Chapter 398: Prelude to War
"My child, when you are born..."
Amamiya Kenichi abruptly shook his head, realizing he had accidentally changed the channel in his thoughts.
The biting cold wind of the Land of Snow carried flurries of snow against his face. When the flakes touched his body heat, they melted into droplets and slowly slid down his cheeks.
Before him, tens of thousands of ninja stood in the freezing wind, gazing at him with fanatic eyes.
Amamiya Kenichi narrowed his eyes.
He had to admit that the Land of Snow had far too few ninja. Only a small portion of them could truly become a fighting force capable of conquering the Land of Water.
But this was already enough.
"It's time." Amamiya Kenichi took a deep breath.
Of course, he had not come here merely to strike a pose and pay tribute to a certain filial son.
Still, the thought gave him a new idea. Perhaps, when attacking the Land of Water, he could use other methods to break down the will of Hidden Mist Village's ninja and civilians to resist.
"Has the wind picked up?" Minato suddenly appeared beside Amamiya Kenichi.
Amamiya Kenichi glanced at him. He had to admit, the Flying Thunder God Technique was truly useful. It was excellent for travel.
He nodded, then raised his hand and opened his palm. Snowflakes fell onto it. A moment later, he clenched his fist, and the water droplets evaporated in his palm.
"Yes. The wind has picked up."
Amamiya Kenichi took a deep breath and adjusted his mindset.
Although he had planned all of this, the fact that everything was progressing so smoothly still surprised him somewhat. But that was also a good thing.
He had already received intelligence from Uchiha Shiori. Fighting had begun near Takigakure in the Land of Waterfalls. The ninja of the Five Great Ninja Villages were now fighting tooth and nail over the tree that could produce the Hero's Water.
Moreover, the battlefield showed signs of expanding further.
That was enough.
Amamiya Kenichi could not wait until the Five Great Ninja Villages truly plunged into all-out war. The Hero's Water was indeed a catalyst, but relying on the Hero's Water alone to make the Five Great Ninja Villages begin a full-scale war, or even trigger the Fourth Great Ninja War, would require far too much luck.
Amamiya Kenichi did not believe in luck.
So he would make his move.
While the attention of the Five Great Ninja Villages was focused on the Land of Waterfalls, Amamiya Kenichi planned to launch a lightning assault on Hidden Mist Village, then seize control of the Land of Water and Hidden Mist Village.
"Phew."
Minato exhaled slowly, easing the tension in his heart.
Although he did not need to breathe, breathing was a habit that made him feel as if he were still alive.
Soon, however, Minato's attention fell on the ninja army below.
An army of tens of thousands did not seem small, but many of them were Genin and Chunin. Only a small portion were Jonin.
However, every Ninja Village was like this.
Even so, Minato felt that the strength of these ninja would not necessarily be inferior to those from the Five Great Ninja Villages.
He looked at the army below.
To be honest, the Land of Snow did not have many ninja. But the more Minato learned about them, the more uneasy he became, because he discovered that these ninja possessed an abnormal degree of worship toward Amamiya Kenichi.
That worship even surpassed life and death.
Minato felt that he himself could never achieve such a thing.
It was too outrageous.
Even in Konoha, not everyone liked the Third Hokage or him.
After becoming the Fourth Hokage, he had also discovered that some people did not hold a favorable opinion of him. Making everyone willing to die for him was even more impossible.
Yet Amamiya Kenichi had done it.
That made everything feel deeply strange.
And in battle, such fanatical ninja would trade their lives without hesitation as long as Amamiya Kenichi gave the order.
Against the Five Great Ninja Villages, that might not be enough.
But against a Hidden Mist Village that was no longer particularly strong, it would be deadly.
"This war..." Minato hesitated.
Amamiya Kenichi had not yet decided who would command this war.
Could it be Amamiya Kenichi himself?
Minato did not think it would be him. He had no experience commanding large-scale wars.
"I will lead it."
A gentle voice sounded, followed by Orochimaru emerging from the wind and snow.
He was using his previous face, a stern and expressionless face, but his eyes were filled with excitement.
War.
A large-scale war.
And it was entirely different from previous wars. This was a war of national conquest.
Looking at his disciple, Orochimaru licked his lips.
To be honest, even now, whenever he thought back on what had happened before, he still found it somewhat absurd.
After all, he truly had not expected his student to harbor such enormous ambition.
When Amamiya Kenichi revealed his true intentions to him, Orochimaru admitted that he had been stunned for a moment.
He had never imagined that his disciple would think like this.
Such a mad idea was something even his own teacher had never possessed.
Hiruzen Sarutobi had always thought more about how to preserve Konoha's position as the number one Village in the Ninja World.
But Amamiya Kenichi actually planned to unify the entire Ninja World.
"Teacher, I'll leave it to you. Among us, you have the most experience in this area," Amamiya Kenichi said with a smile.
He had gone to find his teacher before this because Orochimaru was, in his opinion, the most suitable person to serve as battlefield commander.
Of course, there were other candidates. Nara Shikaku, for example, was also very capable.
The problem was that only his teacher stood on his side and could be used by him.
And the way to persuade his teacher was relatively simple.
One sentence was enough.
"Teacher, after the entire world is unified, won't you be able to learn every Ninjutsu in the world?"
Of course, Amamiya Kenichi felt that there were probably other factors involved as well. When his teacher heard that condition, he did not answer immediately. Instead, he smiled and stared at Amamiya Kenichi for a long while before nodding in agreement.
But Amamiya Kenichi did not know what his teacher had been thinking.
From beginning to end, he had never considered choosing Minato to direct this war.
Although Minato was an excellent ninja, even a Kage, he lacked experience in commanding large-scale warfare. His teacher was the inevitable choice.
Fortunately, his teacher had agreed to his request.
As the price, Amamiya Kenichi had also paid some other things to make the proposal more convincing.
"No problem. Ninja who can perfectly carry out every order... Hehehe. These are simply the finest cannon fodder," Orochimaru said, licking his lips.
A Mangekyo Sharingan flashed in his eyes.
Amamiya Kenichi looked at his teacher's eyes and silently picked his nose.
His teacher's request had been to awaken the Mangekyo Sharingan.
But...
The moment Amamiya Kenichi remembered tying his teacher to the operating table, performing genetic programming on him, and the process of awakening his eyes, his expression became extremely subtle.
That truly was a peculiar memory.
However, Orochimaru's tolerance for pain was extremely high. Throughout the entire process, there had been no obvious cries of pain.
Amamiya Kenichi did not ask what kind of Mangekyo Sharingan his teacher had awakened, and his teacher did not ask what kind of Mangekyo Sharingan he possessed.
"So the goal this time is to suppress the Land of Water as quickly as possible?" Orochimaru looked at the battle-ready ninja army below and frowned slightly.
There were still too few ninja here.
But there was no helping it. Small countries like the Land of Snow were like this.
"Yes, Teacher. Suppress them as quickly as possible. Of course, if we can block the news, that would be best," Amamiya Kenichi said with a nod.
Then he stared distractedly at the ninja army below.
He was conceptualizing a Ninjutsu, or perhaps an improvement to one. The distinction did not matter much.
After using his Mangekyo Sharingan to observe the wondrous scenes of ninja performing Ninjutsu, Amamiya Kenichi had developed certain peculiar ideas.
Now seemed to be the time to put one of those ideas into practice.
"Then why not begin by sending people to attack several of the Land of Water's docks? Block the spread of information and kill anyone who tries to escape..." Orochimaru said, stroking his chin.
He already had an idea.
Although the Land of Water had a very long coastline, there were only a few developed ports. Controlling those ports would, to some extent, control the speed at which information leaked out.
Minato frowned slightly, but said nothing.
He was not a softhearted man. It was not easy to find someone sentimental in the Ninja World.
"Anything is fine, Teacher. I'll leave it to you. I'll take Big Brother Minato and the elite ninja squad to raid Hidden Mist Village and suppress all resistance there," Amamiya Kenichi said, neither objecting nor showing concern.
At this point, let alone killing those who tried to escape, even directly injecting them with parasitic offspring would be acceptable.
All Amamiya Kenichi wanted was time.
Enough time for him to convert the ninja of Hidden Mist Village.
Amamiya Kenichi touched his eyes.
His mastery over Wood Release and the power of the Mangekyo Sharingan was not yet high enough. He could not replicate the feat of a Great Buddha clad in Susanoo, with two people destroying four nations.
"When do we depart?" Orochimaru asked again.
Amamiya Kenichi fell silent at the question.
Then he looked at the ninja army of the Land of Snow beneath the falling snow and smiled.
"Now."
As Amamiya Kenichi handed command to his teacher, the ninja army began to move.
Supplies were ready.
Airships had been prepared.
These ninja would board the airships and quickly head toward the Land of Water according to Orochimaru's instructions.
Amamiya Kenichi also boarded an airship.
Beside him were his teacher and Minato, and on the airship were the elite ninja who would serve as the main force in the attack on Hidden Mist Village.
"Have you thought about how to deal with Hidden Mist Village's Jinchuriki?" Orochimaru sat in a chair, holding a cup of tea.
After taking a sip, he looked at Amamiya Kenichi and asked.
The most troublesome thing in every Ninja Village was the Jinchuriki.
If you could not defeat them, they would fully release the Tailed Beast, and then no one would have a good time.
This was also an important reason why Tailed Beasts were considered the nuclear weapons of the Ninja World.
Amamiya Kenichi smiled.
The Ninja World used to believe Tailed Beasts were incredibly powerful, but in the eyes of Senju Hashirama and Uchiha Madara, Tailed Beasts were nothing more than oversized action figures.
In the later stages of the Ninja World, Tailed Beasts were even captured and sealed one after another.
Their strength was completely incomparable to those overpowered ninja.
"I have a plan. It won't be a big problem," Amamiya Kenichi said, not particularly worried.
Hidden Mist Village's Tailed Beast was the Three-Tails, and Tailed Beasts generally grew stronger with the number of tails they had. The Three-Tails' strength was not especially outstanding.
The troublesome part was the Three-Tails' Jinchuriki, Yagura Karatachi.
Although Yagura had been controlled by Obito's Mangekyo Sharingan, which made him seem tragic, he was still a man who had become Mizukage.
How could his strength be weak?
And if he cooperated properly with the Three-Tails...
Well, that was all.
With himself and Minato working together, Amamiya Kenichi truly could not imagine what tricks Yagura could pull.
The only thing that made Amamiya Kenichi slightly uneasy was those two bastards, Obito and Black Zetsu.
That was why he had deliberately caused trouble in the Land of Waterfalls, in order to draw Obito and Black Zetsu's attention there as much as possible.
Minato did not join the conversation between Amamiya Kenichi and Orochimaru.
He was unconsciously rubbing the photo in his hand.
Kushina had given it to him before he left.
It was a family photo of the three of them.
Minato, with cracks across his face and strange eyes.
A sweetly smiling Kushina.
And Naruto, held between them with his eyes happily squeezed shut.
Minato had never thought that one day, he would be able to take a photo with his son.
This was truly...
Minato took a deep breath.
He was currently in an Edo Tensei body. He would not die, only return to the Pure Land.
And in order to let him display as much of his strength as possible, Amamiya Kenichi had specially given him an elite Jonin body as the sacrifice.
Although this still could not perfectly unleash his original strength, it was much better than before.
"Speaking of which, how did you Edo Tensei the Fourth?" Orochimaru glanced at the dazed Minato and could not help but ask.
When he had previously improved Edo Tensei, he had also tried to reincarnate the Fourth Hokage. But he discovered that the Fourth Hokage could not be reincarnated.
Even the First and Second Hokage had reached the final stage before awakening, but the Fourth Hokage could not even condense his appearance.
"Big Brother Minato used the Reaper Death Seal before, so his soul was inside the Shinigami's stomach, not in the Pure Land," Amamiya Kenichi said.
He did not finish, but he knew his teacher understood.
Orochimaru nodded.
He understood why he had failed to Edo Tensei the Fourth Hokage back then.
Edo Tensei could not reincarnate a soul that was inside someone else's stomach.
But then Orochimaru glanced at his student.
If that was the case, how had his student done it?
By cutting open the Shinigami's stomach?
Or through some other method?
Orochimaru was a little curious.
.....
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