Chapter 257: The State of the Ninja World
In the morning in Iwagakure, Onoki, for the eighty-ninth time, assured his precious granddaughter that he would definitely bring her Senior Brother Deidara back to the village. Then, in the village's mission hall, he personally selected a suitable mission for Kurotsuchi's squad, finally sending this troublesome granddaughter of his away.
"Lord Tsuchikage, the intelligence gathered by the spies recently has been compiled. Please review it," at this time, an Anbu member knocked on the door and walked into the Tsuchikage's office, placing a thick file on his desk.
"I know," Onoki nodded, picked up the file, leaned back in his office chair, and began to read it bit by bit.
"Konoha's ninja system reform..." The first thing Onoki looked at was the intelligence on Konoha, which he currently valued the most. However, under Uchiha Douhuan's Sage Mode village patrols, which occurred once every three days on average, their Iwagakure spies and scouts planted in Konoha had basically been completely cleared out, leaving only a few insignificant people. In other words, the intelligence Onoki could get now was only what Uchiha Douhuan wanted him to know.
"Ninjas of Chunin rank and above no longer accept high-level missions as a team, and low-level missions only have a quota of 10 per year for newly graduated genin squads, with all other missions being subcontracted to the Sand, Waterfall, and Grass? Since when did that Uchiha Douhuan start doing charity in the ninja world? If he does this, what about their village's funds? Are they relying entirely on the Land of Fire's appropriations?"
Onoki was very puzzled by this grandiose reform that Uchiha Douhuan was carrying out in Konoha. Logically speaking, the current Konoha, after winning a great victory in the military conflict with the Cloud, was already the undisputed number one ninja village in the ninja world. And their Hokage, Uchiha Douhuan, was currently the undisputed number one powerhouse in the ninja world. It could be said that Konoha had completely returned to its founding status in the ninja world.
As long as they maintained this, Konoha would have at least 30 years of peak performance.
One must know that the God of Shinobi, Senju Hashirama, was already nearly thirty years old when he founded Konoha. And the current Uchiha Douhuan was only in his early twenties. It could be said that for a long time to come, the entire ninja world would have to avoid Uchiha Douhuan's edge. Konoha had no need to mess with these unnecessary things at all. After all, the current ninja village system had already stood the test of a long time. Rashly changing it might instead damage the village's strength.
"However, with that kid holding down the fort, Konoha probably won't fall into chaos," Onoki shook his head with some regret, his heart filled with mixed feelings.
It was still the same old saying: if he put aside his standpoint, Onoki really did admire Uchiha Douhuan very much. He had dreamed more than once of Uchiha Douhuan, suppressed by Konoha, leading his entire clan to defect to their Iwagakure, and then a few years later, taking the Tsuchikage hat from his hands, becoming the Fourth Tsuchikage of Iwagakure, and leading their Iwagakure to become the hegemon of the ninja world.
But every time he woke from the dream, Onoki could only look at his own village's situation of having no worthy successors and sigh helplessly. Then, when he saw the intelligence reports about the Third Hokage of Konoha fishing on the Naka River, he would curse in his heart at that god-damned Sarutobi Hiruzen for doing nothing of importance and still having such good luck.
After calming himself down, Onoki opened the intelligence report on the Cloud.
Before A's major defeat in the Land of Fire, getting intelligence on the Cloud Village was no easier than getting intelligence on the current Konoha. However, after A was injured and went missing, and the Cloud Village fell into chaos, Onoki also took the opportunity to plant a large number of spies.
However, upon seeing the news returned by the spies in the Cloud today—that A had appeared to set things right, stripped Donald of his position as Fifth Raikage on charges of rebellion, and arrested his entire group, and that the court of the Land of Lightning had also undergone a major purge, with the new Grand Minister of the Land of Lightning having his entire family killed—he also raised an eyebrow.
"That fellow A's severed arm has now been replaced with a prosthesis, and he seems to have become even stronger," Onoki looked at the intelligence and frowned slightly. When Donald and his group were making a lot of noise, Onoki was not very optimistic that they could seize the authority of the Raikage from A's hands. After all, although the Cloud Village had become chaotic for some unknown reason in recent years, the fierce and tough character of the people raised in this remote country of the Land of Lightning dictated that one could not sit firmly in the position of Raikage without absolute strength.
"However, appointing himself as the Grand Minister..." Onoki couldn't help but frown as he looked at the intelligence about what A had done in the Lightning Capital after handling the affairs in the village.
A had shouted the slogan "Revere the Emperor, Punish the Traitors" in the Lightning Capital, then went on a killing spree, directly purging a group of civil officials who had colluded with Donald. And his methods were extremely harsh. That newly appointed Grand Minister had his entire family killed directly, and the next day at the court of the Lightning Capital, he directly appointed himself to the position of Grand Minister.
This kind of behavior of his was a first in the ninja world. Although Uchiha Douhuan was the Grand Minister of the Land of Fire, he was properly entrusted with the care of the state by the former Daimyō before his death. Although the Daimyō of other countries had some criticisms about this, they could only accept it, as it was considered an internal matter of the Land of Fire.
But with A's move, it was tantamount to directly destroying the unwritten rules between the Daimyō and the ninja villages.
Just at this moment, a knock came on the door of the Tsuchikage's office.
"Come in," Onoki rubbed the bridge of his nose.
"Lord Tsuchikage, a letter from the Daimyō," the Anbu who entered placed a letter on Onoki's desk.
"I know," Onoki sighed. He didn't even need to look to know what Uesugi Hidekoshi wanted to say. It was nothing more than asking him to condemn the Cloud's actions in the name of Iwagakure and to have them stop all cooperation with the Cloud. For the Daimyō, A's behavior was intolerable. After all, what if other ninja villages followed suit?
"Why do I feel that war is getting closer and closer?" Onoki let out a long sigh and put down the intelligence report on the Land of Lightning.
"The Land of Wind... that little girl, the Fifth Kazekage, is she planning to fully cooperate with Konoha now?" Onoki sighed again after reading the intelligence on the Land of Wind. A while ago, when Temari succeeded as the Fifth Kazekage, he, as one of the Five Kage, had specially sent a letter of congratulation and a gift. However, after seeing that the Sand Village had taken over nearly 60% of the low-level missions from Konoha, Onoki's mood had become somewhat sour.
Although the Sand Village and Konoha had an alliance agreement after the Third Great Ninja War, Onoki had never treated the Sand Village as an opponent of the same level before. Because he knew very well that the two old fellows in the Sand Village who occupied high positions and were his contemporaries had a deep-seated hatred for Konoha. Therefore, the alliance between the Sand and Konoha was extremely fragile. It was estimated that in case of a war, the Sand would be the first to backstab Konoha. However, after the Fifth Kazekage took over so many low-level missions from Konoha, the Sand would have to rely on Konoha's whim to survive. This was an alliance relationship that was countless times more stable than a piece of paper.
Because of Konoha's existence, in the future, Onoki would also have to take the Sand seriously. After all, a lone Sand Village was just a roadside... without its Tailed Beast, it was hard to say if it could even keep its title as one of the Five Great Ninja Villages. After all, the strength of the successive Kazekage was at the bottom among the Five Kage. However, a Sand Village that fully cooperated with Konoha was a different story. A Sand Village that didn't need to worry about its top-tier combat power, their puppet masters and poison masters could play a huge role on the battlefield.
After putting aside the intelligence on the Sand Village, Onoki glanced at the intelligence on the Mist and frowned.
"Didn't I say that the intelligence on the Mist doesn't need to be sent over?" Onoki picked up the collection of intelligence on the Mist and muttered to himself.
After all, every time their spies sent back intelligence on the Mist, it was either about how Takagi Shōban was fawning over his adoptive father, the five-star general of the Land of Fire, Uchiha Fugaku, using various methods that refreshed Onoki's lower limits, or about the North's Terumi Mei inspecting various places in the new Mist Village and giving various nonsensical instructions.
At the beginning, Onoki had paid quite a bit of attention to Terumi Mei. After all, she was a ruthless person who dared to launch a coup in the village.
However, after Terumi Mei became the Mizukage of North Kirigakure for a period of time, the style of the intelligence their spies gathered began to become strange.
It was all some nonsensical intelligence like, "The Fifth Mizukage, Terumi Mei, inspected the new teaching building construction site of the new Mist Village's ninja academy and gave an important instruction: 'The second floor must be built on top of the first floor.'"
Over time, Onoki simply told the Anbu who compiled the intelligence not to send the intelligence on the Land of Water over anymore. After all, he was very busy as the Tsuchikage and had no time to waste on reading such worthless intelligence.
However, since the Anbu had sent it over, Onoki thought for a moment and still decided to open it and take a look.
The north and south sides of the Land of Water are suspected to be on the verge of conflict? Seeing this, Onoki couldn't help but speed up his page-turning.
But when he finished reading the entire report, he couldn't help but let out a sneer.
The two Mist Villages, north and south, of the Land of Water, after the military conflict between the Land of Fire and the Land of Lightning broke out, the atmosphere had become particularly tense.
After the Land of Lightning suffered heavy losses in the military conflict with the Land of Fire, Takagi Shōban had some ideas and constantly sent gifts to Uchiha Fugaku, requesting Konoha's help to suppress the rebels in the north. However, Uchiha Fugaku did not respond to the flirtatious glances thrown by Takagi Shōban at all. After all, Konoha was currently in a critical period of reform and had no intention of getting involved in another war.
After his request for help from his adoptive father was fruitless, Takagi Shōban gritted his teeth and prepared to go it alone. However, just as he had assembled his army, the reaction from the North Kirigakure side was even more intense than he had imagined. They directly blew up the roads on the border line.
Terumi Mei did not know that Konoha currently had no intention of participating in the civil war in the Land of Water. But their North Kirigakure's ally, the Cloud Village, had just experienced a failure, had completely shrunk back, and had cut off their aid to them. Therefore, a little bit of movement from the south was enough to make them jittery.
However, what was even funnier was that Takagi Shōban was actually bluffed by Terumi Mei's posture. After his assembled troops took a turn around the border line and found that Konoha's garrison headquarters in the Land of Water and Fire had no intention of sending troops, he shrunk back.
After all, he also knew that without Konoha's help, just their South Kirigakure's strength was completely insufficient to fight the brothers in the north.
So, this joke of a military conflict between the two sides ended with a tiger's head and a snake's tail.
...
After reading the intelligence on the Five Great Nations, Onoki stood up and stretched his body, then sat back down at his desk and began to read the intelligence on the small nations.
However, just the first page made him see red.
"What do you mean the Sky Ninja Village was attacked by three Jinchuriki? Suspected to be the Jinchuriki of the One-Tail, Four-Tails, and Nine-Tails?" Onoki slammed the table and cursed in disbelief.
He knew about the defection of Konoha's Nine-Tails Jinchuriki. After all, Uchiha Douhuan had posted a bounty for that yellow-haired kid in the ninja world's underground bounty station. It wasn't that Onoki hadn't thought about getting the Nine-Tails back to his village, but after their spies saw this kid was with Jiraiya, Onoki also understood that this kid's situation was not much different from his own yellow-haired one. It was probably just a rebellious phase and he wanted to go out and play for a while. As a result, he caused some trouble on his way out, so Uchiha Douhuan had to post a bounty that was neither too much nor too little as a gesture.
So, Onoki also directly gave up the idea of making a move on Naruto. After all, Jiraiya plus a Nine-Tails Jinchuriki plus a One-Tail Jinchuriki who had somehow mixed in with them, even if he went himself, he wasn't sure he could take them. What's more, if he did so, it would be no different from declaring war on Konoha. So, Onoki just ordered to continue monitoring their whereabouts, as long as they didn't come to the Land of Earth to cause trouble.
But what he hadn't expected was that their Iwagakure's Jinchuriki, who was wandering all over the ninja world, had also gotten involved with this group of people.
And these three had directly blown up the Sky Ninja Village?
...
"Uncle Rōshi, thank you for your help this time," after destroying the Zero-Tails created by Shinnō, Naruto also deactivated his Tailed Beast mode and gave Rōshi a thumbs-up with a laugh.
"Heh heh, even if you hadn't come, I would have done it myself. After all, anyone who saw that hellish scene would not be able to hold back," Rōshi also responded to Naruto with a smile, then looked at the ruins of the Sky Ninja Village. "So, little friend Naruto, what do you plan to do next?"
"I plan to stay here for a while, to settle the surviving children who were used as human experiments by this bastard named Shinnō before continuing my journey," Naruto said.
"Alright, then I won't delay here any longer. I'll leave these children to you," Rōshi nodded. "Also, Son Gokū asked me to say hello to the partners of you two."
"Leave it to us," Naruto said to Rōshi with a smile.
(End of chapter)
♧♧♧
-> SUPPORT ME WITH POWER STONE
-> FOR EVERY 200 PS = BOUNS CHAPTER
♧♧♧
-> 20 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