Chapter 387: Orochimaru's Choice
Faced with a potential pincer attack, the Akatsuki, on Nagato's advice, quickly made a choice: they would focus their defense on Sunagakure, or rather, on protecting the Land of Rivers.
On the premise of ensuring that the River Village, the Akatsuki's home base, was not lost, the Land of Rain would be defended if possible, and abandoned if not.
The so-called "Hidden Rain Village" had long since ceased to exist; the original Rain ninja had been disbanded. A portion of the more open-minded ones had been absorbed by the Akatsuki. Another portion had directly become rogue ninja and fled to other countries.
Although the rest had remained in the Land of Rain, a part of them had been stripped of their ninja status by Nagato and had become civilians. Only a small portion with decent strength had joined the "Dark Akatsuki" and become its outer members.
The current Dark Akatsuki base in the Land of Rain, apart from this small portion of original Rain ninja, also had many rogue ninja from other villages, such as Jūzō Biwa, Sasori of the Red Sand, Orochimaru, and Kakuzu, who had joined at some unknown time. Of course, such S-rank rogue ninja were in the minority; most were actually lower-level rogue ninja of the chunin class.
In fact, in terms of high-end combat power, the Akatsuki was not really afraid of being besieged by Konoha and Suna. Nagato alone could hold off at least three Kage-level shinobi. Adding Yahiko, Konan (Quasi-Kage), Orochimaru, Kakuzu, and Sasori, they had enough to withstand the combined forces of Konoha and Suna, and could even turn a defensive battle into a counterattack.
But the problem was that the current mode of warfare was still inseparable from the elite ninja below them. A Kage could influence the outcome of a war, but they had not yet reached the point where they could directly decide it. Even Nagato's own thinking on warfare was still stuck at the level of large-scale ninja battles.
In the entire ninja world, only Ishiro knew that individual martial strength, when pushed to the extreme, could defeat a large-scale ninja army.
Returning to the River Village, Yahiko began to gather the ninja under his command, while Nagato had already started forming a ninja army in the Land of Rain through the Six Paths of Pain.
Konan was a little worried. "Yahiko, Nagato, do you think, with Konoha and Suna attacking together, that Orochimaru and Sasori can still be trusted?"
Although the two were rogue ninja, the feelings of rogue ninja towards their original villages were very complex. The three of them had also once left the Land of Rain, but their love for it had never changed. In the original story, Orochimaru had wandered around and eventually returned to Konoha. The so-called "Konoha Crush" plan was, in fact, a grand funeral that Orochimaru had given to his teacher, Hiruzen Sarutobi.
Yahiko also looked at Nagato with concern.
But Nagato said, "They have never been trustworthy. The official members of the Dark Akatsuki are just cooperating with each other. There has never been any loyalty."
"Don't worry, I will be careful of Orochimaru and Sasori," he said comfortingly, seeing that the two were still worried.
At this moment, the Konoha ninja army, under the leadership of Hiruzen Sarutobi and Danzō Shimura, had advanced into the Land of Rain at top speed.
Just as Ishiro had predicted, when the Konoha ninja realized their movements had been discovered by Iwagakure, they chose to march immediately into the Land of Rain.
In the marching column, Hiruzen was a little worried about the Iwa Anbu who had just appeared. Although he had taken the initiative to provoke a conflict with the Akatsuki, he did not want to start a Great Ninja War.
Attacking the Land of Rain, as long as they were fast, would not expand the war. But if Iwagakure got involved, that would be the beginning of the Fifth Great Ninja War.
Konoha was not ready. Even though Hiruzen knew that even if a war broke out at this time, it would probably not be a four-on-one like the previous two times. He just wanted to snatch back the Seven-Tails and, in the process, deliver a heavy blow to the emerging power of the Akatsuki, just as he had done to Hanzō back in the day.
But if that troublesome Tsuchikage of Iwagakure were to take the opportunity to start a war, how should he respond?
Danzō at his side naturally saw what Hiruzen was thinking. "Hiruzen, we can no longer be lenient with Iwagakure. If they dare to act recklessly, we will launch a decisive battle. The weaker we are, the more we need to project an intimidating presence. Otherwise, anyone will dare to provoke us."
"If not for the policies of you and Tsunade being too soft, how would a mere Akatsuki dare to proactively attack and kill so many of our elite ninja?"
Hiruzen pretended not to hear this kind of talk from Danzō. He glanced at Kakashi beside him and asked, "Kakashi, how is your training progressing?"
Like the Iwa-nin, Kakashi, after being promoted to Quasi-Kage, had also been rewarded with an S-rank ninjutsu by Tsunade.
"I've learned the S-rank ninjutsu," Kakashi said. "It's just that my chakra is insufficient. After using it, I'll have no chakra left."
Hiruzen frowned, then asked again, "What about the Sharingan?"
Kakashi said, "It has become a three-tomoe Sharingan, and I can now skillfully use its genjutsu. But, it's still a matter of chakra. The Sharingan consumes too much of it. If I use it, I won't be able to fight for a long time."
Hiruzen felt a little annoyed. Kakashi's original strength was already at the top tier of the elite jonin level. If he could coordinate with an S-rank ninjutsu or the Sharingan, he could hold off a Kage for a short time. Kakashi's talent was indeed powerful; to have learned an S-rank ninjutsu in such a short time, he was truly worthy of being the monster who could develop an A-rank ninjutsu on his own at the age of eleven.
But if his chakra was insufficient, then wasn't learning an S-rank ninjutsu useless?
After that, Hiruzen said no more, just burying his head and marching onward.
With an imperceptible sigh, Hiruzen thought to himself: My only hope is in Orochimaru.
That's right. This time, with Konoha and Suna joining forces to deal with the Akatsuki, Orochimaru was the inside man. It was precisely because of the detailed intelligence Orochimaru had provided on the Akatsuki that Konoha and Suna dared to launch a targeted surprise attack.
But what on earth was Orochimaru thinking? Even Hiruzen, his teacher, couldn't guess. He didn't understand why Orochimaru was cooperating with him.
"Is he after something in the Akatsuki? Is it the Seven-Tails? Or is it the Rinnegan?" Hiruzen sighed in his heart.
After Hiruzen's party entered the Land of Rain, the Six Paths of Pain also gathered the official members of the Akatsuki and announced the war.
Orochimaru licked his lips, thinking: Discovered so soon? Teacher Sarutobi, you really have gotten old.
At this moment, Pain's indifferent voice sounded in everyone's ears: "Jūzō, you go first and gather the ninja at the base. Form a ninja army. I will leave it under your command."
"Sasori, Kakuzu, Orochimaru, you three will follow me to meet the enemy."
At this, Sasori asked, "Who is the enemy?"
"Konoha," Pain replied, still indifferent.
Upon hearing this, Kakuzu's eyes lit up. "Konoha is good. The bounties on Konoha ninja are high."
Sasori glanced strangely at this newcomer. "Aren't bounties based on a ninja's strength? What does it have to do with being from Konoha?"
Kakuzu said, "Iwagakure's Fourth Tsuchikage once promised me that as long as I kill Konoha's higher-ups, Iwa will pay me a bounty, and they don't even need the body."
"So, for killing one Konoha ninja, I can get double the bounty."
Upon hearing the title "Fourth Tsuchikage," Sasori's entire mood soured. He already knew that the Anbu he had met in Konoha, who had been a tiger disguised as a pig, was Ishiro. If he counted carefully, how many times had he lost to this person?
So, Sasori said coldly, "That 'Fox of Iwagakure' is not a ninja who keeps his word. Don't be sold by him and still be helping him count his money."
But Kakuzu just laughed. "No need to worry about that. I've killed many Konoha ninja over the years. As long as they are elite jonin or genius ninja, Iwa has never failed to pay the promised reward."
Contrary to Sasori, Kakuzu's impression of Ishiro was excellent. He was a big spender.
"Hmph," Sasori snorted coldly and said no more.
The group began to wait for the battle to arrive at the base.
Orochimaru, on the other hand, was contemplating whether Nagato's real body would come. Unlike in the original story, the Orochimaru of this life had learned from Ishiro that the leader of the Akatsuki possessed the Rinnegan before he had joined. So, after joining, Orochimaru did not act immediately. While secretly establishing his own hidden village, he was also investigating the abilities of the Rinnegan. At the very least, the current Orochimaru knew that the Tendo Pain before him was just a puppet.
Orochimaru's goal in cooperating with Hiruzen was naturally the Rinnegan. But combining the intelligence from Ishiro, Orochimaru judged that he was probably no match for the Rinnegan. So, he had pulled in Konoha and Suna, wanting to use their forces to weaken Nagato and create an opportunity for himself to strike. At the same time, he had already made preparations. Once the operation failed, he would have to defect from the Akatsuki. At that time, he could only take the other path that Ishiro had told him about: fusing the Byakugan and the Shikotsumyaku.
Soon, before Jūzō Biwa's ninja army had even finished assembling, Konoha arrived.
Outside the Dark Akatsuki's base, the Six Paths of Pain gathered, leading three Kage-level shinobi, ready to engage Konoha in battle.
Hiruzen did not hesitate. Seeing that the Akatsuki side was already prepared, he immediately coordinated with his ninja army to launch wave after wave of combination ninjutsu attacks.
The Six Paths of Pain did not show any weakness either. The Asura Path's missile attacks immediately met the Konoha army.
"Sigh," Orochimaru sighed. It seemed Nagato's real body would not be coming. Since that was the case, he seized the opportunity, bit his finger, and directly performed the Summoning Jutsu, summoning three giant snakes.
However, after appearing, the three giant snakes charged towards the two nearest Paths: the Naraka Path and the Preta Path.
Orochimaru's attack was sudden, and the Six Paths of Pain had no time to adjust their positions. Both the Naraka and Preta Paths were not good at close combat and directly chose to dodge.
The Preta Path's dodge was smooth, but the Naraka Path, just after avoiding the snake lunging at it, was suddenly swept at by the tail of the snake that had originally been attacking the Preta Path. With the shared vision of the other five Paths, the Naraka Path was not surprised and leaped to avoid the attack.
However, at this moment, the last giant snake, as if it had long predicted he would do so, charged in front of him, and then, with an open mouth, swallowed him while he was in mid-air and unable to dodge.
(End of Chapter)
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