Land of Whirlpools

Yichen had yet to find the inspiration he sought from the B-rank seals in the archives, but another opportunity had presented itself.

Ōnoki suddenly summoned the Barrier Team's Ninja skilled in sealing again. This time, however, far fewer people were called than before. Aside from a few Jonin, there were only Meishe and Yichen.

When Yichen and the others arrived at the Tsuchikage's Office again, the higher-ups were already waiting for them.

Seeing the Barrier Team arrive, Ōnoki spoke directly. "We just received an invitation from the Raikage, asking us to join Kirigakure in a surprise attack on the Land of Whirlpools and divide up the Uzumaki Clan's Sealing Jutsu."

"But we already have the Five Elements Sealing Jutsu. Whether we should take part in this attack on the Land of Whirlpools is something the advisors and I need to hear your opinions on."

Only then did Yichen recall the destruction of the Land of Whirlpools. Its destruction had not been described in his memories, but judging by when Kushina Uzumaki arrived in Konoha, it should have happened around this period.

So the Land of Lightning had started this. From the look of it, the Land of Earth and the Land of Water had likely both participated in the original story.

But it made sense. The timing was perfect. The nations had just emerged from war, and although Konoha had won, it had also suffered tremendous losses.

At a time like this, Konoha's civilians and Ninja might not have been willing to stand up for the Land of Whirlpools and face three great nations at once again.

That was probably why Konoha had never intervened in the destruction of the Land of Whirlpools in the original story. In the end, they had merely taken in Kushina, who had the potential to become the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki, and relocated the Uzumaki Clan's Namahado.

But Yichen now guessed that perhaps Konoha had not been informed at the start. After all, the Raikage clearly intended this as a Sneak Attack, planning to end the battle swiftly before Konoha could react.

While Yichen was speculating, the members of the Barrier Team began discussing the Land of Whirlpools' Sealing Jutsu as well.

Clearly, the Land of Whirlpools' Sealing Jutsu far surpassed that of the Land of Earth. If they could destroy the Land of Whirlpools and obtain the Uzumaki Clan's legacy, Iwagakure's Sealing Jutsu would undergo a qualitative leap.

But now that they had the Five Elements Sealing Jutsu, Iwagakure did not urgently need more Sealing Jutsu.

During this Ninja World War, although the Kage of the four nations had not personally taken the field, the Jinchuriki had all acted at one point or another. They had some understanding of each other's Jinchuriki and their conditions.

So the Raikage believed that the Land of Earth, like them, faced the predicament of Tailed Beast rampages.

That could be exploited.

While everyone was still discussing whether the Uzumaki Clan's Sealing Jutsu was worth agreeing to the Raikage's surprise attack on the Land of Whirlpools, Yichen made a suggestion. "Lord Tsuchikage, we don't necessarily have to seize Sealing Jutsu."

"Or rather, we can seize something else—people, for example. If we can bring some Uzumaki children back to Iwagakure, is it possible for a new Uzumaki Clan to emerge within the village?"

The advisors' eyes lit up at once, and even Ōnoki was somewhat tempted. That was true. Their thinking had been too rigid before. The Land of Whirlpools was going to be destroyed anyway.

If they could find several children with Uzumaki bloodline and bring them into the village, could they not raise them into their own Ninja?

At that moment, the elderly male advisor who had barely said a few words throughout the previous meeting spoke up. "It is indeed a good idea. And we do not necessarily need children. We can find young people capable of having children as well."

"Even if their generation is unwilling to join us, as long as we arrange partners for them, their next generation will definitely identify as members of Iwagakure."

Yichen froze. Impressive. They were directly bringing them back as breeding stock to improve the Land of Earth's genes. That was some forward-thinking.

The elders and Ōnoki quickly made their decision. They would definitely take part in this battle.

There were two objectives. The primary objective was people, and the secondary objective was Sealing Jutsu.

Yichen had still underestimated how much this world valued inheritable bloodlines.

Although the Uzumaki Clan did not possess the unusual elemental abilities of other Bloodline Limit families—

Their enormous Chakra Amount alone was a fatal temptation.

Yichen was not the only one troubled by insufficient Chakra. Nearly everyone in the ninja world was troubled by it. No one ever felt they had enough Chakra.

Seeing that Ōnoki and the others had made up their minds, Yichen decided to add more fuel to the fire. "Lord Tsuchikage, what if we openly agree to the Raikage, but secretly pass the news to Konoha and let Konoha fight the Cloud ninja and Kirigakure first?"

"Then we secretly seize people and Sealing Jutsu. Would that work? We won't directly participate in the war to destroy their nation, so the people we take won't bear too much resentment toward us."

The advisors' eyes lit up as they looked Yichen over from head to toe. They had not expected that at such a young age, he would think so thoroughly.

Ōnoki also felt there was plenty of room to work with here. He was an expert in such matters himself, and with Yichen's reminder, he immediately came up with more than a dozen ways to seize what they wanted while making Konoha and the Cloud ninja both suffer heavy losses.

After exchanging looks with the elders, Ōnoki said to the Barrier Team, "All right, you may all return. What happened today is classified as the village's highest secret. Once you leave this room, no one is allowed to mention it again."

Everyone answered, "Yes," in unison and left the Tsuchikage's Office Building together.

Before long, only the higher-ups remained in the Tsuchikage's Office. Ōnoki had originally intended to discuss the specific plan for the Land of Whirlpools operation directly.

Unexpectedly, the elderly female advisor said, "Ōnoki, what do you think of Yichen?"

Ōnoki was somewhat baffled. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, what about grooming him to become an advisor in the future, or even a candidate for Tsuchikage?"

The others were all startled. Wasn't it far too early to make such a decision?

Seeing their expressions, the advisor snorted. "Most Ninja in Iwagakure are straightforward by nature, and the village has always been united internally. What we lack most are people who know how to play with schemes."

"This Yichen has talent in both Ninjutsu and Sealing Jutsu. More importantly, he is not constrained by a Ninja's way of thinking. He has some of that Konoha's Darkness flavor."

"Even if we do not list him as a Tsuchikage candidate, we can consider making him an advisor."

Ōnoki pondered for a while after hearing this, then said, "I understand. I'll consider it. There's no need to rush this now. Let's first discuss the plan for this operation."

Hearing Ōnoki say that, the advisors said no more.

Yichen could never have imagined that his suggestion would bring such a side effect. He no longer had the mood to develop Sealing Jutsu.

Once the Uzumaki Clan's Sealing Jutsu was seized, he did not even know whether the things he had painstakingly thought up would still be useful.

Rather than waste time on that, he might as well think of other methods.

More than a month later, news that shocked everyone rapidly spread throughout the ninja world: the Land of Whirlpools had been destroyed.

This matter was too significant to conceal, and no one had any intention of concealing it. Along with news of the Land of Whirlpools' destruction came some details of how it had happened.

When Yichen first heard others discussing it, he was practicing Earth Style: Earth Rising Spear.

He could now accurately control the positions of the Earth Rising Spears, but there was one flaw: the distance between every two spears was somewhat too close. Moreover, the Earth Rising Spears Yichen created were much sharper than before and had begun to possess killing power.

As someone who knew about it, Yichen had not thought much of the news at first. But after hearing the details, even he was startled.

Ōnoki truly was a master manipulator. On one hand, he agreed to the Raikage's proposal. On the other, he used spies in the Land of Lightning to subtly leak the information to Konoha.

The most remarkable part was that he did not leak it to official Konoha spies, but to Root spies.

Then Danzo, whom Ōnoki had used, altered the information. He changed the news that the Raikage intended to destroy the Land of Whirlpools into news that the Cloud ninja were going to the Land of Whirlpools to steal Sealing Jutsu.

After another round of manipulation, he directly sent the newly famous Three Ninja and the Anbu elite led by the White Fang to reinforce the Land of Whirlpools.

As a result, the White Fang fought the Third Mizukage, while the Three Ninja were nearly wiped out by the Raikage and his elite guards.

Jiraiya was severely injured while covering Orochimaru and Tsunade. Fortunately, he was reverse-summoned away by Mount Myōboku.

After Orochimaru and Tsunade escaped disaster, they were rescued by the White Fang, who had shaken off the Mizukage.

But it did not end there. The retreating White Fang's group wanted to regroup and strike back, only to be ambushed by Sunagakure.

The Third Kazekage, known as the strongest Kazekage, personally led Chiyo, who was filled with hatred, and wiped out all of Konoha's Anbu.

The White Fang, Orochimaru, and Tsunade scattered and broke through separately, fleeing back to the Land of Fire. If the Third Kazekage had not also been rushing to the Land of Whirlpools to seize Sealing Jutsu, he might truly have left one or two of them behind.

It turned out that Ōnoki had not only secretly informed Konoha. He had also informed Sunagakure.

This time, he used a Sunagakure mole within Iwagakure who had already been exposed to send the Kazekage a message: the Raikage and the Mizukage intended to destroy the Land of Whirlpools and seize its Sealing Jutsu.

Meanwhile, Iwagakure had developed new Sealing Jutsu and had no intention of participating.

Ōnoki also provided some secrets regarding the sealing of the Five-Tails.

The elites of the Lands of Fire, Wind, Water, and Lightning fought fiercely.

Meanwhile, Ōnoki himself infiltrated deep into Uzushio Village with only a handful of elite guards while all sides were locked in heated battle.

This time, Ōnoki did not go too far. He did not kill a single person throughout the entire process. He grabbed a batch of Sealing Jutsu and immediately fled.

On another route, the two advisors who had not entered deep into Uzushio Village led a group of Anbu to search outside the village. They found many people with Uzumaki bloodline and brought them back to Iwagakure. This group likewise carried out no killing.

Aside from the destroyed Land of Whirlpools, Konoha had suffered the worst losses in this incident. The Pot King had not disappointed Ōnoki; the Konoha Anbu lost this time were battle-hardened elites who had survived countless fights.

Konoha's losses in Anbu this time were not much smaller than those of the entire Second Shinobi War.

After suddenly losing so many Anbu, along with three disciples being badly wounded after failing their mission—especially Jiraiya, who was still recovering on Mount Myōboku—

The prestige Hiruzen Sarutobi had gained during the Second Shinobi War diminished greatly. Danzo even proposed removing the Hokage from office at one point.

Fortunately, the other advisors—there were still more than three Konoha advisors at this time—continued to support Hiruzen Sarutobi.

In the end, Mito Uzumaki also stepped forward to support him, and only then did Danzo give up resentfully.

But he then proposed punishing the White Fang and the Three Ninja. This time, even the advisors could not easily suppress Danzo.

Although Danzo had passed along false intelligence, it had not been too far from the truth. Yet as Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi's intelligence network had received no news at all.

So Danzo could not be blamed for this no matter what. The fault could only be placed on those who carried out the mission.

Konoha, having suffered the greatest losses, was occupied with internal strife and had no energy to hold the other great nations accountable.

The Cloud ninja, Kirigakure, and the later-arriving Sunagakure divided up the Land of Whirlpools' treasures, then returned home to digest their gains.

As the side that had gained the most and lost the least, Iwagakure naturally needed to digest its benefits as well.