Chapter 163: Reactions from Other Villages

Once the seed of doubt was planted, Orochimaru's thoughts grew like wild grass.

The first suspicion he had was regarding the connection between the Akatsuki organization and Amegakure.

According to Yahiko, the current leader of Amegakure, their village had received the approval of Hanzō of the Salamander, and thus, the high-ranking members of the Akatsuki were being cultivated as his successors.

But if this were true, why had Root suffered such significant losses over a year ago?

Although Danzo had unrealistic ambitions, he would never deliberately provoke Hanzō of Amegakure. The operation likely had something to do with the Akatsuki, perhaps even involving a direct confrontation with Yahiko and his comrades.

If this speculation was correct, Amegakure might have a motive to retaliate against Konoha.

However, if Amegakure truly attacked Konoha, they would most likely target Danzo, who had previously attacked the Akatsuki, rather than Minato Namikaze, Yahiko's senior.

Yahiko had no reason to kill his fellow disciple, and it's questionable whether he even had the power to do so.

Could the culprit be Akatsuki's Byakuya?

Orochimaru shifted his suspicions to Byakuya, locking him as the prime suspect. After all, during his encounters with Amegakure's delegation, Byakuya was the only ninja he couldn't fully comprehend.

Not only did Byakuya possess the power to instantly kill large summoned beasts, but he also had secret dealings with Danzo.

If Byakuya and Danzo had conspired during the Nine-Tails incident, it wasn't impossible for them to have taken out both Minato and Kushina.

The critical question, however, was whether Byakuya possessed space-time ninjutsu...

As his thoughts began to scatter, Orochimaru was unsure just how much his deductions were valid. Regardless, he had no intention of sharing these hypotheses with the Third Hokage or anyone else.

For now, all Orochimaru wanted was to complete the Wood Release experiment, end his partnership with Danzo, and be ready to leave at any moment.

With that in mind, Orochimaru left the lounge and began preparing for the next round of Wood Release experiments.

The Wood Release experiment had been initiated during the Third Great Ninja War as a human experimentation project by the Third Hokage, with the goal of cultivating Wood Release users by transplanting cells from the First Hokage, Hashirama Senju.

When the experiment first began, many ninjas who admired the First Hokage eagerly volunteered, hoping that the transplantation of Hashirama's cells would allow them to become elite Jonin of the village.

However, the risks associated with the procedure far exceeded everyone's expectations. After the deaths of countless volunteers, the experiment was eventually deemed a forbidden practice in Konoha.

Despite that, Orochimaru and Danzo continued conducting the experiments in secret.

Orochimaru sought to unlock the secrets of Wood Release, while Danzo desired a ninja with the Wood Release bloodline to serve him.

After years of research, the transplantation of Hashirama's cells had nearly reached maturity. Once the final human experiment was completed, they would obtain the crucial data needed.

Entering the laboratory filled with the scent of disinfectant, Orochimaru's gaze locked onto the subject lying on the operating table.

...

A few days later, news of the Nine-Tails incident in Konoha spread across most of the ninja world.

Although the Konoha leadership, led by the Third Hokage, made every effort to suppress the news, the sheer scale of the event was impossible to hide from the eyes of spies in various villages. The information quickly reached the intelligence agencies of each village and landed on the desks of the Five Kage.

[In Iwagakure (the Village Hidden in the Stones)]

After carefully reviewing the intelligence on the Nine-Tails incident, the old face of Ōnoki, the Third Tsuchikage, was all smiles and giggles. If not for his tired back, he would sure give it a try to belly dancing right now.

The Nine-Tails incident had cost Konoha both the Fourth Hokage and its Nine-Tails Jinchuriki. For Iwagakure, this was an immensely fortunate turn of events.

It was precisely because of the Fourth Hokage's existence that Iwagakure had lost the war against Konoha.

Ōnoki had even issued an order at the time, allowing his forces to abandon missions without punishment if they encountered the "Yellow Flash." This decree had become an indelible stain on his long reign.

Furthermore, due to the Fourth Hokage's youth, Ōnoki had believed that Konoha was on the verge of regaining the glory it once had during the era of the First Hokage, possibly crushing the other villages underfoot.

But now, the Fourth Hokage was dead, and with him, the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki had perished in the incident as well.

Having lost two Kage-level combatants, Konoha no longer held any advantage over Iwagakure. Ōnoki even entertained the idea of tearing up the peace treaty and annexing the neutral Land of Grass, which lay between Iwagakure and Konoha.

However, his thoughts were just that—thoughts.

With a soft sigh, Ōnoki abandoned the unrealistic idea, turning his gaze out toward the boundless Gobi Desert outside his window.

Though he longed to lead Iwagakure in annexing the plains of the Country of Grass, the village's current strength no longer permitted such a move. In the last war, the Fourth Hokage had wiped out Iwagakure's assault troops in skirmishes, leaving them devastated.

Even if they seized the Land of Grass, Iwagakure would not be able to hold it.

In Iwagakure, the idea of rashly tearing up the peace treaty still lingered in Ōnoki's mind, but he knew doing so would draw dissatisfaction from other villages and the daimyo of various nations, resulting in severe consequences.

More importantly, Ōnoki realized he no longer had strong commanders to send to the front lines. His son, Kitsuchi, though powerful, lacked the ability to change the course of the war and could not shoulder the duties of the Tsuchikage.

The village's Jinchuriki, Rōshi (the Four-Tails) and Han (the Five-Tails), while possessing Kage-level strength, disagreed with Ōnoki's expansionist ambitions. Both were conservative and recently had been wandering the Land of Earth under the pretext of guarding the borders.

His only hopes now lay with Kurotsuchi, his granddaughter, whose talent exceeded Kitsuchi's, and Deidara, a talented Earth Release user at the Ninja Academy, who might one day inherit the position of Tsuchikage.

After regaining control of his wandering thoughts, Ōnoki ultimately decided against tearing up the peace treaty.

[In Sunagakure (the Village Hidden in the Sand)]

After purging internal opposition within the village, Rasa solidified his position as the Fourth Kazekage, fulfilling his initial goal. His motivation for launching a war against Konoha in the first place was to divert internal conflicts within the village.

Though Sunagakure was now restricted by both the daimyo and Konoha due to the peace treaty, the loss of many ninjas during the war had paradoxically eased the village's resource crisis.

However, despite this, Sunagakure's financial situation remained dire. The village could only barely maintain operations by using Rasa's Magnet Release to mine gold, just enough to pay salaries and prevent further internal strife.

Returning to his office after working in the underground mines, Rasa glanced at an intelligence scroll. Upon reading the news of the deaths of the Fourth Hokage and his wife during the Nine-Tails incident, his expression shifted.

Though their deaths weakened Konoha, benefiting Sunagakure's future resistance, Rasa knew the village still needed the deterrent force of Konoha's presence to fend off invasions from Kirigakure (the Village Hidden in the Mist) and Iwagakure.

Suddenly, Rasa recalled something and asked his assistant, "Does the intelligence collected by the Anbu indicate who caused the Nine-Tails incident and killed the Fourth Hokage?"

The assistant shook his head. "Lord Rasa, we don't know who killed the Fourth Hokage yet, but it's said that he died while sealing the Nine-Tails. It's likely that the Nine-Tails itself killed both him and his wife."

At this moment, the assistant also remembered something, and he froze in place. If he wasn't mistaken, the Third Kazekage had also mysteriously disappeared, though the difference was that the Third Kazekage died after leaving the village, while the Fourth Hokage died within his own village.

After a moment of silence, Rasa's expression darkened, fear creeping in. The deaths of powerful shinobi like the Third Kazekage and the Fourth Hokage led him to wonder whether he might face a similar assassination in the future.

If he were to die, Sunagakure would likely fall to the status of a second-rate ninja village.

Rasa knew that relying solely on the Jinchuriki Bunpuku, along with the elders Chiyo and Ebizō, would not be enough to support the entire village. He would need to be more cautious when leaving the village, and selecting a new Jinchuriki for the One-Tail, Shukaku, had become an urgent matter.

Bunpuku was old and nearing death. If Shukaku's seal were to break, Sunagakure lacked the resources to withstand another rampage. Caution would be essential.

As for starting another war, Rasa had no intention of doing so at all.

After some thought, Rasa waved his assistant away, then took up the pen and paper handed to him to write a letter to Konoha.

In such turbulent times, Sunagakure needed to cling tightly to Konoha's influence.

[In Kirigakure (the Village Hidden in the Mist)]

Yagura, the Fourth Mizukage, received intelligence about the Nine-Tails incident with a grim expression, studying it for a long time.

Despite his short stature and babyish face, Yagura's recent victory in the battle for the position of Mizukage proved he was not to be underestimated. Winning the bloody internal conflict that plagued the village, he had established himself as Kirigakure's leader.

After carefully reviewing the full report on the Nine-Tails incident, Yagura's expression was as dark as Rasa's.

While Konoha's internal chaos was undoubtedly beneficial to Kirigakure, the Mist Village had recently gone through its own turmoil, no less devastating than the Nine-Tails incident.

The struggle for the position of Mizukage had turned families against each other in Kirigakure, leading to widespread death and destruction. Yagura himself had only managed to secure his position with the support of his mentor, Gengetsu Hōzuki.

Once he became Mizukage, Yagura quickly realized how dire Kirigakure's situation truly was. Although the Third Mizukage had died while researching ninjutsu, there were plenty of unresolved mysteries during his reign.

For one, the Third Mizukage was the village's strongest ninja and should not have died so easily.

Secondly, Yagura couldn't comprehend some of the bizarre orders the Third Mizukage had issued. Why had the village abducted a Konoha ninja to turn her into the Three-Tails Jinchuriki and send her back to Konoha to sow chaos?

In Kirigakure, Yagura, the Fourth Mizukage, found himself deeply troubled after receiving intelligence regarding the Nine-Tails incident. He carefully reviewed the information, his unease growing as he reflected on the situation.

Though Konoha's internal turmoil was advantageous for Kirigakure, Yagura knew that his village had also experienced similar chaos not long ago. The battle for the position of Mizukage had torn the village apart, with prominent clans killing each other in the bloody conflict.

Yagura had only secured his title because of his mentor, Gengetsu Hōzuki's backing, becoming the new Mizukage and bringing some stability to the village.

However, after taking up the role, Yagura realized how precarious Kirigakure's situation truly was. The mysterious death of the Third Mizukage, who had been the village's strongest ninja, raised many questions. Why had such a powerful figure died so easily? And why had he issued so many bizarre orders, including the abduction of a Konoha ninja to make her the Three-Tails Jinchuriki, sending her back to Konoha to cause havoc?

The more Yagura thought about it, the more he suspected that something was very wrong. Perhaps the Third Mizukage had been manipulated, subjected to a genjutsu, or struck by some severe trauma that led to his strange actions.

But if someone as powerful as the Third Mizukage could be controlled, Yagura feared that he too might be in danger of falling into the same trap.

His anxiety deepened as he looked again at the intelligence on the Nine-Tails incident, sweat forming on his brow. Could it be that a vast conspiracy was enveloping the Five Great Nations? Was this why the Third Kazekage had mysteriously disappeared, the Third Mizukage had died under strange circumstances, and even the Fourth Hokage, who mastered space-time ninjutsu, had died in his own village?

As these thoughts raced through his mind, Yagura suddenly sensed something behind him. He turned sharply and saw a swirling vortex appear in the air. Emerging from it was a masked man, wearing a tiger-patterned mask. The man's eyes, visible through the mask, were an ominous red, radiating a sense of dread.

Yagura instantly recognized the eyes—these were none other than the Sharingan of the Uchiha clan from Konoha. However, the pattern in the eyes was different from the typical three-tomoe Sharingan. Could this be the legendary Mangekyō Sharingan?

But that was impossible. The Mangekyō Sharingan was just a myth, and the last known wielder of such power was Uchiha Madara, the "Shinobi of Hell." Yet the man before him exuded the same terrifying aura as the legendary figure.

At that moment, Yagura pieced everything together. He understood why the Third Mizukage had behaved so erratically, why the Third Kazekage had vanished, and why the Fourth Hokage had died. Madara Uchiha had never truly died after the Battle of the Valley of the End. Instead, he had been lurking in the shadows, manipulating events from the darkness. Madara had been controlling Kirigakure all along, sowing division and chaos to ensure the village could never unite.

And now, Yagura realized, he was the next target. He could feel that Madara intended to make him his puppet, controlling him just as he had the Third Mizukage.

'I won't become a puppet,' Yagura thought, his face twisting with resolve. 'I must resist Madara Uchiha.'

But as Yagura's emotions surged and his thoughts raced, the masked man—Obito Uchiha—locked eyes with him and activated the Sharingan's genjutsu. Yagura's movements slowed for just a split second, enough for a pair of black hands to emerge from the ground and grasp his legs, pulling him toward the earth.

Taking advantage of the moment, Obito swiftly moved beside Yagura and activated his Kamui, creating a vortex in the air. In an instant, Yagura was sucked into the swirling space and transported into the Kamui dimension.

Though Obito possessed the Mangekyō Sharingan, subduing a Kage-level ninja like Yagura was no simple task. Only by trapping him in the Kamui dimension—where there was no water or food—did Obito stand a chance. He could wait for Yagura's strength to deplete, at which point he would use the Sharingan's genjutsu to take control.

The reason Obito sought to control the Fourth Mizukage was simple: he wanted to use Kirigakure as a breeding ground for strong subordinates. A peaceful ninja village wouldn't produce the powerful ninjas he needed. Only by keeping Kirigakure in a perpetual state of chaos could he create the warriors he desired.