Crow's feathers - Naruto fanfiction

Chapter 48 The way of the ninja

The Mizukage from Hidden Mist was the only woman in the room. Taryn didn’t know much about her. She was fairly new in her position and Taryn didn’t like mist shinobi overly much.

Kisame came from that village. And that kid, Suigetsu too. The Blood Village as some called it.

Taryn sighed when her eyes rested on Gaara. He was the youngest one here and still had to earn the respect of the other Kages. But he held himself well.

And Danzou… Taryn narrowed her eyes. The hate she felt for this man made her blood boil. He was the cause of all this misery.

In the conference room, the meeting had come to another boiling point.

“Watch your tongue Raikage!” Tsuchikage said, “it’s because you were continuing to build up your power and techniques during this time of truce that other countries were forced to hire Akatsuki in the first place!”

“What!” Raikage shouted.

“Gentlemen,” Danzou suddenly spoke, “Before the discussion leads to anymore fighting, there’s something I wanted to tell you all.”

“What is it?” Raikage demanded.

“Akatsuki’s leader is almost certainly Uchiha Madara,” Danzou said calmly.

The gasps that followed weren’t just coming from the other Kages. Taryn gasped too. What was Danzou plotting now? What did he intend to achieve by mentioning this? And then she understood. And the direction the conversation headed confirmed her suspicion. And she did not like this at all.

“How is this possible?”

“I don’t know either,” Danzou sad, “but our source was certain.”

‘Source?’ Taryn frowned, ‘what source?’ A far as she knew he didn’t have any informant in Akatsuki. Unless… ‘Orochimaru. OF course.’

“As a neutral country I have to say that the leader of Akatsuki read the signs of time,” Mifune stated, “he used the stability and suspicion of the other countries to increase his power. But there’s always a silver lining. It is rare for the five Kages to come together like this. What do you think, until Akatsuki is taken care of, what would you think about forming a five village alliance?”

There it was. Danzou’s plan. Taryn clenched her fists in frustration. One way or another, this was going towards an all-out war.

“An alliance?” Raikage questioned.

Danzou nodded in approval. “It’s a good idea. We are in a state of emergency. We have to cooperate.”

“The chain of command should be uniform,” Mifune continued, “we want to avoid further confusion.”

“So the question is who will be in charge?” Tsuchikage said.

“Since I’m the neutral party here,” Mifune said, “I will decide who among you is best suited for the job.”

Behind the door, Taryn shook her head. She knew exactly where this was going.

“The only host left is Konoha’s nine tails,” Mifune said, “I think it will be the key to all of this. What do you say? Will you allow the Hokage to lead this alliance?”

And with that all of hell broke loose.

***

“Liar!” Naruto shouted, “it’s not true! I don’t believe you!”

Yamato was in shock too. ‘Can it be true?’ He glanced at Kakashi who had a sad and thoughtful expression.

Madara was still being held by Yamato’s jutsu, but he didn’t even pay attention to it. He kept his attention on Naruto. “I’m not lying,” he said, “that’s the truth about Itachi. He died for Sasuke and for Konoha. He was to never talk about it and he hid his secrets well. Not even Taryn knew until Itachi himself told her and that was not that long ago. Do you know whey he chased her out of Konoha that night?”