Chapter 336: Negotiation
Ōnoki first carefully examined Ishiro, and only after confirming that he was completely unharmed did he have the mind to turn his gaze to the three captives.
Ōnoki's gaze swept past the two Sand Anbu members and finally settled on Pakura, whose bruised and swollen head was the only thing exposed. After carefully identifying her, he asked, "Is this the Sand's Scorch Release user, Pakura?"
Pakura was already in a coma at this time and had no idea of her situation. She was completely unaware of the conversation between the two Tsuchikage.
As he flew back with Ōnoki, Ishiro nodded and said, "Yes. But I only saw five ninjas, including Pakura. Two are dead. I don't know where the others went."
Like Ishiro, Ōnoki was not concerned about those other Sand ninjas. Instead, he changed the subject and asked Ishiro, "What was with that large-scale Scorch Release just now?"
The power of that one attack had definitely surpassed a conventional S-rank ninjutsu. Ōnoki still had lingering fears.
Most importantly, the range affected by this jutsu was too large. It should be known that Ōnoki, who was at the branch base, had felt waves of heat rushing towards him.
To be able to cover such a large area, not to mention that Pakura had deliberately controlled the Raging Flames to go towards the sky at that time; if it had all covered the ground, the range would have been even larger. This meant that Pakura's destructive power was almost on par with a Tailed Beast's.
Ishiro explained, "That should be Pakura's ultimate trump card, but it requires a period of time to brew before it can be cast. During this period, the chakra fluctuation from her body is very strong. As long as one has learned a little sensory ninjutsu, it can be detected, and it's not difficult to deal with."
"And after casting this jutsu, Pakura's strength drops severely. An Elite Jonin would probably be enough to kill her."
Ishiro knew what Ōnoki was worried about, so he explained.
"What do you plan to do with this Pakura?" Ōnoki asked again.
"Exchange her for some things with Rasa. It's just that I haven't decided what to exchange for specifically. Lord Third, is there anything you urgently need on your side?" Ishiro said.
Ōnoki thought for a moment and said, "There's nothing particularly needed. You can decide for yourself."
Ōnoki was not worried about Ishiro's ability in this regard. Ishiro had never let the village suffer a loss.
"Since the matter is settled, Lord Third, I'll take Pakura back to the village first. The construction of this branch base will be left to you." The matters Ishiro needed to handle in the Land of Snow were finally finished, and it was time to go back.
"Yes. This time I established a branch in the Land of Snow, Kawakita was also sent by you to clear out bandits within the country, and you sent Ikura to the border. Under these circumstances, you shouldn't have come personally again. Don't do this again next time."
"Before, there was no choice. Now, the village must have a Kage-level individual stationed. Kitsuchi alone is not enough, and Han is also not enough."
"It's just one Pakura. Ikura and I wouldn't have to pay a great price to take her down. She's not worth us taking the risk."
Although Pakura's final blow was indeed frightening, Ōnoki felt that if he and Ikura had acted together, Pakura would not have had the chance to use that kind of ninjutsu at all.
Ishiro nodded in agreement, but what he thought was: "Next time, I can't send all the Kage-levels out. Besides myself, at least one must stay in the village. Otherwise, how can I go out and have fun?"
Before leaving, Ishiro went to see Natsuki again. The little girl was very satisfied with her life after leaving the village and kept urging Ishiro to go back quickly and not to worry about her.
Helpless, Ishiro took the three captives, including Pakura, and flew back towards Iwagakure.
...
In Sunagakure, Rasa received the news sent back from the Anbu dispatched to the Land of Snow: Pakura was missing.
Those Anbu had agreed that if a major battle really broke out on Pakura's side and she was ambushed, then their side would retreat first.
As a result, before Pakura had even gotten close to the Rainbow Ice Wall, a violent chakra fluctuation had erupted over there, followed by a dazzling clash of ninjutsu.
These Anbu were still very worried about Pakura. Although they knew they couldn't intervene in a battle of that level, they still left a squad of ninjas behind to provide support for her.
It was just that this squad waited there for a long time without seeing any sign of Pakura breaking out. Finally, after Pakura unleashed that terrifying ninjutsu, there was no movement at all.
This Anbu squad was considered responsible. They waited at the spot for half the night and only left to rendezvous with the main force when the sky was about to brighten.
The next day, the Anbu, having received no news related to Pakura, could only quickly transmit the intelligence back to Sunagakure through a special channel.
"Missing? Dead or captured? She was probably captured. A Pakura who has used Raging Flames Burn the Heavens should be extremely weak. If she didn't defeat the enemy, then she was the one defeated. In this situation, Iwagakure would probably choose to capture her."
"The treasure of the Daimyo of the Land of Snow? What a pity."
With Pakura captured, not only was it impossible for Rasa to covet Iwagakure's vested interests anymore, but he might even have to pay a considerable price to get her back.
After reading all the intelligence, Rasa's face was very ugly. "She even used Raging Flames Burn the Heavens and was still captured. Did she encounter Ōnoki or Ishiro? Ikura shouldn't have this kind of strength."
"Damn it!"
Rasa was silent in his office for a long time, then he said softly, "Someone."
...
After returning to the village, Ishiro first took advantage of Pakura's unconscious state to draw a large tube of her blood for the village's research on Scorch Release. Then, he had the Barrier Team cooperate with him to cast an S-rank sealing jutsu on her.
Only then was Pakura locked up in the Anbu prison to await news from Rasa.
Now, Ishiro was eager to test the method Shinya had mentioned.
He first entered Sage Mode, then began to practice Sage Art Wind Release ninjutsu.
The Wind Release ninjutsu Ishiro practiced was mainly the one developed by Ogura Saki; other wind jutsus were secondary. After all, Ishiro wanted to follow Saki's path of Blaze Release, so it was best to follow her rhythm.
Two days later, Ishiro felt that his proficiency in Wind Release ninjutsu had increased somewhat.
The potential of Sage Art was truly far beyond his imagination!
Originally, in Ishiro's cognition, Sage Art could improve a ninja's physique and prolong life. This was his main purpose for researching it in the first place.
He was worried that, like Madara Uchiha, he would only find the true meaning of chakra in his later years.
Madara clearly had the strength to achieve peace in the ninja world according to his own will, but unfortunately, his life was short. Ishiro, on the other hand, did not want to find the path to Kekkei Mōra only to discover that his body had already completely decayed.
As for using Sage Art to enhance combat power, this was the effect he cared about the least.
After he had truly mastered Sage Mode, his understanding of Sage Art gained another dimension: it could slowly increase the upper limit of one's chakra. This was very important to him.
It was precisely because of the quadruple enhancement of the Porcelain Release Kekkei Genkai, the Storm Release Kekkei Genkai, the Light Release Kekkei Tōta, and Sage Mode, which slowly improved his body, that Ishiro was able to experiment with that super-large-scale Porcelain Release ninjutsu when dealing with Dotō. Otherwise, with his pitifully small amount of chakra, how could he afford to be so extravagant?
In short, before, Ishiro's understanding of Sage Art had three points: increasing lifespan, increasing ninjutsu power, and increasing chakra amount.
But now, Ishiro had completely changed these superficial cognitions. Sage Chakra, or rather, natural energy, contained abilities far more magical than he had imagined.
Perhaps, if one day he found that the path of chakra fusion was impassable, he could take the second-best option and walk the path of Sage Mode. It was just that this path was destined to be long and tedious, and it was hard to say whether he could survive the great war of gods from the original story.
Just as Ishiro was lost in thought, the Anbu captain, Rei, came over, "Lord Tsuchikage, news has come from the Sand. They want to exchange for Pakura. The Kazekage asks for our Iwagakure's conditions."
Ishiro smiled faintly and said, "They've finally come. Return to the Tsuchikage's office. You go and invite the advisors over for a meeting."
"Yes." Rei acknowledged and left.
In the conference room, besides Ishiro, Mei, Saka, Ikura, Chiko, and Kitsuchi, there were also two Tsuchikage assistants responsible for taking notes, as well as Rei, the ninja responsible for contacting Rasa.
Ishiro said, "The Kazekage wants to exchange for Pakura with us. Do you have any suggestions? What would be good to exchange for?"
Mei thought for a moment and said, "If there's nothing particularly wanted, let's get some funds. The military funds from the Land of Snow haven't arrived yet, and the construction of the branch has already begun. The village's finances are a bit tight."
Saka said, "Asking for funds is actually not a good deal. The Daimyo of the Land of Wind is not very supportive of the Fourth Kazekage. Sunagakure's funds are all scraped together by the Kazekage from digging gold mines. They can't produce much money. It's better to see if there are any high-level ninjutsu."
Ishiro and the others thought about it. Although Sunagakure had many high-level ninjutsu, there were none that Iwagakure needed.
"How about exchanging for puppet techniques?" Saka said.
Ikura shook his head, "Not a good deal. Our village doesn't have the environment for puppeteers to grow. Even if we get the Sand's puppet techniques, we won't achieve much."
"Puppeteers are technical-type ninjas, a bit like sealing masters. They need mutual exchange even more than sealing masters do. Our village doesn't have a single puppeteer right now. It's too much of a loss to waste the opportunity on this."
Chiko then suggested, "If we can't think of any tangible benefits, why not just hold another joint Chunin Exam to strengthen the alliance between the two countries."
Ikura also nodded in agreement and said, "We can even take this opportunity to deepen cooperation between the two sides. The Kazekage has been relatively exclusive of our Iwagakure these years. Although he hasn't completely cut off the trade routes, the main reason is the insistence of the Land of Wind's Daimyo. This is a good opportunity to break the deadlock."
Hearing Chiko's words, Kawakita said, "Perhaps, we can consider having some friendly matches with the Sand, not limited to Genin. Some veteran Chunin, genius Chunin, and even Jonin can participate. To compete with each other and improve together."
Kawakita was thinking of his own experience and felt that he could fight for some combat opportunities for the other ninjas in the village.
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