Chapter 109: The Title Of The Three Ninjas
Kiiroinu Battalion arrived outside Hidden Rain Village after a day of high-intensity travel.
Kiiroinu deliberately revealed himself, standing on the water surface outside Hidden Rain Village.
Yoru and the subordinates hid in the nearby abandoned pipes.
Hidden Rain Village was truly a strange village, with pipes everywhere, including horizontal pipes and thick vertical pipes.
The houses here were all modified from thick pipes.
Soon, a Rain Ninja squad came out of the village.
The leader was named Sagi, a high-ranking official of Hidden Rain Village.
Sagi stared at Kiiroinu and asked, “What are you here for, Konoha’s Anbu? Don’t you know our two villages are at war?”
Kiiroinu took out a scroll and threw it to Sagi:
“Lord Danzo of our Konoha once met with your village’s leader Hanzo.
Hanzo said that as long as Konoha shows sincerity, Hidden Rain Village would consider a ceasefire with Konoha.
This is our sincerity. You can take a look.”
Sagi opened the scroll, only to find that the ink on it was not waterproof and had smudged under the rainwater.
Sagi knew this was Konoha’s little trick to pressure him and quickly read the scroll.
After reading the scroll, the confusion in Sagi’s heart was resolved.
Sand Ninja had been sneaking around in Ji Gang Mountain Range for a long time because they found several caves that could be connected.
As long as they pierced through several caves, they could divert the rainwater of Land of Rain into Land of Wind.
Sagi immediately thought, wouldn’t this allow them to use Jishui River to pressure Sand Ninja?
If Hidden Rain Village was unhappy, they could completely sever Jishui River or divert its course.
This was important information.
Sagi threw away the scroll whose ink had completely smudged and said:
“I understand. I will report the news to the leader. However, your action is too slow. Leader Hanzo is already fighting Konoha Unit, right?
I wonder how many of your Konoha troops will be left by the time we rush over.”
Kiiroinu’s expression changed, and he quickly led the battalion toward the main battlefield.
After walking for several hours, Yoru saw a large area of poisonous fog from afar, shrouding the rainforest.
Avoiding the dense areas of poisonous fog, they rushed out of a woods, and the battlefield appeared before everyone.
Orochimaru and the other two were panting heavily in the mud, surrounded by horribly dead corpses.
There were corpses of Leaf Ninja and also corpses of Rain Ninja.
The two sides had fought so fiercely that all the subordinates had been wiped out.
Atop the salamander, Hanzo glanced into the distance and saw Sagi and Kiiroinu.
Last time outside Kyoto, Hanzo had seen Kiiroinu and had a deep impression of him.
Seeing Sagi and Kiiroinu standing together now, Hanzo understood that Sagi had obtained the result Hidden Rain Village wanted.
Hanzo looked down at the three Konoha elite Jonin below the salamander; he himself couldn’t take them down in a short time.
Hiruzen Sarutobi had trained three excellent disciples, which was truly enviable.
Might as well take the opportunity to back down.
His own subordinates had also died several hundred, and loyal subordinates were hard to find; Land of Rain was full of rebel organizations everywhere.
In wars between ninja villages, it wasn’t about the outcome of a single battle, but about the overall strength.
He had suppressed Orochimaru and the other two, and with his occasional assistance, over 700 Rain Ninja and over 400 Leaf Ninja had perished together.
Konoha could easily muster several hundred more troops, but Hidden Rain Village couldn’t afford a few more such wars.
Hanzo withdrew the scythe from in front of him to behind his back and said, “This war, let’s call it Konoha’s victory for now. I’ll let you three live.”
Jiraiya shouted loudly, “Take back your ridiculous sympathy! Come on! I can still fight!”
Hanzo said:
“You’ve persisted in my hands until now; your strength is not bad. From today on, I, Demon of the Underworld Hanzo, will call you Konoha’s Legendary Sannin.
In the future, you three can call yourselves by this title earned at the cost of your lives.”
The salamander turned and left the battlefield full of corpses.
Jiraiya wanted to rush forward but was stopped by Tsunade.
“Jiraiya! Calm down!”
Kiiroinu Captain appeared beside Orochimaru with Body Flicker.
Seeing Kiiroinu, Orochimaru thought he had brought reinforcements, but upon turning his head, he found Kiiroinu’s Anbu Battalion was also understrength.
After briefly hearing Kiiroinu’s report, Orochimaru breathed a sigh of relief.
Unexpectedly, the compromise negotiation he had sneered at became one of the important factors prompting Hanzo to leave.
Kiiroinu Battalion began cleaning up the battlefield.
Yoru saw someone standing motionless and was about to shout at him not to slack off.
Upon closer look, it was Aries.
At Aries’s feet was his fiancée he had fled from marriage to avoid, Aburame Chima.
Chima’s body was covered with thick parasitic insects, most of them dead, a few still alive.
Aries squatted down and extended his hand.
Dense small holes appeared on his forearm.
Chima’s surviving parasitic insects lined up, one by one drilling into Aries’s wrist.
Aries had once said his parasitic insects were very resistant to Chima’s parasitic insects.
Now that Chima was dead, the two’s parasitic insects became a new clan, with no more resistance.
Each parasitic insect seemed to be in sadness, and low, continuous insect chirping came from within Aries’s body.
Yoru found the corpses of the logistics squad and took a sealed scroll from their ninja tool bags.
The sealed scroll contained over four hundred body bags; this was the worst preparation by the logistics ninja for the worst situation.
The corpses of 400 Leaf Ninja were a huge workload, taking several hours to process completely.
Carrying so many corpses left Yoru exhausted.
He stared blankly at the Rain Ninja corpses.
The Rain Ninja hadn’t come to collect the corpses at all; soaking in water would make them rot easily.
Orochimaru came over again and specifically called Fox Squad to follow him.
Yoru felt uneasy.
It turned out to be just simple corpse collection.
In ninja wars, the victorious side had an important spoil of war: the corpses of the defeated side’s ninja.
Orochimaru walked among the Rain Ninja corpses, pointing at one every few steps, and Yoru had his subordinates collect them.
These Rain Ninja corpses might yield valuable information.
Hidden Rain Village had few bloodline limit clans; after picking and choosing, Orochimaru deemed only over thirty corpses worth taking.
Hanzo had left harsh words before departing, but he still believed Hidden Rain Village had lost; otherwise, he wouldn’t let Orochimaru pick Rain Ninja corpses here.
The next day, Konoha’s reinforcement troops arrived, and the reinforcement ninja took away the Leaf Ninja corpses.
Kiiroinu Battalion returned to the Grass Country camp together with the reinforcement ninja.
After waiting several days, only Orochimaru and Tsunade returned.
Orochimaru said Jiraiya had stayed in Land of Rain.
Jiraiya had met the Child of Prophecy spoken of by Mount Myōboku’s Great Toad Sage.
Yoru looked toward Land of Rain and thought, the gears of fate had begun to turn.
Nagato’s strength was about to grow rapidly.
He didn’t know why Uchiha Madara was so certain Jiraiya would take Nagato in.
Perhaps if Orochimaru and the others were unfavorable to Nagato, Uchiha Madara would have rushed out then, protecting Nagato or even killing the Sannin.
With Black Zetsu and White Zetsu for reconnaissance intelligence, Uchiha Madara’s control over the Rinnegan had always been strong.
Nagato was too important to Uchiha Madara.
Hanzo announced a ceasefire, and the war in Land of Rain came to an end.
Yoru set off on the road back to the village.
Kiiroinu Captain would apply for Yoru to be promoted to Special Jonin.
