Chapter 589: Four Great Villages Summit

"He's right now at the village's main gate, saying that Ōnoki has important matters to discuss with you."

"Tell him I'm in a meeting, then bring him into the village and find out exactly what the matter is."

The Third Mizukage was curious about what Ōnoki was up to, but he had no intention of personally communicating with Iwagakure, even if he wasn't in a meeting.

If Ōnoki came in person, that would be a different story.

The Kirigakure ANBU nodded and walked out of the conference room.

When the door was closed again, the conference room fell into an eerie silence once more.

Elder Gen simply closed his eyes to rest, looking like an old man lacking in energy.

At his age, he really didn't want to tarnish his reputation over something like this.

The Jonin Squad Captain put on a thoughtful expression, but his mouth was tightly shut, not daring to make a sound.

There was also a gap among the higher-ups; as the Jonin Squad Captain, he was nominally the leader of all Kirigakure jonin, but he was the last on the list of high-ranking officials.

In other words, he was the most likely to be pushed out to sign the peace treaty and take the blame.

The Advisor looked stern, his face stiff, as if dissatisfied with the current situation, but he also didn't speak.

The Mizukage's Assistant held his head high and chest out, not looking sideways, and had no intention of breaking the silence either.

The Mizukage's Assistant was also low on the list of high-ranking officials, but this position was special—it was tied to the Mizukage. Generally, as long as the Mizukage didn't have any issues, the Mizukage's Assistant would be safe.

"Water Yū, tell me your thoughts." The Third Mizukage looked at the Kirigakure Jonin Squad Captain and said, seeing that no one was speaking.

Water Yū sighed inwardly; what must come will come—who asked him to have the lowest position?

Water Yū's mind raced, quickly thinking of the most perfect response.

Directly say peace talks? No way—then he'd definitely be sent to sign the treaty.

Rejecting peace talks wouldn't work either—it would be too easy to offend people.

Who didn't know that Yagura was the successor the Third Mizukage valued? If he finally rejected peace talks and Yagura was killed by Konoha, the one who first proposed rejection would definitely be resented by the Third Mizukage. How could there be any good outcome then?

"In this incident, Konoha's displayed military strength cannot be underestimated. We must investigate why Yagura was defeated so quickly and why over half the unit was captured." Water Yū analyzed with a serious expression.

Reject or agree? He chose 'or'!

The Third Mizukage showed a slightly dissatisfied expression, but didn't say much, and looked at the Mizukage's Assistant.

The pressure on the Mizukage's Assistant suddenly skyrocketed, but he still had to speak.

After all, without the Mizukage's support, the authority in his position was less than Water Yū's as Jonin Squad Captain.

"Peace talks are a major matter; there are many things to pay attention to, such as the opinions of the village's ninja, Konoha's intentions, the impact of the peace talks..."

The Mizukage's Assistant said a lot, but never stated whether he supported or was against the peace talks.

There was no helping it—now he couldn't quite gauge the Third Mizukage's thoughts either.

After such a defeat, would the Third Mizukage still value Yagura as before?

The Third Mizukage then looked at the Advisor.

Since the others had spoken, the Advisor couldn't be an exception, so he followed with some vague remarks.

After the Advisor finished, the Third Mizukage didn't follow the order to let Elder Gen speak, but narrowed his eyes in thought.

Over a thousand prisoners was no small number.

After all, Kirigakure currently had only a little over seven thousand ninja total. If Konoha killed all the prisoners, the total number of their ninja would drop by a seventh in one go—the impact would be enormous.

The key point was that this wasn't dying in battle; it was an accident due to failed negotiations, which would cause emotional reactions from the prisoners' families.

But signing a peace treaty made the Third Mizukage somewhat unwilling.

During his term, Kirigakure had launched two offensives, both failing. How would future generations evaluate him?

Ambitious but incompetent? High-reaching but low-skilled?

"Let's end today's meeting here." The Third Mizukage rubbed his brow and said.

Now he was worried that if they didn't hold peace talks, something bad would happen, but he also didn't want the defeat to affect his posthumous reputation.

After the Third Mizukage returned to his office, it wasn't long before the Anbu in charge of communicating with Iwagakure arrived at the Mizukage's office.

"Lord Third, this is a secret letter from Ōnoki. It has been inspected and there is no issue." The Kirigakure Anbu handed a scroll to the Third Mizukage.

The Third Mizukage nodded, opened the scroll, and the Kirigakure Anbu tactfully withdrew to outside the office door.

At first, the Third Mizukage's expression was calm, but after reading for five minutes, his face gradually grew serious.

"A Wood Release user has appeared in the world again. Could Hanyū Muyue become the second God of Shinobi?"

After reading, the Third Mizukage rolled up the scroll and fell into thought.

Did Kirigakure and Iwagakure hold a grudge? Of course they did—the Second Mizukage and Second Tsuchikage had killed each other on the battlefield.

But that was an old grudge. Looking at the entire shinobi world, if you counted strictly, the five great ninja villages all held old grudges against each other.

The Third Mizukage thought that the intelligence Ōnoki had given him was most likely true, at least partially.

Because ninjutsu couldn't be faked, and Muyue couldn't avoid acting forever. Whether he had Wood Release and what his strength was would eventually be exposed.

"Could Yagura's capture be the work of Hanyū Muyue?" A sudden flash of insight struck the Third Mizukage.

If Hanyū Muyue truly possessed powerful Wood Release as Ōnoki said, and continued to grow, he might become a second Hashirama Senju.

Then Yagura's defeat would be very reasonable.

With the powerful Wood Release user Hanyū Muyue leading a ninja force into battle, it was natural that Yagura had been captured.

It wasn't that the Kirigakure forces were weak, but that Konoha was too strong.

Immediately after, the Third Mizukage shook his head. Now was not the time to think about this.

"Should I accept Ōnoki's invitation?" The Third Mizukage began weighing the pros and cons.

Ōnoki had not directly proposed an alliance to attack Konoha and assassinate Muyue; he simply invited Kirigakure to send a representative to the Land of Earth for a meeting.

The Third Mizukage felt he could send a reliable jonin to probe Ōnoki's intentions.

After all, peace talks wouldn't happen in a day or two. As long as Kirigakure didn't make any major moves, Yagura should be safe.

Land of Wind, Sunagakure.

Ōnoki had also sent a ninja to Sunagakure.

"This old bastard isn't just trying to trick me into getting involved, is he?" Rasa finished reading the scroll and instinctively thought it was false intelligence.

Hanyū Muyue was widely recognized as the strongest ninja of Konoha's younger generation, but he wasn't as exaggerated as the report claimed.

Moreover, if Hanyū Muyue had mastered such powerful Wood Release, why hadn't he used it on the battlefield before?

Wood Release was very strong—not only was it balanced in offense and defense, it could also suppress jinchuriki.

But Rasa reconsidered and felt Ōnoki wasn't that stupid.

After all, Ōnoki wasn't asking him to directly attack Konoha; he was just inviting him to a meeting. It shouldn't be that he would use such obviously false intelligence to trick him.

Thinking further about the recent strange situation in the shinobi world, Rasa's expression turned serious.

"Could it be that Hanyū Muyue had been lying low all along, and only recently achieved results in his Wood Release training, thus revealing his power?"

After careful thought, Rasa realized that the intelligence wasn't so obviously false; it was just too beyond what ordinary people could imagine.

Suddenly a second Wood Release user had appeared, and had shown the potential to become a second Hashirama Senju.

If it weren't that the Iwagakure messenger was somewhat prominent in the shinobi world, Rasa would suspect someone was impersonating Iwa to cause trouble.

"What exactly is so special about Wood Release? Are those who possess it destined to become as powerful as Hashirama Senju?" Rasa couldn't help thinking.

Logically, it shouldn't be like this.

A ninja's strength is comprehensive; broadly speaking, it consists of their ninjutsu, taijutsu, and genjutsu levels, chakra reserves, physical fitness, and so on.

It shouldn't be that simply mastering a certain kekkei genkai or secret technique would make one overwhelmingly powerful.

But Hashirama Senju was strong, and the second Wood Release user, Hanyū Muyue, was also strong.

The first could be said to be a coincidence, but what about the second?

Rasa called for his trusted subordinate to discuss the matter.

They felt it was feasible, but whether to actually take action against Konoha depended on the situation at that time.

After all, if Konoha truly produced a second God of Shinobi, the impact on Suna wouldn't be particularly significant.

Because Suna was relatively weak among the Five Great Ninja Villages; even without Konoha blocking the way, Suna still had Iwa and Kumo ahead of them.

"How is the investigation on Yakura going?" Rasa asked, recalling something.

Rasa had never forgotten about Yakura, a ninja who had once nearly affected his position as Kazekage.

"There isn't enough evidence to have Yakura imprisoned," the Suna jōnin shook his head.

"However, I noticed that Yakura seems very interested in the Ninja Sect of the Rain Country; she took time to attend Sōsuke's lectures twice."

"As a hero of Suna, she doesn't focus on missions and instead attends lectures from a ninja organization in the Rain Country. If the village were to select the most studious ninja, I'd definitely vote for Yakura."

Hearing his subordinate mock Yakura for not focusing on her duties, Rasa couldn't help but smile faintly.

"Since she likes dealing with other factions, then send her to the Hidden Stone Village," Rasa said after thinking.

He realized this was a good opportunity to suppress her. If the matter with Iwa didn't work out, he could claim Yakura was incompetent.

If the Iwa matter showed promise, he would find another reason to reassign Yakura midway.

Rain Country, Ninja Sect.

Kitsuchi led a team of Iwa ninja into the Six Paths Castle.

"It seems there are even more people, and more ninja too."

After entering the Six Paths Castle, Kitsuchi noticed it seemed to have become even more prosperous.

The raging war in the ninja world had not hindered the development of the Six Paths Castle; instead, it had, to some extent, promoted its prosperity.

Kitsuchi didn't pay much attention to this. Even though Iwa valued the Ninja Sect, it valued Sōsuke and his group, not the Six Paths Castle or the ordinary ninja of the Sect.

Thanks to their cooperative relationship, Kitsuchi reached Sōsuke's office without any obstacles.

"Sōsuke, Iwa needs the Ninja Sect's help with a matter," Kitsuchi said directly.

Muyue nodded, signaling Kitsuchi to continue.

"We have a need to cooperate with Kumo in the near future. We hope you can convey some of our intentions to Kumo."

Since Iwa and Kumo had declared war on each other and had been fighting frequently since the war began, Ōnoki worried that directly approaching Kumo would backfire, so he wanted the Ninja Sect to act as an intermediary.

Although the Ninja Sect had some cooperation with Iwa, overall, the Sect was perceived as a neutral faction.

The first major reason was Sōsuke's unrestricted lectures.

Sōsuke so generously imparted various advanced knowledge to ninja from different villages and factions, naturally earning a neutral and friendly label.

Then there was the Youth Martial Arts Tournament held previously.

Many ninja from various large and small villages participated in the tournament, yet under the management of the Ninja Sect, no violent incidents occurred, and all participating ninja were treated equally.

Sōsuke had fame and strength, and the Ninja Sect was a well-known neutral faction, making it the most suitable intermediary in the current ninja world.

"I need to know some specific details before I can make a decision," Muyue said, taking a sip of tea.

He couldn't just help others without knowing anything; otherwise, he might end up being sold and still counting the money.

"The main content is some intelligence on Hanyū Muyue and Konoha's ambitions," Kitsuchi explained.

Before Kitsuchi came, Ōnoki had already considered this and told Kitsuchi to just reveal the information directly.

First, when asking the Ninja Sect to do something, they couldn't leave them in the dark.

Secondly, Ōnoki felt that Sōsuke had no reason to refuse.

Sōsuke had taken out Shimura Danzō, naturally placing himself in opposition to Konoha. If there was a chance to step on Konoha, he would surely take it.

This wasn't a deep cooperation; Iwa wouldn't station ninja forces in the Rain Country, so there was no downside for the Ninja Sect at all.

On the contrary, if Konoha produced a second God of Shinobi, could the Ninja Sect expect to have good days?

It was likely that after the war ended, Konoha would deal with the Ninja Sect.

"I'm sorry, I refuse," Muyue replied with a faint smile.

What an international joke, asking this shadow clone of his to help others deal with the original body.

He didn't have any interest in playing the undercover game.

"But judging from this intel, it's possible that the original body has already dealt with Uchiha Madara, otherwise there wouldn't be such a big commotion," Muyue's shadow clone thought.

He was a shadow clone that Muyue had split off before dealing with Uchiha Madara, so he didn't have the original's memories from that period.

"In that case, the Ninja Sect's concerns would be fewer, and they can be a bit more unrestrained."

Huang Tu was stunned; this wasn't what they had predicted before coming. How could Sōsuke refuse so bluntly?

"The Ninja Sect has no intention of participating in the game of the five great ninja villages, whether it's against Konoha or other great ninja villages," Muyue explained.

Muyue's words completely blocked the path, leaving Huang Tu and the strategist beside him speechless.

"Sōsuke is far too naive," Huang Tu complained inwardly.

Although he was often called straightforward, he felt that Sōsuke was even more idealistic than him.

Was it really possible to just not participate when one wanted? Being in the ninja world, could one still avoid the influence of the five great ninja villages?

But Sōsuke's attitude was firm, and Huang Tu and his group had no way to deal with it.

In the end, Iwagakure braced itself and sent an envoy to Kumogakure for a truce, also passing along information about Muyue to Kumogakure.

Probably because Kumogakure was locked in fierce battle with Konoha and didn't want conflict with Iwagakure, things went surprisingly smoothly.

In the end, Kumogakure also agreed to attend the conference Iwagakure was hosting in the Land of Earth.

After the agreed date arrived, each ninja village sent ninja to the Land of Earth as promised.: 92xs