Chapter 438: Darui's Worry
The Fourth Raikage rushed to the command center. Seeing that everyone was unharmed, he first breathed a sigh of relief and then asked, "What happened?"
When the commander saw the Raikage, he said helplessly, "Lord Raikage, all of our communication devices were destroyed in an instant."
"I suspect the Tsuchikage saw through our communication methods long ago. His attack was already prepared; he was just waiting for a critical moment."
"It's even possible he was eavesdropping on our conversation the entire time. His previous disadvantageous situation may have been him deliberately letting his guard down to make us careless."
The corner of the Fourth Raikage's mouth twitched. He clenched his fists again, but there was no desk at hand. He forcibly suppressed his impulse and sighed.
"We were not defeated unjustly. We thought we had made sufficient preparations, but we still underestimated the Tsuchikage. I never expected that sealing jutsu could also play such a miraculous role in a battle of this level," the Raikage said with emotion.
Kumo had limited Ishiro's main attack methods with the Eight-Tails' tentacles, but he had long since planted a counter-measure on them.
Then he said to the commander, "You've worked hard today. This failure is not your fault. The Tsuchikage is just too cunning."
The commander nodded, a little dejected. It was one thing that Ishiro had numerous abilities, but his failure to take his mastery of sealing jutsu into account was the key to their defeat.
After a while, Darui also came over. "Lord Raikage, we've figured it out."
"The Tsuchikage used a Kekkei Genkai to destroy the barrier. It's able to absorb the chakra in the barrier and convert it into fuel to maintain his fire jutsu."
The commander quickly said, "That is the Kekkei Genkai of the Tsuchikage's disciple, Ogura Saki: Blaze Release. I didn't expect him to know it too. It seems she must have learned it from him."
The Raikage's mouth twitched. "Another Kekkei Genkai? How many does he have already?"
Darui said sullenly, "One Kekkei Tōta, three Kekkei Genkai: Porcelain Release, Storm Release, and Blaze Release."
The commander chimed in, "Four Kekkei abilities are continuously strengthening his body. No wonder his chakra reserves are so much larger than what the intelligence reported."
The Raikage said, "Forget it. Go and tally the casualties. I still have to go to the Land of Hot Water; that matter isn't finished. Don't worry about the Tsuchikage. We'll deal with it after I get back."
Darui asked, "Is the situation in the Land of Hot Water going smoothly?"
The Raikage shook his head. "Yugito was captured. But we obtained the body of the Ten-Tails. I plan to exchange it for her."
"The Hokage and Kazekage have also agreed. We have even reached an intention to deal with Iwagakure together."
Hearing that Yugito had been captured, Darui was first surprised, then nodded. "Lord Raikage, since Yugito is not here, why don't I accompany you to the Land of Hot Water?"
He could also use the Lightning Release Chakra Mode. Although he was not proficient, it was enough to withstand a brief moment of spatial transport.
The Raikage looked at the devastated village. "You should stay. Although it's unlikely the Tsuchikage will return, we still have to be on guard."
"I don't feel at ease leaving just Killer Bee alone in the village."
After speaking, he stepped onto the base of the Heavenly Transfer Technique and once again transported to the Land of Hot Water.
Kumogakure, while guarding against a sudden return attack from Ishiro, began to tally its casualties and property damage.
In fact, their casualties were not severe; all in all, they had only lost about a thousand ninja. Relative to the scale and intensity of this battle, this casualty count was genuinely not high.
The civilian casualties, however, were considerable. This wasn't because Ishiro had deliberately targeted them, but because too many large-scale ninjutsu had been used tonight, and many civilians had been caught in the crossfire. The battle tonight had erupted within Kumogakure from the very beginning, so they had had no time to evacuate the civilians.
Looking at the continuously updated data on civilian casualties and property damage, Darui's heart was bleeding.
Unsurprisingly, for a long time to come, the village's finances would be extremely tight.
Relative to the civilian casualties, the real blow Kumo had suffered was to its confidence.
Under the watchful eyes of the entire village's ninja and civilians, they had laid a trap for Ishiro. The Fourth Raikage, leading a Jinchuriki and the entire village's ninja, had besieged him.
And the result was failure!
This was unacceptable to the proud people of Kumo.
Moreover, this blow to their morale was very persistent; it was not something that could be reversed in a short while.
And in the future, when Kumo faced Iwagakure on the outside, their strength would be affected by this mentality.
So, Darui's main job now was to appease everyone's emotions, to prevent too many negative feelings from affecting the village's order, and to stop everyone from spreading this mood to each other.
As for how the village would choose between war and peace in the future, that was not something he needed to worry about right now.
And Darui knew that, in all likelihood, Kumo could not go to war with Iwa.
Given the impression Ishiro had left on them today, the moment he appeared on a battlefield, Kumo's morale would instantly collapse.
While Darui was worrying about the future of Kumogakure, Ishiro was not feeling so good either.
He was injured. When he had forcibly broken through the barrier, he had been hit in the back by Darui's Black Lightning. Fortunately, he had been in Sage Mode at the time. With its resistance, the injury was not fatal. But his Sage Mode had also been dispersed by that attack.
After leaving Kumo, he raised his flight altitude, flying above the Land of Lightning's storm clouds, and left their territory at full speed.
"Phew. Too reckless, too reckless. Why don't I ever learn my lesson? I just suffered a loss at Obito's hands, how did I forget so quickly?" Ishiro cursed himself as he flew.
Kumogakure was too dangerous. It was not like Konoha. In Konoha, he had two waves of "insiders," the Uchiha clan and Danzō. But Kumo was too united. A great hidden village operating at full capacity, with no insiders to hold it back, was terrifying.
Next time... next time, even if I'm going to mess around, I'll go mess around in Konoha.
Ishiro made up his mind to repent and turn over a new leaf!
With this resolve, he returned to Iwagakure at the fastest speed.
He naturally couldn't hide his injury from the advisory council. Not long after he entered the Iwagakure medical department, they arrived.
Bella and the others knew he was going to Kumo. This kind of thing was basic operations for him; they were used to it. In their minds, he had gone to Konoha several times, so a trip to Kumo shouldn't be a big problem. Besides, wasn't the Raikage not in the village?
With the Raikage absent, with Ishiro's cunning—bah, with his cleverness—he shouldn't have run into any big trouble.
They waited for a while. After Nakata Hajime finished treating Ishiro's wounds and left, Ikura finally frowned and asked, "What on earth happened?"
Ishiro really didn't want to tell the truth. If he did, it would be even harder for him to get out of the village in the future.
But under the blank-faced stares of the entire council, Ishiro, lying prone on the hospital bed, had no choice but to honestly recount the entire process.
"The Fourth Raikage did go to the Land of Hot Water, but he came back using the Heavenly Transfer Technique."
"Kumo had long anticipated my infiltration. They used a defensive barrier to trap me inside."
"Then, the Fourth Raikage, the Eight-Tails Jinchuriki Killer Bee, Darui, and the entire village of Kumogakure besieged me."
"But in the end, it was a thrill without any real danger. I still escaped."
"It's just that after this battle, my intelligence is no longer a secret. This time, I used almost every ability I have."
Hearing his description, the group all sucked in a cold breath. Besieged by an entire village. The level of your death-seeking is getting higher and higher.
No one spoke. Everyone just stared fixedly at him.
Ishiro was embarrassed. He took a scroll from the bedside, handed it to them, and said, "This is the data I got from the Kumo tech pavilion."
"Study it well. You should be able to manufacture some simple mechanical equipment and save a sum of money."
No one took the scroll. No one made a sound. His attempt to change the subject failed completely.
"Hehe. Haha," Ishiro laughed awkwardly.
In the end, he suffered the unanimous criticism of the entire advisory council. Even his own disciple, Megumi, stood firmly on the opposite side of him in this matter.
After being nagged at by Saka, Bella, Ikura, Megumi, and Kitsuchi for a long time, Ishiro finally managed to escape his bitter sea of suffering.
He was a little wilted, lying on the bed, not wanting to move.
Seeing this, Saka said, "Intelligence has come from the Land of Hot Water. This time, Kumo has allied with Konoha and Suna."
"The three of them gathering together is not a good thing for us. If they take the opportunity to form an alliance and target us together, then our situation will not be good."
"Perhaps even Kirigakure will come to kick us while we're down. Think of a way to resolve this."
Ishiro said listlessly, "Are Tsunade and Rasa the ones who went to Konoha and Suna?"
Saka nodded helplessly. "At the time, you were in a hurry to get to Kumogakure and didn't look at the subsequent intel."
"Our ninja saw Katsuyu and a sea of Gold Sand from a long way off. It must have been them."
Hearing that Tsunade was also there, Ishiro's heart skipped a beat. He knew that she could also withstand the Heavenly Transfer Technique. If she had also gone to Kumogakure with the Raikage, then he might really not have been able to come back.
But after thinking about it, he felt he was overthinking it. If Tsunade had really cooperated with the Raikage to kill him, then the next one to be killed would have been her. The Raikage would not give up such a good opportunity for the sake of some promise.
After some thought, Ishiro said, "Since the three Kage have gathered, their alliance is being established from the top down. It's almost impossible for us to sow discord."
"We can only do two things. One is to make them too busy to deal with us. To put it bluntly, create trouble for them."
"Second, make ourselves look equally strong, for example, by strengthening our alliance with Kirigakure."
"Don't we still have those idle ninja swords in our hands? We'll use those as bait to make the Mist proactively deepen their relationship with us."
Bella looked a little unhappy. "Just give the swords back to them for free?"
Ishiro shook his head. "Of course we won't give them away for free. We are not trading the swords for a favor. We are trading the opportunity to get the swords back for a favor."
"We are just giving Kirigakure a chance to exchange for the swords. As for what price they are willing to pay to redeem them, that is a separate business transaction."
Hearing this, Bella finally nodded in satisfaction.
(End of Chapter)
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