The fighting ended almost as quickly as it had erupted, and Chiba Shun personally counted the casualties and the results. Many people on their side were injured, but not one had died. The Konoha intelligence shinobi had only wanted to break free and flee at first; they had never intended to stake everything on a fight to the death. By the time they truly made up their minds to fight, Kumogakure reinforcements had already arrived.
On the Cloud side, the only losses were a dozen or so infants with pitifully poor talent. As for Konoha's agents, every last one of them had either been killed or forced into suicide. Not a single one survived.
No, that wasn't quite right. There were ten corpses in total.
Aoki Yuuichi had two more bodies delivered afterward. One had been killed by the ANBU from the start, and the other had been brought in after Chiba Shun and the others left the scene.
Shun was very satisfied with that outcome. Once these people were dead, he could finally feel at ease letting the children with Hyuga blood into the Ninja Academy under the Third Raikage's orders. Otherwise, those children would have been nothing but a cluster of hidden bombs waiting to explode.
The Third Raikage arrived soon after. After confirming the details with Chiba Shun, he gave a single nod. "Well done. Konoha's intelligence network inside our village is probably crippled this time."
His gaze swept across the people present before he added, "This counts as an S-rank mission for all of you. Shun will decide the final distribution."
Chiba Shun instantly brightened. "Great. Another S-rank mission."
Still, he was clearheaded enough to know he would not be keeping all of the reward this time. The two ANBU squads had been the main force of the battle, and several of them had been wounded, so they naturally deserved a proper share. Aoki Yuu's side had independently killed one man as well, so they had to be counted in. And there were also the people who came as reinforcements later. Even if they received only a token portion, they still had to receive something.
After a quick calculation, Shun estimated he could still keep around three hundred thousand ryo for himself. Not bad at all.
Over the past few months, he had run out of money again. In order to simplify the hand seals for genjutsu and maintain saturated training, he had first borrowed a hundred thousand taels from Sakai Yuu-shi. After that, he had gone to Aoki Yuuichi and shamelessly taken an advance on half a year's salary—three hundred thousand ryo in one go.
That was right. This time, he had not borrowed outright. He had asked to be paid in advance.
Aoki Yuuichi had been rendered speechless by that stunt. He had never seen someone so shameless. But Chiba Shun had at least proven he could pay his debts last time, so in the end Aoki still gritted his teeth and gave him the money.
With this new reward, Shun could clear everything. He would not need Sakai Yuu-shi to cover for him again.
When they returned to the Ninja Academy, Aoki Yuuichi immediately pulled him aside and asked, "Does the village really possess the Byakugan now?"
Since Aoki Yuu would have to help take care of those children sooner or later, Shun did not hide it. "Yes, but the bloodline isn't pure. Lord Raikage said the children with Byakugan will be sent to the Academy for training."
Aoki Yuuichi's eyes shone at once. "Byakugan. Byakugan is wonderful. During the war, we suffered God knows how many losses because of those eyes."
His voice grew heated as he spoke. "Konoha has all kinds of reconnaissance methods, but the Aburame clan's insects can be countered. The Yamanaka clan's mind techniques can be guarded against. Even the Inuzuka clan's ninja hounds have ways to be misled. But the Byakugan... once those eyes open, they see everything. Clean, fast, no blind spots. In war against Konoha, ambushes and traps become nearly meaningless."
He drew in a breath, still visibly stirred. "I never thought the village would really get its hands on it."
Then, after a moment, he looked straight at Shun and asked in a carefully casual tone, "And these children's future teacher... has that been decided?"
Chiba Shun smiled. "Not yet. Senior Aoki has the advantage of being close to the source. You can choose one first and start building a relationship."
Aoki Yuuichi's expression immediately brightened. "Shun, that thirty percent I promised you last time was too little. Let's do this properly. Fifty-fifty. Half for each of us."
Shun nodded without hesitation. "Thank you for your generosity, Senior."
Aoki Yuuichi snorted. "I should be the one thanking you."
After that, Aoki returned to his office, and Shun could almost see the man's thoughts written on his face. He was already planning how to raise a disciple with the Byakugan.
Far away in Konoha, down in Root's underground darkness, Danzo was in a towering rage.
He had already guessed the result from the Third Raikage's reward to Chiba Shun and the others. He had used every intelligence asset Konoha had planted inside Kumogakure, and in the end he still failed to erase the Byakugan that had slipped out. Not only had he mobilized Root, he had even pulled people from the village's intelligence department through Hiruzen Sarutobi's channels. Now the intelligence line in Kumogakure was close to paralysis.
But that was not even the most important problem. The true disaster was the possibility that in a future war, Konoha might one day face a Cloud army with the Byakugan on its side.
That would be catastrophic.
Danzo's second headache was even more immediate: how was he supposed to explain this to Hiruzen Sarutobi? Confess? Admit failure? Lower his head and beg for forgiveness? Impossible.
And yet the truth could not stay buried forever. If Kumogakure's internal intelligence channels were gone, the matter would eventually come out.
At that moment, a Root operative appeared and knelt before him. "Danzo-sama, a message has come from the Cloud Village."
Danzo's brows knitted together. "Didn't I order our people to go into hiding immediately? They should not be transmitting anything now."
The operative kept his head lowered. "It isn't from our man, Danzo-sama. He's already been exposed. It's a message sent by the Cloud directly... addressed to you."
Danzo's expression darkened. "What are they trying to do?"
The operative replied, "The Raikage says he is willing to keep this line open. He will periodically provide information to Danzo-sama. In exchange, he wants one A-rank ninjutsu, ten B-rank ninjutsu, fifty C-rank ninjutsu... and a method to raise Yin Release."
Danzo slammed his fist down hard enough to crack the table beneath it. "The Raikage dares to set me up?"
Yet anger did not stop him from calculating. Almost immediately, he made his decision. "Agree. Cut the number of ninjutsu in half. No A-rank technique. And the Yin Release method is non-negotiable."
What followed was another round of bargaining carried out through the shadows. In the end, the Third Raikage accepted a reduced number of techniques and dropped the request for an A-rank ninjutsu, but he refused to let go of the Yin Release method.
When the Third Raikage finally held the Yin Release advancement method in one hand and the thirty B-rank and C-rank ninjutsu in the other, even he found it hard to believe it had come this easily.
Was stealing techniques from Konoha really supposed to be this simple? Then what had the village been doing all these decades?
Of course, this had once again been Chiba Shun's idea—the same kind of route he had suggested before. He himself had not been fully certain whether the person on the other side would be Danzo or Hiruzen Sarutobi. If it had been Hiruzen, the whole performance would have been downright clownish. But a clown was still worth probing, and there was no harm in trying.
As it turned out, the one across the line really was Danzo.
Danzo had seized the out the Cloud offered him. If Hiruzen asked questions later, he could simply say only a handful of intelligence operatives had died, that the line was bruised but intact. That would be enough to muddle the matter. After all, the leaking of the Byakugan was not his fault in the first place. He just had not been able to fix it.
He was not a saint. He was not fragile, either.
And so, while Chiba Shun was sitting at home, another A-rank mission quietly landed in his lap—one he had effectively completed on his own.
This time, however, the Third Raikage did not grant him cash. Instead, he gave him the right to use the Yin Release enhancement method as his reward.
Shun was overjoyed. With this, there was finally hope of learning A-rank genjutsu. Relying only on Earth Release made his tactics too rigid, too predictable. Sooner or later, someone would figure him out. And these days, far too many people wanted him dead.
He had assumed that once the Konoha intelligence agents were dealt with, he could sink into training and focus entirely on improving his Yin Release. Instead, he and the others were suddenly informed that they were to attend the village's jonin council meeting.
The topic of that meeting left everyone stunned: the village would discuss expanding the number of advisors and selecting new ones.
There was no doubt what that meant. This was a struggle for power at the very top.
The Third Raikage had convened the meeting personally. Just as Chiba Shun had once told Hiruzen Sarutobi in Konoha, conflict truly did exist between the Third Raikage and the old forces left behind from the Second Raikage's era.
The Second Raikage had died in the rebellion of Kinkaku and Ginkaku, and the Third Raikage's rise had been inseparable from the support of those old men. Even after he established his prestige in the Second Great War, much of the actual power in the village still remained in older hands.
Under normal circumstances, that struggle might have dragged on for another ten years, until the old generation died or grew too feeble to hold on. Or perhaps the Third Raikage himself would fall in battle, and power would return to their side before they chose a suitable candidate for the Fourth.
But Chiba Shun's chain of schemes had handed the Third Raikage a precious opening.
On three different occasions, he had extracted large numbers of ninjutsu from Konoha. Aside from the first batch, the Third Raikage had never disclosed the later hauls to the old advisors. Instead, he had quietly used those techniques to win over jonin who had once leaned neutral—or who had leaned toward the old faction. He had even led certain jonin to see the Byakugan infants in person.
That one move had convinced many people all at once.
The Third Raikage was the legitimate ruler of the village. He was also the strongest man in all of Kumogakure. Now he had also proven that he could bring back war assets no one else could obtain.
Everything after that flowed with startling smoothness.
During the Eight-Tails rampage, the Third Raikage had already taken the chance to promote a new batch of jonin. Most of them were his people. In recent days, he had also sent many of the jonin loyal to Advisor Yukio and the others out of the village on missions, while arranging for his own supporters to finish early and return in time.
At the council meeting, he further brought up the recent intelligence leaks inside the village. The attempted Konoha strike on the Byakugan children was proof enough that information had been slipping out from somewhere deep inside Kumogakure. Though he never openly named the old advisors, the implication was obvious.
It was a political ambush—one executed with exquisite timing.
And it worked.
More than eighty percent of the jonin present supported every proposal the Third Raikage raised. Around ten percent chose not to take a side. Only a tiny handful openly stood against him.
What else could they do? A Kage who was powerful enough to stand at the front himself, and clever enough to secure war-ready assets like fresh ninjutsu and the Byakugan for the village? Where else in the world could they find a Raikage like that?
More and more people came to the same conclusion with dawning shame. They had misunderstood the Third Raikage. He was not merely the blunt, thunderous brute he seemed to be on the surface at all.