bookbashuk Chapter 185 Undercurrents
Chapter 185 Undercurrents
Chapter 185 Undercurrents
Iwagakure Village, Tsuchikage's Office.
The Third Tsuchikage, Onoki, was hunched over his desk, the towering documents completely obscuring his figure; from the outside, it was impossible to tell whether he was actually working.
With a "bang," the door was pushed open, and Huang Tu rushed in, his face full of anxiety, showing no trace of composure.
"Father, hurry, hurry, something terrible has happened!"
"Bullshit! Your old man is perfectly fine! And here, you're supposed to call me Lord Tsuchikage!"
A loud bang came from behind the desk, and the Third Tsuchikage angrily raised his head.
However, from the perspective of the loess, all that could be seen was Tu Ying's bald head and a small tuft of hair. This immediately suppressed his anxious emotions, and the corners of his mouth twitched involuntarily a few times.
Onoki carefully moved the documents on the desk to both sides. Seeing the twitching corner of the boy's mouth, he became furious and threw the pen he was holding at him.
"You bastard, what are you doing here?"
A single sentence snapped Huang Tu out of his daze, and he remembered the important matter he needed to discuss.
"Lord Tsuchikage, the forces that attacked the Land of Wind have been defeated. They were driven out of the Land of Wind yesterday and are now being reorganized by the border troops."
"What!" Onoki slammed his hand on the table, startled and jumped up. Perhaps he stood up too quickly, because there was a "crack" sound. Onoki's face changed drastically, and he cried out "Ouch, ouch" while holding his old back.
Upon seeing this, Huang Tu immediately understood that his old father must have twisted his back again. He quickly took two steps forward, disregarding all etiquette, and helped Onoki sit down again.
"Quickly, repeat what you just said in detail." At this moment, Onoki didn't care about his old back. He had just sat down and hurriedly urged Hikari to tell him the information properly.
"The day before yesterday, the Fourth Kazekage personally led a raid on our camp in the Land of Wind—" Huang Tu reported all the information he had learned from the fleeing Iwa ninjas to the Tsuchikage.
"According to the initial statistics from the front-line troops, the losses in this battle are at least eight hundred. Father, what should we do next? Should we gather the ninjas and fight back?"
On Huang Tu's honest, round face, a rare fierce expression appeared. The losses in this battle were too great, and the defeat was extremely humiliating.
Tsuchikage rolled his eyes at Huangtu. After this period of time, he had accepted the fact of defeat. All that was left was to think about how to end this matter.
"Fight back? What's the point of fighting back?" The Tsuchikage straightened his back and glanced sideways at the yellow earth. "It seems you don't understand why we attacked the Land of Wind in the first place."
Huang Tu was completely confused. "Wasn't it because the Third Kazekage of Sunagakure had disappeared, leaving the village leaderless, that we wanted to take advantage of the situation and see if we could seize some land in the Land of Wind?"
Onoki was exasperated and reached out to give his son a good slap. How could he, with his illustrious reputation, have given birth to such an honest and simple-minded son? But halfway through his hand, a sharp pain in his lower back forced him to abandon this "wonderful" wish.
"That's only part of it. It would be good if we could occupy it, but even if we can't, we can still plunder a lot of the Wind Kingdom's resources during the attack, especially their unique concentrated mineral deposits."
Huang Tu nodded in sudden realization. No wonder so many supplies had been transported back from the front lines recently; that was the reason.
"Father, are we no longer going to use those resources? And what about those ninjas who sacrificed their lives? Are we just going to let them go without seeking revenge?"
"Revenge should be taken, but there's no need for such a large-scale fight." Onoki's body slowly floated up and landed back in his seat.
"When I learned that Sunagakure had quickly chosen their Fourth Kazekage, I considered whether to withdraw the troops that had invaded the Land of Wind. I just didn't expect them to be defeated so quickly. That frontline commander was truly useless!"
Huang Tu didn't take his father's complaints seriously and still asked persistently, "Then what should we do? By now, the border troops should have already entered the Bird Kingdom to pick up those fleeing soldiers."
"
"Pass down the order: have the border troops set up camp in the Land of Birds, primarily to receive the fleeing soldiers. There's no need to launch an attack on Sunagakure for now; wait for further instructions from the villages!"
"What Father means is—" Huang Tu was somewhat confused.
"The Fourth Kazekage of Sunagakure is no ordinary person. I think they should be stationed in the middle of the Land of Birds right now." Onoki spread a map of the ninja world on the table and pointed to a location in the Land of Birds.
Huang Tu stepped forward, looked at the map, and still couldn't quite understand it. He thought to himself that these people were all so cunning and convoluted, and they couldn't just say what they wanted to say. Instead, they were playing cryptic games.
Looking at his own son, Onoki sighed. He thought that Huangtu was good in every way, except that his personality was too honest and straightforward.
"The Kazekage doesn't want to fight anymore either. After all, the real fat meat in this ninja world is right here!" Onoki stopped beating around the bush and suddenly pointed his finger at the center of the map, which was the location of the Land of Fire.
"You mean, Sunagakure wants to attack Konoha? Didn't they just sign an alliance?"
"An alliance? That's nothing but a piece of waste paper. Just you wait, Sunagakure will send someone over to talk to us soon." Onoki said with absolute certainty, as if he had already foreseen the future.
A week has passed since the victory of the Sand Village counterattack, and during this time, Taiichi has been like a busy little bee, flying all over the Land of Birds.
However, no matter how hardworking the bees are, without enough flowers, they can hardly produce enough honey.
After the counterattack ended, Iwagakure launched two attacks on Sunagakure, but with Sunagakure fully prepared, Iwagakure did not gain any advantage.
After probing each other, neither side left behind more than a few corpses before tacitly retreating to their respective camps.
In the days that followed, Iwagakure seemed to have received new instructions, and even the basic probing attacks ceased. Throughout the Land of Birds, neither Sunagakure nor Iwagakure sent out any additional ninjas beyond their daily patrols.
Now it was Taiyi's turn to feel a headache. Both sides were so restrained, so how could he take advantage of the chaos? Should he continue with this mission?
That day, Taiichi was having lunch, pondering what to do next. It seemed that the Bird Country was not going to be attacked, so should he go into the Wind Country or the Earth Country to cause destruction?
However, even if it's disguised, it's too easy for people to see through, and it won't achieve the effect of sowing discord between the two sides.
Just as Taiyi was racking his brains, a sudden wave came from behind him. As a reflex, Taiyi instantly drew his sword, turned around, and slashed.
But he abruptly stopped the knife halfway through its stroke.
"Senior Brother Minato, it's you! You really gave me a fright!" Taiichi exaggeratedly wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and put the short sword back in.
Taichi wanted to continue joking around, but when he saw that Minato's usual warm smile was gone and replaced by a hint of worry, his expression also turned serious.
"I'm sorry, Taichi." Minato Namikaze's voice was low and unusually heavy. "I just came back from the north, and something seems wrong."
Taiyi's heart stirred; it seemed he wasn't the only one with this feeling.
"You noticed it too? It seems like Iwagakure has suddenly changed its ways. These past few days, they've sent out far fewer spies, and their patrol routes are much more disciplined. Aside from the initial clashes with Sunagakure's patrols, the two sides haven't even made contact with each other anymore."
"Not bad!" Minato frowned, his azure eyes gleaming with all-seeing sharpness. "I secretly observed several Iwagakure outposts and supply points. Their supplies coming in and out are more like a conservative defense, without any offensive posture at all."
Even more suspiciously, the Sand Village, despite having the upper hand and establishing a firm foothold in the Land of Birds, remained inactive, showing no sign of expanding their gains.
This is highly unusual; it doesn't fit the situation at all, given how bloodthirsty they were a few days ago.
Taiyi stuffed the last bit of dry food in his hand into his mouth, chewing as he thought rapidly.
"Something's definitely up to no good. The combined casualties on both sides of the Sand Village and Iwa Village since the start of the war are probably close to 3000 ninjas. And now everything's suddenly peaceful." —Minato-senpai, do you think it might be—"
Minato continued Taichi's unfinished sentence, his voice even lower and filled with intense vigilance: "You mean—"
These two companies—have they reached an understanding in private? Perhaps—even some kind of temporary agreement?
Their eyes met, and they both saw the shock and worry in each other's eyes.
The Sand Village had just dealt a heavy blow to the Iwa Village on the battlefield, but the Iwa Village, after its defeat, did not retaliate in a fit of rage as expected.
These two ninja villages each had their own plans. Ebizo was cunning and shrewd, the new Fourth Kazekage didn't seem like someone easy to deal with, and Onoki of Iwagakure was notoriously treacherous.
The reason Konoha sent these two was to further deepen the hatred between the two villages through assassination and sabotage, drawing them into a bloodbath and preventing them from prematurely setting their sights on Konoha, this lucrative target.
"That's right!" Taiichi clapped his hands, a cold glint flashing in his eyes. "The Sand Village was so aggressive a few days ago, wanting to wipe out the Iwa Village, but now they've gone quiet. The Iwa Village launched a surprise attack without warning, even abandoning all pretense of decency, just to get resources and weaken the Sand Village."
Now that both sides feel they can't continue fighting, the most likely reason is that they have a bigger objective and are preparing to shift their focus elsewhere!
"This is the worst-case scenario!" Minato said decisively. "If they have indeed reached some kind of secret alliance or truce, then their target will definitely be us!"
Without needing further words, the two instantly reached a consensus. Minato's eyes sharpened: "The situation is urgent. There's no point in staying here to harass us any longer. Let's end the mission and return to camp."
"Yes!" Taiichi nodded heavily, his face also darkening. If it was really as they guessed, then what Konoha was facing next would no longer be the small skirmishes they had before.
Without further hesitation, the two, having made their decision, did not delay and rushed towards the River Country camp at top speed.
One day after Minato and Taichi left the Land of Birds, after several days of tacit probing between the two villages, both sides understood each other's intention not to continue fighting.
With this shared desire, on this day, the commanders of the two camps finally met for the first time in the middle of the Bird Kingdom.
Neither side brought many ninjas, since they were still at war. The lower-ranking ninjas on both sides were eager for the other to die immediately, so they naturally wouldn't bring them to such a confidential occasion.
The dry wind whipped up dust, sweeping across the scorched earth of the central Bird Country, ravaged by ninjutsu. The two groups had been facing off for quite some time, the twenty meters separating them like an invisible yet clear boundary.
On the Sunagakure side, Ebizo, though hunched over, had sharp eyes. He was accompanied by Jonin, and they calmly watched the Iwagakure team opposite them.
The leader, a burly Iwa ninja, was their frontline commander, Hiruzen. His face bore the characteristic tenacity of Iwagakure, along with a hint of impatience.
The air was so heavy it was almost viscous, with only the sound of the wind howling.
This war, which yields no benefit, has dragged on for nearly a month, with both sides suffering heavy losses of ninja. The very fact that they are standing here sends a strong signal: continuing the fight will only result in more bloodshed on both sides.
Ebizo stepped forward, his hoarse voice breaking the silence, getting straight to the point: "Demon Leech, we both know that if we continue fighting, we'll only end up bleeding out the blood of the wind and earth. The real prey is not here."
The leech remained expressionless, simply nodding slowly. If he didn't have this understanding, he wouldn't have come here to negotiate with these sand rats.
"Ebizo, everyone calls you the Desert Fox," he said, proving the saying true. "Our entanglement here is nothing more than letting others reap the benefits." His voice was as firm as a rock, carrying the composure honed on the battlefield. "The Third Lord also had this concern."
A barely perceptible smile appeared on Ebizo's lips, a sign of understanding and the end of the probing.
He refused to retreat and directly presented his conditions: "In that case, Sunagakure proposes that both sides sign a ceasefire treaty and temporarily cease hostilities. The current occupied territories will serve as the boundary, and both sides will restrain their ninja armies, redirecting their attention and forces towards—"
Our true goal.
"A ceasefire treaty?" Hiru's brow furrowed almost imperceptibly, his tone turning somber with a firm refusal. "No treaty needed, Ebizo."
Everyone knows that Sunagakure breaks treaties as casually as eating and drinking. Sunagakure may be shameless, but Iwagakure still has some sense of shame.
Ebizo's gaze sharpened slightly as he awaited the next part.
The demon leech's words continued, but were deeper and clearer, as if each word carried the will of Iwagakure: "The treaty cannot bind you, and I do not believe in that stuff. We only ask for the status quo."
He looked up, staring directly at Ebizo, his eyes unwavering. "From this moment on, as long as Sunagakure does not attack Iwagakure's bases, outposts, or logistics, the Iwagakure ninja will never take a single step westward. And vice versa. We will wait for the right moment."
Ebizo remained silent for a moment, a gentle breeze brushing against his aged face. He understood the true intentions of the Demon Leech, or rather, the Tsuchikage behind the Demon Leech.
Abandon pointless fighting and seek the true objective, but at the same time, never leave behind any written evidence that could be used as leverage when questioned or even betrayed.
A tacit agreement, unspoken understanding, and tacit cooperation are currently the most beneficial approach for both parties.
This is indeed the cleanest, most efficient, and least troublesome solution.
"—Captain Hiru's considerations are thorough." Ebizo finally nodded slowly, responding with the same solemn tone, "Sunagakure accepts this proposal. Let us cease hostilities here. The area under our actual control today shall be the boundary; neither Sunagakure nor the other shall infringe upon the other's territory."
The leech's tense expression finally relaxed slightly, and he nodded slightly: "Alright! Let's wait and see—when the time is right."
The representatives of both sides gave each other a cold glance, said nothing more, turned around, and quickly returned to their respective camps with their subordinates.
They need to report today's verbal agreement as soon as possible so that the village can make strategic adjustments immediately, because what follows is the real Shinobi World War.