As anyone might have expected, the mansion swarmed with Kusa-nin within moments, drawn by the thunderous clamour of Sakura's Explosion Style nintaijutsu. By the time the Grass ninja reached the ravaged courtyard, they found their mistress safe and sound, with two Leaf kunoichi standing at her side over the unconscious body of a burly Iwa-nin.
"Magami-dono, are you all right?" asked Kusagakure's Head Ninja, glancing at Sakura and Ino. "Who are these women?"
The Head Ninja and his subordinates cast their gazes around the courtyard.
Its four walls were covered in a tapestry of long, deep incisions, consistent with the sharp nature of Wind Style ninjutsu, which Magami was proficient in, and a smoking crater had been blasted into the pebble garden, indicative of the Explosion Style Kekkei Genkai, a speciality of the Hidden Stone.
"Are you trying to start a war with the Hidden Leaf?" cried Lady Magami, sweeping her arm at them. " Lower your weapons, you fools! This is the Lady Hokage you're pointing your kunai at! She is an honoured guest!"
The Grass ninja looked at Sakura in disbelief.
Although it was not unprecedented for a teenager to become the Kage of their village, the Hidden Leaf's situation was different from Sunagakure's, where the title of Kazekage was usually hereditary. Gaara had been handed his position, but in the Hidden Leaf, the requirements were far more stringent, so for this young lass to become Hokage at her age spoke volumes about her strength…
The crowd suddenly parted, and a tall man with long hair tied back into a ponytail and deep bags beneath his eyes strode towards them, flanked by his subordinates. Sakura recognised him from his picture in her bingo book; this was the leader of the Grass Seed Group, the Flower Group's political rivals.
"Aragami," Magami said coolly. "That's odd, I don't recall giving you permission to enter my house?"
"What is the meaning of this, Magami?" Aragami said sternly, ignoring her words. "Backroom dealings with Konoha? And what's more, they seem to have brought trouble to our doorstep."
In the distance, thunderclouds rumbled, and lightning occasionally forked down to the ground, briefly illuminating the monstrous figures clashing across the plains, uncomfortably close to the village.
"I have a proposition for your village," Sakura said. "Join the Hidden Leaf in the war against the Hidden Stone, and allow us to establish a defensive line in your territory, and we will give you the opportunity to retrieve the Box of Ultimate Bliss that was stolen from you."
"Preposterous," Aragami spat. "The Hidden Leaf cannot be trusted, even you should know this, Magami. You will throw us to the meat grinder and claim the Box for yourselves."
"I'm afraid we have little choice in the matter," Magami said bitterly, gesturing towards the Stone-nin lying at her feet. "It's hard to believe, but the Hidden Stone and the Hidden Cloud have allied; the former has the Box, and the latter has Mui, and with the resources at their disposal, they have already activated it and gained joint control over it."
Though Sakura had not yet received the news from her spies, Iwagakure had been the first of the great villages plagued by Danzō's Project: Gozu Tennō to rid itself of its monster. They had lured the Zero-Tails' offspring into the Box of Ultimate Bliss, feeding it its chakra and fully powering it up in one go, without even having to expend a drop of their shinobi's precious chakra.
Aragami breathed in sharply. "If this is true…"
…then the Hidden Grass would be the first to face the awesome might of their own ultimate weapon, adding insult to injury. The Hidden Leaf was actually doing them a great favour by proposing an alliance!
"Do you see, now?" Magami said insistently. "Things are different this time. We must ally with the Hidden Leaf if we are to survive."
Aragami found Magami's stance somewhat puzzling, since it was usually the Grass Flower Group who advocated for neutrality and for staying the hell out of the great villages' way whenever they waged war against one another. However, since she was taking his side for once, he did not dwell on it too deeply.
After all, one should not look a gift horse in the mouth.
"According to our ancestors' records, the Box of Ultimate Bliss has the power to grant any wish," Aragami said. "Since Iwagakure's wish will undoubtedly be the destruction of Konohagakure, we must assume it will take the form of an unstoppable weapon, trampling everything in its path on its way to the Hidden Leaf… very well."
"We must draft an alliance agreement at once," Magami said, gesturing for one of her subordinates to bring her some writing implements. "It must be sent to the Daimyō of our two countries as soon as possible!"
With this, Sakura's secondary objective was complete!
Three influential groups wanted the Land of Grass conquered, for various reasons: the Fire Daimyō, who wished to grant his second son land and thus avert a succession dispute between his heirs; the capitalists, who sought to grease the hinges of the gateway to the west with blood so that they might trade with the lands beyond; and the vultures within the Hidden Leaf, who hoped both schemes would succeed so that they might collect their kickbacks…
…but now that the Land of Grass had formally entered into an alliance with the Land of Fire, the Hidden Leaf couldn't very well invade their own sworn allies, could they?
At the cost of Lady Magami's free will and the Grass ninja who would lose their lives in the war, Sakura had managed to find the path she believed would result in the least bloodshed for Kusagakure, but only time would tell whether she had made the right call.
'What do you think, Nagato?' Sakura thought to herself as she signed the agreement Kusagakure's leaders had drafted on the spot. 'Will this bring about true peace?'
Naturally, Sakura was not worried about handing over the Box of Ultimate Bliss to Kusagakure once it had been deactivated, even though she knew it had almost caused the end of the world in the Sage of Six Paths' era. After all, she knew the weapon's shutdown code… but Aragami, who had every intention of going back on his word once he reacquired the Box, had no idea that she knew it!