Inside the towering structure of Amegakure—
Ning Feng and Orochimaru stood before a cultivation tank, both wearing grave expressions.
Separating the Three-Tails from Hōzuki Zangetsu without harming him would still take time.
But now that the war had been ignited by A and Ōnoki—
Ning Feng had already set his sights on collecting all the remaining tailed beasts.
He knew very well—
In the original timeline, sealing all nine tailed beasts into the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path had triggered everything that followed.
"Feng-sama… at minimum, it will still take two more months to extract the Three-Tails without causing irreversible damage."
After a long silence, Orochimaru finally spoke.
His snake-like pupils flickered as he studied the half-liquidized Zangetsu in the tank.
Extracting a tailed beast without killing its jinchūriki—
That alone was already an outrageous feat.
The fact Orochimaru had reached this stage proved he hadn't wasted a second.
Once successful—
The Seven-Tails inside Fū could also be extracted safely.
And then—
Ning Feng could fuse two tailed beasts at once.
Not to mention—
The One-Tail, Shukaku, was already imprisoned in Amegakure.
He could absorb it anytime.
That meant—
He would only be missing Two-Tails and Six-Tails to complete all nine.
The Two-Tails was still in Kumogakure—
Once the Raikage left for war, Ning Feng could simply raid the village and take it.
As for the Six-Tails—
It had been sealed within Utakata of Kirigakure.
Even though Ning Feng had used Tengai Shinsei there—
A jinchūriki wouldn't die so easily.
Most likely—
He was hiding somewhere.
"How many strong shinobi can still be revived with Edo Tensei?"
Ning Feng rubbed his forehead.
The Three-Tails could wait.
Right now—
His biggest issue was manpower.
While his subordinates were individually strong—
There simply weren't enough of them to command large-scale forces.
Without Edo Tensei—
He might have to personally lead troops on the battlefield.
"Third Raikage, Second Mizukage… and around twenty Bloodline Limit users."
Orochimaru shrugged.
"There's not much more I can do."
Without enough samples—
Even Edo Tensei had its limits.
If Orochimaru hadn't kept those specimens for personal research—
Kabuto would have taken those too.
Ning Feng frowned.
Kabuto's betrayal had dealt a serious blow.
Originally—
This war was meant to be a training ground.
Yes—
A battlefield to temper Amegakure's shinobi.
Too much peace had made them soft.
Recent mission success rates had already declined noticeably.
Even accounting for increased population—
Overall quality had dropped.
There were too many weak links.
Too many freeloaders.
But Ning Feng couldn't simply purge them outright.
So—
War would do it for him.
Those unwilling to fight?
Fine.
Give up your shinobi status and go home.
Those who died in battle?
Their families would be compensated.
And they would be remembered as contributors to Amegakure's rise.
A clean, efficient filter.
That was Ning Feng's plan.
Which meant—
Unless absolutely necessary—
He would not step onto the battlefield himself.
Commanding the army…
Would fall to Orochimaru's Edo Tensei forces.
🌟 The story is already written… waiting to be unleashed.
Claim early access on Patreon: patreon.com/c/LuneWriter
🔓 You hold the keys to bonus chapters:
💬 10 reviews ignite 1 bonus chapter
🔷 200 Power Stones summon another
🔥 Your power determines how fast the tale unfolds.