Back at his traditional-style home, Izayoi took a quick bath, warmed up some saké, switched to an open-air setting, and—wearing only a pair of swim trunks—slipped into his private hot spring.
Sipping the mild saké, Izayoi summoned the glowing screen to check his earnings for the night.
[Points: 281,379]
"Such a pity…"
Looking at the number, Izayoi didn't seem overjoyed; instead, he showed mild regret. "If the 'Bloody Mist' period hadn't happened, Kirigakure would have been the biggest treasure trove."
No matter the world, war is the key to wealth.
In six years at the Academy, all Hinata, Uchiha Sasuke, and the rest of the class contributed only about twenty thousand points to Izayoi. But now, through a single "Konoha Crush" plan plus 'Akatsuki' attacking Kumogakure, Izayoi's point stash soared from a bit over ten thousand to more than two hundred eighty thousand.
And that was with at least half of Kumogakure's casualties dying under the meteor shower and Ultra Shinra Tensei cast by Izayoi's Wood Clones. While meteor shower and Ultra Shinra Tensei did trigger many base-level "guaranteed drops," they still couldn't match the puppet army's "drop rate."
Moreover, Kumogakure's emphasis on taijutsu came from the severe scarcity of Kekkei Genkai in their land. The vast majority of their ninja were White-tier or Green-tier at best, occasionally Blue-tier. Disassembling a Blue-tier trait yields only a random three-digit sum of points.
All told, Izayoi's windfall this time came purely from large numbers.
This inevitably made Izayoi think of Kirigakure. Among the Five Great Shinobi Villages, Kumo, Iwa, and Suna are "poor households" with very few Kekkei Genkai; only Konoha and Kirigakure have large numbers of bloodline and secret-arts clans. Unfortunately, those two "wealthy households" had been ruined either by their own people or by Uchiha Obito. Kirigakure especially had it the worst.
Formerly, it was the village with the greatest number of Kekkei Genkai families—yet in that land, bloodline users had ended up as monsters reviled by everyone. Now the once powerful Hidden Mist village ranked at the very bottom, worse even than Suna. Without the Bloody Mist era, Izayoi couldn't imagine how "delicious" that village might've been to farm.
Most Kekkei Genkai traits are Purple-tier, each yielding a random four-digit point total upon disassembly. If he attacked Kirigakure specifically targeting the bloodline families, tonight's gains might well have doubled.
But "if" didn't exist.
So Izayoi remained with two options: farm a Red-tier trait to break it down, or spark wars—best if enemy nin died at the hands of his human puppets.
But seeing how tonight's battle went, Izayoi realized the puppet army's shortcomings. Their bodies were stiff, lifeless, poorly focused… Even multiple Wood Clones couldn't bring out their full power; they struggled even against a half-manned Hidden Village.
If he wanted to harvest a large haul via the puppet army, he'd either have to fish in murky waters again, like with the Konoha Crush, or refine them further.
"The butterfly effect's already turned the plot upside down. I'm really curious how things go next…"
Izayoi murmured with a wry smile, gripping his cup with two fingers and draining the warm liquor in one gulp. At that moment, the door opened behind him.
"Karin, still up?" Izayoi said, smiling without turning around—he already knew who it was.
"Heehee…yeah. My energy these days is off the charts. Even if I use Multi-Shadow Clone Jutsu to clean the entire garden, I'm not tired at all," Karin said, kneeling behind him. First she lifted the flask to refill Izayoi's cup, then laid both hands on his head, searching out acupressure points. She laughed. "Izayoi-kun, lately I've been learning massage and force-application from Hinata and Hanabi, so let me give it a try."
"Appreciate it. But get in here—it's getting colder," Izayoi replied with an upward glance. Noticing that Karin wore the same Squirtle-style school swimsuit as Hinata but without any "distortion," he pulled her into the hot spring.
"Izayoi-kun, turn around and lie at the pool's edge. I'll start with your head," Karin said eagerly.
"Sure."
…
Just as with the Uchiha Massacre, Konoha's downfall plan, and the emergence of a Wood Release ninja, word that "Akatsuki attacked Kumogakure and wiped out the Land of Lightning's military base" soon spread to every corner of the shinobi world—traveling by summoning-creature couriers, it even reached Kirigakure overseas. In an instant, the ninja realm was in an uproar.
Just like Konoha and Sunagakure had done, Kumogakure and the Land of Lightning made no secret of events. They compiled intel on Akatsuki and released it in full, letting everyone know Akatsuki had crossed the line.
In this incident, Kumogakure was the victim!
Their puppet techniques, surpassing even Sunagakure's, could fashion corpses into human puppets retaining both lifetime abilities and Kekkei Genkai—and even using jutsu the originals never could.
The day the Land of Lightning published that intel, Sasori of the Red Sand's bounty skyrocketed to second place on the black market at 548 million ryō. Sarutobi Asuma's bounty was nowhere near that figure.
The top spot was no longer Izayoi but "Tendo Pain," the man with "Sage Eyes" who single-handedly obliterated Kumogakure with one strike: a flat 1 billion ryō!
Obviously, the Land of Lightning was spending heavily, and they were scared. A group crossing these lines was just too terrifying. If they could call down meteors on Kumo today, they might do the same to the Daimyō's palace tomorrow.
Next to these two dangerous individuals, a just-graduated Wood Release ninja who hadn't fully matured seemed trivial.
…
"Whew…"
In Amegakure, Kakuzu found Sasori, who had come for a meeting. Panting lightly, Kakuzu asked, "Sasori, I hear you've turned yourself into a human puppet. Could you relocate your heart and donate your current body to the organization? I can help with Earth Grudge Fear, free of charge."
"Scram!"
Sasori's real body, concealed in Hiruko, gave a low, cold growl. Kakuzu, a bit disappointed, then turned to Tendo Pain. "Leader, can I switch partners? I'm suddenly thinking Sasori is the ideal teammate."
"Kakuzu, what the hell are you saying? I, the great me, am not good enough for you?" Hidan shouted indignantly.
"Shut it. Sasori-nii's my partner," Deidara echoed, also annoyed.
Neither of those two clueless "comic relief" types caught Kakuzu's drift. Tendo Pain responded coolly:
"No."
"Pity."
Kakuzu glanced at Sasori, then at Tendo Pain, eyes full of regret.
After that glacial reply, Tendo Pain cast his gaze over everyone but Uchiha Obito and spoke in a deep voice:
"I've gathered all of you here in person to inform you of something. The 'intel' released by the Land of Lightning is false. The Konoha Crush and the Kumogakure incident were both done by a mystery figure who, like me, possesses Sage Eyes."
"His goal seems to be triggering a massive war across the ninja world—using the Five Great Nations to weaken Akatsuki, maybe even to deal with me, a wielder of those eyes."
"From now on, when you act outside, be cautious. Apart from me, Sasori, Itachi, and Kisame, the rest of you still have your information unrevealed. I'm allowing you to discard our uniform and go into hiding if necessary. If you're in danger, contact me through the rings for help."
Hearing this, the other S-rank rogues mostly shrugged. Unless they encountered an overwhelming force or faced an elemental matchup that restrained them, hardly anyone could threaten them. Most potential foes were top-level bigshots, unlikely to be stumbled upon randomly.
Kakuzu, by contrast, brightened with excitement:
"Meaning Akatsuki is now a target for everyone? So plenty of bigshots with bounties will come after us?"
"…"
Behind-the-scenes, Nagato felt exasperated. Still controlling Tendo Pain, he revealed the second reason for summoning them:
"This event means Kumogakure will want revenge. According to intel from Zetsu, Kumo has both the Two-Tails and the Eight-Tails Jinchūriki—both perfect hosts that can fully Tailed Beast Transform and fire Tailed Beast Bombs. They also have a time-space jutsu known as Heavenly Transfer. In theory, they could air-drop Tailed Beast Bombs onto Amegakure."
"We can't rule out the possibility of a war."
"So all of you will remain in Amegakure for now, helping arrange defense barriers and seals."
Now all of Akatsuki grew serious. They didn't fear small ninja squads, but an entire hidden village going all in was different.
"Leader, you're not considering relocating the base?" Kakuzu asked.
"Not for the moment," Tendo Pain said icily. "We're only dealing with one Hidden Cloud Village—nothing special. Whatever that mystery man can do, I can do as well."
Reflecting on those scattered photos and intel, the Akatsuki members felt a chill. They had underestimated their leader—two Sage-Eyed individuals? It was like a new version of "God of Shinobi" versus "Demon of the Shinobi World." Maybe it'd turn into a "Sage-Eyes War," culminating in a new "Valley of the End" showdown.
…
"Deidara, you joined such a dangerous organization?"
In Iwagakure, Onoki stared at the intel, face stern: "I thought Wood Release was the greatest threat to the future. Didn't guess someone even more dangerous was lurking around! Akatsuki—what is your goal?"
Ordinarily, seeing Kumo so badly injured, Onoki would have promptly invaded the Land of Lightning.
The Third Shinobi War started because Kumo found out Suna's Third Kazekage was missing, so they marched into Land of Wind. Losing even a backbone figure could trigger war—let alone an entire major village practically erased from the map with massive casualties. This was absolutely an opportunity to strike while they were down.
But reading the intel, neither Onoki, Suna—who had once been invaded by Kumo—nor Konoha, which had clashed with Kumo and been humiliated by them nine years ago, felt any desire to kick them when they were down.
Because now there were once again "transcendent-level fighters" akin to the God of Shinobi or the Demon of the Shinobi World. Nobody knew better than the Five Great Villages how terrifying such existences were.
Tailed Beasts were already frightening enough that, even if the Jinchūriki was your ally, your own villagers and shinobi might still fear or reject them.
Yet the God of Shinobi had actually distributed those beasts among the other villages, with Konoha not minding. Now a single being capable of wiping out an entire hidden village or even a whole nation had reappeared after so many years—and one who freely crossed all moral lines.
Not only was the Land of Lightning afraid, the other three great countries on the continent were, too.
The messenger who brought the report asked, "Father, shall we contact Deidara for info about Akatsuki, or get him to test the leader's intentions?"
"It's meaningless," Onoki said, shaking his head. "Someone with that power must inevitably develop matching ambition. Such a being won't be swayed by 'comrades.'"
"Summon the Sensor Unit, Barrier Unit, and Research Unit," Onoki instructed. "We must perfect our village barriers so Kumogakure's disaster doesn't befall us."
"Yes!"
His son, Kitsuchi, nodded and turned to leave. Just then the door to the Tsuchikage's office was knocked upon, and a shinobi entered, bowing:
"Lord Tsuchikage, an envoy from Kumogakure wishes to speak."
Hearing this, Onoki's gaze sharpened. He told Kitsuchi, "Go entertain them."
"Understood!"
…
"The balance is utterly broken; I truly worry for the future of the ninja world and Sunagakure."
In Suna, Chiyo seemed the only high elder among the major villages who openly felt powerless. Kumo had the AB Combo plus its Two-Tails Jinchūriki; Iwa had Onoki and two Jinchūriki of its own; Konoha had the fabled Sannin and a Wood-Release ninja.
But Suna had only Chiyo, her younger brother Ebizō—two elderly relics—and Gaara, a Jinchūriki who had yet to mature. If war broke out now, Suna would be at a massive disadvantage.
Her only consolation was that her grandson still lived, and he had become the strongest puppet user ever, surpassing the old generation. But the notion of turning corpses into puppets made Chiyo realize that the disappearance of the Third Kazekage might well have been his doing. It was likely that her grandson had gone astray.
Thinking about that, she felt both sorrow and a faint remembrance of the technique she was developing. Would its completion let her salvage her grandson?
"Sister, we may have to ask Konoha for help," Ebizō suggested. "During the Uzushio incident, the biggest gains went to Kumo, Iwa, and Kiri. Suna never obtained barrier-related scrolls."
"Without a large-scale defense barrier, if meteor showers strike, our outcome might be even worse than Kumo's," he added.
Indeed, fire outclasses wind. All their wind release might just feed the flames.
"Looks that way." Chiyo nodded helplessly, worried. "I hope Tsunade-hime can set aside our grudges to lend us a hand."
Listening to the two elders, Gaara's face was intensely serious, his resolve to grow stronger only intensifying.
Knock, knock, knock…
At that moment, there was a knock on the Kazekage's office door.
…
In Konoha's Hokage Office—
"That mysterious man moved again, this time targeting Kumogakure," Tsunade said, reading an intel report, brows knitted. Glancing across at Izayoi, who was flipping through the newly compiled Scroll of Seals, she said somewhat apologetically, "Sorry, but none of my grandfather's signature Wood Release moves were recorded. I can't help you with that."
"No worries, Lady Hokage. Allowing me free access to the Scroll of Seals is more than enough." Izayoi flashed a grin. "I'm more curious about the Second Hokage's forbidden jutsu than the First's Wood Release, anyway."
Tsunade shrugged. "Fine by me. It's all going to be yours eventually, whether sooner or later. Not one of those old coots is coming out to stop you. Plus, times are dire; everyone wants you as strong as possible."
From that remark, one could tell that between Naruto and Izayoi, Tsunade regarded Izayoi more highly. She'd made her choice. Though Naruto had helped her overcome her hemophobia, reminding her of Nawaki and Dan, she was still the Hokage; she had to prioritize Konoha. Between a Nine-Tails Jinchūriki and a Wood-Release user, Konoha's stance decided for her.
Izayoi nodded confidently: "With my current chakra, I can single-handedly cast the Four Red Yang Formation. Even if a meteor shower hits Konoha, I can block it."
"Hah…now that's reassuring." Tsunade burst into laughter. Then her face hardened in threat: "So get going on missions. I'm giving you a strict order: get promoted to jōnin next year, or else I'm investigating your financial records and seizing your estate."
"In that case, I'll have to report the Hokage for embezzling public funds at the gambling table."
"Who said I embezzled anything? You got proof?"
"Do you have proof about me, Lady Hokage?"
"I'm Hokage, in Konoha I'm on top. My word is proof. If you're unhappy, become Hokage yourself!" Tsunade crowed smugly.
"Tch…Tsunade, you'll regret this!"
Slamming the scroll shut, Izayoi stormed out.
Tsunade scratched her head in confusion. "Why do I feel like I've heard that line before? It's oddly familiar."
Shizune and Karin had watched the entire scene. With a wry smile, Shizune said, "My Lady, last time you said something quite similar to Izayoi."
"I see." Tsunade nodded in realization, then frowned again. "But I didn't slam the door… It's not that kind of déjà vu."
~~~
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