Chapter 77 Cloud Village Strikes
The Land of Lightning, Hidden Cloud Village.
Raikage Building.
The future Fourth Raikage, then still the young master of Kumogakure, held a letter in his hand, pushed open the door to the Raikage's office, and excitedly shouted with open arms:
"Father! They're here! A message has come from the spies of the Land of Rain!"
A Fourth Raikage's father, the third-generation (Third Raikage) was drinking and looking at files when he heard this and laughed.
"How is the situation?"
"The losses among the ordinary Iwagakure ninjas weren't too great, but the high-ranking ninjas suffered heavy casualties, the Jinchuriki was seriously injured, and old man Onoki fled in a sorry state!
This was definitely a crushing defeat!"
"Oh? Let me see!"
The Third Raikage took the letter, read its contents carefully, and soon burst into laughter.
"Good! That old man Onoki has finally met his match! I'm so happy to see him suffer such a huge loss! Hahahaha!"
The Raikage and his son laughed happily for a while, then Raikage looked on expectantly and said:
"Dad, shouldn't we make our move now?"
"Certainly!"
"But with whom should we go to war?
Konoha or Iwagakure?"
"Konoha... suffered little damage.
Originally, I wanted to wait until Sunagakure and Iwagakure inflicted heavy losses on Konoha before making a move to take advantage of the situation.
But since that's not the case now, it would be unwise to confront Konoha head-on."
Raikage stood up, waved his hand, and shouted with imposing force:
"Pass down the order!
Deploy 15,000 men and immediately attack Iwagakure!"
"Great!" Fourth Raikage shouted excitedly.
"I will personally lead this war! You and Killer Bee will also be coming with me!
We'll deploy our elite forces and give that old man Onoki a sound thrashing!"
"Yes! I understand! Father, watch how I use the Thunder Plow Blade to blow those Iwagakure heads off!"
"Hahaha! Great! As expected of my son! I'm really looking forward to it!"
On this day, under the orders of Raikage A, 15,000 Cloud Village ninja set off from the Land of Lightning and, in just five days, traversed several small countries including Shimo, Below, oil, other, plan waterfall, launching an attack on Iwagakure in the Land of Earth.
...
On the way back to Konoha.
This trip also didn't last long; the entire trip took only about ten days, and now they've returned to Konoha.
It's not appropriate for Sasori to appear in the open right now, so Souji instructed him to hide near Konoha and wait for contact.
After the last string of lofty and profound pronouncements, Sasori was deeply shocked and is currently in a state of existential doubt, exploring what kind of art he truly wants to pursue—a profound philosophical question.
However, in any case, he has at least agreed not to create human puppets for the time being.
The Akatsuki trio did not come along, but they sent a letter via teleportation bird.
All three decided to join Souji's ranks, but they planned to let Nagato recover first, and it would also take some time to arrange things with the other Akatsuki members.
They would go to Konoha after everything was settled.
Because both Iwagakure and Sunagakure have completely withdrawn from the Land of Rain and it is clearly impossible for them to launch another attack in the short term, unlike the war in the Land of Rivers, this time there is no need to leave any troops behind, and Konoha has also returned with its entire army.
However, because Mitokado Homura intended to elevate the prestige of Jiraiya and Minato, he deliberately separated himself and other high-ranking ninjas such as Chiha Fugaku, Aburame Shiki, and the leaders of the Ino-Shika-Cho clans into a second group, returning to Konoha only the day afterward.
Jiraiya, Minato, and Souji will lead the majority of ordinary ninjas in a triumphant return as heroes.
Although no one had told him this, Souji quickly made a guess based on the situation.
It seems that Mitokado is pushing Jiraiya, or even possibly Minato.
After all, the two are master and apprentice. Regardless of who is truly being promoted, promoting them together can help each other gain support.
However, it seems more likely that they will push for the water gate.
Because even I was assigned here.
If the person being promoted is Jiraiya, then this person doesn't have a deep relationship with Jiraiya, so putting him together won't be very helpful.
The person with whom he has a deep relationship is Minato... If he wants to push Minato, it seems he wants to portray himself as Minato's right-hand man.
With Tsunade absent, he became the number one medical ninja.
Although there were no major casualties in this battle, he still saved many people.
And the selling point of being the number one medical ninja alone was enough to attract many people to buy his services.
In addition, he defeated the Hokage in the Jonin Exams, and in many people's minds, he is seen as a peerless genius on par with Minato.
He also participated in the battles in the Land of Rivers and the Land of Rain, and his record was also very impressive.
Tying yourself to Minato will definitely greatly enhance Minato's reputation.
If nothing unexpected happens, this is very likely their plan.
It seems that although the Third Hokage was originally scheduled to step down after the Third Shinobi World War, he is actually considering stepping down now, and the Konoha leadership is considering a suitable candidate for the Fourth Hokage.
The Souji quickly analyzed the situation in his mind.
"The Third Shinobi World War, including the standoffs and tug-of-war in between, and the final peace talks, was originally scheduled to last three years.
However, probably because of my sudden emergence, I was able to easily defeat the Jinchuriki, the Tailed Beasts that others couldn't handle, so I quickly ended the two early battles of the Third Shinobi World War in the Land of Rivers and the Land of Rain."
"As a result, Minato lost the opportunity to hone his skills by fighting against many powerful enemies, and his battle record was far worse than before.
His personal prestige was not high, and if he wanted to compete with Orochimaru for the Hokage succession, he could only rely on Jiraiya and me to push him up."
"Of course, since I want to become Hokage myself, if I don't help lift him, Minato's qualifications will be much lower, and he won't be very competitive."
"Because there are still Kumogakure (Hidden Cloud Village) and Kirigakure (Village Hidden in the Mist), even though the situation has changed, the competition for mission quotas between ninja villages and the influence of economic strength have not changed the fundamental nature of the war.
If nothing unexpected happens, these two sides will still have to go to war. So I still have the opportunity to continue to increase my prestige and achievements."
"In this way, whether it's strength or reputation, I'm afraid it won't be long before I'm completely above Minato.
So the problem now is... I'm not a member of the high-ups' inner circle, and no one in the high-ups will push me to succeed as Hokage."
"Although I can gain the strength to crush everyone by cheating, it would be too low to use my fists and threats to force my way in. I'm not a barbarian like Madara who doesn't care about anything and just knows how to act recklessly.
Since I can win with my strength, why make things so ugly?"
"So I need to be able to command respect and become Hokage with dignity..."
A figure of pure white... cough cough, wearing a tea-green long coat, with blonde hair tied in a large ponytail, appeared in Souji's mind.
One of the Legendary Sannin of Konoha, granddaughter of the First Hokage Hashirama Senju, disciple of the Third Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi, and the legitimate princess of Konoha.
Tsunade.
If Tsunade is his nominee, then he can compete for the Hokage position fairly and squarely.
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End of this chapter...