chapter 116 part 1
Chapter 116: Four Thousand Surround One, Great Chaos
"Maybe only one? It's Tsukasa Kaede, isn't it? The culprit who landed us in this situation actually came here voluntarily."
A fierce glint flashed in Ebizō's eyes.
Hidden Sand Village was already in the worst situation among the Five Great Shinobi Villages, the poorest, and most mistrusted by the country. Listen, the Nobles of the Land of Wind always found ways to cut Hidden Sand Village's military budget. Is that reasonable? In the other four nations and ninja villages, how could such a thing happen? But at least it was still a major nation, and dealing with countries like the Land of Rain, the Land of Hot Water, or the Land of Demons was incredibly easy; its sheer size alone was enough to overwhelm them.
However, a subtle change had occurred. Every nation was now watching Hidden Sand Village closely, monitoring all movements in the Land of Wind — was the Land of Wind, having lost its Tailed Beast, still one of the Five Great Nations? Theoretically, it should be. The Third Kazekage, Chiyo, and others were Kage Level powerhouses renowned throughout the Ninja World. But then again, while those smaller nations were far weaker than the Land of Wind in terms of national power, they weren't without powerful ninja holding them down.
A typical example was Hidden Waterfall Village, where the Seven-Tails and Kakuzu both originated from this relatively strong village that possessed several Secret Techniques.
If Hidden Sand Village were to lose another batch of powerhouses and some troops, it would be hard to say. No major nation became a major nation out of thin air; they all grew by waging wars of annexation and devouring other countries to expand their territory and population. Of course, this was the Ninja World, so they also had to increase the number of Bloodline Limit Clans and the number of inheritable Secret Techniques within their country. These were all foundations, and perhaps in a few years, someone would become a powerful ninja by relying on these Bloodline Limits and Secret Techniques.
The Third Kazekage looked at the young ninja delivering the report: "Rasa, have you found any trace of Tsukasa Kaede?"
"We found him. He's at the very front, followed by hundreds of corpses wearing uniforms from various villages. Your subordinate believes that Hidden Leaf Village isn't willing to start a full-scale war with us; they cannot afford one either! Instead, it seems they're letting Tsukasa Kaede resolve the trouble he created himself."
"Are there any special features to Tsukasa Kaede's appearance? Does he look like a living human?"
"...? No special features were found," Rasa said, perplexed.
Rasa was also a proud man, in his prime, and he also possessed Magnet Release, allowing him to pan for gold in the desert. He kept some for himself as weapons, and the rest he used to supplement the village's financial deficit, having become an important rising force in Hidden Sand Village.
Naturally, Rasa gave his answer based on his own way of thinking: "Your subordinate suspects that Hidden Leaf Village might have had an internal conflict and sent Tsukasa Kaede here to die. If we kill Tsukasa Kaede, Hidden Leaf Village won't say anything."
Rasa himself was the type of person who would rather sacrifice important combat strength in the village to ensure his control over it. His guess was, to some extent, correct — if Tsukasa Kaede truly died in battle, the Third Hokage really wouldn't take any significant retaliatory action, more likely it would just be brushed aside.
The Third Hokage's priority was protecting the village's youth to grow strong, but if a young person acted recklessly and got themselves killed, that was another matter entirely; the two didn't conflict.
"This is our chance, the best chance to kill Tsukasa Kaede," Ebizō's eyes lit up. "We have an absolute numerical advantage. If we persist, we can continue to gather more ninja from other towns in the Land of Wind to surround and kill Tsukasa Kaede."
"Gathering ninja... Hmph, those Nobles wouldn't be willing to see us do that. They would only angrily question why we'd expend so much of the nation's manpower and resources for such a vague operation," Chiyo said mockingly.
The three of them were Hidden Sand Village's higher-ups, essentially holding power over institutions like national defense, law enforcement, and national security. They knew all too well the difficulty of dealing with those Nobles.
The Third Kazekage's closed eyes slowly opened, radiating killing intent: "Four thousand people against a few hundred. The advantage is on our side! Tsukasa Kaede should not have many forces left. If he truly revived himself with Living Corpse Reincarnation Jutsu, based on the battlefield remnants in the desert, he must have consumed at least a thousand, or even more, corpses."
With that, the Third Kazekage glanced at Chiyo, with strong dissatisfaction: "You are the village's advisor, you should have informed me of this crucial intel sooner."
Living Corpse Reincarnation Jutsu. He, the Kazekage, didn't even know Chiyo possessed such a thing, and it was actually given to Tsukasa Kaede by that traitor, Sasori of the Red Sand! Living Corpse Reincarnation Jutsu... Rasa listened silently, a hidden excitement stirring within him. The Third Kazekage hadn't dismissed him, allowing him to stand and listen in the central command, which already indicated a clear intention to groom him.
He felt he was coming into contact with the village's core secrets.
"My apologies, it was my dereliction of duty, not keeping a close enough eye on my grandson, which allowed Tsukasa Kaede to acquire this Secret Technique I developed... Because of Living Corpse Reincarnation Jutsu, Tsukasa Kaede quickly rose in a very short time from a Corpse Release Ninja with slightly special abilities but not much cultivation value."
Chiyo looked dejected. Sasori of the Red Sand's two betrayals, choosing to follow an enemy like Tsukasa Kaede rather than her, had greatly dampened her spirit.
"Forget it, dwelling on this is meaningless now. No one would have expected that a Forbidden Jutsu originally used for Life Force Transfer to revive puppets could achieve such terrifying effects in Tsukasa Kaede's hands, freeing him from his frail body and granting him an enormous amount of Chakra," the Third Kazekage said gravely, his inner turmoil evident.
Much of Tsukasa Kaede's intel was not a secret. In the beginning, the emaciated Tsukasa Kaede had even participated in the Land of Rain's war alongside Jiraiya.
He was so thin that many who knew Tsukasa Kaede believed he could die of illness at any moment. It would be strange if his body was healthy. A weak body meant that he couldn't produce much Chakra.
However, this biggest weakness was compensated by the Living Corpse Reincarnation Jutsu. Corpses performing the Jutsu could continuously supply Tsukasa Kaede with Life Force. No matter how many were lost, it wasn't painful, and it still fulfilled the original purpose of the Living Corpse Reincarnation Jutsu — Resurrection! This essentially meant Tsukasa Kaede had mastered a Resurrection Jutsu that could be used multiple times! This news was too terrifying, so much so that even if those present thought of it, they never truly brought it up.
But now, it was different.
"Tsukasa Kaede has delivered himself to our doorstep. He looks fierce, so it seems he won't return to Hidden Leaf Village without achieving some battle results. He's also under pressure to give Hidden Leaf Village an explanation," Ebizō murmured. "Now is the time to kill him. If we can exchange the loss of the One-Tail for killing Tsukasa Kaede, it seems acceptable."
Tsukasa Kaede probably possessed Immortality and had defeated the One-Tail. His strength was considered powerful even among Kage Level individuals, and he had revived himself... He would certainly do something with the opportunity of his resurrection, and the Wood Release Bloodline Limit that could create forests was probably the greatest outcome of Tsukasa Kaede's resurrection.
"Having obtained the Wood Release Bloodline Limit means Tsukasa Kaede doesn't need corpses to cast Living Corpse Reincarnation Jutsu for him; his own Chakra will increase. The method of exhausting his Chakra won't work, so we can only use Sealing Jutsu."
Chiyo said, "I recently developed a Puppet Sealing Jutsu, specifically to deal with Space-Time Ninja like Tsukasa Kaede, who appear and disappear like ghosts. As long as we get one chance to seal him, he won't be able to escape."
Hidden Sand Village's Sealing Jutsu wasn't much stronger than Hidden Cloud Village's, but it was usable.
To be honest, facing an enemy like Tsukasa Kaede, who could fight an entire army alone, heal himself by killing enemies, had a thicker health bar, and could teleport away at any time, these powerhouses of Hidden Sand Village were extremely troubled.
If Tsukasa Kaede wasn't dealt with now, it would only become more difficult in the future.
Soon, the Third Kazekage gave his orders, and the four-thousand-strong force, which had originally only served as a deterrent, immediately moved, slowly advancing towards Tsukasa Kaede.
Tsukasa Kaede saw all of this with his own eyes.
"Are these guys planning to wear down my forces first?" Tsukasa Kaede watched from afar.
His reserve of corpses had indeed shrunk significantly. He had used up tens of thousands of zombies for his resurrection, almost depleting his reserves.
However, corpses were something he could raise at any time if he weren't worried about the controversial ones buried within the Land of Fire. This world was never short of rotten, but not yet fully decayed, ninja corpses.