Chapter 443: Cloud Ninja (Part 2)
To be fair, the things the Cloud Ninja mentioned before were all supported by intelligence.
It was just that after adding words like "heard" and "seems" in front of the Raikage, it became very unserious and unprofessional.
What C wanted to say was precisely his encounter with Haruno Sakura during the Chunin Exams—saying encounter, actually, it was just a glance from afar.
At that time, Haruno Sakura was inspecting the exam venue with Kakashi, and C and the others from the observation group were watching the Chunin Exams on the viewing platform.
Both the girl and the Cloud Ninja were not focusing on the exam venue below, but looking around; then across a distance of dozens of meters, their eyes met.
A faint glance. It was not like Haruno Sakura's eyes were radiating brilliance, emitting the aura of a Kage-level expert, causing the Cloud Ninja to be struck by lightning and collapse dejectedly with just one look.
"It's Haruno Sakura."
Almost the moment he saw the girl, C recognized her.
Hair color, eyes, facial features, figure, and the unique temperament in the crowd.
All matched the data he had memorized before.
Moreover, the ninja chatting intimately beside the girl was the famous Kakashi Hatake.
So although he had never seen her before, although she was just leaning casually on the railing with a quiet smile on her face, chakra restrained without leaking, aura contained but not released, without the fierce flavor of having fought with Akatsuki many times, C immediately confirmed Haruno Sakura's identity.
"Remembered, Haruno Sakura's chakra texture."
C subconsciously lowered his head, touched his nose, and concealed the gleam in his eyes.
As one of the Cloud Ninja's most outstanding sensory ninja, C could perceive other people's chakra very accurately, including the several Konoha Anbu around them who thought they were hiding very covertly.
The Fifth Hokage Tsunade's chakra was like a torch in his perception, flames burning fiercely, the fire hot and bright, covering the light of most people present. The Fifth Kazekage's chakra was heavy and solid, while the Mizukage Terumi Mei's chakra was oppositely unrestrained and hot. Except for the old, middle-aged, and young Kage, the chakra of the others was much dimmer, and the Genin taking the exam were like candles in the night, not worth mentioning.
A few worth his attention were Kakashi, Haruno Sakura, and others.
Kakashi was unique in C's perception. Two streams of chakra circulated distinctly in his body, one bewitching and cold, one pure and condensed. In terms of texture, it was not inferior to the Kage present, even slightly superior, just the quantity was a bit less.
"Could it be..." C narrowed his eyes, interested, "He crossed that boundary?"
Kakashi, known as Konoha's Technician, also had a loud name in the entire ninja world. It was just generally accepted that his strength was not up to the "Kage" level, but this time C could clearly perceive that Kakashi's chakra had made significant progress compared to before.
"In the past, Kakashi's two streams of chakra could be said to be constraining each other... now they seem to be mutually achieving. Kage level? Kakashi's strength seems to have grown to a level that must be targeted!"
C lowered his eyelids, pondering silently: To deal with a ninja like Kakashi, how many Jonin squads does the Cloud Ninja need to dispatch?
The answer was probably not optimistic.
"What about Haruno Sakura?"
C turned his attention to the girl beside Kakashi again.
Her chakra control was extremely good, the best C had ever seen. The girl's chakra texture was beautiful. Flowing endlessly like water, and ethereal and clear like ice. However, with C's ability, the part he could detect was only the tip of the iceberg revealed by the girl, with unknown amounts hidden under the sea surface.
The intelligence about being proficient in Water Style and Ice Style seemed correct. The Yin Seal was also there.
C also associated it with Konoha generously revealing Haruno Sakura's combat achievements. The strength of this young female ninja was probably even above Kakashi.
There were also other figures with extraordinary strength or potential, such as Might Guy with taijutsu unmatched in Konoha, Hinata Hyuga and Sasuke Uchiha from the same batch as Haruno Sakura...
C detailed the intelligence recorded by the observation group to the Fourth Raikage one by one.
"Good job!" The black-faced muscular man Ay slapped the chair hard and praised roughly, "Being able to detect such rich intelligence in the heavily guarded Konoha, truly worthy of you, C!"
C's expression remained calm, shaking his head gently: "No, Raikage-sama, I'm afraid these were all deliberately shown to us by Konoha!"
"Why would Konoha do this deliberately? Isn't that stupid?" The Raikage frowned.
"To show muscles and deter other villages, right?" A black-skinned woman standing aside said.
Her name was Mabui, the Raikage's secretary, who had unique achievements in support ninjutsu.
"The intelligence we brought back this time is all estimates of their general strength, without actual combat data, nor do we know their weaknesses." C nodded in agreement, "So, leaking these contents won't have any negative impact on Konoha."
"True." The Raikage thought about it and realized, "So... according to your intelligence, Konoha's top-level combat power is very rich now. Tsunade, Jiraiya, Kakashi, and Haruno Sakura. There are a large number of newcomers with huge potential in the new generation. The Third Hokage still has a little residual prestige, and the strength of elite Jonin like Might Guy cannot be underestimated. In this way, Konoha is no longer a soft persimmon easy to squeeze."
Raikage Ay was somewhat annoyed.
The Cloud Ninja had been preparing for war these years, collecting and creating ninjutsu, expanding armaments, sharpening their knives, long ready for the next Ninja World War.
—To put it bluntly, preparing to fight Konoha.
A few years ago, when Konoha still had the Third Hokage as the pillar, the Raikage saw Konoha's strength was hollow, an ideal soft persimmon for the Cloud Ninja. The Konoha Crush operation was seen by the Raikage as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and he immediately ordered secret war preparations, planning to suddenly attack the Land of Fire one day and catch Konoha off guard.
However, the Cloud Ninja never expected that the Sand Ninja's invasion of Konoha did not cause huge losses to Konoha as they imagined. On the contrary, Konoha, welcoming back Jiraiya and Tsunade, quickly walked out of the lowest valley. Just as the Cloud Ninja were ready for war, Konoha had recovered its vitality. In the past two years, with the return of Tsunade and Jiraiya, and two "Kage" level figures emerging from the middle and new generations.
Today, the soft persimmon has become a hedgehog hard to bite.
The restless Kumogakure had to give up the target of Konoha.
"Mabui, immediately stop all war preparations against Konoha." The rough man only felt annoyed for two seconds before recovering the composure of a Raikage, "C, your intelligence department should focus part of its energy on Konoha ninja recently. First, verify the authenticity of the intelligence brought back from this trip to Konoha. Second, focus on improving the information on Konoha's new generation of ninja!"
"Especially..." A gleam flashed in the Raikage's eyes, "That girl named Haruno Sakura you mentioned."
"Yes!" Mabui and C accepted the order.
"Then regarding the signal released by Konoha, how should we respond, Raikage-sama?" Mabui asked again.
The Raikage had a bit of a headache. He pressed his temples hard with his knobby hands and pondered for a moment.
Konoha had united with the Sand and Mist ninja. Regardless of the name under which they united, regardless of whether they were seemingly in harmony but actually at variance, at least the Raikage had no idea of confronting them—dealing with Konoha alone was already impossible.
Unless the remaining two large villages, Cloud and Stone, also united, would they have enough strength to contend with the three-village alliance; but there was a blood feud between the two villages. The Cloud Ninja would rather join the Konoha alliance than join hands with the Stone Ninja.
Presumably, the Stone Ninja thought the same.
So... really unite five villages to deal with "Akatsuki"?
"Still no news of the Two-Tails Jinchuriki Yugito Nii?" The Raikage didn't answer Mabui's question but suddenly asked another question.
"The intelligence department has already searched carefully in the place where Yugito-sama last appeared." C sighed, "No more valuable intelligence has been found for the time being. Yugito-sama disappeared after a fierce battle. I'm afraid..."
I'm afraid Yugito-sama has met with misfortune.
C didn't say this sentence out loud, but everyone could hear his meaning.
Everyone's expression became solemn.
In fact, after being solemnly warned by Konoha, although the Raikage somewhat disapproved, he still increased the protection and confidentiality level of Yugito Nii.
As a Jinchuriki, Yugito's relationship with the Two-Tails Matatabi was quite good, with a high degree of controllable Tailed Beast transformation. Her personality was calm and composed, a solid "Kage" level combat power, guarded by capable companions, and hidden in a secret location. Theoretically speaking, the Raikage had done the best in preventive measures. Unexpectedly, with such strict defense, Akatsuki could still find the Jinchuriki, quickly resolve the battle, and abduct her!
How did Akatsuki's people do it?
"Jinchuriki intelligence has always been top secret among top secrets. Only a few people knew Yugito-sama's secret hiding place. Previously, I always suspected there was a deeply hidden mole in the intelligence department, but according to the latest intelligence shared by Konoha, their Jonin Haruno Sakura accidentally discovered when fighting Akatsuki last month that Akatsuki has experts extremely good at concealment and gathering intelligence... This explains why Yugito-sama's intelligence was leaked."
C continued.
"Under strict defense, Akatsuki could still abduct Yugito Nii under the protection of many Anbu. It seems this organization is indeed quite powerful."
The Raikage admitted he had underestimated Akatsuki's strength before. No matter how much Konoha said, it was not as convincing as the abduction of Yugito Nii.
He thought for a moment, then said in a deep voice: "Then let it be so!"
Saying that, the burly man stood up abruptly and waved his hand fiercely.
"Go call Darui!" The Raikage made a decisive decision, "Let him take a squad to bring my letter to Konoha and hand it to Tsunade! That's right, we also invite Konoha ninja to our village for that whatever 'friendly exchange visit'!"
The Eight-Tails Jinchuriki Killer B, one of Akatsuki's targets, is his brother!
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