Chapter 232: The Root of Disaster
Because Ishiro was a participant, Ōnoki handed the task of analyzing this intelligence over to him. It was only three days later, after piecing together intelligence from various sources and his own experiences, that Ishiro was able to determine the general course of events.
At the high-level meeting, Ishiro began his analysis.
"The alliance between the Mist and the Cloud was a pretext from the very beginning. It was a trap set for the Third Raikage by Kirigakure."
"Although I don't know the motive behind the Mist dealing with the Cloud, they certainly didn't come up with it on the spot. To ensure the plan's success, they even brought in their major enemy, Konoha."
"The process isn't very clear; I only know the gist of it. First battlefield: about eight thousand Mist and Konoha ninjas, led by the Third Mizukage, Jiraiya, and Minato Namikaze, besieged the negotiation delegation led by the Third Raikage. Of the eight thousand, Konoha had fewer, about three thousand-plus, with the rest being Mist ninjas."
"At another location, with Yagura Karatachi and the Three-Tails Jinchuriki as their top combatants, two thousand Mist ninjas held back three thousand Cloud ninja reinforcements. This Cloud contingent was likely supposed to be the support unit, led by A and Killer Bee."
"I stuck my foot in and brought the Eight-Tails Jinchuriki, Killer Bee, to the first battlefield. I didn't witness the subsequent battle situation because I went to Kirigakure. As for Orochimaru, he invaded Kirigakure a step ahead of me."
"The final result should be that both the Third Raikage and the Third Mizukage were heavily injured. I estimate that the Mizukage, seeing the siege was about to fail, resorted to desperate measures."
"It was only at this point that I guessed some of the Mist's objectives: it's likely that the Third Mizukage is old and his life is nearing its end, so he wanted to drag the Third Raikage down with him before he died."
Saka nodded and said, "I thought of that as well. Although Konoha is our four nations' greatest enemy, Konoha is not very aggressive. In several great wars, Konoha has always been the defending party."
"With the Third Mizukage about to die, Kirigakure will naturally enter a period of weakness, while Kumogakure is at its peak. Coincidentally, both the Mist and the Cloud are great maritime powers. The greatest threat to the Mist is actually the Cloud, not Konoha."
Ishiro had a moment of realization. He hadn't thought in this direction before. After Saka's reminder, Ishiro recalled that the battlefield where A and Yagura Karatachi fought was indeed at sea.
Ishiro continued his report: "The result of this battle is not good for Konoha, Kirigakure, or Kumogakure."
"The Cloud's ordinary ninja losses were not many, but they are about to lose a Kage whose combat power is at its peak. Their overall strength will inevitably decline."
"The Mist's Third Mizukage doesn't have much time left, so we won't count that loss for now. I estimated the losses of ordinary Mist ninjas; across two battlefields and within Kirigakure itself, they lost at least two thousand people in total. Additionally, the Mist's Three-Tails Jinchuriki probably doesn't have much time left. If they can't find an adult ninja, the Mist might fall into the same awkward situation as the Sand."
"Although Konoha didn't lose a single Kage-level individual, more than half of the three thousand-plus people dispatched this time died. Only a little over a thousand returned to Konoha. However, not many of these returning ninjas were injured. After all, when facing either the Eight-Tails or the Third Raikage, it's hard to only be injured; contact usually means death."
At this moment, Mei suddenly interjected, "Has the matter of Orochimaru ambushing Kirigakure been confirmed by the Mist's side?"
Orochimaru had planted a root of disaster for Konoha this time. Originally, Konoha could have used this opportunity to ally with the Mist, or at least restore a state of peace. But Orochimaru's sudden move directly branded Konoha with the infamous name of a betrayer of allies.
Mei and the others knew that Ishiro had gone back to expose Orochimaru. This matter concerned the tacit understanding between the Mist and Konoha, which was why Mei asked.
"It has been confirmed. Orochimaru didn't hide his identity much during this operation; he seemed somewhat reckless. Intelligence shows that the Mist has clearly confirmed Orochimaru's identity. Similarly, they have also confirmed my identity," Ishiro said.
Ōnoki nodded and said, "Kirigakure is on the verge of decline and doesn't border us, so it doesn't matter if you were identified. Besides, the one they hate the most is definitely Konoha, the traitor who stabbed them in the back."
"It's just," Ōnoki said with a frown, "did Orochimaru not consider Konoha's reputation when doing this? That hypocrite Hiruzen Sarutobi cares about face the most."
No one could give an answer. Ishiro thought for a moment and said, "I speculate that Orochimaru might be thinking of leaving Konoha."
Everyone was stunned and looked at Ishiro in unison, waiting for his explanation.
Ishiro gave a bitter smile. He had no evidence, just a guess based on reversing cause and effect from the original story. This was too incredible. A Kage-level ninja defecting, and not one like Sasori of the Red Sand who had the stigma of being captured.
Orochimaru was a ninja with high hopes of succeeding as the Fourth Hokage. Such a ninja would choose to defect? Everyone expressed their disbelief.
"I'm just guessing," Ishiro said, shrugging.
Fortunately, no one dwelled on this matter too much, mainly because they didn't believe it. Ikura asked, "Has the matter of you killing people in Konoha and kidnapping an Uchiha been exposed?"
Ishiro thought for a moment and said, "Konoha should have guessed it by now, but they probably have no evidence."
Ikura nodded.
"It doesn't matter if there's no evidence. If Konoha comes knocking, we'll just deny it." After a pause, Ikura asked again, "I heard you brought back another child from a Kekkei Genkai family?"
Under the expectant gazes of the others, Ishiro nodded and said, "That's right. This time it's a Minazuki of the Ice Release. Originally, my target was a Kaguya, but Kirigakure was too chaotic, and I was afraid I couldn't handle the close-combat strength of the Kaguya clan, so I chose a Minazuki."
As he spoke, Ishiro looked at Ōnoki and said, "I've already handed the child over to Lord Tsuchikage. I wonder how his talent is?"
Hearing Ishiro mention Haku's talent, Ōnoki immediately broke into a smile and said, "His talent is good. Although I don't know if he can awaken his Kekkei Genkai, both his physical and spiritual talents are good. With proper cultivation, his future achievements are worth looking forward to. At least much better than that Uchiha."
Speaking of Uchiha Sakai, now Ryōtenbin Chūkō, Ōnoki's smile vanished. Clearly, the talent of this Uchiha that Ishiro brought back was truly average. The Ninja Academy was about to enroll new students, and his talent probably wouldn't even get him into the advanced class.
Ishiro naturally wouldn't explain the Uchiha clan's miraculous talent; anyway, Ōnoki's cultivation of Ryōtenbin Chūkō would not be reduced.
Finally, the group analyzed how Konoha managed to gather an army of three thousand ninjas without any other country noticing. The final conclusion was that most of these troops were the Konoha army from the previous Land of Whirlpools battlefield. They were originally under the command of the Uchiha and Hyuga.
After the war, the Uchiha and Hyuga returned to Konoha, and these ninjas had been overlooked by all parties. This time, Konoha just dispatched some elites to act as commanders and then sent the three-thousand-strong army to the Land of Water without anyone knowing.
The topic more or less concluded here. Finally, Ōnoki asked Saka to pay more attention to the movements of the Mist and Konoha, and then the meeting was dismissed.
Ishiro went back to continue supervising the training of his several disciples, and everything returned to normal.
However, a storm was brewing in the ninja world. Not only were various pieces of news flying around wildly, but the Cloud and Mist successively announcing the deaths of their Third Kage and the succession of their Fourth was enough to shock the entire ninja world.
Throughout the entire Third Great Ninja War, only one Kazekage had gone missing before the war. No one had expected that two Kage would suddenly die in battle during peacetime. Especially the Third Mizukage; he hadn't even shown his face during the Third War. No one understood how he died so inexplicably.
However, what the gossiping crowd talked about the most was actually the future Fourth Hokage and Fourth Tsuchikage candidates for Konoha and Iwagakure.
The discussion about Konoha was the most heated. There were too many people qualified to run for Fourth Hokage, and this had always been a key topic of discussion. But Iwagakure was also worth speculating about this time because, after Ikura, another powerhouse capable of stirring up the winds and clouds of the ninja world had appeared in Iwagakure.
Everyone speculated when the ninja world would completely enter the era ruled by the fourth generation.
...
The changing situation in the ninja world had nothing to do with the current Ishiro. Ishiro had originally planned to start developing his second Kekkei Genkai during this period. After all, he had been training in Lightning Release for quite some time.
However, although Ishiro had developed A-rank ninjutsu like the Lightning Release Stimulation Method, Chidori, and Chidori Nagashi, none of these were completely developed by Ishiro himself. In terms of proficiency, his Lightning Release was still far from comparable to his Water Release.
Ishiro's Water Release was developed step by step by Ishiro himself, starting from C-rank. The proficiency gained from one A-rank Water Cutting Technique completely surpassed that of three A-rank Lightning Release jutsu.
But Ishiro had also tested it; his Lightning Release had indeed barely reached the threshold for training in a Kekkei Genkai.
Because his Sage Jutsu training was already on the right track, although his Lightning Release proficiency had just barely met the standard, since there was no particularly needed training content, Ishiro was already preparing to develop Storm Release.
But the plan was interrupted by two things before it even began.
The first matter was related to Ishiro's disciple, Chiko Tomoe.
Before leaving the village this time, Ishiro had entrusted the care of his six disciples to Chiko Tomoe. After returning this time, Chiko Tomoe actually told Ishiro that she had developed a C-rank seal-less ninjutsu.
Chiko Tomoe excelled in Wind Release and had been developing her own ninjutsu over the years. This was also a characteristic of Ishiro's disciples; almost every one of them was innovative.
Among the first batch of disciples, Kajiyama Ri was the earliest to develop his own unique Water Release ninjutsu, and Kawakita created the largest number of sword techniques.
Even Ogura Saki from the second batch had developed the Wind Tornado.
Originally, Ishiro had thought Chiko Tomoe's ninjutsu development path had failed. But as it turned out, she was one to "come out of nowhere with a bang," directly creating a seal-less ninjutsu.
Although there were many ninjutsu Ishiro could cast without seals, none were developed by himself.
For example, Bansho Ten'in and Shinra Tensei were taught by Nagato; these two ninjutsu were difficult to learn, but once learned, they inherently required no hand seals.
Rasengan was learned from the original story. The Body Flicker Technique was just simplified and practiced based on predecessors' experience.
Therefore, Ishiro was very shocked that Chiko Tomoe could develop a seal-less ninjutsu.
Ishiro tested it and found that Chiko Tomoe could spit out a tiny Wind Release attack from her mouth during battle.
In terms of power, it was indeed C-rank Wind Release. Although its range was small, its penetrating power was astonishing, with single-target attack power approaching B-rank.
This was also the advantage of Wind Release; Wind Release excelled in offense, not defense.
Most importantly, Ishiro found that this ninjutsu still had a lot of room for growth.
With more effort put into it, it might be possible to create a B-rank or even an A-rank seal-less ninjutsu. Of course, these were the most ideal expectations.
This seal-less C-rank Wind Release, similar to the Vacuum Sphere, created by Chiko Tomoe also had a drawback: it needed to be charged.
That is to say, before casting the ninjutsu, although no hand seals were needed, the process of gathering power could not be omitted. If the opponent had a Sharingan or Byakugan, they could see Chiko Tomoe's small movements at a glance.
But how many ninjas possessed a dōjutsu Kekkei Genkai? The fact that it required no hand seals was enough to warrant the attention of the higher-ups.
So this ninjutsu was immediately included in Iwagakure's ninjutsu collection. Although the exchange price was not high, all ninjas who exchanged for it had to have a seal placed in their minds, just like when learning an A-rank ninjutsu.
Ishiro was also very tempted when he saw this ninjutsu. Although his Wind Release nature transformation was not yet sufficient to cast a C-rank Wind Release, Ishiro still added the training of this ninjutsu to his recent training plan.
♧♧♧
-> SUPPORT ME WITH POWER STONE
-> FOR EVERY 200 PS = BOUNS CHAPTER
♧♧♧
-> 30 Advanced chapters Now Available on Patreon!!
-> https://www.patreon.com/c/Segais
(Just remove the hyphen to access patreon normally)
If you like this novel please consider leaving a review that's help the story a lot Thank you