Chapter 595: The Wool Pulling Plan
"See him." Mugetsu took a sip of the hot tea on the table, thought for a moment, and gave his answer.
With Iwagakure's unusual movements and Nagato's description, Mugetsu could already confirm that the ninja Nagato had encountered was Roshi, the Four Tails Jinchūriki of Iwagakure.
More than likely, it was Roshi right after fleeing Iwagakure.
If Mugetsu remembered correctly, Roshi had also defected in the original story.
It was just that Roshi had very little screen time there, so Mugetsu had never known when he left or why.
Even if he did not know the exact reason in the original story, Mugetsu could more or less guess why Roshi had run away in this world.
After all, Mugetsu himself had been the biggest contributor to the defeat of Iwagakure's two thousand man force.
He had personally experienced what it meant for Roshi to use complete Tailed Beast Transformation in the middle of the troops and bombard the battlefield with indiscriminate Tailed Beast Balls.
However, because he had been close enough to see everything clearly, Mugetsu knew that those actions had been ordered by Iwagakure's command, not conceived by Roshi himself on impulse.
The problem was that other Iwagakure ninja might not know that.
After all, the ones who had been close enough to hear those orders had all been killed by Mugetsu.
Once that point was considered, Roshi's situation after returning to Iwagakure became easy to predict.
In a case like that, it would not have mattered if the village were Iwagakure or Konoha. Roshi's treatment would not have been pleasant.
Mugetsu could not speak for everyone else, but Danzo would definitely have made Roshi miserable.
Either he would have used some method to completely control Roshi, or he would have simply replaced the Jinchūriki altogether.
"But tell him that I've been busy lately. I'll meet him after I finish dealing with this matter," Mugetsu added, setting down his teacup.
Originally, there had not been anything urgent in the Land of Rain recently.
But now that Roshi had come, there had to be.
"I'm preparing to hold another unrestricted lecture."
Ever since the last unrestricted lecture ended, Mugetsu had already begun preparing for the next one.
The rewards from advanced classes were too good, and unrestricted lectures could also expand the Shinobi Sect's influence, which would benefit its long term development.
Although the idea had been there for a long time, this lecture was not originally supposed to happen so soon. According to Mugetsu's earlier plan, there should have been about a year between the two lectures, yet only half a year had passed.
Plans, after all, could never keep up with change.
When Mugetsu made that plan, he had never expected Roshi to flee Iwagakure at this exact time and make his way into the Land of Rain.
Mugetsu did not know why Roshi had come, but since Roshi had come anyway, he naturally did not mind taking advantage of the situation.
According to the system's mechanism, Jinchūriki contributed a huge number of points when they attended class.
Of course, Mugetsu was not planning to exploit Roshi for nothing.
If Roshi truly had fled Iwagakure, then Mugetsu holding an unrestricted lecture would draw large numbers of ninja to the Land of Rain. Under those circumstances, Iwagakure would either have to operate much more covertly or temporarily give up searching for Roshi in the Land of Rain.
And if Roshi had not fled Iwagakure, and Iwagakure's movements in the Land of Rain had some other purpose, then the lecture would still serve to gather attention and keep Iwagakure from acting recklessly.
Either way, the lecture would be beneficial to both Mugetsu and the Shinobi Sect.
So it had to be held.
"I understand." Nagato nodded.
Right after that, Mugetsu called Kakuzu over and told him to start building momentum and spreading the news.
"Another lecture already? Thought of some new way to make money, have you? Or, no, I should say, some new way to develop the Shinobi Sect?" Kakuzu asked with clear interest.
With Sōsuke's current reputation and prestige in the ninja world, promotion was actually very simple. All they had to do was spread the news as widely as possible. Nothing more complicated was necessary.
His battle against Hanzō had proven his strength, and the first unrestricted lecture had proven his knowledge and teaching ability. At this point, there were very few ninja left in the world who had not heard of Ninja Master Sōsuke.
"This time, we won't be putting up advertisements or arranging extra events. The main purpose is to strengthen the Shinobi Sect's influence, promote some of its ideals, and recruit ninja," Mugetsu said, shaking his head.
He certainly had methods to make money, but some of them were not suitable to use right now.
His main purpose in holding this large lecture was to reap system rewards and recruit more ninja to strengthen the Shinobi Sect.
"That works too. There really are too few ninja in the Shinobi Sect right now," Kakuzu said, nodding in approval.
Making money was good, but recruiting people was also extremely important.
After all, the Shinobi Sect was still a ninja force, especially one trying to build a peaceful ninja world. Without enough ninja, it simply could not function.
After discussing the matter with Kakuzu for a while, Mugetsu summoned several veteran members of the Shinobi Sect and assigned each of them different tasks.
During the previous large lecture, the Shinobi Sect had recruited some ninja as well, but back then, because of insufficient funds, the number had been limited.
This time, in order to recruit more people, Mugetsu planned to slow down the pace of the lectures. He would lecture for two days, then rest for one day.
On each rest day, members of the Shinobi Sect would spread throughout Six Paths City to promote the sect's ideals and recruit any interested ninja.
Once everything was arranged, Mugetsu dismissed his Shadow Clone and absorbed the memories flowing back into his main body.
Mugetsu's main body still spent most of its time in Konoha, while his time in the Shinobi Sect was comparatively limited.
Although Nagato was also part of Uchiha Madara's scheme, there was no danger to Nagato at this stage.
That was because Nagato's role in Madara's plan was to eventually use Samsara of Heavenly Life to revive him.
Obito's role, meanwhile, was to become Madara's successor, collect the Tailed Beasts after Madara's death, and then have Nagato use Samsara of Heavenly Life to revive him.
A qualified successor was what Madara needed most at present, which was why Obito was currently more dangerous than Nagato.
Of course, the most dangerous person in the entire situation was still Mugetsu himself.
Madara absolutely wanted both his true self and his alias dead.
As long as Mugetsu remained alive, it would be extremely difficult for Madara to push Obito into complete darkness.
As long as Sōsuke remained alive, the difficulty of controlling Nagato as Madara's successor would also increase.
But Mugetsu now had many methods at his disposal, and to be honest, he rather hoped Madara would come looking for him.
At this moment, Mugetsu's main body was still reading. After the Shadow Clone's memories returned, he set the book down and fell into thought.
"I'll let a Shadow Clone handle the Kenbunshoku Haki classes for a while. Matters in the Shinobi Sect are more important."
Mugetsu decided to let a Shadow Clone take over the Kenbunshoku Haki instruction.
Kenbunshoku Haki teaching only took three hours a day, and the technique itself was inherently slow to learn, so using a Shadow Clone for it would not have too much impact.
…
Land of Earth, Iwagakure.
Tap. Tap.
Ōnoki frowned as he looked at the two documents lying on his desk, lightly tapping the surface with his fingers.
One of those documents had come from Iwagakure's people in the Land of Rain.
The other had come from the Shinobi Sect.
He had already read them both, and in Ōnoki's opinion, the core issue in both reports was essentially the same: the actions of Iwagakure ninja in the Land of Rain.
He had not expected the Shinobi Sect to be so sensitive, let alone so bold.
He had not ordered Iwagakure ninja to kill people in the Land of Rain, nor had he told them to rob anyone. They were simply searching quietly for a person in the Land of Rain, yet the Shinobi Sect still wanted to interfere.
That truly was not a development Ōnoki had anticipated.
His original thinking had been simple. Sending a large number of ninja to search everywhere would have made the situation too obvious, so he instead mobilized the Iwagakure ninja already stationed in the Land of Rain.
That, however, naturally led to a problem.
The Shinobi Sect was bound to notice.
After all, those Iwagakure ninja who should have been undergoing training had suddenly stopped and started running all over the Land of Rain. Anyone in the Shinobi Sect with half a brain would realize they were carrying out a mission.
Ōnoki had thought of that beforehand.
He just had not expected the Shinobi Sect to meddle so directly.
They were Iwagakure, one of the Five Great Ninja Villages.
They were not attacking the Land of Rain.
So where did the Shinobi Sect get the nerve to interfere?
"A bunch of idealistic fools who don't know their place," Ōnoki muttered, rubbing his brow in irritation.
Originally, he had wanted to nurture the Shinobi Sect and use it to create trouble for Konoha.
But before the Shinobi Sect had even clashed with Konoha, it had already come into conflict with Iwagakure, which naturally made Ōnoki deeply dissatisfied.
If they could capture Roshi and bring him back, then clashing with the Shinobi Sect would have been acceptable.
Ōnoki could not possibly fear a ninja organization with fewer than two hundred members, even if its leader was exceptionally strong.
The problem was that the Iwagakure ninja searching the Land of Rain had not found a single trace of Roshi.
In other words, they could not even confirm that Roshi was there.
If Roshi was not in the Land of Rain, then entering into conflict with the Shinobi Sect was obviously not worth it.
According to reports from the Iwagakure ninja who had received training there, the Shinobi Sect's teaching quality was genuinely very high.
Ōnoki still intended to send Ninja Academy instructors there to learn. If Iwagakure's relationship with the Shinobi Sect worsened, then where would those teachers go?
"But Sōsuke chose this exact time to hold another lecture event. Could it be that he knows something?" Ōnoki thought, his gaze falling onto the invitation attached to the Shinobi Sect's document.
The Shinobi Sect had clearly stated that it would soon hold another large lecture event, and any Iwagakure ninja interested in attending would be welcome.
During the last such event, more than a thousand ninja from across the world had gone to the Land of Rain.
This time, with the fame accumulated from the previous event, the number of visitors could only increase.
If that happened, the Land of Rain would become a chaotic gathering ground of every kind of ninja, and that would be extremely unfavorable to Ōnoki's plan of secretly searching for Roshi there.
"It should just be a coincidence." After some thought, Ōnoki shook his head.
He had kept this matter tightly under wraps. Even the other Great Ninja Villages still did not know what had happened, so how could the Shinobi Sect possibly know?
Besides, if he thought about it carefully, the current timing really was excellent for the Land of Rain, which was bordered by three Great Nations.
At present, there were no major wars between Iwagakure, Konoha, and Sunagakure, so the Land of Rain and its surroundings were relatively peaceful.
"Temporarily give up the search in the Land of Rain. Focus all effort on the Land of Grass and the Land of Birds instead," Ōnoki finally decided, changing his strategy.
Besides the Land of Rain, Roshi could just as easily have fled into the Land of Grass or the Land of Birds. Both countries not only bordered the Land of Earth, but also the Land of Rain.
If they kept pressing forward in the Land of Rain, the likely outcome was that Iwagakure would gain nothing, and that was not something Ōnoki wanted.
"Shinobi Sect. Amegakure. Konoha." Ōnoki narrowed his eyes slightly.
His purpose in mediating cooperation between the Shinobi Sect and Amegakure had always been to create trouble for Konoha.
Now that the Shinobi Sect was developing better and better, it was almost time for it to fulfill that role.
Ōnoki had already made many plans to set the Shinobi Sect and Konoha against one another.
But now it seemed some of those plans might no longer be necessary.
The Shinobi Sect was simply too stubborn.
If they could be so unyielding even toward Iwagakure, a village currently cooperating with them, then would they really show any softer attitude toward Konoha, which had once invaded the Land of Rain?
.....
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