Several hours later, the meeting that would influence the entire future of the shinobi world finally came to a successful end.
Whew…
After watching Tsunade, Fugaku Uchiha, and the others leave the office, Uchiha Ren let out a quiet breath and murmured to himself,
"Since the state of the shinobi world has already changed completely… then I'll just smash everything with absolute power."
That was right.
Ever since seeing the future scene of Ōtsutsuki Kinshiki and Ōtsutsuki Urashiki heading toward Earth, Ren had already made up his mind.
He would gather all nine tailed beasts, revive the legendary Ten-Tails, and become its jinchūriki himself.
By then—
His strength would be enough to crush everything.
Ōtsutsuki Kaguya.
Ōtsutsuki Hamura.
Ōtsutsuki Hagoromo.
Ōtsutsuki Kinshiki.
Ōtsutsuki Momoshiki.
All of them would be smashed apart.
Even if the entire Ōtsutsuki main family descended at once, they would still be no more than prey delivered to his door.
As for reviving Ōtsutsuki Kaguya?
That could be done too.
It all depended on whether she knew her place.
After a long pause, Uchiha Ren's expression turned ice-cold.
"Sage of Six Paths… you want to set a tiger against a wolf, but it's meaningless."
"This time, I'll crush you completely and make sure you never rise again."
—
The next morning, at daybreak—
The already turbulent shinobi world was thrown into even greater turmoil without warning.
The reason was simple.
Konoha had once again announced a piece of shocking news powerful enough to alter the entire structure of the shinobi world.
And the content of that news was this:
Konoha had already conquered the Moon, wiped out the Moon's Ōtsutsuki clan, and from this day onward, would begin developing the Moon.
Boom!!
The news exploded across the shinobi world, setting off another overwhelming wave of shock.
Countless shinobi, whose nerves had already gone numb from all of Konoha's previous moves, once again found their hearts filled with disbelief.
No one had expected Konoha to act so completely outside the normal pattern.
After all, they had only just brought one of the three sacred lands—Ryūchi Cave—under their control.
And now they had already set their sights on the Moon.
Thinking back to the strange phenomenon that had appeared on the Moon a few days earlier—
the more people thought about it, the more terrifying it became.
Across the shinobi world, countless shinobi felt their scalps go numb.
It was too much.
It was really too much.
No one had imagined that the Fifth Hokage, Uchiha Ren, would be this ambitious—that even the Moon would be conquered with crushing force.
And now, he even intended to develop it—
to turn the Moon into Konoha's backyard.
Just imagining it was enough to make people feel chills.
People really could die from comparison.
Konoha was already preparing to go play on the Moon—
how were the others supposed to compete with that?
Among all of them, Sunagakure, Kumogakure, Iwagakure, and Kirigakure had the most complicated emotions.
Because faced with a Konoha that was becoming more dominant and more impossible to resist by the day—
they were beginning to feel genuine despair.
And in the midst of that despair, the Four Great Villages found themselves increasingly missing the so-called strongest Hokage in history—
the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi.
There was no helping it.
Compared to the Fifth Hokage, Uchiha Ren—
the Third Hokage really did seem far easier to deal with.
—
While the shinobi world trembled,
Konoha had already begun secretly pushing forward its tailed beast collection plan.
Since the Three-Tails, Five-Tails, Eight-Tails, and Nine-Tails were already in Konoha's hands, the remaining targets were clear:
The One-Tail.
The Two-Tails.
The Four-Tails.
The Six-Tails.
And the Seven-Tails.
Out of basic respect for the tailed beasts,
the Seven-Tails became Konoha's first target.
—
Takigakure.
A hidden village concealed behind a massive waterfall.
Because of its unique terrain, even though it was surrounded by four nations, Takigakure had never once been invaded by another country.
And Kakuzu—already dead now—had once been Takigakure's strongest shinobi.
At this moment, inside a hidden room in Takigakure—
five shinobi dressed in Kumogakure uniforms and one man dressed in Takigakure clothing sat across from one another.
"Suien, where exactly is Takigakure's Hero Water?"
One of the Kumo shinobi spoke impatiently.
"We've been hiding here in secret for almost half a month. Are we moving or not?"
"That's right."
After hearing that, another Kumo elite jōnin said coldly,
"If you still can't make up your mind, then we'll begin the operation ourselves."
"Hmph."
A third Kumo jōnin let out a cold snort.
"If it weren't for Takigakure's Hero Water, do you really think we'd bother cooperating with you?"
"Wait a little longer."
Though Suien was extremely displeased inside, he still kept his voice calm out of caution toward Kumo's strength.
"The Seven-Tails jinchūriki is currently training where the Hero Water is kept."
"If we act rashly, the consequences will be serious."
"The Seven-Tails jinchūriki?"
"This… might actually be a good opportunity."
"If our Kumogakure can seize the Seven-Tails, it would definitely strengthen the village's overall power."
The instant those words were spoken, a gleam flashed in all five Kumo shinobi's eyes.
At the current stage, Kumogakure was being suppressed so badly by Konoha that it could barely breathe.
If they could capture the Seven-Tails jinchūriki, it would be a tremendous achievement.
The more they thought about it, the more excited they became, and the more their greed swelled.
The five Kumo shinobi exchanged glances with one another and silently reached a shared understanding.
After all, they had not wasted the past half month.
In secret, they had already gathered a basic understanding of Takigakure's internal layout.
As long as they could get word back to Kumogakure, they could coordinate from inside and outside at the same time—
and seize both Takigakure's Hero Water and the Seven-Tails jinchūriki in one move.
Just thinking about it was enough to make them eager.
Seeing their expressions, Suien's face became increasingly ugly.
Especially when he saw the ambition burning in the eyes of the five Kumo shinobi, he suddenly realized something.
He might have invited the wolves into the house again.
Working with Kumo to seize Takigakure's Hero Water…
seemed to carry far more risk than he had anticipated.
As for the Hero Water—
it was Takigakure's inherited sacred water, said to be able to increase a shinobi's chakra dozens of times over.
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