BAM!
The doors to the conference room were slammed open with savage force. A brawny man with a shock of red hair tied back in a ponytail stormed into the chamber.
"Onoki! Why is Gari being kept under lock and key?!" Roshi, his face framed by a thick, bristly beard, shouted his question directly at the Tsuchikage in front of the gathered high-ranking officials of the Hidden Stone.
To be pointed at and interrogated like a child caused Onoki's face to flush with fury. He slammed a fist onto the table. "Roshi! Watch your tongue! This is not the place for your tantrums!"
"My tantrums?!" Roshi let out a sharp, angry laugh. He leaped onto the polished conference table, crossing his arms and looming over Onoki from his elevated perch.
The other high-ranking ninjas in the room took one look at the escalating tension and wisely filed out of the room. Once they had cleared the area, Onoki's son, Kitsuchi, hurried over to shut the doors, attempting to play the mediator.
"Senior Roshi, Gari's situation is... unique," Kitsuchi said softly.
"Unique how?!" Roshi wasn't buying it for a second. He continued to roar with a fiery intensity. "Gari has worked himself to the bone for this village! He was captured by the enemy and suffered inhuman torture. Now that he's finally managed to drag himself back, you people lock him up for interrogation?"
"It is a necessary protocol," Kitsuchi sighed, reaching out to try and pull Roshi down from the table.
But Roshi was as stubborn as a mule. He sat down cross-legged right on the tabletop. "Unless you give me a proper explanation today, I'm not moving!"
Onoki's beard quivered with rage. He slammed the table again. "Fine! Sit there for the rest of your life for all I care!"
Kitsuchi stood trapped between the two, trying to soothe their clashing tempers. One was his father; the other was the village's Jinchuriki. The two had always been at odds regarding personality and politics; if this friction worsened because of Gari, it would only spell disaster for the village.
"Roshi, listen," Kitsuchi explained hurriedly. "Gari led a team to the Land of Bears and lost contact for months. His sudden return demands a routine investigation. That is the way of things."
"To hell with your routines!" Roshi glared at Kitsuchi. "Gari fought his way back under enemy pursuit! The border patrol even engaged those people, killing a Jonin and several Chunin and Genin! Our own men were wounded in the fray!"
"Are you suggesting Gari is a spy sent back by the enemy? That they sacrificed a Jonin and an entire squad just to set the stage for a play?"
It had been a month since Gari, the Explosion Release user, had escaped back to the Hidden Stone.
Of the team sent to investigate the upheavals in the Land of Bears and the Star Village, only Gari had returned. The other two remained missing. This lack of witnesses forced Onoki to treat Gari with suspicion, placing him under investigation.
Since his return, Gari had been confined under the guise of "recovering from injuries." Roshi could no longer stand by and watch.
Roshi had done his own digging. He had spoken to the border ninjas who facilitated Gari's return. They confirmed the intensity of the skirmish; the Star ninjas pursuing Gari were formidable, and their corpses had been brought back as proof.
Roshi had never seen eye-to-eye with Onoki, and since Gari was a close friend, the Jinchuriki's explosive temper was bound to reach its boiling point. He had stormed the Tsuchikage's office without a shred of regard for Onoki's title.
Onoki, seated at the head of the table, was equally fed up with the Jinchuriki who constantly defied him.
"I told you, it's standard procedure! Have I thrown him in a dungeon?" The diminutive Onoki stood on his toes atop his chair, leaning over the table to meet Roshi's glare.
"Then let him out! It's been a month!" Roshi barked, refusing to flinch.
Under different circumstances, Onoki might have agreed. A month of investigation had yielded nothing, and it seemed unlikely that an enemy would sacrifice a Jonin-level asset just to plant a mole.
Furthermore, Gari had provided valuable intel. According to his testimony, a mysterious and powerful woman had defeated his entire squad. They were imprisoned in the Star Village, where he underwent brutal interrogation. He claimed to have kept his mouth shut about Stone secrets, but while in captivity, he overheard guards discussing a coup—a group of powerful, mysterious ninjas had seized control of the Star Village.
He even claimed to have seen Pakura of the Sand imprisoned there.
"It is not yet time," Onoki grunted. Because Roshi was pushing him so hard, the Tsuchikage became as stubborn as the very element he mastered. He refused to budge.
"You old fossil!" Roshi hissed.
His right hand ignited with the glow of Lava Release as he lunged toward Onoki.
Onoki reacted instantly, his hand transforming into hardened stone via the Earth Release: Added-Weight Rock Technique.
BOOM!
Stone clashed with molten heat, sending a wave of scorching air rippling through the room. Even as a Jinchuriki, Roshi was pushed back several steps by the impact.
Onoki didn't emerge unscathed either. The sleeve of his right arm was scorched away, and the stone casing on his arm shattered and fell to the floor.
"In a few days, when the month is up, the confinement order will be lifted," Onoki said coldly.
"Hmph!" Roshi let out a heavy snort.
He knew he wasn't truly a match for Onoki—otherwise, he would have settled their political differences with his fists long ago. But his pride wouldn't allow him to bow his head.
Having secured a promise, Roshi dispelled his Lava Release, turned on his heel, and stormed out of the conference room.
"That man... he will be the death of me!" Onoki panted, watching Roshi vanish.
"Father, don't let him get to you. Think of your health," Kitsuchi said, stepping forward to support the elderly Kage.
At the mention of health, Onoki felt a sharp pang in his lower back. He massaged it with a groan, looking at his honest but simple son with a mix of frustration and affection.
"Ai... if only you were strong enough to suppress Roshi and Han, I would have handed this hat to you long ago! I wouldn't have to deal with this headache every single day!"
Kitsuchi could only offer a sheepish smile. Onoki sighed deeply. Kitsuchi was too much like his younger self—honest to a fault—but his power was...
It wasn't that he was weak. At nearly thirty, Kitsuchi was a formidable Jonin who had commanded entire fronts during the Third War. However, he didn't possess the overwhelming strength required to keep the Four-Tails and Five-Tails Jinchuriki in line.
This was the Hidden Stone's greatest crisis: a lack of top-tier, transcendent powerhouses.
The Stone had plenty of ninjas—they had famously mobilized ten thousand men to surround and exhaust the Third Raikage for three days and nights. But they had also lost a generation of talent in that war, and they had yet to fully recover.
Supported by Kitsuchi, Onoki sat down, still rubbing his back. He looked at his son and said, "The Daimyo... he doesn't want a full-scale conflict with the Land of Bears or the Star Village. He wants to avoid another war."
"So, the Daimyo of the Land of Birds will act as a proxy. They will issue a formal diplomatic inquiry to the Land of Bears, demanding an explanation and potentially recognizing their new Daimyo."
"What?" Although Kitsuchi wasn't well-versed in politics, even his rugged face registered shock.
Wasn't the dignity of a Daimyo absolute? A Daimyo's family had been slaughtered, and the Bear nobility purged. Many Stone nobles were related to them by marriage. Could they really just swallow that?
Onoki reached out and whacked Kitsuchi on the head.
"Ow!"
"This is why I say your head is made of wood!" Onoki muttered. His granddaughter, Kurotsuchi, showed far more promise in the brains department.
"Father, why?!" Kitsuchi rubbed the spot where he'd been hit, wincing.
Onoki sighed and explained, "Since the battle with the Third Raikage, we've lost over two thousand ninjas. War fatigue is high in the village. If we rush into a fight, we only benefit the Land of Wind."
"The Daimyo's plan is to let a smaller nation recognize the new Bear Daimyo first. We use that opening to identify the puppet masters behind the coup. Then, we manipulate the relationship between the Land of Bears and the Land of Wind. We let the Sand ninjas test the Star Village's strength first. Once they've exhausted each other, we find an excuse to intervene."
Despite the detailed explanation, Kitsuchi's eyes remained clouded with a "clear-headed stupidity." The high-level machinations of nations were a foreign language to a man specialized in combat.
Onoki looked at his son's blank expression and turned toward the window with a final sigh. "Increase the border patrols. The Land of Bears... might be changing its name soon."
Meanwhile.
Inside a shrine in the Land of Demons, the thin silk curtains swayed despite the lack of a breeze.
Miroku, the Priestess, jolted awake from her bed, her white undergarment soaked through with cold sweat. Her fingers trembled as she pressed them against her racing heart. The nightmare still clung to her mind like a shroud.
Endless darkness had swallowed the entire shinobi world. But within a single beam of light piercing that void, a blurry, distant figure had emerged...
"This prophecy..." Miroku whispered, her voice trembling with dread.