Chapter 80 (Patreon)

Right now, Hiruzen wanted nothing more than stability for Konoha. Unfortunately, he lacked the courage to destroy the sometimes very necessary Root.

During the ensuing negotiations, Konoha not only flatly refused to admit responsibility for the death of Yoshiro Kinoshita, but also questioned Kiri for the attack on her shinobi.

It is worth noting that Homura and Koharu hoped for the usual easy walk, and even tried to turn everything in their favor.

But, contrary to their expectations, this time the fog, for unknown reasons, stubbornly stood its ground, which subsequently led to fierce disputes between the two villages.

Almost any actions of great villages in one way or another attract the attention of the entire shinobi community, and this time the dispute between Konoha and Kiri did not go unnoticed.

Few knew the specific details, but based on the size of the recent reward and the uncompromising nature of the current dispute, it could be assumed that Konoha had benefited greatly from this matter.

Therefore, the other great villages only became more curious about what information Konoha managed to obtain from the deceased Yoshiro Kinoshita.

Konoha did not have the opportunity, and was not particularly in a hurry to refute the suspicions of other villages, because in any case this did not promise them any benefit, it was easier to just let go and calm down.

At the same time, their Anbu began to investigate shinobi villages for active actions lately in order to find out who dared to frame Konoha! Only Kiri was bypassed...

But you shouldn’t hope for any results, no matter how long the investigation lasts, if it initially took the wrong lead.

***

A dry, broken tumbleweed bush crossed the sun-scorched desert. The place looked extremely harsh and inhospitable, especially compared to the fertile lands of Konoha.

Somewhere beyond a distant sand dune.

A cloud of magnificent golden sand fell from the heavens to the ground, mixing with the ordinary desert sand, sprinkled with blood.

The Fourth Kazekage Rasa looked down in surprise at the blade of the Kusanagi Blade in his chest and after a few seconds of silence collapsed onto the bloody sand.

“Ahem, ahem...” – for no apparent reason Orochimaru coughed heavily, spattering scarlet blood on the snow-white robe of the fallen Kazekage.

Then the Sannin predatorily licked the blood from his lips and with a careless movement of his hand pulled out the Kusanagi Blade, without even deigning to glance at Rasa's body.

The dead are not worth his attention.

“Is my body already rejecting me?” – Orochimaru said to himself, took off a green headdress with the hieroglyph “wind” from the corpse and calmly stepped away, throwing it on his head.

“As I understand it, the fog has already taken over, and at the same time has managed not to reveal a single hint of its true intentions. However, what was to be expected from the legendary figure of the Age of Warring States...” Sannin’s hoarse voice mixed with the sandy wind.

***

Under the dark arches of the cave.

There sat a giant humanoid statue in the lotus position.

All nine eyes on the statue's head were closed.

And massive spikes protruded from the back.

Outwardly, the statue looked like a lifeless piece of wood, but inside its gigantic body lurked an unimaginable life force.

- Everything goes according to plan. We can move on to the second stage... – a cold voice echoed in the cave.

Pain looked indifferently from the head of the giant statue at the Akatsuki members perched on its massive wooden fingers.

Apart from Zetsu, Pain himself, and Konan standing next to him, the others appeared in the form of virtual images.

This was done using a secret technique.

- Wow, the fun is about to begin! My god Jashin is already waiting for new victims, your mother! Ha, you can’t wait too, Kakuzu? – The shinobi with bright crimson eyes and silver hair combed back grinned unbridledly.

- Get lost! – without turning his head, Kakuzu growled coldly.

These were only virtual images, but they still showed that all the assembled Akatsuki members, not counting Hidan, stood with stone faces.

– Uchiha Itachi, Hoshigaki Kisame, focus on the conflict between Konoha and Kiri. You can intervene if the situation requires it... - Pain turned indifferently to Itachi and Kisame, he was very interested in the opportunity to weaken the great villages.

The Uchiha responded with a silent nod.

And Kisame, who was standing next to him, raised his hand up, reaching for the handle of Samehada behind his shoulder.

***

The island is not that far, but not that close to Kiri either.

Yudao looked around carefreely, as if he was on a walk.

This island, located on the territory of the Land of Water, was of course under the jurisdiction of Kiri.

Soon Yudao came to a huge lake in the center of the island.

The water in it was clean and transparent so much that fish and algae could be seen through it.

In short, a great place for fishing and relaxation.

Unfortunately, the First Mizukage only dreamed of a vacation.

“I found it...” he smiled, looking at the calm surface of the lake.

Then he slowly raised his hand, opened his palm towards the lake and called upon the Six-Tails' chakra within his body.

Then scarlet chakra began to gather in front of his palm, taking the form of a small Bijudama in a matter of moments.

With a slight wave of the hand, the resulting sphere smoothly flew to the center of the lake, hovered there for a second and erupted in a terrifying explosion.

Booom!

At the same moment, a terrible roar swept over the lake, followed by tall waves rolling in all directions. For some time it seemed that a real oceanic storm had broken out in this lake, albeit large.

Meanwhile, at the very bottom of the lake.

A large turtle with spikes all over its shell opened its eye wide.

"Six-tailed Saiken?!" – a shadow of doubt flashed in Isobu’s head and immediately disappeared, replaced by approaching anger from the unceremoniously interrupted sleep, who would even like this?

"Graaah!" – with an evil roar and raging waves, the huge carcass of the Three-Tails immediately swam to the surface of the lake.