After Uchiha Rei finished lunch, the Anbu came to inform her that Hiruzen Sarutobi wanted to see her. Needless to say, Hiruzen Sarutobi, that old geezer, wouldn't even let her rest for one more day.
She slowly walked towards the Hokage Building, which was perfect for digestion. However, it was clear that Hiruzen Sarutobi was in a hurry, as he sent the Anbu again to urge her.
"Bang!" Ling kicked open the office door and saw Konoha F3, Tsunade, and Minato Namikaze inside. Hearing the door being kicked open, Hiruzen Sarutobi's face darkened.
"Ling, if you kick the door again, I'll make you a gatekeeper."
Although Hiruzen Sarutobi reprimanded Uchiha Rei, it was more important to deal with official business at this time.
"Nah, sorry, sorry. I heard you guys were in a hurry, so I rushed over without a moment's delay."
Ling showed no apology, swaggering in. Minato Namikaze gave a wry smile, and Tsunade's expression was grim, indicating that something big must have happened.
"The Four Great Shinobi Villages have formed an allied army, preparing to crush our Konoha defenses in one fell swoop. We hear there are a total of 40,000 Ninja troops, and they are currently gathering at the Land of Fire border."
Minato Namikaze was concise, directly stating the intelligence. 40,000 Ninja troops were not 40,000 pigs; even 40,000 pigs would take them half a day to catch.
"Holy crap, that's explosive! Did you guys do something heinous? They have hostages, so how could they still gather?"
Logically, it shouldn't be possible. Did Konoha send all the captives back?
"There were rumors before that Konoha had acquired the Rinnegan and was already preparing to counterattack them, so they allied prematurely."
Minato Namikaze didn't believe that such a ridiculous reason would make the various Shinobi Villages unite, as they also had grudges among themselves.
"What about the hostages? Force them to retreat! If they don't, kill them one by one for them to see."
Ling didn't expect them to be so bold. Could it be because Black Zetsu was causing trouble in the dark?
"Some time ago, the Konoha Interrogation Department prison was raided. Ebizo, Kitsuchi, and four of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist were rescued. The Hidden Sand Village captives were slaughtered, and only the Five-Tails Jinchuriki and Three-Tails were unharmed."
Hiruzen Sarutobi took a deep puff of his cigarette, clearly also very uneasy.
"What the hell, are the Anbu all pigs? The Interrogation Department is right next to the Anbu and the Hokage Building. If they wanted to assassinate the Hokage, wouldn't it be easy?"
Ling was about to crack. There were no good hostages left. What was the point of keeping the Five-Tails and Three-Tails? To harm Konoha?
"This unit was too elite. They appeared out of nowhere, launched an attack, and then disappeared just as mysteriously, taking everyone with them, but leaving no bodies, only a few large trees."
Tsunade slammed her fist on the desk. When she received this news, she was also numb. A great situation was lost overnight, and now they were to be besieged by the allied army.
"Large trees!" Ling knew immediately who the bastard was who did it. It was Black Zetsu with White Zetsu. Only the Ephemeral Technique and Impersonation Technique could achieve such a feat.
She was doing research in her laboratory. Although the laboratory's seal blocked others' detection, it also blocked her own perception of the outside world.
This was troublesome. Besides Pakura, the Five-Tails Jinchuriki, and the Three-Tails, they had no other hostages. With only these three unimportant bargaining chips, they couldn't achieve their goal at all.
"So you called me here to discuss what? To discuss how to surrender?"
Ling's expression, like "it's hopeless, let's surrender," immediately silenced them. They had also considered this question, mainly because Konoha, counting all those capable of fighting, now only had a total of just over 10,000 people.
Facing 40,000 Ninja troops and the Jinchuriki and Kage-level experts from each village, there was simply no chance of victory.
The Four Great Shinobi Villages probably didn't intend to fight a long war with Konoha, but rather to push through in one wave, thus avoiding logistical problems.
"All Konoha Ninja have been mobilized, totaling over 11,000 people, deployed at the Land of Fire border, just waiting for us to go and command this battle."
Hiruzen Sarutobi knew that the current situation was no less dire than when the Second Hokage died and he hastily took office at the beginning of the Great Shinobi War.
"How many Kage-level Ninja have the major Shinobi Villages deployed?"
Ling was curious how much strength Kitsuchi, Ebizo, and Fourth Raikage A could display. The Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist had been crippled by her and had no Ninjato.
Ebizo and Kitsuchi had Magic seals placed on them by her, which even Black Zetsu couldn't easily break. If broken roughly, both of them would be crippled.
The cursed seal on Bunpuku couldn't be undone by them. The One-Tail Jinchuriki would definitely be useless.
Black Zetsu would certainly not personally intervene for these two. He himself was also hostile to other Shinobi Villages; he was merely exploiting them now.
"Hidden Sand Village has Rasa, Karura, and Chiyo. Iwagakure has Ōnoki and Roshi. Hidden Cloud Village has the Third Raikage, the Eight-Tails Jinchuriki Killer Bee, and Fourth Raikage A."
"Hidden Mist Village has Yagura and the Sixth Tail. The Third Mizukage did not appear."
After discussing the situations of the major Shinobi Villages, Homura Mitokado looked at Uchiha Rei, wanting to see what insights she had.
"It's not impossible to fight. This battle will primarily be at the Kage-level. Tsunade-nee and the two elders, plus the Hyuga and Uchiha Clan heads, will hold back Hidden Sand Village's Rasa, Karura, and Chiyo. No problem, right?"
Ling looked at the clan heads of the major Ninja clans who had arrived later, as well as Utatane Koharu and Homura Mitokado.
"No problem." After considering it, they felt the chances of winning were not low and all nodded in agreement.
"Next are Iwagakure's Ōnoki and Roshi. Leaving them to sensei and Orochimaru-ojisan, no problem, right?"
Ling knew that the Third Hokage and Ōnoki were old rivals.
"Ōnoki, huh? Although this old man can't defeat him, holding him back is no problem."
The Third Hokage didn't dare to say he could directly kill Ōnoki.
"Heh heh, Roshi, you say? Perfect, I wanted to study the Four-Tails Chakra."
Orochimaru gave a sinister laugh. With Roshi assigned to him, he had a good chance of winning.
"Next are the Third Raikage and the Eight-Tails Jinchuriki. I'll handle them alone. Fourth Raikage A, who lost an arm, will be held back by Akimichi Torifu-senpai."
Ling looked at Akimichi Torifu, an elderly, plump man about the same age as the Third Hokage, who nodded.
"Next is the Hidden Mist Village. Minato-nii will deal with Yagura, and Kushina-jie jie will deal with the Sixth Tail."
Kushina and Minato Namikaze exchanged glances and nodded. Both of them were confident in dealing with their respective opponents.
"Then there's the problem of the 40,000 Ninja troops. I'll have 10,000 Ninja troops defend together under the command of Ino–Shika–Chō, and then Chiri Great-Grandmother and Shisui will be responsible for using their Mangekyo Sharingan to control the Five-Tails and Three-Tails to release Tailed Beast Balls to attack the enemy army."
Ling looked at the Ino–Shika–Chō trio. They also nodded, all agreeing that Ling's deployment had no problems. The only potential issue was whether Ling could withstand the combined efforts of the Third Raikage and the Eight-Tails Jinchuriki.
No one else had doubts about this; it seemed to be a minor issue. After this analysis, it even felt like they had an advantage.
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