Konoha: Resurrected by Orochimaru at the start

At the same time, as if sensing something, Masked Zero River pondered for a moment, and just as he was about to raise his arm, he suddenly heard a sound coming from behind him.

The next second, a black pillar, accompanied by a whooshing sound, struck the back of Masked Zero's head. As if caught off guard, the powerful impact even pierced through the mask from back to front, going straight through his skull!

Touching the extra thing on his head, not paying attention to such details, Masked Reikawa asked curiously with the black rod still on his head, "You actually woke up?"

Nagato knelt on the ground, her heart pounding as if being cut by a knife. Although it seemed like only a short while had passed from the outside, time didn't measure that way in the illusion. The feeling of having the dark side and pain hidden deep within her forcibly 'dug out' was unbearable: "Where is Reikawa?!"

Masked Zero River shrugged and said, "He's dead. Speaking of which, the first thing you asked me after you came out was this. Are you planning to avenge him?"

Before Nagato could react, Masked Reikawa suddenly became excited and continued, "If you're planning to take revenge, how about this? I'll stand here and not move. Yes, that black stick you're holding. I'll throw as many as I can. You can use it to turn me into a hedgehog, no problem. Please don't hold back."

Faced with this bizarre scene, Nagato's face turned grim: "...What the hell are you?"

"First of all, I'm not a thing, um—it sounds strange, but I just really want to clear my head. It's not very polite of you to say that." Masked Reikawa muttered to himself. After a while, seeing that Nagato still had no intention of making a move, he suddenly felt a little bored.

He casually drew a crack in the air beside him, but inside the crack was pitch black, and nothing could be seen, as if it had been swallowed by darkness.

Even after Masked Zero River left through the crack, Nagato remained rooted to the spot, not because he didn't want to, but because he couldn't. He was in extremely poor condition, and if he rashly followed, he would be powerless to do anything in case of danger.

Although for some unknown reason, the leader of Yuanxu did not directly attack him, but now that he was trapped here and could not get out, it seemed that whether he attacked or not made no difference.

On the way, Nagato kept sensing a bloody smell around him, and the surroundings were unusually quiet compared to when he first arrived. He decided to go back to the village to check the situation first; at least for the time being, he had nowhere else to go.

"Excuse me, could you please move aside?"

Hearing the sound, Nagato snapped out of her daze and instinctively stepped aside to make way. After the action, Nagato was slightly stunned, as if this scene had just happened not long ago.

An old man walked up from behind. His once gray beard had turned completely white, and his back was terribly hunched. He carried no basket on his back, and his eyes were empty and unfocused, as if he himself did not know what he was going to do.

The stench of blood in the air grew stronger...

Nagato silently followed behind the old man. This time, there were no vendors hawking their wares at the village entrance. There was some sticky red paint on the ground, and villagers were lying asleep. The wind was probably too strong, as the vendors' stalls were blown to pieces and covered in red paint. It looked like it would be a lot of trouble to clean them up.

Nagato thought that after seeing the old man find his grandson, he should also go see the couple who claimed to be his parents. Although they had nothing to do with him, he still had to remind them not to smear all that random paint on their faces, because it would look terrible...

Inside the tower—

Sasuke stood on the steps, clutching a thin, transparent thread in his hand, looking ahead with a grim expression. He was standing on the steps facing down the stairs.

On the other end of the line, it was tied to the doorknob of the front door where they had arrived.

Reference points don't work, markers don't work, how can we get out? Sasuke felt a little frustrated thinking about this.

They had tried everything just now. Although the space was large, all the books were arranged in an unusually neat and tidy manner, as if they had obsessive-compulsive disorder. Without any unexpected interference, he and Naruto quickly finished exploring the place.

As for the result, it is clear that they did not find the so-called "eyeball" or anything related to it.

There might be some omissions, but Sasuke's intuition told him that continuing to search like this was not a solution. After all, before the two of them arrived here, Hyuga Kito had been here for who knows how long, and judging from what they had seen before, Kito himself had organized these books.

Under these circumstances, since they haven't even found the wooden figure, the chances of the two of them finding the so-called "eyeball" in a short period of time are slim, if not impossible.

"Sasuke!"

Sasuke's face darkened upon hearing the shout. Damn it! Could Naruto have chosen to touch those books because he couldn't find any clues?! Thinking this, Sasuke used his Body Flicker Technique to quickly rush towards the direction of the sound!

"Naruto, what happened?!"

"Sasuke, you're here! Look over here! There's suddenly someone here, but this guy has been hiding in this corner with his head down ever since. He won't say a word no matter what I ask him. Isn't that strange?"

At this point, Naruto looked at Sasuke and suddenly paused, asking in confusion, "Sasuke, what's wrong? Why do you look so pale?"

Sasuke felt a vein throbbing on his forehead, took a deep breath, and tried to calm himself down: "Did you knock over the books on the floor?"

Upon hearing this, Naruto quickly waved his hand: "No, it fell down by itself when I was passing by."

My dear reader, there's more to this chapter! Please click the next page to continue reading—even more exciting content awaits!

Seeing Sasuke's murderous glare, Naruto guiltily recalled the situation, his tone gradually becoming uncertain: "I guess... I shouldn't have touched the bookshelf—right..."

Sasuke didn't speak, but placed his hand on the bookshelf, looking at the missing gap in the fifth shelf. His brow gradually relaxed as he pondered, and his gaze shifted to the figure crouching in the corner. He suddenly asked, "When did he appear?"

"I don't know. I suddenly heard a noise behind me, so I looked back and saw that a book had fallen. When I turned back, I saw that person was already sitting there."

At this point, Naruto walked over to Sasuke and said mysteriously, "This guy walks without making a sound, do you think he might be a ghost?"

Sasuke raised an eyebrow: "Are you afraid of ghosts?"

"How is that possible?" Naruto said indignantly, taking a few steps to stand in front of the person. However, his hand, which was about to strike down, paused in mid-air and finally reduced its force.

"Um... hello?"

Sasuke, caught off guard by Naruto's actions, was caught off guard and unable to stop him in time. He was on edge, but fortunately, the other person didn't seem to react to it.

Sasuke pulled Naruto back and said sternly, "You can't even tell friend from foe! You're courting death, don't drag me down with you!"

Hearing this, Naruto shrank back and said guiltily, "It shouldn't be. That guy hasn't done anything to me since he appeared, and I have this inexplicable feeling that he seems to be very sad right now."

"What does it matter to us whether he's having a hard time or not... wait..." Sasuke pondered. This might be a clue. They had basically searched this area. If there was anything they hadn't found, it could only be the books. If the wooden man wasn't lying, touching those books would likely be dangerous. But what if the book had fallen down on its own?

The reason we can be sure that the book wasn't knocked over by Naruto is that the bookshelf here is very sturdy, and the book should have been placed on the 5th shelf, which is beyond Naruto's reach given his current height unless he did it intentionally.

Just then, the figure that had been huddled in the corner suddenly moved.

"!" Upon seeing this, the two were immediately startled and became wary.

The man ignored Naruto and Sasuke standing in front of him, and slowly took out a transparent glass bottle from his pocket. He then reached into the bottle with his other hand after feeling around on his face to find the right spot. As if he had grabbed something, he pulled it into the glass bottle, and blood dripped from his fingers.

Sasuke froze on the spot upon seeing this. Naruto wanted to step forward to stop him, but was suddenly pulled back by Sasuke!

Naruto's voice was somewhat anxious: "Sasuke?!"

As if oblivious to the urgency in Naruto's words, Sasuke stared intently at the round object in the glass bottle and slowly said, "Naruto, the eyes—we've found them."