Even if Gengetsu had some suspicions, he didn't dare to argue with Konoha. The Hidden Mist Village was simply too weak now, and Konoha was just a bit too strong.
The Hyuga Clan was very perceptive. After hearing about Ao's encounter, they immediately realized someone was targeting the Byakugan. Hanabi stopped going to school, Hinata stopped taking missions, and all the members of the main family gathered at the old residence. Outsiders couldn't get in, and they wouldn't come out.
Danzo suffered a silent, heavy loss. The Akatsuki Organization... the Akatsuki Organization didn't even know about this matter.
On the other side, Ino, who had obtained the Byakugan, was also a bit troubled.
She now had two spare eyes in her hand: one was a right eye, and the other was also a right eye.
She wasn't quite sure what humans in her previous life were like.
Anyway, the people in the Eye Legends didn't suffer from retinal damage due to lack of blood, but there was a more stringent requirement here, which was the Chakra pathways.
For Chakra pathways, a left eye is a left eye, and a right eye is a right eye. The ocular blood vessels, nerves, and even the internal Chakra pathways are symmetrical. Forcibly placing a right eye into a left eye socket would only damage the precious eye.
As for digging a hole in the forehead or the palm and then inserting a Byakugan or Sharingan? To this, Kimimaro could only say, "Thank you!" His father and mother didn't give him that organ!
Ino also didn't absorb the Dojutsu Power within the Byakugan.
Compared to Shisui's Mangekyo Sharingan, the newly acquired Byakugan's rank was simply too low.
Ino temporarily had no plans to transplant the Byakugan into Kimimaro's body. It was too risky. If the Byakugan was destroyed, it was destroyed, but she worried it might also contaminate Shisui's Mangekyo Sharingan.
It's hard to stay pure these days; becoming mixed is a quick process.
She secretly snuck into Takigakure Village and used Flower Release to implant the Byakugan at the base of what was suspected to be a God Tree root. Although called a root, this thing had long been dead. However, as it was still a part of the God Tree, there was still some residual life force within it. The hero water that leaked from the cracks in the bark each year was a crystallization of that life force.
Ino was now siphoning off a portion of the root's life force to nurture this Byakugan.
She didn't expect it to reach the level of a Tenseigan, but at least it shouldn't be too much worse than Shisui's Mangekyo, right?
Going out for a stroll, killing Ao of the Hidden Mist Village, yielded one Byakugan, three pot points, and nothing else to speak of.
She increased Yang Release from Lv3 to Lv4. After accumulating four more pot points to raise Yang Release to Lv5, she would officially meet the conditions for Wood Release and could continue upgrading in that aspect.
Land of Rain.
Obito was still discussing Akatsuki Organization matters with his dog-headed strategist, Zetsu.
A lot of the Akatsuki Organization's intelligence had been exposed through these battles.
Obito asked, "By your estimation, how much longer until the Three-Tails reappears?"
The Fourth Mizukage had died, and Isobu, the Three-Tails, had died with him. Now they had to wait for the Tailed Beast to "respawn" before they could take further action.
Tailed Beast capture also required a sequence. If they went straight for the Nine-Tailed, they wouldn't be able to control the rampaging Gedo Statue. To lull the various Ninja Villages into a false sense of security, they had to make the Ninja World more chaotic so that they could capture all nine Tailed Beasts in the shortest time possible, following the predetermined sequence, and complete their ultimate plan.
Zetsu thought for a moment: "According to my guess, it will take about two years, at least two years."
He seemed to enjoy provoking Obito occasionally: "What do we do for these two years? Wait for Konoha to prepare and then be annihilated one by one?"
Obito said nonchalantly, "Create some bloody conflicts to stir up the Ninja World. Then they won't have time to care about the Akatsuki Organization. We can also continue to accept Ōnoki's employment, helping him eliminate a few small countries. Also, I heard the Hidden Mist Village lost a Byakugan."
Zetsu showed a knowing smile, understanding.
Eat, sleep, and mess with the Hidden Mist Village! This was basically the entirety of Obito's life these past few years.
Because of Rin's death, he hated the Hidden Mist Village to death.
"Are you planning to control the new Fifth Mizukage, or that old man Gengetsu? The Hidden Mist Village must be heavily guarded now. I advise you to abandon that somewhat foolish idea."
Obito looked back at him: "Our gaze cannot only be on the Ninja World. The Eye of the Moon targets all living beings. Since they are all within the scope of the Eye of the Moon, if they want to go to a new world without slaughter, then they should pay some price."
"What price?"
"War."
War had come!
However, the war had not yet spread to the Ninja World.
The Land of Water initiated the war.
The Land of Water had always been isolated overseas, separated by a vast ocean. To the north of the sea were the Land of Lightning and the Hidden Cloud Village, and to the west were the Land of Fire and Konoha Village.
Long-term isolation led to many outlying islands of the Land of Water either becoming independent or being annexed by the Land of Lightning, which had always had strong military power. The Land of Fire also took the opportunity to occupy some small islands for military purposes.
The Daimyo of the Land of Water, as if injected with a stimulant, summoned his trusted generals. Then, under the pretext of reclaiming lost territories, his elder general, Daikokuten Zen, led a massive army of fifty thousand out of the Land of Water, sweeping through the various islands in the East Sea to declare sovereignty over them.
The Hidden Mist Village continued to adhere to its principle of isolation, refusing many mission requests from the Land of Water on the grounds that this war had nothing to do with Ninja, which caused strong dissatisfaction from the Daimyo of the Land of Water.
You eat my food and drink my water normally, but when it's time for war, you become cowards?
Within ten days, he sent three official documents to the Hidden Mist Village, with increasingly severe wording.
Gengetsu sat firmly on his high platform, unmoved, suppressing all calls for war with his prestige.
Gengetsu didn't move, Jiraiya didn't move, and the muscular strongman of the Hidden Cloud Village in the Land of Lightning didn't move either. Everyone wasn't foolish. If you send a small squad to secretly participate in the war today, and tomorrow I send two more squads to participate for a local battlefield victory, then the Fourth Shinobi World War might just break out.
Ninja needed a harsh environment to hone their will and skills, but many Ninja, deep down, actually looked down on ordinary civilians.
Throwing a Fire Release jutsu would wipe out hundreds of foot soldiers. Such so-called large armies were simply not worth mentioning in the eyes of the Ninja Villages.
If you want to play house, go ahead and fight. We won't participate.
The Ninja thought a bit too simply.
Many things really couldn't be solved by just "closing the cave and silently reciting the Huangting Sutra."
As the Land of Water began hiring rogue Ninja, this "mortal" war centered on East Sea hegemony gradually began to seep into the Ninja World.
Jiraiya's plan to unite the Five Great Ninja Villages to eliminate the Akatsuki Organization was declared bankrupt.
Kumogakure and the Hidden Mist Village were still relatively restrained. Konoha didn't want to get involved in this war. For now, their three-way struggle over East Sea hegemony was still confined to conventional levels.
No one could say if the war would escalate in the future. Now, there was simply no energy to deal with the Akatsuki Organization.
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