Chapter 405: Beyond the Sea Lies the Enemy
"Without enough intelligence sources, I feel like a blind man right now." Amamiya Kenichi licked his lips.
He was sitting inside the Daimyo's mansion in the Land of Water, while the Daimyo silently stamped one document after another beside him.
"When you destroyed Hidden Mist Village, you didn't consider preserving any of their intelligence personnel. It's only natural that things turned out this way," his teacher said calmly, sipping tea.
The Land of Water was like an isolated island drifting overseas.
Amamiya Kenichi had no idea what was happening outside. The spies from Hidden Mist Village certainly would not relay information to him either.
This was within his expectations.
He could not possibly expect the Hidden Mist ninja, who hated him to the bone, to obediently cooperate with him.
To be frank, even if they were willing to cooperate, Amamiya Kenichi would still have to think carefully about whether he could trust them.
After all, it was hard to say whether some ninja, willing to sacrifice themselves for their village and country, might deliberately feed him false intelligence to lead him into a trap.
"I didn't expect the new weapon's effect to be that good either." Amamiya Kenichi sighed.
He had originally thought that Hidden Mist Village would not be completely defenseless against the atomic bomb. It should have been possible for them to preserve at least some strength.
At that point, he would bring Minato to deal with the surviving ninja of Hidden Mist Village, then decide whether to let Nagato join the battle depending on the situation.
After that, he would appeal to Yagura's emotions and reason, persuading the Mizukage of Hidden Mist Village to abandon the narrow prejudices of small nations and clans, and work together to build a unified Ninja World Empire.
That way, he would have been able to obtain most of the Land of Water's intelligence network. With that, Amamiya Kenichi could adjust his next moves based on the reactions of the other four nations, which would have been more useful for his goal of unification.
But he had not expected the Three-Tails to be killed directly by the explosion.
There had been very few lucky survivors, and their bodies had been severely affected by radiation. Even after Amamiya Kenichi carried out anti-radiation treatment, and even with help from Medical Ninja found in the Land of Snow and the Land of Water, most of those ninja still suffered multiple organ failure.
It could be said that even if those ninja survived, they probably would not be able to participate in the next battle.
Their final fate was to cling to life while enduring the long torment of radiation sickness.
Amamiya Kenichi felt that for those ninja, living in pain might be worse than dying outright. At least death would spare them the suffering.
But there was no choice.
Those ninja were extremely valuable test subjects. They had suffered close-range radiation exposure from the atomic bomb, which made them very useful for studying the effects of radiation on a ninja's body.
Therefore, Amamiya Kenichi chose to implant them with parasitic offspring and numb their pain nerves, allowing those ninja to at least stop feeling physical pain, continue living in this world, and provide long-term experimental material for his radiation research.
"Your new weapon is very interesting. However, I recently received intelligence that Iwagakure in the Land of Earth seems to be mobilizing on a large scale. Reportedly, it's for a major mission." His teacher looked at Amamiya Kenichi with a half-smile.
Orochimaru was genuinely interested in Amamiya Kenichi's nuclear weapon.
Although he had not personally witnessed the entire nuclear explosion, just by looking at the destroyed Hidden Mist Village, he knew how powerful that weapon was.
When Orochimaru was attacking the capital of the Land of Water, he had even wondered whether Amamiya Kenichi would need his help. After all, the capital of the Land of Water was mostly filled with ordinary people, and there were not many ninja stationed there.
But Orochimaru had not expected Amamiya Kenichi to finish even faster than him.
After news of Hidden Mist Village's destruction spread, resistance across the entire Land of Water collapsed almost instantly. Many people who had been resisting lost the courage to fight and surrendered directly.
That was also one of the key reasons why Amamiya Kenichi and Orochimaru were able to control the Land of Water so quickly.
"A major mission? It wouldn't happen to be targeting me, would it?" Amamiya Kenichi frowned slightly.
He knew his teacher had his own intelligence network.
After all, he did not even know how many experimental bases Orochimaru had. For example, Amamiya Kenichi had not yet seen people like Jūgo, and after meeting Kimimaro once, the boy had disappeared again.
So Amamiya Kenichi did not doubt his teacher's intelligence source.
His only concern was whether Iwagakure's large-scale mobilization was aimed at him.
"It is targeting you. According to intelligence from Konoha, the Daimyo of the Four Great Nations seem to have jointly issued a super-large mission. The main objective is to overthrow the tyrant occupying Hidden Mist Village," his teacher said calmly, drinking tea.
Orochimaru was not particularly worried about this matter.
It was not that he did not fear the Four Great Nations joining forces. After all, that would mean the elite ninja of four great villages, and the sheer numbers alone would be considerable.
He was not worried for one simple reason.
Even if they failed, Orochimaru was confident that the people of the four Hidden Villages would not be able to find him. His experimental bases were spread throughout the entire Ninja World, even in remote places few people knew about.
Amamiya Kenichi's mouth twitched.
He truly had not expected the Four Great Nations to react so intensely.
That made him glance at the Land of Water Daimyo, who was stamping documents like a tool.
The Daimyo was currently controlled by parasites and could only obediently do the work Amamiya Kenichi demanded.
"It seems even Daimyo can make misjudgments." Amamiya Kenichi felt somewhat dispirited.
The Four Great Nations' intense reaction was still somewhat within his expectations.
After all, when he first decided to attack the Land of Water, Amamiya Kenichi had considered three possibilities.
The best possibility was for the Four Great Nations to ignore him, giving him time to develop and accumulate strength before attacking the next country. It would be like the appeasement policy Britain and France used during World War II, which ultimately allowed Germany to rise.
If Britain and France had reacted fiercely from the beginning and sent troops directly, Germany might not have been able to sweep across Europe.
If the Four Great Nations ignored him, Amamiya Kenichi was confident he could develop, grow, and eventually annex the remaining four countries.
Unfortunately, the Four Great Nations had reacted strongly this time.
That meant the worst possibility had become reality.
"This is really troublesome." Amamiya Kenichi leaned back in his chair and stared at the ceiling, lost in thought.
He was thinking about how to solve this problem.
But no matter how much he thought about it, he could not come up with any particularly good solution.
After all, since the Daimyo of the Four Great Nations had jointly issued the mission, it would not be easy to sow discord between them.
Of course, while the Four Great Nations were acting together, it was absolutely impossible for them to coordinate perfectly in battle.
Only when facing a top-level threat that endangered all of them, like the Fourth Great Ninja War, would the ninja of those four countries possibly unite.
If he showed the potential to threaten each of their Ninja Villages, then they might unite.
But if he did not, the most likely outcome was that the four Ninja Villages would fight separately.
Of course, it was not impossible for them to launch a joint attack while each side fought its own battle, just to avoid taking excessive losses.
"What are you planning to do? Can you hold out with just these few ninja?" his teacher asked after swallowing his tea.
A joint attack from four Ninja Villages. The number alone would reach a terrifying scale.
"Teacher, war isn't won just because one side has more people." Amamiya Kenichi glanced toward the section of the Daimyo's mansion where his nuclear weapons were being manufactured.
Under Amamiya Kenichi's command, ninja from the Land of Snow and civilians from the Land of Water were mining day and night, providing enough raw materials for Amamiya Kenichi's second atomic bomb.
The arrival of the atomic bomb had changed the form of warfare.
Simple numbers were no longer enough to determine victory or defeat.
And frankly, numerical advantage in the Ninja World had always been useless against true monsters.
During the Fourth Great Ninja War, without Naruto and Sasuke, Madara was basically unstoppable.
Amamiya Kenichi's real concern was the strong individuals from the four Ninja Villages, as well as Obito, who was hiding in the shadows.
For some reason, Amamiya Kenichi always felt that Obito would not let him easily digest the Land of Water. That man was definitely planning something significant.
Orochimaru thought of Amamiya Kenichi's terrifying weapon and nodded.
Indeed.
A weapon capable of destroying Hidden Mist Village, with such a wide range of impact, truly could not be countered by simple numbers.
As long as that thing was used, and as long as the opponent failed to stop it beforehand, the ninja of an entire Ninja Village might be annihilated by that weapon.
"If those guys weren't coming, I would have planned to research the hydrogen bomb. That thing's explosive power is even stronger." Amamiya Kenichi sighed as he looked at the busy crowd transporting uranium ore.
Nuclear physics books contained some historical development and related knowledge about hydrogen bombs.
Amamiya Kenichi felt that if he had enough time, he should be able to make a hydrogen bomb. However, it would likely take a long time because the technical difficulty was very high.
The key was the configuration.
If the configuration was good enough, it would save materials and achieve the same result with fewer resources.
Amamiya Kenichi had some confidence in this.
Although there were many difficulties involved, they could always be overcome one by one.
Unfortunately, he did not have that time now.
Facing the formidable ninja armies of the four Ninja Villages, Amamiya Kenichi could only settle for the next best option and use atomic bombs to deter them first.
"The refinement of uranium-235 isn't a problem, but this time we're facing a united ninja army, and their numbers will certainly be large. However, if the war spreads to the Land of Water, then no matter how I fight, it will be very disadvantageous for me." Amamiya Kenichi fell into deep thought as he looked at the uranium enrichment machine continuously enriching and refining uranium-235.
The war theories and history books he had read in his previous life had taught him one thing.
Once a war occurred on home soil, it would have an enormous impact on that homeland, because war was extremely destructive.
The reason a certain nation in his previous life had been able to maintain its top position for so long was that the flames of war had basically never reached its homeland, except for the Pearl Harbor incident.
And if Amamiya Kenichi wanted to stabilize his rule over the Land of Water and strengthen his foundation, the best method was to make the flames of war burn in...
Amamiya Kenichi looked into the distance.
Beyond the sea was the Land of Fire.
Amamiya Kenichi took out a map.
"The Land of Water is closest to the Land of Fire. Although the Ninja World has airships now, there are also various Ninjutsu and weapons designed to counter them. That means large-scale transport of ninja by air won't be easy. Under these circumstances, the allied forces are very likely to gather in the Land of Fire," Amamiya Kenichi said while looking at the map.
Konoha in the Land of Fire had conflicts with other countries, but if Konoha refused to allow those ninja armies to enter, it would become very slow for the armies of other Ninja Villages to reach the Land of Water.
It might even lead to deliberate delay.
For example, they could use the excuse that their airships were too slow and arrive very late, allowing the ninja of other villages to go first.
Especially Konoha's ninja.
That way, the mission could be completed while weakening Konoha's strength at the same time.
Why would they not do it?
The ninja from other villages would certainly have such concerns.
They were only accepting a mission, not truly acting as a unified allied force.
They would naturally hope others went first to die and test the enemy's intelligence, allowing them to take advantage afterward.
This was human nature.
It was unavoidable.
Therefore, in the end, the ninja from each Ninja Village would likely choose to move together. That would minimize this problem.
Konoha had Nara Shikaku. There was no way he would fail to see that, so...
Amamiya Kenichi narrowed his eyes.
What if he brought the war to the Land of Fire instead?
While the ninja allied forces were gathering, he could directly send a Shadow Clone carrying an atomic bomb into their midst and detonate it there.
If that succeeded, wouldn't he be able to occupy the entire Ninja World directly?
—-
"How are those old geezers' discussions going?" Tsunade rubbed her temples as she sat in the Hokage's seat, basking in the sunlight.
"Hokage-sama, the elders said that ninja from the other Ninja Villages should gather at designated locations under supervision," Shizune said softly while holding the documents.
She knew how exhausted Lady Tsunade had been lately.
The Daimyo of the Land of Fire, together with the Daimyo of the other three nations, had issued a super-large bounty mission.
That should have been a good thing.
The problem was that this mission had been issued to four Ninja Villages, and all four had accepted it.
That created a very simple problem.
Who would go first?
No one wanted to suffer losses. Everyone wanted to know the opponent's intelligence, and probing for intelligence meant casualties.
Although Konoha had vast resources and was close to the Land of Water, that did not mean they were willing to be the first to probe the enemy.
Kumogakure thought the same way.
"Heh, I might become the first Hokage to let ninja from the other three villages enter deep into the Land of Fire," Tsunade sneered.
But she had no better solution.
The facts were right in front of her.
Unless Konoha wanted to confront that mysterious force alone, it had no choice but to offer the town closest to the Land of Water as a stationing point for the ninja of the other villages.
.....
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