Chapter 255: Cooperation

Leaf Village's intention this time is already obvious! I think we should just kill that messenger and restart the war with Leaf Village!

While Dong Shilang and Ye Cang were strolling through Sand Hidden Village, a loud voice sounded in the high-level meeting room of Sand Ninja Village.

Moreover, as soon as he spoke, he showed ill intent, shouting at Dong Shilang to fight and kill.

"Fu Yi, your thinking is too radical; even if we don't cooperate with Leaf Village, there's no need to kill the Hokage's messenger!"

"If we don't kill him, what's the point of keeping him? I heard that messenger is still a member of the Uchiha clan; we could learn some secrets of the Sharingan from his corpse."

"Hmph! I've heard that people have already sent teams several times to take out Leaf Village's messenger. The funniest part is they still failed—what a disgrace! With that level, they still want to continue fighting Leaf Village, not afraid of becoming a laughingstock."

"Huang Sha… you!"

Naturally, with opposition comes support; as another voice rose, the high-level meeting room descended into chaos.

This is also why Dong Shilang, in some border outpost, used the Sand Ninja's channels to send news of his arrival to the Sand Ninja Village's high level; for this he even waited three days.

If I alone went to Sand Ninja Village to deliver a message so rashly, even if those Sand Ninja didn't arrest me as a spy, I'd probably have a bunch of Sand Ninja coming to chop off my head.

But now that the information has been made public, naturally someone will help him fend off those ill-intentioned Sand Ninja.

"Even if we don't kill him, are we really going to war with Mist Ninja and Rock Ninja just for some profit?"

"In that case, our casualties wouldn't be small!"

As soon as this topic was raised, the meeting room exploded like a pot, with everyone whispering and discussing heatedly.

"Luosha! Are you really sure you want to ally with Leaf Village?"

After a long while, an elderly Sand Ninja elder finally remembered that they still had a superior, and began asking for Luosha's opinion.

"Alliance?"

"This matter still needs to be discussed..."

With lowered eyelids, Luosha responded indifferently; his words were ambiguous, his face expressionless, giving no hint of what he was thinking.

As the Wind Shadow, he naturally wouldn't directly state his intentions.

Even if his inner self leaned toward that approach.

"I think we should still improve relations with Leaf Village; our Sand Ninja Village's strength ranks at the bottom among the Five Great Ninja Villages. Rather than figuring out how to oppose Leaf Village, we might as well form an alliance with them."

"If we can't win, we just join; this obvious truth is something the Sand Ninja understand."

Although Luosha didn't voice an opinion, his position as Wind Shadow wasn't for nothing; naturally he had supporters speaking for him.

"What you're doing—where do you place the compatriots who died in battle beneath Platycodon City? Are they just sacrificing themselves in vain?"

The Sand Ninja elder named Fu Yi had those who had fallen in battle beneath Platycodon City speak up.

"But! Since our last defeat, the country has been exhausted of people and wealth, and the Lord over there is even unwilling to support us anymore~"

"If we don't find new sources of revenue, our Sand Ninja Village will only grow weaker!"

"..."

Indeed, that's exactly the case; the previous war with Leaf Village had already reached Huo Zhi Guo's Sand Ninja Village. To gain the Lord's support, they had painted a picture of the benefits after victory—land, reparations, and so on.

As for the Lord, he wasn't vague either; he directly handed over his meager savings to the Sand Ninja Village.

But things backfired; they themselves were useless, ultimately unable to advance beneath Platycodon City, ending in a miserable outcome.

The hopes placed on the Lord 'Ge' were not light.

After the war's defeat, they even used the excuse of an empty treasury to withhold funds from the Sand Ninja Village.

Furthermore, the postwar economic depression caused the already meager number of missions in Feng Zhi Guo to plummet; now the Sand Ninja Village truly is at the point of being unable to boil a pot.

Seeing that the arguments were nearly done, Luosha spoke up at this point, not asking the elders' opinions, and even ignoring Fu Yi, who constantly opposed him.

Instead, he directly looked at the perpetually silent Qian Dai Po Po.

"Qian Dai Elder? What do you think?"

As Luosha's words fell, the entire meeting room became so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

Everyone turned their gaze to Qian Dai and her sibling, who had been pretending to nap beside them.

"Sister… sister?"

Seeing her sister unmoving for half a day, her companion Hai Lao Zang lightly tapped her sister's arm twice, reminding her that this was the meeting room, not the time to play dead.

"Oh! Are we in a meeting?"

Startled by her brother, Qian Dai seemed to have just come to her senses, wearing a look of sudden realization.

"The One-Tail jinchuriki seems to be about to die too!"

Qian Dai didn't even mention the Leaf Village issue that everyone had just discussed; instead, she steered the topic onto the unrelated One-Tail jinchuriki.

The Sand Ninja's jinchuriki is indeed barely holding on.

"Qian Dai Po Po, I've already made arrangements for this; as for Leaf Village's intentions this time, I hope you can… consider them."

Although Luosha, out of necessity, also had the intention to agree to cooperate with Leaf Village, Qian Dai Po Po's son and daughter-in-law were both killed by Leaf Village's hands, and he knows this.

Thus he spoke very tactfully!

"I'm already old; let these matters be decided by you young people~"

Glancing at the assembled crowd, he realized that aside from himself and Hai Lao Zang, there was no one of his own age; Qian Dai felt a surge of sorrow, left that remark, and exited the meeting room.

Since the future of Sand Ninja Village has already been entrusted to them, this old‑fashioned remnant of mine shouldn't linger here and get in the way.

Watching Qian Dai sweep her sleeves and leave, and Hai Lao Zang follow his sister's steps away, Luosha felt relieved.

With no opposition from the Qian Dai siblings, the matter was settled.

All we need to do is wait for Sand Ninja Village to catch its breath, then we can measure ourselves against Leaf Village.

Just as Sand Ninja Village needs substantial funds to restore its strength, Leaf Village also needs time to heal the wounds of war.

Therefore, the well‑funded Third Generation sent Dong Shilang over to probe Sand Ninja Village's attitude.

But this really ended up putting Dong Shilang in a tough spot.

Although he believed his current strength allowed him to roam the Ninja World freely, infiltrating enemy territory at such high difficulty still felt like immense pressure.

Thus, they were cautious all along the way.