Konoha: This Uchiha is extremely sneaky

Chapter 244 Cooperation

"Konoha's intentions are quite clear this time! I think we should just kill that messenger and resume the war with Konoha!"

Just as Toshiro and Pakura were strolling around Sunagakure, a loud voice rang out in the high-level conference room of Sunagakure.

Moreover, his words were malicious, and he threatened to kill Toshiro from the very first word.

"Fuyi, your thinking is too radical. Even if we don't cooperate with Konoha, there's no need to kill the Hokage's messenger!"

"Why keep him alive if we don't kill him? I heard that the messenger was a member of the Uchiha clan. We can learn some secrets of the Sharingan through his corpse."

"Hmph! I've heard that someone has already sent men several times to try and kill Konoha's messengers. The most laughable thing is that they actually failed! How shameful! With this level of skill, they still want to continue the war with Konoha? Aren't they afraid of becoming a laughingstock?"

"Yellow Sand...you!"

For every person who disagrees, there is someone who agrees. As another voice rang out, the high-level conference room erupted into a heated argument.

This is why Toshiro was at a border post, using the channels of the Sand Village ninja to spread the news of his arrival to the higher-ups of the Sand Village. He even waited three days for this.

If he were to rashly come to Sunagakure to deliver a message all by himself, even if the Sunagakure ninjas didn't arrest him as a spy, there would probably be plenty of Sunagakure ninjas to cut off his head.

But now that the news has been made public, naturally someone will help him fend off these malicious Sand Ninja.

"Even if we don't kill him, are we really going to go to war with the Mist Ninja and the Iwa Ninja for some personal gain?"

"In that case, our casualties will be considerable!"

As soon as this topic was brought up, the meeting room erupted in chatter and discussion.

"Rasa! Are you really sure you want to form an alliance with Konoha?"

After a long while, an older Sand Village elder finally remembered that they had a superior and began to ask Rasa for his opinion.

"An alliance?"

"This matter still needs to be discussed..."

With his eyes lowered, Luo Sha responded to the other person's question in a detached manner, his words ambiguous, his face expressionless, making it impossible to tell what he was thinking.

As the Wind Shadow, he certainly wouldn't express his meaning directly.

Even if he inwardly favored this approach.

"I think we should try to improve relations with Konoha. Our Sunagakure village is the weakest of the five great ninja villages. Instead of trying to confront Konoha head-on, we should form an alliance with them!"

If you can't beat them, join them. The Sand Village ninja understand this simple principle.

Although Luo Sha did not express his opinion, he was not in charge of the position of Feng Ying for nothing, and naturally had his own supporters who spoke on his behalf.

"What about those compatriots who died at Kikyō Castle? Did they sacrifice themselves in vain?"

The Sand Village elder named Fugi called out those who had already perished beneath Kikyo Castle to speak.

"However! Since our defeat last time, our country has been impoverished, and the daimyo is no longer willing to support us."

"Without new sources of funding, our Sand Village will grow weaker and weaker!"

"..."

That's indeed the case. In the last war with Konoha, the fighting had already reached the Sand Village within the Land of Fire. In order to gain the support of the Daimyo, they described to him the benefits such as land and reparations after the war.

When it comes to the title of Daimyo, he didn't mince words and handed over his already meager resources to the Sand Village.

However, things didn't go as planned. They failed to live up to expectations and ultimately stalled at the gates of Kikyo Castle, ending in a dismal defeat.

The great name, which was full of hope, was 'pigeoned' quite badly.

After the war was lost, the government refused to allocate funds to Sunagakure Village, citing the depletion of the national treasury.

Coupled with the post-war economic depression, the already limited number of missions within the Land of Wind has been drastically reduced, and now the Sand Village is truly on the verge of starvation.

Seeing that the debate had nearly ended, Luo Sha spoke up at this moment. He did not ask for the opinions of the elders, nor did he even pay attention to Fu Yi, who had been contradicting him.

Instead, he looked directly at Granny Chiyo, who had remained silent the entire time.

"Elder Chiyo? What do you think?"

As Luo Sha finished speaking, the entire conference room became so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

Everyone turned their attention to the Chiyo siblings, who had been feigning sleep to the side.

"Sister...sister?"

Seeing that her sister hadn't moved for a while, Ebizo, who was standing next to her, gently touched her sister's arm twice to remind her that this was a meeting room, not the time for her to play dead.

"Oh! Are you in a meeting?"

Startled awake by her younger brother, Chiyo seemed to have just come to her senses, looking as if she had just realized what had happened.

"The Jinchūriki of the One-Tailed Beast seems to be dying too!"

Chiyo didn't mention the Konoha issue that everyone had just been discussing at all. Instead, she steered the conversation to the completely unrelated One-Tailed Jinchuriki.

The current Jinchūriki of Sunagakure are indeed nearing their breaking point.

"Granny Chiyo, I've already made arrangements in that regard. However, I hope you can... consider the purpose of Konoha's visit!"

Although Rasa was forced to agree to cooperate with Konoha, he knew that Chiyo's son and daughter-in-law had both died at the hands of Konoha.

Therefore, the words were spoken very tactfully!

"I'm too old for this; let you young people decide these things."

Chiyo glanced at the attendees and realized that apart from herself and Ebizo, there wasn't a single person her age. Feeling a pang of sadness, she left the meeting room after uttering those words.

Now that the future of Sunagakure has been handed over to them, there's no need for us remnants of the old era to stay here and get in the way.

Watching Chiyo walk away in a huff and Ebizo follow in her sister's footsteps, Rasa felt relieved.

Without the objections of Chiyo and her siblings, the matter was settled.

Once Sunagakure has recovered, they can then challenge Konoha.

Just as the Sand Village needed a large sum of money to restore its strength, the Leaf Village also needed time to heal the wounds of war.

Therefore, the Third Hokage, who was not short of money, sent Toshiro over to test the attitude of the Sand Village.

This really put Toshiro in a difficult position.

Although he believed that with his current strength, he could roam freely anywhere in the ninja world, he still felt immense pressure about this high-difficulty task of venturing deep into enemy territory.

Therefore, we were very careful the whole way.

(End of this chapter)