Saving the Uchiha clan starts with becoming the clan leader.

Unfortunately,

He was ultimately just the son of the Tsuchikage and could not disobey the Tsuchikage's orders and will.

“I can’t sense even the slightest sincerity in your words… However, just remember to relay my orders.”

Onoki waved his hand.

I'm very angry.

But there's nothing he can do. After all, this big-breasted, but not-so-bright idiot is his son. Taking his anger out on this idiot won't really help. Onoki doesn't want to be disliked or even hated by his precious granddaughter if he upsets Kurotsuchi.

but,

It's still a pity!

Huang Tu wasn't the kind of genius who could draw inferences from a single instance or understand the future from a single leaf. That was fine, though; it's common for a tiger father to have a dog son. Besides, Huang Tu wasn't bad, to be honest. It was just that Onoki's expectations were too high, and he couldn't meet them. So, Huang Tu, who succeeded him as the new Tsuchikage, naturally became the 'dog son'.

However, what Onoki was most dissatisfied with was not this matter, but Huang Tu's stubbornness.

Even Onoki couldn't handle that stubbornness that wouldn't budge once he made up his mind. What was even more infuriating was that Huang Tu's thoughts were never aligned with his own. His son should have been his staunchest supporter, but in reality, Huang Tu would question his decisions as the Tsuchikage from time to time!

In other words, the loess soil is his son.

Otherwise, if it were Wenya and the others, they would have been sent to the border defense force by Onoki to retire long ago, obediently guarding the long border of the country! But there's nothing he can do, Huangtu is his son!

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

"Damn it! Damn it! Those bastards from Iwagakure, those damned rats, those vile insects! I'm going to beat them all into mincemeat!!"

The phrase "furious" perfectly encapsulates the Fourth Raikage's state at this moment. Upon hearing the news of the attack on Kumogakure by Iwa ninja, A felt a chill run down his spine, instantly losing all his strength and nearly fainting.

However, as the Raikage, A is not so easily defeated. In fact, he has already experienced enough setbacks recently. He gritted his teeth and persevered, and was not defeated by this devastating news!

After recovering,

Lord Raikage then became enraged!

That burning rage could almost incinerate a person. The desk had been smashed to pieces by Ai in his rage, and the bookshelves and other furnishings in the room were destroyed in an instant. After there was nothing left to destroy in the house, he demolished the entire house with his bare hands. This was the Land of Hot Springs, which had been occupied by the Cloud Ninja and used as a base. The Konoha Ninja had also settled in another town not far away, becoming neighbors with the Cloud Ninja, which would facilitate negotiations and allow them to monitor the Cloud Ninja and prevent them from making any trouble.

No one was injured in the collapsed house.

While A was going berserk, Tsuchida was also in the house. He pulled Hii away from the enraged Raikage and used Lava Release: Protective Wall to block most of the falling debris before the house collapsed, allowing the Cloud Ninja who were working in the house to escape. Only one unlucky guy was hit on the shoulder by a piece of tile that fell by the wrong way, and his shoulder was bruised.

The damage was limited to this point and did not escalate further.

And coincidentally, Hijiri, one of the top medical ninjas in Kumogakure, was also there. He used the Palm Healing Technique to treat that unfortunate fellow.

at the same time,

After a period of intense anger, Ai finally calmed down. Standing on the ruins, he took deep breaths to suppress his rage. Hearing a noise behind him, he turned around and saw Tu Tai approaching. His facial muscles twitched a few times, and he forced himself to say, "I'm so sorry to have made you witness this unbearable scene again, Tu Tai."

Last time,

When A's father, the Third Raikage, died, A, in a fit of rage, wreaked havoc in Kumogakure, creating more than a dozen huge holes in the walls of the Raikage Building, all of which he smashed open with his bare hands.

“Sometimes anger can also cheer a person up, and it’s not a bad thing to lose your temper occasionally. However, Raikage, the situation is urgent, and we have no time to waste. We must return to the village as soon as possible, otherwise… if we are too late, it may be too late for anything.”

"...Tsuchitai, do you think this could also be part of Konoha's scheme?"

"Whether it is or not is not important now. It's best not to think too much about it, Raikage. The most important thing right now is to end the negotiations and return to the village with the Jinchuriki and the army."

"Tsuchikage, I want to take down those Iwa ninja bastards!"

Ai's voice was not loud.

However, the deep-seated hatred was so intense that it was impossible not to hate. The death of the Third Raikage was a scar in the hearts of the Cloud Village ninja, and it was a hatred that A had never forgotten. However, from the perspective of the village's overall situation, it would be difficult to gain anything from the expedition to the Iwa Village ninja. They might even suffer a great loss in the face of Onoki's Dust Release!

Therefore, A suppressed the hatred and disgust he felt for the Iwa ninja.

Onoki attempted to join forces with the Iwa ninja to take advantage of Konoha's weakest moment, but the Iwa ninja did not cooperate. Initially, they did indeed move south and take away Konoha's forces, but Onoki quickly demonstrated what it means to be fickle. The Iwa ninja abandoned their non-formally allied ally, the Kumo ninja, without any burden and colluded with Konoha.

Then, while the main force of the Cloud Ninja was entangled with the Leaf Village, they launched a surprise attack on the Cloud Ninja.

So-called old and new grudges are nothing more than this!

Ai couldn't help but regret it now. If he had known this would happen, he wouldn't have started the war with Konoha. He should have crossed the sea to fight Iwa ninja for revenge... Now he hadn't gained any advantage from Konoha, but instead had been bitten hard by Iwa ninja. This pain and anger were brewing in Ai's heart.

"There will be a chance, there definitely will be a chance, as long as we can go back to the village."

Tu Tai said softly.

His anger was no less than the Raikage's, but his reason restrained his rage. He could not vent his emotions as recklessly as the Raikage. On the contrary, as the strategist of Kumogakure and as the Raikage's assistant, his task was to assist the Raikage.

to this end,

He must maintain a clear mind, rather than leaving the Raikage with an equally angry and irrational Raikage as his assistant.

"Turtle Island, the legacy left by our ancestors is about to be lost in my hands... I, the Raikage, am truly a failure."

Ai chuckled self-deprecatingly, but the weakness and helplessness on the Raikage's face vanished instantly, leaving only steely resolve. "Tsuchikage, if Konoha wants Turtle Island, give it to them. Go tell Konoha that I have agreed to all their demands, but in return, they must agree to one of my demands: Konoha must release Killer Bee, Yugito Nii, and Darui as soon as possible."

Compared to the safety of the village, Turtle Island and such are completely unimportant now.

In comparison, Killer Bee and the two Jinchūriki, along with Darui and other elite soldiers who had fallen into Konoha's hands... these are the Cloud Ninja's more valuable treasures!

"Yes, Lord Raikage!"

Tu Tai respectfully replied, "Please rest assured, I will go and negotiate with Konoha immediately!"

Just now, Ai asked if all of this was Konoha's scheme. Tsuchitai thought it was half and half. That old guy Onoki was not a kind person who would listen to orders. If he were to speculate, he felt that Konoha should have cooperated with Iwagakure to some extent. Both sides had their eyes on Kumogakure, but the two sides did not have any real understanding or agreement.

after all,

Onoki is notoriously fickle, and the Cloud Ninja have certainly had their fill of suffering because of him.

[Chapter 221. The Prisoners]

The life of a prisoner is extremely agonizing, with terrible food, poor living conditions, and constant torture. If it were just physical torture, it wouldn't be so bad, to be honest. The most terrifying thing is memory reading, where everything about you is 'seen' by others.

Many people attempt suicide, but very few succeed, and in the end, they only add to their suffering!

Darui initially considered suicide, but quickly dismissed the idea, because death could not protect the secrets in their minds. A Jonin from the Konoha Mountain Clan extracted a great deal of information from the corpses in front of the prisoners, making the Cloud Ninja realize in despair that death was not the end.

Of course, Darui was also aware that there were all sorts of limitations to reading memories from corpses, and it was definitely not as powerful as the demonstration showed. However, when he saw the corpse of his dead companion, he suddenly realized that death was just an escape, and there was hope in living. No matter how slim the chance was, it was better than dying and losing everything!

As for intelligence secrecy

Perhaps their memories were already searched while they were unconscious when they were first arrested.

but,

What truly made the decision was when he heard from the patrolling jailers that the Eight-Tails Jinchuriki had also been captured. This bombshell left Darui completely stunned. How could this be? That was Killer Bee, the perfect Jinchuriki!

Whether he believes it or not, that seems to be the truth.

Darui abandoned his suicidal thoughts and began to try to survive. He wanted to find a chance to escape and rescue Killer Bee... Unfortunately, he couldn't find any chance to escape. With Hyuga clan ninjas acting as jailers, planning an escape under the watchful eyes of the Byakugan was just a pipe dream.

The handcuffs and leg irons on their hands and feet suppressed their chakra. In addition, they had to take drugs that suppressed chakra activation every day under the watchful eyes of the prison guards. At this point, they were only slightly stronger than ordinary people, but even so, they probably couldn't even deal with a Chunin from Konoha.

As time went on, more and more Cloud Ninja were captured, and the originally empty temporary prison became crowded. The Konoha ninja even had to expand the temporary prison to accommodate the growing number of Cloud Ninja prisoners. Every day, Konoha ninjas who served as jailers would boast in the prison about how many Cloud Ninja had been captured that day.

The jailers were definitely exaggerating. After all, according to them, they killed one or two thousand Cloud Ninja every day. If you calculate the time, even if you included all the children from the Ninja Academy, the Cloud Village wouldn't have that many people. However, Darui was also certain that the situation on the battlefield was not optimistic.

One can glean some insight from this expanded temporary prison and the mental state of the guards.

"Darui, aren't you going to give up yet?"

The speaker was a Cloud Ninja locked in the cell to Darui's right. He was a burly man with dark skin and white hair, and he and Darui were both Jonin. They had worked together on missions when Darui was still a Chunin, but they never expected to become neighbors in a place like this.

The burly man, who had lost his right hand and right leg in the battle, leaned against the iron bars, peering out at Darui, who was wearing handcuffs and shackles, practicing squats in the cramped cell. "What's the point of you doing this? Our lives are over. If we're lucky, we might get a bigger cell later. If we're unlucky... we might not even get to eat in prison."

"There has to be some hope, otherwise I'm afraid I won't be able to keep going!"

Darui stubbornly did squats, and after doing a thousand squats, he started doing push-ups. He wasn't angry or impatient with his former 'senior's' pessimistic and negative attitude, because he had seen his senior stroking the spot where his arm and leg were broken at night.

Having lost a hand and an arm, even if he returned to Kumogakure, he would no longer be able to continue being a ninja!

"Hope?"

The burly man muttered something, his left hand unconsciously touching the still throbbing wound on his right shoulder. His lowered gaze fell on his right leg, which only extended to the knee and then stopped there. The limbs below the knee had disappeared on that bloody battlefield.

An unnamed rage filled his chest.

"What hope is there? What hope is there? Didn't you hear what those guys who got arrested a few days ago said? We've already lost!"

Darui remained silent, continuing his training in quiet. He dared not say that he could understand his senior's despair, but he had his own principles. And to be honest, in this dark and hopeless prison, one always had to hold on to something, otherwise the omnipresent despair and pain would overwhelm a person.

As for what I learned from my new comrades a few days ago about the end of the war... the Cloud Ninja suffered a great defeat, and the Leaf Village won a great victory!

The victorious jailers confirmed this.

but,

To be honest, Darui wasn't really desperate. He had already prepared himself for this outcome. When he learned that Killer Bee had been captured, he knew that this war with Konoha was unlikely to end well. As a defeated party, he deeply felt the power of Konoha, or more accurately, the Uchiha clan!

Unlike his comrades who showed despair upon hearing the news of defeat,

Darui, on the contrary, felt he saw an opportunity!

He had been pondering how the Cloud Ninja would deal with these prisoners. Logically speaking, after so much time had passed, most of the secrets in their minds had already been read, but Konoha hadn't disposed of these useless trash in their own eyes.

This puzzled him.

Or,

They weren't just useless trash who only produced garbage; they still had some use. So, a small flame called 'hope' burned in Darui's heart. Perhaps these prisoners really did have a chance to see the light of day again.

"Click!"

That was the sound of the heavy iron gate of the temporary prison being opened.

Then,

A series of rapid footsteps echoed through the corridor. Many Cloud Ninjas looked up because the footsteps were unusually loud. They didn't sound like the patrolling footsteps of jailers. Judging from the density of the footsteps, there were definitely more than ten people coming.

Most of the ninjas imprisoned in this temporary prison were battle-hardened Chunin, and some were even Jonin like Darui. Even though their chakra was suppressed, their past experience and judgment had not disappeared, and they accurately analyzed a lot of information from the unusual footsteps.

quickly,

A group of Konoha ninjas appeared before the Cloud ninjas. Many of them even recognized the name of the Konoha ninja walking at the front: Kakashi Hatake, the son of Konoha's White Fang and the renowned Sharingan user. The white-haired man wearing a mask swept his cold, single eye over the Cloud ninjas around him, finally stopping his gaze on Darui, who was doing push-ups.

The group stopped outside Darui's cell.

The jailer following behind the group quickly stepped forward and opened the cell door. Kakashi stared at Darui and said coldly, "Darui, come out!"

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.