[Kumogakure]
The Raikage and the others traveled without stopping.
They finally returned to Kumogakure on the third day.
The village was full of people clearing debris and repairing buildings. It was noisy everywhere.
When they saw the Raikage and the others return, everyone looked aggrieved.
"Boss! You're finally back!"
"Killer B, don't leave the village again."
A crowd of Kumogakure shinobi gathered around them, all talking at once about the attack on the village two days earlier.
Killer B was also surrounded by people telling him not to leave the village anymore.
Although Killer B had been bullied growing up, after he started learning rap, he gradually began verbally bullying the villagers instead.
As Kumogakure's atmosphere became more open-minded, more and more people accepted and liked Killer B.
He had even held a solo concert and gained quite a few fans.
Now that Killer B had returned to the village, many of those fans had come to welcome him.
Responding to the villagers as he walked, the Raikage soon returned to his office.
But as soon as he stepped inside, he found that the curved glass windows had all been shattered.
Two Anbu were cleaning up the broken glass on the floor.
There were many confidential documents here, so ordinary cleaners naturally couldn't be allowed to do this work.
Mabui, Yukubi, and Dodai had all received word that the Raikage was returning.
They were already waiting in the room.
They had expected the Raikage to arrive a day later, so they had only just begun cleaning up.
Dodai had the Anbu cleaning the glass leave first. With damaged buildings all over the village, they were short of people everywhere.
"You can go. Come back later to finish cleaning."
The Anbu saluted and all left. Cee formed a hand seal, and a barrier spread outward.
It was the Silent Muffled Barrier.
With all the windows broken, it would have been easy for the wind to carry their conversation outside.
"Boss, this is the record of the village attack from the day before yesterday."
Cee had documented both of Byaku's attacks, including how they had defended against them, the scale of Byaku's secret techniques, and the damage they had caused.
"If this technique had continued for another half hour, our losses would have increased by at least three times."
"There are very few examples of techniques that manipulate weather like this, so it's impossible to accurately measure its scale."
"But this technique must have consumed at least as much chakra as ten Killer Bs."
Dodai gave a figure that made everyone's hearts sink.
Killer B was the Eight-Tails' Jinchuriki. In terms of chakra alone, he had even more than the Raikage.
No one had expected him to become a unit of measurement.
"Even if he made use of the clouds and the weather, the base amount of chakra required had to be at least that much."
"When he said he would destroy Kumogakure, he may actually be capable of doing it."
Dodai wasn't exaggerating. He was simply analyzing the facts.
Even if the possibility was small, he still had to say it.
The Raikage and the others all looked grim.
"There's another issue. His identity is highly suspicious."
Dodai took out another intelligence report and handed it to the Raikage and the others.
"Our intelligence division found this while reviewing old information from the Land of Water over the past two days."
"I've listed everyone connected to Byaku."
The Raikage immediately became interested.
"Oh? Did you figure out who Byaku is?"
But when he looked at the report, he was dumbfounded. Calling it intelligence was generous, it looked more like a historical record.
"Byaku lived a hundred years ago?"
"Someone with the same name?"
"Wait... Kyokotsu too?"
Killer B and Darui, standing beside the Raikage, were equally shocked.
It had to be said that Dodai was extremely capable.
He had even managed to dig up records from a century ago. At that time, Kumogakure hadn't even been founded yet.
Back then, the ninja world had been divided by clans rather than villages.
The records here only stated that Byaku and Kyokotsu had been powerful members of the Yuki Clan and the Kaguya Clan respectively.
The reason they had been recorded at all was because the prodigy Hozuki Satsuki of the Hozuki Clan, the rulers of the seas, had died alongside those two during the Bone Release Rebellion.
That upheaval had caused the Hozuki Clan to lose a large number of elites, eventually resulting in the First Mizukage not coming from the Hozuki Clan.
It could be said that it had changed the ruling structure of Kirigakure.
However, Kumogakure's records were clearly nowhere near as detailed as the Uchiha Clan's.
They had no idea what had actually happened during the Bone Release Rebellion.
"Based on the intelligence, only these two fit," Dodai confirmed.
"Impossible. Someone's definitely impersonating them. Those people died a hundred years ago. How could they possibly appear again? Foolish people, stupid people."
Killer B immediately rejected the idea.
Seeing that even the Raikage looked doubtful, Dodai explained his reasoning.
"Experts at that level rarely disguise themselves as someone else."
"Besides, Bone Release and Ice Release are both extremely rare. They're impossible to fake."
"I think it's more likely that they were revived somehow."
"Just like... the Fourth Hokage, Minato."
His words made everyone's hearts sink.
That was true. The Fourth Hokage had already come back to life. If Kirigakure had somehow revived two more powerful experts, it didn't seem impossible.
"If that's the case, could Konoha be involved?"
The Raikage asked as he moved his arm.
Konoha even had the technology to heal his arm, so it was entirely possible they possessed resurrection technology as well.
Kumogakure had many spies in Konoha, some of whom had been undercover for years.
There was no way Minato Namikaze's death had been faked.
Minato's resurrection had already been unbelievable. Now that Kirigakure also had revived experts appearing, the Raikage's first thought was that Konoha might be connected.
"Even if Konoha has that ability, shouldn't they revive the First Hokage? Or Madara Uchiha instead?", Killer B asked in confusion.
Since the Warring States era, the two strongest people had been Senju Hashirama and Madara Uchiha.
If anyone was going to be revived, those two should have been the obvious choices.
After all, Senju Hashirama was the God of Shinobi, someone whose strength alone had overwhelmed the entire ninja world.
Dodai shook his head, "Even if they have the ability to revive the dead, there must be limitations."
"But even then, they definitely wouldn't revive Senju Hashirama."
"Don't forget what kind of person Senju Hashirama was."
Dodai's reasoning made sense.
Besides his overwhelming strength, Senju Hashirama was most famous for his personality.
Konoha was no longer the same village it had been back then.
If Hashirama came back to life, whose orders would he follow?
After listening to all this, the Raikage said irritably, "We don't have enough intelligence right now. Let's stop discussing this."
Most of what they had said was speculation anyway. The Raikage disliked overthinking things and didn't want to continue.
"Should we ask Black Zetsu if he has any related intelligence?", Dodai suggested.
Without hesitation, the Raikage replied, "Contact him. He might know something we don't."