Another path

The Swamp - 1st night

< Ok, back to the main story ! I'm sorry for the story being on virtual hiatus for so long but now I can write it properly.
On another note, we hit the 20k views, that's just awesome ! I can't believe you guys actually like this story, I was reading my chapters about the Wave arc and I was thinking "why is it so boring, should I rewrite it ?" 😅
Anyway, I hope you enjoy and thanks for reading as always ! >
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WARNING ⚠️ : Graphic violence in this chapter, don't read if it makes you uncomfortable !
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Kurama was currently having a pretty violent discussion with the other Kage. The reason ?

" - Uzukage-sama, we can't let this continue ! We have to stop the trial now !

- That would be foolish, the situation is at our advantage right now and your proposition would ruin it.

- You're playing with the lives of the Jinchūriki here ! Have you no responsibility ? Don't you care what will befall them ?

- Tsuchikage-sama, I think the Uzukage knows very well how dire the situation is, especially considering her own daughter is endangered but she seems confident in her plan. As a Bijū, her experience of such hard times is probably greater than all of ours combined so let's trust her a bit, shall we ?

- I wouldn't have expected the Kazekage to side with such a risky plan, this just proves you're nothing more than a brat !

- If I may, Tsuchikage-sama, I fail to understand why you would be so concerned when both of your Jinchūriki are currently in Iwa and not here, on the battlefield. Surely you can entrust the Uzukage and myself with our shinobi, can't you ?

- As true as what you are saying is, Mizukage-sama, I personally have a Jinchūriki in the person of B currently battling in the swamps. I fear for his security and that of the other Jinchūriki.

- A much justified concern but if you allow me to explain my plan, I'm sure things will make more sense.

They all looked at Kurama and silently nodded, giving her their approval. She closed her eyes and sighed in relief - why did humans always scream before thinking, it was just so tiresome...

- Shâyō is currently in great danger, so there is no question about retrieving her, it's our priority and word has been spread about it to the summons. However, the same shouldn't be applied to the other Jinchūriki in my opinion because of three important facts. First, none of them is injured or has even been noticed by anyone so far. Even Shâyō's aggressors would have trouble finding them. Second of all, we can monitor the whole situation much better than they ever could. Otherwise, they wouldn't struggle to find Shâyō. And finally the third and most important one : we all have faith in our Jinchūriki's strength. If we didn't, we would never have sent them in there.

She paused a moment to gaze at A with a knowing look, almost as if to say "I know you want to protect him, but you need to trust him".

- The plan is to track down those aggressors by making them believe Shâyō is still in the swamps. Even if they find out she's gone, their first guess wouldn't be that we discovered them but that she was defeated by another party and found by a summon. That would mean the other Jinchūriki would be their primary target. I believe all of them have the ability to evade them but we can warn them to prevent them from acting rash. We can also heighten our surveillance for each of them so we can notice anything suspicious. The point of this is that this group is so elusive that we might never get a better chance at cornering them... We need to catch these two Akatsuki members while we still have the chance !

Gaara nodded, a pensive air on his face.

- Moreover, they probably think they're at their advantage here, they wouldn't expect a strong counter from us... From what I gathered from Suzuka and my own experience, they're very efficient in their attacks but can be surprisingly easily thrown off guard.