Chapter – 173 Desire and Strength

Kumo Jonin's request made the Anbu squad captain who followed him embarrassed.

On one side is the Kumo Jonin who is the second most senior member of the peace delegation, while the other is Hyuga Hiashi, the Patriarch of the Hyuga Clan, either party can't be offended, therefore the Anbu has no idea what to do.

While the Anbu squad captain was silent, Hiashi shook his head and coldly stated, "It's impossible!"

Although Watanabe's corpse was taken away by the two Anbu ninja by the code of Eagle & Cat, therefore even if the search is conducted; nothing is to be found, but that still doesn't mean that Hyuga Patriarch would allow the Kumo ninja to search the entire Hyuga Clan territory.

Because this matter involves the honor of the Hyuga Clan, if the Hyuga Patriarch were to easily give in to the Kumo's request, it will not only directly reduce the prestige of the noble Hyuga Clan but also expose some flaws in the eyes of discerning people.

Therefore, Hyuga Hiashi wouldn't easily budge here, especially since the other party had actually planned this all out.

Following Hyuga Patriarch's denial, the captain of the Anbu squad tried to persuade the Kumo Jonin, "Let's go search the other places, as Hyuga Patriarch stated, the shinobi of the Hyuga Clan has no reason to attack or kidnap the head of the peace delegation, there might have been some sort of misunderstanding."

Kumo Jonin was already prepared for a conflict, so he didn't budge either and threatened viciously, "Your Konoha ninja attacked and kidnap the leader of our team, this is a blatant breach of the peace agreement between the two villages! If you don't let us search now, then I will have no choice but to immediately return to Kumogakure and report this matter to Raikage-Sama as per the facts, then the decision will only be in the hands of Raikage-Sama!" – the Anbu squad leader's face turned stiff and he was totally annoyed by the threat the other party gave them.

But even if he was angry at the Kumo Jonin, he can't make any reckless decision, and the matter now is not small anymore, if a wrong step is taken then the hard-won peace achieved between the two nations will crumble.

Left with no choice, the Anbu squad leader came to the side of the Hyuga Patriarch and requested, "Hiashi-sama, please allow them to search the territory of the Hyuga Clan, I will make sure that they stay in control and do not get out of hands."

Hyuga Hiashi considered a little and finally cast a cold glance towards the Kumo Jonin and nodded, "Alright, but notify Sandaime-Sama about this matter immediately and also pass on the message that I would like to have a private meeting with him!"

Kumo Jonin was pleased, it was as if the Hyuga Patriarch backed down and cowered to the name of their Raikage-Sama, and after snorting coldly, he quickly led his subordinates into the Hyuga Clan territory and started searching the perimeter of the Hyuga Clan under the watch of both the Anbu and Hyuga ninjas.

While the search was being conducted, Hiashi cast a glance in the distance with a thoughtful expression.

The Anbu squad captain who accompanied the Kumo Jonin partook in the search and was finally relieved when there was no sign of either of Watanabe or any fighting in the Hyuga Clan grounds.

Although he believed that the Hyuga Clan wouldn't attack the leader of the peace delegation without any significant reason, the direct accusation that the other Jonin put on Hyuga Clan still worried him until a few moments ago.

While the Anbu squad captain was relieved, Kumo Jonin's face was gloomy because of the result.

The Anbu squad captain went towards the Hyuga Patriarch who was still overlooking everything and bowed seriously, "I apologize for making the Hyuga Clan go through this, please forgive us, and I also am grateful for the cooperation that the Hyuga Patriarch showed and allowed the search, Hiashi-Sama can rest assured that the result was exactly the same as what Hiashi-Sama said previously!"

Hiashi only nodded and didn't speak any further.

With no result obtained after the search, the Anbu squad captain who accompanied the Kumo Jonin was no longer polite at this time and said seriously, "Since you didn't find anything here, then let's go search other possible places Watanabe-san could have gone!"

Kumo Jonin snorted coldly, "Don't bother!"

With that said, he made a few hand seals, sensed a little, and soon cast his gaze into the distance with a confused expression.

The Anbu squad captain questioned immediately, "What did you find?"

…

Eagle and Cat, who had the corpse of Watanabe stored in a storage scroll were running towards the edge of the village.

Eagle has yet to figure out how to deal with the corpse of Watanabe, but it must be taken away from the territory of the Hyuga Clan.

Silent on the entire route, Cat couldn't hold it any longer and asked, "Eagle-San, what do you think what Watanabe said, was it right or wrong?"

Without a doubt, the words of Watanabe before his death had a great impact on Cat, causing him to have doubts about the peace he has believed so far, but he didn't know whether Eagle also thought the same or not.

Eagle just sighed lightly and said, "Some of the things he said were indeed correct."

Eagle partly agrees with the views of Watanabe.

It has only been a little over five decades since the establishment of Konohagakure and the other great Shinobi Villages, in other words, the framework of one nation one village has only come into existence a little over five decades ago.

However, the peace only lasted for the first few years while the Shodaime-Sama was alive.

But after his death, the situation of the Shinobi World immediately changed.

If the first decade of Shodaime Sama's term of power is ignored then in the past four decades; three shinobi wars have broken out, each one being more terrifying than the previous, that is to say, on an average basis, a terrifying war broke out in the shinobi world after every thirteen years.

And since every war will cause the death of an entire generation of shinobi, this implies that after a recuperation of every thirteen years, an entirely new generation would partake in the cruel war and will be lost.

This cycle has already taken place thrice!

Cat asked, "Does that mean Shodaime-Sama was wrong?"

Eagle shook his head, "Shodaime-Sama indeed missed the best period of unifying the shinobi world, but it doesn't give us any reason to blame him!"

Senju Hashirama experienced the chaos of the Warring States Period and wanted to bring a change upon the catastrophic shinobi world, therefore he created the Shinobi Village system with his friend and rival, Uchiha Madara, in this matter nobody can say with certainty that Senju Hashirama did something wrong or foolish.

Criticizing the actions of predecessors based on the current situation is unfair, no one could say with certainty that the war would have disappeared even after the unification of the Shinobi World, after all, Senju Hashirama was only a mortal, he would die sooner or later.

Since no one can tell the future clearly, so blaming the actions of predecessors is actually a sign of the incompetence of the successors.

Eagle believes that, if anything Shodaime-Sama shouldn't have done, then it was the distribution of the tailed beasts to the great villages.

The intentions of Shodaime-Sama may have been noble and he did this to balance the combat power of each village so that they can all restrain each other, to maintain a frail balance.

But the balance was indeed frail and ended up counterproductive, the distribution of tailed beasts actually intensified the degree of wars as a result of which Konoha suffered the most.

Even taking the current situation for analysis, if Kumo didn't have two perfect Jinchuriki of Hachibi and Nibi, then would they dare to have the confidence of starting a war?

Obviously, NO!

Cat thought for a while and asked again, "Then do you think that what the Kumo is trying to do now is the right approach?"

"What Kumo intends to do!?" – With a cold smirk, Eagle said disdainfully, "Heh, Kumogakure may have the desire to unify the Shinobi world, but unfortunately for them, they don't have even half the strength needed to accomplish this feat!"

Desire is indeed important, but if there is no corresponding strength to match, then all that desire is just an empty talk.

If Eagle was to compare the strength of Konoha with other villages, then without a doubt, Konoha is still much stronger than any of the great village.

The only problem is that Konoha has to guard against all four nations at the same time. If that wasn't the case then Konoha can still unilaterally crush the entire Kumogakure, after all, if worst comes to worst, there's Sandaime-sama himself, then there are people like Shimura Danzo, Mitakado Homura, Utatane Koharu, Jiraiya, Tsunade, Uchiha Fugaku, Hyuga Brothers, Ino-Shika-Cho trio, as well as the patriarchs of other clans, aside from this, there are also a large number of secret and forbidden techniques left by Nidaime-sama, that if used, can cause devastating damage to other villages, if Konoha unites, then Kumogakure would disappear from the face of the Shinobi World.

But given the current situation, such a thing happening is very unlikely.

Konoha's major problem is that in every war, the single village has to face the combined threat of all the other great villages.

So, in the face of Kumo's provocation, Konoha has to not only guard against other shinobi villages that would be waiting for the perfect opportunity to take the advantage of the fire, as well as guard against the Uchiha Clan, therefore, Konoha appears to be so weak currently.

Cat thoughtfully muttered, "Is Kumogakure really not strong enough?"

Eagle didn't reply directly and said quietly, "The waters of the Shinobi world are much deeper than we think!"

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