“What did you say? The mission target actually failed! Is this the result your Earth Spider Clan guaranteed me?”
Inside the Hokage Office.
Senju Tobirama, who was handling Konoha affairs there, stopped writing in his notebook.
At this moment, Senju Tobirama paused, his face filled with icy coldness, his eyes narrowed, and his crimson pupils emitted a captivating gaze as he looked down at the person in front of him.
This person wore a bamboo hat and a long green robe, with the spider clan 紋 of the Earth Spider Clan tattooed on his back.
It was none other than the Grand Elder of the Earth Spider Clan.
Earth Spider—Qing Zhu.
“Lord Tobirama, we have completed the mission you assigned us. As for Uchiha Raimon being able to escape our attacks, that is a problem with your own intelligence. You must have missed some crucial information, and this has absolutely nothing to do with our Earth Spider Clan,” Qing Zhu said impolitely, completely disregarding Senju Tobirama’s cold stare.
Even if the other party was a powerful Ninja renowned in the Warring States Period, possessing Clan Head Level strength.
But he was not weak either; he was also a Clan Head Level existence, not to mention the Forbidden Technique he possessed.
If the other party truly intended to attack.
Then he would not be afraid to sacrifice himself for his Clan.
As a hidden Clan, if it weren't for that bastard Senju Hashirama establishing Ninja Villages, which led to the integration of Ninja Clans across the entire country and the collective pressure of Ninja Villages on other Clans that had not joined, they, the Earth Spider Clan, would never have been willing to emerge.
After all, for hundreds of years, relying on their Clan's ultimate Forbidden Technique, their Clan had independently occupied a small territory, living a wealthy life like Daimyo, without needing to undertake missions. They could completely sustain themselves with the output from their own territory, only needing to continuously study their own Forbidden Technique, and when encountering enemies, they would use the Forbidden Technique to annihilate the entire opposing Clan in one go.
This cycle continued.
It always gave other Clans an impression that the Earth Spider Clan should not be easily provoked, allowing them to live safely. In hundreds of years of development, their Clan had already become a large force with tens of thousands of people. Although not all of them were Ninja, with such a large population in the entire Ninja World, they naturally did not need to ally with other Clans, and their external image was that of Daimyo.
Normally, they did not need to participate in Ninja wars at all.
It was just a pity.
The trend in the Ninja World had changed in recent years.
An God of Shinobi and an Asura of the Ninja World had emerged.
The Clan Head of the Earth Spider Clan had once observed the battle between the two from afar and felt that they were no match. Although they possessed a powerful ultimate Forbidden Technique, that Forbidden Technique could only be released at the cost of the lives of Clan members, and it required a long period of charging. Furthermore, with the combat restrictions between Ninja, sometimes there wouldn't even be time to release the Ninjutsu.
Under these circumstances.
Also existing in the Land of Fire, seeing a large number of Clans gathered in Konoha Ninja Village, the Clan Head of the Earth Spider Clan, Spider Elder, had no choice but to make changes, hoping to establish an alliance with Konoha. As for why they didn't join Konoha Ninja Village.
There was naturally a reason for that.
Compared to living independently, like Daimyo, in self-imposed isolation, joining Konoha Village to be a dog slave of the Daimyo, undertaking life-and-death missions, and earning meager wages, the people of the Earth Spider Clan truly looked down on it.
Even the so-called alliance was merely an attempt to curry favor with the Senju Clan and prevent them from becoming enemies.
As for Konoha.
It meant nothing to the Earth Spider Clan.
With the Earth Spider Clan's Forbidden Technique: Raging Lion Hair, the so-called numerical advantage was nothing more than a joke.
By sacrificing just one Clan member, a super destructive energy wave spanning several kilometers to tens of kilometers could be unleashed.
What good would more people in Konoha do?
The only ones the Earth Spider Clan truly feared were the God of Shinobi and the Asura of the Ninja World. Of course, now, the Asura of the Ninja World was already dead, leaving only the God of Shinobi. And although the latter was rumored to be very benevolent in the outside world, the Earth Spider Clan could not gamble on his compassion.
Therefore, they still needed to befriend him.
Even if the Earth Spider Clan secretly wished that Senju Hashirama would die immediately, for the prosperity of their Clan, they could only bury all their hatred and begin an alliance.
However, in Konoha Village now, Senju Hashirama was nowhere to be seen, with only Senju Tobirama presiding over Konoha Village's affairs.
Because of this, the Earth Spider Clan had communicated with Senju Tobirama, the current authority in the Senju Clan. But the other party completely disregarded the Earth Spider Clan's reputation, believing that they either had to fully join Konoha Ninja Village and become a part of Konoha, or be expelled from the Land of Fire by Konoha. The Land of Fire did not allow any Clan to remain independent outside of Konoha Ninja Village. If the Earth Spider Clan did not choose either option, he even threatened to make the Earth Spider Clan submit to the Senju Clan.
This immediately infuriated Qing Zhu, the Grand Elder of the Earth Spider Clan, forcing him to adopt a tougher stance, implying that if things came to that, it would inevitably lead to war. The Earth Spider Clan had never feared war, and he even secretly revealed that his Clan possessed a large-scale Forbidden Technique, hinting that if things became irreversible, Konoha Ninja Village would also be destroyed along with them.
Senju Tobirama was not foolish. He had intended to test the other party, and unexpectedly, he did indeed trick some information out of them.
“However, since the opponent possesses a super-large-scale Forbidden Technique, it is indeed possible that they were responsible for the disappearance of those historical clans, as those vanished clans did have significant feuds with the Earth Spider Clan! Moreover, as a Daimyo-level clan, they have no major conflicts of interest with Konoha’s inherent mission system…”
“The opponent is both a Ninja and a Daimyo-level existence; if we truly make them an enemy, it could be…!”
With this thought, Senju Tobirama had no choice but to consider the practical situation, to prevent Konoha from being destroyed should the opponent truly possess such a terrifying Forbidden Technique.
For a moment, Senju Tobirama found himself in a dilemma; facing a threat to the entire Village, he dared not gamble on the opponent’s capabilities.
Even if his elder brother’s strength was unrivaled.
The problem was, even if they eliminated the opponent, the opponent’s Forbidden Technique could still destroy Konoha!
No matter how he calculated, he would be at a loss.
Furthermore, the opponent originally wanted to establish an alliance with Konoha Ninja Village; if a powerful Forbidden Technique truly existed, his actions might push the opponent into an adversarial stance, wouldn't that be asking for trouble?!
But soon, Senju Tobirama thought of a good solution.
His covert operations against various clans two years prior had led them to continuously sell off all their Land of Fire estates.
These were secretly acquired by his own clan members, whom his elder brother had disbanded, allowing the Senju Clan to conceal some of its strength while also providing sufficient livelihood for these dispersed clan members.
Cheap grain would also be repurchased by the clan at a high price, serving as war reserves.
Additionally, when Konoha was established, the manufacturing of weapons, big and small, across all clans had been crippled; while still sufficient for daily use, it could no longer support the consumption needed for war reserves, posing no threat to the entire Konoha Village, and without grain storage, it could be said that the entire clan had already half-integrated into the Village.
With a few more manipulations from him, he would be able to command more than half of Konoha’s clans.
However, there were still some who slipped through the net.
That was the Uchiha Clan!
Senju Tobirama thought fiercely, that old enemy, the Uchiha Clan, somehow, due to their Seventh Elder Uchiha Raimon’s accidental actions, managed to resolve his scheme with grain reserves and alcohol, resulting in the Uchiha Clan possessing a large number of estates outside, preventing the entire Uchiha Clan from fully integrating into Konoha.
This should not exist!
As long as he was alive, this relic from the Warring States Period would constantly prevent the Uchiha from integrating into the Village.
Not to mention, the desire to domesticate them into Konoha’s guard dogs.
Unfortunately, despite wishing him dead, due to the Village’s rules and regulations and the obstruction of his elder brother Senju Hashirama, Senju Tobirama had no way to act.
But now, the opportunity had arrived.
If the Earth Spider Clan truly possessed such formidable strength, all he had to do was lure Uchiha Raimon out and let them deal with him.
If successful, the opponent would have successfully provoked the Uchiha, a formidable enemy, and would have no choice but to rely on the Senju Clan.
If they failed, it would prove that the Earth Spider was nothing special.
Then, he could slowly exert influence over them.
No matter what, he wouldn’t lose out.
As soon as Senju Tobirama thought that the inherently evil Uchiha Raimon was about to die, he couldn’t help but become indifferent to the Earth Spider Clan’s demand for independence outside of Konoha.
Anyway, as long as they were enemies of the Uchiha Clan, they were good friends of my Senju Clan.
Therefore, after a series of mutual probing, both parties reached an agreement.
Senju Tobirama assigned the mission to ambush Uchiha Raimon to the Earth Spider Clan for completion.
If the mission was completed, Konoha Village would establish a de facto alliance with the Earth Spider Clan and announce it to the Land of Fire.
Furthermore, the Earth Spider Clan would still retain its original land governance rights and would not need to join Konoha Ninja Village.
Since it was a secret mission, as long as the Earth Spider Clan did not expose themselves, no problems would arise.
This way, Konoha Ninja Village would not be able to act against the Earth Spider Clan for any reason whatsoever.
Qing Zhu of the Earth Spider hesitated for a moment but still agreed.
Although the Uchiha were a clan as renowned as the Senju, the Asura of the Ninja World was already dead, but the God of Shinobi of the Senju Clan was still alive.
If he had to choose one to offend, it would be better to offend the Uchiha Clan.
If he didn't even want to offend the Uchiha Clan, then perhaps the Senju Clan would drag the Uchiha Clan along to fight the Earth Spider Clan.
Although the other party promoted it as a generational feud, Qing Zhu did not dare to fully believe it.
After all, they had all joined one Village.
What if the Senju Clan incited them, and all the clans, big and small, in Konoha became enemies of the Earth Spider Clan?
The Earth Spider had no other choice.
For the survival of the Clan, they naturally had to make some compromises.
Of course, to avoid being completely manipulated by Senju Tobirama and ending up in a death match with the Uchiha Clan, the Earth Spider Clan also invited Senju Tobirama to send his subordinates to participate in the mission together, so as to prevent the mission from being intentionally revealed to the Uchiha Clan by Senju Tobirama halfway through, causing them harm.
This way, if the other party dared to do so, both sides would face the Uchiha Clan’s retaliation together.