Saving the Uchiha clan starts with becoming the clan leader.

"Everything is for the village!"

He closed his eyes and opened them again, too lazy to think about the future. He only focused on the present. Right now, he just wanted to minimize his losses so that he wouldn't lose everything.

[Chapter 217. The Bystander]

Snowflakes, like goose feathers, swirled and drifted past Ai in the cold wind. The Fourth Raikage of Kumogakure was shirtless, revealing his solid muscles that looked like lumps of iron. The cold weather seemed to have no effect on him, but he was not in good condition.

His left arm was broken, two or three ribs were broken, his internal organs suffered a severe impact, there was a large burn on his right calf, his chakra was almost depleted, and the soldier pills he had taken were almost ineffective... What was most despairing was that the enemy still seemed to be handling the situation with ease.

How could it be this strong?

Ai felt a chill run through her heart.

He completely underestimated Uchiha Sogen's strength. It was somewhat understandable that he couldn't stop Susanoo, but when Uchiha Sogen released Susanoo, he thought he had seen an opportunity. However, even without Susanoo, Uchiha Sogen still slaughtered them so badly that they were all knocked down.

and,

He could sense it.

Uchiha Munen didn't use his full strength at all; it was as if he was toying with them from beginning to end.

"Can't hold on any longer? I thought I could enjoy it a little longer! What a pity!"

Zongxian waved the banana leaf fan in his left hand, and with a gentle wave, the blazing fire surged to the side, burning the Cloud Ninja who was hiding in the bushes and trying to launch a sneak attack with ninjutsu to ashes. The surrounding trees were also burned to ashes. At the same time, he held the flame fan in his right hand and waved it lightly. The lightning that swept across from the other side was absorbed by the fan and then transformed into a storm in an instant, blowing it back and knocking the attacker away, leaving him half dead.

With just two fans,

They moved with unparalleled ease, utterly defeating the Cloud Ninja. Even the Fourth Raikage suffered a severe blow from those two fans. A's broken left arm was caused by colliding with a technique called "Uchiha Rebound," where the impact of the rebound broke the bone. Fortunately, he wasn't amputated, and with some time, it should heal.

There were also burns on Ai's right leg.

That's thanks to the banana leaf fan.

This fan can control all five chakra natures, so hand seals are completely unnecessary. If it weren't for A's extremely fast reaction and movement speed, he might have already been reduced to ashes.

"Why is the Banana Leaf Fan in your hands?"

Ai stared intently at the banana leaf fan in Zongxian's hand.

My mind was filled with countless thoughts.

The Uchiha fan is fine; it's something that belongs to the Uchiha clan, so there's nothing to say about it. But the problem is the Banana Fan... one of the Six Paths Ninja Tools. It originally belonged to the foundation of the Cloud Village. Unfortunately, due to the rebellion sparked by the two beams of light from the Cloud Village, four of the five Six Paths Ninja Tools were lost, leaving only the Amber Purification Bottle in the village.

Now that the Banana Leaf Fan has fallen into the hands of Uchiha Sogen,

Does this mean that the other Six Paths Ninja Tools were also taken by Uchiha Mugen?

"Eh? Is that what you're concerned about now? Shouldn't you be worried about... the bigger picture? Even if you don't care about the bigger picture, don't you even care about your own life?" Zongxian appeared relaxed and at ease, and in fact, he was indeed very relaxed.

Thanks to his smoother communication system than the Cloud Ninja, he had already learned about Shisui's attack on the Cloud Ninja's command post. At this point, the war was only one step away from ending, and this step was by no means an insurmountable obstacle. On the contrary, this final step should be easily crossed.

"The Banana Leaf Fan is a treasure of Kumogakure; it belongs to us."

Ai let out a low growl filled with violent anger in a deep voice.

"Haha! Are you trying to reason with me now?" Zongxian laughed loudly. "How dare you say such things! Have you forgotten how your Cloud Ninja schemed to seize the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki and the Byakugan? Your shamelessness is truly admirable."

Ai remained unmoved by the ridicule and mockery.

They showed absolutely no shame.

"This shamelessness..." Zong Xian clicked his tongue and shook his head. He swung his banana leaf fan hard at the ground, and the ground not far away immediately deformed. The soil swirled like water, forming a vortex. From the churned soil, one or two broken bones with flesh hanging on them could be seen.

"Forget it, it was stupid of me to tell you all this... Anyway, it's now under the Uchiha name." Zongxian waved his banana leaf fan as he spoke. "Lord Raikage, please stop with this pointless nonsense. If I were you, I would be thinking about what price to pay to extinguish Konoha's anger. Look, that eagle must be delivering a message for you!"

Zongxian stopped and did not continue to approach the Fourth Raikage.

Instead, he leisurely watched the agile eagle circling in the air until Ai whistled. Only then did the eagle suddenly swoop down from the sky and land steadily on Ai's raised right arm. It opened its beak and spat out a wax pellet the size of a quail egg into Ai's palm.

After vomiting out this thing,

The eagle suddenly disappeared with a "bang".

Ai squeezed open the wax pill, inside was a letter covered with tiny handwriting. He read it quickly, and his already bad expression turned completely as black as the bottom of a pot. You didn't even need to guess his bad mood; one look was enough to tell just how terrible this Raikage was feeling!

"Useless! Useless! A bunch of useless trash!"

My heart is throbbing with pain!

The incompetence of his subordinates and his own inadequacy fueled his rage, making him feel like his blood was burning. For a moment, he thought of simply fighting Uchiha Mugen, but after that moment passed, reason held firm to his last stronghold!

As the Raikage,

He can lead by example, but he must never act impulsively.

"Stop it all!"

A furious shout echoed through the wind and snow.

The Cloud Ninja lurking nearby all looked astonished. However, the Raikage's orders were absolute. No matter how many questions they had, they could only keep them to themselves. They had no right to question the Raikage's authority.

After stopping his men's largely pointless sneak attack,

Ai Manhuai looked wearily at Zong Xian and asked directly, "What do you want?"

"Surrender and pay reparations."

Zongxian's answer was equally concise.

"...Surrender is fine, but compensation... do you want money? Or supplies?" With the command post captured by Konoha, this battle obviously cannot continue. If they force the fighting to continue, Konoha will certainly suffer, but the Cloud Ninja will definitely be in a worse situation!

at this time,

Surrender is the best way out!

Putting everything else aside, the pressure from Uchiha Sogen alone was making him feel suffocated. If he were to completely enrage Konoha... He wasn't afraid of death, but he absolutely did not want to see the village ravaged by Konoha. If things were to develop to that point, he would have no face to meet his father in the afterlife.

“We can discuss this slowly. I think it’s better to end this war now. The longer it drags on, the greater the losses will be for both sides, and the heavier the compensation you will have to pay.”

Ai was silent for a few seconds.

Turn around,

With his back to Zongxian and not worried about Zongxian launching a sneak attack, he directly summoned all his subordinates who were lurking in the shadows and quickly issued a series of orders, all of which were statements of ceasefire and retreat. Soon, these orders were transmitted down through the Cloud Ninja command post that had already been captured by Shisui.

On this land of hot springs,

The burning flames of war finally died down, and the swirling snowflakes extinguished the flames, temporarily covering the ravaged land. However, given the vitality of the ninja world, it should take only a few years for this land to recover its former beauty!

······

"Why don't you take action?"

In the mountains and forests, a masked man in a black robe sat on a tree branch. A two-faced creature resembling a pitcher plant emerged from the trunk beside him and asked in a gloomy voice, "Such a good opportunity... and you just let it slip by, Obito!"

"Are you blind? Where is there any chance?"

Obito Uchiha glared angrily at the pitcher plant.

"Uchiha Sogen never really went all out from beginning to end. These Cloud Ninja were no match for him at all, including the Raikage. They couldn't force Uchiha Sogen to reveal his trump card. If he wanted to, he could easily defeat these Cloud Ninja with his abilities. This dragging on... I suspect he's fishing for us!"

It goes without saying who this 'fish' is.

Black Zetsu curled his lip, admitting that Obito Uchiha made a lot of sense.

However, he still felt it was a pity to have missed this opportunity. Who knows when he would be able to find another chance to deal with Uchiha Sogen? What bothered him the most was that he saw the shadow of Uchiha Madara in Uchiha Sogen.

The current Uchiha Sogen,

Without realizing it, he has already begun to resemble Madara Uchiha in his domineering and arrogant manner!

Even more so than Madara Uchiha, Madara Uchiha had an even greater invincible aura. After all, Madara Uchiha was unfortunate to have met Hashirama Senju and never became invincible in his entire life. On the other hand, Mugen Uchiha was very lucky. It seems that no one in the ninja world can defeat him head-on!

Nagato still hasn't mastered the power of the Rinnegan.

Facing Uchiha Mugen too early might bring unpredictable changes. Those two Rinnegan are the core element of the plan. To put it bluntly, Obito and Nagato could be sacrificed if necessary, but those two Rinnegan must not be lost!

Therefore,

Black Zetsu never intended for Nagato to deal with his opponent, Uchiha Mugen.

Although if Uchiha Sogen really reaches the heights that Uchiha Madara once achieved... then he will inevitably become a major obstacle to their plans. Putting aside everything else, once the future tailed beast collection plan is launched, it is foreseeable that it will make enemies of the entire ninja world, and sooner or later they will have to confront Uchiha Sogen.

The problem now is that Obito, having already lost once, will likely find it difficult to defeat Uchiha Sogen. While Uchiha Sogen may be fishing for him, Obito possesses Kamui. As long as he avoids a direct confrontation with Uchiha Sogen's eye techniques, he should be able to escape even if he can't win.

However, Obito didn't even have the courage to launch a sneak attack. He watched from the beginning to the end without making a move, which was really disappointing!

"What do we do next? Uchiha Mugen is going to become a big problem in the future!"

Hei Jue asked.

"Just because we can't do anything to him now doesn't mean we can't in the future. Once Nagato has fully mastered the Rinnegan, we'll have a chance if we join forces. If all else fails... we can just have Nagato activate the Rinne Rebirth Technique, wouldn't that fulfill your wish?"

Obito Uchiha stared coldly at Black Zetsu.

This two-faced man is a watcher left behind by that old guy, Madara Uchiha. He not only monitors Madara's every move, but also never forgets to revive Madara Uchiha, even though he doesn't really have much interest in reviving Madara Uchiha, since the Eye of the Moon plan doesn't necessarily need Madara Uchiha to carry it out.

He can do it himself!

Even though he had just been humiliated by Uchiha Sogen, to be honest, he didn't think that he was so badly beaten that he didn't even have the courage to fight back. He was just convinced that Uchiha Sogen was fishing, and that he would not gain anything by making a rash move. In fact, it would be bad if Uchiha Sogen discovered any clues.

Anyway, there's still plenty of time.

When the plan will be officially launched depends on when Nagato fully masters the power of the Rinnegan. Also, the Akatsuki organization is still in its development stage, and now is not the time to confront the Five Great Nations head-on. So... there is no need to rush. The most important quality of a good hunter is patience.

Moreover, life is unpredictable.

Who knows what changes might happen to the Uchiha clan in the future? While Uchiha Mugen's eye technique is indeed amazing, it may not be able to truly avoid the risk of blindness. Perhaps Uchiha Mugen will already be blind by the time the plan is launched?

Of course, this is the most ideal future. Obito Uchiha does not pin his hopes on Mugen Uchiha's self-destruction. His alliance with Nagato is one of the countermeasures, and reviving Madara Uchiha is also one of his backup plans. If it really comes to the point where he has no other choice, he will not refuse the option of reviving Madara Uchiha!

"Alright, let's go! There's nothing else to see!"

Obito Uchiha blinked, and the space around him suddenly distorted, sucking him into that alternate dimension. The empty tree branches, freed from pressure, twitched gently, and a light layer of snowflakes fell from their leaves.

"Uchiha Sogen... he's a real headache!"

The pitcher plant swayed in the cold wind, and Black Zetsu let out a helpless sigh. He only took one deep look at the gradually quieting forest before slowly sinking down and disappearing into the tree trunk.

[Chapter 218. List of Claims]

The Cloud Ninja have surrendered!

The war is over!