Chapter 525: Rebellion
After hearing Ishiro's request, Ikura grabbed his hand. "Ishiro, tell me in detail, what's going on?"
Ishiro smiled and pulled Ikura's hand off. "Through the Dragon Vein under Loulan and the Uchiha Gunbai, I have finally figured out the disassembly and reassembly of the five-nature ninjutsu."
"Those subtle details that you all couldn't understand or process... I can now analyze and use them."
"You were right. I have found the path to leap directly from a three-nature Kekkei Tōta to a five-nature Kekkei Mōra."
At the same time, Ishiro added in his heart, "My thanks to the Sage of Six Paths."
Ikura, after hearing Ishiro's words, forced himself to calm down. "You... you're going to imitate that 'Little White Ball'?"
Ishiro nodded but didn't speak.
After thinking, Ikura said again, "But that 'Little White Ball's' structure is just too complex. My scalp goes numb just looking at all those dense structures."
"If that thing didn't actually exist, right here in my hands, I would never have even imagined a ninja could achieve such a feat."
Ishiro was silent for a moment, glancing at the room in the distance where data from the "Little White Ball" was being recorded. "Perhaps... when a ninja reaches that step, they can no longer be called a 'ninja.'"
"Calling them a 'Sage' might be more appropriate."
Ikura thought for a moment. "This research has only just begun. I have no idea what level of investment it will require in the future."
"Ishiro, tell me honestly, how much confidence do you have in achieving this... Kekkei Mōra? And what are the risks?"
Ishiro sighed. "I didn't tell you before because I was afraid you wouldn't be able to accept the truth."
"I have only a 10% certainty that this path is even viable. As for whether I can successfully walk it to the end... I have zero confidence at all."
"As for the risks of this path... apologies, but I am completely ignorant."
In truth, Ishiro hadn't even had that 10% confidence before. That "10% certainty" only existed because the "Little White Ball" was a gift from the Sage of Six Paths.
The Sage of Six Paths probably wouldn't play a joke on him.
Before this, Ishiro had been completely in the dark about how to fuse five natures.
Ikura was disappointed by his answer. He sighed. "Ishiro, although you are skilled at raking in money for the village, the expenses for this project are just too enormous."
"Just sensing the internal structure of the 'Little White Ball' isn't something an ordinary person can do. Those who can understand the structure and record it are even fewer."
"Furthermore, the mental energy consumption during the research process is incredibly fast. A single ninja can't last long at all."
"To ensure research efficiency, I had to transfer a large number of the village's elite to do this."
"And the initial data processing is even more difficult. The ones doing this work are all Elite Jōnin or the strongest of the Jōnin."
"Confining so many ninja here... the cost to the village is so great, I don't even dare to calculate it."
"If even you have no confidence in succeeding, is this path really worth continuing?"
Ishiro did not answer his question.
If Ishiro didn't know that a battle of "gods" was inevitable in the future, that this shinobi world was far from being as simple as it looked... he wouldn't want to take this risk either.
Quietly practicing Sage Mode and using it to slowly elevate his life-form would have been a perfectly good choice.
But he couldn't. Ishiro didn't have that kind of time. If he didn't find a way to strive for the Sage-level now, when the great war erupted, Ishiro and all of Iwagakure would become nothing but background scenery.
Their lives and deaths would be completely in the hands of others.
Never mind a war of "gods"—even the two protagonists from the original story, after losing their Yin and Yang powers, were not opponents Iwagakure could be confident in defeating.
Against those two, could the Kage-level forces Ishiro had accumulated for Iwagakure truly win?
Once Konoha's two protagonists, with their ridiculously powerful backgrounds, were fully grown, would Iwagakure ever have another chance to rise?
The worst part was, Ishiro couldn't even eliminate these two great enemies in advance. He couldn't even brainwash them.
Ishiro had no choice. If he didn't take this risk, Iwagakure had no future.
Seeing his expression, Ikura knew he couldn't persuade Ishiro. "I won't oppose you fusing the five natures. But all experiments that need to be conducted on your body must wait until you have completely fused with your Light Release."
Ikura knew that Ishiro's Light Release fusion was already in its final stage. It was a slow, grinding process, but as time passed, his compatibility was getting higher and higher.
Once Ishiro fully fused with the Light Release, his life-form would evolve once again.
At that time, whether he was fusing four or five natures, it would be a huge help.
Ishiro thought for a moment, estimated the progress of his Light Release fusion, and nodded.
The Light Release fusion still needed time, but his five-nature fusion was still in the earliest theoretical preparation stages.
Actual experimentation was still a long way off.
...
With Ikura's support, convincing the other senior council members was much easier.
Soon, the Iwagakure high council approved Ishiro's decision.
Aside from Bella, who voiced her opposition to Ishiro having to fuse five natures, everyone else agreed.
And because Ishiro had recently acquired an enormous fortune from Danzō, even Bella's opposition was not very firm.
Ishiro decided to stop taking disciples for now, preparing to devote himself body and soul to the preparations for the five-nature fusion.
Ishiro planned to go into seclusion.
He wasn't sure how long this seclusion would last, but it definitely wouldn't be over in just one or two months.
During this time, aside from extremely important work that could not be delegated, all other matters would be decided by the high council. Ishiro had originally planned to appoint a temporary "Acting Tsuchikage," but this was unanimously rejected.
It wasn't that they were afraid an acting Tsuchikage couldn't manage the village; it was that they were afraid it would become a habit, leading to Ishiro constantly trying to run off.
In short, the Iwa high council would provide Ishiro with as quiet an environment for seclusion as possible.
The next day, Ishiro began his simple, monotonous life of researching the "Little White Ball" data.
Ishiro estimated that this was how Madara Uchiha must have felt back then: sitting alone underground, single-mindedly researching all the ninjutsu natures, Kekkei Genkai, Wood Release, and the union of Yin andYang.
Ishiro stayed in the "Little White Ball" laboratory for an entire year.
During this year, he only occasionally reviewed a few documents that the high council couldn't reach a decision on. He only left the laboratory twice during this period.
Both times, a major, earth-shaking event had occurred in the shinobi world.
The first incident happened in the Land of Wind. To be precise: Loulan.
About five months into Ishiro's seclusion, the Suna-nin puppet masters' research into the Dragon Vein finally had a breakthrough.
They successfully developed "immortal puppets." This research result was, without a doubt, exhilarating.
Although these puppets only had their immortal ability in the vicinity of the Dragon Vein, the result still made Rasa extremely excited.
Rasa felt as if he could once again see the hope of Sunagakure's rise. He was even discussing with the other Suna elders whether they should move Sunagakure to Loulan.
At least in Loulan, with the Dragon Vein, it would be impossible for Iwa to break Suna's defenses as easily as before.
It was just that... Rasa's plan had an accident before it even began.
Suddenly, on a very ordinary night, Rasa—who had been mining gold all day and was finally able to sit in his office and process documents—received a hurried report from an ANBU: his son, Kankurō, had been found outside the village.
When Kankurō was discovered, he was already poisoned. Fortunately, he had taken an antidote prepared by Ryosuke, which had temporarily saved his life.
Rasa was worried about Kankurō's condition, but he was even more anxious about what had happened in Loulan.
Why would Kankurō, who was in Loulan, suddenly return to the village, and be heavily poisoned?
If Kankurō had escaped, what about the others in Loulan?
What about their "immortal puppet" technology, which Suna had worked so hard to develop?
With the situation unclear, Rasa didn't dare go to Loulan personally. He only sent ANBU to investigate.
But Kankurō's poison was not simple. Although it was temporarily suppressed by Ryosuke's antidote, Suna's medical corps was incapable of curing it.
They couldn't even get Kankurō to wake up and say a few words.
The first person Rasa thought of was Tsunade, the former Hokage.
Rasa had a relationship with Tsunade. If she were still Hokage, she would be the best choice.
But the current Hokage was Danzō. Rasa himself had fought against the "old guard" and could guess at the dark undercurrents within Konoha.
Therefore, Rasa didn't dare send his son to Konoha.
Besides, what if his son came back with a Tongue-Cursing Seal?
In the end, Rasa chose to send men to take Kankurō to Iwagakure for treatment.
For this, Rasa even paid a large sum of gold dust.
The Iwa high council, who had been agonizing over the massive expenses of the "Little White Ball" research, immediately agreed upon seeing the pile of gold.
They even arranged for the medical department head, Nakata Hajime, to personally detoxify Kankurō.
(It's worth mentioning that, thanks to the high-level medical ninjutsu from Danzō, this was a job Nakata could now handle.)
Sakura also participated in this treatment, as one of the many medical-nin assisting.
Although she had no eye-catching performance this time, she also made no mistakes. For her age, her performance was outstanding.
Nakata Hajime and Iwagakure's other top medical-nin were all very satisfied with this medical-ninjutsu genius that Ishiro had selected.
...
On the other side, not a single one of the ninja Rasa had sent to Loulan returned. He finally learned of the shocking events in Loulan from the just-awakened Kankurō.
This time, the one making a move on Loulan was, shockingly, Sunagakure's S-rank missing-nin, Sasori of the Red Sand!
An S-rank missing-nin was a great humiliation for any village.
"S-rank missing-nin" basically meant a missing-nin that the village was incapable of dealing with.
Sasori was a missing-nin that Suna could not clean up.
Rasa hadn't even taken power when Sasori defected, so although Rasa knew of his existence, he had never thought about capturing him.
And Sasori, after defecting, had never initiated any contact with Sunagakure.
This had led to Rasa all but forgetting that Sasori even existed.
It turned out that Sasori, through an intelligence operative hidden in Suna, had learned of the new discovery regarding the Loulan Dragon Vein.
As the top puppet master in the shinobi world, Sasori understood what this discovery meant better than anyone.
Thus, Sasori, without even informing Nagato, immediately left Amegakure.
Sasori single-handedly killed every Suna-nin and every Loulan civilian, and then occupied Loulan.
The Queen of Loulan also died at his hands. Of course, her treatment was better than the others.
She was made into a human puppet.
Sasori had learned from his subordinate that the Queen was the key to the entire Dragon Vein research.
Sasori also needed her to communicate with the Dragon Vein.
After understanding the cause and effect, Rasa gathered a large number of elites and headed straight for Loulan.
Not long after Rasa set out, Ishiro was called out of his seclusion by Ikura and brought to the Tsuchikage's tower conference room.
"The Fourth Kazekage, Rasa, is dead." This was the first sentence Ishiro heard upon emerging.
Ishiro was stunned for several seconds before he processed what he had just heard.
In an era of peace, how does a Kage just die? Don't tell me someone started another war?
"How long was I in seclusion?" This was the first question Ishiro asked, feeling as if the world had changed.
Everyone: ...
Afterward, Megumi explained the recent situation in the Land of Wind to him.
Because Kankurō was still in Iwagakure, after Rasa's death, Iwa no longer had any misgivings. They got the intelligence from him through a combination of "half-interrogation, half-questioning."
Therefore, Iwa had a comprehensive understanding of the event.
"Ishiro-sensei, not only is the Fourth Kazekage dead, but Suna has also lost a massive number of elite ninja."
"Rasa took more than half of Sunagakure's elite forces. Very few escaped."
Saka cut in, "Suna is finished. Even at the end of the Second Shinobi World War, no village was as weak as Suna is now."
"And Suna doesn't even have a suitable candidate for Kazekage."
Bella nodded. "Not only that, but Suna is currently powerless to resolve the Sasori incident."
"As a great shinobi village, being unable to even resolve an internal rebellion... Suna has basically automatically withdrawn from the ranks of the six great villages."
Ishiro nodded, organized his thoughts, and then asked, "I have a few questions."
"First, was the Fourth Kazekage made into a human puppet? Does Sasori have any other Kage-level human puppets?"
Ikura replied, "We can confirm that Sasori has the Pakura 'Blaze Release' puppet. This was intel from Kankurō."
"As for the Fourth Kazekage... he likely did not escape the same fate."
"However, according to Kankurō, the puppet made from Pakura seems to be far weaker than Pakura was in life."
"Although that Blaze Release puppet is still stronger than a normal Elite Jōnin, it has a gap when compared to a true Kage-level."
Ishiro thought for a moment. "I suspect Sasori needs a living person to create a human puppet."
"The Third Kazekage puppet we have in our collection was likely turned into a puppet while he was still alive."
"Pakura, however, was killed by us before we handed her over to Sasori. It's understandable that the effect is weaker."
After a pause, Ishiro asked, "Second question. Did Sasori attack Sunagakure? What are his demands?"
Megumi analyzed, "Sasori has not left Loulan from beginning to end. We suspect... he may not care about Sunagakure at all."
"At least, the impression he gives is that he has no desire to participate in any of Suna's affairs."
Ishiro nodded. "Last question. Did any other villages get involved?"
Saka said, "None, except for Konoha. That includes us and the Akatsuki."
"Ishiro, can you contact the Akatsuki and sound out their intentions?"
Ishiro nodded. "Konoha got involved? What did Danzō do this time?"
Saka said, "Danzō didn't make any big moves. He just sent a number of Root ninja into the Land of Wind. He should still be in a 'wait-and-see' mode. No unusual movements so far."
Ishiro thought for a moment. "Alright. I'll contact the Akatsuki first. We'll discuss our response plan tomorrow."
After the meeting, Ishiro contacted Nagato and his group via the Magic Lantern Body Technique.
Nagato told Ishiro that Sasori had already left the Akatsuki. The Akatsuki would not get involved in anything he did from now on.
It turned out that Sasori had left Nagato a letter, stating that he wasn't betraying the organization, he just wanted to "part ways."
This version of Nagato had not fallen to darkness. Since Sasori had found a good "home," he wouldn't interfere.
Not only did he not send anyone to hunt him, he even had someone send Sasori a sum of money, telling him to manage Loulan well.
It was just that Nagato hadn't expected Sasori to slaughter everyone in Loulan. He had no use for money.
...
After learning the Akatsuki's stance, Ishiro convened the high council meeting again the next day.
This time, Ishiro directly set the tone for Iwagakure.
"Suna's disaster is a good thing for us. I've been annoyed with Rasa for a long time. That guy is too patient. Suna was already in such a state, yet he was still stubbornly resisting."
"It's good that he's dead. Otherwise, I'd always feel a threat at my back."
"Tell Danzō... that Iwagakure is willing to carve up the Land of Wind with him."
"The Akatsuki has already stated their position: non-interference."
"I plan to divide the southern half of the Land of Wind into four parts."
"First: Since Sasori doesn't want to interfere in Suna's internal affairs, we'll give Loulan and a small surrounding area to him."
"Tell Sasori we will not pursue what he has done. However, if he continues to attack Sunagakure, we will not stand by and watch."
"But, we can't clean up Sasori's mess for free. Tell him to hand over half of the gold dust that Rasa used as a weapon."
"Tell him it's the 'payment' for us 'accepting his commission' to help him create a quiet environment to research his puppets."
Seeing everyone's strange looks, Ishiro said, "Sasori is a scientist. He should agree to this. Speak to him reasonably. Don't be too forceful."
"We aren't as easy to deal with as Suna. Sasori has no need to make a complete enemy of us."
"Second part: The largest part will still be left to Suna. Revoke Sunagakure's 'Great Village' title. The Suna leader may no longer be called 'Kage.'"
"However... Suna will retain its Tailed Beast. And privately tell Suna that when their strength has recovered, Iwagakure will once again support them in becoming a great village."
(Ishiro was leaving the largest part to Suna mainly because he couldn't swallow that much territory at once.)
Ishiro continued, "Third part: The westernmost part of the Land of Wind will be given to Konoha. But, tell Danzō, the sovereignty of the Land of Wind cannot change."
"This place can become Konoha's 'enclave,' but it cannot become the Land of Fire's enclave."
"The Land of Wind's Daimyo has always had a good relationship with us. We need to protect his position at this time."
"After this is done, let the Daimyo know. Try to squeeze some military funds out of that cheapskate."
"Finally, the central part of the Land of Wind, the part that borders our current territory, we will take."
"Hasn't the new class of academy students graduated? We have a surplus of manpower again. We will build another branch base in this area."
"We can consider the site of the old Sunagakure. If that's too large, we can choose another location."
Saka nodded. "No problem. I will arrange for people to negotiate with all parties."
"But... giving a piece of the Land of Wind to Konoha... is that appropriate?"
Ishiro smiled. "It doesn't matter. Konoha is run by Danzō now. I believe in Danzō. With Konoha in his hands, he will give us a 'surprise' sooner or later."
"This land is just an enclave for Konoha. If internal turmoil ever breaks out, it will be ours sooner or later."
"We're already stretching to digest this much territory at once. Let's have Danzō help us manage it for a while."
Everyone was speechless.
...
Thus, Iwagakure's envoys began to run around, coordinating a peace treaty between all parties.
Sasori had no opinion on Ishiro's proposal. Or rather, he simply didn't care. He just scanned the treaty Iwa sent and signed it.
All Sasori wanted was a quiet environment to research puppets. He didn't care about anything else.
The entire land of Loulan was his alone. He had already turned himself into a puppet. With the Dragon Vein providing energy, he didn't even need supplies from the outside world.
Danzō was surprised by Ishiro's generosity. After thinking it over and finding no traps, he also signed the treaty.
Then, Danzō took the treaty and paraded it around the village, declaring that he had once again expanded Konoha's territory.
Danzō's status in the eyes of the villagers rose yet again.
Only Suna was extremely dissatisfied with Ishiro's proposal. But... they were a village that couldn't even handle its own internal affairs. No one cared about their opinion.
And besides, Ishiro had at least given Suna a path to "regain" its great village status, so in the end, they agreed.
Finally, Rasa's former assistant, Baki, signed the peace treaty on behalf of Sunagakure.
Baki also became the first leader of Sunagakure without the "Kage" title, after its demotion to a small village.
Not long after taking power, Baki sent people to retrieve Kankurō, who was still recovering in Iwagakure.
...
After handling Suna's affairs, Ishiro once again entered his state of seclusion.
He had thought that with Suna's matters settled, the shinobi world would be stable.
At least, before all parties had digested their new gains and licked their wounds, there would be no more major moves.
Iwagakure's focus, for example, was now on building its new branch and absorbing its new territory. It would not be provoking any new conflicts for a while.
Who would have thought... just two months into Ishiro's second seclusion, the shinobi world was in chaos again.
(End of Chapter)
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