Chapter 332: The Sand Ninja's Moves
Fourth Raikage A's fanciful plan was rejected by the Cloud's higher-ups before it even began, which made him extremely annoyed.
With nowhere to vent the anger in his heart, A could only increase the training load on Darui, especially the duration of their sparring sessions.
This nearly turned the outwardly listless Darui into a truly broken man.
On the Konoha side, the higher-ups were very unified in their opinion of Ishiro's actions: issue a diplomatic condemnation and increase negative propaganda against Iwagakure.
And then that was it. Both Hiruzen and Tsunade turned their sights to the cultivation of the next generation. The successors of the Will of Fire, the new shoots of Konoha, were growing vigorously. Now was not a suitable time for an external war.
And in the Land of Wind, the Village Hidden in the Sand, Rasa also convened a high-level meeting. However, Chiyo did not participate this time; she and Ryosuke had already left the village.
Rasa had now completely taken control of Sunagakure. At the high-level meetings, Rasa's word was basically law. Especially during the period when Granny Chiyo was away from the village, Rasa had replaced the last of the advisors who were not completely obedient to him.
So, the so-called high-level meetings in Sunagakure now were basically just meetings where Rasa gave orders. The members of this advisory council just knew Rasa's decisions a little earlier than others. They could offer suggestions to Lord Kazekage, but they had no voting rights on decisions.
After discussing the impact of the Land of Snow incident with his high-level officials, Rasa confirmed two points. First, Iwagakure taking control of the Land of Snow would inevitably lead to a great increase in their strength, which was not so wonderful for the Land of Wind.
When Konoha was a superpower, everyone could barely maintain an alliance. But as Konoha declined, as a qualified Kage, it was also his responsibility to suppress other competitors.
Especially with the current delicate situation of the Land of Wind, its path to the Land of Fire was blocked by the Akatsuki. If Rasa didn't want to fight to a mutual loss with the Akatsuki, then he could not give up on those small and medium-sized countries to the north leading to the Land of Fire. Although the Land of Snow was not between the Land of Wind and the Land of Earth, this precedent could not be set.
Ishiro was trying to build the Land of Snow into a template project, an example for other small and medium-sized countries. Then Rasa had to sabotage it. Even if he couldn't stop the Land of Snow from completely siding with Iwagakure, he had to warn the other small and medium-sized countries, to let them know that there were no benefits in defecting to Iwagakure.
The other point Rasa confirmed was that Konoha would not interfere in this matter, the Cloud would not interfere, and the Mist certainly would not interfere. To stop Iwagakure's expansion, Rasa could only rely on himself. But Rasa also knew that the current comprehensive strength of the Sand was not yet comparable to Iwa's; he still had to endure.
Moreover, Iwagakure's two Jinchuriki were in their prime, but his Sunagakure's Jinchuriki was still just a child. And this child was his son. Unless absolutely necessary, he didn't want to throw his own son like a bomb into an enemy ninja army to cause destruction.
At the very least, he had to wait until Ryosuke could display Kage-level combat power. "Do not be impulsive," Rasa secretly warned himself.
"Baki, what has the Akatsuki been up to recently?" Rasa asked.
The Akatsuki accepting rogue-nin from various villages in the Land of Rain made Rasa very vigilant, especially after he heard that the figure of Sasori of the Red Sand had been spotted in the Land of Rain.
At first, Rasa felt it was a good thing that the Akatsuki had cut off his connection with the Land of Fire; the Land of Wind could relax a bit. But as the Akatsuki's strength grew at a jaw-dropping speed, Rasa began to lose sleep.
Somehow, the Akatsuki had suddenly expanded to a point where it was no weaker than Sunagakure. And the Akatsuki, unlike the conservative Konoha, had a strong desire for expansion.
So before deciding whether to respond to the Land of Snow incident, Rasa still had to understand the Akatsuki's movements from Baki.
As Rasa's confidant, Baki's role in today's meeting was to report intelligence work. Baki was not a high-level official and did not have the decision-making power that a high-level official should have.
However, the current high-level officials of the Sand had no decision-making power anyway, so Baki's status was not lower than those advisors.
In addition, Baki was Rasa's most trusted subordinate, so in this conference room, Baki's actual status was much higher than these nominal advisors who were, in reality, just a think tank.
Hearing Rasa's question, Baki immediately stood up. He first bowed to Rasa, then reported, "Lord Kazekage, the Akatsuki's movements are a bit strange. They had previously taken in a large number of rogue-nin within the Land of Rain. The intelligence department analyzed that they might be planning a big move."
"But during this period, the Akatsuki has suddenly fallen silent. Intelligence ninjas have more than once seen the several leaders of the Akatsuki personally appearing among the civilians of the Lands of Rivers and Rain. It seems they have shifted their focus to domestic construction."
Rasa's eyes lit up. If the Akatsuki was going to focus on construction, that meant the threat to him in the short term would be much smaller.
This way, he would have the spare capacity to deal with the Land of Snow incident.
After pondering for a moment, Rasa said to Pakura, who had not said a word from beginning to end, "Pakura, you make a secret trip to the Land of Snow. First, see what Iwagakure is specifically doing there, and confirm if there is any special purpose for Iwa taking control of the Land of Snow."
"If there is, do not make a move. Return and report. If there isn't, you can act on your own. There is only one goal: to let the other countries see that Iwagakure cannot protect them."
"By the way, try not to use Scorch Release; don't expose your identity for now. In addition, do not clash with Iwagakure head-on. Now is not the time to tear up the alliance treaty."
"If you are discovered, just say you are here to visit an ally. Ishiro is not stupid; he knows now is not the time to go to war with us. They will not make things difficult for you."
"Yes." Pakura did not waste words. After standing up, she immediately complied.
The Pakura of this life greatly admired Rasa. She felt that only Rasa could lead Sunagakure to truly rise. At least so far, after Rasa came to power, the strength of the Sand had indeed been greatly enhanced. The strength of the Land of Wind had reached an unprecedented level.
As for Rasa's predecessor, the one known as the strongest Kazekage, the Third, during his reign, he had actually let a ninja with the potential to reach Kage-level defect. In Pakura's view, the Third Kazekage had completely disgraced the name of Kazekage. As for the so-called "strongest," she scoffed at it even more.
So, she never questioned Rasa's decisions. Her own intelligence was limited; she just had to obey orders.
After the meeting ended, Pakura took ten Anbu squads and, without approaching the border of the Land of Earth, chose to head towards the Land of Snow from the west side of the Land of Demons, far from the Land of Earth.
If Ikura had been patrolling the border openly, Pakura, being on guard, certainly would not have been easily discovered. But after being reminded by Ishiro, Ikura did not show himself but conducted reconnaissance in secret. And the focus of Ikura's reconnaissance was the Land of Demons and the Land of Bears.
The former was the necessary path for the Land of Wind to reach the Land of Snow, and the latter was the best offensive route for the Land of Wind to reach the Land of Earth.
If Pakura had traveled to the Land of Snow lightly and alone, then Ikura certainly would not have been able to discover her tracks. But Pakura had brought a considerable number of Anbu.
With so many people moving together, it was very difficult to cover their tracks. What's more, Ikura had been deliberately paying attention to the movements of the Land of Wind.
So not long after Pakura entered the Land of Demons, Ikura received the news.
This was not Pakura's fault. She could never have imagined that Iwagakure would arrange for a Kage-level powerhouse to conduct mobile patrols along the border.
Considering that Pakura's Scorch Release was also not easy to deal with, Ikura did not act rashly but contacted Ōnoki in the Land of Snow and Ishiro, who was holding the fort in the village.
Pakura led her group of Anbu, hiding by day and traveling by night, very cautiously approaching the direction of the Land of Snow's capital. And even at night, the group did not travel at full speed.
Especially after entering the Land of Snow, considering that it had already been publicly incorporated into Iwagakure's sphere of influence, Pakura and her group all raised their guard, and their speed became even slower.
By the time Pakura reached the capital of the Land of Snow, Ishiro had already flown there from Iwagakure.
As for Ikura, he did not come to the Land of Snow with them; he had returned to Iwagakure.
Iwagakure could not be without a Kage-level powerhouse holding the fort for a long time. Although Han's strength was not inferior to a Kage-level after gaining Kokuō's recognition, his status was not enough, and it was difficult for his identity as a Jinchuriki to gain the trust of most ninjas.
So, at the same time Ishiro left Iwagakure, he also sent a message to Ikura, asking him to return to the village.
The reason why Ishiro wanted to swap places with Ikura was mainly considering Pakura's ability characteristics.
Ikura, also being a ninjutsu-type, had no advantage against Pakura. And Pakura, as a Kekkei Genkai ninja, had even more strange techniques in battle.
But Ishiro was different. His Porcelain Release completely countered Pakura. To deal with her, he alone was more effective than Ōnoki and Ikura combined.
Ōnoki also understood this point, so after seeing Ishiro personally come over, he directly handed over the matter of dealing with Pakura to him, while he himself very straightforwardly went to busy himself with opening the branch base.
Ishiro first took a turn around the bustling base to understand the construction progress.
Ōnoki's plan for this branch base was relatively conservative. The scale of the entire branch was only about one-tenth of Iwagakure's.
However, though the sparrow was small, it had all the vital organs. Any institution that Iwagakure had was not lacking in the branch. Ōnoki had even set up an underground secret room next to the main building of the branch, to serve as the branch's Anbu headquarters.
After touring the base, Ishiro discovered that Deidara's trio and the guard team he had arranged for Ōnoki were all working.
Even his own sister, Natsuki, was not idle. But he didn't see Shinya Matsutani at all. Ishiro was a little strange. It was one thing not to see Shinya, but where was the fat orange cat?
Logically, with the fat orange's size, it should be the most eye-catching thing wherever it was.
Ishiro formed a hand seal with one hand and cast a sensory ninjutsu.
"Hmm, he's indeed not at the base."
Ishiro asked a nearby Anbu and only then learned that Shinya had not participated in the branch construction during this period but had been staying at the Rainbow Ice Wall the whole time.
Looking at the sky, it was still early. Pakura probably wouldn't come out to cause trouble at this time. So Ishiro went directly to the Rainbow Ice Wall a few kilometers away.
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