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Or, do you still dare to look at him?
Unlike Hana, her dog Akayuki actually jumped up and down excitedly at this moment, looking at Hana and then at Naruto.
Then he licked the back of Hana's hand and excitedly chased after Naruto.
Seeing this, Hanaya had no choice but to stand up quickly and follow Akayuki's pace to chase after Naruto.
"."
at the same time.
Somewhere in the dense forest on the border of the Fire Nation.
In a larger cave, candles were lit brightly.
In the very center of the cave, there is a small paved military sand table.
A larger green flag is placed in the center of the sand table, with ten small flags around it.
There were red flags planted on all sides outside the small flag, and they were moved manually, one after another, close to the green flag, and then people pulled the green flag out and threw it away.
The green flag represents Konoha.
The red flag represents Kumogakure.
At this moment, the person controlling the flag was a blond young man wearing a Kumogakure ninja costume. Judging from his appearance, he was very young, probably in his twenties.
But this young man is an all-round elite jonin of the Hidden Cloud Village. He is regarded as the right-hand man of the Fourth Raikage and the leader of this Hidden Cloud Village operation.
At this time, Xi stroked his chin and looked at the sand table carefully. Only the last green flag on the sand table had not been pulled out.
"What happened to the people who went north? It's been so long, and no one has come back to reply to the letter?"
As soon as Xi asked the question, someone answered it immediately.
"Lord Xi, it is probably that the inspectors sent by Konoha to the north went too far and have not found it yet." said a burly Kumogakure ninja.
Xi nodded. This was the only answer he could give.
No matter which side it was, there were more than forty people rushing over to intercept. Even if they couldn't defeat them, someone should have come back to report. If no one came back, it meant they didn't encounter them.
As for the idea of being killed by the other party, that is really too far-fetched.
Ninjas are human beings, not wooden stakes. If there are more than 40 of them going together, even if they all turned into pigs, a few of them would be able to run away. How could they all die?
Thinking of this, Xi sighed and said, "Everyone, go change into Iwagakure's clothes. If the people going to the north don't come back in twenty minutes, then we will directly launch a full-scale attack to eat this wave of Konoha's escort personnel and Sunagakure's Shukaku."
"Yes!"
Watching his subordinates leave, Xi also took out a set of Iwagakure clothes and put them on, then stared at the green flag in the center of the sand table.
"Konoha, huh, Kumogakure is the strongest."
This time, their purpose is simple.
Create conflicts among the three kingdoms of wind, fire and earth, and seize Shukaku from Sand Village.
As long as this operation is successful, then Kumogakure will dare to kick Konoha out of its position as the leader of the five major nations.
The Ninja World War has been fought three times. Although Konoha won every time, it became more and more timid and cowardly.
Xi clearly remembered the records in the village that Kinkaku and Ginkaku of the Hidden Cloud Village launched a coup, led their troops to kill the Second Hokage, and did not suffer any retaliation afterwards.
The Hidden Cloud Village did not face any retaliation after capturing the former Nine-Tails Jinchuriki Uzumaki Kushina. Instead, Konoha took the initiative to settle the matter peacefully.
Xidu had not experienced those things personally, so he did not feel deeply about them.
However, Xi was deeply impressed by the plan to seize the Byakugan a few years ago. They took the initiative to provoke Konoha and seize the Byakugan.
In the end, Konoha not only did not dare to face their provocation, but instead took the initiative to send the leader of the Hyuga clan to apologize to them.
At that time, the people of Kumogakure were already prepared for war. When they learned that Konoha was apologizing to them, Kumogakure themselves were stunned.
That's not just any random person, he's the patriarch of the Hyuga clan, a big clan in Konoha.
He was sent out to apologize.
If this kind of thing of bowing one's head to apologize after being slapped in the face happened in the Hidden Cloud Village, even if it was the Raikage who did this, he would probably be sentenced to death.
However, Konoha really handed over the clan leader of Xiangri.
Since that time, everyone in Kumogakure has deeply understood that Konoha is actually just a paper tiger. It looks like the leader of the Five Nations, but in fact, its backbone is not even as good as the weakest Sand Village.
So why should such a cowardly village let him suppress them?
If Konoha is eliminated, Kumogakure will become the leader among the five nations in one fell swoop, and taking the resources from other countries would be a huge profit.
Now is the best time.
Konoha had just experienced a great war with Sunagakure, in which even the Hokage and the Kazekage were both killed. They took this opportunity to seize Shukaku and shift the blame to the Iwagakure Village.
As long as Shukaku finds the Jinchuriki of Kumogakure when there is a dispute between Konoha's Sand Village and Iwagakure, then it will be time for Kumogakure to declare war on Konoha again.
Not long after.
The Cloud Hidden Ninja who had left earlier came back, and he had changed into the Iwagakure uniform.
He bowed and said, "Master Xi, except for the forty-five people who went to the north, the remaining two hundred and fifty-five people have all arrived, changed into Iwagakure clothes, and are waiting for the general attack."
Xi nodded and stepped forward: "Wait another five minutes. If they don't come, we will set off immediately. This operation is not small in scale. The longer we delay, the greater the possibility of being discovered by Konoha."
"Yes!"
The village is taking a big risk in this plan of capturing the tailed beast and diverting the trouble. If Konoha and Sunagakure discover it in advance, they will have to face pressure from the three countries.
In order to avoid being discovered, Xi kicked out all the black people in the team despite the pressure before they set out, which angered many black brothers in the village.
Even Kirabi's stupid apprentice had caused trouble for Xi.
I guess after this mission is over, he will still be treated with sarcasm when he returns.
When he thought of this, Xi couldn't help but sigh: "Those pig brains, why can't they think carefully like Raikage-sama? There are no black skins in other countries, so they will be exposed as soon as they come."
After saying that, he reached out and pulled out the flag representing the Konoha escort troops and threw it aside casually.
Through the spy planted in Konoha, the number and leader of the people escorted by Konoha were already known.
"We're outnumbered three to one, Sarutobi Hazuki, can you handle it?"
"No, there are only a few dozen of you now."
"Wait to die!"
At this time, Xi didn't know that the people of Konoha had already known about the attack of Kumogakure, and the people who were exposed were the northern team he had been waiting for.
Or, should I say, a corpse.
Chapter 104 No One Can Be Left Behind
the other side.
The large force of Konoha escort team.
After Naruto rushed back with the body, Sarutobi Hazuki immediately arranged for people to search the body's memory, and it was confirmed that it was the Hidden Cloud Village that came to cause trouble again this time.
She immediately made a judgment that if there was a large-scale retreat, it would definitely be discovered, and then they would most likely face a direct and forceful attack from the Hidden Cloud Sect.
So instead of alerting the enemy, it is better to set a trap on the spot and wait for the enemy to come.
In order to avoid accidents, Ye Yue also arranged to remove the shackles of the Sand Village captives, and after informing them of the current situation, he recruited the captives into his own fighting force.
Then he ordered four people to set off in four different directions, two of them to speed up to the border between Wind and Fire to ask for support from Sand Village, and the other two to rush back to Konoha to inform Lady Tsunade.
Originally, one of the two people who returned to Konoha was Naruto, but Naruto was stubborn and refused to leave, and he did not listen to Ye Yue's orders.
There was no choice but to arrange for a young master from the Yamanaka family and a young lady from the Sarutobi family to go back.
After making a series of decisions, Sarutobi Hazuki still felt a bit of a headache. After all, if Kumogakure dared to come, they must have made sufficient preparations.
This battle is not easy to fight!
In the tent, Naruto saw Ye Yue sighing and groaning, so he smiled and went up to comfort her: "Madam, are you feeling unwell? Do you want me to give you a massage?"
This brat.
It's already this late and you're still thinking about taking advantage of me.
Ye Yue rolled her eyes speechlessly and said, "If you go back to the village now, I'll feel better."
Naruto turned a deaf ear to her, as if he didn't hear what she just said. He walked behind Ye Yue and put his hands on her shoulders and neck and started pressing.
He said, "I feel like you're avoiding me lately, ma'am."
The voice sounded a little aggrieved.
Ye Yue curled her lips and thought to herself, why am I hiding from you, don’t you have any idea in your mind?
It’s all because of you, little rascal, who always looks for opportunities to take advantage of me, openly or secretly.
However, the massage was quite comfortable.
Ye Yue enjoyed the neck massage, and the sadness on her face eased a little.
"When the fight starts, if we are at a disadvantage, you must not think of staying here, run back to Konoha quickly, understand? With your speed, if you want to escape, no one can catch you."
Her voice was a little tired: "Finally, I want to tell you something. It can be regarded as my last words. Can you help me take care of Konohamaru in the future?"
"no!"
Naruto refused outright.
Ye Yue frowned slightly and looked back at Naruto: "It's okay if you don't want to, but you must not stay here and die."
Seeing Ye Yue's slightly trembling eyelashes, Naruto paused and asked, "I've always found it strange. Why do you feel that you can't win? Isn't Konoha the strongest? Why do you have such low self-confidence?"
Hearing this, Ye Yue was stunned and her expression became strange.
Looking at Naruto's confused face, she pursed her lips, sighed softly, and finally said nothing.
Konoha has been showing weakness to its enemies over the years, and many small-scale frictions have occurred. Even if the ninjas under it win, it always ends with Konoha making concessions.
That's how self-confidence is slowly worn away.
If it had happened more than ten years ago when the Fourth Hokage was still around, how could the Sand Village dare to launch the Konoha collapse plan without the alliance of major powers, and how could the Cloud Village dare to sneak into Konoha on a large scale to intercept and kill the escort team.
I hope that this time, Lady Tsunade, who is in charge of Konoha, can be tougher when dealing with external forces.