Chapter 354: Onoki's Decision

Kitsuchi waited without speaking, waiting for Onoki. Finally, Onoki sighed and muttered, "This brings back the bitter memories of the last war."

Kitsuchi understood what Onoki meant. Iwa had paid a bitter price to eliminate the 3rd Raikage. Soon after, Minato eliminated an entire army of thousand ninjas consisting of only Jounins and Chunins by himself. The twin blows forced Onoki to back down and sign a peace agreement with Konoha.

Onoki could see that Kitsuchi was very dejected by his loss. In order to lift his morale, he said, "Though the losses are high, they show how dangerous this kid is. Any one of these 3 aspects would force us to take that ninja seriously. But this kid has all 3. And that too at the age of 14.

In the future, he will be as dangerous as Hatake Kakashi. Perhaps, he might even reach the same heights as Minato. If a similar incident like the Kyubi assault doesn't happen again, Konoha will once again enter a Golden period. We have to crush him before he completely matures. Otherwise, we won't have anyone to defend against Konoha in the future."

Onoki thought, 'Though we too have 3 promising youngsters, they are far lacking as compared to Fujin and Kakashi. It's very unlikely that Kurotsuchi, Akatsuchi or Deidara will reach the same level as me. So once my power begins to fade, we will be very vulnerable to any attacks from Konoha.'

Kitsuchi interrupted his thoughts and asked, "I agree. But how should we kill him? On seeing his speed first-hand and knowing that he has a summon that can fly, I can't deal with him myself. In fact, when he works together with his summon, even I am at risk."

Onoki nodded and said, "Yeah, you can't. The only way to kill him will be by catching him off guard with my Dust Release or with the Tailed Beast Bomb."

Kitsuchi argued, "But creating chances to do that will be very difficult. He will be more careful while going on missions from now on. Not to mention, you, Han and Roshi can't move around normally. It will raise a lot of questions if you do and enemy villages could set up traps to lure and eliminate you as well."

Kitsuchi understood that Konoha and other countries could set up traps as well. Konoha especially was very dangerous in this aspect due to having intelligent and devious planners like Hiruzen, Shikaku and Danzo and also had the Sannins to ensure the success of such traps.

Onoki said, "That's true. In addition, creating such chances will cause a lot of losses to our village. We could endure losing 50 Jounins once. But if it happens a couple more times, our strength will be crippled. So we will need outside aid."

Kitsuchi was surprised. He asked, "You mean?"

Onoki nodded and replied, "Even though Fujin is a threat, he specializes in Wind Release. Hiruzen should be developing him to restrain Kumo. Ay would understand what threat he would pose to them in the future. In fact, he will be even more worried than us."

Kitsuchi nodded. Onoki said, "I will send a messenger to Kumo and ask them for one thousand Earth Crystals in exchange for his information. Once they understand his threat, Ay will also act to kill him. Irrespective of whether Kumo kills him or he kills numerous Kumo ninjas, we will benefit from their losses.

Once Kumo sends over the resources, I will increase his bounty from 20 million to 50 million Ryo. Luckily, there is a certain mercenary organization that seems to need a lot of money."

Kitsuchi asked, "Akatsuki?"

Onoki nodded. Kitsuchi asked, "What about Suna? Considering his skills, it was likely that Fujin was the one behind the incidents in the Land of Wind a year ago."

Onoki snorted and answered, "That brat Rasa is useless. We have already provided them with so much information and yet, they have done nothing. Besides, they won't be able to afford the price of this information. Let them be caught off guard and suffer just like us."

Kitsuchi replied, "Alright."

Onoki said, "For now, focus on the ones who were killed. Find suitable excuses for their death and inform their families one by one. Keep the matter as quiet as you can. If the news of so many Jounin deaths is leaked, panic will spread in the village."

Kitsuchi's mood became heavy once again. He blamed himself for those losses. He nodded and said, "I will get it done personally."

He began walking out of the office. Onoki looked at his back and said, "Though this loss was unfortunate, it isn't a reason to give up what you started. Continue building this unit. Raise its numbers to beyond 200. Use what you learnt about him from this battle against him and train the ninjas to counter that.

Even if we don't get to use this unit against Fujin, a unit like this will become an asset for our village. Its impact might be as good as a rank S ninja."

Kitsuchi looked back and said with determination, "I will keep working with the ninjas and provide them with more training. Next time, we won't suffer such a loss."

Onoki nodded. Kitsuchi left the office. Onoki stayed silent for some time before letting out another sigh. He muttered, "What a troublesome brat. I need to provide more training to the youngsters."

Onoki grabbed a scroll and began writing a letter to Kumogakure.

Land of Waterfall -

Around the same time that Kitsuchi exited Onoki's office, Kakashi reached the border with the Land of Waterfall.

By then, the forest fire was doused and Takigakure's SealMasters had checked the village several times. However, no matter how many times they checked, they found no evidence of any seals in the village. They declared the village to be perfectly safe.

During this time, the other villages, where the villagers were supposed to be missing, sent messengers to nearby villages and the Ito family's town. Since those villagers also remembered just the headband, they informed everyone about the same. Due to the same thing being said to dozens of villages, a rumor started forming in the Ito Family's territory.

The rumor stated that Konoha ninjas were behind the recent missing incidents! Neither Konoha nor Takigakure were aware of the start of this rumor. Since the Ito Family wasn't in their town, they were unaware as well and did nothing to stop it.

Since the Takigakure army didn't find anything wrong in the village or any signs of Iwagakure ninjas, they decided to move on. They left just 2 squads in the village so that they wouldn't fall into a trap if Iwa had left one behind. They separated into smaller groups and began moving around the Ito family's territory to find any traces of Iwa ninjas.

However, despite searching for hours, they didn't find any traces of Iwa ninjas. Instead, they found that people in the remaining villages that had gone missing months ago also reappeared safe and sound. In addition, they also heard the rumors that were spreading.

They sent a message back to Takigakure and continued looking.

Takigakure -

Shibuki sat in his office with a confused expression. He read the scroll once again and wondered, 'What the heck is going on in the Ito Family's territory? First, so many people went missing without leaving any traces. Then Konoha ninjas claimed that they fought against Iwa ninjas and blamed them for the incident.

But our armies found no traces of combat. They only found a burning forest. And the missing people suddenly appeared back without any harm done. Only the people who were kidnapped individually are still missing. But the people who returned say that Konoha is behind the incidents...'

He wondered, 'Is Konoha trying to make a fool of me? But what would they get from such actions?'

He analyzed for a few minutes before shaking his head. He concluded, 'No, Konoha doesn't have anything to gain from this. If they wanted something, they could have easily hidden their identities from normal civilians. They won't do such a sloppy job. So Iwa is still the most suspicious one. But why is Iwa doing this?'

Shibuki called for a council meeting. After a long discussion, they reached the same conclusion. The only thing they couldn't agree upon was the intention behind Iwa's actions.

They waited for a day to receive more updates from their ninjas. However, they didn't find any additional information. The only thing that happened was that the rumor spread even more and started spreading to nearby territories.

Shibuki sent a messenger to Kakashi's camp, informing him about the situation. By the time the messenger reached, Renjiro and Eagle had already reached and joined up with Kakashi's 250 ninjas, taking the total number to over 750.

Kakashi, Renjiro and Eagle sat in the commander's camp with confused and peculiar expressions on their faces. All three were trying to make sense of the situation.