Chapter 134 Fourth-Tier Tactics
Only now did Black Zetsu finally understand why Uchiha Touhuan could single-handedly pull the Uchiha clan out of its previous mess and bring them to their current state.
Although Uchiha Touhuan's current strength was still considerably weaker than that of the former Uchiha Madara, Madara didn't possess the ability to incite such a large group of people with just a few words. No, neither did any reincarnation of Indra or Ashura.
"Friends! This is a war! A war about to break out! Those oppressors will perish in this war!" Uchiha Touhuan's shadow clone spoke passionately, completely stirring up the emotions of the entire tavern.
Mei Terumī behind the bar was utterly dumbfounded. She was already regretting her decision to speak to this man. What did he want?
"Are you all going to sit here drinking aimlessly? Do you want your future children to graduate from the Ninja Academy and then have to risk their lives for a mere C-rank ninjutsu?
Now! Let's act! Overthrow the mountain weighing us down! This village belongs to you! It belongs to me! It belongs to every ninja who fights for the Will of Water! For a brighter tomorrow for Kirigakure, slaughter all the bloodline clans!"
"Slaughter all the bloodline clans! Glory belongs to Kirigakure!" The ninjas in the tavern were already stirred up. Uchiha Touhuan shouted as he walked towards the tavern's exit.
The gathered crowd spontaneously made way for him. After Uchiha Touhuan reached the tavern entrance, he raised his arm again! "Rebuild the glory of the Will of Water! Today!"
"Today!" Under Uchiha Touhuan's passionate speech, the people in the tavern were filled with fervor. With a little alcohol added to the effect, soon everyone in the tavern followed the footsteps of Uchiha Touhuan's shadow clone.
Seeing this, Black Zetsu quickly followed, and Mei Terumī behind the bar also hurried to catch up. After she climbed over the bar and exited the tavern, she looked at the direction the large crowd was heading.
"This way? The Kaguya Clan?" Mei Terumī's heart trembled at the sight. Recently, her organization had received intelligence that the Kaguya clan was preparing a rebellion against the Fourth Mizukage's Blood Mist Village policy.
They were currently trying to stop it, but now, if so many agitated civilian ninjas actually surrounded the Kaguya clan's territory, it would be tantamount to directly breaking off relations.
"That guy looks like a Chunin at most, right? How dare he?" Mei Terumī gritted her teeth and chased after them.
Uchiha Touhuan, leading a group of civilian Mist ninjas, surrounded the Kaguya clan's territory and charged towards the plaque at the entrance of the Kaguya clan's territory. After forming hand seals, he fired a Water Fang Bullet.
"How dare you!" Just then, the Kaguya clan ninjas, having received the news, gathered together. Seeing Uchiha Touhuan's audacious act, the leader immediately flew into a rage and fired a bone spike at him.
Uchiha Touhuan neither dodged nor evaded, using his White Zetsu body to withstand the attack head-on.
He was knocked back several meters, landing beside the group of Kirigakure ninjas he had brought with him.
At Uchiha Touhuan's instruction, the White Zetsu Tobi simulated spitting blood.
"Are you alright?" A Kirigakure Jonin, seeing this, quickly crouched down and asked.
"Fellow countrymen! Don't worry about me! Revolutions have always been accompanied by bloodshed and sacrifice.
Today, I will begin! For the Will of Water, kill them!" Uchiha Touhuan feigned his impending death, spitting blood as he spoke.
After spitting out a mouthful of blood, Uchiha Touhuan's head lolled to the side and his eyes closed.
"Damn it! You bloodline limit ninjas deserve to die!" The death of Uchiha Touhuan's clone instantly ignited the anger of the civilian ninjas present, and a chaotic battle broke out.
At this moment, Uchiha Touhuan's shadow clone was taken out of the ground by Tobi during the chaos and reunited with Black Zetsu.
"Is this what you meant by escalating the conflict?" Black Zetsu looked at the battlefield not far away, which was already a river of blood, and said in surprise.
He had to admit that although he had been secretly stirring up conflict between the chakra reincarnations of Ashura and Indra for thousands of years, Uchiha Touhuan's actions were still breathtaking.
He had managed to create a chaotic battle involving hundreds of ninjas in less than an hour.
"Is that difficult?" Uchiha Touhuan chuckled. "The Hidden Mist ninjas have accumulated a lot of resentment under the oppressive policies of this Blood Mist Village.
All I did was help them release their emotions, nothing more."
Black Zetsu looked at Uchiha Touhuan, his eyes flickering slightly. After a while, he asked, "What you seek? Is it really peace?"
"Was our ancestor pitying them?" Uchiha Touhuan asked, narrowing his eyes.
"No, I just feel that your methods and your thoughts are somewhat inconsistent." Black Zetsu said with some difficulty.
He had begun to doubt whether someone like Uchiha Touhuan could really be controlled with lies like Uchiha Madara.
"This is merely a necessary step on the path to peace," Uchiha Touhuan said coldly. "Their current identities are all enemies on our road to unification.
The more of them die now, the less harm our comrades will suffer on the battlefield in the future. Anyway, once we reach the new world created by the Infinite Tsukuyomi, they will all be resurrected and live happily in a new world without war and suffering, right, ancestor?"
"Alright, I understand." Black Zetsu gave Uchiha Touhuan a deep look and nodded. "So, what should we do now?"
"Now?" Uchiha Touhuan looked at the battlefield not far away, where the Kirigakure ANBU were arriving one after another and beginning to control the situation, and said with a light laugh, "Of course, we should go and see our Fourth Mizukage.
Lead the way, ancestor."
...
Soon, White Zetsu Tobi and Black Zetsu led Uchiha Touhuan to the Mizukage's office. The moment the two appeared, the Mangekyou Sharingan's tomoe mark appeared in Yagura Karatachi's eyes for a moment.
Then, Yagura Karatachi stood up from behind his desk and bowed respectfully to the two.
Just then, hurried footsteps sounded outside the Mizukage's office.
Uchiha Touhuan and Black Zetsu immediately concealed themselves.
Shortly after, several ANBU entered the Mizukage's office and reported to Yagura Karatachi about the events that had occurred that evening at the entrance to the Kaguya clan's territory.
Both sides had suffered heavy casualties in the conflict; nearly half of the ninjas brought to the Kaguya clan's territory by Uchiha Touhuan had died, and the Kaguya clan had also paid the price of several Jonin under the siege.
"Fourth Hokage, all the ninja involved in the tavern riot have been apprehended! According to them, the mastermind died in the conflict, but the Kaguya clan wants a reasonable explanation from you."
"An explanation? What explanation do they want?" Uchiha Touhuan, controlling Yagura, said coldly, "Go back and tell them that if they want an explanation, they should come to my Mizukage office in person!"
"Yes!" the ANBU nodded. "Then, Mizukage, what should be done with the ninjas who participated in the riot?"
"Deal with?" Yagura said. "Deal with what? They are all ninjas who responded to the village's Blood Mist policy and possess the Will of Water! I believe they will become even stronger after this bloody battle! Release them all."
"I understand." The ANBU accepted the order and left.
After the ANBU left to handle the matter, Uchiha Touhuan and Black Zetsu reappeared. This time, Black Zetsu seemed rather curious.
"You plan to have the Mizukage help those civilians?" Black Zetsu said. "I must warn you, if Yagura appears before everyone, it's hard to guarantee that no one will notice anything amiss."
"Of course, to create chaos in Kirigakure, we have to help those guys," Uchiha Touhuan said.
"But how can we help them?" Black Zetsu asked.
"Do nothing," Uchiha Touhuan said.
"Do nothing?" Black Zetsu was somewhat puzzled.
"We can offer them all the support they need, except for help," Uchiha Touhuan said.
"But what if they insist we help them?" Black Zetsu asked.
"Then we'll follow the fourth-tier tactics." Uchiha Touhuan calmly walked to the Mizukage's desk and sat down in the Mizukage's chair.
"Fourth-tier tactics? What's that?" Black Zetsu asked.
"It's a standard crisis response strategy I've developed from Hiruzen Sarutobi's actions," Uchiha Touhuan said.
"First, have the Mizukage declare that nothing happened."
"Second, say that something might have happened, but we shouldn't take action."
"Third, say that we should probably act, but there's nothing we can do." "
Finally, say that perhaps we could have done something back then, but it's too late now."
Black Zetsu: ...
After a long while, Black Zetsu slowly spoke, "Isn't this...isn't this just trying to smooth things over?"
"What else?" Uchiha Touhuan shrugged. "We're not really here to govern Kirigakure."
"Alright, Ancestor, we should go back. After that, let Kirigakure run wild for a while." Uchiha Touhuan smiled at Black Zetsu, then proactively dispelled his shadow clone.
...
At Uchiha Touhuan's house, Uchiha Touhuan, who was meditating and comprehending natural energy in the backyard, suddenly opened his eyes.
Then, Uchiha Touhuan went to the ninja world map hanging in his house and pondered carefully.
"We don't need to worry too much about the Land of Water for now. The main trouble comes from..."
Uchiha Touhuan's gaze fell on the upper left and upper right corners of the map.
The impoverished and remote Land of Wind doesn't warrant much attention. After all, a place where the entire village's Kage has to personally mine in the desert just to keep the village running is a joke compared to the size of Konoha. Of the Five Great Nations, only the Land of Lightning and the Land of Earth truly deserve Uchiha Touhuan's attention.
First, the Land of Lightning. Those barbarians who only have muscles in their heads and believe that might makes right, are unpredictable.
Even Uchiha Touhuan himself isn't sure how effective his methods will be. Without direct intervention, it will be difficult to plunge them into internal strife.
Then there's the Land of Earth. Compared to Hiruzen Sarutobi, Onoki is undoubtedly a more mature politician. He firmly controls Iwagakure, which, apart from the lack of a successor, is essentially a monolithic entity.
Uchiha Touhuan has little room for maneuver, but it's not impossible to try.
[If we want to destabilize the Land of Earth, we need a trigger...]
[The small country between the Land of Fire and the Land of Earth...]
[The Land of Rain... now is not the time to go to war with Akatsuki. Although the Land of Waterfall is a fence-sitter, it still leans towards the Land of Fire. We don't need to touch it for now. So, is that all that's left?]
"The Land of Grass..." Uchiha Touhuan's eyes flickered slightly as he looked at the map. Judging by the time, Karin and her daughter should have already been kidnapped and used as blood packs.
This gives them a ready-made reason to send troops.
"However, while dealing with the Grass Village is easy, dragging the Land of Earth into it will require careful planning." Uchiha Touhuan looked at the map, lost in thought.
After a long while, Uchiha Touhuan finally looked at the calendar next to the map and muttered, "I remember, two weeks from now is the day the Land of Whirlpools will be destroyed."
...
The next day, after the village's daily meeting, Uchiha Touhuan stopped Tsunade, who was preparing to return to the medical school after the meeting.
"Hokage-sama, unless it's something particularly important, it's best not to bother me. I have students waiting for me to go back to class," Tsunade said impatiently as she turned around.
Uchiha Touhuan: ...
It's obvious that Tsunade, who usually goes to the casino more than a hundred miles away every day after work to have a meeting so early in the morning, is very unhappy. Therefore, she doesn't give him, the Hokage who makes him work overtime, a pleasant look.
Moreover, Tsunade is the least respectful person to Uchiha Touhuan in the entire village. She only shows him a little kindness during the few days when the village allocates funds each month.
However, Uchiha Touhuan was helpless. After all, he had invited this old lady back himself, and currently, only Tsunade in the entire ninja world had the ability to train a large number of qualified medical ninjas.
Therefore, Uchiha Touhuan didn't pay too much attention to the old woman's attitude, taking it as a sign of respect for elders.
"Um, Lady Tsunade, do you still have any news about the surviving members of the Uzumaki clan?" Uchiha Touhuan asked.
As soon as Uchiha Touhuan finished speaking, Tsunade's expression changed, and she asked coldly, "Why is the Hokage suddenly asking about this? The Uzumaki clan was wiped out decades ago, wasn't it?"
It's no wonder Tsunade reacted so strongly. After all, this was her grandmother's maternal clan, and in the matter of the Uzumaki clan's extermination, Konoha had wronged the Uzumaki.
Now that Uchiha Touhuan had suddenly brought up this matter, Tsunade couldn't help but think about it.
"That's right. As you know, decades ago, it was indeed our Konoha that abandoned the Uzumaki clan.
But now, as Hokage, after learning about this history, I want to do something to make amends to the village's most steadfast ally."
...
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(End of Chapter)