章 272: Standing Strong

After several years of training and recovery, the Hidden Cloud regained a lot of their military strength. On top of that, Orochimaru had been expelled from Konoha, and Ryo was not in the village.

Thinking of that, the Cloud Jonin answered without fear: "If you do not hand over the murderer, we will be ready to fight!"

Sakumo laughed in anger; did the Cloud really think that Konoha was that vulnerable now?

Since he became the Substitute Hokage, his White Blade had not tasted blood. Today, the Cloud's team had the privilege of being the first in years to see the true White Fang!

In the hotel, only a flicker of white Chakra was seen, before five of the Cloud Ninjas fell into a pool of their own blood! Only one Chunin was left, trembling as he watched Sakumo slaughter his companions…

"Say this to you Raikage: If you want war, BRING IT ON! Now, take the corpses of your companions, and get the hell out of Konoha!"

The remaining Chunin sealed the corpses in the room, and then escaped Konoha as fast as he could.

"Immediately spread the truth of what had happened in the village! I want the villagers to know the true ugly face of the Hidden Cloud!" said Sakumo to the Anbu on his side.

The Anbu were all dispatched, and soon, the entirety of Konoha knew what the Cloud had done. For a while, both the villagers and the Ninjas were agitated.

The Hyuga were at the center of this whirlpool of debates, and they were frightened by the news that the Hidden Cloud were willing to go so far.

Before, Hiashi had been rather dissatisfied with Sakumo being in office, not liking his way of managing things around the village. Today however, he realized that it was extremely fortunate that the 3rd wasn't the current Hokage!

If it was the 3rd in charge, he would have most likely sacrificed the Hyuga's Clan Head or his twon for the peace of the village. But now, Sakumo's strong will and stubbornness saved the clan from a very complicated fate.

After a long silence, he ordered his clan to follow Sakumo's orders, and prepare for war.

As for the 3rd himself, he frowned and his face went gloomy as he heard the news, as Sakumo did not hesitate to wage war as soon as he was challenged!

As he received the news, he was chatting with his old mate, Koharu. To his surprise, she was very supportive of Sakumo's choice! The 3rd did not expect that she would, with her always advocating for peace! Full of doubts, he stared at her in awe.

Seeing his expression, Koharu smiled and said: "Hiruzen, if we don't stand strong this time, more and more villages will take us for granted. And so what if we go to war against the hidden cloud? We will definitely win!"

"I'm not worried about being defeated. I just can't bear the idea of dragging the villagers of Konoha into war again!"

"You can't bear that, but you can bear the thought of surrendering a fellow Hyuga? They are from Konoha as well you know! I know we've gotten old, Hiruzen, but your heart should not get that old!"

Listening to Koharu, Hiruzen was stunned, blinking at first, before a smile appeared on his face: "I understand! Koharu, let's go to Sakumo together!"

At Sakumo's office, the 3rd and Koharu both uncharacteristically supported this war!

Sakumo was very curious about what could have caused the two to suddenly change their attitude, but he did not ask them, instead screaming at his Anbu to gather all the higher-ups in the village for a high-level war meeting.

Later, in the conference room…

The news had already been spread, and no one in the meeting needed to be informed of the situation. Sakumo looked at the serious looks on everyone's faces, and he said directly: "Things must be clear to everyone: If the Cloud won't back down, I'm going straight to war!"

"Sakumo sama's decision has out full support. Our clan is at the center of this, and once the war starts, we will give out all to support you!" Hiashi was the first to stand up!

"The Uchiha clan agrees!" With the matter related to a fellow clan of Konoha, Fugaku did not hesitate, in another bizarre agreement with the Hyuga.

"As for our clans, we shall advance and retreat with the Sandaime!" Shikaku Nara spoke on behalf of the Ino-Shika-Cho alliance.

The representative of the Sarutobi clan glanced at the 3rd, who immediately stood up and said: "I don't want war, but the Hidden Cloud were the aggressors! On behalf of my clan, I agree!"

As soon as his voice fell, Koharu stood up saying: "I agree as well!"

With the 3rd and an elder Counselor both giving their support, no one else had any more reasons to disagree. The war had a unanimous approval in the village, and Konoha entered the war preparation phase!

A few days later, the surviving Cloud Chunin finally reached his village, delivering Sakumo's message to the 4th Raikage.

If there was someone more hotheaded than Sakumo, it would definitely be A! Immediately, he summoned over 20,000 Ninjas, and went straight to Konoha's borders!

......

Meanwhile, in a cold lab in the peaceful Sound Country, Ryo was oblivious to all of this. By now, his cloning experiments with Orochimaru had reached a critical point.

After several months of trials, the two finally managed to solve the Fast Mitosis problem that their clones had.

To their surprise, the two realized that the problem was due to the lack of consciousness that the clones had. The clones had only Physical Energy, and whatever "Chakra" they produced was comprised of only that. This led to an excessive loss in cell vitality, which made the bodies increase the speed of their divisions to compensate…

Now, the clones that they made retained a hint of conscious, just enough for them to have spiritual power, and not enough to interfere with soul transfer. This was enough to ensure that the clones would not have such fast cellular division during the Chakra extraction experiment.

After some testing, the two finally succeeded in creating the first Orochimaru clone!

The clone's physical condition was maintained perfectly at that of a 20 years old Orochimaru. In fact, upon further inspection, Orochimaru confirmed that the clone was in better condition than he was when he was 20 years old, perhaps because it didn't have to suffer all the trials that his own body had to go through.

Obviously, Orochimaru was very excited, for now, he knew that he successfully achieved his purpose, and that he could finally realize his dream of eternal life!

Immediately, he wanted to transfer his soul to this clone, but then, Ryo stopped him. With this clone being the 1st one to be completed, couldn't there be any hidden dangers? Neither of them knew, and Ryo couldn't let Orochimaru try on himself, and didn't even need to, for he had better options at the moment.

He took out a small bottle he had been storing in a scroll. In the small glass bottle was what seemed to be a blood sample that was protected and preserved with Natural Energy. Although the blood was frozen, the nucleuses of the cells were not damaged.

This blood was Yahiko's. When Ryo last went to the Rain Country, he promised Nagato and Konan that he would resurrect him. He left off with this small bottle of blood, which now found its perfect use.

Ryo gave the bottle to Orochimaru, asking him to make a clone with the blood inside it.

Orochimaru nodded. He knew that this was an "experimental product" made by Ryo. If the clone made with this blood could be integrated perfectly with the soul of its owner, it would mean that Orochimaru would really be able to achieve eternal life for himself.

The process of making an adult clone took about a month. With both of them being very familiar with the process, Ryo could rely on Orochimaru to make the clone on his own, so he decided to return to Konoha.

In the afternoon, after Orochimaru began to make a clone of Yahiko, Ryo said to him: "Orochi san, I have been away from Konoha for several months, and I need to go back there and see how things are going."

Orochimaru nodded, and he didn't say anything.

After leaving the lab and taking a shower, Ryo immediately moved back to the Yamanaka district….