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

Chapter 32 Ambition of the Uzumaki Clan

Therefore, if we break down the current focus further, the prerequisite for learning Sage Mode is to find a member of the Tsuchigumo clan who can unleash the Heavenly Technique, and then connect with their mind when they release the technique, sensing their state of absorbing natural energy.

Ideally, he could simply infiltrate the territory of the Tsuchigumo clan and use the power of Kirigakure to coerce them into doing so, but in reality, that would be impossible.

It's very simple. When the Sage of Six Paths founded Ninjutsu, he didn't forcibly convert people like Buddhism does. The same applies to Shingetsu's cheat ability. One-way transmission of goodwill is one thing, but for feelings to be transmitted back via chakra, the other person must be completely unguarded before his cheat ability can work.

In this situation, the Tsuchigumo clan members would have to voluntarily allow him to enter their bodies to achieve this condition. However, since this ninjutsu is activated at the cost of lives, Hozuki Shingetsu doesn't know exactly how many people are needed for him to successfully sense natural energy. Therefore, it would be best if the entire Tsuchigumo clan were to submit to Kirigakure to guarantee his success.

However, the current head of the Tsuchigumo clan, En no Gyoza, has reached an alliance with Konoha Village, agreeing that the Tsuchigumo clan will serve Konoha during wartime, and in return, Konoha will guarantee their safety at all times.

This treaty was actually quite to the liking of the Tsuchigumo clan. After all, as a desperate move similar to "Reaper Death Seal," they couldn't just unleash the "Raging Heaven Technique" whenever someone came knocking, could they? Otherwise, the Tsuchigumo clan would be worn down by the enemy in various ways. Unlike the Uzumaki clan, they didn't have a superb sealing technique in addition to "Reaper Death Seal."

Coincidentally, Konoha also needed the Tsuchigumo, a strategic weapon resembling a humanoid nuclear bomb, so the two sides quickly reached an agreement and formed a defensive alliance. This made it extremely difficult for Hozuki Shingetsu to poach him.

After all, compared to Konoha, in what way can Kirigakure compare? Why would they abandon Konoha and go with Kirigakure when everything is fine?

Therefore, if one wants to deceive the Tsuchigumo clan, it is necessary to break their alliance with Konoha and make them extremely fearful of their own safety, so that Hozuki Shingetsu will have the opportunity to intervene.

How can this be achieved?

Hozuki Shingetsu turned his gaze to the map of the ninja world, specifically to the small country of Uzushiogakure, located southwest of the Land of Water.

According to the timeline of the major ninja events, Konoha's traditional ally, Uzushiogakure, was about to be destroyed!

If Konoha could simply watch Uzushio Village perish without taking any action, thus using this to question Konoha's credibility in front of the Tsuchigumo clan, that would be a viable approach.

At this point in time, Wochao Village has not yet been destroyed.

The original work does not describe in detail who destroyed Uzushio Village, but according to Hozuki Shingetsu's speculation, it should have been a joint effort by the Earth, Lightning, and Water factions that destroyed Uzushio Village, and Kirigakure should have been the main force in the attack.

It's quite simple. During the First and Second Shinobi World Wars, apart from Mito Uzumaki, the Nine-Tails' Jinchuriki, the other ninja villages didn't have any Jinchuriki. It wasn't until the Third Shinobi World War that Jinchuriki began to emerge from each village. In particular, Kirigakure produced Yagura Karatachi, the second perfect Jinchuriki after Mito Uzumaki. For Kirigakure, which lacked the True Waterfall and had experienced the Blood Mist War, the emergence of a perfect Jinchuriki who could communicate with the Tailed Beasts was indeed very puzzling.

In particular, the fact that Kirigakure did not participate in the Second Shinobi World War makes it hard not to wonder if it was because during the attack on Uzumaki Village, too many Uzumaki clan elders traded their lives for one another, resulting in the loss of many powerful members and thus preventing Kirigakure from participating in the Second Shinobi World War.

Moreover, having traveled to the present and learned about various information, Hozuki Shingetsu became even more certain of this guess. She could even deduce that most of the experts replaced by the Uzumaki clan elders were from the Hozuki and Yuki clans, and even from the Kaguya clan, there should have been quite a few battle maniacs taken away.

Only in this way could the forces such as Hozuki, whose resistance had been greatly weakened, be unable to resist the Third Mizukage's Blood Mist policy. Finally, after Yagura Karatachi came to power, he thoroughly cleansed the Blood Clans, leaving only a few low-profile Blood Clans such as the Terumi clan to survive.

Therefore, breaking down the goal of learning Sage Mode into a separate task becomes how to use the destruction of Uzushio Village as an opportunity to persuade the Tsuchigumo clan.

Judging from the timeline, the destruction of Uzumaki Village should not be far off, but Hozuki Shingetsu will never let Kirigakure take the lead again, and Hozuki Shingetsu also has different ideas about the fate of the Uzumaki clan.

"If the Uzumaki clan can join Kirigakure, it will be an excellent plan for winning over the Tsuchigumo clan, fighting against Madara Uchiha, and even for developing strength after taking control of Kirigakure in the future."

As for how to accomplish this... isn't the reason why Hozuki Shingetsu didn't accept the marriage alliance with the Kaguya clan precisely for this step?

As the young head of the Hozuki clan, the future head of the largest ninja clan in Kirigakure, and the wife of Hozuki Shingetsu, she was a good candidate for a marriage alliance.

"Using this position as a betrothal gift to form a marriage alliance with Uzushio Village should be enough, right?" Hozuki Shingetsu thought to himself, but still felt it wasn't enough.

After all, Hashirama Senju still married Mito Uzumaki back then, and the Uzumaki clan was not merged into Konoha. Therefore, it was necessary to make Uzumaki feel that a great disaster was about to happen and that Konoha could not be trusted in order to have this opportunity.

After much deliberation and having roughly sorted out his thoughts, he asked Ao to prepare to once again add fuel to the fire in the ninja world.

"New Moon, what are we planning to do this time?"

After receiving the news, Ao excitedly went to Hozuki Shingetsu.

Ever since he worked with Hozuki Shingetsu in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for several rounds, he had fallen deeply in love with the feeling of being able to manipulate the ninja world at will, without ever showing his face. This feeling was making the young Ao a little unable to resist.

"It's very simple, this fire is called the Tailed Beast." Hozuki Shingetsu reminded Ao, "This publicity campaign is different from the past. This time, it's targeted at key areas, which means it's best if the rest of the region doesn't know, only these few areas know."

"Only targeting key areas for propaganda?" Qing looked somewhat confused, unsure of the purpose of doing so.

"That's right, we'll target Kumogakure and Iwagakure with our propaganda. The focus of the propaganda will be to exaggerate Mito Uzumaki's fighting prowess as the Nine-Tails' Jinchūriki, repeatedly mentioning her role in the First Shinobi World War and her Uzumaki clan identity, and spreading rumors that Uzushio Village is preparing to merge with Konoha in view of the impending chaos in the shinobi world."

Hozuki Shingetsu smiled slightly. As the pillar of Konoha Village and a key factor in Konoha's victory in the First Shinobi World War, Kumogakure and Iwagakure naturally knew about Uzumaki Mito's fighting prowess.

If you provoke them even slightly at this moment, the hot-tempered Third Raikage and the cunning Onoki will definitely be thinking about attacking Uzushio Village before the Second Shinobi World War to obtain the Jinchuriki sealing technology, and incidentally cut off one of Konoha Village's arms, given the current sensitive situation in the shinobi world.

At that time, he will be able to represent Kirigakure as the savior, appear in Uzushio Village, and acquire it through marriage.

"By the way, give this document to my father and have him hire a spy from Kaguya's side to secretly leak this plan to Kaguya Yoshio."

Hozuki Shingetsu then handed another document to Ao.

"The Broken Windows Project?"

Qing looked at the title and was completely confused.

"To prevent that old bastard Kaguya Yoshio from setting a trap for me, I've decided to find a trap myself, tell him about it, and then jump into it myself."

If Hozuki Shingetsu himself suggested going to Uzushio Village, then although Ren and Kaguya Yoshio wouldn't know what he was going to do, they would undoubtedly stop him. In that case, why not change things up and have Kaguya Yoshio and Ren force Hozuki Shingetsu to go? Wouldn't that be more appropriate?

"He was sent as an envoy to Uzushio Village, won over the Uzumaki clan, subdued the Tsuchigumo clan, activated Sage Mode, defeated Ren and the White Zetsu, and became the Mizukage..."

Hozuki Shingetsu muttered to himself as he looked at the series of keywords on the paper. Although there would certainly be many twists and turns, he had to complete this intricately linked plan!

(End of this chapter)