Chapter 404: SSS-Rank Mission!
"The Three-Tails is dead."
Obito sat in his chair, his expression dark as he spoke to Black Zetsu. His hand gripped the armrest so tightly that cracks spread across it.
"He didn't just kill the Three-Tails. He killed the Mizukage, annihilated Hidden Mist Village, and seized control of the entire Land of Water." Black Zetsu fell silent for a moment before speaking, his voice carrying a rare trace of exhaustion.
Black Zetsu had never imagined that after he went to monitor Nagato's movements in the Land of Waterfall, that lunatic Amamiya Kenichi would destroy Hidden Mist Village and conquer the Land of Water in the blink of an eye.
Now, the Land of Water had become Amamiya Kenichi's territory.
The White Zetsu Black Zetsu had left in Hidden Mist Village had been there to gather intelligence. Yet for some unknown reason, they had all died without sending back any useful information. Because of that, Black Zetsu had no idea how Amamiya Kenichi had done it.
"Did you go there and check? How exactly did he destroy Hidden Mist Village?" Obito bit his finger, clearly agitated.
To carry out the Eye of the Moon Plan, the Ten-Tails had to be revived. To revive the Ten-Tails, the Tailed Beasts had to be captured one by one, and in a specific order. For example, the One-Tail had to be captured first, then the Nine-Tails later.
But now the Three-Tails was dead.
The death of the Three-Tails meant that if he wanted to proceed with the Eye of the Moon Plan, he would have to wait for the Three-Tails to revive.
But how long would a Tailed Beast take to revive?
And during such a long wait, what kind of unforeseen changes might occur?
The moment Obito thought of how he could not create a world with Rin, he wanted to rush to the Land of Water immediately and kill that bastard Amamiya Kenichi.
However, Obito still had concerns.
He did not know how Amamiya Kenichi had destroyed Hidden Mist Village, but it must have been extremely fast. Otherwise, Hidden Mist Village would not have failed to send out detailed intelligence.
This made Obito deeply puzzled.
How had Amamiya Kenichi done it?
Back when Obito had caused trouble for his former teacher in Konoha, he had only managed to release the Nine-Tails. Even then, his teacher had taught him a brutal lesson.
Completely destroying Konoha? Preventing Konoha from even sending out intelligence?
He probably would not be able to attempt such a thing unless he obtained the Rinnegan.
"I don't know. The White Zetsu I planted there also died, leaving behind no usable intelligence. And for some reason, the soil and plants in Hidden Mist Village are filled with a very strange energy. I felt extremely uncomfortable the moment I got close." Black Zetsu shook his head.
He truly did not know how Amamiya Kenichi had done it.
But Hidden Mist Village had indeed been destroyed.
That strange energy still lingered there, and it made Black Zetsu certain that there could not be any survivors inside.
Because that powerful energy was constantly stripping away the life force of anything within it.
To confirm his thoughts, Black Zetsu had even kidnapped someone from a nearby small village and thrown them in. At first, the person seemed fine, but as time passed, their body gradually began to show abnormalities.
"The Three-Tails is dead, so what about our plan? The Eye of the Moon can't be carried out without the Three-Tails!" Obito gnashed his teeth in rage.
He had waited for so many years. He had never expected that he would have to wait even longer.
"Tailed Beasts can all revive, but it takes a long time. The Three-Tails should take about eight or nine years," Black Zetsu sighed.
He was not in a hurry.
Ever since his mother gave birth to him, Black Zetsu's only reason for existing in this world had been to unseal his mother and help her gain freedom.
Over the long ages, he had done countless things.
He had altered the Uchiha Clan's stone tablet and led the Uchiha Clan down the wrong path.
He had manipulated the history of the Ninja World.
He had deceived that fool Madara, making Madara believe Black Zetsu was the incarnation of his will.
He had done far too much.
After all these years, he had finally seen a glimmer of hope. He had patiently guided Madara and Obito, leading them step by step down the path he desired.
Yet he had never expected all of this to be ruined by a nameless nobody he had once dismissed.
The moment Black Zetsu thought back to his first encounter with Amamiya Kenichi, he wished he could travel back in time and have Obito kill the then-weak Amamiya Kenichi directly.
If that had happened, the Eye of the Moon Plan could have continued smoothly.
But the Three-Tails was already dead, so he could only keep waiting.
Fortunately, he had lived through countless ages. If there was one thing he had never lacked, it was patience.
Obito did not want to speak.
He leaned back in his chair, his single eye staring blankly at the stone wall.
Waiting eight or nine years for the Three-Tails to revive felt like it might kill him.
"Then how can you be sure that madman will be satisfied with only Hidden Mist Village and the Land of Water? What if he targets Konoha next? What if he targets the Land of Earth or somewhere else? If the One-Tail and Two-Tails die too, how much longer will we have to wait?" Obito looked at Black Zetsu with a gloomy expression.
Black Zetsu said nothing.
He understood Obito's meaning.
He knew Obito had always held a grudge against Amamiya Kenichi. After all, Amamiya Kenichi had desecrated Rin's corpse and nearly killed Obito.
If not for the Sharingan Obito happened to have installed at the time, Obito would most likely be truly dead by now.
Black Zetsu also knew that Obito wanted to deal with Amamiya Kenichi.
Previously, however, Black Zetsu had always disagreed. His reasoning was simple. As long as the Eye of the Moon Plan was successfully carried out, any schemes or tricks Amamiya Kenichi had would become meaningless.
No one could resist the Infinite Tsukuyomi.
No one could resist his mother, the ancestor of Chakra.
Black Zetsu had absolute confidence in that.
Moreover, dealing with Amamiya Kenichi might complicate the plan, so Black Zetsu had always opposed Obito's desire to hunt him down.
In Black Zetsu's view, Amamiya Kenichi was also a useful tool. In the future, when they collected the Tailed Beasts, he could even be thrown out as bait.
But now...
Thinking of what Obito had just said, and of Amamiya Kenichi swallowing Hidden Mist Village and the Land of Water whole, Black Zetsu's eyes sharpened.
"Just the two of us won't be enough to deal with him." Black Zetsu narrowed his eyes.
He had observed the Ninja World for so many years. Based on Amamiya Kenichi's unknown method of destroying Hidden Mist Village, Black Zetsu knew he had already reached a position above ordinary Kage.
His strength might even be approaching the level of those abnormal monsters, Madara and Hashirama.
Under such circumstances, Black Zetsu did not believe Obito, with only one eye, could confront Amamiya Kenichi.
Unless Obito dug out Nagato's Rinnegan.
But Nagato was still very useful to their plan right now. They could not touch him yet.
In that case...
At the border of the Land of Fire, Mei Terumī glared at the Konoha ninja before her.
The ninja was smiling at her, but every word that came from his mouth ignited endless fury in her heart.
"Mei Terumī, you should already know that Hidden Mist Village and the Land of Water have been conquered. They have been annihilated." Akimichi Choza stroked his belly.
He was the one sent this time to persuade Mei Terumī.
Hidden Mist Village had been destroyed, and the Land of Water was controlled by an unknown force. This naturally shocked and angered the Four Great Nations and the Four Great Ninja Villages.
However, they soon realized that Hidden Mist Village still had a team of ninja active outside. There were even some hidden spies operating within various Ninja Villages.
Now that Hidden Mist Village had been annihilated, would these scattered Hidden Mist ninja lose their village?
If so, could they be used by others?
Everyone knew Mei Terumī was no ordinary woman. Those who had fought her knew she possessed the qualifications to become the next Kage.
Her strength was excellent, and she even possessed a Kekkei Genkai. Though she was a woman, if she had children in the future, there was a chance that this bloodline could be passed down.
Thus, Mei Terumī instantly became a talent that the Four Great Ninja Villages sought to recruit.
In any case, Hidden Mist Village was already gone.
The fact that the opposing force could conquer Hidden Mist Village and annihilate the Land of Water proved their power was immense. Anyone with a bit of insight could tell that Mei Terumī's team of ninja had no right to challenge them alone.
"So, you want to recruit me too? You want me to join Konoha?" Mei Terumī sneered.
The team behind her was utterly silent.
The Hidden Mist ninja still had not accepted the fact that Hidden Mist Village had been destroyed.
After all, they were one of the proud Five Great Ninja Villages.
Unless the Four Great Ninja Villages had attacked together, they simply could not understand how their village could have been annihilated.
It made no sense at all.
"The former Land of Water was very close to the Land of Fire. Since they swallowed the Land of Water, that proves they are very likely to continue their actions. If you stay in Konoha, you'll have a chance to avenge your village." Nara Shikaku also stepped forward.
Recruiting Mei Terumī was certainly not simple.
However, persuading her to remain in Konoha and cooperate against the madman who annexed the Land of Water had some chance of success.
And as long as she was willing to stay in Konoha, more methods would become available. Resolving the matter would naturally become much easier and more convenient then.
Mei Terumī said nothing.
She was weighing the pros and cons.
A qualified ninja had to know how to do that.
If this had happened at the very beginning, Mei Terumī might have recklessly returned to the Land of Water, confronted the villain who destroyed her village, and died a heroic death.
But what good would that do?
Mei Terumī also knew that if she cooperated with Konoha, there might be a chance to make that bastard pay.
After all, although Konoha was somewhat weakened, it was still undoubtedly the strongest Ninja Village in the Ninja World, and it had many powerful individuals.
The retired Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi.
The Fifth Hokage, Tsunade.
The Toad Sage, Jiraiya.
Even Orochimaru could still be considered potential combat strength in certain calculations, not to mention the heads of Konoha's various great clans.
All of those clan heads possessed at least elite ninja strength.
But Mei Terumī had spent time beside the Elder, and she knew that the higher levels of the Ninja World, the Kage, often thought differently from ordinary ninja.
She hesitated.
Would Konoha truly go to war against a newly emerged major power for the sake of a destroyed Land of Water and a destroyed Hidden Mist Village?
If Konoha chose not to go to war, would she and her companions become bargaining chips in negotiations between the two sides?
"Perhaps you don't know yet, Mei Terumī. This is a large-scale mission. Because it is extremely rare, and because the mission reward is so high, its rank is..." Nara Shikaku noticed Mei Terumī's concerns.
He took out a mission request and handed it to her.
Mei Terumī took it and glanced over it.
Then her pupils contracted.
"An SSS-rank mission? Issued jointly by the Four Great Ninja Villages, commissioned by the Daimyo of the Four Great Nations, with the mission objective being the elimination of the ninja force occupying the Land of Water? The reward..."
Looking at the long string of zeros, Mei Terumī felt a little dizzy trying to count them.
But without question, the appeal of this mission had reached its peak.
An unprecedented SSS-rank mission.
Ordinary missions only went up to S-rank, and that was already considered very high. Yet now, an SSS-rank mission had appeared.
And the reward offered was three times the annual financial support Hidden Mist Village had received from the Daimyo of the Land of Water.
Three times.
That meant that completing this mission would instantly make a village wealthy from the bounty alone.
Even Konoha, as the number one Ninja Village in the Ninja World, would probably be unable to refuse such a mission reward.
However, what Mei Terumī cared about more was the issuer of the mission.
The Daimyo of the Four Great Nations had actually issued this mission together.
But after thinking about it, such a generous reward could probably not be funded by a single Daimyo alone. If the Daimyo of the Four Great Nations contributed together, then it would no longer be a problem.
And this mission also meant that the seemingly calm Four Great Ninja Villages had already begun mobilizing their forces.
Countless ninja were about to step onto her homeland, her country, her village, and eliminate the madman occupying it.
Mei Terumī licked her lips.
If the Four Great Nations acted together, Mei Terumī felt that her chances of revenge had indeed increased.
In that case...
"Fine. I will follow Konoha and help subjugate that man." Mei Terumī pondered for a long time before nodding solemnly.
She had made her decision.
If she was going to seek revenge, she naturally had to choose a reliable collaborator. In her view, Konoha was the best choice.
Any long-standing and stable power would not tolerate deeply established rules being casually broken.
Clearly, the Four Great Nations, which had spent years scheming against one another, had chosen to unite boldly and respond with the strongest means after the annihilation of the Land of Water, the disappearance of the Land of Water's Daimyo from public view, and the destruction of Hidden Mist Village.
This was also a warning to every ambitious person in the Ninja World.
If they wished to replicate what had happened in the Land of Water, they had better first weigh whether they possessed the ability to withstand the Daimyo's retaliation.
However, if this action failed, then it would also become a raging inferno.
.....
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