Konoha: Sage Body

"Kill Hattori Masanari?"

The next day, in the Raikage Building of Kumogakure, in the Raikage's office, the Sandaime Raikage frowned as he read the secret report brought over by his secretary Erui.

He had heard of the name Hattori Masanari. Yes, he was a pretty capable Ame-Nin, and currently the person in Amegakure with power second only to Hanzo of the Salamander. He had also heard that the various positive changes currently taking place in Amegakure were all the work of this person.

It can be said that Hattori Masanari has now become the second-in-command of Amegakure and has great prestige in the village.

And his good son, in order to forge a partnership with Sunagakure, actually wants Kumogakure to get rid of this second-in-command of Amegakure.

No surprise, once Kumogakure really makes a move against Hattori Masanari, Amegakure will definitely not let it go, and an outbreak of war is almost a foregone conclusion.

"Erui, what do you think of my stupid son's idea? What do you say?"

Sandaime Raikage couldn't make up his mind for a moment, so he habitually handed the secret report in his hand to his secretary and then listened to the other person's advice.

Emotionally, he supported his son's idea, because in his opinion, Amegakure was a very easy target to bully. If they could take the opportunity to loot the Land of Rain, it could greatly relieve Kumogakure's current relatively tense financial pressure.

And he has long wanted to test his strength against the powerful ninja Hanzo of the Salamander, who is known as the demigod of the ninja world.

Rationally, he feels that launching an attack on the Land of Rain is not a very good choice at the moment, as it will attract the attention of Konoha. Although the protest letter sent yesterday has already attracted Konoha's attention, which is a bit like alarming the snake, he still does not want to waste extra troops on the Land of Rain.

After a year of recuperation, Amegakure is certainly far from its former glory when it first challenged Konoha, but Kumogakure still needs to pay a heavy price to defeat Amegakure, which is not conducive to launching an attack on Konoha next.

"Raikage-sama, you should know that killing Hattori Masanari is equivalent to going to war with Amegakure,"

Erui decisively replied after reading the contents of the secret report.

"Really? So you don't agree with going to war with Amegakure either."

Sandaime Raikage sighed when he heard this.

As expected, Erui, being a sensible woman, did not want Kumogakure to provoke Amegakure at this time.

But the next moment, Erui contradicted him: "No, you're wrong. I personally agree with going to war with Amegakure."

"Are you for or against? Be clear about it,"

Sandaime Raikage said, looking at Erui speechlessly.

Erui pressed her finger against her eye on the bridge of her nose, causing the lens to reflect light, and said slowly:

"Naturally, we are in favor of it. Because Raikage-sama has united with the other shinobi villages to send a letter of protest to Konoha to pressure them, our plan to attack Konoha by surprise has probably already failed. And because of that genius shinobi named Kirito Tosaka, the morale of their shinobi forces is sky high. It is very difficult for us, Kumogakure, to gain any advantage from breaking out into war with Konoha right now, and it is even likely that we will suffer losses.

But Kirito Tosaka is indeed a huge threat. We cannot sit by and watch him continue to grow up and have to be eliminated. In order to get rid of him, we have no choice but to go to war with Konoha. Therefore, we really need the strength of the Sand Hidden to join forces against Konoha.

However, Sunagakure has just been dealt a heavy blow, and the balance of power between them and us has been thrown off. They are definitely on their guard against cooperating with us Kumogakure. Coupled with the fact that we and Sunagakure have had our differences in the past, it will be very difficult to gain their trust. Surrendering Hattori Masanari's head to them is indeed a good way to draw us closer to Sunagakure.

Finally, we Kumogakure need a major victory to boost morale right now, and Amegakure is a good candidate to help us Kumogakure get a good warm-up before going to war with Konoha."

"Hm, upon hearing you say that, it does sound quite reasonable."

After listening to Erui's explanation, Sandaime Raikage nodded thoughtfully.

He was of course confident in the Kumogakure ninja troops, because the Kumogakure ninja troops often clashed with the ninja villages of neighboring countries, and could be said to be in a state of constant war, with very high combat literacy.

However, Kumogakure had not fought Konoha for more than ten years, and it was really not certain whether they could win if they did fight.

In that case, it would be a good choice for Kumogakure to use Amegakure as a training ground.

Amegakure had fought Konoha for several years before, and even if its strength had not fully recovered, it would still be very good for Kumogakure to use it as a pre-battle sharpening stone.

Most importantly, Amegakure Village had been having a good time recently, and robbing it would definitely enable the clan to have a good year.

"Raikage-sama, if you plan to attack Amegakure, you must not underestimate your enemy. Amegakure has changed a lot over the past year or so, and its strength is probably far greater than it seems. Moreover, the climate in this country is not conducive to prolonged combat for our ninja from Kumogakure, so we must achieve a quick victory. It would be best if we could kill Hanzo of the Salamander and Hattori Masanari in a short period of time."

Erui saw signs that Sandaime Raikage was about to attack Amegakure and immediately warned him.

Although Amegakure was not a major concern for Kumogakure, she personally paid special attention to it due to trade relations.

Not to mention anything else, just from the fact that the trade volume between the Land of Rain and the Land of Thunder this year far exceeded previous records, it was clear that the Land of Rain was recovering at a rapid pace. Then as for Amegakure, which ruled the Land of Rain, its strength would definitely recover very quickly as well.

Of course, no matter how quickly Amegakure recovers, there is a limit.

After all, it has only been less than two years since the war ended, and this period of time has only allowed the middle and lower classes of Amegakure to recover. As for the upper ranks of jōnin, the number of these high-end combatants will definitely recover very slowly.

You have to understand that the birth of every jōnin is hard-won, and it is by no means possible to simply pile up resources. Not only does the individual need to be talented enough, they must also put in countless efforts and experience a large number of life-and-death battles before they can be born.

Therefore, the two biggest obstacles in the Land of Rain are Hattori Masanari and Hanzo of the Salamander.

The two are not only the face of the Land of Rain, but also its spiritual pillars. As long as the two do not die, Kumogakure will find it extremely difficult to defeat Amegakure, and it may drag Kumogakure into the quagmire of war, ending up with a result where the losses outweigh the gains.

"Don't worry, at that time, both Blue B and I will step in. Although my son is useless, he can still be considered a decent helper. He can handle Hanzo of the Salamander without any problem. As long as he dares to show up, I am confident that I can leave him behind."

Sandaime Raikage said confidently after being reminded by Erui.

"So, Lord Raikage, are you saying that you have decided to carry out the assassination of Hattori Masanari?"

Erui asked tentatively.

"That's right, let's have Kumogakure test the blade on Amegakure first. This will just show Konoha how powerful we are, and maybe it will scare the cowardly Sandaime Hokage into voluntarily handing over Kirito Tosaka. Hahaha~"

Sandaime Raikage laughed loudly, giving a definite reply.

As Sandaime Raikage made the decision, a messenger ninja hawk quickly flew from the Raikage Building into the sky.

The messenger ninja hawk was extremely fast. In just half a day, it had already travelled tens of thousands of kilometers, crossing from the Land of Thunder into the territory of the Land of Wind.

However, as it had just entered the desert region of the Land of Wind, a terrifying gust of wind suddenly appeared on the ground, causing it to feel a great sense of crisis. It quickly flapped its wings hard, flying higher into the sky, and narrowly avoided an attack from the ground that was mixed with a large amount of vacuum chopping.

Meanwhile, on the ground,

"So close.

A young ninja covered in scarlet Wind Release Chakra stood at the top of a sand tower, looking up at the blue sky. He watched the messenger ninja hawk, which had fled in a hurry, and sighed.

Then, without further ado, he unleashed another Wind Release ninjutsu.

Wind Release: Vacuum Serial Wave!

A gust of wind suddenly burst from his mouth, and a large number of vacuum choppas over ten meters in diameter appeared with the wind.

Almost at the same time, on the sandy ground in front of him, four huge sand people formed from a large amount of sand quickly fused together to form a huge sand wall hundreds of meters long, blocking all the incoming vacuum slashes.

Then, the huge sand wall quickly separated again into four huge sand people.

A few seconds later, the young ninja once again used a wind release ninjutsu to attack the four huge sand figures.

The four huge sand figures once again fused together to form a huge sand wall to block it.

This continued over and over again.

It continued for more than an hour before the young ninja temporarily stopped to rest, and the red Chakra Armor on his body disappeared.

This young ninja who was constantly training his Wind Release Ninjutsu was none other than Kirito himself.

In fact, he was not only training his Wind Release Ninjutsu, but also controlling the four giant sand people with his mind while doing so.

Yes, Kirito is doing this to digest the power he has obtained after obtaining the One-Tailed Shukaku, and then adapt to the changes in power brought about by the Shukaku as soon as possible.

The Shukaku has brought Kirito many benefits, far more than just an inexhaustible source of Chakra. It has also given Kirito outstanding talent for Wind Release training, powerful sand manipulation abilities, and talent for Magnet Release training.

As a Chakra entity, its talent for Wind Release training is absolutely the best in the ninja world.

After Kirito obtained the power of the tail, his talent for Wind Release, which had been mediocre before, was forcibly enhanced. In just a few days, his understanding of Wind Release surpassed the gains he had made from practicing Wind Release since he mastered the nature change of the Wind Release Chakra.

With the attribute panel, he clearly discovered that his Wind Release had reached level 3.

He had a hunch that if he continued to practice Wind Release at the current pace, he would reach level 4 in another month.

If he reached level 4 and then temporarily possessed the Shukaku's soul to become a Wind Release Chakra creature, he might be able to quickly break through to level 5.

However, compared to his talent for Wind Release training, Kirito was currently more interested in the ability to manipulate sand that Shukaku had given him.

This ability is actually similar to the Ketsuryūgan's ability to manipulate blood, but the difference is that this ability can exert unimaginable destructive power in the desert.

Especially after obtaining Shukaku's huge amount of chakra support, in addition to being able to create four giant sand golems hundreds of meters high to continue manipulating them as he does now, he can quickly create a sand tsunami hundreds of meters high.

Faced with such a force of nature, ordinary ninjas simply have no room to resist at all and are left with only one path: to die.

It was precisely because he had revealed this ability in the desert that all the Suna-Nin who had sneaked in to secretly monitor or assassinate him retreated a few kilometers from the heart, and they only dared to monitor his actions in the desert from a distance with binoculars.

At the same time, the Suna-Nin army retreated again and again.

It can be said that Kirito, with his own strength, forced thousands of Suna-Nin to continuously abandon their defensive lines.

Kirito had already decided that once he had fully adapted to the sand manipulation ability brought about by using Shukaku, he would go and take a stroll around Sunagakure.

"Hey, kid, are you still planning on continuing your training?"

Suddenly, a somewhat noisy voice appeared in Kirito's mind.

Kirito's face immediately lit up with a smile upon hearing this voice, and he replied, "Couldn't resist that quickly, could you? I thought you were going to plan on ignoring me forever."

Since he successfully sealed Shukaku within his body, after learning that Bunpuku was not dead, Shukaku has never paid any attention to him. It is as if it has accepted its fate, obediently staying in the space of the yin seal formed by the chakra pool, ignoring the Jinchuuriki.

In response, he did not seek out trouble by communicating with this tailed beast that obviously held a great deal of hostility towards him, but instead treated it like a large chakra battery, constantly extracting chakra from it.

Thanks to this large Chakra battery, he has now successfully replaced all the Chakra in the Yin Seal in his eyebrows with Sage Chakra, and incidentally also helped the White Zetsu clone replace the Chakra in the Yin Seal Chakra pool with Sage Chakra.

"Hmph, you keep draining my Chakra like this, do you really think my Chakra is inexhaustible? Can't you see for yourself that the Chakra in this Chakra pool is almost depleted? That's enough for today. You've used it all up. I'd rather become skinny and small than condense any more chakra today."

In the chakra pool, Shukaku, whose body and physique had become much thinner, couldn't help but loudly complain at Kirito's words, his voice revealing deep resentment.

It was true that it had a lot of chakra, but it didn't come from thin air. It needed to constantly absorb natural energy from the outside world and then complete the transformation, and this transformation process was time-consuming and laborious.

It had thought that no matter how much Kirito, a human, consumed its chakra, it would only be a drop in the bucket. However, this smelly human was a major chakra consumer and a crazy cultivator. In the past few days, it had almost drained its chakra.

What was even more infuriating was that this guy could even share its chakra with other humans, so that other weak humans could use its chakra for cultivation at will.

This human is really shameless. He treats it like a donkey in the production team, working it day and night without a break and showing it no respect.

Although it is very simple to restore its chakra, it feels very uncomfortable that this human has been forcibly extracting its chakra, wasting the chakra that it has worked so hard to create.

It has decided that it cannot keep pampering this human like this, and that it must make this human understand that Shukaku also has its limits.