Half an hour later.
After their conversation, Black Zetsu finally understood the situation.
Apparently, Kaguya could temporarily inhabit Hiroki Hyuga's body.
Likewise, both Kaguya and Hiroki now knew about his experiences over the past thousand years—manipulating Ashura and Indra, inciting wars, deceiving Madara Uchiha, assisting Obito in controlling Akatsuki, and so on.
"If you ever encounter someone carrying Kaguya's aura in the future, treat them as her clones. She can control their actions anytime," Hiroki Hyuga said.
Black Zetsu nodded slightly, thinking for a moment before asking, "Want to come back to Akatsuki with me?"
"Are you sure you've completely taken control of Akatsuki? Are all of them truly loyal to you? For me right now, Konoha is still the safest place."
Black Zetsu fell silent.
"One favor before you go…"
…
After Black Zetsu left, Kaguya asked, "Hiroki, are you trying to start a war between these two villages?"
"Ninja are messed-up creatures—simple-minded, violent, full of themselves despite being weak."
"They call themselves tools but act like they're the center of the world. They think they can change history with their tiny minds and big egos."
"A few clueless jerks end up running everyone's lives. I want to cut off their legacy. If that's not possible, at least reduce the number of ninja."
"They even had the nerve to name the whole world 'Ninja World.' You hate them too, don't you, Kaguya?"
"Have fun," Kaguya replied softly.
To her, ninja would likely become enemies anyway—dying sooner or later made no difference.
Nightfall.
Three Kumogakure ninja staggered back into the house Konoha had arranged for them, leaning on each other in a drunken daze.
Two other Kumogakure ninja came out to meet them.
Smelling the alcohol on them, the two frowned and scolded together.
"You actually went out drinking? Do you really think Konoha would dare do anything to us?"
"This isn't our village—we're on a mission. Can't you show some discipline?"
The three drunkards didn't care.
Taking advantage of their drunken state, they voiced their true thoughts.
"So what? Do you really think Konoha would dare do anything to us?"
"I'm actually hoping something happens. We clearly have the upper hand—why negotiate at all?"
"Yugito was just a kid not long ago, and now she's Raikage overnight. She doesn't know anything about leadership."
"Quiet! All of you behave yourselves!"
"New bosses always start with a burst of energy. Do you really want to be the first ones to get burned?"
After some arguing and grumbling, they all shuffled off to bed.
Outside the house, two masked ninja approached two Anbu members on surveillance duty.
"Kakashi-senpai, you guys can rest now."
"Don't say my name on a mission," the Anbu with silver hair said coolly.
"Sorry, sorry."
"There's still half an hour until shift change."
"No problem. You two head off to rest early—leave the rest to us."
Kakashi gave a slight nod and exchanged a glance with his companion.
"Then we leave it to you."
After making sure the others had left their sensory range, the two off-duty Anbu exchanged a sly look.
"Let's go. Get this done quickly." One said playfully.
With that, they stepped into the house.
The floor was smeared with bloodstains, and a pungent odor filled the air.
They picked off the Kumo ninja one by one inside the house.
Once the task was complete, the two revealed their true appearance—skin as pale as blank paper.
These two were actually White Zetsu clones using Haku's impersonation jutsu to disguise themselves.
The corpses on the ground still had some warmth left; the [Chakra] of the dead hadn't fully dissipated. One of the White Zetsu opened the spikes on his body and absorbed the chakra from a corpse, then impersonated the man.
The two simultaneously submerged into the earth—one returning to Black Zetsu's side, and the other setting his sights on Kumogakure.
Inside the house remained only the corpses of five Kumo ninja.
After a while, Yugao Uzuki arrived with her companions and sensed something wrong.
Just as the sky began turning light gray, Hiruzen Sarutobi was startled awake by a series of urgent knocks at his door.
"Hokage, the envoy team from Kumogakure has been eliminated. Also, we found the bodies of two Anbu members." Yugao Uzuki reported.
"What?" Hiruzen gasped in shock.
His first thought was to suspect Danzo Shimura was behind this "deed," so he immediately summoned Danzo for questioning.
"Danzo, did you secretly kill those Kumo ninja?"
"Hiruzen, don't pin every damn thing on me." Danzo replied discontentedly.
He hadn't even managed to do anything yet—the people were already dead. How could that be his fault?
Hiruzen frowned deeply in thought.
"Since the bodies are still intact, let Inoichi Yamanaka examine their memories." Danzo suggested.
Hiruzen slowly nodded. "We must keep this from Kumogakure until we clarify what happened."
However, the White Zetsu disguised as a Kumo ninja had already sent word back to Kumogakure.
In an instant, emotions flared.
"The Konoha people are truly unappreciative."
Every ninja from Kumogakure was furious and calling for revenge against Konoha.
Yugito Nii let out a helpless sigh.
She knew she had to act soon, or else her people would grow even more resentful toward her.
After calming her outraged subordinates, she departed from the Land of Lightning and, after crossing mountains and rivers, finally reached the forward encampment.
Wars between great powers often turn smaller nations into pawns on the battlefield. Between the Land of Fire and the Land of Lightning lay the Country of Hot Springs and the Country of Frost.
Therefore, Konoha established its camp in the Country of Hot Springs closer to home, while Kumogakure set up its encampment in the Country of Frost.
Both forces used the border region between the Country of Hot Springs and the Country of Frost as their battlefield.
Following the front-line commander Dodai, Yugito arrived at a hilltop.
"That direction is where Konoha's encampment lies?"
"Yes."
"Do we have any spies or informants over there already?"
Dodai shook his head. "None. Since your orders came, we haven't initiated any attacks."
"How many troops are stationed over there?"
After some thought, Dodai spoke, "Based on the intelligence we analyzed last time, there are about 320 in total—22 Jonin and Tokubetsu Jonin combined, 12 Medical Ninjas. The rest are all Chunin and Genin."
"That few?" Yugito murmured, her voice gradually turning cold. "Step back."
Dodai assumed enemies were approaching and immediately retreated behind Yugito to stand guard.
Without expression, Yugito fixed her gaze on Konoha's camp as chakra nearly solidified around her body.
The chakra covering her came in two colors.
One was the blue of Matatabi, the Two-Tails; the other was the pink belonging to Gyuki, the Eight-Tails.
With these two Tailed Beasts cooperating, Yugito became like a perfect Jinchuriki, able to fully transform into a beast state while still retaining her own consciousness.
Before long, she lost all traces of human form.
A massive cat demon appeared, standing over fifty meters tall, with two tails trailing behind, its entire body covered in dense blue chakra.
On top of that, another layer of concentrated chakra coated it like armor—an aura of pink energy formed from Gyuki's chakra.
Gyuki refused to fully merge with Matatabi, so instead he shaped his chakra into an armor-like form wrapped around Matatabi's body.
Dodai took several steps backward, a flicker of astonishment flashing across his eyes.
Two Tailed Beasts sealed within her body—and yet they had absolutely no negative effect on her... How could these two beasts coexist so peacefully?
A massive [Tailed Beast Ball] began forming in her mouth.
It fused Matatabi's and Gyuki's chakra—this Tailed Beast Ball packed way more punch than what they could fire separately.
It was more than the sum of both of them together.
"Roooar..."
Several [Tailed Beast Balls] launched toward Konoha's encampment.
"Boom!"
"Boom!"
First came earth-shaking explosions, followed by a prolonged silence, like the world itself had gone silent.
Flesh flew through the air, blood splattered everywhere.
Most of the ninja in Konoha's camp didn't even have time to blink before they were gone.
Some turned to dust; others blew apart into flying limbs.
Right before their eyes, Konoha's entire camp was blown into a massive, smoking crater.
Dodai stared in shock at the devastation before him.
Judging from this scene, the new generation Raikage seemed just as reckless as her predecessors...
After launching several rounds of [Tailed Beast Balls], Yugito exited her transformation.
"This is the sincerity we show Konoha during negotiations," Yugito said flatly.
Compared to what the Third Raikage had done—fighting off thousands alone—what she had just done barely counted for anything.
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