Chapter 230: The Troublemaker
Ishiro, still in the air, had the presence of mind to marvel at the power of the Tailed Beast, but the others were not in such a mood.
Whether they were Mist or Konoha ninjas, they were all caught off guard by this move. When the Tailed Beast's massive body descended from the sky, very few were able to dodge in time. The location Ishiro had chosen was also the center of the battlefield, so from this one move alone, Konoha and the Mist combined lost at least five hundred men.
Minato Namikaze, Jiraiya, and the Third Mizukage naturally wouldn't be so easily crushed to death; all three managed to escape the Eight-Tails' rampage area in time.
However, the expressions on all three of their faces were very grim. When they formulated the plan to besiege the Third Raikage, they had prepared for outside interference. During the siege, if one or two Kage-level individuals intervened, they were somewhat confident they could keep the interferers there as well. The only difference would be the number of casualties they would have to sustain.
But their prepared response strategies certainly did not include how to deal with a Tailed Beast falling from the sky.
Looking at the Third Raikage standing on the head of the Eight-Tails, finally having a moment's respite, both Jiraiya and Minato Namikaze began to have second thoughts. The Third Raikage's close combat and single-target attacks, combined with the Eight-Tails' group attacks—the two together were nearly invincible. The most unbearable part was that both of them could be classified as unkillable cockroaches.
The greatest weakness of a ninja—high attack, low defense—seemed not to exist before these two. The defense of the lightning armor formed by the Lightning Release Chakra Mode had been tested by the S-rank ninjutsu, Wind Release: Rasenshuriken, in the original story. The Eight-Tails Jinchuriki's recovery ability was astonishing, and the Tailed Beast itself was virtually immortal.
Seeing this, the Third Mizukage said, "Although the opponent's Jinchuriki has impressive control over the Tailed Beast, it's not at the level of doing whatever he pleases. The Eight-Tails' complete form won't last long. Unless their Cloud Village no longer wants the Eight-Tails, the Eight-Tails will soon return to the Jinchuriki's body."
The Third Mizukage hadn't lived to his old age for nothing. He was an old fossil who had participated in the first Five Kage Summit back in the day; his knowledge was much stronger than Jiraiya's and Minato Namikaze's.
Whether a Jinchuriki was stronger in their complete Tailed Beast form or when borrowing the Tailed Beast's chakra was actually not a settled matter in the ninja world. But on a large-scale battlefield like this, the destructive power a complete Tailed Beast could inflict on ordinary ninjas was certainly something a ninja merely borrowing Tailed Beast chakra could not achieve.
So as long as the Eight-Tails' complete form didn't last too long, it was still no problem for the Mist and Konoha to take down the Third Raikage and the Eight-Tails Jinchuriki.
That is, as long as that troublemaker in the sky didn't interfere again. Otherwise, if Ishiro found the right moment to fly away with the Third Raikage and Killer Bee, it would obviously be impossible to besiege them with a large army again.
Thinking of this, the three of them turned their gazes towards Ishiro in the sky. Among them, Minato Namikaze and Jiraiya had naturally guessed Ishiro's identity; both had had their battle rhythm disrupted by Ishiro before.
When Ishiro saw the three Kage-level individuals looking at him, he was startled, thinking they were going to deal with him first. He quickly gained more altitude. Still feeling uneasy, he decided it was better not to watch from the sidelines and to leave the battlefield directly.
No matter who won this battle below, Konoha certainly wouldn't come out well. There was no need for Ishiro to interfere any further.
With a trace of regret, Ishiro quickly departed from the battlefield.
Not long after flying away, a white light flashed from behind. Ishiro looked back and saw that the source of the white light was the previous battlefield. Immediately after, the sound of a huge explosion also reached him.
After a long while, the "fireworks effect" caused by the explosion slowly subsided.
"A Tailed Beast Bomb?" Ishiro turned his head and paid it no more mind, flying forward again. But as he flew, he thought, "If I encountered this situation, how would I deal with it?"
Up until now, all of Ishiro's tactics were aimed at ninjas; he had no good methods for dealing with Tailed Beasts. This wasn't Ishiro's fault. His goal had always been to develop Kekkei Genkai and achieve life evolution; he hadn't spent much time on such obviously targeted tactics.
But after truly experiencing it, Ishiro had to start thinking in this direction. He wanted to become Tsuchikage. If for no other reason than the training resources, Ishiro had to strive to become Tsuchikage.
And a qualified Tsuchikage could not lack good methods for dealing with Tailed Beasts. Ishiro had no way to deal with a complete Tailed Beast, not even a method of mutual destruction.
If Ōnoki and Ikura were not in the village, and the Five-Tails or Four-Tails entered its complete form, all Ishiro could do was watch helplessly, trying his best to ensure he didn't die. If the Tailed Beast fired a Tailed Beast Bomb at the village, Ishiro wouldn't even have a way to stop it.
This did not meet the requirements a major hidden village had for their Kage.
But as he flew and thought, Ishiro still couldn't come up with a good solution. Training in a large-scale S-rank ninjutsu was a common method, but Ishiro had neither the time nor the chakra.
S-rank ninjutsu could restrain a Tailed Beast, but not necessarily subdue it in one hit; it could only create an opportunity for ninjas to defeat or seal the Tailed Beast. With Ishiro's pitiful amount of chakra, setting aside whether it was enough to cast an S-rank ninjutsu that could threaten a Tailed Beast, even if he could, it was debatable whether he would have the strength left for a follow-up strike.
After flying for several more hours, a large island entered Ishiro's field of vision. It was the largest island in the Land of Water, and also where the capital of the Land of Water and the Village Hidden in the Mist were located.
Ishiro had flown so far precisely for Kirigakure.
At this time, both the Third Mizukage and Yagura Karatachi, two Kage-level individuals, were on the battlefield, and the Three-Tails Jinchuriki had also been taken away. It was precisely when Kirigakure's defenses were at their most vulnerable. Ishiro wanted to see if there were any opportunities he could take advantage of.
Ishiro had originally intended to infiltrate Kirigakure just as he had infiltrated Konoha. But when he arrived at Kirigakure, it seemed the village itself was not peaceful.
Kirigakure seemed to be under lockdown. The feeling was just like Konoha a few days ago after Ishiro had caused a disturbance.
Konoha had been under lockdown for several days because a three-man patrol squad had been killed at night. Ishiro suspected that there was also someone in Kirigakure now who, like him, had come to take advantage of an opportunity.
It was just that this person was either reckless or too careless, exposing their tracks and triggering Kirigakure's defense mechanism.
But this made it difficult for Ishiro to infiltrate Kirigakure. Not to mention that the entrance to Kirigakure was now certainly under strict inspection and might not even allow outsiders to enter. Even if Ishiro managed to sneak in, Kirigakure's reconnaissance barrier would certainly not be idle like Konoha's was at the time; it would definitely be constantly searching for the enemy's tracks.
Under these circumstances, Ishiro felt that even if he did manage to infiltrate, he wouldn't be able to do much.
The location of Kirigakure's ninjutsu collection would surely be the most heavily guarded spot right now. To gain anything, he would have to launch a frontal assault. And Ishiro acknowledged he didn't have the strength to attack a village, especially a hidden village of a great nation, all by himself.
But to just leave like this, Ishiro was also unwilling.
After some thought, Ishiro finally chose to wait outside the village. The ninja who had caused such a big disturbance in Kirigakure would definitely have to come out. Ishiro decided to "guard the stump waiting for a rabbit," to "prey on the predator."
However, the subsequent situation was completely different from what Ishiro had imagined. The ninja causing trouble in Kirigakure did not act like Ishiro. After exposing their tracks, not only did that person not immediately hide, but the commotion they caused grew even larger.
From outside Kirigakure, Ishiro also noticed that the chaos within the village was escalating.
After a while, seeing that the situation in Kirigakure was not easing but was instead becoming more chaotic, Ishiro no longer delayed. He directly flew into Kirigakure, right through the Mist's sensory barrier.
After entering the village, the feeling became clearer, and Ishiro's judgment of that senior's strength became more direct. Although he didn't know who that person was, Ishiro knew their strength was definitely not low. To cause such a big disturbance, yet Kirigakure still hadn't locked down their position. This was definitely a Kage-level individual, and one skilled in concealment at that.
After waiting in a corner for a while and confirming that no Mist ninjas were coming to trouble him, Ishiro then headed towards the Minazuki clan's territory.
Originally, Ishiro's first choice target was Kimimaro Kaguya. Kimimaro should still be young now, but having shown his talent early, he should be confined by the Kaguya clan, which would actually make him easier for Ishiro to find.
But now that Kirigakure had entered a state of war readiness, it would not be easy to approach Kimimaro without a sound. So Ishiro set his sights on Haku Minazuki.
Unlike Kimimaro, Haku's talent was discovered later in life. The current Haku should still be an ordinary clan member within the Minazuki clan. Finding Haku would certainly not be easy, but it would be relatively safer. The importance the Minazuki clan placed on Haku was definitely not as high as the Kaguya clan's on Kimimaro.
Listening to the commotion occasionally coming from the center of Kirigakure, Ishiro dodged the occasional passing patrol ninjas and walked into the Minazuki clan's territory.
The Minazuki clan was also a main ninja clan of Kirigakure. Most of its elite members had followed their Mizukage to besiege the Third Raikage. Of the remaining experts, a portion had been dispatched to search for the intruder who had arrived before Ishiro.
So Ishiro sensed from his Mind's Eye that although there were many ninjas in the Minazuki clan, there were not many of Jonin level.
On the edge of the Minazuki clan's territory, Ishiro cast a genjutsu on a Minazuki clan civilian who had not awakened their Ice Release Kekkei Genkai. He had no choice; to minimize his chakra fluctuations as much as possible, Ishiro only dared to target civilians.
In the genjutsu space, Ishiro asked the other party about a recently born child named Haku Minazuki. As it turned out, there really was such a person.
It was just that this person was actually a relative of the Minazuki clan head, and their location was right near the few Jonin Ishiro had detected with his Mind's Eye.
This made it impossible to get Haku away without making a sound.
After hesitating for a while, Ishiro still snuck towards the core area of the Minazuki clan.
If not for the commotion caused by that other person, Ishiro would probably have settled for second best and chosen one or several ordinary Minazuki children.
But feeling the commotion coming from the distance, Ishiro felt he couldn't disgrace the profession of infiltrators; he couldn't be too easily satisfied. The children Iwagakure had taken in before might have talent, but their future achievements were uncertain. But Haku was different; this was the first genius confirmed by the original story that Ishiro had sought.
However, this time Ishiro underestimated the Minazuki clan.
The concealment ninjutsu Ishiro relied on was the Camouflage Jutsu, but the Minazuki clan excelled in Ice Release, and their application of light was much more advanced than Ishiro's Camouflage Jutsu. So, before even entering the core area, Ishiro was exposed.
Fortunately, Ishiro had his Mind's Eye. When he discovered a Jonin suddenly leaving the Minazuki clan's area and heading towards the core area of Kirigakure, Ishiro knew he had been exposed.
Without hesitation, Ishiro cast Water Release: Driving Rain Jutsu in the direction of the remaining Minazuki Jonin. The Driving Rain Jutsu was the group version of the Water Pressure Line technique; its single-target attack power was not low, but unfortunately, it ran into Ice Release.
In terms of Kekkei Genkai level, Ice Release was not inferior to Porcelain Release, and in terms of development, it was far superior. Ishiro's Driving Rain Jutsu was easily blocked by a wave of C-rank Ice Release ninjutsu cast by several Jonin.
Knowing that Ice Release defense was strong, Ishiro did not cast a large-area attack ninjutsu again, but instead used: Water Release - Water Cutting Technique. It was also an area-of-effect ninjutsu, but the power of the Water Cutting Technique far surpassed the Water Pressure Line technique.
A line of water cut horizontally, slicing through the numerous ice mirrors blocking Ishiro's path. Ishiro himself took this opportunity to flash several times and break into the core area of the Minazuki clan.
After entering, Ishiro did not go on a killing spree but hid in a corner and cast several clone jutsu. Several clones dispersed outside to attract the attention of the Jonin.
Ishiro himself began to search for an infant around one or two years old.
Just now, Ishiro had learned from the genjutsu that there was only one infant of this age in the core area of the Minazuki clan. So Ishiro was not afraid of getting the wrong person.
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