In Konoha, Naruto lies down

Thinking of this, he picked up a piece of clothing from the door and glanced at her with his eyes lowered.

"Going out for a walk?"

"Okay." Temari swallowed, her mind a little confused, and she could only let Naruto's words lead her.

Just as he was about to leave, he seemed to remember something and turned back to his room to get another coat and threw it to Temari. He didn't care whether she wanted it or not and walked out on his own.

With a splash of water, Heitu lifted her legs from the tub, her toes landing on the absorbent pad. Humming, she bent down and wrapped herself in a snow-white bathrobe.

The inn on the first floor of the Iwagakure Village was spacious, with six rooms. She lived in one, and Akado shared one with Ōnoki, who was old and needed care.

"The weather in the Iron Kingdom is really bad. It snows for one-third of the year." Heitu stood by the window, looking at the heavy snow outside, and stretched. He was naturally not adapted to the climate here.

She glanced outside casually, her gaze suddenly stopped, and she narrowed her eyes.

"Aren't those people from Konoha and Sunagakure? Why are they walking together? Can allies be so close?"

On a snowy day.

The two of them, wearing the same black coat, stood silently under the eaves of the pentagonal pavilion, surrounded by a vast expanse of white. Temari was wearing her coat, and she could smell the faint fragrance of the clothes.

Suddenly remembering the look Naruto had given her today, her heart started beating uncontrollably again. She didn't know what was wrong with her; just one look from him made her feel hopeless.

She had met many people and suffered a lot since she was a child. When Kankuro was afraid of Gaara, she was the one who mediated between them.

Later, she discovered that her father also seemed to want to kill Gaara, and she began to realize that some things were beyond her control. But she still tried her best to do what she could, take care of her family, and practice hard.

There were also people her age in the Sand Village who had tried to pursue her. Some were good-looking, some were strong, but she looked down on them all. She thought they were too childish, like puppies wagging their tails everywhere.

She was used to being a caring person and was relied upon by her younger brother. But Temari already had two younger brothers, so if she found another childish younger brother as her boyfriend? That would be ridiculous, she would just be bored.

In the cold wind, she lowered her head and stared at her chest, thinking for a long time but still didn't know what to say.

Fortunately, Naruto spoke first, his voice neither too loud nor too soft, lacking any coldness, and he stared at her with his eyes.

"I heard about the deepening of the alliance between Sunagakure and Konoha. At that time, it was indeed surprising that Sunagakure could make such a decision."

Temari listened attentively, and suddenly realized that she hadn't been mentioned in the entire sentence. Her expression remained unchanged, but her heart was down for a moment. She hadn't done all that just to get along with Konoha...

After saying that, Naruto visibly relaxed, as if he had completed a mission.

"That matter... Actually, Sunagakure just made a decision that was in our best interest. After all, we are allies, and we should really unite in matters like Konoha."

Temari said with a forced smile, her face almost frozen.

At this time, the wind and snow were getting stronger. Naruto put his hands in the pockets of his coat. Looking at Temari's increasingly reluctant expression, a smile appeared in his eyes.

At dusk, the sky gradually darkened due to the snow.

"Come here," he said, commandingly.

Temari couldn't resist and blushed as she slowly moved over. But she was afraid of being disliked if she stood too close, so she stopped cautiously about three or four steps away from him.

Naruto stared at her with amusement, "I didn't see you so far away that day? Why do you look like this now?"

"That's not..." Temari was a little depressed. She mumbled and stopped talking again, as if giving up on herself, "Anyway, whatever you say is what it is."

"Thank you anyway." He said directly, "Although what you did may not be entirely for me, it did help me a lot, so thank you, Temari."

The wind and snow were blowing softly and heavily. Temari stood there, her heart trembling when her name was called. It was clearly just a simple thank you, but she wanted to jump up and cheer.

She had clearly prepared herself mentally before leaving, even if his attitude remained as impatient and cold as usual. But she had never expected things to develop like this, which was somewhat... unexpected.

"No...it's okay." Temari narrowed her eyes and smiled, but still felt a little unnatural.

"I was a little rude to you before, well... not very friendly. I won't do that again." Naruto said, "I was just a little angry at the time, and I didn't expect you to be scared."

Temari felt a little panicked when she heard this, as if something was wrong.

"Um... I've forgotten everything that happened before. You don't have to take it to heart." She was a little nervous and stammered, "I said something rather harsh back then. I deserved it."

She trailed off and looked up to see Naruto speak.

"You don't have to help me specifically in the future. There are many things I can handle by myself, and they are not that difficult." Naruto stood there loosely, with a cold expression, keeping people at a distance.

Temari's body was a little stiff, her head was buzzing, and she didn't hear a word Naruto said later.

She didn't even notice Naruto left until the end, and just stood there in a daze.

The talks collapsed again.

Looking at the increasingly tense atmosphere at the Five Kage Summit, Naruto sighed. This was even more boring than he'd imagined. The Kumogakure side was completely unreasonable.

Ohnoki is just an old scoundrel, always ridiculed by the crowd, and he doesn't worry about whether there is anyone to take over from Iwagakure. But if Kumogakure is like a gang organization, Iwagakure is basically a feudal dynasty.

In the future, the local emperor Ohnoki will pass the position of Tsuchikage to his granddaughter Kurotsuchi, just like now, Kurotsuchi will gain experience by participating in the Five Kage Summit.

Except for Sunagakure and Konoha, those standing here now are basically the successors of the Five Kage.

"If we can't reach an agreement tomorrow, just leave." In the room, Tsunade put down her wine glass, rubbed her temples and said, "It's really exhausting to argue with those stubborn guys."

"Okay, I'm tired of staying here anyway," he continued, putting the wine glass away without leaving a trace. "There's no point in staying here."

"You don't care, but I'm the Hokage." Tsunade went to get the wine glass but found nothing. She immediately looked dissatisfied and stretched out her other hand to grab Naruto's collar.

"take it out."

"Drink less." He took out half a glass of wine from the sealed space, "Hasn't Lady Tsunade been training Kakashi-sensei? She obviously doesn't want to be tied up in official duties all day long."

"That's two different things." Tsunade took a sip of her wine, "I really don't want to sit in that damn Hokage's office every day, but there's nothing I can do right now."

"Konoha needs me. When Kakashi becomes a qualified Kage, I can leave."

"Where are you going?" Naruto asked curiously.

"Let's continue traveling. Where else can we go?" Tsunade said, "Are we going to stay in this village? Spend every day reminiscing? Only novelty can dilute the memories."

Perhaps the talks did not go well, and under the influence of alcohol, Tsunade opened her heart a little to Naruto.

"That's true." Naruto agreed, "I want to travel around and see the world. There are no restrictions now. When I become a Jonin, I will leave the village and travel."

"You mean you'll leave when you come of age?" Tsunade glanced at him sideways.

"Almost." Naruto also mentioned his future plans, "I plan to travel to different places and see the local customs and culture of each place."

"Take two or three assignments a year, earn enough money to eat, perfect."

"Two or three missions, is that enough money?" Tsunade sneered. Her neck was a little red from drinking. She pulled at her clothes, revealing large patches of whiteness, but she didn't care.

Naruto didn't care, and stared at him with a dignified look, as if he was completely immune. He lay in the chair, speaking in a relaxed tone and smiling.

"If you don't have enough money, ask Tsunade-sama to borrow some. You won't starve anyway."

"Looking for me?" Tsunade smiled. "If you look for me, I can give it to you. Just call me sister."

Naruto gave Tsunade the same cold smile, "You can lie to me, but it's wrong to lie to yourself."

With a bang, Naruto was thrown out of the room by Tsunade, along with his coat, and hit the wall in the corridor heavily. Tsunade seemed a little drunk and glared at him with a knife-like look.

"Oh, dinner was sent to my room."

After saying that, the door slammed shut.

He had asked for trouble, rubbing his bruised back and standing up with a grimace. Fortunately, this floor was owned solely by Konoha, and the corridor was deserted.

He sighed and said something mean, then slowly went back to his room.

However, when Naruto knocked on Tsunade's door with the dinner cart at dinner time, the sexy female boss seemed to have forgotten the unpleasantness of lunch and motioned him in.

Fortunately, Tsunade doesn't hold grudges, so the dinner was relaxing and enjoyable.

The next day.

The final day of the meeting Tsunade had been talking about had arrived, and the atmosphere around the table was as tense as it could be. It was like a powder keg that had been squeezed for too long, ready to explode.

Even the usually gentle Mizukage Mei Terumi became aggressive, angrily rebuking Kumogakure and Iwagakure at the meeting table. Her philosophy coincided with Tsunade's, believing in the power of the younger generation.

The Fourth Raikage, Ai, was like the godfather of the ninja world, always talking about the rules of the ninja world, a world of the strong. The strong prey on the weak, and only the fittest survive.

The Kazekage Gaara also has a sharp attitude and looks down on the older generation of Raikage and Tsuchikage Ōnoki. Although he is young, he appears calm and can respond to Ōnoki's challenges word for word.

Ohnoki was still that old scoundrel, relying on his seniority to act like a local tyrant. He was also veiled in his words, mentioning Gaara's blunt comment on the Fourth Kazekage's failure.

As for Hokage Tsunade, she had come there just to cause a quarrel and had no intention of taking responsibility for the Two-Tails incident.

Raikage: "All the rebellious ninjas came from your four villages. Shouldn't you send ninjas to eliminate them? There are no traitors in our Kumogakure!"

Ohnoki: "Lord Raikage, you're going too far. We've already issued arrest warrants for the rebel ninja and distributed them to various countries. Only by getting clues can we take targeted action. There's no such thing as looking for a needle in a haystack."

"Besides, the problem of rebellious ninjas has been around for a long time. We can't let the village's resources be wasted just because the Second Tail of Kumogakure was kidnapped."

Mei Terumi: "Tsuchikage-sama is right. We in the Kirigakage have also had many traitorous ninjas, and we have dealt with most of the traitorous ninjas that we were able to track down over the years."

"Most of the remaining rebel ninjas are as powerful as jonin, and tracking them down would require a considerable amount of manpower and resources."

Gaara crossed his arms on the table and said, "The Sand Village has tracked down an organization called Akatsuki. Its members are all powerful ninjas who defected from various ninja villages."

"Scorpion, the ninja who defected from the Sand Village many years ago, is now serving the Akatsuki organization."

Tsunade knocked on the table: "Don't waste any more time, Raikage, just say what you want to say. Don't accuse us with some unfounded excuses, what is your real purpose?"

The meeting failed unexpectedly, with the Raikage furious and Tsunade walking out. The Iron Country leader, Mifune, sent someone to visit once, and Tsunade bluntly declared there was nothing left to discuss.

"Go tell those people from Kumogakure to either discuss something feasible or just disband." Tsunade's eyes were a little cold. "Tell them to stop talking about Uchiha Sasuke. It's hard to say whether there are any traitors in Kumogakure. Anyone can say nice things."

The people from the Iron Country brought the message, but Kumogakure unexpectedly gave in.

Naruto was already packing his things when Tsunade suddenly told him to stay another day for the final meeting tomorrow. Without saying anything else, he left.

In the afternoon, Naruto accompanied Tsunade in the room to carefully review the information sent by Kumogakure. After two hours of reading, he felt a little tired, but when he turned around, he saw Tsunade still examining it meticulously.

Yawning, he decided to go out for a walk. He didn't disturb Tsunade and left quietly by himself.

He walked out and stood under the eaves of the inn. He looked at the cotton-like snow, exhaled a breath of hot air, and looked into the distance for a while to relieve the fatigue of his eyes.

The attitude of Kumogakure has little to do with him. Mizukage Mei Terumi seems to be leaning towards Tsunade, but in fact she has reached a temporary tacit understanding with the Tsuchikage.

Konoha and Sunagakure were allies, so naturally, they had no disagreements. The Mizukage and the Tsuchikage had reached a tacit understanding, and Kumogakure couldn't morally condemn either.

As a result, the talks became a three-way confrontation. In the end, Kumogakure finally compromised and agreed to resolve the Two-Tail issue privately.

This round of talks mainly focused on resource issues, and the goal was to use this opportunity to seek cooperation with the four countries.

They had intended to use the Two-Tail incident to force the Four Kingdoms to back down, but they hadn't expected that no matter how tense the situation became, none of the Four Kage would relent. When Tsunade said she wanted to leave, the Kumogakure was stunned.

It's impossible to finally convene a Five Kage meeting and then have nothing achieved and let the meeting fail simply due to bickering. After much deliberation, Kumogakure gave in first.

This is a good sign, at least it breaks the deadlock.

Just when Naruto was lost in thought, he suddenly heard someone coming down the stairs. He thought it was Tsunade, so he turned around subconsciously, only to see Temari's resentful face.

The wind and snow grew stronger, and a piece of wood was suddenly blown up and soon swallowed by the snow.

The surroundings were not quiet at all. The howling wind obscured the sound of falling snow. However, the chaotic white noise made Temari's footsteps and heavy breathing clear.

Konoha and Sunagakure lived on different floors of the same inn, next to the inn shared by Iwagakure and Kirigakure. Most of the time, no one was seen here.

As for Temari's matter, Naruto had already made it clear last time. He said that they were starting over, and all previous grudges were written off, so there was no need to deliberately help him.

Seeing Temari's distracted look, he wanted to ask her if she heard anything, but after thinking about it, he decided to leave first. If she didn't know and thought he had done something, that would be really troublesome.

Maybe she caught a cold or something, but Temari's voice was a little hoarse.

"Do you still want me?"

Chapter 256 Another year, winter snow, the end of the year, nothing seems to have changed

Ten minutes ago.

Gaara's room on the Sunagakure floor.

Kankuro patted his head and said irritably.

"Gaara, I think those guys from Kumogakure did this on purpose. We wasted several days dealing with them for nothing. Now that we're about to leave, they're suddenly showing their sincerity again."

Under the light, Gaara was concentrating on the documents on the table. His cold expression eased slightly as he looked at Kankuro and spoke.

"This is Kumogakure's usual negotiating style. They act like a violent gang. If intimidation fails, they'll show sincerity."

Hearing this, Kankuro threw the cooperation materials sent by Kumogakure onto the table in a mess.

"That kind of village is really outrageous! Right, Temari."

Kankuro looked at Temari, but found that she was a little absent-minded, so he shouted again.

"There's nothing strange about it. Kumogakure has always been domineering." After putting down the information, Temari stood up, said, "I'm going out for some fresh air," and left the room.