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TUS Chapter 137: Prelude to Chaos
🕑 Added 2024-06-21 16:49:15 +0000 UTCKakuzu and Rasa soon received a secret message. After a brief discussion, Rasa entered the meeting chamber of the Sunagakure Council.
Looking at the four imposing statues of the Kazekage, an indecipherable expression crossed Rasa's face.
Before, this would have filled him with pride. Because he was one of them. Now, having been controlled by Kotoamatsukami and made loyal to Funan, he only wanted to see Funan's statue here.
"You've arrived!" When Rasa arrived, the elders sitting around the round table immediately stood up.
The Rasa of now was not the same as before.
Recently, thanks to a large amount of money, Rasa had not only completely consolidated his position, but also enjoyed extraordinary popularity in Suna.
"You should have received the plan!" Rasa looked at the people present calmly and said: "Then act as soon as possible!"
An elder hesitated and said: "Do we really want to act?"
Rasa's cold eyes fell on him.
The elder shuddered.
These elders are afraid. Because recently, three elders suddenly died.
Not only did Rasa have more money and prestige, but he had also become ruthless.
There is a hint of madness in his behavior.
If he made a decision and someone dared to oppose it, he would find a way to kill them.
"I will repeat it once more." Rasa said coldly. "This action is for the sake of all of Sunagakure."
"You should all know what Konoha is doing."
"We've had many missions taken away from us, we've lost money. If we don't force Konoha to back down, we'll have to lay off our own shinobi. Do I need to explain in detail what it means to lose our shinobi?"
The elders were silent. Including Pakura.
"Now is the time!" Rasa said loudly. "Konoha is facing Iwagakure and Kumogakure, their strength is scattered. If we don't act now, when Konoha reaches an agreement with Iwagakure and Kumogakure, we will have to face Konoha alone."
"Don't tell me that the arrival of old man Kakuzu and money solves everything. Ridiculous!"
"What Konoha did to us is an invasion, what we need to do is to fight back!"
"It's not a question of needing something or not, it's a question of not allowing them to do whatever they want. Understood?"
"What belongs to us, no one can take it away!"
There was no denying that after his impassioned speech, the elders felt motivated. They stood up and shouted that Konoha would pay.
...
"This is the mission that has been assigned to you!" Kakuzu looked grim, staring at the shinobi in front of him, as if he was going to kill someone.
In fact, if these shinobi in front of him were not sensible and obedient, he would really kill them.
Because they are missing-nin.
If ruthless means aren't used to deal with the missing-nin, then just wait to be swallowed up!
To handle the missing-nin, only two things were needed: a large enough profit and cruel enough methods.
Kakuzu, who was once the strongest black market shinobi, really grasped these standards too accurately.
A group of missing-nin were honest under his command.
"Is there a problem with the mission?"
"Don't worry, Kakuzu-sama!"
Kakuzu was satisfied and began to silently make calculations.
Funan's contact with Kakuzu was not very frequent, so his Mangekyo technique could not influence Kakuzu too much. Therefore, in order for Funan to get Kakuzu to work for him, he had to satisfy his wishes.
Kakuzu was easy to please: he just wanted to make money. This time, Funan wanted Kakuzu to cause trouble for Hiruzen, and the pretext was to expand business. Because of the deep influence of the Sarutobi clan in Konoha, it was impossible for them to expand their business further, therefore it was necessary to decrease the influence of the Sarutobi clan.
Kakuzu immediately agreed. He even took a large amount of money to hire several missing-nin.
The reasoning was obvious.
Only by hiring the missing-nin could Sarutobi Hiruzen be more effectively beaten. Relying only on the Suna shinobi? Hehe...
Although Kakuzu was pained to spend so much money at first, once he succeeded, there would be plenty of money in the future. Konoha, being the strongest of the five great shinobi villages, with a population of around 100 thousand inhabitants, how could there not be business opportunities there?
...
Before leaving, Torifu approached and said to Hiruzen: "If the opportunity arises, you can start a battle."
"Sunagakure has been very restless lately. I'm worried. Why don't we use force to teach them a lesson and make them understand that they should not challenge Konoha?"
Danzo supported these words enthusiastically.
Hiruzen simply thought that Torifu was talking nonsense.
It's easy for you to say! What if it triggers a shinobi world war?
From the beginning, Hiruzen made up his mind that he must not start a war, and he must use dialogue to resolve this dispute.
Konoha is a big family, why bother to argue with refugees like Sunagakure?
If it doesn't work, Konoha can take a small step back.
With this mindset, Hiruzen led the shinobi army towards the border, with Danzo at his side.
"I want to see the Fourth Kazekage, Rasa."
After arriving, Hiruzen immediately sent an emissary.
By this time, not only Rasa had arrived at the border, but Pakura and Kakuzu had as well. All three of them were prepared to fight. If they had the chance, they wanted to kill Hiruzen and Danzo, or at least one of them.
After hearing the message from the envoy, Rasa couldn't help but look at Pakura.
"Let's execute the plan." Rasa said.
Pakura, with a cold expression, stared at Rasa.
Rasa's face was calm, and he said: "That is also Funan-sama's wish."
Pakura gritted her teeth and said: "You, very good, all good!"
That same day, Sunagakure replied to Konoha: "Rasa-sama is not at the front. The person in charge here is Pakura-sama. She agrees to meet with you."
"Pakura? Sure!" Hiruzen was not surprised by that.
The only strange thing was that Rasa trusted Pakura to lead the army. When clearly their relationship was not exactly friendly.
The emissary added: "The meeting place will be at Stone Peak."
“Huh?” Hiruzen was surprised. Stone Peak was very close to the border and closer to Konoha's camp than to the Sunagakure army. If something were to happen, Konoha's troops would be able to arrive faster.
Why would Pakura choose that place? Could it be that she also wanted to avoid war? It was possible.
"I understand." Hiruzen nodded, smiling. "I have accepted Sunagakure's goodwill. I hope we can resolve this peacefully."
"Goodwill?" The emissary smiled. "It is good that you understand. We await your arrival."
...
As soon as the messenger left, Danzo came in a hurry.
"Hiruzen, do you really believe in Sunagakure?" Hiruzen rolled his eyes when he heard that.
"I'm not stupid!" Hiruzen said calmly: "Hyuga shinobi and sensory shinobi will go first. By the way, notify the shinobi army to support us at any time."
"As long as you understand." Danzo nodded in satisfaction. Although he despised Hiruzen's indecisiveness, he understood that Hiruzen was crucial now. Without him, they would have little chance against the Uchiha.
The reason was simple: the Sarutobi clan was still the strongest, with almost three thousand shinobi, even after the recent losses.
Thinking of this, Danzo felt a mixture of anger and frustration towards Hiruzen. Indecisive! If he had acted earlier, we would have eliminated the Uchiha without much trouble.
…
The day of negotiation soon arrived.
Hiruzen was indeed careful.
Only after confirming that there were no problems did he approach the meeting point.
Even so, Hiruzen brought along many elite shinobi. Before setting out, he also gave Danzo clear instructions: if he saw his signal, he was to bring troops to support him immediately.
Danzo accepted without hesitation.
As Pakura and Hiruzen slowly walked into the temporary negotiation table, the negotiation officially began.
There were a large number of shinobi on guard outside. Although the inner circle was simple, the atmosphere was extremely tense.
Pakura's demands were simple: mission contracts belonging to Sunagakure must not be touched by Konoha. Furthermore, Konoha must transfer some of its missions to Sunagakure as compensation.
Pakura expected Hiruzen to immediately refuse. To her surprise, he said he would think about it.
Oh my god! Pakura was stunned! You can even consider this? Under these conditions, if you don't hit me directly, I'd be satisfied, and now you say you're going to consider it?
No, this guy is not preparing for war, right? So, he wants to attack me first?
Understanding this, Pakura immediately went on guard and looked at her sensor shinobi.
The sensor shinobi was surprised, then shook his head, indicating that he had found nothing.
Pakura was suspicious again. What was going on?
Who knew that after a period of thinking, Hiruzen gave new conditions.
Missions belonging to Sunagakure could be transferred, but Konoha missions could not be touched.
However, Konoha could compensate Sunagakure with a sum of money.
Pakura was confused. Are you serious? You actually gave me such an answer, what on earth are you thinking?
But Pakura had an impulse. Promise him! Promise this old man!
With such conditions, why should they implement that plan?
But she had no choice.
Pakura knew that from the beginning, she was destined to be sacrificed because she became that man's woman. That man would not allow her to betray him and become his enemy.
Pakura sighed silently and said calmly: “500 million ryo. If Konoha agrees to give us that compensation, we will accept and Sunagakure will withdraw its troops immediately.”
"This..." Hiruzen was stunned.
Although he was prepared for the other party to ask for a high price, this number still made him feel a pain.
“That’s absolutely impossible!” Hiruzen denied flatly, glaring at Pakura angrily. “Do you really want to negotiate, Pakura? You seem to be provoking me. 500 million ryo? How dare you ask for that amount?”
Not even in his dreams, Hiruzen's limit was 50 million ryo.
It should be noted that a top-tier S-level mission contract is only worth 5 million ryo. And a normal mission costs only 1 million ryo. Also, keep in mind that missions at this level are those related to the fate of a nation. How many of these missions can there be?
“Are you not willing to accept?” Pakura raised her eyebrows and said coldly: “Then we shall fight! I want to see if Konoha has the courage to take on Kumogakure, Iwagakure, and us, Sunagakure, at the same time.”
Hiruzen’s face darkened and he said coldly: “Konoha is not afraid of fighting anyone, you are just a bunch of losers!”
"Okay!" Pakura stood up and said: "Then wait!"
After that, she turned around and left with her subordinates.
Hiruzen frowned.
“Pakura!” Hiruzen couldn’t help but call out to her. “Does Sunagakure really want to fight? We can resolve this conflict with dialogue, we don’t need to plunge our villages into war.”
But Pakura continued on without stopping.
Hiruzen stared at her back and remained silent.
[Swoosh!]
[Bang!]
At that moment, a signal shot up into the sky.
"Is there a sneak attack?" Hiruzen's eyes became extremely sharp.
But the messenger's response chilled him completely.
“There is an attack, but it is not against us.”
"Then..."
“Main camp! Our main camp is under attack!”
