Konoha's Mission Master

These white dots of light swirl around Yakumo, like pure white elves dancing and playing music.

Tiles appeared in the void, slowly building a desolate and empty arena, where Yakumo stood in the center.

A dense array of glittering stars appeared in the sky.

The consumed energy is quickly replenished.

Those pure white spots of light converged into two basketball-sized clusters of light.

Arena, reward for level 10!

......

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Chapter 452 The Coming War

Two orbs of light floated in the vast, empty arena.

Yakumo first pointed to the ball of light on the left.

[Enhancement Options.]

You can decide to upgrade the exclusive weapons of other players.

Next up are the exclusive weapons representing the three characters. If the next two floors also feature enhancements to exclusive weapons... then Yakumo will need to rethink his strategy.

First, you can focus on strengthening one person's exclusive weapon, giving her the strongest power, and then the two of you can go through the most dangerous world. The advantage of this is that the combat power is more concentrated, and it is possible to create a strong person comparable to yourself.

Secondly, the rewards from the remaining three arena levels are distributed equally. The advantage of doing this is that the four players will adventure together, never abandoning each other, and fighting to the very last moment.

After a moment's thought, Yakumo recalled the scenes of fighting side by side in the past, and a specific idea came to him. In his previous life, he chose to fight alone, but in this life, he would entrust his back to his partner.

"Elevation, the Nile's Sorrow."

[Congratulations, your exclusive weapon, Nile's Sorrow, has undergone a transformation.]

[Special Attribute: Madness. As the battle continues, the user's combat power increases, but at the cost of some sanity. The side effects slowly diminish after the battle ends.]

[Special term: Grim Reaper, the god who controls death. They cannot be granted the state of death. The holder can store this state, gaining prolonged immortality in battle, at the cost of a long period of slumber to absorb the stored death after the battle ends.]

"A divine skill."

Yakumo commented casually. He could tell that the game system, or the person behind it, wanted to cultivate Yukotsu Chiyuki into a strong character similar to the Berserker system. In that case, she would be more suitable for dealing with swarm tactics and for blocking enemy forces in battle.

Immediately, the white ball of light disappeared from sight, leaving only another ball of light floating in mid-air, quietly awaiting Yakumo's choice.

[Congratulations to the player for obtaining: One-third of a Heart of Hope.]

The power of hope is the only energy in the universe that can counteract illusory energy. As one of the most fundamental energies in the universe, the entire heart of hope can grant immortality.

[Note: The Power of Hope cannot directly increase strength.]

The next second, the pure white light merged into Yakumo's body without causing any changes. It was as if it didn't exist. The next second, Yakumo gained memories about the power of hope.

This energy, known as the Origin of the Universe, has no offensive power, but it can remove any side effects, such as the side effects of Devil Fruits, the side effects of special weapon attributes, or... the various discomforts caused by being corrupted by ethereal energy.

But it has no effect on other aspects; it's more like the strongest healing ability in the universe—no, it should be said that it is the strongest healing ability in the universe.

Yakumo understood, gazing at the empty arena.

I chose to challenge the eleventh floor.

After all, having hope meant he was practically invincible, but less than two hours later... he woke up in shock in the secret base, only to be brutally defeated in the arena.

"Why can't I use the power of hope?"

[Hint: Only by gathering enough hearts of hope can the power of hope be activated, but please note that hearts of hope are merely seeds.]

"seed?"

[Hint: The source of the power of hope resides within Lord Uchiha Runtama; possessing the seed only allows one to borrow the power of hope.]

"..."

"System, you've misled me!"

"Could we change the reward?"

This time, the system did not agree to Yakumo's request, but chose to remain silent.

He then opened the game panel.

Intelligence: 97 (Learning ability, mental resilience.)

Yakumo pondered repeatedly why his intelligence attribute had been enhanced. In the courtyard, he exhausted his soul countless times, only to have it replenished again... In this process, his soul underwent a transformation or growth.

"Go back to sleep."

When I opened my eyes again, it was already the next day.

Early in the morning, Yukotsu Chiyuki came to Yakumo's door and asked why her weapon had become stronger overnight.

Yakumo admitted that it was because of her that Mori Masako became extremely envious and kept asking Yakumo... how long it would take for her weapon to be upgraded.

Yakumo didn't give a specific time for this, because the boss of the eleventh arena is... Son Goku.

It's not Dragon Ball, but Sun Wukong from Journey to the West, the monkey with the title of Great Sage Equal to Heaven, the fearless and mischievous monkey who can conquer the heavens.

Last night, Yakumo witnessed countless wondrous changes, felt the pounding of the 108,000-pound golden cudgel, and experienced the swiftness of the somersault cloud.

In short, he was badly injured and doesn't want to be abused lately.

Konoha is growing stronger in a very steady way. Construction has begun on all three districts. With Yakumo's support, Minato Namikaze has implemented sweeping reforms, his style of doing things being similar to Sakumo Hatake's...

The influence of the ninja clans was weakened, civilian ninjas were promoted, the position of the head of the ANBU was reaffirmed, and efforts to provide relief to war orphans were intensified.

In addition, Minato Namikaze was also very aggressive towards outsiders. Because the four great ninja villages had formed an alliance, he constantly squeezed Konoha's profit margin in many transactions.

For example... the Land of Thunder provided the Land of Wind with rainmaking technology.

The Land of Earth helps the Land of Wind improve its land environment.

The Land of Wind paid a large sum of gold...

The Four Nations Alliance did indeed accelerate their development, subtly excluding the Land of Fire and Konoha, forming a near-perfect closed loop.

This incident had no impact on Yakumo, but it had a huge impact on the economy of the Land of Fire. Finally... internal pressure erupted, and the Daimyo of the Land of Fire summoned... Minato Namikaze.

A storm is brewing in the ninja world.

On the other hand, Obito Uchiha and Rin Nohara have successfully conceived a child, and their second child is already growing in Rin's womb. In that case, Rin will no longer interfere with the growth that the Uchiha clan desires.

Recently, that girl has been training in ninjutsu with Obito Uchiha. Under Rin's care, she is able to overexert herself without considering the consequences, and her strength is steadily improving.

During this time, Yakumo happened to meet Jiraiya and discovered that he and Tsunade were basically together, but they didn't plan to have a wedding. For some reason, Jiraiya had become somewhat thin.

At the same time, Yakumo completed the bond quest and obtained... the Dao Transformation Scroll.

Time passed peacefully and beautifully.

However, this beautiful situation was eventually shattered by the sudden arrival of the Anbu. Hokage Minato Namikaze convened a meeting of all Jonin members.

Originally, this matter had nothing to do with Yakumo, but since Minato Namikaze invited him, he decided to go and take a look, and incidentally become a harbinger of trouble in the melon patch.

Inside the conference room of the Hokage Building.

When Yakumo arrived, the place was already full of people. Those sitting in the front row were naturally the heads of the Senju and Uchiha clans, namely Fugaku Uchiha and Nawaki Senju.

Of course, Senju Nawaki still looked like he hadn't woken up yet. Even though he was wearing a haori that represented the Senju clan leader, he looked more like a child who hadn't woken up yet, and he couldn't pull off that golden outfit at all.

Furthermore... when he sat next to Fugaku Uchiha, the difference in their demeanor was immediately apparent. Even though he tried his best to straighten his back and look straight ahead, his eyes were somewhat vacant.

"Yakumo-sama."

Fugaku Uchiha immediately sprang to his feet, as if the chair beneath him was scorching hot, and enthusiastically offered his seat, his expression exactly like that of a husky.

“No need, I’ll sit in the back,” Yakumo said.

He could sense that with his arrival, the discussion in the conference room became extremely quiet, and almost no one spoke anymore.

Yakumo glanced at Tsunade sitting behind the rope tree, then walked straight to the last row. When Yakumo handed over his business to the Uchiha clan to manage, his relationship with Tsunade plummeted to a freezing point.

But there's nothing that can be done about it. After all, if something happens to the Uchiha clan, Fugaku will purge the offenders to maintain relations. But if it's Tsunade, she'll probably try to get forgiveness by negotiating with Yakumo based on past relationships.

The former partnership undoubtedly made Yakumo feel more comfortable, while the latter... Yakumo was destined to make him feel dissatisfied.

After all, the Senju clan is a family that is held together by emotions.

When Yakumo passed by, the crowd would instinctively hold their breath and then give way to make way for him.

He eventually chose an empty seat and sat down.

The people on both sides immediately felt their hearts leap into their throats.

Yakumo sat in the empty seat, waiting quietly.

Not long after, Minato Namikaze walked into the conference room. His gaze swept over everyone in the office... finally lingering on Yakumo's face for a moment, the joy in his eyes no longer concealed.

Minato Namikaze was wearing the Hokage's robes.

"Cough cough."

Minato Namikaze coughed lightly, and the conference room immediately fell silent.

"What we need to discuss today is the current situation in the ninja world. The alliance of the other four countries is now unshakeable. Driven by self-interest, they have jointly launched a campaign to suppress and crack down on the Land of Fire's businesses."

"This has severely impacted the Land of Fire's tax revenue, and their actions... by excluding the Land of Fire from the alliance, have violated the peace treaty that was originally signed."

Minato Namikaze looked at everyone.

"The topic of this meeting is very simple..."

"That is, whether or not we need to go to war, unify the other four countries, make all the small countries vassals of the Land of Fire, and leave only one voice in the ninja world."

Minato Namikaze spoke calmly, without any attempt to sway anyone. He simply stated the facts in a plain manner, and then... looked at everyone, waiting for their response.

"War!" Fugaku Uchiha immediately declared. His clan had always yearned for war, for only the battlefield truly belonged to the Uchiha clan, and the ninja world had been at peace for far too long.

In fact... everyone already had a decision before the meeting even started.

The hatred from World War I, World War II, and World War III still lingers. The Land of Fire was attacked three times; how can such hatred be easily erased...?

"I agree to war!"

Senju Nawaki doesn't have many memories. He only knows that his second grandfather was forced to his death by the Land of Lightning, and that his family was wiped out by war.