"Chakra Cannon? What is that?" Onoki asked, hearing the bizarre name for the first time with a look of deep confusion.
Ay briefly explained the terrible mechanics and destructive power of the massive weapon.
Upon hearing that even something as far away as the moon could be blasted out of the sky with a single shot, Onoki immediately cursed loudly, "Ay, you Kumo lot actually researched something this dangerous? What are you planning?"
After hearing about the cannon's raw power, Onoki was sweating bullets. After all, Kumogakure and Iwagakure were mortal enemies. Not only did their vast lands border each other, but the Third Raikage had also died at Iwagakure's hands.
Which village do you think they would target first?
Possessing the Two-Tails and Eight-Tails wasn't enough for them, they had to develop a terrifying weapon like that. Kumogakure's territory had been continuously expanding, their violent ambition was laid bare for all to see.
If 'Kashin Koji' hadn't caused this timely scene, it was highly likely that within a few years, none of the Four Great Villages would be a match for them.
"We only researched the cannon to defend against meteorites falling from outer space," Ay explained quickly, though his excuse sounded incredibly flimsy no matter how you looked at it.
Defend against meteorites? Using a weapon with world-ending power just to stop a rock that shows up once every few decades? Who was he kidding?
No wonder the man called for the summit, his entire village had practically been emptied out.
"The absolute priority is to find this organization," Rasa spoke up again, commanding attention. "If we continue to let them run free with that weapon, even we will be in mortal danger."
Between the missing beasts and this so-called cannon, it sounded terrifying. If he hadn't confirmed it telepathically just moments ago, he would have thought this entire crisis was something Naruto had cooked up himself.
"The glaring problem is we don't know where they are at all." Onoki gave a dry, mocking chuckle. "Even Ay doesn't have any solid intel on them. There's no way to track them down, is there?"
"Since their goal is the beasts, they will definitely make a aggressive move again. We just need to make complete preparations before then and wait for them to reveal themselves."
What Onoki said made some logical sense, but his true goal was to take the prime opportunity to weaken Kumo. The weapon made Onoki feel that Kumo was far too dangerous, they had to be violently suppressed.
By the time this group struck again, Killer Bee would likely be long dead. Leaving aside whether they could retrieve the beast, even raising a new vessel would take years. This would significantly deplete Kumo's fighting strength.
In the end, Onoki realized the severity of the situation, but he didn't take it nearly seriously enough. After all, the enemy was just Madara's disciple, not Madara himself. The one captured was Kumo's problem, not Iwagakure's.
In his cynical view, it would be best if 'Kashin Koji' and Kumogakure utterly destroyed each other.
"No. My brother is waiting for us to rescue him," Ay flatly refused, then glared furiously at the old man. He was clearly extremely dissatisfied with Onoki's behavior of getting the intel and then immediately burning the bridge.
Onoki spread his wrinkled hands helplessly. "But we can't find them right now, so what can we do?"
"We can't just run around the continent like headless chickens, can we, Ay?" He didn't forget to take a smug dig at the end.
"Without their location, we can only hold our ground and wait for now," Mei agreed with Onoki.
Searching the whole world blindly made no sense. They were ninjas, they had to take on paid missions to make a living. Their villages had to eat.
Ay smashed his heavy fist into the table, *bang*, glaring murderously at the others. "Bastards! You don't understand their danger at all, nor do you comprehend the threat of the cannon."
Table: HP -9001
Rasa looked calmly at the furious man. "Then do you have a better plan, Ay?"
As if he had been waiting for those exact words, Ay immediately stood up. "My proposal is that we Five Great Villages form a strict alliance and establish the Allied Shinobi Forces."
"We must hunt down this pack of trash together."
"Impossible!"
The Wind, Earth, and Water Kage spoke simultaneously, without a second thought.
The reason the villages were able to work together in the original timeline was that 'all' their vessels had been captured. They shared a mutual enemy, the Akatsuki, even though the organization was already decimated by then.
But right now, only Kumogakure had been attacked. What did that have to do with the remaining four? Why should they listen to Kumo about forming a massive alliance?
Setting aside the logistical nightmare of mobilizing supplies, there was a critical, unavoidable issue: who would the Allied Shinobi Forces actually listen to? One must remember, the Five Kage held equal political rank.
In the original plot, it was because there were no Kumo-nins in the Akatsuki, and the other four had varying degrees of shameful contact with the mercenaries. But the situation was entirely different now.
Moreover, if it weren't for Obito trying to be a show-off by crashing the summit, claiming to be Madara, and directly provoking the Kage, giving them a massive diplomatic assist in the process, he wouldn't have forced them to unite.
Given how every one of the leaders was currently calculating their own selfish schemes, it would be very hard to form an alliance. At the end of the day, the Five Great Villages were nothing but loose sand.
If Obito had simply chosen to turn a blind eye, used the reanimated vessels to cause chaos, and used White Zetsu to secretly sow discord, waiting for them to fight amongst themselves before crushing them one by one, he would have unified the ninja world long ago. Many held old grudges, this wasn't a fairy tale, and hatred doesn't vanish easily.
Furthermore, if it weren't for Kabuto joining him and bringing along the high-end combat power of the Impure World Reincarnation army... Did he really think he could defeat the world with just one hundred thousand White Zetsus? Was he trying to deliberately squander Madara's resources?
He truly lived up to his title of deadlast, he never used his brain to think things through clearly.
"Nine-tails brat, what does your Konoha have to say?"
Ay turned his desperate gaze toward Naruto, the only one who hadn't spoken yet, hoping he would agree with his radical point of view. For him, even just pulling Konoha in would be enough to start.
Unless some sudden incident occurred right now that could twist the villages into a single rope, the alliance was out of the question.
"I have no interest in this Allied Shinobi Forces nonsense."
Naruto was the first to bluntly state his position. Ay started glaring at him with furious scowl.
"Listening for so long, I haven't heard any genuinely useful information." Naruto finished speaking and turned his sharp gaze toward Kiri delegation, or rather, toward Ao amidst them.
"If I'm not mistaken, Ao's right eye is a Byakugan, isn't it?"
"Although I don't know where you stole it from."
"The Byakugan belongs to Konoha."
"Please, Ao, return the property to its rightful owner, and gouge out that eye as an apology."
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