Naruto: Zanka No Tachi

Chapter 86: NZNT: Chapter 86

”Mission? You mean spreading the debate from today’s meeting throughout the village?” Itachi had a hunch about Yusuke’s plan.

Yusuke gave Itachi an approving glance, ”Yes, but remember, make sure the content is accurate and highlight the key points!”

Itachi nodded thoughtfully, then asked, ”Highlight the key points?”

Yusuke patted Itachi on the shoulder and said with a meaningful look, ”Some things you have to figure out for yourself.”

Of course, Yusuke couldn’t explicitly say that he wanted to highlight his rebuttal to the Third Hokage, thereby raising his own prestige in the village. Yusuke believed that the intelligent Itachi would be able to figure that out on his own!

On the day of the meeting, the Kumogakure incident and the debate between Yusuke and the Third Hokage at the meeting were spread throughout the village by people secretly arranged by Itachi.

As soon as the news spread, most people sided with Yusuke. After all, people are unwilling to be humiliated.

If the person insulting you is someone you can’t possibly fight back against, you might choose to accept it helplessly.

But the Land of Fire was the strongest of the Five Great Nations, and Konoha Village had been the strongest ninja village in the ninja world since the First Hokage established it. In the eyes of most people in Konoha Village, Kumogakure was far inferior to Konoha.

Now, someone weaker than them was insulting them, and they had to apologize and then offer their face to be stepped on. No normal person could accept this.

Soon, public opinion turned against the Third Hokage, while Yusuke, who was opposed to him, was supported by most villagers, especially the younger ninjas. Even the Third Hokage’s son, Asuma, sided with Yusuke in this incident.

Finally, under the pressure of public opinion and Yusuke’s assertiveness, the Third Hokage had no choice but to choose to refuse to apologize to Kumogakure in the final discussion meeting. He also expelled all the remaining Kumogakure ninjas from the Land of Fire.

After the meeting ended, everyone left. The Third Hokage sat alone in his chair and sighed deeply.

He had chosen to compromise for the sake of the village. He had no ulterior motives.

It’s just that in terms of handling foreign relations, the Third Hokage had always used a policy of appeasement as his basic principle, prioritizing the stability of Konoha. In his view, other things like dignity and honor were just illusions.

”I hope Kumogakure doesn’t dare to start a war,” the Third Hokage prayed silently.

”I hope Kumogakure will be as bold as ever this time!” Yusuke, on the other hand, had completely the opposite thoughts.

In the original story, the Third Hokage bowed to Kumogakure without a word. Yusuke wasn’t sure if Kumogakure really had the guts to declare war on Konoha.

After all, even a skinny camel is bigger than a horse. In terms of overall strength, even without considering himself, Yusuke believed Konoha was stronger than Kumogakure.

If Kumogakure gave up on declaring war on Konoha, then Yusuke would lose the opportunity to take Kumogakure’s tailed beast under a legitimate pretext. This was something he didn’t want to see.

A few days later, Konoha officially sent a statement to Kumogakure refusing to apologize. At the same time, they condemned Kumogakure for its despicable actions in using any means necessary to obtain the Byakugan kekkei genkai.

When the Kumogakure envoy, who had been expelled from the Land of Fire, returned to Kumogakure with this statement, the hot-tempered Fourth Raikage immediately beat the envoy black and blue, vowing to flatten Konoha.

Although the Raikage was impulsive, he wasn’t stupid. The high-ranking officials of Kumogakure were also very calm. Attacking Konoha wouldn’t benefit Kumogakure. It would only lead to a lose-lose situation.

Therefore, the situation that the Third Hokage hoped for and Yusuke was disappointed about occurred: Kumogakure backed down!

However, at this time, there was another person who was closely watching the situation develop. It was Obito.

For him, the more chaos in the ninja world, the better. This would allow him to fish in troubled waters.

Besides, once Kumogakure and Konoha went to war, most of Konoha’s masters, including Yusuke, would inevitably go to the front lines. This would give him an opportunity to sneak into Konoha and capture the Nine-Tails jinchūriki before he matured.

After learning that Kumogakure had given up on declaring war on Konoha, Obito was even more disappointed than Yusuke. He also decided to take the initiative to provoke this war!

”Is this the kekkei genkai that Madara left behind?” Obito asked Zetsu, who was standing beside him, holding a scroll in his hand.

”Yes. This kekkei genkai allows the Sharingan user to control the jinchūriki’s mind. Of course, you need to have enough chakra for this to work,” Black Zetsu said.

In the original story, Akatsuki had assigned Itachi and Kisame to go to Kirigakure on a mission. They unfortunately encountered the Fourth Mizukage. As a perfect jinchūriki, the Fourth Mizukage was very powerful. He immediately killed Kisame.

In this battle, Kisame died protecting Itachi. This incident stimulated Itachi. He activated the ”Amaterasu” in his Mangekyō Sharingan for the first time, burning the Fourth Mizukage to a crisp before leaving Kirigakure.

After that, Obito went to Kirigakure and used a powerful kekkei genkai to control the Fourth Mizukage. To get revenge on Kirigakure for the death of Rin, Obito controlled the Fourth Mizukage to implement a tyrannical rule, massacring bloodline clans and turning Kirigakure into the so-called ”Bloody Mist Village” in just a few years.

(This kekkei genkai to control the Fourth Mizukage wasn’t explained in the original story. Besides, jinchūriki are almost immune to genjutsu. In this book, this kekkei genkai is set as a kekkei genkai that Madara left behind specifically to control jinchūriki.)

”Are you going to use this kekkei genkai now?” Black Zetsu asked Obito.

Obito nodded, ”Yes. I’ll go to Kumogakure first and sound out the Raikage. If he has plans to declare war on Konoha, I’ll propose a partnership with him. I’ll guarantee that Kirigakure will cooperate in launching an attack on Konoha.”

”Combining the power of two great ninja villages, I’m sure the Raikage will be tempted.”

Hearing Obito’s plan, Black Zetsu also agreed, ”It’s a good plan. Are you going to have Akatsuki participate in this plan?”

Obito thought for a moment and shook his head, ”Not yet. It’s not time for Akatsuki to be exposed to the ninja world. Besides, Nagato is busy recruiting official members. Akatsuki still hasn’t reached full strength, which has a big impact on our plan.”

After discussing with Black Zetsu, Obito rushed to Kumogakure as quickly as possible to meet with the Fourth Raikage.

In his negotiations with the Fourth Raikage, Obito pretended to be a subordinate of the Fourth Mizukage.

Upon learning that Kirigakure was willing to join forces with Kumogakure to declare war on Konoha, the Raikage immediately agreed to form a strategic partnership with Kirigakure.

Not long after, the Fourth Mizukage, Yagura, proposed joining forces with Kumogakure and officially declaring war on Konoha.

Kirigakure’s internal members were also very puzzled by Yagura’s decision. Therefore, Kirigakure’s high-ranking ninjas discussed asking the Mizukage why they should intervene in the conflict between Kumogakure and Konoha.

”Mizukage-sama, why should we intervene in the conflict between Kumogakure and Konoha?”

A female jōnin wearing a Kirigakure jōnin uniform asked Yagura.

This female jōnin had long, brown, crossed curls. Her right eye was covered by her hair. She had a pair of emerald green eyes and was a mature and intellectual beauty. She was the Fifth Mizukage, Mei Terumi, in the original story.

At this time, Mei Terumi was only twenty-five years old, but because of her powerful strength and gentle, friendly personality, she had already gained considerable prestige in Kirigakure and was supported by many people.

At this time, Ao also stood up and added, ”I agree with Mei. We have no reason to go to war with Konoha. Even if we do fight, we can wait until Kumogakure and Konoha are both weakened and then choose the right time to strike.”

Ao was an elite jōnin of Kirigakure. He wore an eye patch over his right eye. Underneath the eye patch was a Byakugan that Kirigakure had obtained after killing a Hyuga main family member during the war. Because of the Byakugan, Ao had a Konoha bounty on his head.

At this time, neither Mei Terumi nor Ao would have imagined that the Fourth Mizukage in front of them was under the control of someone from an unknown organization using genjutsu.

After all, in the normal understanding of ninjas, jinchūriki are immune to genjutsu. Besides, Yagura was a perfect jinchūriki.

With Mei Terumi and Ao taking the lead in questioning Yagura, the other Kirigakure ninjas began to whisper among themselves. From time to time, someone would raise an objection.

”Shut up!”

At that moment, Yagura suddenly spoke. All the ninjas in the hall fell silent.

Yagura said with a dark expression, ”I’ve already discussed this decision with the Raikage. It’s an inevitable action. You only need to obey orders.”

”Mei Terumi, Ao, you two will be my deputies. Get all the clans ready and wait for my orders. Once the war begins, we’ll attack Konoha from the east.”

Kirigakure was located on an island east of Konoha. It was easy to defend and difficult to attack. And because of the humid environment near the island, Kirigakure’s Water Release jutsu had a great advantage. Therefore, in the Third Great Ninja War, Kirigakure, taking advantage of its geographical advantage, suffered the least losses among the Five Great Nations.

Besides, since Yagura had just been controlled by Obito, he hadn’t started implementing the policy of purging the bloodline clans within the village.

Kirigakure, which hadn’t experienced the dark period of the ”Bloody Mist Village,” had many powerful bloodline clans. The most representative of these was the warlike Hyūga clan.

With numerous bloodline clans and being the least affected by the Third Great Ninja War, Kirigakure was still very strong at this time.

After Yagura made his decision, although many people wanted to raise objections, they were all forcibly suppressed by Yagura.

With Yagura and his supporters pushing forward, Kirigakure and Kumogakure finally reached an agreement to attack Konoha together.

After the ”kidnapping of the Hyuga main family incident,” Konoha and Kumogakure had been attacking each other for a while, but the two great ninja villages had only exchanged words. They hadn’t taken any other drastic actions.

When everyone in the ninja world thought that war wouldn’t break out, Kumogakure and Kirigakure suddenly declared war on Konoha!

The entire ninja world was in a state of panic. Everyone was worried that the war between Konoha, Kumogakure, and Kirigakure would gradually escalate into a war across the entire ninja world, reigniting the flames of the Third Great Ninja War that had just been extinguished.

Tsuchikage Ōnoki, upon receiving this news, decided to wait for the right opportunity to attack his enemy, Kumogakure.

As for Konoha’s ally, Sunagakure, they wanted to sit back and watch the fight. They would wait until Konoha suffered significant losses before intervening to help them. This way, they could not only get some benefits from Konoha, but also have more say in future exchanges between allies when facing a weakened Konoha.

When the news of Kumogakure and Kirigakure’s joint declaration of war on Konoha reached Konoha, it also caused a wave of panic within the village.

But under the encouragement of Yusuke’s public opinion and Jiraiya’s return to the village, the morale within the village quickly recovered. The entire Konoha united as one, ready to teach Kumogakure, who had gone too far, and the inexplicable Kirigakure a lesson.

At first, Yusuke hadn’t expected Kirigakure to intervene in the conflict between Kumogakure and Konoha. But knowing the plot, he immediately guessed the reason. Obito must have already controlled the Fourth Mizukage, Yagura, which was why Kirigakure had made this decision.

After thinking it over, Yusuke decided to wait until the war began before releasing the news that the Mizukage was under genjutsu control. After all, if Kirigakure found out about this now, they would definitely cancel their declaration of war on Konoha, and Kumogakure might also give up on this war.

In Konoha’s meeting hall, not only were all of Konoha’s high-ranking officials present, but all of the village’s jōnin were also there. They had all gathered for the war deployment.

”Yusuke, this war is basically your doing. I want to hear your thoughts first.”

The Third Hokage said slowly. Although he didn’t say it directly, he implied that it was Yusuke’s fault that Konoha was now being besieged by two great ninja villages.

Facing the Third Hokage’s questioning, Yusuke remained calm, ”In every war, haven’t we, Konoha, always won against the odds?”

”I think this war is an opportunity to show the entire ninja world how tough Konoha is. It’ll also prevent the other great ninja villages from treating us like pushovers. They actually dared to kidnap someone from our village and then try to blame us.”

The Third Hokage was about to retort, but Jiraiya nodded first and said, ”Yes. If we continue to be weak, it might lead to more similar incidents in the future.”

”At this critical moment, it’s time for us to step forward. This is the meaning of our existence!”

Hearing Jiraiya’s words, the Third Hokage sighed and didn’t say anything more. He formally brought the topic to the battle plan.

Originally, Yusuke had thought that Jiraiya would side with the Third Hokage. After all, Jiraiya was not only the Third Hokage’s student, but he had also been searching for a way to end the war.

But it was clear that Jiraiya wasn’t the kind of person to be fixated on one idea. He wouldn’t pursue peace by willingly submitting to oppression just to stop the war. This wasn’t the kind of peace he sought.

”In terms of spirit, Jiraiya is probably number one in the entire Naruto world!” Yusuke thought to himself, admiring him.

Yusuke nodded to Jiraiya, expressing his gratitude for his support. Then, he slowly said to everyone in the hall, ”Don’t worry, everyone. The Konoha Research Institute has been preparing for this war.”

”The institute has an invention that can greatly reduce the number of ninja casualties!”

With that, a person wearing a research institute uniform stood up behind Yusuke.

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