Chapter 23 (Patreon)

Seeing how fiercely Kushina pushed herself during training, Kaorui could not help but feel moved.

Kushina was clearly living well in Konoha. As one of the Five Great Shinobi Villages, it should have been one of the safest places in the shinobi world.

Why, then, was she still so desperate to become stronger?

The only explanation Kaorui could think of was the legendary tailed beast.

When the Land of Whirlpools still existed, she had once heard the adults mention that Konoha selected suitable women from the Uzumaki clan to serve as vessels for a tailed beast.

Combined with the immense and malevolent chakra she had sensed inside Kushina, that was most likely the reason Kushina was training so intensely.

If the vessel was too weak, the tailed beast imprisoned within her could easily break free.

Konoha had even divided the beast into two halves and sealed them separately within Kushina and Naruto. Perhaps the village had feared that Kushina alone would be unable to contain its full power.

A trace of sympathy appeared in Kaorui’s eyes as she watched her.

It seemed that she was not the only one burdened by a cruel fate.

Despite Kushina’s bright and glamorous appearance, her circumstances were just as pitiful.

Kushina had no idea that Kaorui had already constructed an entire story in her mind—one that was completely different from the truth.

She had never considered her life unfortunate merely because she had become a jinchūriki.

In the past, Minato had always cared for her with patience and consideration. Now, Roy remained constantly by her side.

Compared to the other surviving members of the Uzumaki clan, who had spent years wandering and struggling to survive, Kushina had already been extremely fortunate.

Her current goal was to become stronger as quickly as possible and transform Konoha into a village that was truly warm and peaceful.

Thanks to the Uzumaki clan’s extraordinary recovery ability, Kushina’s body was gradually adapting to the hundred pounds of weight strapped to it.

Normally, after training for an entire morning, she would be so exhausted that she could barely move. She would need to eat an enormous amount of food and rest for some time before recovering.

Today, however, she still had energy left after finishing her morning training.

Naturally, that also meant the training was no longer producing the same results as before.

That afternoon, Kushina added another thirty pounds to her weights.

---

Meanwhile, the desk in the Hokage’s office suffered another undeserved blow.

Hiruzen had just received a confidential report from the front lines.

According to Commander Nara Shikaku, several suspicious members of Root had been discovered near Konoha’s defensive positions.

When confronted by fellow Konoha shinobi, they had immediately swallowed poison and killed themselves.

Their reaction alone proved that they had not gone to the front lines to assist Konoha.

“Danzō… what exactly are you trying to do?”

A dangerous glint appeared in Hiruzen’s eyes.

“Are you truly willing to help Kumogakure pressure me merely to force me into handing over that Uzumaki woman?”

---

At the front lines, Konoha had only just finished reorganising its defensive formation when Kumogakure’s forces quietly advanced toward the village’s former positions.

They found the fortifications empty.

Before they could withdraw, Konoha’s main force launched an ambush.

The Fourth Raikage immediately realised that the intelligence they had received could not have come from Kumogakure’s own spies.

Someone from Konoha had most likely disguised themselves as a Kumo shinobi and deliberately delivered false information.

“Damn Konoha!”

A drove his fist into a nearby tree, shattering its trunk.

“All they know how to do is rely on these underhanded tricks!”

“Raikage-sama, every failure teaches us something.”

Dodai waited until A had finished venting his anger before speaking.

“Fortunately, our losses remain within an acceptable range.”

When the intelligence had first arrived, Dodai had advised him to proceed cautiously.

However, A had only recently inherited the title of Raikage and was confident in Kumogakure’s intelligence network.

Convinced that their spies had successfully obtained Konoha’s defensive plans, he had stubbornly ordered his forces to attack the strongholds and supply routes listed in the report.

Now that the operation had ended in failure, he would hopefully be less impulsive the next time similar intelligence reached them.

Several shinobi had lost their lives, but Dodai believed their sacrifice would not be meaningless if it helped their new Raikage mature.

“You’re right. This was my mistake.”

A clenched his fist.

“Once we return to the village, I will personally visit the families of every shinobi who died and apologise to them.”

Lightning chakra crackled around his body.

“But first, Konoha will answer for their deaths!”

---

At the same time, a meeting was being held among the upper ranks of Sunagakure.

Although they had rejected the proposal previously made by Iwagakure’s Tsuchikage, they also believed that the current situation offered the perfect opportunity to extract concessions from Konoha.

Hiruzen Sarutobi had only recently returned to the position of Hokage.

While Konoha remained locked in battle with Kumogakure, he would not want Sunagakure creating trouble along another border.

Given Hiruzen’s personality, as long as Sunagakure maintained a sufficiently firm stance, he would almost certainly agree to their demands rather than risk fighting on two fronts.

The purpose of the meeting was to determine what conditions they should present—demands that would bring Sunagakure the greatest possible benefit without pushing Konoha so far that negotiations collapsed.

Four of the Five Great Shinobi Villages were now making their own preparations.

The only exception was Kirigakure.

The Hidden Mist behaved as though it had no knowledge whatsoever of the war between Konoha and Kumogakure.

Ever since rejecting the Tsuchikage’s earlier proposal, Kirigakure had made no further moves.

Its shinobi remained confined within the village, and it even rejected missions commissioned by the Land of Water whenever possible.

As a result, the other hidden villages had no idea what was happening inside Kirigakure.

Even the spies sent by the various villages found it almost impossible to transmit information beyond the Land of Water.

---

Although Hiruzen suspected that Danzō had colluded with the enemy, he knew exactly how difficult it would be to find conclusive evidence.

A few corpses belonging to Root proved very little.

Danzō could simply claim that the men had been sent to infiltrate Kumogakure and gather intelligence.

Moreover, Hiruzen could not predict what Danzō might do if he were pushed too far at a time like this.

Internal conflict within Konoha would only create opportunities for Kumogakure.

In the end, Hiruzen hesitated once again.

He personally visited Root’s underground headquarters and harshly reprimanded Danzō for deploying his men without permission.

He then ordered the Anbu to closely monitor every member of Root.

And with that, the entire matter was quietly buried once more.

When Shikaku received no meaningful response from the Hokage, he immediately understood that events had unfolded exactly as he had expected.

Whenever Danzō was involved, the Third Hokage always reduced serious offences to minor problems and minor problems to nothing at all.

Fortunately, Konoha had prepared in advance this time.

They had suffered no losses and had even used the opportunity to lure Kumogakure into an ambush.

There was no reason to pursue the matter any further from the front lines.

If only Minato were still alive…

Shikaku rubbed his temples wearily.

Things would never have reached this point.

---

Another month passed in the blink of an eye.

Konoha and Kumogakure remained locked in a stalemate along the front lines.

Then, a piece of intelligence spread across the shinobi world and shocked every major village.

A spy had successfully escaped from Kirigakure with information about what was happening inside the village.

According to the report, Kirigakure had adopted a brutal system that had earned it the name the Village of the Bloody Mist.

At the same time, the Fourth Mizukage, Yagura Karatachi, had begun suppressing and purging the village’s kekkei genkai clans.

This was the true reason Kirigakure had isolated itself from the outside world.

Why the Mizukage had suddenly begun slaughtering his own people remained unknown.

Some believed that the kekkei genkai clans had attempted to stage a coup, forcing Yagura to suppress them.

Others suspected that the Mizukage had grown wary of their increasing power and influence. Fearing that they would one day threaten his rule, he had chosen to strike first.

When the Third Tsuchikage, Ōnoki, received the report, he cursed the Mizukage for being a fool.

If Kirigakure was suffering from internal conflict, why not redirect that hatred toward an external enemy through war?

Had Yagura accepted Ōnoki’s previous proposal, they could have dealt with Konoha and Kumogakure together.

Even if the Mizukage distrusted the kekkei genkai clans, he could simply have sent them to the battlefield and openly weakened their forces through combat.

Instead, he had chosen to slaughter valuable shinobi inside his own village.

No wonder Kirigakure had failed to prosper.