Kapitel 184: Chapter 184
Amidst the vast rocky terrain of the Land of Earth, a group of Earth ninjas were trudging along, diligently searching.
Their search was specifically aimed at one person, the son of the Third Tsuchikage, Kitsuchi! Ever since the last mission to capture Deidara resulted in the loss of many Earth ninjas, Kitsuchi had gone off on his own to search for the attacker.
This infuriated Ōnoki to the extreme. While failing the Deidara mission was hard to swallow, what was even more unacceptable was Kitsuchi's reckless behavior!
Yes, in Ōnoki's eyes, Kitsuchi had become reckless—completely overwhelmed by shame and a hateful mindset, leading him to make such an irrational choice.
It's terrifying to think that a single person could wield such tremendous power, easily killing hundreds of ninjas.
Even if these ninjas were not particularly strong, possessing such power is beyond the realm of ordinary imagination.
Yet, despite witnessing all this, Kitsuchi still had not the slightest sense of awe, opting instead to go alone in search of the perpetrator.
If this isn't recklessness, what is? What separates this from a death wish? But Kitsuchi was the highest-ranking commander at the time, and nobody could stop him. His subsequent disappearance added urgency to Ōnoki's concerns.
Ōnoki only has this one son; he has to find out what happened to Kitsuchi, whether he's alive or dead! "Captain, we've been searching for so long, and there's still no trace of Lord Kitsuchi."
Under the relentless sun, a young Earth ninja finally couldn't help but speak up. His comment made a teammate next to him nod slightly in agreement.
After all this time and no word from Kitsuchi, anyone could guess that the son of the Tsuchikage might have met with some mishap.
"Let's keep searching, everyone."
The captain sighed softly. Although everyone knew this mission was extremely difficult—the chances of finding Kitsuchi alive were slim at best.
Not to mention finding a body—those odds are even lower. But as ninjas, they still have to complete their mission.
"Don't forget who we are. No matter the outcome, we'll continue the search. It's not just our squad working on this task.
Our search efficiency isn't low either; we've already scoured the Land of Bears. Now only two directions remain for exploration.
One is the other side of the Land of Bears, and the other is within the Land of Earth. If we're lucky, we may even return to the Village of the Hidden Stone for the search. This is already far better than fighting to the death with the Sand ninjas."
The captain's words were indeed grounded in fact. After all, based on the intelligence provided by the ninjas stationed in the Land of Bears, Kitsuchi could only have gone in these two directions.
"Ah, just our luck," sighed the young Earth ninja, exasperated. With a strong kick, he sent a rock flying across the ground.
The rock sped towards a pile of rubble, ultimately smashing into a stone tablet standing amidst the ruins.
Under ordinary circumstances, they wouldn't have paid any attention to such a thing, but the captain involuntarily furrowed his brows. He had been on missions in this area before, and he distinctly remembered that there should not have been a stone tablet there.
Thinking this, he decided to go check it out. They were at a dead-end anyway, and there was no time constraint for their current mission.
Inspecting something unusual shouldn't matter too much, but once he reached the stone tablet, he was completely taken aback.
"Is this...?"
"Lord Tsuchikage, after analysis and comparison, it's confirmed that this is Lord Kitsuchi's body. Please accept my condolences," the message reached him inside the office of the Tsuchikage Building.
Ōnoki was standing silently by the window, his eyes fixed on the world outside, not uttering a single word.
Behind him, an Anbu ninja was kneeling on the ground, his head bowed low. His entire body seemed tense as Ōnoki's aura felt unusually ominous at the moment.
The silence exuded a suffocating pressure; Ōnoki's slight figure was like a mountain—sturdy and steadfast, yet heavy enough to crush one's soul.
Ōnoki was furious, a kind of fury he had never felt before. Especially now, the pressure he was under was indeed immense.
Ever since the successful impeachment of the Third Hokage of Konoha, the weight of expectations had spread over him, with Deidara acting as a spark, neither too big nor too small.
This mission was to capture Deidara, a mission teeming with political implications. But what he hadn't anticipated was not just the failure of the mission, but also the heavy loss of manpower, which struck a huge blow to his prestige.
Moreover, his son died in this mission. The blow to him was even greater!
This was no longer just about politics; it was a violent shock to his very spirit.
"Who could it be? And what should I do now?" he wondered.
Ōnoki took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down. Yet, anyone facing this situation would find it difficult to remain tranquil.
Still, Ōnoki was, after all, a Kage, the only Third-Generation Kage in the ninja world, no less. His powers of restraint and control had grown considerably over his years in office.
Finally, he did settle down and began to slowly think through it all.
"Deidara's whereabouts are unknown, but we can't rule out that he buried Kitsuchi. Who else would do such a thing if not an enemy?
There are only two possibilities. Either he's with the enemy, which had been suggested in previous reports, or he escaped from the enemy but doesn't wish to return. Perhaps he witnessed Kitsuchi's death, or found Kitsuchi's body, which is why he buried him."
The now-calmed Ōnoki had a keen mind, and his understanding of Deidara was exceptionally deep. Instantly, he pondered several possibilities.
"According to the report, their attackers were numerous—puppeteers, users of venomous snakes and unique ninjutsu, even those adept at lightning and water techniques.
They could be rogue ninjas from Konoha, Cloud, Sand, Mist, or even our own Stone Village. But that's not the point.
The crux lies with the one who used the chakra giant. That kind of power, could it be Susanoo?"
Ōnoki's eyes sharpened as he reminisced about his younger days when he had encountered Uchiha Madara.
What a defeating, despairing experience that was! Even now, he couldn't shake off the shadow that Madara Uchiha had cast upon him.
But soon he shook his head. Uchiha Madara was already dead; obsessing over a dead man now made no sense.
Moreover, he now had an idea—a bold yet perilous one that could relieve them from this quagmire but also bring about a massive backlash.
"Konoha, Uchiha...only by diverting the conflict and dragging you into it can the current situation be alleviated."
When Kaito arrived at the Hokage Building's conference room with Shisui, the room was already full of people.
This was Shisui's first time attending such a high-level meeting; naturally, he was a bit stiff.
Especially when he saw who was in the room, he became slightly more tense.
To put it bluntly, if anything untoward happened in this conference room, Konoha would be incapacitated, as it gathered all of Konoha's top echelons!
The Fifth Hokage Jiraiya, the Head of Medical Department Tsunade, the Minister of Public Affairs Nara Shikaku, and even his clan leader and the Head of the Guard Department Kaito, among others.
//
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