Konoha: Offer your heart to the Hokage!

The journey was long, and it took the reconnaissance team another three days to reach Hozuki Castle.

On the fourth day, the messenger pigeon that had returned earlier brought back the results of the Anbu's investigation. This short piece of information caused a huge uproar in Kusagakure: Hozuki Castle, no one survived.

The two elders with the lowest ranks, one dog and one pig, froze on the spot, their faces blank.

No one survived?

The top ten elders took away the most elite ANBU of Kusagakure, as well as the Two-Tails Jinchuriki. They were supposed to be going to form an alliance with the Sky Ninja, so how could they have been wiped out? Could it be that the Sky Ninja betrayed them and did this?

The two elders who remained were completely bewildered and could not understand the reason at all.

Another day passed, and the investigation team finally returned to the village, reporting their horrifying discovery in a daze:

"Everyone is dead, including the guards and prisoners in Hozuki Castle..."

"The Two-Tails Jinchuriki and the Box of Bliss have disappeared. A large number of Sky Ninja corpses and the remains of flying ninja tools were also found at the scene."

There was no chance of survival; no one survived.

The two elders slumped into their chairs, their voices trembling: "Where are the intruders? Have you found any clues?"

"We found absolutely no clues about the intruder's identity. The only traces of Lightning Release and Fire Release chakra remained at the scene. Most of the Fire Release chakra was left behind by Muga, the lord of Hozuki Castle."

The dog-faced elder's expression tightened: "Lightning Release? Could it be the work of the Hidden Cloud Village? Immediately inform the Tsuchikage and have him demand an explanation!"

"No," Elder Pigface immediately rejected. "We can't seek help from the Tsuchikage. We must immediately seal off Hozuki Castle and declare to the outside world that nothing has happened."

"The reason why we Grass Ninja can navigate and cooperate between Iwagakure and Konoha has always been because of our strength and value..."

"Once the outside world finds out that we lost the Box of Bliss and the Two-Tails Jinchuriki, what value will we Grass Ninja have left?"

The elite ANBU who accompanied the elders on this expedition were all wiped out. Although the Grass Village still has a considerable fighting force, these ordinary ninjas have never been something that Konoha and Iwagakure truly feared or valued.

The Box of Bliss and the Two-Tails Jinchuriki are the very reasons why the Grass Ninja can be so opportunistic and fickle.

"Those people from Iwagakure are all bandits. Once they find out that we've lost our trump card and our 'value,' let alone help us seek justice, it would be a miracle if they didn't directly attack and annex our Kusagakure!"

The dog-faced elder was persuaded.

A long silence fell over the empty, secret room. The fact that the Jinchuriki had been lost was thus chosen to be concealed.

If they were to reveal the matter now and issue a warning to the ninja world, it might attract the attention of the five great nations, prompting them to thoroughly investigate the situation of their respective Jinchuriki. Unfortunately, it was wartime, and for their own benefit, the Grass Ninja chose not to do so.

The ninja world has lost its chance to slow down Shinji's progress.

Chapter 156 The Turning Point of the Battle: Kumogakure's Plea for Peace

Konoha 21 years, two years have passed in the blink of an eye.

The First Shinobi World War had already entered its third year.

Shen has been diligently training in Konoha, fully mastering the two secret techniques, Body Revitalization and Body Transformation, which he seized from the Sky Ninja. The Wood Release Heart and Lightning Release Heart techniques are also subtly strengthening Shen's physique.

We've taken another giant step closer to becoming the ultimate life form.

Besides.

The puppetry technique developed by Root was also copied and sent to the aerial fortress. Over the next two years, researchers from the aerial ninja attempted to combine puppetry with flying ninja tools, planning to create puppets with flight capabilities.

Air superiority is being steadily eroded by Shen Er.

The first day of June.

He was urgently summoned to the Hokage Building to receive the latest intelligence from the Anbu from Tobirama.

Tobirama said to him with a relaxed expression, "The war is probably about to end."

The scroll contained a highly shocking message.

The Second Mizukage, Hozuki Gengetsu, and the Second Tsuchikage, Mu, clashed within the Land of Earth, ultimately perishing together.

Kirigakure didn't participate in the battle, yet their own Mizukage died on someone else's territory. To understand what happened, we need to go back to the previous events...

With the help of Shukaku, Kirigakure successfully reclaimed land from the sea, creating a large area of ​​land available for development. However, new problems arose, as developing and constructing this land required a huge amount of capital.

Among the five great ninja villages, Kirigakure's poverty is a well-known fact. Even daily development is a struggle, and it's no exaggeration to say they're living hand to mouth. Forget about developing new land; even military construction is severely lacking in funding.

In order to reverse this abnormal situation of poverty, Hozuki Gengetsu had no choice but to humble himself and implement a completely new set of policies.

With his tacit approval and guidance, Kirigakure used other countries as national supplies during the war. Organized Kirigakure ninja squads broke up into smaller groups and became pirates, plundering large, medium, and small ninja villages.

The Hidden Mist Village, which had not originally planned to participate in the war, still actively became involved due to this need.

The war has now become a de facto war between five nations.

Initially, they followed a strategy of "befriending distant states while attacking nearby ones," limiting their targets to Sunagakure and Iwagakure. However, the wealth they plundered fueled their growing ambition and appetite, leading them to even set their sights on their neighbors.

Kirigakure began to extend its reach to Uzushiogakure and Yugakure, which were under the protection of Konoha.

Fortunately, under Tobirama's leadership, Konoha demonstrated the responsibility befitting an elder brother. They promptly dispatched ninja squads to protect their allies, preventing them from suffering excessive losses during the Kirigakure raids.

As for why Akatsuki was not protected...

Using the power of the "Cat Talisman" given to them by Jinji, the Akatsuki village possessed bloodline power similar to that of the Hyuga and Inuzuka clans. They broke the "Hidden Mist Technique," the most troublesome technique of the Hidden Mist Village. Without even relying on Konoha's support, they repelled the Hidden Mist pirate squad that came to raid them, relying solely on their own combat strength.

This victory forced all the major ninja villages to reassess the significance of Akatsuki.

The most direct standard for judging the strength of a ninja village is whether it has a Kage-level ninja or an equivalent trump card. If a ninja in a ninja village has such a ninja, it can change the suffix of "ninja village" to "hidden village".

Rain Hermit is just like that.

Akatsuki has only thwarted a small-scale raiding force from Kirigakure so far, and its Kage-level combat strength has not yet been tested in large-scale battles. However, it has already demonstrated the essential foundation for becoming a great ninja village: scientific research capabilities.

The unprecedented cat talisman is Xiaoren's unique signature move.

Kirigakure, having been defeated by the smaller ninja village, did not launch a more targeted retaliation.

Hozuki Gengetsu, the Mizukage, is planning a major operation: he will personally lead the Anbu (Anbu) to raid Iwagakure by boat, maximizing Kirigakure's profits.

For the past few years, Iwagakure has been silently enduring the losses caused by Kirigakure's raids.

This time, it seems that Iwagakure has finally made up its mind that a short, sharp pain is worse than a long, drawn-out one, and the Second Tsuchikage personally stepped in to intercept Hozuki Gengetsu.

The battle between Kage-level figures was fierce and chaotic, with both sides determined to kill each other. The Limit Separation Technique clashed head-on with the Steam Burst, and the two strongest Kage of all time, belonging to their respective factions, ultimately perished together.

The chain reaction triggered by their deaths will affect the entire ninja world.

Shen'er's first thought was of the Fog Shadow faction.

Hozuki Gengetsu has been pushing forward with the formation of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist, but according to intelligence, there is strong opposition within Kirigakure (Hidden Mist Village) because forging ninja swords is too expensive. Kirigakure's frantic looting is also aimed at raising the money for forging the swords.

Now that Hozuki Gengetsu is dead, the plan to forge the ninja sword will inevitably have to be postponed.

Now let's talk about the course of the war.

Tobirama Senju judged that the war was about to end, and even Shirou agreed with this view.

When a veteran Kage-level ninja dies, a successor quickly fills the void. But if even the veteran Kage couldn't conquer Konoha while they were alive, what chance do their successors have?

Onoki was a ninja who was extremely stingy with his reputation. This can be seen from his later hiring of underground ninjas to do dirty work. If he saw no hope of victory, he would most likely be the first to propose a ceasefire and peace talks.

Moreover, although many unexpected events occurred during this war, it had lasted for three years, and war-weariness had almost reached its peak. All sides were eager to end the war as soon as possible, recuperate, and accumulate strength to await the next cycle.

"The Second Hokage also began to withdraw from the ninja world stage one after another."

Time flies.

Shen Er seemed to be making a casual remark, but his gaze subtly swept over Tobirama.

Tobirama didn't notice his subtle movement, but simply nodded in deep agreement. Now, of the former Second Kage, only Shamon, himself, and the Second Raikage remain alive.

The original film stars generally served for more than fifteen years.

But by the time it came to the second generation, they had all withered and left the scene in just five years.

"Konoha must prepare for post-war reconstruction."

As expected, after the news of his death spread, Hiruzen Sarutobi, who was on the Iwagakure front, was responsible for sending back intelligence: Iwagakure's offensive had visibly weakened significantly, and they had reached the point of going through the motions without putting in any real effort.

It is suspected that Ōnoki has withdrawn from the front lines back to Iwagakure's homeland to preside over the funeral of the Second Tsuchikage.

With Sunagakure and Iwagakure successively avoiding battle, all the operational pressure of the Axis Alliance fell on Kumogakure.

The battle has returned to its original historical trajectory, once again becoming a one-on-one standoff between Konoha and Kumogakure. The Axis Alliance, which had previously joined forces with three parties, had failed to defeat Konoha, and now Kumogakure alone has no chance of winning.

Tobirama, well aware of the importance of seizing the opportunity to press his advantage, immediately and decisively ordered all the Edo Tensei ninja to be assembled and deployed to the Sand Village battlefield.

The increasing external pressure has gradually complicated the situation within the Hidden Cloud Village.

...

A month has passed since the Earth Shadow and Water Shadow perished together.

The ever-increasing casualty figures at the front lines and the villagers' cries for an end to the war were all reminders to the bigwigs in the Thunder Shadow Building that the tide had turned.

The high command of Lei Yin was embroiled in a heated debate over whether to advocate for war or peace, and was unable to make a decision for a long time.

The idea of ​​peace talks had already taken root in the mind of the Second Raikage.

He had to admit that, at this point in the war, Kumogakure had already failed. They had expended enormous amounts of manpower and resources, yet they still hadn't been able to break through Konoha's defenses, and their strategic objectives remained a distant dream…

We failed, but it wasn't a complete defeat.

The three factions combined killed many Konoha ninja. This also greatly slowed down Konoha's development, thus achieving a balance.

This outcome is acceptable to him.

However, the high-ranking officials, led by Jin Jiao, could not accept it.

Kinkaku stepped forward: "We absolutely cannot negotiate with Konoha, Raikage-sama."

Chapter 157 Call Tobirama over here! Call Tobirama over here!

"We must never negotiate."

The moment Jin Jiao finished speaking, all eyes were on him, and the entire conference room became eerily quiet.

As the number one person in Kumogakure after the Second Raikage, this was the first time Kinkaku had openly put forward a contradictory proposition at a high-level meeting.

With Raikage already expressing a willingness to negotiate, this statement is tantamount to confrontation.

"Peace talks sound nice, but aren't they essentially just surrender?"

The Gold and Silver Horn brothers, possessing the bloodline of a sage, were arrogant and mad. Otherwise, they wouldn't have committed the horrific act of devouring the Nine-Tails' flesh and blood. Bowing down to Konoha and admitting defeat would undoubtedly crush their dignity and pride.