Chapter 91.2- One Thousand Hands

She cleared her mind of all such thoughts the second they were within view of the Kazekage and his entourage. The Kazekage wore robes similar to Shori’s, and with his hat on his head, only the barest hint of the tattoo around his eye was visible.

Shori landed smoothly, and she did the same, if slightly heavier as she was jolted by the sudden return of her body weight. Only years of nine training prevented her from falling to her arse— even then, it was a close thing as Shori walked away from her and to the seat next to Uzume.

She watched as Uzume rose as he sat, moving to stand behind him. She moved to take the spot by Uzume’s side, watching everything with a wary eye.

‘Everything okay there?’, she heard Inoken’s voice in her head.

‘Yeah, I can hear you loud and clear. No movements from the Kazekage yet. Will keep you updated’ She told her teammate and old friend.

“I was surprised to receive your missive, Hokage-dono”

“And I was surprised by your seeming lack of response. I take it that the fact that you are here now means that you have come to agree to my terms” Shori replied, his voice carrying across the space.

“Peace between our villages. It would be good to avoid the fate of Iwa, is what you would expect to hear me say in this situation, yes”

“I find it hard to imagine you would want a giant trench carved into the middle of your village and then the whole thing being blown up in the biggest concentrated explosion the world has ever seen”

“And yet you would ask me to do something even worse. To betray one of my own to you”

“One life for thousands. One of those numbers is not even large enough to count as a rounding error when compared to the other. To equate them is shortsighted”

“And yet the role of Kage does not allow me to be so callous”

“It does not allow you to be so reckless either. Would you risk the lives of thousands of others just like the one I asked you for all to avoid offending your consciousness. Besides I promised you the boy would not suffer any harm under my care. I simply need him to get his Grandmother to stop hiding and face me” Shori said next. While she felt his fixation on the Chiyo woman was somewhat improper, she could understand it well enough. If that man that had killed Choni was not already dead, she knew she would have hunted hi to the ends of the elemental nations to get her vengeance.

“Indeed. And if I told you I brought her here with me now?”

“I’d ask why the puppet under neath my seat has been wasting so much time in triggering its trap. It was getting boring pretending your voice was anything less annoying than the sound of nails of chalkboard.” Shori replied, and she did her best not to flinch at the knowledge that there was some sort of trap being triggered beneath them. She would have to trust Shori to get them out of tif the situation turned dire then.

“Indeed. When I met her with my plan, she was all too willing to do this. I have no desire to continue a war against Konoha. We received assurances from both Iwa and Kumo that ended up not being true. We lost a sizable portion of our army in Rivers. This is me bowing out of this entire mess” He said, nodding his head.

“And what if I say no deal? You broth Chiyo to me, yes. But yu ignored the terms at which I offered peace”

“Are you in any position to reject peace though. How many men do you still have? Nine hundred? Not even half that? Suma sugared her fair share of the losses. It is better if we just leave things as they are, what say you, Hokage-dono?”