Chapter 677

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

If Kitsuchi had gone soft right from the start, wouldn't he have wasted his effort?

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

At this moment, a smile appeared on the corner of Mizunuki Ryosuke's mouth that looked gentle but was actually unfathomable.

As a qualified leader, the most important skill is to analyze the essence through the phenomena.

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, Onoki, most often kept on his lips regarding Kitsuchi.

After defeating Roshi, Mizunuki Ryosuke did not enter the battlefield to seek to crush the Iwa ninja, but came straight to Kitsuchi; what did he want to do?

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

After all, with the war situation developing to this point, the Third Tsuchikage, Onoki, and the Four-Tails jinchuriki, Roshi, had both suffered.

As the only "lone seedling" of the Iwa ninja on the battlefield, killing him would only completely provoke the Iwa ninja, ultimately leading to the war situation spiraling out of control.

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

Run?

Can someone walking on the ground with two legs outrun someone flying in the sky?

Resist?

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

Besides this, there was another possibility.

That is to meet the commander of the Iwa ninja battlefield and seek to end this war through 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 drive Iwagakure to extinction.

Why this situation would occur, there could be many reasons; Kitsuchi couldn't guess them one by one.

But no matter what the opponent's ultimate purpose was, at least for now, Kitsuchi could only pin all his hopes on the fact that this existence, who was like the "Grim Reaper," had really come to seek "negotiation."

Therefore, the option before Kitsuchi was only one—that is to face this Fourth Mizukage head-on!

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

In this way, he could still fight for a glimmer of life for himself, for the Iwa ninja, and for the captured Onoki.

And it wasn't until Mizunuki Ryosuke spoke just now that Kitsuchi truly confirmed that the other party had really come to "negotiate."

Although Mizunuki Ryosuke's attitude was overbearing and he had no intention of hiding his purpose at all, asking Iwagakure to surrender unconditionally right from the start.

But Kitsuchi actually let out a sigh of relief because of this.

Although everything was not optimistic, and he had no trump cards in his hand, at least this showed that there was still something to talk about.

And as long as the two sides could sit together and negotiate, no matter how bad Iwagakure's current situation was, this meant that at least Iwagakure still had things that the other party feared or craved.

Otherwise, the other party could just start a massacre; why waste breath to conduct a so-called "negotiation"?

"Perhaps the other party is also wary of the losses that ten thousand-plus Iwa ninja would cause if they were determined to fight to the death."

Kitsuchi could only guess secretly in his heart.

Even if Kitsuchi himself didn't know what the other party's point of concern was, this didn't prevent Kitsuchi from continuing to argue on grounds and vetoing the "unconditional surrender" request proposed by Mizunuki Ryosuke.

One must know that even "failure" is divided into different results.

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

For Iwagakure, "failure" will never break Iwagakure's spine; there is a saying that failure is the mother of success, but if they truly surrendered, I fear Iwagakure would never have a day to rise again in the future.

Even if he had to calmly accept defeat, Kitsuchi had to try his best to recover some losses for Iwagakure.

Still the same sentence, so when one is weak, the more one cannot show one's weakness.

"Advancing as a retreat" is also one of the principles Onoki 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 rejecting him was.

And there was no reason for the Iwa ninja, who were in a mess at the moment, to be so firm, 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 am giving you this chance to live."

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

"Don't forget, this is the battlefield of Kumo and Iwa, and I am the Mizukage of Mist."

"How can you not understand, I am giving you a chance, I am saving you."

Mizunuki Ryosuke's calm words seemed to have another deep meaning, but heard in Kitsuchi's ears, they carried a trace of coldness instead.

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

Because he suddenly remembered that he had forgotten one thing just now: the Mizunuki Ryosuke before him was not a person from Kumo!

Even if the Iwa ninja fought to the death, the ones who would suffer the backlash would still be the Kumo ninja who were fighting fiercely with the Iwa ninja on the battlefield.

Kumo being backlashed, what does that have to do with Mist, which is 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 ten thousand Iwa ninja at all. ===== CHAPTER 679 =====