Starting Out With Indra's Chakra Chapter 43

Liu Feng had no intention of playing around with the Third Kazekage any longer. He activated his Mangekyō Sharingan.

At the sight of those eerie Mangekyō Sharingan, the Third Kazekage nearly lost his soul. He shut his eyes at once, turned around, and frantically fled using the Body Flicker Technique.

"What the hell?"

Liu Feng stared blankly at the fleeing Third Kazekage. The man's reaction had been so unexpected that Liu Feng had even forgotten to pursue him.

"The dignified Third Kazekage actually ran away like a coward the moment he saw my Mangekyō Sharingan?"

Liu Feng scorned the Third Kazekage inwardly. How embarrassing. Was someone like this even worthy of being a village's Kage?

In truth, the Third Kazekage had fled because the moment Liu Feng activated his Mangekyō Sharingan, he sensed the threat of death.

With death hanging over him, how could the Third Kazekage care about his pride? Pride was nowhere near as important as his life. He was still young and had only recently become the Third Kazekage. He had no desire to die on the battlefield.

Some of the surrounding ninjas witnessed the Third Kazekage's escape. The Sunagakure ninja felt ashamed; their own Kage had actually been scared into running away. Was this truly their strongest Kazekage?

The ninjas from the other villages naturally looked down on the Third Kazekage, and even their gazes toward the Sunagakure ninja carried a trace of contempt.

This sneak attack by the Three Ninja Villages Allied Forces was ultimately repelled by Konoha. After all, this was Konoha's home ground.

Moreover, Konoha was a cradle of geniuses, so it naturally had many powerful ninjas. After Liu Feng scared off the Third Kazekage, he began slaughtering his way through the enemy, leading the Uchiha Clan Members in driving them into a rout.

Seeing how fierce the Uchiha Clan Members and Liu Feng were, the other Konoha Ninja did not want to be outdone either. Their burst of fighting power even frightened the allied forces of the Three Ninja Villages.

After repelling the enemy, Hiruzen Sarutobi came over to praise Liu Feng. However, Liu Feng had always disdained such empty verbal praise without any tangible reward.

The repelled Third Kazekage, Ōnoki, and Hanzo of the Salamander were now sitting together.

"Third Kazekage, I heard that Uchiha Liu Feng scared you into fleeing yesterday. Is that true?"

Ōnoki asked blandly, his tone oddly mocking, as though he were deliberately ridiculing the Third Kazekage.

Hanzo of the Salamander looked at his nose, his nose at his heart, but when he glanced at the Third Kazekage, there was also a hint of disdain in his eyes. This young Kazekage was utterly useless.

The allied forces of the Three Ninja Villages appeared solid, but in reality they were filled with schemes and infighting. Especially Ōnoki—whenever he got the chance, he had to mock someone. He simply loved showing off.

"You have never fought Uchiha Liu Feng, so you do not know how powerful he is."

The Third Kazekage's face darkened.

If he had not fled yesterday, he might have died on the battlefield. Thus, aside from fleeing, the Third Kazekage had no other choice.

"Heh, he's just a brat. How powerful could he possibly be?"

Ōnoki let out a cold, mocking laugh.

"He activated the Mangekyō Sharingan. Don't you know that?" The Third Kazekage rose angrily to his feet and glared at the little old man, Ōnoki.

In fact, Ōnoki was still in his prime, but he looked like a little old man. Perhaps becoming Kage had given him too many responsibilities, making him appear somewhat aged.

Take Hiruzen Sarutobi, for example. He was only around forty, yet he looked no different from someone in his fifties.

Listening to the Third Kazekage's words and his furious roar, Ōnoki fell silent for a moment.

He might have looked down on Uchiha Liu Feng's age, but he had to respect the Mangekyō Sharingan. Speaking of which, Ōnoki also had a psychological shadow regarding the Sharingan.

When he was young, he had accompanied his teacher, the Second Tsuchikage, to Konoha to discuss an alliance. By coincidence, they encountered Uchiha Madara.

Uchiha Madara then used Susanoo to seriously injure both master and disciple, mocking them relentlessly afterward. Ōnoki still remembered those events clearly.

Uchiha Madara could be said to be Ōnoki's childhood nightmare.

"Before Uchiha Liu Feng even used the Mangekyō Sharingan, he was already evenly matched with me. Now that he has activated it, he has become even stronger."

The Third Kazekage spoke solemnly to Ōnoki and Hanzo of the Salamander.

This time, he was flattering himself. When had he ever been evenly matched with Liu Feng?

Every time he faced Liu Feng, he was beaten up before fleeing in panic.

"You couldn't even defeat Uchiha Liu Feng before he used the Mangekyō Sharingan?"

Ōnoki and Hanzo of the Salamander wore strange expressions. They looked at the Third Kazekage as though they were looking at trash. No, that was exactly the look they were giving him.

"What do you mean by that?"

The Third Kazekage was no fool. He had already understood the meaning in their eyes. In fact, they had not even tried to hide it, plainly telling him that they were looking at trash.

"If you think you are stronger than me, then go challenge Uchiha Liu Feng yourselves. Stop mocking me here, unless you want to go to war with Sunagakure."

He could be meek and submissive before Uchiha Liu Feng, but before Ōnoki and Hanzo of the Salamander, the Third Kazekage was more than capable of throwing his weight around.

Was the Third Kazekage really weak? If Ōnoki did not use Dust Release, he might not necessarily be able to defeat the Third Kazekage, who wielded Magnet Release.

As for after Ōnoki used Dust Release... well, if he was careless, the Third Kazekage might be instantly killed by Dust Release.

Hanzo of the Salamander might be known as the Half-God of the Shinobi World, but he was not much stronger than the Third Kazekage. The three of them were actually roughly on the same level.

Even if the Third Kazekage was slightly weaker, the gap was extremely limited. As a Kekkei Genkai ninja, how could he possibly be weak?

Hadn't Sasori even used the Third Kazekage as his trump card? (Funny)

"Konoha has not yet been defeated. This is not the time for us to turn against one another."

Hanzo of the Salamander stepped in to mediate. If they started infighting now, defeating Konoha would become difficult.

"That useless Third Raikage. We held back most of Konoha's forces, and he still got defeated."

Ōnoki calmed down and stopped provoking conflict with the Third Kazekage, but began cursing the Third Raikage instead.

When he had first heard that the Third Raikage was sending troops to claim a share of the spoils, Ōnoki had been furious. Later, when he received news of the Third Raikage's defeat, Ōnoki had secretly rejoiced.

But now, he started complaining that the Third Raikage was too useless.

Sure enough, women were not the only fickle ones. Even a little old man like Ōnoki was fickle.

"Actually, Konoha cannot possibly defeat us. They are merely holding on by force. Whether in number of ninjas or other aspects, we surpass Konoha."

Ōnoki began analyzing the situation. They had several times more ninjas than Konoha. Even though Konoha had gained another force of Reinforcements, the gap between them remained enormous.

"So there is no need to keep dragging this out with Konoha. We should gather all our strength and launch a full-scale assault on the Konoha Ninja."

Dragging things out would not benefit the Three Ninja Villages Allied Forces. The supplies they consumed on the battlefield were considerable, and all of that was hard cash.

War was fought with money, and Konoha had the wealthiest Land of Fire backing it. Even combined, they might not be able to match Konoha economically.

Most of the Land of Wind was desert, so it was dirt poor. As for the Land of Rain, one only had to look at the chaos within its borders to know it was too poor to put food on the table.

Only the Land of Earth was somewhat better off, but it certainly could not compare with the Land of Fire. Even combined, they would be utterly crushed by the Land of Fire. That was why they had attacked Konoha and the Land of Fire.

"After gathering all our forces, who will command them?"

The Third Kazekage asked Ōnoki.

All three sides had their own hidden agendas, so they had never been able to unite their ninja forces. That was also why Konoha had been able to hold on for so long.

If they truly united and trusted one another, Konoha would have been unable to endure long ago.

"Of course I will be the supreme commander."

Ōnoki volunteered without hesitation. The Third Kazekage was too young, and Hanzo of the Salamander was merely the leader of a small Ninja Village. Neither was qualified to compete with him. Only he was suited to be the supreme commander.

A cold smile hung on the Third Kazekage's face, clearly signaling his refusal.

Hanzo of the Salamander on the other side remained silent. His silence already made his attitude clear: he did not agree with Ōnoki becoming the supreme commander.

What if Ōnoki tricked them and sent their villages' ninjas forward as cannon fodder? Would they not suffer catastrophic losses?

In any case, they could not trust Ōnoki. They had come together because of profit, not trust.

The Three Ninja Villages gathered and discussed the matter for half a day, but in the end they parted on bad terms. Gathering their forces to attack Konoha was not a problem, but everyone wanted to be the supreme commander.

In the end, none of them got the position. The Third Kazekage left in anger, while Hanzo of the Salamander also returned to the Amegakure camp.

Though his Amegakure was the weakest of the three, that did not mean Hanzo of the Salamander was willing to obey another's command. His ambition was for the Land of Rain to become the sixth great nation and Amegakure the sixth great Ninja Village. Naturally, he was unwilling to submit to others.

Ōnoki's expression was ugly in the end. If their strength could not be united, how could they defeat the Konoha Ninja?

While they were gathered to discuss matters, Hiruzen Sarutobi also summoned the ninjas for a meeting to discuss how they should fight next.

Liu Feng also arrived at the Command Center and joined the meeting.

Most of the Jonin in the camp had been summoned. Liu Feng had just crushed the Third Kazekage and beaten him into fleeing, so naturally he was qualified to join the discussion.

"What are your thoughts?"

Hiruzen Sarutobi's expression was not very good. Although they had repelled the Three Ninja Villages Allied Forces last night, they had suffered considerable losses themselves.

"Teacher, I think we need to find a point of breakthrough and defeat one ninja force first. Otherwise, Konoha will eventually be dragged down."

Orochimaru spoke with a cold expression.

"I agree as well. Konoha cannot afford to keep dragging this out." Hatake Sakumo supported Orochimaru's suggestion.

In fact, Hiruzen Sarutobi thought the same way. The Three Ninja Villages Allied Forces could not afford a war of attrition, but Konoha was even less willing to continue one.

"No. We absolutely cannot take the initiative to attack now. Otherwise, Konoha will suffer terrible losses and may even be seized upon and crushed."

Danzo opposed the idea, and he was not the only one.

Defeating one ninja force by finding a breakthrough point sounded easy enough, but if they attacked one of them, would the other two simply stand by and watch?

"In my view, we should continue to wear them down, but destroy the supplies of the Three Ninja Villages. Once they cannot hold out without supplies, they will naturally retreat without a fight."