Chapter 412: Hoshigakure
On a small hill near the training hall.
The tall figure of the Toad Sage stood at a distance, his white hair extremely eye-catching, looking at the battlefield between Naruto and Akahoshi.
"That kid Naruto..." Jiraiya muttered silently to himself, "He's going all out from the start."
"It seems he really hopes to get that meteorite called 'Star'..."
He didn't really care about the outcome of this battle. Because, when Naruto used the Four-Tailed Beast Cloak without any hesitation, the outcome was already decided.
The so-called Hoshikage of Hoshigakure, even when using the Mysterious Peacock Method to the maximum, was far inferior in strength to the Kage of the Five Great Ninja Villages. Let alone Kage level, he was probably barely even at the Elite Jonin level—the power of his ninjutsu was strong, but his combat skills and experience were completely insufficient; Jiraiya seriously suspected that any battle-hardened veteran Jonin pulled from Konoha could defeat him. Not to mention Naruto in the Four-Tails cloak mode, whose strength was already infinitely close to Kage level, and in terms of sheer chakra volume and ninjutsu destructive power, he far exceeded ordinary Kage-level ninja.
The Mysterious Peacock Method looked endlessly useful, but in reality, it had many flaws and a low upper limit; Akahoshi's thought that he could rival the Five Great Ninja Villages by relying on the power of the Star meteorite was a vivid illustration of arrogance. How could a remote small ninja village in this mountain corner imagine the foundation of the Five Great Ninja Villages? Without the support of multiple Kage-level ninja, what a ninja village says carries no weight, let alone getting recognition from the Five Great Nations.
What Jiraiya cared about was the thoughts of his last disciple, Naruto Uzumaki.
From beginning to end, he did not get involved in the Hoshigakure matter. He just watched Naruto from afar, ensuring his safety while watching him solve the problem independently, which could be considered a small test.
Looking at the suspense-free battle below, Jiraiya fell into deep thought.
A few days ago.
Jiraiya, who was traveling around with Naruto, arrived in the Land of Bears.
While the two were dining at a restaurant near the inn, a haggard-looking woman recognized Jiraiya and begged him to help save Hoshigakure.
Jiraiya was knowledgeable and a veteran. He also knew something about the Hoshigakure mentioned by the woman, including the sequelae of the Mysterious Peacock Method.
So he didn't intend to get involved in this matter from the beginning—why should he interfere in the internal affairs of other ninja villages? To attract hate for Konoha? If others were willing to bear side effects to gain power, what standpoint did he, Jiraiya, have to stop them? Based on Jiraiya's life experience, an outsider interfering in such matters usually wouldn't get any benefits but would only get into trouble.
You know, in this distorted world, sometimes having no power is much more terrible than bearing the consequences of ninjutsu side effects!
Naruto always listened to Jiraiya and followed his steps, but this time, for some reason, when he heard that the "Star" meteorite was radioactive, he suddenly developed a strong interest in it and was determined to participate in this matter.
"Naruto... why do you want to participate in Hoshigakure's internal affairs?" After the woman left, Jiraiya asked with a frown, "You want that meteorite?"
"Yeah." Naruto nodded frankly.
"You already possess the power of the Nine-Tails. Having one more Mysterious Peacock Method and the power of the Star meteorite makes no sense... Why?" Jiraiya said in a deep voice.
Naruto had been following Jiraiya for more than two years, and this was the first time he made such a request. Jiraiya stared closely at Naruto's eyes with a solemn expression, a little worried that he would go astray due to excessive desire for power.
Especially worried that Naruto would embark on Orochimaru's path.
Of course, Jiraiya soon discovered that he was worrying for nothing.
"It's not for myself... I don't want such dangerous stuff." Naruto smiled innocently..
"Then why did you say you wanted it?" Jiraiya asked.
"Hasn't Sakura been looking for something like this?" Naruto put away his smile when mentioning her and said very seriously, "It's that 'radioactive' stone or whatever... She has been looking for it for several years. When she returned to Konoha some time ago, she specially asked me to keep an eye out for her."
"This is the first time Sakura has seriously asked me for something..."
Jiraiya nodded thoughtfully. Boys entering puberty... are indeed more attentive to girls' requests?
No, simply because it was Sakura's request.
Jiraiya had investigated Naruto's interpersonal relationships. That girl's significance to Naruto was probably more than just a teammate of Team 7. Long before Team 7, even before the Ninja Academy, the two had already been in contact.
She was the first person to acknowledge Naruto.
Of course, even if Sakura was just a teammate of Team 7, or even had a bad personality and usually didn't take much care of Naruto, with Naruto's character, he would probably go through fire and water for her request, right?
"The Star meteorite is Hoshigakure's curse and also their sacred object. It's not easy to get that stone! So have you made up your mind?" Although Jiraiya asked this, he actually already had the answer in his heart. Naruto's character was really like his, clumsy, resolute, and valuing friendship and righteousness the most. So just thinking about what decision he would make when facing Tsunade's request, Jiraiya knew how Naruto would answer.
Sure enough, Naruto nodded without hesitation.
"Let's agree beforehand, I won't interfere in this mission..." Jiraiya sighed secretly and said, "With your strength, these ninja of Hoshigakure pose no threat to you. However, to make them willingly give you the meteorite, you have to use your brain!"
"Huh? You're not helping?" Naruto immediately frowned with a bitter face and scratched his hair vigorously. Speaking of which, as a Genin, Naruto had not tried to complete relatively complex missions independently.
Use his brain? This kind of thing had always been done by Kakashi, Sakura, and Jiraiya. What Naruto did most was lead the charge... He immediately felt a little apprehensive, afraid that he would mess things up.
"Hehe, just treat it as a small test for you!" Jiraiya smiled, "Besides ninjutsu, I have also taught you the tricks of doing missions. Try to practice them! If you want to be Hokage, you can't just know how to charge into enemy lines, you also have to learn to think, Naruto!"
"Don't worry, I will give you some hints appropriately!" Jiraiya patted Naruto's shoulder. At this time, his Shadow Clones (released when the woman came over to talk) had successively sent back intelligence on Hoshigakure, "Actually, the difficulty of this mission is not high."
The mission difficulty was indeed not high, as Jiraiya said.
After all, Hoshigakure only had a few dozen people, at most a hundred or so, and couldn't cause any big trouble. Under Jiraiya's intentional or unintentional guidance and with the help of Aunt Natsuhi, Naruto, whose strength already exceeded Hoshigakure's Hoshikage by a lot, had a thrilling but safe journey and quickly figured out the truth of the Hoshigakure matter—
Years ago, the Third Hoshikage sealed the Star meteorite due to the side effects of the Mysterious Peacock Method. Akahoshi killed the Hoshikage and restarted the cultivation using the Star meteorite. And now, because the side effects of the Mysterious Peacock Method were becoming serious, Natsuhi hoped to stop the cultivation of the Mysterious Peacock Method, thus creating an irreconcilable conflict with Akahoshi...
Skipping the small twists and turns during the mission, the whole thing basically didn't exceed Jiraiya's speculation: it was completely an internal conflict of Hoshigakure. Was it worth paying such a big price for power? Jiraiya didn't think he, as an outsider, was qualified to comment. He had seen tragedies of families ruined due to lack of power to protect themselves, and tragedies of betrayal and separation due to pursuing power at all costs; it was hard to say which end was more miserable.
Even judging from the style of conduct, Akahoshi assassinating the previous Hoshigakure leader was a heinous crime, but Natsuhi introducing the power of foreign ninja to resolve internal conflicts within the village was also considered a traitor to the village in some people's eyes.
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