[Land of Grass]
Compared to the Land of Wind, this place was tiny.
However, the environment here was more than ten times better than that of the Land of Wind.
The climate was humid, the soil was fertile, and the grass and trees grew well. It was a natural storehouse of medicinal herbs.
Relying on the sale of medicinal herbs, Kusagakure was also considered one of the better villages below the Five Great Shinobi Villages.
Although Konoha and Sunagakure had gone to war, the intensity was not very high.
Under these circumstances, the other villages were all watching and waiting for more information.
Kusagakure had been an important battlefield during the Third Great Ninja War, and Uchiha Obito had died in Kusagakure (in reality, he had gone missing).
There had been Kusagakure shinobi in the Battle of Kannabi Bridge, and Kusagakure shinobi were skilled at studying the ninjutsu of other countries.
Kusagakure shinobi were good at using diplomacy to maneuver between the various major powers, allowing them to grasp changes in the situation early and protect themselves.
So when it came to intelligence, they were extremely capable.
Over the past two days, the information that Konoha was making Sunagakure pay to ransom its people had spread.
Every village could see that Sunagakure was having a hard time now.
The war had only just begun, yet Sunagakure had already suffered such a huge loss.
If Konoha had not released the information, Sunagakure would not even have known that so many of its people had been captured.
Now that Konoha had begun to exert its strength, Kusagakure was even more sensitive to this kind of thing.
Having received the news earlier, they had also begun holding a meeting.
There were two political factions controlling Kusagakure.
One was Grass Fruit, and the other was Grass Flower.
Grass Fruit was the pro-war hawkish faction, while Grass Flower was the anti-war dovish faction.
In recent years, the hawkish Grass Fruit faction had become more powerful, so the village was led by Grass Fruit.
There was no Grass Shadow here. Instead, the Zodiac Elders governed the village jointly.
They were the Elder of the Sheep, the Elder of the Ox, the Elder of the Monkey, and the Elder of the Tiger.
During the first three Great Ninja Wars, Kusagakure had followed along and taken advantage of the chaos, but they had never gained much from it.
During the Fourth Great Ninja War, Uchiha Rengoku had ended the war by himself within a few days, so naturally, Kusagakure had nothing to do with it.
However, Kusagakure had an all-purpose wish-granting machine, the Box of Ultimate Bliss.
Many years ago, they had almost used the Box of Ultimate Bliss to unify the entire shinobi world, but one day, Kusagakure was suddenly destroyed.
Now they could only survive in a corner of the world. Grass Fruit had always planned to use this thing to revive Kusagakure, but Grass Flower had always opposed them.
It was only ten years ago, after Grass Fruit seized control of the village, that they tried opening it once.
However, that attempt failed, and the Box of Ultimate Bliss swallowed one of the gatekeepers.
Konoha had first had the Fifth Hokage Uchiha Rengoku, followed by the Fourth Hokage Minato, both of whom were capable of turning the tide of a large-scale battle.
This also gave the four elders of Grass Fruit some ideas.
If they used the Box of Ultimate Bliss to create a super-strong individual, that person would inevitably be able to lead Kusagakure to glory.
The subject of this meeting was also the Box of Ultimate Bliss.
"Let's hear what everyone has to say. The situation in the shinobi world is becoming increasingly tense, and we don't have much time to waste."
The Elder of the Monkey was short and thin. Judging from her voice, she was a woman, and her tone was somewhat anxious.
"Konoha is very determined to take down Sunagakure this time. They don't look like they intend to make some money and leave."
"Who knows if Sunagakure has any chance of turning things around."
"If the Land of Wind is swallowed up by Konoha, then we small shinobi villages will also have no choice but to suffer the same fate."
"I agree to open the Box of Ultimate Bliss."
The Elder of the Sheep's voice was sinister. He first analyzed the situation before agreeing to open the Box of Ultimate Bliss.
"I also agree to open the Box of Ultimate Bliss. If we create a strong individual as well, we'll be able to end the war easily, just like Konoha."
The Elder of the Tiger had not thought that far. He had always followed the Elder of the Sheep.
In the end, only the Elder of the Ox spoke in a low voice, "There's only one gatekeeper left now, Mui."
"He has already conducted many experiments. The criminals in Hozuki Castle have basically all had their chakra drained."
"But it has still never been enough to fill the Box of Ultimate Bliss. He won't agree to force it open."
Mui was now the warden of Hozuki Castle, a city specifically used to imprison special criminal shinobi from various villages.
In the original world, Mui had constantly been feeding the chakra of these criminals into the Box of Ultimate Bliss in order to resurrect his innocent wife, who had died tragically. However, the chakra had never reached the amount needed to open the Box of Ultimate Bliss.
But Mui now had no need to resurrect his wife. Knowing what the Box of Ultimate Bliss was, he had always been giving these four Zodiac Elders the runaround.
Every time he extracted the criminals' chakra and put it into the Box of Ultimate Bliss, he was only going through the motions. After all, he knew that without the chakra of a tailed beast, the thing could never be filled.
Every time he reported to these elders, he simply said, "There isn't enough chakra."
Anyway, Kusagakure had not managed to fill the Box of Ultimate Bliss for many years, so they did not know exactly how much chakra was needed.
Mui's half-truthful lies had never been exposed.
The Elder of the Sheep replied, "Mui refused to forcibly open the Box of Ultimate Bliss ten years ago. We sent Jushi instead, and Jushi was swallowed when he forcibly opened the Box of Ultimate Bliss."
"With that precedent, Mui is even less likely to agree."
The meeting fell silent for a moment.
Having a treasure that could not be used was quite frustrating.
The Elder of the Monkey said somewhat anxiously, "Then why don't we throw all the criminals in Hozuki Castle into it? There are so many of them. I refuse to believe it won't be filled."
The Elder of the Sheep snorted, "How could we do that? Hozuki Castle has contributed greatly to our Kusagakure being able to maneuver between all these shinobi villages."
"The shinobi world hasn't descended into chaos yet. If we touch those criminals, we'll only be digging our own graves."
On the surface, Hozuki Castle was used to imprison certain special criminals. In reality, it was also a place where opposing factions from the various villages played against each other.
There were plenty of cases where an important subordinate of an opposing faction was placed in Hozuki Castle, only for them to be recruited after the person who sent them there came to power.
The criminals in Hozuki Castle could not only not die, they had to be kept alive and well.
"If Konoha really swallows Sunagakure completely, then we won't have a choice."
The Elder of the Ox warned them.
The Elder of the Sheep pondered for a moment, "First, have all our spies do everything they can to investigate the situation in the Land of Wind."
"If things reach the point where there's no other choice, we'll have no choice but to sacrifice those people in Hozuki Castle."
The Elder of the Sheep's words made everyone nod in agreement.
After all, they were all members of Grass Fruit, and everyone's wish was for Kusagakure to rise again.
However, although the four elders had been fairly strong in the past, and this secret meeting room was extremely well hidden, they had not fought for many years and were not very vigilant.
So they did not know that while they were holding their meeting, a White Zetsu was underground, listening to everything they said.
After the meeting ended, White Zetsu immediately used the Mayfly Technique and left.
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