"Same goes for me as well. I am not reckless enough to attack one of their bases. The elders of my clan would have kicked me off if I had taken such a decision alone but I do admire whoever did it." Riko jumped into the conversation.
The old man massaged his temples and said "I am not accusing you two of doing this but at such a crucial time we can't have anyone acting alone. We have to show a united front or else the Moji and the stone shinobis will take advantage of the situation."
Yoshiro nodded and looked at the two young Patriarchs who were about to say something but someone knocked on the door. Chojuro who was nearest to the door quickly went and opened it.
"Has the meeting started?" AO asked as he saw Chojuro open the door.
Chojuro who was already nervous among all these people quickly nodded and said "Yes Sir AO, the meeting started a few minutes ago." He then stepped aside for AO to pass.
As AO entered the room, he noticed everyone looking at him. He pulled out a scroll from his kimono and passed it to Yoshiro. He also whispered a few words in the Terumi Patriarch's ears and stepped behind to stand with the other advisors.
Yoshiro opened the scroll the read through it for a few seconds. Mei and the others who had seen little to no expression on Yoshiro's face for all these years were stunned to see the surprised Yoshiro. He even glanced at the Santo and Kana a few times which made people more confused.
He looked back at AO and asked "Is this true? It sounds unrealistic."
AO nodded quietly and said "My response was way more outrageous than you Lord. I have confirmed this news from various sources."
The old man who was known to be patient and cool-headed looked at Yoshiro and said "Stop stalling Yoshiro and tell us what's written in it. We have already waited for this long enough." Yoshiro nodded and passed the scroll to the old man. He knew everyone was eager to know the report and the truth would surely be out in a day or two so he narrated everything that was written in the report.
"Two bases were attacked simultaneously yesterday night. Of them, there were survivors in the first base but in the second base, there were none. According to the testimony of the survivors, the base was attacked by one person. The stone shinobis have built a timeline as to how things happened and they have concluded that the intruder first put some of the guards in the base under a genjutsu and had them detonate paper bombs at different parts of the base. Amid the chaos, the intruder walked inside the base and killed almost everyone that came in. The shinobis present inside used various tactics including the hidden mist technique but the intruder was still able to deal with them easily." Yoshiro said when Asami interrupted and asked "Then how did the intruders save themselves?"
Yoshiro shook his head and said "They didn't…he let them live saying that he wanted to leave them to fate and killing them would be a waste. The survivors said that the intruder didn't even try his best when fighting the jonins of the hidden stone and cut the people down like weeds."
Everyone's eyes widened as they heard that. They knew that there was no one this strong except the Patriarchs of the bloodline clans or some exceptions like Mei Terumi.
"That's one brutal man I tell you…He really gave them a fate worse than death. They will be waking up in the middle of the night because of his nightmares." Asami said.
That's when the old man looked at Yoshiro and said "The situation of the second base sounds even more brutal."
"What is he talking about?" Riko asked as he looked at Yoshiro. He and the others were wondering what could be even more brutal than this.
Yoshiro looked at the people around and said "As I said no one survived from the second base. Their beheaded heads were found in a pool of blood and most of their bodies were missing. As there was no info on what happened, a quick post-mortem was performed and their brains are said to be destroyed from the inside. Something like this happens only when someone is in a genjutsu for a long time and has suffered unimaginable pain in it. As a genjutsu doesn't affect the victim's physical body, all the pain is accumulated in the head and too much of it could cause internal bleeding like this."
"Again genjutsu? Whoever this person is, has very strong genjutsu, and not just that he can kill multiple jonins single handidly. I don't think any of us is this capable?" Asami said.
"Is there nothing known about the attacker's identity?" Riko asked. The excitement could be clearly seen on his face after listening to what the man had done.
"That's what the most surprising part was for me. The survivors only saw the attackers' eyes which were bright red." Yoshiro said which made Elder Wu, Enzo, Kana, Santo, and Mei look at Yoshiro…Elder Wu even instinctively asked "What? Could that be a coincidence?"
"I don't think so, Elder Wu." Mei said. She looked at the other clan heads who had confused faces and said "A few weeks ago, Elder Wu, Enzo, and my cousins were coming and they were ambushed by pirates along with mist and stone shinobis. They were more than 100 of them and it was becoming hard for Elder Wu and the others to handle it but suddenly the attackers started behaving erratically scratching their own and others' skin so brutally that they died just like that. The Patriarchs looked at Elder Wu for confirmation who nodded and said "It is way more brutal than it sounds. I haven't seen such a brutal sight even during the previous great ninja war. In the end, there were two survivors who were able to save and from one of their testimony, we got to know that they were winning the fight until they saw red glowing eyes and after that things started to go downhill. It was a genjutsu that had made them kill themselves. We had dismissed their claims as the ramblings of a madman but now it looks like the survivor was in fact telling the truth."
The Patriarchs fell into deep thought after they heard what Mei and Elder Wu had said. After a few minutes, the old man said "Have the survivor from the ship who gave the testimony handed over to Asami's clan. Asami try to get as much information from him as possible." To which Asami and Elder Wu nodded. The old man then looked at Yoshiro and said "What do you think we should do now? Whoever this red-eyed man is, seems to be against the mist and stone shinobis and he clearly wanted to save Elder Wu and the others from the attackers." The old man was about to say more when there was a knock on the door again.
The old man looked at Yoshiro and asked "Were you expecting someone?" to which Yoshiro shook his head and said "No...AO go and see who it is and what was so important that they have interrupted the meeting."
Yoshiro knew that his people weren't reckless enough to interrupt such an important meeting because of a small reason.
AO went ahead and opened the door to see one of his people holding a scroll. The shinobi passed the scroll to AO and whispered something into his ear. AO looked at the shook in a little shock but sent the shinobi back and closed the door.
He turned to Yoshiro and said "Lord, a letter has been sent for you." he then stretched his hand toward Yoshiro.
"Whose letter?" Yoshiro asked but then he saw the insignia on the scroll.
"It's a letter from the 5th Hokage Tsunade Senju." AO said as everyone else's eyes fell on the insignia of the hidden leaf village.
Yoshiro took the scroll from AO's hand and first confirmed that it was a genuine one. He knew never to underestimate Moji and the evil schemes of the Mizukage Faction.
"I didn't know that you succeeded in contacting the hidden leaf." Asami said to which Yoshiro replied "I didn't." He then proceeded to open and read the letter.
"What's does she say?" the old man asked. She was curious as to what kind of a person Tsunade is but he knew that she was one of the good ones.
"She wants us to release the 3 spies that we have in our custody and says that she has dispatched two genin squads along with 3 jonins to establish a connection with us on her behalf. She also said that will provide us with more help against the Mizukage faction if things go well." Yoshiro explained the context of the letter.
"What do we do?" Riko asked to which the other 3 Patriarchs looked at the old man for advice. Contrary to everyone's expectations, the old man smiled and said "Just as she said...prepare to release those three spies and make arrangements for the hidden leaf shinobis coming to us."
---------------------
To read 15 extra chapters go to my Patreón
https://p@treon.com/lazarus898/
Link in the synopsis as well.