It's normal to get a kaleidoscope as a first deposit of six yuan, right?

Huang Tu, as the assistant, frowned slightly as he read the description in the report.

“Father, we are, after all, a great nation. If we continue to hire rogue ninja organizations to do our work and it gets discovered, it will likely draw criticism. Moreover, the fact that they can go to such lengths suggests that this organization is no benevolent entity. What if they set their sights on us in the future…”

Upon hearing what Huang Tu was saying, Onoki waved his hand to interrupt him.

"Don't worry, I know what I'm doing. Besides, I've hired this organization more than once or twice. So what if they're rogue ninja? Can they wipe out Iwagakure? Using a small amount of money to solve our long-standing problem is a huge profit."

Onoki ignored Huangtu's advice. Instead, he believed that as long as he had money, the Akatsuki mercenaries would be more efficient than his own ANBU.

Seeing that Onoki didn't seem to care at all, Huang Tu had a bad feeling.

"Never mind, I hope this is just my imagination..."

……

In the winter of Konoha Year 60, Shiki, dressed in a plush winter coat, sat on the sofa, blowing a red bubble gum and flipping through a beautiful girl's comic book.

Shisui, who came out of the kitchen carrying a bowl of sukiyaki, smiled at Shisui sitting on the sofa and said, "Alright, Shisui, it's time to eat. Go wash your hands first."

"Okay." Zhi Xue put the comic on the sofa, then happily skipped and hopped towards the bathroom.

Ding! The main quest for option four—the prelude to the Fourth Shinobi World War—is about to begin. Please prepare accordingly next year to avoid any unexpected situations.

Main Quest: Prelude to Darkness.

The Tailed Beast Capture Arc (Coming Soon)

Seeing the notification appear on her retina, Zhixue wiped the water droplets off her hands.

"I didn't expect time to fly by. Once the plan to capture the tailed beasts begins, the ninja world is likely to undergo a huge transformation."

"What? Who, who wants to capture me?" The little nine-tailed beast, still half asleep inside Zhixue's body, faintly heard the words "capture tailed beast" and immediately woke up, pricked up its ears to listen to the commotion.

Looking at the slightly drowsy little Nine-Tailed Fox in her inner space, Zhi Xue soothed him and let him continue sleeping.

It seems that because she often feeds chakra to digest it, Kurama spends about 18 hours a day sleeping and digesting, but its growth doesn't seem to be very noticeable now.

Sitting at the dining table, looking at the sukiyaki Shisui had made, Shiyuki enjoyed the food while saying to Shisui, "Nii-san, there's probably going to be a war next year. I'll give you a present for the New Year. Remember to take good care of yourself then..."

Zhishui was also taken aback by Zhixue's sudden and inexplicable words.

"War? The friction between the major ninja villages hasn't reached that point yet, has it? Shisui, where did you get this information?" Shisui swallowed a dumpling and asked Shisui.

"Ah, I just got the news not long ago, and I don't know the specifics yet, but we must be careful next spring. There might be a huge change in the ninja world..." Zhi Xue said with a sigh of relief after putting her chopsticks on the table.

Upon hearing his younger sister's strange words, Shisui began to ponder.

What if the ninja world were to undergo a drastic change due to war? What would be the trigger for this?

……

"Senior, this is the 44th time you've been late. Even Tobi would freeze into an ice block in the dead of winter!" Tobi, sitting on a boulder in the Land of Rivers, looked at Shisue who had come to visit and rubbed his shoulders as he spoke.

"Sorry, Fei, I overslept this morning. But as compensation, how about I treat you to some hot oden?" Zhi Xue said, pulling out a large bucket of steaming oden from behind her back.

"Wow, senior is amazing!" Looking at the fresh-colored and steaming skewers on the sticks, Afei excitedly took them from Zhixue's hand, but soon noticed something was wrong.

Wait, how is he going to eat this if he doesn't have a mouth?

Five minutes later, Zhixue looked at Afei, who was squatting on the ground drawing circles, and felt a little embarrassed.

I forgot that Ah Fei is different from ordinary white-haired monsters; he probably couldn't stomach this kind of food...

"What are you doing?" Obito, who appeared here using Kamui, asked Shiki, who was holding snacks, and Tobi, who was squatting on the ground growing mushrooms.

"Cough cough, it's nothing, but do you have a new mission here now? Waaaaah..." Zhi Xue stuffed a few fish balls from the oden into her mouth and asked Obito.

Seeing Zhixue's cheeks stuffed full, Obito said, "The plan hasn't started yet. There have been some unimportant things going on lately, but the operation to capture the tailed beasts has been assigned."

"Wow... so fast?" Zhixue said in surprise as she swallowed the fish ball in one gulp.

"The plan is less than three months away from its start, so naturally we need to be prepared. Deidara and Sasori will be in charge of the One-Tailed and Five-Tailed, Hidan and Kakuzu will be in charge of the Two-Tailed and Seven-Tailed, Kisame Hoshigaki and Juzo Biwa will be in charge of capturing the Four-Tailed, and Pain will personally capture the Six-Tailed, and then..."

"Then shall we go and catch the Three-Tails and the Eight-Tails?"

When Obito heard Shiseido's question, he nodded and said, "If we're being precise, there are only eight tails. The three-tailed one has already been captured."

"Yay! We're going to cross the sea to the Land of Lightning! Senior, I'll go prepare some fruit and medicine right away!" Watching Afei excitedly slip away, Zhixue began to think about what would happen in the future.

If Killer Bee were the Eight-Tails, he would have no choice but to confront the Hidden Cloud Village head-on if he weren't in Thundercloud Gorge.

Chapter 235, Encounter at Ryuchi Cave

On November 14th, on this snowy afternoon, all the ninjas in Konoha Village sprang into action. Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi led more than a dozen teams in two groups to encircle the western mountains.

"Psychic art!"

Sensing the presence of ninjas in the mountains, Orochimaru formed hand seals, then swallowed Kimimaro whole by the giant snake and disappeared beneath the icy lake.

Hiruzen Sarutobi, who arrived late with a force of several hundred men, gritted his teeth as he looked at the large hole that had been broken in the frozen lake.

"This guy..." Hiruzen Sarutobi threw his Hokage robe aside, startling everyone around him.

Wait a minute, it's the dead of winter!

thump!

Seeing Hiruzen Sarutobi and the other Anbu members dive into the water to pursue him, they gritted their teeth and jumped in after him.

Jumping into a river in the dead of winter, even with chakra to sustain it, would probably leave you freezing solid by the time you emerge.

puff~

A plume of white smoke rose from the snakes' dwelling place in Ryuchi Cave, and Orochimaru emerged from the mouth of a summoning snake.

Since she couldn't get a Uchiha clan ninja's body as a reincarnation vessel, she had no choice but to go to Kimimaro. Although this kid had blood disease, Orochimaru didn't think it was difficult to treat.

"Teacher, you were still a step too late, hehehe."

Kimimaro looked at Orochimaru holding his hand with disbelief.

As expected of Lord Orochimaru, he managed to rescue him from Konoha's prison so easily.

"Thank you, Lord Orochimaru!"

Looking at Kimimaro kneeling on the ground beside him, Orochimaru licked his lips with a sinister grin.

"Don't rush to thank me. It's just that your body is still useful to me. I won't go to anything that's not valuable." Seeing Kimimaro's fanboy-like behavior, Orochimaru pulled him up and prepared to return to the nearest experimental base to meet up with Kabuto Yakushi and prepare for the reincarnation.

But just as Orochimaru was leading Kimimaro through Ryuchi Cave, he suddenly sensed an extremely dense Sage Mode energy reaction.

"Huh? What's that?" Orochimaru, driven by the scientific spirit of exploration, ran towards the green light emanating from the depths of Ryuchi Cave.

But after just one glance, Orochimaru's pupils constricted dramatically, and he quickly ran back.

Stop Snow: ? ? ?

She was making a talisman for her brother, so why did she look like she'd seen a ghost?

Having stopped making the talisman, Zhixue looked at Orochimaru, who had also risen from the mist. After pondering for a while, she chased after him again.

She happens to need a few books, and Orochimaru should have them, so she won't have to look for them elsewhere.

As Orochimaru ran along the road, he suddenly felt a thrill, as if he had just escaped one danger only to fall into another.

"No, this Ryuchi Cave is no longer clean!" Orochimaru, seeing Kimimaro still standing there in a daze, grabbed his hand and sprinted a thousand meters, leaving Kimimaro completely bewildered.

Why does Lord Orochimaru look so flustered? Isn't this where summoned beasts stay?

Just as Orochimaru was running towards the exit of Ryuchi Cave, a streak of green light had already arrived in front of her.

"Why are you in such a hurry, little snake? Am I that scary?"

Orochimaru's face darkened as he looked at the figure before him, and then, to Kimimaro's puzzled expression, he placed the figure in front of him.

"Now that I've given you the person, can I leave?"

Stop Snow: ...

Why would she want Kimimaro? She's not a priest who likes little boys.

"Ahem, I think there might be some misunderstanding between us. I just wanted to borrow your books and theoretical knowledge. Don't worry, it won't harm you. If I wanted to hurt you, would I need to fight you?" Zhi Xue pointed to her scarlet clover-shaped eyes and said.

Orochimaru:……

Half a minute later…

A dark crack appeared in Orochimaru's laboratory on a deserted island in the Land of Lightning, and Kabuto Yakushi, who had been waiting there, ran up to Orochimaru as he emerged from it.

"Lord Orochimaru, wait... there's something else?" Kabuto Yakushi's pupils shrank as he saw Shiki suddenly appear behind Orochimaru. Then, a blue light appeared in his hand, but Orochimaru quickly extinguished it.

"Dou, go turn on the power."

"Lord Orochimaru, this..."

Kabuto nodded, noticing Orochimaru's seemingly indifferent expression, and then ran towards the control room.

"This place is well-constructed, quite impressive," Zhi Xue said, tapping on a nearby incubation chamber as she emerged from the crack.

"These are just experimental tools, but I can get you the scientific knowledge about transplanted cells that you want. Of course, I can also demonstrate it for you myself," Orochimaru said, looking at Shiki who was still curiously touching the things.

Despite Orochimaru's invitation, Zhixue declined to go down. She didn't want to watch the demonstration live; she only needed to learn about cell transplantation.

The gift she wanted to give to Shisui was naturally her own cells. Because they were used to fuse with Hashirama's cells, her cells naturally possessed the corresponding characteristics. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that they were the Uchiha's own Sage Body. Moreover, due to the fusion of bloodlines, the rejection rate of Shisui's transplant would be greatly reduced. However, if she were to actually transplant them, she would probably need to conduct several more experiments in the virtual training ground.

After wandering around Orochimaru's laboratory for a while, Zhixue finally spotted a naked man with sky-blue hair in a nearby room.

"Hozuki Suigetsu, Orochimaru actually managed to bring him back after all?"

Wiping the smooth surface of the instrument, Zhixue recalled the mother and child, as well as Jugo, whom she had saved many years ago.

"I wonder how they are doing. I'll go and see them this time. I almost got forgotten by them."

After acquiring relevant knowledge and her own theoretical practice from Orochimaru, Zhixue opened a rift in front of her and disappeared.

Orochimaru breathed a sigh of relief after watching Shisue disappear.

"This guy is as powerful as ever, and he even possesses such long-range space-time ninjutsu... It's truly astonishing..."

Although Ryuchi Cave is located in another dimension, it is at least 2000 kilometers away from the exit of the Ninja World. It is incredible that it took less than half a minute to get there.

Chapter 236, Visiting Karin

“One-Tail, Two-Tail, Three-Tail…” In Amegakure, Pain fiddled with the photos on the table, placing the images of the nine tailed beasts representing calamity and power in the ninja world one by one.