Negotiations are actually similar to bargaining at a market—the core concept is asking for the sky and settling for the ground. How far the talks go depends on the bargaining chips of both sides. In this negotiation, there's no doubt that the Cloud Village (Kumo) is at a clear disadvantage.

The Hidden Leaf (Konoha) holds two critical bargaining chips: the jinchuriki of the Two-Tails and the Eight-Tails. It's as if they've got their hands around the Cloud Village's neck. Sure, the Cloud ninjas captured a few Leaf ninjas during the war, but in terms of numbers, Konoha completely overwhelmed the Cloud. For example, after capturing the Two-Tails, Shisui took down the entire Cloud Village command post.

To make matters worse, the Cloud Village is the invader and the loser of the war.

They have neither the moral high ground nor enough strength.

Because of this, facing Konoha's heavy demands is tough for them. The Cloud's negotiator, unsurprisingly, is Dodai. This clever man has racked his brains and used every rhetorical trick he knows but hasn't gained any ground in front of Shisui. Since Sougen already laid out the bottom line, Shisui just has to stick to it.

Typically, negotiations like this would be handled by the Nara clan. But this time, Sougen bypassed them, throwing Shisui into the role. Given Konoha's absolute advantage, there's no need for sophisticated negotiation techniques; brute force is enough.

"Is the Cloud Village still stalling?"

Sougen stood at a desk by the window, brush in hand, painting on a blank sheet of paper.

"It's still about Turtle Island. Dodai said they're willing to give up part of the Lightning Chakra Mode training method, but they absolutely won't hand over Turtle Island... His stance is as firm as ever, and it doesn't seem like he'll budge anytime soon," Shisui reported on the latest negotiation status. He hesitated for a moment and added, "For the past two days, the talks have stalled over Turtle Island. If it weren't for that, the negotiations would've ended days ago. Sougen, the Cloud Village might genuinely be unwilling to give up Turtle Island..."

"If they don't want to hand over Turtle Island, then they shouldn't expect to get back the Two-Tails and Eight-Tails. Without the tailed beasts, without jinchuriki, what use is Turtle Island?" Sougen laughed. "Be patient, Shisui. We're not the ones who should be anxious. Don't forget about the Stone Village (Iwa). That old fox Onoki didn't join us in attacking the Cloud's main forces. He's probably off raiding the Cloud Village itself. Once the news reaches them, I doubt the Cloud will continue to drag things out."

As he spoke, Sougen set his brush down, straightened up, and looked at his ink painting of an eagle in flight. He nodded in satisfaction, feeling that his painting skills had improved. While his work still hadn't broken free from a certain stiffness, this eagle appeared much more dynamic and fierce than his previous attempts.

With a flick of his finger, the paper fluttered, and in an instant, the powerful eagle in the painting flew off the page, soaring out the open window like an arrow and climbing into the cold wind.

"The Stone Village?" Shisui raised an eyebrow. "Can they be trusted?"

"Of course not!" Sougen almost burst out laughing.

Turning to Shisui, he said, "That old fox Onoki is notoriously fickle. Trusting the Stone Village is out of the question. As long as Onoki remains Tsuchikage, the Stone Village will never be reliable. We're only cooperating with them out of mutual interest. But as long as those interests align, working with them... Wait, why are we even talking about the Stone Village?"

"Oh, right. Shisui, what about the Amber Purifying Pot? Did the Cloud Village object to that?" Sougen quickly switched topics.

The Stone Village wasn't really important; Konoha's cooperation with them was purely transactional. What mattered more to Sougen was the ongoing negotiation with the Cloud Village, especially since they were fixated on Turtle Island and had made no mention of the Amber Purifying Pot, which piqued his curiosity.

"Hmm... About the Amber Purifying Pot, Dodai didn't say anything," Shisui recalled, shaking his head.

The long list of reparations had undergone several changes, but the part about the Amber Purifying Pot remained unchanged.

"That's not too surprising, right? It's just a tool. Even if it's one of the Six Paths Sage's relics, it doesn't seem all that special." Shisui glanced at Sougen. He couldn't quite grasp why Sougen valued this ninja tool so highly.

While Sougen might have a knack for collecting tools, the Uchiha fan, the Banana Palm fan, and Samehada were all powerful. In comparison, the Amber Purifying Pot seemed... less impressive. After much thought, Shisui could only attribute it to Sougen's eclectic collecting habits.

Sougen paused, lost in thought.

After a few seconds of silence, he realized his perspective might be skewed. Thanks to his unique talent of [Knights Don't Die Empty-Handed], he could extract useful information from ancient, mysterious tools, but that only applied to him. For the rest of the ninja world, these tools were just that—tools.

If it were a weapon like a sword, which could play a significant role in battle, it might be valued more. The Amber Purifying Pot, while powerful enough to seal targets upon hearing the user's voice, was too large and unwieldy for mobile combat, and likely couldn't even be stored in a scroll. Ninjas weren't fools, and even without fully understanding its mechanics, they wouldn't easily fall into its trap. Otherwise, the Cloud Village wouldn't have used it merely as a temporary container for tailed beasts.

Even the legendary brothers Kinkaku and Ginkaku had abandoned the Amber Purifying Pot in favor of other tools.

Thus, while the Amber Purifying Pot was strong, its practical use was probably quite limited!

Sougen might see great value in it, but the Cloud Village likely didn't. In fact, they might even rate it lower than the Banana Palm fan in Sougen's collection. Plus, considering how long the reparation list was, the Amber Purifying Pot was just one item. If it were negotiated separately, the Cloud Village probably wouldn't give it up so easily.

Like when Orochimaru fixated on Sougen's desire for Six Paths tools and refused to give them up, forcing Sougen to trade White Zetsu's limbs for them.

"I overthought it. But that's a good thing."

Sougen relaxed.

Getting the Amber Purifying Pot without much hassle was no bad deal. While complicated twists and turns in a story are engaging, no one likes dealing with them firsthand. A smooth outcome is what most people want, and Sougen was no different.

As Sougen predicted, Konoha wasn't the side that should be anxious. It was the Cloud Village that was feeling the pressure. With negotiations dragging on, the Two-Tails and Eight-Tails jinchuriki remained prisoners of Konoha. A had thought several times about refusing to negotiate and simply retreating to the village.

But that idea was quickly squashed.

Refusing to negotiate was out of the question. Even putting aside whether Konoha would pursue them, the loss of both the Two-Tails and the Eight-Tails was something he simply couldn't afford. To be precise, once Konoha put Killer Bee and Yugito on the table as bargaining chips, he no longer had the option to refuse negotiations, no matter how much he wanted to.

If there was truly no way to recover the two tailed beasts, A would certainly face heavy criticism, but it wouldn't shake his position as Raikage. The real issue was that if he passed up the chance to recover the tailed beasts by refusing to negotiate, he would face a storm of attacks from the opposition, and the village elders might actually consider impeaching him as Raikage.

Every village has its own problems, as the saying goes. It's not just Konoha that suffers from internal strife—each village has its own troubles.

While the Cloud ninja seemed united, that was only because A had inherited his father's legacy, had Killer Bee, the Eight-Tails jinchuriki, as a solid supporter, and was one of the strongest in the village. These factors allowed him to rally the village against Konoha.

But now the situation had changed. The Cloud ninja had been defeated by Konoha—badly!

After the loss, A could easily imagine the discontent spreading through the village. Once morale wavered, all the suppressed conflicts and disputes would rise to the surface... just thinking about the current chaos in the village gave A a headache.

"Dodai, Konoha still won't budge?"

"No, they won't."

Dodai stood by the table, his expression bitter.

Representing the defeated in negotiations with the victors was an agonizing task. In just a few days, he looked like he'd aged seven or eight years. The deep exhaustion was evident to anyone with eyes.

"Uchiha Shisui's stance is very firm. No matter what I say, he won't budge on Turtle Island... Unless something drastic changes, I don't think we can make Konoha give up the island," he said seriously to A.

The Fourth Raikage's face darkened, and he stayed silent.

The importance of Turtle Island couldn't be overstated. The Waterfall of Truth on the island held the potential to turn a jinchuriki into a perfect host. While a successful case had only recently appeared, the hardest part of any endeavor is the first step. As long as there was one success, future jinchuriki could be trained by following the same path.

For the Cloud ninja, Turtle Island was a treasure that could ensure perfect jinchuriki for generations to come. Although it seemed of little use at the moment, in the long run, it was more valuable than a complete set of the Six Paths Ninja Tools—at least in A's eyes.

But now it seemed that the Cloud village was going to lose that treasure.

"Is there really no chance?"

After a long silence, A asked again, unwilling to give up.

"It's unlikely! The main issue is that we don't have anything to bargain with against Konoha," Dodai replied, his face filled with distress and helplessness. This wasn't an equal negotiation. The Cloud village, in a weakened position, had few chips to play. In his view, if Konoha didn't want to push them too far, there wouldn't even be a need for negotiations.

The so-called negotiations were just a more peaceful, convenient way for Konoha to carve up the Cloud's resources. But the Cloud had no choice but to accept this. If Konoha resorted to violence, the Cloud would lose even more.

"Raikage-sama, the negotiations can't drag on for much longer. Whether or not Konoha gets impatient, the longer this takes, the more likely something will go wrong in the village," Dodai said softly. He was a firm supporter of A, not just because A was the son of the Third Raikage.

In Dodai's view, A hadn't made any major mistakes in his decisions during the war with Konoha. The real reason for their defeat was underestimating Konoha—or rather, underestimating the current strength of the Uchiha clan. Without Uchiha Sougen and Uchiha Shisui, without their Susanoo that could overpower tailed beasts, the Cloud wouldn't have lost so badly.

At the end of the day, it was because the Cloud wasn't strong enough.

He anticipated the turmoil that this crushing defeat would bring, but he believed that this was precisely when A's position as Raikage needed to remain firm. In Dodai's eyes, there was no one else in the Cloud Village who could replace A as Raikage.

"Dodai, are you suggesting we give up Turtle Island?"

A stared at Dodai.

Facing the Raikage's piercing gaze, Dodai met his eyes squarely. "Yes, I do. We lost, and it's no use complaining about it. If we have to be squeezed dry because of it, we deserve it. We lost, didn't we? If we can't keep Turtle Island, then so be it. The village got by before without perfect jinchuriki, didn't it?"

"What if Konoha raises their own perfect jinchuriki?"

"Would that change anything? Whether they have a perfect jinchuriki or not, we still can't beat Konoha."

"Then... is there any chance we could use the Fifth Hokage to change who's leading the negotiations?"

"No chance. Even if the Third Hokage were still alive, he couldn't do it. I know you want to exploit Konoha's internal conflict, but honestly, the Fifth Hokage might want Turtle Island even more than Uchiha Sougen. The Uchiha clan is too powerful, and Turtle Island could help the Fifth Hokage train a perfect Nine-Tails jinchuriki to oppose them."

A remained silent for a long time, his face tense.

According to Dodai, there was no way to keep Turtle Island. But A still wasn't willing to accept it.

Just then, the door burst open with a bang, and C stumbled in. A, his thoughts interrupted, scowled, anger rising in his chest. But the next moment, the urgent news C brought extinguished his fury in an instant, as if a bucket of ice water had been poured down his spine.

The message was short, just two sentences.

The Cloud Village has been attacked! The attackers are Stone ninja!