A, clad in a black cloak that covered him from head to toes, pushed a wooden door open with his big hand, and walked into a quite shabby shack at the outskirts of the village, conveniently located in between two countries that themselves were between the Land of Earth and the Land of Lightning.

This village was exactly on the border, and not even its inhabitants could tell you to which country they truly belonged. They themselves had no idea, and it was no wonder, given how the two small countries were bickering about the borders every few years. The village’s owner changed back and forth, and the simple villages had already stopped caring long ago. They had bigger worries on their minds. Like their day-to-day survival.

This state of things made the village extremely poor. It was quite common that both countries demanded taxes from them, even when one of them had no right to them. But complaining was futile, and refusal would result in death.

So, the villagers suffered in silence.

It was so utterly unremarkable and unimportant that it became the perfect place for an impromptu secret meeting between him and Onoki. After all, the other three ninja villages would definitely not have spies in a failure of a village like this, where nothing was ever going on. It would simply be a monumental waste of resources and manpower.

A would know.

Entering the shack, A’s eyes fell on a small, hunched-up form of the Third Tsuchikage, sitting behind a table. The man was dressed well, but A could still see the copious amount of bandages peeking out from beneath Onoki’s attire.

He suppressed a smirk as his eyes met the old geezer’s gaze that instantly narrowed.

Walking toward the prepared empty seat opposite Onoki, A sat down, the chair worryingly creaking underneath his weight. He then waved his hand, dismissing his ninja guard who followed him in, causing the man to step outside and leave only Onoki and him alone in the room.

“You have gotten quite the beating in the Land of Rain, didn’t you?” A couldn’t help but start the talks with a jab. It was simply the proper way of Diplomacy 101, Kumo edition.

And honestly, Onoki didn’t look like he was up for another fight anytime soon. A could instantly tell the old geezer was still horrifically injured. He was just too prideful to obediently stay in bed and let the village matters in the hands of somebody else.

Hearing the question, Onoki snorted. “I am still in better shape than your war efforts.” He deadpanned at A, making his small smirk instantly turn into an angry frown.

The war was going very poorly for Kumo, and both of them knew it. Ever since Kirigakure attacked the Land of Lightning from the ocean, things went to hell. These bastards didn’t even try pushing into the country. No. They seemed perfectly content with just raiding the merchant fleets like common pirates.

And their goal? They wanted Kumo to return every young child with a bloodline originating in the Land of Water and pay nonsensical reparations for their actions of kidnapping many bloodline ninjas for breeding purposes.

Ha! A would normally laugh at them.

But this situation was anything but normal. Kumo can’t spare proper protection for the southern coast because of the war with Konoha on land. A was already forced to send B alongside several other ninjas to deal with the Kirigakure bastards, but so far, they always just retreat deeper into the sea whenever B showed up.

And B can’t be everywhere. He could protect one merchant fleet, only for five others to be raided.

The Lightning Daimyo was starting to get very upset with the situation. He even sent a complaint to the Water Daimyo… Who had just politely told him that his hands were tied. This was just the consequence of Kumo’s actions, so there.

Just remembering that made the veins in A’s wrists bulge in restrained anger. Kiri’s actions were all according to the unspoken rules of ninja warfare, and as much as the Lightning Daimyo hated it, he couldn’t do shit against it. Not without the other Daimyos getting upset.

If Kiri was raiding the ports, the Daimyo could have stationed strong samurai troops to repel them. But they were smarter than that. Mei Terumi… that absolute bitch knew how to play the game while blatantly cheating.

Unfortunately, this meant the Lightning Daimyo naturally turned his wrath onto Kumo, who was supposedly the reason for this precarious situation. An utter rubbish, in A’s opinion!

They did nothing wrong! You can’t blame ninjas for acting like ninjas. If their breeding facilities were not raided and their prisoners delivered back to their homes, nobody would be complaining!

Alas, the situation was shit, and Kumo was stretched thin to fend off both Konoha and Kiri at the same time. That was the reality.

Onoki and A stared at each other, measuring the other with their eyes while looking for a weakness to exploit. Allies, they might be, but it was only due to convenience. A had no illusions. If Onoki sniffed an opportunity, he might just pounce. The two versus one his village was locked in would then become a hopeless three versus one.

A would have done the same thing in Onoki’s place. So, he had to portray a strong front to ensure the old geezer would not get ideas and try to recoup his village’s losses by betraying their alliance.

A harrumphed, “Kumo’s war efforts are fine. We might not be winning, but we are not losing either.”

“Ha! Keep telling yourself that.” Onoki barked out a short laugh, but it only made him wince as pain flared through his body from the still weakly healed fractures all over his body. “Didn’t your two-tailed jinchuuriki almost die to Jirayia recently?” He asked, barely managing to cover his pained tone with snark.

A’s eyes slightly dimmed at that remark, and he clicked his tongue, “Didn’t one of yours actually die against the Hyuga brat? Is that really an argument you want to start?”

For a moment, that silenced Onoki. A was on point. Iwagakure had lost far too much in this war that had lasted only for a few months so far.

Losing all the snark, Onoki’s voice became quite serious for the first time since they started talking, “And that does not worry you? According to my information, the Hyuga woman who massacred one of my armies was the same one Kumo allegedly tried to kidnap.”

Pursing his lips, now it was A’s time to stay silent. He did worry. How could he not? But he would be damned before he showed that on his face.

He knew what Onoki was doing. He was dangling a powerful threat in front of A’s nose to subtly highlight the need for their alliance. A could already tell what was going to come next. If the damned old schemer didn’t demand resources or money for Iwa’s continued participation in the war, A would eat his own cloak!

If not for whatever disaster struck the Land of Rain and Sunagakure, Iwa would probably be highly considering their capitulation right about now.

Speaking of which…

“I am more worried about the situation in the Land of Rain. The Amegakure was utterly destroyed. According to my sources, not even rubble was left behind.” A spoke, giving Onoki a meaningful look that suggested Iwagakure might be next.

After all, they did provoke a mysterious ninja in the Land of Rain. It was a weak attempt, but A was bold enough to gamble even on a weak card!

Closing his eyes, Onoki let out a heavy sigh. “My informants speak of some sort of massive blue giant reaching the sky. With one blow, he sundered the earth and cut the nearby mountain tops.” He said in a grave tone, only for A to snort.

“Fairy tales.” He dismissed it. Yes, clearly, Amegakure was destroyed by a strong ninja or ninjas. But the amount of power Onoki was describing? Such a thing did not exist in the world. “But whoever is responsible, they are still very dangerous. We need to stay united more than ever.”

“Hmph. Young people like you have no clue.” Onoki chuckled. “But it does not matter. I am not here to make you less ignorant. Let’s talk business.”

“Oh?” A deep, dangerous voice with an amused tilt resounded through the shack, one that certainly should not be there, causing both A and Onoki to stiffen, “Is your dick-measuring contest done? Are you two finally ready to start talking diplomacy now?”

Both Kages jumped from their seats to different corners of the shack, flaring their chakra to call their hidden subordinates hidden outside, while their attention snapped toward the direction from which the intruder’s voice came.

As his eyes landed on the man, his eyes widened, and the blood in his veins froze in fright.

“This is not possible.” He uttered, an undertone of despair hidden in his tone.

And while Onoki was having an existential crisis, A gave the intruder an unfriendly look.

“Who are you?” He demanded, inwardly noting that his subordinates were still not coming in for some reason. A small flicker of worry surged in his chest.

“I am Uchiha Madara.” The man in red armor declared, only for A to instantly shoot that idea down.

“Bullshit.” He dryly said, and the Lightning Armor sprang into existence around his body as he prepared for a fight.

“Hoh~? Don’t believe me?” The self-proclaimed Madara smirked and crossed his arms on his chest, showing a lot of contempt for his two would-be opponents with that gesture. Something that made A only angrier. “Why don’t you ask the man standing there, then?” The man motioned at the wide-eyed Onoki with his chin.

A glanced at Onoki, whose shoulders slumped in resignation. “It is indeed Madara.” He darkly confirmed, not at all happy about this unexpected turn of events.

“How are you still alive?” Onoki asked, all the while inwardly scheming how to make an opportunity to flee while sacrificing A to the Uchiha madman.

Victory might be impossible, but he was quite confident in his ability to run away. If he weren’t so injured, he would have decided to fight. He had his pride as a Kage! But… sigh.

“That is not the correct question, brat.” Madara chuckled, giving Onoki the same condescending look as all those years ago.

And Onoki hated the jolt of fear that involuntarily went up his spine. He quickly pushed it down through sheer fury.

Gritting his teeth and clenching his fists, Onoki glared at the legendary Uchiha, “What do you want?”

“Better.” Madara nodded in satisfaction and uncrossed his arms. “What I want is simple.” He dramatically spread them apart, “I want… to join your side in this war!”

In that instant, both A and Onoki froze in complete disbelief while Madara observed them, weighing them and their usefulness as his future pawns.

Nagato… that blasted Uzumaki boy. He had a seal that destroyed his eyes upon his death. It was in his mouth, so Madara couldn’t see it during the fight; otherwise, he would have focused on plucking the eyes first!

But he got too into finally fighting a worthy opponent who had pushed him all the way to using perfect Susanoo, and he didn’t notice it in time. Now, his Rinnegan was gone.

The Edo Tensei imitation was powerful, but there were certain things it simply could not do. Madara’s plan after getting his eyes back was to temporarily lend them to Obito while he hunted the remaining bijuu. With his Edo Tensei immortality and infinite chakra, he could have finished in two weeks at worst.

The Tsuki-no-Me plan would have been finished! Yet, Nagato utterly destroyed his plans with his little sealing stunt. Madara was absolutely livid that the eyes of his brother, the eyes he used in his life, and evolved into the legendary eyes of the Sage of the Six Paths, were now destroyed.

But his anger paled to the absolutely inconsolable fury Zetsu had shown when Nagato’s eyes went blind. The creature was indeed born from his will. But it clearly didn’t possess his self-control.

It was just one setback. He created Rinnegan once; he can do it again. Since the quick way was now out of the question, Madara decided to get involved in the current war and use it to his ends.

With only one Senju still alive, what he had to do was obvious. But he decided he might as well use the opportunity he was given and sweep all the opposition in one go while he was at it. The plan was halted until a new Rinnegan could be created anyway, so he had the time to wage war once more.

He smiled at the stupefied Kages in front of him. Iwa and Kumo… They were going to be great pawns to throw at his enemies indeed. Raikage’s and Tsuchikage’s agreement wasn’t truly necessary. Madara had already decided the fates of their villages.

They only had to obey… or be shown their places before being forced to obey.

By the time he is done, there won’t be five great ninja villages. The world won’t need them anymore.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep