Chapter 229: An Unclear Situation
Ishiro scouted five islands in succession. Three of them felt wrong to him, so he ultimately did not land on them.
Using Camouflage Jutsu and Light/Heavy Rock Jutsu, Ishiro discovered traces of a large number of ninjas gathered around the small islands.
"These islands also have ships coming to deliver supplies. Konoha ninjas are on a cross-border mission; it's impossible for them to have supplies on this scale. Then it can only be the Mist ninjas," Ishiro guessed inwardly.
Ishiro had spent a long time on the border of the Land of Earth before, and after becoming a high-level official, he came to understand the normal defenses of the Land of Earth. So he could see at a glance that the Mist ninjas' deployment was abnormal.
These few small islands were not far from each other. If the Mist ninjas had set up a large-scale border defense base on one of the islands, Ishiro could understand.
But for them to be so close yet all have large numbers of ninjas gathered, this was something Ishiro couldn't comprehend.
"Are the Mist ninjas guarding against Konoha? That shouldn't be right. The Mist has the home-field advantage; there's no need to disperse their main forces and hide them on surrounding islands. The Mist could have openly deployed their main forces on the island where they are negotiating with the Cloud."
"Since they chose to hide, they must not want a certain party to know. But who are the Mist trying to guard against?"
Thinking of this, Ishiro had a feeling that he had misjudged the situation.
According to Ishiro's first reaction, the Mist must be guarding against Konoha. But Konoha, like Ishiro, was acting in secret and would inevitably scout the surroundings repeatedly.
Although the Mist ninjas had hidden themselves, Ishiro alone could easily discover that something was amiss. Konoha had even dispatched a large force, so it was even more impossible for them to be deceived.
So, who was the target the Mist wanted to deal with?
When his train of thought reached this point, Ishiro had a jolt of inspiration. Could it be the Cloud ninjas?
"This matter must be clarified." Ishiro made up his mind. This matter concerned the situation of the entire ninja world. If the Mist and Konoha had allied, it would be a disaster for Iwagakure.
The current Konoha was not like it was at the beginning of Shippuden, where Minato and his wife had died in the Nine-Tails incident, the Uchiha were annihilated, the Third was old, Tsunade was crippled by hemophobia, Orochimaru had defected, and Jiraiya had left the village to search for his companion's trail, leaving Konoha with only Danzō, who coveted the Hokage position.
At that time, even with their alliance with the Sand, Konoha had only maintained its status as the hegemon of the ninja world.
The current Konoha was teeming with powerful individuals. If they allied with the Mist, they could steamroll the other four great nations.
After some thought, Ishiro first followed a ship that was returning after delivering supplies to its place of origin.
There were ninjas on the ship, so Ishiro did not act rashly. He followed the ship to a medium-sized island and only then found an opportunity to cast a genjutsu on a civilian crew member.
"Has it been more than ten days?" Ishiro muttered to himself.
Ishiro learned from this supply point that these people had been delivering provisions to the islands for over ten days. There were about a dozen such small islands, and from the amount of supplies, each island had about several hundred to a thousand ninjas.
After obtaining this intelligence, Ishiro could no longer sit still. He had to gather as much intelligence as possible. The Mist was planning a big move, and Ishiro had to respond in time.
Ishiro found several of Iwagakure's most important intelligence ninjas in the Land of Water. After some inquiry and analysis, he felt it was too late. Because the Mist and Cloud had already completed their alliance negotiations and were just waiting for the high-level officials from both sides to meet and sign the treaty.
And the official signing by the high-level officials from both sides was tomorrow.
Ishiro looked at the sky that was about to brighten, sighed, got up, and headed towards the direction of the alliance island mentioned by the intelligence ninja.
Combining the newly obtained intelligence, Ishiro basically confirmed that the Mist's target this time was the Cloud; the so-called alliance negotiation was just bait.
To deal with the Cloud, the Mist had even proactively contacted Konoha.
For a moment, Ishiro didn't understand why the Mist was targeting the Cloud, but Ishiro knew that opposing Konoha was always the right thing to do.
No matter what the Mist was thinking, Konoha's plan must not be allowed to proceed smoothly.
When Ishiro flew over the island from the air, the battle had already erupted. Ishiro hid himself in mid-air, and with a brief observation, he understood the situation.
It was more or less as Ishiro had deduced from the intelligence: Konoha was joining forces with the Mist to besiege the Cloud.
The battle should have been going on for some time before Ishiro arrived. Of the originally besieged Cloud ninjas, only the Third Raikage was left. The guards and negotiation personnel who had come with the Third Raikage had all been killed in battle.
Looking closely, the people entangled with the Third Raikage nearby were Minato Namikaze, Jiraiya, and a gray-haired old man. The old man's identity was clear; from his attire, one could tell this was the Third Mizukage.
The Third Mizukage was mentioned very few times in the original story. Ishiro only knew that this person was very old. In terms of seniority, he should be higher than the third-generation Kage like Ōnoki. Now that Ishiro saw the Third Mizukage, he estimated his age should be no younger than the two retired advisors from Iwagakure.
The Third Raikage had no intention of getting too entangled with the few of them; he was currently activating his Lightning Release Chakra Mode and trying his best to break out.
Looking down from the sky, Ishiro could see a steady stream of ninjas surrounding this direction from not far away.
With a rough estimate, Ishiro knew the total number was definitely no less than 8,000. Among these 8,000, the majority were Mist ninjas, but there were also quite a few from Konoha.
The Mist was mobilizing troops within their own country; Ishiro could understand how they could deceive the intelligence personnel of various parties. But how did Konoha mobilize so many troops without other countries noticing? Why hadn't Iwagakure received any news at all?
Thinking of this, a chill ran down Ishiro's spine. If Konoha used the same method to mobilize troops for a surprise attack on the Land of Earth, could his own village respond in time?
However, this was not the time to think about this problem. Ishiro really wanted to sabotage Konoha's operation, but he knew his own limits.
Even if he joined the fray, the three Kage-level individuals from Konoha and the Mist would only need to spare one person to deal with him. In that case, the Third Raikage's fate would not change, and Ishiro might even get himself killed.
After some thought, Ishiro flew quickly in the direction of the Land of Lightning.
When the Kage from both sides participated in an alliance ceremony, they couldn't bring too many ninjas, but there might be a large force following behind. Whether it was useful or not, it was good to go and pass on a message.
This time, Ishiro didn't fly for long. Soon, he saw another battlefield in the distance.
Unlike the battle besieging the Third Raikage, this battlefield was a large-scale engagement between two armies.
In a sea area, the Cloud and Mist sides were fighting fiercely, either relying on large ships or standing on the surface of the sea.
The Cloud side, with about three thousand people, was suppressing the Mist's two thousand. On the surface, the Cloud had a great advantage. But Ishiro had also participated in a great war and could see at a glance that it would take the Cloud a considerable amount of time to achieve a complete victory.
After all, it was at sea, the Mist's home turf.
By the time the Cloud won, it was hard to say how many people would be left to support the Third Raikage, and it was even harder to say if the Third Raikage would still be alive by then.
Ishiro lowered his altitude and looked closely, discovering that the high-end combat power on both sides was evenly matched. On the Cloud's side were Killer Bee and A. On the Mist's side, Yagura Karatachi was dealing with A, and there was another ninja with abnormal chakra fluctuations.
Because this person had appeared on the Land of Whirlpools battlefield before, Ishiro had intelligence on him: the Three-Tails Jinchuriki.
However, this person's use of the Three-Tails' power was far inferior to Killer Bee's. He was constantly being suppressed by Killer Bee, and from the looks of it, he could go berserk at any moment.
Ishiro thought for a moment and suddenly had an idea.
"Porcelain Release: Kunai Rain!" Ishiro used the Kekkei Genkai that could prove his identity, launching a wave of solidified rock kunai at the Three-Tails Jinchuriki who was entangled with Killer Bee.
However, Ishiro was far away, and it was somewhat difficult to injure the Three-Tails Jinchuriki with this Kekkei Genkai that he didn't practice much.
A large amount of Tailed Beast chakra surged from the Three-Tails Jinchuriki's body, forming a huge tail that swung forcefully at the kunai filling the sky. The kunai rain formed by Ishiro's consumption of a large amount of chakra was scattered at once.
However, Ishiro's move was not without effect. Killer Bee seized the opportunity, also bursting forth with the Eight-Tails' chakra, and landed a heavy blow on the partially transformed Three-Tails Jinchuriki.
Just as Killer Bee was about to press his advantage, Ishiro's voice came from the sky.
"Eight-Tails Jinchuriki, I'll take you to save your Third Raikage!"
Along with Ishiro's voice came a flying platform about one meter in diameter, formed from solidified mud, which quickly landed in front of Killer Bee.
Killer Bee didn't get on the platform directly but turned to look at A: "Dummy big bro, stupid big bro, should I go or not? Answer quickly!"
A had naturally heard Ishiro's words as well. The rhythm of his battle with Yagura Karatachi also paused, and he immediately shouted, "Go quickly and return quickly!"
Hearing this, Killer Bee immediately jumped onto Ishiro's porcelain platform.
Seeing this, Ishiro was overjoyed. While controlling the platform and raising its flight altitude, he took Killer Bee across the Mist's main force and towards the battlefield where the Third Raikage was being besieged.
The Mist ninjas below naturally wanted to intercept, but they were all held back by the Cloud ninjas. The Cloud already had the advantage in numbers, and it was not easy for the Mist to break free from the entanglement.
The Three-Tails Jinchuriki, however, was direct. He immediately wanted to unleash his chakra and fire a Tailed Beast Bomb at Ishiro. Seeing this, not only was Ishiro startled, but even the Mist ninjas themselves were scared out of their wits.
Ishiro was in the air, and it wasn't easy to hit him directly. The two sides were also close to each other. Once the Tailed Beast Bomb exploded, it was unknown if Ishiro would die, but the Mist would surely suffer heavy casualties.
Yagura Karatachi quickly shouted to stop him. As a result of the distraction, he was almost smashed by one of A's punches. In the end, although he avoided a vital point, he was still injured.
Seeing the Three-Tails Jinchuriki disperse the Tailed Beast Bomb, Ishiro, having escaped disaster, didn't dare to be negligent. He used all his strength to fly with Killer Bee towards the first battlefield.
A, seeing this from below, also breathed a slight sigh of relief. He no longer charged blindly but began to command the main Cloud force, striving to achieve a greater victory to prepare for supporting Killer Bee and the Third Raikage later.
Ishiro naturally couldn't see any of this. The speed at which Ishiro flew with Killer Bee was not much slower than when he flew alone, but carrying a person with Porcelain Release consumed a great deal of mental energy.
In fact, it was easiest to carry a person using the Light/Heavy Rock Jutsu, but Ishiro, being a long-range ninjutsu-type ninja, didn't dare to bring a swordsmanship expert like Killer Bee close to him. So he adopted this highly consumptive method.
Fortunately, Ishiro's mental strength was powerful, and the two battlefields were not far from each other. So when Ishiro reached the battlefield, the consumption was still bearable.
Whether it was Killer Bee or the Third Raikage, their combat experience was no less than Ishiro's. Specific tactics didn't require Ishiro's consideration. So, as soon as he arrived above the battlefield, Ishiro threw Killer Bee towards the Third Raikage, who was still trying his best to break out.
And the tactic Killer Bee adopted was more or less as Ishiro had expected. While still in mid-air, a large amount of Tailed Beast chakra erupted from his body, and then the giant Eight-Tails smashed into the battlefield.
This was the first time Ishiro truly felt the power of a complete Tailed Beast, and it was Gyūki, the Eight-Tails, second only to the Nine-Tails among the Tailed Beasts. The oppressive feeling of that "chak-tonnage" was something that ninjas like Ishiro, who needed to use chakra meticulously, could not comprehend.
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