Chapter 434: Luring the Tiger Away from the Mountain
Tsunade had agreed readily, but Rasa did not think the same. Konoha was now solely focused on its internal affairs; before resolving its internal conflicts, it would not covet external benefits.
But Rasa had not given up his ambition for hegemony. Although Chiyo was dead, his ambition was not. As his three children grew day by day, watching them slowly reveal their talent, Rasa's ambition also inflated.
However, Tsunade had already agreed, giving A a personal favor. If he disagreed, he would directly offend A. Rasa was not afraid of him, but this was supposed to be a cooperation to bring the two sides closer. If he ended up offending him and turning them into enemies, then he would truly be the fool who paid for everyone.
For a moment, Rasa was undecided.
And at this precise moment, both A and Tsunade looked over at him.
Just as Rasa was in a difficult spot, Ryosuke spoke up. "Lord Kazekage, the casualty statistics are out. We lost thirty ninja in this battle, and seven were injured."
Rasa gave Ryosuke a mental thumbs-up, then nodded with a grave expression.
Seeing this, A sneered inwardly but still responded, "Kazekage, the three of us took down the Ten-Tails' body together, yet I am asking to use it to exchange for Yugito."
"This time, our Kumo owes you Suna and Konoha. I can pay a sum of condolences, as compensation for the losses of both your sides."
Hearing this, Rasa nodded. "Agreed."
Seeing that he had also agreed, Tsunade turned to Shikaku Nara. "Shikaku, you arrange the sealing."
Shikaku nodded and went down to organize the Konoha sealing ninja.
Rasa and A both looked over with confusion.
Tsunade explained, "This Ten-Tails body was previously in an underground base in our Land of Fire. It was suddenly transferred to the Land of Hot Water."
"Unsurprisingly, that mysterious person used a Summoning Jutsu to directly summon it."
"To prevent him from using the Summoning Jutsu again to take it away, we must sever the contract between him and the statue."
"Among the Uzumaki clan's sealing jutsu, there is a seal that can break the contract between a ninja and their summon."
"If that mysterious person were here, and we used this seal directly on him, we could permanently and directly cut his connection to the statue."
"But now, that person is gone, leaving only the statue."
"However, if we place the seal on the statue, we can also temporarily sever the connection between the two."
Hearing her words, both Rasa and A showed envy in their eyes.
This was the deep foundation of Konoha. This kind of obscure sealing jutsu was useless in normal times, but at a critical moment, it could play a major role. And this was just a fraction of what Konoha had revealed. They both believed that Konoha had many similar things.
Thinking of this, the two of them couldn't help but think of Iwagakure.
Originally, Iwagakure, like them, was a village with severe imbalances. Besides their respective specialties in Wind, Lightning, and Earth Release, Suna specialized in puppets, Kumo focused on Jinchuriki, and Iwa researched Kekkei Genkai. Although their individual combat strength was not much worse than Konoha's, they were too easily countered.
But these years, the feeling Iwa gave them was that it was becoming more and more like Konoha.
Recently, Iwa and Suna had had a brief, large-scale army clash. Rasa had received a terrifying piece of intelligence from the ninja who had fled back. The number of ninja in Iwagakure who could use all five elements, as well as the number of those who used swordsmanship, had greatly increased. Moreover, these ninja were not weak, and their jutsu and swordsmanship were not one-dimensional.
Even more so, Rasa had learned from his subordinates that every squad in Iwagakure was equipped with a medical-nin.
Thinking of this, Rasa sighed. The road to hegemony was long and arduous. His own progress was too far behind Ishiro's. Ishiro had been influencing Iwagakure's internal politics when he was still a Ninja Academy student. Yet he, after becoming Kazekage, was still constrained by stubborn factions.
Looking back at the present, since Konoha had a way to deal with the Gedo Statue, he and A would not interfere.
Thinking of Iwagakure, and then looking at the Hokage and Raikage, Rasa took the initiative to broach a topic.
"Hokage, Raikage, it's rare for the three of us to gather. Why don't we discuss how to curb Iwagakure's development?"
A's eyes lit up. He was very interested in Rasa's proposal.
Recently, Iwagakure had indeed been restless. Iwa-nin had even crossed the sea between the two countries to cause trouble within the Land of Lightning. This was simply showing no respect for Kumogakure.
Before Iwagakure's rise, this situation was reversed. It was always their Kumo-nin entering the Land of Earth to cause trouble. When had it been Iwagakure's turn to be so arrogant?
This was also normal. The ninja of the Four Great Nations, excluding Konoha, mostly had single elemental affinities. Iwagakure's Earth Release just happened to be countered by Kumogakure's Lightning Release. In conflicts between the two sides, Kumo often held the upper hand.
But now, the ones Iwagakure sent to provoke friction were basically ninja of other elements. With their advantage gone, dealing with them was much more difficult than before.
A didn't know what Ishiro meant, or if he had any intention of starting a war, but he still felt his deep malice. Kumo had lost many ninja in Kirigakure and could not dispatch too many to defend their long coastline. This move by Iwa gave him a real headache.
So, A immediately chimed in, "The Kazekage is right. The Land of Earth is our common neighbor. The rise of Iwagakure is not beneficial for any of our three villages."
Thus, the three of them, taking advantage of their relatively pleasant cooperation, prepared to discuss dealing with Iwagakure together.
However, unlike Rasa and A, who were always thinking of attacking, Tsunade was thinking of defending.
What she needed was stability. The Uchiha clan, in its current state, could not bear any external stimulation. If a war were rashly started and the front line did not go well, there was no guarantee the Uchiha would not take the opportunity to rebel.
So, this three-party discussion, while forming a consensus in many areas, did not reach an agreement to attack Iwagakure together.
However, Rasa and A did not push Tsunade. They would take it slow, first forming a consensus in some less important areas, and letting the ninja of the three villages slowly accept the matter of an alliance.
But there was one thing they did agree on: if Iwagakure came to the Land of Hot Water to snatch the Ten-Tails' body, then they would hit them hard right here.
It was normal for A to have this idea. In his judgment, Iwagakure had been plotting for the Ten-Tails all along. With Ishiro's personality, he probably wouldn't give up so easily.
However, what A didn't know was that all the intelligence he had received related to the Gedo Statue had been provided by Iwagakure. Although Ishiro hadn't guessed that he would join forces with Konoha, and that Tsunade would in turn call on Suna, the fact that A would leave his village was easy to guess.
...
When an Iwa intelligence ninja, stationed far from Unsen Mountain, saw the mountain collapse and the massive body of the Two-Tails, a piece of intelligence transmitted by a shark quickly reached Ishiro's hands.
Thus, Ishiro went back to his old profession.
His target this time was Kumogakure.
After transmigrating for so long, he had never gone for a stroll in Kumo.
Knowing that Kumo had already made a move on Obito's base in the Land of Hot Water, Ishiro, without a word, left Iwagakure and flew towards the Land of Lightning.
The Land of Wind was all desert. The Land of Earth was covered in rock. The Land of Lightning, however, had strange weather, with frequent thunderstorms. Sometimes there was even lightning without rain.
Ishiro deliberately flew above the clouds, wanting to avoid the lightning within them. But he had clearly underestimated the density of the lightning. Even flying slightly above the clouds, he was still occasionally attacked by it. The power of these bolts was not weak, generally having the power of a C to B-rank lightning jutsu.
No wonder Kumo's Lightning Release was so powerful. Practicing in this environment was clearly twice the result for half the effort.
Ishiro was very interested in the tracking ability of these lightning bolts. Unfortunately, he had already returned all the physics he had learned in his previous life to his teacher. He only vaguely remembered that it had something to do with positive and negative charges; he didn't know anything else.
And now, he didn't have the time to spend on developing Lightning Release as he had with Water Release when he was a child. So, even if he knew the principle, he had no time to use it to develop jutsu.
He was just curious. Using his Super Light-Weight Rock Technique at full power, he quickly dodged the bolts of lightning attacking him. Unfortunately, their speed was too fast, and they had a "turning" effect; it was difficult for him to dodge. This natural lightning, unlike ninja-controlled lightning, was truly at the speed of light.
Fortunately, his own mastery of Lightning Release was not weak. Even if these bolts hit him, with his level of mastery over Storm Release, nothing would happen to him. After all, this was just simple lightning, not compressed and gathered like a ninja's, which had a strong armor-piercing effect.
Amidst being struck by lightning again and again, Ishiro continued to approach Kumogakure.
Half a day later, he descended upon the village.
Of course, it was peacetime now. Although Iwa and Kumo were not allies, it was not good for him to brazenly break in.
He took out a large barrel that he carried on his back, undid the seal, and grabbed five unconscious White Zetsu clones from within.
He applied a simple genjutsu to four of them. He then created four clones of himself. Each clone took one Zetsu and dispersed around Kumogakure.
Ishiro's main body then used a genjutsu on the last Zetsu, having it envelop him as he entered the village. His genjutsu level was average; he hadn't deliberately spent a lot of time learning it. Otherwise, having the Zetsu take him in from underground would have been more effective.
At almost the same time, his four clones threw the Zetsu in their hands into the village.
Soon, alarms began to sound one after another. These alarms sounded quite like modern technology from his previous life.
After entering, Ishiro quickly shed the Zetsu clone, and then with a few quick flickers, he left the original spot. He then used the Transformation Jutsu to blend in with the villagers.
Soon, Kumo's Anbu began to search within the village.
However, Ishiro was indifferent to this. He was currently in an izakaya, eating and drinking with great relish.
Ever since the Fourth Raikage had left, Kumogakure had entered a state of high alert.
The one responsible for the village's defense was Darui.
At this moment, he was listening to a report from a ninja from the barrier team. "Lord Darui, a total of five people infiltrated the village from five different directions. They have all split up."
Darui nodded and signaled for the barrier ninja to return and continue monitoring the village's warning barrier.
After a while, another Anbu entered the Raikage's office. "Lord Darui, a total of five intruders have been killed. All of them were those white experimental subjects."
Darui frowned. "All of them were killed?"
He found it strange. He had heard how formidable the Earth Release of these white subjects was. If the Anbu had chanced upon and killed one, that would be understandable. But for all five to be killed, that, on the contrary, was not right.
"Yes. The five barely resisted, as if they were under genjutsu," the Anbu ninja explained.
Darui pondered for a moment. "I understand. You are dismissed."
After the Anbu left, Darui thought alone in the office for a long time, then said, "Someone, go to the Valley of Clouds and Thunder and ask Senior Killer Bee to come. Say: the Fourth Tsuchikage is here."
An Anbu acknowledged the order and left directly from the shadows.
Then, the Raikage's office fell into silence. A long time later, Darui's murmuring voice could be heard: "Fox of Iwagakure... such a clumsy invasion technique. Are you afraid we won't notice you?"
"Are you looking down on us, or are you just that arrogant?"
(End of Chapter)
♧♧♧
-> SUPPORT ME WITH POWER STONE
-> FOR EVERY 200 PS = BOUNS CHAPTER
♧♧♧
-> 35 Advanced chapters Now Available on Patreon!!
-> https://www.patreon.com/c/Segais
(Just remove the hyphen to access patreon normally)
If you like this novel please consider leaving a review that's help the story a lot Thank you