Ay seemed to transform into the Roaring Emperor as he bellowed loudly again, "That old bastard Danzo!"
Naruto instantly got angry at the insult. He stood from his seat for the very first time, saying in an extremely serious, chilling tone, "Raikage, I am giving you a grave warning. If you insult the Fifth Hokage once more, we will view it as a direct declaration of war by Kumogakure against Konoha."
"Are the people of your village prepared for war with us?"
At the exact same time, Sasuke took a deliberate step forward. He angled his body, resting one hand lightly on his sword hilt. He glared at the bleeding man, trembling slightly as if restraining a violent urge, looking ready to explode at any given second.
Meanwhile, inside Sasuke's mind.
Naruto was telling him, 'Sasuke, make sure you hold it in and don't laugh.'
Sasuke replied doing his best to control his laughter, 'Yeah. I know.'
While everyone was fearfully focused on the Uchiha, Neji had already used the Gentle Fist to violently strike Mei's tenketsu points and extracted the Byakugan from Ao's right eye. After stashing the prize safely away, he slowly walked over to Naruto's side.
His sharp gaze swept across the tense room. Under those pale eyes, everyone felt an uncomfortable illusion of being completely seen through.
"You want to fight? I-" Ay, deeply provoked by Naruto's threat, opened his mouth to accept the challenge, but C, standing nervously next to him, held him back tightly.
'Fight my ass, Lord Raikage. Didn't you see how just that one kid defeated all the Kirigakure ninja? Not to mention your arm just got chopped off again? And that was advanced prosthetic!'
But he couldn't say that out loud. Before leaving, Mabui had specifically instructed him: if the boss lost his head, he had to find a way to calm him down. They were here to form a vital alliance, not to start a bloodbath.
C hurriedly whispered, "Lord Raikage, Lord Bee is still waiting for us to rescue him."
"Damn it!" Ay glared at Naruto with burning resentment.
There was no helping it, the situation was stronger than his pride. This was no longer the time when Kumo was the undisputed strongest in the world. They had suffered heavy blow after heavy blow. Their Jinchuriki had gone missing, and their elites had suffered devastating casualties. They simply couldn't afford to go through another Great Ninja War right now.
"Tsuchikage, Kazekage, are you two just going to watch them?" He turned his desperate gaze toward Onoki and Rasa, who had been watching safely from the sidelines.
He didn't seek out Mifune because he knew that the Land of Iron would absolutely never get involved. A neutral country had to behave like a neutral country.
As for Kirigakure? He tried to stand up for them, and what was the tragic result?
There were only three of them. One had an eye brutally gouged out, one was beaten into critical condition, and finally, Mei, the Mizukage herself, had her tenketsu points completely sealed, lying helpless on the ground unable to release even a shred of chakra.
Kirigakure had completely fallen.
Once he dealt with 'Kashin Koji', he would easily find an excuse to invade the Land of Water and seize their vulnerable territory.
"Ay, I think it's best if we sit down calmly and talk things out." Onoki chuckled, neither helping Kumo nor Konoha, simply being evasive as usual.
Once it was confirmed that the enemy didn't possess the Sharingan and didn't seem to be an Uchiha, Onoki had decided that Kumo posed a much greater threat than Madara's disciple.
Raikage's words definitely contained exaggeration. He claimed there was only one Chakra Cannon, but was that true? Who knew if they had a second, a third, or even more powerful weapons hidden away?
Seeing his dissatisfaction, Onoki tossed the question to Rasa. "Kazekage, what is your take on this mess?"
The Kazekage would surely be just like him, siding with neither party.
Rasa's eyes lit up brightly upon hearing this.
'You're asking me? Hey, you certainly asked the right person.'
Rasa stated his position loudly as if he could hardly wait. "Sunagakure and Konoha share the same breath and branch. Since decades, we have been their most loyal allies."
'Bullshit!'
Onoki almost started cursing him for such blatant lie.
There were simply too many ridiculous points to even know where to begin. Calling Sunagakure Konoha's most loyal ally? Since decades? It was clearly Suna-nins who fought Konoha the fiercest in the three previous wars!
That so-called plot by Otogakure a while back was obviously a lie. It was definitely Oto colluding with Suna to attack Konoha. Judging by the current situation, there was a high probability Suna got beaten up instead.
And beaten up very, very badly. This was honestly ridiculous.
"Please, calm down, everyone," Mifune said, casting a silent, pitying glance toward Mei.
He really hadn't been in a position to stop Neji just now, he had neither the political reason nor the standing to intervene in clan matters.
'If you Kiri-nins secretly got your hands on another village's Kekkei Genkai, why couldn't you just keep it quiet? You had to bring stolen property here and flaunt it, were you worried that people wouldn't find out?'
'Not only did Konoha find out, but there was even a Hyuga Clan prodigy right there.'
'Isn't that basically spitting directly in the face of the victim?'
'Wouldn't Konoha fight you to the bitter end over this? If your skills were inferior, you really can't blame anyone else for taking it back.'
It seems this summit wouldn't be able to continue. Mifune knew the result, but as the moderator, he still had to do his duty.
"The purpose of our gathering this time is to discuss how to deal with the organization established by Madara's disciple, isn't it?"
"Discuss what?" Ay exploded with rage, pointing a shaky finger at the crowd. "You never had any intention of forming an alliance in the first place."
"In that case, we Kumogakure won't waste our precious time here either. C, Karui, we're leaving!"
After he finished speaking, the furious man turned on his heel and stormed out with his two guards, without looking back once.
"Lord Raikage!"
No matter how Mifune called out, he was completely ignored.
"Lord Tsuchikage, Lord Kazekage. What about us..."
Seeing the exit, Mifune could only look at Rasa, then at Onoki, and finally, his gaze settled on Naruto. Since the main aggrieved party had left, was there really any need for this farce to continue?
With the dramatic departure of Ay and the heavy blow to Kiri faction, the Five Kage Summit disbanded right then and there.
Unlike the first summit years ago where the five nations hypocritically signed a peace alliance, this one ended on incredibly bad terms.
Not long after, Naruto's team left the cold Land of Iron. Rasa and Suna ninja followed close behind, then Onoki, who departed with Kurotsuchi and Akatsuchi.
Finally, Kiri. After Mei slowly recovered, she, along with Chojuro and Ao, who had lost his stolen eye, left the territory with their tails firmly tucked between their legs.
The most humiliated party at this summit was undoubtedly them. There had long been voices in the village opposing her position as Mizukage. It was just that Genji was there suppressing them, so no one dared to question it. Now, not only had they lost face for Kirigakure, but they had also lost the dojutsu prize they had worked so hard to acquire.
This was a massive, unforgivable offense.
Mei looked up sadly at the gloomy, snowing sky.
'My position as Acting Mizukage is probably at its end.'
Shortly after leaving the snowy boundaries of the Land of Iron, Naruto suddenly stopped dead in his tracks. Facing a patch of empty, freezing air, he spoke up. "Zetsu Senpai, you've been watching from underground for so long and following us all this way. Aren't you planning to come out and meet?"
"Do I need to invite you personally?"
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