Chapter 396: The Fourth Great Ninja War Begins
"Damn that Akatsuki scum! He's playing us for fools!" Aburame Torune looked at Shin Uchiha lying in a pool of blood and slammed his fist into a nearby pillar in fury.
Yamanaka Fū quickly made a decision. They would take Shin Uchiha back and lock him up.
The man's special constitution was extremely useful. The Sharingan had been gouged out, but Danzo still had more. They could just transplant new ones later; he still had value.
The next day, Shin Uchiha awoke in a Root prison. He insisted that it was the masked man who had taken his Sharingan. Yamanaka Fū saw a similar scene in his memories, and their apprehension towards the Akatsuki skyrocketed.
Why do they want the Sharingan? They must be plotting something!
Having successfully framed Obito, Ino earned two more "blame points." Unsure of what to spend them on, she saved them for later.
The purification speed for ordinary Sharingan was fast, taking at least one minute and at most five to completely dissolve.
A Mangekyo Sharingan, even one filled with impurities, was on a much higher level than an ordinary Sharingan, and its purification speed was considerably slower.
Ino waited for a full three days before Shin Uchiha's ox-sized Mangekyo Sharingan was completely purified by the Amber Purifying Pot.
She dug up Kimimaro's body, which had already been buried.
No matter how much she called now, Kimimaro wouldn't answer. However, the Amber Purifying Pot was quite smart. She could forcefully stuff the body inside, stomp on it a couple of times, and then put the lid on.
To put it nicely, this process was called "bloodline deepening adjustment." To put it crudely, it was basically like pickling vegetables.
Once it was properly "marinated," it would be a success.
Ino changed the character on the front of the pot from "Purify" back to "Dust."
The bloodline power obtained from purifying ten Sharingan and one Mangekyo Sharingan would enter Kimimaro's body through skin contact, rewriting his genetic information.
This process would be very slow. Fortunately, Kimimaro was also a descendant of the Sage of Six Paths, so absorbing the genetic information from the same lineage's Sharingan wouldn't cause any major problems.
Ino left the body to soak in the Amber Purifying Pot, took out a sealing scroll, sealed the pot, and then left the underground laboratory as if nothing had happened.
Time entered November.
The climate in Konoha was still quite comfortable. While not exactly prosperous, the Daimyo and the hidden village were on the same side. Various overdue mission payments were distributed, and supplies were abundant. The morale of the ninja was good.
The Land of Lightning was not so fortunate.
The Land of Lightning had a typical plateau climate, with a much higher altitude than other countries. When winter arrived, the snowfall came extremely early, and the populace could only endure the cold.
The country was poor, and by extension, so was its hidden village.
The Daimyo of the Land of Lightning urged the Cloud Village to immediately launch a "zero-cost shopping" campaign against Konoha!
As long as they defeated Konoha, the Land of Fire would be a huge piece of meat. The Land of Lightning's Daimyo and his ministers could just take a few bites and have a good new year.
The Fourth Raikage was somewhat hesitant to bear the blame for starting a ninja war. He waited for half a month but could wait no longer.
Danzo was running around the mountains like a mouse, and he had no patience to continue the chase.
At this time, the war between the Land of Water and the Land of Lightning was in full swing. This was a war of ordinary soldiers and samurai; the major hidden villages were all watching from the sidelines.
Unexpectedly, a fool from the Mist Village named Suigetsu Hozuki, having escaped from one of Orochimaru's secret bases, didn't go straight back to the Mist Village. Instead, he was duped into joining the battle as a mercenary for the Land of Water.
His participation broke the previous tacit understanding among the major hidden villages not to get directly involved, becoming the spark that ignited the war.
The Fourth Raikage, who had been holding back, assigned the task of capturing Danzo to Cee. While questioning the Mist Village about why they had dispatched ninja to the war, he led an army of eight thousand ninja out of the Cloud Village.
Just as the Mist Village was scared witless, mobilizing the entire village, with Genpaku stepping down to pass the Fifth Mizukage's hat to Mei Terumi and announcing his official retirement, the Cloud ninja took a detour and marched towards the Land of Fire.
The Cloud Village raised its banner, demanding that Konoha hand over "Danzo Shimura, the thief who stole the Cloud Village's treasures."
Never mind that Konoha couldn't hand over Danzo right now; even if they could, they wouldn't at this critical juncture.
Jiraiya flatly refused the Cloud Village's demand, and subsequently, the Cloud Village officially declared war on Konoha!
Tsunade led a large army and fought the Fourth Raikage for three consecutive days, with neither side gaining an advantage. The Fourth Raikage couldn't break through Tsunade's defense line. Believing his side's offensive power was still insufficient, he immediately sent a messenger hawk back to the village, urging his sworn brother, the Eight-Tails Jinchuriki Killer B, to join the battle despite his injuries!
At the same time, he redeployed Yugito Nii, who had been hunting Danzo in the mountains, to the front lines. They would deal with Konoha first, and worry about the rest later.
Tsunade did not send a request for reinforcements, intending to face the Fourth Raikage and the two Jinchuriki alone.
The Cloud Village ninja fought like their lives depended on it and wouldn't just sit back and build walls on the border. When they struck, it was with thunderous attacks—attack, and attack again.
Konoha quickly made adjustments.
Jiraiya wanted to personally face the Fourth Raikage, but the village advisors and Shikaku were against it. The war had just begun, and for the village leader to go to the front lines? What a joke! This was Konoha, not the Cloud Village. Facing a ninja war that could end at any unknown time, the civilians and ninja in the village were quite panicked. They needed him, the village leader, to stay behind and stabilize morale.
Considering that the Cloud Village had deployed two Jinchuriki and Tsunade couldn't handle them alone, Ino, the "Jinchuriki Killer," was sent as support.
The village believed the Fourth Raikage would stick to his old tactics, the A-B combo with Killer B. Now, with Konoha deploying the master-disciple duo of Tsunade and Ino, they should be able to hold them off completely.
That afternoon, upon receiving their orders, Ino and Shizune led two thousand ninja to the front lines as reinforcements. Combined with the five thousand troops Tsunade already had on the eastern front, more than seven thousand ninja were now gathered there.
Speed was of the essence in military matters, and there was no time for a farewell ceremony. Ino just grabbed a few changes of clothes from Hinata, and without having time to say much, she rendezvoused with Shizune and hurriedly led the reinforcements out of the village.
After a forced march of a day and a night, they received news the following noon that the Cloud Village's main army had clashed with Tsunade again on the border of the Land of Fire.
Ino and Shizune found Tsunade. Two thousand ninja wasn't a large number, but they were reinforcements. For the ninja originally stationed at the border, they were a strong support, and the morale of the Konoha ninja soared.
The village had already issued them official wartime appointments. The commander of the eastern front was Tsunade, which was undisputed.
Asuma, the original second-in-command, stepped down and gave the position to Ino, taking on the role of the assault team captain instead.
He knew his own limits. He could handle Darui, but fighting a monster like Killer B would be suicide. He wasn't that foolish.
In the end, Tsunade's second-in-command was Ino, who was meant to counter the Eight-Tails and Two-Tails Jinchuriki. Her mission was to assist Tsunade or, in the event that Tsunade returned to the village or was injured, to take command of the army and defend against the Cloud ninja.
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