To think of an alliance only after suffering a crushing defeat? What naivety. The responses that came to Konoha from other Great Villages were carbon—paper-soaked in sarcastic and undisguised gloating.
Who doesn't know Liszt's intentions? How did they differ from ours? You longed to get Uchiha Yue's eyes so that, relying on absolute strength, you could parasitize the rest of the world, sucking all the juices out of it. And now that your clever plan has turned to dust, have you remembered about the alliance? Are you scared?
I'm sorry, but you lost, not us. Our plans haven't even started to come to life yet. Ridiculous, how ridiculous…
The Shinobi villages no longer took the current Konoha seriously.
The silence in the Hokage's office became thick, almost palpable. It pressed down on my shoulders, gathering in the corners where the shadows seemed especially dark.
Suddenly, Tsunade brought her fist down on the table with a flourish. The stack of reports bounced and fanned out.
—Failure," she gasped, looking at the reports with a mixture of impotence and rage. Everything is as they expected. Not a single village was going to form an alliance to jointly oppose Uchiha Yue. Everyone wanted to grab the main jackpot alone. What kind of people…
Although, to be completely honest, Konoha would have done exactly the same thing. If their own operation hadn't failed, they wouldn't have thought of sharing power with anyone.
— Failure! Jiraiya was already growling, clenching his fists so that his knuckles turned white. —The damn bastards! Can't they see that Uchiha Yue is a monster capable of destroying the whole world? And they only have their own benefit in their heads! If they fail too, it will be too late for everyone!
"Damn it!" His face contorted with indignation.
Konoha's dreams of triumph were shattered. Time, which seemed like an endless resource, was slipping through my fingers. They finally woke up from their dreams and were forced to face reality.
And the reality was a disaster. The area of Dead Silence created by Yue was inexorably spreading, and soon Konoha would be enveloped in its shroud. If they can't stop him in the next two months…
The Land of Fire will disappear from the world map. Konoha won't have an inch of his native land left. I'll have to run, seek refuge, and beg in foreign countries.
—Tsunade, go on," an old man's voice came from the corner, which belonged only to Sarutobi Hiruzen's head. — Convince the Great Villages. And get in touch with the little ones immediately.
It was necessary to prepare escape routes. If the plan to kill Yue didn't work out, they would only have to escape from the Land of Fire. Using the remnants of former influence, threats and promises, it would be possible to put together a new alliance of small villages and find shelter in their territories.
But the calculations were inexorable: in three months, only a few of the most remote states, like the Country of Hot Springs or the Country of Crafts, would avoid absorption. All the neighbors of the Land of Fire are doomed.
To make matters worse, the previous gamble had depleted the treasury and arsenals. Konoha was left without resources and without the slightest idea how to resist Uchiha Yue. They used to be so self—confident, so blindly believing that once they found him, he would commit suicide in the name of the "Will of Fire." It never occurred to them that Uchiha Yue didn't have a drop of that same will in her heart.
He did not repent. He didn't flinch. Even when they used Uchiha Sasuke as a bargaining chip, Yue remained steadfast.
Realizing Sarutobi's intent, Tsunade immediately gave orders. Konoha is weak to dictate terms to equals, but can't she handle a few small villages?
At the same time, she sent letters to the Four Great Villages again. In them, she appealed to reason, convincing that she could not cope with Yue alone. We need to share data, research results, and find his weakness together. As for his eyes... such a vicious creation should have been destroyed.
Of course, after Konoha had exhausted all possibilities to use it.
Sincerity? What kind of sincerity? Offering to share technologies with everyone, Konoha herself was not going to put a single trump card on the table. Is it possible to throw everything around? Take, for example, the data on senjutsu. If it were not for the personal supervision of the wise men from Mount Myoboku, Konoha would have given out this knowledge in a strictly dosed manner. Techniques that potentially threaten Liszt's interests should not be allowed to fall into the wrong hands.
What if other villages with these stripped-down technologies lose out? Is this selfishness?
No, no, and no. It's all for the sake of the Shinobi world! Besides, there's Konoha herself! These toads from My Side are blind, since they did not believe that the Leaf would overcome Yue.
Although, as practice has shown, they were not blind.
In the oppressive silence of the office, their own words, spoken with such confidence not so long ago, now sounded like a verdict in their ears.
"In that case, Uchiha Sasuke will inevitably die?"
"yeah. But this is for Konoha, for the Will of Fire! If he had known about it, he would have gladly agreed!"
"Are we doing the right thing, Jiraiya? He's your student's son, right… Such frequent extraction of the Tailed Man's chakra will cause irreversible damage to Naruto's body!"
"What's wrong? For the sake of the village, for the sake of Uchiha Yue's eyes, everything is justified. It's a necessary sacrifice. If Minato were alive, he would understand me!"
"For Konoha, I will not hesitate to sacrifice not only Minato's son, but also our teacher's son!"
"At least Naruto will stay alive. So what if his body is crippled? Uchiha Sasuke should have died!"
"Yes, for Konoha's sake! For the sake of the village! We have to get those eyes!"
Meanwhile, deep underground in the laboratory, Naruto's body was trapped in a glass capsule. The scarlet threads of the Nine-Tails' chakra were continuously flowing out of it. Under the influence of this violent process, the boy's body convulsed, arching in pain that could neither be measured nor described.…