Chapter 333: Planning the Assault

Chapter 333: Chapter 333: Planning the Assault

With the wounds of the Third Shinobi World War yet to fully heal, and with the Akatsuki still having yet to begin collecting the Tailed Beasts, while there was certainly a possibility that the Five Great Shinobi Villages might join forces, it was by no means as easy as Shisui imagined.

After all, in the original timeline, the Akatsuki had operated as a mercenary organization and had even cooperated with the major shinobi villages, accepting missions commissioned by them.

Therefore, as long as the Akatsuki realized the danger in time and resorted to diplomacy, exchanging benefits and making deals with the various villages, any prospect of the Five Great Shinobi Villages joining forces would collapse in an instant.

The mutual distrust between the Five Great Shinobi Villages had existed for a very long time.

If they wanted to join forces against the Akatsuki, then even if another Five Kage Summit were convened, they would inevitably have to go through a long and drawn-out process of negotiations and consultations.

By then, the probability of the Akatsuki intercepting intelligence about the alliance between the Five Great Shinobi Villages would be practically guaranteed.

After all, Sasori had already planted his own spy among Sunagakure’s upper ranks. Because of that, even Hyuga Kagami had no way of knowing just how many spies the Akatsuki had planted throughout the Five Great Shinobi Villages.

And only by ensuring that no intelligence leaked could a surprise assault truly be effective.

As for how to guarantee that no information leaked...

Perhaps the only way to accomplish that was for Hyuga Kagami to personally handle the entire operation.

But right now, the one thing Hyuga Kagami lacked most was precisely time.

At present, not only did he have to constantly keep an eye on the cultivation of the Chimera Bud, but he also had to develop his Fire Release clone, experimenting with the nature transformation fusion of Fire-nature chakra and Lightning-nature chakra in order to develop an entirely new Kekkei Genkai—Blaze Release.

In addition, he still needed to further repair and upgrade the aerial fortress, perfect its power system, add external armor, set up comprehensive defensive barriers, and so on, transforming this relic—which should have been buried in the river of history alongside the Land of Sky—into a true weapon of war.

On top of all that, he still needed to find a way to root out the traitor hiding within the Hyuga Clan and eliminate this troublesome hidden threat.

It could be said that Hyuga Kagami already had far too much on his plate. He simply couldn’t spare the time or energy to personally oversee and push forward an assault against the Akatsuki.

That was also why he had been holding Shisui back and telling him not to report the intelligence on the Akatsuki to the village for the time being.

When dealing with the Akatsuki, there were only two choices: either don’t make a move at all, or strike with overwhelming force the moment you do.

Sneaking in alone to gather intelligence like Jiraiya had done would not only risk alerting the enemy and putting the Akatsuki on guard, but could also easily cost him his life, needlessly sacrificing one of their highest-level combatants.

"Senpai, opportunities like this don’t come often. If we let this one slip away, we’ll definitely regret it. Please make a decision!"

With that, Shisui rose to his feet and bowed deeply to Hyuga Kagami.

At his core, Shisui was a very straightforward and sincere person. Now that he knew where the Akatsuki’s headquarters was located and understood the threat the Akatsuki posed to the village, asking him to pretend he knew nothing and simply stand by while an organization that threatened the village continued to grow was undoubtedly extremely difficult.

Even Hyuga Kagami couldn’t keep suppressing his urge to act forever.

Because Shisui’s loyalty was to the village, not to Hyuga Kagami.

The reason he followed Hyuga Kagami’s orders was because Hyuga Kagami acted in the name of saving the village—and saving the Uchiha.

Seeing the determination on Shisui’s face, Hyuga Kagami knew he couldn’t hold this matter back any longer.

He let out a soft sigh.

"All right, then."

Shisui’s face lit up at those words, and he immediately said, "Then I’ll go report this to Lord Hokage right away!"

"Wait!" Hyuga Kagami stopped Shisui before continuing, "Don’t rush. First, we need to figure out how we’re going to explain the source of our intelligence and make sure our stories match."

Shisui sat back down and nodded.

After pondering for a moment, Hyuga Kagami slowly said, "We can’t report it yet. Otherwise, we won’t be able to explain where the intelligence came from. We’ll have to wait until Team 11 carries out its intelligence-gathering mission tomorrow. Then we can use the mission as cover to explain how we obtained the information."

Shisui nodded slightly.

In truth, explaining the source of the intelligence wasn’t particularly difficult. Ninja had all kinds of ways to obtain information, so even making up some plausible story would be enough to get by.

Therefore, Hyuga Kagami didn’t dwell on the matter any further and instead said, "If we really want to deal an effective blow to the Akatsuki, involving too many shinobi villages would actually work against us."

Shisui immediately understood what Hyuga Kagami meant.

"Senpai, you’re worried the intelligence will leak?"

"Mm. Never underestimate the Akatsuki’s intelligence-gathering capabilities." After a brief pause, Hyuga Kagami continued, "Besides, some shinobi villages don’t actually have any grudges against the Akatsuki. They might not be willing to take the risk of going up against an organization that powerful."

Among the Five Great Shinobi Villages, the formidable Iwagakure neither had any grudges against the Akatsuki nor any major conflicts of interest with them. Convincing them to take action against the Akatsuki would take far too much time and effort.

As for what exactly was going on in Kirigakure at the moment, even Hyuga Kagami wasn’t entirely sure.

All he knew was that while Madara was still alive, he had already infiltrated Kirigakure. Even one of Kirigakure’s Tailed Beasts had been used as nothing more than a tool by Madara to manipulate and push Obito.

So contacting Kirigakure probably wouldn’t be much different from contacting the Akatsuki directly.

With Iwagakure and Kirigakure ruled out, only three of the Five Great Shinobi Villages remained—

Konohagakure, Kumogakure, and Sunagakure.

As for Konoha, there was no need to even mention it.

As for Kumogakure, because Hiruko had used Storm Release, the truth about the Akatsuki disguising themselves as Kamigami to attack the Fourth Raikage and abduct a Storm Release Kekkei Genkai shinobi had already been exposed.

Given the Fourth Raikage’s explosive temper, he would undoubtedly agree to take action against the Akatsuki.

As for Sunagakure, since the Third Kazekage had died at Sasori’s hands, and Sasori had subsequently joined the Akatsuki, the chances of Sunagakure agreeing to fight the Akatsuki were extremely high.

Although Sasori had deeply infiltrated Sunagakure through his spies, the Fourth Kazekage still held the village firmly under his control. As long as Konoha secretly informed the Fourth Kazekage that Sasori had planted spies within Sunagakure, preventing the intelligence from leaking should still be possible.

Hyuga Kagami explained his considerations to Shisui.

Shisui nodded repeatedly. "Senpai, you really did think this through much more thoroughly! But how are we supposed to convince the village not to contact Iwagakure and Kirigakure? Without those two great villages, our overall combat strength will be considerably weaker!"

The corner of Hyuga Kagami’s mouth curled upward.

"Isn’t that simple? We’ll just report false intelligence to the village. We’ll tell them that Iwagakure and Kirigakure have been secretly conducting business with the Akatsuki and can no longer be trusted."

"Uh..."

Hearing Hyuga Kagami talk about submitting false intelligence as casually and naturally as eating a meal or drinking tea left Shisui momentarily speechless.

Patting Shisui on the shoulder, Hyuga Kagami said, "If you want to accomplish something, you have to consider every aspect of the situation. And when necessary, you also have to employ a few harmless little tricks."

Shisui stopped dwelling on it.

"Mm, I understand."

After seeing Shisui off, Hyuga Kagami furrowed his brows.

This really wasn’t the best time to launch an assault against the Akatsuki. Being forced into acting now left Hyuga Kagami feeling somewhat frustrated.

Because of that, he would have to completely reorganize his plans and schedule for everything that came next...