Chapter 284: Council of War
Disclaimer: Naruto and all of its characters belong to Shueisha and Masashi Kishimoto. I own nothing but the original characters I create.
"Dialogue"
'Thoughts'
-Author notes-
Chapter 284: Council of War
In a large circular room, the leaders of Konoha were having an unexpected emergency meeting in the middle of the night.
"Do we have a plan to counter this army?" The Leader of the Akimichi clan spoke up.
"This is exactly the purpose of this meeting. To form a strategy that can get us out of this crisis," Lady Tsunade answered.
"If it is a plan that we need…" Hiashi turned to Shikaku Nara and his son, Shikamaru, who, despite his age and rank, had been allowed a seat at this table. "Shikaku would be the first one that I would ask."
"What are their numbers? How strong are their weakest soldiers? Do they carry any heavy weaponry or just men? How many jinchūriki do they have at their disposal?" It was not Shikaku but Shikamaru who spoke first.
His father glanced at his son and gave him a nod of approval. "My son is correct. We need to have as much information as possible before we can form any semblance of a plan."
"Unfortunately, we don't have much of that, but…" Tsunade received some papers from her secretary, Shizune.
"I'll share what we have. The only surviving scout from whom we received the initial report was sure to have seen a large army of around thirty or forty thousand strong. They wore headbands from both the Cloud Village and the Rock Village, so at least those two major villages are involved. There could also be recruits from some minor ones too."
"Forty thousand?!" Tsume Inuzuka, the current leader of the clan and Kiba's mother, spoke with shock at the massive number of enemies.
"How reliable is that information? The scout couldn't have had much time to do any counting before he had to retreat. Do we have any other source?" The Aburame Clan leader asked.
"Unfortunately, no. At least for now. I have sent several more groups to see if they can get us anything else. As for the validity of the information… I'll just say that I have complete confidence in the skills of my ninja. If he said that is the number, I will work with that as fact unless someone can prove it wrong," Tsunade said.
"The scout didn't mention anything about war weapons. As for jinchūriki… we know from our spies in the Rock Village that Rōshi, the jinchūriki of the Four-Tails, had been seen always close to the Tsuchikage for the past months. And then there is Killer B, the jinchūriki of the Eight-Tails and brother of the current Raikage."
"So two jinchūriki at least, as well as two Kage. Those would be their heavy hitters," Kakashi commented.
"We don't know for sure that the Kage will be participating," Lord Akimichi said.
"I personally know Ōnoki," Tsunade spoke up. "The old man has been boiling for a chance to kill anyone from Konoha, but more especially, he will want to face Naruto. He won't miss this war. As for the Raikage… he is the type who likes to charge on the front lines. He won't send his ninjas and his own brother to fight alone. The Raikage will be here."
"How did they even make it so close to our village without us noticing that massive army approaching?" Inoichi Yamanaka asked.
"During the Second War, the Rock ninjas liked to use their earth jutsu to create tunnels," Shikaku said.
"Yes, I do remember that… it was what made their armies so scary. They could pop out of nowhere," Tsunade recalled.
"Okay, they have a huge army, and it's very close… what about our own forces? What do we have available?" Tsume Inuzuka asked.
Tsunade frowned deeply. "If we want to send everyone, including the genin… maybe four thousand."
"One-tenth of their numbers," Lord Aburame pointed out.
"And that's counting the genin. Those won't do much but serve as cannon fodder," Tsume Inuzuka felt the need to point that out. The genin had been used that way in previous wars.
"You don't have to worry, Tsume. I have no intention of sending children to die on the front," Tsunade said.
The people in the room looked at each other. No one wanted to send kids as fodder, but if they only sent the most veteran ninjas, they would get overwhelmed by sheer numbers in an instant.
"You can send me. I'll go to the front."
They all turned to the person who spoke.
Tsunade glanced at him. "Itachi… we haven't gotten to that part yet."
"I know." He looked around the room. "And I know that many of you present here don't believe I deserve to be sitting here. But Konoha has always been my only home, as it was my family's. I will defend it."
Tsunade smiled gently. "Thank you. You could have walked away with no repercussions. The fact that you decided to stay in the village already means a lot."
"I mean, that's great. But even if we all walk onto that field and face the army, we are too outnumbered," Shikaku stated.
"What about allies? There are a few villages close enough to make it in time if we request help right now," Shikamaru added.
"Allies?… We don't have any," Tsunade said. "The Sand didn't even respond to my messages after returning Gaara." That was probably because Naruto took away the bijū from him without any kind of consent.
"The Waterfall is the same." Again, they returned a kidnapped jinchūriki without the bijū. Her excuse that it was Akatsuki may not have been too believable.
"We are alone in this," Kakashi said.
"We could request help from the daimyō," Asuma suggested.
"Assembling the royal army and sending it here would take at least two or three days, even if he immediately agreed to assist and leave the capital undefended. " Hiashi stated.
"Which he won't… it would be more advantageous for him to just make a deal with the other two villages to ensure the Land of Fire retains some semblance of ninjas, rather than meddling in a ninja war." Kakashi understood well how these rulers thought. The ninjas were nothing more than tools to use and discard. He wouldn't risk his throne to save them.
"Are we doomed, then?" Akimichi asked with dread.
"Of course we are not," Tsunade didn't look worried. "We have a weapon of mass destruction on our side… our own guardian."
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