Chapter 267: The Divergence Between the Land of Fire's Daimyo and Konoha Village
One look at Madara Uchiha and you could tell he had never done much business…
Fortunately, Lord Orochimaru was a magnanimous and highly self-aware man. He would always forgive those who offended him.
This man knew when to stand firm and when to compromise. The White Zetsu on the desk was the material he currently needed the most…
To avoid any accidents with the Living Corpse Reincarnation, Orochimaru had already made many preparations and could perform the ritual at any time. He was only missing a suitable body…
He had studied it long ago; the material of a White Zetsu clone was quite perfect. It could preserve his strength, would not cause a rejection reaction, and more importantly, would not cause a soul backlash.
"Are you satisfied?"
Madara Uchiha planted a foot on the desk, propped his head on his hand, and looked at Orochimaru. "If I don't get the intelligence, I will take it back… along with your life!"
This man subconsciously treated Orochimaru as a disposable item, completely unaware of the value of advanced science and technology…
Of course, with Madara's current strength, there was no need for him to know.
"…"
Orochimaru pondered for a moment, put away the White Zetsu on the desk, and nodded. "In that case, I'll ask Lord Madara to wait for the good news!"
As for the intelligence on the few remaining jinchuriki in the ninja world, in reality, only the Six-Tails and Seven-Tails were troublesome. The Eight-Tails and Nine-Tails jinchuriki were in a semi-public state…
But even if he let Madara Uchiha get the Tailed Beasts and revive the Gedo Statue, so what? Madara Uchiha was just a dead man…
And dead men couldn't do too many things…
Then again, maybe not. This old geezer definitely had other plans…
Orochimaru's heart tightened. He looked at Madara's sneering grin and quietly lowered his head.
It would be best if that group from the Akatsuki and that crow fight as lively as possible. Preferably until both sides are bleeding from the head. That way, he could stay hidden in the Land of Wind and continue his scientific research…
But if Madara Uchiha still wanted to throw him out to attract firepower, then he shouldn't be blamed for using his final measure. Did he really think the only thing he learned from the Third Hokage was the Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu?
Orochimaru was the one among the Konoha Sannin most skilled in researching ninjutsu, and also the ninja who most loved to do business with strange and bizarre entities, such as this Shinigami or that evil god…
He had already prepared a plan to deal with Madara Uchiha!
It wasn't just Orochimaru who could think of how to deal with powerful reanimated ninjas. As his teacher, the Third Hokage also had his own ideas. In the eyes of this master and apprentice, there was no jutsu that could not be countered…
Konoha, Hokage's Office.
"I had originally planned to leave the village and use the Reaper Death Seal to eliminate Madara Uchiha, Lord First Hokage, and the others in one fell swoop, to take care of the Orochimaru problem. But now…"
Hiruzen Sarutobi was having a bit of a headache. With the New Year approaching, he had instead received two scrolls. "Look at these!"
The first scroll was a handwritten letter from the Land of Fire's Daimyo. The Daimyo was ordering Konoha to immediately organize a ninja army and attack the Land of Wind.
The second was an invitation from the Land of Wind. The new Daimyo would hold an inauguration ceremony on New Year's Day, at which time the Fourth Kazekage would officially unify the military and political power of the Land of Wind.
"This looks very tricky!"
Homura Mitokado wiped the sweat from his forehead. "If we were to lead an attack on the Land of Wind because of this, not only would it destroy our alliance with the Hidden Sand, but we would also be suspected of provoking a Great Ninja War!"
The ninja world had practically become a tangled mess.
Within Konoha, the struggle between Danzo Shimura and the Uchiha clan had yet to be resolved. Outside, the rogue ninja Orochimaru was stirring up trouble. Today, the name of the Land of Fire's Daimyo had to be added… And according to intelligence, there were still enemies coveting Konoha's jinchuriki.
The Third Hokage himself was old and weak. Right now, he just wanted to use his own life to atone for the mistakes he had made, but he didn't even have that chance…
The most urgent matter had now completely transformed into a struggle between Konoha and the Land of Fire's Daimyo. Once a disagreement arose between the two sides, not only would Konoha be unable to deal with external threats at its leisure, it might not even be able to maintain its standing Defense Department…
Jiraiya shook his head. "If we ignore the Daimyo's opinion now, the Daimyo's mansion will very likely treat our Konoha as the next Hidden Sand…"
"But we can't blindly bow our heads to the Daimyo either!"
Tsunade tossed aside the Daimyo's letter with indifference and sneered, "Send a ninja army to attack the Land of Wind? The military budget and all that—it would be cut off by the Daimyo's mansion the moment the army left the Land of Fire, right?"
The problem of trust between Konoha and the Daimyo's mansion had not yet been resolved. With the internal problems of the Land of Fire escalating, he wanted to help the neighboring country's Daimyo restore his position? What a joke!
Hiruzen Sarutobi took a hard drag from his pipe. "Forget it. You two, don't interfere in this matter. I will hand it over to Danzo to resolve…"
He had already made up his mind. He would order Danzo Shimura to dispatch Root to monitor the Daimyo's mansion. The moment any of the Daimyo's officials made a suspicious move, he would immediately have Root threaten the Daimyo to lift the restrictions on Konoha.
This matter… was hard to say if it would go well…
If it was handled well, it would be a great service to Konoha, but one that couldn't be acknowledged. If it was handled poorly, it would be a huge black pot, stuck squarely on his head, impossible to remove.
Counting them all, besides Danzo, who else could he send?
The only trouble was, if Danzo took this opportunity to collude with the Daimyo, Konoha's situation might become even more troublesome. Someone had to go and supervise Danzo…
"To prevent Danzo's methods from being too extreme, we also need to send someone to supervise Root's actions…" The Third Hokage tapped his pipe and raised his eyes to scan the group. "I plan to send Kakashi Hatake to lead the ANBU, under the pretext of protecting the Daimyo. What do you think?"
Homura Mitokado was a pure "soy-sauce party" member. After thinking about it and finding no problems, he immediately raised his hand. "I agree."
"In that case, who should be in charge? Which of the two sides will have the Hokage's order?" Jiraiya raised a different opinion and said softly, "Without a clear objective, what if Danzo and Kakashi's opinions diverge?"
"…Idiot!"
Tsunade slammed a fist on his head and gritted her teeth fiercely. "Jiraiya, are you trying to go back to the hospital again!"
A bunch of nonsense, you don't understand anything!
This kind of thing is obviously better done than said! Both teams are dispatched by Konoha, so naturally, Konoha's interests come first! Is Kakashi going to throw away his life to be a loyal retainer of the Daimyo?
"I was just asking…"
The white-haired old man rubbed his head innocently. "Hey? How about we let Itachi go too? The safety of the Daimyo's mansion, wasn't that handed over to Fugaku to manage before?"
After the Twelve Guardian Ninja of the Land of Fire had been defeated by Orochimaru back then, the security of the Land of Fire's capital had been handed over to the Defense Department to resolve. Fugaku had simply dispatched a batch of idle clan ninjas.
"Perhaps we can indeed try letting Itachi resolve this."
Tsunade glanced at her teacher, then suddenly stood in front of his desk and raised an eyebrow. "For the past few months, that kid has seemed very idle. He is Jiraiya's disciple, so he can always be trusted…"
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