Starting with Naruto, I'll become stronger through my own efforts.

Chapter 320 Begging the Fifth Hokage for a Feast

Intelligence was rapidly transmitted between the five great ninja villages.

The situation was too urgent, and the Raikage, Tsuchikage, and Mizukage could no longer disregard the danger of leaking information, so they purchased the latest electronic communication devices from Konoha Village.

Using the rapid communication of communicators, the five Kage held a conference call, exchanging detailed information. It could be said that the five Kage were all taken aback.

Even the Fifth Hokage, Natsume, was taken aback by the Fourth Raikage's decisive action in entering the Land of Fire.

He sneered and questioned, "You dared to enter my Land of Fire without even saying a word? Fourth Raikage, you really have a lot of nerve."

The Fourth Raikage on the other end of the communicator had a ferocious expression, his teeth grinding together, but considering the difference in strength between the two sides, and the Fifth Hokage's ruthless nature of devouring people without spitting out the bones, he swallowed his anger.

The Raikage sighed and explained in a humble voice, "I'm sorry, Fifth Hokage, I was wrong to do this."

"But our Hidden Cloud Village has been destroyed by Nagato, so the entire village had to be evacuated urgently. I had the villagers and non-combat ninjas dispersed to other parts of the country for resettlement, while the combat-capable ninjas were taken to the Land of Hot Springs and did not enter the Land of Fire."

"I entered the Land of Fire because I wanted to explain to you personally the matter of the Cloud Village ninjas approaching the border of the Land of Fire. Please forgive my rash behavior."

After the Fourth Raikage finished speaking, before the Fifth Hokage, Natsu, could say anything, the Third Tsuchikage, taking advantage of his age, started to boast as if no one else was around: "Oh my, is that really A talking over there? No way, the Fourth Raikage I know isn't good-tempered, and his tone is always very aggressive."

Xia Zuo snorted coldly: "Hmph, Onoki, do you think I, as the Hokage, am particularly respectful of elders and never hit old men? Or do you think I have a good temper and can tolerate your insolence?"

Ohnoki remembered the beating he received four years ago and immediately lost his temper, not even daring to give a defiant snort.

The Fifth Kazekage, Gaara, held the Fifth Hokage in high esteem and never interrupted in front of him.

When the Fifth Mizukage, Meisaku Terumi, was reporting intelligence, he was intimidated by the information from other ninja villages and dared not speak.

The destruction of Kumogakure was terrifying enough, but the Fifth Kazekage of Sunagakure was kidnapped and even had his tailed beast extracted, resulting in his death. This horrifying information sent chills down Mei Terumi's spine.

Compared to other ninja villages, Kirigakure's strength was far too weak to hold its own, and Mei Terumi, lacking confidence, naturally dared not speak casually.

Once everyone had quieted down, Xia Zuo spoke up: "Fourth Raikage, there was a reason for this incident. Let's leave aside the matter of you rashly entering my Land of Fire."

,call-

The breathing sounds of the four shadows were amplified through the communicator, startling them. Xia Zuo covered his mouth and secretly laughed.

As expected, the Hokage has to appear particularly fierce so that others won't cross the line easily, and even if they have no other choice, they will carefully beg for forgiveness.

When the crucial moment arrives, you only need to relax a little bit to make others feel incredibly relaxed and feel grateful, consciously or unconsciously.

Most importantly, due to this psychological shift, all four shadows will become more compliant, making it easier for the shadows to exert overall command.

After all, overall command is never fair; someone will always suffer losses, and someone will always gain advantages. Everyone will naturally have their own ulterior motives.

Only if Xia Zuo, as the commander-in-chief, can keep the situation under control and make the four Kage genuinely believe that they would rather suffer a loss than anger the Hokage, can the combined efforts of the five great ninja villages be truly achieved.

Only then can we gradually unify the ninjas of the five great ninja villages under one banner, and command all the ninjas as easily as if they were our own arms.

The Fifth Hokage, Natsume, was so confident that he positioned himself as the commander-in-chief and even began to envision the unification of the ninja world in the future.

As the first public enemy of the ninja world, the Akatsuki organization is not quite powerful enough, but it is barely enough to frighten the ninjas of the five great ninja villages and make them feel the fear of death and the despair of the end times.

At least before the Fifth Hokage intervened, the Allied Shinobi Forces were no match for Nagato, let alone Madara Uchiha.

What? Six Paths Obito?

Those fantasies about love and romance are like villains in modern fantasy dramas; those who clamor for the destruction of the world are nothing but rubbish.

When it's his turn to appear, he'll throw Kakashi Hatake out, and the bond between the two will be enough to take care of him.

In short, Obito Uchiha is not worth Lord Xia Zuo's trouble.

Hearing the sound of his own exhalation, the Fourth Raikage's dark face turned red with embarrassment.

His smile grew even more bitter, but he completely abandoned his reserve and pleaded, "Fifth Hokage—I have another request for you. Could you allow the Cloud Village ninjas to also enter the Land of Fire, so that we can concentrate our power—"

"Sure." Xia Zuo agreed without hesitation: "I will have the Konoha General Staff immediately formulate a plan, arranging the Cloud Village ninja's marching route, supplies along the way, and encampments, among other specific matters."

The Fourth Raikage was speechless: "Huh? Ah, ah! Okay!!"

"Ah, thank you very much, Fifth Hokage."

What surprised Thunder was not Xia Zuo's quick and decisive agreement, but the fact that Konoha's staff was tasked with arranging a plan, which meant that Konoha was willing to bear all the expenses incurred.

The Hidden Cloud Village has been working hard to develop itself over the past three years, and after a full mobilization, it has gathered a total of 27000 ninjas.

The gathering of so many ninjas was unprecedented for the Hidden Cloud Village.

The Fourth Raikage never imagined that when the ninja army numbered less than 10,000, he could manage and command it with ease, feeling as if he could still manage several times that number.

But when the number of ninjas actually tripled, he suddenly broke down.

Tens of thousands of people cooked and lit fires, and within a few days they had cut down all the nearby forests, so a large brigade had to be specially dispatched to cut firewood in the forests dozens of miles away.

Tens of thousands of people drink the water, and within a few days the river becomes extremely polluted, forcing the digging of wells on-site and the arrangement of people to draw water 24 hours a day.

Tens of thousands of people set up camp, but they couldn't find a large enough and safe flat area. They had to disperse their campsites, which spread over a radius of more than ten miles, making them very unsafe.

What's most unexpected is that when tens of thousands of people gather together, even urinating and defecating can become a huge problem!

Moreover, with so many people gathered together, they are devouring wealth every moment; just seeing those numbers would make Raikage feel heartbroken.

He couldn't understand why the cost was ten times higher when there were only three times more people.

In just a few days, the Fourth Raikage was overwhelmed with problems and looked haggard.

The fact that the Fifth Hokage was willing to take on the task is truly a great act of kindness.

Hearing the Fourth Raikage's heartfelt gratitude, Xia Zuo replied with satisfaction, "No need. Facing the powerful Akatsuki organization and the monster that has gathered all eight tailed beasts, we need the entire ninja world to pool our strength."

"As the leader of the ninja world, Konoha should shoulder more responsibility at this critical moment."

The Fifth Kazekage, Gaara, said, "In that case, I will also evacuate the non-combat personnel of Sunagakure and lead the Sunagakure ninja to the Land of Fire."

Xia Zuo responded, "Welcome, Fifth Kazekage. May I ask how many ninja Sunagakure can gather?"

Gaara replied, "Life in Sunagakure is not easy; we can only muster a maximum of 13000 ninjas."

Fifth Mizukage Mei Terumi: "Hiss, even in such difficult times, there are still so many ninjas and quite a few puppeteers. The Sand Village has a really solid foundation."

"Fifth Hokage, our Hidden Mist Village is also willing to concentrate its ninjas in the Land of Fire, but we can only muster 11000 Hidden Mist ninjas."

Xia Zuo laughed: "Konoha Village welcomed the Fifth Mizukage, and in just four years, the village's population has recovered from 4700 to over 10,000. The Fifth Mizukage's governance of the village is quite outstanding."

The Third Tsuchikage, Onoki, sighed, "I would be willing to take 28000 Iwagakure ninja to the Land of Fire to join them, but the Land of Rain is blocking our way, so we can't get through."

Xia Zuo did a quick mental calculation and realized that the four major ninja villages had managed to gather 79000 ninjas, which was significantly more than the number in the Fourth Shinobi World War in history.

It's important to know that this doesn't even include the samurai of the Land of Iron, the ninjas from more than twenty smaller ninja villages, or the most powerful ninjas from Konoha.

It seems that the five years of continuous peace, rapid economic development, and the heavy pressure from Konoha Village have allowed them to grow stronger.

Not bad, really not bad.

When Xia Zuo heard Onoki's complaint, he chuckled and said, "The ninja world is naturally ruled by the five great ninja villages. When the five Kage are united, what can Amegakure do?"

"Since Amegakure and the Land of Rain are blocking our way, let's destroy them."

The Fourth Raikage said, "I agree. With overwhelming force, we will drive the Akatsuki out of Amegakure in one fell swoop and restore the connection between the five great ninja villages."

The Fifth Generation Kazekage said, "Agreed."

The Fifth Mizukage said, "I agree, but we Kirigakure ninja are too far away to participate in this raid."

The Third Tsuchikage said, "Although the Land of Rain and the Land of Earth are adjacent, it's too far from Iwagakure to the border. I might not make it in time."

The Fifth Hokage, Natsume, snorted coldly and asked, "Onoki, don't try to fool me just because you're old. Do you agree or not?"

Onoki grinned and said, "I agree, I agree."

Then he complained, "Young people these days have absolutely no respect for the elderly. So what if they're a little slow to react? Is it really necessary to yell and shout like that?"

Xia Zuo ignored him and said directly, "Since the Five Kage are united, then Konoha Village will begin its operation."

The Fourth Raikage frowned and said, "You don't need our help. Konoha Village conquered the Land of Rain on its own. Do you have enough troops?"

Xia Zuo laughed heartily and boasted, "Don't worry, your ninja villages have made remarkable progress in the past five years, but our Konoha Village has not been idle either. We have urgently mobilized 50,000 Konoha ninja from our standing army, which is enough to conquer the Land of Rain and destroy the Rain Village."

When the four shadows heard the number 50,000, they were all speechless.

They knew that Konoha Village had established a standing army three years ago.

Konoha Village has publicly explained the role of the standing army: it consists of recruited ninja who are brought together and do not perform any missions. They focus on training in peacetime and are ready to be deployed to war at any time.

Because the intelligence of the standing army is kept extremely tight, and even where they are stationed is unknown, it is somewhat similar to the Anbu and Root during the time of the Third Hokage.

Therefore, all four Kage thought this was an enhanced version of the Anbu, with at most a thousand or so ninjas, so they didn't pay much attention to it.

Who would have thought that Konoha Village could support 50,000 standing ninja? It's simply unbelievable.

No, this is terrifying beyond belief.

This means that the Fifth Hokage of Konoha could mobilize an army of 50,000 to attack any ninja village at any time if he wanted to.

Without a doubt, none of the four great ninja villages could stop them.

Although both Iwagakure and Kumogakure can gather nearly 3 ninjas, it takes time to assemble them.

If they were to be attacked suddenly, the number of ninjas that the two villages could immediately gather would not exceed 5000, since most ninjas were self-reliant and scattered throughout the ninja world to carry out missions.

For example, this time, when Kumogakure was destroyed by Nagato and Konan, the Fourth Raikage abandoned the village and spent a full seven days gathering his forces.

However, with ten times the strength of the Konoha ninja, Kumogakure couldn't hold out for even seven days; their fate was certain: annihilation.

In other words, without anyone noticing, Konoha Village suddenly possessed the military power to wipe out an entire ninja village in an instant.

Considering that the Fifth Hokage, Natsume, was invincible in this era and once single-handedly destroyed Sunagakure and Kirigakure, Konoha was able to crush two major ninja villages with a single move, so the remaining two villages were just waiting to die.

At this moment, whether it was the Fifth Kazekage who revered the Hokage the most, the Fourth Raikage who harbored the deepest animosity, the Third Tsuchikage who was most self-assured, or the Fifth Mizukage who most wanted to cower like a tortoise, they all shared the same thought: We're doomed, we can't win at all.

It wasn't that they couldn't defeat the Fifth Hokage, Natsume, but rather that they saw no hope of defeating Konoha.

With Konoha Village's advantages reaching this point, it formed an overwhelming force that could dominate the entire ninja world.

With its overwhelming advantage, Konoha Village will be able to achieve whatever it wants.

For a long time to come, Konoha will become stronger and stronger, and the gap between it and the Four Great Ninja Villages will only widen.

After the communicators were turned off, the Raikage, Kazekage, Mizukage, and Tsuchikage were surrounded by their respective confidants, who anxiously inquired about the outcome of the meeting.

The Fourth Raikage, the Fifth Kazekage, and the Fifth Mizukage seemed to be on the same wavelength, uttering the exact same words.

"Stop wasting time. Send the word to gather all the ninjas and contact the Konoha Village headquarters—"

"Let's go to the Land of Fire, to Konoha Village, and beg the Fifth Hokage for a meal."

The three Kage's confidants were stunned, but they quickly understood the situation through explanation. With mixed feelings, they began to assemble a massive ninja army and head towards Konoha Village in the Land of Fire.

The first thing the Third Tsuchikage said to his son, Hirotsuchi, his subordinate, Akatsuchi, and his granddaughter, Kurotsuchi, was: "The Fourth Tsuchikage has been chosen."

"what?"

The old man looked at his granddaughter and said, "Kurotsuchi, after this war is over, you will become the Fourth Tsuchikage, and I will retire in peace."

"ha?"

The loess, red soil, and black soil were all dumbfounded.