271 Different Goals?

"I hope you know whom you are talking to. Last time I remember I am the next Mizukage and you are a dog of Jiro." Moji said as he looked at Priest Ji.

"I apologize if you felt offended by this Lord Moji. It was never my intention to mock you or anything. I was simply concerned for their well-being. I didn't want anything major to happen a few days before the actual conflict." Ji said with a cheeky expression.

"What brought you here and why didn't you take permission before coming?" Moji asked to which Ji replied "Everyone outside is busy running here and there searching for the missing people. I got curious so I came in. Lord Moji, you can trust us and ask help from us to find your people."

Moji didn't want to share any information with Ji and didn't want to owe him any favor so he said "No...no need. It is not that important. Tell me why you came here in the first place?"

"Oh Yes" Ji said as he raised his eyebrows and sat on the nearby sofa. "We were wondering if you could lend some of your weak shinobis to me. I want to increase their strength."

"You are asking me this 2 days before the fight starts?" Moji asked with a confused face. He wondered why Ji didn't say this for many months and now suddenly wants to increase the strength of Moji's weakest men.

"That's because we didn't think it would come to this but with so many things happening behind the scenes, I think it is better to safe than sorry. I don't need many people though as 15-20 of them would suffice. I mean it is up to you if you want to take any unwanted risks on the day of the conflict." Ji said.

Moji knew Priest Ji was luring him using such words but he didn't care much about his people. They were all tools to him and the weak ones in his faction were burdens so he had a problem lending 20 of them to Priest Ji. Whatever Ji does, even if 10 of them come out strong then it is a worth it sacrifice.

"Alright, I will send 20 of my men to your base within a few hours. But I hope the results are good or else even Jiro won't be able to save you." Moji said in a threatening tone. He didn't like Ji speaking a little casually with him.

"Yes Yes...Lord Moji do not worry. I will get you good reports." Ji said and left the office. The man who Moji was tasked with finding Hari and the others was inside the office the whole time.

Moji looked at him and said "Give the task to find Hari to someone else. You go and get 20 weak shinobi of our faction. Remember being weak isn't the only qualification required...they all need to have pure hatred for the bloodline clans so choose them wisely. If the wrong person's strength increases and he runs away to that bitch Mei and her people then I would have dug my own grave."

The man was relieved when he heard that he no longer needed to find Hari and the other shinobis. Now all he had to do was find the weaklings who believe in the same things as the Moji and who is cruel enough in nature to kill a kid from the bloodline clan. As there were many criminals in the Mizukage faction as well, it wasn't hard to find any shinobi who had committed certain crimes in the bloodline faction.

Ji who had just stepped out of the Mizukage building hopped on a carriage that was standing just opposite the Mizukage building. While getting inside the carriage he told a guard sitting in the front "Take us to Lord Jiro's base."

He then sat in the carriage and along with him, there was only one hooded figure sitting. As the carriage started no one said anything until Ji looked at the hooded figure and said "I am getting 20 people from Moji tomorrow. Make sure the demon hearts are ready."

The hooded figure hesitates a little and said "Are you sure Priest Ji? The demon hearts are all failed ones. Transplanting them would give them power but they all are a ticking time bomb."

Ji smirked as he heard that and said "I know which is why I told him to send his weak shinobis. And I don't care that they will become a ticking time bomb as long as I decide when and where they can explode. We do not care who wins the fight between both the factions as long as our goal is achieved and it will happen only if there is an all-out war between the two factions."

"Yes, it will be the foundation stone of our Jashin cult. Lord Jashin will grant us more strength after that." the hooded figure said in an excited tone. Ji could easily see the thirst for power in the hooded figures' eyes.

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Terumi Mansion (2 days later)

It was very early in the morning but looking at the Terumi estate no one would be able to guess that as everyone was already awake. The whole estate was busy for the past few days with the war preparations and today was the day of the war.

They had to give their all or else they will be slaughtered by Moji and his people eventually. It wouldn't be wrong to say that the majority of the people in all the bloodline clans hadn't slept the whole night.

Yoshiro Terumi was sitting in his room getting ready for the prisoner exchange which was scheduled to be held 5 hours later. For the past two days, he had raked his brain thinking about what he was missing but he couldn't. He always felt that something was wrong and he knew the old man also agreed with this but none of them could put a finger on it.

As he was wearing his flak jacket, there was a knock on the door. Yoshiro didn't have any meetings scheduled today and no one would disturb him on such an important day. Without looking at the door he asked "Who is it?"

A voice came from the other side that said "Lord Yoshiro it's me, Ao."

Yoshiro nodded and opened the door. As the door opened he saw a scroll in Ao's hand. He saw the old man's clan's insignia on the scroll. Yoshiro quickly picked up the scroll and said "Have everyone who was in the underground meeting room come to my study immediately."

Yoshiro decided to call everyone that had seen those weapons that day to his own study room where he likes to read books. Yoshiro had Mei send one of those kunais to the old man along with a list of questions. The questions asked about the background checks of everyone involved along with Yuta and also where those weapons were delivered and also about any news regarding the blood squad. He was sure that the old man must have found some answers or else he wouldn't bother sending a scroll.

Within the next 2 minutes, everyone had arrived in the study room. Seeing the people around Yoshiro cleared his throat and said "I know all of you are busy in the preparations but I wanted everyone that had seen the weapon to be here. There may be spies in our faction as well. Either leaf, Moji's or even the hidden stone. I trust everyone that is present in this room so I called you all here as soon as I received the old man's report about this."

Yoshiro knew that if the report isn't any good then it could cause a very big blow to everyone's morale but he still hoped for the best. He opened the letter and started reading it by himself first. After reading it for a few seconds, he looked at the people standing around his study room and said "The weapons were delivered to the hidden stone by the Land of Iron."

"So does that mean these are the same weapons that are rumored to be stolen by the genjutsu demon?" Enko asked to which Yoshiro nodded.

"How did Kakashi Hatake get his hands on them?" Ao asked to which Yoshiro replied "My assumption would be that the goal of that day's meeting at the coast was to give these weapons to the hidden leaf shinobis which the genjutsu demon managed to do somehow even when we had kept a keen eye on them."

"This really is a tangled web father but none of it seems to be a bad thing for us. I think we were overthinking things, especially me when I said that someone was pulling the strings." Mei chuckled. She was relieved that there wasn't any kind of betrayal in all this. In fact, the actions of the genjutsu demon have always been in the favor of the bloodline faction.

Yoshiro shook his head as his expression became serious and he said "That's where you are wrong Mei. We didn't overthink but underestimated a lot of things. The last part of the report talks about the prisoner we all are going to free."

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