Naruto: The Abstract Strategist of the Akatsuki

On the other side, Minato Namikaze was equally devastated upon learning that his wife had been sent to the Imperial Palace by his disciple Obito.

But he still didn't hate Obito; on the contrary, he felt extremely guilty.

Minato felt that he had only overlooked Kakashi's physical injuries, but overlooked Obito's emotional wounds after Rin was kidnapped, which led Obito to turn to darkness and commit such a treacherous act against his master.

"Obito is innocent; he simply went astray!"

When faced with Hashirama, who reappeared and tried to persuade him to eliminate Obito, Minato still refused.

And unlike before, when Minato was trying not to worry Hashirama and kept it a secret, giving vague verbal promises, now Minato is so distraught because his wife has been taken from him that he has no mind to think about such things.

"..."

Where is the innocence? I ask you.

Hashirama was truly out of options.

How come these two are so similar?

"Besides, revenge will only breed new hatred and won't undo what's already happened. My first priority isn't to seek revenge on Obito, but to quickly find a way to rescue Kushina!"

"Fine, then figure it out yourself."

Hashirama sighed helplessly.

To be honest, although the first half of the sentence gave Hashirama a bit of a chill, the second half made sense.

Theoretically, saving lives should be the priority right now.

Furthermore, after learning that Madara had been executed by the emperor, Hashirama felt that there was a conspiracy involved, which was very similar to Madara's faked death in the real ninja world.

He wondered if Madara had realized he wasn't actually dead, and to avoid being in a passive position where the enemy was in the dark while he was in the light, Madara also chose to fake his death and escape, going from the light to the dark, and secretly investigating him.

If that's the case, then there might be a bigger conspiracy behind it, and he can't reveal even the slightest trace at this time.

"It's alright, senior. This is my personal matter, and I should handle it myself... Hmm?"

Before Minato Namikaze could finish speaking, Hashirama handed him something.

"This is a token of the Senju Sect. Take it to Tsunade, and she should help you. But remember to destroy it immediately after you're done using it, and don't reveal my existence."

Hashirama still felt he should offer Minato Namikaze a little help.

Ultimately, if we trace it back to the source, the whole thing was caused by him secretly contacting Nohara Rin and telling her that Obito was the root of all the turmoil, which led Nohara Rin to devise a series of schemes and Obito to decide to take revenge on Minato.

"Thank you, senior."

After thanking Minato, he gave Kakashi some instructions and then immediately set off with his belongings.

Hashirama Senju hid in the shadows and followed along.

When Minato Namikaze returned to Tsunade's tavern, it felt like a lifetime had passed.

In this martial arts world filled with intrigue and darkness, only this place can offer a place to indulge in unbridled revelry without a care in the world.

But Minato Namikaze didn't come here to drown his sorrows in alcohol; he had a real way to resolve his inner turmoil.

Minato Namikaze found Tsunade, presented her with a token, and explained his purpose.

"Master, you said you should let go of hatred, but hatred can't let me go. I don't cause trouble for the court, but the court keeps causing trouble for me."

After learning about the situation, Tsunade's previously relaxed expression turned serious, and she looked out the window at the sky, muttering to herself.

After a moment of melancholy, Tsunade came to her senses and returned the token to Minato Namikaze: "You flatter me. Since you brought this to me to fight against the Imperial Court and rescue your wife, you wouldn't mind if I found a few more helpers, would you?"

After obtaining Minato Namikaze's consent, Tsunade sent someone to invite the two people over.

One of them is Ai, the chief镖头 (bodyguard/escort) of a Jianghu镖局 (escort agency), who wields a large sword. During a mission, one of his subordinates was seriously injured, and he came here seeking treatment from the divine physician Tsunade.

The other is the lone traveler Terumi Mei, who is skilled with a water whip and wanders the world in search of a confidant who can draw her sword.

The three men met in a tavern a few days ago and became acquainted after a fight.

After learning about Minato Namikaze's purpose, both of them were filled with admiration.

Mei Terumi goes without saying; her purpose in wandering the world is to find a kindred spirit, and she greatly approves of Minato Namikaze after seeing that he is willing to take such risks for his wife.

However, Ai's side is different; what he finds more appealing about Minato Namikaze is another quality.

The A in this world has a similar personality to the Raikage in the real ninja world. While he might not be an absolute gentleman, he is certainly not related to the Raikage in the doujinshi.

Ai was very dissatisfied with Minato Namikaze's decision not to clean house and eliminate Obito, feeling that Minato was being old-fashioned.

However, Minato Namikaze's words, "Disciples are like hands and feet, wives are like clothes. Clothes can be mended when they are torn, but how can severed hands and feet be reattached?" resonated with Ai, who valued brotherhood the most, and he decided to help Minato Namikaze.

There were two people watching this scene from the shadows.

One is Hashirama Senju, and the other is Obito Uchiha.

When Hashirama saw this scene, he immediately realized that the people here were none other than the Kage of the Five Great Shinobi Villages in the real world.

Contrary to the real ninja world, the Kage, who represent official forces, have instead become江湖 (jianghu) forces.

Strangely, only four Kage from the five great ninja villages came.

Where did the Earth Shadow go?

But after thinking about it carefully, Hashirama seemed to recall that he had heard someone say that Iwagakure had been cooperating with Akatsuki for a long time and had hired Akatsuki on several occasions.

If we translate this into the context of the real world, wouldn't it be considered collusion with the imperial court?

It's quite reasonable that the earthen shadow didn't appear.

Meanwhile, Obito, upon witnessing the group's conspiracy, instinctively considered reporting the news to the imperial court, but quickly dismissed the idea.

He is no longer the Obito who was single-mindedly focused on making achievements and gaining merit.

Without his second brother, what hope did he have left?

He now has to think of himself in everything he does.

So, Obito had a new idea.

Not only would he not tell the imperial court about this, he would also proactively leak information about the imperial court to his master, Minato, and the others, to help them complete this assassination.

Obito believed that with the strength of the emperor who had never appeared but appeared only in myths and legends, it was impossible for these people to assassinate him successfully.

But once an assassination attempt occurs, the martial arts world will inevitably face a purge.

And this assassination attempt will certainly lead to the tragic deaths of countless "innocent" people, including some people in the palace.

At that time, there were vacancies for eunuchs, so he could take advantage of his innate advantages to apply for the position and live a life of seclusion in the court while still being able to keep a close eye on Lin every day.

Then they secretly searched for the location of the six remains.

Obito gave himself a thumbs up for his brilliant idea.

However, Obito still needed to think about how to reveal the information to them.

In any case, I definitely can't give it in my own name, because even if I did, my master and the others certainly wouldn't believe it.

So, what should we do?