Shockwaves Across All Factions

Uchiha Shūichi swept a glance over the three ninja who had entered the Hokage's office.

One was a strikingly beautiful girl with a bright, open demeanor and eyes like red agate.

Another was a silent, somewhat gloomy Yamanaka clan ninja, his expression carrying a faint numbness.

The third was a Hyuga clan ninja with Byakugan, his forehead protector from Konoha tied neatly in place.

"Yūhi Kurenai, Yamanaka Fū, and Hyuga Homura here are your teammates. All three are Special Jonin of Konoha, each with their own strengths. I trust you'll complete the mission safely."

Shūichi knew something about each of them. Hyuga Homura needed no introduction—a standard branch family ninja of the Hyuga clan, currently a Special Jonin, skilled in close-quarters Gentle Fist and Byakugan reconnaissance.

Yamanaka Fū was one of Shimura Danzō's men, a rare Root operative with Elite Jonin-level potential. The Yamanaka clan's mind arts were already formidable, and Fū had innovated upon them.

In the original timeline, his performance had reached the Elite Jonin level. With eight or nine years still to go before that point, he was already a solid Special Jonin.

What Shūichi couldn't quite figure out was Yūhi Kurenai—not the person herself, but why she had been assigned to this mission.

In the original story, Kurenai was one of the teachers of the Rookie 12, but her strength ranked last among the four Jonin instructors. If Kakashi and Might Guy were Kage-level Jonin, and Sarutobi Asuma was an Elite Jonin, then Kurenai was merely a standard Jonin.

Her specialty was genjutsu—not that genjutsu was weak, but even after a lifetime of study, she would at best match an ordinary Three Tomoe Uchiha, and she still needed hand seals to use it, making it far inferior in combat to the Three Tomoe Sharingan.

In short, every ability Kurenai possessed was completely covered by Shūichi himself. If there was one advantage, it was that she was thoroughly a ninja of the Hokage lineage, trusted by the Third Hokage far more than anyone else present.

In the original story, Kurenai even became the Third Hokage's daughter-in-law. From that alone, her trust level with the Third Hokage far exceeded that of ordinary ninja.

Hyuga Homura was a member of the Hyuga clan, Shūichi was from the Uchiha clan, and Yamanaka Fū belonged to Root. From this angle, the Third Hokage indeed needed to insert someone of his own.

As for why he hadn't assigned a powerhouse like Kakashi, it was likely because the mission was extremely dangerous. The Third Hokage knew this well and didn't want to take heavy losses among his own loyalists.

In just a moment, Shūichi grasped the Third Hokage's reasoning. Still, he didn't refuse the three ninja. Instead, he tucked away the intelligence scroll:

"In that case, Hokage-sama, rest assured. We'll do our utmost to complete this mission!"

Land of Lightning, Kumogakure.

"Raikage-sama, no matter how you put it, having you handle the mission directly is going too far!"

At Kumogakure's main gate, Mabui—with her white hair and chocolate-colored skin—was blocking the Fourth Raikage and Killer B, who were about to leave.

"This time, all Five Great Shinobi Villages will go all out, and the Rinnegan is no joke. I don't think any other ninja can handle this mission besides me!"

"Besides, I've stepped in plenty of times before. Why not today? The Raikage is Kumogakure's strongest ninja, not a rubber stamp!"

The Fourth Raikage was adamant. In truth, Kumogakure had long been collecting secret techniques from smaller villages and factions, racking up a bloody debt in the process. The Fourth Raikage had personally appeared many times.

The reason his secretary Mabui was trying to stop him now was precisely because of the mission's difficulty.

"Raikage-sama, Kumogakure can't do without you right now. If anything happens to you in the Land of Rain, our village will fall into chaos!"

Though Kumogakure projected strength, its true powerhouses were only the A and B combination.

Both the Fourth Raikage and Killer B were at their peak at age thirty, their strength ranking among the top of Kage-level fighters. It was their partnership that gave Kumogakure a faint edge over Konoha.

If anything happened to either of them, Kumogakure would likely slide into decline just like Konoha.

At the end of the day, Kumogakure's apparent dominance among the Five Great Shinobi Villages at this stage was only because the others had fallen due to various reasons.

Sunagakure had lost Sasori of the Red Sands to defection, and he had taken out the Third Kazekage along the way. Iwagakure was in a generational gap, with only Ōnoki holding things together. Kirigakure had fallen into Uchiha Obito's hands and was being torn apart.

As for Konoha, there was no need to elaborate—the number of strong ninja it had lost to betrayal or defection from within exceeded the total Kage-level casualties inflicted by all other villages combined.

If the other villages counted their foundations, they weren't much worse off than Kumogakure. They had simply encountered unexpected setbacks in their development and gradually declined.

The Fourth Raikage, however, was unconcerned, his will as hard as iron:

"According to Eight-Tails Gyūki's intelligence, the Rinnegan and the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path are likely real. If Kumogakure gets its hands on them, we'll have the foundation to unify the entire shinobi world. That's worth the gamble."

"And if those things fall into another village's hands, the threat to Kumogakure would be unimaginable. This is the critical moment—a matter of life and death for our village!"

Mabui opened her mouth but found nothing to say. The Fourth Raikage led Killer B and several Kage Guard ninja out through the gate:

"While I'm gone, you and Dodai can handle everything together!"

With that, the Fourth Raikage, along with his sworn younger brother Killer B and their escort, vanished from Mabui's sight.

Mabui sighed. Though worried, she was long accustomed to the Fourth Raikage's ways. She shook her head and headed back into Kumogakure to deal with paperwork.

It wasn't just Kumogakure. Iwagakure and Sunagakure, though not sending their Kage directly, had dispatched their finest ninja to the Land of Rain. Only Kirigakure showed no movement at all.

Kirigakure, isolated overseas, rarely exchanged intelligence with the mainland. Not only did other villages struggle to get information from Kirigakure, but Kirigakure itself was hard-pressed to learn about the others.

And with Uchiha Obito pulling the strings behind the scenes in Kirigakure, there was no way he would let anyone meddle in this chaos.