Far away, in a distant buffer land, away from the soils of any of the five major elemental nations, three powerful figures sat at a table.
Each of them radiated a breath of suppressive powers. Their aura was so intense that the assistants standing behind him as protectors couldn't help but feel their breath halting.
It was as if the grim reapers placed the death scythes against their necks.
One small movement, and they could say "Sayonara (goodbye)" to their lives.
The chakra reserves of the three figures sitting at the table were off the charts—so potent that it felt like they could crush everything around them just by unleashing their monstrous chakra outside.
One of them had neck-length brown spiky hair styled behind his head and a pair of deep, stone-grey eyes. His skin was fairly fair with a slight brown tan, which appeared to be the result of prolonged exposure to intense sun and UV rays.
He wore a blue poncho-like haori with a thick white collar. His neck and chin were covered in a dark, elastic mask, which he could stretch up to cover his mouth and nose at any moment.
He was none other than the First Kazekage of the village hidden in the sand (Sunagakure)—Reto, arguably the most powerful Wind Release user in the world.
Sitting on the right side of Reto at a sixty-degree angle was a dark-skinned man with a mop of shaggy black hair and prominent creases under his pair of dark-pupiled eyes.
He wore a headband, a dark-colored kimono-style shirt with a high collar, a pair of dark pants tied with a sash, and a cream-colored scarf. His ears were adorned with a pair of stud earrings, giving him a rather free and wild vibe.
His build was tall, muscular, and rugged. He emanated flashes of blue lightning sparks to create an intimidating presence around him. His physique was so robust that it looked like he could punch a hole in a small hill or an ancient tree.
He was the First Raikage of the village hidden in the clouds (Kumogakure)—A, the master of Taijutsu, Lightning Release techniques, and fearsome nin-taijutsu, Lightning Chakra Mode.
The last one looked like a rather amicable old man, who wore a relaxed, gentle smile in contrast to the serious and intimidating presence of the other two figures.
He had a bristling mustache and a long beard that showed signs of graying. However, his skin was smooth with very few age lines.
His pair of eyes was squinted into two slits. He wore a dark, loose-fitting, robe-like, full-length gown with a cloth belt and sash around his waist.
He looked as steady as the earth.
He was the First Tsuchikage of the village hidden in the rocks (Iwagakure)—Ishikawa from the Kamizuru clan, one of the most prominent users of Earth Release techniques.
The three most powerful figures of the Shinobi continent gathered together, sitting at a table, silently observing each other.
Nobody said a word.
It looked as if they had all the time in the world, not in a hurry at all.
The longer they stayed silent, the more the protectors behind them felt uneasy.
The staring competition continued for a few more minutes before the First Raikage could no longer hold on.
"I didn't come here to admire your ugly faces. Can we just get to the point?"
The Tsuchikage chuckled, "Hoho! The young people these days don't have any patience at all."
"As for having an ugly face? Come on. What's the use of having an attractive face at my age? Can you eat it? Or can it make me more Ryo? Will that help you own the fertile lands of the Fire Country?"
"Just look at the Kazekage. Such a good face, and still single. Meanwhile, I practically populated the Kamizuru clan."
Reto clicked his tongue and retorted, "Let's talk about Konoha now. I didn't come to this godforsaken place after crossing three buffer nations to argue about unnecessary things."
Reto glanced coolly at Ishikawa. "Unlike you, I don't have much idle time. You can act as a fence-sitter all you want. I don't give a damn. I don't have the time to play the waiting game."
"If it weren't for the threat of Konoha and your Land of Earth being a rocky, barren land, I would have invaded your country long ago."
The majority of the Land of Wind and the Sunagakure had nothing but a vast expanse of rough and extreme desert.
It was a land where farming was difficult. The availability of food and water was sparse. It hardly rained there. And sandstorms were a frequent companion.
Not to mention that the entire land was crawling with many poisonous chakra beasts and insects.
For these reasons, despite having the largest landmass of all five major elemental nations, the Land of Wind was the poorest.
Its resources and population were lower than those of the other four elemental nations.
It was exactly why he, Reto, was so eager to attack the Land of Fire and Konoha, and snatch a large piece of fertile land and make it a part of the Land of Wind.
But he knew that he couldn't defeat Konoha alone. He had no chance—not when Senju Hashirama, the God of Shinobi, was still standing.
He might be injured, but he was still alive.
And the rest of Konoha's forces were no joke either.
With Tobirama leading them, facing Konoha alone meant crushing defeat. They would be beaten black and blue.
That was why he needed the help of the other major hidden ninja villages.
As long as he played well, he could force Iwa, Kiri, and Kumo to bear the brunt of Konoha's main force, while he and Suna ninjas would strike a heavy blow to Konoha and capture much of the Land of Fire's fertile land.
After that, Sunagakure would just need the support of Wind Daimyo to make the captured land a part of the Land of Wind, officially.
After all, which Daimyo wouldn't like fertile lands? Because it meant more resources and tax revenue.
And Sunagakure, as a key contributor, would obviously reap the benefits as well.
But that was a matter of the distant future.
Right now, he needed to negotiate with this Fence-sitter (Ishikawa—First Tsuchikage) and Mountain Bandit (A—First Raikage), who liked to attack lands and rob them of their resources, including stealing Kekkei Genkai, and create a proper attack strategy against Konoha.
Seeing them like this was already giving him a headache. He wanted nothing but to slit their throats with a wind blade.
But he knew that was just wishful thinking.
A battle between them would never end so easily. All three of them might end up gravely injured, bedridden for months, or worse, dead.
And the protectors?
Well, they would become collateral damage.
"Alright! Alright! I wanted to have a nice and long chat with you, but it seems you are getting impatient," Ishikawa said with a hint of amusement.
"Hmph. But it seems the Mizukage won't be here." A, the First Raikage, interjected.
Reto shook his head and replied, "Nothing can be done. The Land of Water is separated from the mainland by the ocean."
"Even if he set sails, avoided the docks in the Land of Fire, and landed on either the Land of Frost or the Land of Hot Springs, the Konoha spies would still smell his tracks like hounds."
Ishikawa interjected, "Additionally, according to the latest intel, the forces of Konoha had discovered many Kiri ninjas, including S-rank ninjas, colluding with one of Fire Country's independent ninja clans."
"They had a battle, where the Kiri forces were wiped out."
"This increased Konoha's vigilance. And now, they are searching for more Kiri bases within the Land of Fire and the surrounding buffer countries like madmen."
"Hmm…never mind…Konoha's ANBU is a group of certified bloodhounds, sniffing people here and capturing others there with every passing second."
A, the First Raikage, laughed and said with his lips laced with mirth, "Hahaha, Byakuren (The First Mizukage) and his group stirring up trouble again. How incompetent!"
Then, he shifted his focus to Reto. "Speaking of which, didn't you send some of your forces to some border town of the Fire Country to incite an artificial beast riot?"
"I heard that a majority of your plans failed badly and your ninjas got their asses handed to Konoha."
Hearing this, Reto paused for a moment. A trace of fury and murderous intent flashed in the depths of his stone-grey eyes.
But he quickly suppressed it before replying with a low and cold voice, "That happened ages ago. This is unrelated to our current discussion."
"Let's not stray from the main point. Or is your attention span shorter than a pig? I have a few potions (poisonous) here that might help you develop your birdbrain into something human."
The Raikage smirked, but he didn't say anything. He might act like a brute most of the time, but he was smart, too.
He knew when to push the buttons of someone and when to retreat before things could blow out of proportion.
Otherwise, how could he unite the ninjas of the Land of Lightning and form Kumogakure?
Would he easily fall for the provocations of the Reto the Scoundrel?
Of course not.
Before the atmosphere could turn heavier and more uncomfortable, Tsuchikage Ishikawa chimed in.
"Alright, let's discuss the details of our cooperation."
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Meanwhile, back in Konoha, Seimei was trying to develop a new Ninjutsu based on one of the innate skills he had witnessed while fighting an AA-rank Lava Demon.
"Okay."
"Experiment No #36"
Seimei muttered in a low voice while taking a deep breath.
He was currently standing inside a vast training ground built inside his residence.
Since the Ninjutsu was still in the testing phase, he used one hand seal to control his internal chakra to the utmost precision.
"Here goes nothing."
With a thought, he used the hand seal to mold the chakra inside his body before changing the neutral chakra's nature to the fire element.
A vast amount of Fire Release chakra flooded out of his body through his tenkensu (chakra points) and converged into a five-centimeter-thick, fiery ring with an inner circle diameter of one meter around Seimei.
The temperature of the training ground increased sharply.
The fiery ring, which hovered just a few centimeters above the ground, finally landed on the ground.
Seeing this, Seimei smiled.
He was about to make the energy of the ring erupt outward when his smile suddenly vanished.
He lost control of the volatile fire chakra gathered inside the ring.
And instead of releasing a controlled outer eruption, the whole ring looked like it was about to detonate.
And detonate it did.
Seeing the perilous situation, a curse involuntarily slipped out of Seimei's lips.
"Shit."
And at the next moment.
BOOOOOOOM!!!
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