Naruto: The Age of Ninja Swords Begins in Kumogakure

Was Chapter 247 wrong?

Tamura and the others guessed correctly; after arriving at the front-line camp, Hiruzen Sarutobi did indeed intend to organize the ninja army to go and fight as soon as possible.

Although Hiashi Hyuga's chakra was powerful before, it was far inferior to that of the Otsutsuki relic. In addition, Hiashi Hyuga's reaction of fleeing immediately upon seeing the Otsutsuki relic showed that he was definitely at a disadvantage in terms of strength.

After that, Hiashi Hyuga never appeared again, most likely because he was taken over by the Otsutsuki Rei.

This is enough to prove the strength of Otsutsuki Shari, and I must organize the ninja army as soon as possible to attack Kikyo Mountain.

To avoid any unforeseen complications, the war should begin before the Four Villages Alliance obtains information about the Otsutsuki Relic.

However, upon arrival, he found the morale to be very low, especially since his most prized disciple had become a drunkard and hadn't even attended the battle meeting he had convened.

"Hokage-sama!"

Upon seeing the arrival of the Third Hokage, Minato Namikaze, who was looking after Jiraiya, bowed respectfully.

No matter how wicked this old guy may be, he is still my teacher's teacher and has taught me before, so he deserves the respect he deserves.

"I'd like to speak with your teacher privately."

He waved for the boy to leave, and looked at his disciple sprawled on the bed, feeling utterly disappointed in him.

Minato Namikaze glanced at his teacher and silently withdrew.

"Stop pretending to be asleep. Tsunade was only captured by the Hidden Cloud Village, not killed. Judging from the Hidden Cloud Village's behavior in recent years, they definitely want to use this to plot against the Senju clan. As long as we capture those important figures from the Hidden Cloud Village, we can force them to exchange Tsunade for us."

After staring at him for a while, Hiruzen Sarutobi finally spoke. Now, the only way to provoke him was to offer the promise of rescuing Tsunade.

"I know that Kumogakure wants to use Tsunade to plot against the Senju, but will Sensei let them succeed?"

Opening his eyes, Jiraiya struggled to sit up and leaned against the headboard, asking a question with a hint of drunkenness.

He's not stupid; he understands a lot of things. He just doesn't want to deal with them, but some things can't be avoided just by ignoring them.

"Do you also think your teacher is wrong?"

With a sigh, Hiruzen Sarutobi showed signs of exhaustion; since becoming Hokage, he had no way out.

The old friends pushed him forward, and the family also pushed him forward.

The Senju faction and the Uchiha wanted to oust him, but for his own sake, for his wife and children, for his clan, and for his comrades, he had no choice but to keep moving forward.

This is his predicament over the past twenty years. The position of Hokage is tempting, but it's not easy to hold.

"I don't know, and I don't want to know, but I will participate in the upcoming final battle. But how confident are you, teacher? We can't afford another defeat."

After a long silence, Jiraiya moved on from those matters and began to talk about the upcoming decisive battle.

Actually, Minato had just told him about the contents of the war meeting, and he knew that tomorrow all the troops would be mobilized to fight the four-village coalition.

This time, the teacher really used all his strength, completely emptying the village.

They cannot afford to lose this battle!

"I have found a powerful ally who can help us defeat the four-village alliance. He also has a grudge against Kumogakure and wants to kill the Third Raikage."

Hiruzen Sarutobi was very confident about this. The battle that broke out at the Valley of the End had shocked him. Afterwards, he even sent a shadow clone to observe it. The traces left by that battle were no less than those left by the First Hokage's battle with Madara Uchiha.

With such powerful allies joining, defeating the four-village coalition will be a foregone conclusion.

Even if the Third Raikage were to descend, he would never be a match for that person.

"I see!"

He breathed a sigh of relief, and Jiraiya felt even more confident.

He didn't know who the teacher's ally was, nor did he want to know, as that might lead to some troublesome matters, so it was better not to ask.

"Get some rest. You'll be a key player in tomorrow's battle."

Hiruzen Sarutobi gave a word of advice before turning and leaving, heading straight to Orochimaru, who was conducting experiments in a laboratory.

He had just discovered that Orochimaru hadn't gone there in person, but had only sent a shadow clone.

"What brings you here, teacher?"

Hearing footsteps behind him, Orochimaru did not stop his experiment and asked a question without turning around.

Where is Danzo?

Hiruzen Sarutobi spoke, absolutely certain that Danzo was not dead; either the one there was a wooden clone, or he had somehow managed to escape.

Moreover, according to what the Uchiha clan chief said, Danzo or his subordinates may have mastered the Flying Thunder God Technique of the Second Hokage.

Recalling how Danzo had secretly switched the Second Hokage's Thor's Sword a few years ago, he became even more certain.

That old friend has been hiding far too much from me.

With a smile playing on his lips, Orochimaru stopped what he was doing, turned around, and looked at the teacher.

"Master, you underestimated Shimura Danzo's ambition. He truly regarded you as his rival, and I have never been truly trusted by him."

He truly didn't know where Shimura Danzo was now, nor did he have any intention of looking for him.

At this stage, Danzo has little use for him anymore, and since their previous collaborations were quite pleasant, he doesn't want to become enemies with Shimura Danzo.

After staring intently at the disciple for a while, Hiruzen Sarutobi asked pointedly, "And what about you?"

When they went to the southeastern front together last time, he noticed that this disciple had changed. He was very different from before and was now in greater danger.

"I dare not become my teacher's enemy, but I also do not want to be a tool to be toyed with in my teacher's hands. Now and in the future, I only want to pursue the true meaning of power."

Orochimaru made it clear that he really didn't want to participate in that kind of power struggle anymore, nor did he want to become Hokage and be bound by those boring things in the village like his teacher.

It would be better to use that time to do more experiments and continue researching those immortal bloodline inheritances.

The more you study those Sage Bloodlines, the more you can feel the terrifying power within them. This is much more interesting than becoming the so-called Hokage.

"Seeking power is fine, but I hope you don't go astray!"

After another moment of silence, Hiruzen Sarutobi left with a final word before turning and departing.

Both disciples are intelligent, especially Orochimaru. There's no need to say many things aloud; everyone understands what's going on.

He could feel that he was growing increasingly distant from this disciple, something he had anticipated. He did feel quite sorry for this disciple in some ways.

But those were all unavoidable choices; everything was for the sake of the village.

"The Byakugan really does have a path of evolution."

Watching his teacher leave, Orochimaru turned to look at a piece of meat being processed, his eyes gleaming.

He knew about the support team being ambushed by a mysterious powerful figure halfway through their journey and the unusual behavior of the Hyuga clan head. He also understood that it was the evolutionary path of the Byakugan. Clearly, the Hyuga Byakugan was truly worthy of being compared to the Sharingan, but it hadn't been shown before.

"These ordinary materials are a bit lacking; we need to get better ones."

Licking his lips, Orochimaru needed even better material, such as the main members of the Hyuga clan, preferably the flesh and blood of the Hyuga clan leader, Hyuga Hiashi.

Then another powerful figure appeared, most likely the powerful member of the lunar race mentioned in Hao Jun's original intelligence report.

That must be the source of the teacher's confidence in this battle. The two must have reached some kind of deal, and Hyuga Hiashi was the victim of that deal.

"Konoha is much more interesting than other ninja villages!"

Orochimaru was increasingly reluctant to leave Konoha, as it held far more promise than other ninja villages.

Even though Kumogakure has only received scraps and leftovers in recent years, it is far inferior to Konoha.

After calming his thoughts, Orochimaru continued to manipulate the piece of flesh in his hand.

After receiving the intelligence, he focused on studying the flesh and blood cells of the Hyuga clan, a path previously unknown and worthy of careful study.

However, after studying for only a short while, someone else came over, forcing him to stop his research, and his face showed even more helplessness.

"Couldn't you have come with the teacher?"

Without even turning around, one could tell that it was that idiot Jiraiya who was coming; right now, he was the only one in the camp who reeked of alcohol.

"I wanted to talk to you back when we were in the southeast, but I never had the chance."

This time, upon arriving in the southeast, they were ambushed again by the combined forces of four villages.

Scratching his head, Jiraiya could also see the change in his friend, which made him feel a sense of unfamiliarity and unease.

"Is there anything we can talk about?"

Orochimaru turned around and looked at Jiraiya with a leisurely air.

Let's talk about the future of the village.

Speaking out on a topic he had long wanted to discuss, Jiraiya revealed that he had been feeling lost and worried about the village's situation.

"This topic is too big, but it can be simplified to just a few people."

Teacher, Shimura Danzo, Senju Tokisui, Uchiha Fugaku, Hyuga Hiashi, and your disciple Namikaze Minato.

To summarize, it's about Naruto. This is an irreconcilable conflict; no one can reconcile it—not me, not interested, and not you either.

Orochimaru wasn't surprised by Jiraiya's question; that was just his idiotic nature—always meddling in things that weren't his concern.

For example, a few years ago, he always clamored to go on a trip to find the chosen one of destiny that the toad spoke of.

If those toads really had the ability to foresee the future, how could they have been wiped out by the Hidden Cloud Village?

Moreover, it is said that the old toad on Mount Myōboku has lived for over a thousand years, and the Sage of Six Paths also existed approximately a thousand years ago. The fact that they lived at the same point in time makes him think more deeply about it.

"Why is there a new Hyuga Hiashi? He seems to be the new head of the Hyuga clan. Is he qualified to compete for the Hokage position?"

Jiraiya was taken aback; how come there was another Hyuga Hiashi?

"If you have nothing else to say, get lost and don't disturb my experiments."

Orochimaru lost interest in continuing the conversation and turned back to continue fiddling with the piece of flesh.

Jiraiya wanted to say something more, but seeing his friend's expression, he knew he couldn't say anything more and could only leave, feeling puzzled and frustrated.

Although he was puzzled, he didn't bother to investigate Hiashi Hyuga's matter. After all, there was a big battle tomorrow, and he should conserve his energy and not be distracted before that.

All the Konoha ninja in the camp were making preparations. Hiruzen Sarutobi brought a lot of supplies with him, especially hundreds of millions of explosive tags.

This was made with resources allocated by the new generation of daimyo, which is why it was delayed for a month.

Making explosive tags is not simple, let alone hundreds of millions of them, which are all high-quality explosive tags.

Drawing on paper requires special materials and many processes, and the cost is not low. Especially after such a long war, all sides have almost exhausted their reserves, making it even more difficult to obtain, and the price is more than ten times higher than before the war.

Then comes the special potion that needs to be drawn, and finally the fire-style ninjutsu that needs to be sealed in, which is the key to determining the power of the explosive tag and can't be done quickly.

However, with these hundreds of millions of high-quality detonating tags, they will definitely be able to significantly reduce casualties and better cope with the upcoming war.

The Otsutsuki relic will kill the high-ranking members of the Four Villages Alliance, especially those from Kumogakure. They will only need to deal with the ninja forces of the Four Villages Alliance, which will reduce their pressure considerably.

Meanwhile, at Kikyoyama Castle, after a day of recovery, Tamura Hiroshi was much better, at least regaining the ability to move independently, and his torn meridians and acupoints had basically recovered.

After recovering, he used the Flying Thunder God Technique to arrive at Miss Yekura's room. Coincidentally, Miss Yekura was taking a bath, so Tamura Hao shamelessly took a bath with her and they scrubbed each other's backs.

"Tsunade has a nice figure, doesn't she?"

Upon noticing the familiar body pressed against his back, and that nasty thing, Ye Cang let out a cold laugh.

The agreed-upon objective was Danzo Shimura, but you ended up capturing Tsunade instead and even returning to Kumogakure.

Are you so eager to win them over?

"It's quite good. I saw it when I inserted the trachea, feeding tube, urinary catheter, and bowel tube for her."

Tamura Hao frankly stated that he, Tamura Hao, has always been upright and honest, and has never done anything shameful.

Even if there were, it would be done by pseudonyms like Tamura Hiten and Senju Hao, and would have nothing to do with him, the Hidden Cloud Man Tamura Hao.

"What did you do to her?"

Ye Cang was taken aback; this was quite different from what he had expected.

You didn't dissect Tsunade, did you?

"She tried to fight me to the death and ended up crippled. She's still soaking in nutrient solution and won't recover for at least a month."

To put it simply, Tamura Hiroshi pressed his hands, which had been kneading the foam, onto the mountain, covering it with a layer of fine white foam, making it look like two snow-capped mountains.

"It's the same old scheme, but Konoha won't let you succeed this time."

Ignoring the mischievous claws, or perhaps having grown accustomed to them, Yecang was more concerned with Kumogakure's schemes against the Senju clan.

She's seen too much of what the Hidden Cloud Village has been up to these past few years. Last time they even kidnapped the head of the Hyuga clan's branch family, and this time they've set their sights on the Senju clan.

That's too greedy!

"It's just a matter of each getting what they need; you can think of it as a transaction."

The Senju clan is currently in a precarious situation and desperately needs allies. Our Hidden Cloud Village can help them to some extent, and in return, they can leave their clan a way out here, allowing them to fight with greater peace of mind.

We've done this kind of deal with the Uchiha before, but unfortunately, the Uchiha were too ambitious and wanted to use our Kumogakure as a stepping stone, so things fell apart.

While carefully scrubbing the young lady's back, Tamura Hao calmly explained that these were not secrets at all, and anyone with a brain could figure them out.

"Are all the Uchiha people mentally unstable? How did they dare to turn against you and fight back then?"

Even if no one betrayed their combat intelligence, neither side could possibly win given their raw strength; any remaining trump cards would only result in a Pyrrhic victory at best.

Yekura didn't understand that battle at all. The high-ranking members of Sunagakure had gathered together to discuss it many times, but they still couldn't figure out what the Uchiha were thinking.

"You could also call him a madman. The Sharingan needs negative emotions to stimulate its improvement. Awakening the Sharingan requires stimulation, and every subsequent improvement also requires stimulation. In particular, the awakening of the Mangekyou Sharingan is said to require killing one's closest and dearest loved ones."

The stimulation of negative emotions and the influence of the Sharingan itself make it easy for the Uchiha ninja spirit to go to extremes, which is why the Sharingan is also known as the cursed eye.

The reason why the Uchiha decided to engage in a decisive battle was mainly due to Uchiha Myokage, who was the commander at the time. He saw that the overall battle situation would become increasingly unfavorable for Konoha, and wanted to defeat Kumogakure first to break the stalemate, so that he could then free up his resources to support other fronts and save Konoha.

Unfortunately, while his idea was good, it didn't align with the interests of certain individuals, and the Uchiha were simply too powerful, causing some to lose sleep over it. Thus, the Uchiha's elite forces were lost.

Tamura Hao remained very candid. At the same time, he removed his palm from the snow mountain that had been hit by multiple avalanches and gently stroked downwards to expand the foam. He also added a massage technique evolved from the Gentle Fist, which made Yekura feel very comfortable.

"Aren't the Uchiha clan mortal enemies of the Hokage faction?"

He still had doubts and didn't understand what Uchiha Myōkyō had done.

"Most of them are, but a small number are close to the Hokage faction and the Senju faction. The representative of these is Uchiha Kagami, a former disciple of the Second Hokage."

Claiming to transcend clan boundaries and focus on the village, the Uchiha clan enjoyed the deep trust of the Second and Third Hokage. Uchiha Myokyo was Uchiha Kagami's son and inherited his ideals.

Speaking of Uchiha Kagami and Uchiha Myōkyō, I can't help but laugh; they're just too naive.

Anyone who betrays their own class and community will not have a good ending. The father and son, Uchiha Kagami and Uchiha Myōkyō, were completely foolish and did nothing but work hard for nothing. This can be seen from their fate.

Uchiha Kagami died young, and his son never appeared in Uchiha Shisui's upbringing, so it's highly likely he also died young.

Needless to say, Uchiha Shisui's fate was extremely tragic.

These people haven't even solved the basic problems, yet they want to think about the village.

It's like trying to run before you've even learned to walk; it's no wonder you'll stumble and fall.

"The Hokage faction trusts the Uchiha? I heard that the death of the First Hokage was related to Madara Uchiha, and the Senju and Uchiha clans were longtime enemies, with many clansmen dying at the hands of the other."

Yekura didn't quite believe it, nor could she understand it.

Is it possible for anyone to truly let go of hatred?

Or perhaps it's a deep-seated blood feud accumulated over many years.

"I don't know, but Uchiha Kagami died very early, and Uchiha Myōkyō was also crippled. However, the First Hokage definitely trusted the Uchiha clan. His personal charisma and courage were unmatched, and he also had the absolute strength to suppress everything."

Shrugging, Tamura Hiroshi wasn't sure either.

Although Tobirama Senju expressed his trust in Kagami Uchiha when he was resurrected in Naruto, and Hiruzen Sarutobi also expressed his trust in Shisui Uchiha, their endings were too tragic, making it hard to believe.

Besides, how much can you believe a ninja say?

Not to mention that at that time, Tobirama Senju also needed to persuade Orochimaru and Sasuke Uchiha. Even if he didn't lie, as a politician, he must have been familiar with the art of language. The same words can have very different meanings when said in different ways.

As for Hiruzen Sarutobi, it's really hard to clear his name; he has too many flaws.

Yecang understood, and immediately turned around to prepare to apply soap to someone, and then saw that the person was covered in a dense pattern of little pigs.

"Did you offend Kushina again?"

Yecang immediately thought of Kushina Uzumaki; only that girl would do such a thing.

"I offended them a long time ago, and they've been holding a grudge ever since."

Tamura Hiroshi was quite helpless; the little girl was really hard to coax.

(End of this chapter)