Chapter 192: Method for Handling the Byakugan
Although Ikura scolded Ishiro a few times, in the end, he couldn't withstand Ishiro's persistent pestering and went with Ishiro to see Ōnoki.
When Ōnoki saw Ikura enter, he wasn't surprised. He had known Ishiro was lingering at the door earlier and also knew Ishiro had later gone to Ikura's office.
So Ōnoki didn't speak, just looked at Ikura's side.
Sure enough, Ishiro's head timely poked out from behind Ikura.
Seeing Ōnoki staring at him, Ishiro felt even more guilty and quickly tugged at Ikura's clothes.
"Ahem, Lord Tsuchikage, Ishiro is back," Ikura coughed and said to Ōnoki.
"I see him." Ōnoki was still staring at Ishiro, responding to Ikura's words with only a faint acknowledgment.
Ishiro knew he couldn't hide any longer, so he stepped out from behind Ikura and simultaneously took out a bottle from his storage pouch, saying, "Lord Tsuchikage, this is the Byakugan."
Ishiro directly presented the Byakugan, hoping to change the subject with it.
Naturally, the result was not ideal. Ishiro did not escape this scolding. Besides Ōnoki, even the two advisors, Saka and Mei, who came later for discussions, joined in criticizing Ishiro.
Finally, it was Ikura who, seeing they had scolded enough, spoke up to get Ishiro out of the situation.
"Lord Tsuchikage, I think Ishiro knows his mistake. Let's give him another chance. And while we're at it, let's hear his reasons for not returning for so long?"
Ōnoki and the other two were also somewhat tired of talking. Hearing Ikura's words, they conveniently switched the topic.
"Let's first discuss the research plan for the Byakugan," Ōnoki said, pointing to the bottle Ishiro had placed on the desk.
Finally free from the criticism, Ishiro looked up at Ikura with a resentful gaze. This fellow hadn't said a word when Ōnoki and the others were in full swing earlier and only now stepped in to change the subject.
"He must be incredibly envious that I got to go out and roam, so he took the opportunity to retaliate," Ishiro thought with malicious intent.
At this moment, Saka said to Ishiro, "Alright, sit down."
Ishiro obediently sat down in his seat. After sitting down, he didn't speak, just quietly listened to the four of them discuss.
Ikura said, "The Byakugan we obtained has three uses. First, through experiments, we can understand the characteristics of the Byakugan. Previously, our understanding of the Byakugan's functions was mostly based on speculation. Now that we have a physical specimen, we can analyze its various abilities in detail and compile comprehensive data."
"Secondly, we need to find ways to counter it, preferably to research a method to shield against the Byakugan. At the very least, we must find ways to interfere with or evade the Byakugan."
"Lastly, there's using the Byakugan. However, this must be done at a critical moment in war, by surprise, to potentially influence the battle's outcome."
Ōnoki also nodded and said, "Correct. These three are our main future directions for Byakugan research. Once our understanding of the Byakugan reaches a certain level, we can also consider dissecting its essence to see if we can replicate this Kekkei Genkai."
Everyone nodded; even Ishiro had no objection. From the original story, Ishiro knew a lot about the Byakugan's functions, but he was blank on specific data.
At this moment, Mei said with some hesitation, "However, the ninja world currently doesn't know that our Iwagakure has also obtained a Byakugan. If we use it rashly and the information leaks, I'm afraid there will be trouble."
"Correct. We have signed an alliance with Konoha. The matter of the Byakugan needs to be kept strictly confidential. Mei, you arrange the personnel for the Byakugan research. If anything is needed, others must prioritize cooperating with the Byakugan research," Ōnoki said.
Mei accepted the task, and Ishiro and the others had no objections. When it came to a dōjutsu Kekkei Genkai, it was normal to attach great importance to it.
At this time, Saka spoke again, "How will we decide who will use the Byakugan later? Should we select personnel from the Anbu?"
Saka's meaning was relatively clear. Since ordinary ninjas couldn't use the Byakugan openly, it should be given to the Anbu. Anbu members wore masks anyway, so hiding the Byakugan wouldn't be difficult.
Ishiro actually had an idea: to give the Byakugan to a member of the Uzumaki clan, letting the Uzumaki bloodline develop the Byakugan. According to speculations in countless fanfictions, the combination of two bloodlines might bring surprises.
Hmm, Uzumaki Yumi would be a good choice. Just imagine, during Ikura's wedding night, the bride having one black eye and one white eye. Perhaps the white one would even have a seal on the outside to prevent its loss.
Hmm, very amusing.
However, Ishiro didn't plan to bring this up now because the Uzumaki clan hadn't fully integrated into Iwagakure yet. Even if this were to be done, it would have to wait until after Ikura and Uzumaki Yumi were married.
With the Uzumaki clan having an advisor-level son-in-law, their sense of belonging to the village would greatly increase. And after the two had children, perhaps both the Uzumaki clan and Iwagakure would truly let go of their underlying unease and defenses.
The group wasn't very reassured by Saka's proposal to have the Anbu use the Byakugan. The Anbu's mortality rate was too high; giving the Byakugan to the Anbu could easily lead to its loss.
And so far, Iwagakure hadn't found a way to prevent the Byakugan from being lost.
For no other reason than Iwagakure's foundation in summoning jutsus was too poor. Unlike Kirigakure, which, through the development of the Seven Ninja Swords, had a very high level of summoning ninjutsu and could develop targeted methods to prevent Byakugan loss.
Ishiro thought for a moment and said, "Let's wait until we develop a method to prevent the Byakugan from being lost before considering who will use it. Anyway, the Great Ninja War is about to end, and we won't need the Byakugan in the short term."
Everyone nodded in agreement. Other research on the Byakugan still required a lot of time; there was no need to rush into selecting a user.
"Speaking of the ninja world situation, Ishiro, first take a look at the changes in the ninja world over the past ten days or so." Ōnoki glared at Ishiro again, then found a document on his desk and handed it to Ishiro.
Ikura and the others had definitely seen the intelligence, and they should have already discussed it. Ōnoki wanted to hear his opinion.
The intelligence detailed the battle where the Third Raikage raided Danzō. Clearly, an Iwagakure spy had witnessed the battle process firsthand.
Regarding the Third Raikage's failure to kill Danzō, Ishiro felt both regret and relief.
The regret was regarding the current situation. No matter what, Danzō was one of Konoha's few overt Kage-level combatants. If the Third Raikage had truly succeeded, Konoha's victory would have been shaken, the Third War might have continued, and Konoha would have continued to bleed.
But in the long run, Danzō's existence was more detrimental than beneficial to Konoha. Just from what Ishiro knew, Danzō was responsible for several major incidents, including Orochimaru's defection, the Nine-Tails incident, and the Uchiha massacre.
Danzō's shadow was in all these events. And these events cost Konoha Kage-level combatants like Orochimaru, Minato Namikaze, Kushina Uzumaki, Fugaku Uchiha, Shisui Uchiha, Itachi Uchiha, and Jiraiya, who roamed the ninja world searching for his good old buddy.
If one included the Konoha Crush plan orchestrated by Orochimaru, then Hiruzen Sarutobi would also have to be added to the list.
So, in the long run, Konoha couldn't be without Danzō. Therefore, Ishiro, besides feeling regret that Danzō didn't die, also felt quite relieved.
However, the intelligence recorded little about the subsequent internal events in Konoha.
So Ishiro didn't know that Hiruzen Sarutobi intended to help Danzō rebuild Root.
But one thing was very clear: Konoha seemed to have no intention of reinforcing the Land of Whirlpools battlefield. Konoha's strategy towards Kirigakure appeared to be completely different from its strategy towards Sunagakure.
After thinking for a moment, Ishiro smiled. "Lord Tsuchikage, it seems Hiruzen Sarutobi doesn't plan to step down and abdicate to a worthy successor."
Ōnoki nodded and said, "We also reached this conclusion after our discussion. Tell us your suggestions."
Ishiro smiled faintly and said, "Simple. Win over the Uchiha, convey goodwill to the Uchiha, make them feel that they can thrive even without Konoha."
"Even, pass our analysis to other ninja villages, let them also make contact with the Uchiha. Tell the Uchiha that only those blind fools in Konoha's high command can't see the Uchiha's powerful role."
Ōnoki's eyes lit up. "This method is good! It can accelerate the Uchiha clan's alienation from Konoha and widen the rift between them."
Saying this, Ōnoki looked at the others and asked, "What do you all think?"
Ikura said, "Feasible. We can even tell the Uchiha that the position of Fourth Tsuchikage can be reserved for them."
Hiss~~ Everyone, including Ishiro, was startled by Ikura's words.
However, after thinking about it, everyone felt relieved. The Uchiha clan couldn't possibly defect to Iwagakure wholesale. Konoha's high command wouldn't allow such a thing to happen.
So even if the Uchiha clan really came to seek refuge in Iwagakure, the result would only be an encirclement and suppression by Konoha's high command. By then, even if some Uchiha could break through to Iwagakure, it would only be a very small number of personnel.
In this way, whether an Uchiha became Tsuchikage or not wouldn't mean much. Even giving up one term of Tsuchikage to an Uchiha, to "buy horse bones with gold" (attract talent by showing great value for even lesser contributions), wouldn't be bad for Iwagakure.
However, that Ikura could propose this suggestion still surprised everyone. This was indeed the magnanimity possessed by a Kage-level figure.
After a moment of silence, Saka spoke, "Besides Ikura's method, we don't have to show our faces. We can have spies pass the news to Kumogakure, saying Sunagakure wants to win over the Uchiha. Pass the news to Sunagakure, saying Kirigakure wants to win over the Uchiha. In short, muddy the waters, so no one can grasp the true connections."
Ishiro and the others' eyes lit up. This was a good idea! This was very consistent with Iwagakure's strategy of secretly stirring up trouble in recent years.
At this moment, Ishiro thought of another matter and said, "The handling of the Uchiha clan reminds me of something. While we are secretly communicating with the Uchiha, we can also communicate with Kirigakure."
"Right now, most people in the ninja world think Kirigakure obtained two Byakugan. If we conduct some secret transactions with Kirigakure, then in the future, even if our possession of a Byakugan is exposed, we can say it was exchanged from Kirigakure."
Mei frowned and said, "But what if Kirigakure refutes it? Others may not know the situation, but Kirigakure itself definitely knows they only obtained one Byakugan."
Ishiro chuckled, "So we need the Uchiha clan's help. Hyūga Tokuhiro's body was found near the Uchiha camp, and the Uchiha were the first to discover them."
"If we also make contact with the Uchiha during this period, then in the future, Konoha will be unable to distinguish where we obtained the Byakugan from."
"At that time, Kirigakure will think we exchanged it from the Uchiha clan, and the Uchiha clan will think we exchanged it from Kirigakure. As long as we don't say it ourselves, or speak ambiguously, then no one will have proof that our Iwagakure violated the alliance."
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