Chapter 267: War
Even if Elder Genji had some suspicions, he wouldn't dare confront Konoha. The reality was that Kirigakure (Hidden Mist Village) was too weak now, while Konoha was a bit too strong.
The Hyuga clan was very perceptive. After hearing about Ao's fate, they immediately realized someone was targeting the Byakugan. Hanabi stopped attending school, Hinata stopped taking missions, and all main family members gathered at the old residence. Outsiders couldn't get in, and they wouldn't come out.
Danzo suffered a silent but significant loss. The Akatsuki... the Akatsuki had no idea about this incident.
Meanwhile, Ino, having obtained the Byakugan, was also in a bit of a bind.
She currently had two spare eyes: one right eye and another right eye.
She wasn't entirely sure what humans in her previous life were like.
Anyway, the people in this "legend of eyes" world didn't suffer from retinal damage due to lack of blood flow. However, there was a stricter requirement here: chakra pathways.
For chakra pathways, the left eye was the left eye, and the right eye was the right eye. The blood vessels, nerves, and even the internal chakra pathways of the eyes were symmetrical. Forcibly placing a right eye into the left eye socket would only destroy the precious eye.
As for digging a hole in one's forehead or palm and inserting a Byakugan or Sharingan? Kimimaro could only say "thank you" for that idea! His parents hadn't blessed him with such organs!
Ino didn't absorb the ocular power within the Byakugan either.
Compared to Shisui's Mangekyo Sharingan, the newly acquired Byakugan was simply too low-level.
Ino had no plans to transplant the Byakugan into Kimimaro's corpse for now. It was too risky. If the Byakugan was destroyed, so be it; she was more worried it might contaminate Shisui's Mangekyo Sharingan.
In these times, achieving purity was difficult; becoming mixed was an effortless slide.
She quietly snuck into Takigakure (Hidden Waterfall Village) and used her Flower Release to implant the Byakugan at the base of what was suspected to be the roots of the God Tree. Though called roots, the thing was actually long dead. However, being part of the God Tree, it still possessed some residual life force. The Hero Water that leaked from the cracks in its bark each year was a crystallization of this life force.
Ino was now intercepting a portion of the root's life force to nurture this Byakugan.
She didn't expect it to evolve to the level of a Tenseigan, but at the very least, it shouldn't be too much weaker than Shisui's Mangekyo, right?
She took a little trip, dealt with Ao from Kirigakure, obtained one Byakugan, and earned three "pot points." There wasn't much else to say.
She upgraded her Yang Release from Lv3 to Lv4. Once she accumulated four more pot points and raised Yang Release to Lv5, she would officially meet the conditions for Wood Release and could continue upgrading in that area.
Land of Rain.
Obito was still discussing Akatsuki matters with his "dog-head strategist," Zetsu.
A considerable amount of Akatsuki's intelligence had been exposed through recent battles.
Obito asked, "By your estimation, how much longer until the Three-Tails reappears?"
With the death of the Fourth Mizukage, the Three-Tails, Isobu, had also perished. They had to wait for the Tailed Beast to "respawn" before they could proceed with further actions.
There was also an order to capturing Tailed Beasts. If they went for the Nine-Tails right away, they wouldn't be able to control the rampaging Gedo Statue. To lull the ninja villages into a false sense of security, they needed to make the ninja world more chaotic. Only then could they capture the nine Tailed Beasts in the predetermined order within the shortest possible time and complete their ultimate plan.
Zetsu pondered for a moment: "According to my guess, it will probably take another two years, at least two years."
He seemed to enjoy provoking Obito from time to time: "What will we do for these two years? Wait for Konoha to prepare and then annihilate us one by one?"
Obito said nonchalantly, "Create some bloody conflicts, stir up chaos in the ninja world, and they won't have time to worry about the Akatsuki. We can also continue to accept Ōnoki's employment and help him destroy a few small countries. Also, I heard Kirigakure lost a Byakugan."
Zetsu revealed a knowing smile. Understood.
Eat, sleep, torment Kirigakure! This had basically been Obito's entire life for these past years.
Because of Rin's death, he hated Kirigakure to the core.
"Are you planning to control the new Fifth Mizukage, or that old man Genji? Kirigakure is definitely heavily guarded now. I advise you to give up this rather foolish idea."
Obito looked back at him: "Our sights cannot be limited to the ninja world. The Eye of the Moon Plan targets all living beings. Since they are all within the range of the Eye of the Moon, if they want to go to a new world without killing, they should pay a price."
"What price?"
"War."
War had arrived!
However, the war had not yet spread to the ninja world for the time being.
The one initiating the war was the Land of Water.
The Land of Water had always been isolated overseas, separated by a vast ocean. To its north lay the Land of Lightning and Kumogakure (Hidden Cloud Village), and to its west, the Land of Fire and Konohagakure (Hidden Leaf Village).
Long-term isolation had led to many of the Land of Water's outer islands either becoming independent or being annexed by the militarily strong Land of Lightning. The Land of Fire had also taken the opportunity to occupy some small islands for military purposes.
The Daimyo of the Land of Water, as if injected with chicken blood, summoned his trusted generals. Then, under the pretext of reclaiming lost territories, the elder retainer, General Daikokutenzen, led a massive army of fifty thousand out of the Land of Water to sweep through the islands in the East Sea, declaring sovereignty over them.
Kirigakure continued to adhere to its isolationist principles. Citing that this war had nothing to do with ninja, they refused many mission requests from the Land of Water, causing strong dissatisfaction from the Land of Water's Daimyo.
You eat my food, drink my wine, and when it's time for war, you act like cowards?
Within ten days, he sent three official documents to Kirigakure, with increasingly severe wording.
Elder Genji remained steadfast, unmoved. Relying on his prestige, he suppressed all calls for war.
Genji didn't move, Jiraiya didn't move, and the "muscle-bound idiot" from Kumogakure in the Land of Lightning also didn't move. Everyone was smart. If you sent a small team to secretly participate in the war today, and tomorrow I sent two small teams to achieve victory on a local battlefield, then the Fourth Great Ninja War might just break out.
Ninja needed a harsh environment to temper their will and skills, but many ninja, deep down, looked down on ordinary civilians.
One Fire Release jutsu could wipe out several hundred ashigaru (foot soldiers); such so-called large armies were insignificant in the eyes of the ninja villages.
If you want to play house, then go fight. We won't participate.
The ninjas' thinking was a bit simplistic.
Many things truly couldn't be resolved by merely "closing the cave door and quietly reciting scriptures."
As the Land of Water took the lead in hiring rogue ninja, this "mortal" war for dominance in the East Sea began to gradually infiltrate the ninja world.
Jiraiya's plan to unite the five great ninja villages to jointly eliminate the Akatsuki was declared bankrupt.
Kumogakure and Kirigakure were still relatively restrained. Konoha didn't want to get involved in this war. For now, their three-way struggle for hegemony in the East Sea was limited to conventional levels.
Whether the war would escalate in the future, no one could say. Right now, there was simply no energy to deal with the Akatsuki.
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