Clack!
Jiraiya pushed open the door to the Hokage's office. Inside, Konoha's higher-ups had already been waiting for some time.
On the Fifth Hokage, Lady Tsunade's, desk lay two differently styled letters.
Jiraiya was very familiar with the style of one of them; it was an urgent, sealed dispatch from the border. Generally speaking, the appearance of such an envelope meant that war was imminent.
Outside the door, an ANBU ninja closed it. On the other side of the door, another ANBU ninja meticulously observed the surroundings.
"What happened?" Jiraiya asked.
"An urgent report from the western defense line," Lady Tsunade said, pointing to the letter on the left.
"And this is a letter of inquiry from Suna's Baki." She gestured to the letter on the right.
"Inquiry about what?" Jiraiya was puzzled. Hadn't the two sides just signed an alliance treaty?
Had Suna lost its mind again?
Or had they allied with some other village and gotten bold?
"Have they chosen their Fifth Kazekage?" he asked.
"While I also suspect their newly chosen Kazekage might be behind this, intelligence from our spies indicates they haven't selected one yet." Tsunade crossed her arms, resting her chin on her smooth hands.
"Baki is asking why we deployed a Jinchuriki within the Land of Wind."
"…" Jiraiya's mouth fell open. Was this the proverbial scapegoat scenario?
Although they hadn't made an official announcement, the defection of the Jinchuriki, Uzumaki Naruto, was already an established fact.
Deploying a Jinchuriki in the Land of Wind?
What kind of joke was this?
Even if they were to deploy a Jinchuriki, why wouldn't they do it in Sunagakure itself?
"Hmph, Princess Tsunade, I've said it before: Konoha has never needed to form alliances with other ninja villages!" Shimura Danzo leaned on his cane, huffing lightly.
"Alliance treaties have been a joke from start to finish."
"A village's prosperity depends on its own strength!"
"…" Hearing this, Tsunade bit her lower lip.
On this matter, she was indeed in the wrong.
When she first took office, it was shortly after Suna had launched the Konoha Crush. Many of Konoha's higher-ups, including Utatane Koharu and Mitokado Homura, believed Konoha should declare war on Suna and wash away Konoha's shame with Suna's blood.
It was she who had used the Hokage's authority to suppress those voices.
Together with Suna's Baki, she had facilitated the signing of the alliance treaty between the two villages.
Originally, neither Konoha, which had just been ravaged by Suna, nor Suna, which had lost its Fourth Kazekage, was in a position to wage war. The alliance treaty was the best way to maximize both sides' interests.
It was precisely because of this that she had been able to single-handedly suppress the pro-war voices in Konoha.
But now, Suna had suddenly pulled this stunt. How long had it been since the treaty was signed, and they were already deploying a large number of troops on the Land of Fire's border?
How was she supposed to face the Konoha ninja who had trusted her?
"Was Konoha in any condition to start a war back then?" Jiraiya questioned.
Was this old bastard Danzo treating his presence as if it were thin air?
"Hmph!" Shimura Danzo said disdainfully. "Relations between villages are determined by interests, not by a few handprints on a piece of paper."
"You two, who have lived through two Great Ninja Wars, should understand this better than anyone, shouldn't you?"
"It is precisely because we have lived through two Great Ninja Wars that we should cherish the hard-won peace we have now. Isn't it good to let peace and stability fill Konoha?" Jiraiya retorted.
"Ridiculous!" Shimura Danzo was about to argue further.
Bang!
Tsunade slammed her right hand heavily on the desk, stopping him from continuing.
"Enough!"
"The urgent task now is to find out why a Jinchuriki appeared in the Land of Wind, and why Suna suspects us over this," Tsunade barked.
"Danzo, do you know something?" She turned her head to question the old man sitting on the sofa.
This guy was the first to rush into her office. If he didn't know some inside information, this old bastard definitely wouldn't have appeared before her in such a hurry.
"…"
Hearing this, Konoha's other higher-ups also cast suspicious glances at Shimura Danzo.
This fellow was full of wicked schemes. If anything went wrong in Konoha, it was almost certainly related to him.
Nara Shikaku, in particular, remembered clearly that this man had borrowed a clansman from him not long ago.
That young man, Hideki, was considered top-tier even among the Nara for his talent.
Many had thought of combining sealing jutsu with the Shadow Imitation Technique, but that boy was the only one who had actually achieved something with it.
Facing everyone's suspicious gazes, Shimura Danzo snorted lightly and revealed the information he knew:
"The Nine-Tails Jinchuriki, Uzumaki Naruto, was last seen in the Land of Wind."
"Where is he now?" Jiraiya's expression changed slightly, and he quickly asked.
He didn't believe for a second that this man, who had always coveted the Hokage position, would track the Jinchuriki's location with the intention of persuading the boy to let bygones be bygones and return to Konoha.
"I don't know." After saying this, Shimura Danzo closed his exposed eye.
Seeing this, Jiraiya inwardly sighed in slight relief.
Although Danzo, that old schemer, was a bastard in his methods, he had his own pride. If he had truly captured the Jinchuriki, he would have already sounded the charge for the Hokage position.
"You will be responsible for the border defense," Tsunade said to Shimura Danzo. Their relationship was not amicable, so she didn't need to mince words.
She had wanted to send this old schemer away for a long time but never had the chance.
Now, she was coming from a position of strength; she didn't believe that old bastard Danzo would dare to refuse.
If he dared to refuse, she dared to strip him of his position as head of Root.
In fact, Tsunade even hoped the old man would refuse the appointment. Root was a cancer she had wanted to remove for a long time.
Without Root, Danzo would be like a tiger without its fangs; dealing with him then would be much easier.
"Very well. Throughout Konoha, I am indeed the most suitable," Shimura Danzo nodded slightly, as if he had already anticipated her appointment.
Currently, in the vast Konoha, besides him, only the Fifth Hokage, Lady Tsunade, and Jiraiya were qualified to command the western front.
But of the two, Tsunade, as the Fifth Hokage, could not easily go to the front lines unless it was the last resort. And if something happened to Jiraiya at the front, Tsunade would be hard-pressed to manage alone afterward.
If Tsunade had any sense, she wouldn't let Jiraiya go.
As he said, among Konoha's remaining higher-ups, he was the most suitable person to go to the front lines as commander.
"I'm counting on you," Tsunade said. Although she had won a political victory, she couldn't bring herself to be happy.
Tracing back the cause of events, with the borders of the Land of Fire and the Land of Wind now in crisis, her leniency indeed bore a great deal of responsibility.
"What do you mean by that?" Shimura Danzo said, dissatisfied. "Although I am the head of Root, I am, more importantly, a Konoha ninja. I hope you understand that!"
"…I understand." Tsunade was stunned for a long moment upon hearing this.
Compared to these bastards, her understanding had indeed been somewhat narrow.