Chapter 446: Increased Stakes, Impending War
Jiraiya, one of Konoha's Legendary Sannin, was dead.
This news quietly spread through Konoha, and only Konoha knew of it for now. Fukasaku had dragged his injured body back to the village and informed Tsunade, the Fifth Hokage, of Jiraiya's death.
He also directly stated the identity of the killer.
Amamiya Kenichi.
It was Konoha's S-rank rogue ninja, Kenichi, who had personally killed Jiraiya, the Toad Sage who had once shaken the Shinobi World.
He had also killed the great literary master of the Shinobi World.
From this day onward, Icha Icha Paradise and The Story of Me and Orochimaru Hime would be completely finished.
After all, the original author was dead.
No one would ever write their sequels again.
Tsunade sat expressionlessly in the Hokage's chair.
She looked at the office before her and felt that it was both familiar and strange. The Hokage's office was empty now. Even Konoha's elders, Homura Mitokado and Koharu Utatane, did not come to disturb her at a time like this.
Any high-ranking official in Konoha knew that Tsunade's mood would not be good right now.
Everyone knew the relationship between Tsunade and Jiraiya. Some sharper people could even see Jiraiya's feelings for Tsunade.
As for what Tsunade herself thought, she had once had a lover.
But he had been dead for a very long time.
Jiraiya had liked Tsunade for so many years. If Kato Dan had not remained a thorn buried deep in Tsunade's heart, perhaps the two of them would have become husband and wife long ago.
Unfortunately, they had not.
Jiraiya had confessed before, but Tsunade had refused. Her heart had never been able to let go of her former lover, Kato Dan, and she could never accept Jiraiya in that way.
Later, she gradually grew used to the relationship between herself and Jiraiya.
They were close comrades.
They were friends.
But they were not lovers.
Tsunade had always been aware of Jiraiya's feelings for her, but because he was so unreliable, she had always responded to him with violence. Yet even setting aside that romantic affection, Tsunade and Jiraiya had once been extremely close friends.
They had been comrades in the same squad.
But now, Jiraiya was dead.
Tsunade slowly clasped both hands over her head, painfully gripping her hair.
Only at this moment, after learning of Jiraiya's death, did Tsunade realize that it was impossible for her heart to feel nothing. After all, Jiraiya had accompanied her for so many years.
Such deep affection was extremely rare in the Shinobi World.
Especially since Jiraiya had also been a powerful ninja. Powerful ninja naturally held high status, and Jiraiya had also been very wealthy. Even so, he had never gotten together with anyone else.
Tsunade was in terrible pain.
She was a person.
She was a ninja.
She wanted to avenge Jiraiya.
But the village's original plan had been to first communicate with Kenichi and determine whether he truly intended to cooperate with Konoha. If he did, then Konoha would absorb the Land of Water and incorporate it into the territory of the Land of Fire.
That would be an immense achievement.
It had to be remembered that even during previous Shinobi World Wars, a powerful force like Konoha had rarely carried out major territorial expansion. The Land of Water was one of the Five Great Nations. Being able to absorb it would be enough to leave a heavy mark in the history books.
Even Nara Shikaku held great expectations for this matter.
After all, what if Kenichi was telling the truth?
Would Konoha not become the strongest force in the Shinobi World?
At that time, as long as Konoha maintained a period of peace and military deterrence, the village would eventually develop to a height that no other village could reach.
From the perspective of a Hokage, Tsunade had to support this decision.
It was her responsibility to the entire Konoha Ninja Village.
Under normal circumstances, annexing a country would be impossible without half the village's ninja dying. Even then, actually occupying the Land of Water might still be impossible, because the other countries would not simply stand by and watch.
But now, a perfect opportunity lay before Konoha.
Even though Tsunade knew there was something wrong with the intelligence.
Even though she knew that little bastard Kenichi would never cooperate obediently.
But what if?
What if it was true?
However, from the perspective of a ninja, the moment Tsunade thought that supporting this decision meant she might have to greet Kenichi with a smile in the future and enthusiastically cooperate with him, she felt as if she were going mad.
The thought alone filled her with hatred.
The Old Man had died.
Her teacher had died at Kenichi's hands.
Many Konoha ninja had died at Kenichi's hands.
And now, even Jiraiya had died at Kenichi's hands.
This was hatred carved deep into the bones.
But she had to greet him with a smile?
She had to enthusiastically discuss cooperation with him?
The moment she thought of this, Tsunade felt as though ants were crawling all over her body, making her unbearably uncomfortable.
"Ahhhhh!"
Tsunade furiously punched the metal desk.
The desk was instantly smashed through, and the floor beneath it was dented deeply by the immense force. The ANBU below looked up at the desk legs hanging from the ceiling and remained silent.
One ANBU silently added a desk to the damage report.
During this period, Hokage-sama had already smashed quite a few desks. He had once heard from a colleague during casual conversation that the Raikage of the Hidden Cloud Village had also smashed quite a few desks.
He wondered what sort of intelligence had made them so furious.
Just as the ANBU was thinking about how to purchase sturdier desks, another ANBU rushed up to the second floor.
All the ANBU immediately became alert.
At a time like this, anyone who dared go upstairs had to be carrying extremely important intelligence. Otherwise, no one would dare disturb Hokage-sama right now.
"Hokage-sama, urgent intelligence!"
The ANBU hurriedly pushed open the door, only to be met by a pair of cold eyes. Sweat immediately broke out across his forehead.
Tsunade took a few deep breaths. Then she stood up, took the intelligence, and glanced at it.
The next moment, the document crumbled into shreds in her hand.
The ANBU kept his head lowered, not daring to say a single word.
"Inform the Elder Council, Nara, Akimichi, and the other clan heads. Tell them to come for a meeting."
Tsunade's voice was calm.
The ANBU nodded, then quickly left.
Tsunade, however, remained standing in the Hokage's office, staring blankly at the ruins of the old Hokage Building nearby. Her thoughts were complicated.
"I never thought... I truly never thought..."
Tsunade murmured to herself.
"What I couldn't bring myself to do, the Daimyo actually did for me."
Then she let out a strange laugh.
It was a laugh that made anyone who heard it feel faintly unsettled.
Soon, Homura, Koharu, the clan heads of the Ino-Shika-Cho families, and the head of the Hyuga Clan all arrived at the Hokage's office.
"The Daimyo of the Land of Fire has issued a new mission request."
Tsunade's opening words stunned everyone.
"He is collaborating with the Daimyo of the other three countries to issue a war mission, demanding that our four Ninja Villages attack the Land of Water at the same time and eliminate the villains who have occupied it. The funding is five times the previous amount."
Five times?
What did that mean?
The previous war commission had already made every village extremely tempted.
And now, it had been increased fivefold?
"These people must have gone all in."
Homura narrowed his eyes.
"Before, whenever we asked for money, they dragged their feet. Now they're the ones in a hurry."
Koharu agreed.
In the past, whenever Konoha requested annual financial support, the Daimyo of the Land of Fire would often stall for half a day before releasing the funds.
"They're afraid."
Shikaku looked at the intelligence in his hand, rewritten by the ANBU, and shook his head.
"They're afraid this wave will sweep over them as well. There's still no news from the Daimyo of the Land of Water, and no spies can be planted there."
This was completely different from the plan Konoha had previously formulated.
Konoha had originally intended to send people to communicate with Kenichi first and then see whether he truly intended to submit to Konoha. Unexpectedly, before the envoys could even be sent out, the Daimyo had issued a new mission.
"The Daimyo has also spoken. As long as the Land of Water is captured, it will be divided into four parts, with each Ninja Village occupying one."
Tsunade spoke with a faint smile that did not reach her eyes.
She had been in great pain before, constantly tormented by the conflict between her duty as Hokage and her nature as a person.
But now, she no longer needed to agonize.
The conditions offered by the Daimyo were even more tempting.
Five times.
That was five times the original amount.
And the territory of the Land of Water could also be occupied.
There was no reason for the four Ninja Villages not to cooperate.
"So..."
Shikaku hesitated for a moment before putting forward his idea.
—-
"Lord Amamiya, urgent intelligence."
In the capital of the Land of Water, Kenichi had just been about to meet the designer he had found when Shiori quickly approached him.
Kenichi frowned slightly, but he still stopped.
His current intelligence network had not yet produced much useful news, and research on radar was also progressing slowly.
Hiruzen had refused to cooperate with him. That did not surprise Kenichi. After all, Jiraiya had died in front of Hiruzen, and there was no way to hide that news.
So now, the work of improving Wind Release ninjutsu had been handed over to Danzo.
"What intelligence?"
Kenichi knew this was most likely information from Kabuto. At present, his strongest spy was still Kabuto. Kabuto was still active throughout the Shinobi World, collecting intelligence for him. Because of Shiori, that intelligence could also be delivered quite promptly.
He wondered if it was related to Jiraiya.
After all, Jiraiya had been dead for some time now. During this period, the reconstruction of the Land of Water had also been slowly progressing. Kenichi knew that it was time to open the country.
However, once the country opened, spies mixing in would be unavoidable.
"Lord Amamiya, according to Kabuto's intelligence, the ninja of the Hidden Cloud Village seem to be gathering."
Shiori spoke in a low voice.
"Previously, there were rumors in the Hidden Cloud Village that the Heavenly Demon was merely an employer and that their casualties had nothing to do with him. But now, those rumors have disappeared. They've been replaced by claims that the Heavenly Demon is extremely evil."
Kenichi narrowed his eyes.
He had offered a pledge of allegiance to both Konoha and the Hidden Cloud Village, indicating his willingness to "submit" to them.
Judging from the previous rumors, the leadership of the Hidden Cloud Village should have been tempted.
But now, their attitude had suddenly changed.
That was very unusual.
The previous whitewashing had hinted at their intention. They wanted to guide public opinion and make people believe he was a good person so that cooperation between the village and himself would become acceptable.
But now, they had suddenly stopped whitewashing him and had begun attacking him instead.
That meant the leadership of the Hidden Cloud Village had changed its attitude toward him.
"Have any of the people sent to infiltrate the Daimyo sent back intelligence?"
Kenichi looked at Shiori.
When he first established the intelligence network, he had entrusted it to Kabuto and some ANBU captured from the Land of Water.
After discussion among them, and at Kenichi's request, spies had been dispatched to the Ninja Villages and to the sides of each Daimyo. Some time had already passed since then, so he wondered whether they had obtained any intelligence.
The Ninja Villages were more dangerous. There were too many ways for a Ninja Village to identify spies.
But the Daimyo were different.
Most Daimyo only had a few ninja guards around them, and the strongest among those guards were usually jonin. Most of them were ninja arranged by each country's Ninja Village to carry out that duty.
Under such circumstances, it would be easier to infiltrate and obtain intelligence from the Daimyo's side.
However, because the Daimyo were ordinary people after all, no Ninja Village had paid much attention to planting spies near them in the past.
There had been no need.
Moreover, the Daimyo of the Shinobi World held noble status, so most people would never have such thoughts.
But Kenichi did not think these fat, greedy rats had anything noble about them. Even if they were Celestial Dragons, he would step on their heads today and see whether the body structure of these dogs was the same as that of humans.
So Kenichi had planted spies among the Daimyo.
"Lord Amamiya's insight is truly sharp. According to the intelligence, the Daimyo seem to have been transferring their assets recently."
Shiori's tone was sincere.
She truly had not expected Kenichi's request to plant spies near the Daimyo to actually produce results.
Kenichi stroked his chin after hearing this.
The Daimyo were transferring their assets?
What were these people transferring their assets for?
Thinking of the joint mission issued by the Daimyo earlier, Kenichi considered a possibility.
His actions might have frightened these Daimyo.
They were afraid that their wealth would be plundered in the same way, so they wanted to strike first.
And he was that target.
However, he had previously ambushed the main camp of the Ninja Allied Forces and caused heavy casualties to the coalition.
As a result, these Daimyo had become even more frightened.
Either they were transferring their assets to hide them elsewhere, or they intended to use those assets to attack him.
Combined with the Hidden Cloud Village's sudden change in propaganda, Kenichi felt that it was more likely the Daimyo had increased the stakes.
And since Jiraiya had died at his hands, Konoha would probably also choose to attack him without hesitation.
"How troublesome."
Kenichi sighed.
Things were troublesome now.
The reason he had gone through the effort of offering pledges of allegiance was to stir up chaos in the Shinobi World so that he could develop during the confusion.
He had not expected these Daimyo to be like startled birds.
"Cede five cities today, ten cities tomorrow, and gain one night of peace..."
Kenichi muttered to himself.
Could these Daimyo truly remain united?
He did not believe it.
He would test them.
As long as even one of them was not firm, there would always be a way.
.....
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