Chapter 91 Walking on Thin Ice
When the new leader of the Rain Country greeted Minato Namikaze in a familiar manner, the Konoha ninjas accompanying him were also stunned.
Minato Namikaze did not bring his three disciples with him today, so he was the only one present who knew Shiba Kiyokawa.
This is because Kakashi has now begun preparing for promotion to Jonin and needs to complete more high-level tasks to fill his resume. Obito and Rin also choose to follow Kakashi and support him at this time.
Of course, the main support provider is actually Rin, a medical ninja, and Obito... is just a follower behind Rin.
So the people who followed Minato Namikaze this time were replaced by his two former teammates and three newcomers.
The two teammates are Aburame Shio and Akimichi Choza, while the three newcomers are Shiranui Genma, Bisaki Reito and Diewashi.
These three newcomers were also the Shadow Guards who were promoted by Minato in the future when he became Hokage in the original work. Later, all three of them were taught the Flying Thunder God Technique, but they did not have the ability to perform it alone like Minato Namikaze could, and could only work together to release the Flying Thunder God Teleportation Array.
(Young version of the trio from the future)
At this moment, seeing that the leader of the Akatsuki organization, who was rumored to have killed a demigod and seriously injured the village elders, was actually just a teenager who looked only a few years older than themselves, the expressions of Genma Shiranui, Reito Bizumi and Diewashi were particularly interesting.
The pride of being a ninja in the Great Ninja Village was once again crushed into the ground.
After the initial surprise, Minato Namikaze quickly adjusted his mentality and responded in the calmest tone possible.
"I didn't expect you to be the new leader of Akatsuki. It's been a long time, Shiba Kiyokawa."
The name Shiba Kiyokawa had actually been mentioned in the intelligence, but Namikaze Minato just had never matched the name with the person.
"Do you have any instructions for me this time, Lord Minato?" Shiba Kiyokawa asked in a neither humble nor arrogant manner.
However, Minato Namikaze's smile at this moment seemed a little bitter.
It seemed that no matter when they met, he always played the role of being controlled in front of this young man.
The last time Minato Namikaze was restrained by Rin being held hostage, and this time, he was restrained by the bad situation in Konoha.
“Qinghe-kun, I’m here to clear up some misunderstandings.
I remember when we met last year, you said that the Rain Country has always insisted on being a neutral country. If that's the case, why did it have to develop to the point of war? "
Shiba Kiyokawa looked at Minato indifferently, as if he was looking at the hardships he had gone through along the way.
Over the past six months, he has gone from having to scheme and bluff to be qualified to have a conversation even when he has a hostage in hand to being able to stand calmly and wait for Minato Namikaze to make an excuse.
He has been walking on thin ice all the way!
At this point, he no longer had to be cautious in front of Minato.
The improvement of his own strength and the presence of Kakuzu, Konan, Nagato, Yayu and others around him are all sources of his confidence.
“But Minato-sama, you also promised that no Konoha ninjas would come uninvited to disturb the Rain Country, but you broke your promise.
This time, it’s not our fault.”
Shiba Kiyokawa hit back quite strongly.
Namikaze Minato hesitated for a moment, and after a while he said, "I can apologize for what happened to Elder Danzo."
"If apologies work, then why would ninjas hold kunai?"
Shiba Kiyokawa spoke immediately, interrupting the other party's gesture to bow.
He doesn't accept the spirit of craftsmanship.
Namikaze Minato sighed, still unwilling to give up, "Is there really no way to negotiate? War is not good for either side."
But Shiba Kiyokawa just shook his head calmly.
He did not agree with what Minato Namikaze said.
Konoha is indeed unable to afford any more wars at this time, but this is not the case with the Rain Country.
More importantly: Shiba Kiyokawa needs to use a more sociable way to cover up his true purpose!
What he is going to do next in the Land of Rain is destined to be incompatible with the entire current ninja world.
If the surrounding daimyo discovered his ambition, no one could say whether these vested interests would be furious and react vehemently. By then, the newly born Rain Country might follow the same fate as the Whirlpool Country.
Shiba Kiyokawa doesn't want to fight the entire ninja world alone, at least not yet.
So he needs to disguise himself, keep a low profile, and act as inconspicuous as possible.
Besides revenge on Danzo, another major purpose of declaring war on Konoha was to disguise himself!
Pretend that they are still an ordinary ninja organization!
Pretending to give the illusion that they have not broken out of the one country, one village framework!
Pretending that they are still like traditional ninjas, still struggling and fighting numbly in the existing order!
Joining the Ninja World War will make them look more sociable and more "ninja".
Naturally, this will make the daimyo feel more at ease.
Shiba Qinghe didn't dare to hope that this trick could always fool the daimyos of various countries, but at least it should be able to buy the Rain Country some precious development time!
Therefore, he was destined not to agree to Namikaze Minato's request for peace talks.
The two sides were not on the same channel from the very beginning.
After several rounds of verbal sparring, Minato Namikaze found that he could not gain any advantage with his verbal tactics, as he was completely blocked by the opponent.
He had no choice but to try to play the emotional card.
"By the way, where's Yahiko? Why didn't I see him today? Come to think of it, Jiraiya-sensei has been talking about him a lot recently after hearing about your situation. Is he okay now?"
Namikaze Minato took the initiative to mention Jiraiya and Yahiko, as if he wanted to use their fellow disciples' friendship to get closer to each other.
It's a pity that things backfired.
Shiba Kiyokawa's words left him speechless.
"Yahiko is now seriously injured and unconscious, and there is no sign of waking up. Well, this was done by your village elder Danzo."
"..."
Minato Namikaze suddenly felt embarrassed.
I can’t talk today…
He had no choice but to say goodbye for the time being, hurriedly ended the meeting and returned to the village to report.
On the way back, the three newcomers were very angry.
"Are these mere Rain Ninjas too arrogant? Don't they really think that Konoha is easy to bully now that it is under attack from all sides?
A small country's ninja village actually has such an attitude towards war, it really doesn't know how to live or die! "
Shiranui Genma said angrily.
Then Bingzu Leitong also nodded, and looked at Namikaze Minato and asked: "Senior Minato, why didn't you teach them a lesson at that time? Let them see the magnanimity of our Konoha!"
Unexpectedly, after hearing this, Minato Namikaze just sighed tiredly.
"Lessons? Not that easy."
"how come?"
"I've known that kid longer than any of you, so I know his potential better than anyone else, and his growth is so fast that it's incredible to me.
If I could, I'd want to contain this threat more than any of you, but it's not that easy.
If a fight had broken out, all of you would have died."
The three little guys didn't believe it, but the next moment, even the usually silent Aburame Shio spoke up, "Minato is right, you guys, you have no idea about the threat that man poses."
(End of this chapter)
