Naruto: Kurotsuchi Mayuri

"Breaking this seal and modifying it will take some time." Kagetsu wasn't concerned about the royal bloodline. As long as he could fully understand the sealing technique here and take control, even without the royal bloodline, he could still break the seal effectively.

"Is this the power of the Gelel Stone?"

Inside Konoha Village, the Technology Development Department. Orochimaru looked at the large blue crystal before him, wrapped in amber, his eyes filled with interest.

The crystal was connected to various instruments, and some fragments were placed on the experiment table.

Orochimaru felt the overwhelming energy within the crystal, slightly amazed.

This power, although not comparable to the Tailed Beasts, still proved its immense strength through the data that had been detected.

Life!

It was the power of life, leaning towards nature!

The vitality, as pure as extreme Yang chakra, made Orochimaru feel an intense desire to possess it.

Of course, this referred to the pure Gelel Stone that had been refined. The impurities and other attributes were cut away by Kagetsu and placed beside the large crystal.

"Yes," Kagetsu nodded, standing beside Orochimaru.

The news of the Gelel ore vein had inevitably leaked. After all, the energy released during the seal modification was enough to attract some people with ulterior motives who were lurking nearby.

Upon receiving the information about the Gelel ore vein, Orochimaru immediately dispatched a large number of ninjas, led by Jiraiya, to guard and seize the ore vein.

This was the first batch of spoils brought back by Kagetsu upon his return to the village. It was the energy core of the Gelel ore vein that had been released from the underground seal for the first time.

When this power exploded, it nearly destroyed the entire ruins and spread to even farther places. It was only due to Kagetsu's forceful suppression and cutting that it had been contained.

"You've brought a huge trouble to the village, Kagetsu!"

Orochimaru flipped through Kagetsu's experimental data, his eyes growing brighter as he spoke, though his tone carried a sense of reproach.

There's no doubt that this kind of power will attract the attention of every major ninja village.

Unless one can suppress all the villages like the First Hokage did, rendering them powerless, it seems that a small-scale ninja war is inevitable, almost on the horizon.

"Should we give it up then?" Kagetsu asked in return.

"Of course not!" Orochimaru replied without hesitation, his voice firm. "This kind of power is like the Tailed Beasts! It's something that can make a village and country stronger! Even if it leads to war, it's necessary!"

"But the village just went through a great war, and most of the ninjas, including everyone else, don't want to continue escalating the war. They want to end the conflict and recover."

Kagetsu pointed out the growing anti-war sentiment in the village. After all, the war had dragged on for so many years, and the casualties in Konoha were heartbreaking.

In such a situation, it was the majority's wish not to continue the war.

Even the Hokage, faced with such strong public opinion, found it difficult to reverse the situation.

"But this power belongs to Konoha. Konoha cannot let it go." Orochimaru licked the corner of his lips. "So, tell me your thoughts."

War may be inevitable.

But the scale of it won't be as brutal as the previous Great Ninja Wars. The battlefield won't be in the Land of Fire but in the chaotic Land of Rivers!

Iwagakure has had to rest and recover.

Even if they want to intervene, they can't mobilize their entire village like they did before the start of the previous wars. Now, they are in a rebuilding phase and can't afford to risk everything.

After Konoha and Iwa's war ended, Kirigakure was quickly overwhelmed and fell into a disadvantage.

Especially after Might Duy killed four of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen, the collapse of Kirigakure became inevitable.

Now, it's uncertain how many surviving Mist Ninjas can even make it back to the Land of Water from the Land of Fire.

Suna, Konoha's ally, might have some ambitions, but their energy and focus are now entirely on the Ryūmyaku vein and Oasis.

Even though they covet the power of the Gelel Stone mines, as long as Rasa and the Daimyō of the Land of Wind haven't gone mad, they won't abandon their ongoing plans to focus on anything else, no matter how tempting.

Additionally, the power of the Ryūmyaku vein that can be harnessed inside Sunagakure might be more important than the so-called Gelel Mine.

Other small countries and villages can be ignored.

During the Ninja World War, aside from the Hidden Rain Village protected by Nagato and the rather inconspicuous Hidden Waterfall Village with its unique geographical advantages, almost all the other small villages had their strength drained by the larger villages, leaving no chance for retaliation after the war.

Counting it all up, the only village that might actually go to war with Konoha is the Hidden Cloud Village.

Although the Hidden Cloud Village was the first to be eliminated in the Ninja World War and lost its Raikage, it was because the Third Raikage fought desperately to hold back the Hidden Stone's army, giving the Cloud Village a slim chance to survive and preventing its elite forces from being wiped out on the battlefield.

After all these years, if anyone claimed that the Hidden Cloud's strength had fully recovered to its peak before the war, no one would believe it.

With the aggressive style of the Cloud ninjas, if they had that kind of power, they would have already taken advantage of the current weakness of the other villages and launched a full-scale attack to seize benefits.

During the war, the other villages would also be watching closely to gauge the true situation of the Hidden Cloud to avoid being caught off guard.

However, the Hidden Cloud's vitality and power have been preserved the best among the Five Great Nations after the war—this is undeniable and indisputable.

Given the Hidden Cloud's habit of plundering various secret techniques, Kekkei Genkai, and other benefits in the Ninja World, once they learned of the Gelel Mine's information, they wouldn't be able to resist.

The advantage Konoha has is that, between the Land of Rivers and the Land of Lightning, there are several other nations in between.

If the Hidden Cloud wants to deploy a large portion of its military to the Land of Rivers, they must first break through the Land of Fire's blockade, cross through Fire Country, or take a longer route.

"The power of the Gelel Stone can greatly increase food production. It can also be implanted into a person's body or made into ninja tools to equip ninjas, boosting their destructive power while reducing the time needed to train them."

Kagetsu openly expressed his thoughts without hiding anything.

Food is the guarantee of war.

Although the Land of Fire is not as lacking in food as the other four great nations, and can even sell food as a commodity to other countries during times of peace, the years of war have almost destroyed most of the food production areas within the Land of Fire.

In this situation, while the Daimyo and nobles have large food reserves, they won't easily give any to Konohagakure.

They need to solve the food problem on their own.

As for the remaining issue of ninjas, it will require the use of the scientific ninja tools project from the Technology Development Department.

The appearance of the Gelel Stone has undoubtedly greatly reduced the difficulty of making scientific ninja tools and has brought their release time forward significantly!

****

Please support me on my ko-fi account and read upto 15 early chapters,

https://ko-fi.com/pirateking24/tiers