"No matter how many times I see it, I'll never get used to it," Shizune murmured as she watched Sakura feed the assassin leader's soul to the King of Hell's head. "…did you learn anything, Sakura?"
Sakura gave a curt shake of the head as the demonic head vanished from her side in a whirlwind of black and purple flames.
"I've got new intel on the Tsuchigumo's defences, but nothing relevant to the assassination attempt or how he obtained our route," she said darkly. "He obtained everything from a dead drop, so he has no idea who employed him."
In that man's soul, Sakura had witnessed the depraved depths to which the Tsuchigumo clan had fallen. They had done well for themselves under Shiranami's leadership in the Land of Earth, and one of the reasons for that was Ōnoki's fear of Konoha. The tendency towards disarmament that had preceded the Fourth Shinobi World War had completely reversed, which meant that the next time the world was engulfed in the flames of war, the carnage would be that much greater…
The world Pain had envisioned, one in which the threat of Armageddon and weapons of mass destruction was omnipresent, had not led to an era of eternal peace as he'd hoped. On the contrary, the Great Nations' hidden villages were ramping up their research… take Kumo's chakra cannon, or Suna's attempt to create an artificial One-Tail, for instance.
"All right, enough talk," Sakura said. Her Sage senses had already picked up Team Tenten's chakra signatures hundreds of kilometres away. "Our job is to lighten the others' burden by making the Land of Iron's samurai focus their attention on us, so we'd better hurry up and meet our hosts."
…
The Land of Iron's reception of the Konoha delegation was far frostier than the last time they had attended the Gokage Summit… no pun intended. Mifune had personally travelled to the border to escort Sakura, Lee and Shizune to the meeting place, which was in a completely different location from the previous summit.
"They do not seem too pleased to see us," Lee-chan whispered in Sakura's ear as Mifune took them down a series of underground corridors. "Are the samurai not supposed to be neutral?"
"We've frequently invaded their airspace on our way to more interesting places in the past," Sakura said casually, glancing at Mifune to gauge his reaction. "When the last summit concluded with the samurai ganging up on us alongside our rivals, Lady Tsunade and I sent quite a lot of them to the hospital."
Mifune gave no indication that he had heard them. The rate of his breathing and his gait remained the same, but Sakura's nose told her that a healthy dose of irritation was beginning to burgeon amidst the cocktail of fear pheromones released by his sweat.
"The Gokage Summit's purpose is to bring about peace through dialogue," Mifune said. "The world united against you, Konoha… and thus, the Land of Iron briefly shelved its neutrality and joined hands with the Great Nations. That was our mistake, but do not let this distract you from the problems we now all face…"
"Then let us all hope you can learn from your mistakes," Sakura said coolly.
Mifune remained quiet for the remainder of the way, and before long, they had reached the Gokage Summit's venue. The décor was much the same as the last time, with great banners emblazoned with each Kage's country of origin and colours hanging behind each seat at the semi-circular table… only this time, Sakura would be sitting at the table rather than standing guard behind the cloth.
Sakura took her seat in the middle of the table, facing Mifune directly.
From left to right:
The Sixth Mizukage Hōzuki Mangetsu, accompanied by his guards Haku and Chōjūrō.
The Sixth Kazekage Pakura, accompanied by her guards Temari and Kankurō.
The Sixth Hokage Manyū Sakura, accompanied by her guards Rock Lee and Katō Shizune.
The Third Tsuchikage Ōnoki, accompanied by two fellows whose names were unknown to Sakura.
The Fifth Raikage Darui, accompanied by his bodyguards C and Omoi.
Sakura's gaze briefly flitted across the room. They were being openly filmed this time, which meant this was going to be televised, or at the very least, broadcast to their respective Daimyō… had technology already advanced to the point of live video broadcasts while the Hidden Leaf had been sealed away?
"Place your Kage headpieces before you," Mifune said solemnly. "You Gokage assemble here today in response to the crisis of the moon's fall… would anyone care to begin?"
"I do."
Every pair of eyes in the room fell upon Darui, who had just spoken.
"As some of your spies may have informed you, our engineers have developed a scientific ninja tool we like to call a chakra cannon," he said calmly. "Early testing has shown promising results."
Sakura knew very well just how destructive that weapon was.
In the Limited Tsukuyomi world, Kumogakure had been forced to use the weapon against Konoha after Minato used the Box of Ultimate Bliss's shutdown codes to neutralise the superweapon, and it had razed half the village in a single sweep. It required a significant amount of chakra to fire, but it was doubtful that Killer B would agree to lend the new Raikage the Eight-Tails' chakra if it was to start a brand-new war.
"What are you saying, Raikage?" asked Ōnoki, frowning. "Are you proposing that we… blow up the moon?"
Naturally, Sakura was horrified. Not too long ago, the chakra signatures of Tenten, Naruto, Karin and Hinata had vanished from her senses, which meant they had already entered the Moon Cave and arrived on the moon. If the satellite was destroyed, the path leading back to Earth would vanish, and the only survivor would be Hinata… and that was something Sakura could not allow.
"Konohagakure finds this proposal completely unacceptable. The moon is an integral part of our world; we cannot just get rid of it," Sakura snapped. "Our readings have shown that the moon has actually been moving back into orbit during the day. This response is completely disproportionate; there is still time to come up with a better solution."
"Kirigakure stands with Konohagakure on this matter," Mangetsu said, glancing at Sakura. "The Land of Water greatly depends on the cycling of the tides, which is caused by the moon's gravitational pull. The food chain we depend on and the oceanic currents we have mastered would collapse."
"If firing the cannon means saving the world, then so be it," Pakura said lightly. "Go ahead, you have my blessing."
Darui looked at them lazily.
"You misunderstand me; this is not a discussion, this is an announcement," he said matter-of-factly. "I'm telling you that we're firing the cannon the instant the moon shows in the sky… let this demonstration serve as a warning to whoever holds ill intentions towards Kumo: you will meet the same fate as our satellite if you threaten us!"