Uchiha Chapter 68: The Meeting
Iwagakure
Bang!
"I never imagined Konoha could still produce such an outstanding talent. Could the heavens really be helping Konoha?"
Ōnoki slammed his hand onto the table.
Crack!
He jerked violently, and a sharp pop came from his lower back.
He immediately clutched his waist, cold sweat trickling down from beneath his large, red nose.
"Lord Tsuchikage, are you all right?" Akatsuchi asked.
Akatsuchi was a tall, heavily built man with a round face and a broad, slightly plump frame. Even in the sweltering heat of Iwagakure, he still wore a yellow scarf around his neck.
Ōnoki supported his back with one hand.
"What's wrong with me? My back's just a little uncomfortable."
Then he looked at Akatsuchi.
"Akatsuchi, why does Konoha always manage to produce so many talented people?"
"The Land of Fire is naturally richer in resources than our Land of Earth. With the resources available to us, we've already developed Iwagakure to its current level. That's an achievement that even Konoha's Hokage should be proud of."
"Haha. You really are far-sighted."
Ōnoki chuckled.
"Having you as both my bodyguard and secretary certainly isn't a waste."
Akatsuchi frowned.
"But how should we deal with this new Uchiha? He's a genius. Shouldn't we treat him as a threat on the same level as the Third Raikage?"
Smack!
Ōnoki shot into the air and hovered directly above Akatsuchi before smacking him on the head.
"You're wasting resources!"
He glared down at him.
"He's only a genius. If he were the Hokage of Konoha, that would be different. But we don't have enough manpower to dedicate an entire force to targeting a single person."
The previous great battle against the Third Raikage had inflicted enormous losses on Iwagakure.
That was precisely why they could no longer afford to commit such a massive number of troops simply to deal with one individual.
"All right."
Akatsuchi nodded.
"But according to the intelligence, there's a good chance he'll enter our territory from the Kirigakure battlefield. We need to be prepared."
"Don't worry."
Ōnoki snorted coldly.
"If that brat dares to come here, I'll personally show him the strength of Iwagakure."
He didn't take Gōenji seriously at all.
In his eyes, the boy was still just a brat.
Kumogakure
"Hahaha! Impressive. Someone actually managed to kill a Tailed Beast with a single move. He's far stronger than my late father was."
The Fourth Raikage looked at the intelligence report in his hand, a faint smile appearing at the corner of his mouth.
Darui, standing beside him, was speechless.
"Lord Raikage, an opponent like that really is troublesome. Couldn't you at least say something encouraging to boost everyone's morale?"
"I've met him before."
The Fourth Raikage stood up and walked toward the window of the Raikage's office.
"I've encountered him personally. He's certainly a genius, but compared with Minato Namikaze, he's still a step behind."
He stood before the window and looked out at the village.
As the Fourth Raikage, he didn't rely solely on brute strength.
Kumogakure also possessed the means to eliminate a Tailed Beast in a single attack.
In fact, there were quite a few shinobi in the world capable of accomplishing something similar.
But Tailed Beasts were extremely valuable assets on the battlefield. They couldn't simply be destroyed whenever they appeared.
Furthermore, during a war, a shinobi with overwhelming single-target destructive power wasn't necessarily as useful as someone with extraordinary instantaneous mobility, such as Minato Namikaze.
Darui walked over and stood beside him.
"By the way, where's B?"
"Where did Killer B run off to?"
"He's probably training."
The Fourth Raikage glanced at him.
"His synchronization with the Eight-Tails has improved again recently. He's currently training something new."
The Kirigakure Front
"Proceed to Iwagakure and rendezvous with the forces stationed there. Afterward, await your mission assignment!"
Hearing his new orders, Gōenji sighed.
The war was starting again.
Day after day, the fighting continued.
When is this war finally going to end?
He couldn't truly devote himself to improving his ninjutsu.
According to the timeline, there were only a few months left before the Battle of the Kannabi Bridge.
And when that happened, everything would descend into chaos once again.
Fighting every single day left Gōenji mentally and physically exhausted.
But that day would come soon.
In another year or two, the Third Shinobi World War would end.
Even if the war didn't end by then, Gōenji was confident that he would have become one of the strongest shinobi in the world.
At present, his offensive power was already among the strongest in the shinobi world.
In the future, however, he would eventually master every aspect of combat—mobility, endurance, and defense.
Once that happened, he could overwhelm his enemies through sheer, absolute power.
"Fire Release: Chakra Mode has already made some progress."
Gōenji's eyes narrowed thoughtfully.
"When the time is right, I'll be able to develop the complete Blade of the Rising Sun. That'll be much more convenient."
One-Sword Cremation was essentially a single-use ninjutsu.
It released nearly all the Chakra within his body in a single burst.
It was essentially a desperate, all-or-nothing forbidden technique that could only be used once.
The Blade of the Rising Sun was different.
It would compress extremely high-temperature Fire Release onto the blade and allow him to release it continuously.
Its temperature would be more than twice as high as that of One-Sword Cremation.
With every swing, he could kill an enemy.
No ordinary shinobi would be able to withstand it.
They would have no choice but to evade or rely on some special ninjutsu.
Of course, Gōenji didn't think that would make him invincible.
There were still countless Kekkei Genkai users in the world.
What if someone possessed a technique capable of reflecting ninjutsu?
Or some suicidal technique that killed both sides?
He would be finished too.
And there were even more extreme examples.
Several years ago, the leader of the Tsuchigumo Clan had unleashed the Furious Buddha Technique, directly destroying an entire village.
If Gōenji didn't possess a defensive or teleportation technique, he would die just as easily.
After all, even Pain's Shinra Tensei hadn't been enough to completely destroy Konoha.
Yet a character who had barely appeared outside the background lore had possessed a technique powerful enough to annihilate an entire village.
According to the intelligence Gōenji had gathered, that person's attack range had also been enormous.
At the very least, it had covered roughly two-thirds of Konoha's total area.
Not long afterward, following Konoha's orders, Gōenji arrived alone at the Iwagakure battlefield.
Once Hayama Shirakumo and Shisui completed their missions, they were naturally assigned to other operations.
After all, they were jōnin and squad leaders, not disposable genin.
On this new battlefield, Gōenji met several new comrades.
Eventually, he also met Sarutobi Shinnosuke, the eldest son of Hiruzen Sarutobi.
Shinnosuke was quite handsome.
Unlike Asuma, he didn't have a large beard. Instead, he had only a small, pointed beard, somewhat similar to Hiruzen's, though darker in color and less dense.
"Well done, kid!"
Shinnosuke burst into laughter when he saw Gōenji.
"Outstanding! You actually killed a Tailed Beast with a single move. You didn't disgrace Konoha's name. With you here this time, our mission will be much easier."
Several other high-ranking shinobi were gathered around them as well.
Nara Shikaku.
Yamanaka Inoichi.
Minato Namikaze.
When Minato saw Gōenji, he gave him a friendly smile.
"What's the situation like now?" Gōenji asked.
He had already been here for several days.
Most of that time had been spent familiarizing himself with the battlefield, studying the various intelligence reports, and preparing for the missions to come.
Minato spoke first.
"Iwagakure's fighting strength is extremely formidable. We need to come up with a new strategy to delay their forces and slowly wear them down."
He paused.
"We can't be too aggressive. Konoha is facing too many enemies at the moment."
Shikaku nodded.
"That's right. At this rate, I'm afraid we won't be able to hold out much longer. We can only delay them for a while. We need to come up with a better solution."
Iwagakure's strength was actually so great that it had forced so many powerful figures into such a difficult position.
They had even been forced to hold a meeting simply to figure out how to buy time instead of trying to drive Iwagakure back.
This was something he hadn't seen in the original story.
However, he was also able to infer something from it.
In the original story, Konoha had once been pushed to the brink by the other great shinobi forces.
That was the Battle of the Kannabi Bridge.
If Konoha hadn't managed to repel and suppress its enemies beforehand, how else could the other villages have managed to push their forces all the way to Konoha's doorstep?