Chapter 191: Konoha's Hidden Turbulence
After Kinoe returned to Konoha, he immediately requested an audience with the Third Hokage.
Kinoe, who had expected to receive a cold reception, was surprised when Hiruzen Sarutobi granted him an audience at the earliest opportunity. Furthermore, what Hiruzen Sarutobi said next left Kinoe utterly bewildered.
Hiruzen Sarutobi agreed to allocate a large amount of funds for Danzō to redevelop Root, and the member quota for Root was to be the same as before the war. This was something the current Danzō couldn't even imagine; similarly, Kinoe was also completely mystified. However, since it was beneficial to Lord Danzō, Kinoe still reported back to Danzō at the first opportunity.
Hiruzen Sarutobi's political maneuvering was very mature; he saw much further than Danzō. After Danzō heard Hiruzen Sarutobi's reply brought by Kinoe, he too was stunned for a good while before reacting.
Danzō, having come to his senses, slammed his fist into a large tree beside him: "Damn it! Hiruzen Sarutobi doesn't want to step down! He still wants to continue being Hokage!"
Danzō guessed correctly. Konoha's current situation was favorable. Although Konoha had experienced multiple failures successively, for Hiruzen Sarutobi, only the two defeats at the hands of Sunagakure and Iwagakure were related to him.
The defeat by Sunagakure had already been avenged by his disciples and grand-disciples.
Kirigakure's success resulted in losses for the Hyūga clan – the Hyūga clan that didn't listen to the Hokage's orders – not his own direct faction. Danzō's failure also resulted in the loss of Danzō's trusted subordinates; what did that have to do with him, Hiruzen Sarutobi?
If these two incidents had occurred before the peace talks with Iwagakure, or even before Sunagakure's defeat, Hiruzen Sarutobi would have been worried. After all, the losses were to Konoha's strength.
At that time, Konoha lacked manpower and was insufficient in strength. But now, Konoha's victory was already secured. Even Kumogakure, after gaining a slight advantage, immediately chose to withdraw its troops.
On the contrary, because Danzō, his greatest friend and rival, had suffered a setback, and the Hyūga had suffered heavy losses, the only internal force that could threaten Hiruzen Sarutobi was the Uchiha clan. And external threats? Konoha had made peace with Iwagakure, then defeated Sunagakure, and Kumogakure had withdrawn its troops. Only Kirigakure remained. Konoha's crisis had, in fact, been resolved.
Without the threat of external enemies, how much trouble could a mere Uchiha clan stir up?
As long as Danzō, his good old buddy, didn't continue to get so close to the Uchiha clan. The recent frequent contact between Danzō and Uchiha No had, it could be said, once kept Hiruzen Sarutobi awake at night.
But now it was fine. Danzō's forces had been wiped out by that brute, the Third Raikage. Hiruzen Sarutobi only needed to beckon slightly, and Danzō could only obediently stand by his side.
Thus, Hiruzen Sarutobi considered himself to have regained control of the situation.
He was still the Hokage who held sole power. He was also about to lead them to win the Third Great Ninja War. As long as victory belonged to Konoha, his prestige would rise another level. As for his earlier public statement about stepping down after the war, under such circumstances, who would still bring it up?
Even if some conspirator wanted to stir up trouble, Hiruzen Sarutobi could resolve it by having a few subordinates slightly manipulate public opinion.
Hiruzen Sarutobi declared: "I am still young. I can still be Hokage for another twenty years."
Danzō understood Hiruzen Sarutobi's thoughts, but he was helpless. Having lost a large number of elite subordinates, he could only cooperate with Hiruzen Sarutobi.
When Danzō returned to the village, Hiruzen Sarutobi personally came out to greet him, wearing an expression that said, "Little brother, you've worked hard; big brother will compensate you later," which made Danzō feel utterly disgusted.
In the subsequent talks, whenever Danzō brought up the funds for rebuilding Root, Hiruzen Sarutobi would always avoid the topic. This made Danzō incredibly furious, yet he had no choice but to patiently maneuver with Hiruzen Sarutobi. Because he knew Hiruzen Sarutobi was waiting for him to state his position.
Danzō eventually yielded. For his Hokage ambitions, he had to have his own forces. The funds for rebuilding Root were still in Hiruzen Sarutobi's hands; he had almost no ability to resist.
Finally, Danzō agreed to help Hiruzen Sarutobi suppress the Uchiha clan, voluntarily playing the role of the villain, in exchange for the first wave of funding for Root's reconstruction.
The turmoil in the ninja world this time didn't bring about major changes in the overall situation. Apart from the Third Raikage making a fierce move, other parties made no significant actions.
The only puzzling thing was that Kirigakure also made no significant moves. Other villages were inactive because they had already withdrawn from the war, but Kirigakure was different. Kirigakure was clearly still in a de facto state of war, yet they remained inactive.
One must know that Konoha had already dealt with three enemies. If Kirigakure didn't retreat soon, their fate would be the same as Sunagakure's.
No ninja village could emerge unscathed when fully targeted by Konoha. Everyone in the ninja world knew this principle; it seemed only Kirigakure didn't.
Kirigakure seemed to still be immersed in the glory of having killed the Hyūga clan's patriarch. That's right, almost all Kirigakure ninjas believed Hyūga Tokuhiro was killed by them.
Probably only the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist and a few other ninjas who participated in that battle vaguely felt that a third party had interfered in this incident.
However, although they had their suspicions, since they were indeed the main force that took action, and the Byakugan was also obtained, Kirigakure didn't care about taking on an extra "black pot" (scapegoat blame).
Furthermore, Kirigakure and Konoha had not yet ended their state of war. The Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist naturally wouldn't go to the Hyūga clan to explain: "We only killed a few dozen of your elite ninjas and seized one of your patriarch's Byakugan; your patriarch wasn't killed by us."
Thus, the matter passed in a muddled way, and Ishiro ultimately was not exposed.
Anyway, Kirigakure still hadn't retreated and instead continued its military standoff with Konoha, seemingly not at all worried that Konoha would deal with them as they had dealt with Sunagakure.
And strangely enough, Konoha indeed did not make a move against Kirigakure, as if in the eyes of Konoha's higher-ups, Kirigakure as an enemy didn't exist.
Konoha's higher-ups seemed to have forgotten about the Land of Whirlpools battlefield.
When the Uchiha on the front lines requested supplies, the village would send them promptly without any deductions. When ninjas on the front lines were injured, the village would send people to bring the wounded back to the village for them to recuperate peacefully. Even if the injured were Uchiha, the village wouldn't treat them specially.
But if the Uchiha clan requested reinforcements from the village, the higher-ups would definitely find various excuses to refuse. And the proud Uchiha, after one or two fruitless requests for aid, decisively gave up asking for reinforcements.
The Third Hokage's actions indeed greatly damaged the Uchiha clan's strength. It was conceivable that as long as the Uchiha and Kirigakure continued to wear each other down, their strength would inevitably be greatly diminished.
However, the Third Hokage perhaps never considered that the Uchiha group could not be suppressed indefinitely. The Uchiha genes contained factors of intense emotion, and the higher the level of the Sharingan, the stronger this factor became.
Ishiro felt that the Uchiha group needed to be coaxed. After satisfying them mentally, they could be sent to the battlefield to fight to the death. And the best way to coax them was to give them glory.
Of course, the position of Hokage could not be given casually, unless it was to ninjas like Kagami Uchiha, Shisui, or Itachi, who had been "brainwashed" by the Will of Fire.
But even if the Hokage position wasn't given, many heroic images could still be established, making Uchiha members content to sacrifice for the village, proud to sacrifice for the village.
What Uchiha members cared about wasn't power; those ninjas with minds full of strength didn't understand politics. Ishiro estimated that after an Uchiha had served a term as Hokage, other Uchiha might develop a fear of the Hokage position.
For no other reason than the main role of the Hokage was to balance various forces. If the Uchiha were to do this, it would drive them crazy.
Hiruzen Sarutobi perhaps couldn't see clearly, or perhaps was unwilling to relinquish power, or perhaps was unwilling to abandon the policies left by the Second Hokage. In short, Hiruzen Sarutobi once again pushed the Uchiha further away from Konoha's higher echelons.
If Ishiro knew all this, he would definitely persuade Ōnoki to prepare to make contact with the Uchiha clan.
However, Ishiro was currently unable to receive outside information, let alone see the turbulent undercurrents within Konoha. He was currently stumped by a seal before him.
These past few days, Ishiro had been searching inch by inch outside Uzushiogakure. Ishiro, after all, was a high-ranking official of Iwagakure and knew many of Iwagakure's secret bases.
By analogy, Ishiro knew how to search for possible secret bases in Uzushiogakure.
So, after more than ten days, Ishiro finally discovered a seal underground – an absolute S-rank seal.
Because of this seal, Ishiro hadn't found any clues even after studying it for an entire day.
S-rank was the upper limit in the ninja world, but if Ishiro were to classify it, he felt this seal should at least be categorized as SS-rank.
After a full day, Ishiro finally determined that this seal was not something he could break independently.
Ishiro emerged from underground, repaired the camouflage he had previously damaged, then left the Land of Whirlpools and flew towards Iwagakure.
When Ishiro returned to the village, he learned that the official appointments for him and Ikura as advisors had already come down. The Daimyō was very satisfied with both him and Ikura and had agreed without a second thought.
In recent years, various aspects of the Land of Earth's development had been good, and these positive changes were all brought about by Iwagakure. Therefore, the Daimyō was very satisfied with Ōnoki and felt that the Land of Earth's upward momentum was very good, with a boundless future.
So, when Ishiro entered the village, the ninjas guarding the gate and those passing by all addressed Ishiro as "Lord Advisor."
Walking into the Tsuchikage building and arriving at the door of Ōnoki's office, Ishiro suddenly felt a little guilty. He raised his hand, wanting to knock, but hesitated for a long time.
After hesitating for a moment, Ishiro went to Ikura's office first.
Fortunately, Ikura hadn't gone out; he was obediently staying in his office. However, Ikura wasn't working either; he should be studying ninjutsu.
When Ishiro entered, Ikura was writing and drawing in his office, looking like he was making theoretical preparations for developing ninjutsu.
Seeing Ishiro enter furtively, Ikura was speechless for a moment.
"When did you get back?"
"Hehe, just got back. Was about to see Lord Tsuchikage, came to see you first," Ishiro said with a grin.
"What? Feeling guilty? Knew Lord Tsuchikage would be angry yet still roamed outside for so long before coming back? So many village affairs, you just dropped them and left?" Ikura exposed Ishiro mercilessly.
"Weren't there things that delayed me? Ikura, accompany me to Lord Tsuchikage's place, okay?" Ishiro directly stated his purpose. Anyway, Ōnoki would also summon the higher-ups to discuss the Byakugan matter.
Ikura rolled his eyes and said, "With this much effort, you'd better think about how you're going to take the scolding. A few days ago, the Daimyō's envoy also came to the village and delivered our appointment letters."
"The envoy also said the Daimyō wanted to see you. Originally, he hoped you could accompany the envoy on a trip to the capital. Who knew you had actually left the village?" Ikura shook his head.
"Er, the Daimyō wants to see me? What about you? Did the Daimyō say he wanted to see you?" This was something Ishiro hadn't expected.
Ikura said, "The Daimyō didn't mention me. His wanting to see you should be because you proposed the peace talks between the Land of Earth and the Land of Fire. This matter brought enormous benefits to the Land of Earth. Especially after Sunagakure's defeat, the Daimyō greatly appreciates your foresight in timely proposing to stop while ahead."
Ishiro scratched his head and asked, "Then what about the envoy? Did he go back?"
Hearing Ishiro ask this, Ikura said irritably, "Of course he went back! Apart from sending one message back at the beginning, you didn't send any further news. Who knew when you would return? We couldn't possibly make the Daimyō's envoy wait indefinitely, could we?"
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