Chapter 361

The ending of Roshi and the Four-Tails was constantly explaining one thing to Kitsuchi.

And that is—the Fourth Mizukage in front of him, who looks gentle and polite, would not spend much effort to kill him.

Therefore, talking in the same room with this Fourth Mizukage required great courage.

But even so, Kitsuchi also understood.

At this moment, only he could stand out and carry this banner in the vast Hidden Rock.

In other words, at this moment, he did not represent himself, but more than 10, 00 Rock Ninjas on the battlefield and the entire Hidden Rock Village, and even the entire Land of Earth!

If he were weak and retreated here, then the entire Hidden Rock of the Land of Earth would be implicated!

Therefore, Kitsuchi could not be weak, nor could he retreat!

Kitsuchi took another deep breath, trying his best to keep his voice steady and not tremble.

"Sorry, Lord Mizukage."

"The Hidden Rock does not accept unconditional surrender."

Kitsuchi looked directly at Mizunuki Ryosuke, his eyes without a trace of evasion or retreat; he actually directly rejected Mizunuki Ryosuke's request.

Hearing this, an unexpected look appeared on Mizunuki Ryosuke's face.

Even he didn't expect that Kitsuchi would dare to reject his request so hard.

If the object of his negotiation had been Ohnoki, Ryosuke wouldn't have been too surprised, but the young Kitsuchi having this courage indeed made him somewhat surprised.

Although rejected by Kitsuchi, Mizunuki Ryosuke's interest grew even higher in his heart.

This is like a game; when you are clearing a level and fighting a boss, you can't just finish it with one basic attack, right? You have to use skill combos to consume it slowly, and then use the ultimate move to finish it off to be considered interesting.

Mizunuki Ryosuke was not afraid of Kitsuchi being "hard," because he still had many cards in his hand that he hadn't played.

If Kitsuchi had softened up right away, wouldn't he have wasted his effort?

On the contrary, it was precisely because of Kitsuchi's actions that he brought a trace of fun.

At the moment, a trace of a seemingly gentle but actually unfathomable smile appeared at the corners of Mizunuki Ryosuke's mouth.

As a qualified leader, the most important ability is to analyze the essence through the phenomenon.

To explain it in one sentence, it is to analyze the opponent's purpose through the opponent's behavior.

This was the teaching that the Third Tsuchikage Ohnoki often hung on his lips for Kitsuchi.

After defeating Roshi, Mizunuki Ryosuke did not enter the battlefield to seek to crush the Rock Ninjas, but went straight to Kitsuchi; what did he want to do?

"Decapitation"? Kitsuchi could only say that the possibility existed, but it was not great.

After all, the battle situation had developed to this point, and Third Tsuchikage Ohnoki and Four-Tails Jinchuriki Roshi had both been hit.

Kitsuchi, as the only "lone seedling" on the Rock Ninja battlefield, killing him would only completely stimulate the Rock Ninjas, eventually leading to the battle situation getting out of control.

Furthermore, taking a step back, even if Mizunuki Ryosuke really came to implement the "decapitation plan," what could Kitsuchi do?

Run?

Can those walking on the ground with two legs run faster than those flying in the sky?

Resist?

Didn't you see the ending of Roshi and the Four-Tails? Kage-level powerhouse Roshi only had the ending of being crushed; Kitsuchi knew that with his quasi-Kage strength, he was probably far from being an opponent of this Fourth Mizukage.

Besides this, there was another possibility.

And that is to meet the commander of the Rock Ninja battlefield and seek to end this war by relatively gentle means, which is the so-called "negotiation."

And if this were really the case, it would mean that Mizunuki Ryosuke did not want to kill the Hidden Rock all.

Why this situation appeared, there could be many reasons, and Kitsuchi couldn't guess them one by one.

But no matter what the opponent's final purpose was, at least now, Kitsuchi could only entrust all hope to the fact that this existence, who was like a "Death God," was really here to seek "negotiation."

Therefore, the option in front of Kitsuchi was only one—and that was to face this Fourth Mizukage directly!

He could only secretly pray that things would develop in a good direction.

In this way, he could also strive for a glimmer of survival for himself, for the Rock Ninjas, and for the captured Ohnoki.

And it wasn't until Mizunuki Ryosuke spoke just now that Kitsuchi truly determined that the other party was really here to "negotiate."

Although Mizunuki Ryosuke's attitude was overbearing and he didn't hide his purpose at all, coming up and asking the Hidden Rock to surrender unconditionally.

But Kitsuchi felt a sigh of relief because of this.

Although everything was not optimistic, and he didn't have any hole cards in his hand, all this at least showed that there was still room to talk.

And as long as the two sides could sit together to negotiate, no matter how bad the current situation of the Hidden Rock was, it showed that at least the Hidden Rock had something that the other party feared or craved.

Otherwise, the opponent could just start a massacre, why waste words to conduct so-called "negotiation"?

"Perhaps it is because the opponent is also fearing the losses caused by more than 10, 00 Rock Ninjas if they insist on a fish-dying-net-breaking situation."

Kitsuchi could only secretly guess in his heart.

Even if Kitsuchi himself didn't know what the opponent cared about, this didn't prevent Kitsuchi from continuing to argue and denying Mizunuki Ryosuke's request for "unconditional surrender."

You have to know, even "failure" is divided into different results.

And failure and surrender are also two results with completely opposite meanings.

For the Hidden Rock, "failure" would never break the spine of the Hidden Rock; there is a saying that failure is the mother of success, but if they really surrendered, I'm afraid the Hidden Rock would never have a chance to rise again in the future.

Even if he had to calmly accept defeat, Kitsuchi had to recover some losses for the Hidden Rock as much as possible.

Still the same sentence, so when you are weak, you can't show your weakness even more.

"Advancing to retreat" was also one of the principles Ohnoki taught Kitsuchi.

Kitsuchi's thoughts were not hard to guess; Mizunuki Ryosuke only needed to put himself into Kitsuchi's role to easily figure out what Kitsuchi's "confidence" in refusing him was.

And there was no reason why the Rock Ninjas, who were in a mess at this moment, were so hard, while Mizunuki Ryosuke, who occupied all the advantages, had to lower his posture.

Thus, Mizunuki Ryosuke smiled faintly and spoke slowly in a calm tone.

"The reason I give you this chance to live."

"Is not because I am afraid that the remaining remnants of the Rock Ninjas will cause me any losses."

"Don't forget, this is the battlefield of the Hidden Cloud and the Hidden Rock, and I am the Mizukage of the Hidden Mist."

"Why don't you understand, I am giving you a chance, I am saving you..."

Mizunuki Ryosuke's calm words seemed to have other meanings, but they sounded somewhat icy in Kitsuchi's ears.

At the moment, Kitsuchi suddenly thought of something, his heart began to beat violently, and a trace of unease flashed in his eyes.

Because he suddenly remembered that he had forgotten one thing just now; the Mizunuki Ryosuke in front of him was not from the Hidden Cloud!

Even if the Rock Ninjas died and the net broke, the ones who would be backlashed were still the Cloud Ninjas who were fighting fiercely with the Rock Ninjas on the battlefield.

The Hidden Cloud being backlashed, what does it have to do with the Hidden Mist thousands of miles away?

So from the beginning, Kitsuchi's guess was wrong; the premise of Mizunuki Ryosuke coming to negotiate was not fearing the desperate counterattack of 10, 00 Rock Ninjas.