Compared to Konoha, half of whose village had been destroyed in one night, Kumogakure and Iwagakure's operation could not be said to have earned them a fortune the way Kirigakure had by suddenly inserting itself into the battlefield.
But judging by gains and losses, this operation, which had centered around the destruction of Konoha, could not be called a failure no matter how one looked at it.
And yet, at this very moment, the two Jinchuriki meeting in the agreed rendezvous area both looked weighed down by their own thoughts. Their moods were low, and not a trace of triumph could be seen on their faces, despite the fact that they had just pushed Konoha, once the strongest village in the shinobi world, to the brink of destruction.
"They still haven't appeared. The Four-Tails and his escort squad were probably wiped out, or captured alive by Kirigakure after they barged into the situation."
The Two-Tails Jinchuriki, Yugito Nii, sighed softly. Looking at the Five-Tails Jinchuriki, Han, who still occasionally raised his head and glanced toward Konoha, she spoke in a tone that tried not to make the atmosphere even heavier.
"Alive, we need to see him. Dead, we need to see the body. Roshi is an important Jinchuriki of Iwagakure. His life or death must have an absolutely accurate conclusion before it can be submitted to the village as intelligence. Do you Kumogakure people not understand such a simple principle?"
Because of the grudge formed during the previous Shinobi World War, Han's attitude toward Yugito Nii was not exactly pleasant.
However, Yugito had long expected this. Still young, she merely shrugged and answered with an indifferent expression.
"That isn't something combat personnel like us, who only just withdrew from the battlefield, should be worrying about, is it? Finding out whether the Four-Tails Jinchuriki lived or died, and what ultimately happened to the Four-Tails, should be the intelligence unit's job. If every Iwagakure intelligence operative you sent into Konoha is already dead, are you planning to wait here until Konoha and Kirigakure send pursuers, or are you planning to go back and investigate personally?"
"You Kumogakure brat! You—"
"Don't tell me that when you withdrew from the combat zone, your accompanying sensory shinobi didn't sense the Nine-Tails and that other chakra so enormous it was suffocating."
At the mention of that, Yugito Nii, who was still a young girl, instinctively hugged her shoulders. Her face filled with lingering fear as she muttered.
"The Nine-Tails' chakra appearing on the battlefield was one thing. At least that meant the people from Root really did possess intelligence on the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki and had successfully dragged the Nine-Tails out of her body. But afterward… that monster-like chakra. No matter how you look at it, it was basically the same as the one who released that enormous barrier before and killed the Seven-Tails in a single strike, right?"
"…Not basically the same. It was the exact same person."
When this topic came up, even Han's voice unconsciously lost some of its confidence and gained a trace of emotion.
"Before truly witnessing that man act, I found it strange why Lord Third would be so wary of a Mizukage so young he was practically a child. But now, it seems that as someone who once lived through the era of the First Hokage and Madara Uchiha, he truly has vision beyond what we juniors can compare with."
"Then who do you think would win in the end—the absurdly young Mizukage, or that mysterious leader of Root?"
Seeing that Han was no longer maintaining his previous old-fashioned attitude, Yugito simply relied on her youth and asked a question no mature shinobi should have asked aloud.
After hearing the question, Han fell into a long silence.
Only after quite some time did he slowly breathe out a mouthful of boiling steam, shake his head, and say, "I do not know how much true strength either of them is hiding. But… if I must choose, I think the Fourth Mizukage has a greater chance of winning.
"Although the person from Root successfully seized the Nine-Tails, it is clearly impossible for him to become the new Nine-Tails Jinchuriki in such a short time and fully master the Nine-Tails' power. If he is merely using the Nine-Tails as a weapon, then defeating a Mizukage whom Lord Tsuchikage regards as an enemy no less dangerous than Madara Uchiha would probably be very difficult."
"If he can't win directly, the Mizukage probably won't let him take the Nine-Tails away either…" Yugito Nii frowned. "And given Kirigakure's style, they probably won't leave the Nine-Tails to Konoha either… In that case, wouldn't both the Four-Tails and Nine-Tails fall into Kirigakure's hands?"
"The moment Kirigakure intervened without warning, they were destined to become the greatest winner of this war… Hm?"
While speaking, Han noticed a spatial distortion appearing not far from the two of them.
His expression immediately turned doubtful and guarded.
But very quickly, Obito Uchiha, once again wearing his mask, appeared before them. In a weak voice that anyone could tell he was forcing himself to maintain, he spoke darkly to the two Jinchuriki waiting at the rendezvous point.
"If you have time to discuss things that have already ended, you would be better off taking the survivors back to your villages as soon as possible and reporting whatever you still remember to the Raikage and Tsuchikage… Or do you think that on the soil of the Land of Fire, no other Konoha shinobi could possibly appear?"
"If we don't clarify the final results of this operation, the intelligence we submit will make Lord Raikage furious."
Yugito looked at Obito Uchiha. A serious and sharp expression slowly appeared on her graceful, heroic face.
She took two steps forward and asked sternly, "After seizing the Nine-Tails, you fought the Mizukage who intervened on the battlefield, didn't you? What was the result? Did the Four-Tails Jinchuriki escape? Were Konoha's shinobi casualties heavy?"
"…The result of the battle? Haven't you already guessed it?"
Obito Uchiha answered sinisterly.
"I lost. The Nine-Tails was killed by Rei Kaguya on the spot. The Four-Tails Jinchuriki was captured alive by Kirigakure's Seven Ninja Swordsmen. Most of Konoha was destroyed in the battle between Rei Kaguya and me. Is that answer satisfactory?"
"Then it seems your plan ultimately ended in total defeat, Root."
Han adjusted the bamboo hat on his head. On his face, where only his eyes were visible, dissatisfaction emerged.
"You people had so much intelligence on Konoha. Why did you fail to gather any intelligence about Kirigakure's intervention? If you had discovered it earlier, the Four-Tails Jinchuriki would not have fallen into Konoha."
"Oh? You think this operation failed because of us? Or do you think that by pushing responsibility for the failure onto us, you will no longer need to face Rei Kaguya and his Kirigakure?"
Obito Uchiha sneered.
Looking at Yugito Nii and Han, he slowly said, "You have clearly already witnessed Rei Kaguya's power. Yet when facing mission failure, your first thought is still to find someone to take responsibility and use the opportunity to win some meaningless speaking rights for your village… How laughable.
"If you push responsibility onto someone else now, will Kirigakure refrain from extracting the Tailed Beast inside you when they unify the shinobi world?"
"You!?"
Han was provoked by Obito Uchiha's words. A large amount of steam erupted from his entire body, as if he wanted to charge forward and fight him fiercely.
Seeing this, Obito Uchiha merely sneered. The spatial vortex of Kamui wrapped around his body, and as he disappeared, he left the two Jinchuriki with a message full of mockery.
"Then continue fighting over your boring right to speak. At a time when Kirigakure has begun moving to annex Konoha, Iwagakure and Kumogakure are arguing with the blade they chose over whether the blade should bear primary responsibility for this failure…
"Or do you think that after nearly destroying Konoha, you can still cut ties with us, Root, and make Konoha give up its hostility toward you, focusing only on us instead?"
"If you think so, then believe it. Time will let you understand exactly how short-sighted and foolish you are."
Watching Obito Uchiha disappear, Han withdrew the steam from his body in the blink of an eye, as if his rage and impulse from just now had never existed at all.
"He really dares to say such things, that Root bastard… Does he think this is enough to bind himself completely to Iwagakure?"
"Otherwise, what else can he do, uncle?"
Yugito Nii shook her head solemnly and sighed.
"Even if Lord Raikage and Lord Tsuchikage find a way to deal with Konoha, the ambitious Kirigakure will never listen to our explanations… Moreover, they now hold Konoha's lifeline in their hands. By squeezing Konoha and the Land of Fire, they will have plenty of ways to accumulate the foundation needed to launch a war even faster."
"If we don't want to fall behind in the future, we can only choose to unite and exchange what each side has… Hah. This time, it really is just like the speech that Root kid gave before the operation. The shinobi world is about to be divided into two."
Listening to Yugito Nii's analysis, which carried not the slightest hint of joking, Han let out an almost imperceptible sigh, tacitly accepting her judgment.
"We won't wait for Roshi anymore. Bring the news back to the villages as quickly as possible and let the Tsuchikage and Lord Raikage make their decisions…
"If the shinobi world truly is going to be split in two, then while Konoha is half-destroyed and Kirigakure has no spare attention for distant lands, we must establish the iron curtain that divides the world in advance."
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