Checkpoint listened like it always had. But tonight, it listened more closely than usual. The aftertaste of the earlier fight still clung to the air. But underneath it, the Checkpoint was doing what it always did and what it would always do when it survived: it tried to become a restaurant again.
Valerie set down fresh plates at a table that no longer had matching chairs. An orc laughed too loudly at something Lee Han said, then glanced toward the Hokage's corner and shut up like he'd been slapped. Kashi's wolf finally lay down, but one ear stayed angled toward the front door.
Even the kitchen sounded different. Less rhythm, more caution. Knives still hit boards. Oil still hissed in pans. But every sudden scrape of chair legs made heads lift.
Ludwig felt it all as background pressure while he watched Hiruzen across the table.
The old man's posture hadn't changed, still upright, still controlled, but Ludwig could see the negotiation moving behind his eyes. Every offer tested, weighed, turned until it could be used without snapping.
Ilea sat sideways in her chair like she'd paid for the seat with bruises and was determined to get her money's worth. Ash curled around one chair leg, holding it steady, the last quiet reminder of what had happened when Konoha decided rules were optional.
Ludwig didn't miss the way the patrons kept listening in. They didn't do it openly, though. But the Restaurant belonged to them too, in a way. After all, they had a stake in whether this place stayed neutral or turned into the kind of 'safe haven' that only stayed safe until the next army arrived.
And right now, Ludwig was talking about something even more dangerous than hostages.
Potions.
He let Hiruzen's last line hang a moment longer, generosity or a leash, and then answered without heat.
"A leash would be a contract clause," Ludwig said. "This is me refusing to let a kid die because paperwork was still arguing about prices."
The words settled into the room like a seasoning into a broth.
Across the bar, Valerie's shoulders eased by a fraction. Vilera's expression stayed unreadable, though her eyes tracked the Hokage like he was a blade left on a counter.
Hiruzen's fingers tapped once against the tabletop.
"Then we will define it." He said in a serious tone. "So Konoha and my council do not misunderstand."
Ludwig's eyes narrowed. "Go on."
"If you are to appear on our battlefield and don't want to fight, you cannot appear as a combatant." Hiruzen paused and his voice dipped lower. "But our world will not always respect that boundary. There are those who would see you and decide you are the prize."
"Which is why." Ludwig said, "I will not announce myself to anyone. Just whoever is in charge on that battlefield from your village."
Hiruzen nodded once, acknowledging the practical truth. "Then we add a channel. A method of calling you that is controlled. Limited to myself, my direct office, and my head medic." His eyes flicked, perhaps unconsciously, to where Tsunade had been. "Not any elder. Not anyone."
Ludwig's gaze stayed flat. "Say it in front of Claire later and she'll turn it into ten pages."
"That is the intent." Hiruzen said calmly.
Ilea grinned. "He's learning."
Hiruzen ignored her and continued. "And we establish a boundary: if you come to treat, you treat. Konoha shinobi will not use your arrival to launch an operation. No ambushes 'near the healer.' No hidden squads shadowing you to learn your methods."
Ludwig's expression softened by a fraction. "Good. Because I would notice."
Hiruzen didn't doubt it. "I believe you would."
He sat back again, and for a moment his age showed. The weight of what he'd just agreed to. A village's survival, balanced on whether strangers from other worlds considered them worth trading with.
"You are afraid of misuse…" He said, not accusing now, simply naming it. "Not only by Danzo but also by the nature of war."
"Correct." Ludwig answered. "War corrodes ethics first. I'm trying to make sure what I gave you didn't start another war."
A faint, dry sound escaped Hiruzen. Not quite laughter. "Then we are similar in at least one way."
"Don't get sentimental, now." Ilea chuckled as she stretched in her lopsided chair like a cat daring gravity to complain.
Hiruzen ignored Ilea's jab and looked at Ludwig. "If I may ask, when those potions enter Konoha, who is permitted to hold them?"
Ludwig didn't hesitate. "Let's make it hospitals, licensed medics, and field stations under a medic's authority. Maybe also add your special ops team, but I will need Claire to make sure you don't do anything funny. But for field work only. No interrogation. And no guys from your dear advisor's little pet project."
The Hokage's mouth tightened, not in anger, in calculation. "You intend to police our internal distribution."
"Like I said before, I'm trying to make sure what I gave you didn't start another war." Ludwig quickly shot back.
Ilea leaned forward a fraction, grin gone for once. "And if you're thinking of getting clever and letting a bottle 'wander' to your dear advisor's division? Don't."
Hiruzen's eyes flicked to her, then back to Ludwig. "And if a bottle disappears?"
"Then the next shipment doesn't arrive." Ludwig said simply. "And the one after that doesn't either. You'll get to treat your injured shinobis with potions only here. That too with the lowest tier of potions. Say goodbye to the top of the shelf stuff."
Hiruzen studied him for a beat, his face changed from one expression to another. Later, he nodded once. "Acceptable. Konoha will treat them as controlled medical supplies under the Hokage's seal. We will account for every bottle."
Hiruzen's eyes narrowed, not in suspicion now, but in the way a commander looked at a supply line and saw all the ways it could be cut. "You said earlier about maintaining your monopoly. What about resale? You know as well as I do that once these bottles appear on the battlefield, they will not remain only in Konoha. Other villages will pay. Bandits will kill. Even allies will 'borrow' what they think they deserve."
Ludwig's gaze stayed on him. "You're right. Once the first bottle leaves this place, those kinds of ideas will spread."
Ludwig had seen it all, experienced it all. Once something so powerful entered the race, everyone would take notice. The first thing they would do was to look at it and dissect it. Then they would try to recreate it. Though, good luck with that. There's a reason why potioneer was so rare in Ortus.
But, that would open another possibility. And knowing Hiruzen, he wouldn't push those so called 'allies' of the leaf hard enough. Which would become a problem for Konoha. At that point, his first goal of not starting another war because of the potion wouldn't be achieved.
But to track each and everything moved into Konoha? That would be beyond what he could do.
So, he made a proposal. "I won't stop you from reselling it. That's your, let's say advantage, as a village this restaurant choose to appeared on."
The restaurant hummed as it was mentioned, and Ludiwg couldn't help but smile. More and more, he felt the restaurant was more alive now than before.
"But it doesn't mean, I'll tolerate any bottle missing. Your accountability is going to be paperwork and routine. You report what you sell and where it goes. You bring that report here, in person, on the schedule we will agree later on. If you want to keep getting shipments, you keep showing me clean hands."
Hiruzen's gaze sharpened. "And if a bottle goes missing despite our precautions?"
"Then you tell me first." Ludwig said. "Immediately. Not after you spend a month trying to cover it up."
Ilea's grin returned, sharp as a blade edge. "Because if you cover it up and we find out later, we'll assume you sold it."
Hiruzen didn't argue that. He nodded once, short and practical.
"And if we do lose one to theft?" he pressed. "If an enemy squad raids a field station and takes it?"
"Then you treat it like what it is." Ludwig said. "A breach of a controlled medical supply. You hunt it. You retrieve it. You don't shrug and say 'war happens.'"
He sat back slightly.
"And until you retrieve it…" Ludwig added, "Trade will be paused. Not forever. Not if you're honest. But paused nevertheless. Because the moment my potions start circulating on your black market, this stops being a medical deal and becomes an arms race."
Hiruzen's fingers tapped once against the table, measured. "A pause is… severe."
"Consequences are always heavy." Ludwig said, voice calm. "You've said it yourself, in different words, for most of your life."
Hiruzen held his gaze for a long moment, then nodded. "Then we will treat loss as a crisis, not an inconvenience. Understood."
Ludwig's eyes flicked again to the wrecked interior. He could feel the Restaurant's wards humming steadily now, soothed by structure, but the building still remembered what had been done to it.
"Since we're talking about accountability." Ludwig said, tone shifting, "We're also going to talk about reparations."
Hiruzen's brows rose a fraction. "For the damage."
"For the damage," Ludwig confirmed.
He gestured with an open hand, indicating the room around them without dramatics.
"Warped floor. Cracked beam. Burn marks. Broken furniture. Blood on my walls. My staff had to work through it while you and your people treated my bar like a staging ground while my patrons had to eat and drink in this ugly place."
A few nearby patrons went still, listening harder.
"I didn't choose to make a point." Ludwig continued, eyes on Hiruzen. "You forced one. So now Konoha pays for the repairs."
Hiruzen exhaled, but he didn't argue. "What do you want? Money?"
"Materials and work." Ludwig said. "Money's too easy to interpret as 'we paid, so we're even.' I want you to fix what you broke."
He counted on his fingers, each point clean.
"First: high-grade timber, not cheap boards. Beams that can actually hold weight." He said. "Second: steel brackets and proper fasteners."
Hiruzen listened without interruption.
"And third." Ludwig added, "Labor. A construction crew, or earth-style specialists who actually know how to rebuild instead of reshape. They come here under your name, under my rules. No covert operatives. No 'inspection' of the kitchen. They fix the floor, fix the beam, replace what's broken, and leave."
Ilea leaned back with a satisfied huff. "Now that's a bill I like."
Hiruzen nodded slowly. "Accepted." He said. "Konoha will send materials and skilled labor. Under my seal. Under your rules. If any of my people abuse that access, they will answer to me."
"Good." Ludwig said. "Because if someone tries to turn 'repair' into 'reconnaissance,' they won't finish the job."
Hiruzen's mouth tightened, then softened into something almost weary. "Understood."
He paused, then returned to the earlier concern like he'd been holding it back deliberately.
"So…" Hiruzen said, "Reports, audits, and pauses in trade if loss occurs. That is your condition for us reselling it?"
Ludwig shook his head once. "That's the condition for you having it." He said. "Use it. Sell it. Lock it in a vault and pray to whatever you pray to, those are your decisions. But the moment you stop being able to account for it, I assume the worst and I act like it."
He leaned forward again, voice dropping half a step.
"And don't mistake this as me giving you permission to start a market." Ludwig added. "If I see someone I shouldn't when I delivered the potions you are granted to hold for whatever reason, the door closed for you."
Hiruzen's eyes hardened. "You would punish us for what others steal."
"No, would pause trade until you prove you can control what you buy." Ludwig corrected. "That's not punishment. That's safety."
Another beat of silence.
Then Hiruzen nodded once, decisive. "Then we will control it. And if we cannot, we will accept that we are not ready for your goods."
Ilea's grin flashed. "Look at that. A Kage admitting limits."
"Now," Ludwig added. "We wait for Claire to write this in bloodless ink, and for Rimuru to decide how much Tempest wants to be involved. Until then, this is a handshake and a warning."
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