Konoha: Starting with Sage Mode

Therefore, the conservative faction has a strong foundation for survival in Sunagakure.

The conservative faction basically controls the village's economic lifeline, which makes conservative ninjas account for nearly half of the ninjas in Sunagakure. Among them, the number of Jonin who support the conservative faction is no less than that of the martial faction.

However, the conservatives lack sufficient top-tier strength.

The lack of Kage-level shinobi has always been a sore point for the conservative faction in Sunagakure.

Since the founding of Sunagakure, the village has produced many Kage-level shinobi, but without exception, these Kage-level shinobi are all martial arts practitioners, and they all have ambitions for external expansion.

It is precisely because of these martial arts-based Kage-level powerhouses that Sunagakure has been constantly clashing with Konoha and Iwagakure.

Of course, it is also because of them that many powerful ninjutsu were created for Sunagakure, which enabled Sunagakure to develop step by step to become one of the five great ninja villages in the ninja world.

Over the years, the conservative faction has been trying to cultivate its own Kage-level fighters, but the number of talented individuals in Sunagakure is limited, and the conservative faction simply cannot compete with the martial faction, which controls the core martial power of the village.

Recently, the village's genius ninjas like Rasa, Pakura, Karura, Yashamaru, and Sasori have all been taken away by the martial arts faction in advance.

"Now that the militants have Luo Sha, their funding is no longer controlled by us, and the conservatives are likely to have a tough time for quite some time."

Sha Yun thought to himself with deep concern.

Rasa is currently the source of abundant funds in Sunagakure. He has awakened the Magnet Release bloodline limit, and the Magnet Release he awakened is actually the ability to manipulate gold dust, a precious metal.

As a result, Rasa was taken in as a personal disciple by the Third Kazekage, who was also a Magnet Release ninja. He received great training from the Third Kazekage, and in return, he became the strongest money-maker for the Sand Village's martial arts faction, providing them with ample funds to support the war effort.

However, due to the large influx of gold into the market, the price of gold has dropped significantly.

This can't go on forever.

The meeting was noisy and chaotic in the room with the round table because of the absence of the Third Kazekage, Chiyo, and Ebizo to chair it. Everyone was exchanging information or making sarcastic remarks to political enemies they didn't like.

Sha Yun ignored this, his eyes closed as he pondered the future path of the conservatives.

Although Sunagakure's economy has not yet collapsed due to Rasa's appearance and can continue to support the war, the situation has begun to deteriorate significantly since the appearance of the ninja team known as the White Fang Team.

In less than a week, one-fifth of the supplies sent to the front lines were intercepted by this White Fang Squad, and as many as ten Jonin were killed.

These slain Jonin were not ordinary Jonin; they were ninjas familiar with the Devil's Desert terrain and capable of escaping it in a short time. They were not just any supplies that could be replenished and regenerated easily.

Their existence is actually more important than the lost supplies.

Because of this, the supply of materials to the front line began to become unstable. If Sunagakure does not come up with an effective way to deal with the White Fang Squad, the supply transport line of Sunagakure will be destroyed by the White Fang Squad sooner or later.

When supplies run out at the front, we will lose the war sooner or later.

Sha Yun certainly didn't want Sunagakure to lose the war, but he felt that the conservative faction he led needed to think ahead about what Sunagakure should do if it lost the war, such as seizing more power and making the conservatives' voice louder in Sunagakure.

If those radical, militant ninjas are allowed to recklessly fight Konoha to the death, Sunagakure will be doomed sooner or later.

He didn't think Konoha would always be so good-tempered. The reason Konoha was so good-tempered now was probably because the Third Hokage was relatively weak and didn't have enough power.

The Sand Village is currently facing Konoha, but Konoha's full strength is far from being used.

Because in this war, the two major Konoha clans, the Uchiha and Senju, basically did not send any people to participate.

This shows that the Third Hokage was not an outstanding person; he lacked the ability and magnanimity to control these two great ninja clans and make them work for him.

However, if Konoha were to be replaced by a strong Hokage in the future, who is even capable of subduing all the major ninja clans within the village, Sunagakure, which once provoked Konoha, would surely suffer a fierce retaliation from Konoha.

The thought that Sunagakure might encounter such a situation in the future made Sagumo feel very uneasy, and he became increasingly dissatisfied with the martial arts faction.

Suddenly, the noisy sounds at the scene disappeared, and Sha Yun opened her eyes and turned to look at the doorway.

The Third Kazekage, Chiyo, and Ebizo walked in one after another from the doorway, followed by three young ninjas in their teens: Rasa, Pakura, and Karura.

After the Third Kazekage, Chiyo, and Ebizo sat down in their proper places, Rasa, Yokura, and Karura stood behind them.

"Hmph, so they've already arranged a successor."

As Sha Yun watched as Rasa, Yekura, and Karura were brazenly brought in by the Third Kazekage and the others to listen in, he felt a pang of jealousy.

"I apologize for making you all come so late to attend this meeting, but the situation is urgent, and we must make some new decisions as soon as possible to deal with the new situation in Konoha and internationally. Please read the following materials carefully."

After the Third Kazekage took the main seat, he scanned the others with his sharp eyes and then spoke with a serious expression.

As soon as he finished speaking, Luo Sha behind him manipulated Sand Gold to quickly distribute the documents he was holding to the elders present.

The elders were amazed by Luo Sha's ability to simultaneously and flexibly control more than ten clumps of gold dust. They exclaimed that Luo Sha truly deserved to be called the Wind Shadow, and that his current ability to control gold dust was nothing short of genius.

However, their attention was quickly drawn to the intelligence report on the table in front of them.

When they saw what was inside, their faces showed shock, and many even showed surprise.

Ebizo observed the expressions on the faces of the other high-ranking officials.

Finally, his gaze fell on a young elder who looked to be about thirty years old and whose right eye was covered by a black eye bag with a sealing spell on it.

When Ebizo saw this person, detailed information about him quickly came to mind.

Kurosawa, 31 years old, male, an elite Jonin of Sunagakure, born into a commoner family, was given special training by the conservative faction. He is skilled in Wind Release ninjutsu and his strongest achievement is killing a Jonin of the Uchiha clan single-handedly. He has a three-tomoe Sharingan transplanted into his right eye, which gives him genjutsu abilities. He is currently the most promising candidate among the conservative faction to advance to the Kage level.

The reason Ebizo paid attention to this person was not only because the other party was a Kage-level seed among the conservative faction, but also because the other party had an abnormal expression on his face after reading the information in his hand, an expression of surprise mixed with fear.

As the head of intelligence in Sunagakure, he had seen countless people and his understanding of changes in people's expressions far surpassed that of ordinary people. He was absolutely certain that he had seen it correctly; this guy named Kurosawa had just been terrified.

I just don't know where this fear comes from.

"Lord Kazekage, is this information true? If it is, then we should immediately launch a full-scale attack on Konoha. With that bastard Danzo gone, Konoha's intelligence system will definitely be severely damaged. This is a great opportunity for us to defeat Konoha."

Soon, an elder from the martial arts faction spoke up excitedly.

“That’s right, this is a good opportunity for us to end the war quickly.”

"Moreover, the Third Hokage was defeated by a mysterious Kage-level powerhouse. If we spread this news to the Konoha ninjas on the front lines, it will definitely severely damage their morale."

"That's what I think too, Lord Kazekage. Give the order, let our Sand Village defeat Konoha and become the strongest ninja village in the ninja world."

……

Elders from other militant factions echoed the sentiment, expressing their strong desire to attack.

"Cough cough~"

Seeing that the elders of the martial arts faction were about to go crazy, Sha Yun coughed and instructed the conservatives to pour cold water on them, cool them down, and bring them back to their senses.

"Lord Fengying, please don't listen to these hot-headed guys. You should know that the front lines are running out of supplies and are on the defensive. How can we possibly launch a full-scale offensive? If we launch a full-scale offensive without adequate preparation, we will suffer a great loss."

The next moment, a strong conservative elder immediately stood up to express his opposition.

"Well said. Fighting a war isn't just about having a lot of enthusiasm; you also have to consider your own situation. Our comrades on the front lines are starving right now. Do you really want them to fight those well-equipped Konoha ninjas on empty stomachs and with insufficient supplies?"

"That's right. And you only consider whether you can win, but you don't consider whether you can lose. Once our all-out offensive fails, the result will be that we lose this war very quickly, and all the land and resources that we have worked so hard to seize will be lost."

"Furthermore, that mysterious Kage-level expert is not from our Sunagakure. He can attack Konoha, and he can also attack our Sunagakure. Our Sunagakure's defenses are currently very weak. If this person takes advantage of our full-scale attack on Konoha to attack our Sunagakure, the consequences will be unimaginable."

……

Other conservative elders also stood up to oppose the opinions of the militants.

The militant faction wouldn't care about the conservative faction's reasons and give up attacking Konoha; they immediately found new reasons to persuade the Third Kazekage.

Thus, the two factions once again engaged in a fierce verbal battle in the round table room.

Some hot-tempered elders even argued heatedly, and then almost had a real-life fight in the room.

The Third Kazekage watched as the two factions argued to the point of almost coming to blows. His face remained expressionless, but his eyes revealed a playful glint.

Suddenly, a cough made him quickly avert his gaze, his expression turning cold again, and then he lightly tapped the table.

Although the sound of the table being slammed was soft, both sides quickly stopped arguing and turned their attention to the Third Kazekage, waiting for him to make his final decision.

Their arguments are ultimately pointless; the decision rests with the Third Kazekage. Their arguments are merely attempts to offer the Third Kazekage some constructive opinions, allowing him to gather diverse perspectives and address any shortcomings in his decision-making.

“I understand everyone’s thoughts. Indeed, with Danzo, the Dark Lord of Konoha, dead, now is a good opportunity for us in Sunagakure to launch an attack on Konoha, which has lost its intelligence advantage. However, the shortage of supplies on the front line is also an objective problem, which is very important and we cannot ignore it.”

Another issue is the mysterious Kage-level powerhouse. This person is extremely dangerous and may be related to the Senju clan. If the Senju clan truly has some close connection with this person, he might become Konoha's secret weapon against Sunagakure. Sunagakure must be wary of this.

Therefore, we in Sunagakure should take this opportunity to quickly restore the supply of materials to the front lines and strengthen the village's defenses. In addition, we should also use this opportunity to send elite troops to launch an attack on Konoha and strive to achieve victory in small-scale battles.

Elder Chiyo and Elder Ebizo will discuss the specific implementation plans for these decisions with you one by one later, and then assign tasks to carry them out.

Seeing that everyone had quieted down, the Third Kazekage pondered for a moment before slowly recounting the decision he had reached after communicating with Chiyo and Ebizo.

These decisions were the best possible outcome reached by the three of them after extensive discussions, based on the current situation in Sunagakure.

Among these, resolving the current shortage of supplies on the front lines is of paramount importance.

None of the elders present objected to the decision made by the Third Kazekage. They tacitly agreed to the decision and then looked at Chiyo or Ebizo.

Needless to say, how the cake should be divided is up to these two.

Before long, the elders in the round table room left one by one, leaving only the Third Kazekage, Ebizo, and Chiyo.

"Chiyo, are you really confident that you can wipe out that ninja squad led by Konoha's White Fang?"

At that moment, the Third Kazekage suddenly asked Chiyo a question.

"I don't want to repeat the same answer to the same question. I can only say that I will do my best. Moreover, I recently obtained a pretty good sealing technique by accident. Give me a little more time, and I should be able to create a powerful weapon to deal with this White Fang Squad."

Chiyo answered confidently, her voice radiating powerful self-assurance.

Chapter 179: The Decision of the Third Tsuchikage and the Third Raikage

All the major ninja villages pay close attention to Konoha's intelligence. Even Kirigakure, which is very far away from Konoha, is equally concerned. In terms of sending spies to Konoha to steal intelligence, Kirigakure invests no less than other ninja villages.

Therefore, shortly after Sunagakure obtained information about Danzo being killed by a mysterious Kage-level powerhouse and the Third Hokage being overwhelmed by a mysterious Kage-level powerhouse, Iwagakure, Kumogakure, and Kirigakure all obtained related information one after another.

However, intelligence is always subject to some degree of human manipulation during its transmission.

When these ninja villages obtained the intelligence, the content of the intelligence differed somewhat from the actual situation.

For example, the Third Hokage, who was clearly not defeated, was portrayed as being defeated by a mysterious Kage-level powerhouse and suffering very serious injuries, and is currently hospitalized.

For example, the mysterious Kage-level powerhouse was actually the immortal Kakuzu, who was hired by certain people in Konoha to kill Danzo.

For example, Danzo may not be dead, because there are no signs of chaos at the root of Konoha, etc.

In Iwagakure, at the Tsuchikage Building, in the Tsuchikage's office.

The Third Tsuchikage, Onoki, was looking at an urgent, encrypted intelligence report that had just been delivered. The more he read, the more wrinkles appeared on his already wrinkled face.

The information contained details about Danzo's death at the hands of a mysterious Kage-level expert and the Third Hokage's "defeat" by the same expert. It even analyzed that this was caused by a feud between the Senju clan and Danzo, suggesting that the relationship between the mysterious Kage-level expert and the Senju clan was not simple.

In short, the whole incident was an internal power struggle within Konoha, most likely caused by Danzo doing something that seriously provoked the Senju clan.

The Third Tsuchikage, Onoki, was naturally delighted by the infighting within Konoha. He hoped that Konoha would continue to fight amongst themselves and destroy itself.