Chapter 157: Jiraiya Sides with the Anti-Konoha Alliance

The first party the Fire Daimyo contacted was the samurai of the Land of Iron.

This group of samurai who have mastered chakra are an anomaly in the Ninja World.

As the only nation in the Ninja World established by a samurai power, the Land of Iron stubbornly maintains its feudal system, revering the way of the warrior and the sword, and strictly upholding feudal ritual order.

Every single chakra-wielding samurai has inextricable blood ties to the nobility of the Land of Fire.

Even in Konohagakure, ninja clans with surnames—led by the Hatake Clan, and including the Namikaze, Kurama, and Aoyama clans—all share unbreakable bloodlines with the samurai.

Therefore, the samurai of the Land of Iron revere orthodoxy.

They were already dissatisfied with the Third Hokage Sarutobi Hiruzen, and Orochimaru, the Fifth Hokage who lacks a surname, was viewed directly as a symbol of the collapse of rites and music.

Once the Fire Daimyo made contact, the General of the Land of Iron stated: Orochimaru is of lowly birth and acts perversely, while Yamanaka Chujiu defies his superiors and subverts the monarch-subject system; the two are treacherous villains who destroy the order of the Ninja World.

But the General of the Land of Iron also had concerns: "Orochimaru is a Shadow-level Ninja, one of the strongest ninjas in the current Ninja World."

"The battles of Kirigakure and Kumogakure prove that Yamanaka Chujiu is a genius strategist; the Konoha Ninja he commands can defeat enemy forces several times their size."

"Your Excellency the Daimyo must know that even if our Land of Iron poured out its entire nation, we could not be a match for Konohagakure."

"We need helpers, the more the better."

The Daimyo's special envoy asked: "General, are you truly not just making excuses?"

The General laughed: "It is not an excuse, and I am loath to make excuses."

"How could I bear to refuse the promises of the Fire Daimyo?"

"If we can overthrow Konoha's rule, the Land of Iron will obtain a vast amount of land in the northern Land of Fire, as well as rich mineral resources—these are all resources my Land of Iron desperately needs."

"For the sake of the generous Fire Daimyo, I am willing to assemble the nation's top samurai legion to fight a battle against Konohagakure."

"But the goal of war is always to achieve victory; how could I go to my death in a situation where defeat is certain?"

"We need allies!"

The special envoy shook his head regretfully and said: "There are no more allies."

"The Fourth Kazekage of Sunagakure in the Land of Wind dares not see me, the Third Tsuchikage of Iwagakure in the Land of Earth has given no promises, the Fourth Raikage of Kumogakure killed another envoy outright, and we dare not even contact Kirigakure..."

"There are no more allies..."

The General raised his hand and said: "No, there are still some!"

"Hanzo of Amegakure in the Land of Rain once defeated the Konoha Sannin; he has sufficient strength and confidence to face Orochimaru."

"But most importantly, there are the other two of the Konoha Sannin—Jiraiya and Tsunade."

"They are not only powerhouses as famous as Orochimaru, but they also possess immense influence within Konohagakure."

"As long as the Fire Daimyo persuades the two of them, they can create cracks within Konohagakure and split off a significant portion of Konoha Ninja to join our camp."

"Weakening Konohagakure is far more effective than simply increasing the anti-Konoha forces!"

When the intelligence was transmitted back to the Daimyo Mansion in Konohagakure, a glimmer of true hope welled up in the Fire Daimyo's heart.

That's right, contacting the four great nations and the Land of Iron was the Daimyo's final struggle in despair; he actually knew he had no chance of success.

But the proposal from the General of the Land of Iron was different; if Jiraiya and Tsunade stood on his side and tore Konohagakure apart directly, it would trigger a civil war in Konohagakure once again.

Regardless of the outcome, it would be the strength of Konohagakure that suffered the loss.

When the strength of Konohagakure declined significantly, would Iwagakure and Kumogakure really just sit by and watch?

Even for Konohagakure's allies, Sunagakure and Kirigakure, would they not want to shake off Konohagakure's control and reclaim their status of independence and autonomy?

The Fire Daimyo truly saw hope and began to carry out his activities more actively.

He sent people to travel all over the Ninja World to find Jiraiya and inform him that Orochimaru had launched a Konoha civil war, killed Shimura Danzo and Mitokado Homura, forced the Third Hokage Sarutobi Hiruzen to step down, and ascended to the throne of the Hokage by relying on violence.

As for the fact that the Third Hokage had actively persecuted Orochimaru, that was certainly not mentioned.

At this time, Jiraiya had been traveling the Ninja World for years, collecting material and writing books everywhere, searching for the Child of Prophecy who could bring peace and end the chaotic world; he truly did not know the details of the Konoha civil war.

He only knew that Konohagakure had defeated Kumogakure and Kirigakure, then the Third Hokage Sarutobi Hiruzen abdicated, Orochimaru became the Fifth Hokage, and Konohagakure had developed very well in the three years since.

He assumed the transition from the Third Hokage to the Fifth Hokage was a peaceful handover, just like when his student Minato Namikaze ascended to the position of Fourth Hokage.

Therefore, Jiraiya did not return to Konohagakure and continued his travels.

Now, hearing the information provided by the Daimyo's envoy and learning that a civil war had actually occurred in Konohagakure, and that two Konoha Elders had even died during the Hokage transition, Jiraiya was furious.

Jiraiya was born a commoner, and a commoner without even a surname at that, yet under the education of Sarutobi Hiruzen, he grew into a staunch defender of traditional morality.

He often went against the Third Hokage, but deep down he highly identified with and respected Sarutobi Hiruzen's governing philosophy, believing that the mission of a ninja is to protect.

To protect the village, to protect the people, and to protect the order of the Ninja World.

In Jiraiya's eyes, for a ninja possessing powerful strength to subvert the system, expand hegemony, and manipulate other nations was a dangerous act of rebellion.

Orochimaru seizing power through civil war and Yamanaka Chujiu manipulating the government of other nations and bullying the Daimyo, who had inherited power for a thousand years, were crimes that deviated from the original intent of Konoha.

Jiraiya believed that if this evil, hegemonic rule could not be corrected, Konohagakure would inevitably become the public enemy of the Ninja World, degenerate into a source of war, and trigger a new Great Ninja War.

Therefore, using the pretexts of "rectifying chaos and restoring order, restoring Konoha's orthodoxy, and protecting the order of the Ninja World," the Daimyo's envoy easily persuaded Jiraiya, who cared for Konoha and styled himself as the light of the righteous path.

He not only took the initiative to participate in the movement to overthrow the rule of the Fifth Hokage, but also promised to personally persuade Tsunade to join.

The Daimyo's envoy was ecstatic.

Why did the Daimyo look for Jiraiya first instead of Tsunade?

Because the Daimyo knew that Tsunade's attitude toward Konohagakure and the Third Hokage was more complex, and the difficulty of persuading her was far greater than that of the simple-minded Jiraiya.

Tsunade is the granddaughter of the First Hokage Senju Hashirama, and her mother was a princess of the Fire Daimyo.

As the granddaughter of the previous Fire Daimyo, Tsunade is a true princess, which is why she is respectfully called Princess Tsunade.

Because of her background, Tsunade's heart was inherently very conflicted.

On one hand, influenced by her mother, she adhered to the philosophy of orthodox inheritance to the bone.

On the other hand, influenced by her grandfather Senju Hashirama, she believed that the Hokage should be held by the strongest ninja.

Tsunade could still accept a Shadow-level Ninja like Orochimaru, who was obsessed with forbidden research and had a paranoid temperament, but she found it difficult to approve of a weakling junior like Yamanaka Chujiu holding the great power of Konoha.

However!

The things Yamanaka Chujiu did: forcing the Third to step down, making Danzo die, and making Mitokado Homura and Utatane Koharu get lost, were all things Tsunade wanted to do, but could not do, and had no way of doing.

Therefore, she was dissatisfied with Yamanaka Chujiu's governance, yet she was very satisfied with the results of his governance.