Samui's face looked grim. Even though Kumogakure was the strongest military force in the Land of Lightning, it wasn't without weaknesses. In fact, compared to the other hidden villages, Kumogakure was even more constrained by its daimyo's court.
After all, Kumogakure needed too much.
Not just in terms of ninjutsu development—even its technological development had never fallen behind.
That meant Kumogakure needed a huge amount of money every year, and that money mostly came from the daimyo's court. Which, in turn, made Kumogakure heavily dependent on it.
"So, are we really going to start a war?"
"But if Kumogakure fights Konoha alone, that won't benefit us at all. It'll just let the Land of Earth, the Land of Wind, and maybe even the Land of Water profit from it instead."
Darui frowned. He clearly didn't support going to war with Konoha.
If the benefits were large enough, then fine—war was war. But starting a war with Konoha just because one daimyo was scared, no matter how you looked at it, was not a wise decision.
"Maybe we can do the same thing we did back then with the Byakugan incident and test Konoha first?"
The Fourth Raikage A looked at Darui and Samui. Back then, Kumogakure had clearly been the party in the wrong, yet they had still managed to force Konoha into killing Hyuga Hizashi. Ever since then, A had unconsciously wanted to pull off the same move again.
"According to the intelligence from our spies in the Land of Fire, Konoha has no real control over Uchiha Chizumi. The chances of forcing Konoha to sacrifice him are basically nonexistent."
"And now that the Third Hokage is stepping down, the incoming Hokage Tsunade may not be as weak as Hiruzen Sarutobi was."
Samui shook her head. Honestly, she had never expected that the Hyuga incident from a few years ago would actually succeed.
Kumogakure had clearly been at fault, yet all they did was issue fierce condemnation and put on the posture of preparing for war—and Konoha actually gave in.
"Can we pull the Land of Earth in with us?"
"The pressure they're facing in Iwagakure shouldn't be any lighter than what Kumogakure is dealing with."
"Onoki keeps that many ninja in Iwagakure, and every single one of them costs money. If the daimyo's court cuts off their funds too, then maybe it can force Iwagakure into attacking Konoha as well."
The Fourth Raikage A nodded. He had never fought Tsunade before, but he felt pretty sure that there wouldn't be another Hokage in the world like Hiruzen Sarutobi—a little pressure, and the man gave in. That feeling had been too good.
"We can have the daimyo send a letter to the Land of Earth's daimyo and arrange a joint attack on Konoha."
After thinking for a while, Darui finally agreed with that plan.
After all, Kumogakure didn't really seem to have many other options. Their dependence on the daimyo's court was simply too great.
"What about the Land of Wind?"
"Should we have the daimyo send a letter to the daimyo of the Land of Wind too?"
Killer B had been sitting there listening in boredom the whole time. From beginning to end, he hadn't heard his brother or Samui say much about the Land of Wind, so he finally decided to use his brain and help fill in the gaps.
But neither the Fourth Raikage A nor Samui nor Darui paid any attention to B's innocent suggestion.
If there was one hidden village in the entire shinobi world that relied the least on its daimyo's court—maybe even outright didn't care about it at all—it was probably Sunagakure.
After all, when the leader of an entire hidden village had to go pan for gold himself, how much loyalty could anyone realistically expect Suna to have toward the Wind Daimyo's court?
Honestly, the fact that Sunagakure still called the man "Daimyo" at all already counted as respect.
The Land of Lightning was now moving rapidly toward a war plan against Konoha.
Meanwhile, over in Iwagakure, Onoki stared at the report that had just reached him and widened his eyes in disbelief.
"That's impossible!"
"How could some Uchiha brat create a brand-new kekkei tōta?!"
Onoki's first instinct was that the intelligence agent had made the whole thing up. He himself was a user of kekkei tōta—who in the entire shinobi world understood better than he did just how difficult it was to master one?
Take Deidara, for example. His C4 Karura looked like it could destroy everything at the microscopic level, but that was only because after Deidara left Iwagakure, he had no one left to guide him and had to feel out his own path.
As far as Onoki knew, mastering Dust Release required a shinobi to fuse two kekkei genkai together at the microscopic level. If anything went wrong in that process, the shinobi training it could erase themselves.
"This probably isn't fake intelligence. According to our spies elsewhere in the Land of Fire, half the country saw a second sun rise over Konoha this morning."
"The Uchiha clan has always specialized in Fire Release. They may have been researching the power of a kekkei tōta for years without anyone else knowing."
Kitsuchi confirmed that the report was genuine, while Onoki's expression grew darker and darker.
"Go drag Deidara over here. I'm personally training him today."
Onoki had clearly made up his mind.
A kekkei tōta had once been something only Iwagakure possessed. Now Konoha had produced a second one. And thinking about his own age, Onoki decided it was time to put even more pressure on Deidara.
"BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!"
And just a short time after Onoki finished speaking, a series of massive explosions erupted in the distance outside Iwagakure.
Along with the explosions came a wild, arrogant voice.
"Come witness my art!"
Another burst of violent explosions followed, and by that point, Onoki and the others no longer needed anyone to tell them what was happening.
The enemy had already reached Iwagakure's doorstep.
As Onoki and Kitsuchi stepped out of the Tsuchikage building, they immediately saw the Deva Path of Pain floating in the sky.
Under the Deva Path's gaze, Konan was locked in fierce combat with Deidara.
One controlled explosive clay, the other paper bombs. For a time, all of Iwagakure was filled with the sound of detonations.
"The Akatsuki?!"
Seeing the black cloak with red clouds on the Deva Path, Onoki froze for a moment before recognizing exactly who they were.
"They actually dare attack Iwagakure? Has the Akatsuki completely stopped caring about their arrangement with us?"
Using the Lightweight Rock Technique, Onoki floated up into the air and faced off against the Deva Path directly.
"Arrangement?"
"We of the Akatsuki already did what we were supposed to do. It's Iwagakure that refused to pay the rest of the money."
"Old man, do you really think there's still any basis left for cooperation between the Akatsuki and Iwagakure?"
On the other side of the battlefield, Kakuzu glared viciously at Onoki. In terms of raw hatred, Onoki now ranked even higher in Kakuzu's eyes than Uchiha Chizumi did.
After all, Uchiha Chizumi had only killed one rookie who had barely joined the Akatsuki.
But Iwagakure? Iwagakure had straight-up refused to pay.