Konoha: Starting with Sage Mode

As the acting Kazekage, Akasa learned of this immediately. He realized that this might be an opportunity to retaliate, so he decisively convened an emergency meeting to discuss with others how to deal with Konoha.

"Acting Kazekage, according to the latest intelligence, although the Konoha ninja in the oasis have suffered heavy casualties, that damned Kirito Tohsaka is unharmed. I think it's best for us to continue to exercise restraint."

A chubby elder from Sunagakure expressed his opinion.

This was a peace-loving elder, and his words immediately garnered the support of many peace-loving ninjas in the meeting room.

"Yes, this Konoha ninja is the key to the Konoha ninja force in the oasis. As long as he lives, Shukaku's power will remain in Konoha's hands. We are currently powerless to launch an attack, so continuing to defend is the best option."

"With that person around, we're having a hard time even defending, let alone launching an attack."

"I know many people hate Konoha to the core, but the Third Kazekage and Chiyo are not in the village, so we must exercise as much restraint as possible."

……

As Akasa sat in his specially made wheelchair, listening to the opposing opinions of the peace faction, his brows gradually furrowed. He had expected that today's proposal would receive a lot of opposition, but he hadn't expected so much, including quite a few elders from the martial arts faction who also expressed their opposition.

If you count them carefully, more than half of the elders expressed their opposition.

Seeing this, Akasago was very angry, but he had no choice but to compromise: "Since most people are not optimistic about this operation, let's call it a day. Meeting adjourned."

Although he seized the greatest power while Sunagakure was temporarily leaderless and even obtained the position of acting Kazekage, his foundation was ultimately too shallow and his control over Sunagakure was very weak.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief when they saw that Akasa had chosen to compromise.

They are now truly afraid of Kirito Tohsaka. They know very well that if Kirito hadn't been worried about them being driven to desperation and abandoning Sunagakure as their stronghold, and then launching a crazy revenge against Konoha, he would have already been able to break through Sunagakure's defenses.

Therefore, they absolutely cannot afford not to provoke Kirito Tohsaka.

"Dad, those people were so noisy just now."

After the meeting ended, a childish voice came from behind Akashi; it was his son, Sasori.

Scorpion's voice clearly conveyed deep disgust.

Scorpion was naturally disgusted by this. The fact that most of these people opposed the suggestion made by his respected father made him very angry. He wanted to kill them all and turn them into puppets.

Now that he has mastered the technique of turning the corpses of small ninja beasts into puppets, he feels that he can start trying to make human puppets. The people in front of him are a batch of high-quality practice materials.

Chapter 271: The Nightmare Named Uchiha Madara Descends Upon Konoha Once Again

“You’re right, Scorpion. These people are indeed noisy, but they still have some use for now, so there’s no need to rush them.”

Upon hearing his son's words, Akasa instantly understood what he meant, gently patted Sasori's head, and smiled.

Sasori is now eleven years old, and his body is developing rapidly. He has already reached a height of 1.4 meters. Not counting his chakra, he already has the strength of an elite Chunin just by using puppetry. If he were to use poison, even a Jonin might be defeated by him.

Therefore, he began to enter his rebellious phase. At this time, he was somewhat displeased with Akasa continuing to pat his head, but he did not push away his father's hand. He just said with some dissatisfaction, "Grandma is not in the village, and these people have become bolder. It's really hateful."

Sasori is no ordinary child; he is a genius. Now that his family has suffered a devastating tragedy, and with the situation in Sunagakure extremely critical, he is maturing at an incredibly fast pace.

He has been by Akasago's side recently, and through this exposure, he has gained some understanding of the current political situation in Sunagakure.

Therefore, he deeply understood that after his great-uncle passed away and his grandmother went missing, his family's status in Sunagakure began to plummet. If his father and mother had not been outstanding elite puppeteers in Sunagakure with formidable strength, someone might have already made a move against his family.

After all, his family was very wealthy, possessing not only the best puppetry and ninjutsu techniques in Sunagakure, but also the best puppetry workshop in the village.

"So, Sasori, you must train hard. You have better puppetry skills than your father, mother, and grandmother. The family will depend on you in the future. You are also the future pillar of Sunagakure. Those people are just clowns. Just wait, Sunagakure will definitely overcome this challenge."

Akasuna encouraged him.

His life is completely over. Due to the severe damage to his body, his strength is rapidly declining. Although he can still barely exert the strength of an elite Jonin by relying on puppetry, he is already on his last legs.

Therefore, he has been focusing all his efforts on cultivating his son. His stepping forward to fight for the position of Kazekage agent was actually entirely to pave the way for Scorpion.

After all, many precious ninjutsu and resources in Sunagakure are controlled by the Kazekage. Now that he has become the acting Kazekage, he can freely allocate these valuable resources to Sasori, accelerating Sasori's growth.

He was very fortunate to have such a genius son as Scorpion.

Sasori seems to have an innate talent for puppetry. He can grasp many things instantly and apply them to other situations. He is like a sponge, quickly absorbing the various puppetry knowledge accumulated by Sunagakure over the years and even innovating upon it. Now he can even design puppets on his own.

Akagami firmly believed that, given time, Sasori would become the most outstanding puppeteer in Sunagakure.

"I understand, Dad. I will work hard. In the future, I will not only become a pillar of Sunagakure, but I will also avenge you and my great-uncle."

Scorpion nodded.

Scorpion was very clear about his father's expectations and was very willing to fulfill them.

"Scorpion is such a good boy."

"I'm relieved," Akasa said.

That's right. The main reason he put all his effort into training Sasori was for revenge. He couldn't get back the humiliation he suffered at the hands of Amegakure and Iwagakure on his own, but he had an outstanding son.

Sasori will take his place in avenging Amegakure and Iwagakure.

Luo Sha overheard their conversation, but remained expressionless, revealing no emotion whatsoever.

After the death of the Third Kazekage, his position in Sunagakure became very awkward.

Because of his mastery of Magnet Release: Gold Sand, he became highly sought after, and various factions in the village wanted to win him over. However, apart from the martial arts faction led by Akaza, no other faction supported him in seeking revenge against Kirito Tohsaka.

Some of the surrender faction even suggested handing him over to Konoha in order to win Konoha's forgiveness.

Therefore, he joined Akasuna's ranks without hesitation, accepting Akasuna's protection and recruitment, and providing Akasuna with financial support.

As long as he could kill Kirito Tohsaka, he didn't care what Akazawa and Sasori did to those weaklings. He even hoped that the two of them would take action soon and eliminate these weak and incompetent trash.

As the acting Kazekage, Akashi had many things to do. He quickly bid farewell to Sasori and Rasa and returned to the Kazekage's office.

At this moment, his wife, Shalan, was already waiting there.

After becoming the acting Kazekage, Akasuna's first action was to have his wife, Sarashima, take over the intelligence network that his uncle, Ebi, had hidden in the village, thereby strengthening his control over the village.

"Shalan, is there any result yet?"

When Akasuna saw Sandstorm, she asked in an expectant tone.

The attack on the Konoha camp by a mysterious ninja, which resulted in heavy losses, is undoubtedly a very good sign for the Sand Village.

Akasa understood the principle that the enemy of my enemy is my friend, so upon receiving the news, his first action was to send people to contact the mysterious ninjas who attacked Konoha, hoping to seek cooperation to jointly deal with Konoha.

"Our people did make contact with the mysterious ninja who attacked Konoha, but all they got was this information; they didn't have any communication with the attackers."

Sandstorm answered truthfully, and then handed an ordinary scroll to Akasago.

Akasuna took the scroll, opened it, and his expression quickly became serious.

The scroll contained very little, just one sentence: "Have your leader come and talk to me alone."

The tone of the entire passage was clearly commanding and left no room for argument.

"The other party is arrogant and is clearly not a good partner. Moreover, they want you to go alone without even giving you an accurate address. This is obviously to make you leave Sunagakure on your own before you can find out the exact address."

Sha Lan had already read the contents of the scroll, and she was very dissatisfied with it, not advocating at all for her husband to cooperate with the other party.

No, I have to go.

Akasuna shook his head.

Although the other party's attitude was arrogant, he felt that this was even better. The Sand Village could not withstand too much turmoil at the moment. Now that such an arrogant enemy had appeared on the other side of Konoha, it was a good opportunity to shift Konoha's attention to the other party.

The Sand Village, on the other hand, only needs to show goodwill to the other party to avoid being targeted, and then hide behind the scenes.

When Sarashima heard her husband say this, she wanted to persuade him again, but when she saw Akashi stop her with a gesture, she had no choice but to give up. Then she said a piece of news that Akashi was interested in: "I just received news from the people in Konoha that Konoha did not succeed in capturing Lady Chiyo."

Upon hearing this, Akasa excitedly exclaimed, "That's wonderful! Mother must still be alive; she'll come back sooner or later."

Since the death of the Third Kazekage, Konoha broke the peace agreement, and his mother was trapped in a trap with her fate unknown. Akashi has been unable to eat or sleep well during this time, living in constant fear of receiving news that his mother has been captured or killed by Konoha ninjas.

Now, this weight that has been pressing on my heart can finally be lifted.

As long as his mother lives to answer Sunagakure, all the difficulties he is currently facing in Sunagakure will be resolved. At that time, he can remove the title of "Acting Kazekage" and officially become the Fourth Kazekage.

……

In Konoha, in the Hokage's office, the Third Hokage was diligently reviewing a large backlog of documents, as usual.

He was in a fairly good mood at the moment. The threat to Konoha from Sunagakure and Kumogakure was gone, which meant that Konoha could soon usher in peace and would no longer need to invest a lot of manpower and resources in war as before.

With Konoha's foundation and ability to generate wealth, as long as Konoha can develop peacefully for a period of time, the losses suffered in the war can be recovered quickly, and even greater benefits can be obtained by exploiting Sunagakure.

As for the issue of providing support to the Land of Rain, it seems likely that Konoha will be dragged into the quagmire of war again, but he has already seen the weakness of the Hidden Cloud Village.

Barring any unforeseen circumstances, as long as Konoha helps Amegakure resist Kumogakure for a period of time, Kumogakure will retreat.

Because the Land of Rain is too poor right now and doesn't have enough profit, the bandits from Kumogakure will absolutely not fight to the death with Amegakure and Konoha in the Land of Rain just to save face. Retreat is the best option for Kumogakure.

"Judging by the time, Orochimaru should have already left the Land of Wind and gone to the Land of Rain to reunite with Tsunade."

The third generation put down his pen, stretched, moved his stiff hands and feet, and pondered.

He tried his best to make Orochimaru the person in charge of support for the Land of Rain, hoping that Orochimaru could gain more merits in the battle against the Hidden Cloud Village, so as to pave the way for Orochimaru to run for the next Hokage.

He originally planned to remain Hokage for a while longer before choosing someone he liked to be the next Hokage. However, Tsunade acted out of character, no longer shirking her duties in the Hokage election, and was already eager to become the next Hokage. So he had no choice but to let Orochimaru become the next Hokage.

Yes, deep down he didn't want Orochimaru to be the next Hokage.

Because he knew his disciple's personality all too well. Orochimaru was a true fighter at heart. Once he became Hokage, he would definitely target the Sarutobi clan, and his methods would be anything but gentle; bloodshed was inevitable.

Although he is now determined to reorganize the Sarutobi clan and teach those who betrayed him a lesson, he does not want to see the Sarutobi clan shed blood. He prefers to complete the transfer of power peacefully through gentle means.

"There's nothing we can do about it. Right now, the only person I have the ability and prestige to succeed as the next Hokage is Orochimaru. However, Orochimaru is ultimately more suitable than Tsunade."

The three generations sighed.

Both sides were his beloved disciples, and deep down he did not want to favor one over the other. However, he was ultimately burdened by his family and could not treat them equally or keep public and private matters separate.

He actually believed that Tsunade wouldn't harm the Sarutobi clan. After all, he was Tsunade's teacher, and Tsunade was a kind-hearted person. Out of respect for him, she probably wouldn't make things too difficult for the Sarutobi clan.

Unfortunately, Tsunade has two powerful backers, Momoka Senju and Kirito.

These two hold a significant place in Tsunade's heart; they are the people who can truly influence her decisions. They will absolutely not show mercy to the Sarutobi clan and will likely not stop until they have thoroughly tormented them.

Who could blame them when the Sarutobi clan had such deep ties with Danzo?

"The situation is not optimistic. My side is indeed powerful, but it is not united internally and lacks top-tier combat power. On the other hand, Tsunade's side may seem weak, but it is very united internally and has many strong top-tier combat power..."

The Third Hokage's mood gradually soured at the thought that Tsunade had a very high chance of being elected the next Hokage.

How should we suppress Tsunade's reputation?

This question quietly arose in the mind of the third generation.

He didn't actually want to hurt Tsunade, but he had no choice. Feelings are feelings, and politics is politics. His position dictates his thinking, and he ultimately had to make a choice.