"It's easy. I will give you two-hundred thousand of my ration pills over the course of half a year for Danzō's right arm and whatever is behind that bandage covering his right eye. But only if we complete the deal right now. If there's an eye in the eye socket, I'll throw in two hundred of my 'cleansing pills'," Tsunade heard as she steadied her nerves and went to open the door to the conference room.
"This is preposterous!" Her sensei shouted in anger.
"What? Clearly the man is crippled in both. He's been wearing bandages since before the Third Ninja War started. It's unlikely that whatever we find could be worth more than Kiri's pills. Come on, Danzō. Sacrifice a little for your village. It's not like a man at your age needs both arms and an eye you can't use anyway, right? You're a politician now, not a shinobi," Yoshihiro goaded in an amused voice.
Tsunade entered and saw Yoshihiro lazily lying in his chair as he watched on in amusement as the Hokage and his three advisors looked at the red-haired shinobi in anger.
Only Jiraiya looked unimpressed entirely. After all, he saw the seriousness in Yoshihiro's eyes when the man said he wouldn't reach a deal with them unless Tsunade showed up.
"Oh my, Tsunade-hime has graced us with her presence," the Red Demon quipped as he rested his chin on one hand with a self-assured grin.
"Tsunade, why have you come?" The Hokage asked with furrowed brows.
"Lord Terumi has requested her presence," Jiraiya quickly answered, though his frown didn't ease by much. He had seen Tsunade's unease yesterday and also knew that the two had already met.
"I fear there's something I have to confess. The pills you have requested from Kiri as payment don't exist. Jiraiya has fallen victim to a joke I played on him with Naruto's unwitting assistance," Tsunade revealed without any outward difficulty as she sat down next to her fellow Sannin and gave him a meaningful look for the briefest moment.
Danzō scoffed and accused, "Nonsense. The Fifth Mizukage has all but confessed to the existence of the pills. Why else would she send her fiance here? Plus, my Root has long suspected that the rumors of 'the alchemist' out of Kiri have some basis in truth."
"Are you still mad that you can't replicate my teacher's ration pill recipe? It's been so many years, allow me to admit that it was me who figured out that the nobleman's attendant was actually a Root operative. How much did we make you pay again?"
Hearing the Red Demon's grating laugh, Danzō fought hard to maintain his composure, but he wasn't a veteran of three wars for nothing.
"I don't know what you mean?"
"Come on, be real. Mizu no Kuni is an impoverished country compared to Hi no Kuni. There was no way a small noble from my lands could afford to pay for my teacher's pill recipe at the quoted price. Plus, my teacher actually had that noble in his pockets long before your scheme was put in motion. We knew exactly how much funds he had before your planted advisor put him under your control," the six-tails jinchūriki revealed with a gloating smirk.
Piercing the silence, the Mizukage's fiance looked at the Hokage and once more offerend, "The other pills might be mere rumors, but the ration pills are the real deal and the cleansing pills have some effect we're still studying. One arm and whatever he has in place of his eye behind that bandage and you won't even have to give Kiri any missions. How about it, Sarutobi-san?"
He handed out a few cleansing pills to people like En No Gyoja after all. There was no way he'd trick the Konoha faction by saying they weren't real. He could always just give them 'defective' products, though. There was no way he'd give Konoha pills at the same quality he handed his women or even just his students.
The two advisors were about to bluster at the disrespectful way the Red Demon addressed their Hokage, but Sarutobi Hiruzen instead looked at his teammate with a searching look.
Danzō saw the look and simply scoffed again before standing up and leaving without another word.
"Too bad. Stealing some Hashirama cells and a couple of Sharingan from you guys with such a lowball offer was too good to be true, I suppose. Let's just meet up again tomorrow to see if I can't find a way for our villages to still cooperate," the 'Kiri Executioner' said loud enough for Danzō to still hear him, acting all sad as he stood up and made for the door behind Danzō.
The Hokage didn't stand up and gave no signs for the jinchūriki to stop.
Once they were alone in the room, Hiruzen looked at Tsunade and asked, "Is what you said about the pills true?"
Tsunade could only apologize in her mind for her lie and replied, "Yes. Jiraiya kept getting on my nerves. I didn't think he'd go to you to organize a deal. I thought he'd leave Konoha to verify the rumors in the Land of Water."
The lie, to her credit, was completely believable. Even Jiraiya was convinced for a short moment before he remembered the way Tsunade acted yesterday. But he didn't voice his suspicions in front of their teacher.
"What was this about the Sharingans and my grandpa's cells?" Tsunade asked as she looked at the old teammates of her teacher.
"We have no idea," Mitokado Homura answered with a small frown. Since the Red Demon had mentioned wanting to trade for Danzō's arm and bandaged eye, it wasn't hard to figure out what he implied. But repeating it served no purpose in this setting.
"He clearly said Sharingans, not Sharingan. What was that about?" Jiraiya muttered in a low voice, but nobody answered him.
The Third Hokage, however, had seen the laboratory of Orochimaru when his wayward student was chased out of Konoha that fateful day. He knew exactly what Terumi Yoshihiro had meant, even if he didn't have the will to confirm the details with Danzō.
"If the pills aren't real, the alliance has a lower priority. Even better ration pills are still just ration pills and we have no idea what these 'cleansing pills' can even do. The new Mizukage clearly has the intention to foster a positive relationship with us, even if she… lied about the existence of these miraculous pills. We might have possibly been used to test out the depths of this mysterious teacher behind the Red Demon. Still, we should consider giving Kiri what it wants," Hiruzen solemnly explained and stood up to leave the conference room.
With his hand on the door handle, he turned to his advisors and decided, "If it doesn't affect our bottomline, it is better to foster allies than to remain enemies. Terumi Mei's stance and overall attitude is preferable to her predecessors. We shouldn't allow Kiri to fall back into extremes."
Jiraiya silently followed Tsunade back to her home. Only when he closed the door behind them, he asked, "Those pills are real, aren't they?"
Tsunade looked at her teammate for a long while before nodding. She wanted to see if her kids were alright and she was close enough to confirm it with her sensory abilities. Shizune was playing catch with them in the yard.
"Why are you saying otherwise?"
Tsunade grit her teeth for a short moment before she revealed part of the truth, "I thought myself clever and made you aware of them through a loophole. Terumi Yoshihiro didn't care that it was an 'accident' that you learned of their existence. I met him during my travels. He wanted Uzumaki sealing knowledge in return but left without getting any. He ended up giving me these pills for Naruto anyway…"
Jiraiya nodded in understanding as he whispered to himself, "So he is an Uzumaki after all. It makes sense." He looked at his fellow Sannin and asked, "But why the secrecy? And why would he help Naruto?"
"Why would he help Uzumaki Naruto?" Tsunade asked with a wry smile, emphasizing the family name. "He said it was because they are family and they both share the tragic fate of being jinchūriki. He also had some very choice words for how you and Kakashi allowed Naruto to be treated like he was by the village."
Jiraiya was stunned for a short moment before waving his discomfort away and asking once more, "The secrecy?"
"Terumi Yoshihiro is much, much stronger than you think. His chakra might be more overwhelming than my grandmother's. No, it is more overwhelming," Tsunade answered with a haunted look. She refrained from telling Jiraiya once more that she had achieved sage mode and was able to use the overpowered Wood Release of her grandfather… because even like that she wasn't sure she could beat the father of her twins. Because while it might be strong, her wood release still didn't reach her grandfather's level and she still didn't master the sage mode versions of Hashirama's jutsu repertoire.
And another thing she didn't tell Jiraiya even now was explicitly not explained either – that it was Yoshihiro who had fathered her children.
"Stronger chakra than the legendary Uzumaki Mito?" Jiraiya asked with a shocked look. The weight of this statement didn't fully register in his mind yet. Instead, the Sannin got a little angry as he asked through gritted teeth, "So he threatened you for revealing the pills?"
Tsunade shook her head and said, "He said he'd start with killing you and Orochimaru. Trust me when I say this: even together the two of you are not his match. I don't think we would win with all three of us fighting as a team again. The outcome would be much worse than back then with Hanzo."
Jiraiya wanted to retort that he had grown much stronger than he was back then, but he knew Tsunade. She wouldn't warn him if she didn't mean it wholeheartedly. With another deep frown, he asked, "Have you told sensei? About your assessment of the Red Demon?"
The Senju princess nodded and explained, "In part. It's the whole reason he is treated with so much respect despite coming as a single person envoy with such a disrespectful attitude. I know he fled the battlefield in the last war after Uchiha Shisui caught him by surprise, but Terumi Yoshihiro grew more cautious, more scheming… and he definitely got rid of any weaknesses Konoha identified since then."
Jiraiya was about to retort but then he remembered his teacher's warnings back when he was asked to attend the negotiations by the Hokage.
"He did almost kill Shisui in a mission some time ago. An ANBU squad was only supposed to get him to leave the Tsuchigumo clan and Red Demon-kun identified three of the five immediately. Granted, Might Duy's son was only added to the group after reaching special jōnin rank to broaden his horizons and not as an actual ANBU, but once he noticed Uchiha Shisui among the group, he took out a piece of metal, heated it up in his hand and threw it at Shisui. According to the report, it took no effort and he purposefully aimed it at a non-lethal spot… behind cover."
Tsunade nodded as if that was as expected. She knew that Yoshihiro had very likely awakened her grandmother's ability Mind Eye's of Kagura. And she knew just how ridiculous the jinchūriki's body and chakra was in addition to his nature transformation talent with fire chakra.
"Then what is it he still wants in Konoha?" Jiraiya eventually asked.
Tsunade looked in the direction of her children in worry, but suggested, "To embarrass the old man and Danzō. Additionally, you said it yourself. He came across as whipped for doing his fiance's bidding. He could purposefully be doing a bad job to get back at the Mizukage. Men hate strong women after all."
Inwardly though, she lightly bit her lip. She knew that wasn't the case with Yoshihiro.
She had no idea what he was up to.
———
The man in question was leisurely making his way around Konoha until he eventually reached the Uchiha compound. The Nine-Tails Incident had already happened and the Uchiha were moved to the outskirts of the village.
"State your business," a guard dressed in the clan colors ordered as Terumi Yoshihiro made his way to the gate of the clan compound.
Still without shoes on or a shirt underneath his loosely-bound haori, Yoshihiro looked more like a well-groomed beggar than the envoy of one of the five major villages.
"I am Terumi Yoshihiro, six-tails jinchūriki of Kiri and fiance of the Fifth Mizukage. I am here on a diplomatic mission, as your clan elders should be well aware. Since I came without any little helpers, I have sadly not had the chance to ask for a meeting with your clan head the proper way. It is my hope that he has some time now anyway. It regards his oldest son."
The guard immediately turned angry upon hearing the name, after all they had been deployed to the Kiri battle front during the Third Ninja War and they had lost dozens of capable ninja to the man in front of them. But he still nodded at the quiet second guard who shot off deeper into the compound.
"I take it you don't like me very much?" The Red Demon asked the lone remaining sentry with an empathetic smile.
"You killed quite a few Uchiha. It is only natural that we don't like you," The Uchiha chunin guard explained but managed to keep his deep-seated anger from his voice. After all, the demon seemed to be here on a diplomatic mission.
The jinchūriki gave another nod in understanding and waited silently for an answer from the clan head.
A few minutes later, a man dressed in a green kimono followed by a solemn looking lady dressed in a modest black kimono walked over unhurriedly.
"Terumi-sama," the man greeted with a stony expression. "You wish to discuss my oldest son with me?"
"Uchiha Fugaku, Uchiha Mikoto," Yoshihiro greeted with a nod, not showing any respect the clan head and his wife would usually receive. "Indeed, but this is hardly the place."
Yoshihiro looked at a building behind him and Fugaku followed the direction of his gaze as he activated his Sharingan.
Several shinobi were watching, as always, so Fugaku now had a choice. Talking without the ANBU being able to report what it was about would invite even more scrutiny from the Hokage. Declining to talk with the Kiri ninja would show weakness, lowering his standing in the eyes of all Uchiha ninja and the clan's standing in the eyes of the other clans in the village.
"Follow me," Fugaku solemnly declared after reaching a decision quickly. It wasn't long that the clan was made to move away. Refusing now would make the hawk faction of the Uchiha rise up in defiance quite certainly. These hardliners wouldn't take such humiliation, no matter how correct Konoha would be in limiting a single clan's contact to a powerful ninja from another village.
Once they were in one of the guard houses not very deep inside the Uchiha compound, Fugaku sat down with his wife sitting not far behind him as they gestured for Yoshihiro to sit down as well.
"Itachi will not live to grow older than 20, possibly 25 if he takes care of his condition with conventional methods," Yoshihiro shared the moment he sat down.
Mikoto's Sharingan activated into a three-tomoe state immediately, but she stopped herself from doing or saying anything when she saw the Red Demon merely lifting his eyebrow with the hint of a smirk on his face.
'He doesn't fear the Sharingan at all,' she thought in worry but kept her eyes active.
"Explain," Fugaku ordered with a small frown.
"You brought him to the battlefield at the very end, yes?"
Mikoto shot her husband a small look, but only she knew the deep meaning behind it as Fugaku gave a small nod in response.
"You might not know this, but my tailed beast makes me a very good medical ninja. It isn't an exaggeration to say that while she has the skill and knowledge that is far superior to mine, I am without equal if Tsunade wasn't in the picture. You likely remember your clansman Shisui almost taking me out?"
Yoshihiro lifted one arm out of his haori and showed his ribs. There wasn't even a scar, both Uchiha noticed quickly.
To drive home his point, Yoshihiro also fished out his short sword and cut deeply into arm. The bone-deep cut didn't even have a chance to bleed before it already closed, courtesy of Saiken's chakra and his Uzumaki sage body.
Looking at his hair after the demonstration, Mikoto asked, "You are an Uzumaki?"
"Oh right, you were friends with Kushina. Yes, just like her I am an Uzumaki like my father," the Kiri shinobi admitted with a shrug.
"And Itachi?" Fugaku asked, uncaring of the demon's heritage.
"Ah, yes. I was deep into your territory looking for Shisui before the war ended but he wasn't anywhere close. Instead I found you and your son," Yoshihiro described before looking into Mikoto's activated Sharingan. "You are on good terms with Tsunade?"
The Uchiha matriarch nodded.
"Ask her to check your son's lungs. And if she tells you she can't do anything about it, send a letter to me at the Fujikama clan in the Land of Iron's capital. They know how to get in touch with me or tell you if I am no longer in their lands and have returned to Kiri."
Fugaku once more narrowed his eyes.
"What do you want for this information in return?"
Yoshihiro looked at both of them with an unreadable expression before he shrugged and kept quiet.
Fugaku just kept staring and Mikoto sat in silence, still with her Sharingan activated. News that her son might be sick made her briefly forget that she still had her ocular abilities activated.
"Would you believe me if I said I wanted to see the two of you alive while I still had the chance and telling you about Itachi was only a pretense to accomplish that?" Yoshihiro eventually asked with a smirk totally unbefitting of the morbid topic.
"Are we dying anytime soon as well?" Mikoto asked after speaking up for only the second time since they entered the room.
"Technically, we all die sometime soon if we look at it from the perspective of our planet or the tailed beasts," Yoshihiro answered with yet another uncaring shrug. "But yeah, the way Konoha treats your clan, I'm guessing some of us in this room will die earlier than the others."
"Are you trying to sow the seeds of discord?" Fugaku solemnly inquired.
"No, I don't care enough about Konoha, your clan, Kiri, or even my clan. Sowing seeds of discord is beneath me because I don't care about anything enough. And if I did want to sow discord, I'd tell the hawk faction about Danzō's Sharingan collection that he carries around in his arm," the jinchūriki scoffed with a dismissive wave of his hand.
Fugaku's jaw clenched immediately. He didn't need to know whether the Kiri shinobi's allegations were true or not. A powerful ninja had no need to lie in the eyes of a clan as strong as the Uchiha. And even if they treated it as ramblings, the elders leading the hawk faction would still use it as an opportunity to find fault with Danzō and feed the flames of conflict.
It was clear that Terumi Yoshihiro had a good understanding of the politics in the Uchiha clan and Konoha as a whole.
"Okay. I achieved what I wanted. You should have a guard escort me back outside of the clan," the red-haired man argued as he stood up.
Mikoto finally deactivated her Sharingan, her pupils turning black once more, and said, "If Tsunade-san finds something wrong with Itachi, I will be in your debt."
Fugaku looked at his wife in worry but kept quiet.
"There is nothing you have that I want," Yoshihiro waved away with a small scoff. "Unless you have a sister?"
Fugaku immediately had a deep scowl on his face but the Red Demon merely laughed and walked outside as he fetched one of the guards to bring him out of the Uchiha territory.
"He is a dangerous man," Mikoto asserted in a small voice.
"He gained a lot of strength since the war. You looked at him with your Sharingan, right?" Fugaku asked and his wife nodded. "His chakra ballooned beyond even Mito-sama's vast capacity. I have never seen anything like it."
"Neither have I," Mikoto whispered as her face broke into an expression of pure awe at the freak of nature that just sat in the same room with them. "I will take Itachi to see Tsunade-san."
Fugaku nodded. He wanted to come along, but he needed to deal with the aftermath of Terumi Yoshihiro's visit and talk to the Hokage after informing the elders of his clan.