"What are you talking about, Lord Raikage?"
Kirito said with a painful expression on his face as he heard the words of Sandaime Raikage.
It was impossible to admit it, at least not in the current situation.
He once again instantly entered the memory library to see if he had done anything to give himself away during his recent encounter with Sandaime Raikage.
Kirito knew in his heart that a fake was a fake after all. Even if you act it out well, once you meet an acquaintance, you may be able to tell the truth about the person just by a glance or a word. To succeed in playing a role, it is best to choose someone unremarkable who has been forgotten for a long time.
For example, Hattori Masanari, a loser who was forgotten long ago and even thought to be dead.
However, Casaran, a beautiful ninja with skin tone different from most people in Kumogakure, is undoubtedly a very eye-catching person. Her every move is watched. What's more, she is also a woman. Even if he obtains her memories in their entirety, it will still be very difficult for him to successfully play her role, not to mention that he has only just started.
"It's here. As expected, there is still an oversight. This action shouldn't appear in the role of Casaran."
Very quickly, Kirito discovered where his slip-up was.
It was the action of wiping the sweat off his arm after finishing the treatment. This action was actually something he always did to his patients after finishing the treatment. It was considered a kind of habit. He had just used a lot of mental energy to complete the treatment of Sandaime Raikage, and he had inadvertently done this habitual action.
It can only be said that the power of habit is very strong, and it is very difficult to stop it from appearing for a while.
Finding the reason, in less than a second, Kirito left the Memory Library and returned to reality, continuing to show Sandaime Raikage an expression of pain, with eyes that revealed the pain of being betrayed by someone you trust.
Sandaime Raikage saw this expression in Casaran, the role Kirito was playing at the moment, and could not help but feel a twinge of guilt. The strength of his right hand gripping Kirito's neck also weakened considerably.
To be honest, he himself could not actually tell that the Casaran in front of him was fake. The reason he attacked Kirito was entirely due to his trust in Erui, his beautiful secretary.
Therefore, after getting Erui's signal and learning that the Casaran in front of him was fake, he attacked Kirito.
As a result, he discovered that the Casaran in front of him was not actually transformed by him using the Disguise Technique.
The sense of touch he felt in his hand at that moment was real and correct, unlike the fake one conjured by the Disguise Technique.
Now, seeing the kind of eyes Kirito was showing at this moment, he wasn't sure if he had really arrested the wrong person.
"Raikage-sama, don't be fooled by her. This person is definitely not Casaran. Maybe the person is, but it's not certain inside."
At this moment, Erui on the side coldly said.
"Do you have any evidence? Erui, we can't wrong our companions."
Upon hearing this, Sandaime Raikage's right hand regained its strength, and he answered with a heavy punch to Kirito's stomach with his left hand.
The punch from Sandaime Raikage was undoubtedly quite strong. If Kirito had just endured it normally, he would have definitely been knocked unconscious. Kirito fainted as a result, and quietly used Spirit Transformation Technique to take control of Casaran's physical body, returning to the White Zetsu clone.
The White Zetsu clone then used the Spore Technique to infiltrate Casaran's body. This was the escape route he had planned from the beginning. Once he was discovered, he immediately lifted the Spirit Transformation Technique and took over, then returned to the White Zetsu clone within Casaran's body and temporarily lay low.
"Raikage-sama, you're being too heavy-handed. This person is Casaran, yes, but she has temporarily been controlled by someone using some kind of sinister spiritual secret technique. It's very likely the Secret Art of the Yamanaka Clan from Konoha, the Mind Body Switch Technique. Now that you've hit her so hard, you'll definitely forcibly remove the spiritual secret technique from her body.
As for the evidence, it was the strange movement she made after she had just finished healing. I know Casaran quite well, and we usually drink together. She would never wipe her sweat with that somewhat rude movement, but would take out the handkerchief on her body to wipe it.
Erui saw Sandaime Raikage's actions and covered her head, saying with a headache.
"Raikage's secretary is really not simple, her observation power is far stronger than this Sandaime Raikage."
Kirito, who was lurking inside Casaran, secretly praised Erui's words.
"Then why didn't you say so earlier?"
Sandaime Raikage said dejectedly after hearing his beautiful secretary's explanation, before quickly setting down Casaran, who had been seriously injured.
Then, he immediately said to the Kumogakure ANBU who had arrived, "Conduct a full search of the village immediately, and find that despicable person who attacked Casaran."
"Ha~"
The members of the Kumogakure ANBU all answered in unison.
As soon as they finished speaking, they immediately used the technique of instant teleportation and disappeared.
As soon as the ANBU ninja left, Sandaime Raikage immediately called for some medical ninja to come and treat Casaran's injuries, and also asked for some ninja skilled in illusion techniques to come and carefully examine Casaran's mental state to see if she was still under control.
"Raikage-sama, Casaran's mental state is not under control at the moment, but her mental state is not very good, and there are indeed signs that her spiritual world has been invaded."
After a certain jōnin of illusion used a certain secret spiritual technique to carefully probe Casaran's spiritual world, he said to Sandaime Raikage with a serious expression:
"Thank you for your hard work."
Sandaime Raikage nodded, then looked at Casaran, who was being treated not far away, and then at Erui beside her.
Erui shook her head to indicate that there was nothing unusual about Casaran at the moment.
After a while, Casaran finally slowly woke up.
As soon as she woke up, she quickly remembered what she had experienced not long ago. With a painful expression, she covered her head and shouted emotionally, "Get out, get out of here quickly."
"Casaran, calm down, I'm here, you're safe."
Sandaime Raikage saw this and immediately walked up to her, smiling.
"Raikage-sama, I..."
Casaran saw Sandaime Raikage and suddenly felt like she had found a backbone. The fear that had just arisen in her heart disappeared in an instant, and she spoke with a sense of grievance.
As she spoke, she was about to stand up from the ground and explain to Sandaime Raikage that she had just been controlled.
"We have a rough idea of your situation. For now, just rest in peace. I will not forgive the person who controlled you,"
Sandaime Raikage immediately stopped Casaran from getting up and replied, "Don't worry, you'll be fine.
Casaran was grateful for Sandaime Raikage's promise and said, "Thank you, Raikage-sama."
Then, she closed her eyes from exhaustion and let the other medical staff carry her onto a stretcher and take her to the hospital to rest. The damage caused by Sandaime Raikage's punch was heavy, and her internal organs had been damaged, so she needed some time to rest.
In no time, Casaran was sent to a high-level hospital room.
Suddenly, Casaran, who was lying on her back, gave a slight shudder, then opened her eyes again. She raised her right hand and looked at a speck of flesh and blood in her fingernail, a smile appearing in the corner of her mouth.
...
"Erui, which ninja village do you think did this, and what was their purpose?"
On the other side, once Casaran had left, the office was left with only Sandaime Raikage and Erui. Sandaime Raikage immediately asked Erui.
He is good at fighting, but for brain-intensive things like analyzing the causes of incidents, he still needs to rely on his beautiful secretary.
"I think the most likely person to do such a thing is a spy sent by Konoha's Roots. Among Konoha's Root personnel, there are many people from the Ino, Shika, and Cho clans. Among them, the people from the Yamanaka clan are the main intelligence stealers for this organization. The secret Yamanaka techniques they are good at are indeed very suitable for stealing intelligence, and they can temporarily control other people's bodies.
They targeted Casaran, perhaps because she is in charge of secret research on a special medicine. As you know, once the research on that special medicine that can enhance physical strength is successful, it will definitely greatly enhance the strength of our Kumogakure village.
And the ninja who controlled Casaran is also a medical ninja with very strong medical ninjutsu abilities, so this possibility is very high.
By the way, we heard that someone was spying on Lord Blue B from the other side, and then Casaran was taken control of. This person might also have the intention of spying on Lord Blue B's information. The ANBU said that Casaran planned to go back to the hospital."
Erui heard this and, after a moment of silence, slowly explained.
"Konoha? Hmph, now that they are already fighting the Sunagakure, they actually still have the time to provoke us, the Kumogakure, really hateful."
Sandaime Raikage said angrily.
After listening to Erui's explanation, he had automatically filtered out the most likely words, and he was now convinced that it was the people of Konoha who did it.
The mere reason that Konoha was the most suspicious was enough.
Seeing this, Erui knew that her boss was determined to do something, and he would never change his mind.
In short, she could not persuade him.
"No, we from Kumogakure must get our revenge. Not only do we want Konoha to hand over the person who did this, we also want Konoha to apologize. The Sandaime Hokage wouldn't want Kumogakure to cause trouble for them at a time like this, would he?"
Sandaime Raikage continued, a sinister smile on his face.
"Raikage-sama, please think twice about this. Starting a war rashly is a move that will harm the interests of Kumogakure. Moreover, we are a long way from Konoha in the Land of Fire, and the supply lines will be very long. If we get caught up in a long war, I'm afraid Kumogakure's finances won't last long.
In addition, many research and development projects currently underway in the village may also be interrupted as a result, such as the development of special drugs to enhance physical strength and the Chakra Cannon."
Erui saw that Sandaime Raikage was thinking of starting a war, and hurriedly dissuaded him.
In her opinion, it was in Kumogakure's best interest to maintain its position of watching the fire from the sidelines.
After all, the Land of Thunder did not want to be close to the three major countries of the Land of Earth, the Land of Fire, and the Land of Wind.
Moreover, the Land of Thunder is poor in land and resources, and its people are fierce. Kumogakure is very powerful, and no one would normally want to start a conflict with it, which has brought Kumogakure long-lasting peace.
As a result, as long as Kumogakure continues its policy of plundering the resources of the surrounding countries, it will have the opportunity to surpass Konoha, which has been affected by war for a long time, and become the strongest ninja village in the world.
However, once Kumogakure is involved in war and serious conflicts break out with several other major countries in the ninja world, it will be difficult for Kumogakure to continue enjoying the benefits of peace.
This is not only because other ninja villages will not easily stop fighting after they have suffered losses, but also because a large number of militant ninja within Kumogakure will not easily let the war end.
By then, the momentum of Kumogakure's development will inevitably be interrupted.
"Don't worry, Erui. I just want to make Konoha uncomfortable. Even if I start a war, I wouldn't choose Konoha right now. They don't have anything we lack for the time being,"
Sandaime Raikage replied, feeling a little of his desire for war disappear.
"Raikage-sama is wise. Making Konoha uncomfortable is a good idea, but first we must find the spy who attacked Casaran,"
Erui praised.
"Let's forget about Konoha for now. Erui, what's the situation in Iwagakure? Are they showing any signs of wanting to do something to Konoha?"
Seeing that he couldn't get Konoha to back down for the time being, Sandaime Raikage changed the subject and asked about what he was most concerned about at the moment.
Land of Thunder is a country that severely lacks mineral resources, but it happens to have a very developed military industry, and has a very high demand for mineral resources. In the past, this gap could be barely filled by plundering the mineral resources of the surrounding small countries.
However, as the military industry in the Land of Thunder grows larger and larger, it is no longer enough to plunder the mineral resources of a few neighboring countries.
For this reason, the ambitious daimyo of the Land of Thunder has set his sights on the Land of Earth, which is incredibly rich in mineral resources, and wants to plunder its mineral resources to accelerate the development of the military power of the Land of Thunder.
The interests of Kumogakure and the Land of Thunder are linked: when one prospers, the other also prospers; when one suffers, the other also suffers.
Moreover, the Land of Thunder has always provided great financial support to Kumogakure, which is an important force in the development of Kumogakure.
Therefore, Sandaime Raikage naturally could not ignore the request of the daimyo of the Land of Thunder, and secretly prepared a plan to plunder a large amount of mineral resources from the Land of Earth.
"According to the news we received from our secret informant, Iwagakure does indeed seem to be planning to make a move on Konoha. Since their ninja population has already exceeded 30,000, I'm afraid Iwagakure's current finances cannot sustain such a large ninja army for long. It is inevitable that they will reduce the ninja population through war to alleviate their internal financial problems and improve the quality of their ninja.
However, the recent relationship between the Land of Earth and the Land of Rain has eased, and they have frequent trade exchanges, which are becoming larger and larger in scale. Therefore, the Land of Earth has recently made a lot of profits by selling mineral resources to the Land of Rain, and Iwagakure has also gained a lot of benefits as a result. Financially, it should be able to maintain for a longer period of time for the time being.
In addition, the number of ninja troops stationed along the eastern border of the Land of Earth has been increasing. Iwagakure has probably already discovered our intention of attacking them, Kumogakure."
Erui immediately replied.
It had not been a day or two since Sandaime Raikage wanted to attack Iwagakure, and as his secretary, she naturally knew about it.
Although she did not support it, it was better than going to war with the resilient Konoha.
From the first time the Ninja World war broke out between Kumogakure and Konoha, she knew clearly how powerful the Konoha Ninja Village was, and with Kumogakure's current strength, it was not enough to defeat Konoha.
It's better to fight Iwagakure.
Their Kumogakure is good at Lightning Release jutsu, which happens to be able to restrain Iwa-nin's specialty, Earth Release jutsu. In a real fight, their Kumogakure has a very high chance of winning.
"It seems that there are quite a few rats hiding in our Kumogakure. It is necessary to conduct another internal inspection. Also, have the ANBU people sabotage the trade between the Land of Earth and the Land of Rain, and it would be best to let Iwagakure and Amegakure reignite their conflict."
Sandaime Raikage said coldly.
Iwagakure's development is not what he wants to see. He needs to cause a conflict between Iwagakure and Konoha as soon as possible, or have Iwagakure clash with other ninja villages, otherwise it will be difficult for him to take the opportunity to invade the Land of Earth and plunder its mineral resources.
...
The following day, news of Casaran being taken over spread through Kumogakure, which made countless ninja who admired Casaran angry. They joined the ranks of those who wanted to overthrow the ninja who had taken over Casaran.
Unfortunately, after several days, the people of Kumogakure had been unable to find a target to overthrow, and they didn't even have a clue.
Naturally, the ninja of Kumogakure were unwilling to let this go, and they continued to search for a target, but a sudden major event forced a shift in their attention.
That was the time when the Jinchuuriki of the Hachibi, Blue B, became monstrosity-possessed and rampaged. If not for the timely arrival of Sandaime Raikage, who worked with a large number of Kumogakure ninja to suppress Blue B, who had already grown seven tails, Gyuki would have almost broken free.
In a private house in the Kumogakure village, the White Zetsu clone used Byakugan to look in the direction of Thunder Cloud Gorge and watch as Blue B was suppressed by Sandaime Raikage. With some regret, he said, "It's a pity, but in the end, Gyuki was unable to successfully break its seal."
Meanwhile, in Konoha, in the basement of the orphanage, Kirito's shadow clone was standing in front of a huge columnar glass container, inside of which a baby with white hair was immersed in a green solution.
After all, he had obtained Sandaime Raikage's flesh and blood.
The white-haired infant before him is a clone of Sandaime Raikage, cloned using the flesh and blood of Sandaime Raikage. He is now sealing the area around the cylindrical glass container with the Sealing Technique: Jar of Poison Technique.
This Sealing Technique is a forbidden technique of the Aburame clan. On the surface, the effect of this Sealing Technique is to cause the poisonous insects in the sealing barrier to multiply rapidly, but in actual fact, this Sealing Technique can cause the creatures in the sealing barrier to grow rapidly. It is a powerful Sealing Technique that involves time.
This forbidden technique was obtained by Kirito from the memories of an elite Aburame jōnin from the Skull Squad that he had previously killed, and is now being used by him to speed up the process of cloning people.
Unsurprisingly, given the current growth rate of the clones, Kirito will be able to harvest a fully developed clone of Raikage in another week.
"I hope my guess is correct,"
said Kirito's shadow clone, looking at the Sandaime Raikage clone in front of him and hoping.
One month later, a powerful Lightning Release ninja appeared in the Shinobi world.
This Lightning Release ninja had a mysterious background and was a loner, but judging from his skin tone and hair color, he was a ninja from the Land of Thunder.
He had recently done something big, which was to attack by himself a unit of hundreds of Iwagakure ninja stationed at the eastern border of the Land of Earth, killing a large number of them and finally retreating safely before the rest of the Iwa-nin troops at the border could come to his support.
After that, for many months in a row, he repeatedly attacked Iwagakure's ninja troops at the border, causing Iwagakure to lose hundreds of ninja within a few months.
Since this mysterious Lightning Release ninja was obviously from Kumogakure, it was very likely that he was a rogue ninja from Kumogakure or that it was a plot by Kumogakure. Iwagakure was very dissatisfied with Kumogakure and considered this to be a provocation by Kumogakure against Iwagakure. A large number of martial arts ninja in Iwagakure expressed their desire to go to war with Kumogakure.
Kumogakure, which has always been tough with outsiders, naturally does not intend to take the blame for the mysterious Lightning Release ninja's attack on Iwagakure. Sandaime Raikage strongly stated that Kumogakure does not have this person and will not apologize to Iwagakure.
As a result, the conflict between the two major ninja villages deepened, but the senior management of the two major ninja villages were quite restrained and did not declare war on each other directly.
However, although there was no open war between the two major ninja villages, there were more and more private frictions, and there was a trend of a major battle between the two major ninja villages breaking out at any moment.
For a time, the ninja world, which had already become unsettled due to the war between Konoha and Sunagakure, became even more unsettled.
...
In a huge underground cave, Uchiha Madara woke up again after six months of sleep at the call of Black Zetsu.
A pair of Three-Tomoe Sharingan appeared in the darkness, glowing a bloody red.
"Any good news lately?"
Uchiha Madara asked, looking at Black Zetsu, who was smiling sinisterly.
Every time he saw Black Zetsu smile like that, he knew the other person had interesting news.
He looked forward to it.
"Yes, Lord Madara, I have recently discovered an interesting ninja and an interesting organization. If we can control them, our Moon Eye plan may proceed more smoothly."
Black Zetsu smiled upon hearing this.
"Oh, tell me about it, but before that, tell me about the condition of my eyes."
Uchiha Madara's heart immediately grew a trace of interest, but he quickly remembered Nagato, the host of his Rinnegan, and inquired.
He didn't really care about the current turmoil in the ninja world, he was more concerned about his eyes.
These eyes were the key to his plan to implement the Moon Eye, and other people and things were just embellishments.
As soon as he thought of Nagato, Uchiha Madara suddenly remembered Hattori Masanari, the Amegakure ninja who had already noticed the Rinnegan, and continued, "Oh, yes, and tell me about that interesting Ame-Nin named Hattori Masanari."