"Lord Hanzo, the leader of the Akatsuki has arrived."
Outside the office, Tenyu knocked formally, all traces of his earlier warmth gone.
"Let them in."
Hanzo's low, hoarse voice drifted out from within.
Tenyu pushed the door open and stepped aside.
"You may enter on your own," he said quietly. "I'll leave you here."
Yahiko nodded. He exchanged a glance with Nagato and Konan, drew a steadying breath, and stepped inside.
Nagato and Konan followed.
The door closed behind them with a soft click.
None of them noticed that on a distant rooftop beyond Hanzo's estate, two figures watched in silence—
One wearing a white spiral mask.
The other half-black, half-white, half-submerged into the ground.
"Obito—"
"Call me Madara."
The masked man's tone was sharp.
"Very well… Madara-sama. Are we just going to watch from here?" Black Zetsu asked.
"What else?" Obito replied with a low scoff. "That's Hanzo of the Salamander. If we get any closer, can you guarantee he won't notice?"
Black Zetsu fell silent.
It wasn't Hanzo's sensory skills that worried him—it was the poison saturating the earth beneath the estate. Even he couldn't infiltrate without risk.
"And if Hanzo discovers the Rinnegan?" Zetsu asked.
Obito chuckled darkly.
"That might be even better. Hanzo won't fail to recognize those eyes."
"With Nagato's current strength, he may not defeat Hanzo—but if he overdraws his power, he can escape."
"This could teach him something about pain."
Black Zetsu recalled the Demonic Statue Nagato had summoned yesterday and said no more.
Inside the office.
"Lord Hanzo."
The three bowed respectfully to the figure seated behind the desk.
Hanzo set down the document in his hand and looked up with a faint smile.
"You must be Yahiko, Nagato, and Konan. Please—sit."
He gestured to the three chairs prepared opposite him.
"Th-thank you."
Yahiko cleared his throat, barely containing his excitement as he sat. Nagato and Konan followed.
As Nagato lowered himself into the chair, he glanced up through the strands of his red hair—
Just once.
That single glance made his body stiffen.
A chill shot up his spine.
He bit his lip and suppressed the reaction.
Whatever he sensed, he didn't let it show.
After they were seated, Hanzo looked directly at Yahiko.
"When I learned that a new organization seeking peace had emerged within the Rain Country, I grew curious. So I took the liberty of inviting you here."
"We are honored by your attention, Lord Hanzo," Yahiko replied quickly.
"There's no need to belittle yourselves," Hanzo said calmly. "I am merely someone who walked this road before you."
Then his tone shifted slightly.
"Tenyu tells me your organization believes in achieving peace without resorting to extreme force. Is that correct?"
"Yes," Yahiko answered firmly.
"Explain it to me."
Yahiko's eyes brightened.
"I believe many wars and conflicts in this world are unnecessary. Most disputes could be resolved through dialogue—if both sides were willing to sit down and talk."
He paused, then continued more seriously.
"But I understand it isn't that simple."
"There are strong nations and weak nations. The strong rarely listen to the weak."
"So ideally, every country should possess a certain degree of strength. Enough to sit at the same table as equals."
"That strength isn't meant to wage war—it's meant to balance and protect."
"If everyone fears upsetting that balance, then war becomes less appealing. Only then can real negotiation begin."
Yahiko wasn't blind to reality.
He knew that blind tolerance only invited exploitation. Moral appeals alone wouldn't restrain ambition.
There had to be power.
But not domination.
Balance.
Hanzo listened quietly.
Then he smiled.
"A fine ideal."
Yahiko's face lit up.
But before that smile could fully form—
"However," Hanzo added evenly, "it is still naïve."
Yahiko froze.
"Naïve?"
He struggled to hide the sting in his voice.
"Lord Hanzo… is there something flawed in my reasoning?"
Hanzo leaned back slightly.
"Tell me—are you aware of what the First Hokage, Hashirama Senju, did when the one-country, one-village system was first established?"
Yahiko shook his head. As a former civilian, he had no access to such historical knowledge.
Hanzo continued.
"At the founding of the system, Hashirama distributed the Tailed Beasts to the other great villages."
"You see five great nations today, each possessing one or two Tailed Beasts. Most of those beasts were given to them by Hashirama himself."
"Why?"
"Likely for the same reason you described."
"To ensure that each nation feared the power of the others."
"To maintain balance."
"To prevent war."
Hanzo's gaze sharpened.
"And what was the result?"
"Greater destruction. Greater casualties."
"The Tailed Beasts did not prevent war—they intensified it."
He let the words hang in the air.
"Your ideal resembles Hashirama's actions."
"But the world is more complicated than you think."
Yahiko's proposal was far more grounded than the vague idealism that would later be associated with Naruto.
Yet even so—
It remained an ideal.
One suitable for stabilizing a single nation, perhaps.
But to reshape the entire shinobi world?
That was a different matter altogether.
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