Chapter 146 Solving the Problem Thoroughly at its Root
Although he spent most of this time in the Underworld building up his prestige and training the Shadow Division members, Souji always kept an eye on the situation in the human world.
The war between the Land of Hot Water and the Land of Frost.
Since Iwagakure joined the party and Konoha slowed down its operations, the war has been stuck in a simple stalemate.
Although reinforcements were received, the number of Konoha ninja troops sent to this battle was only 10,000.
Both Iwagakure and Kumogakure have about 15,000 ninjas each, and each also has about 10,000 garrison troops stationed at their respective headquarters.
Before the Third Shinobi World War, Konoha had a total of about 15,000 ninjas.
Even though the losses in each battle were not too severe due to the intervention of Souji, there were still many battles, and now the total number is only about 12,000.
Sending 10,000 troops is already the limit for this battle, as it is still necessary to have a basic level of defense in the village to guard against Sunagakure and Kirigakure.
Although both sides in Sunagakure suffered heavy losses, they could not be completely unprepared.
Therefore, facing the fact that Iwagakure and Kumogakure could still mobilize a large number of reinforcements, Minato and Jiraiya decided to avoid making any rash moves.
Or rather...
Actually, I couldn't think of a particularly good solution.
In this situation, Minato personally felt the enormous gap between himself and Souji.
"The battles that Souji-nii participates in often achieve great results quickly, and even in a short period of time, he can completely defeat Kirigakure."
"But all I can do is stand here like this, unable to do anything..."
Minato thought to himself with a hint of disappointment.
Although he didn't have much competitive spirit towards Souji to begin with, and didn't feel any resentment or dissatisfaction after feeling the gap, he still couldn't help feeling somewhat disappointed.
There was simply no way to break this deadlock.
When outnumbered, it's possible to fight to a draw against a single side, but it's extremely difficult to determine a decisive victory, let alone when facing two sides.
Although Iwagakure is only attacking Kumogakure for the time being, it is not an ally of Konoha and has not shown any willingness to join forces or engage in any communication.
It's clear that Iwagakure is both wary of Konoha and also eyeing it covetously.
For the time being, because Konoha is very strong, they dare not make any rash moves and only target the Cloud Village, which is at a disadvantage.
Iwagakure and Kumogakure have always been vying for the title of the second strongest ninja village after Konoha.
Both the Tsuchikage and Raikage are quite practical types.
If they can't deal with the strongest village, Konoha, then it would be good to weaken another powerful rival while things are in chaos.
However, as long as Konoha shows an opening and an opportunity arises, Iwagakure will definitely launch an attack without hesitation.
They might even temporarily join forces with the Hidden Cloud Village.
After all, forcing Kirigakure to surrender completely was too shocking for them.
The Leaf Village has become much stronger now, and we can no longer view it with the same perspective as before.
We can no longer think of it as the same old, kind-hearted village that would never attack other ninja villages.
If the opportunity arises, Konoha might also take action against them...
No, I will definitely take action!
The mutual checks and balances among the five great ninja villages were the will of the First Hokage, Hashirama Senju, and the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, always adhered to them.
Although I don't know why the approach suddenly changed, such an important matter cannot be taken lightly.
Once something happens, it will happen again.
Once Konoha starts taking drastic measures against other ninja villages, it won't just target Kirigakure; other ninja villages will definitely be its targets as well.
Among the high-ranking officials of the various ninja villages, many speculate that Konoha may have finally realized that passively accepting attacks from other ninja villages is not a good thing, and is shifting its strategy from the past defensive counterattacks to proactive attacks, with the ultimate goal possibly being...
Unify the ninja world!
If this isn't the case, it's impossible to explain why they went so far as to change the strategy adopted by the First Hokage and act so ruthlessly against Kirigakure.
Therefore, the three major ninja villages of Iwa, Kumogakure, and Sunagakure have reached an unprecedented level of vigilance and hostility towards Konoha.
Konoha, with the fewest troops and far fewer than Kumogakure and Iwagakure and the other two sides, naturally did not launch an attack rashly.
The Cloud Village and the Stone Village are evenly matched, and it is not easy to determine a winner.
The Third Raikage returned to the front lines, but the Iwagakure side had the Tsuchikage, Kiku, and the Five-Tails Jinchuriki, Han.
Since Killer Bee had only recently become a Jinchuriki and was still far from being able to skillfully use the Eight-Tails' power, the two sides were roughly equal, each with two Kage-level fighters.
Neither Kumogakure nor Iwagakure nor Konoha wanted to suffer heavy losses in the fight, giving Konoha an advantage, so they both slowed down their actions.
The three sides are locked in a stalemate, but whether they cease hostilities and retreat or engage in a major battle to determine the victor, they are just waiting for a catalyst.
An opportunity that could change the situation all at once.
...
Riding on the back of the Heavenly Dragon, the group finally arrived at the skies above the border between the Land of Hot Water and the Land of Frost after two days.
Looking down at the three ninja army formations on the ground, Hashirama's expression was incredibly complex.
"Sigh... How pathetic! The ninja world is still in endless chaos..."
"When I distributed the Tailed Beasts to the other ninja villages, I originally hoped that each side would be wary of the other's strength, and that if a conflict broke out, both sides would suffer serious losses.
This should have prevented conflict from breaking out, but I never expected..."
Hashirama looked very regretful.
The Souji also shook his head slightly and said:
"The idea of mutual wariness and checks and balances is seriously flawed, First Lord."
"If ninjas cannot participate in other production and economic activities and are merely a combat profession, then isn't it a contradiction to expect wars to not happen?"
"If there is no war, wouldn't the identity of a ninja, which exists for fighting, lose its meaning?"
"Leaving aside abstract concepts like meaning, let's talk about practical matters.
Daimyo only issue missions to ninja villages because there are places where battles are needed.
The fewer battles there are, the fewer missions there are."
"It's not enough to support so many ninjas just by helping with farm work, finding lost cats and dogs, taking care of children, and dealing with a few low-level villains."
"With fewer battles, there are fewer missions, which in turn reduces income.
This leads to widespread poverty in the entire ninja village, and even survival becomes a problem.
To survive, the only option is to wage war and defeat the competitors."
"If we don't address the root cause of the problem and simply deny the fight, nothing will change."
"Now is the best time to solve the problem completely from its root."
Souji said calmly as he jumped off Ryunosuke's back.
"I'm going to take down the Raikage. Everyone, follow me and cover me."
"Understood!" everyone replied.
Souji descended from the sky, and with the Sage Mode mastery given to him by the system, he skillfully absorbed the surrounding natural energy and refined it into Sage Chakra in perfect proportion within his body.
"Sage Mode, activated!"
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End of this chapter...