This puppeteer is a bit... well...

Chapter 225 Recruiting Ninjas

The Third Hokage was a seasoned veteran. He noticed the ulterior motives of Hyuga Hizashi and the other branch families. He sighed, said nothing, and simply stepped forward to pat Hyuga Hiashi on the shoulder.

"Hokage-sama, it's Ryuji Ayaki!"

Kakashi had recovered by then and came to the Third Hokage to report on the current situation.

The Third Hokage listened silently to Kakashi's entire explanation, his expression shifting between light and shadow.

Only Ryuji ever held them accountable; they could only verbally protest Ryuji's actions in Konoha and could not offer any concrete resistance.

Or rather, the fact that Ryuji didn't openly barge into the village and take away the people who had divided the family was already the best possible outcome.

Although Konoha had made ample preparations for anti-air operations after learning from the previous lesson, the thought of such a colossal entity as the floating continent still sent a shiver down their spines for no apparent reason.

The Third Hokage shook his head, dismissing the absurd idea. Ryuji sneaking over was actually seen as a sign of respect?

When did I start having such strange thoughts?

At that moment, the space beside them distorted, and a boy wearing green armor rushed out. It was Obito, whose body had recovered a little.

Obito jumped out and assumed an attack stance, but couldn't find the enemy. He looked around, wondering, "Where's the enemy?"

"The Mangekyou Sharingan?"

Hiruzen Sarutobi recognized the Mangekyou Sharingan's unique eye technique at a glance.

"Hokage-sama!?"

At that moment, Obito saw the Third Hokage and quickly ran over to greet him.

The Third Hokage's frustration was somewhat alleviated. A young man with the Mangekyou Sharingan who inherited the Will of Fire, while not enough to offset the loss of the Hyuga clan, had at least salvaged some of the situation.

Fortunately, the losses caused to us by Ryuji this time were not significant.

The Third Hokage was referring to the village's losses. This clash was limited to a battle between Kakashi, a few Hyuga clan members, and Ryuji, and did not cause any major repercussions.

As their current allies, they are fully aware of the details of how Long Er razed Yunyin Village to the ground six months ago.

"Were Ryuji and the others defeated by the Third Hokage?" At this moment

Obito, still confused about what had happened after he hid in the Kamui dimension, asked Kakashi in a low voice.

Although Obito knew that Ryuji was very strong, he did not have a specific understanding of it. In his mind, no matter how strong a ninja's individual strength was, there was a limit to it. It was impossible for one person to defeat an entire ninja village.

Last time, it was only by relying on the advantages of the mechanical city being able to fly and the puppets being immortal that they achieved that victory.

Kakashi glanced at him and said, "No, they achieved their goal and left."

"Is that so?"

After hearing Kakashi's words, Obito was momentarily stunned, then clenched his fists, his eyes filled with resentment and anger.

Ryuuji Ayaki!!

During the last battle when the Kaiju Castle descended upon Konoha, he witnessed his grandmother being crushed to death by a boulder falling from the sky. It was because he witnessed this scene that he awakened the Mangekyou Sharingan immediately after opening his Sharingan.

He didn't tell anyone about it.

He kept this to himself and secretly vowed to take revenge.

……

The mechanical bird was extremely fast, and before long, Ryuji and his companions had returned to the Mechanical City.

Long Er has been running around lately, putting in a lot of effort for the entire Mechanized City.

Now, the chakra cannon and the Hyuga clan members used for reconnaissance are finally all assembled.

At this time, the mechanical city was still a busy scene, with Sunagakure ninjas directing construction everywhere.

The city will experience unprecedented growth in the future.

Ryuji casually released members of the Hyuga clan who had defected from the mechanical city.

This was the first time the members of the Hyuga branch family had come to this legendary city. Some of them even excitedly activated their Byakugan and looked around curiously.

It wasn't until someone next to her reminded her that she quickly stopped rolling her eyes. Being new to the place, such blatant spying would inevitably make her new employer uncomfortable.

Tamako has already treated Mukai's wounds.

Ryuji looked down at them and said, "From now on, you are all people of our Sand Village. The cursed seal of the Caged Bird has been lifted, and there is nothing that can threaten you anymore. You will have the same treatment as other Sand Village ninjas."

There were about 30 members of the Hyuga branch family who came this time, and the total number of family members without ninja skills was over 100.

They will continue to multiply and thrive throughout the city in the future, and will be able to meet the needs of the entire city.

"My lord, as far as I know, other families who come here are required to change their surnames and mingle with the other commoners. From then on, there are only brothers, no more families!"

Although Mukai's surname is Kohinata, it still contains the characters "Hinata".

Ryuji nodded. He understood the other party's ulterior motives. They had gone through all sorts of trouble to bring the branch family members over, hoping to use them as bargaining chips to gain some power for themselves.

"I certainly remember your contributions. Unlike other families, your Hyuga branch family doesn't change its appearance because your eyes are very distinctive."

Hearing what Ryuji said, Mukai gave a wry smile.

"You can continue with your old habits and surnames; these are just formalities."

Hearing what Ryuji said to him, Mukai was secretly delighted. Even if he was no longer officially recognized as a family, as long as the surname remained, he could still have a certain status as a meritorious official.

This is a remarkable achievement.

Long Er knew his little scheme and didn't suppress him too much, as there was no need to anymore.

Absolute strength is the foundation for crushing everything.

At this moment, Ebizo rushed over, holding a scroll in his hand.

A happy expression still lingered on his face.

"Lady Ayaki, some things have happened while you were away, in Kirigakure."

Ryuji took the intelligence scroll from Ebizo's hand, and he already had a vague idea of ​​what had happened.

The scroll mentions that after an unexplained power struggle occurred in Kirigakure, a series of measures were introduced to undermine and suppress the major bloodline families.

Many prominent families suffered heavy casualties, and some of the smaller families were even wiped out.

Many readers in the past believed that the Land of Blood Mist was created by Obito controlling the Fourth Mizukage.

In reality, cruelty and obedience were the core principles of Kirigakure from its inception. They were established by the First Mizukage, perfected by the Second Mizukage, and further developed by the Third Mizukage. By the Fourth Mizukage, they had become even more pronounced, and were finally brought to an end by the Fifth Mizukage.

If a village built on this philosophy continues to grow powerful, it will naturally become a ruthless ninja village.

But if it fails, it can cause people to waver.

After all, the strength of each ninja village is about the same, so why should I stay in a place like yours with such poor treatment?

After the failed invasion of the Land of Whirlpools, in order to shift the blame and consolidate his position, the Fourth Mizukage shifted the blame for the war onto the powerful clans... especially the Snow Clan, the same clan as the Third Mizukage, which caused the internal strife in the Land of Water to resume just as it had begun.

"interesting."

Ebizo also said, "This is also an opportunity for us. Kirigakure has some extremely powerful families that we can use to expand our strength in the future."

The Sand Village was ultimately composed of ninjas who had survived in the desert. Its foundation was weak, and if it wanted to continue to thrive even after leaving its own people, it needed more and stronger ninja clans to join it.

"It seems we'll have to head to Kirigakure again; there are a few good targets there."

Ryuji put away the scroll and said to Ebizo, "We can take the initiative now. Under this kind of high pressure, many villages will definitely defect. Let's announce to the entire ninja world that our Sunagakure is recruiting a large number of ninja clans with bloodline limits. This will save us a lot of trouble."

Although the real estate plan included a statement that ninja clans could live in Sunagakure for free simply by joining the village, it did not openly recruit ninja clans. Now, however, it has made its stance clear.

After all, the entire ninja world has united against Sunagakure, so there's no need to hide anything anymore.

Ebizo nodded in agreement.

Now there's no need to hide anything anymore. The defense system of this huge mechanical city is almost complete. How can we be timid and hesitant in other aspects of our actions?

"I just got back and I have to leave again soon. I'll have to trouble you with this next time."

Ebizo quickly declined, saying, "I'm only supervising for you for a short period of time; I'm not as good as you."

As Ryuji did one shocking thing after another in Sunagakure, the former high-ranking officials were almost completely convinced of his abilities.

Compared to him, Fengying and the others were like puppets issuing orders, merely holding the title.

Long Er returned to his residence, this time planning to bring Hong and Wanlijiang with him.

In the Hidden Mist Village, Wanlijiang's eyes were still quite useful.

"We shouldn't delay, we must set off immediately, or we might find only corpses."

After explaining everything, he took out the metal bird again, prepared some supplies and consumables, and then set off on the bird towards Kirigakure.

He has entrusted the matter of arranging things for the Hyuga clan to Mukai and Yekura, believing that they are fully capable of handling it.

Besides taking advantage of the chaos to gather some useful clans in Kirigakure, he also had several future illustrious figures in mind during his trip there.

For example, Kimimaro, who later followed Orochimaru, would definitely be a Kage-level fighter if it weren't for his bloodline disease.

There's also Haku, who inherited Ice Release.

The war potential of the other major ninja villages should never be underestimated.

During the Fourth Shinobi World War, the others joined together and gathered a total of 4 shinobi to fight against Obito and his group.

Now that Sunagakure no longer joins in, but instead unites with other ninja villages... gathering tens of thousands of ninjas is no problem at all.

Judging from the current overall strength of the Fortress, it is difficult to withstand the impact of such a large ninja alliance army. We must use every means to expand our strength as soon as possible.

Having chosen this path, we must persevere. If we cannot even subdue the ninja world, the consequences of facing Kaguya and the Otsutsuki clan from the stars will be unimaginable.

The idea that the Land of Blood Mist was created by Obito manipulating the Fourth Mizukage is a fan fiction. The original manga never states that the Fourth Mizukage created it; it only says that the Land of Blood Mist has a long history. The Second Mizukage, when resurrected using the Impure World Reincarnation technique, also mentioned the drawbacks of the Blood Mist policy. The Fourth Mizukage, when meeting Naruto, also expressed his desire to change the Land of Blood Mist but lacked the power to do so. Therefore, the Land of Blood Mist could not possibly have been created by the Fourth Mizukage.

In fact, the system of Kirigakure (Hidden Mist Village) actually fits the original conception of Japanese ninjas: cold-blooded, ruthless tools who only know how to obey orders.

(End of this chapter)