Yes, the Hokage!

Compared to the choice Sunagakure presented them with either becoming a sinner or a rogue ninja, these two options were so precious, so comforting...

"Mr. Fenglan, it sounds like someone is crying outside." Hearing the noise outside the door, Mei Terumi smiled charmingly, "Did you start a relationship with that country girl from Sunagakure and then abandon her?"

"I think I've said it before, your personality isn't really suited to using your beauty to seduce people."

Fenglan sat down opposite Terumi Mei. Although she appeared very hot and open, Terumi Mei was actually a rather traditional and gentle Yamato Nadeshiko. This could be seen from her care for ordinary people... cough cough, I mean Chojuro. As for Ao, it was only because this guy always touched on the Mizukage's sore spot of wanting to get married that he was threatened with being blackened.

"Everyone is under a lot of time, so let's just speak frankly."

"Indeed, even though I've been cultivating an image of myself as someone who likes to flirt with handsome men in taverns, I have to leave in five minutes at most, otherwise the Mizukage will become suspicious."

Mei Terumi frowned, forced to abandon her pointless probing: "Kisame Hoshigaki killed Suigetsu Fuguki."

"Wow, impressive." Feng Lan clapped his hands. "As expected of the man I value. Now I have two questions: After he killed Suigetsu Hozuki, what was the Fourth Mizukage's reaction? And what is your stance?"

"The Fourth Mizukage has identified him as a rogue ninja and is currently issuing a warrant for his arrest. Kisame was forced to steal Samehada and leave the village to wander outside, while I am his collaborator."

Mei Terumi said seriously, "There are also people in Kirigakure who are very dissatisfied with the policies of the Blood Mist Village. At that time, we also found out that Suigetsu Fubuki was a scoundrel who betrayed the village's information for his own selfish reasons, so we prepared to assassinate him. Unexpectedly, before we could take action, Kisame beat us to it."

“Continue…” Feng Lan had already entered the smiling tiger form, which indicated that his brain was working at high speed. How much of what Mei Terumi said was credible, and how much was fabricated?

Perhaps she really wanted to cooperate with Kisame to overthrow the Fourth Mizukage, or perhaps Kisame had already been captured or even killed, and this guy was coming to her with his token for some other purpose.

“With our help, Kisame Hoshigaki successfully escaped Kirigakure, so our faction has gained his trust,” Mei Terumi continued. “Given his current status, he absolutely cannot appear at the Five Kage Summit, so he entrusted this to me and asked me to come to you for help.”

"What were his exact words?" Feng Lan's squinty eyes opened slightly.

“I’m now determined to save the village, even if it means making a deal with a bastard, so you can see this.” Mei Terumi waved the other half of the Flying Thunder God kunai in her hand.

[Yes, this tone should be Kisame's original words, and judging from the original plot, Mei Terumi is the terminator of the Bloody Mist Village...]

Feng Lan quickly reviewed all the information in her mind and gave her reply: "You should have a way to contact Kisame, right?"

“Yes, I have his summoning beast, the shark, but I can only contact him once.” Mei Terumi nodded.

"Tell him to go to Amegakure to find Yahiko, the leader of Akatsuki, and settle down there first. I will go to see him after I have dealt with things here."

"it is good."

As Mei Terumi spoke, she stood up and walked out, clearly in a hurry. However, when she reached the door, she turned back and said, "Mr. Fenglan, I know your personality and your abilities, but Kisame and I are just business partners. This message is only to help him out, and it doesn't mean I would welcome Konoha's interference in Kirigakure's affairs."

"Our Kirigakure's affairs will be resolved by Kirigakure itself. Kirigakure... will never become the next Sunagakure!"

"That's quite an ambition." Feng Lan smiled. "However, if I were you, I would conceal my true thoughts and first use the power of Konoha to achieve my own goals."

"The last person to think like that was probably Amegakure. I've seen what they've become." Mei Terumi shook her head. "I don't think I have the ability to negotiate with a tiger, so I won't provoke you in the first place. So... please don't provoke me either, or next time, we'll be facing each other on the battlefield!"

"I know that Kirigakure is no match for Konoha, but we will fight to the last moment. All you will get is a ruined village and corpses everywhere!"

Chapter 118 Pakula's Destiny

"puff!"

Feng Lan spat out the hot tea in his mouth. He never expected that Mei Terumi would say something like "fight to the last moment and commit suicide to return to heaven." Has the Naruto world also been corrupted by the will of heaven?

Seeing his rare loss of composure, Mei Terumi was clearly very satisfied: "It's good that Mr. Fenglan is willing to listen to me. Once Kirigakure ends the Blood Mist Village, perhaps we can become true allies with Konoha."

After saying that, she didn't give Feng Lan a chance to reply and pushed open the door to leave.

"Tch, this little brat got away with it." Feng Lan curled her lip. "Just you wait, when we go to Wuyin, you'll be in for a world of hurt."

He stood up and walked out the door, and as expected, he saw Pakula standing there blankly, like a wooden doll.

“Looks like you haven’t made up your mind yet, after all, you only have five minutes.” Feng Lan shrugged. “But don’t worry, you have all night. As long as you don’t show up at the Five Kage Summit tomorrow morning, Sunagakure will not pursue you because they know they are in the wrong. As for Konoha, don’t worry, I’m very busy here.”

After saying that, he strode away. Pakula subconsciously wanted to speak, but it seemed that some invisible barrier was blocking her mouth. After hesitating for a moment, she just lowered her head and followed behind Feng Lan.

Returning to his room, he found a note on the table left by Obito, saying that Minato had overworked his brain and fallen asleep in the Kamui dimension, and that he would be responsible for waking him up the next morning, so Fenglan could rest assured.

"That's a good coincidence." Feng Lan smiled, not in a hurry to go to sleep, but sat down at the low table and began to write down a backup plan for tomorrow's meeting.

The door was left a crack, and the cold wind blew in from the outside, but this actually made the room less stuffy.

Pakula stood there by the gap, undecided about whether to go in or leave. She clutched the pass and the money scroll in her hand, the edges of the papers crumpled. There were tear stains on her cheeks, but she had already wiped them away.

She thought a lot, but her mind was actually blank. Questions like "What should I do?", "Where should I go?", and "What else can I do?" swirled in her mind all night, each one like a pebble thrown into water, creating a few ripples before sinking to the bottom, leaving no result.

A gust of wind blew in from the end of the corridor, causing her clothes to flutter slightly. She hunched her shoulders and suddenly realized she no longer felt cold. Nights in the Land of Iron should be very cold, but she had been standing there for so long without feeling any chill. Perhaps it was because the charcoal fire in the corridor was burning brightly, or perhaps it was for some other reason.

She looked down at the two items, then looked up at the crack in the door. The light from the fireplace shone through the crack, casting a long, thin, warm glow on the floor, and at the end of that glow, a small flower bloomed in the cold wind.

Perhaps it was because the temperature in the corridor was warm, or perhaps someone was taking special care of it; in any case, in the Land of Iron, where snow falls all year round, one can actually see a flower.

But what use is such a flower? Pakula picked it and held it in his hand, just like his own situation. Even though he was alive now, he couldn't get real sunshine and warmth, and he would die in the cold wind sooner or later.

Perhaps it was this flower, or perhaps it was that ray of light, that became the last straw that broke the camel's back. She suddenly pushed open the door and went inside: "Lord Fenglan!"

A biting wind howled in through the door, and Feng Lan calmly pressed down on her scraps of paper: "Hmm?"

"I……"

Pakula closed the door, but suddenly it seemed she had shut out her courage as well. She took a deep breath and clenched her fists tightly around the two objects, as if trying to draw some kind of power from them.

Then, she knelt down, bowing before Feng Lan in a dogeza (a traditional Japanese kneeling posture): "Please let me become yours!"

"Um?!"

Feng Lan raised an eyebrow slightly: "An interesting title. Not from Sunagakure, not from Konoha, but something that belongs to me... You crave an identity, even if that identity is 'Feng Lan's personal possession,' it's better than having nowhere to go, isn't that what you think?"

“Yes.” Pakula could not control her emotions in the end. She did not know what those emotions were, but they were definitely not love. “You can use me as whatever you want, as a ninja, a knife, a tool, or even… a woman. Please let me stay by your side.”

Before this, Pakula had never cared about her charm as a woman, but now it came out quite naturally.

"Ah, what a convenient multi-functional doll." Feng Lan put down her pen. "Generally speaking, I should have agreed without hesitation at this point, right?"

Pakula did not answer or look up, but silently waited for Fenglan's reply, as if awaiting some kind of judgment.

"But unfortunately, I refused."

"Why, why?!" Pakula felt as if a bucket of cold water had been poured over her head. She desperately raised her head to try and see what the other person was thinking, but she was so shocked and desperate that she didn't even have the strength to straighten up. She could only slump there.

“Because the people around me, whether they’re my boss, subordinates, pawns, or even opponents, have to be at least human beings.” Feng Lan glanced at her. “If they’re just objects, it’s a bit… too boring.”

“Boring…?” Pakula murmured the word. She had expected to be rejected, but she hadn’t expected it to be for this reason.

"Well, I can understand your urgent need for a place to belong, because I've been there too." Feng Lan shrugged. When she first transmigrated, her situation was even worse than Pakula's. After all, she still had her skills, the money she received, and the pass to pass through.

Back then, I was truly penniless; even a wolf could kill me.

"But when it comes to wanting something, I dislike being given it by charity, even if that person is Minato." It was rare for Feng Lan to open up to someone like this, not because Pakula was anything special, but because this person posed no threat to her, and she didn't care even if she knew many things.

"I will only take what I want, including my own place to live!"

Even though he clung tightly to Minato's coattails, everything he has today is something he earned himself, not something given to him by anyone.

“I know you are already heartbroken, so after receiving some warmth from me, you want to use these things as support in your life and a belief to keep living. But if I may be so bold… such a thought is naively laughable.”

As mentioned earlier, Feng Lan is the kind of person with extremely strong intrinsic motivation who never cares about other people's opinions and only has his own goals in mind. He will be grateful for Minato's kindness and take Minato's thoughts into consideration when doing things, but he will not regard Minato as his belief in living.

"A person's life is incredibly precious. You were not born as a soulless flower, tree, or bird without wisdom, but as a human being. That alone is one in a million."

“I don’t live for anyone else, I live only for myself, and I… I hope you can do the same.”

"If you can't find your way in life for the time being, you can stay here and search slowly. But in the end, I hope that you will walk the path you want by your own choices and judgments, rather than being swept along by something and becoming 'my possession'."

Feng Lan said calmly, "What do you mean by 'ninjas are just tools'? Obedient puppets without self-awareness are what Danzo wants. The guys around me must at least be living people, not walking corpses that have lost their ability to think for themselves. Those kinds of guys aren't sharp enough. I prefer to use sharp knives... even if they're easy to cut your hands."

"You may become my most useful subordinate if you are used as a tool, but you will never become a subordinate who can stand alone in critical moments."

"me……"

Pakula's eyes welled up with tears again. She felt she had just cried all her tears, she had resolved to abandon her emotions and self, to live only as a tool, but now...

Hearing Feng Lan's refusal, she couldn't help but cry, "Thank you, Lord Feng Lan, thank you..."

"No need to thank me. You're just feeling lost right now and can't find the meaning of life."

Fenglan began to speak from a philosophical perspective: "When a person cannot bear the question of 'Who am I?', the most direct way to escape is to say 'I no longer need to answer this question.' Becoming an object means that 'you don't need to think, you don't need to choose, and you don't need to bear the consequences.' Everything is decided by the master, and you are only responsible for carrying it out."

"This is essentially a form of self-destruction on a spiritual level: since Pakura is suffering too much, then kill [Pakura] and leave only a shell that can carry out orders... This is actually an inevitable choice that someone who has been brainwashed to the extreme by the education that 'ninjas are tools' would make when they have no other choice. If I were to agree to this, it would be too cruel. After all, I am not some kind of demon."

Upon hearing this, Pakula couldn't help but twitch, clearly realizing that what had been said was true.

Feng Lan smiled and concluded by quoting Orochimaru's words when he kidnapped Kimimaro: "Perhaps life has no inherent meaning, but as long as you live, you can find interesting things, can't you?"

He casually took the flower from Pakula's hand, played with it for a moment, and then handed it back: "Just like you discovered this flower, and I discovered you."

"Yes……"

Pakula stopped handling the flower as before and instead took it with both hands, holding it carefully to her chest.

"Alright, I've been talking a lot today. You must be tired of listening. You should get some rest." Feng Lan waved her hand. "There are blankets, charcoal, hot water, and food over there... You'll be standing next to me at tomorrow's Five Kage Summit."

"Yes." Pakula first acknowledged his task, then said, "Lord Fenglan, may I... not sleep for a while?"

"Sure, what do you want to do?" Feng Lan said, already lowering her head again to write the proposal.

“I want to... watch you work here and pour you tea.” Pakula’s voice was soft and gentle.

"Pour some tea..." Feng Lan smiled. "The last person to pour me tea was Shisui, and the one before that was Minato... Sure, you can just stay here and watch. Anyway, I'm going to sleep soon. If I don't get enough rest, I won't be able to deal with those old foxes tomorrow."

Pacula reached out and stirred the fireplace to make it burn brighter: "You're right."

"Okay, that's about it."

Feng Lan stretched her neck: [Just one last trick is needed for her to reach a point where she wouldn't be in any danger even if that idiot blonde Minato took her as a subordinate. But this last trick… Granny Chiyo should already be arranging it.]

Chapter 119 Konoha Makes its Central Appearance

The council chamber of the Land of Iron is a hollowed-out mountainside, with a dome so high that it seems to have no end, like the open mouth of a giant beast.

The walls of the hall were made of rough, black rock, the surface unpolished and bearing the marks of chisels. This was not for aesthetic purposes, but for sound insulation and defense. Iron lampstands were embedded in the cracks of the rock, the flames flickering within the enclosed lampshades, casting a cold light that only stretched the shadows of everyone into sharp, rigid lines.

In the center of the hall stood a pentagonal stone table. The tabletop was wide enough for the five figures to sit on opposite sides without disturbing each other, yet close enough to see the trembling of each other's eyelashes. Each side was engraved with the emblem of the corresponding village: whirlpools, clouds, rocky mountains, mist, and sand patterns.

The emblem was inlaid using a cold-forging method, resulting in sharp edges that feel cutting to the touch—a deliberate design choice. It's said to be a reminder to everyone: when you sit down to talk, the knife is placed before you.

Five chairs were lined up behind the table, corresponding to the tabletop. The backrests of each chair were higher than the head of an average person, the seats were wide, and the armrests were thick and heavy, making people appear smaller when they sat down. This was to weaken the aura of the shadows and make them subconsciously feel that they were not the owners of this table when they sat down.

Wow, so many hidden agendas in just one venue! The Land of Iron being chosen as the venue for the Five Kage Summit isn't just due to its relationship with the Hidden Cloud Village.

Feng Lan maintained his smiling face, but in reality he was squinting and looking around. This Five Kage Summit was a gathering of wise men, and he would feel restless if he didn't take the opportunity to cause some trouble.

Mifune sat at the north end of the round table, facing the door. Today he was not wearing his wartime armor, but a dark gray formal kimono. His hands were not on the hilts of his swords, but the presence of the sword at his waist was heavier than his hands.