The summit will take place in around a month. Since she does not have anything left to give us, we free Kurotsuchi a bit early. At least we already got everything we wanted and then some from the peace treaty.
The summit will take place inside of The Land of Iron, inside of a small town. The journey there will take us about a week, since we want to take our time and not rush there. Each kage is allowed to bring three bodyguards along, this allows all three of us to be at the meeting. The third person will probably be Hirogi.
-one month later
The four of us enter the meeting room. There are couches placed on every wall, probably for everyone's followers, at the center of the room lies a large round wooden table with five seats. Two of the five seats are already occupied. Tsunade sits in her chair, seemingly bored. Kurotsuchi meanwhile still looks a little anxious, although not nearly as bad as when she was our hostage.
Kurotsuchi has four earth jonin with her, I recognize none of them. Tsunade brought Lee, Yamato, Neji and Kakashi with her. When my eyes land on Kakashi he gives me a conflicted look. Sakura, Hinata and I just give him a small bow. When we rise he just gives a short nod and an eye smile.
I take a seat at the table. Sakura, Hinata and Hirogi just sit on some of the couches in the room. I take out three soda cans from my pockets, sliding one to Tsunade and Kurotsuchi each. Kurotsuchi gives me a nervous look, before proceeding to ignore the beverage. Tsunade on the other hand catches it mid-slide and nods towards me, not hesitating to open it and take a big gulp.
The door opens again and the new Raikage, Darui, enters. He is followed by four of his jonin, whom I don't really recognize. He takes a seat and his followers take one of the couches for themselves. I take out another soda and slide it to him. He catches it and gives both the can and me a weird look, before shrugging, opening the can and chugging it all at once.
Two minutes later Terumi Mei enters the room, followed by Zabuza, Haku and two people that I don't recognize. Mei takes her seat, her followers sit on their couch. Tsunade sighs. "Now that we're all here, let's get this going. Why have you called us here, Kurotsuchi?"
Kurotsuchi takes a deep breath. "Iwagakure plans to supplant our daimyo and replace him."
The girl receives stares from everyone, she gulps. "Our daimyo has completely stopped offering us missions. The nobility is now contracting exclusively from the friendlier surrounding minor villages or from Konoha. I called the meeting because I am aware of the political instability this act will cause. I propose that all of us take over the countries our villages are located in."
Mei blinks. "I see. So instead of taking over your daimyo and then being attacked by all of the other nations, you want all of us to take over our respective nations, preventing yourself from being attacked?"
Kurotsuchi nods. "Yes. It would be in everyone's interests to do so. If all of us do so then we will not have to worry about our finances anymore, since we would be able to directly collect taxes from the nobles in the place of the daimyo."
Tsunade sighs. "And the wanton slaughter that this would result in? You wouldn't only have to supplant the daimyo. After taking over the country many of the nobles will rebel, some of your neighbours will smell weakness and attack as well. The death toll would make the great shinobi wars look like a children's scuffle."
Mei snorts. "Easy for you to say. Your village gets all the contracts from your nation and over a third of the contracts from our own lands. Meanwhile Kirigakure has to make do with two thirds of our own daimyo's contracts. Iwagakure has it even worse than us, since they've started getting almost none of the contracts of their daimyo"
Kurotsuchi nods. "We have to choose between taking over the country or disbanding the village. It's not enough that we stopped receiving contracts, we were threatened to join our daimyo's war after he stopped all of our funding."
Darui shrugs. "So you decided to inform us beforehand? Some of us will be greedy enough to want to take advantage and take over our country. Those who do not will then be at a disadvantage if a majority do so. Mei, Sasuke and you will almost certainly take over if the opportunity arises. Tsunade and I would prefer not to since we do not have any ongoing issues with our daimyo. You're essentially forcing Tsunade and I to agree to your plan."
I take out and open a can of soda. "It's a pretty good plan. Since the majority would not let an opportunity like this go they would consequently force the minority into following your plan. Tsunade however does have a point, if this plan happens then we would also have to annex the smaller countries next to us."
Kurotsuchi nods. "Yes. After the coup we plan to take over the minor countries next to the Land of Earth."
I smile. "Give those countries next to The Land of Flowers to me and I'll follow your plan. You need a majority for this to work, without me you'd just have Mei agreeing with you and wouldn't be able to implement it".
Mei jumps in like a shark smelling blood. "I'm claiming the islands surrounding The Land of Water. I agree to this plan if they are ours"
Darui sighs. "We claim The Land of Snow, since it appears we are now splitting the world between each other."
Tsunade glares at Kurostuchi. "You're way too smart for your own good, you know? My condition for joining is that the counties between each of our villages are kept as a buffer zone. None of us are to be allowed to take over a country that would cause either of us to have a direct border with each other".
Kurotsuchi takes a deep breath. "Do we all agree to each other's conditions? We all supplant our daimyo's. Everyone gets to annex their claimed neighbours with the condition of not bordering each other"
I raise my hand in the air "I agree"
Tsunade sighs. "I also agree"
Darui shrugs. "I am in agreement"
Mei smiles. "I agree"
Kurotsuchi lets out a relieved sigh. "Very well. Then let us put our agreement to paper."
Afterwards a small amount of time was spent writing up the concise agreement between ourselves. After I sign the treaty I notice Kakashi giving me a wink and motioning for me to come close to him. Once I reach him he puts his hand on my shoulder. "We've investigated Danzo. We know what he did to your clan. Sharingan were found inside of ROOT headquarters. You're not a wanted fugitive."
That's… Honestly that's pretty relieving to know. I nod. "Thanks. I'll try to come visit when I have some time. You're also welcome to come to Sakuragakure as well, as is anyone from Konoha. Why didn't you send me a letter or something like that?"
Kakashi sighs. "All of that happened two weeks ago. The new leader of ROOT tried to kidnap a Hyuga kid, he got caught and the investigation led to their headquarters. Was pretty smart about it too, since he waited for the kid to be on his way to the academy, luckily ANBU saw the whole thing and caught him."
I snort. "At least that was smarter than Kumo trying to kidnap Hanabi from inside the clan chock-full of byakugan."
He shrugs. "Yeah. Tsunade is done signing so we're gonna have to leave, you guys take care of yourselves."
I give him a nod and he ruffles my hair in response, before he leaves with Tsunade. The four of us also leave towards our own village, since there isn't anything left for us to do here. Time to announce to Kazukiko that we're taking over his country.
—
"You can have the country, just please let me keep the palace and don't terrorize the civilians."
I stare at the resigned daimyo. I expected at least some pushback. In hindsight I guess he was already prepared for us to do this ever since we showed up inside of his bedroom. I shrug. "Just out of curiosity. Why aren't you getting angry or at least surprised or anything?"
Kazukiko sighs. "The shinobi villages taking over their countries was something I honestly thought would have happened much earlier. None of us daimyo have any answer to an S-Rank shinobi showing up at our capital, as you have no doubt experienced for yourself."
Huh, the guy is actually pretty good at politics. I smile at him, making him gulp. "You know, you're pretty good at politics. I think you'd make for a pretty good governor, don't you agree?"
He grumbles under his breath. You and your big fat mouth indeed. "I will agree to becoming the governor under one condition, that you do not enact a rain of terror onto the civilians. I do not care for the denizens of other lands, you may do with them as you wish. I care about the citizens of The Land of Flowers very much"
I shrug. "Alright, sure. Anyone signing up for shinobi training I can't guarantee the life of, since we're going to need to give some pretty harsh training, some of them might die."
He nods. "I am aware of the survival rate of your training regimen. I simply do not want for the regular man to be forced into those circumstances. Any volunteers are joining of their own accord."
I extend my hand towards him, he hesitantly shakes it. "Alright. You'll make the announcement tomorrow. If anyone gives you any trouble give me a message and I'll take care of it."
After he releases my hand I shunshin out of his room and begin the short journey towards Sakuragakure.