"I hope they can see the situation clearly. With such good conditions, there's no need to hold on anymore."
Senju Hashirama couldn't help shaking his head as he spoke. He didn't want to see war and death, but Uchiha Yoichi had already been good enough to the villagers of Hidden Sand Village.
Now, less than half a day after spreading the village merger plan, there were already one or two hundred people breaking through the blockade by Rasa's ninjas, heading to Konoha Ninja's settlement point.
Even if he hated war, Senju Hashirama knew he had to take action this time. The current Fifth Generation Hokage, like his brother Tobirama once was, hoped for the unification of the Five Great Countries into one true nation, as this would be the only way to end war.
"Brother, stop thinking about other things. The Fifth Generation Hokage is putting quite a bit of pressure on you, so focus on your upcoming tasks."
Senju Tobirama put down the village merger plan and said, leaving Senju Hashirama a little puzzled, so he asked, "Tobirama, what other tasks are there?"
"The Oasis Plan, those with the Wood Release Bloodline in the village, not even a fifth of your Wood Release Ninjutsu skills. Besides you, only Tsunade and the Fifth Generation Hokage can use Wood Release. Who do you think will handle this task?"
Tobirama pointed to a small line in the village merger plan as he spoke.
After looking at it, Senju Hashirama first looked gloomy, then sighed and said, "Alright, since I've been revived, I must repay the favor to the Fifth Generation Hokage, and he even revived Nawaki—surely I can't let Tsunade plant the trees."
Senju Hashirama was very fond of his granddaughter Tsunade, otherwise, he wouldn't have taken her to the casino secretly when she was three, even though Uzumaki Mito kept scolding him, he would happily sneak off with Tsunade when she pleaded.
"Tobirama, although the Fifth Generation Hokage didn't say it, I think he's still going to revive you; after all, he's entrusted you with such an important matter...."
"Brother, I didn't accept this task for the sake of revival; this was inherently beneficial for Konoha."
Senju Tobirama shook his head and said, making others in the tent inadvertently click their tongues.
Jiraiya now very much wanted to revive his disciple Namikaze Minato. During the mission to hunt down Pain, he managed to save him, but Minato himself died in the process, leaving Jiraiya with an indelible sense of guilt.
However, the conditions for revival were a bit strict. Although there is hope of retrieving Minato's body now, Jiraiya has heard that Minato has been reanimated and controlled by the enemy, making the hope of reviving Minato seem impossible.
As for others like Pakura, who had just joined Konoha, they were even more shocked that the Fifth Generation Hokage of Konoha had mastered a forbidden technique to revive the dead, nearly dropping their jaws from this news.
However, Pakura did not spread this news; since they agreed to merge the villages, they had already planned to completely join Konoha and found no need for such actions.
Afterwards, under Senju Tobirama's arrangement, teams of Konoha Ninjas infiltrated into Hidden Sand Village through the eastern entrance under the cover of night and quickly occupied the vacant houses.
If Rasa really intended to make a move, the battle would definitely take place within the village.
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"Lord Madara, something's wrong."
Black Zetsu hurried back and went directly to Uchiha Madara.
Uchiha Madara had just captured the Seven-tailed, but he was puzzled by the meager Chakra it contained; a whole Seven-tailed, yet its Chakra Amount was less than a fifth of the Three-tailed, which didn't make sense.
However, Uchiha Madara used an Illusion Technique on the Seven-tailed Jinchuriki of Hidden Waterfall Village during interrogation and found nothing amiss.
"What happened, Black Zetsu, did it fail?"
Seeing Black Zetsu return alone, Uchiha Madara roughly guessed the outcome, otherwise, Uchiha Fugaku and Tobi should have returned as well.
"Uchiha Fugaku was too foolish; for the second time, he stumbled because he trusted someone, but this time he fell in completely and is beyond saving."
Subsequently, Black Zetsu reported the entire incident to Uchiha Madara, including the detailed battle process. Fortunately, at the last moment, Tobi sent the information through the underground roots, but Tobi himself failed to escape.
"Heh, to even betray kin, Hashirama's village truly is a mistake; ultimately, the world can only achieve perpetual peace with the Moon Eye Plan."
After hearing that Fugaku was betrayed by his own son, Uchiha Madara hated the village founded by Hashirama even more. Such a place had darkness from the beginning and deviated significantly from their initial ideal village.
"Lord Madara, what should we do now? Konoha's strength doesn't seem weak; both the Two-tailed and Nine-tailed have mastered Tailed Beast Power, and the First Generation Hokage...."
After thinking carefully, Black Zetsu realized they didn't seem to have any advantage; although Uchiha Madara had acquired the Rinnegan, he wasn't a Ten-tailed Jinchuriki after all.
Currently, Konoha had a resurrected First Generation Hokage, a Fifth Generation Hokage with an Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan, two Jinchuriki who controlled Tailed Beast Power, and other strong individuals.....
This is problematic; getting stuck at Konoha could prevent the full collection of Tailed Beasts.
Thinking of this, Black Zetsu grew somewhat anxious; this was the closest opportunity to revive his mother, with the Rinnegan achieved and nearly all nine Tailed Beasts collected. If he gets stuck at Konoha, would he have to wait another thousand years?
"No need to worry, Black Zetsu."
After hearing this, Uchiha Madara paid a little more attention to Konoha but didn't internally believe Konoha could stop him; once he activated the Rinnegan and fully resurrected, only Hashirama could pose some trouble to him.
"The more Tailed Beasts are collected, the more the power of the Gedo Statue is restored. At that point, even with just seven Tailed Beasts collected, no one in the Ninja World could oppose it."
But without collecting the Chakra of nine Tailed Beasts, the Ten-tailed won't awaken....
Black Zetsu pondered this; he understood the Ten-tailed dynamics far better than Uchiha Madara. Even with seven Tailed Beasts, the Gedo Statue's strength would increase, but a qualitative change wouldn't occur.
That wouldn't be stable.
However, Black Zetsu refrained from warning Uchiha Madara too much, considering he was still being regarded as Uchiha Madara's will. Revealing too much would only arouse Madara's skepticism.
"Lord Madara, what were you puzzling over earlier?"
"It's nothing, only that it seems the Seven-tailed's Tailed Beast Chakra has been exhausted; even when absorbed into the Gedo Statue, it requires some time to recover...."
Uchiha Madara casually responded, fortunately, Tailed Beast's Chakra recovers rapidly, not delaying his assembly of the Ten-tailed.
Capturing the Tailed Beasts was exceptionally smooth for Uchiha Madara; no one could obstruct him, even one of the Five Great Ninja Villages, the Hidden Mist Village, could only endure severe losses while watching him take the Six-tailed away.
Now, having collected four Tailed Beasts, and with the Four-tailed and Five-tailed soon to be revived, only the Eight-tailed of Hidden Cloud Village and the Two-tailed and Nine-tailed of Konoha remain.
"Lord Madara, the Hidden Cloud has concealed the Eight-tailed very well. White Zetsu Clone hasn't figured out its location yet; perhaps we should wait a bit longer?"
Black Zetsu said, it seemed Hidden Cloud Village had misplaced the Jinchuriki Power Trial Sacred Land. Recently, they launched a grand search effort, and since then, news of the Eight-tailed Jinchuriki became top secret in the village, inaccessible even to White Zetsu Clone.
"If we go straight to the source.... with the bad temper of Hidden Cloud Village's ninjas, they might die rather than tell Lord Madara about the Eight-tailed Jinchuriki. This could instead make a big fuss, alerting the entire Ninja World that Lord Madara is collecting Tailed Beasts...."
"Three months, if we still can't locate the Eight-tailed Jinchuriki, I will personally go to Hidden Cloud Village to search."
Uchiha Madara stated, this period was neither long nor short, but neither Black Zetsu nor White Zetsu felt confident.
However, Black Zetsu still responded affirmatively; it wanted to advise Uchiha Madara to be patient as the dawn of becoming the Ten-tailed Jinchuriki was close, but if said, it might have the opposite effect.
Konoha Village, underground fourth level prison.
A series of slight tapping sounds echoed, full of rhythm.
Having lost his eyes, Nagato, faintly hearing this sound, asked, "Konan? What's wrong with you?"