Chapter 685: Tsuchikage Goes In Person

Land of Rain, Six Paths City.

A team of Ninja wearing headbands and Hidden Sand Village headbands entered Six Paths City.

The arrival of the Sand Ninja team did not attract the attention of the Shinobi Sect or the residents of Six Paths City.

Ever since the news of Sōsuke defeating Hiruzen Sarutobi spread, Six Paths City quickly became even livelier than before.

Many people came to buy houses, betting that the Shinobi Sect could withstand the pressure from Konoha.

At that time, Six Paths City would not only be the safest place in the Land of Rain but possibly one of the safest places in the Ninja World, and house prices would definitely skyrocket.

There were also many people selling houses, even more so. Many felt that a small Ninja Organization like the Shinobi Sect would find it difficult to withstand the wrath of the Five Great Ninja Villages.

Even if the Leader was strong, in a prolonged war, the ultimate victor would only be Konoha.

The people of the Land of Rain were all too familiar with this process; after all, they had experienced it once before.

Besides those looking to profit from the opportunity, many Ninja were also curious about Sōsuke, who could defeat the Third Hokage, and specifically came to watch the show.

Of course, intelligence Ninja from various Ninja Villages or Ninja forces were indispensable.

“This Six Paths City is really lively. How long has this town been established? Has it been three years? It’s truly incredible,” a Sand Ninja exclaimed.

He felt that Six Paths City was even livelier than Hidden Sand Village, despite being just a town created by a small, newly emerging force.

“Lively? This kind of liveliness is not a good thing,” Yashamaru shook his head slightly.

With the Five Great Ninja Villages currently at a ceasefire, Six Paths City, which had a huge conflict with Konoha, could be said to be the center of the whirlpool of the entire Ninja World.

Due to the potential displayed by the Shinobi Sect, not only Konoha but also the Ninja forces around the Shinobi Sect probably did not wish for the Shinobi Sect to prosper.

“Let’s start our mission. Don’t waste time; we don’t have much time,” Yashamaru said.

They came to Six Paths City not to speculate on housing but to alienate the Shinobi Sect and Iwagakure, and to win Iwagakure over to their side.

The Sand Ninja nodded and began to search for Iwagakure Ninja.

In fact, they were not the only small team from Sand Ninja; another team did not wear Sand Ninja attire but entered Six Paths City in disguise.

Their two teams had different tasks.

Yashamaru’s team’s mission was to contact the Iwagakure representative in Six Paths City, then explain the dangers of the Shinobi Sect to them, and initially express their intention to cooperate.

However, this was only the first step.

Although profit came first and everything else followed, Iwagakure had, after all, cooperated with the Shinobi Sect for quite some time. Rasa did not expect Yashamaru to directly persuade Iwagakure with words alone.

The disguised Sand Ninja team was the key.

They would frame and falsely accuse the Shinobi Sect, thereby alienating the relationship between Iwagakure and the Shinobi Sect.

When a rift appeared in the cooperation between Iwagakure and the Shinobi Sect, the Sand Ninja would then increase their efforts, making it very difficult to maintain the cooperation between the Shinobi Sect and Iwagakure.

However, to avoid exposure and prevent the operation from being discovered by Iwagakure and the Shinobi Sect, timing was crucial.

If the Sand Ninja were rejected by Iwagakure one day, and the Shinobi Sect had an incident the next, Iwagakure would easily suspect the Sand Ninja.

The alienation and Yashamaru contacting Iwagakure had to happen simultaneously.

This, combined with the Sand Ninja’s covert operation, greatly reduced the possibility of exposure.

If Iwagakure investigated, they would only find that one team of Sand Ninja entered Six Paths City that day and even sought them out.

To minimize the possibility of exposure, the two Sand Ninja teams even had no contact at all, only acting according to a pre-arranged time.

Only if they could not complete the mission at the agreed time would they make contact to inform the other party that the mission was temporarily suspended.

Therefore, Yashamaru said they did not have much time.

Of course, openly looking for someone was not too much trouble; otherwise, this mission would be too difficult to complete.

“Hmm? Six Paths City actually has Ninja who are skilled in puppet jutsu?” a Puppet Master Jonin was stunned after seeing the arm of a Shinobi Sect Ninja.

Although the arm looked very much like a real arm, an artificial limb was, after all, an artificial limb. For someone like him, who dealt with puppets every day, he could still recognize it upon closer inspection.

The Sand Ninja Puppet Master was very surprised; modifying the human body was not a simple technique.

The Shinobi Sect Ninja saw the Sand Ninja staring at his arm and originally wanted to promote their own surgery.

Currently, due to limited production, and because only Sasori could perform the surgery, artificial limbs were very expensive for anyone outside the Shinobi Sect’s own people.

Upon seeing the headband on his head, the Shinobi Sect Ninja gave up on the idea of promotion.

Hidden Sand Village was a sacred land for puppet jutsu, the most developed Ninja force in the entire Ninja World in terms of puppet jutsu.

And their Shinobi Sect’s artificial limbs were clearly a type of puppet technology. It would be bad if Hidden Sand Village stole their trade secrets.

Although the Sand Ninja Puppet Master was curious, he had a mission, so he had to suppress his curiosity and continue with his task.

Under the swift action of Yashamaru and others, they quickly found Iwagakure.

Then, at an appropriate time, Yashamaru revealed his identity as the Fourth Kazekage’s brother-in-law and very smoothly met the Iwagakure representative in Six Paths City—Iwagakure Jonin Jonin Hikari.

“After gaining control of the Land of Rain, the Shinobi Sect quickly launched operations against Bird Country, aiming for something big…” Yashamaru began to describe the Shinobi Sect’s wild ambitions according to the plan.

However, what Yashamaru did not expect was that Jonin Hikari did not show any signs of embarrassment or anger, scolding him for destroying the friendship between the Shinobi Sect and Iwagakure. Instead, he showed a slightly surprised smile?

Yashamaru paused for a moment, confirmed that he hadn’t said anything wrong, and then continued.

Jonin Hikari politely waited for Yashamaru to finish speaking before opening his mouth, “You are absolutely right. I feel the same way. I didn’t expect that other forces would also notice the Shinobi Sect’s ambition.”

Yashamaru:?

Do the Shinobi Sect and Iwagakure still need to be alienated? This is purely a superficial collaboration.

These two forces haven’t even truly collaborated, so how can they be instigated to separate?

Yashamaru was a bit confused. The grand alienation plan had just reached its first step, and how could it be over already?

“Lord Yashamaru.” Just as Yashamaru was about to discuss cooperation between the two villages with Jonin Hikari, a Sand Ninja who had been waiting outside walked over anxiously.

“Excuse me, please,” Yashamaru said apologetically, then walked towards the Sand Ninja.

“Something terrible has happened. The other team was apprehended by Shinobi Sect Ninja. The plan failed,” the Sand Ninja whispered.

Yashamaru:…

This plan was both smooth and not smooth.

“Don’t be nervous. Iwagakure also seems unwilling to let the Shinobi Sect continue to grow stronger,” Yashamaru comforted him.

If they were caught, then so be it. If he could reach an agreement with Iwagakure, then the mission would still be considered complete.

Then Yashamaru and Jonin Hikari discussed many things.

They both criticized the Shinobi Sect’s ambition, worrying that the Shinobi Sect would have a detrimental impact on the Ninja World, which had just entered a period of peace.

However, whenever Yashamaru mentioned cooperation, Jonin Hikari became vague, and in the end, he did not express a clear stance, only saying that he needed to ask the Tsuchikage for instructions.

Yashamaru was not angry about this; after all, he came to seek cooperation and had already prepared for such a situation.

Rather, the current situation was already quite good; they had almost completed the mission with just their team.

Jonin Hikari sent Yashamaru off, quickly convened a meeting of Iwagakure, and then sent the information about the Sand Ninja to Iwagakure.

“Jonin Hikari did well this time,” Ōnoki said with a smile after reading the intelligence.

Iwagakure also had the idea of allying with Sunagakure, but in matters of cooperation, the party being sought out naturally held more advantage.

So Jonin Hikari’s move was excellent: he expressed Iwagakure’s dissatisfaction with the Shinobi Sect while maintaining an undecided, somewhat wavering stance.

“In that case, there should be no problem with Sunagakure, but it’s a bit difficult to open up a situation with Grass Ninja Village, this small Ninja Village,” Ōnoki showed a thoughtful expression.

During the Third Shinobi World War, Iwagakure had secretly reached a cooperation agreement with the Leader of Grass Ninja Village, and Grass Ninja Village secretly helped Iwagakure.

Later, Konoha intervened, disrupting the cooperation between the two sides. The former Leader of Grass Ninja Village turned into a monster and was killed. Grass Ninja and Iwagakure turned against each other, and Grass Ninja, in turn, helped Konoha fight Iwagakure.

With Iwagakure’s strength, controlling Grass Ninja Village would, of course, be easy; not all small countries had a powerhouse like Sōsuke.

But you have to consider the master when beating a dog. Now, Grass Ninja Village can barely be considered Konoha’s junior, so they can’t be rough with them casually.

Actually, for Iwagakure, the inclusion of Grass Ninja Village was not important; it only meant saving some Genin and Chunin cannon fodder, not affecting the overall situation.

What Ōnoki truly valued was Konoha’s attitude, or rather, the Shinobi Sect’s information hidden beneath Konoha’s attitude.

If Grass Ninja Village firmly refused to attack the Shinobi Sect, could it be Konoha’s will?

How exactly did Hiruzen Sarutobi lose that battle, and why did he directly allow Muzuki to succeed him as Hokage?

“Since we will be on the opposite side of the Shinobi Sect in the future, why not take advantage of the remaining friendship to gather intelligence now?” A Flash of inspiration struck Ōnoki.

He realized he had fallen into a blind spot in his thinking, constantly trying to inquire about the battle process from the Shinobi Sect and Konoha.

In reality, as an ally of the Shinobi Sect, he didn’t need to do so. He could send someone or go himself to the Shinobi Sect, saying he wanted to witness the Ninja Master’s strength and engage in a friendly spar.

Given the current relationship between Iwagakure and the Shinobi Sect, could Sōsuke refuse?

The relationship between Iwagakure and the Shinobi Sect was not like that between the Shinobi Sect and Konoha. Even if the strong individuals from Iwagakure lost, Iwagakure could still request the Shinobi Sect to keep it a secret.

This way, intelligence would be obtained, and they wouldn’t lose face or cause a stir like Hiruzen Sarutobi.

As for whether the Shinobi Sect would reveal the news after the war began, that was irrelevant.

They would already be at war, so why would they care about a bit of negative news?

“I’ll go myself,” Ōnoki thought it over and decided it was more reliable for him to go.

Hiruzen Sarutobi lost to Sōsuke, so others might not be able to test Sōsuke’s true abilities in a fight.

He was confident that his strength was not inferior to Hiruzen Sarutobi’s. Any intelligence Hiruzen Sarutobi could gain from the battle, he certainly could too.

Thinking of this, Ōnoki quickly convened a high-level meeting to discuss the matter.

After a period of discussion, Ōnoki’s proposal was approved by most of the high-ranking officials.

Although Iwagakure was preparing to turn against the Shinobi Sect, they hadn’t yet. What danger could there be in a friendly spar with an ally? At most, they would bring a few more guards.

Even Hiruzen Sarutobi, who had a grudge against the Shinobi Sect, managed to return to Konoha successfully, so their Third Tsuchikage would certainly not be left behind in the Shinobi Sect.

PS: The two chapters together are a little over 8k words. Please give me your monthly votes.

Also, I have a lot to say today, so I’ll put it in the author’s notes (it costs a bit more Qidian coins here if it’s over two hundred words).