Chapter 462: Truce and Promotion
Ino had no idea that because her "Sage Art: Super Great Spiraling Ring" had struck the moon, the moon's orbit had shifted to a certain degree. This shift, in turn, caused some changes in the magnetic field of the planet beneath their feet.
In the natural world, this manifested as a locust plague that spread like wildfire this year.
The Land of Wind, the Land of Water, the Land of Lightning—those places were either barren mountains and treacherous waters or vast deserts. Could the locusts go there? They absolutely could not.
The result was that the Land of Fire suffered a devastating blow. The farmers had no harvest and were on the verge of rebellion. No matter how much the feudal lord of the Land of Fire scraped together, he couldn't find much money to fund Konoha's war efforts.
The magistrate's office handed the task of pest control to Konoha.
The Jonin were dispatched one after another.
Ino also took Konohamaru and the others to help with the pest control. However, she threw down one "Great Fire Annihilation," and the sea of fire burned everything, locusts and crops alike. The villagers sent her off as if she were a god. We can't afford to provoke you. Please, great immortal, don't come back!
She was also quite helpless about it. Ninjutsu was like that. What could she do? Ino couldn't possibly imitate Emperor Taizong of Tang and perform the act of eating locusts raw for the villagers. That was so dirty! Li Er was an emperor. And her? She was just a worker. Was it really necessary to go that far?
In the end, when she heard about the locust plague, she just listened to it as an after-dinner story, in one ear and out the other. How could the locust plague be more important than cuddling with Hinata!
The locusts were too rampant, and the ninjas had no good solution. The Aburame clan? Were they even from our village?
The swarms of locusts even affected the Iwa army stationed in the Land of Rivers. The Third Tsuchikage, who had no intention of helping the Land of Fire with pest control, announced a retreat, leaving the Konoha ninjas to play with the locusts.
After the locust plague came earthquakes and tsunamis. The change in the magnetic field caused a series of geological disasters.
By October, not to mention the ninja world, even the armies of the Five Great Nations had withdrawn one by one. Without food, they simply couldn't continue fighting.
They would fight again next year.
Konoha was considered to have profited from this war.
Their territory had advanced significantly into the territory of the Hidden Mist Village to the east, and they had also occupied two oases of the Hidden Sand Village to the west as outposts.
With the end of the great war, it was time to reward meritorious service.
As the head of the sensory squad, Ino could not be promoted any further. That was fine; as long as the money was enough, nothing else was a problem.
The ninjas who had rendered meritorious service were to be promoted.
Genin to Chunin, Chunin to Jonin.
Naruto had not participated in the great war at all, so he was not on the promotion list.
Several Jonin were promoted in Konoha.
Genma Shiranui was promoted from Special Jonin to Jonin.
Anko Mitarashi was also promoted to Jonin.
Neji Hyuga's promotion faced a slight obstacle, but in the end, it went through smoothly.
At the end of the deliberation, a question was placed before the Konoha higher-ups: Uchiha Sasuke, should he be promoted to Jonin? With Kakashi's recommendation, his meritorious service on the battlefield, and his own formidable strength, it should have been a matter of course. But this time, even Jiraiya was a little hesitant.
Ino had not yet entered the core leadership, but she was definitely one of the higher-ups. She was qualified to participate in such meetings.
However, she didn't speak when the others were speaking. Last night, she had a dream. She dreamt that she had turned into a fierce wolf and had bitten the rabbit-turned-Kaguya Ōtsutsuki to death in one bite! Satisfying! Seeing her lost in thought, Utatane Koharu called her name. "Has the sensory squad detected any other Uchiha in the village?"
The old woman suspected that Itachi would secretly return to the village, and then the two brothers would join forces to overthrow the Konoha regime.
Ino collected her scattered thoughts and said calmly, "The sensory squad has not detected any Sharingan response from the Uchiha clan."
She was telling the truth. Although she had the Sharingan, she was not from the Uchiha clan. You're not going to make me investigate myself, are you? What a joke!
Jiraiya said with a heavier tone, "Itachi is also a Konoha ninja."
The three advisors all looked dismissive. Are you sure? Uchiha Itachi killed his own clan, his own parents. Is there anything he wouldn't do? This person doesn't even love his own parents. Do you think he loves the village?
Konoha Village was powerful. The Akatsuki had become cowards. Itachi's role as a spy was gradually diminishing. Now, even Jiraiya didn't quite believe that the Akatsuki was a threat.
The Hokage and the advisors did not reach an agreement. Shikaku remained silent on the matter. In the end, the order to promote Sasuke to Jonin was temporarily shelved.
In the Land of Rain.
"Itachi, your younger brother has rendered a great deal of meritorious service to Konoha, cough, cough... but they won't even give him a Jonin position. Do you now see the ugly face of the Konoha higher-ups?"
Obito had arranged to meet with Itachi. His opening line was very direct.
Itachi didn't answer, but asked in return, "You're injured? Were you injured in the Land of Demons? It's been so long and you haven't recovered. This seems to be at odds with the omnipotent Uchiha Madara?"
Obito was also quite frustrated. Ino's "Water Release: Heavenly Weeping" didn't contain senjutsu chakra, but it had poison!
Normal toxins could be easily expelled with Hashirama's cells, and could even be devoured in reverse. To some extent, Hashirama's cells were the greatest toxin in the world.
But the poison Ino used was different. Shizune had taught her to use poisoned chakra, and now she had far surpassed her master.
Considering that Obito had Hashirama's cells, she had specially developed a toxin that could bypass them. In this day and age, no one understood Wood Release and Hashirama's cells better than her. Obito had been recuperating for two weeks, but instead of getting better, his body was getting weaker and weaker.
Zetsu had no deep friendship with Obito. He had saved him before because he felt he still had value. After Obito was poisoned and became as weak as a consumptive, how much value did such an Obito have? Zetsu's plan did not absolutely require Obito. Even Uchiha Madara was not essential in his plan. If it didn't work this time, there was always next time. He had already waited for a thousand years; what was another few decades?
Zetsu had been secretly observing Sasuke recently. He felt that Sasuke could be used by him, perhaps as a substitute. In his eyes, Sasuke was even easier to fool than Obito. Recently, he had not been paying as much attention to Obito as before.
Zetsu wanted to kill the donkey he had brought back from the Land of Demons for meat. Obito refused, on the grounds that the life-saving donkey could not be killed. He wanted to take this donkey to the Infinite Tsukuyomi world to find Rin, and then the two of them and the donkey would share a peaceful and prosperous world. In reality, he wanted to prepare a ride. If Zetsu turned on him one day, he could still ride the donkey to escape. This donkey ran incredibly fast... Today, Obito had ridden the donkey to find Itachi. And it had to be said, wearing the black coat with red clouds and riding a donkey, the scene was quite harmonious.
The toxin had bypassed the Hashirama cells and was slowly corroding his body, showing signs of becoming cancerous. Obito, of course, would not say that he couldn't get rid of the poison in his body. He tried to speak as slowly as possible to keep himself from coughing.
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