back and looked around the table. "I think we can focus on what we are all actually here for?" She asked, and silence permeated the room immediately after. There were no delusions as to who everyone was waiting to speak.

And eventually, they complied.

"Let's not pretend you care for apologies," A said, a bitter smile on his face. Eiji had noticed that he looked… awful, in a word. The imposing man looked weary, frustrated and sad, all rolled into one. Nothing like the picture Eiji had gotten from him back during the Invasion at Konoha. Nothing like what he expected.

The man just looked done with it all.

"You don't want me to apologize for what Kumo did," The Raikage continued. "You don't want reasons or excuses. You want me to sign a treaty. All of you want peace. Suna and Kiri want the time to regain their strength. Konoha and Iwa are tired of fighting."

"You are not wrong," Onoki, surprisingly, was the one to reply, and truthfully at that. All the leaders, everyone in the room, really, stared intently at the leader of Kumogakure even as the Tsuchikage spoke. "But are you going anywhere with your speech?"

"The point I'm trying to make is that I'll sign a peace treaty," A said, calmly, as if he hadn't just dropped a bomb in the room that nobody had been expecting. At least not like that. There was silence then, as he leaned back on his chair. A weary smile on his face, he looked at all the other leaders. "Truth is that I'm officially the Fourth Raikage."

Nobody spoke then, but they didn't need to. It was obvious what the follow up question was going to be. A, however, didn't immediately continue. Instead, he looked off to the side, out of a window that faced the mountains away from Iwagakure.

"Unofficially, I'm the Fourth and the Sixth," The man added, his grin turning into something bitter, something… resentful. 'So, there was someone else in charge sometime between the Invasion and now?' Eiji thought to himself and what that could mean. "All things considered… I don't care anymore. Kumo didn't have the strength to fight your four villages before. Now," He paused for a moment and nobody missed the way his eyes moved towards Eiji and Tayuya. "Now, less than ever. So, I'd like to take the chance to ensure my village isn't wiped from the face of the world."

It should have been a relief to hear that. It was great news, just the kind of thing they wanted to hear. That, however, was the problem. It was too good, too perfect. It aligned with what everyone hoped, wished. There was no way that such a thing would happen. Something had to be up and they all knew it. That was the kind of world they lived in.

"Perfect," Tsunade nodded, her expression blank. "We can hash out the details then."

"Surely you don't believe him," Mei called out, turning from A to the new Hokage. "You have to know there's a trap lying there."

"Maybe there is," Tsunade agreed, tilting her head to acknowledge the point. "But I can also see how it could be true. And I'll believe that. Mainly because if Kumo breaks a treaty like this, he'll face the wrath of something he can't afford."

"Treaties have been broken before," Gaara said, speaking more words than Eiji thought he had so far in a single sentence. "Treaties will be broken in the future," He added. His voice was even, with no emotion behind it at all. Eiji was sure he wasn't actually arguing though, simply voicing an opinion, maybe playing the devil's advocate.

"The boy isn't wrong," Mei agreed, narrowing her eyes. "War hasn't stopped people from going to war before."

"She isn't talking about war," Onoki said then, his own eyes almost closed as he regarded Tsunade.

"What are you talking about?" Mei asked, clearly very confused all of a sudden, as she turned towards the Tsuchikage.

"I mean that he can't afford to anger the Weaver here," Tsunade said bluntly, signaling behind her where he stood. Eiji, meanwhile, wanted to roll his eyes at the lot of them when they looked at him. He'd almost seen that coming himself, almost.

"The Yellow Flash stopped a war with a massacre. The Weaver might have done the same thing, this time without it even having started," Gaara said then, his tired, green eyes looking away from Eiji almost immediately. The team leader found it a little weird, to hear the Kazekage talking about him like that when they'd had rather friendly interactions before.

'Which reminds me, I should spend some time with him,' Eiji mused to himself, uncaring of the attention he was getting. Just as idly, he noticed that Tsunade and Gaara had come ready to team up on the other three. It wasn't some grand deduction or anything, they weren't being very subtle about it. He'd be more surprised if they hadn't prepared the whole thing.

"Not to discredit the power of the Weaver and his Squad," The Mizukage started, looking like she didn't even know where to begin saying what she had in mind. "But surely you aren't making that comparison seriously?"

"Haven't you got a report of how the battle on the Land of Earth's border went, Mizukage?" A asked, raising an eyebrow at the woman. If her expression was anything to go by, she didn't appreciate the tone nor the question.

"Your forces were repelled, yes, but-"

"Either your intelligence wasn't as good as it should be, or you didn't pay enough attention," A interrupted, his expression twisting into a mocking smirk. Although, Eiji wasn't too sure if he was mocking Mei or himself, really. "Because our forces were neutralized, later sent back to our village. Furthermore, while not many died in that battle, most of them will never be able to work as ninja again… Unless they are treated by the Fleshweaver. That's what my medics gather."

"They can't put them back to how they were on their own at all?" Eiji asked, actually curious. That would be quite the accomplishment from Kabuto, if that were true.

"With time, my medics would be able to start… healing them. However, it'd take time and it'd be a case by case endeavor," A explained, entirely too freely, in Eiji's opinion. Regardless, everyone knew what that meant. Kumo was likely to take a while to recover its forces, either by recruiting new ninja or by curing those that had fallen. "I was actually going to ask for that to be a requirement of our agreement. For your Squad member to heal our ninja."

"You think we are foolish enough to give you back your army?" Onoki asked, raising an eyebrow at the Raikage.

"I think you are smart enough to realize we can't afford another battle like that. Especially not one that would have our forces crippled for certain," A argued, and Eiji wasn't sure, but he thought the Raikage was doing an admirable job at keeping how much the situation and having to say what he was saying affected him. It couldn't be easy to look at his fellow Kages in the face and tell them he was scared of going to war because of what a teenager and his team had done to him and his people.

His guards were certainly more expressive on the matter.

Surprisingly, after that, Mei seemed to relax on her seat, leaning back and looking around. Her previous anger, annoyance, or whatever it was that she was showing vanished instantly as if never were there. 'An act?' Eiji deduced quickly. Either that, or something had really changed her mind that quick, but that was unlikely.

"Never stood a semblance of a chance to get that sword back, did we?" She asked then, a wry smile on her face. "God, am I glad that we made a deal to get it through other means."

"And once the world isn't a step away from crashing and burning, I'll be sure to uphold it," Eiji told her, which actually made her grin grow.

"Not very concerned with how the conversation is going?" Onoki asked and he couldn't help but chuckle at that.

"Doing this has been my goal for a while. It'd be silly to be worried about that now," Eiji said, regarding all of them with a slight smile. "I thought I'd have to be at this for a lot longer to get there, but I'm not complaining."

"I want to know, however," A started, looking at the other Kages, his expression not really showing anything. "Are you all fine with Konoha holding such an asset?"

"I think you misunderstand, A," Tsunade started then, grinning widely and chuckling as she shook her head. "We hold nothing. He'll smack us around if we are the ones to break this treaty, should it happen."

"You got that right, Old Hag," Tayuya said, looking like she'd prefer nothing more than to start cackling madly right then and there. When everyone looked at him, Eiji simply gave them a wide smile, because his girlfriend wasn't wrong.

"I want peace," He said, relaxed but firm. "That and the safety of the people I care about are all that I want. Give that to me, and you can do whatever the fuck you want."

"How does this align with you going after Akatsuki?" A asked then, and Eiji's calm expression crumbled, leaving place to a glare. The nerve of the man, to bring that up when his people had been the ones to use that against him. 'Or maybe it was someone else,' Eiji reasoned even if it didn't make him feel better. 'He did say there was another Raikage there in the middle…'

"The Jinchuriki of the Nine Tails is all but family to me and Gaara right there is a friend," Eiji said, almost leaving it at that. It was that simple, really, but he knew the Kages wouldn't be happy with just that. "Akatsuki is a danger to them, so I'll take care of them."

He could tell his words brought pause to all five of them.

They hadn't known, it seemed. Few had, he supposed. In a way, he hadn't been very clear with how or why he did things. His reasoning hadn't been something he'd broadcasted, really. And now they all knew, all five Kages were aware, that he was only targeting Akatsuki because they were a danger to people he cared about.

It was not to protect his village or assets of it. It wasn't to show strength or gather bounties. Nothing he'd done had ever been about duty or love for his village per se. He liked Konoha well enough, but he would never have gone so far for it. He'd never have risked the Void for it or the majority of its people.

His family though, his friends. Those he could risk it for. And now the leaders of the world knew that he'd become what he had to be a guardian, not a soldier.

"As good a time as any, don't you think, Fearless Leader," Tayuya said from his side, grin still in place even as everyone's attention was turned towards them. Even Tsunade, who was still facing forward in front of them, was likely paying close attention.

"I guess so," Eiji agreed and with a twitch of his hand, there was a puff of smoke that appeared on his shoulder. Nobody reacted, which was a surprise on its own. "Father, Mother," He greeted, his eyes still on the Kages in front of him. The Elders of the Spider Clan moved and took in the scene.

"So, you've finally-" Mother started.

"-Decided to accept?" Father finished.

"The time is right, I think," Eiji agreed with a nod. Then, from a storage seal on the inside of his coat, he pulled out a little something. Just a piece of metal with a single word. As he did, Father moved to his arm and pulled out the Konoha headband he'd always worn there. Mother moved afterwards, helping him attach the new one there.

Kinu, the kanji on his new protector read.

Silk.

"Hopefully you aren't too offended, Tsunade," He said as he juggled his old forehead protector in his hand. It was probably the one piece of his outfit he'd never truly changed. It was old, the shining had dulled and the engraving was almost faded. "But I think this is for the best," He added, throwing the thing on the table in front of his new Hokage.

"Well, I lost that bet too, it seems," The woman chuckled and Eiji felt his eyebrows raise. "The old man said you'd do this. I did too, but I thought you'd wait a little longer. Well," She continued, the last part coming out a little louder and directed to the rest of the room. "Take from that what you will," She said, smirking at her fellow Kages while they tried to wrap their heads about this new development together with what he'd said before.

Onoki in specific took Eiji slightly off guard. The old man was staring intently at him for a long moment, which wasn't so surprising by itself. However, after that, the man smiled and leaned back on his chair. Whatever had crossed the man's mind, or whatever he'd found during his observation, he was fine with. It was subtle and it was small, but it still confused Eiji slightly.

Then there was Gaara, who didn't react at all. However, Eiji caught an almost fond smile on Temari's face before it vanished. Then he heard as Gaara's sand settled. A faint, almost unnoticeable sound that had been present during the whole meeting suddenly went silent.

The Mizukage, for her part, seemed to give the entire issue all the thought it was due. Which was strange on its own, or maybe it was better to say it was strange that none of the others seemed to be doing so. He couldn't read what conclusion she arrived at on her face, but she didn't look displeased, which he took as a win.

A was the most interesting though. He didn't react at all. He didn't seem to think it through. He didn't even seem to arrive at any conclusion. The Raikage instead just sat there, looking done with it all, as if he wanted nothing more than to go back home and sleep for months. It struck Eiji because he was familiar with that look. It was the same look he'd had himself after his fight with Kakuzu.

"You'll be impartial?" A asked, drawing everyone's attention to him before they turned to Eiji. The boy, meanwhile, gave him a smirk.

"If there's peace, those I care about are as safe as they can be in this world. So, yes, I'll be impartial. I care little for anything that doesn't involve them in some way," He explained simply. "Maybe it's selfish, or naive, or stupid, but it's my thought process."

"Don't be stupid, is the general gist of it," Tsunade finished, drawing a snort from Tayuya. 'So much for being careful what we say or do, right, Old Hag?' Eiji thought to himself as he grinned. 'That's just not how we do things, I guess.'

A sighed loudly, deflating on his chair.

"Let's get this over with before I regret it."