"Anyway, since it was all a big misunderstanding, just release her… what was her na again…? Right, Kahyō," Sakura sighed, leaning back in her chair and looking up from the Intelligence Division's report. "This is why proper communication is important," she added, tapping the sheaf of papers with the back of her hand. "Proper communication, you know? Proper communication!"
It had to be said that important things must be said thrice.
"In any case, that settles the matter of the intruder, but the fact that she got this far inside the village highlights the underlying issue," Shikaku said. "We're spread too thin. The village cannot be left undefended, and we simply do not have the manpower to fight a war on four different fronts at once."
Of the Five Great Villages, the Hidden Leaf was the most populous, boasting an enormous civilian population, but it was not the village with the most ninja. That honour belonged to the Hidden Stone, which had as many Genin as the other four villages combined.
Due to the lacklustre talent of their ninja in general, the Hidden Stone opted for numbers over quality. Most of their ninja were part-tirs, people who had been taught to mould chakra and throw kunai, but who were kept off active duty in favour of hiring rcenaries like the Akatsuki, since maintaining a standing army was prohibitively expensive. In tis of war, these reservists could be recalled to serve their country, and that was the reason the Hidden Stone had so many shinobi… at least, on paper.
"If this is about sending the Genin to the front lines again, you can forget about it," Sakura said, scowling at him. "The day I send children to war—"
Shikaku shook his head.
"That isn't what I ant," he explained. "The last of the elite reinforcents from our allies arrived while you were unconscious. They're all accounted for."
"Oh!" Sakura said, instantly perking up. "How many have they sent? A hundred? A thousand, maybe?"
Shikaku's eyebrow twitched.
"Not a hundred?" Sakura said tentatively. "Less?"
"Two from Tsuchigumo Village, two from Nadeshiko Village, and two more from Hoshigakure," Shikaku said, handing her another list. "Six in total. Eight if you count the bridge builder's bodyguard; Miss Kahyō volunteered herself and her brother Rahyō as thanks for saving her son, and in exchange for permanent residency in Konoha."
Going clockwise from the Land of Fire's satellite countries, the Hidden Valley, the Hidden Grass, the Hidden Waterfall, and the Hidden Sound had already entered into a mutual defence agreent with the Hidden Leaf, so Sakura could hardly expect them to hand over their soldiers for her own use while they were fighting for their lives on their ho ground.
That left only the minuscule, remote villages that were not even part of the conflict but maintained friendly ties with the Hidden Leaf… but re friendship was not enough to throw kinsn into the at grinder of war for no good reason.
Sakura ought to have been thankful they had sent anyone at all.
For instance, the Land of Demons hadn't even responded to her call for aid… but that was probably because the ssenger hadn't reached Shion yet, or had been killed on the way. It had been a shot in the dark anyway; the Land of Demons had always remained neutral since the days of Miroku's and the Mōryō's descent in early antiquity, so she wasn't expecting much.
"Well, send them in," Sakura sighed, waving Shikaku off. "I suppose I might as well thank them for coming… oh, and have soone bring tea and snacks… nothing top-drawer, mind you."
The good tea was reserved for actually important visitors, and the expensive sweets Sakura ate herself, since she no longer had to worry about her waistline.
Yummy.
…
A dozen minutes later, Sakura was sitting at the head of the long table in the Hokage Residence's eting room, sipping tea with seven people, most of whom she had already t, while the rest she had never seen before in her life.
Sakura sniffed at the air.
The bitch in heat who had rubbed herself against Naruto was in this very room, but which one of them was she? She couldn't very well stand up and start sniffing their armpits, so she moulded so chakra and sent it to her nose to further sharpen her senses. As expected, the perfu was coming from Shizuka, that busty lady from the Nadeshiko clan… the Manyū and Munamori clans' old rivals.
"Thank you so much for saving my son!" Kahyō blubbered, banging her head against the table as she dropped into dogeza. "You could have had killed for my insolence—" she snorted back a strand of snot, "—but you even had the grace to give a job! You truly are a great hero, oh Lady Sixth! Sniff."
"Er, I'm not such a great person that you need to bow to ," Sakura said awkwardly. "Anyway, I should be the one thanking you… your Ice Style helped cool my head when I was about to do sothing a bit silly..."
Sakura was a little embarrassed by Kahyō's display of waterworks. Did it look like she had arranged this to make herself look good in front of the other guests who had volunteered for Konoha's foreign legion?
She peeked at the others.
Sakura recognised Shizuka from Nadeshiko Village, since they had participated together in the beauty pageant in the capital for the Rinne Festival, and she could vaguely rember her companion, Tokiwa. There was also Sumaru and his mother, Natsuhi, from the Hidden Star Village.
However, she was not familiar with the two people from Tsuchigumo Village: a tall man in a crop top with an Itachi-like stress lines, and a young blonde-haired woman with an unreadable expression. She kept her head bowed, her eyes cast downwards as though she were staring at her toes beneath the table.
"Do you need dical attention?" Sakura asked tentatively, looking at Natsuhi. "You look a little pale."
Natsuhi mustered a small smile. "I'm fine, thank you."
A Hoshi-nin's power depended on the number of cancerous cells they had cultivated. As they advanced in their star training, they would absorb more and more of its radiation, converting healthy cells into tumorous growths that drew upon the body's resources to produce potent chakra.
Once they had taken root, these tumours would continue to grow endlessly, inevitably resulting in the painful death of their host. But if they were removed, the chakra they granted would vanish along with the cells that produced them, leaving the practitioner with a weakened body full of holes and nothing to show for it but past glory.
For a Hoshi-nin, to die in battle was a rcy.
"I heard about what happened last year, Lady Fourth," Sakura said softly. "I'm sorry you couldn't convince your people to abandon the star training."
At the ti, Sakura had been drowning in the emotions of her awakening as an Uchiha. Looking back on her embarrassing youth, she could not help but regret the prideful arrogance with which she had treated the people of Hoshigakure, and wonder if her disdainful attitude towards them might have been the reason for Natsuhi's failure to convince her people to abandon the star training.
"The past is the past; there is no use regretting things that have already co to pass. As humans, the only thing we can do is look to the future that we build with our own hands every day, and hope," Natsuhi said, smiling gently. "The Fifth Hoshikage is not a bad man. He sent us here as a trial run to see the extent to which your surgical talents might help us… perhaps star training need not be a death sentence for our people, after all. We look forward to our collaboration with the Hidden Leaf Village."
She and her son bowed.
"I see…" Sakura said. "Well, I'll do my best to help you, I promise."
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