The armed deployment by the Ninja Clan Capital Corporation immediately set every major hidden village on high alert—their nerves already on edge.
But after realizing that the Standing Ninja Army, Instructor Corps, and Shinsengumi—direct subordinates of the Hyuga Clan—hadn't been deployed near their borders, they gradually relaxed.
As for Kumo, which was the prime suspect in the attack on the ten central districts, they got off scot-free after handing over 300 chunin—an ugly sacrifice, but enough to clear their names.
What concerned Hyuga Soushu the most, however, was whether they could uncover anything at all.
Though he had repeatedly instructed his ninjas to watch for any strange creatures carrying chakra, especially summoned beasts like snakes and frogs, even after deploying ninja forces to thoroughly search the ten central districts, they still found nothing suspicious.
It seemed as if those mining disasters had truly been random natural calamities.
But both the tunnels clearly discovered and the wounds on the victims' corpses silently revealed there must be a sinister hand behind everything. Therefore, everyone's mood became increasingly heavy.
"Still no evidence?"
Hyuga Soushu, who had been impatiently waiting for news, was already growing restless.
"We currently have no conclusive intelligence, and we haven't located any habitats of summoned beast-like creatures," the jonin officer replied while wiping sweat from his forehead.
"Fine then, just go ahead and draft an official report!"
Hyuga Soushu said with resignation.
"A report?"
The jonin officer's mind momentarily froze.
Hadn't they caught neither culprit nor evidence yet? How could they write a report so soon?
"In the ten-district massacre, we highly suspect frog-type summoned beasts were responsible. Write the report pointing strongly in that direction regarding the irreparable harm these creatures have caused humans!" Hyuga Soushu said, clearly dissatisfied. "Do I really have to tell you to cook up a report?"
"Is that acceptable?"
The jonin officer was greatly surprised but still maintained a facade of artificial propriety, trying to show he'd always been loyal and honest without any deceitful behavior.
"You write the report, I just approve it! Remember to do a good job; if you don't know how to write it, go copy someone else!"
Hyuga Soushu directly issued an order dismissing him.
"Yes sir!"
The jonin officer quickly bowed and obediently left.
Deep beneath Mount Myoboku, the ninja frogs grew increasingly distressed.
Although the underground caverns weren't small spaces, to avoid detection by the Hyuga ninjas currently conducting thorough searches above ground, the ninja frogs mostly remained silent, using Mount Myoboku's special secret jutsu to disguise themselves as rocks, with most slipping into a deep meditative silence.
The natural energy in the Ninja World was extremely rare.
Compared to Mount Myoboku, where natural energy was so concentrated it nearly solidified into mist, the natural energy in the Ninja World was like oxygen on a plateau—thin and difficult to absorb. For ninja frogs whose sentience was awakened through natural energy, this environment was undoubtedly unsuitable for survival.
Especially so hundreds of meters deep underground in these cave systems.
The accumulated earth energy might be the ideal environment for underground holy places like Ryuchi Cave, but for the line of Ninja Frogs from Mount Myoboku, it was like telling a fish to live in a volcano. Their only option was to cease all physical activity, leaving only a few Ninja Frogs on mobile patrol.
Jiraiya also had no better ideas.
This was simply how the greater environment was. He couldn't just conjure up massive amounts of natural energy out of thin air, nor could he cause too much disturbance without being noticed. Therefore, he could only maintain silence and wait patiently until the large-scale surface search calmed down.
"I wonder how long we'll have to wait before we can finally weather this storm."
Jiraiya sighed to the Red-skinned Ninja Frog who hadn't fallen into deep sleep yet.
"I don't care about that. I just can't figure out why Great Sage gave you the Cursed Seal of the Ninja Frogs."
Red-skinned Ninja Frog Honglang shook his head back and forth while licking at the candy in his pouches as he spoke: "Moreover, if we were to declare open war on the surface ninja, do you think we could win?"
"We probably don't stand much chance."
Although Jiraiya disliked admitting it, he knew it was the truth.
Based on his understanding of warfare during the Hidden Village Era, let alone those fully professional Standing Ninja Armies formed by the Ninja Clan Capital Corporations, even during the Great Ninja World War, when each village summoned conscripted ninja forces, they would become overwhelmingly powerful once they reached certain numbers and were equipped with standardized war tools—such as cluster explosive tag launchers or bundle kunai launch tubes—the sort of military equipment that scattered groups from Mount Myoboku could hardly stand up to.
Of course, if limited merely to individual duels, the Ninja Frogs of Mount Myoboku still held some advantage in battles of equal rank. After all, most intelligent Ninja Frogs capable of human speech had absorbed considerable natural energy, and their physical strength was generally superior to that of ordinary ninja. Hence, in one-on-one fights, they had the upper hand.
But the real problem was that the number of ninja in the Ninja World far exceeded that of Mount Myoboku's Ninja Frogs.
Furthermore, many special Ninja Frogs in Mount Myoboku could not leave the unique environment filled with dense chakra within the Holy Land, which severely restricted the scale of force they could deploy.
"Then why are you hiding underground instead of seeking allies?" The Red-skinned Ninja Frog swallowed his candy whole and mumbled indistinctly, "You know as well as I do that Mount Myoboku alone won't be able to threaten the Hyuga in the surface realm."
"If both Sages launched a decapitation strike together, perhaps there might be some possibility."
Jiraiya was thinking along different lines.
"Tch, naive,"
Though lacking much experience, the Red-skinned Ninja Frog still knew such an idea was absurd.
Whenever Hyuga Soushu left Hakone Prefecture city, he almost always traveled with an elite Chunin-level Ninja Force of about a hundred strong. These ninja were either drawn from the ranks of servant ninja, or reassigned from the Instructor Corps or the Shinsengumi, making it difficult to predict or gather intelligence on their exact personnel details.
What's most important is that these ninja troops represented the Hyuga Clan's elite forces, well-trained and heavily armed to the teeth. This meant that even a stealthy assassination strike targeting their command structure would no longer work.
Moreover, with their Byakugan Kekkei Genkai, ambush tactics were completely pointless against the Hyuga Clan and would achieve absolutely nothing.
"Tch, the problem is that little Hyuga Clan brat is too much of a coward!"
Jiraiya knew this strategy was impractical to execute, so he treated it more as a joke than a serious plan. Even the Senior Toad Sage from Mount Myoboku had never seriously considered employing such unconventional methods.
After all, as a leader, avoiding reckless actions like "incognito field visits" was an essential institutional principle for ensuring long-term stability and development of one's forces.
While the man and the toad were engaged in idle banter, deep beneath the ground Black Zetsu had already been thrown into unspeakable panic!
"It's actually the descendants of those treacherous ninja frogs who corrupted Hagoromo and turned him against his mother!"
Black Zetsu, appointed by Madara Uchiha to handle intelligence reconnaissance across the Mainland - Ninja World, immediately began sinking downward rapidly, fleeing as if from a deadly plague when it sensed those familiar, loathed presences above in the lava caves, desperately trying to shake off non-existent pursuers.
For Black Zetsu, who had wandered throughout the Ninja World for untold years, persistently pursuing its grand plan of rescuing its mother despite repeated defeats, Mount Myoboku - which had once been deeply involved in the ideological split between Hagoromo and Hamura - was its greatest potential enemy.
Now just when it had finally gained limited trust from Madara Uchiha, unexpectedly running into the presence of Mount Myoboku's ninja frogs left Black Zetsu unable to determine whether this encounter was fortune or misfortune.
But one thing was certain though — Black Zetsu's [Kagero] jutsu was way faster than that of ordinary White Zetsu, quickly leaving behind all the White Zetsu that had followed it into the Ninja World Mainland.
"RUA!"
One White Zetsu grumbled in dissatisfaction: "What the heck did Little Blackie eat? Why's he running so fast?"
"Probably ate some God Tree crap from Lord Madara! Otherwise he wouldn't be darting around like he's got the trots!"
Another White Zetsu immediately started exaggerating.
"Maybe Little Blackie discovered something?"
One particularly observant White Zetsu, apparently a brainiac in a sea of blockheads, quickly pointed out the issue.
"What?! He got scared that badly? That won't do at all!"
The White Zetsus suddenly performed exaggerated displays of panic.
Of course, this was just typical messing around for White Zetsus. Given their low intelligence and production specifications, they didn't even fear death itself, let alone experience genuine emotions like fear or anxiety.
"Why don't we take a look?"
Another White Zetsu started getting restless.
"That might not be good. Our mission is establishing new bases for supporting White Zetsus."
"But we're White Zetsus too! If we look, isn't that equivalent to them looking?"
"You're actually this smart? You don't seem like your average White Zetsu!"
So amidst all this commotion, the White Zetsus began rising toward the upper rock layers to investigate what exactly was happening.
For White Zetsus who routinely operated within subterranean spaces, encountering dangerous situations was already commonplace.
For instance, accidentally tunneling into underground lava flows, subterranean rivers, or even pools of molten magma inside volcanic craters was practically routine. Sometimes they would even run into all sorts of bizarre underground monsters—like the giant sandworms commonly found in desert regions. Nothing out of the ordinary, really.
After all, White Zetsu's seniors had already proven with their lives that provoking danger inevitably led to death. Yet this, to some extent, only intensified White Zetsu's urge to explore hazardous places. Every time one White Zetsu discovered a brand-new way to die, the others would preserve that memory through pheromone-sharing. For those nameless White Zetsus with no past or future, this was as close as they could get to leaving their mark on history.
This time, though, things didn't go quite like usual.
When the first White Zetsu broke through the rocky layers and peeked out, what greeted its eyes was a strange cluster of statues.
"So many stone boners!" one White Zetsu couldn't help but whisper in quiet astonishment.
Soon after, groups of White Zetsus peeked out from all over the lava cave walls, murmuring in awe at this rare spectacle.
"First time I've ever seen so many rock-hard ones all gathered together, and still in such good condition too!" said one White Zetsu as it reached out a claw and scratched at a statue. "And they even look like frogs! How unusual!"
"That's not called stone boners," interjected another slightly more knowledgeable White Zetsu, smugly showing off its knowledge. "Humans call that kind of thing fossils."
"Fossils? So if Lord Madara takes a dump, is that a fossil too?"
As expected, the thoughts of these creatively unhinged White Zetsus immediately took off.
But just as this remarkably open-minded and mentally unstable group was about to dive headfirst into some deep philosophical musings about the true meaning of stony boners and fossils, Jiraiya and several alert Ninja Frogs who hadn't entered hibernation sensed the disturbance and came rushing over.
"There are humans!"
Realizing something was wrong, the White Zetsus immediately dissolved into the cave walls and vanished without a trace.
"What happened?"
Jiraiya swiftly Body-Flickered to the entrance of the lava cave, yet everything appeared normal, as though nothing had occurred just now.
"I mustn't have heard wrong..."
The Red-skinned Ninja Frog also seemed uncertain.
If only one person had heard something, then perhaps it could've been dismissed as a mistake.
But now both Jiraiya and the other Ninja Frogs had simultaneously sensed abnormal activity deep within the sleeping lava caves, prompting them to rush over immediately, eliminating any possibility of mere mishearing.
"Let's take a look. Something must be going on."
Jiraiya frowned, feeling uneasy inside. "Perhaps there's a special Summoned Beast species lurking underground. We mustn't allow them to damage the Petrified Frogs."
Any damage to a Ninja Frog's petrified form during hibernation meant instant death once it reawakened. Thus, Jiraiya dared not be careless. He immediately ordered his Ninja Frogs to enter and inspect the area.
At the same time, he carefully used his rudimentary Sensor Ninjutsu to probe around, though no abnormal chakra fluctuations were detected.
"Jiraiya-sama!"
Just as he was still shaken, suddenly one of the Ninja Frogs shouted, "There's a mark on its body!"
"Let me see!"
Jiraiya immediately Body Flickered over and, upon closer inspection, discovered a fresh and deep scratch mark on the statue of a Ninja Frog!
"What kind of being is this?"
Jiraiya sucked in a cold breath, feeling his scalp tingle.
"Whatever the case, we can't stay here any longer."
The Red-skinned Ninja Frog quickly became tense too.
If this unusual disturbance came from a Summoned Beast belonging to ninja from the surface world, there was a high chance their presence had already been detected. After all, hiding underground wasn't just stifling; there was also the risk of collapse, with layers of soil and rock potentially crushing them to death. For an organized Ninja Force, creating minor earthquakes to trigger earth collapses was never a difficult task, so the Red-skinned Ninja Frog had to treat the situation with serious caution.
"You're right," Jiraiya paused briefly before agreeing with the Red-skinned Ninja Frog.
No matter what was happening, it was clear that their current hiding place was no longer safe. Under these circumstances, accelerating their relocation was undoubtedly the wisest course of action.
Therefore, as the Secret Jutsu of the Ninja Frogs activated, groups of stone-coated Ninja Frogs began opening their drowsy eyes one after another, shaking their bodies and shedding the rocky dead skin clinging to them.
"No Noise! No Croaking! Maintain absolute silence throughout!"
The Red-skinned Ninja Frog immediately issued orders: "Everyone must relocate in ten minutes—wake up fast!"
<><><><><><><><>
Thank you for reading! Your support will keep me updating!
~ Every 50 Powerstones = **4 Bonus Chapters** this weekend!
<><><><><><><><>
~ 100+ Advanced Chapters Available on Patreon!
~ More *Free* Chapters and Books Available on Patreon!
patreon.com/Tansnovel
<><><><><><><><>