Chapter 200 Jiraiya: You have changed, Orochimaru
Inside the tent used for meetings at the Konoha headquarters.
Four people sat around a round table, on the edge of the circular aperture of the chandelier.
"...I still say that I absolutely do not agree with this action!"
Jiraiya, who was always carefree, looked extremely gloomy, and his tone was filled with anger that could not be concealed: "To attack Hanzo now is undoubtedly a betrayal. Where is the reputation of the village?!"
If Hanzo and the black cat had not suddenly attacked and severely damaged the Sunagakure troops, the Konohagakure troops led by Orochimaru, which were attacked from all sides and were at the end of their strength, would have been defeated long ago.
Even now, the Amegakure forces led by Hanzo are still bearing nearly half of the main offensive of Sunagakure, allowing Orochimaru to hold out until the follow-up assistance from Tsunade and Jiraiya arrives.
Only then were they able to join forces to launch a counterattack against Sunagakure, gradually suppress Sunagakure's long-arrogant arrogance, and push Sunagakure back into the borders of the Land of Wind.
What would it mean to attack Hanzo now?
Destroy the bridge after crossing it? Kill the donkey after it has done its job? Forget about loyalty when you see profit?
"Jiraiya, do you really think Hanzo has done us any favors?"
Danzo glanced at Jiraiya with his one eye, and said with a gloomy expression: "I can tell you that from the very beginning, his declaration of war on the Land of Wind was part of my plan and expectation."
Jiraiya didn't know that Hanzo's sudden declaration of war on Sunagakure was caused by Danzo and the Root.
Hearing this, he was stunned for a moment, but soon realized what it meant. His expression instantly turned into anger: "You were the one who massacred those Land of Rain civilians and then framed it on Sunagakure?!"
No wonder Hanzo would suddenly attack Sunagakure by coincidence when Konoha's defense was about to collapse.
If the data Hanzo gave in his condemnation of the Sunagakure Village was true enough, wouldn't it mean that Danzo had directly killed nearly a thousand innocent civilians? !
"Yes, I did it."
Danzo selectively ignored the abnormality in that action, as if he had forgotten the fear in his heart at that time. He held his head high and admitted it with pride instead of shame.
In his opinion, the one that Konoha should really thank was not Hanzo and the Amegakure Village, but him, the hero who lured Hanzo into action and joined the game!
As for the nearly 1,000 civilians from the Land of Rain who died?
How can there be no deaths in war? Are there not enough civilians who died in war?
The Second Ninja World War lasted for three or four years. How many civilians died directly and indirectly in the war?
Besides, they are not civilians of the Land of Fire. If they died, they died. If you want to blame someone, just blame them for being unlucky.
Because the rules of the game are set by the five major countries, as the rule makers, they can ignore the rules to a certain extent, and even destroy or modify the rules when necessary.
In the face of victory in war and sufficient benefits, so-called principles and justice can be sacrificed, not to mention the lives of civilians in other small countries.
There is no need for any reason at all, it's just a question of whether you want to or not, and whether it's worth it.
In the ninja world, being weak is the original sin.
No matter which major country it is, this has always been the default and it has worked time and time again.
"Are you going to accuse me of killing innocent people and being cruel and cold-blooded?"
Seeing Jiraiya standing up in anger, Danzo remained unmoved and even sneered, "Are you worthy? How can you be qualified to do that when Konoha was in danger and retreated to the rear because of a personal relationship?"
"you!"
"That's enough, Jiraiya!"
Several clear blue veins popped out on Jiraiya's forehead, and he was about to say something when he was interrupted by a cold voice.
"Elder Danzo is right."
Facing Jiraiya's gaze, Orochimaru looked calm and indifferent, and said bluntly: "Our cooperation with Hanzo is based on mutual benefit."
"He did help us solve our urgent needs, but without the supplies we provided, how could he have survived until now with only the extremely limited supplies in the Land of Rain?"
There is no doubt that the Land of Rain basically relies on imports for food and has no ability to be self-sufficient. The reserve materials are insufficient and naturally there is no sustained combat capability.
Therefore, Hanzo used the reason of "cooperation" to extort a large amount of "aid materials" from them at a very low price during this period, including not only food, but also medicine and ninja tools.
Jiraiya was choked for a moment after hearing what Orochimaru said, but he suppressed his anger and said, "If that's the case, why can't we continue to cooperate with Hanzo? It's obviously a better choice to reduce the sacrifice and defeat the Sunagakure Village with just a few supplies!"
"Idiot."
Orochimaru uttered two words calmly, and before Jiraiya could continue to yell, he continued, "Because those supplies were provided by His Majesty the Daimyo, and this operation was the instruction given by His Majesty the Daimyo."
"He said that what he gave to others, they could take, but what he didn't want to give, others couldn't take."
Jiraiya is just naive, not really an idiot.
He only had to think about it for a moment and quickly understood the meaning of Orochimaru's words.
Your Highness the Daimyo does not want the Land of Rain represented by Hanzo and the Amegakure Village to win this war, even if they join forces with the Sunagakure Village, which was previously hostile to them.
When two big countries fight to the death, no matter which side wins, small countries have no right to intervene.
"Besides, Hanzo's appetite is getting bigger and bigger, and he's getting more and more aggressive in lowering the price."
Orochimaru sighed and said helplessly: "Faced with Hanzo's attack, the Sunagakure Village was only panicked for a while at the beginning, but now they have gradually recovered their form and started to fight steadily, and the decline has completely gone."
The reason why Konoha was able to provide resource assistance to Amegakure so readily was that it hoped to join forces with Amegakure to quickly end the battle in the Land of Rain, and then rush to deal with the Sunagakure Village troops in the Land of Rivers to completely establish victory.
But the Third Kazekage was indeed a smart man.
After two years of exploitation, a lot of resources from the Land of Rain were eaten up by the Sunagakure Village. Combined with the resources provided by the Daimyo of the Land of Wind, the Sunagakure Village is also qualified to fight a protracted war.
It seems that the Amegakure Village troops led by Hanzo are unstoppable and are about to drive the Sunagakure Village troops back home, but in fact they have no way to deal with the Sunagakure Village now.
Let alone anything else, the Land of Wind is covered with yellow sand as far as the eye can see. Anyone who goes there will have difficulty acclimatizing, and anyone who sees it will have to think twice, not to mention the Rain Ninjas who are good at using water jutsu and rely on water sources.
The timely change in the delaying strategy directly cut off the possibility of a quick victory, and the stalemate on the border between Wind and Rain was obviously intended to delay time.
After all, Konoha couldn't keep supporting Hanzo and the Amegakure Village. Even if they could provide the maximum discount, the Amegakure Village couldn't come up with enough funds to purchase supplies, and they couldn't just give them the money for free.
It's okay for a short period of time, but not for a long time.
The Third Kazekage clearly saw this.
The Sunagakure Village is now curled up in its turtle shell, looking unhurried. Even Chiyo's son and daughter-in-law, the puppeteer couple, have been leading people to attack supply points more and more frequently recently.
It is obvious that the intention is to further consume Konoha's reserve materials, increase Konoha's material burden, and accelerate the breakdown of the alliance between Konoha and Amegakure.
"How so?"
Jiraiya wanted to understand this, and stood there blankly. After a moment, he sat down dejectedly and whispered, "Is there no better solution?"
Seeing that the war has developed to the final stage, it will end as long as the Sunagakure Village is completely defeated, but now the situation has to be restored to its original state.
"Jiraiya, we're not asking for your opinion, we're just informing you now!"
Danzo rebuked coldly and bluntly: "The Third Hokage has already reverted to the Daimyo. As the chief commander and deputy commander, Orochimaru and I also agree with this operation. You have no right to refute it here!"
After saying that, he no longer looked at Jiraiya who was in a daze, but looked at Tsunade who had remained silent from beginning to end.
Covetousness and fear flashed across his one eye as he asked, "Orochimaru and I are not suitable to meet Hanzo. Tsunade, as the person who will have to negotiate with Hanzo in this operation, do you have anything to say?"
Tsunade's face was calm, without any fluctuations on her face, only boundless calmness, and her tone was equally calm: "I have no objection to this action, but I want to know what I should do."
Her reaction was so calm, totally unlike the impulsive and irritable Tsunade of the past, which made Danzo feel a little uneasy.
As he was in control of the situation, he naturally knew what had happened in the village during this period.
Including the death of Uzumaki Mito, Tsunade became the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki.
Without a doubt, these are two pieces of good news for him.
Firstly, the death of Uzumaki Mito means that there is one less person who can restrict him, leaving Sarutobi as the Hokage. He can start planning the "experiments" that he once wanted to conduct but was worried about being discovered.
For example, regarding the Wood Release experiment of "Hashirama Cells", if Uzumaki Mito was still alive, he would definitely not dare to touch it.
But now, he was sure that he could get Sarutobi to agree to this plan, and even recruited the Senju people who had abandoned their surnames and integrated into Konoha, and made them voluntarily participate in human experiments with the promise of "restoring the glory of Wood Release".
Secondly, if he wants to become Hokage, the biggest obstacle is Tsunade, who poses an even greater threat than Orochimaru.
But the Jinchūriki is a "weapon" and a "tool", and unless there is no other choice, it is impossible for it to become a "Kage". This is enough to destroy Tsunade's possibility of becoming a "Kage".
It's a pity that this also means that the Nine-Tailed Fox cannot be controlled by him.
However, would these two things actually cause such a big change in Tsunade?
He don't know whether this change is good or bad...
"You just need to go to Hanzo under the pretext of delivering aid."
Danzo kept thinking in his mind, but he remained calm on the surface and explained: "The people I have planted inside the Amegakure Village will take action directly when Hanzo is relaxed."
"If they can kill him, that would be great, but if they can't, you must kill him or severely injure him."
"Amegakure Army is nothing to worry about. The powerful one is Hanzo. As long as Hanzo is dealt with, the leaderless Amegakure Army will immediately collapse."
"The troops led by Jiraiya will ambush the Amegakure troops on their way out. It will be a piece of cake to kill all the remaining members of the Amegakure Village after encircling them from both sides."
This is the main reason why Jiraiya was able to know the inside story of this operation. If Jiraiya did not need to lead the team to infiltrate the rear of the Amegakure Village forces, he would never have told this naive guy about this operation.
"...I see." Tsunade pondered for a moment, then nodded, "I thought you would forget about 'City of Dawn', but now it seems you don't need me to remind you."
"Humph, of course I won't forget."
Danzo narrowed his eyes slightly and said in a fearful tone, "Their intervention once or twice before could be considered an accident, but even that wily guy Onoki ran into a wall and was defeated there."
"Obviously, those peasants are not easy to deal with. We must be on guard against them interfering as they did before."
Information on the black market is shared among all parties. As the root of Konoha, how could he be unaware of Onoki's actions of hiring bounty ninjas?
But he didn't take it seriously at the time, thinking that there would be no other outcome except that "City of Dawn" would be severely hit.
He even planned to wait for the bounty ninjas to return from the Land of Rain and use his connections to get a copy of City of Dawn's intelligence from them.
However, he didn't expect that "City of Dawn" was not only not defeated, but instead eliminated all the bounty ninjas, and even hung their heads and corpses outside the city, and slapped Onoki's old face hard, which was completely beyond the expectations of all those who knew about it.
When the photos of the scene were passed to Danzo, he was surprised by the shocking scene and even came up with a bold guess.
Could it be that City of Dawn was secretly involved in the previous attempt to lure Hanzo into action?
He was shocked when this thought came to his mind, but the more he thought about it, the more suspicious he became, and he even broke out in a cold sweat.
Because, it totally makes sense.
In that incident, the biggest beneficiary, apart from Konoha, was the City of Dawn.
Before declaring war on the Land of Wind, Hanzo first went to seize the position of leader of the Amegakure Village. The leader of City of Dawn happened to help him and took the initiative to let the black cat assist Hanzo in defeating the Sunagakure Village.
That leader not only eliminated his enemy, demonstrated his strength for the first time, took away a large number of Amegakure Ninjas, but also received rewards from Hanzo, and legitimately split the northern part of the Land of Rain.
Realizing this, how could Danzo not be wary and fearful of him?
Jiraiya's role, in addition to dealing with the remaining troops of Amegakure, was also to cut off the possibility of the remaining troops escaping to the northern part of the Land of Rain, to prevent the City of Dawn from picking them up and growing stronger again.
"I see."
Tsunade nodded calmly, then stood up and said, "If there's nothing else, I'll go get ready."
After saying that, without waiting for Orochimaru and Danzo's response, she simply walked out of the tent.
Seeing her leave, Danzo also stood up, but before leaving, he looked at Jiraiya and sneered: "If you are still a Konoha ninja, you must be prepared, obey orders, follow instructions, don't act on impulse, and don't be soft-hearted!"
As the two left one after another, only Orochimaru and Jiraiya were left in the tent, and it fell into dead silence.
"Is it really right for us to do this?"
After a long silence, Jiraiya's voice became hoarse, as if he was talking to himself.
"That's just how the world is."
Orochimaru looked down at the map and said calmly, "Rational people will always fight against irrational people. There are endless contradictions, endless interweaving of darkness and light. Some people succeed and others are destined to be victims."
As he spoke, the corners of his mouth slightly raised, and he sneered: "If you can't bear it in your heart, just regard it as an act that you have to do for the peace between the Land of Fire and Konoha."
"If death has any meaning, it is only when it can be used."
Listening to Orochimaru's increasingly cold-blooded and indifferent words, Jiraiya slowly raised his head, his eyes passing through his forehead and falling on Orochimaru's face, as if he wanted to see through this pale face and understand the true thoughts inside.
After a moment, Jiraiya shook his head and whispered, "You have changed, Orochimaru. You were not like this before."
"..."
The finger sliding on the map paused, and Orochimaru said calmly: "Maybe."
"After all, so do I, Tsunade, and you. People always grow, don't they?"
(End of this chapter)