088 Naruto Mobile Game

"Great! Well done! As expected of our family's ninjas—truly superior to those of other countries!"

At the daimyo's residence in the capital of the Land of Fire, the daimyo, as the nominal ruler of the entire country, was watching the cross-server dominion battle with extraordinary excitement.

After all, he nominally commanded Konoha, and the stronger Konoha's ninjas were, the more glory it brought to his own face.

If Konoha won in the end, that would prove that the Land of Fire's hegemony would not be shaken throughout the entire ninja world!

"This is all thanks to the daimyo-sama's guidance," a servant praised from the side.

"Hahahaha, not at all, not at all. I just think it would be a bit inconvenient for me to personally take the field," the daimyo laughed heartily.

Although this server's dominion battle was lost to Konoha on that front, he had a very reasonable explanation.

I'm the daimyo, you're the ninjas—what, do you expect me to personally fight in a ninja war?

Anyway, how the daimyo planned things wasn't important. What mattered was that everyone would naturally think this way.

"Good! Sarutobi did well!"

In the short time it took the daimyo to chat and take a sip of water, he suddenly noticed that the [Hokage] organization had already won.

The opponent was… Akatsuki Two?

Never heard of them, but a win is a win.

As the saying goes, the winner takes all and the loser is forgotten. Even with five Hidden Rain ninjas—Itachi, Kisame, Kakuzu, Hidan, and Zetsu—the Akatsuki Second Group still lost their chance to advance.

There was no helping it. One more flaw meant one less chance of victory; with five extra flaws, you'd probably need the Byakugan just to win.

"Could it be that this set of tactics was wrong?"

Deep within the Hidden Rain, Nagato wore a puzzled expression.

At the start, he had planned for the two Akatsuki organizations to meet in the finals and display their might.

But what was this situation now? One of them had already fallen in the first round. Forget meeting in the finals—whether they could even keep [Akatsuki One] stable was uncertain.

There was no time to think further. The round of 16 advancing to 8 had begun.

"Orochimaru-sama, our opponent… seems to be Akatsuki?"

"Hehe, indeed."

In the Sound Village, Orochimaru led his people into the cross-server dominion battle, only to unexpectedly run into Akatsuki in the second round.

Kabuto's gaze swept around. Including the Sound Five, there was also Jūgo, temporarily pulled in, and Suigetsu, who had been persuaded to help.

This was essentially the entirety of Sound's assets.

So the question was—could they fight Akatsuki?

Kabuto glanced at Orochimaru. Although Orochimaru's expression seemed unchanged, only Kabuto could sense a trace of gravity.

"Sorry, Orochimaru-sama," Dosu Kinuta said in a low voice, and the others beside him also lowered their heads.

The Sound Two organization was eliminated in the first round. Although Orochimaru never truly expected them to make it to the end, being knocked out immediately was still irritating.

"You may leave," Orochimaru said flatly.

Dosu and the others fled as if escaping.

Don't misunderstand—this "leave" didn't mean going to hell. These people were still useful to Orochimaru for now.

The cross-server dominion battle continued fiercely, but some people had already begun to see the signs.

"With this grouping… will we run into those bad kids?" On Iwagakure's side, Ōnoki fell into deep thought.

Although the initial grouping was completely random, once placed in the same group or adjacent groups, encountering each other later was inevitable.

"Tsuchikage-sama, what should we do in the next round?" someone asked in the office.

Ōnoki immediately bristled, blowing his beard and glaring.

"What should we do? Kill them! Have you all forgotten the sacrifice of over ten thousand Iwagakure ninjas?!"

...

"Have you forgotten how my father fought alone against ten thousand Iwagakure ninjas and died from exhaustion?!"

In the Raikage's office, Raikage A's voice was thunderously loud, making everyone else's scalp tingle.

But as the saying goes, like leader, like subordinates. These people immediately grew excited, shouting and howling, vowing to avenge the previous generation.

Seeing everyone so fired up, the Raikage felt extremely satisfied.

He picked up his phone and stared intensely at the opponent he would face after winning this round.

Ōnoki, I'll smash your back—believe it or not!

..."

"Oh, how lively."

At the Cube Internet Café, Kuroda drank his water while following the battle situation, noticing that all these people were showing remarkable enthusiasm.

Which made sense—under the boost of national sentiment and victory rewards, it was only natural.

He was also curious about the final victor.

If viewed purely from a combat power perspective, it was undoubtedly the organizations with the highest power ratings that held the advantage.

Typical examples were the Hokage organization, as well as the organizations led by the Kage of each major ninja village.

In Kuroda's view, although each server produced two organizations, only these server champions would ultimately win.

To assemble two organizations that combined both combat power and technical skill was not something every country could accomplish.

Of course, the runner-up organizations also had a chance—it would depend on their specific operations.

Although, as he had just said, Kuroda favored the great nations, among Fire, Lightning, and Earth alone. As for Wind and Water, he didn't think they had any real chance to contend.

"Sorry, Terumi Mei-sama."

In the high-level conference room of the Hidden Mist, Ao wore a face full of apology, as did the others present.

Terumi Mei glanced around at the members of these organizations, opened her mouth, yet couldn't say a single word.

The Hidden Mist had already been eliminated.

The second group couldn't get past the first round, and the carefully crafted first group encountered Iwagakure in the second round.

And then… there was nothing after that. They were cleared out.

At that time, Iwagakure—still fighting the Hidden Mist—was already considering their next opponent, Kumogakure.

For the Hidden Mist, this was truly no laughing matter.

Thinking back to those days, the Second Mizukage and the Second Tsuchikage were once known as archrivals. Now they couldn't even catch a glimpse of the other's eyes.

If this continued and the Hidden Mist fell out of the ranks of the great ninja villages, how would they face their predecessors?

Terumi Mei's expression quickly grew serious.

"Reform. The Hidden Mist Village must undergo major reform. In the competition of the new era, we must not fall behind!"

"Yes!" the Hidden Mist ninjas shouted in unison.

Among them, Chōjūrō's expression changed several times before finally hardening into something like steel…

...

Finally, over on the Sunagakure side.

Sunagakure's situation was slightly better than the Hidden Mist's, but not by much—the outlook was just as grim.

"The next round… is it Konoha's people?"

Rasa's face was dark as water as he flipped through his phone. The rapidly changing battle updates on the screen made it impossible for him to calm down.

The first two rounds had gone well, defeating two small countries, but that luck was about to run out.

The [Uzumaki Naruto] organization.

Gaara looked at it, his gaze slightly unfocused.

This organization, named after someone now known throughout the entire ninja world, was about to collide with them.

Although it wasn't the Hokage organization—which gave Rasa some relief—he still didn't dare relax in the slightest.

He wondered whether the members of Naruto's organization would laugh or cry once they found out.

In the server dominion battles, they had always stood on full alert, instinctively placing themselves in a disadvantaged position, almost always winning against stronger foes.

Yet now, in the cross-server battle, there were people who treated them as a formidable enemy. It was both laughable and absurd.

The [Kazekage] organization consisted of Rasa and his three children, the village elites, and…

"Granny Chiyo, what do you think?" Rasa looked toward Chiyo, the Sunagakure elder who had voluntarily come out of retirement.

Chiyo looked at the battle page that had already appeared, at the neatly arranged opponents. Her expression remained unchanged, but her tone was exceptionally firm.

"We will win. We will not lose!"