Chapter 103: In Fact, Someone Can Leap Thousands of Miles in an Instant
Ritsu's pure white eyes contained infinite killing intent.
Izumo's back turned cold. He'd stake his head that this Hyuga Clan head wasn't here to amuse himself—he'd truly resolved to "clear the ruler's side." Given the opportunity, he would absolutely show no mercy in striking down those bigwigs in the village.
This was truly... wonderful!
They weren't ignorant fools.
Ever since their ancestor Madara Uchiha—that bastard who screwed over his descendants—defected from Konoha, the Uchiha Clan's circumstances had never been good. If the Second Hokage had balanced suppression and exploitation with overtures and goodwill, by the Third Hokage's time only suppression and exploitation remained, with no trace of goodwill left.
Over these years, facing the village's open and covert discrimination, Uchiha clansmen had long accumulated a bellyful of anger. Unfortunately, they'd never had channels to vent these emotions, only able to continuously accumulate them, waiting until reaching some limit when they might erupt regardless of consequences.
Izumo laughed, his mouth corners rising high. "Clan Head Hyuga, though I can't represent the clan to immediately agree to your request, I personally am very willing to join hands with you. If possible, please give me some time. I'll persuade the clan head and other elders."
"What if you can't persuade them?"
"How's that possible? Everyone's long been displeased with those old things like the Hokage and Danzo." Teyaki blurted out, refuting Ritsu's hypothesis.
Ritsu smiled slightly without arguing.
Even with the current Hyuga Clan, Ritsu didn't dare say all clansmen were unified with him, completely uncaring of the Hokage's authority. He'd simply personally guided the clan's general trend, drowning out minor dissenting voices.
But the Uchiha situation was different. They lacked a strong leader who could make unilateral decisions. The clan also had people like Uchiha Shisui who'd been brainwashed by the Will of Fire. Quickly integrating everyone's opinions might prove difficult.
Izumo furrowed his brow and thought for two seconds before answering seriously: "Though I also don't think anyone won't support this... if someone truly doesn't support it, it's fine. Clan Head Hyuga, as long as you truly plan to move against that old thing, I guarantee I and all other clansmen absolutely won't stand idly by!"
"Right, right! We Uchiha always keep our word!"
Teyaki chimed in as well.
"Good. Izumo-kun, that's settled then!"
Ritsu was fairly satisfied with this answer.
Having the Uchiha Clan—even just some Uchiha clansmen's support—would appear to outsiders as the Hyuga and Uchiha, these two prestigious great clans, joining hands. That would be enough to make many carefully consider their positions.
"Clan Head Hyuga, specifically, what do you plan to do?"
Izumo asked.
"Izumo-kun, Teyaki-kun, you remember Suikazan Fuguki's testimony, right?"
"Remembering everything's impossible, but we remember the general points."
"Then you definitely remember how White Fang-senpai was driven to death?"
"We remember, but honestly, White Fang died several years ago. The truth of that matter is simply unclear now, right? If Clan Head Hyuga wants to use this to attack the Hokage... the treacherous villains around him?"
Izumo furrowed his brow and said frankly: "I think this might not work."
"Of course I'm not counting on such a small matter alone to eliminate the treacherous villains around the Hokage. But doing things requires gradual progress. You can't get fat in one bite—this is just a beginning."
As he spoke, before Izumo could ask again, Ritsu brought up another matter.
"You may not know yet, but rumors are now spreading widely in the village. Everywhere people are saying that this war with the Mist ninja erupted not due to the Mist ninja's fault, but because a master-disciple pair in the village secretly captured Mist ninja to research some inhumane forbidden technique, ultimately enraging the Mist ninja and triggering war between our two villages."
Having finished, he looked at his two Uchiha companions and asked: "What do you think of this rumor?"
"Too stupid!"
Teyaki spoke bluntly, giving his judgment without courtesy, mocking: "Secretly capturing Mist ninja to research forbidden techniques? Do the people saying this have no brains? Don't they think about how far apart Konoha and Hidden Mist Village are? Who has the ability to run from Konoha to Hidden Mist Village to capture Mist ninja? Anyone who'd believe such talk also absolutely has no brain."
Izumo didn't rush to take a stance.
He was also clever, and unlike Teyaki who was too lazy to think, he would use his brain. After communicating with Ritsu for a while, he'd somewhat realized this young Hyuga clan head didn't like wasting words.
"Clan Head Hyuga, are you also planning to learn from them and spread rumors? Use White Fang's matter to attack them?"
Izumo asked somewhat uncertainly.
"They can do it, so naturally I can too."
Ritsu answered with a smile.
Spreading rumors wasn't just one person's privilege. Sarutobi Hiruzen and Shimura Danzo could use rumors to drive Sakumo Hatake to death, so he could also use rumors to deal with those two old things Sarutobi Hiruzen and Shimura Danzo.
This was also one reason he specifically wanted to unite with the Uchiha Clan. The Konoha Military Police Force managing village security was the Uchiha Clan's private domain. With Uchiha help, spreading rumors would be more convenient.
"But even so, relying just on White Fang's matter will probably have limited effect."
Izumo wasn't deliberately finding fault but seriously thinking through whether Ritsu's ideas were feasible.
"You're right about that."
Ritsu nodded, acknowledging Izumo's judgment. As he'd said, White Fang died several years ago—generating interest would be difficult.
He looked at Izumo and continued: "I originally prepared another story to entertain them, but just now Teyaki-kun's words reminded me, giving me an even better idea."
"Huh? Me?"
Teyaki scratched his head, recalling what he'd just said but finding nothing special about his words.
Izumo said nothing, only patiently awaiting what came next.
Ritsu didn't keep them in suspense, directly saying: "Just now Teyaki-kun said Konoha and Hidden Mist Village are separated by thousands of miles—no one can run from Konoha to Hidden Mist Village to capture Mist ninja. That's not correct. In fact, someone can leap thousands of miles away in an instant!"
"Who? Who has the ability to do that?"
Teyaki widened his eyes, not reacting.
But Izumo instantly realized something. "Clan Head Hyuga, you mean... is that alright? Drawing that person into this?"
---
Northeastern border of Hot Water Country, Konoha's flag flew above the mountain castle. Standing at the highest point's keep, one could see a similarly-sized mountain castle rising on Frost Country's territory a dozen kilometers away with Hidden Cloud Village's flag flying above.
Konoha and Cloud ninja had been facing off here for quite some time.
Previously, Konoha and Cloud ninja had already been fighting intensely, but because Rock ninja sneakily cut off Cloud ninja's rear, the Third Raikage chose to face ten thousand Rock ninja's encirclement alone to cover his subordinate forces' safe retreat, fighting for three days and nights before finally dying of exhaustion.
Because of this, Cloud ninja withdrew and stayed quiet for a while, interrupting hostilities with Konoha. At that time, Konoha was still fighting Mist and Rock ninja and truly didn't have sufficient manpower to take advantage. Plus, figuring Cloud ninja had suffered such a major loss, once they recovered, they'd definitely seek trouble with Rock ninja and temporarily shouldn't need to worry about Cloud ninja continuing the war.
But the result was eye-opening. After Cloud ninja weathered the violent shock from the Third Raikage's death, with the Fourth Raikage—the Third Raikage's own son—taking power, far from seeking revenge against Rock ninja, they again stationed troops on Frost Country's border, looking ready to dispatch troops to continue invading southward at any moment.
Unable to help it, Konoha could only respond in kind, similarly mobilizing forces north to Hot Water Country's border, confronting Cloud ninja across the boundary line.
Knock knock.
A knocking sound came.
"Come in! The door's unlocked!"
Minato pushed with his hand. The aged, poorly maintained wooden door made a creaking sound. Inside the room, a middle-aged man with white hair sat before a heated table on tatami mats. On the table sat a vessel containing hot sake. The man who'd just spoken held a cup, slowly sipping.
"Sensei, this is still a front-line battlefield!"
Seeing his teacher hiding in his room drinking in broad daylight, Minato looked utterly helpless.
This white-haired middle-aged man before him was the famous Jiraiya, one of Konoha's Sannin, a disciple of the Third Hokage, and also teacher to Yellow Flash Minato Namikaze. He currently served as supreme commander of the northeastern battlefield.
"Hahaha! It's fine, it's fine! I'm just having a small drink—I absolutely won't get drunk. Besides, though this is technically a battlefield, we've been facing off for over a month. I think this battle won't start."
Jiraiya laughed twice. His expression was clearly lucid—still quite far from drunk.
"The key is if this gets out, it really doesn't look good."
Minato was full of helplessness.
Forget the three ninja prohibitions—as front-line supreme commander, even if Jiraiya couldn't lead by example, he at least shouldn't knowingly break the law!
"Minato, want to join me for a drink?"
Jiraiya didn't care at all. Instead, he shook his cup, inviting Minato to drink together.
"Sensei, no need."
Minato waved his hands repeatedly, refusing Jiraiya's invitation and hastily saying: "I came to tell you good news. The Mist ninja have been defeated. They've now sent a diplomatic envoy to prepare signing a ceasefire agreement. Once Cloud ninja receive the news, this standoff should end quickly."
"That Orochimaru guy won?"
Jiraiya raised an eyebrow.
"Correct."
Minato nodded.
He'd somewhat anticipated this good news. After Hyuga Ritsu killed so many Mist experts, Mist ninja's defeat was already a foregone conclusion.
However, thinking about this matter didn't make him particularly happy.
Because even now, the village still hadn't given a clear response about what Kakashi and the others experienced. He still didn't know about interrogating Suikazan Fuguki. After Fuguki was sent back to Konoha, he was immediately detained by ANBU.
That transcript had only been seen by a select few.
In short, Minato wasn't among those select few. He was still waiting for the village's explanation.
"Still thinking about Kakashi's matter?"
Jiraiya suddenly asked.
"I... yes."
Minato instinctively wanted to deny it, but immediately realized only he and Teacher Jiraiya were here—no need to lie. He could say anything.
"About Kakashi's matter..."
Bringing this up, Jiraiya also looked quite displeased. He'd heard about this from Minato long ago and had once been angry enough to want to return to the village to settle accounts with that old thing Danzo!
He drained his cup in one gulp, refilled it, and stared at the warm sake. After quite a while, he slowly said: "I'm not making excuses for the old man. I know he's naturally not as bright and great as he appears. That old bastard Danzo has taken many falls for him. But Kakashi's matter really shouldn't have been the old man's doing!"
"Why?"
Minato asked.
"Because you're my student, Minato, and Kakashi is your student. The old man has this or that problem and flaw, but he has one trait that's hard to say is a flaw or virtue—he's protective of his own!"
The reason Jiraiya gave was so compelling that Minato couldn't refute it.
After quite a while, he quietly asked: "Sensei, you mean Kakashi's experience was an accident?"
"Whether it's an accident, I'm not certain. But if there's a mastermind manipulating things behind the scenes, that mastermind definitely isn't the old man but someone else entirely."
Jiraiya asserted.
Minato furrowed his brow slightly, looking thoughtful.
If this matter was unrelated to the Third Hokage, then who schemed against Kakashi and them? Who would profit from it? But thinking it through repeatedly, he couldn't think of anyone who could obtain sufficient benefits.
The key was Rin Nohara becoming the Three-Tails jinchuriki. It was hard to imagine this was also a mastermind manipulating the Mist ninja's doing, and also impossible to understand what benefit this could bring the mastermind...
As his thoughts deepened, Minato gradually came to believe this perhaps wasn't a carefully laid trap specifically targeting Kakashi and the others...
"Sensei, drink less. I'll take my leave first."
"Go on, go on!"
Minato took his leave and departed. Walking along the road, he still couldn't help pondering the various possibilities until he encountered a squad and heard an energetic voice calling him.
"Minato-sama."
Minato felt somewhat dazed, taking a full second to recover and see the four-person squad before him. The leader was clearly an Uchiha Clan youth.
"It's Torajiro!"
Minato's face showed a trace of smile as he gently asked: "Are you going out on patrol again?"
"That's right! It's our turn to patrol."
Uchiha Torajiro answered loudly.
"Then go. Be careful and act cautiously."
"Yes, Minato-sama!"
Minato stood in place, silently watching this patrol squad walk toward the mountain castle's exterior. This youth named Uchiha Torajiro always made him involuntarily think of Obito—the same vigor and vitality, the same pure lovability, lacking the common Uchiha arrogance, instead taking the Hokage as his goal to strive toward.
Unfortunately, he'd never again have the chance to see the day Obito became Hokage!
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