Chapter 402: The Fall of the Land of Water
"Hokage-sama! Urgent intelligence!"
Inside the Konoha Hokage Building, Tsunade, the newly appointed Fifth Hokage, was seated behind her desk and handling Konoha's political affairs when an Anbu rushed in.
His eyes were filled with anxiety.
That alone made Tsunade realize something major had happened. Otherwise, an Anbu would never be this agitated.
The report was quickly handed to her.
Tsunade opened it and took a look.
With just that one glance, she froze.
She stared at the intelligence in disbelief, then even rubbed her eyes to make sure she had not misread it. Only after confirming the contents did she lower the report with an extremely complicated expression.
"This... this world has changed."
Tsunade leaned back in her chair, feeling slightly dazed.
Even as the Fifth Hokage, the contents of this intelligence felt almost impossible for her to comprehend.
After all...
That was Hidden Mist Village.
Hidden Mist Village of the Land of Water, one of the Five Great Nations and one of the Five Great Ninja Villages, had actually been breached by someone.
"No. This intelligence must be discussed with the old man. The battle in the Land of Waterfall has also ended, so we need..." Tsunade slammed one hand onto the desk and stood up. "Right. Summon the Elder Council!"
She had a premonition.
This incident would become a major event that the entire Ninja World could not ignore.
And reality proved that her instincts were correct.
When the intelligence slowly reached the other three countries, whether it was Kumogakure, Sunagakure, or Iwagakure, all of them erupted into great turmoil.
None of them had expected that Hidden Mist Village, which shared their fame as one of the Five Great Nations and Five Great Ninja Villages, would actually be breached by another force.
"This matter... according to the intelligence, Hidden Mist Village has been almost completely destroyed. The Fourth Mizukage is dead. The Three-Tails is dead. The capital of the Land of Water has been breached, but the Daimyo seems to be unharmed."
In Kumogakure, Raikage A looked at the intelligence in his hand with a grave expression.
It was too shocking.
This intelligence was simply too shocking.
It even made A feel that the previous intelligence about Mei Terumī of Hidden Mist Village burning down the giant tree in the Land of Waterfall, the tree that could produce Hero Water, had become insignificant.
A knew very well that preserving that giant tree in the Land of Waterfall would be difficult. The people from all five Great Ninja Villages would act. What could not be obtained would be destroyed. That was a common tactic among ninja.
Although the effects of Hero Water were powerful, even he, the Raikage, could not directly decide to send his ninja army to seize it.
Doing so could easily trigger the Fourth Great Ninja War.
Unexpectedly, although Mei Terumī had successfully destroyed that giant tree, her own home had been raided.
"Right now, the one in the most trouble should be Mei Terumī, right?" Darui yawned, looking as listless as ever.
After all, while the fall of Hidden Mist Village was serious, it had not reached the point where Kumogakure needed to mobilize for total war.
It was someone else's village, not their own. In addition, Hidden Mist Village and the Land of Water had always been distant from the other Four Great Nations and had no real allies in previous wars.
Of course, if there were benefits to be gained, there might still be room for discussion.
But would those parasites living in the capital really declare war on behalf of Kumogakure?
That was an interesting question.
"Raikage-sama, the Daimyo wishes to meet with you."
Just then, a Kumogakure Anbu entered.
Darui's eyes sharpened slightly.
A glanced at the Anbu, then nodded.
Although the Daimyo was not particularly useful, he was still the nominal supreme ruler. The proper attitude still had to be shown.
—
"You're not planning to kill the Daimyo of the Land of Water?" Orochimaru asked curiously.
In the capital of the Land of Water, the chaotic situation from the day of the breach had stabilized at an astonishing speed.
At this moment, Orochimaru was standing in the laboratory, watching with interest as Amamiya Kenichi performed genetic modifications on the surviving ninja of the Land of Water.
"Not yet." Amamiya Kenichi shook his head.
It was not that he did not want to kill the Daimyo. Rather, he could not kill him yet.
The reason was simple.
This world was somewhat different from his previous life.
During the Sengoku period, the essence of ninja warfare was basically a chaotic cricket fight played by wealthy patrons. The Uchiha Clan and the Senju Clan became mortal enemies after being hired by others.
Later, although Senju Hashirama and Uchiha Madara stepped forward and jointly founded Konoha, leading to the establishment of the Five Great Ninja Villages, the Five Great Ninja Villages still received financial support from their respective Daimyo.
Under these circumstances, it was hard to say whether those wealthy individuals had any private connections, such as offensive and defensive alliances.
If Amamiya Kenichi killed the Daimyo, would the other four Daimyo react and frantically pour money into having the Four Great Ninja Villages jointly attack him?
Although that possibility was not very high, it still had to be guarded against.
Better safe than sorry.
"Are you worried about the other four Daimyo?" Orochimaru instantly saw through Amamiya Kenichi's concerns.
He glanced toward a certain location inside the Daimyo's mansion.
The Daimyo of the Land of Water was currently eating peacefully under the "close" protection of two Jonin from the Land of Snow.
At present, all political affairs in the Land of Water were in Amamiya Kenichi's hands.
That Daimyo could only sign documents. He kept signing and stamping, living like a seal-stamping machine.
"Mm. After all, I don't know whether there are any unspeakable alliances of interest among these Daimyo." Amamiya Kenichi clapped his hands.
Today's modification plan was complete.
Now, they only needed to adapt. Once they did, they would be able to activate their Sharingan.
Orochimaru shrugged noncommittally.
The position of Daimyo was indeed quite peculiar, but he felt his disciple was overthinking things.
If this were the Sengoku period, those wealthy individuals would indeed have some unspoken consensus.
But now, this was the era of ninja villages.
The Kage determined the overall direction of a country's policies, while the Daimyo was more of a tool. At most, the Daimyo handled matters concerning ordinary people.
The concentration of ninja and the recognition of a shared village identity had already made ninja far less fearful of Daimyo than before.
It could be said that the current Ninja World operated somewhat like a constitutional monarchy. The Daimyo was the nominal supreme ruler, but actual political affairs were handled by the Kage.
"What is that bug you implanted in them?" Orochimaru no longer cared about the Daimyo issue.
Anyway, those problems could be left for his student to worry about.
What interested him more was the method Amamiya Kenichi used to control these people.
"It's that ancient parasite you mentioned before, Teacher. I accidentally found one while I was out earlier, and this is what came of it," Amamiya Kenichi casually explained.
The existence of the parasite could not be hidden.
As long as someone possessed certain detection methods, they could detect it. The Byakugan could even easily see where the parasite was located.
So Amamiya Kenichi did not intend to conceal it.
In the future, he would even popularize the parasite's existence to a certain extent. After all, this thing, combined with genetic improvement, could allow ordinary people to become ninja.
Amamiya Kenichi felt that many ordinary people who could not become ninja would voluntarily accept this grace.
But would this lead to future conflict between native ninja and parasite-born ninja?
Would it become something like the magical duels from his previous life?
However, Amamiya Kenichi was not particularly worried about this problem.
After all, those magical duels were built on a foundation of abundant material resources. Only when people had enough to eat and nothing urgent to do would they have the energy to debate such things.
If they were struggling for three meals a day, who would have time to think about power or magical duels?
The first thing they would think about every morning would be how to fill their stomachs.
"Parasite? You found that thing?" Orochimaru became interested.
Although he knew it was an egg, he had not truly thought of it as a parasite.
This, unusually, piqued his curiosity.
"By the way, Teacher, do you have any research on crop improvement?" Amamiya Kenichi suddenly remembered something important.
Now that he had occupied the Land of Water, he had immediately dispatched Shadow Clones to search for uranium ore.
But there was another matter he had to deal with.
Crop improvement.
The cold-resistant crops previously cultivated in the Land of Snow were not especially suitable for the Land of Water. The climate of the Land of Water was not that harsh, so the crops needed to be improved again.
"No. But you can ask Amado Sanzu about it. He has more research in genetics," Orochimaru said, shaking his head.
He truly had no research in crop improvement.
Only then did Amamiya Kenichi remember that he still had the great Amado Sanzu.
So he hurriedly left the laboratory and went to find Amado, who was setting up his own laboratory.
"Hmm? You want to improve crops?" Amado asked when Amamiya Kenichi found him.
He was having a meal with his daughter, Akebi Sanzu, and seemed to be in a good mood.
"Yes. After all, if the number of ninja increases, food consumption will also increase. It's always good to prepare in advance," Amamiya Kenichi nodded.
Unless the people of the Ninja World evolved into life forms that did not need to eat, having more food was always better.
Ninja were gluttons. They ate a lot.
This problem had not been mentioned much in the original work, but it was a real issue that had to be faced.
"Oh, that... I remember you did some research on it before..." Amado frowned slightly.
His scientific research in genetic programming and improvement focused more on humans. He was not especially knowledgeable about crops.
"This is my previous experimental log. You can take a look."
Amamiya Kenichi handed the experimental log to Amado.
Amado accepted it, but did not immediately open it.
Amamiya Kenichi was not in a hurry.
After entrusting the task to Amado, he left.
After all, the man was still eating with his daughter. He could not keep talking business there. That would be too tactless.
"By now, the news that I breached Hidden Mist Village and took the Land of Water has probably spread throughout the Ninja World, right?"
Amamiya Kenichi yawned, then slowly walked along the streets of the Land of Water.
Minato was not here.
He had taken an airship back to the Land of Snow to find Naruto and Kushina, seemingly to discuss something related to the Nine-Tails.
Amamiya Kenichi had no objection to this.
He had originally asked Minato whether he wanted to bring Naruto and Kushina over, but Minato had refused.
Amamiya Kenichi understood Minato's concerns.
After all, although the Land of Water was currently occupied by them, it was not particularly stable yet.
It would be troublesome if the war spread here, so it was safer for them to remain in the Land of Snow.
As Amamiya Kenichi was thinking, he suddenly felt a subtle Chakra fluctuation.
In the next instant, he instinctively turned his head.
A long needle pierced into the ground in front of him.
Amamiya Kenichi's body vanished from the spot.
The next second, he stood behind two people.
"Where are you going?" Amamiya Kenichi asked.
He looked at the two figures in front of him, one large and one small. The pair seemed rather harmonious.
However, after seeing the Kubikiribōchō in one of their hands, Amamiya Kenichi's lips curled into a playful smile.
Combined with the delicate features of the smaller one, Amamiya Kenichi already knew who these two were.
Zabuza Momochi and Haku.
There was nothing much to say about Zabuza. He was Naruto's first leveling target after becoming a ninja, and he had also caused Naruto's Nine-Tails power to erupt for the first time.
If Sasuke had not been male, he might have been able to take the female lead position.
As for Haku, he was a typical case of being drawn like a girl while explicitly stated to be male.
However, Haku and Zabuza were both quite popular.
"You killed Yagura?" Zabuza asked.
Although Zabuza had not yet become the bandage-faced man he would be in the future, he was already quite close to that image.
"Yes, I did," Amamiya Kenichi answered.
He was not worried about anything happening.
Zabuza and Haku's strength was merely so-so. There was no need for him to be cautious.
Zabuza tightened his grip around the Kubikiribōchō.
After learning of Hidden Mist Village's destruction, he had returned, then come to the capital.
The reason he had targeted Amamiya Kenichi was very simple.
At present, Amamiya Kenichi was the only ninja in the capital of the Land of Water. The other ninja were nowhere to be seen.
After a brief test, Zabuza immediately realized that the man before him possessed terrifying strength.
He was definitely no match for this man.
"Hidden Mist Village's rogue ninja, Zabuza Momochi, right? And who is this beside you?" Amamiya Kenichi looked at Zabuza and Haku with interest.
These two little guys were quite interesting.
"...This is Haku." Zabuza cautiously watched the man before him.
Someone capable of killing Yagura and even destroying Hidden Mist Village possessed power beyond ordinary understanding.
"What are you doing here? And attacking me? Are you planning to avenge Hidden Mist Village?" Amamiya Kenichi asked, amusement flickering in his eyes.
Zabuza's strength was fairly average, but he could serve as the captain or a member of an assassination squad.
After all, he specialized in Silent Killing, which was quite useful for assassinations.
As for Haku, although his Kekkei Genkai was Ice Release, Amamiya Kenichi was not particularly concerned.
He might have decent talent in Medical Ninjutsu.
.....
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