In a huge underground cave somewhere in the Shinobi Realm, Uchiha Madara was sitting on a stone chair in deep sleep, a day had passed since he had returned from Konoha, and he had quickly returned here to sleep after he thought he had successfully killed Mito, not intending to waste a single ounce of his lifespan.
Suddenly, a half-black, half-white Zetsu with a body that looked like it was wrapped in strange body tissues like hogweed burrowed out of the ground.
It was none other than the Black Zetsu that Uchiha Madara thought he had created with his own will.
Black Zetsu looked at Uchiha Madara, who was sleeping at the moment, pondered for a while, and then decisively used some kind of special ninjutsu to wake up Uchiha Madara.
It originally did not intend to disturb Uchiha Madara, nor did it want to deal more with him, the fool he had fooled, but naturally, the matter involved this time was related to the host of the Rinnegan, so in order to avoid any mishaps in the Infinite Tsukuyomi, he had to wake up Uchiha Madara.
The mysterious disappearance of the five White Zetsu he had instructed to go ahead and spy on Nagato was definitely not a trivial matter.
All along, the work of spying on Nagato had been going well until today when there was an accident.
It had always been very attentive to the work of monitoring Nagato, and would regularly listen to the reports of the White Zetsu sent to monitor Nagato every day, but when none of these White Zetsu came back to report to it today, it knew that something had happened.
Sure enough, when the new White Zetsu he sent to monitor Nagato came back, he learned that the White Zetsu he sent to monitor him before had all disappeared.
Unsurprisingly, they must have been killed.
In that case, has the secret of the Rinnegan on Nagato's body been discovered by someone with an ulterior motive?
Nowadays, there was insufficient intelligence information, but the Black Zetsu knew that it couldn't continue to be as optimistic about Nagato as it had been before, and it had to take new actions to protect this Rinnegan host would grow up smoothly in the way that it and Uchiha Madara wished it to be.
As the special Ninjutsu that Black Zetsu had cast took effect, Uchiha Madara reopened his eyes as he stared at Black Zetsu, who was close by, and said in a cold voice, "What has happened?"
"Lord Madara, I just received information that all of the White Zetsu we sent to spy on Nagato have disappeared."
Seeing Uchiha Madara wake up, Black Zetsu immediately made an explanation.
When these words came out, Uchiha Madara's heart shook, and his open Sharingan eyes immediately flashed with a cold red light, and his body unconsciously revealed a terrifying icy killing intent, causing the other creatures in the entire underground cavern to shiver.
Unconsciously revealed a trace of killing intent was quickly converged by Uchiha Madara.
At this time, his old face revealed a cold smile, slowly said: " have you found out who did it?"
"The exact person hasn't been found out yet, but according to the information sent back by the White Zetsu on the Konoha side, Jiraiya secretly returned to Konoha."
Black Zetsu immediately told the clues it had gathered with the fastest speed.
"What about Nagato's side?"
Uchiha Madara was shocked to hear that Jiraiya had returned to Konoha and immediately asked.
He didn't care about Jiraiya returning to Konoha right now, he only cared about how the Rinnegan host was doing.
In his mind, Jiraiya was Nagato's main bodyguard before he grew up, and now that this bodyguard is not by Nagato's side, and White Zetsu, who had gone to spy on and protect Nagato, has mysteriously disappeared, then wouldn't Nagato be in danger now?
"Please rest assured, Lord Madara, Nagato is fine now, Jiraiya has already rushed back overnight, and as a precaution, I have already dispatched a new White Zetsu forward to monitor and protect Nagato again."
The Black Zetsu replied.
It attached more importance to Nagato than Uchiha Madara, so naturally it had arranged for the new White Zetsu to go forth to monitor and protect Nagato early on.
Moreover, this time, he purposely had the White Zetsu use the Substitute Technique to disguise as Amegakure's ninja and lurk around that house instead of underground anymore.
"That's good, tell me about the recent information about Jiraiya."
Uchiha Madara was relieved to learn that Nagato was now safe, and became concerned about the whereabouts of the five White Zetsu who had mysteriously disappeared.
With his insight, he could tell at a glance that the person who attacked the White Zetsu was not hostile to Jiraiya and Nagato, and that the other party in all likelihood came for Jiraiya, then accidentally found the White Zetsu and the others, and in order to prevent the news from leaking out, that was why the White Zetsu were exterminated.
Therefore, the breakthrough to find the mysterious person who killed White Zetsu lies in Jiraiya.
"Jiraiya's most recent departure from that house was for an Amegakure ninja named Hattori Masanari, the purpose of which would have been that Konoha wanted to trade two of Amegakure's elite puppet masters from that Amegakure's hands, and the person who came into contact with Jiraiya last night was most likely this person."
Black Zetsu stated the information he had recently gathered about Jiraiya.
"Someone from Amegakure?"
Uchiha Madara said in a skeptical tone.
"Yes, this person called Hattori Masanari is Amegakure's person, as for whether his real identity is true or not is not too clear, this person was at odds with Hanzo back in the day because of his philosophy, he became a deserter early in the great war between Amegakure and Konoha, and then his whereabouts are unknown.
I had originally thought it was an insignificant guy, but I didn't expect that after the war between Konoha and Amegakure was over, he immediately jumped out and showed great strength, and his Water Release Ninjutsu was very powerful, first defeating Tsunade, one of the Sannin, and then defeating and capturing two of Sunagakure's elite puppet masters who were sent to kill him.
Those two elite puppet masters are the son and daughter-in-law of Sunagakure's Chiyo, and they have a lot of information about Sunagakure, so Iwagakure and Konoha both want to make a deal with him.
Also, this guy's concealment ability is so strong that even the White Zetsu has trouble tracking him."
Black Zetsu detailed what Hattori Masanari's had done recently.
"Really, I didn't expect that the tiny Amegakure could actually give birth to two ninjas with good strength... Is the philosophy incompatible, huh~"
Uchiha Madara listened to Hattori Masanari's information and said with interest.
This guy called Hattori Masanari encountered a bit like him, he was also because of the concept of incompatibility with Hashirama that year and parted ways, he and Hattori Masanari was also the loser of the political struggle in the village, and in the end, both were forced to rebel against the village.
So it seems that this guy named Hattori Masanari has done a lot of things in secret after leaving Amegakure and has improved his strength a lot.
This Black Zetsu guy has strong concealment ability, then it is expected that his detection ability is not bad either, nine times out of ten, he is the one who killed those White Zetsu who were watching and protecting Nagato.
"Could this guy have set his eyes on the Rinnegan?"
Uchiha Madara thought darkly.
He had now come to believe that Hattori Masanari was the same person as him, just with much lower strength, power and level than him.
Uchiha Madara was well aware of how great the value of the Rinnegan was, and he already thought in his heart that Hattori Masanari had already set his eyes on the Rinnegan, and just didn't dare to act rashly because Nagato was protected by Jiraiya around him.
Once Nagato is no longer surrounded by Jiraiya, it is expected to be dangerous.
In this regard, Uchiha Madara now felt nothing, because he knew that nothing would happen to the Rinnegan, just a temporary change of owner, and this new owner might be a more valuable person than Nagato.
"What is the philosophy of this person called Hattori Masanari? Is it clear?"
Uchiha Madara asked Black Zetsu.
The information about Hattori Masanari was already scarce, and Black Zetsu hadn't deliberately collected information about Hattori Masanari before, it was a bit baffled when it heard Uchiha Madara ask the question at this moment.
Philosophy is something that is very private.
That Hattori Masanari hadn't made a big fuss about it before, so how could it be clear about it.
But it did know clearly that this guy had been against the matter of Hanzo initiating the war.
Thus, after thinking about it, it replied, "It should be a peace-loving fellow, he has always opposed Hanzo initiating wars before."
"Peace-loving?"
Uchiha Madara wasn't too happy with this ambiguous answer from Black Zetsu.
"I'm sorry, Lord Madara, this guy has only recently become active in the Ninja Realm, and after becoming a rogue ninja, he has been traveling strangely and practicing mysticism, regarding his intelligence, White Zetsu and the others really can't gather much useful information."
Black Zetsu heard Uchiha Madara's dissatisfaction and truthfully stated the specifics.
"Hmph."
Uchiha Madara snorted coldly when he heard this, expressing his dissatisfaction, but he also counted on this to be revealed, no longer expecting Black Zetsu to be able to provide more useful things about Hattori Masanari.
He was still clear about the White Zetsu's ability, hiding in the shadows to get information was fine, but fighting and killing was not.
With Hattori Masanari's current strength, it would be difficult for White Zetsu to even get close to him, not to mention fighting him, so it would be unrealistic to expect White Zetsu to obtain information about Hattori Masanari.
However, since it was impossible to collect it head-on, it would be better to do it in a roundabout way.
Uchiha Madara ordered, "Let the White Zetsu disguise themselves as Ame-Nin to sneak into the Amegakure, and then collect information about Hattori Masanari from the other Ame-Nin, Hattori Masanari grew up in the Amegakure, and the people there must know a little bit about him, I need detailed information about this person."
"As you wish, Lord Madara."
Black Zetsu replied respectfully.
Uchiha Madara's mind, it had probably guessed it.
This guy was looking at this person, Hattori Masanari, and wanted to use Hattori Masanari as a new pawn.
In this regard, Black Zetsu did not feel surprised, because from the point of view of Hattori Masanari's resume, he was simply a low-level replica of Uchiha Madara, and both of them had many similarities, and the only thing that was not quite certain now was whether Hattori Masanari was dissatisfied with the Five Great Powers of the Shinobi Realm as well as whether or not he had ambitions of overthrowing the Five Great Powers' rule.
If Hattori Masanari had this intention, then it and Uchiha Madara might be able to pull this person into their side of the camp, thus speeding up and providing the implementation of the Eye of the Moon program.
"Hehehehehe~, if this guy loves Amegakure village deeply, then the rise of Amegakure village will inevitably go against the surrounding three major ninja villages, so there might be a chance, after all, human beings are such stupid creatures that they will definitely be swayed by hatred ..."
Black Zetsu sneered in its heart.
Methods of playing with people's hearts and minds, it was at the level of a grandmaster, a mere Hattori Masanari, it didn't put it in its eyes.
Therefore, in his heart, as long as Hattori Masanari is suitable, it will not be able to escape from it, sooner or later it will be able to turn Hattori Masanari into its pawn.
"Lord Madara, what about Nagato's side, if the mysterious person is Hattori Masanari, Nagato will probably be in danger."
Black Zetsu reminded.
"Let's do everything as usual, but in the future, let the White Zetsu disguise himself as a Ame-Nin to keep a watchful eye on Nagato for protection, Land of Rain is ultimately Amegakure's turf, that naive guy Jiraiya shouldn't take the initiative to expel the people of the Amegakure, and as long as it's the people of Amegakure, then there's no reason for Hattori Masanari to go out and deal with the White Jetsu and the rest of them."
Uchiha Madara pondered for a while and made a reply.
Although he had accidentally found an interesting chess piece, the previous one could not just be abandoned.
After all, it wasn't easy to find a pawn that could allow his Rinnegan to grow with a peaceful host.
There were still quite a few people in this world who inherited the Uzumaki clan's bloodline, but there weren't many outstanding individuals like Nagato anymore, and it was very difficult to find one again.
"As expected of Lord Madara, what a great idea, I will do as you command."
Black Zetsu sniffed and decisively kissed his ass.
"Cut the crap, how is the situation on the Konoha side?"
Uchiha Madara didn't like to listen to any flattering words, especially if it was still the flattering words of an inhuman creature created by his own will, and said in a cold voice.
"Konoha's situation has been somewhat better recently, during the Nine-Tailed Inheritance, for some unknown reason, Sandaime agreed to the Uchiha clan's involvement, allowing a large number of Uchiha to travel to the front lines and various borders to provide support, which caused the pressure Iwagakure and Kumogakure had exerted on Konoha at the borders to greatly diminish, and now that the Nine-Tailed Beast has been sealed again, Iwagakure and Kumogakure are estimated to be withdrawing their troops in a matter of time.
The only good news is that Lord Madara you got Uzumaki Mito killed, and now the people of Konoha are preparing to have a grand funeral for her."
Black Zetsu replied after organizing his words a little.
The news that Mito was still alive was undoubtedly a top secret level news, and Sandaime had immediately imposed a news blockade when he knew about it, and in order to completely block the news, he even used a sealing technique to seal the memories of some of the ordinary people who knew about the news.
Therefore, so far, only a few people know that Mito is not dead.
After all, the Jinchuriki will die if they lose their tailed beasts this fact has never been broken, now the second generation of Jinchuriki has been born, that naturally means that Mito, the first generation of Jinchuriki, has already passed away, this is the consensus of countless people in Konoha.
If Kirito didn't have a system prompt, coupled with Tsunade to provide accurate information, he might have also been kept in the dark.
In that case, Black Zetsu was naturally still unclear that Mito was still alive.
As it turned out, Uchiha Madara was so confident in his handiwork in killing Mito that he didn't think he'd missed a beat, and likewise recognized the fact that Mito was dead.
"Hmph, there's nothing more to say when this woman is already dead, just tell me why Konoha has been getting better lately, it's a surprise that the Uchiha clan would actually be agreed to join this Nine-Tailed Inheritance operation, there's bound to be some special reason for this."
Black Zetsu mentioned that Mito was given a grand funeral by the people of Konoha, Uchiha Madara immediately said with some displeasure.
This hateful woman, even after death is so respected by the people of Konoha, she is not living in vain like this.
Back then, before he left Konoha, he didn't kill her, it was really a mistake.
Otherwise, after Hashirama's death, he wouldn't have to keep hiding it.
This woman's sealing technique was really a bit tricky, especially after getting the Kyubi, her strength had increased so much that even in his heyday, it might have been hard to take her down.
While he lost the Kyubi, his strength dropped a bit.
It had to be said that the Kyubi was indeed a very good pet, and had helped his strength increase quite a bit.
"The reason why Konoha's situation has gotten better probably has something to do with Danzo, the head of the Roots being imprisoned, this is a guy who is incredibly dangerous to both his enemies and his own people, and will do whatever it takes to get what he wants, even to his own people, and a very selfish guy who says he's doing it for the sake of the Konoha, but essentially it's all about fulfilling his own selfish desires.
In short, a guy who is very fond of flying the flag of being for the Konoha and then doing all sorts of things in his favor, he has been stripped of all his duties and imprisoned before because he was caught instructing his subordinates to destroy the sealing barrier of the Senju Clan territory, and he hasn't come out to make a mess for some time now."
Black Zetsu knew Danzo as a person quite well, and when Uchiha Madara asked about the reason why Konoha had gotten better lately, it immediately remembered Danzo as a person and voiced its opinion.
"I see, it seems to be a very good pawn."
Uchiha Madara heard the explanation and said thoughtfully.
Danzo, this person, he also knew something before, although it was only a pest, but it was indeed able to disgust Konoha very effectively, and effectively damage the inside of the big tree of Konoha.
And Danzo led the root, the kind of genocidal ninja, are a group of guys who will harm others and themselves, once the guy who mastered these dangerous ninja is a guy who is full of selfishness, then Konoha will surely suffer greatly.
It was a pity that this pest couldn't jump around for a while now.
"That's right, if we could get this Danzo guy back out again, many new good things would definitely happen within Konoha, but unfortunately, this guy is now being held down and it's probably very hard to turn over again, but this guy's life is very hard, relying on the fact that under his own command there's a large swath of Root ninjas who are loyal to him, and there are also a large number of spies who are planted in the other ninja villages, so that Sandaime can't touch him for the moment. ."
Black Zetsu exclaimed, giving Danzo high praise.
After it had gathered numerous Konoha intelligence, it had come to the conclusion that whether Konoha was in chaos or not depended on this Dark of Konoha.
It was quite optimistic about Danzo's ability to make things happen, as long as Danzo was no longer in Konoha's way, Konoha's interior would be in chaos, and it would be difficult to unite the top and bottom of the country and wring all the forces into a single rope.
Furthermore, Danzo's ability to destroy the interior of Konoha can be described as a great, he inherited the Second Hokage, Senju Tobirama, to suppress the ninja clan, especially hostile to the Uchiha clan, with him in this lifetime, the Uchiha clan will not want to turn over in the Konoha.
Unfortunately, such a good guy himself couldn't make waves in Konoha lately, making it a lot less fun to gather and organize Konoha's intelligence.
"Is there any way to get him to come back out and make trouble?"
Uchiha Madara asked.
Black Zetsu was an inhuman creature that inherited his will, usually responsible for organizing and summarizing all sorts of information, and had seen a lot of things, and the fact that it held this Danzo guy in such high esteem showed how excellent Danzo's ability to fuck things up was.
Such an excellent piece, letting him continue to be silent was really a bit of a pity.
"Danzo made too many mistakes before, if he wants to turn over, he has to make a huge contribution to do so, such as letting Konoha beat Sunagakure, otherwise, if he wants to turn over, it's almost impossible, this is still the situation after Mito's death, if Mito hadn't died, if he wanted to turn over it would have been almost impossible."
Black Zetsu lamented.
In his opinion, Danzo's pawn was pretty much wasted.
Danzo wanted Konoha to beat Sunagakure on his own and with the power of the Roots, the difficulty involved was probably not much worse than reaching the sky.
After all, Sunagakure is still one of the five major ninja villages, not to mention Danzo and his Roots, even if Konoha wants to beat it, it will need to pay a huge price.
Moreover, Danzo is now a prisoner and cannot even go out, so he really does not even have a chance to kill the enemy on the battlefield.
"Defeat Sunagakure? Black Zetsu, what is the number of White Zetsu you have planted on Sunagakure's side?"
Uchiha Madara heard the solution and immediately asked.
It might be difficult to defeat Sunagakure with Danzo and the Roots he led alone, but if Danzo had the support of him, Uchiha Madara, behind him, it wouldn't be a very difficult thing.
The war between Konoha and Sunagakure was nothing more than a child's play in his eyes.
As long as he was willing to intervene, at any time, he could quickly tip the scales of victory in favor of one side or the other.
The war was fought not only with the hard power between the two sides, but also with the power of intelligence.
In fact, there are times when intelligence is far more important than hard power.
As long as a party obtains important information that can kill the opponent, even if it is on the weaker side, it still has a chance to turn the tide.
This was the importance of intelligence.
"Lord Madara, are you planning to step in and help Danzo through this difficult time?"
Black Zetsu instantly understood Uchiha Madara's intentions and said with some surprise.
It was clear about Uchiha Madara's character, headstrong and self-opinionated, all the character flaws that the Uchiha clan should have could be found in him, it was just that the strength was strong enough to make all these vulnerabilities become weaknesses that weren't weaknesses.
It didn't think that Uchiha Madara a person who believed so much in his own power would be willing to step in and help Danzo the pest.
"Hmph, it is just a casual move, this person since there is still some use, there is no harm in pulling him, you arrange some White Zetsu to go to the battlefield as soon as possible to find the important information on Sunagakure's side, and then hand it over to that Danzo guy in a reasonable way.
Right, can't release too much useful information at once, this pest is known as the darkness of Konoha, he still has some skills in gathering information, can't let him see any cracks, it must be done in a sensible and reasonable manner."
Uchiha Madara snorted coldly and said with a cold face.
"Lord Madara, please don't worry, I know what to do, I'm already very skillful at this kind of thing, I will definitely handle everything cleanly, and won't let Danzo see any cracks."
Seeing that Uchiha Madara was planning to come for real, and was really planning to help Danzo through his difficulties, the Black Zetsu said excitedly.
Danzo was indeed a pawn that it was currently very fond of, and it had previously had the intention of helping him through his difficulties, only that without Uchiha Madara's orders, he didn't dare to easily mobilize the White Zetsu to do so.
It was true that it could not be controlled by Uchiha Madara's will, but those White Zetsu were all loyal to Uchiha Madara, and if Uchiha Madara learned of its unauthorized behavior from the other White Zetsu, he might suspect its identity.
For the purpose of helping Danzo to let Uchiha Madara suspect itself, this kind of thing that is detrimental to itself and others, Black Zetsu naturally will not do it.
In its heart, resurrecting its mother was the most important thing.
For this reason, it had to act cautiously, and absolutely could not allow Uchiha Madara to have the slightest possibility of suspecting it, or else at the last minute, its chances of assassinating Uchiha Madara would be reduced.
"That's good, is there anything else important, if not, I'm going to continue to slumber."
Uchiha Madara nodded and said.
His body was failing more and more, he didn't know how much longer he would be able to hold out, after a trip to Konoha yesterday and simply reminiscing a little too long, he was starting to feel very tired and the Wood Release in his body was getting a little out of control.
Ever since he took off his Rinnegan eyes and replaced them with a pair of normal Sharingan eyes, the power in his body was a bit out of balance.
Hashirama's power was truly awesome.
After the power of Kizuna took root in his body, his previous Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan just barely suppressed it, and it was only after the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan accidentally evolved into Rinnegan later that he completely mastered the power of Wood Release.
Only now that he lost the power of the Rinnegan on his body, the power of the Wood Release had begun to stir again.
Now it had started up again.
"There are no more other important things, Lord Madara, please rest at ease, I will take care of all the things you explained ah."
Black Zetsu also noticed at this time that Uchiha Madara's physical condition was not quite right, and immediately said.
"Well, very good, I hope I can hear good news when I wake up next time."
Uchiha Madara said as he slowly closed his eyes.
After saying that, he returned into a deep sleep, and the originally simmering Wood Release in his body also fell silent.
Seeing this, Black Zetsu's wood-like body tissues quickly closed up, then quickly drilled into the ground and disappeared.
As Uchiha Madara sleeps, it is now time for Black Zetsu to make trouble in all parts of the ninja world.
...
A day later, Land of Rain, in a small town.
A man whose whole body was covered under a black raincoat slowly strolled on the somewhat depressed street, his pair of lifeless eyes looked at everything around him through the small sunglasses on the bridge of his nose somewhat listlessly, he seemed to be uninterested in everything around him, he just walked silently in the small town.
And his presence was so low that almost no one noticed him along the way.
The man was a member of Root's Skull Squad, and as for his name, he himself had long since shed it, along with the past as well as the future, and he was now just a tool codenamed Gluttony guarding the Konoha, following Danzo's orders to go and wipe out any targets that threatened the Konoha.
Now, Gluttony has received a new target to eliminate.
Hattori Masanari, this is the target he needs to eliminate now.
Only, this time, the target of the mission was not so good to deal with, not so much the difficulty of killing it, but also the difficulty of finding it.
Three days had passed since the Skeleton Squad received the order to come to Land of Rain, and a large number of Root's manpower had also scattered to all parts of Land of Rain, but this guy called Hattori Masanari seemed to have evaporated into thin air, and had never revealed his whereabouts.
Perhaps the target is no longer in Land of Rain.
This is what Gluttony is thinking right now, otherwise with the ability of those special parasites in his body that have a strong sense of smell, he would have already found Hattori Masanari by now.
Could it be that the rain that kept falling overhead had completely washed away the target's odor?
What a country with terrible weather.
Gluttony walked along the entire little town in two rounds, and realizing that he still found nothing, he came to an inconspicuous shelter from the rain, and took out a scroll and a pen from his body, then opened the scroll, and with the pen, he put a cross on one of the names on top of the scroll.
"Go to the next place."
Gluttony thought darkly as he put away the scroll.
Suddenly, a familiar name called rang in his ears, he immediately looked up and instantly saw a strange bird appear in the sky.
When he saw the strange bird, he quickly took out a blank scroll from his body and opened it up.
The strange bird hovering in the sky suddenly swooped down and disappeared on top of the blank scroll, and a large amount of writing quickly appeared in Gluttony's eyes.
"The northwestern border? It seems that the time for the target to make a deal with Iwagakure is about to arrive."
Gluttony muttered as he read the words that appeared on the scroll.
The contents of the scroll still didn't show any clues about Hattori Masanari, except that their people had found traces of Kitsuchi, the son of the Tsuchikage.
Gluttony was already aware of what Hattori Masanari had done recently through Root's intelligence network.
Many days ago, Hattori Masanari had made a deal with Kitsuchi, only that the deal was not finalized at that time.
Now that Kitsuchi had reappeared in the border town where he had previously made a deal with Hattori Masanari, it was no surprise that he was coming to talk to Hattori Masanari about a new deal.
As long as he followed Kitsuchi, he would be able to find Hattori Masanari.
This was what Gluttony was thinking at the moment.
In the next moment, a large number of Parasitic Insects appeared on the body of the scroll he was holding, and then devoured the entire scroll.
Then, his entire body turned into a pile of parasitic worms before disappearing in place.
In a short while, all the parasites in the original place disappeared.
At this time, a mouse suddenly came out from the corner, it glanced at Gluttony's far away position, then as if it suddenly woke up a handful of times, it let out a strange cry and quickly re-dug into the corner.
At the same time, in a certain inn in Little Town, Yamanaka Yun slowly opened his eyes and said in a low voice, "I never thought that I would come across a Roots person here, and the rank seems to be very high, it's likely that he'll be a member of the Skeleton Squad."
In order to find Hattori Masanari, Yamanaka Yun had been running around Land of Rain for the past few days.
It was just that he had been slow to find Hattori Masanari, but instead, he had found traces of quite a few members of the Root Division, and had even taken care of quite a few of them with his own hands, and the Gluttony that he had just encountered was the strongest Root Division ninja that he had met so far.
By his current speculation, that person was a member of the Skull Squad.
"Bang Bang~"
The door to the room was suddenly knocked on.
Yamanaka Yun immediately said, "Come in."
As soon as the words left his mouth, a maid wearing an ordinary kimono came in with some dishes.
When Yamanaka Yun saw the maid, a flash of color flashed in his eyes.
The maid had kept her head lowered since she came in, she did not speak, nor did she purposely look at Yamanaka Yun, she just placed the dishes squarely in front of Yamanaka Yun and respectfully retreated.
After Yamanaka Yun witnessed the maid's departure, he picked up a chopstick and then turned a simple mechanism on it before taking out a small note from it.
"Not bad, it seems that the intelligence network over here is well built, if I remember correctly, this place is under the charge of that guy called Fuma Ichirou, right, the guy who comes from the Fuma clan does have some skills."
Yamanaka Yun saw the content on top of the small note, a smile appeared on his face as he exclaimed in admiration.
The content on the small note was not much, just six words, "Kitsuchi appears again."
"With this intelligence, I should be able to find Hattori Masanari next, it's just that on Gojo Makoto's side, how do I go about inviting him to make a move, the two days that were agreed upon have long since passed."
Yamanaka Yun got the information, then his expression suddenly looked bad when he thought of the person he was going to persuade with.
He had previously bragged that it would only take two days to find Hattori Masanari in order to get Kirito to promise him help against the Skull Squad, but as a result, he had let Kirito down, and now it was a little difficult to go and persuade with Kirito for help.
" An opportunity can't be lost, that one has the same deep hatred for Root's people, I think he doesn't mind waiting for a few more days, as long as I can find Hattori Masanari, everything is fine, the big deal is that I'll make amends and apologize afterwards."
Yamanaka Yun thought so before quickly leaving the room.
In a short while, he found the Night Organization's contact person and passed the information to Gojo Makoto, who was far away in the country of Wave.
...
On the other hand, in a border town on the border between the Land of Rain and the Land of Wind.
Chiyo was currently giving her puppet a checkup and maintenance in one of Sunagakure's hidden strongholds in the town, and ever since she had learned that Hattori Masanari had made a deal with Iwagakure, she had secretly come here, leaving only a double to cover her tracks in the Sunagakure village.
The lives of her son and daughter-in-law were more important than anything else, and that was the only thought in Chiyo's mind.
Although this decision was a bit capricious, but she had lived for so long and made so many contributions for Sunagakure, so if she was slightly capricious this time, I don't think anyone would dare say anything.
It's just that the longer she herself left Sunagakure Village, the more time her double would be exposed.
As the pivotal leader of the Hawk faction in Sunagakure Village, her prolonged absence from Sunagakure Village would come with many bad effects, and might even affect the war between Sunagakure and Konoha.
"Damn Hattori Masanari, where the hell is he hiding, he hasn't shown up for such a long time."
Chiyo put down the puppet arm in her hand and said absentmindedly.
The concealment ability of this Ame-Nin who captured her son and daughter-in-law was really tricky, the intelligence network her brother Ebizo set up in the Land of Rain was already fully cooperating with her in searching for Hattori Masanari, yet there was still a delay in finding the person, but on the contrary, they had found quite a lot of people from other ninja villages.
For example, she had found that Konoha's Root had been quite active in the Land of Rain recently.
According to her thoughts, this Konoha's Darkness was also looking for Hattori Masanari, and as for the purpose, he must be trying to stop Hattori Masanari from making a deal with Iwagakure and trying to snatch someone.
"This is good, with this Darknerss of Konoha, muddying the waters, my chances of rescuing Akashige and Sara will be even better, Hattori Masanari, you better not have killed my son and daughter-in-law, or else I'm sure I'll have to make a human puppet out of you with my own hands."
Chiyo whispered, deep hatred showing in her eyes, along with a flash of fear.
Suddenly, a Sunagakure appeared in the clearing behind her, he knelt on one knee and said respectfully, "Chiyo-sama, there is news."
"Speak."
Chiyo instantly turned around and said excitedly.
"We have discovered Kitsuchi's trail, and he has reappeared in the border town where he met with Hattori Masanari earlier."
Sunagakure answered truthfully.
"Very well, send men to that border town immediately, Kitsuchi appeared there, Hattori Masanari will surely appear there as well."
Chiyo ordered loudly.
"Ha~"
Sunagakure immediately carried out the order.
The next moment, he turned into a pile of yellow sand and fell to the ground.
When Chiyo saw this, she also planned to do it right away, she quickly packed up the puppets on the table before preparing to head to the border town.
But just as she was about to leave, she suddenly stopped, a thoughtful look on her face as she queried, "No, those two guys traded in that border town before, and this time they are conducting a trade there again, doesn't it seem too obvious, this type of trade has to be stealthy enough to be considered right ah ... "
Chiyo was old and smart, the more she thought about it, the more she felt that this matter of Kitsuchi appearing in the border town was out of the ordinary.
She immediately took out a scroll from her body and opened it, revealing a detailed map of the Land of Rain, and then quickly found on it the location of the border town where Kitsuchi was now appearing.
"Is this the place? This place has Iwagakure defenders less than twenty miles away, and the terrain is flat, so with a ninja's footwork, it can be traversed in five minutes."
Soon, Chiyo murmured as she found a small, unremarkable village on the map that was slightly away from the border town Kitsuchi was in.
She looked at the location of this small village with a cloudy expression on her face, her mood a little apprehensive.
Intuition and experience told her that the border town where Kitsuchi was currently located was merely a bait to attract everyone's attention, and that the real trading location was this small village.
However, whether or not this judgment based on feelings alone was correct was another question.
Once she guessed wrong, she would lose the best opportunity to save her son.
Because of her eagerness to save her son, Chiyo couldn't decide for a while.
...
Konoha, evening, Uchiha clan territory.
Kirito was once again strolling through it, after a few days of Tsunade's excellent care, he was completely well, even better than before, and a few pounds fatter than before his hospitalization.
He was now once again in the Uchiha clan territory, with the purpose of coming to collect his well-deserved payment.
Arriving again, Kirito saw that white flowers and white decorations had been hung in many places, and many of the Uchiha were dressed in black garments, all with heavy faces, devoid of the pride of the past.
"I don't seem to have come at the right time."
Kirito sighed as he noticed the changes in the Uchiha clan territory.
In response, he knew what was going on after a little thought.
It was all caused by the war.
After the end of the Kyubi seal, in less than half a day, the ninja forces that Iwagakure and Kumogakure had gathered at the border retreated one after another, and because of this, many of the Uchiha ninjas that had been sent to the border to support them returned to Koha one after another.
However, after these Uchiha ninjas came back, the vast majority of their faces had completely lost the joy they felt before they set off, and only heaviness remained.
Although Konoha had not started a war with Iwagakure and Kumogakure, the border between Konoha and the two ninja villages had never been quiet.
After the ninjas of the Uchiha clan rushed to the border, it was natural that they couldn't just go to look around and go through the motions, they also needed to go to the front line to fight, and that was exactly what they were eager for.
As a result, these Uchiha ninja with contempt for the enemy this time in the battlefield ate a big loss, many people have paid the price of blood for their arrogance, and forever left in that blood spilled and full of killing sound on the border battlefield.
Those who can survive on the border are the elite ninjas of each village, the Uchiha clan can't take advantage of them, but a carelessness will die in the hands of these battle-hardened ninjas who work well together.
So, when these Uchiha ninjas who experienced the baptism of war came back, the cloud of war that had been long gone finally once again shrouded in the Uchiha clan's head, so that they realize that war is not something to be happy about.
And they, the Uchiha clan, were no longer the same ninja clan that could once run amok on the battlefield.
Times had changed.
The way ninja wars were fought had also changed.
A clan could not fight against a village.