Chapter 78 Another pleasant might
In front of the gate of Konoha Village.
Jiraiya, Minato, and Souji led the way, bringing thousands of Konoha ninja back to Konoha in a triumphant return.
With minimal casualties, they successfully eliminated two formidable enemies of Sandstone, forcing them to withdraw from the Land of Rain and ending what should have been an extremely difficult and chaotic battle.
This can be considered a very impressive victory.
Therefore, Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi personally led many high-ranking officials of Konoha to the gate to welcome the triumphant ninja army, and praised their achievements in front of everyone in Konoha.
Then, thousands of ninja soldiers dispersed in front of the Hokage Building, and high-ranking ninjas entered the building to hold a meeting, reporting to the Hokage on many specific details of the battle and discussing possible future developments.
Apart from Souji, the others could only conclude that Kumogakure was almost certain to fall, but it was hard to say whether they would fight Konoha or Iwagakure.
Konoha's consistent approach is that it doesn't actually harbor deep hatred towards other ninja villages, large or small.
However, as the world's leading ninja village, it faces common hostility, and the other four major ninja villages have always wanted to bring Konoha down, which goes without saying.
The hatred between other ninja villages is considerable, and in some cases even greater than that between the villages against Konoha.
For example, Iwagakure and Kumogakure are old enemies.
The Four-Tails Jinchuriki, Roshi, is a relative of the Tsuchikage, Onoki.
His father was a close contemporary of Onoki, and this man died in a battle with Kumogakure in the past at the hands of the current Third Raikage.
In the original timeline, during the later stages of the Third Shinobi World War, the Third Raikage fought a classic battle against 10,000 Iwagakure ninja for three days and three nights, ultimately perishing alongside them.
There are many similar cases.
For example, although Kirigakure is in the sea and Sunagakure is in the inland desert, they are long-time rivals.
The Sunagakure commander, Pakura, whom the Land of Rivers had met, was originally destined to be killed by Kirigakure in the later stages of the Third Shinobi World War to make peace with Kirigakure.
So, Sunagakure sent Pakura as a sacrifice to be ambushed and killed by Kirigakure.
Konoha ended the war without suffering too many losses.
Although Kumogakure has always been the most reckless and tough among the five great ninja villages, it is not a fool with its head in the sand.
After weighing the pros and cons, it will most likely choose to attack Iwagakure first.
The five great ninja villages have always been ranked by strength, with Konoha being the strongest, followed by Kumogakure and Iwagakure.
Both Kumogakure and Iwagakure have more than 20,000 ninjas.
Although Konoha has not been able to find out the exact number, it is estimated to be around 23,000 to 25,000.
Both of these powerful forces have a strong and domineering style, and their development policies for ninja villages are military expansionism, with a large number of ninjas being trained and various ninja tools and resources being stockpiled.
To put it simply, it's a massive troop-producing strategy.
Although the individual strength is naturally not high, a genin can barely manage to perform a proper ninjutsu once, and a chunin can only manage to perform it three or four times.
It is obvious that the cost-effectiveness of increasing the number of people is greater than improving the individual level.
Both Iwagakure and Kumogakure are located in the mountains and have a lot of high-value resources
However, due to its geographical location, Kumogakure has more marine resources and trade, and can also block foreign merchant ships from entering the Land of Earth to a certain extent.
Therefore, in terms of economic strength, Kumogakure is better than Iwagakure.
Kirigakure's pure combat strength is similar to Sunagakure's, both being weaker than the other three.
However, Kirigakure's Land of Water is composed of multiple islands in the sea, not bordering the mainland of the other four major countries.
It can attack or defend at will, and the island environment has far more resources than the barren Land of Wind where Sunagakure is located.
It can also trade with countries in distant places, and its economic strength completely overwhelms Sunagakure.
Therefore, the ranking of the five great ninja villages is roughly as follows:
Leaf Village, Hidden Clouds, Hidden Rocks, Hidden Mist, Hidden Sands.
Having observed the situation for so long, the former will definitely make a move, and the latter will most likely not be content to remain inactive any longer; they will eventually intervene, it's just a matter of time.
Although the Hidden Stone Village suffered heavy losses among its high-ranking ninjas, it had already left about half of its forces in the village to guard against the Hidden Cloud Village.
Furthermore, it did not suffer many losses among its ordinary ninjas in the Land of Rain, so it still had the strength to fight.
Sunagakure was the weakest in terms of strength to begin with.
This time, they finally managed to accumulate a total of about 12,000 ninjas, but now nearly half of them are gone.
They are not capable of doing anything in the short term, but they certainly won't be at peace.
In the original timeline, Sunagakure found an opportunity in the later stages of the Third Shinobi World War, breaking through the Land of Rivers in one fell swoop and pushing directly to the doorstep of Konoha.
This battle is known as the Battle of Kikyo Mountain.
The two battles that just ended in the Land of Rivers and the Land of Rain were merely preliminary skirmishes in the early stages of the Third Shinobi World War.
With the deployment of the Hidden Cloud Village and the Hidden Mist Village, and the involvement of all five great ninja villages, the conflict truly erupted, entering the mid-stage of intense battle.
In addition to the five great ninja villages...
Madara Uchiha.
And there's this person's figure.
Although Madara Uchiha is now extremely old and doesn't have many years left to live, he continues to secretly increase the intensity of the ninja world and create hatred and conflict.
Madara strongly agreed with the Uchiha clan's old theory from the Warring States period: that suffering creates strength.
Therefore, he needed a ninja world that was constantly at war, causing pain and sorrow to countless people, so that it would be easier for him to plan and carry out his schemes.
If I want to change the ninja world, there are still quite a few troubles to solve.
Although he now has the strength to defeat a Kage-level powerhouse like Sasori head-on when his abilities are countered, this is only the beginning.
After the meeting, Souji and Tsukiyo met and spent a pleasant and fulfilling night together.
the next day.
While eating breakfast, Souji heard Tsukiyo's words and said with some surprise:
"The head of the Hyuga clan wants to see me?"
"Yes, the clan leader wanted to meet you after hearing that you had been promoted to Jonin, but you had already set off for the Land of Rain, so he asked me to wait for you to return so he could tell you about it."
"If we meet with Lord Saizo, we'll definitely talk about our marriage. It's certainly time to discuss it," Souji said with a smile.
A shy expression appeared on her face as she spoke gently:
"The clan chief will definitely be very pleased with you."
Souji and Tsukiyo exchanged a smile.
Just as Nara Shikaku and others were still the young masters of the clan, at this point, the head of the Hyuga clan was still the previous generation's Hyuga Saizo, and Hyuga Hiashi was still the young master of the main family.
Although the Hyuga clan is renowned as the most prestigious clan in Konoha, this is only in the eyes of most ordinary Konoha villagers.
In terms of strength, the Hyuga clan does not have any Kage-level figures, and in terms of status and influence, they only have a few elite Jonin and Jonin thanks to the benefits of the Byakugan.
They do not have any senior or powerful figures like Akimichi Torifu from the Ino-Shika-Cho clans.
If one cannot enter the highest level of real decision-making, being called the number one family is just an empty title.
Although the Hyuga clan is very determined to prevent the Byakugan, their greatest asset, from being lost to outsiders, the Hyuga clan only has a few hundred members, including the elderly, middle-aged, young and old.
They can't have offspring solely through intra-clan pairings.
Therefore, the Hyuga clan does not actually prohibit some members who are not strong and have little influence on the clan from marrying outsiders.
(Chart illustrating the overall strength of the five major ninja villages, arranged in order of fire, lightning, earth, water, and wind)
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End of this chapter...