An Unexpected Situation

Danzo got straight to the point, looking at Sarutobi Hiruzen with a grave expression as he said in a low voice, "Hiruzen, we must capture the Six-Tails this time!"

"Minato Namikaze is already handling that. Since the Six-Tails has delivered itself to our doorstep, we naturally won't be polite," Sarutobi Hiruzen glanced at Danzo and said indifferently, "It will serve as a good bargaining chip for negotiations with Kirigakure."

Danzo walked up to Sarutobi Hiruzen's desk and said sternly, "Hiruzen, do you still intend to return the Six-Tails to Kirigakure?"

Sarutobi Hiruzen took a deep look at Danzo and replied, "We'll see. It depends on how much of their interests Kirigakure is willing to sacrifice."

"Hmph," Danzo snorted coldly, "What qualifications does Kirigakure have to negotiate now? The Three-Tails is dead, and the Six-Tails Jinchuriki is dead. What can a mere Third Mizukage accomplish?"

"In my opinion, if we capture the Six-Tails, there is no need to return it to Kirigakure. It would be perfect to keep it in my Root."

Danzo looked at Sarutobi Hiruzen and said confidently:

"With the methods of my Root, our Konoha can gain an extra trump card for the future."

Sarutobi Hiruzen raised his eyelids and said flatly, "Whether we can keep it depends on the attitude of the other hidden villages; it's not something we can just decide to keep."

"Do you think Iwagakure, Kumogakure, and Sunagakure will let our Konoha possess another Tailed Beast?" Sarutobi Hiruzen rested his chin on his hand and said calmly.

What Sarutobi Hiruzen said was indeed the truth. Tailed Beasts existed as the ultimate trump cards for the great hidden villages; the other villages would certainly not allow the current Konoha to acquire another one.

"Heh..." Danzo sneered, "Isn't that simple? I have plenty of ways to make Kirigakure 'voluntarily' give up the Six-Tails."

"You had better behave yourself and not think about causing a major incident for me."

Hearing this, Sarutobi Hiruzen glared coldly at Danzo and said in a deep voice:

"We are in the final stages of the Ninja World War. This war cannot be dragged on any longer. After consecutive battles, our Konoha desperately needs to rest and recover."

"Hiruzen, this is exactly the time we should keep the Tailed Beast in Konoha. The stronger our strength, the more they will behave!"

Danzo's face turned ugly, and he looked at Sarutobi Hiruzen, who was sitting in the Hokage's seat, with displeasure:

"If you return the Six-Tails to Kirigakure, you will regret it sooner or later!"

"Heh... Danzo, your vision is still too short-sighted!" Sarutobi Hiruzen sneered, "I am the Hokage!"

"You!" Danzo was rendered speechless, then he turned and left with a cold face, filled with fury.

Watching Danzo's retreating back, Sarutobi Hiruzen shook his head. Danzo was short-sighted; he was fine for handling inconvenient matters in daily life.

But when facing truly major events, Danzo was useless, lacking a broader perspective.

In the current landscape, was a Tailed Beast something you could just swallow? How could the other hidden villages possibly agree?

If things went wrong, it would surely trigger another full-scale Ninja World War.

Some things could not be done just because one wanted to. Although Konoha was strong, it would not be easy to survive a siege by the other hidden villages.

This was not the era when the First Hokage sat in power, an era where one could sweep across the ninja world with one's own strength.

Although Konoha currently seemed to have a continuous emergence of high-level combatants and appeared to be thriving.

As Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen understood that the cultivation of Konoha's backbone—the Chunin and Genin—had long been failing to keep up due to the continuous wars.

During this war, Konoha had successively fought against Kumogakure, Iwagakure, and Kirigakure, resulting in massive casualties among the mid-to-low-level ninja.

The speed at which the Ninja Academy trained Genin could not keep up with the rate of consumption in the war.

If the fighting continued, Konoha would soon face a situation where there were no soldiers left to use.

"However, the Uchiha Clan..." Thinking of the Uchiha Clan, Sarutobi Hiruzen tapped his fingers on the desk unconsciously and muttered, "This clan truly produces many talents. First there was Uchiha Fugaku, then Uchiha Shisui, and recently another one has emerged, Uchiha Akira..."

Since taking office, Sarutobi Hiruzen had never fully trusted the Uchiha Clan.

It was mainly due to their past record, which made it difficult for Sarutobi Hiruzen to place one hundred percent trust in the Uchiha.

During the time Senju Tobirama served as Hokage, the Uchiha Clan had once attempted a coup d'état.

Although the coup was easily quelled, the impact of the event remained profound, causing the Uchiha Clan to no longer be fully trusted by the higher-ups.

During the Second Hokage's tenure, the Uchiha Clan still had Kagami Uchiha serving as the Hokage's guard, which barely allowed them to enter the core.

But by the time of the Third Hokage, the Uchiha Clan had been completely excluded from Konoha's core system.

With the lessons of the past, Sarutobi Hiruzen had always remained vigilant toward the Uchiha Clan.

"The Uchiha Clan has placed all their bets on Minato Namikaze..." Sarutobi Hiruzen's eyes were deep, his thoughts swirling, "That's fine. If Minato Namikaze is elected, the problem of the Uchiha Clan can be left for him to solve."

Minato Namikaze was a ninja he thought very highly of. If nothing unexpected happened, the candidate for the Fourth Hokage of Konoha would be chosen between Minato Namikaze and Orochimaru.

"That guy Orochimaru has been getting a bit too close to Danzo." Thinking of his prized disciple, Sarutobi Hiruzen frowned.

That guy Danzo was always up to small tricks, and nothing good could come of him colluding with Orochimaru.

Sarutobi Hir,uzen thought to himself, "I must make him pay attention. If he wants to become Hokage, he must walk in the sunlight, not skulk in the shadows."

On the other side, after Uchiha Akira returned home, he immediately used the Summoning Jutsu to summon a Ninja Cat.

They were the long-term partners of the Uchiha Clan, serving as their source of intelligence and their supplier of ninja tools and weapons.

Uchiha Akira's goal was to use Nekomata's channels to purchase containers for cultivating the severed flesh and blood of the Six-Tails.

Such medical equipment was basically impossible to buy within Konoha.

Many people knew that flesh and chakra separated from a Tailed Beast could be re-cultivated; it was not a secret.

Previously, Orochimaru had successfully cultivated a horn of the Eight-Tails using powder scraped from the horn of the Eight-Tails Gyuki.

Later, Kazuma of the Twelve Guardian Ninja collected the chakra that leaked out during the Nine-Tails Night and, after cultivation, created a Pseudo-Nine-Tails Jinchuriki.

From this, it is evident that this was not a particularly well-kept secret.

The difficulty does not lie in the method of cultivating Tailed Beast flesh or chakra, but rather in how to obtain the flesh or chakra of a Tailed Beast in the first place.

Tailed Beast chakra that has solidified into a physical form does not dissipate; instead, it stabilizes.

While Uchiha Akira was waiting for the cultivation container for the Six-Tails to arrive, inside a secret underground cavern somewhere.

Uchiha Obito, having assumed the identity of Uchiha Madara, was quietly listening to his subordinate White Zetsu report on the war situation.

Black Zetsu looked at Uchiha Obito, who was wearing a Tiger-Pattern Mask, and said, "Obito, should we go and capture the Six-Tails? This is an excellent opportunity."

"I am Uchiha Madara now!" Uchiha Obito, wearing the mask, cast a cold glance at Black Zetsu and said, "Do you know where the Six-Tails is?"

A hint of a smile appeared on Black Zetsu's dark face as he respectfully replied, "Lord Madara, White Zetsu has already located the hiding place of the Six-Tails."

"Very well." Uchiha Obito nodded and said, "Let this Six-Tails serve as a gift for when we go to see Nagato. It wouldn't be right to show up empty-handed."