Chapter 391: A Dire Situation, The Eve of a Major War
A terrifying shockwave of violent chakra erupted, throwing the high-ranking officials of Kumogakure off balance. Desks splintered. Documents fluttered through the air like dead leaves.
"What did you say?" A's voice was a low, dangerous rumble. His eyes flooded with blood, the whites turning a savage, crimson red. Lightning sparked across his dark skin, erratic and lethal.
Killer Bee. His little brother. His only true partner. The Eight-Tails Jinchuriki. The very foundation of Kumogakure's military might.
"Disappeared?" A took a heavy step forward, the floorboards groaning under his immense weight. "Are you telling me the Eight-Tails Jinchuriki was captured?"
The Anbu operative swallowed hard, trembling under the crushing pressure of the Fourth Raikage's killing intent. "At the scene... we found massive traces of Water Release, and..." The operative hesitated, his voice dropping to a terrified whisper. "There was also residue of an extremely powerful Lightning Release."
"What kind of Lightning Release?"
"It... it closely resembles the Black Lightning of the late Third Raikage-sama."
The room froze. The Third Raikage? The man was dead.
"Edo Tensei..." an elderly councilor gasped, his weathered face draining of color. "The forbidden jutsu invented by the Second Hokage! That is Konoha's jutsu!"
The pieces fell into place. The clues. The evidence. Every single thread pointed to one man.
If the previous incident with Iwagakure's Five-Tails could have been dismissed as a clumsy frame-up, this was different. Edo Tensei. Who else in the entire ninja world possessed the knowledge and the audacity to wield such a blasphemous technique?
Uchiha Akira.
Not only had that despicable tyrant sent his hounds to abduct the Five-Tails, but he had now desecrated the soul of the former Raikage. He was forcing a dead father to strike down his living son.
"Uchiha Akira!!!" A roared at the ceiling. The sheer force of his voice shattered the glass fixtures in the room. Blinding blue lightning engulfed his massive frame. "Unforgivable! Absolutely unforgivable!!"
A snapped his gaze toward the council members who had preached caution just hours ago. "Are you still going to stand there and tell me this is a misunderstanding? They are practically shitting on our heads!"
There was no room left for diplomacy. This was a blood feud. If Kumogakure swallowed this insult, the village's pride and morale would shatter completely.
"Fight!" a war-hawk Jonin bellowed, slamming his fist against his chest, his eyes burning with fanaticism. "We fight them to the bitter end! We must rescue Killer Bee-sama! Make Konoha drown in their own blood!"
The war room erupted into a frenzy of shouting voices.
Then, a quiet sigh cut through the noise.
Darui, who had been leaning against the far wall with his eyes half-closed, slowly opened them. He scratched his messy white hair, his posture slouched and entirely unmotivated.
"Although this is all very troublesome..." Darui's voice was soft, yet it carried a strange clarity that silenced the room. "Raikage-sama, there are some things I need to point out."
Every eye turned to him.
A glared at his right-hand man. "Speak."
Darui shrugged. "Everyone is screaming about whether this is a frame-up. Some argue Konoha has no logical reason to make enemies on all fronts right now. Others say this is an obvious provocation by a third party hiding in the shadows." He shook his head slowly. "But I don't think any of that matters."
"Doesn't matter?" an elder snapped, stepping forward. "Darui! This dictates whether we launch an all-out war against the most powerful military force in the world! How can the truth not matter?"
"The truth?" Darui tilted his head. For a fraction of a second, the lazy haze vanished from his eyes, replaced by the razor-sharp focus of a master swordsman. "Let's assume this is a frame-up. I want to ask everyone in this room: in the current ninja world, besides Konoha, who else possesses the sheer power to capture two perfect Jinchuriki without leaving a trace?"
Silence choked the room. No one could answer.
"If such a mysterious force exists," Darui continued, his tone flat, "their threat is no smaller than Konoha's. Now, let's assume Konoha actually did this. Their goal is obvious: provoke us, force us to strike first, and use that as a legitimate excuse to wipe Kumogakure off the map."
Darui spread his hands. "Therefore, frame-up or not, the result is exactly the same. The blade is already pressed against our throats. We either die kneeling, or we die standing. The so-called truth is entirely meaningless in the face of an absolute disparity in power."
A suffocating silence descended upon the office.
Sunagakure was gone. Kirigakure was gone. The current Konoha was a ravenous leviathan, expanding its jaws to swallow the rest of the continent. Devouring Kumogakure and Iwagakure was no longer a question of if, but when.
If that was the reality, why care about the excuse? Why care about the truth?
A slowly straightened his back. The erratic lightning around him stabilized into a dense, terrifying armor of chakra. He nodded.
"Well said, Darui." A's voice was cold, stripped of its previous frenzy, leaving only absolute resolve. "Since there is no path left... we will smash a path open!"
The Raikage strode toward the massive window and threw a single, devastating punch. The reinforced glass and the surrounding stone wall exploded outward. Gale-force winds and freezing rain immediately howled into the office, whipping his haori around him.
"Issue the order!" A commanded, his voice booming over the storm. "Contact Onoki, that stubborn old fossil! Tell him that if he wants his village to survive the year, he will march his forces and attack Konoha alongside us! The Allied Shinobi Forces we formed in secret... it is time for them to move."
Mabui, his secretary, gripped her clipboard, her face entirely drained of blood. "Rai... Raikage-sama, this means an all-out war..."
"So what?!" A spun around, his eyes blazing with a mad, unyielding fire. "Bring out the Chakra Cannon! Empty the armories! Mobilize all reserves, all ninja tools, and every single shinobi! Whether they are fresh Genin or retired veterans! Anyone who can walk will march! If we do not win this war against Konoha, Kumogakure has no reason to exist!"
...
Iwagakure.
High above the rocky terrain, Onoki hovered in his office, staring down at the urgent intelligence scroll delivered from the Hidden Cloud.
"The Fourth Great Ninja War..." he muttered, the words tasting like ash in his mouth.
Throughout his long, blood-soaked life, there was nothing he despised more than the barbaric brutes of Kumogakure. They were the mortal enemies who had caused Iwagakure to bleed out on countless battlefields.
But now...
Onoki slowly closed his eyes. In the darkness of his mind, a single figure materialized. A man excessively young, yet despairingly, suffocatingly powerful.
Uchiha Akira.
If the remaining great villages did not join forces right here, right now, the ninja world would truly only have one voice left to dictate its future.
"Grandpa..." Kurotsuchi stood near the doorway, her dark eyes watching the old Tsuchikage with deep concern.
Onoki's eyes snapped open.
In that fleeting instant, the cloudy haze of old age vanished from his gaze. A terrifying, piercing light erupted from his pupils, revealing the absolute ruthlessness and cold-blooded decisiveness that had earned him the moniker Onoki of Both Scales.
"Akatsuchi!"
"Yes, sir!" The massive, towering figure of Akatsuchi immediately dropped to one knee, shaking the floorboards.
"Go to the deepest level of the storeroom. Bring out those things." Onoki's voice was hard as bedrock. "Since that muscle-brained Raikage is throwing everything he has onto the table, this old man refuses to let him look down on me!"
Onoki floated higher into the air, the aged joints in his spine popping and cracking in protest. He ignored the pain.
"We stake everything on the Will of Stone."
...
Land of Rain, a dark underground karst cave.
Deep beneath the weeping skies, a figure slowly phased up through the solid rock floor.
"Although the execution was a bit crude," Black Zetsu rasped, his hoarse voice echoing in the damp cavern, dripping with dark mockery, "the result is far better than expected."
Obito sat perched on a jagged stalagmite. He was casually twirling a standard-issue kunai engraved with the Konoha leaf symbol. The single Sharingan visible behind the spiraling orange mask was dead, devoid of a single ripple of human emotion.
"This is the fatal flaw of human nature," Obito murmured, his voice a hollow echo. "Fear strips them of their reason. When their very survival is threatened, even the smallest spark is enough to ignite the entire world."
Obito stood up. He closed his gloved fist around the kunai. With a sickening crunch of raw physical strength, he crushed the solid steel into twisted metal dust, letting the flakes slip through his fingers.
"Uchiha Akira." Obito looked up toward the cavern ceiling, as if staring through the earth itself. "Even if you possess the strength of a god... facing the desperate, cornered siege of the entire ninja world, how many people can you actually kill?"
He turned, his black cloak billowing as he walked deeper into the suffocating darkness.
"When you have slaughtered everyone, what meaning will your so-called absolute rule have?" Obito's cold laughter faded into the shadows. "Hurry up and take the stage. This grand play... has only just begun."
...
A few days later.
Land of Fire, Konoha Village.
On the top floor of the Hokage Building, Uchiha Akira stood before the massive floor-to-ceiling window. His hands rested loosely behind his back. His dark eyes calmly swept over the sprawling village below.
Prosperity.
Absolute strength.
The current Konoha had long since eclipsed the golden eras of all previous generations. The streets were bustling, the borders were secure, and the clan was thriving.
"Hokage-sama."
Nara Shikaku's voice broke the quiet atmosphere from behind him.
Shikaku stood near the heavy oak desk, clutching a thick stack of intelligence reports. His brows were knitted together so tightly they formed a deep crease. His expression was grim.
"There are massive troop movements originating from both Kumogakure and Iwagakure," Shikaku reported, his tone strictly professional but carrying an underlying tension. "The Five-Tails and Eight-Tails Jinchuriki have successively vanished. And the traces left at both scenes... they all point directly toward Konoha."
Shikaku let out a heavy sigh, stepping forward to place the reports onto the desk.
"Wood Release. And now, evidence of Edo Tensei." Shikaku tapped the parchment. "It is painfully obvious that someone is moving the pieces from the shadows, scheming to force our hand."
Akira did not turn around. He simply continued to watch the peaceful village, his reflection in the glass perfectly still.
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