They're promoting the "Konoha threat" theory, and spouting nonsense about the Hidden

Chapter 266 The Eastern Continent Exposed, Xiao Nan Comes Knocking

"What are you doing?"

Danzo Shimura stared incredulously at his right hand piercing his chest, instinctively trying to activate the "Susanoo" ability of his right Mangekyou Sharingan to imprison Kakashi Hatake in the space.

However, with Kakashi's shout of "Wood Release: Silent Killing Binding Technique," Shimura Danzo's plans all vanished.

"Wood Release? How could you possibly possess that...?"

While Kakashi Hatake's betrayal was somewhat anticipated, the Wood Release technique he was using at this moment truly threw him into a panic.

In the current ninja world, only Orochimaru has mastered the transplantation technology of Hashirama's cells. Kakashi Hatake is able to master Wood Release, which means that Orochimaru, whom he thought was his confidant, may have betrayed him. How could this not enrage Danzo Shimura?

"Nothing is impossible. Don't forget, as your bodyguard, I used to frequently visit that Wood Release laboratory."

Seeing the incredulous look in Shimura Danzo's eyes, Hatake Kakashi swiftly and decisively gouged out his eyes.

"Hashirama cells are something that, with a little thought and a bit of caution, aren't difficult for me to obtain. As for the success rate of the Wood Release experiment..."

At this point, Kakashi's face broke from its usual expression, revealing a rare, mocking smile.

"As long as you have enough hatred in your heart, then none of this is a problem."

Kakashi, seeing that Shimura Danzo seemed to want to say something more, squeezed his right hand tightly and easily crushed his heart.

"Damn it... How could I have failed so close to success...?"

Danzo Shimura was still unwilling to give up, his hands flailing wildly as if trying to grasp at some straw.

Looking at Shimura Danzo lying in front of him, unable to reach out his hand as if to grab something, Kakashi's face flashed with relief, and then he left the Hokage's office with his Mangekyou Sharingan.

It wasn't until much later that an ANBU ninja realized something was wrong and entered the office, only to discover that Shimura Danzo had already died.

At a time when Konoha's survival was at stake, Hokage Danzo Shimura suddenly died in his office. This incident undoubtedly made everyone who knew the news realize that Konoha's fate was sealed.

Inside Konoha, panic immediately gripped the village.

-

Meanwhile, spies from other ninja villages also learned that Hozuki Shingetsu had returned to the Kirigakure camp.

When the leaders of the other ninja villages arrived at the Kirigakure camp, they saw Michiko Uzumaki and Madara Uchiha lying on the ground as soon as they entered the tent.

"This is... Konoha's Nine-Tails Jinchuriki? Who's the other one?"

Chiyo examined the corpse on the ground and looked at Uchiha Madara with a puzzled expression.

At this time, Madara Uchiha had lost all of his God Tree chakra, and his appearance had returned to its original aged state. Chiyo, who had never interacted with Madara Uchiha, naturally could not recognize the identity of this corpse.

At this moment, Onoki, with an incredulous look in his eyes, knelt down close to Madara Uchiha, examining his corpse from head to toe.

"This is... Uchiha Madara?"

The humiliation he suffered alongside his teacher at the hands of Madara Uchiha during his childhood is a trauma he can never forget.

The memory etched into his very bones, after a brief overlap of time, instantly made him recognize the person before him.

"That's right, these two are indeed the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki and Madara Uchiha!"

Hozuki Shingetsu sat arrogantly in the main seat, showing no sign of weakening, and his behavior was even more overbearing than before.

Now that he only has the strength of a Jonin, he wants to use this impressive record to intimidate the Kage present.

Onoki and Chiyo exchanged glances, barely suppressing their surprise, and then sat down to listen to the whole story of Hozuki Shingetsu's battle against the two.

"...So that's how it is. Madara Uchiha not only didn't die, but he's been lurking in the ninja world all along?"

After listening, Onoki looked at Madara Uchiha with a complicated expression.

If Onoki had known that Madara Uchiha was still alive, given their past grievances, he would have definitely joined the battle.

"What about Nagato? We all watched him leave with you, and now that we have their bodies here, Nagato must have been killed by Lord Hozuki, right?"

At this moment, Chiyo suddenly pointed out a problem that everyone had previously overlooked.

"Nagato Uzumaki has been captured by me."

Hozuki Shingetsu, who was trying to bluff, readily admitted this.

"So that means the Rinnegan is now in your hands?"

The Fourth Raikage's eyes flickered as he directly asked this crucial question.

Upon hearing the Fourth Raikage's question, Chiyo and Onoki's eyes instantly focused on Hozuki Shingetsu, anticipating his answer.

"Indeed, the Rinnegan is now in my hands... What, does Lord Raikage intend to steal my spoils?"

Faced with this question, Hozuki Shingetsu didn't mince words and directly took out the glass bottle from his pocket to admit it.

There was no other way. Since things had already come to this point, and he had already admitted that he had captured Nagato Uzumaki and that he had to hide his achievements because of the damage to his strength, he might as well just show it off and put on a show of "empty city strategy".

Not only that, Hozuki Shingetsu stood up, took the glass bottle, walked to the Fourth Raikage, held it up to his face, and asked him with a smile.

"Lord Raikage, would you like to try and see if you can snatch it from my hands?"

Hozuki Shingetsu was gambling on this, betting that his previous achievements in establishing his authority, including directly killing the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki and Uchiha Madara, and capturing the Rinnegan, would make everyone present wary of him.

Looking at the glass test tube extended in front of him, the Fourth Raikage remained outwardly calm, but inwardly he could no longer suppress his desire and wanted to reach out and snatch the glass bottle.

However, when he thought of the formidable power that Hozuki Shingetsu had displayed when competing for the position of leader, and the two cold corpses lying motionless on the ground not far away, all of the Fourth Raikage's ambitions vanished like wildfire extinguished by cold water.

However, it was impossible to get him to back down or soften his stance. Under these circumstances, he could only snort coldly, turn his head away, and pretend he hadn't heard what he said.

"Back when the alliance was first formed, didn't we discuss that whoever captured the spoils would own them? ... This Rinnegan naturally belongs to Kirigakure, and we have no objections."

Chiyo then smoothed things over.

With Konoha on the verge of destruction, she didn't want this matter to cause any divisions within the alliance.

As things stand, Sunagakure's fighting strength is undoubtedly the worst. Forget about the position of leader or the Rinnegan; their strength is definitely not enough to get involved.

The fact that the Rinnegan fell into the hands of Hozuki Shingetsu was undoubtedly a bad thing for Sunagakure.

Firstly, the distance between the two villages meant that Kirigakure and Sunagakure could not immediately go to war. Secondly, in Chiyo's eyes, Kirigakure, which had not yet exposed the Eastern Continent, was not as strong as Kumogakure and Iwagakure.

So, putting aside the issue of strength, rather than competing with Iwagakure and Kumogakure for the Rinnegan, which was destined to fall into Sunagakure's hands, it would be better to peacefully destroy Konoha and then take a big bite out of Konoha and keep it safe.

With Chiyo taking the lead and the Fourth Raikage remaining silent, the matter of the Rinnegan spoils belonging to Kirigakure was smoothly approved by everyone.

"Then, we should discuss when to launch a full-scale attack and destroy Konoha..."

Hozuki Shingetsu watched this scene with satisfaction, but just as he was about to ride the wave of victory and command the alliance to press their advantage, he suddenly saw Yagura Karatachi walk in calmly and whisper a few words in his ear.

Upon hearing Yagura's report, Shingetsu Hozuki's heart sank. But before he could speak, he saw ninjas entering one after another, each holding a piece of paper and whispering to their respective leaders.

As he spoke, he gestured with his eyes towards Hozuki Shingetsu.

"What? The Eastern Continent? Are you sure it's as big as the Ninja World Continent?"

Whether intentionally or unintentionally, the Fourth Raikage, looking at the paper in his hand, suddenly raised his voice and shouted loudly within the tent.

This shout turned the originally harmonious atmosphere inside the tent into something eerie.

Six years have passed since the official development of the Eastern Continent began. Due to the large number of personnel and material exchanges involved, Hozuki Shingetsu had long been prepared for the Eastern Continent to be leaked. However, he never expected that it would be leaked at this time.

In fact, the source of this leak was Minato Namikaze. When he was assassinating the daimyo of the Land of Water, he also slaughtered all the guards that Shingetsu Hozuki had placed in his camp. He learned about the Eastern Continent incident by chance when he used genjutsu to interrogate Kirigakure about information.

Upon receiving this information, he intended to gather more details before reporting to Shimura Danzo. However, due to Shimura Danzo's "sudden death," he could only add some hearsay to these propaganda leaflets and use the same tactics against him to distribute them to the Allied forces' camp.

He knew that Konoha was in a precarious situation, but Hozuki Shingetsu was also the target of jealousy because of his overwhelming strength. If he could throw out the bait of the Eastern Continent at this time and exaggerate its wealth, such as describing it as a continent flowing with milk and honey, it would surely arouse the hostility of the other ninja villages towards Kirigakure.

At that time, in order to prevent Kirigakure from becoming too powerful, Konoha would have an opportunity to take advantage of the situation.

"I wonder what Lord Hozuki's opinion is of this Eastern Continent?"

In this eerie atmosphere, Onoki spoke first, launching an attack on Hozuki Shingetsu.

The Land of Earth is mostly mountainous and hilly, with very little arable land. It can be said that the Land of Earth, besides the Land of Wind, has the greatest need for land and territory.

The existence of the Eastern Continent had long been known in the Ninja World Continent, but previously, due to the existence of the natural hazard storm, there was very little communication between the two continents.

However, if the words on the promotional leaflet are true, it means that Kirigakure has found a way to traverse the natural barrier on a large scale.

This means that a country as vast as the ninja world continent, yet without any powerful enemies, is right in front of everyone in the ninja world. How could he not want to get a share of it?

"Eastern Continent? What Eastern Continent? We in Kirigakure have never heard of it."

Hozuki Shingetsu certainly knew what he could and couldn't say. Previously, he could flex his muscles to intimidate others. But at this moment, he absolutely could not reveal the fact that Kirigakure had already colonized the Eastern Continent.

Therefore, in order to divert everyone's attention, Hozuki Shingetsu brought up Konoha.

"It's just some petty tricks Konoha used to sow discord among us... Let's turn our attention back to when we're going to launch a full-scale attack on Konoha."

However, none of the people present were fools. Even if Hozuki Shingetsu denied it, they only needed to recall the development progress of Kirigakure in recent years based on the timeline on the promotional leaflet to roughly understand the information on the leaflet.

As a result, the attitudes of all the ninja villages toward Konoha were suddenly reversed.

With the Eastern Continent as their reliance, if they were to wipe out Konoha, then given Hozuki Shingetsu's current age and strength, the next few decades would inevitably belong to Kirigakure.

In fact, due to the geographical location of the Eastern Continent and Kirigakure, Kirigakure poses an even greater threat than Konoha.

Defeating Konoha only to be met with an even stronger Kirigakure is unacceptable to the other ninja villages.

Therefore, after a brief consideration, the Shinobi Village decided to oppose the plan to annihilate Konoha.

"Konoha is now like a bird in a cage, a turtle in a jar. But it is precisely at times like these that we must be wary of them resorting to desperate measures and dragging us down with them... I suggest that we surround them without attacking them, launch a psychological offensive, and strive to take them down without bloodshed."

Onoki's words won the unanimous approval of Chiyo and the Fourth Raikage. The fact that they could still speak like this in the face of Hozuki Shingetsu's recent threat was enough to show how shocked they were by Kirigakure's occupation of the Eastern Continent.

Unless Hozuki Shingetsu engages them in a real battle, Konoha will definitely not be able to be wiped out.

Thus, this first meeting after the war ended unhappily in this atmosphere.

"Now that the Eastern Continent has been exposed, I reckon Konoha's international situation will soon resemble that of Kirigakure... In that case, we need to start thinking about how to dismantle Konoha as soon as possible."

After leaving the tent, Hozuki Shingetsu was lost in thought.

However, as soon as he returned to his tent, he noticed that something was wrong.

"These scraps of paper flying everywhere... who gave you the courage to come here?"

Looking at the scraps of paper constantly sticking to his body in the tent, Hozuki Shingetsu calmly turned his head to look at Konan, who was standing prettily to the side.

"Stop talking nonsense and hand over Nagato!"

Konan's face was cold as she pointed the paper kunai in her hand at Hozuki Shingetsu's forehead and threatened him.

"I can hand him over, since he's of no use to me now... but what are you going to offer in exchange?"

Hozuki Shingetsu looked Minami up and down, revealing a standard, in-between smile.

(End of this chapter)