Chapter 462: The Impact of Victory

Water Country, Hidden Mist Village.

Mizukage Building, conference room.

The five high-ranking Mist officials in the vast conference room all wore gloomy faces.

However happy the Leaf's high-ranking officials were, that was how angry they were.

Originally they had intended to take advantage of the Leaf's chaos and rob them for some gains, but they gained nothing and suffered no small losses instead.

Not only had they lost five of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen, even the specially forged precious ninja swords could not be retrieved—all five swords were confiscated by the Leaf.

For the Mist, those few swords were actually more important than their owners; if you lost people, you could pick new ones, but if you lost the swords, how could you choose the wielders?

What made the Mist high-ranking officials even more speechless was that losing five of the Seven Swordsmen wasn't even the biggest loss—they had also lost a Three-Tails jinchuriki; the Three-Tails died directly, and until it revived, the Mist would have only one Six-Tails jinchuriki left.

Moreover, two renowned Mist Village strongmen, Mizunokuki Han and Hōzuki Zangetsu, also died on the battlefield, becoming stepping stones for Moyue's rise to fame.

Compared to these losses, the Mist ninja forces' casualties weren't that great; Yagura Karatachi's measures effectively preserved the Mist ninja force's available strength.

"Let's first discuss how to deal with Yagura Karatachi." The Third Mizukage said coldly, his expression as if he had already decided to severely punish Yagura.

The other Mist high-ranking officials exchanged subtle glances, momentarily unable to discern the Third Mizukage's thoughts.

Everyone knew that Yagura was the Mizukage candidate favored by the Third Mizukage, so they couldn't tell if the Third Mizukage was disappointed and ready to give up on him, or if the Third Mizukage was speaking up first to prevent Yagura from receiving too heavy a punishment.

"Yagura betrayed the village's trust, repeatedly making misjudgments in major decisions, causing us Mist to suffer heavy losses. If we don't punish him, what will the village's ninjas think?" The Third Mizukage continued, seeing that no one spoke.

With the Third Mizukage saying this, the Mist high-ranking officials understood—the Third Mizukage still didn't want to give up on Yagura; a token punishment that looked decent would be enough.

"Although we lost the war, Yagura was still a capable commander; he successfully prevented the Mist ninja forces from suffering a major blow and preserved their strength well, so we won't be so passive going forward." Genji said after some thought.

He did not want to clash with the Third Mizukage over the position of Fourth Mizukage; the Mist Village was already in a bad state, and if internal strife broke out, it would truly head toward the abyss of decline.

Besides, Genji had no better candidate; among Yagura's generation, Yagura was the strongest, and he was decent in other aspects too—he was already the most suitable person to become Mizukage.

"The war defeat can't be blamed entirely on Yagura. We Mist had an advantage at first. It was when Mizunokuki Han led the Seven Ninja Swordsmen and was defeated by Yusheng Moyue that the situation turned from favorable to unfavorable. Mizunokuki Han bears a lot of responsibility for the war defeat." The Mist Jonin Squad Captain also chimed in.

Compared to the still-living Yagura, who might become Mizukage, the deceased renowned Mist ninja Mizunokuki Han was clearly more suitable as a scapegoat.

Anyway, he was dead; taking on some bad reputation wouldn't matter.

"Samehada and the others were also ineffective in their duties." The Mist Advisor dragged the deceased Seven Ninja Swordsmen into the blame as well.

With a few words exchanged, Yagura became the MVP of the losing side, and the failure of the war was entirely due to the incompetence of Mizunokuki Han, Samehada, and the others.

All the high-ranking officials skillfully avoided Hōzuki Zangetsu, not because he had performed well so they couldn't bear to make him the scapegoat, but because the Hōzuki clan now had considerable influence in the Mist, and they had to consider the Hōzuki clan's feelings.

The Third Mizukage nodded, agreeing with the officials' view. Yagura had both faults and merits, and the main mistake wasn't his.

In the end, Yagura's punishment was to be stripped of all current positions and enter the Anbu to contribute to the Mist as atonement.

"Those five ninja swords confiscated by the Leaf must be recovered; they are valuable property of the Mist." Next, the Mist Advisor brought up the lost five swords.

The two strongest swords among the Seven Ninja Swordsmen were Samehada and Hiramekarei, and now both had been confiscated by the Leaf. How could the Mist Advisor be willing to accept that?

"Recovering the swords is certain, but how to recover them is a problem." The Mist Jonin Squad Captain said.

"Given the current situation, either we send ninja forces into the Land of Fire again for a great battle with the Leaf and defeat them.

Or we negotiate with the Leaf and get the swords back by signing a peace treaty."

The Mist was the one who initiated the war against the Leaf; the Leaf would not simply return the five precious ninja swords to the Mist for no reason.

Now the Leaf was fighting on multiple fronts. If the Mist was willing to negotiate peace, even if they made some demands, as long as they weren't too excessive, the Leaf would very likely agree.

"Starting war again in a short time might be unwise. The Leaf's morale is high right now, while our morale is low. With that shift, it's very disadvantageous for us Mist." Genji said.

He firmly opposed immediately starting another war—it would be thankless.

"We cannot sign a peace treaty." The Third Mizukage rejected the treaty proposal.

"The swords must be recovered, but not in such a humiliating way."

If they truly negotiated peace, the whole affair would become: the Mist declared war on the Leaf, then lost, then proactively sought peace, begging the Leaf for the swords—that would be far too shameful. The Third Mizukage did not want such a clownish incident to happen during his term.

The Mist Jonin Squad Captain had nothing more to say. Neither this nor that worked—what should they do?

"Let's make no unnecessary moves for now. We'll watch and wait." The Third Mizukage said after thinking it over.

He believed that given Konoha's current situation, even if they gained the upper hand, they couldn't possibly invade the Land of Water. That meant Kirigakure could simply sit back and watch the tigers fight, quietly waiting for the right moment.

When Konoha showed signs of decline, they could re-emerge and launch an attack on Konoha. By then, winning would not only bring fame and fortune but also allow them to reclaim the Ninja Swords.

As for Konoha defeating all its enemies and emerging victorious, the Third Mizukage had never imagined such an outcome.

After the meeting ended, Genji sighed softly and left the Mizukage Building.

This war had revealed to him the weakness of Kirigakure.

Although there were two jinchūriki, neither the Three-Tails jinchūriki nor the Six-Tails jinchūriki was a perfect jinchūriki, unable to fully transform into a tailed beast while conscious.

The new generation of Kirigakure shinobi was far inferior to Konoha. Konoha had the Yellow Flash, Minato Namikaze, who could fight evenly with Kumogakure's new AB combination, and also Hanyū Mutsuki, who could kill jinchūriki. None of Kirigakure's new generation had earned such a reputation in the shinobi world.

It wasn't just one generation; even the generation of Yagura Karatachi was outshone by Konoha.

Aside from Yagura Karatachi being able to compare with one of the Sannin, shinobi like Kō Mizunotsuki and Zangetsu Hōzuki could not measure up to the Sannin.

Kō Mizunotsuki and the others were even brutally killed by Konoha's new generation shinobi; both Kō Mizunotsuki and Zangetsu Hōzuki died at Mutsuki's hands.

"Lord Genji, do you have time now? I've been having some trouble with my Water Release training lately." Mei Terumī's eyes lit up when she saw Genji.

"What's the problem? Tell me about it." Seeing it was Mei Terumī, Genji showed a kind smile and asked.

Mei Terumī was a genius shinobi he had discovered during the joint Chūnin Exams. Genji had high hopes for her future and believed she could become the leader of Kirigakure's new generation.

Mei Terumī quickly explained the problem she was facing.

After a moment's thought, Genji gave her the answer. Although he no longer trained much due to his age, he had once been a renowned Water Release master in Kirigakure.

"Thank you so much." Mei Terumī bowed in gratitude.

"You need to train hard. The opponents you encountered in Konoha have all made quite a name for themselves on the battlefield." Genji chuckled encouragingly.

Three of Konoha's four most famous young prodigies had participated in the same joint Chūnin Exam as Mei Terumī, and among them, Obito Uchiha had even lost to Mei in the second round.

"Opponents I encountered in Konoha?" Mei Terumī looked thoughtful.

Naturally, Kirigakure would not spread news of their defeat within the village. Apart from Mutsuki, who had already gained fame throughout the shinobi world, Mei Terumī was not very aware of the exploits of Obito and the others.

"Raiga Kakashi of the Sharingan, and Might Guy, the Green Beast of Konoha. They were all shinobi who took the Chūnin Exam with you." Genji briefly recounted the battlefield exploits of Kakashi and the others.

Mei Terumī's eyes widened, her mouth hanging open in shock.

Mei Terumī was well aware that Might Guy was very strong; after all, she hadn't forgotten the scene of Guy thrashing Kisame's squad.

But she truly hadn't expected that Guy and the others had become so terrifyingly powerful that they could head-on repel the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist.

As a Kirigakure shinobi, Mei Terumī was all too aware of the caliber of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist.

The Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist was a special squad directly under the Mizukage. Each member was carefully selected from among the jōnin, and each was equipped with a powerful ninja sword.

She simply couldn't imagine what Kakashi and the others had gone through during this time to gain such terrifying combat power—and against the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist, no less.

During the Chūnin Exam, Kakashi and the others had only been able to trade evenly with Kisame's squad.

Mei Terumī felt a pang of shame. She had occasionally taken pride in her current strength, but her former opponents had already reached another level.

"I must train even harder." Mei Terumī resolved to train more diligently to grow stronger and catch up to Kakashi and the others.

……

Because the results were significant, and Konoha was deliberately spreading the news to boost morale, the news that Konoha had defeated Kirigakure and Mutsuki had killed a jinchūriki quickly spread throughout the shinobi world.

Land of Earth, Iwagakure, Tsuchikage's office.

"Kirigakure actually had a jinchūriki killed. The threat of Konoha must be rated even higher." Ōnoki looked at the latest intel in his hand, somewhat surprised.

In his estimation, Kirigakure should have at least ground Konoha down on the eastern front for two years to wear down Konoha's strength.

"Blazing Sun, Hanyū Mutsuki..." Ōnoki sorted through all the information in his mind and felt that this shinobi named Hanyū Mutsuki would be very difficult to deal with.

According to existing data, Hanyū Mutsuki not only possessed a very strong Flying Thunder God Technique but also mastered powerful Fire Release, and his Ice Release was also at a high level.

"We need to speed up operations in the Land of Rain." Ōnoki became even more determined to continue creating enemies for Konoha.

Konoha's strength was too great; they had to find more enemies for Konoha.

Isn't Hanyū Mutsuki strong with Fire Release? Then let the Ninja Master Sōsuke compete with Hanyū Mutsuki and see if Mutsuki's Fire Release can surpass that of the Ninja Master Sōsuke, known as the strongest Fire Release user.

Leaf Village has four major young geniuses, the Ninja Sect has the mysterious and troublesome Nagato; the more Onoki thought about it, the more he felt that pitting the Ninja Sect against Konoha was a good idea.

Kumogakure Village, Raikage's office.

"How did Kirigakure get pushed back so quickly? Useless bunch." The Third Raikage was a bit speechless as he looked at the intelligence in his hand.

In fact, Kumogakure had never truly gone all-out against Konoha; a considerable portion of Kumogakure's forces were attacking Sunagakure.

The Third Raikage's idea was to first take advantage of Sunagakure's weakness to capture it, then defeat Konoha in one go, and finally clean up Iwagakure, becoming the indisputably strongest shinobi village in the ninja world.

As for Kirigakure, Kumogakure had no particular plans, because the Land of Water was an island, making fighting more troublesome, and defeating three of the Five Great Shinobi Villages would already prove their own strength.

"Perfect timing; it also shows that Kirigakure is nothing to worry about." The Third Raikage was very open-minded.

Although Kirigakure could not drain Konoha's strength as Kumogakure had expected, the weakness Kirigakure revealed during the war removed one more opponent from Kumogakure's path to supremacy.

"Once we get familiar with the power of the Eight-Tails, neither Scorching Sun Yusheng Muyue nor the Yellow Flash Minato Namikaze will be a match for our Kumogakure AB Combo." The Third Raikage had strong confidence in the new AB Combo.

After Blue B died, the new AB Combo's Killer B took over as the new Eight-Tails Jinchuriki.

In terms of becoming a jinchuriki, Killer B showed great talent, and the Third Raikage saw in Killer B a future even stronger than Blue B's.

His son, the Fourth A, was not far behind him, and combined with the stronger B, the new AB Combo had the potential to become the strongest AB Combo ever.

Sunagakure Village, Kazekage's office.

"To achieve such results even while fighting on three fronts—Konoha is too dangerous!" After reading the intelligence, Rasa frowned deeply, feeling a strong sense of crisis.

The Land of Fire was very well located, almost at the center, separated from the other great nations by only one or two small countries or a sea.

If Konoha wanted to attack Sunagakure, it wouldn't have to take detours like Kumogakure; Konoha could pass through the Land of Rivers and go straight into the heart of the Land of Wind.

Although Konoha, fighting on three fronts, had no reason to start a war with Sunagakure, the fact that Konoha wouldn't now didn't mean it wouldn't in the future. Rasa deeply understood the principle of being prepared for danger in times of peace.

For Sunagakure Village, the best outcome would be for Konoha to be soundly beaten by Iwagakure and the others, so that its strength became weaker than Sunagakure's—only then would Konoha be a good neighbor.

"If Konoha continues this momentum, Sunagakure must take action," Rasa thought to himself.

At that time, Rasa would rather negotiate peace with Kumogakure and go to war with Konoha, since Sunagakure was much farther from Kumogakure than from Konoha.

Not only the major shinobi villages actively gathering information, but even Minato Namikaze, who was commanding on the battlefield of the Land of Hot Water, heard some news about Muyue.

Minato Namikaze felt a little emotional. When he first met Muyue, Muyue was still just a chunin instructor. Now, more than two years later, Muyue had become the renowned Scorching Sun Muyue of the ninja world.

Minato Namikaze and Kushina had taught Muyue sealing techniques together because they wanted Muyue to have more means of self-protection in this chaotic situation; he never imagined Muyue would reach the level of being famous throughout the shinobi world so quickly.

Muyue had risen too fast. Before becoming the Yellow Flash, Minato Namikaze was also a famous powerful jonin in Konoha, but Muyue had gone from chunin to jonin to earning the title of Scorching Sun in just over two years.

"Muyue has been on the battlefield for so long. I wonder if Kushina has caused trouble for the Anbu." Thinking of Kushina, who was still undergoing special training in Konoha, Minato showed a wry smile.

Muyue's cooking had a magical power; once you took a bite, you could never forget it. Kushina had once argued with Minato about wanting to eat Muyue's cooking, threatening to tie up the surveillance Anbu and sneak out to find food.

Minato actually understood Kushina. After all, if he had the chance to eat Muyue's cooking, he would also choose to mooch some, but Minato was better at holding back; if he felt it would trouble Muyue too much, he would choose to endure.

"But Muyue should probably be almost back to Konoha by now," Minato thought to himself.

High-intensity fighting drains both body and mind. Having achieved repeated major feats, under normal circumstances Muyue would return to Konoha to rest for a short while before being assigned another war mission.

Repelling Kirigakure had solved Konoha's urgent problem; Konoha was no longer so critically short on combat power.

Thinking of this, Minato wrote a letter to be sent back to Konoha.

He and Muyue hadn't communicated for quite some time. When he was on the battlefield, Muyue was in Konoha; later, when he returned to Konoha for a while, Muyue was on the eastern coast battlefield; and after Minato went back to the battlefield, he went to a different one.

As Minato had roughly expected, after Kirigakure retreated, Orochimaru, Muyue, and the others all returned to Konoha, leaving only a group of shinobi to guard the border in case of another Kirigakure surprise attack.

To celebrate this great victory, Konoha held a special event for the eastern coast shinobi forces.

At the event, Hiruzen Sarutobi personally recounted the various achievements on the eastern coast battlefield, offered condolences to the shinobi forces there, and had the names of those who died on the eastern coast battlefield carved onto the Memorial Stone.

Of course, last but not least was the commendation for the shinobi forces.

The mission reward money from the war was settled, and shinobi who met the promotion requirements were promoted; Obito was one of the chunin promoted to jonin.

When he got his new shinobi identification in hand, Obito was almost moved to tears—it had been tough.

He could finally shed the identity of the only chunin among Muyue's disciples. He, Uchiha Obito, could finally stand up in terms of shinobi rank, and Kakashi could no longer use his jonin status to look down on him.

After becoming a Jōnin, Kakashi could never be higher in rank than him, because Jōnin is the highest ninja rank.

With Obito successfully promoted, Muyue's panel also displayed reward information.

PS: This chapter is also 5k, but whether there will be another one later is uncertain; if I can write it, I'll post it.