Aoba did not expect that the Seven Ninja Swordsmen would attack Kumogakure.
This matter was beyond his plan.
It was also beyond his expectations.
However...
He thought about it carefully.
It was still something that was not particularly out of the line.
After all, he imitated Satsuma Rentaro's identity and showed great talent in front of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen.
This made the Seven Ninja Swordsmen very concerned about him. There was nothing wrong with it. Moreover, he did not appear again after that. Finally, it led to the Seven Ninja Swordsmen attacking Kumogakure.
If he thought about it according to this line of thought.
Aoba felt that it was still acceptable. However, the Seven Ninja Swordsmen became an X factor in his plan. It was something other than the initial plan, which directly affected the direction of the plan and helped him to a certain extent.
When Aoba saw this, he roughly understood why Kumogakure's envoy group did not come to Konohagakure in time.
After experiencing such a sneak attack...
It was already very difficult for them to come!
Aoba continued to look at this Kumogakure Advisor's memories.
The entire night.
This Kumogakure Advisor spent the night in his slightly damp clothes, completely terrified.
Aoba could only read the memories they saw or experienced.
He could not read what they thought.
In other words, what he saw was only an objective behavior. He could only infer some thoughts through actions, but he would not get the other party's detailed psychological activities at this time.
Aoba could probably feel it.
On this long night.
This Kumogakure Advisor's inner thoughts were struggling and very frightened. He was like rootless duckweed that was temporarily hanging on this tree. He had no idea where the future was. He didn't even know if it were a darker night or rare dawn waiting for him.
After a long wait.
A ray of sunlight broke through the sky.
It dispelled the cold night.
Swish!
Right at this moment.
A figure quickly ran in his direction.
This action immediately made this Kumogakure Advisor's heart jump again. At that time, he did not know whether the other party was an enemy or a friend.
Only after he saw this person's appearance clearly did he calm down.
It was the leader of Kumogakure's outpost, Brei.
"Advisor-sama, we can go back now!" Brei jumped up and landed on a tree branch. He carried the Kumogakure Advisor, who had been sitting on the tree for the entire night. In the process of doing this, he could feel that Brei's arms were trembling.
"Brei, you have dealt with them all?" The Kumogakure Advisor asked in surprise. When he saw Brei walking over, he instinctively thought that Brei had won.
"How is this possible..."
A bitter smile appeared on Brei's face. Then, he shook his head and said, "I was only lucky enough to survive. The Seven Ninja Swordsmen are quite afraid of me. I can only hold a few people, but I can't completely stop them from attacking others."
"How are the people of the envoy group?" The Kumogakure Advisor immediately asked the question he was most concerned about. After all, there were three other staff officers besides him. They were Country of Lightning's staff officers, which represented Country of Lightning's daimyo. They had a crucial role in this negotiation with Konohagakure.
"Advisor-sama, the entire envoy group except for you, I didn't save a single one..." Brei said helplessly. There was nothing he could do. It was already an incredible thing for him to face the Seven Ninja Swordsmen by himself and survive, so it was impossible to save the other staff officer.
"Damn it!" The Kumogakure Advisor clenched his fists tightly. His heart was filled with anger. Before coming here, he had thought that it would be a difficult mission. However, he had not expected it to be so difficult. Before he officially met with Konohagakure's people, the envoys were all gone.
As the two of them spoke.
Brei brought the Kumogakure Advisor back to Kumogakure's outpost.
The scene in front of them was a mess.
There were corpses everywhere.
The number of Kumogakure ninjas who were still alive was not much.
Everyone had a depressed look on their faces, and there was a slight unwillingness in their eyes. Even they did not expect that they did not die on the battlefield where they fought with Konohagakure but died in the plot of Kirigakure ninjas.
This was a great humiliation for Kumogakure, who especially liked to do barbaric things. Their heart was filled with intense unwillingness and anger.
"Kirigakure!"
When the Kumogakure Advisor saw this scene, his heart surged with extreme dissatisfaction. He wanted to tear Kirigakure's people to pieces, but he did not have the ability.
However, he had the right.
After all, he was the Kumogakure Advisor.
"When I return to Kumogakure, we must attack Kirigakure!"
The Kumogakure Advisor said coldly.
In fact, Kumogakure was not afraid of Kirigakure.
It was just that they had been using Kirigakure to help them achieve their goals.
In their knowledge.
Kirigakure was just like a small force that was dependent on them.
After all, they, the Country of Lightning, were a powerful country in the Ninja World, and the Country of Water only had a few small islands.
The island country was a vassal of a powerful country.
It wasn't that there hadn't been such an example.
But now...
The little brother, who had been serving them all this time, suddenly stood up and ruthlessly poked his big brother and wanting to have a head-on confrontation with his big brother.
The key was that if it were a head-on confrontation, it would be fine.
However, it was still a plot behind his back.
As a result.
How could Kumogakure, who had always regarded himself as a big brother, bear it?
"Advisor-sama, the problem now is that the envoy group is gone, and the meeting time is already up. Do we still go to Konohagakure?" In fact, he already had an idea in his heart, which was to return to Kumogakure directly.
Now it seemed.
If Brei and the others had gone back at that time.
In other words, they would have gone back safely.
At this time, the Seven Ninja Swordsmen had consumed a lot of energy. They had gone to replenish their supplies and could not intercept them on their way home.
The matter of intercepting them.
That was what happened after.
As Brei said this, the survivors at Kumogakure's outpost all looked at the Kumogakure Advisor.
At this time, everyone knew.
The Kumogakure Advisor was the one with the most authority.
What he said was what they would do.
The Kumogakure Advisor thought for a moment, then raised his head to meet the expectant eyes of the Kumogakure ninjas, and then directly shook his head.
"No!"
"We can't go back yet!"
"If we go back to Kumogakure now..."
"Then it is the same as giving up the opportunity to negotiate with Konohagakure!"
"This will put us, Kumogakure, into a passive situation!"
"We can't face the war between Konohagakure and Kirigakure at the same time!"
At this time, the Kumogakure Advisor give an answer in an instant.
As soon as his words came out.
All the Kumogakure ninjas present were silent.
They were not members of the envoy group.
They were not in charge of negotiating.
They did not have so many twists and turns in their minds.
The most original idea was to fight!
It was they who wanted to start a battle with Kirigakure to avenge the death of their companion!
But now...
If they continued to stay here!
It was very likely that they would die in the Country of Fire in the end. There was no way to realize their current thoughts!
"Advisor-sama, I think we should go back first. We can discuss this matter again when we go back. I can see that Konohagakure does not really want to fight. Otherwise, the Third Hokage would not agree to the peace talk so easily. Moreover, Hari-sama is in Konohagakure, so there should be no problem!" After thinking for a while, Brei said his opinion. What he said was also what the Kumogakure ninjas wanted to say. After all, they belonged to the same standpoint. They were all ninjas of Kumogakure's outpost. There was still some difference from the perspective of Kumogakure Advisor, who came here later.
"At this time, whether we can save Hari or not is secondary. We must first stabilize Konohagakure." the Kumogakure Advisor shook his head and rejected Brei's opinion. He continued, "We were able to fight Konohagakure for the opportunity to have a peace talk because Konohagakure's Third Hokage did not want to start a war. However, the hatred accumulated earlier was too great. Even if the Third Hokage did not want to, Konohagakure's ninjas still wanted to. If we miss this opportunity, I think it would be difficult for the Third Hokage to convince Konohagakure's ninjas to have a peace talk with us for the third time."
"But... Advisor-sama, the envoy group is gone!" Brei understood what the Kumogakure Advisor said, but he was still a little unwilling in his heart. He simply began to talk about his meaning from another angle.
"Don't you still have me!" The Kumogakure Advisor directly took a step forward. He did not care about the devastation on his body that night. He patted his chest and said, "As long as I am still here, the envoy group is still alive. It's just that I can't go to Konohagakure alone. I hope that you will form a new envoy group with me. We will stabilize Konohagakure for the village and then return to the village together. We will then concentrate on discussing how to launch a fierce attack on Kirigakure!"
When Kumogakure Advisor said this, the Kumogakure ninjas on the scene became silent.
It had to be said.
It was still very bewitching.
For a moment.
Everyone fell silent.
No one spoke.
They didn't know if this was asking for their opinion or giving them orders. Regardless of which one it was, it made their hearts complicated.
"I understand."
At this time, Brei immediately spoke. He looked at the Kumogakure Advisor and slowly nodded.
Then.
Brei looked toward the other ninjas.
His gaze swept across the ninjas present, and he exchanged a glance with each of them.
"Brothers!"
"We will become part of the envoy group together!"
"We will complete this important mission and return to the village together!"
"Then we will join with the village to avenge our dead brothers!"
"What do you think?"
Brei suddenly roared out, trying his best to infect these people with his emotions.
What he needed now was to let these Kumogakure ninjas accept this matter from the bottom of their hearts.
Not just act because of orders.
Now they were all survivors who had just survived the life-and-death crisis.
Even if they were ninjas, they still cherished their lives. No one wanted to die so easily.
"Yes!"
The Kumogakure ninjas present immediately roared out, agreeing with Brei.
At this point.
Aoba withdrew from reading this part.
Through observing what happened to Kumogakure Advisor before he came to Konohagakure, he could be considered to have fulfilled the doubts in his heart.
After all, according to his plan.
He transformed into Kirigakure's ninja and harass them using water release. There were only two goals he wanted to achieve.
The first was to destroy the mental state of some of Kumogakure's envoy group by soaking their entire bodies and making them feel agitated, then pointing the spearhead at Kirigakure.
The second was to send the two Root ninjas, whose bodies were covered with special paper tags, to them so that they could take away this ticking time bomb. It would be best if they could bring it to Konohagakure.
Aoba only had these two goals.
Although they all came true in the end, there was a small interlude in the process of coming true.
This made him want to see what exactly happened in this memory!
What made his plan go wrong!
After reading it.
He understood.
So it was the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist!
This was not too surprising. After all, the Seven Ninja Swordsmen were also the existences that he had lied to when he was setting up Kirigakure. It could also be considered a part of his plan. However, he did not expect that the result would be so soon.
Suddenly.
Aoba opened his eyes.
Just now, he was seriously looking at Kumogakure Advisor's memories. It could be said that he was immersed in his memories. Therefore, he did not deliberately accelerate it. He only jumped on the parts that he already knew and the parts of the long night.
As a result.
A period of time had passed.
The moment Aoba opened his eyes, he saw a white smiling mask.
This sudden scene directly gave him a fright. He knew that there were people nearby, but he did not expect that the other party was sitting not far away from him, staring at him.
"What are you doing!"
He then recognized this person. This person was the other ninja who had formed a team by himself just like him.
However, Aoba did not know who this person was.
It was not that this ninja was not famous enough, but that Aoba did not pay attention to the other trash of Yamanaka at all.
"You slept very well!"
When Kaze saw the surprise that flashed in Aoba's eyes after he opened his eyes, he rolled his eyes at Aoba, but he still maintained his current posture.
"What does it have to do with you?"
Aoba said in a bad mood. Originally, he was too lazy to argue with this person. The two of them were in the same area. It was fine as long as they did their own things.
Now, they were acting like teammates.
This made him feel very annoyed!
"This broken corpse has no way to read the memory at all. The other teams won't change with us. I'm bored.!" Kaze stared straight at Aoba and told him what he was thinking.
"What does it have to do with me?" Aoba said coldly. He didn't want to have any contact with this person at all. It would only add unnecessary trouble. His tone directly revealed a sense of rejection.
"???"
When Kaze heard Aoba's words, a lot of question marks popped up in his head.
'What's with your tone!'
'You are the most useless person in the Yamanaka clan; how can you still have the nerve to dislike me?'
'I haven't even said anything about you!'
Kaze instantly lost his composure and rolled his eyes at Aoba again, ignoring him.
Such a phenomenon.
It was the effect that Aoba wanted.
Then.
Aoba stood up and wanted to leave.
He did not want to be stared at by this person again when he was flipping through memories. Just thinking about it made him feel strange.
Other than Kaze, no one else noticed Aoba's movement of getting up and leaving the place.
After all, he and Kaze could be said to be famous in Yamanaka Clan, and because the grouping was related to their future, no one was willing to be group with the two of them.
Moreover, everyone was immersed in reading the memories of the corpses in front of them. No one cared about other people's affairs, let alone the matter of Aoba's reputation and weak body.
After Aoba got up.
He changed to another position.
Although it was still in the corner of the room, it was in another corner.
He looked toward the rest of the groups and found that everyone was either reading memories in a hurry or that no one stopped in the process of reading memories.
There were three people in a group.
Usually, one person was reading memories, and the remaining two were resting or recording the contents of their work.
After that, they switched shifts.
The person who had just read the memories recorded the contents.
After that, they rested.
The efficiency of the group was directly increased to the maximum.
Aoba looked at each team. On the surface, he looked at the team members, but in fact, he was staring at the corpses in their hands.
These corpses were all the corpses of Kumogakure ninjas.
None of them were Country of Lightning's staff officers!
The Country of Lightning's staff officers had been killed by the Seven Ninja Swordsmen that night!
As for how Brei dealt with the corpses, he did not know about this matter because he could see it from the Kumogakure Advisor's memories.
The next morning.
Only Brei and the survivors were left in Kumogakure's outpost.
All the corpses and wreckage on the ground had been dealt with by Kumogakure ninjas.
After all, they were at war.
During the war, dispose of the corpses of your own camp, and protect the ninjutsu information and intelligence information from being leaked. This can be said to be a basic operation, and any forcer knows it!
Aoba was not looking for a staff officer among these corpses because there was no staff officer at all. Others did not know, but he still knew. He just wanted to see if Brei's corpse was here.
After a simple look around.
Aoba could confirm it.
Brei was not here!
Brei's physique is sturdy, tall, and extremely strong. He could be said to be one size smaller than the Third Raikage. If he were placed among these corpses, he would be able to recognize him at a glance.
Even if he was burned by an explosive tag's explosion, it was still a corpse bigger than a normal person.
It was obviously not here.
In this regard.
Aoba had two judgments in his heart.
One was that the explosive tag had no way to hurt Brei at all and escape.
The other was that Brei was dead, but the body was in Danzo's hands and was not placed here.
Aoba came to this conclusion through a simple judgment.
However, he did not think too deeply about it.
Because he was very clear.
This kind of thing.
There was no need for him to think too much about it.
Whether Brei escaped or not, anyone at the scene yesterday should know.
This kind of thing could not be hidden.
Soon, it would spread among the people.
Therefore, there was no need to think too much about it.
He just wanted to confirm if Brei was here. If there was, he could think of a way to read his memories. Now that there was no result, the other corpses here had no value in reading the memories.
After all.
For the current Aoba.
The rewards obtained by reading the memories of these less powerful ninjas were no longer particularly useful.
In terms of intelligence.
The people in Kumogakure's camp.
The one who had the most control was this Kumogakure Advisor.
The rest of the people were only ninjas who participated in the battle. They knew nothing about the contents of the second negotiation, but they were passively involved. Strictly speaking, they were not members of Kumogakure's envoy group.
Through their memories, it was difficult to obtain any valuable information.
At most, he could only find Kirigakure's attack on Kumogakure.
The rest...
There was nothing!
Seeing this scene, the corner of Aoba's mouth behind the mask curled up slightly. Even he did not expect that the most valuable one among these corpses would appear in front of him in such a strange way.
Since there was no other target that was worth taking the risk to read his memories.
Then he might as well not pay any attention to the other corpses.
In any case, no one would be willing to exchange with this charred corpse.
No matter how valuable it was.
This is something that cannot be read.
'No wonder...'
Aoba suddenly understood why Danzo had summoned them to read the memories of these corpses.
Only with this would there be a chance to discover more clues.
Aoba had already realized that what Danzo wanted to find was not a simple clue but to know who was controlling all of this behind the scenes.
If so many people were to read their memories together.
Who knows who might find some clues on these Kumogakure ninjas?
However...
Obviously, this was impossible!
Aoba retracted his gaze and felt that it was a pity.
The reason was very simple.
If the corpse in his hand had an exchange value.
Then he could implant a little bit of memory clue into the other corpses he had obtained and guide the other team that was going to read the memory.
Of course.
It had to be other corpses.
But this skull.
Even if Sage of the Six Paths came, he wouldn't be able to implant memories into it.
This charred skull was hollow inside, and there wasn't even a single brain left.
I'm afraid that only the Mind Reading System can read and retrieve its memories!
Then.
Aoba slowly closed his eyes again.
He placed his hands on his temples and gently rubbed them.
He relaxed his mind and once again flipped through the Kumogakure Advisor's memories.
He quickly entered the scene where the Kumogakure Advisor and Brei brought his ticking time bomb to Konohagakure.
After the Kumogakure Advisor carefully emphasized the origin of the ticking time bomb to Hiruzen. The explosive tags, which were densely packed on the tree trunk, suddenly exploded.
The Kumogakure Advisor was instantly engulfed by the flames and died on the spot.
"As expected!"
Aoba suddenly understood. Through this Kumogakure Advisor's memory, he was sure that this person did not know how Brei was in the end.
According to the position at that time.
This Kumogakure Advisor was the closest to the pile of explosive tags and the first to bear the brunt of the explosion.
Those densely packed explosive tags exploded together. Not to mention this Advisor, who was just an ordinary person, even a Jonin would not be able to bear the damage it caused.
"If I want to know if Brei is still alive, I still need to rely on Konohagakure ninja, who was watching this incident at that time."
Aoba immediately made a judgment and no longer continued to check this Kumogakure Advisor's memories.
After that.
Aoba adjusted the memory more than ten days ago.
As the bridge connecting the Country of Lightning and Kumogakure, this Kumogakure Advisor was summoned by the Country of Lightning to the daimyo mansion.
At that time.
This Kumogakure Advisor still didn't know what was going on.
He walked down from Kumogakure and arrived at the Country of Lightning's capital and entered the Country of Lightning's daimyo mansion, which was surrounded by three mountains.
After that.
This Kumogakure Advisor saw the Country of Lightning daimyo, who was also dark-skinned, wearing a daimyo dress, and with a fan-like decoration on his head.
"I called you here this time to hope that you will become the leader of Kumogakure's envoy group and go to Konohagakure for negotiation!" The Country of Lightning daimyo said straightforwardly. In addition to the daimyo himself, there were three staff members at the scene. They were the staff officers who would form the Kumogakure envoy group with this Kumogakure Advisor.
"Kumogakure's envoy group?" This Kumogakure Advisor obviously did not expect they would find him because of this matter.
"That's right!"
The Country of Lightning daimyo nodded. There was no change in expression on his face. His whole body exuded the dignity of a high position person.
"I hope you can complete the task of negotiating with Konohagakure. At this time, the Country of Iron is eyeing us along with the Country of Earth. We can not provoke the Country of Fire right now!"
Country of Lightning daimyo's voice slowly sounded. His words clearly entered the Kumogakure Advisor's ears.
When this matter was in the eyes of the daimyo.
It rose to another height.
It was not a personal gain or loss, nor was it a dispute between villages, but the interests of the whole country.
"But..."
The Country of Lightning daimyo changed the topic and stared at the Kumogakure Advisor with a particularly sharp gaze.
"I need you to complete a few extra secret missions for me on top of completing the peace talks!"
"Well... Actually, it can't be said that it's for me..."
"To be precise..."
"For the Country of Lightning!"
With just a few words from the daimyo, he raises these secret missions to a higher level.
"I understand."
This Kumogakure Advisor nodded heavily. He was in charge of communicating with Country of Lightning and Kumogakure. In name, he was Kumogakure Advisor, but in reality, he belonged to the Country of Lightning.
"Very good!"
A smile appeared on the daimyo's face. He was very satisfied with the Kumogakure Advisor's reaction. Then, he took out a scroll from the table and threw the scroll directly at the Kumogakure Advisor.
"All the secret missions you will do are written on this!"