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

Chapter 38 Overall Planning

They didn't think much of the attack from Sunagakure.

Although Sarutobi hopes for peaceful coexistence, he is not afraid of war if it really happens.

He was in the prime of his life and still harbored great ambitions, unlike the old man who later thought of a peaceful resolution when faced with a crisis.

but.

The four major ninja villages' joint attack on Sunagakure failed, and they not only gained no advantage but also suffered heavy losses.

They will definitely not let this go.

After the Second Shinobi World War ended, the major ninja villages have recovered and their ninja numbers have increased, but now they are facing a shortage of mission assignments.

Their Great Ninja Village is alright; their reputation is there, and most people are still willing to entrust them with tasks.

But those small ninja villages have already waged more than a dozen wars to compete for mission commissions.

Now, even the Hidden Cloud Village and the Hidden Stone Village have joined in.

This indicates that they are also beginning to face pressure from mission assignments or situations where they must use war to meet their needs.

If they fail in their first war, their situation will not only not improve, but will worsen.

They will certainly not give up easily and will definitely try to turn the tide through a larger-scale war.

Having failed to find the perfect opportunity to attack Sunagakure, they would never attack Sunagakure again.

Because the losses outweigh the gains.

And across the vast map of the ninja world, after flipping through it again and again, Konoha remains the best target for attack.

After all, it is the number one ninja village in the ninja world.

Konoha handles nearly half of the ninja world's mission assignments. If you can defeat Konoha—no, even just achieve a partial victory—you can gain substantial benefits through negotiation.

In other words, Konoha is now facing the possibility of being attacked simultaneously by five ninja villages.

Thinking of this possibility, Sarutobi frowned deeply.

He stood up, puffed on his pipe, and paced back and forth in front of his desk, filling the room with smoke.

"Could you smoke less?"

Sarutobi stopped in his tracks, looked at Danzo who was waving his hand to fan away secondhand smoke, shrugged helplessly, and shook the leaves out of his pipe to extinguish it.

"I don't know when it started, but whenever we talk about something, you start smoking. And when something important comes up, you just keep taking drags on and on. I've had enough," Danzo continued to complain.

He harbored many grievances against this old friend.

Although he was quite competent for the position of Hokage, he felt he could do better and be more assertive.

After all, Konoha is currently the dominant force in the ninja world.

Showing too much kindness will only embolden more scoundrels to extend their claws.

"I will be more careful in the future."

Sarutobi felt no displeasure at his old friend's complaint; instead, he felt a pang of nostalgia.

Their relationship remained the same from the time they entered the Ninja Academy until they became teammates. It wasn't until they became Hokage and the leader of Root, respectively, that they gradually drifted apart due to their busy schedules.

Danzo noticed the nostalgia on Sarutobi's face and felt somewhat moved, but he didn't show it.

With his usual stern face, he said, "Konoha is facing a prehistoric crisis. One wrong move could lead to the village's annihilation."

"You're right." Sarutobi nodded slightly. "We have no chance against five opponents. We should send envoys to Sunagakure to comfort them and even offer them some benefits before they take any action, to extinguish their desire to attack. Then we can negotiate with Kumo, Iwa, Ame, and Kusanagi to break their alliance from within."

"There's nothing wrong with doing this, but how much benefit do we need to offer to stop Sunagakure's desire to attack?" Danzo sneered. "It would be fine under normal circumstances, but now we are facing a joint attack from four ninja villages. When Sunagakure sees an opportunity, they certainly won't let it go easily."

Sarutobi took a deep breath and sighed, "I understand what you're saying, but this is the best solution I can think of right now. When you're in a weaker position, you can only divide up the benefits."

"That's because you haven't thoroughly understood the situation." Danzo walked to his desk, took out a map, and spread it out. "First of all, there's the alliance of the four ninja villages of Kumo, Iwa, Ameonna, and Kusanagi. They're only united because of their interests; it's by no means unbreakable."

"That's why I said we should try to undermine their alliance from within through negotiations."

"So I said your method is not wrong, but the order needs to be changed. You need to dismantle the alliance first, and then send an envoy to appease Sunagakure, or do it at the same time."

Sarutobi paused for a moment, then stared intently at the map, but couldn't make heads or tails of it for a long time.

"We have an alliance with Sunagakure, so we can use this relationship to reach a reconciliation through the distribution of benefits before the war begins. But what about the other four ninja villages..."

"Their relationship is not harmonious either," Danzo said. "Since the end of the Second Shinobi World War, Kumogakure has been continuously improving its military strength. In terms of military strength alone, they are probably the strongest in the shinobi world."

The strength of a ninja village needs to be judged from a comprehensive perspective, including population, economy, and military.

A village like Kumogakure, which prioritizes military strength at the expense of its economic well-being, cannot sustain itself in the long run.

The only possible outcome is self-destruction.

The daimyo of the Land of Lightning trusted the Hidden Cloud Village immensely, approving large sums of military funds exceeding the budget every year, which is what created the monstrous, deformed village of the Hidden Cloud Village.

"The Hidden Cloud Village is different from our Konoha. Not only is their military strength formidable, but their desire to attack is also extremely strong, making them deeply feared by the surrounding countries. Compared to our Konoha, the Hidden Stone Village, the Hidden Rain Village, and the Hidden Grass Village should be even more wary of the Hidden Cloud Village."

"That's true." Sarutobi pondered for a moment. "In that case, even if they form an alliance, they won't trust each other, especially since they've already failed once. By exploiting the various ninja villages' fear of Kumogakure, we have a high probability of being the first to dismantle the allied forces."

"They fear the powerful Kumogakure more than the mighty Konoha. If Konoha loses this war, no one will be able to stop Kumogakure." Danzo's face showed a confident expression. "Once we suffer setbacks in the early stages of the war, the allied forces will start to have their own agendas, and then send envoys to negotiate, explaining the situation. It might even incite them to fight each other."

"This situation is too ideal. I'll be satisfied as long as I can break their alliance."

"I was just stating a possibility," Danzo said, giving him a disapproving look.

This guy just loves to spoil the fun.

However, he couldn't be bothered to argue about such things.

After all, they are no longer as carefree as they were as children. Now, one of them is the Hokage, and the other is the leader of the Root ANBU.

Each person has their own role, which is crucial and requires a mature and stable persona.

"I am acquainted with Hanzo of Amegakure and understand Onoki's character, so please allow me to serve as an envoy to Iwagakure and Amegakure!"

"What about Sunagakure?"

"At the same time, send someone to negotiate, just as you said, offer benefits to appease them, but at the same time, we also need to demonstrate our strength, and not reveal that Konoha is now in a situation where they can do whatever they want with it."

Neither of them mentioned Kusagakure.

In this world of ninjas, weakness is a sin.

The hermit is nothing to worry about.

The Hidden Cloud Village has the strongest military force in the ninja world; this is the information given in the official guidebook.

I've forgotten whether it's a book on military strategy or a book on strategy.

It categorizes the strength of each village into economic, population, military, and scale, with a maximum score of 5 points and a minimum score of 1 point.

Cloud Hidden's military strength is 5 points, and its overall strength is 4 points.

Konoha's military strength is 4, and its overall strength is 5.

The Sand Village is the weakest and doesn't even look like one of the Five Great Ninja Villages.

Well, the data might be incorrect because it's from information I looked at last year, but that's how it is.

(End of this chapter)