Chapter 362: The Takikage
"This matter..." The Takikage hesitated for a moment, twitched his face, revealed a smile and said, "What Akatsuki organization? Does it have anything to do with our Waterfall Village?"
He looked at Haruno Sakura and added, "This should be a matter for your five great ninja villages to consider, right?"
When the sky falls, there are tall people to hold it up, this was what he meant.
Haruno Sakura looked at him with a faint smile, then said seriously, "Lord Takikage, have you forgotten? The purpose of the Akatsuki organization..."
"Is to collect Jinchuriki!" Sakura stared into his eyes and said word by word.
The Takikage's face changed, he let out a low breath, forced himself to be calm and said, "Then what does that have to do with our Waterfall Village? Our village is small and weak, where would we have any Jinchuriki?"
The Takikage denied it flatly, but the girl had already seen the answer in his eyes.
The Seven-Tails Jinchuriki was most likely in the Land of Waterfalls, in the Waterfall Village!
"Is there really none?" Haruno Sakura stared at him deadly, a pair of eyes piercing his face like knives, and asked in a deep voice, "Then why did the Akatsuki appear in your country? Are they here for tourism?"
Cold sweat quietly appeared on his forehead and nose. The Takikage hurriedly wiped his face with his hand and smiled awkwardly: "Heh, heh... maybe they have other purposes? Or maybe they are just covering people's eyes and ears, deliberately attracting everyone's attention to our country, and then secretly carrying out their real plan elsewhere?"
In the Takikage's view, what was the difference between the Akatsuki and Konoha?
Regardless of who discovered that the Waterfall Village had a Jinchuriki, the result would be the same for the Waterfall ninja: the Tailed Beast would be taken away.
The difference was that as an underground organization, the Akatsuki should only act in secret; while Konoha might launch a war against the Land of Waterfalls to seize the Seven-Tails Jinchuriki!
In this way, Konoha was even more ferocious than the Akatsuki.
The Takikage could instantly think of several reasons to provoke a war, such as slandering the Waterfall Village for stealing the Seven-Tails from Konoha using improper means back then... or not even needing an excuse. Just telling everyone that a weak ninja village held the powerful Seven-Tails Jinchuriki would be enough.
Tailed Beast Jinchuriki had always been the exclusive property of major countries, not allowing small countries to touch them; a small ninja village possessing a Tailed Beast was as dangerous as a three-year-old child walking through a market holding gold. An innocent man gets into trouble because of his wealth!
If it weren't for a coincidence back then, the Land of Waterfalls wouldn't have had the opportunity to capture the Seven-Tails. The power of the Tailed Beast was too tempting. Although he knew that once the news leaked, the Waterfall Village would fall into an extremely dangerous situation, being able to obtain such precious power, the Takikage wanted to keep it no matter what!
The Takikage denied it to the death, and his stubborn attitude made the conversation difficult to continue.
Haruno Sakura sighed, having no interest in beating around the bush with him, and said directly, "The Seven-Tails Jinchuriki is right here with you, isn't she? Denying it is meaningless!"
"If the envoy insists on pinning groundless accusations on our Waterfall Village, then as the Takikage, I have no other way but to firmly deny it." The Takikage said in a pretentious tone of helplessness.
"You can lie to us with your eyes open, but can you say the same to the people of the Akatsuki?" Sakura frowned and said, "They have known your intelligence for a long time. The power of the Akatsuki is something you cannot contend with! At this juncture, are you still unwilling to accept Konoha's help? Would you rather watch helplessly as the Jinchuriki is snatched by the Akatsuki?"
"Assuming we really have a Jinchuriki," the Takikage retorted, "your so-called help is to take her back to your village, right!"
"Our Konoha has no intention of taking your village's Jinchuriki for ourselves! After passing the crisis of the Akatsuki, your village's Jinchuriki can return to your country at any time. However, if you continue to be so stubborn and refuse to accept our help, I'm afraid you will regret it when the Akatsuki comes!"
"The Seven-Tails is not in our village." The Takikage ignored what the girl said and just shook his head in denial.
He sneered in his heart. What's the use of saying it nicely? I have seen countless times in the ninja world the practice of using sweet words to extract key intelligence and then immediately turning hostile and denying everything!
Moreover, the more it was the five major countries, the more skillful they were at this hooligan behavior. Otherwise, why would small countries privately call them the "Five Great Hooligans"!
Anyway, he just insisted that the Seven-Tails Jinchuriki was not in the Waterfall Village.
If he admitted that the Waterfall Village really had the Seven-Tails, what would be Konoha's so-called help? I'm afraid the next step would be to take her back to Konoha for protection in the name of the Jinchuriki's safety being threatened. At that time, it would be hard to say whether the Jinchuriki belonged to the Waterfall Village or Konoha Village! Konoha had ten thousand ways to make the Jinchuriki stay there.
And... thinking of the personality of the Seven-Tails Jinchuriki, the Takikage had a bit of a headache.
With Fuu's personality, maybe Konoha wouldn't even need to use any tricks, and she would stay in Konoha and be reluctant to leave...
"Thank you for your village's concern," thinking of this, the Takikage had regained his calm, shaking his head and saying, "It's just that our village really doesn't have a Jinchuriki. We are not worried that the Akatsuki organization will really attack the village, nor will we regret it."
Haruno Sakura couldn't see anything from his determined eyes.
She bit her lower lip, not knowing what to say for a moment; the Waterfall Village actually had such a great distrust of Konoha, preferring to risk facing the Akatsuki directly rather than accepting Konoha's help, as if Konoha was more threatening than the Akatsuki.
This really surprised her.
What on earth are the Waterfall ninja thinking?
In fact, this closed ninja village had always been skeptical about the intelligence provided by Konoha.
In their view, besides what the Konoha side claimed, there was another explanation. That was, the so-called "Akatsuki" organization might just be a cover, or even Konoha manipulating them behind the scenes, with the purpose of scaring the small ninja village and trying to find out if they possessed the Seven-Tails. Thinking carefully, this possibility was not small. From the establishment of Konoha to now, more than sixty years, how many wars had the five great villages fought to compete for Tailed Beasts? They just hadn't heard of any underground organization that could snatch food from the tiger's mouth of the five great ninja villages.
From the Takikage's perspective, Konoha suddenly told him that there was an organization in the ninja world that he had never heard of, inexplicably wanting to collect Tailed Beasts, and possessing nearly double-digit "Kage"-level ninja, with strength capable of contending with the five great ninja villages. Naturally, the Takikage would be suspicious of such intelligence! If the five great ninja villages could be contended with casually, his Waterfall Village also possessed the Seven-Tails Jinchuriki, so why was their national power always weak?
The Takikage could believe in the existence of the Akatsuki, but he absolutely didn't believe that the Akatsuki's strength was stronger than the great ninja villages. Perhaps there were indeed outlaws targeting the Seven-Tails, but he believed that with their hidden location and the village's strength, they could protect the power of the Seven-Tails Jinchuriki from an underground organization.
The Waterfall Village had lived in its own world for too long, lacking sensitivity to changes in the outside world, thinking that the ninja world was still the same as before. This was the root of the Takikage's intellectually stifling thoughts.
In short, no matter what, the Takikage refused to admit that there was a Jinchuriki in their village.
Facing such a stubborn person, the girl didn't have much of a way to deal with him. She couldn't arrest them all and check if they were Jinchuriki one by one, right? That would completely ruin Konoha's alliance.
She turned her head and looked helplessly at Sasuke.
Sasuke nodded slightly.
It seemed that the Sharingan might come in handy.
Of course, they hadn't reached the point of acting recklessly and putting the Takikage under genjutsu in front of so many people. Haruno Sakura came for talks, not to destroy the Waterfall Village.
When encountering problems, one should first find a way to solve the problem, rather than solving the person who created the problem.
The subsequent talks became dull and full of routine. After avoiding sensitive topics, the atmosphere loosened a lot, and sometimes the Waterfall ninja sitting nearby would interject a few sentences.
After a few rounds of meaningless words, Haruno Sakura found that the Waterfall Village was really closed enough. They had only heard a little about many major events in Konoha that were well-known in recent years.
They had heard a little about the Uchiha clan extermination, and only heard a little rumor about the war between the Sand and Konoha two years ago. As for the latest events, such as the friction between Konoha and the Akatsuki, and the cooperation between Konoha and the Mist, they were completely in the dark.
"The world changes really fast," after listening to Sakura's introduction, the Takikage sighed.
"Yes, if Lord Takikage is interested, you can take the opportunity of this Chunin Exam to go abroad, visit Konoha, and see the changes in the world. Konoha is waiting with open arms!" The girl said with a smile.
After understanding deeply, Sakura gradually understood the psychology of the Waterfall Village resisting contact with large ninja villages. This was a group of ninja who hid themselves to avoid war, living with their heads retracted, having a strong distrust of large ninja villages. Perhaps this was the reason why the Waterfall Village had survived in the cracks of world wars over the years.
The Waterfall ninja hoped that everything outside had nothing to do with them and refused any changes.
If the Takikage was willing to open his eyes and look at the changes in the world, maybe things could turn around? Sakura tried inviting him.
"Hn..." The Takikage pondered for a moment and said, "I'll consider it."
"We are going back to Konoha tomorrow. If you have made up your mind, there is still a last chance," Haruno Sakura said finally.
"Shibuki, take the envoys from Konoha down to rest." The Takikage shook his head noncommittally, did not answer the girl, but turned to a Waterfall ninja subordinate and said.
"Yes, Lord Shibuki!" A young man with messy hair lowered his head and responded, leading Haruno Sakura and Sasuke out of the room.
The Takikage looked at the departing figures of the two and pondered silently for a long time.
Watching the girl go away until he could no longer hear her light footsteps, he asked a Waterfall ninja next to him, "Suien... Where is Fuu? Where did she run off to again?"
"Uh..." The Waterfall ninja hesitated for a while, looked left and right, and answered carefully, "She doesn't seem to be in the village."
"What?" The Takikage's face darkened instantly. "That wild girl! I told her not to leave the village casually, she never listens!"
His face was annoyed, and he turned around and scolded again, "Didn't I tell you to watch her? You can't even do such a small thing well!"
Cold sweat dripped from the Waterfall ninja's face, and he hurriedly replied, "Lord Takikage, Lady Fuu can fly, and her strength is much stronger than ours. We couldn't stop her at all!"
"Trash! Can't do a small thing well!" The Takikage scolded. "Go find her quickly! Also, absolutely don't let her meet the envoys from Konoha!"
"Yes, Lord Takikage!" The Waterfall ninja knelt on one knee, nodded in agreement, and then asked worriedly, "The envoys from Konoha seem to have discovered our secret... What should we do?"
The Takikage glared coldly at the Waterfall ninja: "This is not a question you should be concerned about!"
He knew what his subordinate meant by asking this!
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