Chapter 530: Kakashi's Resolve
It would still be some time before the Kumo ninja crossing the sea encountered Ikura and his team.
Ishiro took advantage of this time to carefully read the scroll Danzō had provided on the Four Red Yang Formation.
The principle behind the barrier wasn't difficult. Although it was an extremely high-level barrier, the execution difficulty for each individual wasn't high.
The troublesome part, rather, was the coordination between the users.
The strength of the Four Red Yang Formation was determined by its casters, and specifically, by the weakest among them.
For example, if three Kage and one Elite Jonin performed it together, the resulting barrier wouldn't be much stronger than one cast by four Elite Jonin.
Ishiro had anticipated this, so he wasn't surprised.
However, Ishiro did not see any mention of the method for multiple people to cooperate in maintaining a single point of the barrier.
"Hmm? Did Danzō hold something back?" Ishiro muttered to himself, then immediately dismissed the thought.
Danzō wouldn't dare to offend him at this juncture. That much was clear from the fact that Danzō had thoughtfully included his own personal notes and insights on learning the jutsu.
This meant the multi-person method was likely a new technique developed by Konoha's Barrier Team.
Well, it was also possible they had developed it long ago but simply never reported it to Danzō when he was Hokage.
Ishiro recalled the scene he had sensed that day—groups of ten Konoha Elite Jonin maintaining the Four Red Yang Formation. He roughly analyzed the principle again.
Ishiro felt that with Iwagakure's level of skill in fuinjutsu, they should have no trouble reverse-engineering it.
After this war, he would have all of Iwa's Kage-level ninja train in this barrier.
Even without counting Sōkai, Uchiha Izumi, and Rōshi—three individuals with Kage-level combat power but not the official rank—Iwagakure could still form two full sets of the Four Red Yang Formation.
If they could research the method for two-person teams to man each point, Iwagakure could create a barrier even stronger than the one cast by the four Hokage in the original story.
This thing could serve as one of Iwa's ultimate trump cards.
The more he thought about it, the more excited Ishiro became, and he instinctively began studying the scroll.
However, his training was soon interrupted by Ōnoki and the others entering his tent.
"Ishiro, the team back at the village is in position," Ōnoki said.
Ishiro pulled his thoughts away from the Four Red Yang Formation and put the scroll away.
He glanced at Akino Atsumi, then said to Ōnoki, "Lord Third, I'm counting on you to handle the Kumo side."
Ōnoki nodded, then looked toward Akino Atsumi.
In an instant, Akino's Flying Thunder God technique activated.
She used the jutsu to teleport herself, Ōnoki, Kawakita, and Han directly out of the Iwa army's main camp.
The next moment, far away on the coast of the Land of Earth, four figures suddenly appeared beside Ikura.
It was, of course, Akino Atsumi and the three Kage-level ninja.
Ikura wasn't surprised. He nodded to the four, briefly inquired about their condition, and then said, "Lord Third, if there are no issues, we will depart immediately."
"We'll teleport to the shark pack's location first. They have already quietly approached the Kumo fleet."
Ōnoki nodded and said, "You're familiar with the situation here. We'll follow your lead."
Kawakita remained behind. Ōnoki, Ikura, Han, Rōshi, and Deidara each placed a hand on the shoulder of the person in front of them, forming a chain.
Deidara, at the end of the line, placed his hand on Akino Atsumi's shoulder. Akino, in turn, formed a long and complex series of hand seals.
In the next instant, the six's vision blurred. Kawakita and the Iwa army behind him vanished.
What greeted their eyes was a vast ocean. When they looked down, they saw they were standing on the massive body of Yūko, the leader of the shark pack.
Just then, Yūko slapped her tail, pointing in a specific direction.
The six people on her back exchanged a look; they all understood her meaning.
Deidara then created a giant clay bird. Ikura, Han, and Rōshi, none of whom could fly, stepped onto it with him.
Ōnoki simply used his Light-Heavy Boulder Jutsu to take flight.
As for Akino Atsumi, her mission was complete. She formed seals once more and used the Flying Thunder God technique to return to Ishiro's side.
Upon her return, Akino reported, "Ishiro-sensei, Lord Third and the others have arrived in the vicinity of the Kumo fleet."
Ishiro nodded. "Akino, go and rest well. Recover your chakra. You don't need to worry about the upcoming battle. I will notify you when I need a teleport."
Akino Atsumi murmured her assent and left.
Ishiro watched her go and sighed. Just one long-distance transport, and her chakra was already almost depleted.
Akino's fundamental reserves were still too weak.
But this wasn't the time to worry about her chakra levels.
Ishiro stepped out of his tent and issued an order to the command center for the entire army to enter a state of high alert.
Ishiro didn't know if Konoha had received word of their movements, nor was he certain if they would take this chance to attack, but all necessary precautions had to be taken.
Meanwhile, at the Konoha army's command headquarters, Kakashi had already summoned all the high-ranking officers.
"Just moments ago, Raidō Namiashi reported that someone in the Iwa main camp used a space-time ninjutsu to teleport away," Kakashi said.
"The number of ninja transported was likely small. If I'm not mistaken, it must have been Iwagakure's top-tier combatants."
"Although Raidō couldn't confirm their destination, it is highly probable they went to the second battlefield that Kumo is attempting to open."
As Kakashi finished speaking, Shikaku Nara's heart skipped a beat.
His previous premonition had been correct. Iwa's true target wasn't Konoha.
He quickly asked, "Lord Hokage, have you notified Kumo?"
Kakashi replied, "I notified them immediately, but I don't know if the warning will arrive in time."
The room fell silent.
Shikaku analyzed, "This time, Iwa probably didn't use a fixed-point teleportation array. It must be the Flying Thunder God."
"A teleportation array couldn't possibly be set up that quickly, and it wouldn't be used to transport only a few people. Only the Flying Thunder God is limited by the user's chakra, making it suitable for transporting just a handful of individuals."
"If it truly is the Hiraishin, Iwa wouldn't have needed to teleport them back to the village first and then relay them to the Kumo front."
"They could even descend directly on top of the Kumo fleet."
Shikaku didn't say any more, but everyone understood his core meaning: the warning was already too late for Kumo.
He paused, letting the others absorb the information, before continuing in a grave voice, "That's not the worst part. The worst part is that Iwa has now mastered a method for rapidly deploying its top-tier forces."
"In any future war, tracking the locations of Iwa's Kage-level ninja will be completely meaningless."
"In other words, we can no longer afford to split our forces when facing Iwa."
"And not a single one of our villages, on its own, comes close to matching Iwa's absolute strength."
Hearing Shikaku's analysis, the minds of everyone present reeled. They understood what he was implying.
From now on, Iwagakure just had to leverage its advantage in rapid mobilization, concentrate its full roster of Kage-level ninja, and annihilate the other villages one by one to achieve unification.
Shikaku Nara, who had always relied on his outstanding intellect to maintain his standing in Konoha, was thoroughly panicked.
Hiashi Hyūga clenched his fists and said, "Can we confirm the identity of the Iwa ninja using the Flying Thunder God? We could dispatch assassins to eliminate them directly."
Shikaku took a breath, calming his racing heart. "Regarding that, the Intelligence Department has previously analyzed that the Iwa ninja responsible for space-time ninjutsu research is likely the Tsuchikage's disciple, Akino Atsumi."
"Our intelligence cannot confirm this; it is all just speculation."
"This Akino Atsumi is a disciple from the Tsuchikage's Squad 5, and a former teammate of Riori Uzumaki."
"There is one very strange thing: this Akino Atsumi's combat strength is not outstanding. Currently, she is likely only at the Chunin level, a Special Jonin at best."
"However, her status within Iwagakure is extremely high. Her standing is even above that of Riori Uzumaki."
"Whenever official Iwa documents mention both Akino Atsumi and Riori Uzumaki, Akino's name is always listed first."
"Before Riori's rise to prominence, this wasn't an issue. But our intelligence indicates Riori Uzumaki is now an Elite Jonin who has rendered distinguished service in the war."
"Yet, despite being so outstanding, Riori is still ranked behind Akino Atsumi in official Iwa documents. This is the single biggest point of suspicion."
"Beyond that, we know many projects in Iwa are hosted by the Tsuchikage's disciples. He has trained many research-oriented talents."
"For example, the master swordsman Kawakita. And their Sage Art, which is likely related to Ishiro's disciple, Shinya Matsutani."
"There is also intelligence suggesting that Scorch Release wasn't developed by the Tsuchikage himself, but was the handiwork of his disciple, Ogura Saki."
"Then there are Yoshimura Kazumasa, Katsumata, and Yuran Kawasoe... all of them are research-type ninja."
"And Akino Atsumi. Our intelligence agents judge her to be a researcher as well, but we have never been able to confirm what she is researching."
Hiruzen Sarutobi said grimly, "Regardless of whether it's her or not, this Akino Atsumi must be eliminated. Otherwise, Iwagakure's unification of the shinobi world is only a matter of time."
"Shikaku, do the intelligence operatives we have planted in Iwagakure have any hope of eliminating her?"
Shikaku shook his head. "No hope. Iwa has done an excellent job of keeping her identity classified."
"It's obvious she would have ANBU protectors around her at all times."
"Moreover, if the person researching space-time ninjutsu truly is her, then she must know the Flying Thunder God."
"Trying to kill a user of the Flying Thunder God..."
Shikaku shook his head again, not needing to finish the sentence.
Konoha had produced two users of the Flying Thunder God. Both Tobirama Senju and Minato Namikaze could perform the jutsu without hand seals.
Because of this, everyone assumed the jutsu was inherently seal-less. How could they know that Akino Atsumi actually needed to form seals, and a long string of them at that, to transport people?
Furthermore, Konoha's ninja were unaware that Akino's actual combat prowess was likely inferior to that of a Genin.
The first two shinobi to master the Flying Thunder God were simply too dazzling, causing the jutsu to become inextricably linked with "overwhelming power" in everyone's mind.
Thus, thanks to Shikaku's own intelligence tripping him up, Konoha temporarily abandoned the idea of killing Akino Atsumi at all costs.
It was Kakashi who spoke up. "Alright, let's set aside the matter of Iwa's space-time ninjutsu for a moment. We need to discuss what to do next."
Even as he said it, Kakashi's own thoughts had been diverted by those three words: Flying Thunder God.
Kakashi was currently thinking about one thing: whether he himself could learn the Flying Thunder God technique.
Previously, Kakashi had never entertained such an idea. But that was before he had developed Obito Uchiha's Sharingan to the level of Mangekyō.
Now that he understood the dōjutsu contained within that eye, his perspective had changed.
He knew very well that the dōjutsu his eye possessed was, in fact, a space-time ninjutsu.
And it was quite possibly a space-time ninjutsu that surpassed the Flying Thunder God.
Having used Kamui several times, Kakashi was no longer completely ignorant about space-time ninjutsu.
Chakra truly was a miraculous thing. It could help Ishiro fuse Light Release, and it could also help Kakashi comprehend space-time ninjutsu.
The only problem was that the power of a Mangekyō Sharingan fades, and the burden it places on the user is immense.
Thinking of this, Kakashi's mind involuntarily drifted to Obito Uchiha and Danzō.
Obito Uchiha was able to use his Mangekyō Sharingan dōjutsu repeatedly without the side effect of blindness. Kakashi judged this was because he had transplanted Hashirama cells.
Danzō had also transplanted a Mangekyō Sharingan. The method he employed was to use Hashirama cells to suppress it, seeking a balance between the two.
Therefore, Kakashi believed that transplanting Hashirama cells could both solve the problem of his Mangekyō's power loss and, at the same time, reduce the burden of using it.
Conveniently, when Danzō was exiled from the village, all his research materials had been preserved. Right now, all of that data was sitting in the ANBU archives.
And among those materials was the data on Wood Release that Danzō had acquired in the trade with Iwagakure.
He could perfectly pick up where Danzō had left off and use what was already available.
Just then, the daydreaming Kakashi suddenly heard someone call his name.
He turned to see it was Hiruzen Sarutobi.
Hiruzen was frowning at Kakashi. "Kakashi, you are the Hokage. How can you be spacing out at a time like this?"
Shikaku Nara, however, asked probingly, "Lord Hokage, have you perhaps thought of a way to counter Iwa's space-time ninjutsu?"
Shikaku had managed to guess a fraction of Kakashi's thoughts from his expression.
The others, including Hiruzen, turned to look at Kakashi with anticipation.
Under the gazes of the entire room, Kakashi hesitated for a moment, and then he spoke his mind.
After Kakashi finished explaining, everyone stared at each other in stunned silence.
The amount of information was too great. It involved space-time ninjutsu, Mangekyō Sharingan dōjutsu, and even touched upon Hashirama cells.
No one in the meeting room dared to speak.
One of the crimes they had pinned on Danzō was his experiments with Hashirama cell transplantation. It was cited as both a disrespect for life and a desecration of their ancestors.
But now, the trump card Iwa had just revealed was simply too terrifying. If what Kakashi proposed was feasible, it might just be their last hope.
After a long silence, Hiruzen Sarutobi suddenly let out a long sigh. "Sigh... In truth, research into the First's cells was conducted back in the Second's time."
"After the Second's death, we continued the research for a while. However, it yielded no significant results, so I was the one who terminated it."
"I sealed away all the experiment data. It was only later that Danzō restarted it behind my back."
Inwardly, everyone felt a wave of contempt for Hiruzen. To drag the Second Hokage into this to share the blame... truly, what a move.
With Hiruzen having addressed the most sensitive topic, the others began to cautiously voice their opinions.
The result was predictable. Everyone present supported Kakashi's proposal to transplant Hashirama cells and research his Mangekyō Sharingan's dōjutsu.
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