The Council Hall.
Neither Tsunade nor Jiraiya wanted to be there.
Meetings like this had never sat well with either of them, all formality and posturing dressed up as necessity. But there were times to show disagreement, and the day after an invasion that had killed the Hokage was not one of them. They walked into the meeting hall together and found it already full.
"Seems like I'll be needing some drinks after this..." Jiraiya grumbled to himself.
"You don't say..." Tsunade looked even more annoyed.
Every clan head Konoha had left was seated around the long table. Homura and Koharu occupied their usual places near the head of it, the empty chair between them a silence louder than anything either elder could have said aloud.
Danzō's seat, further down, had been empty for years now—Root long since dismantled, its founder long since dead. Whatever comfort that absence might once have offered, it offered none today. There was no shadow organization left to quietly hold the village together while the council figured out what to do next.
Say what you will about that old goat Danzō, he brought results. So, at a time like this, his absence was really being felt.
However, if asked whether any of them would have it otherwise, none would agree besides the elders themselves.
Danzō Shimura was better off staying dead than alive, walking around and plotting in the shadows.
"Let's begin," Koharu said, her voice clipped, giving neither of them time to sit before the questions started. "Tsunade... what's the current situation in the hospital?"
Tsunade didn't sit. She stood at the head of the table instead, arms crossed, and started with the numbers because the numbers were the only part of this she could deliver without her voice shaking.
"Civilian dead currently stand at sixty-three, with more still being pulled from collapsed buildings in the eastern district. Shinobi casualties are worse. Two hundred and one dead, including seven jōnin. Wounded across both categories number in the low hundreds. The hospital is over capacity. We've converted two training halls into overflow wards."
Silence settled over the table. The damage was worse than any of them had anticipated.
"And the two prisoners," Homura pressed when nobody else spoke first.
Tsunade's expression shifted, just slightly, something almost sharp creeping into it. "Gaara of the Sand. Completely intact, physically.
Genin Haruno Sukuna put him under a genjutsu deep enough to keep him sedated rather than actually harming him." She let that sit a moment before continuing.
"Not only did that brat defeat the One-Tail Jinchūriki, he did it with almost no possible damage to the boy."
A few clan heads exchanged glances at that. It wasn't lost on any of them that Tsunade rarely praised anyone without an edge to it, and this was no exception.
"And the Mizukage?" Koharu asked.
Here Tsunade's expression darkened for real. "Terumi Mei is, frankly, a miracle that she's alive at all. Multiple bones shattered throughout her body, organ damage consistent with catastrophic internal crushing, blood loss that should have killed her twice over before she reached the hospital." She paused.
"She's stable now. Once again, that miracle worker pulled it off somehow. That brat stabilized her on the battlefield before anyone else even reached her. If that on-the-spot medical treatment hadn't been given, then she certainly would have died."
"Another mark in his favor, then," Shikaku Nara observed dryly from further down the table.
"He's earning quite a list of them today," Tsunade agreed, though the pointedness in her voice made clear exactly who she thought should be paying closer attention to that list.
"The boy was already a very established medical shinobi, there was no doubt about it. Even Aizawa, the current head of the hospital, wanted the boy to become a full-time medic-nin multiple times." Koharu added to Tsunade's dismay.
Yes, she had petitioned multiple times to pull Sukuna completely into the hospital. A small part of it was completely out of petty revenge against the annoying boy, but the majority was because he was capable.
The healing abilities he had shown until now—even Tsunade was envious. Her retirement be damned, she couldn't die in peace if such talent wasn't used correctly. Her inner medic couldn't have it any other way.
Of course, the brat denied it... and that old man Hiruzen agreed. Thus... all her petitions and demands fell on deaf ears.
"And for good reason. We would have missed out on an excellent shinobi if we had bound him to the hospital against his wishes. The Third Hokage obviously saw that and had his reasons for acting the way he did." Homura added, ending the matter before it could even start.
Knowing Tsunade, she would definitely bring the matter up again. Better to nip it in the bud.
"You said crushing," Inoichi Yamanaka said slowly, frowning. "What technique does that?" Someone finally asked. Healing was one thing, but being able to beat a Kage-level shinobi to that extent was another matter altogether.
Everyone wished to know the same. Who was capable of beating Terumi Mei like that? Until now, most thought it was the Third Hokage who had done it. But when the report came in that Lord Third had only fought the Fourth Kazekage during the latter part of the battle, they couldn't believe it.
Tsunade's jaw tightened.
The room went quiet again, differently this time.
"Izumi Uchiha."
Every head in the room turned, almost in unison, toward the man currently occupying the Uchiha seat.
Tekka Uchiha hadn't expected to be the center of attention today, and it showed in the half-second it took him to compose his expression. He wasn't the strongest member of his clan, and everyone at this table knew it. He held the clan head seat only because the girl who actually deserved it kept refusing to take it herself.
"She fought the Mizukage," he said carefully, testing the words as they left his mouth. "Alone."
"She fought the Mizukage to a standstill using nothing but taijutsu for most of it," Tsunade corrected, "and finished the fight with something I'm not prepared to explain to this table today." Because she really didn't know.
Most of the time, the wounds explained the type of attack a person had endured. The Mizukage's body wasn't in any condition to explain anything. Even after receiving a life-saving emergency treatment from Sukuna, the amount of damage she had endured didn't explain what type of jutsu could have caused it.
It was as if her body had simply started collapsing from the inside, which honestly explained nothing. Tsunade really didn't know how to explain it.
Pride swelled visibly in Tekka's chest despite his best effort to keep his expression neutral. He didn't say anything more. He didn't need to.
"This should be discussed further," Homura said, his tone carefully even, "but not here. There are still other important matters to discuss." He didn't explain, but everyone understood. Further discussion on this topic wasn't for everyone's ears, and it had to be postponed until the time and company were right.
Nobody argued with that. Whatever the full truth about Izumi was, it clearly wasn't ready for the whole table yet. Especially after the entire incident of her coming back to life. That was the most suspicious part of this ordeal.
Talk pivoted back to Sukuna soon after, and once it started, it didn't really stop.
"Teleporting the One-Tail entirely outside the village," Shikaku said, ticking the point off with visible weight. "Defeating a jinchūriki in a full tailed-beast transformation, alone, without leveling the surrounding countryside in the process. Stabilizing a Kage's fatal injuries on the battlefield. And then—" he glanced toward Karin's earlier report, already circulated among the clan heads, "—single-handedly cutting through what our own scouts estimate at somewhere over a hundred enemy shinobi across the village using Flying Thunder God."
"Are you certain it's true?"
"It's been verified..."
"Then how come that boy is still a genin? What was the Hokage thinking?"
A long pause spread between them. No one had any idea.
"Ahem..." Finally, Inoichi broke the tension again. He certainly had been doing that a lot lately.
"A civilian-born genin," Inoichi added, almost to himself, "doing all of that in the same day."
Nobody needed to say the name out loud for the comparison to land across the entire table. Jiraiya, who'd stayed quiet through most of the meeting so far, finally spoke.
"Reminds us of Minato, doesn't he," he said, half a smile tugging at his mouth despite everything.
"Which raises its own set of questions," Koharu said, more pointed than amused.
Tsunade's and Jiraiya's brows rose... already knowing where the old hag was taking this conversation. Most likely, how could a genin be capable of doing all that?
Is he a spy?
What spy would attract attention to himself like that?
Of course they knew he wasn't a spy. His file was too clean for that. So that only made the question hit even harder.
How had someone like this existed in the younger generation without them knowing already?
Who was his jōnin sensei? It was supposed to be a jōnin sensei's duty to assess a genin's capabilities and report them to the village.
Turns out, he hadn't had one at the start, and only later had Hiruzen assigned him, Karin Uzumaki, and Kiyomi Uchiha under none other than Izumi Uchiha.
That brought another round of silence...
"Questions for another time. Right now, we have more immediate matters." Finally Homura said. He felt a headache coming on.
He was too damn old for this...
The meeting moved on, though nobody quite forgot what had just been said.
"Suna," Homura said next, laying the word down like a weight. "Rasa is dead. Killed inside our walls by our Hokage during an invasion Suna itself orchestrated. Whatever grief or fury that produces in their village, it's going to land on us."
"They started this," Chōza said flatly. "We didn't kill their Kage out of malice. He died attacking us."
"That distinction won't matter to a grieving village," Jiraiya said. "It rarely does."
"Which means we need a position on compensation before they demand one from us," Shikaku said. "We're holding Gaara. Their jinchūriki. That's significant leverage. Whether we frame it as custody or as a hostage depends entirely on how the negotiation goes."
"We shouldn't call it that outright," Tsunade cut in. "He's a child who was manipulated into carrying out an invasion he barely understood. Treat him like a prisoner of war and Suna has every reason to escalate rather than negotiate."
"Then what do you suggest?" Koharu asked.
"Return him, eventually, as a gesture of goodwill," Tsunade said. "But only after we've extracted concessions worth extracting. Reduced hostilities. Trade terms in our favor, given their economic situation is what pushed them into this in the first place. And formal acknowledgment of the invasion's illegality, so no other village gets ideas about doing the same."
A murmur of agreement passed around the table, though not universal.
"Kiri," Homura said next, moving the conversation forward before disagreement could fully take root. "Terumi Mei is currently in our hospital, alive only because of intervention from our own shinobi. That's a very different situation from Suna's."
"They joined this conditionally," Jiraiya pointed out. "Reluctantly, from what our intelligence suggested going in. That gives us room to negotiate a softer outcome, if we choose to."
"Softer doesn't mean without cost," Tsunade said. "She's still alive because of us. That fact alone gives us enormous leverage if we choose to use it. Kiri will want her back. We decide the price of that."
"And if they don't want to pay it?" Inoichi asked.
"Then she stays here until they do," Tsunade said with the flat certainty of someone who had already decided this wasn't up for debate.
"Also, while going through our Miracle Boy's file, I found many of the mission reports weren't available directly...
It took much searching, qualification clearance, and no small deal of threatening on my part to get some hidden reports of his missions which that old man had buried from plain sight...
Turns out this wasn't the first time the boy had taken out a Tailed Beast. A few months ago, he had fought with the Three-Tails Jinchūriki, Yagura... the report didn't explain exactly what happened, but Yagura had gone missing from that point onward."
Another round of silence fell over the hall.
"So... Sarutobi knew. That damn old monkey. At least he should have told us." Koharu almost cursed under her breath. Even Homura had a brow twitching.
Others looked around, most of the clan heads especially looking at the elders and seeing their uncomfortable faces. Most knew that this was news even to them.
'Hokage-sama sure liked to keep his secrets, huh...' most could only curse at the expense of the dead Hokage.
The corner of Tsunade's mouth curled up in amusement. It wasn't every day she got to see these two annoying elders this frustrated.
"Anyways... whether the report is right or not, now we might know why Kiri possibly had a stake in this invasion..."
That brought another round of silence.
"There's also the wider picture to consider," Shikaku finally added. "Iwa and Kumo weren't part of this invasion, but they'll be watching closely regardless. A weakened Konoha is an opportunity to some of them, whether or not they act on it immediately."
"Then we make sure the picture they see isn't one of weakness," Jiraiya said. "We rebuild fast. We make it clear the invasion cost the aggressors more than it cost us, even if that's not entirely true yet."
"It will be true," Tsunade said, "if we handle the negotiations correctly."
Silence settled again, heavier this time, everyone in the room understanding what came next before anyone said it out loud.
"Which brings us to the matter none of us can avoid any longer," Homura said finally. "Hiruzen is gone. Konoha needs a Hokage, and it needs one soon. A village without clear leadership, in the immediate aftermath of an invasion like this, is a village inviting further trouble."
Every eye at the table turned, almost as one, toward the two people standing at its head.
Tsunade's jaw tightened. Jiraiya's easy half-smile finally faded entirely.
Oh yes… they were gonna need a drink after this, alright…
xXx
A/N : Ah... that mostly should covers the entire political side after the invasion if I'm not wrong. Tell me in the comment if I missed out anything.
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