I am the new Hokage of Konoha.

Upon hearing this, Onoki remained completely calm and said indifferently, "What? Has someone complained to you?"

Huang Tu gritted his teeth and nodded, saying, "Indeed! Many ninjas in the village have many complaints about the large number of missions being taken away from the village."

For the Iwa ninja who still operate under the traditional model, the village's annual quota of tasks is fixed.

Unfortunately, their Tsuchikage always liked to delegate some of the dangerous but rewarding missions to bounty hunters.

No anti-theft

Once or twice is fine, but if it happens too often, it will naturally cause complaints.

The expenses of ninjas are already high, and now that outsiders are taking a cut of their rewards, the Iwa ninjas, whose income has decreased, are naturally very dissatisfied.

As for the mission being dangerous...

Those who can continue to persevere in the work of a ninja, who would truly be afraid of danger?

As a result, many Iwa ninja have come to Huang Tu to complain about this matter, hoping that he can persuade the Tsuchikage to change his mind.

"Hmph! Short-sighted!"

Onoki snorted coldly at this, looking at his son with some disappointment.

“The people below may not understand, but don’t you? After five years of accumulation, the situation in the ninja world is like a powder keg that could explode at any moment. This is precisely the time when Iwagakure is gathering all its strength to prepare for a new round of war that may occur at any time. How can we allow our elite forces to be wasted on other unimportant things?”

"Let those bounty hunters from the underground black market handle it. If they succeed in completing the mission, that's fine. If they fail, they can weaken the forces of these Iwa ninja who are independent of the others, preventing them from causing trouble in the future. All they have to pay is a little money. It's a win-win situation, so why not do it?"

The loess soil is silent.

Her father had always been known as "Two Scales" in the ninja world.

This is a compliment to his shrewd mind, which is as precise as a scale.

And that was indeed the case. Under his father's leadership, Iwagakure did not win many battles in the Shinobi World Wars, but their losses were relatively small compared to other countries. They also occasionally made a fortune through their superior methods.

My father deserves immense credit for the development of Iwagakure Village today.

but!

Sometimes being too shrewd isn't necessarily a good thing.

The father only saw the benefits of outsourcing dangerous missions, but he never thought that true strength is forged through various dangerous missions.

Just like those geniuses in Konoha that their father admired so much, weren't they all honed through A-rank and S-rank missions?

Although many geniuses perished on missions, those who grew up played an even greater role.

One of the reasons why Iwagakure is facing a generational gap is that the father protected the Iwagakure ninja too well.

Although Huang Tu was well aware of these things, when he faced his father, the Third Tsuchikage who had been in charge for many years, he opened his mouth slightly but ultimately did not dare to refute the latter, choosing to remain silent as usual.

This reaction is also the reason why Onoki has never considered passing the position of Fourth Tsuchikage to him.

The former was well aware that his son was not suited for the role of a general and was only fit to be a vanguard.

In comparison, it would be better to pass it on to Heitu.

At least the other party dared to pull his beard and boldly criticize him.

However, although Kurotsuchi has outstanding ninja talent and good leadership skills, she is still too young and has only recently graduated from the Ninja Academy.

At this moment, Onoki, unaware of what Huang Tu was thinking, assumed he had convinced the other party and continued, "The Four Kage Summit has not yet been held, and now is not the time to disturb Konoha. Having Akatsuki attack the Fire Country Railway Construction Team in our place is the best option. Akatsuki has successfully completed many tasks for us in the past, and I think they will succeed this time as well."

"Furthermore..." Onoki's eyes flashed coldly as he said this, "Even if Konoha is on guard, it doesn't matter. Let Akatsuki and Konoha fight like dogs. You know, the recent investigation into Rōshi's disappearance shows that it has some connection with Akatsuki."

"Xiao? Lao Zi?" Huang Tu's expression suddenly changed.

It's important to know that although Old Purple left the village in anger due to his disagreement with the Tsuchikage's ideals, as the Jinchūriki of the Four-Tails, his strength was undoubtedly very powerful.

How could members of the Akatsuki organization have this ability?

Huang Tu could hardly believe it.

While his own son had some doubts, Onoki, who had dealt with the Akatsuki organization many times and had also obtained a lot of information about them, was well aware of their strength.

Although there is no direct evidence to suggest that Rōshi's disappearance is related to the Akatsuki organization.

However, considering that someone wearing a black trench coat with red clouds had been seen near the scene of the incident, Onoki immediately identified the target.

He used to wonder if the Akatsuki organization, which had recruited so many powerful individuals, was really content to be just a bounty hunter organization.

Now that he realized that their target was the Tailed Beast, he understood.

Although I don't know what Xiao's purpose is.

However, it's best to address this potential threat first.

"Let you go and fight Konoha to the death first! Given Konoha's current domineering ways, if you suffer a loss, you'll definitely seek revenge. Then, I'll release the information about Akatsuki, hehe..."

Unaware that Konoha had already gathered intelligence, Onoki was now smugly making plans in his mind.

Meanwhile, Huang Tu, seeing his father's familiar sly smile, knew that someone was about to be in trouble, and immediately felt relieved. He then obediently stayed where he was and waited.

"Huh? Huang Tu, why are you still here?" After a long while, Onoki, who had come back to his senses, looked at his silly son still here and asked in confusion.

"Alright, since you're here, there's one more thing you need to do now." Onoki stopped Huang Tu, who was about to turn around, and said seriously, "Go to the communications squad and write a secret letter to urge the Raikage. Now, only the Cloud Ninja haven't agreed to the Four Kage meeting. What are you dawdling for at this point? Ask the Raikage if he's been scared by Konoha and doesn't dare to make any more moves."

"Yes!" Huang Tu immediately went to do it.

......

Hidden Cloud Village.

As the second largest ninja village in the ninja world after Konoha, the village suffered a crushing defeat five years ago, after which its strength, reputation, and economy plummeted.

Despite five years of recuperation, the development of Kumogakure has stagnated due to the enormous pressure of war reparations.

Now, the village is almost exactly the same as it was five years ago, and even more dilapidated.

Fortunately, there's always a way out.

The five-year deadline has passed. With the Hidden Cloud Village using resources from Peter to pay Paul and with the covert assistance of the other three great nations, the war reparations have finally been paid off.

With all the Cloud Ninja prisoners of war and the two Jinchūriki returning, and their necks no longer bound by shackles, they were finally able to regroup and truly develop their power.

However, this period of good fortune was short-lived, as the four-way alliance from Iwagakure, Sunagakure, and Kirigakure continued to make demands and urge them on.

Although they knew that Konoha's current astonishing rate of development meant they could no longer afford to delay.

However, each party has its own interests and demands.

For Iwagakure, Sunagakure, and Kirigakure, who have largely recovered and regrouped, containing Konoha's actions is of utmost urgency.

However, for the Hidden Cloud Village, which had just caught its breath and still had a long way to go before recovering, this time was not so favorable.

At this moment, in Raikage's office.

Having just received an urgent letter from Iwagakure, Mabui handed the decrypted letter to Ai.

After opening it and taking a look, the Fourth Raikage, A, sighed slightly:

"They're urging us again!"

The members of the family knew their own situation well. Although they understood that the current situation could not be delayed, the Yunren were indeed in a bad situation at the moment.

Especially two years ago, even though the Land of Lightning, together with the other three great powers, put pressure on the Land of Fire, trying to force the Land of Fire to stop the railway connecting the Land of Hot Springs and the Land of Frost, the latter firmly refused.

With the Iwa ninja and others not yet fully recovered, and many Kumo ninja prisoners of war still in Konoha's hands, leaving them with no choice but to give up, the railway leading directly to Konoha has now been successfully built to the doorstep of the Land of Lightning.

This means that the Konoha army was able to launch a lightning strike into the Land of Lightning in less than a day.

Given their unfavorable strategic position, it's quite normal for the Yunren to hesitate.

However, the Fourth Raikage, A, was a sensible person.

He knew that if they didn't join forces now, the Cloud Ninja would only face a slow death.

Given Konoha's current ambitions, once they are fully prepared, their first prey will likely be the nearby and weakest Cloud Ninja.

So, in the end, we still have to give it our all!

The Fourth Raikage's eyes were filled with ferocity. He quickly clenched his fists, about to habitually slam them onto the table, when he suddenly remembered his dire financial straits and abruptly stopped.

Then, after taking a few deep breaths, he awkwardly and slowly withdrew his large, reluctant hand, and shouted with a disgruntled expression:

"Sack clothes!"

"exist."

"Go and write back to that old man Onoki, and tell him that Kumogakure has agreed!"

"Yes!"

The man in linen clothes turned around and started moving nimbly.

At the same time, a hint of emotion flashed in her eyes, and she sighed softly in her heart.

The moment has finally arrived.

Chapter 183 Kakuzu, Hidan, Asuma

The Land of Grass.

As a small country sandwiched between the Land of Fire, the Land of Earth, and the Land of Wind, it has always acted like a weather vane, maneuvering between the major powers. It has relied on passing on information between the three countries, establishing prisons to house prisoners from various villages, and allowing ninjas from the three countries' ninja villages to act arbitrarily in its territory in exchange for a chance to survive.

As for armed resistance?

The once-powerful but now half-dead Rain Country next door has provided a stark counterexample.

Therefore, resistance is impossible.

Even though they know that Konoha's construction of a railway to the Land of Grass poses a great threat not only to the Land of Earth but also to the Land of Grass itself.

But neither the officials of the Land of Grass nor the Grass Ninjas paid any attention to it.

As if it had nothing to do with her, she closed the door and continued doing her own thing.

To this end, Onoki dispatched representatives from the Iwagakure village to Kusagakure to try to persuade the village leader through both threats and reason, but the latter remained unmoved.

Like a lump of dough that never gets angry, you can mold it however you want, but there's absolutely no way I'll take action.

You have to understand that the Grass Ninja, who have been used to submitting to the strong for many years, are fine with bullying weaker forces, but if they were to attack Konoha, the strongest ninja in the world, they would probably scatter as soon as the order is given.

To put it bluntly, they are terribly bullies who prey on the weak and fear the strong.

Did the leader of the Grass Village not know the great danger that Konoha's construction of the railway in the Land of Grass would bring to the Grass Village?