Chapter 85.1- One Thousand Hands

“Prepare for a march down to Suna” I said the second the news reached me, because there was no other thing that could be done. Chiyo had done her piece, she had done hr worst, and instead of an amusing bug that I believed I could swat dead at any tuium ,, she had done and made an actual problem of herself. She had gotten my attention, and through her I would show the world that my attention was not something anyone wanted to have. Not something anyone survived having.

“We can’t” Uraume said. She had come in here with Toshiro, Uzume, and Shikahime by her sides. A group I felt was because she didn’t want to be alone when breaking the news to me, but now I was beginning to realise were not for the news itself, but for what happened after.

“What do you mean we can’t?” I tried not to put any of the rage I felt into my voice. If she was refusing me, then there had to be a good reason.

“Look at yourself, Shori. Even you aren’t anywhere close to fighting fit. The rest of our forces are worst. We’ve taken the city for the time being but Iwa saboteurs are a fine a dozen. They keep rigging buildings up to explode around us. A task that has probably been made much easier by the fact that you and the Raikage were competing to see who could tear down more of the village in your fight. And then there isn the fact that we haven’t found the escaped civilians and children yet. They have some means of avoiding detection that fools even the Byakugan and the Inuzuka say the scents lead all over the place. The Aburame are trying to track them now but we don’t know how long that will take. To be honest, Shori, we can’t attack Suna now. We’d get destroyed.” She said. I looked from her to Uzume, to Shika, and even Toshiro. They were all in agreement. And they were all wrong.

“So you would have me do nothing while Tsunade’s blood cries out for vengeance?”

“We would have you be the Hokage that Konoha needs. We won a great victory here, but it wasn’t without cost. We’ve lost so much already. If we start another battle now, we might win, but there will be no Konoha afterwards.”

“You’re exaggerating” I said.

“No. I’ve seen the accounts. I’ve seen the costs. We need to get this generation back to train the next one, or Konoha will essentially be starting from scratch. We can not afford more war.”

“You would have me make peace with my Cousin’s killer. You would have me fail her in death just as I failed her in life” I said with a sigh.

“No. You don’t have to make peace. You just have to recognise that Konoha can not go to battle now. We are asking you to put the needs of the village above everything else. This generation needs to pass down their skills and they need to do it fast or we’d find ourselves in trouble.” She said..