Naruto: Cultivating to Immortality

Chapter 191 Return to Konoha

Hyuga Kanan, hovering high in the air, looked down at the chaotic Cloud Ninja forces below, a slight smile playing on his lips. He knew in his heart that the mission to inflict a heavy blow on the Cloud Ninja Village had been successfully completed. The loss of over a thousand men was no small matter for a behemoth like the Cloud Ninja Village. It was important to understand that each ninja village needed to invest a great deal of funds and time to train a single qualified genin, let alone chunin and joinin.

The loss of a Jonin-level ninja is especially painful for the village. After all, Jonin are not simply trained with time and resources; they require exceptional talent and aptitude. Even the five strongest ninja villages typically have only around 100 Jonin. Many of these are ninjas with inherited family traditions and exceptional abilities.

Although the conflict between the Cloud Ninja forces and Hyuga Kanan was brief, the Cloud Ninja suffered devastating losses—over ten Jonin were killed! The death toll of Special Jonin exceeded thirty, while Chunin casualties surpassed one hundred, nearing the three hundred mark! Had the Cloud Ninja commander not acted decisively and ordered a ceasefire, the losses would likely have doubled. These Jonin, Special Jonin, and Chunin were the backbone of the Cloud Ninja village and the elite of the force. Faced with such heavy losses, the commander was overcome with grief and on the verge of tears. If they could have defeated the enemy, even at a great cost, they could have secured most of the resources as compensation in negotiations with Konoha, and perhaps even gained more benefits. Unfortunately, things didn't go as planned. Given the current situation, even committing all their forces to the battlefield offered no chance of victory, and they were highly likely to be completely annihilated.

However, the Cloud Ninja commander keenly sensed from Hyuga Kanan's attitude that the enemy didn't seem to intend to annihilate their force, or even have a strong desire to attack. Their aim was merely to force a retreat through coercion, returning everything to a peaceful state. At this moment, their troops were in chaos and defeat. Yet, perplexingly, faced with such a golden opportunity to press their advantage and expand their gains, the enemy made no move, simply observing silently, as if waiting for them to regroup and withdraw from the battlefield. Recalling their earlier negotiations, the enemy had clearly demanded their return to the village, and hadn't shown any signs of further attack. On the contrary, they themselves had lost their composure and launched the offensive, thus incurring the enemy's merciless slaughter.

At this moment, the Cloud Ninja commander was filled with deep awe and vigilance. He knew that the enemy before him was far stronger than they had imagined, an opponent that could not be defeated simply by numbers of ninjas. This power transcended the realm of ordinary ninjas; even the Third Raikage, the most powerful ninja in Cloud Village, could hardly match it. Perhaps only the legendary Hashirama Senju—the great figure hailed as the God of Shinobi—could possess such terrifying strength.

Looking back, Hashirama Senju, with his unparalleled strength, intimidated the entire ninja world, yet he was a peace-loving man. Otherwise, the current ninja world might not have the coexistence of the Five Great Ninja Villages. Hyuga Kanan seems to be exhibiting similar personality traits to Hashirama, which undoubtedly makes the Cloud Ninja Commander extremely relieved. Because this way, it's possible for both sides to avoid a bloody and brutal battle, and instead find a more peaceful and rational solution.

In reality, he overestimated Hyuga Kanan. Hyuga Kanan's attitude stemmed purely from his aversion to trouble and his desire to avoid being manipulated by the world's will. He had no real interest in the ninja world, which led to his current state. Furthermore, Hyuga Kanan's primary targets weren't the various ninja villages. His intervention was solely due to a past promise to intervene for the Hyuga clan, thus stopping the Kumogakure's coercion. As for the conflict between Kumogakure and Konoha, Hyuga Kanan paid it no heed. Even if war broke out between the two villages, he wouldn't intervene excessively, choosing instead to remain neutral and observe. Recalling the previous Shinobi World War, Hyuga Kanan didn't even consider taking action; he simply stayed behind the scenes, diligently training and focusing on improving his strength.

Seeing that the Cloud Ninja forces were no longer capable of instigating further war, Hyuga Kanan departed the battlefield directly from the air. He firmly believed that the painful lesson inflicted on the Cloud Ninja Village would be etched into their minds, deterring them from ever harboring thoughts of coveting the Hyuga clan again. Furthermore, the surrounding spies would gain a profound understanding of the Hyuga clan's formidable strength. In this way, other ninja villages would be effectively deterred from coveting the Hyuga clan, securing valuable time for the clan's flourishing development.

As for the schemes of the Konoha village's higher-ups, Hyuga Kanan firmly believed that as long as he returned to Konoha, they would surely abandon any further plans to harm the Hyuga clan, thus allowing the Hyuga clan to live and work in peace within Konoha. With Hyuga Kanan's departure, everyone around the battlefield breathed a slight sigh of relief.

Faced with the terrifying strength displayed by Hyuga Kanan, the most urgent task for all intelligence personnel is to quickly transmit detailed information back to the village. This includes not only Hyuga Kanan's words and actions during the massacre of the Cloud Ninja forces, but also a comprehensive report to the village so that they can analyze key information such as Hyuga Kanan's attitude towards the ninja world and his personality traits.

The Cloud Ninja, on the other hand, were tasked with collecting the bodies of their fallen comrades and maintaining a deterrent effect on the Konoha border troops. Although Hyuga Kanan was gone, the Konoha border troops were still lurking nearby, and no one knew if they would seize the opportunity to attack the routed Cloud Ninja forces. However, the Cloud Ninja were overthinking things. The Konoha leadership had no intention of waging war, and their orders to the border troops were to maintain a complete defense of the border, forbidding any intention to attack, even if the Cloud Ninja forces were annihilated. The Konoha leadership was very clear: regardless of whether Hyuga Kanan could defeat the Cloud Ninja forces, they could not allow the Konoha border troops to join the fray. Without a large number of border troops involved in the battle, news of Hyuga Kanan's actions could be blocked from spreading within Konoha, preventing a political crisis for the Konoha leadership.

After leaving the border, Hyuga Kanan confirmed the direction of Konoha Village from the air and then sped off. His current task was to reach Konoha, intimidate the village's leadership, and then take his nephew, Hyuga Neji, to fulfill his elder brother's wish. As for whether his brother, Hyuga Hizashi, wanted to remain in his training grounds, that was up to him.

At this very moment, almost every major ninja village in the entire ninja world received detailed intelligence reports from their own agents. When the village leaders learned of these events, they were all utterly shocked, but then their expressions turned to immense envy for Konoha. Konoha had once again gained a super-strong ninja capable of dominating the entire ninja world! How could they not feel envy, jealousy, and resentment? It seemed as if fate always favored Konoha; whenever the village faced decline, a savior would always appear to turn the tide and prevent its collapse. Whether it was Sakumo Hatake during the Second Shinobi World War, Minato Namikaze during the Third Shinobi World War, or Kanan Hyuga who stood up during the conflict between Konoha and Kumogakure, all successfully saved Konoha from its decline and made it even stronger. This time, Konoha Village has once again gained a figure worthy of the title "God of Shinobi," suggesting that the village will likely maintain its prosperity for at least several more decades. Fortunately, past experience shows that strong individuals from Konoha are generally peace-loving and not overly aggressive. As long as their own villages don't wage war against Konoha, the other side won't actively expand its territory or provoke war.

Upon receiving the intelligence from the front lines, the Konoha leadership all showed expressions of panic. They had previously used the threat of war with Kumogakure to manipulate the Hyuga clan, forcing them to contact Hyuga Kanan. However, they never imagined that Hyuga Kanan had grown to such a level, capable of single-handedly taking on an entire village without any difficulty. Fortunately, Hiruzen Sarutobi promptly extended a message of goodwill to the Hyuga clan and promised Hiashi Hyuga that Konoha would not interfere with the Hyuga clan's normal life within the village, nor would it blame the conflict on them. This secured Hiashi Hyuga's assurance that Hyuga Kanan would not return to Konoha and would continue living outside the village.

However, according to information relayed by intelligence personnel, Hyuga Kanan was heading straight for Konoha Village at an extremely rapid pace, which alarmed Hiruzen Sarutobi and his group. Although Hiashi Hyuga had assured them that Kanan wouldn't return to Konoha, everyone knew that Hiashi didn't have the authority to command Kanan; he only had the power to advise him. Kanan's actions were beyond Hiashi's control. It was now necessary to summon Hiashi to discuss the matter and try to persuade Kanan to halt his actions should he attack Konoha.

Under Hiruzen Sarutobi's orders, several ANBU members hurriedly headed towards the Hyuga clan's territory, hoping to quickly summon Hiashi Hyuga, the clan head, to discuss countermeasures.