Root of Disaster

Because Yichen was a participant, Ōnoki entrusted him with the task of intelligence analysis. It was only three days later that Yichen was able to determine the general course of events based on Yichen intelligence reports from various sources and his own experiences.

At the High-Level Meeting, Yichen first conducted an analysis.

"This alliance between the Mist ninja and the Cloud ninja was a ruse from the very beginning; it was a trap set by the Mist ninja for the Third Raikage."

"Although we don't know the motives behind the Mist ninja 'Cloud ninja Mist ninja, it certainly wasn't a spur-of-the-moment decision. In order for their plan to succeed, they even brought in Konoha, a major enemy."

"The details aren't very clear; I only know the general outline. The first battlefield: about eight thousand people from Mist ninja and Konoha, led by the Third Mizukage, Jiraiya, and Minato Namikaze, besieged the negotiation team led by the Third Raikage. Of the eight thousand, Konoha had fewer, about three thousand; the rest were Mist ninja."

"In another instance, Karatachi Yagura and the Three-Tails' human form, as top-tier combatants, led two thousand Mist ninja to hold off three thousand Cloud ninja reinforcements. The Cloud ninja were originally supposed to be responsible for providing support, and were led by A and Killer B."

"I got involved and brought Killer Bee, the Eight-Tails Jinchuriki Killer B, to the first battlefield. I didn't witness the rest of the battle because I went to Kirigakure. Orochimaru, on the other hand, invaded Kirigakure before me."

"The final result should be that both the Third Raikage and the Third Mizukage are seriously injured. I estimate that the Mizukage resorted to desperate measures when he saw that the encirclement was about to fail."

"It was only then that I guessed some of the Mist ninja's intentions: the Third Mizukage was probably getting old and didn't have long to live, so he wanted to drag the Third Raikage down with him before he died."

Saka nodded and said, "I thought of that too. Although Konoha is the biggest enemy of our four countries, Konoha is not very aggressive. In several major battles, Konoha has always been on the defensive."

"With the Third Mizukage dying, Mist ninja naturally entered a period of weakness, while Cloud ninja was at its peak. Coincidentally, both Mist ninja and Cloud ninja are major maritime powers, and the greatest threat to Mist ninja was actually Cloud ninja, not Konoha."

Yichen suddenly realized that he hadn't thought about it before. It was only after Sakaichi reminded him that Yichen remembered that Ai and Karatachi Yagura's battlefield was at sea.

Yichen continued his report, "The outcome of this First Shinobi War was not good for Konoha, Mist ninja, or Cloud ninja."

"The Cloud ninja haven't suffered many ordinary ninja losses, but they are about to lose a Kage at the peak of their fighting strength, which will inevitably lead to a decline in their overall power."

"The Third Mizukage of Mist ninja doesn't have much time left, so let's not count that loss for now. I've estimated the losses of ordinary Mist ninja; in addition to the Two Battlefields and the losses within Kirigakure itself, at least two thousand people have been lost. Furthermore, Mist ninja's Three-Tails Jinchuriki probably doesn't have much time left. If they can't find an adult ninja, Mist ninja might end up in the same awkward situation as Sunagakure."

"Although Konoha didn't lose a single Kage Level ninja, more than half of the 3,000-plus people sent out this time died, and only a little over 1,000 returned to Konoha. However, not many of those who returned to Konoha were injured. After all, it's difficult to only be wounded when facing the Eight-Tails or the Third Raikage; it's usually death upon contact."

At this moment, Ming suddenly interjected, "Has the Orochimaru Kirigakure confirmed Mist ninja's attack on Kirigakure?"

Orochimaru's actions have sown the seeds of future trouble for Konoha. Konoha could have used this opportunity to form an alliance with Mist ninja and at least restore peace. But Orochimaru's sudden move has directly tarnished Konoha's reputation as a traitor to its allies.

Mei and the others knew that Yichen had turned back to intercept Orochimaru. This matter was related to the tacit understanding between the Mist ninja and Konoha, which is why Mei asked this question.

"It's been confirmed. Orochimaru didn't really conceal his identity much during this operation, appearing rather reckless. Intelligence indicates that the Mist ninja have confirmed Orochimaru's identity, and similarly, they've confirmed my identity as well," Yichen said.

Ōnoki nodded and said, "The Mist ninja are about to be defeated, and they're not even neighbors with us, so it doesn't matter if they're recognized. Besides, what they hate most is Konoha, the traitor who stabbed us in the back."

"But," Ōnoki said, frowning, "Didn't Orochimaru consider Konoha's reputation when he did this? Hiruzen Sarutobi, that hypocrite, is extremely concerned about his image."

No one could give an answer, Yichen thought for a moment and said, "I suspect that Orochimaru might be considering leaving Konoha."

Everyone was taken aback and looked at Yichen, waiting for his explanation.

Yichen smiled bitterly. He had no evidence; he was just speculating based on the original work, putting the cause and effect backwards. This was too absurd—a Kage Level defector, and not even Sasori of the Red Sands with the Kage Level of being captured.

Orochimaru was a ninja with a high chance of succeeding the Fourth Hokage, so why would such a ninja choose to defect? People don't believe it.

"I was just guessing," Yichen said, shrugging.

Fortunately, no one dwelled on the matter too much; they mainly just didn't believe it. Ikura asked, "Has your killing in Konoha and kidnapping an Uchiha been exposed?"

Yichen thought for a moment and said, "Konoha should have figured it out by now, but they probably don't have any evidence."

Ikura nodded.

"No evidence is fine. If Konoha comes knocking, we can just deny it." After a pause, Ikura asked again, "I heard you brought back another child from Kekkei Genkai family?"

Yichen nodded amidst the expectant gazes of the others and said, "That's right, this time it's Ice Release: Yuki. Originally, my target was Kaguya, but Kirigakure is too chaotic, and I'm afraid I can't handle the close combat strength of the Kaguya Clan, so I chose Yuki."

Then Yichen looked at Ōnoki and said, "I have already entrusted the child to Lord Tsuchikage. I wonder how his talent is?"

Upon hearing Yichen mention Haku's talent, Ōnoki immediately smiled and said, "His talent is quite good. Although I don't know if he can awaken his Kekkei Genkai, his physical and mental talents are both excellent. With proper nurturing, his future achievements are promising. At least he's much better than that Uchiha."

When the topic turned to the Sokai Uchiha, which was essentially Liangtiancheng Zhongxing, Ōnoki's smile vanished. Clearly, the Uchiha Yichen back was of mediocre talent. With the Ninja Academy about to recruit students, his talent probably wouldn't even get him into the Advanced Class.

Yichen naturally wouldn't explain the Uchiha Clan's miraculous talent, but in any case, Ōnoki's cultivation of the Liangtiancheng Zhongxing would not diminish.

Finally, the group analyzed how Konoha had managed to secretly assemble Ninja Army without the knowledge of other countries. The conclusion was that most of these troops were the Konoha troops from the previous battle in the Land of Land of Whirlpools, originally under the command of the Uchiha and Hyuga.

After the war, the Uchiha and Hyuga returned to Konoha, and these ninjas were largely ignored by all sides. This time, Konoha simply reassigned some elites as commanders, and then secretly sent three thousand troops to the Land of Water.

That was about it for the conversation. Finally, Ōnoki told Sakata to keep an eye on the movements of the Mist ninja and Konoha before the meeting adjourned.

Yichen returned to supervise the training of his disciples, and everything returned to normal.

A storm swept through the Ninja World. Not only were all sorts of rumors flying around, but the announcements of the Third Hokage's death and the Fourth Hokage's succession by the Cloud ninja and Mist ninja were enough to shock the entire Ninja World.

Throughout the entire Third Shinobi War, only one Kazekage went missing before the war. No one expected that two Kage would suddenly die in battle during peacetime. In particular, the Third Mizukage never even showed his face during the Third Shinobi War, and no one understood how he died so mysteriously.

However, what the onlookers talked about most was the future Fourth Generation candidates for Konoha and Iwa ninja.

The most heated discussions revolve around Konoha, with too many people qualified to run for the Fourth Hokage, a point of constant debate. However, the situation with Iwa ninja is also worth speculating about, as Iwa ninja has produced another powerful figure capable of stirring up the Ninja World, following in the footsteps of Ikura.

Everyone is speculating about when the Ninja World will truly enter the era of the Fourth Hokage's rule.

The Ninja World is in turmoil, but that has nothing to do with Yichen right now. Yichen originally planned to start developing his second Kekkei Genkai during this period. After all, he has been training in Lightning Release for quite some time now.

Although Yichen developed A-rank Ninjutsu such as Lightning Release Stimulation Method, Chidori, and Chidori Flow, these were not entirely developed by Yichen himself. In terms of proficiency, his Lightning Release was far inferior to his Water Release.

Yichen 'Yichen Water Release was developed step by step from C-rank. The proficiency gained from a single A-rank Water Cutting Technique completely surpassed that of three A-rank Lightning Release.

However, Yichen also tested it, and now his Lightning Release has indeed barely reached the threshold for cultivating a bloodline limit.

Because his cultivation of Senjutsu had already been on the right track, although his proficiency in Lightning Release was only barely up to standard, there was nothing particularly he needed to train, so Yichen was already preparing to develop Storm Release.

The plan was interrupted by two things before it could even begin.

The first matter concerns Tomoko, a disciple of Yichen.

Before leaving the village, Yichen entrusted Tomoko to take care of his six disciples. After returning, Tomoko told Yichen that she had developed a C-rank Seal-less Ninjutsu.

Tomoko is skilled in Wind Release and has been developing her own Ninjutsu over the years. This is also a characteristic of Yichen's disciples; almost everyone is innovative.

Among the first batch of disciples, Kajiyamari was the first to develop his own Water Release Ninjutsu, Kawakita created the most sword techniques.

Even Ogura Saki, one of the second batch of disciples, developed the Wind Style: Wind Tornado.

Yichen had initially thought that Tomoko's path to developing Ninjutsu had failed. But then she surprised everyone by creating Seal-less Ninjutsu.

Although Yichen can perform many Ninjutsu without hand seals, none of them were developed by himself.

For example, Banshō Ten'in and Shinra Tensei were taught by Nagato. These two Ninjutsu are difficult to learn, but once learned, they do not require Hand Seals.

The Rasengan is learned from the original work. The Body Flicker Technique is simply a simplified and mastered version based on the experience of predecessors.

Therefore, Yichen was quite shocked that Tomoko was able to develop Seal-less Ninjutsu.

Yichen tested it and found that Tomoko could spit out a tiny Wind Release attack from her mouth during battle.

In terms of power, it is indeed C-rank Wind Release. Although the range is small, its penetrating power is amazing, and its single-target attack power is close to that of a B-rank.

This is also the advantage of Wind Release; Wind Release excels at offense but is not good at defense.

Most importantly, Yichen discovered that this Ninjutsu still has a lot of room for improvement.

With a little more effort, you might be able to create a B-rank or even an A-rank ninjutsu without Seal-less Ninjutsu. Of course, this is just the most ideal expectation.

The C-rank Wind Release, similar to the Vacuum Sphere, created by Tomoko has one drawback: it requires preparation.

In other words, although Hand Seals are not required before releasing Ninjutsu, the charging process cannot be skipped. If the opponent has Sharingan or Byakugan, they can see through Tomoko's little tricks at a glance.

But how many ninjas possess Dōjutsu and bloodlines? The fact that Hand Seals aren't required is enough to warrant the attention of higher-ups.

Therefore, this Ninjutsu was immediately added to the Iwa ninja Ninjutsu collection. Although the exchange price was not high, all ninjas who exchanged for it had to perform the seal in their minds, just like learning A-rank Ninjutsu.

Yichen was also very interested when he saw this Ninjutsu. Although his Wind Release transformation was not enough to cast a C-rank Wind Release, Yichen still included the training of this Ninjutsu in his recent training plan.