Chapter 213: Alliance
Back at the village Anbu Base, Yoru entered Kiiroinu’s office.
“Minister, the scheme targeting Special Jonin Shinma failed.”
Kiiroinu looked up in surprise; the Fox rarely failed: “Why?”
“Shinma has good strength and went back and forth with the Sand Ninja. I was originally preparing to step in for the finishing blow and assassinate Shinma, but Transparent Release Bloodline Limit Jonin Gekko Shizuma suddenly appeared.” Yoru said with regret in his tone:
“After assessing the situation, I gave up on this assassination.
Gekko Shizuma had already earned the title Shadowless Assassin early on and possesses the special ability of Transparent Release.
I guess that after completing his previous mission, Gekko Shizuma secretly came near Kikyo Mountain from Kikyo Port Dock.
Anbu making moves on several Special Jonin might have alerted smart people.
Killing Shinma isn’t hard; the hard part is the subsequent entanglement with Gekko Shizuma.
If Gekko Shizuma notices something and still escapes, the cost of this mission would be too great.
Therefore, I returned to the village to prepare for a second assassination attempt on Shinma.”
Kiiroinu suddenly understood; it turned out Gekko Shizuma had appeared and saved Shinma. He said:
“I’ve been carefully watching Hatake Sakumo, guarding against Hatake Sakumo, but I couldn’t guard against Hatake Sakumo’s subordinates.
Hatake Sakumo has some personal charisma; he has quite a few loyal subordinates. Among the Jonin, Gekko Shizuma, Yamashiro Aoba, and Kawahoshi are all his supporters.
Among the Special Jonin, experts like Shinma and Shirakumo Hayama also follow his lead exclusively.
The matter of dealing with Shinma will be put on hold for now, because the Jonin Meeting is happening tomorrow.”
Yoru was stunned and said: “It starts tomorrow? This rushed?”
As far as Yoru knew, the missions of several Special Jonin from other squads weren’t as smooth as their Fox Squad.
Special Jonin all have good strength; forcing it would inevitably lead to accidents.
For example, when dealing with Shinma, Shinma could at least hold out for twenty minutes, and any accident could happen during that time.
Kiiroinu said: “Tsunade, Hatake Sakumo, and others are very perceptive and seem to have noticed something.
Before they go to the Hokage to make a big fuss, we have to stop.”
Yoru thought to himself, it’s because you’re too greedy.
If they could pair it with framing a few Sarutobi Clan and Ino-Shika-Cho Special Jonin, even if Hatake Sakumo and others had ideas, they’d have to endure it.
Now fixating on Tsunade, Hatake Sakumo, Uchiha Clan, and others to fleece them—fleecing Tsunade bald, fleecing Hatake Sakumo into a bald man—any fool would know there’s a problem.
But making Konoha’s new noble Five Great Clans cripple their own Special Jonin themselves, they absolutely wouldn’t do it.
“Tomorrow’s Jonin Meeting, have your squad handle the guard duty.”
“Okay.”
At Hatake Sakumo’s home.
Kakashi had just discovered how fun the stairs were and was running up and down them like crazy.
Yamashiro Aoba watched Kakashi’s agile movements and said: “Little Kakashi will definitely be a genius ninja when he grows up. He’s only 3 years old, right? And he already has such physical prowess. Look, five steps at a time, great sense of balance.”
Hatake Sakumo dodged Kakashi and came down the stairs, saying: “Next year, I’ll send Kakashi to the Ninja Academy.”
Yamashiro Aoba said: “Sakumo, Shinma has been poisoned. Go check at Konoha Hospital quickly.”
Hatake Sakumo’s expression changed. After the reminder, he had in advance instructed Gekko Shizuma to detour to Kikyo Mountain after the mission, but an accident had still happened.
As he walked quickly, he asked: “What about Gekko Shizuma? Did he catch up?”
“He caught up. Shizuma carefully escorted Shinma all the way back to the village and immediately took him to Konoha Hospital.”
Inside Konoha Hospital, Hatake Sakumo saw the unconscious Shinma.
After a brief hesitation, Hatake Sakumo turned and went to the top floor of the hospital, entering Tsunade’s office.
At this time, Tsunade was comforting Senju Michiko.
In the medical disturbance incident, a patient died on the operating table, and his father committed suicide inside the hospital. The exploding tag destroyed two windows and injured a nurse.
Senju Michiko herself had her reputation damaged; many people didn’t know the truth and spread rumors that Senju Michiko’s medical skills were poor and she had let an injured ninja die.
Seeing someone enter Tsunade’s office, Senju Michiko wiped her tears, stood up, and left.
Hatake Sakumo stepped aside, and after Senju Michiko left, he asked: “Princess Tsunade, my friend Shinma is receiving treatment at the hospital. I don’t know if his life is in danger.”
Tsunade had some guesses about Hatake Sakumo’s visit.
She stood up and said: “I’ll go take a look.”
Tsunade entered Shinma’s ward and saw Yamashiro Aoba, Gekko Shizuma, and others. She thought to herself that Hatake Sakumo’s subordinates were very strong.
She came to the unconscious Shinma’s side, carefully checked him, and then said: “It’s good, no life danger. After a few detoxification treatments, he can recover.”
Hatake Sakumo breathed a sigh of relief. He followed Tsunade out of the ward.
In the top-floor Tsunade office, the two looked together toward the nearby Hokage Building.
The Hokage Building and Konoha Hospital are very close, separated by two blocks.
Hatake Sakumo said: “I heard that several Special Jonin you recommended also encountered accidents?”
Tsunade said:
“I recommended 3 Special Jonin, wanting them to become Jonin.
One of them encountered the medical disturbance, which is the Senju Michiko you just saw; she took a big hit.
One was investigated in a certain mission during the war and is now at home, waiting at any time for Anbu to call him in for questioning.
And one had an old injury flare up and died.”
Hatake Sakumo said:
“I recommended two Special Jonin for promotion to Jonin.
One is Shirakumo Hayama.
During the Land of Rivers war, I rewarded him with Wind Release: Vacuum Sword based on his mission performance. The Shimura Clan suspected Shirakumo Hayama of stealing their Wind Release secret jutsu.
Shirakumo Hayama’s Vacuum Sword has great power, just because he made some improvements himself.
The Shimura Clan doesn’t believe it, and Shirakumo Hayama is currently under investigation by the Shimura Clan.
The other is Shinma.
As you saw, he went to Kikyo Mountain Fortress for a mission and encountered a large group of Sand Ninja.
If I hadn’t known some intelligence in advance and known someone wanted to kill him, he would be dead by now.”
“Intelligence?” Tsunade asked: “So these things were indeed premeditated by someone?
I heard that the Special Jonin of the Uchiha Clan and Hyuga Clan are also frequently encountering accidents. Some even proactively applied to their clans to give up promotion.
When others asked why they gave up, they made various excuses.”
“I’m certain someone is targeting us in secret. Princess Tsunade, to protect my intelligence sources, I can’t tell you the specific details.” Hatake Sakumo said:
“One of my friends said that when others suspect you have a group, it’s best to really have a group.
Princess Tsunade, at tomorrow’s Jonin Meeting, I hope to form an alliance with the Senju Clan.
Just like the rumors among civilian ninja that Konoha’s new noble Five Great Clans are an alliance, we’ll keep losing if we fight alone.”
“New noble Five Great Clans…” Tsunade’s eyes were full of contempt as she said:
“You’re right. I’m already fed up with their disgusting petty tricks like sneaking around.
Come on, come with me. Just the two of us isn’t enough.”
Twenty minutes later, the Anbu Base learned that Tsunade and the White Fang were heading together toward the Uchiha Clan Compound, and the base instantly exploded.
Yoru thought to himself that this style of action was definitely led by Tsunade.
Half an hour later, Uchiha Kane heard that Princess Tsunade and Hatake Sakumo were openly standing under the gate tower of the Uchiha Clan Compound. He was so scared that his wooden clog fell off, and he ran out quickly.
Uchiha Fugaku grabbed the wooden clog from behind, bent down several times to try, and finally got his father’s wooden clog onto his foot.
Fortunately, he didn’t make a fool of himself in front of the two big shots.
