Chapter 422: The New Hegemon of the Ninja World
The Fifth Great Ninja War may not have been over, but after this one short day, the situation in the entire ninja world was completely different from before the war.
First was Konoha. This time, it was a complete defeat. No matter how shameless Hiruzen Sarutobi was, he would not dare to call a war that had nearly destroyed the village a great victory.
In this battle, Konoha had produced two new Mangekyō Sharingan users. Counting Uchiha Sōkai, who was now an Iwa-nin, that made three. Shisui Uchiha had already reported this information to the Konoha high command.
And Danzō knew even more: the Uchiha clan head, Fugaku, had also awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan. He was the one who was hidden the deepest and had the greatest ambition. That's right, that was Danzō's interpretation. To have such supreme strength but keep it hidden and not reveal it—if he wasn't plotting something, what else could it be? Was he, Danzō, supposed to believe that Fugaku was a peace-loving, benevolent person? What a joke.
After Hiruzen had gone to get close to Danzō, he had also learned of this. Before, he might have suspected that Danzō was spreading false intelligence again, but having just seen Shisui's Susanoo, he still believed his words.
The sudden appearance of four pairs of Mangekyō Sharingan in the Uchiha clan was originally a symbol of a great increase in Konoha's strength. However, the Uchiha clan had also suddenly obtained Izanagi.
Regarding the means by which the Uchiha had obtained Izanagi, Hiruzen's and Danzō's thoughts were different. Danzō believed it was evidence of a long-planned conspiracy by the Uchiha, guessing that it was Fugaku's doing. But Hiruzen knew that his own good disciple, Orochimaru, had also read the entire Scroll of Seals. It was impossible for Danzō and himself to have given Izanagi to the Uchiha. Although Tsunade wanted the Uchiha to integrate into Konoha, she was not stupid and would certainly not do such a thing. That left Orochimaru as the only one who could have leaked it. However, since it concerned his own disciple, Hiruzen did not argue with Danzō.
If it weren't for the fact that Shisui was firmly on their side, and if it weren't for the fact that Sōkai had been abducted by Ishiro long ago, the current strength of the Uchiha would have surpassed that of the Konoha high command.
Four pairs of Mangekyō with unknown abilities, plus Izanagi which could transform death into a dream—a chill ran down Hiruzen's spine.
Konoha's losses in this battle were great. The fifteen-hundred-strong ninja army stationed in the Land of Waterfalls was completely wiped out. The number of Konoha ninja who had died at the hands of Kakuzu, Orochimaru, Rasa, and Ryosuke was in the high hundreds. In addition, with Ishiro's "mud-cased Susanoo" shenanigans, Konoha's losses within the village also exceeded a thousand. This didn't even count Root's losses at the hands of the Uchiha clan.
These were all the elites among elites.
In addition, they had also lost the Seven-Tails, which they had just managed to get their hands on.
Konoha had suffered repeated setbacks in recent years, and its number of ninja had never recovered. After this battle, it was likely that Konoha would not even have enough ninja to maintain normal missions within the Land of Fire, let alone deal with the current situation with the Uchiha clan, which would probably require them to give up a large number of missions and transfer a huge number of ninja to guard against the Uchiha suddenly going mad.
Although Shisui had said that the Uchiha would probably not rebel before Izumi had grown up, neither Hiruzen nor Tsunade dared to take this risk. Fugaku had actually made a move against Danzō this time, which was very inconsistent with his past style. Hiruzen analyzed that he might have also been influenced by Izanagi and had become less content.
After this battle, some of the consensus that Tsunade had painstakingly reached with Fugaku through the connection of Kakashi and Shisui was all rendered useless.
Kakashi was very dejected. After meeting with Shisui again, he learned a piece of intelligence that made him despair. Many of the originally neutral or even pro-peace Uchiha had become pro-war. Even Fugaku might have become pro-war. This intelligence made Kakashi almost lose all hope.
However, there was also good news for Konoha.
Kakashi's left eye had actually upgraded from a three-tomoe to a Mangekyō. Tsunade didn't know that this eye had been a Mangekyō all along and thought it was a gain from this battle. She immediately issued a gag order, classifying this matter as the village's highest secret.
In any case, Konoha had directly lost its title as the hegemon of the ninja world. It would be impossible for them to continue participating in a Great Ninja War before the problem of the Uchiha clan was completely resolved.
Next was Sunagakure. When Rasa, who had returned from Konoha with nothing to show for it and had instead been seriously injured, heard the news of Chiyo's death upon returning to the village, his face was incomparably grim. Unable to suppress his injuries any longer, he spat out a mouthful of hot blood.
Sunagakure had truly tried to steal a chicken only to lose the rice used to lure it this time.
"You're saying that Iwagakure's Kawakita has become a Kage? A close-combat, swordsmanship-type Kage?" Rasa asked the red-eyed Pakura after taking a few deep breaths.
Pakura nodded while shedding tears. "Yes. Granny Chiyo said that although he can't compare to Konoha's White Fang, he is still a disaster for our Suna's puppet masters."
"The Fourth Tsuchikage, the Fox of Iwagakure! I've been played this time," Rasa gritted his teeth.
"How are the other ninja casualties?" he asked again.
Pakura said, "About seven hundred people died in battle. Not many were injured; most of the injured did not manage to escape back."
"The majority of the dead were genin, but there were also many jonin. The jonin were all killed by that Kawakita. When he was pursuing us, he specifically targeted the jonin. We simply couldn't stop him. It was almost one slash, one person."
Rasa waved his hand. "You and Ryosuke go and arrange the compensation for the families."
"Baki, send someone to contact the Fifth Hokage. I want to form an alliance with Konoha."
Baki was taken aback. Didn't we just fight a battle with Konoha? Why the alliance now? Will they even agree?
But Rasa was clearly not in the mood to explain. He just waved his hand. Baki didn't dare to ask more and hurriedly went to make the arrangements.
Unlike Suna, which had lost a Kage, and Konoha, which had lost a Tailed Beast, Kumogakure's losses in terms of high-end combat power were much smaller. They had only lost an elite jonin who could enter Sage Mode, Shiya. Although she could barely exert some Kage-level combat power in Sage Mode, she was far from being as important as a true Kage, or even a Quasi-Kage.
However, Kumo had lost a large number of ordinary ninja. Of the five thousand who had come to Kirigakure with A, only about two thousand had returned alive. Kumo had suffered the greatest loss of ordinary ninja in this battle, a loss that had damaged their very foundation. Their high-end combat power was undamaged, so they had not lost the qualification to contend for hegemony, but the loss of their basic combat power meant they no longer had the ability to do so.
But with the Fourth Raikage, the Kage-level Eight-Tails Jinchuriki Killer Bee, the perfect Jinchuriki Yugito Nii, and Darui who had mastered the Lightning Release Chakra Mode, Kumo's four Kage-level combatants destined them to be Iwagakure's biggest enemy in the future.
And Kirigakure, although its losses were also not small, with over fifteen hundred ninja dead, had been re-recognized by the ninja world as one of the Five Great Shinobi Villages.
Especially with the Fifth Mizukage, Hoshigaki Kisame, having held off the long-famous Fourth Raikage by himself. No one felt that Kirigakure could be easily pushed around anymore.
In addition, the intelligence that Kirigakure's Mei Terumī and Mangetsu Hōzuki were Quasi-Kage had also spread throughout the ninja world. Going from having no high-end combat power to suddenly having three had made the gossip-mongers of the ninja world's jaws drop.
Is this the foundation of Kirigakure?
With one battle, Kirigakure had washed away its previous shame, and Kisame had gained the unanimous recognition of the entire village.
However, Kirigakure's subsequent policies would not be too aggressive, because they still had to wait for the growth of Mei and Mangetsu, and to be precise, also Kisame.
Although his battle record was brilliant, he knew that he was still not enough. In this battle, he had held all the geographical and popular advantages, and had even seized the initiative, yet the result was that he had only barely managed to hold off A. As the Kage of a village, this was far from enough. Now that he was newly in power and still young, everyone was naturally satisfied with this result. But if in a few years, he still only had this level of strength, then everyone would be disappointed.
In short, Kirigakure needed time to grow.
Finally, there was Iwagakure.
The strength that Iwagakure had displayed this time had terrified all parties.
Kawakita, Kitsuchi, Han—three Kage-level shinobi. Iwagakure had actually produced three new Kage. Of course, in the eyes of the Konoha high command, they also had Sōkai. A Mangekyō might not immediately make an Uchiha a Kage, but it had already raised his upper limit to that level. It was just that Sōkai being an Uchiha had suddenly become an Iwa-nin was a family shame for Konoha, and they had no intention of publicizing it.
But whether they knew of Sōkai's existence or not, there was one point of consensus: Iwagakure was now, in fact, the number one in the entire ninja world.
Without a doubt, Iwagakure was the victor.
They had defeated Sunagakure, killed one of their Kage-level combatants, and routed their army. They had annihilated a Konoha army. Both were great victories.
In both battles, Iwagakure had suffered almost no losses but had reaped rich spoils. The supplies of both the Suna and Konoha armies all belonged to Iwagakure. Just these gains were enough to make Ishiro and the other high-ranking officials excited.
After these two incomes were summed up, not only did they offset the cost of launching the war, but there was also a large surplus.
And what Iwagakure had paid was only the deaths of a small number of ninja and Han's injuries. The number of dead Iwa-nin was less than a hundred, most of whom were border guards killed by Killer Bee when he had penetrated deep into the Land of Fire.
At the high-level meeting, when tallying the gains, Ishiro said, "The most direct and visible gain this time is naturally the spoils of war captured from Konoha and Suna."
"But what makes me happiest is still Sōkai. His Sharingan has successfully advanced to the Mangekyō. Before long, the village will have another Kage-level combatant."
"When Sōkai awakened his Mangekyō, I was by his side the entire time. His awakening process, and also my verbal guidance..."
"So everyone can rest assured. There is no problem with his thinking. He is still that kind Tenbin Chūkō."
Hearing Ishiro's words, the high-ranking officials, who were rarely gathered together, all broke into smiles.
(End of Chapter)
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