"I had actually been wondering that," Naruto said. "Could we try to unite AMITY against Akatsuki and take them down before they get into the rift? Perhaps by citing Asuma's death as a reason why they need to be killed before they can turn AMITY into pure tyranny. I don't think it'll work out well though – Akatsuki will absolutely destroy Leaf if they realize that we betrayed their agreement, and even if we're winning, they can just tell the rest of the alliance about the rift and blow up our chance of secretly owning it afterwards. Plus, that ignores the possibility that, say, Rock decides to fight on the side of Akatsuki instead of on our side, in exchange for a promise of literally anything Akatsuki can offer."
"Moreover," Nara said, "We cannot pin them down to kill them with an army. They can leave Rain and complete the research elsewhere, then return to the rift at their leisure. They can raze Leaf similarly at their leisure, as soon as AMITY forces are no longer defending it, thereby eliminating our ability to compete with them over the rift."
"A hypothetical war between AMITY members over control of the rift would be highly complicated, and as the second-weakest major village at present in terms of non-S-ranker manpower, I would recommend we avoid such eventualities with all possible prudence," Kei said.
"The ambush-the-rearguard plan sounds almost viable," Haruno said. "If we pulled it off and kept it secret from the rest of AMITY… well, it's the first plan I've heard so far that feels like it has a meaningful shot at making Leaf anything more than a particularly flat section of forested rubble."
"What does it require?" Naruto asked. "We'd need to overcome their static defenses. We'd need to kill all their minions, because if one gets away, that would spell the end of AMITY, and I think they could potentially pull in a lot of Rain ninja and Jashinists. We'd need to kill however many Akatsuki members they left on this side of the rift – maybe all six if we picked the wrong time. There are too many moving parts.
"Even if we went with it, ensuring Orochimaru's cooperation in attacking the site, including potentially summoning Manda, is critical. He will definitely find out about the rift that way. Is that okay?"
"We need his firepower," Uchiha said. "It's the same situation as Lord Seventh faced. If we don't use his firepower, we face annihilation. If we do use him, then, in the event we actually stop Akatsuki, we have only traded one problem for another."
"One problem for another, immortal, torture-happy problem," Haruno said.
"Setting aside the cost of his research in lives, Orochimaru has demonstrated no proclivity for world-altering rituals," Uchiha said. "He's a problem, but not on the same scale as Pain's return."
"Add in the fact that he can work on the rift seals," Naruto said, "I think we have to bring him in. Any objections?"
He looked across the table, seemingly half-hoping that someone would object. No one did.
"Fine," Naruto said. "I'll workshop how to tell him in a controlled way."
Naruto sighed and addressed the room. "Our failure modes are: Akatsuki successfully resurrects Pain, Akatsuki finds out about our plans to oppose them and razes Leaf in response, AMITY in general finds out about actions we took against Akatsuki and razes Leaf in response, and other AMITY members find out about the rift and plunge the world into war over control of the rift. Three of these failure modes need us to pull off ridiculously ambitious stuff in absolute secrecy. Unless Orochimaru has some secret technique that makes any of these crazy plans viable," Naruto's face twisted in disgust, "I think we need to throw in the towel on opposing Akatsuki. AMITY is strong and a year or two of work will make it stronger. As long as Pain is even slightly less psycho than Hidan, I'd rather work with him and have a chance of Leaf surviving than have Deidara bomb it to dust."
"If Orochimaru can't do anything, we cooperate. If he can," Naruto continued, "I'll be asking him to destroy the rift. Frankly, Leaf is too weak to win any conflict over the rift, whether with Akatsuki, AMITY, or whoever. If it's destroyed, especially by Orochimaru acting 'independently' to prevent Akatsuki from trying another ritual, we run the least risk we can. Hells, maybe it won't be a bad thing if they destroy the basement and run Orochimaru out of Leaf. Still, if we can do anything with the rift, the first priority needs to be making sure it can't fall into enemy hands. That means destroying it."
