[Kirigakure]
[Mizukage's Office]
"Urgent report!", An ANBU hurriedly presented a report to Yagura.
"Lord Mizukage! Kumogakure sent elites to launch a surprise attack on our Hidden Mist. Ryugyoku Port has now been destroyed!"
Yagura shot to his feet and immediately snatched the report to read it carefully.
The more he read, the darker his face became. The report showed that Kumogakure had launched a surprise attack on Ryugyoku Port. The key point was that two Tailed Beast Bombs had been fired into the harbor together during the attack.
In other words, both of Kumogakure's jinchuriki had come.
As for how many others had come, that was unclear, but it definitely wasn't many.
If Kumogakure had made a large-scale troop movement, Kirigakure wouldn't have received no news at all.
This was only the first report. The follow-up intelligence had not arrived yet.
"You may leave," Seeing how troublesome this was, Yagura immediately waved the ANBU away.
Although Kirigakure also had two jinchuriki, he had never believed that he alone could defeat two jinchuriki, Killer B included.
The other one, the Six-Tails jinchuriki Utakata, was even weaker than he was.
Kirigakure had spent these years recovering, but top-tier experts were not so easy to train.
Right now, Kirigakure was still in a state of having soldiers but no generals.
Besides, no one knew exactly how many experts Kumogakure had brought.
Although people like Juzo Biwa and Zabuza were considered elites, they were still somewhat outmatched against jinchuriki.
After the ANBU left the room, Yagura began calling for Rengoku.
The clone Rengoku had left inside his shadow normally would not come out.
Only when Yagura called for it would it "switch on."
Not long afterward, the dojutsu clone rose from his shadow.
"What happened?"
Rengoku stood up from the shadow. He knew that unless it was something important, Yagura would not call him.
Yagura handed the report to Rengoku and quickly explained everything.
"Huh? Why is Kumogakure attacking you?"
Yagura reminded him, "Rengoku, do you think it's because Konoha and Sunagakure are at war?"
Konoha was now allied with Iwagakure and fighting Sunagakure. The only ninja village Sunagakure could ask for help was Kumogakure.
Kumogakure attacked Kirigakure because of Kirigakure's relationship with the Uchiha.
"Oh, attacking enemy's friend to save your friend."
Rengoku went over it in his mind once and instantly understood Kumogakure's intentions.
"Two jinchuriki."
"I didn't expect them to move so fast."
Given the grudge between Kumogakure and Kirigakure, launching an attack without declaring war was perfectly normal.
After all, Kumogakure had been constantly probing Kirigakure before this.
Yagura wasn't stupid. He should have realized it immediately.
Now that the situation was clear, the question was how to deal with it.
Although Kumogakure couldn't fight Konoha, its combat strength was definitely stronger than Kirigakure's.
And there was one rather crucial point.
Kumogakure clearly knew that Yagura of Kirigakure could fly.
Yet they still dared to come knocking on their doorstep. That meant they had certainly taken into account that Yagura would retaliate.
Judging by the timeline, Kumogakure's Chakra Space-Time Cannon had already posed a threat to Yagura five years ago.
Five years later, it would only be stronger than before.
"There aren't many people from Kumogakure. I'll go with you first and see how strong they really are."
"If they want to use this tactic, they'll need the strength to pull it off."
Although Yagura had never heard the idiom "attacking Wei to save Zhao," he could roughly understand what it meant.
"Are you planning to show yourself?", Yagura had never considered whether they could win.
After all, Rengoku had already been the number one in the ninja world five years ago, and his abilities were unfathomable.
Besides, the Uchiha clan naturally countered jinchuriki.
If he appeared, Kumogakure would probably flee in panic.
Rengoku was still waiting for Black Zetsu to deliver the Tenseigan, for his precious disciple to master Sage Arts, for Orochimaru's genetic engineering to advance again, and for all his own attributes to become as easy to control as his own limbs.
He was also waiting for all the elites of the Uchiha Kindergarten to grow up.
All of that required time and battle.
He intended to turn the ninja world into his own backyard, using its resources to continuously train powerful experts.
Even setting aside the matter of conquering other planets, he still had to consider what they would use to resist if other Otsutsuki came.
In the original timeline, whether it was Naruto or Sasuke, once the ninja world was unified, they basically became slackers.
More than ten years later, they had hardly improved at all.
Compared to when they fought in the Fourth Great Ninja War in the original timeline, although they were twice as old, their strength hadn't even improved by a tenth, let alone doubled.
Even if Naruto and Sasuke either didn't know, or hadn't realized, that other otsutsuki would invade.
Rengoku knew.
For Rengoku, who suffered from a chronic fear of insufficient firepower, he had to keep becoming stronger.
The main reasons Rengoku wanted to annex the Land of Wind's desert were twofold.
One was to advance slowly and buy time.
The other was to avoid triggering a full-scale war.
A full-scale war would kill far too many people. At least before he obtained the Kekkei Mora, he couldn't let things end up like in the original timeline, where fewer than ten thousand survived out of eighty thousand.
The next generation of Kage throughout the ninja world had all become useless. Even an ordinary person like Chojuro could become the Mizukage.
"I won't show myself. Doesn't Kirigakure still have other experts?"
Yagura froze for a moment, "Other than me, where are there any other experts in the village?"
Rengoku smiled, "Don't worry. There will be."
He opened the menu and looked at Dance of the Clematis: Bracken, which he had obtained from Kimimaro back then.
There was still an "(Unobtained)" behind it, indicating that he still didn't possess the Shikotsumyaku, so the cost was still doubled.
However... Rengoku's thoughts flashed rapidly as he informed his original body of the situation and his idea.
A massive amount of chakra was immediately transmitted from the original body.
He stared at the shadow on the ground.
Another figure rose from within it.
Then it quickly transformed into Kyokotsu.
For Rengoku, the Bond Star was his greatest trump card, but there were some details he had overlooked.
For example, this clone that had been impersonating Yagura all this time had never suffered from the doubled consumption when using Tailed Beast Bombs or Yagura's other abilities.
In other words, as long as the clone wasn't dismissed, the chakra inside its body would never be converted into his own.
Seeing that Kimimaro had already unlocked the fourth Bond level, he naturally wanted to test it.
Using Kyokotsu's perspective, Rengoku opened Kimimaro's fourth Bond level.
["Ding. Kimimaro's Level 4 Bond has been unlocked."]
["Congratulations, Host. You have obtained: 100% of Kimimaro's chakra."]
Kyokotsu's body immediately filled with chakra that belonged to Kimimaro.
He reached out, grabbed his forearm, and pulled.
A bone, reshaped into a bone sword, was pulled out.
Yagura had already seen Kyokotsu during the last war, so he wasn't particularly surprised.
"So you're planning to have Kyokotsu appear again?"
Rengoku smiled, "No rush. Our Kirigakure has more than just this one expert."
The shadow at his feet rippled, and another person appeared.
This one, however, was someone Yagura had never seen before.
He found Haku's Bond Star.
["Ding. Haku's Level 3 and Level 4 Bonds have been unlocked."]
[]"Congratulations, Host. You have obtained: Ice Release, Demonic Mirroring Ice Crystals."]
["Congratulations, Host. You have obtained: 100% of Haku's chakra."]
Rengoku's eyes lit up, seemingly very satisfied with all this.
"Now that Kyokotsu has appeared, we can't do without Byaku..."