I founded the "Bragging Cult" in Naruto.

Chapter 624 People always think they will remember something forever, but the truth is that most things are forgotten.

"Can we leave now?"

This time, it was A who helped Killer Bee, who had broken free, to the barrier that Tatsuma had created, and A asked.

"leave?"

Chenma waved his hand, and the barrier dissipated. He looked at Ai with a puzzled expression, seemingly unable to understand what Ai was saying. Ai's forehead veins throbbed as he said:

"We've wiped out all the Mist Ninja! Can't you let us leave? Are you going to break your promise?!"

As he spoke, the remaining thousand or so Cloud Ninja glared at Tatsuma with resentment. If Tatsuma dared to go back on his word, they wouldn't hesitate to fight to the death again.

"When did I say that I would let you leave as long as you Cloud Ninja annihilate the Mist Ninja?"

"You clearly did before"

The words Ai blurted out got stuck in his throat as soon as he started to speak. Had Tatsuma said he would let the Cloud Ninja leave if they annihilated the Mist Ninja? It seemed not.

He said he would only discuss matters with "the party that can make the decision," and the topic of discussion would still be the previous incident of "the Cloud Ninja and the Mist Ninja joining forces to attack the Leaf Ninja."

It was just that the Cloud Ninja and Mist Ninja thought that as long as one side survived, they could leave this trapped place. Tatsuma himself never said that.

So after all that fighting and risking our lives, all we got in the end was a chance to discuss things. What's the difference between that and the beginning?

Ai stared at Chenma as if he wanted to devour him and drink his blood, but after holding back for a long time, he could only manage a weak "Shameless!"

Killer Bee, no longer the cheerful figure he usually was, glared fiercely at Tatsuma with a look no less menacing than A's, and demanded, "What exactly do you want?!"

Tatsuma sized up the AB duo in front of him, as well as the Cloud Ninjas around him whose eyes were already bloodshot. He knew that there should be a limit to teasing these people, otherwise, if they were provoked, Tatsuma was afraid that he would not be able to hold back once they made a move.

"The Cloud Ninja attacked my Konoha ninja team without cause, which has had a huge impact on the mission Konoha was carrying out and on the impression Konoha made in the eyes of the commissioning party. As a Kage, you can't be ignorant of these things."

"Now, A, tell me, if you were the Raikage, how would you handle this?"

Although he was younger than Ai, Chenma spoke as if he were Ai's elder. Ai was taken aback. According to Chenma, this matter was not difficult to handle.

Conflicts and misunderstandings are inevitable between ninja villages and between ninjas when they go on missions, and the general procedure is as follows.

The party with greater responsibility apologizes and makes up for the losses suffered by the other ninja village. Each ninja village has to issue hundreds of such apologies every year. Anyway, it is not open to the public; it is just a diplomatic procedure.

Ai glanced at the few bags of laundry detergent that Mighty was gradually loading onto the cart, gritted his teeth, and thought, "Did Tatsuma really orchestrate an operation that resulted in thousands of casualties just to get an apology and compensation for those few bags of laundry detergent?"

Everyone knew that Sakamoto Tatsuma was talking nonsense. Even the most foolish person knew that Tatsuma's goal was not for the Cloud Ninja or the Mist Ninja to apologize and compensate them. The casualties of thousands of people were what Tatsuma wanted.

And Tatsuma got what he wanted, but in the end, he even pursued this trivial matter that was the trigger?!

This is absolutely outrageous!

Unfortunately, if Ai wanted to get rid of Tatsuma's troubles, he had to be forced to apologize and make compensation by Tatsuma. His breathing became rapid, and at this moment, he was filled with shame and indignation.

He gritted his teeth and said, "Fine, I apologize. It was wrong of me to obstruct your village's ninjas from carrying out their mission and to accidentally injure one of them! As for compensation, name your price!"

"That's how it should be."

Tatsuma nodded, looking like a promising student, and said, "Actually, transporting these supplies should have been a D-level mission, or at most a C-level mission, but because of the war, as you can understand."

Therefore, Konoha has designated this mission as Rank B in difficulty, and the client has readily accepted. Thus, your village only needs to pay according to the Rank B commission fee; let's take a middle value, 100,000 taels.

Ai was prepared for Tatsuma to make exorbitant demands, and he was prepared to swallow his pride and accept whatever Tatsuma asked for. But he never expected...

"One hundred thousand taels?!"

Making him pay 100,000 taels in compensation after humiliating him is undoubtedly another insult!

Ai's fists clenched tightly. Even if Chenma demanded ten million taels in compensation, he wouldn't be this angry, but ten thousand taels! Who does he think he is?!

"One hundred thousand taels, is that right?!"

Ai reached for her purse, where she usually kept it, but it was empty. Wait, who goes to war with a wallet?!

Realizing that he didn't have any money on him, and that his plan to use money to slap Sakamoto Tatsuma seemed to have failed before it even began, Ai's face darkened even more, and he glanced at Killer Bee beside him.

Killer Bee could only shake his head, indicating that he didn't have any either. Ai looked behind him; a few people in the group did have money, but even with over a thousand people, they couldn't scrape together 100,000 taels.

Looking at the large pile of loose change that the Cloud Ninjas had gathered, Ai felt his blood pressure was so high it was about to burst his blood vessels. His hand, clutching the money, trembled slightly, and his dark face now showed an abnormal redness.

After a while, he managed to suppress his heavy breathing and try to maintain a normal breathing pattern. He looked at Tatsuma and said in a deliberately calm tone, "Write an IOU, and use the company account."

Tatsuma is a highly skilled and professionally trained ninja. He rarely smiles, and his experience training under Jiraiya taught him that a ninja must endure what ordinary people cannot.

"Tch~"

This was very impolite behavior, with limbs scattered everywhere, but Tatsuma couldn't hold back. Santoku pretended to rub his eyelids, covering half of his face with his hand, while Might Guy looked sympathetic, as if he wanted to donate money to Ai.

The young man, Yamashiro Aoba, had already silently turned away, covering his face and sobbing softly, his shoulders shaking incessantly.

To be honest, it was the veteran Maruboshi Kosuke who remained calm and collected, though his teeth grinding was a bit loud.

Tatsuma silently read the entire Will of Fire three times in his mind before barely managing to hold back, nodding and saying, "No need for an IOU, I trust you."

After saying that, he put his hands together, and the huge barricade collapsed. The giant wooden planks crashed down and made a loud noise on the ground. Ai turned around with a dark face and said, "Let's go."

With a short but firm tone, the Cloud Ninja turned around, leaving only a small team to deal with the corpses, while the rest spontaneously headed towards the Land of Lightning.

After taking a few steps, Ai stopped, turned around, and said, "Sakamoto Tatsuma, I will remember today!"

"There will be more sorrowful days to come, days you will remember."

When Tatsuma saw Ai turn back, he called out to him again. Only after Ai stopped and turned back did he say, "Ai, the next time we meet, it will be a battle between us as Shadows."

"snort!"

Ai understood that Tatsuma was certain his father was going to die, and it was a very high probability event. But even though Tatsuma pointed it out, Ai was still extremely angry.

But we can't afford to cause any more trouble. Whether it's engaging in verbal sparring with Tatsuma or actually fighting him, these are not the things we should be doing now.

He had to swallow his anger, return to the village, and then lead the remaining Cloud Ninja to rescue his father. That was what he should really do now. So no matter how angry he was, Ai could only turn around and walk into the mountains.

"Santoku, contact the village and have the southeastern forces concentrate their attack on the Mist Ninja. I don't want any Mist Ninja to leave the Land of Fire alive."

After Ai left, Chenma turned to Sande and said something. Sande nodded, took off the communicator he was carrying, and began to make contact.

The Cloud Ninja who stayed behind to clean up the battlefield felt a chill run down their spines when they heard Tatsuma's tone. In comparison, Sakamoto Tatsuma, the Fourth Hokage, seemed to be quite lenient towards them, the Cloud Ninja.

Whether it was two years ago or now, Tatsuma had never used such a cruel attitude and methods, but the Cloud Ninja couldn't help but feel a sense of shared sorrow.

Although they were just fighting to the death with the Mist Ninja, after the outcome was decided, they belatedly realized that they had overreacted and that Konoha was the biggest winner.

Konoha's victory was brought about by the soon-to-be Fourth Hokage. In the days to come, once Sakamoto Tatsuma truly sits in that position, the calamities for other countries and ninja villages will likely begin.

The reason why the Mist Ninja were completely wiped out this time was simply because they joined the battle late, so Tatsuma chose to carry out a concentrated cleanup.

Kirigakure has probably sent half or more of its fighting force to the two battlefields. One of them is now completely devoid of life, and the other is about to fall as well.

This is probably the day with the greatest loss of ninjas since the establishment of the ninja village system.

The balance of power in the ninja world for the past thirty years is about to be broken again. It is likely that the ninja world will soon return to the situation of the first ten years or so after the establishment of the ninja village system, when Konoha was always the dominant force.

Moreover, it will probably be even more difficult than that period, because Sakamoto Tatsuma is not as benevolent as Senju Hashirama, and he treats life as nothing in his words.

The next flourishing of the ninja world will probably have to wait until Sakamoto Tatsuma passes away. It's unknown whether Sakamoto Tatsuma will die young like Senju Hashirama.

No, Sakamoto Tatsuma is much younger now than Senju Hashirama was when he founded Konoha. Even if Sakamoto Tatsuma had a short lifespan like Senju Hashirama, he could extend the suppression by nearly ten years.

For the next thirty years, other ninja villages will probably find it difficult to even raise their heads. And with Konoha's foundation and Sakamoto Tatsuma's talent, thirty years is probably enough time to take Konoha to a height that other ninja villages cannot catch up with in time.

While the Cloud Ninja were filled with emotion, Santoku had already completed the exchange of information with the village. He stood up and came to Tatsuma's side, saying, "Fourth Hokage, your opinion has been conveyed."

However, the village hopes you will return to Konoha as soon as possible.

Upon hearing this, Tatsuma frowned and asked, "Is there a problem in the Land of Grass? Or in the southeast?"

Santoku shook his head and said, "No, it's about Sunagakure. Pakura and Rasa have reached a point where they have to decide the next Kazekage by force. The village wants you to go back and preside over a meeting to discuss how Konoha should respond to the possibility of Sunagakure taking over as the next Kazekage."

Tatsuma pursed his lips and said, "Alright, I'll go back then. I'll leave this to you. After you've connected the tokens, return to Konoha as soon as possible."

"Yes, Fourth Hokage."

(End of this chapter)