Kapitel 236: Fallout
Moji just shrugged his shoulders and said "When have you known me to let civilians get a free pass? Think about it...What will happen if Hideki finds out that his nephew died because of the stubbornness of you four."
"Are you thinking that the hidden leaf will declare war against us just because one of their spy's nephew died? The hidden leaf is a peace-loving village. They aren't going to start a war." Yoshiro said.
The Terumi siblings and the advisors were listening to what the leaders on both sides were dishing out.
"You don't seem to have come here in good faith Moji." The old man said.
"I came to ask you for your surrender. As long as I am negotiating with you, that's the best deal you can get. If I go to the hidden leaf with this, you might end up in a worse state. They have a new Hokage now. Don't know how she will react." Moji stood up from his seat and so did the two people sitting on both sides.
"I think you should go and prepare for the war Moji or else everyone will think it's a war between us the bloodline clans and the hidden stone. In the end, they are the ones who call the shots anyways." Riko taunted and it surprisingly worked as Moji gave him the stink eye.
Asami giggled a little and said "Come on Riko, you can't throw facts at his face like that."
"I see you guys still haven't realized the seriousness of the situation yet. I still haven't talked to the kid since he has been kidnapped. He doesn't even know who did it." Moji said. He was indirectly threatening them that he will twist the story however he wants and present it to the hidden leaf.
"I think you need to leave Moji. Go take care of the preparations." the old man said and sat back down.
Moji didn't say another word and just left. The people standing in the mansion had never seen such a short and direct negotiation. But none of them said anything as they knew both sides weren't ready to end this peacefully.
"What was his intention when he came here?" Elder Wu asked but he didn't say it loudly enough for the clan leaders to hear. From the ones near him, Enko looked at him and asked "Sensei, what do you mean?"
"Moji and his people have killed a lot of people from our faction and we have killed theirs. They can be no peace among us. Moji isn't the kind of guy to bow down for his people that are suffering so when conflict is certain, why would he even come here? He definitely didn't think that we would back down after the 4th Mizukage's death.
Santo just shrugged and looked at Mei who was standing beside him. Even though she was being groomed to be the next Patriarch, there were many things where her father had kept her in the dark, and the only one who knew everything was AO.
Mei leaned forward as she looked at the confused faces of the siblings Kana and Santo and said "I came to the conclusion that Moji isn't sure whether having Yuta in his custody is enough leverage to demand anything from the hidden leaf. The new Hokage has not done anything which would help others predict her next step. And it could even backfire."
"Backfire? What do you mean sister Mei?" Kana asked.
"What if the new Hokage does decide to give attention to a spy's nephew? What if she sends a squad to break into the Mizukage faction and get Yuta back?" Mei put forth her thoughts on this.
Kana's eyes widened and a smile bloomed on her face as she heard this "Sister Mei, that would be the best wouldn't it? It will save Yuta and even weaken the Mizukage faction."
Santo tapped Kana's shoulder and said "Did you forget the fact that we have a few Konoha spies in our custody as well?"
Kana's face instantly deflated as she heard this. Santo continued as he said "And what's the guarantee that Konoha will be successful in getting back Yuta? What if they end up putting the kid's life in more danger."
Mei nodded at that and said "Santo's right. The chances of him getting rescued successfully are too low and even if they decide to do it, they won't send their best people for saving a civilian's life."
Kana just sunk back on the wall and looked down. Santo was about to go and console her but Mei stopped him and whispered "Let her deal with it on her own. She needs to become strong enough to handle this."
Meanwhile, the clan leaders were talking among themselves and the guards inside and outside the mansion were dispersing. Riko looked at the old man and asked "Did this happen because of my strategy? Did our small assaults on their places compel him to come here?"
Asami shook her head and said "No…the support hidden stone provided him was more than we expected and many of his borders were already fortified and not many valuable resources were present there."
The old man looked at Yoshiro and said "Let's keep preparing for the main battle while burning a few fires in their area. I don't want to go into the rabbit hole as to why he came so let's not dwell on that."
Yoshiro nodded and said "I have also told my people to increase the facilities and food being provided to the spies to be better so that even if the hidden leaf contacts us to get them back, they will understand that we didn't have any ill will against them.
"I think that would prove to be beneficial to us in the long run."Asami said as she stood up to leave. The rest also stood up and the old man said "They could also take the initiative to attack us so be on alert. I tried to send a letter to the Hokage but the messenger returned within an hour or two saying that the waterways are heavily guarded by the Mizukage faction and the hidden stone. They are even taking pirates from faraway lands."
Yoshiro shook his head and said "Santo and his siblings were ambushed at sea and they managed to kill and come here. They must be trying to find their bodies as they didn't expect Santo and the others to win."
"What you are saying is possible. We don't have the hawks that great villages use to contact each other. They all are in Moji's hands. Our only option is to send an armed envoy or a jonin shinobi in disguise and both are time-consuming." The old man nodded.
After discussing a few more things they all left. The meeting with Moji didn't come to any conclusion but one thing that everyone understood is that Moji is going to start the conflict very soon.
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A few hours later
Hidden leaf village- Hokage building.
Tsunade was buried in a mountain of paperwork while Shizune was sitting on either side. In front of her was standing Team Kurenai. Their clothes looked a little dusty as if they had come back from a mission. Tsunade closed the file in front of her and looked at Kurenai's team.
"Good work Team Kurenai…Your mission was successful without any kind of loss of life or supplies. The merchant who hired you is happy and requested another mission 2 weeks later."
"We are the best squad after all..haha…very soon we will become chunins as well." Kiba said in a confident tone while Akamaru sitting on top of his head chimed in "Bow bow"
In excitement, Kiba also fist-bumped Hinata who hesitated at first. Shino on his own was nodding at Kiba's statement. "That's enough you three. We are in Hokage-sama's office." Kurenai reprimanded his team and smacked Kiba's head.
"Now now…don't let my words go to your head or else you won't progress as you have in the past month." Tsunade said. She was about to say more when Hinata tilted her head and looked outside the window. The others also did the same. Tsunade and Shizune had their backs against the window so they didn't know what they were looking at. As they turned back they saw a fat bat flying toward them.
"Is that a bat?" Kiba asked as he walked closer to the window.
"What is a bat doing alone in bright daylight?" Kurenai asked.
Tsunade's face became serious instantly. She turned to Kurenai and said "Wait with your team outside...this is a messenger"
Kurenai immediately nodded at the Hokage's order but the curious Hinata asked "Who sends messages through bats?" to which Shino immediately replied "YAMI"
Everyone's heads instantly turned to Shino who said "I remember Lee mentioning that during missions Yami uses bats for recon purposes as well as to send messages. It's his summoning animal."
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Wöchentlicher Energiestatus
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