Tsunade approaches the group alongside A with a dignified composure. She silently laments that he and Jiraiya hadn’t been swapped at birth. If that had been the case, maybe everything would have been fine. Her life wouldn’t be a mess of alcohol, work, and meaningless sex like it is now.

There are five of them altogether in the grove, with stumps for seats in a circular arrangement. Each of the Kages represent the strongest shinobi cities most terrorized by the tailed beasts.

To Tsunade’s right is A, the Raikage of Kumo.

Next to him is Onoki, the Tsuchikage of Iwa, the elderly and balding man she had seen earlier.

Further along is Pakura, the Kazekage of Suna. Her hair is green with two orange fringes and she sits with a serious face and straight back.

To the left of Tsunade is Terumi, the Mizukage of Kiri. She’s an exceedingly beautiful, flirty-eyed, middle-aged redhead with voluminous hair. 

Both these ladies are younger than Tsunade, but have attained the seat of leadership due to their powerful bloodline abilities, Pakura being the most recent. Tsunade worries though, that the old foxes of Suna and Kiri are running circles around these girls, treating them as figureheads, and doing whatever they want behind their backs. Bloodline isn’t everything.

“Welcome, Lady Hokage and Lord Raikage. Please sit.” says Terumi in a cheery tone with a blush on her face. Meanwhile, Onoki snorts and Pakura gapes in awe at the shameless smells she’s picking up from the newcomers.

Acting as if nothing happened, Tsunade takes her seat on a stump and says, “Thank you, Mizukage. Nice to see you all.”

She raises her brow challengingly at the still-gaping Pakura and directly confronts her, “Is there a problem, newbie?”

Lacking any seniority and finding the topic awkward, Pakura shuts her mouth and shakes her head.

Tsunade feels a little bit of pity for the former combat ninja. A Kage is more like a politician and a diplomat in most settings, rather than a soldier. Pakura has a lot to learn about standing her ground and taking verbal losses gracefully in a way that saves face while advancing her own position. After all, she represents her people and not just herself. Sex scandals are practically irrelevant with regards to their consequences in comparison to expressing weakness to your allies and enemies.

Terumi takes the role of the moderator and smooths things over, “Let’s all welcome the new Kazekage, the beautiful Lady Pakura!”

Pakura nods gratefully and formally clasps her fist, “Thank you, everyone. I am looking forward to your guidance and advice.”

Everyone returns her gesture, except for one. Onoki snorts and interjects, “You’re going to need them, girl. Anyway, who called this damned meeting?”

Pakura glares at the old man. Not even she can take such blatant condescension straight-faced. Terumi leans over and whispers indiscernably into Pakura’s ear, which calms her down. Tsunade assumes it’s something like, “Ignore that senile crank. He’s always like that.”

At the same time though, she reminds herself to be wary of Terumi. Her demeanor is incongruent with how notorious Kiri is for its cutthroat culture and any Mizukage rising out of there would have to either be overwhelmingly powerful, adept at scheming, or both. She cannot let those two get too close.

A explains, “I did. I’m sure you all heard on the grapevine that something interesting happened yesterday in Konoha.”

“Oho.. so it was not a rumor? Well.. out with it, Tsunade.” demands Oroki.

Tsunade rolls her eyes and thinks to herself, ‘Impatient old geezer.’

She starts with the usual bullshit rhetoric, “Alright. As you know, human unity against the threat of tailed beasts and the vast tribes of the Spirit Realm are the reason we shinobi leaders have gathered like this for thousands of years. It’s where Konoha first distributed the Eight Gates technique to all of humanity! By us Kages leaving our cities behind and speaking as individuals, friends, and companions in adversity, we promote the values of..”

“WOULD YOU.. get to the point already?!” shouts Onoki with veins protruding on his head. In contrast, Pakura stares at Tsunade with starstruck eyes.

Tsunade sighs and says, “There’s this Ring.. a powerful ancient artifact..” She draws out the suspenseful silence that follows, slaps her knee, and redirects, “You know what? It would only be fair for me to explain the full story if I get some other explanations first..”

“Onoki, I hear rumors you are expanding westward. Why stoke conflicts with other human nations and make problems for Pakura just south of you? And Terumi, what’s up with the prices on goods from the Land of Water? I’ll trade for that information. Some transparency between allies wouldn’t hurt, would it?”

The old midget splutters incredulously and the beautiful redhead’s one visible eye glances elsewhere evasively. They both had wanted to hear about the Ring and were caught off guard. A plays along and says, “That’s a great idea. I’m entirely in favor of more transparency.” Pakura also concurs with a nod. Tsunade has successfully played the crowd from four against her to three against two others.

Geopolitically, Konoha lies at the central position, with Kumo to the northeast, Kiri to the east, Iwa to the northwest, and Suna to the west. Overall, Konoha has the most incentive to keep peace and balance between the cities because of its preferable economic position. That’s why Tsunade has to keep close tabs on everyone and ensure that things are running smoothly.

Terumi flicks a fan open and woefully recounts, “I’m sure you’re all well aware that the Land of Water is the poorest of the five. We do have a surplus of food, but our trade avenues are limited. My people are scattered between many islands. Unity is lacking. They viciously undercut their neighbors..”

“So..” Tsunade interrupts the victimized princess shtick and says, “You took matters into your own hands?”

“Not mine.” Terumi snaps her fan shut to reveal an expressionless face. “It was the clans of Kiri that proposed it. One such means of enforcing order.” Terumi leaves the means unstated, but Tsunade can guess that means they have implanted tracking seals on their entire population like Danzo claims, or something similar.

Tsunade scrutinizes Terumi’s language and face for clues, but cannot guess with such little information whether the lady is for this plan, against it, or neutral on it. She compromises, “Fine.. I’ll talk to the clans of Konoha to try to get them to accept the price hikes and stop sending smugglers to their deaths. With our wealth, a little bit of a price hike is not a big deal. But you must make sure that your clans don’t get greedy and tell them to stop raising it, or else there’ll be hell to pay. If you need help.. disposing of some ringleaders.. feel free to ask.”

Terumi nervously opens her fan back up to cover her lower face and replies, “I’ll take care of it. Thanks for your understanding.”

Only then did Tsunade notice she and A had been staring down the poor woman intensely. Not to mention, the jurisdiction of Kiri is bordered on both sides by the jurisdictions of Konoha and Kumo. For Terumi to realize there is an extraordinary relationship between the two leaders who she is simultaneously screwing with her higher prices is no doubt unsettling. ‘No point correcting that misunderstanding. Might as well let her wallow in fear.’

Despite Tsunade's depressed outlook on life, regular drinking, and occasional scandals, she's extremely capable at her job. No one disputes that point. She nods and gestures at Oroki to take his turn.

Seeing the whole group looking at him, he crosses his arm, and reluctantly relents. “Even with the threat of the tailed beasts, my people are.. for lack of a better term.. bored. The propaganda drives them into a frenzy, but we don’t allow them to fight the beasts until they’re strong enough or else we would lose too many. They have no outlets. Meanwhile, the nations to the west are barbaric and dreams of being heroic liberators have already spread far and wide among my people. I shouted down calls of conquest as long as I could, but there’s nothing I can do anymore! Even the clans are at a loss. They don’t want to finance pointless wars against impoverished nations, but our own people are practically demanding it! Just thinking about those idiots makes me want to..!”

Onoki’s arms tremble with rage and his rampant chakra picks up pebbles off the ground. Pakura immediately stands up and assumes a defensive position. With a chuckle, A puts his hand on Onoki’s shoulder and says, “Calm down, Lord Tsuchikage. You’re scaring the Kazekage.”

The old man’s soul pressure lightens up and Pakura plops back onto the stump. A drop of sweat drops down the side of her face. She apologizes when she regains her composure. Both younger ladies are likely only high-t2 in soul tier, unlike the older Kages at peak-t2. One more reason for them to be mere figureheads. All five shinobi cities assuredly have strongmen at peak-t2.

Tsunade reassures, “No worries, Kazekage. Thank you for sharing, Lord Tsuchikage. Hmm.. have you looked into there being foul play involved in the dispersion of these ‘dreams of conquest’ yet? Foreign parties who want us to go to war with each other.. Or want us to go to war as a distraction for some other purpose?”

Now that Onoki’s blood vessels on his forehead no longer look like they are going to pop, A removes his hand. The old man starts with a scoff and responds, “Of course I have. The only thing we managed to dig up is that it was started by a company called Akatsuki, but when we raided the headquarters, no one was there. Sounded like a front-”

“Akatsuki?” Pakura interrupts. The other Kages all turn to her. She hesitates, but straightens her back and recounts methodically, “I was approached once by a masked individual five years back, long before I entered consideration for becoming the Kazekage. He- he was as strong as me. I could tell. He tried to convince me to join him in a movement he called Akatsuki. The strangest thing was that even immediately after, I was unable to recall the contents of the discussion. What I do remember was that I told him I’d never betray Suna. After that, he got ready to attack me, except one of my clan elders came by and he ran.”

“Rogue shinobi? Good at illusions?” guesses Terumi.

A adds, “Doing quite well for himself too if Iwa’s unrest was planned by him and his group. Do you know anyone with a major grudge against Iwa among your deserters, Lord Tsuchikage?”

Onoki pauses for a moment and mutters, “Who knows..? Plenty of people hate me, but they’d never say so to my face. Just wait til I catch that Akatsuki bastard..” A scary smile pushes up his white handlebar mustache. His red nose and overall comical appearance makes him look like an evil clown.

Stifling her laughter, so as not to be rude, Tsunade coughs and seriously states, “Remember everyone.. We have a long history of banding together to destroy many such radical splinter groups with powerful leaders in the past. Their motivations were always to either destroy one of our cities or form a new city on our territory. I have a feeling that this tactic employed by the Akatsuki group against Iwa does not seem to fit that mold.”

“I agree.” says A, “The introduction of destabilizing ideologies to unsettle the population is insidious and difficult to counter. For this group to have been so successful and remained hidden for so long without revealing a hint of their motives, we should take care. I recommend that everyone keep a close eye out on new public sentiments encroaching in your own cities. The Akatsuki may try to escalate already present internal ideological tensions. We might want to assign more manpower to the Spirit Realm portal too. If we are to assume the worst.. they may try to provoke the Spirits.”

All the Kages wear extremely solemn expressions. Terumi asks with a stiff lip, “Are you sure you all aren’t blowing this out of proportion?”

“No..” Onoki states with closed eyes, “The culture of Iwa is not like Kiri. We of the Land of Earth are known for being steady, stubborn, and good at following orders. It was like this when I was young and after I became Hokage, it remained like this. My orders were followed almost blindly, at least until now. This agitation and insubordination is not proper! I thought it was just a coincidence, but if it is led by a high level shinobi, then there is definitely a deeper motive.”

Terumi’s face becomes equally solemn. “Let’s have another meeting tomorrow at the same time. I need to conduct some interrogations.”

The circle descends into silence for a moment. With a clap, Tsunade says, “Good talk. It’s hard to open up, but see how beneficial it can be? We’re all in this together. Now.. about that Ring.”

She describes in detail what she knows about what happened yesterday. It wouldn’t do for her to lie or obfuscate when her role there is to promote unity. None of the other cities’ informants would have a clear picture of what had happened due to the Normality Ring’s effects on people of lower soul tiers. She explains to the group that her diviner believes that Naruto is a child of fate, how the Ring works, that whether or not the Normality Ring can help them fight the tailed beasts is yet to be determined, and that Naruto and the Ring are both currently missing.

The other Kages are dumbfounded with disbelief. A stammers, “W-what? A Ring that can make anything normal for those below a certain soul tier? That’s nonsensical!”

Tsunade counters, “If you need proof, then how’s this? As of last night, it became normal for women to squirt when they orgasm. Just ask your subordinates to confirm it. Haven’t you wondered why there was a string of disrupted marriages last night?” She sighs, “Haaa.. That perverted kid. No doubt he thought he was doing all women a favor. Idiot!”

(A/N: Not everyone from the original Akatsuki will be in this one, but if you feel strongly about someone, I’ll include your request. :D..)