The next day, in the plaza of the Hokage Building.
Konoha ninjas stood in a queue in the plaza, all wearing black mourning clothes.
In the front row of the crowd, Naruto saw Konohamaru. He stood before the portrait of Hiruzen, his hands clenched into fists. Beside him stood Moegi and Udon, the two little ones each clutching one of Konohamaru's sleeves.
Naruto walked through the crowd to Konohamaru and placed his hand on top of his head.
Feeling the warmth from the hand, Konohamaru could no longer hold back the tears he had been suppressing all morning. He buried his head into Naruto's chest and began to wail, the sound echoing throughout the plaza.
After the funeral ended, Konoha quickly pulled itself out of the grief and began reconstruction work.
On the other side.
The Sunagakure Jonin team leader, Baki, stood in front of the temporarily erected camp, having not closed his eyes for the entire night.
Because the Kazekage had not returned!
A map was spread out in front of him, marking all the assembly points of the Sunagakure forces around Konoha.
He had sent people to check every route, from supply stations to backup retreat points, as well as the predetermined hidden assembly caves, and even the several safe transit strongholds that Orochimaru had provided to Sunagakure before the Konoha Crush Plan. But there was no trace of the Fourth Kazekage.
At first, Baki hadn't panicked. The Kazekage carried several guards with him and was a Kage-level powerhouse. Even if the formation had been scattered by Konoha's counterattack, at most, they would have just temporarily lost contact.
But as time passed, every place that could be searched had been searched, and every reachable Anbu had been contacted, yet the Kazekage seemed to have evaporated from the battlefield into thin air.
It wasn't until the sun set that Baki finally took two Jonin to conduct one last round of searching along the meeting route provided by Orochimaru before the plan.
Behind a sand dune about ten kilometers from the border between the Land of Fire and the Land of Wind, they discovered the corpse of the Fourth Kazekage.
When Baki saw the Kazekage's body, which had already begun to decay, he braced his hands on the ground, his shoulders trembling.
"That bastard Orochimaru!" Baki's voice was hoarse.
The Fourth Kazekage could absolutely not have been killed by Konoha during the raid. The level of decay of his body indicated that his time of death was at least a week ago, and a week ago, the Sunagakure forces hadn't even stepped out of the borders of the Land of Wind.
This meant that the Fourth Kazekage did not die on the battlefield at all, but had been assassinated by Orochimaru before leading the troops out, and then impersonated.
Orochimaru had deceived the entire Sunagakure using the Kazekage's skin. And Sunagakure had foolishly followed the murderer who had killed their own Kazekage, sending their troops out to serve as cannon fodder for a conspiracy.
Baki carefully collected the Kazekage's remains, and then ordered the two Jonin behind him, "Immediately assemble all remaining troops and retreat to the temporary camp. No one is allowed to step a single step out of the camp until receiving the next order."
That night, Baki walked into the gate of Konoha alone, holding the Sunagakure negotiation documents in his hands.
When stopped by the Anbu at the gate of Konoha, he said calmly, "Sunagakure Jonin Baki, representing Sunagakure, requests an emergency ceasefire negotiation with the Konoha high-level leadership."
"Please convey to your village's Council that the Fourth Kazekage was assassinated by Orochimaru one week ago. Sunagakure's attack on Konoha was manipulated by Orochimaru."
The news quickly reached Koharu and Homura, who were dealing with the pile of messes regarding post-war reconstruction in the Hokage Office.
The two fell silent after hearing the report from the Anbu.
To put it nicely, Konoha's current situation is one of waiting to be rebuilt.
To put it bluntly, it is in a state of utter ruin.
Hiruzen was killed in action, a large number of buildings in the village were razed to the ground, over half of the Anbu had suffered casualties, and the casualties among ordinary ninjas were still being tallied.
Furthermore, Danzo's Root had also encountered a massive explosion a day prior, resulting in the loss of more than half of its forces.
Under these conditions, Konoha simply did not have the strength to initiate a war.
Sunagakure's initiative to propose a ceasefire was, from both a military and diplomatic perspective, the best choice at the moment.
Thus, the negotiations began late that very night.
Konoha was represented by two Advisors from the Council and Kakashi, who served as the temporary military representative.
On the Sunagakure side, there was only Baki. He sat in the chair opposite the negotiation table and pushed the death certificate and autopsy report of the Fourth Kazekage toward the Konoha representatives.
He then recounted exactly how Orochimaru had impersonated the Kazekage, how he had deceived Sunagakure into signing a joint operation agreement, how he had used Sunagakure as cannon fodder for a diversionary tactic throughout the entire plan, and how he had targeted the Third Hokage on the day of the Chunin Exams.
After a brief deliberation, the Konoha side accepted Sunagakure's request for a ceasefire.
The core terms of the peace treaty were finalized within a few hours.
1. Sunagakure formally withdraws from all hostile actions against Konoha, admits that the acts of war were caused by being deceived by Orochimaru, and formally apologizes to Konoha for this.
2. Sunagakure shall bear a portion of the material and financial aid for Konoha's reconstruction, with the specific amount to be determined in subsequent formal negotiations.
3. Both sides shall restore their alliance and jointly pursue Orochimaru and his remaining forces. Sunagakure must provide Konoha with all known intelligence on Otogakure strongholds.
4. Konoha will not pursue individual war responsibilities against the Suna ninjas who participated in the war, and all prisoners of war will be repatriated within three days.
After one night, the brief war between Sunagakure and Konoha was officially declared over.
Baki led the remaining troops back to the Land of Wind.
As for Konoha, after accepting Sunagakure's surrender, they poured all their energy into post-war reconstruction and the selection of the Fifth Hokage.