The rain over Ame hadn't let up in three days. Hanzo took that as a good omen.
If he could afford to, he'd have said this was the luckiest month of his entire life.
In five days, a Kage Summit would be held in Amegakure, and he was confident that once it wrapped, both his own status and his village's would climb to a whole different level.
The kind of elevation that didn't come from war. The kind that came from being the man in the middle everyone needed to keep happy.
But before any of that, he had one thing to handle first.
Behind him stood over a hundred shinobi, each one looking more intimidating than the last. They were the best Ame had to offer, the kind of shinobi you only deployed when you wanted to make a splash.
Rationally speaking, they didn't need to be here. This was a greeting, not a battle. But Hanzo hadn't built his reputation by being subtle.
From where they stood, the rain was coming down hard, a steady gray sheet that blurred the skyline. But just a few meters ahead of them, the ground was dry.
That was the border between Ame and Iwa, the invisible line where Hanzo's domain ended and Ōnoki's began.
The contrast was stark, wet on one side, dry on the other, like the world itself couldn't decide whose territory was more inhospitable.
Hanzo was here to welcome Iwa's delegation for the summit, which was why he'd shown up in full force with his village's elite lined up behind him like a wall of silent judgment.
Appearances mattered, especially to someone like Ōnoki, who'd spent times reading postures the way other men read maps.
They didn't have to wait long. A few minutes later, figures started to emerge through the dry haze on the Iwa side, dark shapes solidifying into people.
The delegation was moving at a steady pace, unhurried, carrying themselves with the kind of confidence that came from knowing they were expected.
Hanzo felt his posture straighten without meaning to. He was taller than the Tsuchikage by a fair margin, and he knew it, but height wasn't what counted in a meeting like this.
He could loom all he wanted. Ōnoki had a way of looking down on people from below.
Ōnoki, for his part, was doing the same mental math.
As the delegation drew closer, the first thing they did was open umbrellas. One was passed to the Tsuchikage with a respectful dip of the head.
They'd come prepared, Ōnoki didn't leave anything to chance, least of all the weather in Ame. He took the umbrella without breaking stride, his short legs carrying him forward with the weight of someone who was born to be a Kage.
The two leaders locked eyes across the rain line, the dry ground and the wet, and for a long moment neither of them spoke. The shinobi on both sides tensed, waiting for the first move.
"Tsuchikage," Hanzo said finally, his voice carrying clean through the downpour. "Welcome to the Land of Rain."
Ōnoki's eyes crinkled at the corners. "Hanzo. I see you've brought half your village to greet me. Should I be flattered or concerned?"
"Depends on your intentions."
That earned a dry chuckle from the old man.
"Same as yours, I imagine. Survival." He tilted his umbrella back slightly, letting Hanzo see his full face. "Now, are we going to stand here at the border like two merchants haggling over grain, or are you going to show me where I'll be staying?"
Hanzo turned and began walking, the hundred shinobi behind him parting like water around a stone. Ōnoki fell into step beside him without being invited, which was exactly what Hanzo expected. The old man had never been good at following.
The Iwa delegation trailed behind, their umbrellas a dark procession against the gray sky. Hanzo's own people moved to flank them, not quite escorting and not quite herding, but somewhere in the middle where politeness and threat blurred together.
"Five days early," Hanzo said, his voice cutting through the downpour without effort. "I didn't expect you to arrive before Suna."
"Suna moves at its own pace." Ōnoki kept his eyes forward, the umbrella steady in his grip despite the wind picking up along the mountain pass. "I prefer to have time to think before these things. Rushing into a summit without proper preparation is how you end up signing deals you regret for the next twenty years."
Hanzo made a noncommittal sound. "Experience?"
"You could say that."
"I read your last letter carefully," Ōnoki said after a stretch of silence. "You agreed to the summit. You agreed to the pre-summit meeting. But you didn't say much about where you stand."
"I stand in Ame."
A dry laugh escaped the Tsuchikage. "Don't play coy with me, Hanzo. You're too old for it and so am I. Iwa and Suna are offering you resources, recognition, a real seat at the table. Konoha's offering you nothing. Kumo's probably too busy cooing over that exchange program to even remember Ame exists. Your choice should be simple."
Although they are cooperating, Ōnoki was still not at ease fearing Hanzō throwing himself at Konoha's arms because if he was in the latter's place, he will very likely do this.
"Simple choices are the ones that get you killed." Hanzo glanced down at the shorter man. "You know that better than anyone. How many 'simple' decisions did Iwa made during the last war that you regretted by the end of it?"
"Or, not far, don't you remember a simple decision of putting bounty on an Uchiha child?"
His words hit Onoki's sore spot making him angry, however it was controlled over years of political instinct. "Fair enough. But avoiding a choice is still a choice. And right now, your neutrality looks an awful lot like hesitation."
At the same time, he was secretly pondering about Ame's security.
Hanzo had ordered it reinforced for the summit with extra guards and sealed rooms enough anti-surveillance barriers to make even a Hyūga's head spin. He'd spared no expense, because if this summit went wrong, Ame wouldn't get a second chance.
"My neutrality is exactly what makes this summit possible," Hanzo said. "Everyone trusts me just enough to sit in the same room. If I throw my weight behind Iwa and Suna publicly, Kumo and Konoha will walk. You'll be left with exactly what you had before, two villages glaring at one village, and the only thing that changed is you burned your bridge with Ame."
Ōnoki was quiet for a moment. Then he laughed finding Hanzō rather funny, very hypocritical and... Stupid. 'It seems I overestimated him after all.'
"Hanzo, setting aside our letters and the way this summit got called, do you seriously think there's any question of neutrality here?" Ōnoki asked. "I honestly wonder what passes for intelligence in Ame if you don't know something this basic."
"With Azula, either you belong to her or you don't. There's no neutral ground where you profit from both sides. That doesn't exist in her world."
Ōnoki wasn't saying this to strong-arm Hanzo into their cause. He genuinely felt sorry watching someone on his level be that stupid, especially when it didn't benefit him at all.
He knew that once Hanzo's mentality crashed into Uchiha pride, he'd drop all those naive expectations in a heartbeat.
•••
•••
At the same moment Ōnoki was settling into Ame, Azula was about to pull off an idea she'd had since childhood. The resurrection of the Second Hokage.
Definitely not for anything evil.