Splitting the Seven-Tails

The wooden sign that Takigakure and his group saw was naturally left behind by Yichen.

The Konoha High-ranking officials's judgment was reasonable and well-founded, but what they didn't know was that the Iwagakure's research on the Tailed Beast had already surpassed Konoha's. Although it was still not Cloud ninja Kumogakure village, at least in the minds of the Iwa ninja leadership, the meaning of the Tailed Beast had gradually shifted from weapons of war to allies.

As for Yichen, he's practically a cheat code. When it comes to understanding the Tailed Beast, aside from the Tailed Beast themselves, no one can compare to Yichen.

Therefore, Mitokado Homura and others were wrong about Yichen's purpose from the very beginning.

As Shikaku Nara said, Yichen's scheme to force Konoha to hand over the Seven-Tails was driven by two motives: to weaken Konoha and to gain benefits from the Seven-Tails.

However, contrary to what the Konoha High-ranking officials thought, Yichen's main target was the Seven-Tails, and weakening Konoha was just a side effect.

Yichen himself had been keeping a close eye on the movements of Konoha and Takigakure.

While Konoha couldn't keep track of Yichen's movements in time, monitoring Takigakure's every move was not difficult for Yichen.

With the Little Rhino Dog by his side, Yichen's sensory abilities were greatly enhanced by the Little Rhino Dog's Yichen Chakra, allowing him to easily bring the entire Takigakure under the surveillance of his Sensory Ninjutsu.

When Kensuke left Takigakure with his twenty-odd subordinates, Yichen followed.

Afterwards, all the scenes that Konoha had orchestrated and acted out fell into Yichen's eyes.

However, Yichen did not make a move until the Konoha group successfully lured the Takigakure to the Land of Earth and were preparing to escape, at which point he made his move.

Yichen did not take direct action, but instead relayed information to the Takigakure.

Afterwards, the Konoha group circled around the Land of Earth and finally left from the border of the Land of Grass, while the Takigakure leader and his group followed along, guided by Yichen.

Until...

"Boss, there's an enemy situation ahead." In the Konoha team, the Aburame Clan codenamed Third had spotted the enemy ahead of time.

"What's going on? Is it Iwa ninja?" the leader asked.

"It doesn't seem to be Iwa ninja. There are only six of them, facing us, they must be waiting for us. My Kikaichū have been discovered, but they haven't made a move," the Third said.

The eldest brother frowned, glanced at the Second who was holding the ceramic jar, and said, "Second, Third, you two take two squads and wait behind. I'll go and meet them. If anything happens, retreat immediately."

"Yes." The Second Third brothers nodded in agreement.

Meanwhile, the Takigakure received another sign that read, "The enemy is six kilometers ahead. There's going to be a good show."

Kensuke, feeling somewhat guilty, said, "Chief, this ninja who delivered our message was able to easily follow that group of elite ninjas ahead without being detected, and also had time to silently guide us. His strength is probably far beyond our imagination; following him any further might be dangerous."

The leader of the Takigakure ninja sighed and said, "You said it yourself, the enemy's strength far surpasses ours. What will be the consequences if we retreat now?"

"Our only chance of survival is to continue moving forward according to their demands; at the very least, they still want to use us. In their eyes, we should still have some value in living."

Kensuke thought about it and realized it made sense, so he stopped talking, but felt incredibly humiliated.

So Takigakure and his group began to advance at full speed.

As things unfolded, it was exactly as Yichen had predicted. The leader of the Takigakure ninja witnessed Six Paths of Pain easily kill more than thirty elites of Konoha, and then take away the Seven-Tails right before his eyes.

Six Paths of Pain's immortality and uncanny abilities were extremely effective against these elite ninjas. Normally, so many elite ninjas together wouldn't be helpless against a regular Kage Level opponent, but against Six Paths of Pain, they didn't even have a chance to escape.

Whether it was the eldest brother who went to meet the enemy, or the Second and Third who waited behind, none of them could escape being killed by Six Paths of Pain.

The entire process was relaxed and enjoyable, completely one-sided.

"Who is this person?" The leader of Takigakure finally spoke stiffly long after Six Paths of Pain had left.

Kensuke thought for a moment and said, "Judging from their clothes, they seem to be from the Akatsuki Organization, which is active in the Land of Rivers and the Land of Rain."

"Sigh." The leader sighed and said, "Clean up the battlefield and confirm if these were the ones who ambushed you."

"Understood." Kensuke immediately began the examination.

The result was obvious: although they were masked, the ninja's sharp eyesight allowed him to easily spot some details.

"Leader, it's confirmed, it's definitely that group. Their identities are also certain, they're Konoha ninja," Qian said, his mouth dry.

The identities of Konoha ninja are also easy to verify. For example, the Aburame Clan's bodies covered in Kikaichū are something no other ninja village can imitate.

"Konoha, they killed so many of our ninjas and then framed Iwa ninja. If someone hadn't warned us in the shadows, we would have really fallen for their trick," the leader muttered to himself.

At this moment, the leader of Takigakure finally understood: compared with these Great Ninja Village, his village was lacking in far more than just strength.

Even in terms of temperament, he was far inferior to the Kage of those Great Ninja Village. Neither Konoha nor Iwa ninja ever took him seriously. In their eyes, perhaps his only purpose was to help them create the public opinion they needed.

"Go back. From now on, Takigakure should not get involved in any conflicts related to the Great Ninja Village. None of these Great Ninja Village are ones we can afford to offend." The leader was somewhat disheartened.

He used to be so aggressive, arguing with Konoha and making threats. Now, knowing that Konoha killed dozens of their elite ninjas, he doesn't dare to make a sound.

These so-called Kage are truly capable of using force. Konoha is definitely not as peace-loving as it claims to be.

Kensuke said, "But leader, even if we don't want to participate, will the Iwa ninja and Konoha let us remain neutral?"

The leader stiffened. Yes, now it wasn't as simple as just choosing to remain neutral.

For example, the cause of today's incident was simply that the Tsuchikage stole their Seven-Tails. The Takigakure have never actively sought out trouble; rather, trouble has come looking for them.

In this cruel Ninja World, there is simply no place for small countries like theirs to stand.

The leader suddenly felt a heavy weight on his back, and realized he could never straighten his bent back again. He looked at Kensuke and the others, then at the corpses of the Konoha ninja, and asked, "Who do you think we should choose?"

Everyone was taken aback. Yes, who to choose? Konoha or Iwa ninja?

Konoha is a long-standing powerhouse. Although it is currently weak, it has the deepest foundation. No one can be sure whether Konoha will simply decline.

Iwa ninja is a newly emerging top power, showing signs of surpassing Konoha. In particular, Iwa ninja's policies are radical, and now that we have offended Iwa ninja, no one can predict what that unconventional Tsuchikage will do.

No one spoke, until finally Kensuke said, "Leader, at least, at least the Iwa ninja didn't kill so many of our comrades."

The leader glanced at Kensuke, then at the others. These people didn't object to the statement, because in their view, the former Seven-Tails Jinchuriki was merely a weapon, not a comrade.

Yichen only killed a few Anbu while stealing the Seven-Tails, and incidentally killed the original Seven-Tails Jinchuriki who was already on the verge of death. However, Konoha killed more than twenty of their comrades in one fell swoop.

The ninjas killed by Konoha were roughly as strong as the ninjas currently led by the leader of Takigakure. They had some prior acquaintances with each other, so their hatred for Konoha was greater than that for Iwa ninja.

Furthermore, Yichen did not publicly admit to stealing the Seven-Tails, so the Takigakure still had a fig leaf to cover their tracks and could pretend they didn't know. But the fact that Konoha killed the Takigakure was confirmed by all the elites present.

"Sigh. Kensuke, go see the daimyo and tell him that I have agreed to form an alliance with Iwa ninja." After saying this, the leader led his subordinates back to Takigakure.

Kensuke opened his mouth, but no words came out. From this moment on, Takigakure, or rather the Land of the Falls, was bound to Iwa ninja's war machine. Perhaps during the next Ninja World War, Iwa ninja would directly demand that Takigakure send a large number of ninjas to serve as cannon fodder.

But what can be done? If Takigakure doesn't quickly choose a side, he might not even survive the current crisis.

The Takigakure the loss of over twenty elite soldiers, a loss that pained them greatly. But what about Konoha? Konoha had deployed so many elite troops, and not a single one returned. Could the Takigakure shirk responsibility? Faced with Konoha's retaliation, what recourse did the Takigakure have?

Small countries have no diplomacy. Although this whole affair was never Takigakure's fault, Takigakure nowhere to seek justice.

Meanwhile, Six Paths of Pain arrived at a mountaintop with the clay jar that sealed the Seven-Tails, where Yichen was waiting for them.

That's right, Six Paths of Pain was the reinforcement that Yichen invited. Of course, he didn't need reinforcements to deal with a few Konoha ninja; Yichen was enough. Yichen took action, at most a few Konoha would escape, but there was no need to waste his favor by asking Nagato for Nagato.

However, since Yichen doesn't want to become Jinchuriki, there's a question about how to use the Seven-Tails.

Yichen summoned Nagato's Six Paths of Pain mainly to have Nagato help him separate the Seven-Tails. Yichen had previously agreed with Nagato that this time, if Nagato intervened, Yichen would only need a small portion of the Seven-Tails Chakra, but this portion of the Seven-Tails Chakra had to contain a certain amount of the Seven-Tails' life force.

If Nagato helps Yichen separate a small portion of the Seven-Tails, he can take the rest of the Seven-Tails Nagato him.

Yichen couldn't do wasn't particularly difficult for Nagato, who possessed the Rinnegan.

Then, the Human Path stepped forward, broke the seal on the pottery jar, reached his hand into it, and pulled it out along with a Yichen was invisible to the naked eye but could be vaguely sensed by the Mind's Eye.

Yichen didn't know whether it was vitality or a soul. Did Tailed Beast even have souls? Considering his shallow understanding of souls, Yichen didn't delve into it further, but instead quietly watched Six Paths of Pain's performance.

After the Human Path withdrew, the Asura Path stepped forward and gathered together the Seven-Tails Chakra that had naturally dissipated since the seal was broken.

Finally, the Human Path and the Asura Path cooperated, merging the things they had extracted together.

Upon seeing this, Yichen quickly stepped forward and Chakra Seal.

Having witnessed the Chakra state of the Little Rhino Dog before it took shape, Yichen knew with a slight sense that it was a success. Six Paths of Pain easily accomplished what Yichen could not.

Yichen sacrificed the life of a Jinchuriki last time, ultimately causing the Six-Tails to dissipate completely, just to create a small amount of Chakra containing the Six-Tails' life force. Yet, Six Paths of Pain easily accomplished the same feat.