novelraw Chapter 22 Someone actually came in!
Chapter 22 Someone actually came in!
Chapter 22 Someone actually came in!
After returning from Yahiko's place, Shiba Kiyokawa began writing a letter to Hanzo the Salamander.
He has no intention of surrendering to Hanzo, and even plans to kill this old man Deng in the future and plunder his gold coins!
But for now, he still needs to find a way to appease this nominal guardian deity of the Rain Kingdom.
Shiba Kiyokawa's plan for the future destruction of Akatsuki is to first stabilize the former and then focus on dealing with the latter!
This is not only because Danzo is more hated, but also because Shimura Danzo now represents Konoha.
As a Rain Ninja, Shiba Kiyokawa has a natural right to attack Konoha!
On the other hand, Hanzo the Salamander is still the nominal leader of the Land of Rain. Openly opposing Hanzo would only plunge the Land of Rain into internal strife sooner.
Shiba Kiyokawa wasn't afraid of civil war; he didn't care about war and even enjoyed watching rivers of blood flow.
But he cared about timing and whether he could benefit the most from this civil war!
This is clearly not a good time.
The Third Shinobi World War had only just begun, and those major events that Shiba Kiyokawa was familiar with in his previous life, such as the Battle of Kannabi Bridge, the Battle of Kikyo Mountain, and the First Seven Ninja Swordsmen being reduced to the status of a lucky trio, had not yet occurred.
This shows that the war has not yet truly reached its climax. The Great Ninja Village is still in a strategic probing and stalemate phase, and the two sides have not yet turned each other's brains into dogs.
If the Land of Rain were to suddenly descend into chaos at this point, the surrounding great ninja villages would likely be more than willing to halt their fighting, divide up the Land of Rain, and then resume their battle.
Just like when they joined forces to destroy the Land of Whirlpools!
Only when the war escalates to a full extent and all the major ninja villages are mired in the quagmire and unable to extricate themselves will it be the best time for Shiba Kiyokawa to deal with Hanzo the Salamander!
Prior to this, Shiba Kiyokawa's stance had always been to first appease this demigod.
He appears submissive to lull his opponent into a false sense of security.
Therefore, the entire letter was filled with praise and flattery!
The author devotes considerable space to praising Hanzo the Salamander's outstanding contributions to the development of the Land of Rain, fondly recalls the many glorious achievements of the demigod during the last Shinobi World War, and lavishly praises Hanzo's wisdom and prowess.
In conclusion: I think Pisces has a brilliant insight!
Then it was implied that the Land of Rain is still rife with undercurrents, with Sand Village and Iwa Village ninjas frequently roaming around. The Akatsuki organization has been dedicated to protecting the people of the Land of Rain and eliminating these traitors, making them extremely loyal!
Finally, they earnestly hoped that the demigod would trust them more, and offered some supplies as a token of their sincerity, hoping that the demigod would accept them with a smile.
Although this long letter was ridiculously sycophantic, and even Shiba Kiyokawa himself felt goosebumps after writing it, in reality, apart from a bunch of flattery, Shiba Kiyokawa didn't make any substantial concessions.
They neither relinquished command of the Akatsuki nor promised to halt its expansion.
Instead, he subtly made a request, asking Hanzo for more "trust".
If Hanzo the Salamander is overwhelmed by this flattery and actually makes a promise, then he has fallen into his trap!
Tomorrow he'll dare to use a trifled command as an imperial edict, relying on Hanzo's trust to capture and kill all the Rain Ninja who have extorted Akatsuki members!
This is Shiba Kiyokawa's style of doing things: he doesn't care about showing weakness on the surface, he only cares about real benefits!
It's a pity that one-eighth of the supplies were offered as tribute.
But there was nothing they could do about it; because of Yahiko's previous extravagant spending, they could no longer hide the fact that they had seized supplies.
It's unlikely this matter will be resolved without paying some "friendship fee".
After writing the letter, he handed it to Konan along with the scroll containing the sealed supplies, and Konan sent it to Hanzo the Salamander via paper disc.
Shiba Kiyokawa has no plans to meet with Hanzo in the near future.
When the day comes when all preparations are complete, he hopes to kill him on their first meeting!
After the letter was sent, all that was left was to wait.
Everyone in the organization was very uneasy.
A person's name is like a tree's shadow; during this period, Hanzo the Salamander still held great weight in the hearts of many ninjas in the Land of Rain.
Fortunately, even before a reply came back, just two days later, many people had already experienced the positive changes.
On this day, an Akatsuki member returned to the base with great joy and excitedly shouted as soon as he opened the door.
"Good news! Brothers, good news! All the ninjas outside Rain Village left last night. I checked the woods outside the village this morning, and they took all their tents with them. It seems they don't plan to ambush us anymore."
Throughout the day, more and more members returned to report positive changes.
"People in the southern town told me that the ninjas who kept coming to threaten them a couple of days ago finally didn't show up today."
"The group of Rain Ninja who clashed with us three days ago sent us a letter today with kunai, saying that it was all a misunderstanding."
"I went out on my routine patrol today, and thankfully, I didn't encounter any more unexplained attacks!"
By evening, Yahiko finally breathed a sigh of relief.
"It seems that Lord Hanzo has finally come to understand us."
Shiba Kiyokawa happened to be waiting for a reply in Yahiko's room at that moment. Upon hearing this, he rolled his eyes and bluntly retorted, "This has nothing to do with understanding. It's just that the money has been paid."
Yahiko wanted to defend his ideals, but before he could speak, everyone started praising Shiba Kiyokawa.
"You're so resourceful, Qinghe-jun! We were all so worried when you weren't back!"
"As expected, we still have to rely on Qinghe-jun!"
Yahiko was speechless at this scene.
Although I was very unhappy, I couldn't find a reason to refute it.
Because he couldn't find a solution himself before Shiba Kiyokawa returned.
This is a disqualification for him as a leader...
What upset him even more was that this time neither Konan nor Nagato came to comfort him.
Xiao Nan wasn't even looking at him; instead, she closed her eyes, lost in thought, seemingly manipulating the paper butterflies flying outside.
A moment later, Xiao Nan opened her eyes and exclaimed with delight, "A reply has arrived!"
Everyone's spirits were lifted!
A paper butterfly carrying a letter flew into the room. Yahiko was about to reach out to catch it when, unexpectedly, the paper butterfly bypassed him and landed smoothly and naturally in Shiba Kiyokawa's hand.
For a moment, Yahiko's expression froze slightly.
Fortunately, everyone in the room was not paying attention to him at the moment, but instead staring at Shiba Kiyokawa as he opened and read the letter.
This effectively prevented Yahiko from feeling embarrassed...
Soon, Shiba Kiyokawa finished reading, and everyone noticed that his expression was off, causing their hearts to jump again, which had just begun to calm down.
"What's wrong, Qinghe? What did Hanzang say? Could it be...?"
Shiba Kiyokawa patted Minami's hand reassuringly, signaling her not to panic.
"Don't worry, Hanzo didn't show any hostility towards us in his letter. On the contrary, he praised us."
The matter has been resolved satisfactorily, and everyone should be able to get a good night's sleep tonight.
Everyone in the room breathed a sigh of relief and then expressed their gratitude and praise to Shiba Kiyokawa.
Xiao Nan was still a little worried and asked, "Then why did your expression look so strange just now?"
Shiba Kiyokawa handed over the letter, saying, "Minami-nee, take a look for yourself. We'll probably have an extra mission coming up soon."
His strange expression wasn't because the result was bad, but simply because he was a little surprised.
In his letter to Hanzo, in order to exaggerate the crisis situation of the Land of Rain, he casually made up a sentence, saying that the Sand Village and the Iwa Village had recently been wreaking havoc within its borders.
My intention was simply to exaggerate the external threat and warn Hanzo of the Salamander not to start a civil war at this time! He should weigh the consequences carefully!
Surprisingly, Hanzo the Salamander actually gave him a task in his reply—
Go and deal with the Sand Village ninja squad that's been roaming the southwest of the Land of Rain.
It's easy to imagine how difficult it must have been for Shiba Kiyokawa to keep his composure the moment he saw the letter.
I just made something up on the spot, and somehow a Sand Village ninja actually sneaked in?
Damn! What kind of place is this Land of Rain? Is it really a place anyone can come to whenever they want?!
(End of this chapter)