Diplomatic Turmoil

But the reckless feared the fearless, and the fearless feared those with nothing left to lose.

If they fought the Land of Lightning to the bitter end, Konoha would certainly win in the end, but the manpower and resources consumed would far exceed the reparations demanded by the Raikage. If they agreed to a ceasefire now and cut their losses, it would at least benefit Konoha economically. Konoha could put its forces back into commissioned missions sooner and generate greater profits.

However, while the Land of Fire would reduce its losses this way, the Land of Lightning, despite being unable to win, would become the biggest winner. As one side declined and the other rose, Konoha's losses would only grow greater in the next conflict.

But if they refused a ceasefire now, the Land of Lightning might indeed be crushed and left unable to recover for at least ten years. Yet the Land of Fire would likewise be dragged down by this enemy that feared no death. By then, it would no longer be a matter of whether they could defeat the Land of Lightning. The situation of wolves surrounding them on all sides would return. The other nations that had declared defeat and withdrawn early would catch up to the severely weakened Land of Fire. In that case, the Land of Fire, occupying the most fertile territory, would become a juicy morsel everyone wanted to bite into, returning to the situation at the start of the Third Shinobi World War.

What should they do?

Danzo made his opposition clear, but everyone knew the truth in their hearts. No matter which choice they made, it would be unfavorable to Konoha.

Utatane Koharu and Mitokado Homura had clearly maxed out their skill points in the art of compromise. If Xing Ran had been here, he would have sneered at them. Whenever the village faced a major decision, these two started protecting themselves. Then, whenever matters were mishandled, they either shifted the blame to the Hokage or dumped it on Danzo. On that point alone, Danzo, as a Hokage Advisor, was far more competent than the two of them.

The Third Hokage looked at the pair and found them, as always, staring at their noses and contemplating their hearts. He knew he could not count on them. Konoha truly was plagued by troubles; they were all experts at internal strife and incompetents in foreign affairs.

The Third Hokage could not help thinking of his teacher. The Second Hokage, Tobirama Senju, had truly been accurate in judging people. He had known that Hiruzen would be the one willing to shoulder responsibility. But Hiruzen was sick of this personality of his, even himself. It was always like this—when it mattered most, it still fell to him.

"We will not agree to the Raikage's terms, but peace is also important to us. I have decided to negotiate with the Raikage until we reach an acceptable ceasefire agreement." After pondering for a long time, the Third Hokage arrived at a compromise.

It looked as though he had yielded before the Raikage's scorched-earth methods, but in truth, he had agreed to nothing. Not only had he kicked the problem back to the Raikage, he had also seized the initiative and gained a hidden advantage.

They would take the initiative to choose peace, then enter the bargaining stage. The Raikage had proposed the negotiations, so he could not possibly show no sincerity in bargaining. Once they began haggling, would both sides not need to pause their military operations? Once the front lines began cutting losses, Konoha's overall advantages would show. They could regroup nearby, perhaps even begin troop rotations early, swapping the rested forces in the rear with the exhausted troops at the front. They could also send surplus reserves on an appropriate number of missions to create value.

Even if the Cloud Ninja rotated troops like Konoha, their war potential was ultimately inferior to Konoha's. Rotation could not change the fact that more of their fighting strength had been damaged. War was fought with money. Whoever had greater war potential was more likely to become the final winner.

The most important point was supplies. Everyone knew Kumogakure's supply lines were stretched too long. Once ceasefire negotiations began, the materials hauled to the front every day alone would cost an astronomical sum. If they kept bleeding resources for nothing, the Raikage would only become less confident at the negotiating table.

A war of attrition—once the Third Hokage played this move, the Land of Lightning would be defeated without losing a battle.

Everyone present was shrewd. Upon hearing the Third Hokage's proposal and explanation, they immediately declared their unwavering support for Lord Hokage's decision, swearing to stand with Lord Hokage and oppose the conspiracies of reactionary foreign forces.

Danzo's feelings were extremely complicated at that moment. He had to admit that, in many ways, Hiruzen Sarutobi was genuinely admirable as Hokage. Danzo had not thought of such a simple war of attrition before. Most of the time, he relied on underhanded schemes to solve problems. Part of the reason he had opposed negotiations just now was years of experience: whenever faced with a dilemma, all he had to do was take the opposite position from Hiruzen Sarutobi. Hiruzen would not listen to him anyway. If things worked out, that was naturally good. If they did not, he could seize on that weakness of the Hokage. A large portion of the subordinates he had recruited over the years were people sacrificed by the Hokage's decisions—Kakashi had also served under Danzo for a time, largely because of Danzo's rhetoric about making the Hokage take the blame.

Yet he also wanted to resolve problems openly and honorably through political means, like Hiruzen Sarutobi. Unfortunately, at his age, his way of thinking had become a habit that was difficult to change.

"Hiruzen, your method is certainly good, but we cannot rely only on these measures. A ceasefire at the front is fine, but we cannot stop the spy war behind enemy lines. We can put greater pressure on Kumogakure and make them concede sooner. There is no reason for us to swallow this silent loss after being set up by their 'rogue ninja.' This list contains trash whose wills have been weakened by the war lately. Sign it and transfer them to me for training. I guarantee they will soon become useful spies." Danzo's actual job was to train spies who could be sacrificed at any time, turning them into human bombs when necessary.

The Third Hokage hesitated briefly, then finally accepted the documents Danzo handed him with a faintly weary expression. It was a stack of personal ninja files.

There were nine people in total. All of them had either performed exceptionally poorly while carrying out missions or after suffering attacks. Some had dragged down their teammates, some were cowardly and unfit to be ninja, and some had developed war trauma after being traumatized on the battlefield and were no longer suited to being ninja.

The files on the nine people were not long. The Third Hokage quickly finished reading them. Without saying much, he pulled out one person's file, then signed and handed the remaining eight files to Danzo.

The meaning was obvious. Danzo could take those eight people. This made Danzo pay closer attention to the ninja with war trauma whom the Third Hokage had kept behind.

Danzo had memorized the files of all nine people. The one retained by the Third Hokage was named Yamanaka Xingran. Ever since his entire team had been wiped out last time, he had developed a gambling addiction. That was a major taboo for ninja. Money could easily corrupt a ninja's will and made them ideal targets for recruitment by spies from other nations. Such targets only needed money; they were the low-risk, high-reward kind.

"This Yamanaka Xingran has violated one of the three ninja prohibitions. Do you still expect him to amount to anything?" Danzo did not have many thoughts about an ordinary Genin like him, but anyone the Third Hokage favored must have some redeeming quality. Was there intelligence Danzo did not know? Perhaps he should investigate again when he had the time.

To be continued.

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