Konoha: Starting with Sage Mode

"Lord Tsuchikage, Lord Tsuchikage has arrived."

"That was Dust Release, there's no mistake, it was the Tsuchikage, he killed Hattori Masanari."

"Great! The Tsuchikage has killed that despicable Rain Ninja, we're saved."

……

On the other side, the numerous Iwa ninja scattered nearby also clearly saw the white beam of light destroy the head of the rock giant and Hattori Masashige. They quickly realized who had come and cheered, their previously low morale rapidly rising.

Then, without Huang Tu's command, the remaining three thousand-plus Iwa ninja, who had been scattered like sand due to their defeat, rushed towards the Five-Tails, intending to cooperate with their Tsuchikage to capture the Five-Tails again.

Seeing this, Huang Tu felt both relieved and bitter. But no matter what, his father had come, and the enormous pressure in his heart could finally be relieved.

"You wretched ants."

The Five-Tails was furious when it saw the group of Iwagakure ninjas, whom it had just defeated, regroup.

However, it no longer had time to deal with these ants. That damned Onoki was here. With the powerful destructive force of Onoki's Dust Release ninjutsu, if it were hit, even if it didn't die, it would definitely be severely injured.

When that time comes, it will inevitably be sealed away again by the people of Iwagakure.

Therefore, it decisively took off running, heading straight towards the Land of Rain.

It is a tailed beast that is proficient in water release, fire release, and boil release. As long as it escapes to the Land of Rain and hides in any large lake or river, even Onoki will not be able to catch it.

In the sky, panting heavily, Onoki noticed Gotouge's actions, his face darkening instantly, and he cursed inwardly, "That cunning beast."

The next moment, he planned to use Dust Release on the fleeing Five-Tails.

At present, Onoki is only in his fifties, not the eighty-year-old man from the Fourth Shinobi World War. Relying on the Kekkei Tota, which is above the Kekkei Genkai, his strength is still at its peak, and he can easily create his signature Dust Release.

Without needing to form any hand seals, a cube shimmering with white light quickly materialized in Onoki's hands.

However, just as he was about to unleash it on the Five-Tails below, he suddenly turned the gun around and shot the cube he had formed with Dust Release: Detachment of the Primal World behind him. A huge circular beam of light appeared instantly, and everything in its path turned into molecules that were indistinguishable to the naked eye.

For example, a large cloud may have a large section missing from the middle.

Onoki frowned as he looked at the destruction caused by his Dust Release ninjutsu, and quickly scanned his surroundings.

Then, an annoying voice slowly appeared above his head: "Onoki, you're really sharp. I was planning to launch a counterattack, but it seems I won't be able to."

Upon hearing the sound, Onoki didn't look up in the direction of the sound; instead, he immediately clapped his hands.

At that moment, a water dragon instantly bit Ōnoki's body.

At the same time, Kirito, who had just used Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet Technique in the sky, saw Onoki turn into a stone statue and then be shattered by the Water Dragon Bullet Technique, while the real Onoki appeared in the air more than ten meters away from the stone statue.

Clearly, the Third Tsuchikage had just used a technique that used a rock clone as a cost to achieve instantaneous movement, similar to the Water Release: Water Instantaneous Movement Technique.

This move could perhaps be called Earth Release: Rock Instantaneous Body Technique.

"You really didn't die, Hattori Masanari."

After dodging Kirito's attack, Onoki did not retaliate, but stared at Kirito with a wary expression.

"Ha, my weakness is that I'm afraid of death, so I never risk my true body easily. Of course, I can't risk my life to fight a tailed beast head-on."

Kirito laughed heartily, showing absolutely no shame for being afraid of death.

In fact, it wasn't as Kirito said. When he was fighting the Five-Tails, he was indeed using his true form to control a rock giant and beat the Five-Tails. However, he used the Water Body Flicker Technique to avoid the attack just before Onoki used Dust Release: Particle Style.

His White Zetsu clone had Byakugan, so even if Onoki sneaked over, he would have already noticed, but he just pretended not to know.

"Hmph, enough with the nonsense. I hope you won't interfere when I capture the Five-Tails. The Five-Tails is a precious asset of Iwagakure. If you dare to try to steal it or obstruct Iwagakure from capturing the Five-Tails, Iwagakure will fight Amegakure to the death."

Onoki didn't have time for small talk and immediately stated his demands firmly.

With his abilities, capturing the Five-Tails wouldn't be difficult; the challenge lies in capturing it while being obstructed by the person in front of him.

His Dust Release technique is powerful, but it's not a ninjutsu that can be used instantly. Once detected, even an elite Jonin could evade it, let alone a Kage-level ninja who is proficient in various body-flicker techniques.

Therefore, he only ever used Dust Release when launching surprise attacks.

"Your request is not unreasonable, but please forgive me for refusing. Is Iwagakure and Amegakure locked in a life-or-death struggle? Heh, isn't that exactly what's happening now? Lord Tsuchikage, to be honest, our cooperation before was quite pleasant. Iwagakure even made a lot of money from the Land of Rain. But how come you turn your backs on us in the blink of an eye? When Amegakure was at war with Kumogakure, it was one thing that you were unwilling to provide support, but now you're resorting to such despicable acts as kicking someone when they're down, mobilizing so many people here on the border. This truly pains me."

Onoki was anxious, but Kirito was not. He calmly refused and even scolded Onoki for his despicable behavior.

After being rejected and scolded by Kirito, Onoki's face turned red with anger, but he did not refute him.

He didn't care about being a villain or anything like that. He would do anything that would benefit Iwagakure. Moreover, considering the situation of Amegakure then and now, he didn't think his decision was wrong. It was just that his understanding of Kumogakure and Amegakure was quite different, which led to the unsatisfactory result.

Who would have thought that the fierce and powerful Cloud Village, despite having an overwhelming advantage, would be defeated by the Rain Village?

Not only could Onoki not have thought of it, but the leaders of other ninja villages could not have thought of it either.

"Who told Amegakure to cooperate with Konoha? Things have escalated to this point. I won't make excuses. Since our Iwagakure's invasion of Amegakure has failed, I won't take any further action. As long as you don't interfere with our Iwagakure's capture of the Five-Tails, I promise not to attack Amegakure for two years and will continue to open trade with Amegakure."

My promise is only valid once. You'd better think carefully before you answer. You should know better than I do who your Rain Village's best partner is.

Onoki said quickly.

Before Kirito could even reply, he turned and flew towards the Five-Tails.

In the short time it took him to talk to Kirito, the Five-Tails had already run quite a distance. If it weren't for the fact that Huang Tu and the others were holding it back, it would have already entered the territory of the Land of Rain.

Seeing this, Kirito did not stop him, but stopped in place to think about what Onoki had just said.

Kirito dismissed Onoki's promise not to attack Amegakure for two years as mere empty words; such a promise, devoid of any binding force, was like toilet paper—used and discarded. However, he couldn't afford to ignore the trade Onoki mentioned.

Due to its climate and environment, the Land of Rain cannot develop agriculture and is a purely industrial country. However, it is not a country rich in mineral resources. If the Land of Rain wants to develop its industry, it will have to rely heavily on imports.

The Land of Earth is the main country from which the Land of Rain imports mineral resources.

Although the Land of Fire is also a country rich in mineral resources, compared to the Land of Earth's high-quality, inexpensive, and diverse mineral resources, the Land of Fire's mineral resources are not at all advantageous.

Therefore, the Land of Rain, wanting to rebuild as quickly as possible after the war, would inevitably need to trade with the Land of Earth.

Without trade with the Land of Earth, the reconstruction of the Land of Rain will be extremely difficult.

"He struck at Amegakure's weak point right from the start. What a terrifying old man. He figured Hattori Masanari wouldn't dare to turn against him for Amegakure's sake."

Kirito quickly came up with an analysis and sighed.

Given Hattori Masanari's character, Ohnoki's blatant scheme is bound to succeed.

Kirito quickly decided to maintain Hattori Masanari's persona and quit while he was ahead.

He quickly flew down from the sky and came to the huge tail that had been removed from King Mu's body.

At this moment, there were quite a few Iwa ninjas present. When they saw Hattori Masanari, who had clearly died, come back to life, their expressions changed drastically. However, due to Onoki's authority, they dared not run away or attack Kirito. They could only watch helplessly as Kirito used Earth Release: Super Light-Heavy Rock Technique to carry Koku-o's giant tail into the sky.

"Alright, there's no one else here, so stop pretending. I must say, you're really clever, managing to pull off such a short-tailed survival trick right under our noses."

After Kirito ascended into the air with King Mu's enormous tail, he spoke to King Mu's tail.

However, the tail that had fallen off King Mu's body did nothing to help.

Seeing that King Mu's tail didn't react at all, Kirito sneered and shot out a large number of wooden strips from his body, which then wrapped around King Mu's tail.

Wood Release: Silent Binding Technique!

The wooden strips created by Wood Release landed on Kokuo's tail, and a large amount of chakra was immediately drawn from Kokuo's tail and quickly fell into the White Zetsu clone's body, rapidly injecting new chakra into the chakra pool formed by the Yin Seal within the White Zetsu clone's body.

As a large amount of chakra was drawn from Muwang's tail, Muwang's tail rapidly shrank.

"Stop, you damned human, stop right now! Who are you? How do you know Hashirama Senju's Wood Release?"

Soon, a terrified voice came from King Mu's tail.

Then, a tiny head of King Mu grew out of his tail, looking at Kirito with a terrified expression.

Upon seeing this, Kirito not only did not stop, but instead accelerated the absorption process.

This Five-Tailed King Mu is clearly a very cunning fellow. The best way to deal with such a fellow is to strip him of all his trump cards and make him realize that he is at the mercy of others.

"Human, stop right now! And how did you know that this tail is my clone?"

Seeing that Tongren was persistent, King Mu continued to shout and asked the question that had been bothering him.

Kirito did not intend to answer King Mu's question.

As for why he knew about King Mu's attempt to survive by shortening his tail, it was because he possessed the art of spiritualization and had an incredibly keen perception of souls.

He had long known that the soul was a special vessel for chakra, and it was because of this that tailed beasts could create new individuals by splitting themselves.

When the Five-Tailed King Mu was being brutally beaten, he clearly anticipated that he might be captured and sealed again. So he devised a plan and separated a part of his soul onto his severed tail, so that even if his main body was captured and sealed, his clone would have a chance to escape and continue to roam freely outside.

However, it never expected that its short-tailed survival plan would be discovered by humans so quickly.

Before long, most of the chakra in Kokuou's tail was absorbed by Kirito, and the originally huge Kokuou tail in front of him had turned into a Five-Tails Kokuou with a body size of about the size of an ordinary adult horse.

"Human, you win. Do with me as you please."

King Mu then said dejectedly.

Chakra is its power. Because of the Wood Release: Silent Binding Technique, it is now unable to move or gather chakra. Most of its chakra has been taken away by the terrifying human in front of it who has mastered Wood Release.

Now it's truly like a fish on a chopping board, completely at the mercy of others.

Whether we live or die is entirely up to this despicable human being before us.

This feeling is terrible.

"Relax, Five-Tails. I don't actually have any ill intentions towards you. I just want to make a deal with you. As long as I get what I want, letting you go is not a problem."

Seeing that King Mu had finally calmed down, Kirito finally spoke up and communicated with King Mu again.

King Mu, now a prisoner, asked Kirito with skepticism, "A deal? What kind of deal?"

Chapter 260: Hashirama Senju

What kind of transaction?

Of course, that means temporarily using the Spirit Transformation Technique to possess the Five-Tails' soul, so as to properly comprehend Fire Release and Water Release.

"You'll find out later, but for now, you'll have to make do with this for a while. Take a nap, don't worry, you'll wake up soon. You just took a short nap."

Seeing that the Five-Tails was very interested in the deal he proposed, Kirito assumed that the Five-Tails had agreed and said with a smile.

It's best not to say things like "possessing someone's soul," otherwise you're likely to be rejected.

"You're playing me, you despicable human! You won't be able to seal me away!"

When the Five-Tails heard Kirito's evasive words, it immediately thought that Kirito was teasing it and became furious.

As it spoke, it desperately channeled its chakra, intending to self-destruct.