The Jonin meeting ended almost as soon as it began.
Natsuki turned and walked out.
Furuka and the others stayed in their seats, exchanging bewildered looks.
That was really all of it?
What about the peace terms? The actual conditions?
If those two announcements were genuinely the whole agenda, then Natsuki was being generous to the point of absurdity.
Not one person in the room believed the Hidden Leaf had marched all this way to occupy their village purely to supervise a Raikage election.
"I imagine the rest gets handled once the new Raikage is chosen," Furuka guessed.
"That would be my reading of it," Mabui agreed.
"In that case, let's open nominations now." Furuka paused. "Does anyone have a candidate?"
The chamber went quiet.
Under normal circumstances, the office of Kage was the single greatest prize a Jonin could aspire to. The Cloud's shinobi were no exception, ferocious reputation or not.
Their method of choosing was refreshingly simple: the strongest becomes Raikage.
The trouble was that every powerhouse the Hidden Cloud had was now dead, courtesy of Natsuki. Of the Jonin left in the room, all of them were roughly equivalent in strength. Nobody stood out.
And there was a second problem.
Given the state the village was in, the Raikage's chair was not a prize. It was a sentence.
Put bluntly, whoever took it would be the Hidden Leaf's lapdog. There would be authority on paper and shackles in practice, with impossible choices at every turn.
In short, the odds of ending up a puppet were very good.
Furuka scanned the room and sighed inwardly.
He understood exactly what they were all thinking. He didn't want the job either.
But someone had to stand up. It seemed that someone would have to be him.
"I nominate Mabui."
A Jonin spoke up out of nowhere.
Furuka's head came around, stunned.
Mabui wasn't even of age. Her combat ability didn't reach Jonin level. The only thing genuinely remarkable about her was her mind.
Mabui herself looked just as startled. It had never once occurred to her that someone might put her name forward.
"Why?" Furuka asked.
"The village's situation is delicate and complicated. What we need is a Raikage smart enough to hold the whole picture in her head," the Jonin said. "And more importantly—she's young. Younger than Natsuki."
The room stirred.
Furuka felt something click into place.
Youth meant time.
Mabui would outlive Natsuki.
She could serve as a puppet in the early years and endure it. And with a mind like hers, she might actually steer the Hidden Cloud through the worst stretch it had ever faced.
"I second the nomination for Mabui."
Then another voice. Then another, until it rolled through the chamber.
Mabui looked around at them, at a complete loss.
Her ambition, up until five minutes ago, had been to become the Raikage's secretary. Becoming Raikage had never crossed her mind.
"Mabui." Furuka's voice was heavy. "Desperate times demand desperate measures. Every one of us believes in you."
She hesitated for a long moment, then nodded.
She was clever enough to read exactly what Furuka and the rest were thinking. In a certain sense, she was being offered up as a sacrifice.
But she had grown up in this village. If a sacrifice was what it needed, she would be it.
Natsuki, meanwhile, reached the Leaf encampment outside the walls. Tsunade and the others had the tents up already.
He stepped into the command tent and found Uchiha Mikoto inside, alone.
He couldn't help a faint smile at the sight of her. Knowing Mikoto, she had been waiting here specifically for him.
He crossed the tent toward her.
Mikoto knelt and looked up at him, lips parting slightly, a soft sheen catching the light.
Natsuki extended his hand.
She leaned forward and kissed his fingers.
"I'll reward you properly when I have the time," Natsuki said. "Go tell Tsunade-sensei and the others I'm calling a meeting."
"Mm." Mikoto rose and answered softly.
Before long, Tsunade, Nawaki, Minato, Konan, Hizashi, and the rest had gathered.
"The Hidden Cloud is choosing a new Raikage as we speak. Once they've settled it, we'll open negotiations." Natsuki paused. "Before that — what do you all think of the shinobi world as it stands?"
"It's a mess," Nawaki said immediately.
"Perpetual war," Minato added.
"Fortunately, we have Lord Hokage now." Mikoto's expression was gentle. "The fighting will be over soon."
She used his title even in private.
Tsunade's eyes flicked toward her.
There was something in the way Mikoto looked at Natsuki. There always was.
Tsunade's mouth twisted slightly. Knowing Natsuki, she wouldn't put it past him at all.
"Natsuki, what's your plan?" Kushina asked.
"I want to do what the First Hokage did — convene a Five Kage Summit and lay down a new set of rules for the shinobi world." He was smiling as he said it.
"I think that's a fantastic idea!" Kushina backed it on the spot.
"What kind of rules?" Tsunade asked, genuinely curious now.
Minato, Konan, and the others leaned in as well.
A handful of shinobi thrived on war. Most of them just wanted the world to bend toward peace — because every world war meant burying another wave of family and friends.
"They're not finished yet." Natsuki blinked innocently. "You'll have to be patient."
There was a collective flicker of disappointment, but nobody pushed.
"Konan." Natsuki turned to her. "Send Anbu to notify the Hidden Mist, the Hidden Stone, and the Hidden Sand."
"Yes, Natsuki-sensei."
"The summit will be held here in the Hidden Cloud. Seven days from now," he said after a moment's thought.
"What if they don't show?" Nawaki asked.
"They'll come." The corner of Tsunade's mouth curled. "The Leaf is the strongest village in the world right now. They understand perfectly well what refusing would mean."
"Natsuki-sensei." Konan hesitated a few seconds. "Should the leaders of the smaller villages be invited as well?"
"Good thinking." Natsuki's smile widened. "This concerns the entire shinobi world. Everyone should have a seat."
Konan let out a quiet breath of relief.
The peace the Akatsuki had dreamed of was finally within reach.
Tsunade, Minato, and the others felt a swell of something like pride.
In the original story there had been three Five Kage Summits. Here, there had only ever been one. A Five Kage Summit was, without exaggeration, a historic event — and they would be attending the second one, an event they had helped bring about.
Even if the lion's share of the credit belonged to Natsuki.
"You'll need to watch the Daimyo," Tsunade cautioned.
"I'm aware."
Some of the rules he intended to establish would never win a Daimyo's approval.
It didn't matter. They would approve regardless of whether they wanted to.
He had already sent the Three Snake Princesses to bring every last one of them to heel.
"We don't need this many Leaf shinobi stationed here." Natsuki considered it. "Hizashi, take them home tomorrow."
"All of them?" Minato looked uneasy. "If the Hidden Cloud goes back on its word—"
"Afraid of what?" Nawaki laughed. "Did you not see seven thousand Cloud shinobi lying unconscious on the ground?"
Minato went still as it landed.
Natsuki had knocked out seven thousand people at once without so much as changing expression — which meant seven thousand wasn't his ceiling.
Which meant that with Natsuki here, it made no difference how many shinobi the Hidden Cloud could field.
"Yes, Lord Hokage." Hizashi bowed.
"The Anbu will handle summit logistics." Natsuki glanced at Konan, then swept his gaze over the rest. "And since it's not every day you get to be in the Hidden Cloud — go see the place."
"Sightseeing in the Hidden Cloud." Tsunade laughed despite herself. "Now that's a novel experience."
The next day. Hidden Stone Village — Tsuchikage's office.
"Well. The worst didn't happen." Ohnoki rubbed his lower back.
He meant that the Hidden Cloud still existed. If the Leaf had swallowed it whole, the Hidden Stone would have been next in line.
"Are we attending the summit?" Kitsuchi asked.
"We have to." Ohnoki's voice was low. "There's risk either way. The risk of staying home is worse."
Kitsuchi thought it through and understood.
The Leaf could simply hold its summit without them, cut deals with everyone else, and leave the Hidden Stone standing alone with no allies and no leverage. And from there it was a short walk to the Leaf inventing a pretext and erasing them entirely.
"What do you suppose they want to discuss?" Kitsuchi's face was grim.
"Natsuki is not Senju Hashirama. Prepare yourself accordingly." Ohnoki shook his head.
Hidden Mist Village — Mizukage's building.
Not long ago, the Mist and the Leaf had been fighting the Cloud side by side. With the Fourth Raikage and his command dead, Terumi Mei had brought her forces home.
"What do you think comes out of this summit?" she asked.
"Whatever it is, we're going," Genji said at once.
"Mm." Mei nodded. "We're going."
"At least we signed on with the Leaf early." Hozuki Gengetsu was smiling. "We're not the defeated party. We might even come out of this ahead."
"I wouldn't count on it." Genji shook his head. "The Leaf is too far above everyone else now. Allies or not, we don't get a vote."
"We'll see soon enough."
Mei's thoughts drifted to Natsuki.
He was her teacher, and she had never once managed to see through him or predict what he was thinking.
But whatever else was true, hitching the Mist to him had been the right call. Following the Leaf's lead was the only viable policy they had.
And that, she suspected, wasn't going to change for decades.
The Hidden Sand convened a leadership meeting of its own.
It was pure theater. Pakura was Natsuki's, body and soul.
Somewhere underground.
"Lord Madara." White Zetsu surfaced from the floor. "Natsuki is convening a Five Kage Summit in seven days. Every village has been invited."
Something distant passed across Uchiha Madara's face.
A Five Kage Summit. Now there was a phrase out of another lifetime.
The first had been called by Senju Hashirama. Madara had attended that one himself — back before the break, back when the two of them still stood on the same side.
"Absurd." He came back to himself and made a sound of contempt. "A summit will never produce real peace."
As far as he was concerned, Hashirama had already run the experiment and proved the road was a dead end. If Natsuki walked it again, he would simply repeat the same failure. The day he died, the world would snap back to exactly what it had always been.
Even so, Madara intended to go and watch.
Mostly because there was nothing else to do. Storming in to stop the summit would accomplish nothing worth the effort.
The only real move on the board was finding an opening for Black Zetsu to take Nagato.
And that opening would not be at the Five Kage Summit.
Hidden Rain Village — the leader's office.
Yahiko, Konan, and Nagato all arrived on schedule.
"This is great." Yahiko was practically glowing. "There won't be another war after this. Not ever."
"I wouldn't be so sure." Jiraiya shook his head. "Every bit of the peace this world has right now rests on Natsuki alone."
Ever since learning that Nagato had the Rinnegan, he'd been camped out in the Hidden Rain, trying to take him on as a student. He hadn't succeeded, but he'd become a permanent fixture in Yahiko's and Nagato's lives regardless.
Neither of them could do much about him. He was Natsuki-sensei's old teammate, after all.
"Natsuki-sensei is different." Yahiko said it without a shred of doubt. "He'll find a way to make the peace last."
"Only the Child of Prophecy can do that." Jiraiya remained unconvinced.
"If a Child of Prophecy exists at all," Nagato said quietly, "it can only be Natsuki-sensei."
Jiraiya went still.
Going purely by the record, Natsuki certainly looked the part.
But he still put his faith in the Great Toad Sage.
"We'll know more once we hear what the summit actually produces." Yahiko sounded genuinely eager. "There'll be surprises. Count on it."
"I'm coming with you," Jiraiya said.
Child of Prophecy or not, Natsuki now stood on level ground with Senju Hashirama — and that meant he could steer the direction of the entire shinobi world.
9:00 AM.
Natsuki walked into the Raikage's office, where Furuka and Mabui were already waiting.
"Have you chosen?" He glanced at Mabui.
"Lord Hokage." Furuka stepped forward. "It was unanimous. Mabui will serve as the Fifth Raikage."
"Acceptable." Natsuki smiled faintly.
He wasn't surprised in the slightest, given that he was the one who had engineered it.
He held the majority of the Cloud's Jonin under Kyoka Suigetsu. Without his instruction, Mabui becoming Fifth Raikage would have been flatly impossible.
Call it a private indulgence of his.
Because with the sole exception of Natsuki himself, every Kage among the five great villages was now a woman.
The one blemish was the Hidden Stone, which he couldn't arrange for the time being — the village simply didn't have many notable kunoichi. The only one with any real reputation was Kurotsuchi, and Kurotsuchi hadn't been born yet. She belonged to the same generation as Neji and Tenten.
"The summit is in six days, here in the Hidden Cloud. Don't forget to attend," Natsuki said.
Furuka and Mabui both froze — then caught up.
Natsuki meant to follow Hashirama's example and build a new order.
The only question was whether the Hidden Cloud had a place in it.
"We'll convene on the high mountain outside the village," Natsuki added. "Mabui — cooperate with our Anbu on the arrangements."
Not everyone was going to agree to his new rules. So he had arranged a way to make sure they agreed anyway.
"Yes, Lord Hokage." Mabui bowed her head.