After explaining some things to Kōki, Jiraiya left Kōki's room with several high-ranking officials, allowing Kōki had been exhausted from the day, to rest.
After watching Jiraiya and the others leave, Kōki lay heavily on his bed, looking exhausted. Today, he had been battling Tailed Beast and learning Sage Mode; he was practically dead from exhaustion.
Fortunately, the hard times are finally over. He has successfully learned Sage Mode and his strength has greatly improved. In this happy mood, Kōki feels that going to the Kumogakure battlefield is nothing.
The next day, Kōki led the ninja force that Jiraiya had Jiraiya selected to support the battlefield in Kumogakure.
"..."
Meanwhile, in the windswept, Iwagakure, Ōnoki, looked at the ninja before him and asked, "Well, have they given us a reply? I think they won't refuse the price I offered this time."
Upon hearing Ōnoki 'Ōnoki question, the ninja in front of him quickly replied, " Lord Tsuchikage, we have received their reply; they have agreed. However, it will take them three days to arrive."
"That's good. I was really afraid they would refuse." Ōnoki breathed a slight sigh of relief, seemingly having received some good news from the ninja in front of him.
However, his expression still held a hint of melancholy. When did Iwagakure, one of the Five Great Nations, have to rely on other organizations for its affairs? Was Iwagakure truly declining?
Ōnoki looked out the window, but his thoughts drifted back to yesterday.
Yesterday, news of the consecutive defeats of Roshi and Han reached Iwagakure.
Ōnoki, who was working in the Tsuchikage's office at the time, was so angry that he smashed his desk and yelled at the ninja who came to deliver the message: "Is Kitsuchi an idiot? He managed to lose to Konoha with a lineup of Roshi and Han, and even got Roshi captured by Konoha. Is he supposed to be a commander on the front lines?"
"Even a pig in this position would be better than him. At least a pig would know not to let the village's two great weapons fall into Konoha's hands. He should have fought Konoha to the death to retrieve Roshi instead of being scared by an exhausted Wood Release brat. Now he's telling me Roshi was captured by Konoha and only one man came back. He's a piece of trash, a sinner of Iwagakure."
Enraged, Ōnoki completely disregarded the fact that Kitsuchi was his son, and that he was the one who wanted Kitsuchi to be the battlefield commander. All he knew now was that Kitsuchi had put Iwagakure in such a predicament, losing both his wife and his army.
Roshi, the Jinchūriki the Four-Tails, such a powerful fighter was abandoned on the battlefield.
How will other ninja villages view Iwagakure? Are they supposed to tell everyone that Iwagakure is a ninja village that would abandon even its most important strategic weapon?
This would probably make them a laughingstock among the other ninja villages, who would mock their Iwagakure for failing to protect even their most important weapons.
At that moment, Ōnoki was very disappointed in his son, Kitsuchi. There were three Kage Level shinobi on the front line of Iwagakure, two of whom were even stronger Jinchūriki. How could such a lineup be defeated by Konoha's Jiraiya and the Wood Release kid?
When did the Iwagakure become so fragile?
He regretted letting the incompetent Kitsuchi lead the Iwagakure Iwagakure; it would have been better if someone else from the village had led them.
Of course, besides feeling regret, Ōnoki was also somewhat shocked.
The two Jinchūriki and even unleashed the complete form of the Tailed Beast. Despite such strength, they were still defeated by Wood Release brat from Konoha. What's even more terrifying is that this Wood Release brat didn't use any secret techniques to unleash his full power. In other words, this brat defeated the Four-Tails and Five-Tails entirely based on his true abilities.
This also made Ōnoki want to strangle Kitsuchi with his own hands. The post-battle intelligence analysis clearly pointed out that the Wood Release technique was exhausted and all his subsequent actions were just bluffing, but Kitsuchi, that idiot, was really scared.
He's more than ten years older than that brat, and with such rich experience, he was still fooled by that Wood Release kid. He's really disgraced Iwagakure.
"Then, Lord Tsuchikage, what should we do next?" The ninja in front of Ōnoki kept his head down, not daring to look up at Ōnoki, for fear of being implicated by Ōnoki's current rage. If he hadn't heard Ōnoki calming his breathing, he wouldn't have dared to ask.
Having vented his frustrations, Ōnoki, having calmed himself, said to the Iwagakure before him, "We can't rely on Kitsuchi anymore. Konoha won't let us bring Roshi back so easily. But just because we can't doesn't mean others can't. Go to the exchange and post a mission related to the Land of Earth. Remember to mark the bounty with a sun symbol. I need to find some helpers to come and assist me."
Ōnoki knew that if he wanted to get Konoha back from Roshi, he would have to pay a heavy price. Since that was the case, he decided to have other strong fighters bring Roshi back for him.
Coincidentally, he has been cooperating with a mysterious organization recently.
This mysterious organization is extremely powerful; it has successfully completed many tasks that even it found challenging.
Therefore, given Konoha's wariness of Iwagakure, having this mysterious organization take action is the best course of action.
Moreover, this would also allow us to test the true strength of the mysterious organization and see if it could remain powerful when facing the strongest ninja village in the Shinobi World.
If he can escape unscathed even when facing Konoha, then he really needs to elevate the importance of this organization.
After hearing Ōnoki's instructions, the Iwagakure ninjas were somewhat puzzled, but they did not ask any questions. Instead, they left Ōnoki's office to carry out Ōnoki mission.
The next day, they received a reply from the mysterious organization, indicating that they had accepted the mission issued by Iwagakure, but that specific details would need to be negotiated in the Land of Earth.
This led to the situation where Ōnoki began talking with his subordinates.
The mysterious organization that Ōnoki mentioned was none other than the Light Organization founded by Aizen.
After Iwagakure issued this mission yesterday, Kuroki, who had been guarding the gold exchange, told Aizen about the mission details.
Upon seeing this message, Aizen immediately realized that Ōnoki wanted to discuss something with them.
He also speculated that Ōnoki and his group were most likely concerned about the war between Iwagakure and Konoha, most likely because of Roshi's capture.
Because this matter had already spread throughout the Shinobi World following Konoha's victory, virtually every ninja village, large or small, was mocking Iwagakure.
So as long as Ōnoki isn't senile, he'll definitely find a way to eliminate this influence.
So what's the best way to eliminate the impact? It's to take Roshi back from Konoha.
Only in this way can the humiliation of Iwagakure be washed away.