Konoha: Starting with Sage Mode.

Chapter 118 Hanzo's Fear

After a hearty meal, the two toasted each other, their relationship as host and guest was harmonious.

After enjoying a delicious and sumptuous meal, Huang Tu immediately took his leave, saying that he would convey Kirito's offer to the Tsuchikage as soon as possible.

Upon hearing this, Kirito wisely refrained from trying to persuade him to stay, but he personally delivered the yellow earth to the inn's entrance and presented him with a generous gift.

Although Huang Tu was simple-minded, he was not pedantic. He accepted everything that Kirito offered him in his deliberate attempt to win him over.

"Hopefully it will turn out well."

Kirito watched the yellow earth disappear into the night and sighed.

Then, he turned to look at an old man sitting behind the counter.

The old man saw Kirito, who was dressed as Hattori Masanari, looking over.

With a loud "bang".

A wisp of white smoke appeared from the old man's body.

The white smoke disappeared, and Hanzo, the leader of Amegakure, appeared in Kirito's eyes.

At the same time, some of the maids and servants in the inn also changed, and they all returned to their original appearance.

The people in this inn were all actually Rain Ninja transformed using transformation techniques.

"Let's go inside and talk."

Kirito wasn't surprised to see Hanzo and the many Rain Ninja. He spoke softly to Hanzo, then walked back into the inn without fear.

This inn was originally a liaison point set up by Yu Yin in a border town.

Kirito bringing the yellow soil here was a deliberate arrangement on his part, intended to send a signal to Hanzo.

Hanzo did not disappoint him; he came in person.

In fact, Huang Tu knew that this inn was Yu Yin's contact point and had long ago discovered that many of the people in the inn had been replaced, but he still came, and he went to the meeting alone.

This demonstrates his sincerity, audacity, and confidence in his own abilities, making him worthy of the title of son of the Tsuchikage.

Upon hearing Kirito's words, Hanzo stared at Kirito with a cold expression for a moment, then nodded to him and entered an empty private room with him.

At this point, he was very dissatisfied with Hattori Masanari, played by Kirito, for taking it upon himself to make a deal with Iwagakure.

Although he knew that the two elite puppeteers from Sunagakure had been captured by Kirito himself, and that Kirito was now a rogue ninja from Amegakure, so strictly speaking, this transaction had nothing to do with Amegakure, he was still very angry.

The reason is that Kirito is using the name of Amegakure to make a deal with Iwagakure, and he is even bypassing Kirito to make the deal directly with Iwagakure.

Even though Kirito's current transaction location is at Amegakure's intelligence station, which is considered to be informing him, the leader of Amegakure, he still harbors resentment.

He had already heard about the so-called Amegakure split plan from some of his confidants. Although he did not believe that Hattori Masanari would betray Amegakure or sell out its interests, he was indeed wary of Hattori Masanari vying for power with him in the future.

Because of the defeat in the war, the Land of Rain was reduced to ruins, and his prestige in Amegakure was severely damaged. Many voices of opposition to him emerged within Amegakure, and even a large number of rogue ninjas left the village without permission.

Now that Hattori Masashige has consecutively defeated Tsunade and two renowned elite puppeteers from Sunagakure, and given that he has privately declared that he is no longer a rogue ninja, Hattori Masashige's prestige in Amegakure is second only to him.

Once Hattori Masanari successfully exchanges two elite puppeteers from Sunagakure for a large amount of resources from Iwagakure and uses them on Amegakure to help the village overcome its current crisis, his reputation will undoubtedly rise to a new level.

If Hattori Masanari were to rally the troops at that time, he might actually win over many Amegakure ninja who were disappointed in him as their leader.

Judging from Hattori Masashige's current actions, there are signs of this.

The plan to split the Rain Village is something Hanzo the Salamander must be wary of.

"You're afraid of me, Hanzo."

After Kirito and Hanzo entered the room, he confirmed that no one was eavesdropping, and then sneered at Hanzo, who had a very serious expression.

"Masashige, don't you think I should be wary of your unauthorized actions? You can make a deal with Iwagakure on your own initiative because you captured those two people and you exchanged them for benefits from Iwagakure. I have no objection to that, but you shouldn't use Amegakure's name to make a deal with Iwagakure without authorization."

"You brought that son of the Tsuchikage here for a transaction, doesn't that prove you're now a Rain Ninja?"

Hanzo retorted logically and with strong evidence, his voice filled with anger.

"Hmph, you have the nerve to say that? The reason I didn't inform you beforehand and made the deal with Iwagakure is because of your incompetence. I didn't want to be hindered by you, or more accurately, by those Sunagakure spies hiding around you."

Upon hearing this, Kirito explained his reasons without any remorse.

"Zhengcheng, what do you mean by this?"

Upon hearing this, Hanzo's expression changed, and he stared intently into Kirito's eyes, gradually exuding a dangerous aura.

"What do I mean? Haven't I made myself clear enough, or are you just pretending to be confused? Think about why you were so foolish as to launch a war against Konoha back then!"

Kirito said coldly.

By the end, his voice was almost a roar.

During the time he was using White Zetsu clones to operate in the Land of Rain, he frequently used the Spirit Transformation Technique to send his split souls infiltrated Amegakure to gather intelligence.

In contrast to Konoha, where sealing barriers are everywhere and even the entire village is shrouded in a super-large sealing barrier, Amegakure, lacking a foundation in sealing techniques, is like a sieve, full of loopholes, and cannot stop his spiritual transformation technique from detecting anything.

Therefore, he used his spiritual powers to gather a lot of useful information and also secretly obtained some unexpected secrets from some of Hanzo's confidants.

To his great surprise, many of Hanzo's close confidants had secretly been in contact with Konoha, Sunagakure, and Iwagakure, having already found a way out.

Some of them were spies sent by these three ninja villages to infiltrate Amegakure long ago. Among them, the majority were spies from Sunagakure, and many of them held high positions and important roles in Amegakure.

In this way, he could easily imagine how the dignified demigod Hanzo of the Salamander would be dragged down by these spies.

It would be strange if Amegakure could defeat Konoha.

If Hanzo hadn't been so incredibly powerful in the Land of Rain, managing to hold Amegakure up on his own, Amegakure would have been defeated long ago.

No wonder Hanzo remained hidden behind the scenes, never showing himself to anyone, and had many guards around him. These guards rarely saw him. On one hand, his strength had declined too much and he was afraid of dying. On the other hand, he was probably worried that there were spies from other ninja villages around him.

When Kirito mentioned waging war against Konoha, Hanzo's momentum immediately weakened.

He looked into Kirito's eyes, which were filled with resentment, and subconsciously avoided Kirito's gaze, feeling a deep sense of guilt.

His reckless war against Konoha resulted in heavy losses for Amegakure and the Land of Rain, which was the biggest mistake he ever made.

In fact, after the war, he reflected on his actions and realized that it was his own arrogance that led him to mistakenly believe that he and Amegakure could make the Land of Rain the sixth largest country, and he foolishly launched a war against Konoha.

This resulted in a crushing defeat.

However, upon reflection, he realized that his arrogance and reckless challenge to Konoha, the strongest village in the ninja world, was largely due to the constant encouragement and advocacy from his close associates.

It was these very confidants of his who secretly encouraged him to launch a war against Konoha.

"Looks like you're not completely stupid after all. You've already noticed something's wrong with the people around you. Has someone been trying to get you to trade prisoners with Sunagakure lately? You know best what the public opinion in the village is about this prisoner trade. Do you still think I should have told you about my deal with Iwagakure beforehand?"

Kirito, seeing that Hanzo dared not look him in the eye, continued speaking.

Hanzo remained silent, tacitly agreeing with Kirito's words.

Ever since Kirito captured two Sand Village puppeteers, voices of the Sand Village threat theory have quickly emerged in the village, specifically expressing concerns that the Sand Village might launch a war against the Amegakure at this time.

Because of these remarks, Amegakure, which had just barely escaped the quagmire of war, is now filled with anxiety, fearing that the Land of Rain will once again be at war.

As a result, some people kept persuading him to order Hattori Masanari to return the two puppeteers to Sunagakure. Some even suggested returning them to Sunagakure unconditionally and then severely punishing Hattori Masanari, the traitorous ninja who had damaged the friendship between Amegakure and Sunagakure.

If Kirito had informed him in advance that he would be making a deal with Iwagakure, there would have been fierce opposition within the village, which would likely have caused the deal to fail.

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(End of this chapter)