Naruto: Uchiha Youngjo's Konoha Spring

Chapter 165 The Five-Tailed Cicada Stalks the Pear, Pain Follows Behind

"Takigakure's military equipment and supplies were all provided by your Konoha, right?" Onoki questioned directly.

"Mr. Tsuchikage, regarding this matter, Takigakure purchases all their goods from Konoha at market prices. These are normal business transactions. We can't just stop doing business because you're at war," Uchiha Touko said, spreading his hands.

"Takigakure bought these ninja tools at market price?" Onoki narrowed his eyes upon hearing this. Given Takigakure's extravagant use of explosive tags on the battlefield these past few days, who would believe that Uchiha Touko was telling him that these ninja tools were purchased at market price? At Takigakure's current rate of use, even their Land of Earth couldn't withstand such extravagance for long, let alone Takigakure.

“Yes, at most, our village’s ninja tool supplier gave us a 20% discount because of the large quantity,” Uchiha Touko said. “I swear in the name of all the Hokage that Konoha has never provided any substantial support to Takigakure. If the Tsuchikage doesn’t believe me, he can send someone to Konoha to check the contracts that Takigakure has purchased ninja tools from.”

Since Uchiha Touki had already said so much, Onoki couldn't press him any further. Otherwise, if he really pushed Uchiha Touki to the limit and Konoha got involved in the whole war, the outcome would be uncertain.

“In that case, I hope that Your Hokage will not forget our peace agreement,” Onoki said.

"Of course, we also hope that His Majesty the Tsuchikage will remember our agreement that your army will remain calm when the battle lines are pushed to the border of Konoha," said Uchiha Touko.

After Uchiha Touko finished speaking, he hung up the video call.

As per his agreement with Chongming, Uchiha Touko began to teach Fu the techniques to master the power of the tailed beasts. However, at crucial moments, both of them held back, leaving Fu in a state where she seems to be able to learn, but actually faces many difficulties in practice. During this long learning process, Naruto and Sasuke's group also began to form friendships with Fu. Fu never expected that the friendships she sought in Takigakure would be so readily available in Konoha.

As the days went by, Fu's initial idea of ​​quickly mastering the Seven-Tails' power and returning to the village slowly crumbled.

The mercenaries who were sent to the battlefield by Uchiha Touko performed many outstanding feats after arriving at the battlefield and becoming familiar with the environment. When they first arrived at the battlefield, Iwagakure had no intelligence. With Shikaku's superb command and the Sarutobi Army's superb combined fire-style ninjutsu under Asuma's leadership, they directly wiped out an Iwagakure team. Furthermore, the surviving member that Shikaku deliberately left behind revealed all the secrets in his brain under the secret technique of the Yamanaka clan, and used secret means to send this information directly to the Takigakure command post.

Upon learning of this, Onoki flew into a rage, since the traces of the battlefield were all caused by fire-style ninjutsu, and everyone in the ninja world knew which family possessed the strongest fire-style ninjutsu.

However, when confronted by Onoki's questioning, Uchiha Touko frankly invited him to send someone to visit the Uchiha clan's territory to prove his innocence.

"So, you mean that this group of ninjas who can use powerful combination fire-style ninjutsu are not from Konoha, right?" Ono Muga was practically grinding his teeth to powder, but that was the truth. According to the information he had gathered, the other party had not shown any other abilities besides fire-style ninjutsu, such as the Sharingan.

"Of course, didn't I already say? If you don't believe me, you can send people to visit our Uchiha clan's territory at any time," Uchiha Touko said with a smile.

It can only be said that the private army trained by the Third Hokage was indeed secretive. Few people in the entire ninja world knew of the existence of this Sarutobi Army. Now, if Uchiha Touko destroys the ninja numbers of these people, they will become unregistered ninjas again.

"So, did these large numbers of Fire Release ninjas just appear out of thin air?" Onoki asked, barely suppressing his anger.

“That’s hard to say,” Uchiha Touko said meaningfully. “The ninja world is so big, maybe it’s just some ninja from some organization who wants to help the weak. Just like the Akatsuki organization that’s currently on the battlefield between you and the Land of Waterfall.”

"Heh, Hokage, you're quite the joker," Onoki said through gritted teeth. He was certain that this Fire Release ninja team was connected to Konoha, but he just couldn't find any evidence.

"If there's nothing else, I'll hang up now. I still need to instruct my disciples today." Uchiha Touka said with a smile as he ended the call with Onoki.

As for the possibility of the Sarutobi army being caught by Iwagakure, Uchiha Touko believed that with Nara Shikaku's intelligence, such a possibility was extremely slim. After all, what Shikaku needed to do was not to lead the Sarutobi army to victory in this war, but simply to act as a troublemaker on the battlefield. If Nara Shikaku were to be exposed under such a huge information gap, he would truly be unworthy of his title as Konoha's strategist.

Under the influence of various factors, this war, which almost the entire ninja world believed would be a quick victory for Takigakure and a fast break by Iwagakure, unexpectedly fell into a stalemate.

Although Takigakure was constantly suppressed by Iwagakure's forces on the main battlefield, Takigakure was not without the power to fight back. With the help of Akatsuki and the assistance of Sarutobi's army led by Shikaku Nara, Takigakure planned several successful counterattacks, and news of attacks on several towns on the border of the Land of Earth kept coming in.

In this war that the entire ninja world was watching, Takigakure's tenacity was remarkable, but Iwagakure was undoubtedly caught off guard.

As one of the five great ninja villages, Takigakure is a powerful village with military strength aiming for third place and striving for second. Before the war began, both Onoki and Uesugi Hideyoshi, the daimyo of the Land of Earth, expected the war to end within a week. Not only them, but everyone in the ninja world except for Uchiha Tokkou thought so. However, Takigakure has managed to hold the Land of Earth back.

As the war progressed, the ninja tools and supplies that Iwata Zeki had purchased with the first batch of loans were quickly exhausted. However, Takigakure had no way out at this point. So, after the loans ran out, Iwata Zeki immediately rushed to Konoha to continue taking advantage of the situation. This time, he mortgaged several mines within the Land of Takigakure, and Uchiha Tokō naturally accepted them all.

Furthermore, although Takigakure withstood Iwagakure's attack, it was not without cost. The casualty ratio between the two sides was not even in the same league. Although the Chunin and Genin of Takigakure quickly mastered the Lightning Release combination ninjutsu provided by Konoha to the Land of Takigakure through life-and-death battles on the battlefield, the inherent difference in the quality of the ninjas meant that they often had to sacrifice several ninjas to kill a single Iwagakure ninja.

At this moment, Iwata Sawaki had become a gambler who had lost everything. All the eligible men in Takigakure, no, in the Land of Takigakure, who could extract even a little chakra, were captured by Takigakure to fill the gaps in their chakra. These men ranged from children who had not yet graduated from the Ninja Academy to middle-aged men in their fifties. They were all sent to the battlefield by Takigakure. After being taught some combination ninjutsu, they were directly pulled to the front line to resist the attack of Iwagakure.

Even Konan, the leader of the Akatsuki organization who came to provide support, couldn't stand this situation. During a war meeting, after hearing that Iwata Sawaki had sent another batch of ninja academy students who hadn't even graduated to the front lines, Konan couldn't help but question him: "Mr. Iwata, if I may be so bold, but if you do this, even if Takigakure wins this war, Takigakure will have no future."

“Your Excellency, of course I know.” Iwata Sawaki smiled bitterly. In just a few months, the appearance of this leader of Takigakure had changed drastically. His beard was unkempt, and his eyes were bloodshot. The refined image he had before the war was gone. He looked helplessly at Konan and said, “But if we lose this war, Takigakure will cease to exist. What future will we have then?”

"Ah, this is war." Konan could only sigh upon hearing this, and then said, "Our Akatsuki organization will do everything in its power to help you win this war." "Thank you for your help, Angel." Iwata Sawaki calmed himself down a bit before speaking to Konan.

Konan pursed her lips and nodded, then walked out of the command post tent. Looking at the ninjas in the camp with their blank stares, Konan couldn't help but let out a long sigh, thinking to herself:

It seems that only Nagato's plan can bring lasting peace to the ninja world.

Konan wasn't initially very optimistic about Nagato's plan to collect the Tailed Beasts and then use them to intimidate major powers. The reason she always stood behind Nagato was mainly because of Yahiko's last wish and the mutual support they had built over the years. However, after experiencing this period of war, Konan's mindset began to change somewhat.

"Shikaku-senpai, shall we take action today?" In a cave somewhere in the Land of Waterfalls, Asuma lit a cigarette and asked Shikaku.

“Not for now.” Shikaku replied to Asuma while staring at the map in front of him, his mind constantly deducing the course of the war.

“We’ve been waiting here for days, we’re practically rusting,” Asma said after stretching.

“Our recent actions have been a bit too high-profile. It seems that Iwagakure has reached its limit in its patience with us. They have sent several elite Jonin teams to search for us recently, so we can only lay low for the time being.”

“But if we keep hiding, the Land of Waterfalls might not be able to withstand their attack,” Asuma said.

Apart from the three members of the fifteenth generation Ino-Shika-Cho trio, the others in this team were all assigned to assist the Land of Waterfall in resisting the attack of Iwagakure. Therefore, it was not unreasonable for Asuma to be anxious, since he had already discussed with Kurenai before setting off that the two of them would get married after the war ended.

"Young clan leader, obey Nara's orders," said an elite Jonin from the Sarutobi clan in the group.

The speaker was named Sarutobi Yukiya. He had previously served as the captain of this group of Sarutobi clan private soldiers. After the Sarutobi clan cooperated with Uchiha Tokkou to register their identities, he went to work for the Anbu.

After receiving this mission, the Third Hokage summoned him. In addition to instructing him to protect the young clan leader Asuma, Hiruzen Sarutobi also specifically instructed Yukiya Sarutobi to try his best to repair the relationship between the Sarutobi clan and the Ino-Shika-Cho trio during this mission. Going back to the way things were before was out of the question, but at least they shouldn't completely break off all ties.

Therefore, in this operation in Takigakure, the Sarutobi Army adopted the lowest possible stance, completely obeying Nara Shikaku's command. Even when several clansmen were killed in the war, no one expressed any objection to Nara Shikaku.

"Alright." Asma could only nod and continue smoking in the cave.

"Asuma! Put out the cigarette!" Suddenly, Yamanaka Inoichi, who was sensing the environment outside the cave, turned around and shouted.

Startled by the sudden shout, Asma dropped his cigarette. Without bothering to pick it up, he stomped it out and asked, "What happened?"

"I sense a massive amount of chakra approaching us; it's very likely the Jinchuriki of Iwagakure!" Yamanaka Inoichi said gravely.

"Jinchūriki?" Nara Shikaku's face turned serious upon hearing this. Don't be fooled by the fact that his current squad could easily wipe out a small country; when facing a Tailed Beast, they are no different from ants.

"Everyone, hide well!" Nara Shikaku whispered the order.

Inside the cave, everyone held their breath.

However, not far from where they were hiding, Han, the Jinchuriki of the Five-Tails, was running at full speed toward the rear of Takigakure. His mission was to destroy the rear of Takigakure. This long-running war had clearly exhausted Onoki's patience, and he planned to send Jinchuriki directly to the rear to deliver a fatal blow to Takigakure.

However, as Han was advancing at full speed, six figures dressed in red cloud robes suddenly blocked his path.

"Get out of my way!" Han roared upon seeing this, unleashing the power of the Five-Tails Mu-ou's Boil Release. Steam erupted from his body, and Han's power was amplified several times in a short period of time. He wanted to deal with the person blocking his way as quickly as possible.

However, right in front of Han, a young man with orange hair and black short sticks stuck in his face slowly raised his right hand as Han charged straight at him.

"It's time for you great powers to feel the pain," the orange-haired youth slowly spoke. "Shinra Tensei!"

A tremendous repulsive force appeared out of nowhere, and Han, who was charging at high speed, was caught off guard and thrown into the air. He barely managed to regain his balance in mid-air.

After landing, Han took a deep breath and gritted his teeth, asking, "Who are you?"

(End of this chapter)