---Third POV---
I knew it. This is just like you.
Through the power of the Rikugan, Ryouma had a general idea of Danzō's plan. Although he only saw the scene where Danzō sent out his subordinates, anyone familiar with him could basically guess what he was trying to do.
Trying to sabotage the peace talks?
But now, he wasn't sure whether he should intervene. On one hand, if Danzō did succeed in ruining the peace talks, the war would undoubtedly continue. And that ant Ryouma would surely be pulled back into battle and overti missions.
Given the current weakened state of Kiri, they would likely stay strictly on the defensive and no longer take the offensive. That would an Konoha would have to send ninja forces to invade the Land of Water, for example, by continuing to have him carry out precision bombings.
But the Kiri ninjas weren't fools. Once they realized they couldn't hold their village, they'd definitely break up into smaller units and resort to guerrilla warfare within the Land of Water.
Even if he destroyed the entire Kiri, it would be pointless.
That would an he might end up stuck in the Land of Water for a long ti. This was completely at odds with his original goal of ending the war with Kiri as quickly as possible.
But thinking of it from another angle, given Konoha's current strength, if they didn't worry about postwar occupation or the state of the other two battlefronts, they did indeed have enough firepower to completely defeat Kiri.
It was just a matter of ti.
Even if Iwa and Kumo ramped up their offensives while Konoha focused on invading a foreign country, he believed that Orochimaru and Minato could handle the pressure.
At most, it would co at a certain cost.
After all, Danzō would be the one taking the bla for killing the envoys and sabotaging the peace talks.
Should I take action…?
He couldn't help but start weighing the pros and cons in his mind.
---
While Ryouma hesitated, Danzō's plan had already begun.
To accommodate the Kiri envoys, the inn had been cleared of guests well before the delegation's arrival. Thanks to Root's prior preparations, the few remaining staff mbers had also been quietly replaced.
Now, aside from the envoys from Kiri, the only people inside the inn were Root ninjas.
Gathered in one room, the remaining Kiri ninjas were nervously waiting for Kisa and the others to return from the negotiations.
Knock knock knock~
There was a knock at the door.
Daigoro glanced suspiciously at his companions. Kisa and the others had only just left, who could be visiting now? But then again, this was Konoha, and they were here for peace talks. It shouldn't be anything dangerous.
He stood up, preparing to open the door and see what was going on.
But he was stopped by i. "Wait." She then raised her voice toward the door. "May I ask what this is about?"
"Room service," ca a deep voice.
"No need, thank you," she replied calmly, then waited in silence for a few seconds. No response from outside.
Boom!
The door was blown apart by a strong gust of wind, and the next mont, intense flas surged through the doorway, blasting the wooden room from the inside.
A thick cloud of steam erupted. Realizing sothing was wrong, she imdiately ford hand seals and used the Water Formation Wall.
As the wooden walls burned away, she saw more than a dozen masked ninjas appear before her and said coldly, "Why are you attacking us? Are you trying to destroy this hard-won peace?"
Tatsuma had no interest in exchanging words with these Kiri ninjas. The ambush had clearly failed, none of the four on the other side had gone down.
Was it because of that girl?
Seeing their unwillingness to communicate, i imdiately grew suspicious. This likely wasn't an order from the Third Hokage. Otherwise, there would have been no need to wait until Kisa and the others had left for negotiations to make a move. They could have just attacked when the envoy team reached the outskirts of the village, or refused the talks from the beginning.
"What do we do now? Do we fight them?" a Kiri ninja asked.
Fight? How? Daigoro wanted to crack open this guy's head and see what was inside.
There were over a dozen enemies, and they were in the middle of Konoha. Even if the attackers were all incompetent, say they sohow won, then what? They were still stuck deep in enemy territory.
Death was inevitable.
"This is probably just a rogue action by certain individuals within Konoha, soone trying to sabotage the peace talks," i calmly reminded her three companions.
Daigoro noticed that she seed to have figured sothing out and imdiately asked, "Then what should we do now?"
She bit her finger, deep in thought, and finally replied helplessly, "What else can we do? Run. Stall for ti and wait for the Hokage to send soone."
Now that she understood this was a deliberate sabotage attempt by certain individuals, all they had to do was hold out a little longer, the Third Hokage would surely dispatch help.
Tatsuma waved his hand.
Four elite Root mbers each moved to a different corner of the inn's periter, forming hand seals swiftly and in unison.
"Four Violet Flas Formation!"
As chakra surged, four pillars of purple light shot into the sky and connected, forming a square-shaped barrier. Since this operation wasn't sanctioned by the Hokage, Root's actions needed to be executed swiftly.
---
Creak~
The door to the Hokage's office opened.
Hiruzen had been watching the negotiation proceedings via his crystal ball, monitoring Nara and the others.
Upon hearing the door, he looked up, it was Danzō.
"You've stayed holed up in Root for days. Why are you suddenly here now?"
"Do you really think it's wise to so easily agree to peace with Kiri? Even if we gain temporary stability now, the mont they get a chance, they'll attack Konoha without hesitation again. What's the point of such a false peace?"
Danzō's words made Hiruzen furrow his brow. He knew this old comrade too well. Danzō wouldn't co all the way here just to rant without reason.
To him, everything Danzō had just said was aningless drivel. Of course he knew peace was only temporary. As long as Konoha held the most prosperous land in the shinobi world, the Land of Fire, there would never be an end to foreign covetousness and aggression.
"What exactly are you trying to do? Don't forget, Kiri isn't our only enemy."
A suspicion had already begun to form in his mind.
Danzō didn't answer Hiruzen's question directly. Instead, he responded with a rhetorical one.
"What am I trying to do? I'm going to make Konoha great again!"
Just as his voice rose with fervor, a massive explosion thundered from the direction of the inn.
Boom—!
Hiruzen's expression changed, and he hurriedly looked outside, just in ti to see the rise of the Four Violet Flas Formation.
"Do you even know what you're doing?" Hiruzen glared angrily at his old friend.
"Of course I do. The one who's lost his clarity is you!" Danzō retorted, refusing to back down.
Hiruzen realized things had already gone too far, there was no stopping him with re words now. So he gave a decisive order, "From this mont on, until I return, you are not to take a single step out of this room. That is an order from the Hokage!"
With that, he gave a sharp command, and several ANBU appeared in the Hokage's office.
"Fox, Leopard, you two guard Danzō."
Then he led a squad of elite ANBU directly toward the inn.
Danzō stared intently at Hiruzen's departing back, muttering under his breath, "This ti, I win."
---
Hiruzen now deeply regretted giving Danzō so much power. Even in the worst-case scenario, if Konoha didn't accept the peace talks and the war with Kiri continued, it wouldn't be the end of the world. Konoha still had the upper hand, after all.
But the situation now was that Konoha had already agreed to peace talks with Kiri, and Kiri had even shown sincerity by sending a diplomatic envoy all the way to Konoha.
They had shown nothing but good faith.
At this point, who knew how many eyes across the shinobi world were watching the negotiations between Konoha and Kiri?
If the Kiri envoy were to be killed inside Konoha today, never mind that his own reputation would be completely ruined, even the authority of the Hokage title and the credibility of the Fire Daimyō would take a severe hit.
The hidden consequences of that would be significant.
While racing through the streets, a sudden thought struck him... What if Danzō's true goal was to tarnish his reputation by attacking the diplomatic envoy?
Unbelievable.
Let's hope there's still ti.
---
anwhile, in the conference room, Ryouma continued to observe the situation. He had already sensed Hiruzen's movents. However, judging by his current pace, he likely wouldn't make it in ti.
After all, Danzō had sent out enough elite Root operatives to eliminate a few Kiri ninjas.
Even if Hiruzen did arrive in ti, it would still take him a while to break through the Four Violet Flas Formation. That delay would be enough for i and her team to be killed.
It was clear that Danzō had planned this for a long ti.
Just then, an unexpected person was quickly approaching Root's operation site.
"Shiori?"
Recalling the Mangekyō ability that she had once told him about, he made up his mind.
---
"I've been hearing the faint sounds of fighting for a while now. Please forgive , but I must suspend today's talks. We need to check on our comrades' safety." Kisa suddenly stood up from his seat. Without waiting for Shikaku's response, he led his n outside.
Although it wasn't certain yet that sothing had happened to their people, he had a strong premonition, these peace talks might end in failure. There were people inside Konoha who didn't want the war to end.
As he left, he stole a glance at Ryouma.
Was it him? Or soone else?
The current intelligence wasn't enough for him to draw a clear conclusion.
After the Kiri delegation hurriedly left, Shikaku lowered his head and thought for a few seconds. He imdiately ca to a conclusion: it was likely Danzō who had made a move against the Kiri delegation staying at the inn.
Earlier, he had even subtly reminded the Hokage to pay extra attention to his advisor. Lately, Danzō seed unusually indifferent toward the peace talks with Kiri, almost as if he was deliberately distancing himself from the issue.
Looking back now, that was probably exactly what he was doing. He had been staying out of the public eye, likely to lower the Hokage's guard.
"This is going to be trouble," Shikaku muttered with a bitter face, sighing in the conference room.
No one understood the current situation in Konoha better than he did. Things were still manageable with Kumo, but after Iwa sent two jinchūriki to the frontlines, the battlefield had tipped out of balance.
Withdrawing from the war with Kiri and reallocating limited forces to the other two fronts was clearly the best strategic option. Even if Konoha wanted to wipe out a rival village in a total war, Kiri, protected by its favorable geography, was the worst possible choice.
The Land of Water sat isolated across the sea. With only the current forces stationed at the Kiri front, Konoha couldn't even dream of launching a counteroffensive. The logical plan was to end the war with Kiri first, then focus all power on either Kumo or Iwa. That would be the safest and most effective strategy.
But Danzō didn't understand that. All he saw was the short-term gain, the glory of leading Konoha to destroy a great nation. That illusion had blinded him.
---
"Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet Technique!"
i rapidly ford hand seals, burning through a large amount of chakra to unleash a water-style jutsu, forcing back the Root ninjas closing in on them.
Clang—Clang—
Daigoro was also being attacked by two Root operatives and was barely holding on. They had followed her suggestion to stick together and stay on the defensive. Eventually, they were driven back to the barrier the enemy had erected.
Now they had truly run out of room to retreat.
"Your fate is sealed. Resistance is aningless."
With the fluttering of wings, a swarm of kikaichū was released by Tatsuma, filling the air and descending upon the Kiri delegation like a black wave.
"Damn it," Daigoro cursed, spitting. If not for this barrier, they could've tried to escape farther, maybe held on a bit longer.
At the brink of death, i knew now was not the ti for secrets. She quickly ford hand signs and spewed a large amount of acid from her mouth, aiming directly at the Four Violet Flas Formation.
Sssssssss—
The hissing sound of intense corrosion rang out as the purple barrier was lted, leaving a large hole.
"Quick! Escape through here!" she shouted.
Though she didn't really need to tell them, Daigoro and the others had already bolted through the gap the mont it appeared.
Watching their backs disappear without hesitation, leaving her behind, she cursed under her breath.
"Damn it... Are all the good n in Kiri extinct or what?"
30 advance chapters!
/Malphegor
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