The day Suna's envoy arrived at Konoha's forward headquarters carrying the ceasefire declaration, the weather wasn't good.
Though it didn't rain, the sky was heavily overcast—that stuffy low pressure, neither sunny nor rain, as gloomy as everyone's expressions in the conference room.
Suna's declaration was indeed rigorously worded, even quite restrained.
The statement quite cryptically expressed Suna's desire to end the conflict 'benefiting neither village' as soon as possible, proposed preliminary peace negotiations at a designated location, and attached a rough draft agenda.
As early as the declaration of war, Suna had stated they were acting under the Wind daimyō's orders, retaliating against the Land of Fire for 'damaging the Land of Wind's interests.'
Of course, such casus were just for show—no one truly accepted them wholesale. But from Suna's position, it was understandable.
Regardless, at this point, neither Suna nor Konoha truly wanted to continue fighting.
And as the declared-upon party, the 'victim' with overall advantage, Konoha, still having leeway, should reasonably occupy a greater advantage in the upcoming mediation, extracting more compensation—if not for another item accompanying the letter.
A necklace. Material: jade—somewhat rare but not particularly special.
The only issue was that this necklace's former owner was Hashirama Senju, and its current owner was Tsunade.
"Suna bastards!"
In a corner of the camp, Jiraiya suddenly punched the wall beside him, producing a dull thud.
"Katō fell into Suna's hands for sure, and Tsunade..." Here, Jiraiya's words caught in his throat.
His crush on Tsunade wasn't a recent thing—he was well aware she'd given this necklace to Katō Dan before the war began.
Since this necklace appeared in Suna's letter, and Tsunade herself had been missing for some time, all clues pointed to the worst possibility, making it hard not to think negatively.
"Indeed, we must prepare for the worst."
Orochimaru's gloomy voice remained cruelly calm. Having stayed longer on this front than Jiraiya, who'd been elsewhere, he apparently had a more precise speculation about Tsunade's current state.
From the earlier massive madness among Konoha's infiltration units, to Katō Dan and his elite guard squad, and then Tsunade's complete disappearance—if these successive events weren't connected, Orochimaru would give up all scientific research for life.
The village had originally planned to recall him to study First Hokage's Cells for transplantation experiments. After all, Uzumaki Mito was advanced in age, and Uzushiogakure's destruction left only Uzumaki Kushina—a child brought early to Konoha—as a spare jinchūriki.
Just recently, Kumogakure had even sent a jōnin team to Infiltrate Konoha, attempting to kidnap Uzumaki Kushina—fortunately unsuccessful. This infiltration during wartime was also one reason Konoha increasingly wanted to stop fighting.
Under these circumstances, Konoha needed some means to suppress the Nine-Tails, just in case.
But Suna's displayed means had exerted unexpected pressure on Konoha. Thus, Orochimaru's return plans were repeatedly shelved.
Though initially finding it rather wasteful, now he wasn't bored at all.
Suna's novel gadgets, and the existence of that 'Crimson of Agony,' all piqued his interest.
'The Crimson of Agony... perhaps at these negotiations, I'll have chance to meet that person.'
Thinking thus, Orochimaru non-chalantly turned and 'reminded' his comrade of over a decade in a dull tone: "Jiraiya, you'd better not participate in the upcoming ceasefire negotiations."
"What?!" Jiraiya's head snapped up, anger nearly spurting from his eyes. "What do you mean, Orochimaru?!"
"Meaning your emotional instability would become Konoha's weakness, and could completely disrupt the negotiations."
Orochimaru showed no sign of backing down, turning to meet Jiraiya's gaze: "Tsunade is the First Hokage's granddaughter, one of Hiruzen-sensei's disciples, and herself a top medical ninja. Katō Dan is an elite jōnin who mastered Spirit Transformation. Suna knows their value well."
"Suna sending that necklace aims to make us lose composure. In your current state, you'd definitely make unnecessary concessions worrying about their safety."
"Bullshit!"
Jiraiya roared, "They're our comrades! Tsunade! Don't you care at all?! Orochimaru, when did you become So cold-blooded?!"
"Cold-blooded?"
Orochimaru's expression didn't change, but his rhetorical tone grew increasingly somber: "Your thinking is simple and naive, Jiraiya. Tsunade is our comrade—so others' lives don't matter?"
"Ensuring stable negotiations and maximizing Konoha's benefit is what we should do. Emotion-driven minds can't make correct judgments."
"Screw maximizing benefit!" Jiraiya cursed recklessly. "They're living people, not bargaining chips! You're becoming less and less human!"
The moment the words left his mouth, the dull air fell into oppressive dead silence.
Jiraiya breathed heavily. He knew his words were excessive, but anyway, he couldn't tolerate Orochimaru's attitude, as if this didn't concern him.
Even knowing, to some extent, Orochimaru was right.
"...You're right." After a long moment, Jiraiya's hoarse voice lowered, carrying obvious exhaustion. "I'm probably not suited for negotiations."
Orochimaru raised an eyebrow slightly, seemingly surprised by his sudden concession.
But Jiraiya gave him no chance to continue. Having spoken, he turned abruptly and strode toward his room without looking back.
Bam—the not-so-heavy door slammed shut, isolating the two worlds inside and outside, temporarily separating the two remaining 'Sanin.'
Under the gloomy sky, only Orochimaru remained.
The snake-like man looked up at the sky. Even as rain began to fall, his face showed no expression.
Only deep within those golden snake eyes, a flicker of elusive light passed. He slowly raised his hand, catching the falling rain, feeling the coldness spread in his palm, unconsciously clenching slightly.
"Cold-blooded, huh..."
He found himself somewhat missing that clumsy disciple of his now.
***
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