Zombie Sage in Naruto

Chapter 45 Nine-Tails Jinchuriki

Five months is a long time; it feels like a lifetime has passed.

Kaede Tsukasa stood in the sunlight once again, arms outstretched, feeling the warmth as if he had escaped the icy chill of countless corpses piled up.

"This feeling is so strange, it's as if the whole world has changed. How can I describe it? The feeling of freedom?"

Kaede Tsukasa took a deep breath.

For five months, he frantically seized every second, cultivating relentlessly and using countless corpses to pave his way forward. The energy he expended in this process was immeasurable.

This is why, after years of suffering from illness and becoming accustomed to walking on the edge of life and death, his temperament had been tempered to the point of being as firm as a rock, enabling him to truly endure and survive this period of time where there was only cultivation and no idea when the dawn would break.

But in the end, he saw the light and was able to bask in its glow.

"It feels like a long time has passed."

Kaede Tsukasa's expression returned to calm. The long period of darkness had made his skin pale, but his physique had recovered somewhat, at least he was no longer as thin as before.

"Lord Kaedeji, are you going out?"

The three assistants in the morgue looked up in astonishment, their faces filled with disbelief.

Since they were transferred here, they have never seen Kaedeji leave. Even though the original ruins have been restored to their original state, Kaedeji simply stays in the deepest laboratory, accompanied by numerous corpses.

That was a place the three assistants dared not approach, where they could always hear the howls of corpses.

"Hmm, I'm going out for a walk, otherwise I feel like I'm turning into a silent corpse... You guys keep working, call me if there's anything urgent."

Kaede Tsukasa left those words behind, picked up his trench coat, and walked into the village.

He knew that not all three assistants were clean and that they had definitely tipped off certain people, but it didn't matter. Kaedeji didn't care about this level of information leakage.

Danzo Shimura knew about the embezzlement of corpses, and Tsunade probably knew as well, but no one said anything. They were all waiting to see what level Kaede Tsukasa would reach after his training. Kaede Tsukasa was the first ninja to have to consume a large number of corpses to improve his strength. This was the only case since the founding of Konoha. Using the corpses of enemies for this kind of secret special training was within the tolerance range.

Kaede Tsukasa has to thank the village's atmosphere during this period once again. If it were during Naruto and Sasuke's time, anyone who dared to do this would have been condemned by the entire village. In that case, his very existence would be seen as an unpleasant mistake.

Along the way, Kaedeji would stop occasionally, as if he were visiting this bustling village for the first time, observing all sorts of things, and sometimes taking out some silver to buy items from various shops.

If you ignore the headband he uses as a belt, he looks just like a tourist.

Yes, although Konoha Village is a super-large military region of the Land of Fire, with functions such as the Ministry of National Defense, the Ministry of National Security, and the Ministry of Public Security, the fact that it has the power to earn its own military expenses alone means that Konoha Village will become a mixed military-civilian area.

Although the war continues, Iwagakure does not have the ability to completely defeat Konoha. Konoha, with its powerful ability to regenerate, is rapidly recovering its strength, and its advantage over Iwagakure is increasing every day.

Now, commerce has gradually prospered, and although a gloomy look may occasionally appear on the villagers' faces, they can generally enjoy relative peace and engage in various forms of consumption.

"Hey, did you hear? We destroyed two more enemy strongholds and killed over sixty ninjas!" "Really? That's quite good progress. If we get dozens more victories like this, Iwagakure definitely won't be able to hold out!"

"Damn Iwagakure, how come they're as stubborn and unyielding as rocks? Why are they still fighting? They might as well surrender to us already!"

"Sunagakure has already signed a surrender agreement, handing over 31% of its annual missions to Konoha, and the compensation has reportedly already been paid! Why is Iwagakure still stubbornly resisting?"

During his stroll, Kaede listened to the villagers' conversations and noticed that many of them were somewhat defensive, even furious.

"As an official resident of the world's strongest ninja village, facing a powerful enemy with sufficient strength and size who refuses to compromise in any way, it's inevitable to feel pain and discomfort when your emotions, which have relaxed slightly, tighten again..."

Kaede nodded secretly, having roughly grasped the current public opinion trend. Of course, he didn't really care about the opinions of ordinary villagers; he was simply looking for an opportunity to understand the current state of Konoha.

He knew very well that a decisive battle would break out this year, either when Konoha had accumulated enough advantages, or when Iwagakure realized that if they didn't take the risk of a decisive battle, they would completely lose their chance.

Don't forget, Kumogakure and Kirigakure have been playing the trick of small-team infiltration operations from the beginning. They are not only harassing Konoha, but also causing trouble for Iwagakure, looking for opportunities to bleed their rival villages dry.

Killing one more enemy ninja is equivalent to weakening the enemy's strength and potential, and anyway, these two ninja villages are just sitting around doing nothing.

Moreover, Iwagakure and Kumogakure are sworn enemies, and the enmity between them is even greater than the hatred between Konoha and Sunagakure.

As Kaede Tsukasa pondered, he tried to blend into the current atmosphere, and the icy aura he naturally exuded and the unapproachable demeanor were gradually melting away.

For several days in a row, Kaede Tsukasa wandered around aimlessly, without work, without carrying out missions, without visiting anyone, and without being visited by anyone. He treated himself as an ordinary villager, enjoying this rare leisure and ease.

"Ok?"

Until this day, Kaede Tsukasa walked out of the barbecue restaurant, suddenly stopped, frowned slightly, and looked at the two women coming in.

An old man and a young man, both with red hair, looked quite ordinary to the average person.

It's a perfectly normal grandmother and granddaughter combination. As for their hair? There's nothing to worry about, since everyone's hair comes in all sorts of colors.

But Kaede Tsukasa's hair stood on end, and instinctively, all the muscles in his body tensed up.

He recognized them immediately; the two were... Mito Uzumaki and Kushina Uzumaki!
Kaede Tsukasa never expected that after spending so many days as a street urchin, experiencing a sense of relaxation he hadn't felt in over a decade, he would encounter these two unusual individuals.

Meeting Kaede Tsukasa's gaze, Uzumaki Kushina didn't react much. She was just a 14-year-old girl. Not to mention killing experience, she even lacked proper combat experience. Since entering Konoha Village, she had never left.

Kushina enjoys the best protection in Konoha Village, but her personal freedom is also restricted.

But Mito Uzumaki is more terrifying.

This kind 76-year-old woman, the wife of the First Hokage and the current Jinchuriki of the Nine-Tails, had no change in expression. Yet, the moment her casual glance met Kaede Tsukasa's eyes, Kaede Tsukasa felt an oppressive pressure like a mountain.

(End of this chapter)