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No one ever truly intended to honor the so-called treaties.
They were little more than scrap paper—a convenient excuse for everyone to stop fighting and recuperate. The moment the major villages recovered enough strength, that paper would be tossed straight into the fire.
Dodai didn't delusionally hope to actually forge an offensive and defensive alliance with the Hidden Waterfall. His only goal was to retrieve Yugito Nii and the captive Cloud ninja, securing a temporary breathing period for his village.
Because of that, tearing up the negotiations was not an option; they had to hash things out properly.
"So you're saying we need to relax our terms even further? Will Lord Raikage allow that?" C asked from the side, a deep frown on his face.
"Mm. Before we left, Lord Raikage gave me full authority over this matter. I have the final say on any decisions. The terms themselves aren't an issue. Compared to losing Yugito, anything we pay now can be earned back later. The real problem is whether we can actually offer something that moves them," Dodai nodded, his gaze drifting toward the bustling streets of the Hidden Waterfall outside the window, his eyes filled with complex emotion.
Behind him, C and Samui mirrored his grim expression.
The Cloud envoys, unwilling to easily give up, clashed with Menma's faction, which had long since solidified its bottom line.
Over the next few days, the negotiations grew increasingly intense. With Menma and Shibuki absent, Dodai faced off against Doran and Karin. Given the change in his opponents, Dodai's rhetoric became noticeably more "aggressive."
This was entirely normal in diplomacy.
When Great Nations and hidden villages negotiated, a single millimeter of compromise translated to a mountain of lost resources. How could anyone genuinely sit down and negotiate "peacefully"?
Crossing swords with words and fighting tooth and nail was the standard procedure.
This was exactly why the supreme leaders of the major villages rarely handled the fine print themselves. As long as the leaders hadn't spoken, it didn't matter how violently their subordinates argued—there was always room to maneuver.
In any foreign negotiation, the leader's job was simply to steer the macro direction.
Doran and Karin had received crystal-clear instructions from Menma.
Therefore, when it came to Yugito Nii, they didn't yield a single inch. Of course, they never outright stated she would never be returned; they merely insisted she required a "period of delay." As for how long that period was? Well, who could say?
Dodai saw right through the tactic, but with no other options, he used a secure channel to contact the Fourth Raikage, who was currently recovering back in the village. After securing final permission, Dodai formally reached an agreement with the Hidden Waterfall.
Negotiations couldn't drag on forever.
Furthermore, the Cloud's greatest immediate threat was the Hidden Stone. Dodai's comprehensive analysis concluded there was a 99% chance the Third Tsuchikage would cease hostilities against the Cloud and instead pivot to guard against Menma's Waterfall-Grass Alliance. But that was still just theoretical. If that 1% chance happened, who were they going to cry to?
The Cloud had lost every single defensive installation on the western front of the Land of Lightning. While the lost territory barely accounted for 1% of the nation's total landmass, that 1% was absolutely lethal—it projected military pressure over nearly half of the country's interior.
Not only had the Cloud completely lost its influence over the Land of Sound, the Land of Frost, and the Land of Iron, but its control over the Land of Hot Water was now severely compromised. Most critically, the pressure on their domestic defense had skyrocketed.
Lately, just trying to reorganize their defensive lines had given the Fourth Raikage and Dodai a head full of white hair.
Moving forward, the Cloud would be forced into a strictly defensive posture against the Stone. The Stone could attack whenever they pleased, but launching a counter-offensive would be incredibly difficult for the Cloud.
Because of this, Dodai couldn't afford to waste any more time arguing with the Waterfall. The Waterfall was physically distant, and the two nations shared no borders. If the Waterfall wanted to invade, they would have to detour through two or three minor nations or march straight through the Land of Fire.
The Cloud could afford to put this grudge on a tab and settle it once they recovered their strength.
With that reality in mind, after staying in the Hidden Waterfall for a full week, Dodai and the village officially signed a peace treaty. The document repeatedly emphasized the "deep friendship" between the two villages and stressed their "future cooperative relationship."
It was all meaningless fluff.
The only parts of the treaty that actually mattered were the clauses regarding joint development rights in specific regions, the transfer of certain mission quotas, and the massive list of gifted resources. That was the price the Cloud was paying.
In return, the Waterfall agreed to immediately release the nearly one hundred captive Cloud ninja. The very day the promised supplies arrived in the village, Menma signed the release order.
As the chakra-suppressing cuffs were removed and the Cloud shinobi stepped out of the prison, most of them looked deeply dazed.
Almost every single one of them had already made peace with death.
They had never imagined they would actually see the light of freedom again.
The day they were released, Dodai immediately gathered them and began the long journey home.
As for Yugito Nii, the final peace treaty made absolutely no mention of her.
By the end, Dodai had stopped pushing for it.
Unable to offer sufficient leverage, the issue of Yugito was temporarily shelved.
Just like decades ago when the Cloud despised the Stone with every fiber of their being but were forced to swallow their hatred—they would wait until they recovered their strength before coming back to reclaim Yugito, or more accurately, the Two-Tails.
The weak are meat, and the strong eat. The ninja world was built on that brutal reality. Ironically, the Hidden Cloud understood this better than anyone, because they had operated on that exact philosophy since their founding.
The diplomatic exchange between the Cloud and the Waterfall acted as a catalyst. During this period, hidden villages across the globe launched a flurry of diplomatic probes to secure their own interests. The undisputed focal points were, naturally, the Hidden Leaf and the Hidden Stone.
The Mist and the Sand simply lacked the power to participate.
Quietly waiting for an opportunity was their only remaining choice; until then, they could only silently lick their wounds.
Menma kept a close eye on these global diplomatic maneuvers.
These people and these villages were his future enemies. While perfect intelligence gathering was impossible, keeping a firm grip on their general movements was mandatory.
Especially regarding the Leaf and the Stone.
They were his top priorities.
The global dynamic had essentially shifted to an open confrontation. Just as the overbearing rise of the Hidden Leaf had once drawn the fear and coordinated attacks of the other nations, Menma's newly forged 'Waterfall-Grass Alliance' was destined to become a massive thorn in the side of both the Leaf and the Stone.
The former was obvious.
The latter was the result of the old Tsuchikage's dictatorial ambition.
Onoki still desperately wanted to create a golden age for the Hidden Stone, an era of dominance unseen in a century. Menma's very existence was a massive roadblock to that dream.
But that was a clash for the future.
At this specific moment in time, the Cloud, Mist, and Sand desperately needed to recuperate; the Stone needed time to digest the spoils of war; and the Leaf couldn't possibly wage war alone. Most importantly, Menma needed time to execute the next phase of his master plan.
As the year drew to a close, the ninja world entered a precious period of peace. Menma finally had the time and freedom to begin his crucial journey.
---
Deep inside an underground laboratory in the easternmost sector of the Hidden Waterfall.
"It seems the cellular activation is stabilizing without any major issues. The next step is further stress testing. Once we synthesize the reagent from the secondary trials, we can officially initiate the Tailed Beast Extraction Plan."
Standing in front of a surgical table, Menma looked down at the results of a cell fusion, then checked the readings on the nearby monitors. A faint smile touched his lips as he nodded gently.
"I really didn't expect Naruto's cells to possess this level of extreme vitality. It almost defies logic, doesn't it?" Karin, who was assisting with the experiment, muttered in sheer amazement.
When Menma had first proposed using Naruto's cells for the activation experiment, Karin had thought it was a terrible idea.
He didn't even have red hair.
How much Uzumaki blood could he really have? What was the point of using him as a baseline?
Their current research was stuck at a massive bottleneck. If they could crack it, they could use cellular fusion to trigger a completely new evolution in the human body, drastically elevating its life force and physical limitations.
This was the absolute core of Menma's current research.
Karin had assumed they would be stuck on this step for a very long time, and wasn't even sure if a breakthrough was possible.
She never expected that Menma's brother, Naruto Uzumaki, would possess cells with this kind of terrifying regenerative power!
Although they were still in the preliminary stages of neutralization and adaptation—and true success wasn't guaranteed—this was an undeniable breakthrough.
"Naruto is a special case. He's an existence far more unique than either of us," Menma said, slowly shaking his head.
"Special?"
Karin blinked, looking at Menma's profile with intense curiosity.
How could he not be special!?
The kid was the literal reincarnation of a millennium-old chakra entity. Even if he only possessed a fraction of it, it was still the purest lineage of the Otsutsuki clan.
As a descendant of the Uzumaki clan who was now actively manifesting Asura's chakra, Naruto's physical form was the absolute, definitive definition of the Sage Body.
Of course, unlocking that potential was a gradual process of adaptation and growth.
It was true for Hashirama Senju, and it was true for Naruto.
You didn't just burst out of the womb with maxed-out stats.
Through this cellular activation test, Menma had finally, with one hundred percent certainty, confirmed Naruto's "identity."
There was no other logical explanation for these results.
"It's nothing. I'll leave the rest of the experiments to you. I'm leaving the village the day after tomorrow. Don't rush it; just follow the established procedures for the secondary and tertiary neutralization trials. As long as you can consistently hit today's baseline, it's a success."
The ultimate goal of the cellular activation tests...
Was to achieve ultimate physical perfection.
The tier of the Six Paths.
The realm that encompassed all creation.
The domain of the Kekkei Mōra.
It required fusing the absolute pinnacle of physical perfection with the absolute pinnacle of spiritual power to master a dimension that controlled all forms of energy.
The absolute minimum baseline for breaching that dimension...
Were Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha.
They were the most perfect incarnations of Indra and Asura in a thousand years.
Hashirama's cells?
Menma had them right here.
He could easily run comparative tests. The criteria for success were brutally simple: if a subject's cells weren't instantly devoured and converted by Hashirama's cells, it was a success.
If the subject's cells could actually influence or even devour Hashirama's cells...
That would be a god-tier breakthrough.
Though, realistically, that was practically impossible. Hashirama's cellular vitality and physical durability had already reached the absolute upper limit of the human species. Anything beyond that couldn't even be classified as "human."
It would be an entirely different species altogether.
In their previous experiments, Menma and Karin had subjected their own cells to countless forms of enhancement, but they had hit a hard ceiling. It seemed impossible to shatter that upper limit. But this recent development represented a fundamental, qualitative shift.
This was one of the major keys to Menma's future evolution.
Naturally, there was a secondary objective: facilitating a safer extraction of the Two-Tails, Matatabi, from Yugito. He had made a promise to Matatabi, after all. As long as it was within his power, Menma was willing to let Yugito live.
Cellular activation and physical enhancement...
Could be applied directly to that problem.
This was exactly why, during his negotiations with Dodai, Menma hadn't definitively ruled out returning Yugito. As long as he could successfully strip Matatabi from her, releasing a single elite jonin meant absolutely nothing. It posed zero threat.
Seeing Menma dodge the question, Karin didn't pry further. She just nodded obediently. "Mm, don't worry, Menma. I'll definitely meet your requirements before you get back."
"Heh. There's no need to push yourself that hard. We have time to take it slow," Menma chuckled, reaching out to gently pat Karin's head.
"Besides, don't forget—the later stages of the experiment absolutely require that guy's jutsu. We got the foundational theory from Orochimaru-san, but to truly master the core mechanics, we need the person who invented it. There's no rush on the cellular trials. Just do exactly what I said: focus on stabilizing the second and third neutralization batches. The final step has to wait until I drag that guy back here!"
"Mm, I know. You can count on me, Menma. Still... is that guy's jutsu really going to work? What if..." Karin nodded, though a hint of doubt still lingered in her voice.
"There are no 'what ifs,' Karin. We've come too far. We have to test every single possibility. Whether it works or not, we won't know until we run the experiment," Menma said, his tone turning utterly serious.