The council hall was fuller than it had been since the day after the invasion, and this time the mood in the room had nothing left of exhaustion in it. Just tension, sharp and immediate.
"Kumo has formally declared war," Homura said, not bothering to soften the announcement. "Their forces are already mobilizing toward the Land of Fire's border. We estimate they'll be in position within the week."
"A week," Shikaku repeated, already running numbers in his head. "That's not much time to prepare; the village is still recovering."
"It's all the time we have," Tsunade said, standing at the head of the table, the Hokage's mantle sitting on her shoulders with far less ease than she let show. "Damn, Kumogakure, they are always a pain..." Tsunade said, from past experience, and none commented on that.
"Our current military strength," Homura continued, "is significantly reduced from pre-invasion levels. You already know the casualties better than me, Lady Hokage; we won't be combat-ready for weeks, possibly longer."
"And our own kage-level assets," Koharu added, "are limited to exactly two people currently sitting in this room."
Jiraiya, arms crossed near the back wall, exhaled through his nose. "Flattering to be called an asset. Doesn't change the math."
"The math is the problem," Shikaku said. "We need a battle commander who can actually coordinate a defense at this scale, and frankly, most of our best candidates for that role are either dead, wounded, or currently underage."
"Talking about that Haruno kid, eh, Shikaku? Since when did you start to put so much pressure on the younger generation?" Jiraiya commented.
"War has its way of making the impossible possible. If we need any fighting chance, then we have to use all the assets we have on hand..." Shikaku sighed.
"Then we adapt," Inoichi said. "Chōza, Shikaku, myself — we've run joint operations before. Between the three of us, we can cover tactical planning and intelligence while Lady Tsunade and Lord Jiraiya handle the frontline threats directly."
"Impossible, the Hokage has to stay away from the front lines, she has a duty to command the entire forces, not to mention Shikaku; without his strategic mind, the command centre will start to fall off." Koharu stated, and none could argue on that...
"Sigh... there's also the matter of funding," the treasury liaison cut in, practically before he'd been given the floor. "Rebuilding alone has strained our reserves. A prolonged war footing on top of that requires an immediate appeal to the Daimyō for emergency funds."
"The Daimyō will ask why he should fund, immediately after he had allocated funds to rebuild the village," Koharu said dryly.
"I'll handle it..." Tsunade said, her tone leaving no room for softness. "Suna and Kiri's invasion left this village bleeding. Kumo declaring war on top of that isn't defense. It's opportunism, and the Daimyō needs to hear it framed exactly that way."
"What of the other villages?" Chōza asked. "Iwa, specifically."
"Onoki hasn't moved," Jiraiya said. "My intelligence network suggests he doesn't intend to, not unless the war tips clearly in one direction. Suna and Kiri are still too consumed with their own recovery to act as anything but bystanders right now."
"So it's just us and Kumo," Shikaku said, quietly.
"For now," Tsunade said. "Which brings us to the harder question. Genin."
The room went noticeably tenser at that word alone.
"We are not sending children onto a battlefield," Tsunade said flatly, before anyone else could even suggest it. "Not while there's another option on the table."
"There may not be another option if this drags on," Homura said, not unkindly, but firmly. "History has shown us exactly what a prolonged war costs a village in manpower. The Second and Third Wars nearly emptied our own academy classes by the end."
"Then we make sure this doesn't become that," Tsunade said. "Chūnin and above handle frontline defense. Genin stay on support, evacuation, and reserve duty unless the situation becomes truly desperate. And the academy—" her jaw tightened, "—keeps training regardless of what happens outside these walls. And none of those ungraduated children leave the village on any front without my order..." Tsunade made certain that point was hammered straight into everyone's brain, especially those scheming elders who put all their acts under the slogan of "For The Village..." Like Danzo.
Nobody argued further, though the silence that followed made clear not everyone in the room shared her confidence that it would stay that simple.
"There's one more matter," Homura said eventually, more carefully than anything else he'd said all meeting. "Kumo's formal declaration includes an accusation. They claim Konoha is responsible for the disappearance of their Fourth Raikage, A."
The room's attention sharpened all at once. Tsunade more than anyone else.
"Do they have proof?" Shikaku asked.
"None presented," Homura said. "Only Killer Bee's testimony regarding an encounter with an unidentified attacker, and their own conclusions drawn from it."
Tsunade said nothing. Her jaw stayed set, expression carefully unreadable, though internally she felt like punching the entire table in front of her down.
'Unknown attacker? WHO? It better not be that brat again.'
Jiraiya glanced her way, but said nothing either.
"Baseless or not," Koharu said, "it's the justification they're using publicly. It will shape how neutral villages perceive this war, regardless of what actually happened."
"Deny all their claims..." Tsunade said, finally moving again, her tone closing the subject with clear finality. "Make sure everyone and their ninja dog knows that Konoha had nothing to do with wherever their Raikage ended disappearing too." She heaved.
"Naturally..." Hamuro nodded.
"Also... Konoha enters war-time status effective immediately. All departments report to the war council by end of day." She shouted.
The meeting dispersed not long after, clan heads filing out with the particular grim efficiency of people who'd done this before and hoped never to again.
Tsunade lingered only long enough to catch an Anbu's attention near the door.
"Find Haruno Sukuna," she said. "Tell him I need him. Now."
-x-
Across the village, in a quiet hospital room that smelled faintly of antiseptic, Sukuna had already found exactly what he suspected he would.
Terumi Mei lay unconscious on the bed in front of him, vitals steady, recovery progressing about as well as anyone could expect given the damage she'd taken. But when he let his senses settle over her more carefully than the standard daily check allowed, something else revealed itself beneath the surface — a faint, lingering trace of curse energy, small and suppressed, tucked somewhere deep in her chakra network where casual inspection would never find it.
It wasn't Izumi's. He knew Izumi's signature intimately enough by now to rule that out immediately. This was something else entirely, foreign in a way that made the hair on the back of his neck rise slightly the longer he studied it.
It was technically impossible for that to happen. The last person who came in contact with Terumi Mei who had curse energy was Izumi and himself using his healing on her.
The energy signature was not like either of theirs. If anything, it was a curse energy signature which he was sensing for the first time, again a surprise since he knew everyone and their curse energy signature who had awakened in this world so far.
The only reason it hadn't fully taken hold yet, he realized, was the sheer volume of Reverse Curse Energy he'd poured into her on the battlefield to keep her alive in the first place. Exactly the way it had suppressed whatever was happening inside Kiyomi.
His mind raced... wondering who could have done this or if this was happening naturally, then why?
Was it a plot thing? Some higher power pulling the strings, or was there a trigger to this?
Will Terumi Mei die and another JJK character wake up in her body if he let that new curse energy concentrate inside her?
He only had questions and no answers.
After a long moment of consideration, he made his decision. Better to burn it out now, cleanly, than let it sit there waiting to surface on its own terms the way Kiyomi's had.
Depending on what happens to Terumi Mei after that, he might finally have some answers.
He focused his Reverse Curse Technique directly at the lingering trace, methodical and precise, working it out of her system thread by thread until nothing foreign remained.
He was just finishing when an Anbu appeared in the doorway.
"Haruno Sukuna. Lady Hokage requests your presence immediately."
Sukuna exhaled, already anticipating exactly how little rest this particular summons was going to leave him.
"Of course she does," he muttered, and followed the Anbu out.
"I swear, if that woman has another mission for me, I'm gonna lose it."
xXx
A/N : Now we are going into the nitty gritty of what actually causing all this. At least Sukuna thing that he is close. Oh and yes... WAR...
Please Consider Donating Power Stones if you like the Chapter.
"Thank you Very Much for All Your Support"
If you want to read up to 20+ Chapters in advance, check my Patreon on
Patreon.com/Kamidemond