Chapter 627: Tsuchikage Takes the Field

The Land of Rain, Six Paths City.

A squad of ninjas, wearing headscarves and forehead protectors bearing the Sand Village logo, entered Six Paths City.

The arrival of the Sand squad did not attract the attention of the Ninja Sect's ninjas or the residents of Six Paths City.

Ever since the news of Yosuke defeating Sarutobi Hiruzen spread, Six Paths City quickly became livelier than before.

There were many people buying houses, betting that the Ninja Sect could withstand the pressure from Konoha.

By then, Six paths City would not only be the safest place in the Land of Rain, but possibly one of the safest places in the ninja world, and housing prices would definitely skyrocket.

There were also plenty of people selling houses, even more, because many believed that a small ninja organization like the Ninja Sect could hardly bear the wrath of the Five Great Shinobi Villages.

Even if the leader was strong enough, in a prolonged war, the ultimate victor would only be Konoha.

The people of the Land of Rain were all too familiar with this process, after all, they had experienced it once before.

Besides those trying to make a fortune, many ninjas were also curious about Yosuke, who had defeated the Third Hokage, and came specifically to see the excitement.

Of course, there was no shortage of intelligence ninjas from various villages or ninja organizations.

"Six Paths City is really lively. How long has this town been established? Three years? It's unbelievable," a Sand ninja exclaimed.

He felt that Six Paths City was even livelier than Sunagakure, even though it was just a town founded by a small emerging faction.

"Lively? This kind of liveliness is not a good thing." Yashamaru shook his head slightly.

At a time when the Five Great Shinobi Villages were in a ceasefire, Six Paths City, which had erupted in major conflict with Konoha, was the very vortex of the entire ninja world.

Due to the potential shown by the Ninja Sect, not only Konoha, but the ninja forces surrounding the Ninja Sect probably all hoped the Ninja Sect would not have an easy time.

"Let's begin our mission. Don't waste time; we don't have much time," Yashamaru said.

They did not come to Six Paths City to speculate on real estate, but to drive a wedge between the Ninja Sect and Iwagakure, and win Iwagakure over to their side.

The Sand ninjas nodded and began to look for Iwa ninjas.

Actually, the Sand wasn't just sending this one squad; another squad had entered Six Paths City without wearing Sand uniforms, disguised instead.

The two squads had different tasks to accomplish.

Yashamaru's squad was tasked with contacting the Iwagakure representative in Six Paths City, explaining the threat of the Ninja Sect to them, and initially expressing the intention to cooperate.

But this was only the first step.

Though interests come first and everything else later, Iwagakure had been cooperating with the Ninja Sect for quite some time, and Rasa did not expect Yashamaru to directly convince Iwagakure with just talk.

The Sand squad that entered in disguise was the real key.

They would frame and sabotage the Ninja Sect, thereby driving a wedge between Iwagakure and the Ninja Sect.

When a rift appeared in the cooperation between Iwagakure and the Ninja Sect, the Sand would increase pressure, making it hard for the cooperation between the Ninja Sect and Iwagakure to continue.

However, to avoid exposure and keep the operation from being discovered by Iwagakure and the Ninja Sect, timing was crucial.

If the Sand was rejected by Iwagakure one day and the Ninja Sect fell into trouble the next, Iwagakure would easily suspect the Sand.

The sabotage and Yashamaru's contact with Iwagakure had to happen simultaneously.

With that, combined with the Sand's covert actions, the likelihood of exposure would be greatly reduced.

When Iwagakure investigated, they would only find that one Sand squad had entered Six Paths City that day and had sought them out.

To reduce the chance of exposure, the two Sand squads did not even contact each other; they simply acted according to an agreed time.

Only if they could not complete the mission at the agreed time would they make contact to inform the other to temporarily abort the mission.

That's why Yashamaru said they didn't have much time.

Of course, finding someone openly was not too troublesome; otherwise, this mission would be too difficult to complete.

"Huh? Six Paths City actually has a ninja skilled in puppet techniques?" A puppet master jōnin froze when he saw the arm of a Ninja Sect ninja.

Although that arm looked very much like a real arm, a prosthetic was ultimately a prosthetic; to someone who dealt with puppets every day, it was still recognizable upon close inspection.

The Sand puppet master was very surprised, as modifying the human body was not a simple technique.

Seeing the Sand ninja staring at his arm, the Ninja Sect ninja was originally about to promote their own surgery.

Currently, due to limited production and the fact that only Scorpion can perform the surgery, prosthetics are extremely expensive for anyone who is not a member of the Ninja Sect.

Upon seeing the headband on his head, the Ninja Sect ninja abandoned the idea of making a sale.

The Sand Hidden Village is a holy land of puppet techniques, the most developed ninja force in the entire ninja world in terms of puppetry.

And the Ninja Sect's prosthetics are clearly a type of puppet technology; it wouldn't be good if the Sand Hidden Village stole their trade secrets.

Although the Sand Hidden puppeteer was curious, he had a mission to complete, so he had to suppress his curiosity and continue carrying out the task.

Thanks to the swift actions of Yashamaru and his team, they quickly located Rock Hidden.

Then, at the right moment, Yashamaru revealed his identity as the younger brother-in-law of the Fourth Kazekage, and very smoothly met with the Rock Hidden representative in Rikudo City – Rock Hidden jonin Huoguang.

"After gaining control of the Rain Country, the Ninja Sect quickly launched actions against the Bird Country; their ambitions are vast..." Yashamaru began to recount the Ninja Sect's wolf-like ambitions according to plan.

However, to Yashamaru's surprise, Huoguang did not show an angry expression and rebuke him for damaging the friendship between the Ninja Sect and Rock Hidden; instead, he revealed a slightly surprised smile?

Yashamaru paused for a moment, confirmed he hadn't said anything wrong, and then continued.

Huoguang politely waited until Yashamaru finished before speaking, "You are absolutely right. I feel the same way. I didn't expect other forces to have also noticed the Ninja Sect's ambitions."

Yashamaru:?

Does the Ninja Sect and Rock Hidden Village even need to be driven apart? It's purely surface-level cooperation.

These two factions have never really been united, so how can they be broken apart by sowing discord?

Yashamaru was a bit dumbfounded; he had only just taken the first step in his complete plan to drive a wedge between them, so how was it already over?

"Lord Yashamaru." Just as Yashamaru was about to discuss cooperation between the two villages with Huoguang, a Sand Hidden ninja who had been waiting outside walked over with an anxious expression.

"Sorry, please excuse me for a moment," Yashamaru said apologetically, then walked toward the Sand Hidden ninja.

"Something terrible has happened. The other team was arrested by Ninja Sect ninjas. The plan has failed," the Sand Hidden ninja said in a low voice.

Yashamaru:...

This plan was both smooth and not smooth.

"Don't worry. It seems Rock Hidden also doesn't want the Ninja Sect to continue growing stronger," Yashamaru consoled him.

Let them be caught. If he could reach an agreement with Rock Hidden here, then the mission could be considered complete.

Then Yashamaru and Huoguang talked a lot.

The two of them jointly denounced the Ninja Sect's ambitions, worrying about the adverse impact the Ninja Sect would have on the ninja world that had just entered peace.

However, whenever Yashamaru mentioned cooperation, Huoguang became evasive and never took a stance until the end, only saying he would need to consult the Tsuchikage.

Yashamaru was not angry about this; after all, he had come seeking cooperation and was already prepared for this.

Rather, the current situation was already quite good; relying only on this team, they had nearly completed the mission.

After seeing off Yashamaru, Huoguang quickly gathered the Rock Hidden for a meeting, and then sent word about the Sand Hidden matter to the Rock Hidden Village.

"That kid Huoguang did well this time," Onoki said with a smile after reading the intelligence report.

Rock Hidden also had the idea of allying with Sand Hidden, but when it comes to cooperation, the party being approached certainly has the advantage.

So Huoguang's move was very good; it both expressed Rock Hidden's dissatisfaction with the Ninja Sect and showed an attitude of being undecided and somewhat wavering.

"In that case, there should be no issue with the Sand Hidden side. However, the Grass Hidden Village, that small ninja village, is a bit hard to make headway with," Onoki said with a thoughtful expression.

During the Third Great Ninja War, Rock Hidden had secretly reached a cooperation agreement with the leader of Grass Hidden, and the Grass Hidden Village secretly aided Rock Hidden.

Later, Konoha intervened and destroyed the cooperation between the two sides. The original Grass Hidden leader turned into a monster and was killed. Grass Hidden and Rock Hidden became enemies, and Grass Hidden instead helped Konoha fight against Rock Hidden.

With Rock Hidden's strength, dealing with a Grass Hidden Village is naturally easy; not every small country has a strong person like Yusuke.

But when you strike a dog, you have to consider its master. Now, Grass Hidden Village is barely considered Konoha's little brother, so they cannot act rashly.

In fact, for the Rock Hidden Village, the addition of Grass Hidden Village is not important; it would just save a few cannon-fodder chunin and genin, without affecting the overall situation.

What Onoki truly valued was Konoha's attitude, or rather the information about the Ninja Sect hidden behind Konoha's attitude.

If Grass Hidden Village firmly refuses to act against the Ninja Sect, could it be the will of Konoha?

How exactly did Sarutobi Hiruzen lose in that battle, and why did he directly let Muyue succeed as Hokage?

"Since we will stand against the Ninja Sect in the future, why not take advantage of this friendship while it still exists and use it to gather intelligence." A flash of inspiration struck Ōnoki.

He realized he had fallen into a blind spot in his thinking—he had been fixated on learning the battle process from the Ninja Sect and Konoha.

In truth, as an ally of the Ninja Sect, he didn't need to do that. He could send someone, or go himself, to the Ninja Sect and say he wanted to see the Ninja Master's strength and have a friendly spar.

Given the current relationship between Iwagakure and the Ninja Sect, could Yūsuke refuse?

The relationship between Iwagakure and the Ninja Sect was not like that between the Ninja Sect and Konoha. Even if Iwagakure's strong fighter lost, Iwagakure could ask the Ninja Sect to keep it confidential.

That way, they could obtain intelligence without losing face, unlike Sarutobi Hiruzen, who stirred up trouble.

As for whether the Ninja Sect would leak the information after the war began, that didn't matter.

Once they were at war, would they still care about such negative news?

"It's better if I go myself." After thinking it over, Ōnoki felt it was more reliable to go himself.

Sarutobi Hiruzen had lost to Yūsuke; others going to fight might not be able to test Yūsuke's true ability.

He was confident that his strength was no less than Sarutobi Hiruzen's. The intelligence Sarutobi Hiruzen could obtain from battle, he certainly could too.

Thinking of this, Ōnoki quickly convened a high-level meeting to discuss this matter.

After some discussion, Ōnoki's proposal was approved by most of the high-level members.

Although Iwagakure was preparing to break with the Ninja Sect, the break had not happened yet. What danger could there be in a friendly spar with an ally? At worst, they could bring more guards.

Sarutobi Hiruzen, who had a grudge against the Ninja Sect, had managed to return to Konoha successfully. Their Third Tsuchikage certainly wouldn't be kept at the Ninja Sect either.

ps: The two chapters together are a little over 8k. I'm asking for monthly tickets.

Also, I have a lot to say today, so I'll put it in the author's note.