Chapter 305: Ohnoki's headache! Iwagakure's dilemma!
The border between the Land of Fire and the Land of Hot Water.
Thick fog permeated the air, reducing visibility to less than three meters.
In the silent forest, only the drip-drop of water sliding off leaves could be heard.
A Kumogakure patrol team was cautiously making its way through it.
The leading Kumogakure Jonin made a gesture, and the team immediately stopped.
"Something's wrong."
He whispered, his eyes vigilantly scanning the surroundings.
"It's too quiet."
Suddenly.
Pfft!
The soft sound of a blade piercing flesh echoed behind him.
The Jonin whirled around!
He saw one of his teammates, a line of blood spurting from his throat, a look of incredulous shock still on his face, silently collapse.
"Enemy attack!"
He was about to roar out.
Swish!
A black shadow, like a ghost, darted out from the thick fog beside him!
Too fast!
What was going on?
Carrying endless confusion, his world plunged into eternal darkness.
A few minutes later, the thick fog dissipated.
In the forest, only a few still-warm corpses remained.
The same scene was constantly playing out on another border.
Iwagakure's supply lines were frequently attacked by unknown Ninja.
The opponents appeared and disappeared like ghosts, proficient in Water Release and silent killing techniques, striking and retreating without ever engaging in prolonged combat.
Initially, the high-ranking officials of Kumogakure and Iwagakure both believed this was just Konoha having recruited some Hidden Mist rogue Ninja to form a small harassment force.
After all, Konoha was heavily guarded, and their spies simply couldn't penetrate to obtain core intelligence.
The two Ninja Villages merely thought this was Konoha's strategy to exhaust them. Although annoyed, they didn't truly take it to heart.
Until… their Anbu, dispatched to the Land of Water, sent back a chilling message.
Kirigakure… was empty!
The entire Village was deserted!
Not only that, the entire Land of Water had been taken over by the Land of Fire's army!
The Land of Water had fallen!
Only then did Kumogakure and Iwagakure realize with horror that Konoha had swallowed the entire Kirigakure, along with the Land of Water, in one gulp!
...The table in front of the Raikage was in pieces.
Wood chips flew, scattering in all directions.
"Bastard!"
Terrifying Lightning Release Chakra wildly emanated from the Raikage's body, producing crackling explosions.
"Those Hidden Mist bastards!"
"How dare they defect to Konoha!"
"What do they take the dignity of a Ninja Village for?!"
The Raikage's roar made the entire camp hum.
Darui and Mabui stood by, not daring to breathe.
Darui looked lazy, but his mind was frantically complaining.
"Seriously, I have to get a new table again… This is already the third one this week, isn't it?"
Mabui, on the other hand, maintained her usual composure.
"Konoha!"
"Uchiha Akira!"
"He annexed Sunagakure, and now he's annexed Hidden Mist! Who does he think he is?!"
"Immediately assemble the troops!"
"I'm going to personally twist off Uchiha Akira's head and smash him into a pulp!"
The Raikage's rage had reached its peak.
"Raikage-sama, please calm down."
Mabui finally spoke up to dissuade him.
He glared at her fiercely.
"Calm down?!"
"How can I calm down?!"
"To what extent has Konoha's strength expanded now?! If we wait any longer, after he completely digests Hidden Mist's power, will we still have a chance?!"
Mabui pushed up her glasses.
"Precisely for that reason, we need to be even calmer."
"According to the latest intelligence, Kirigakure has collectively migrated and merged into Konoha."
"Although Hidden Mist experienced the brutal civil war of the Village of the Bloody Mist, no Ninja who survived that environment is weak; they are all the elite of the elite."
"Konoha annexed Sunagakure, gaining a large amount of labor and resources. Now it has also obtained this elite assassination force from Hidden Mist."
"At this moment, Konoha's strength is far beyond our imagination."
Darui yawned and lazily added.
"Yes, Raikage-sama."
"Going head-to-head with Konoha now is too troublesome."
"Moreover, don't forget we also have an old man on the sidelines watching us fight like tigers."
"If we and Konoha fight to the death, it will only benefit Ōnoki of Iwagakure."
"That old fox is eager for us to rush in and be cannon fodder right now."
Although Darui's words sounded unenthusiastic, they accurately hit the mark.
Although an alliance had been formed, its actual cohesion was appallingly low. Neither Kumogakure nor Iwagakure dared to launch an attack first.
Uchiha Akira was not a useless person like the Third Hokage.
As long as either Kumogakure or Iwagakure launched a full-scale attack, it would definitely become Konoha's main offensive target.
This was something neither the Raikage nor Ōnoki wanted to see.
After a moment of furious anger, the Raikage quickly calmed down and began to consider the current situation.
That's right.
Going to war with Konoha now would inevitably cost Kumogakure dearly.
At that time, even if they could win a tragic victory, that old man Ōnoki would absolutely not hesitate to stab them in the back, swallowing the fruits of victory from both Kumogakure and Konoha whole!
The Raikage took a deep breath, and the anger in his chest was finally forcibly suppressed by reason.
"Deliver my orders!"
"Border troops, retreat and enter the highest state of alert!"
"Try to avoid large-scale conflicts with Konoha!"
"Yes!"
Mabui and Darui responded simultaneously… Iwagakure.
The atmosphere in the Tsuchikage's office was incredibly heavy.
Ōnoki floated in mid-air, deeply worried.
On the table, there was also an urgent intelligence report about Hidden Mist's surrender to Konoha.
This news, for Iwagakure, which was already in a difficult situation, was undoubtedly adding insult to injury.
"Everyone, speak."
Ōnoki's voice carried a hint of fatigue.
"What should we do now?"
Below, the Iwagakure high-ranking officials looked at each other, each as silent as a cicada in winter.
After a long time, Kitsuchi finally spoke in a muffled voice.
"Father, since things have come to this, we can only strengthen our cooperation with Kumogakure and jointly resist Konoha."
"Nonsense!"
Ōnoki cursed angrily.
"Of course I know we need to cooperate with Kumogakure!"
"What I'm asking is, how do we fight?!"
"How strong is Konoha now? That brat Uchiha Akira alone flattened Sunagakure! Now he has the elites of the entire Kirigakure too!"
"What do we have to fight him with?!"
Kitsuchi shrank his neck after being scolded, not daring to speak further.
Ōnoki surveyed everyone present.
Kitsuchi had strength but lacked sharpness; he was a competent general but not a strategist who could decide the outcome of a battle.
Akatsuchi was loyal and had astonishing defense, but his mind… wasn't very bright.
As for the others… Ōnoki felt a headache growing the more he looked.
The old were old, the young were young, and there was a gap in the intermediate strength.
Such a large Iwagakure, yet he couldn't find a single genius who could shoulder the main responsibility!
"We are so short of people…"
"So short of a genius who, like the Yellow Flash or Uchiha Akira, can change the course of a battle by himself!"
[Inorin's Note:
Enjoying the story? Dropping a quick review, comment, or Power Stone means the world to me and keeps these daily updates flowing!
Want to read 50 chapters ahead or just want to help keep a shameless translator alive? (My livelihood actually depends on this, haha 😭). You can support me directly here:
(P.S. Just remove the brackets and replace the [.] with a regular dot . to use the links!)
✨ Patreon (50 Advanced Chapters): patreon[.]com/InorinTL
☕ Ko-fi (Support / Sponsor): ko-fi[.]com/InorinTL
Thank you so much for reading and keeping this project alive!]