In Uchiha Yoru's eyes, Kaguya Ren was different from everyone else.
He was certain that the miserable state of this shinobi before death had not been caused by chakra exhaustion.
Rather, the time attribute within his body had been touched.
Precisely because time had been accelerated until his lifespan was nearly exhausted, he had ended up looking like he was about to die of old age.
This was the law of nature itself.
Not the sign of someone dying after having their chakra drained to the extreme.
Of course, common sense in the shinobi world was not like this.
When something involved time, normal people would not think in that direction.
Even a pervert like Orochimaru would not think that way.
Even Kaguya Ren himself had never considered it.
Only a transmigrator who knew Kaguya Ōtsutsuki's abilities, through the relationship between Shikotsumyaku and the All-Killing Ash Bones, could make the connection to the power of time.
But even if Yoru alone had thought of this point, it would still be extremely difficult for him to get his hands on Kaguya Ren's corpse.
This was the body of a Kage-level powerhouse.
It also possessed a rare bloodline limit.
His head could be used to harvest intelligence.
His body could be used for bloodline limit experiments.
In both Konoha and Kumogakure, which valued bloodline limit research, it would be extremely important.
Yoru only needed to see the greed in Orochimaru and the Third Raikage's eyes to know how difficult it would be for him to interfere.
But he really wanted to interfere and take a share.
From Kaguya Gaiya, he had managed to obtain bone relics.
Then from this even stronger Kaguya Ren, there should be even better things.
Not to mention, before death, he might have touched the ability of the All-Killing Ash Bones.
No matter which power system one used, the power of time was the strongest ability.
None came second.
Too tempting.
But Yoru still rationally chose to give up.
Miwa Masayo couldn't help asking,
"Why give up, nya? Didn't you even do something under Orochimaru's hands, nya?"
Yoru answered helplessly,
"That involved luck. At the time, I brought you into the wind with me, and there truly wasn't a trace. But I still can't completely merge with the wind. I can only hold on for one breath."
"Who would have thought Orochimaru would be so cautious that he dragged it out for more than ten minutes? I almost couldn't hold on."
"If Ryō the Ice Release shinobi hadn't pressed him too hard and lured Orochimaru away, the two of us would have been exposed right in front of Orochimaru."
Miwa Masayo asked strangely,
"So what if you were exposed, nya? You're not Konoha's enemy. Can Orochimaru eat you, nya?"
"That wouldn't happen."
Yoru scratched his head and explained to Miwa Masayo,
"But Orochimaru is one of the Fourth Hokage candidates I've chosen to support. Before establishing a relatively stable alliance, I don't want him to become suspicious of me."
"The reputation of the Cold Lord Orochimaru being suspicious and cunning isn't some baseless slander. If this guy starts doubting me before our alliance relationship is confirmed, there will be trouble later."
Miwa Masayo suddenly became interested.
She asked curiously,
"Yoru, you said Orochimaru is one of the Fourth Hokage candidates. Does that mean there are other shinobi who can compare to him? I don't think Konoha has such a shinobi, nya."
"I also believe that inside Konoha Village, there is no shinobi who can stand shoulder to shoulder with Orochimaru."
"Nya?"
The tabby cat stared at Yoru with her big eyes.
Without saying anything, she expressed her confusion.
Yoru smiled and waved his hand.
"I'm not worried Orochimaru will fall in the war either."
"What I'm worried about is that Orochimaru will fight too well and gain too much prestige in Konoha Village. Then he'll suffer the same treatment as Hatake Sakumo."
"…He's Hiruzen Sarutobi's disciple! His closest, most beloved disciple, nya!"
"Orochimaru is indeed Hiruzen Sarutobi's favorite disciple, the disciple he is willing to entrust his legacy to."
"But Orochimaru threatens the Third Hokage's power."
"In the Third Hokage's eyes, that is an unforgivable mistake."
"The Third Hokage… isn't that Hiruzen Sarutobi, nya?"
"Yes. But not entirely."
"You humans are too complicated, nya. Just hearing this gives me a headache, nya."
"Haha. It's not that bad."
Just as the two sages were whispering to each other, Orochimaru's mouth suddenly produced Uchiha Yoru's name.
Both he and she shivered at the same time.
It turned out that the Third Raikage and Orochimaru were fighting over Kaguya Ren's corpse.
In only a few sentences, they skipped the stage of discussing reason and right or wrong.
The two were like players comparing the strength of their cards with words.
The Third Raikage snorted coldly.
"Orochimaru, are you abandoning reason?"
Orochimaru chuckled.
"Reason? I'm speaking the greatest reason in the shinobi world right now."
"Konoha has the most jonin present today, and the biggest fist."
"So this Shikotsumyaku corpse should belong to us."
The Third Raikage narrowed his eyes and retorted,
"Kumogakure has A and B. Even Konoha jonin are only one strike each."
"Kumogakure has the AB Combination. Konoha also has Ino-Shika-Chō combinations, and there's more than one group present."
"I have the perfect jinchūriki Blue B. You saw the Eight-Tails' power too. Killing all Konoha shinobi only requires one Tailed Beast Ball."
"Hehe. Konoha has Uchiha Yoru and the cat sage. This is a sage combination. Their Sage Art Fire Release may not compare to a Tailed Beast Ball, but wiping out Kumogakure shinobi is no problem."
Swish.
The gazes of Kumogakure shinobi and Konoha shinobi all gathered on Yoru.
But most of them focused on Miwa Masayo atop his head.
Yoru felt somewhat panicked under their stares.
I'm not. I didn't. Orochimaru, don't tell such truthful nonsense.
Miwa Masayo also panicked.
Fortunately, she and Yoru had plenty of experience with this. During study meetings, they had spent a long time being watched by the Uchiha and had long since trained themselves.
Although the pressure from jonin and Kage-level gazes was greater, they responded with their honed technique without the slightest flaw.
The two sages swept their gazes over every person present.
And carefully looked at their—
Foreheads.
As long as there was no direct meeting of gazes, they would not be affected by the other party's stare.
This indifferent gaze instead increased enormous pressure on the other side.
An unchanged, indifferent gaze was like a mirror.
How much pressure the watcher felt depended entirely on how heavy their own thoughts were.
In any case, Yoru himself did not know.
The Third Raikage stared fiercely for a while.
After confirming that he had not frightened anyone, he withdrew his gaze and spat.
"How do you plan to deal with these two fists of mine?"
"Hehe, Third Raikage-sama, you are indeed very powerful. But do you really think you can take everything by yourself?"
Orochimaru's voice became stern.
"Konoha Village is not some small shinobi village like Shimogakure."
"Your personal strength has not reached the level of the First Hokage!"
Before saying this, he had very subtly swept his gaze backward.
Several Konoha jonin who had cooperated with him for a long time immediately used Body Flicker and pounced toward Kaguya Ren's corpse.
But Kumogakure shinobi were not idle either.
They also rushed forward almost simultaneously.
Orochimaru finished speaking amid the fierce yet brief clash between jonin from both sides.
The timing was flawless, adding several times more persuasiveness.
After Orochimaru finished, he and the Third Raikage looked toward Kaguya Ren's corpse at the same time.
They saw a flame appear above the corpse.
Then the flame suddenly expanded into a fireball.
Miwa Masayo leapt out with elegant posture and landed steadily on the corpse.
Next, the cat sage waved her paw and struck the air.
Reverse summoning activated.
Along with a cloud of white smoke, Uchiha Yoru appeared.
Without the slightest politeness, he reached out and grabbed the corpse.
Then he used Body Flicker to dodge three Kumogakure jonin's ninja blades and returned to the Konoha shinobi group.
Miwa Masayo had already returned to the Konoha jonin formation through Flame Leap.
Using the time of her descent, she waited for her servant's return and landed steadily on her favorite shoulder.
The Third Raikage's fists clenched again.
He stared tightly at Uchiha Yoru.
There was no longer the slightest greed in his eyes.
Only dense killing intent.
Clearly, the Third Raikage already knew Kaguya Ren's corpse could not be taken back.
He was considering whether to risk killing this Konoha shinobi who came and went unpredictably.
Although he always placed the "strongest shield" on his lips, and the trump card he revealed was the "strongest spear," he knew very clearly in his heart that the foundation supporting his strength was speed.
Without enough speed, the Third Raikage would be kited to death.
What strongest Kage would he be fighting for then?
So after seeing Yoru and Miwa Masayo cooperate to perform spatial movement, he realized that this was the true limit of speed.
No matter how fast he ran, he could not be faster than a method that required no time.
Naturally, the Third Raikage developed killing intent.
But in the next moment, Orochimaru blocked his line of sight.
The Third Raikage noticed that on the other party's smiling face, those cold snake pupils flashed with sinister killing intent.
Clearly, Orochimaru had killing intent too.
But not toward the Third Raikage.
Toward this group of Kumogakure jonin.
Since the Konoha shinobi present were clearly stronger, there was a chance to wipe out the Kumogakure shinobi here.
Once this news reached Iwagakure, Tsuchikage Ōnoki would change his defensive policy and become aggressively offensive.
At that time, Kumogakure would formally go to war with Konoha in the south, while in the west they would have to defend against Iwagakure's attacks with all their strength.
Just thinking about that desperate situation gave one a headache.
Even if the Third Raikage returned from this battle unharmed, Kumogakure's decline would become unavoidable.
Even if he killed many Konoha jonin, with Konoha Village's foundation, it would not have much impact.
A loss of thirty jonin could be made up within half a month at most.
Not to mention, Orochimaru was here too.
How could the Third Raikage casually kill people?
Orochimaru finished calculating in his mind in an instant.
Naturally, he became tempted.
Although Konoha and Kumogakure would formally go to war because of it, Orochimaru felt it was very worthwhile.
Besides, declaring war did not mean Kumogakure would truly fight Konoha.
On the contrary, right now, the two sides had not declared war, and were even cooperating against Kirigakure shinobi.
But did that mean battles had not occurred between Kumogakure and Konoha shinobi?
Of course not.
The two sides fought every day.
And they fought fiercely.
At least according to the statistics, Konoha shinobi had more conflicts with Kumogakure shinobi than battles with Kirigakure shinobi.
After the Third Shinobi World War officially began, how could the boundary between war and peace be so clear?
Unless one side had its spine broken and had to constantly worry about being attacked at home, only then was it possible to seriously obey a ceasefire agreement.
When the Third Raikage saw Orochimaru's killing intent, he retreated without hesitation.
Killing enemies to eliminate hidden dangers—
How could that be more important than protecting his own elite force?
He waved his hand, making his son and subordinates retreat swiftly.
Then he, in turn, blocked Orochimaru's line of sight, carrying out a threatening obstruction against him.
Only after his subordinates had gone far did the Third Raikage slowly turn and leave.
Before leaving, he threw down one sentence fiercely.
"You are good, Orochimaru. You really are good."
Orochimaru chuckled and said nothing.
…
After the Land of Hot Water campaign, where Kumogakure, Kirigakure, and Konoha gathered, ended—
Kirigakure shinobi completely withdrew from the Land of Hot Water.
Kumogakure shinobi also silently retreated several hundred kilometers.
Kumogakure had not gained the greatest benefit in this battle, and they had exposed their true strength.
The Third Raikage did not hesitate to shrink his forces.
With these several hundred kilometers of land ceded, Kumogakure shinobi density greatly increased, while Konoha shinobi were greatly dispersed.
The situation in the Land of Hot Water stabilized once more.
As the only victor, Konoha occupied most of the Land of Hot Water.
According to Orochimaru's thinking, he did not want to occupy these lands at all.
He only wanted to maintain as much mobile force as possible in order to respond to any sudden situation.
But now, he had decided to compete for the position of Fourth Hokage.
When thinking, he had no choice but to consider Konoha Village's overall interests.
To boost Konoha's morale, he gritted his teeth and scattered the shinobi in his hands.
He weakened himself, forming a new balance with Kumogakure.
Orochimaru was very dissatisfied with this.
But for Konoha Village's villagers, this situation was an indispensable shot of strength to the heart.
For the overall benefit of Konoha Village, he gritted his teeth and sacrificed his advantage in the Land of Hot Water.
Sure enough, when news of the smooth progress in the Land of Hot Water returned to Konoha Village, the entire village was encouraged and overjoyed.
The villagers even spontaneously held a parade, announcing their excitement.
After the war began, Konoha Village had fought in every direction.
And from every direction, bad news came.
A group of old fellows returned in disgrace after defeat, but the shinobi who died because of them could never come back.
The large-scale deaths of Konoha shinobi brought endless grief to Konoha Village.
Especially since most of the dead were civilian shinobi.
Although it had not reached the level of every household wearing mourning white, among neighbors, there were always shinobi who had died.
The negative emotions of grief and pessimism could not be escaped.
Their impact on morale was not small.
The Third Hokage had worried about this for a long time, but there was nothing he could do.
He could only hope that good news would arrive from the front lines.
Now—
The news of victory finally arrived.
The shadow over Konoha Village vanished instantly.
His pressure also suddenly eased.
A relaxed smile appeared on his face.
Next, what he faced was a happy worry.
Should he continue supporting Orochimaru in the Land of Hot Water to pursue greater victory?
Or support Jiraiya in the Land of Rain to reverse the decline caused by being attacked by Sunagakure and Iwagakure together?
Of course, the sticky tug-of-war in the southern Land of Rivers was not within consideration.
The commander there was not one of his Third Hokage's people.
Victory might not even be better than defeat.
Thinking over this two-choice worry, Hiruzen Sarutobi unconsciously took the crystal ball from his drawer.
After stroking it, he began a leisure activity that had been interrupted for a long time.
As for his worries—
They were happy worries anyway.
Waiting a little did not matter.
…
After this battle ended, the most miserable side was naturally Kirigakure, which had lost the overwhelming majority of its shinobi.
Especially the Yuki clan, Hōzuki clan, and Kaguya clan, who had served as the main force.
Their strength sharply declined.
Among them, the Yuki clan suffered the worst.
After Ryō's death, the only remaining Kage-level shinobi of the Yuki clan was the Third Mizukage.
Ever since being wounded by Uchiha Madara, his injuries had never recovered.
When he heard the intelligence that Kirigakure's army had been completely wiped out, and that Ryō, the junior he had most favored, had also fallen on the battlefield, the Third Mizukage was overwhelmed by grief and rage.
He vomited blood repeatedly and collapsed unconscious on the spot.
The outbreak of the Third Mizukage's injuries triggered the ocular power bomb Uchiha Madara had buried long ago, directly tearing apart the Third Mizukage's consciousness.
That very night, he died.
His death was far too sudden.
He did not even leave behind half a sentence appointing the Fourth Mizukage.
This immediately detonated the greatest crisis in all of Kirigakure.
During wartime, the Kage of Kirigakure from the Land of Water—
The so-called strongest Third Mizukage—
Had been beaten inside his own home.
And no one in Kirigakure even knew who had done it.
Since Kirigakure was founded, it had never suffered such humiliation.
From the neutral faction led by Genji, to the Kaguya clan, Yuki clan, and Hōzuki clan, all felt as if their faces had swollen from the slap.
Every shinobi in Kirigakure was enraged.
United by common hatred, they swore to wash away the shame and avenge the Third Mizukage.
Not knowing who had done it did not matter.
In any case, it could only be shinobi from the other four Great Shinobi Villages.
Then they would just fight all of them once.
Driven by this rare mood of shared hatred, the three great clans and Genji issued joint orders.
The three great clans were forbidden from acting on their own.
Kirigakure's army had to gather together and fight under unified command.
Civilian shinobi also had to cooperate to the greatest possible extent.
Thus, Kirigakure shinobi who landed on the continent were no longer scattered across several countries.
Instead, led by the three great clans, they formed an enormous army of over ten thousand shinobi and launched an unprecedented attack on Konoha.
In the past two wars, Kirigakure had always fought with each of the three clans taking the lead separately, attacking their own targets.
The main theme was fragmentation.
Kirigakure clearly had many powerful shinobi, yet in war, they played the role of troublemakers and clowns.
No one truly took them seriously.
But this time, Kirigakure gathered a vast army and acted in unity.
It actually forced Kumogakure and Konoha to treat them cautiously.
Even Konoha, after suffering Kirigakure's attack, had to avoid their edge and retreat several hundred kilometers in one go.
At that time, Kirigakure shinobi were high-spirited and full of confidence.
They were awe-inspiring in all directions.
When the news returned to Kirigakure, morale also surged.
They finally confirmed that a grand army was stronger than individual great clans fighting alone.
But now, the wind and clouds suddenly changed.
An army of over ten thousand shinobi had been crushed.
Along the way, they lost over seven thousand shinobi.
Most importantly, the three great clans were the primary hunting targets of Kumogakure and Konoha.
Their casualty ratio actually reached ninety percent.
Kirigakure's backbone was about to snap.
This blood feud was simply too great.
Compared to it, even the death of the Third Mizukage did not count for much.
Kirigakure had to take revenge.
But before revenge, they had to first choose a new leader—
Someone to serve as the Fourth Mizukage.
Only then could they request military funds from the Daimyō of the Land of Water, distribute supplies, and make up for the terrifying losses from this defeat.
But who would become the Fourth Mizukage?
The grand and vigorous struggle for the Fourth Mizukage began.
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