A Talk in the Tent

"To secure one's position, one must rely on virtue, propriety, winning over the noble and shinobi clans, treating the village's Jonin with courtesy, taking a wife and using her family's influence, winning over the Hokage's wife..."

These were things an heir apparent should do.

Orochimaru had not done a single one of them.

Looking at it this way, Masaichi's mentality nearly collapsed. How had Orochimaru managed to play such a good hand so disastrously?

Minato next door had directly married a Jinchūriki.

He had also earned achievements great enough to overshadow his lord; the army knew Minato but not his teacher.

His personality had also won the Hokage's favor, making the Hokage prefer him and eventually discard the elder in favor of the younger.

Minato also had Jiraiya, one of the Sannin, as his teacher. Jiraiya maintained good relationships with every shinobi clan head and could remember the names of every shinobi in the village, great or small. It was said that he was even friends with Fugaku Uchiha.

Such a perfect man without a single flaw.

His teacher...

Fuck, if he were Hiruzen Sarutobi, he seemed like he would favor Minato too.

No, no, they would not talk about that.

After hearing Masaichi's analysis,

Danzo suddenly wanted to jump into the water. Perhaps he should just obediently remain the leader of Root.

Or should he wait until Minato died before considering the Hokage's position?

But Minato was so young! The grass on Danzo's grave would be ten meters tall before Minato might even step down, and he would still be in his prime.

Orochimaru truly felt somewhat unwilling to accept it. Hiruzen Sarutobi had deceived him before.

But after Masaichi's analysis, the situation had indeed become clear.

The strengths and weaknesses of both sides had been laid bare.

Orochimaru's advantage was that he could play dirty. With Minato's personality and public image, he could perhaps play dirty with the Nine-Tails, but he could not handle truly underhanded schemes.

That was also Minato's greatest weakness. When Orochimaru played dirty, everyone considered it normal. If Minato played dirty, his image would collapse. They could make an issue out of it in minutes. Konoha Village's residents were skilled at creating gods, and just as skilled at destroying them.

"Should we just kill Minato directly?" Danzo said viciously.

"Tsk." With that sound, Masaichi seemed to have said a great many things.

What opportunity was there to kill Minato now?

Even if they could get Minato killed now, a furious Hiruzen Sarutobi would probably skip a generation and train Kakashi rather than choose those three pieces of shit.

"Launch a coup. I still have twelve hundred shinobi under my command, plus Root." Orochimaru felt that he might as well directly call back his troops from Hidden Cloud Village!!

"It's too late, Teacher. If so many of our troops suddenly return to Konoha, Hiruzen Sarutobi will definitely notice and stop us."

Still, that was not impossible. It merely required some time and strategy.

"Then what should we do?"

Orochimaru and Danzo turned their gazes toward the only politically savvy man present.

At a time like this, Masaichi did not beat around the bush.

"Both sides have nearly laid their cards on the table. There's no need to yield at every turn anymore. We need to fight for even a single shinobi."

Orochimaru and Danzo both nodded repeatedly after hearing that.

Indeed, there was no need for them to yield anymore.

Who knew whether the two of them felt like laughing.

Over the next half hour, Masaichi thoroughly went over what they should and should not do.

Logically, he should not have needed to teach them what not to do.

But Danzo was standing before him. If Danzo had not gone out and joined forces with Hanzō to get Yahiko killed, there would not have been the later incident of Konoha being steamrolled.

Who knew what Danzo had done outside the story?

Masaichi believed that the most important thing they needed to do now was find an international ally.

Having an ally standing behind them and cheering them on would benefit both their reputation and everything else.

"Oh, Teacher, I still have Obito's Sharingan. Please help me study it."

Hidden Cloud Village's front line.

Hiruzen Sarutobi had transferred all the shinobi clans away to Minato, so only civilians remained here.

With a steady supply of yeast protein powder, along with supplements that could be provided every few days as production increased, every one of Orochimaru's subordinates was tall and strong.

As far as the eye could see, they were all muscular brutes like A.

Of course, the quality of their muscles was certainly nowhere near A's.

Orochimaru had ordered the entire army to bare their upper bodies and get three full hours of sunlight every day to supplement vitamin D. Thus, Konoha's originally fair- or yellow-skinned shinobi had all become wheat-skinned.

After Masaichi recovered from his injuries, Orochimaru gave him an order, and he rushed over day and night.

Hayakawa Rin, Kurosaki Ren, and Tsukishima Yoru, three middle-aged men, were all Orochimaru's trusted subordinates. They were responsible for this shinobi army.

Naturally, the three trusted subordinates ranked below him, Orochimaru's self-proclaimed beloved disciple.

"What?! The Third is going to strip Lord Orochimaru of his military authority?" Hayakawa Rin anxiously paced back and forth in the wilderness.

Kurosaki Ren and Tsukishima Yoru also looked anxiously at Masaichi.

This had happened while Masaichi was recovering. What was meant to come would always come. Hiruzen Sarutobi could not find an excuse to directly suppress Orochimaru, so he could only strip away his military authority.

It just so happened that Hidden Rock Village and Konoha had entered peace negotiations.

Once the pressure on Konoha's northwest eased, Jiraiya could lead shinobi to resist Hidden Cloud Village. Then Minato could lead an elite force to the Hidden Mist Village front. Once Minato resolved the Hidden Mist Village crisis, he could then support Hidden Cloud Village.

That way, Minato would achieve a complete grand slam throughout the Third Shinobi World War, his battle record maxed out. Who else could possibly take the Hokage's position?

Therefore, Orochimaru's influence in Hidden Cloud Village had to be cut away.

In response, Masaichi and the other three devised something truly vicious.

They would sell out an ally!

They were preparing to sell out Jiraiya.

As long as Jiraiya dared to come, they dared to sell him out.

Before long, a burly dark-skinned man arrived under the escort of the Raikage's guard unit.

"Cooperation?" A had come here after receiving Orochimaru's letter.

"Yes." Masaichi nodded. "You probably know Konoha's situation. They're discarding the elder in favor of the younger. The Third is preparing to depose my teacher."

"Is that so? Then Hiruzen Sarutobi truly is awful." A casually echoed him.

Although A did not want to play these roundabout games, he had reached an agreement with Orochimaru. As long as Orochimaru became Hokage, he would meet Hidden Cloud Village's demands. Hidden Cloud Village's requirement, meanwhile, was to focus on Jiraiya's shinobi forces when the two armies clashed.

A requested two Byakugan. Perhaps because he trusted Masaichi, who had fought him for an entire afternoon for his teacher's honor, A did not ask Orochimaru to write any proof or anything of the sort.

He felt that since Orochimaru had once held the position of acting Hokage, he should at least honor basic political credibility, right? Otherwise, who would cooperate with him next time?