The Wind To His Fire

The Gokage Summit

Sasuke remembered the last time he had been to the land of iron as a missing nin, who had kidnapped the Raikage's brother and was planning to fight the five Kages and kill the Hokage. He snorted. The circumstances couldn't be anymore different. Now, he, along with Sakura, lwas the apprentice if the Godaime Hokage, acting as her gaurd. Konoha wasn't destroyed by Pein and Sasuke was actually invested in a good outcome of the summit.

It was easier said than done though, especially when the Tsuchikage alternatively acted defensive about his patronage of Akatsuki and blamed Konoha because of Itachi's and Orochimaru's involvement in the organisation. The other Kage were also sceptical of Tsunade's claim of Akatsuki's goals since there hadn't been any kidnappings of the jinchuriki yet and Akatsuki, despite its membership of S rank nin, was mostly associated with petty crime.

It was on the third day of meaningless ramblings when Sasuke finally lost his patience.

"Hokage-sama, if I may speak?" He interupted the Raikage's self important monologue. He took care to maintain a polite tone, aware of Tsunade's short temper.

Surprisingly, it wasn't the Hokage who replied but the Raikage.

"Mind your place, boy." He barked.

Sasuke blinked. He was pretty sure he hadn't done anything to offend the Raikage in this timeline.

"I think we should hear what Sasuke-san has to say. May be it would be something original instead same arguments we have been repeating for the last three days." Naruto's red haired friend (you don't need to be jealous, he's just a friend Sasuke, dattebayo) who was incidentally also the Kazekage, intervened.

Sasuke looked at Tsunade for permission, who graced him with a nod.

He cleared his throat. "I would like to ask you all, for a moment, to forget about every warning Hokage-sama has provided you and think about what you already know about the Akatsuki. They comprise exclusively of S rank missing nin, who work in pairs. It's already suspicious because missing nin rarely work together, let alone S rank missing nin. The fact that they are from different villages adds in to the suspicion. Their use of the atrocious uniform means that they take orders from someone who has a poor taste in fashion and who is stronger than them, which is a frightening possibility. Furthermore, the fact that they have not been tied to anything except petty crimes since joining the organisation, is a red herring. Why would such notorious ninjas band together to perform small time theft? They are obviously hiding their true goal. Even if you don't believe my brother's report about their goal to collect jinchuriki and reform ten tails, you are aware that such fire power would only be brought together for two possible targets - the Kages or the jinchuriki. Kages are almost always safe behind the village wall and gaurds. Jinchuriki, however, are not. Would it be such a hardship for the Great Ninja villages to keep their jinchuriki safe until the possible threat of Akatsuki is dealt with?"

Sasuke finished his impromptu speech and tried to read the mood. To hai relief almost everyone in the room had contemplative expression, while Tsunade was looking at him with something akin to..... pride?

No, it had to be a trick of light.