Chapter 363: Aftermath, Gains and Losses

Chapter 363: Chapter 363: Aftermath, Gains and Losses

Hyuga Kagami’s expression sharpened. "Is that one of Kirigakure’s jinchūriki?"

The Kiri ninja limping away from the battlefield clearly possessed an enormous amount of chakra on the level of a tailed beast. With a single sweep of Kagami’s Byakugan, that much was immediately obvious.

As one of the Five Great Shinobi Villages, Kirigakure possessed two jinchūriki: the Three-Tails’ jinchūriki, Yagura Karatachi, and the Six-Tails’ jinchūriki, Utakata.

The Kiri ninja within Kagami’s field of vision was clearly not the Fourth Mizukage, Yagura Karatachi. That left no doubt as to his identity—he was Kirigakure’s other jinchūriki, Utakata.

"So the ones who intercepted the Suna forces on the outskirts of Amegakure were actually Kiri ninja... and Kirigakure even sent out one of their jinchūriki!"

Sitting cross-legged on the back of the Third Kazekage Human Puppet, Kagami’s expression gradually darkened.

He had already guessed that the Suna forces must have been intercepted somewhere along the way, which was why they had failed to break into Amegakure in time. What he had not expected was that the ones who stopped them would be ninja from Kirigakure.

Under normal circumstances, Kirigakure—which had only recently suppressed the rebellion of its Kekkei Genkai clans and was still struggling to recover—had absolutely no reason to risk offending Konoha, Kumogakure, and Sunagakure all at once just to assist the Akatsuki, an organization with which it had no apparent ties.

"Unless..."

Rubbing his chin, Hyuga Kagami thought of a possibility.

In the original timeline, after the Fourth Mizukage of Kirigakure, Yagura Karatachi, was defeated by Itachi’s Amaterasu, he fell into Obito’s hands and became a puppet controlled by Obito’s genjutsu.

In this timeline, although Itachi had not joined the Akatsuki, considering Uchiha Madara’s infiltration of Kirigakure for more than a decade before his death, coupled with the Akatsuki’s formidable strength, it was entirely possible that Obito had secretly ambushed the Fourth Mizukage and turned him into a plaything under his control.

At that thought, Kagami clicked his tongue.

"Tch. I forgot to account for Kirigakure."

Kagami had neither expected the Akatsuki to dare employ Kirigakure’s forces so openly, nor had he expected Kirigakure to actually be capable of stopping the Suna forces—and even severely injuring the Fourth Kazekage in the process.

In truth, Kirigakure’s foundations were indeed far beyond what an ordinary shinobi village could compare to.

After being infiltrated by Uchiha Madara for more than a decade and suffering over a decade of internal conflict, Kirigakure had then endured the largest rebellion of Kekkei Genkai clans in its history. One powerful Kekkei Genkai clan after another had been wiped out, leaving the village with barely a fraction of its former combat strength.

And yet, even in such a weakened state, the handful of forces Obito had temporarily mobilized had still managed to hold back a Suna force composed of Sunagakure’s elites.

That alone demonstrated just how deep Kirigakure’s foundations truly ran.

Kagami shifted his gaze toward Samehada, the massive sword that had been abandoned on the battlefield. After pondering for a moment, he ultimately shook his head.

At this point, Kagami had completely lost his ability to fight. More than half of his body had gone numb, while the battlefield below was still chaotic and unpredictable, concealing countless dangers that were impossible to anticipate.

Risking himself at a time like this for the sake of a mere ninja sword was simply not a wise decision.

Besides, a massive blade like Samehada did not suit his fighting style anyway. Even if he obtained it, he would most likely use it primarily for research.

As for Utakata, the Six-Tails’ jinchūriki who was fleeing the battlefield, Kagami had no intention of bothering with him either.

Although this was undoubtedly the best opportunity to subdue Utakata, judging from the strength he had displayed in defeating the Fourth Kazekage, the Third Kazekage Human Puppet at Kagami’s side alone might genuinely not be a match for the Six-Tails’ jinchūriki.

After suppressing the greed stirring within him, Hyuga Kagami hesitated no longer and immediately ordered the Third Kazekage Human Puppet to carry him away from the battlefield...

......

Meanwhile, a figure was racing through the rain across the battlefield.

It was none other than the "Demon" Zabuza Momochi, one of Kirigakure’s four-man squad.

During the earlier clash, Zabuza had faced Sunagakure’s ANBU Captain, the Scorch Release Kekkei Genkai wielder, Pakura.

In an environment as saturated with moisture as Amegakure, Scorch Release was already severely suppressed. On top of that, both Zabuza and Kisame were elites highly proficient in Kirigakure’s assassination techniques. Whenever Scorch Release collided with Water Release ninjutsu and produced thick mist, it effectively turned the battlefield into their natural hunting ground.

As a result, the two of them had been able to hold Pakura back with relative ease.

However, Zabuza’s mind had never truly been focused on intercepting the Suna forces, so the moment he found an opportunity, he slipped away from the battlefield alone.

A short while later, Zabuza arrived at the place where Fuguki Suikazan and Utakata had fought the Fourth Kazekage together.

Crouching beside the heavily injured and unconscious Fuguki, Zabuza gave a savage grin.

"Hmph. To fight the Kazekage until you ended up like this... What a complete and utter fool!"

With that, Zabuza drove his blade straight into Fuguki’s neck, finishing off his unconscious superior.

He then walked over to the great sword Samehada, picked it up, and toyed with it for a moment before grinning.

"From now on, this ninja sword belongs to me—the ’Demon,’ Zabuza Momochi!"

Glancing once more at Fuguki’s pathetic corpse, ambition blazed fiercely in Zabuza’s eyes.

Many ninja in the village had already noticed the Mizukage’s abnormal behavior, and the perceptive Zabuza was no exception.

In his eyes, now was the perfect opportunity to overthrow the Fourth Mizukage and seize the position of Mizukage for himself.

That was why he had never taken the mission assigned by the Mizukage seriously in the first place.

After strapping Samehada to his back, Zabuza did not even spare the equally injured and unconscious Fourth Kazekage a glance. With several quick leaps, he swiftly disappeared from the battlefield.

......

Elsewhere.

Under the Third Hokage’s orders, Jiraiya led a squad of Konoha ANBU out of Amegakure to rendezvous with the Suna forces outside the village.

But when Jiraiya arrived at the battlefield, all he saw were the mangled corpses of Sunagakure ninja scattered everywhere.

After finally finding a few survivors, Jiraiya hurriedly asked, "Where are your Kazekage and Elder Chiyo?"

One of the injured Suna ninja pointed into the distance.

"Elder Chiyo is locked in a fierce battle with Sasori in that direction. Lord Kazekage and the ANBU Captain stayed behind and were intercepted by ninja from Kirigakure."

"Kirigakure!?"

Jiraiya frowned before asking, "Then who were you fighting?"

The Suna ninja slowly replied, "Kakuzu, the rogue ninja from Takigakure. He’s a monster!"

"Kirigakure, Sasori, Kakuzu..." Jiraiya shook his head and sighed. "No wonder the Suna forces never managed to break into Amegakure."

With no time to waste, Jiraiya immediately rushed toward the area where Chiyo and Sasori had been fighting.

Upon arriving, Jiraiya and the Konoha ANBU accompanying him all sucked in a sharp breath.

As far as the eye could see, the ground was riddled with enormous craters left behind by explosions. The sheer scale and breadth of the devastation made it look as though two shinobi armies, each numbering more than a hundred, had fought a brutal battle here.

Walking among the countless shattered remains of puppets, Jiraiya clicked his tongue in amazement.

"I never imagined a battle between puppet masters could reach this level of intensity!"

At that moment, Fukasaku, perched on Jiraiya’s shoulder, pointed toward a crater in the distance.

"Little Jiraiya, go take a look over there. I think I can sense signs of life!"

Jiraiya nodded, then cautiously approached the edge of the crater. Lying inside was none other than Elder Chiyo, the advisor of Sunagakure forces.

After examining Chiyo’s condition, Jiraiya discovered that although she had suffered no fatal external injuries, her body had been afflicted by an extremely unusual poison.

That was also the reason she remained unconscious.

At the same time that Jiraiya found Chiyo, Pakura, who had barely managed to drive Kisame back, also found the Fourth Kazekage, badly wounded and missing an arm.

Before long, the surviving Suna forces regrouped and followed Jiraiya into Amegakure.

Before they had even entered the temporary command center, they could already hear the Fourth Raikage’s furious roars echoing from inside.

Jiraiya explained to the Fourth Kazekage beside him, "The surprise attack failed, the entire Akatsuki withdrew, and there’s still been no word from Yugito Nii. So it’s understandable that Lord Raikage is somewhat..."

Before Jiraiya could finish, the injured Fourth Kazekage, his arm severed, replied with a gloomy expression,

"I understand."

For a shinobi who needed to form hand seals to perform ninjutsu, losing an arm could practically be considered a crippling blow.

In truth, the Fourth Kazekage’s mood was even worse than the Fourth Raikage’s.

When he had fought Fuguki Suikazan and Utakata of Kirigakure, the Fourth Kazekage had originally been confident that victory was firmly within his grasp.

What he had not expected was for Utakata, the Six-Tails’ jinchūriki, to become so incredibly fast after entering his tailed-beast transformation.

In a single instant, Utakata broke through the Fourth Kazekage’s gold dust defense.

Before the Fourth Kazekage could even react, Utakata effortlessly tore off his left arm.

Soon, several members of Sunagakure’s leadership entered the temporary command center.

Upon seeing that the Fourth Kazekage had lost an arm, both the Third Hokage and the Fourth Raikage were visibly surprised.

And when they learned that Kirigakure had actually intervened in the battle and fought on behalf of the Akatsuki, the Fourth Raikage immediately flew into a towering rage, declaring on the spot that he would invade the Land of Water.

The Third Hokage let out a long sigh and persuaded the Fourth Raikage to stand down.

"The Akatsuki could return at any moment. It’s far too dangerous for us to remain here. We should leave this place first and discuss everything afterward."

The Raikage roared, "Then what about Yugito?! I’m not leaving until we find her!"

The Third Hokage replied, "Given the current situation, Yugito is most likely no longer in Amegakure."

There were quite a few sensor-type ninja among the Allied Forces. During this time, they had already searched Amegakure from top to bottom, yet they had found no trace of Yugito.

Sunagakure had not only suffered devastating losses this time, but had also been thoroughly humiliated. As such, the one-armed Fourth Kazekage had no desire to remain here any longer either.

He agreed, "That’s right. Even if we take the risk of staying here, it won’t accomplish anything. We would be better off gathering sufficient intelligence first, then devising an appropriate rescue operation afterward."

Pakura, standing beside the Fourth Kazekage, added, "Our operation this time was far too reckless. The Akatsuki’s strength is much greater than our intelligence suggested, and they even have Kirigakure supporting them as powerful reinforcements. None of this was information we possessed beforehand."

The Third Hokage could hear the accusation behind her words, so he could only reply, "Konoha was the one who proposed this operation. We will provide a certain degree of compensation for the losses each of you suffered."

At a time like this, it was more important than ever to keep Kumogakure and Sunagakure firmly on Konoha’s side. Thus, the Third Hokage acted decisively and directly offered compensation.

Besides, Kumogakure and Sunagakure had indeed suffered catastrophic losses.

Kumogakure had lost both a jinchūriki and a tailed beast, while Sunagakure’s own leader, the Kazekage, had lost an arm, and Elder Chiyo had been poisoned and rendered unconscious.

The Third Hokage then instructed Jiraiya, "Find Tsunade as quickly as possible. I’m afraid she may be the only one capable of neutralizing the poison in Elder Chiyo’s body!"

......

Meanwhile, on Hyuga Kagami’s side.

After several hours of flying at full speed without regard for chakra consumption, Hyuga Kagami and the Third Kazekage Human Puppet finally returned to the aerial fortress hovering above a remote stretch of desert in the Land of Wind.

Gaara and Karin hurried over to greet him.

Seeing Kagami’s staggering steps and pale complexion, the two anxiously asked, "Lord, what happened to you?"

Kagami shook his head and gave them a faint smile.

"I’m fine. Go back to your rooms for now. You don’t need to worry about me."

After sending Gaara and Karin away, Kagami supported himself against the wall as he made his way to his quarters.

Pulling off his robe, he briefly examined his body and discovered that the petrification this time was far more severe than before.

However, thanks to his previous experience, he had managed to confine most of the petrified areas to his limbs. As a result, his internal organs had not been affected, allowing his body to continue recovering Tenseigan chakra normally.

"Looks like it’ll take about a month to completely purge all the natural energy accumulated inside my body!"

After a pause, Kagami sighed.

"What a shame. I have no way to learn senjutsu. It’s clearly something incredibly valuable, yet in my hands, it’s become nothing but a liability!"

Although he had no way to utilize this natural energy, Kagami understood perfectly well just how precious it was.

After all, even the Divine Tree had absorbed natural energy from the earth’s ley lines before producing the Chakra Fruit that was eventually consumed by Kaguya ōtsutsuki, allowing her to ascend to the level of a Kekkei Mōra in a single leap!

After calming himself, Kagami sat down on the bed and began reviewing the gains and losses from this surprise attack.

In truth, there had not been many gains from the operation.

The greatest gain was that the Akatsuki’s true strength had now been completely exposed, making everyone in the shinobi world understand that the Akatsuki was not merely an organization of rogue ninja.

It was a terrifying force powerful enough to overwhelm the combined might of Konoha, Kumogakure, and Sunagakure.

As for the losses from this operation, there were far too many to count.

Even setting aside the losses suffered by the three Great Shinobi Villages, Kagami’s own forces had taken a considerable hit.

The greatest losses were undoubtedly the exposure of information regarding his Tenseigan’s combat abilities, as well as the excessive depletion of Shisui’s Mangekyō Sharingan ocular power.

The consequences of exposing one’s combat intelligence should never be underestimated.

Unless one possessed strength sufficient to truly overwhelm the entire shinobi world, once information regarding one’s abilities was exposed, opponents would inevitably devise all manner of countermeasures specifically targeting them.

And Kagami knew his own limits.

His true strength was still far from enough to overwhelm the entire shinobi world.

Fortunately, Kagami’s true identity had not been exposed, so he did not need to worry about Obito targeting Rei or his friends and family.

As for the depletion of Shisui’s ocular power, Kagami had seen it very clearly at the time.

Although he could not accurately determine just how much Shisui’s eyesight had deteriorated, he knew that Shisui’s Sharingan was already not far from blindness.

Aside from that, there was one other matter that deeply concerned Kagami.

At the very end, Nagato had actually accepted White Zetsu’s proposal and used the power of a White Zetsu clone to stand on his own feet again.

Nagato had always maintained a considerable degree of vigilance toward Obito and Zetsu.

That much could be seen in the original timeline from the six hundred billion explosive tags Konan had prepared specifically to deal with Obito.

Yet this time, Nagato had accepted Zetsu’s assistance.

And that made Kagami realize a terrifying possibility.

What kind of changes would occur...

if Nagato were allowed to absorb the First Hokage’s cells?