Chapter 720: Sosuke Information

“I think we can ally with Iwagakure. If we also bring in Hidden Mist, then the Five Great Ninja Villages will be gathered together, and we can deal with the Shinobi Sect at the lowest possible cost,” Homura Mitokado suggested first.

He always believed the Shinobi Sect was no small threat, and now that there was an opportunity to eliminate it, they naturally had to seize it.

Without Sōsuke, Muzuki would have no rivals in the Ninja World, and then no one would be able to stop Konoha’s development; Konoha would become stronger than ever before.

“If the Shinobi Sect grows, the landscape of the Ninja World will change again, which is not good for our Konoha,” Utatane Koharu followed up.

Konoha was undoubtedly the biggest beneficiary of the current Ninja World structure; as long as the status quo was maintained and no major changes occurred in the future, no Ninja Village could catch up to Konoha.

And the Shinobi Sect was an exceptional variable.

Both the Shinobi Sect’s development model and Sōsuke’s strength could impact Konoha’s dominant position.

“Let’s test their attitude. If there are no problems, I think we can participate,” Hiruzen Sarutobi said after some thought.

From a personal standpoint, Hiruzen Sarutobi didn’t really hate Sōsuke anymore.

It was true that Sōsuke killed Danzo Shimura, but Sōsuke didn’t attack Konoha to kill Danzo Shimura; Danzo Shimura went looking for trouble himself and was counter-killed.

After that battle, Hiruzen Sarutobi understood that Sōsuke was not a petty person.

Hiruzen Sarutobi had threatened Sōsuke with war to force him into battle, yet Sōsuke still held back against him.

Danzo Shimura was likely killed by Sōsuke because he did something excessive in the Land of Rain.

However, personal feelings are personal feelings; from the perspective of Konoha’s development, the Shinobi Sect’s growth must be curbed.

Otherwise, if the Shinobi Sect opened a branch in the Land of Rivers this year and another in Land of Grass next year, wouldn’t Konoha be surrounded by the Shinobi Sect?

If the Shinobi Sect didn’t expand everywhere, Hiruzen Sarutobi would still be willing to continue peaceful development with the Shinobi Sect.

“Minato, what do you think?”

Muzuki didn’t state his own thoughts but instead asked Minato Namikaze, who had been silent since the meeting began.

“I think we can observe a bit longer,” Minato Namikaze replied after thinking for half a minute.

“Sōsuke’s strength is so immense; even if the assassination truly succeeds, the cost will be considerable.”

Although Minato Namikaze had not personally witnessed Sōsuke in action, he was aware of Konoha’s top-secret intelligence regarding Sōsuke.

Even their Third Hokage had no power to retaliate against Sōsuke.

For such an extraordinary powerhouse, Minato Namikaze believed that only a large number of strong individuals, fearless of death, going to besiege him, and with a strong individual like Muzuki leading the team, would an assassination possibly succeed.

Besides the cost, Minato Namikaze was somewhat repulsed by the action itself.

This action would undoubtedly break the peace of the Ninja World and plunge it back into chaos.

If the assassination succeeded, the Shinobi Sect would definitely go mad. Unlike the leaders of ordinary forces, Sōsuke was the founder of the Shinobi Sect, its spiritual leader.

At that time, a maddened Shinobi Sect would very likely retaliate against the Great Shinobi Villages at all costs, and war would naturally break out.

If too many strong individuals from various villages were killed or injured during the assassination of Sōsuke, the individual Ninja Villages themselves would be at risk of falling into chaos.

With these two factors combined, the Ninja World truly couldn’t avoid war.

If Sōsuke didn’t die, the outcome would naturally be endless conflict.

Rationally, Minato Namikaze felt that Hiruzen Sarutobi and the others had a point, but emotionally, Minato Namikaze felt a bit uncomfortable.

When the Shinobi World War had just ended, Konoha proactively caused trouble, yet Sōsuke did not harm Hiruzen Sarutobi.

However, Minato Namikaze was ultimately a Ninja, and ultimately a Konoha high-ranking official, so he did not explicitly object, merely not agreeing.

“Indeed, the cost will not be light, and we must consider it carefully,” Muzuki nodded and said.

“There’s no such thing as a benefit without risk. If we continue to let the Shinobi Sect develop, the cost required to deal with it in the end will only become greater and greater,” Homura Mitokado quickly said, seeing that Muzuki was leaning towards Minato Namikaze.

It was precisely because he had witnessed Sōsuke in battle that Homura Mitokado felt Sōsuke must be eliminated.

Sōsuke was not only strong himself, but also had impressive teaching abilities, and coupled with Nagato being a super genius, if Nagato inherited Sōsuke’s skills, Konoha might even be surpassed by the Shinobi Sect.

Although Kakashi and Obito were excellent, they might not necessarily become the next Muzuki.

“Fourth Hokage, you must consider this carefully.”

With that, Homura Mitokado winked at Hiruzen Sarutobi, signaling him to help persuade Muzuki.

Although Hiruzen Sarutobi was not Muzuki’s teacher, Hiruzen Sarutobi was definitely a patron who helped Muzuki become Hokage.

Therefore, Homura Mitokado felt that Hiruzen Sarutobi would carry a lot of weight with Muzuki and could influence Muzuki’s decision.

“The cost is a problem that must be considered,” Hiruzen Sarutobi mused for a moment.

After affirming Minato’s words, Hiruzen Sarutobi continued:

“However, expressing our stance doesn’t mean we will directly dispatch Ninja to assassinate Sōsuke. We can first discuss it with them. If it’s feasible and the cost is acceptable, then we will proceed with the alliance.”

He still leaned towards allying with other Great Shinobi Villages to curb the Shinobi Sect’s development, as this would truly benefit Konoha without harm.

If Iwagakure had approached Hiruzen Sarutobi when he wanted to avenge Danzo Shimura, Hiruzen Sarutobi would have definitely joined directly, bringing Hidden Mist along to eliminate the Shinobi Sect.

Thump-thump.

Muzuki’s finger tapped the table almost imperceptibly, showing a thoughtful expression.

“Then let’s do as the Sandaime said and discuss it with them first.” Just as Hiruzen Sarutobi was about to speak again, Muzuki spoke.

Minato Namikaze seemed about to speak but then held back, finally remaining silent.

This decision had already taken his opinion into account; in this Ninja World, peaceful development was still too difficult.

Konoha did not rush to reply to Iwagakure but instead sent the message to Hidden Mist, asking for Hidden Mist’s opinion.

If they could bring Hidden Mist onto the war chariot, that would naturally be excellent; an alliance of the Five Great Ninja Villages was something that had never happened since the era of Ninja Villages began.

Upon receiving Konoha’s message, the Third Mizukage urgently convened a high-level meeting to discuss the matter.

Ultimately, all high-ranking officials unanimously agreed that following Konoha, the elder brother, was the correct course of action.

If Konoha participated, they would participate; if Konoha ultimately did not participate, they would not participate either.

Mainly, Hidden Mist truly had no other good options.

If they didn’t participate, how Konoha would view Hidden Mist was one issue, and if the other Four Great Shinobi Villages all participated while Hidden Mist, a Great Shinobi Village, didn’t, wouldn’t that make them seem out of place?

They could only follow Konoha’s choice.

After confirming Hidden Mist’s intention, Konoha officially replied to Iwagakure, stating their willingness to hold talks and discussions first.

“Indeed, Konoha cannot tolerate a continuously expanding Shinobi Sect.” Ōnoki breathed a sigh of relief as he read Konoha’s reply.

If they couldn’t bring Konoha onto the war chariot, the Shinobi Alliance would inevitably have conflicts due to the Shinobi Sect’s advance into the Land of Rivers.

Kumogakure clearly did not want to have a major conflict with the Shinobi Sect over this matter. How the Land of Rivers fared did not affect the Land of Lightning and Hidden Cloud Village.

On the contrary, if the conflict was directly laid bare, the cooperation between Hidden Cloud Village and Six Paths City would immediately end.

While the Shinobi Alliance secretly plotted against the Shinobi Sect, Iwagakure and Kumogakure actually had quite a bit of overt cooperation with the Shinobi Sect.

Kumogakure’s cooperation with Six Paths City primarily began after the Shinobi Sect focused on developing technology.

Although Kumogakure Ninja often gave the impression of being reckless, Kumogakure’s technological level was actually very high, at the top tier in the Ninja World, especially in terms of electricity.

Bringing Konoha in gave them a chance to directly take down the Shinobi Sect in one fell swoop, which was completely different from organizing against the Shinobi Sect’s expansion in the Land of Rivers.

Even if the cooperation ended, Kumogakure would not feel like they lost out.

Rasa was even happier than Ōnoki.

This was absolutely the best news he had heard since the end of the Shinobi World War; Rasa was so happy he wanted to drink and celebrate.

The Five Kage discussing how to deal with a small Shinobi Sect—could they not handle it?

It’s a sure thing!

However, before the leaders of the Five Great Ninja Villages could begin their meeting, they started to feel a bit bewildered just by exchanging information.

“Sōsuke’s defensive Ninjutsu can actually block even Ōnoki’s full-power Dust Release?!” Hiruzen Sarutobi mumbled, holding the intelligence shared by the Shinobi Alliance.

During the battle, Sōsuke had tanked everything except for the Five Great Consecutive Shots, where he used another method to evade. Therefore, Hiruzen Sarutobi had thought Sōsuke’s defensive Ninjutsu couldn’t withstand the bombardment of the Five Great Consecutive Shots.

But in terms of power, Ōnoki’s Dust Release was stronger than his Five Great Consecutive Shots.

If even Ōnoki’s full-power Dust Release couldn’t break Sōsuke’s defense, then his Five Great Consecutive Shots had even less chance.

So, the reason Sōsuke used another method back then was very simple: he used it because he wanted to.

Hiruzen Sarutobi felt a bit hurt.

This feeling was like doing something you considered very embarrassing, carefully observing your surroundings, only to find that no one cared at all, making you even more embarrassed.

“Sōsuke actually has the ability to nullify Ninjutsu,” Ōnoki frowned deeply.

Compared to Sōsuke, the previous God of Shinobi, Senju Hashirama, seemed more like a normal Ninja.

Senju Hashirama instantly creating a forest, Uchiha Madara spitting out a sea of flames—these were easily understood, Nature Transformation, lots of Chakra.

But what in the world was Sōsuke? Defensive Ninjutsu that easily blocked Dust Release, an unknown secret technique that nullified the Five Great Consecutive Shots in the blink of an eye, and he could even conjure heavy black Ninja tools out of thin air.

The cooperation between the Five Great Ninja Villages temporarily fell into a stalemate.

They sent their respective confidants to discuss, but they couldn’t come up with any results.

Because Sōsuke, according to the intelligence, was truly difficult to kill.

His defensive Ninjutsu, capable of blocking Dust Release, and his ability to nullify Ninjutsu gave Sōsuke maximum survivability. Coupled with his powerful Taijutsu, very few people could stop Sōsuke if he wanted to escape.

Someone came up with a plan: each Great Shinobi Village would send a group of elites to block Sōsuke with their lives, to exhaust Sōsuke’s Chakra, and then the top-tier strong individuals, led by Muzuki, would enter the fray.

After all, no matter how strong a Ninja was, their Chakra was ultimately limited. If Chakra was insufficient, no matter how powerful they were, it would be useless.

But this created a new problem: how could so many elite Ninja get close to Sōsuke?

Such a large number of Ninja going to the Shinobi Sect together could directly take over the Land of Rain.

With that many Ninja, if Sōsuke couldn’t detect them, he wouldn’t deserve to be considered the new God of Shinobi by the Great Shinobi Villages.

Moreover, the cost for this would be truly immense. Not to mention Konoha and Hidden Mist disagreeing, there were strong dissenting voices even within the Shinobi Alliance.

They wanted to kill Sōsuke, but not for the sake of killing; they each had their own motives and didn’t want to lose too much strength.

However, things quickly took a turn for the better.

The Shinobi Sect announced that it would hold another Martial Arts Tournament. This time, there would be no age limit, and the first-place winner could even challenge Sōsuke.

The astute Ōnoki immediately smelled the opportunity hidden within.

A Martial Arts Tournament meant they could legitimately bring a large number of elite strong individuals to Six Paths City.

Furthermore, challenging Sōsuke himself was a rare assassination opportunity.

As the reward for winning first place, Sōsuke would certainly hold back against the winner.

If the winner was a top-tier strong individual like Muzuki, even if they couldn’t kill Sōsuke alone, they could exhaust a large amount of Sōsuke’s stamina and Chakra.

At that point, if the elites of the Five Great Ninja Villages then swarmed him, where would Sōsuke run? At most, he would take a few people down with him.

Due to the Shinobi Alliance, Rasa and the Third Raikage were the first to learn of Ōnoki’s idea.

Rasa could only say that the older the ginger, the spicier it was. Ōnoki truly lived up to his reputation as an old hand who had been active in the Ninja World since the early days of the Ninja Village era; he was truly cunning.

Not long after, Konoha and Hidden Mist also learned of Ōnoki’s latest plan.

After some discussion among Konoha’s high-ranking officials, they concluded that this Martial Arts Tournament was indeed an opportunity. Thus, they decided to truly join the alliance, bringing Hidden Mist and the Shinobi Alliance together to assassinate Sōsuke.

However, Konoha did not directly agree to Ōnoki’s plan but instead proposed a top-level discussion, inviting the Kage of each village to the Land of Fire to deliberate on the final plan.

Hiruzen Sarutobi and the others generally agreed with Ōnoki’s plan; they just didn’t want Muzuki to be the one to challenge Sōsuke.

Theoretically, there would be no danger during the challenge process.

But why would Konoha gamble with Muzuki, the Hokage who was destined to become the next God of Shinobi?

After some haggling, the Kage of the Great Shinobi Villages all agreed to Konoha’s proposal.

Not agreeing truly wasn’t an option; Konoha had many strong individuals, and to kill Sōsuke, Konoha was an indispensable force.

The final meeting was held in the Land of Fire, near the border of the Land of Rice Fields.

As the meeting was held in secret, Ōnoki and the others brought only a few Ninja.

Of course, although the number was small, every single one was a master among the Jonin.

Originally, such a “Five Kage Summit” only had five seats; only the Kage were entitled to sit and hold the meeting.

But Hiruzen Sarutobi also came. As a former Hokage, the Kage couldn’t refuse to show respect, so they added a seat for Hiruzen Sarutobi, next to Muzuki.

Minato Namikaze could only stand behind Muzuki.

Fourth Raikage Ay, standing behind the Third Raikage, looked at Minato Namikaze with some regret.

It wouldn’t be long before he inherited the title of Raikage, but Minato Namikaze, it seemed, would not be able to become Hokage.

By the time Muzuki stepped down, Minato Namikaze would already be past the age for becoming Hokage, after all, they were both young.