I founded the "Bragging Cult" in Naruto.

Chapter 479 The initial agreed-upon goals always change due to various circumstances, such as the travel plans being canceled.

"Is Sunagakure a joke?!"

In Iwagakure, in the Tsuchikage's office, Onoki slammed his fist on the table, his strawberry nose bulging with anger.

Everyone was waiting for a war to assess Konoha's strength, and Sunagakure, which couldn't hold back any longer, naturally became the "vanguard" of other ninja villages and organizations.

Moreover, the thousand-strong force was personally led by the Third Kazekage. Such a configuration was extremely luxurious during the probing phase before the war officially broke out.

Logically, Konoha would need to field a ninja army that is at least 1.5 times larger than the number of its own to have any chance of defeating the Sand Ninja forces led by the Third Kazekage.

The mobilization of one or two thousand people makes it easy to estimate the actual number of people that the ninja village can participate in the battle based on the village's deployment. Everyone is extremely concerned about this engagement.

Especially Iwagakure and Kumogakure, since they have formed an "alliance" with Sunagakure for shared interests.

However, even after the Sand Village declared war for a whole week, the Leaf Village did not react at all, not even with the most basic condemnation, as if they did not want to pay any attention to the Sand Village at all.

However, neither Iwagakure, Kumogakure, nor Sunagakure believed that Konoha was truly indifferent. According to their investigation, Konoha had already taken action.

The pace of commissioned missions has been accelerated on a large scale, freeing up more and more ninja combat power, and even the defense of the border lines has shown signs of retreat.

Onoki confidently told his son that Konoha planned to delay the war until it broke out within the Land of Fire, because Konoha needed enough time to prepare.

He also confidently predicted that Konoha's "greed" would cause them to lose this engagement, and then it would be time for the Iwa ninja to step in, at which point they would definitely be able to take a big bite out of Konoha.

As for the idea that the primary objective of the agreement between Mimura and Tatsuma Sakamoto was to kill him, after the initial impulse, Onoki had long since abandoned this idea. He believed that a war aimed at killing a person was the most foolish.

If you want to kill Sakamoto Tatsuma, just find more ways and opportunities. Of course, if the primary objective of the war between Sunagakure and Kumogakure is to kill Sakamoto Tatsuma, Onoki would absolutely agree.

But if you recommend it, I won't!

If there is an opportunity, it would be best to kill Sakamoto Tatsuma on the battlefield. But if there is no opportunity, then focus on plundering the spoils. As for the goal of Sakamoto Tatsuma, it can be used as an incentive for the ninja army.

Sakamoto Tatsuma must die, and that will not change in Onoki's mind, but it doesn't necessarily have to be done in war. At this stage, "Sakamoto Tatsuma must die" only needs to be a carrot in front of a blindfolded donkey.

The idea was good, but... the Third Kazekage was such a useless piece of trash!!!

Before the Three Kage Alliance could even take shape, one of them died, and this happened against an enemy force of a thousand men, consisting of only five Konoha ninja. The Third Kazekage was still killed.

A ninja force of a thousand men was so frightened by just five people that they fled. Even telling this story as a joke would be considered exaggerated!

If Onoki had known that the Third Kazekage and the Sand Village were in such a state, he would have taken action against the Sand Village long ago. Although the Sand Village is poor, if the enemy is weak enough, it is still possible to gain some benefits.

However, after his initial anger subsided, Onoki calmed down. According to the intelligence, Sakamoto Tatsuma's strength had actually far exceeded his expectations.

As one of the first "Tatsuma fans," Ōnoki had already praised Sakamoto Tatsuma as comparable to Hashirama Senju ten years ago. He always felt that he was the person in the ninja world who had the highest opinion of Sakamoto Tatsuma's strength.

However, the initial praise seemed to have become a prophecy; at the age of twenty, he single-handedly killed a Kage from a ninja village and even managed to eat a tailed beast.

Hashirama Senju's twenties were not that exaggerated!

According to some unofficial historical records, when Hashirama Senju was twenty years old, he still had the habit of skipping stones and urinating contests with his friends!

But at the age of twenty, Sakamoto Tatsuma already had enough strength and experience to rise to the top of the ninja world.

Damn the Land of Fire! Damn Konoha! Why are there always so many geniuses here?!

A thought suddenly flashed through Onoki's mind: why not adopt some children from the Land of Fire and raise them in the village? Or perhaps send the pregnant female ninjas from the village to the Land of Fire to give birth? Maybe they could get some divine favor?

Shaking his head, he dismissed this untimely idea. The urgent task was to adjust the strategy, transforming the original plan of taking advantage of the situation into a gradual and deliberate approach.

Onoki didn't want the Iwagakure forces to follow in the footsteps of the Sunagakure forces. One such joke was enough for the ninja world; Iwagakure couldn't become the protagonist in it.

Only when Sakamoto Tatsuma is confined to a certain battlefield can the Iwa ninjas gain enough profit from their actions. The task of entangled with Sakamoto Tatsuma will be left to the Sunagakure village, which will inevitably become the Third Kazekage, or... those big-breasted, brainless Kumo ninjas!

After quickly analyzing and planning in his mind, Onoki slammed his hand on the table, about to stand up and issue the latest instructions, but...

"Click~"

"Ah! My back is killing me, damn Sakamoto Tatsuma!"

"Fake news! Absolutely fake news!"

In the Hidden Cloud Village of the Land of Lightning, in the Raikage's office, the Third Raikage tore the intelligence report in his hand to shreds and said, "How old is that Sakamoto Tatsuma?! When our generation ventured into the ninja world, his father wasn't even born yet!"

"I've fought the Third Kazekage before, how could I possibly be killed by a twenty-year-old?!"

A ninja wearing an eye patch, whose figure appeared much smaller than the other Cloud Ninja in the office, spoke up: "Lord Raikage, we have verified this information from multiple sources, and it is not wrong."

Sakamoto Tatsuma does indeed possess the strength to kill tailed beasts and Kage. We can no longer regard him as a future threat; he is already a huge threat in the present.

Furthermore, Wood Release endowed him with the ability to fight against an entire ninja army single-handedly. Based on the reactions of the Sand Ninja who participated in the battle, we have reason to suspect that Sakamoto Tatsuma possesses the ability to extract the chakra of others for his own use.

In other words, the traditional ninja strategy of overwhelming a strong opponent with sheer numbers is highly unlikely to work against Sakamoto Tatsuma.

The Third Raikage waved his hand dismissively, saying, "A ninja who can be overwhelmed by numbers can't be considered strong! But since we can't overwhelm Sakamoto Tatsuma, how do we kill him? Tsuchidai, do you have any ideas?"

After pondering for a moment, Tsuchida said, "The best way is to stop pursuing the killing of Sakamoto Tatsuma. At the very least, our Hidden Cloud Village must extricate itself from this goal."

"What nonsense are you spouting?! I asked how to kill Sakamoto Tatsuma, not just tell me not to kill him?! Are you suggesting I let him die of old age?!"

The Third Raikage was furious, but Tsuchida nodded and said, "From the current perspective, that is indeed the case. Killing Sakamoto Tatsuma is the most worthless thing to do, and waiting for him to die of old age is not a bad option."

Even if he could recapture the glory of the First Hokage, he could only dominate the ninja world for a few decades, as long as he could endure it.

"Endure?! Tell me, what are you going to endure?! That bastard killed a Jinchuriki this year, and will eat two Tailed Beasts next year. In a few decades, he'll have enough time to devour and excrete the Five Great Nations several times over!"

"Bang!"

As they were talking, another desk broke down. Tsuchida picked up the scattered papers on the ground. Fortunately, because of the Third Hokage's bad temper, they no longer put too many documents on the Third Raikage's desk, otherwise cleaning it up would be a time-consuming task.

"Lord Raikage, I know this is hard for you to accept, but... think about it from another perspective, who could have killed Hashirama Senju? Yet, hasn't he lost his dominance over the ninja world now?"

After tidying up the scattered documents, Tsuchikage said, and the Third Raikage frowned, seemingly agreeing.

"Sakamoto Tatsuma is not Senju Hashirama. He's not someone who's content with what he has. Do you think Konoha's small territory is enough for him to do his thing?"

The Third Raikage was no longer as irritable, but he was still very dissatisfied with Tsuchida's suggestion. Tsuchida said, "Actually, Raikage-sama, what you just mentioned about Sakamoto Tatsuma's actions against other major ninja villages..."

Even without Sakamoto Tatsuma, Konoha would still have similar missions, just with someone else carrying them out. Of course, they might not go as far as Sakamoto Tatsuma did, but...

There is currently no evidence to suggest that Tatsuma's actions deviated from the village's mission. And once he becomes Hokage, do you think he will still be responsible for these missions?

"What do you mean?"

"Sakamoto Tatsuma is just a ninja who completes his missions in the ninja village very well. But when he becomes the one who gives the orders, the person who carries out the mission will be someone else, and they may not be as good as him."

Although I have some wishful thinking, I personally don't think Sakamoto Tatsuma is an absolute radical. In fact, looking at his resume, everything he did was within limits. He may be a stronger Tobirama Senju, but he is not Madara Uchiha.

So even if he survives, I think other ninja villages might face a difficult period, but they won't lose their ability to survive and function.

Therefore, I still suggest that even if war is inevitable, there is no need to make Sakamoto Tatsuma the primary target. Rather than doing something impossible, it is better to profit from it, even if it is not something to be astute as it sounds.

"It would be good to accumulate some wealth for the future of Kumogakure, to get through Sakamoto Tatsuma's reign."

As soon as Tsuchida finished speaking, the Third Raikage became thoughtful. In fact, he had already abandoned the idea of ​​killing Sakamoto Tatsuma as the purpose of the war on a small scale. Of course, the initial purpose was to protect his successor.

Before today, his impression of Sakamoto Tatsuma was that of a powerful and talented ninja, invincible in battle, but like most strong people, he had no ability to influence the entire battlefield.

But today, it has been proven that Sakamoto Tatsuma is not only extremely influential in small-scale battles, but also has a dominant force in war. As a result, the difficulty of killing Sakamoto Tatsuma has increased to another level.

Perhaps, as Tsuchida said, abandoning Sakamoto Tatsuma as the primary target of the war would have been the wiser decision, but...

"How can we defeat Konoha and seize profits without dealing with Sakamoto Tatsuma?"

"They're diverting the blame eastward, driving wolves to fight tigers, watching the fire from across the river, and taking advantage of the chaos. Sunagakure won't just admit defeat like this; they'll definitely launch a large-scale war next. Of course, one battlefield might not be enough, since Sakamoto Tatsuma is not only a Wood Release ninja but also a Flying Thunder God ninja."

Therefore, we need to either entice Iwagakure to join the war, but Onoki won't easily go into battle. The only other option is to involve Kirigakure. I think that even if we have to sacrifice more people, we must reveal Sakamoto Tatsuma's true identity to Kirigakure.

(End of this chapter)