Under the watchful eyes of every shinobi in the base, Danzo walked at the front, leading Dan Kato and the Root operatives toward the main gate.
Outside the iron gate, dozens of Sunagakure shinobi had gathered. Several of the village's senior figures stood at the front of the crowd.
Danzo looked at them coldly.
"Are you trying to start a war with Konoha?"
Even with so many Sunagakure shinobi standing before him, Danzo showed no fear.
As long as Chiyo remained on his side and did not interfere, he was confident he could deal with everyone outside the gate by himself.
Danzo was still in his prime.
A few dozen shinobi were not enough to frighten him.
"Danzo, two people connected to the recent incident disappeared tonight," said a Sunagakure jonin standing at the front. "We suspect that Konoha shinobi abducted them."
Instead of becoming angry, Danzo gave a faint smile.
"So you want to search the base?"
"That's right," the jonin replied. "Open the gate and let us search it again."
Danzo's smile disappeared.
A cold killing intent spread from his body.
"This base belongs to Konoha. If Sunagakure wants to search it, then have your Kazekage come and speak to me."
He stared directly at the jonin.
"As for you, you are only a jonin. Get out of my sight."
"You—!"
The Sunagakure jonin's face twisted in anger after being humiliated in front of his comrades.
The shinobi behind him also became restless.
The jonin noticed their growing anger and secretly smiled.
Elder Iwatani had given him one task that night: stir up the conflict between Sunagakure and Konoha.
The bigger the disturbance became, the better.
As one of the hardliners among Sunagakure's younger generation, he already hated Konoha for killing the Third Kazekage.
He had accepted Elder Iwatani's order without hesitation.
Sunagakure's revival will begin tonight.
And I will be the one who starts it.
"So this is how Konoha treats Sunagakure?" the jonin shouted. "Do you see us as allies, or do you see us as your servants?"
"I already told you," Danzo replied. "Have your Kazekage speak to me."
He had no interest in arguing with a fool who was clearly being used by someone else.
"Open the gate!"
When Danzo ignored him, the jonin raised his right hand and shouted.
The Sunagakure shinobi behind him followed.
"Open the gate!"
"Open the gate!"
"Open the gate!"
"Elder Danzo," Dan Kato said quietly from beside him. "Shouldn't we calm them down before this gets worse?"
"There is no need," Danzo answered coldly.
Chiyo wanted to use this chance to deal with her political enemies inside Sunagakure.
Danzo had already agreed to cooperate with her.
He intended to remain firm and see how many people hiding behind this incident would reveal themselves.
"Open the gate!"
The shouting continued.
Several Sunagakure shinobi finally lost their patience. They rushed forward and kicked the iron-barred gate, bending part of it inward.
"Danzo-sama," Dan called again, his voice filled with concern.
Danzo did not answer.
He quickly formed hand seals.
He did not want to cause too many deaths, so he avoided using a powerful Wind Release technique.
"Wind Release: Gale Palm!"
Danzo brought his hands together.
A powerful gust of wind burst forward, slamming into the gate and the Sunagakure shinobi outside it.
The iron bars shook violently.
Several weaker shinobi were blown off their feet and thrown onto the ground.
When the wind died down, only around half of the Sunagakure shinobi were still standing.
"You bastard, Danzo!"
The jonin who had started the trouble drew a kunai from his thigh pouch.
The moment he moved, two Root shinobi stepped forward and stood in front of Danzo.
The tension between both sides rose at once.
One wrong move would be enough to start a battle between Konoha and Sunagakure.
Not far from the Konoha base, Elder Iwatani stood on a sand dune with three of his trusted subordinates.
A pleased smile appeared on his face.
He had not expected his plan to work so easily.
So this is Konoha's so-called Darkness of the Shinobi?
He walked straight into the trap.
What pleased Iwatani even more was that Chiyo had been delayed by something and had still not arrived.
Everything is going my way.
From that night onward, the alliance between Sunagakure and Konoha would be finished.
Once the anger of the village had been stirred up, even Chiyo and Ebizo would not be able to calm everyone down.
They would no longer be able to force Sunagakure to keep bowing its head to Konoha.
Under his plan, Sunagakure would finally stand on its own again.
As for Konoha's revenge after the alliance ended, Iwatani was not worried.
He had already found stronger allies.
If the Lands of Wind, Earth, Lightning, and Water joined forces, what could Konoha do alone?
And what about Shimura Kizaru, Konoha's Golden Flash, the man people called the new God of Shinobi?
Could one man stop an army of tens of thousands?
No matter how strong he was, he could not fight four great nations by himself.
Thinking about it made Elder Iwatani even more excited.
Come on.
Fight.
Let Sunagakure's anger burn across this land.
As he stared at the Konoha base, his expression became increasingly unstable.
Perhaps he had already lost his mind after Sunagakure's defeat in the Land of Rain, the battle that had broken the village's pride.
Or perhaps it happened after his only son died on that battlefield.
Whatever the reason, Elder Iwatani had already been consumed by hatred.
Under his bloodshot gaze, the Sunagakure shinobi pushed their way into the Konoha base.
The shinobi from both villages now stood face-to-face.
"Danzo!" shouted the jonin who had started the disturbance.
He stood less than two metres away, holding a kunai in his hand.
"You will give Sunagakure an explanation today!"
Danzo looked at him as if he were already dead.
"If you want war," he said, "then Konoha will give you war."
Those words finally broke the last bit of restraint between both sides.
The area immediately fell into chaos.
That's it!
Fight!
Keep fighting!
Watching from the distance, Elder Iwatani trembled with excitement.
"Stop!"
A powerful shout suddenly came from the right side of the Konoha base.
The voice echoed across the area and caused both sides to pause just as they began fighting.
A moment later, Uchiha Fugaku arrived.
He was covered in sweat and looked slightly dishevelled after rushing there at full speed.
Fugaku jumped onto the wall of the base and looked down.
The shinobi of Konoha and Sunagakure had already mixed together, and another clash could begin at any moment.
Fugaku was not sure whether Kizaru's plan would work.
Even so, he followed the instructions Kizaru had given him before leaving Konoha.
Kizaru, your name had better be enough.
With countless eyes fixed on him, Fugaku spoke.
"Shimura Kizaru, Konoha's Golden Flash, asked me to give Sunagakure a message."
He paused for a moment.
Then he tried to copy Kizaru's slow, lazy way of speaking.
"'Oooh… you people from Sunagakure are awfully scary.'"
Fugaku looked across the crowd.
"'Tell me… have you ever been kicked at the speed of light?'"
His expression became serious.
"'If you keep this up, you might all die, you know?'"
After repeating the message, Fugaku became slightly uneasy.
He could not help wondering whether the Sunagakure shinobi would turn their anger toward him instead.
However, the entire base became silent.
The morale of Konoha's shinobi rose immediately.
The Sunagakure side reacted differently.
Some looked angry.
Some looked nervous.
But most of them were afraid.
Shimura Kizaru was a nightmare to Sunagakure.
During the battle in the Land of Rain, the Third Kazekage—the man once known as the strongest Kazekage in Sunagakure's history—had died at his hands.
Nearly two thousand elite Sunagakure shinobi had also been killed by him.
Later, when Kumogakure and Iwagakure invaded, Kizaru had forced back thousands of shinobi from both villages by himself.
Even the Third Tsuchikage and the Third Raikage had been unable to stop him.
He had also suppressed Shukaku, the One-Tail feared throughout Sunagakure, without difficulty.
Many of the shinobi present had not personally experienced the defeat in the Land of Rain.
However, almost all of them had witnessed Kizaru force back Kumogakure and Iwagakure.
They had also seen him overpower Shukaku.
After hearing Fugaku deliver Kizaru's warning, most of the anger among the Sunagakure shinobi disappeared.
Only a small number of reckless extremists still wanted to fight.
The others remained where they were, looking uncertainly at the comrades around them.
"Kizaru is still in Konoha!" the jonin shouted anxiously when he saw the situation calming down. "He cannot reach this place in time! What are you afraid of?"
No one answered him.
Instead, the Sunagakure shinobi began stepping back.
They gathered together again, separating themselves from Konoha's forces and forming two clear sides.
Standing on the wall, Fugaku quietly breathed a sigh of relief.
The situation had finally calmed down.
At the same time, he could not help thinking about how frightening Kizaru's reputation had become.
Just his name and a single warning had stopped a battle between two shinobi villages.
Kizaru's reputation had already reached the top of the shinobi world.
Really… how enviable.
--------------------------------------
Support me at patreon.com/Arthorain and read upto 50 Advanced Chapters and R-18 Content!
--------------------------------------
Update schedule: 7 chapters/week
Every 100 power stones = 1 Extra Chapter
By voting with [power stones], you can easily get double the number of chapters.