(Bonus chapter for reaching +400 power stones ^^ thanks for the support. but does anyone know why this novel doesn't appear in the weekly Power Ranking? (っ °Д °;)っ )
Konoha Village.
Hokage's Office.
Hiruzen Sarutobi glared furiously at Danzō Shimura and Orochimaru, his eyes full of rage.
"Danzō, what exactly happened?"
"Failure is one thing, but why were the four thousand ninja troops you led out almost completely annihilated?"
"It's only been one day! Even if they were four thousand pigs, they wouldn't all be killed, would they?"
"Look me in the eyes and answer!"
Seeing Sarutobi's rage, Shimura's expression remained unchanged: "It's all because of Yuzuru Uchiha; his Mangekyō Sharingan was a little beyond my expectation."
"He killed several thousand of our ninja with one strike. In that situation, it wouldn't have mattered who went."
Seeing that Danzō still dared to shift the blame, Sarutobi slammed his palm onto the office desk: "Danzō, you were the overall person in charge this time; you must bear the responsibility."
Upon hearing this, Danzō retorted unhappily, "Why should I?"
"If you had listened to me and destroyed the evil Uchiha clan early on, would any of this have happened?"
"Besides, Sakumo Hatake was forced out by you, so it has nothing to do with me."
"And Orochimaru..." Danzō Shimura sneered, "We had already surrounded the Third Raikage and his men, but it was your disciple who suddenly canceled the Summoning Jutsu, leading to the Eight-Tails releasing a Tailed Beast Ball and disrupting all our plans."
Looking at Shimura's self-righteous demeanor, Sarutobi was so angry he laughed.
Orochimaru was missing an arm, yet his old teammate was still trying to dump the blame on him.
He truly wanted to be the Hokage!
Sarutobi pointed at Danzō and said, word for word, "Starting today, you are confined to the Root base. You are not to go anywhere without my command."
"Fine by me."
Danzō turned and left the Hokage's Office immediately.
"Orochimaru, you go tend to your injuries first."
"Yes."
Only after Orochimaru had also left did Sarutobi slump weakly into his chair, looking somewhat disheartened.
According to the Senju clan's internal records, the initial stage of the Mangekyō Sharingan had severe drawbacks.
Excessive use of the Mangekyō Sharingan's power would lead to permanent loss of sight.
But Yuzuru, this lunatic, had brazenly used the Mangekyō Sharingan to launch such a powerful attack...
He truly wanted to ask Yuzuru, 'Why are you trying so hard? Who the hell is even in Kumogakure?!'
Just then, an Anbu appeared in the Hokage's Office.
"Lord Hokage, this is a scroll sent by someone from Kumogakure."
Sarutobi's heart sank. He opened the scroll and took a look, nearly fainting on the spot.
Those bastards from Kumogakure wanted them to pay another ten billion Ryō in compensation?
They were treating Konoha like an ATM!
'I'm gonna...'
'Endure!!!'
Sarutobi raged inwardly, then let out a helpless sigh.
The current Konoha truly couldn't withstand any more trouble.
Isn't it just paying compensation?
He was the best at this sort of thing.
After pondering for a while, Sarutobi made his decision.
Have the villagers of Konoha each contribute a little more money, and then have the major ninja clans contribute more.
Finally, like Kumogakure, overthrow the Fire Daimyō and extract some money from those nobles and royalty.
Calculated this way, there might even be some surplus.
Konoha Village.
The street.
"Do you know the situation with the Allied Shinobi Forces? Why haven't there been any updates for so many days?"
"Nonsense. The front line battle reports are definitely confidential. Do you expect them to report the latest progress to you every day?"
"That's true, but I still feel a little uneasy."
"This time, our Konoha has teamed up with Kirigakure, Sunagakure, and Iwagakure to form the Allied Shinobi Forces, and we also have the support of the various Daimyō. What is there to worry about?"
"Exactly! As long as we win this battle, the humiliation we suffered before can be repaid a hundredfold!"
"Well said! This time, we'll also make Kumogakure pay us compensation, and make the Uchiha clan come and offer an apology with thorns on their backs."
Because only a mere few dozen people returned to Konoha with Danzō Shimura and Orochimaru, coupled with their intentional concealment, the villagers of Konoha still did not know about the defeat of the Allied Shinobi Forces.
Just as they were discussing heatedly, two Anbu members pushed through the crowd and posted a notice on the street bulletin board.
After the Anbu left, the nearby Konoha villagers all curiously gathered around.
The next second, their faces all turned grim.
"Are you kidding me? The Allied Shinobi Forces actually failed? What the hell were they doing?!"
"Where did Danzō even come from? A person I've never even heard of, what right does he have to be the Supreme Commander?"
"More compensation? After such a defeat, are they worthy of us?!"
Although each family only needed to pay five thousand Ryō this time compared to the last, for the not-so-affluent villagers of Konoha, this was undoubtedly adding insult to injury.
They couldn't even afford to eat properly, yet they still had to pay compensation...
Many people had frozen to death in the winter!
Their lives weren't like this before, so how did they fall to this state in just one year?
Hokage's Office.
The Nara clan, Akimichi clan, Inuzuka clan, Hyūga clan, Yamanaka clan, Aburame clan...
The clan heads of Konoha's various ninja clans were gathered together, a rare sight.
They looked at Sarutobi and said, "Lord Hokage, we have already lost many of our clan's elites in this war, and now you are asking each of our clans to produce over one hundred million Ryō in compensation. Isn't this a bit too much..."
They had lost so many clansmen, gained no benefits whatsoever, and now they had to pay more money...
Where in the world was the logic in that!
However, facing the clan heads of the village's ninja clans, Sarutobi's attitude was unusually firm.
He took a puff of his pipe and said solemnly, "With great power comes great responsibility, naturally."
"Everything is for the sake of the village."
Hearing this, the expressions of the various clan heads were as though they had swallowed dirt.
Someone was about to speak, but Sarutobi glared at them immediately.
"I am the Hokage of the village. Are you intending to defy my orders?!"
Sensing the aura emanating from Sarutobi, the clan heads in the office exchanged glances and could only reluctantly accept their lot.
When the Uchiha clan had left the village, they had actually celebrated, thinking they could carve up a larger piece of the pie.
But the result was that the Uchiha clan was thriving outside.
And they not only failed to get a piece of the pie but also had to spit out a lot of their own interests.
Thinking about it now, it was truly ironic.
If they had been more supportive of the Uchiha clan back then, would things have turned out this way today?
The ninja of Kumogakure paid no attention to what was happening in Konoha Village.
Because every single one of them was busy with the same thing—
Writing thank-you letters to the Hidden Leaf Village.