Chapter 578 The most vigilant enemy

The Iwagakure Ninja who retreated under the cover of the Tailed Beast Ball regrouped, and the first thing they did was send the intelligence back to Iwagakure.

Ōnoki was in a very good mood because the weather was excellent.

Upon learning that it was news from the Land of Grass battlefield, he even smiled as he went to read it.

Because recently, almost every piece of news from the Land of Grass battlefield was a victory report, Ōnoki was even a little surprised by how smoothly things were going.

Against a lineup that included the Yellow Flash and Jiraiya, one of the Sannin, the Iwa Ninja Force led by Retsuishi managed to defeat Jiraiya’s forces repeatedly without suffering much loss.

“Intelligence unit made a mistake and fell into Konoha’s trap, resulting in heavy losses for the unit?” Ōnoki’s previously slightly upturned lips curved downwards.

“Hmm? How many people are left in the unit?” Ōnoki looked at the number of characters on the encrypted scroll, somewhat disbelieving.

He took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and then opened them again, but the number on it remained unchanged, still three hundred twenty-three, with no ‘one’ added before it.

Bang!

Ōnoki couldn’t help but slam his fist on the desk in his office, an expression of disbelief on his face.

That was a full two thousand Ninja unit, two thousand Ninja, not two thousand samurai or ordinary people, and after one defeat, it directly became three hundred twenty-three?

Ōnoki was about to faint; a two-thousand-man Ninja unit was reduced to just over three hundred.

Iwagakure had been developing cautiously for a long time, accumulating a reserve of twelve thousand Ninja, but now, one defeat had wiped out almost one-sixth of it.

His original plan was to use their numerical advantage to win a small victory against Konoha, consuming Konoha’s Ninja strength, and then, after Konoha sent more reinforcements, subtly lose once to Konoha, then naturally continue to hunker down and observe the situation.

The number of casualties Ōnoki could accept was five hundred; after all, it had to be a real fight, and no deaths were unrealistic.

But to lose nearly seventeen hundred in one go, Ōnoki found that quite unacceptable.

Among those seventeen hundred Ninja, there were also Jonin and elite Iwagakure Ninja from the Iwa Explosion Corps; how long would it take Iwagakure to cultivate so many Ninja again?

Ōnoki, with a dark expression, carefully read through all the intelligence.

If he were to summarize it, Iwakura’s eagerness had led the unit into an abyss.

The greatest responsibility must certainly be borne by Iwakura; he was the acting commander, the one who issued the orders.

Moreover, Iwakura was already dead, so no matter how great the responsibility placed on him, Iwakura would have no objection.

“Have them all return,” Ōnoki commanded.

Although three hundred Ninja was not a small number, since a two-thousand-man Ninja unit had been defeated, leaving the remaining three hundred would just be sending them to their deaths; it was better to call them back directly.

After all, for such a big matter, one dead person couldn’t bear the full weight of it.

Immediately after, Ōnoki quickly convened a high-level meeting, informing all of Iwagakure’s top brass about the latest battlefield intelligence.

After reading the intelligence, Chouki’s forehead was already covered in cold sweat.

When they had dispatched reinforcements, he had analyzed the benefits of sending reinforcements point by point.

Now that the front-line forces had suffered heavy losses, he bore a share of the responsibility.

Because if he hadn’t stood up to support sending reinforcements back then, even if all of Iwagakure’s Land of Grass forces had been wiped out, the casualties would not have reached the number of seventeen hundred.

“The casualties actually approached seventeen hundred! How many graduating classes from the Ninja Academy will it take to cultivate so many qualified Ninja? I said at the time that maintaining the status quo was the safest option!” Elder Muka, an Iwagakure Elder, glanced at Chouki and Retsuishi, saying with a displeased expression.

Elder Muka still remembered very clearly how Chouki and Retsuishi had refuted him back then.

Now, seeing Chouki and Retsuishi’s guilty looks, Elder Muka appeared angry, but secretly felt pleased.

Chouki subconsciously looked at Ōnoki, but Ōnoki did not show any intention of speaking.

Chouki showed a thoughtful expression, then spoke:

“Elder Muka, that’s not how it is. Although the casualties indicate heavy losses this time, it doesn’t mean our plan had problems.

Earlier, our forces had repeatedly made Konoha’s forces flee in disarray, which already proves that our general direction was not wrong.”

“It was just that the person executing the mission encountered an unexpected situation; Iwakura was not as mature as Retsuishi, which is why he fell into Konoha’s trap.

If Iwakura had not taken that aggressive action, our plan would have been perfectly completed.”

In fact, the overall trend of this Iwagakure war was similar to what Iwagakure wanted, which was to win first and then lose, but the one loss was too devastating.

Since the commanders for the win and the loss were different, Chouki skillfully attributed the win to their plan and shifted the blame for the loss to the deceased Iwakura.

“Moreover, our important fighting force, the Jinchuriki, also had problems; he actually disregarded everything and performed a full Tailed Beast Transformation in the center of the unit, using a Tailed Beast Ball on his comrades who were fighting, all to kill Konoha Ninja! This is simply intentional murder!

I suggest a psychological evaluation for Roshi; he might have been influenced by Tailed Beast Chakra and gone mad.”

“If Roshi could properly use his power to fight for Iwagakure, then even if the unit couldn’t defeat Konoha’s forces, breaking through shouldn’t have been a problem.”

Chouki, with a flick of his wrist, placed another large blame on Roshi’s head.

He wasn’t sure if breaking through was easy at the time, but now was a crucial moment for assigning blame, and what mattered was that it sounded reasonable.

“That’s right, a Jinchuriki like Roshi is too dangerous; he must be strictly monitored. If necessary, the Four-Tails can be extracted, and a new Jinchuriki can be chosen,” Chouki said, nodding in agreement.

With so many Ninja dead, an explanation was needed on all fronts, and Roshi conveniently had such a big flaw; he couldn’t think of a reason not to put the blame on Roshi.

Chouki and Chouki analyzed, trying their best to assign a portion of the blame to the high-ranking Iwagakure members who died in the unit.

In short, the core idea was that their plan and direction were not problematic; it was all due to failures in the actual execution by the unit.

Elder Muka remained silent; although their political views differed normally, the conflict wasn’t so great as to kick someone when they were down at this moment. A couple of sarcastic remarks were enough.

“Regarding the unit’s defeat, let’s stop here for now. What we need to pay attention to is the strength Konoha has displayed in this war,” Ōnoki said.

Assigning blame was very important, but analyzing the opponent was even more important than assigning blame.

Defeating other major Ninja Villages and making Iwagakure the number one Ninja Village in the Ninja World was the truly important matter.

“Hayate Mugetsu, this person will definitely be Iwagakure’s great enemy in the future,” Ōnoki said with a serious expression.

Ōnoki then took out a stack of documents and threw them in front of the Iwagakure high-ranking officials.

The Iwagakure high-ranking officials picked them up and looked through them, discovering that they were Muzuki’s personal files, containing all the intelligence Iwagakure had been able to gather.

“His first appearance on the battlefield was two and a half years ago, also on the Land of Grass battlefield. At that time, his strength was only slightly stronger than Kari’s, and he could only serve as support in battles with Jinchuriki,” Ōnoki said.

He paid close attention to Muzuki and Minato Namikaze and now knew Muzuki’s intelligence by heart.

“However, when he appeared on the Hidden Mist battlefield on the East Coast of the Land of Fire last year, his strength far surpassed his previous level.

Haku, a famous Ice Release Ninja from the Hidden Mist, along with the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist, encountered his squad, and the final result was that only two of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen survived, and most of the Ninja, including Haku, were killed by Hayate Mugetsu.”

“Moreover, in subsequent battles, Hozuki Mangetsu, a strong member of the Hozuki Clan, was also killed by Hayate Mugetsu. Hayate Mugetsu even teamed up with Orochimaru in a major battle to kill a Jinchuriki whose Tailed Beast had gone berserk.”

“This was just a year ago.”

As the Iwagakure high-ranking officials read Muzuki’s intelligence and listened to Ōnoki’s explanation, the image of a super genius instantly appeared in their minds.

“Even this year, he is still growing stronger at an astonishing rate,” Ōnoki continued in a deep voice.

“His Ice Release was only displayed last year during the battle with the Hidden Mist, but now he can freeze Jinchuriki, and his most powerful Ice Release can instantly kill more than a dozen Jonin.”

“Roshi, in his incomplete Tailed Beast Transformation, had almost no power to resist his Water Release.”

As they learned more about Muzuki, the Iwagakure high-ranking officials found it increasingly unbelievable.

They had seen young powerhouses before; Minato Namikaze of Konoha was one such example.

However, compared to Muzuki, Minato Namikaze was undoubtedly much more normal; before wreaking havoc on the battlefield, Minato Namikaze was already a somewhat well-known Jonin.

But Muzuki’s strength surged with each appearance, as if he had just entered a period of rapid development, which was very frightening.

“This year, he rarely used Fire Release in battles against our forces, but you must know one thing: he earned the title of ‘Blazing Sun’ on the Hidden Mist battlefield, and Fire Release was his most proficient Ninjutsu before.”

“I have no doubt that he can become a Ninja proficient in all elements like the Third Hokage. If he reaches the Third Hokage’s level, he will be stronger than the Third Hokage, because he also possesses Ice Release and the Flying Thunder God Technique.”

When Ōnoki described Muzuki in this way, the Iwagakure high-ranking officials instantly broke out in a cold sweat.

The Third Hokage was already incredibly strong; no Ninja in the current Ninja World dared to claim they could consistently defeat the Third Hokage.

If Muzuki could become an enhanced version of the Third Hokage, then Muzuki would most likely become the recognized number one in the Ninja World.

Looking at the expressions of the high-ranking officials, Ōnoki nodded slightly in his heart.

If he said this and the high-ranking officials still couldn’t recognize Muzuki’s danger, only treating Muzuki as a character similar to Minato Namikaze, then Iwagakure would truly be finished.

“If there’s an opportunity to kill Hayate Mugetsu, even sacrificing a two-thousand-man Ninja unit would be worth it!” Ōnoki said seriously.

An enhanced version of the Third Hokage appearing would be no less significant to the current Ninja World than the revival of Senju Hashirama or Uchiha Madara.

The Iwagakure high-ranking officials all nodded in agreement.

A two-thousand-man unit could be cultivated over time, but a genius like Muzuki, with such an extremely high potential, might not appear even in a hundred years.

Let alone a two-thousand-man Ninja unit, they even felt that exchanging a three-thousand-man Ninja unit for Muzuki’s life would not be a loss.

On this day, Muzuki ascended to the top of Iwagakure’s must-kill list.