Konoha: Starting with Sage Mode

Suddenly, Kirito noticed that the rain falling from the sky was rapidly decreasing.

Before long, the sun shone through Amegakure, a rare occurrence, and a ray of sunset's afterglow shone into the village.

Kirito quickly jumped onto the tower and then watched the sun slowly setting in the west.

"Isn't it beautiful? You came back at just the right time. Such beautiful scenery is rare in Amegakure."

The next moment, a voice with a hint of coldness came from behind.

The newcomer was none other than Hanzo. Kirito had already discovered him through his soul perception. Relying on the power of his Byakugan, he discovered that the rain falling from the sky contained chakra as soon as he arrived in Amegakure, covering almost half of the village.

This is the Amegakure's powerful reconnaissance ninjutsu, Rain Tiger Free Technique.

Unsurprisingly, among the people in Amegakure, only Hanzo currently possesses the ability to unleash such a massive technique.

So he decisively revealed his identity in the rain, letting Hanzo discover his arrival.

Sure enough, Hanzo arrived quickly.

"Ah, it is quite beautiful, but these things around the tower are a bit of an eyesore."

Kirito nodded, then turned to look at Hanzo.

"This is already too good for these traitors. You're absolutely right. Amegakure really needs a thorough cleansing right now. These guys are too despicable. If they continue to exist, Amegakure will be divided up by those great powers sooner or later."

Upon hearing this, Hanzo's tone instantly turned cold, and he said ruthlessly, his eyes becoming fierce.

These days, he has been purging traitors, and the information he has obtained from them is heartbreaking. Many of these traitors were people he personally promoted and trusted, only to be betrayed in return.

These bastards not only colluded with foreign enemies, but also abused their power to line their own pockets; they are a bunch of rats in Amegakure.

What's even more ridiculous is that after eliminating these rats, the money he received from these traitors' homes was equivalent to the total revenue of Amegakure for nearly two years, which shows how much these traitors have benefited from Amegakure and the enemy over the years.

Nowadays, apart from Hattori Masanari, played by Kirito, Hanzo sees everyone as a traitor and wishes he could arrest them all and torture them severely.

The pain was unbearable. The betrayal of these people felt like knives being stabbed into his chest again and again, making it hard for him to breathe.

After the heartache comes endless anger.

Hanzo decided to execute these traitors in the cruelest way he knew, and strip them of their honor as well.

"Sigh, your methods are still a bit too crude. Clean up these eyesores. The villagers are very uneasy right now. It would be better to handle this kind of thing privately and minimize the negative impact. Besides, doing it this way will allow those traitors to hide even deeper."

Kirito noticed that Hanzo's emotions were somewhat out of control, and gently tried to persuade him.

Hanzo listened to what Kirito, who was playing Hattori Masanari, said. When he heard Kirito say that, his anger-driven mind finally cleared up a little. After a moment of silence, he replied, "I understand. I will send someone to clean it up later. The cleaning work will be done as discreetly as possible."

"Here you go. With this, our purge of Rain Village should be much faster. We still can't let our guard down when it comes to spies and traitors, but we can be relaxed on the outside but tight on the inside. Those guys must be panicking right now. If we relax a little, they might just reveal their true colors."

Kirito took out a scroll from his person and handed it to Hanzo, smiling slightly.

Hanzo had no doubt that the scroll was a trap. He took the scroll and quickly opened it, only to find that it contained a relatively complete manual of torture ninjutsu. A long-lost smile appeared on his face.

Amegakure currently lacks this kind of interrogation ninjutsu to find traitors. It is too difficult to get professionally trained spies to talk using only ancient interrogation techniques.

He was also afraid of arresting the wrong person and worrying that it would cause panic within the Rain Village, so the scope of his investigations was always limited.

But with this inheritance of torture techniques, everything becomes much easier.

As long as the person being investigated has nothing to hide, they have nothing to fear about being investigated. Torture techniques will not cause any harm to the person being investigated. On the contrary, those who have something to hide will definitely worry about being exposed and then being forced to reveal themselves.

"Great, did you get this from Konoha?"

Hanzo repeatedly checked the inheritance of the torture ninjutsu and, after confirming that there were no problems, asked Kirito about it.

"That's only part of it. I gave Konoha a small gift to give them an advantage in their battle against Sunagakure. This is just a small return gift from them. The big prize is yet to come."

Kirito nodded.

A few days ago, he met Jiraiya again at the agreed location, and successfully handed over some information about the Sand Village battlefield to Jiraiya, in exchange for the relatively complete inheritance of torture ninjutsu and a large amount of resources.

"That's wonderful. Your inheritance of torture ninjutsu has been a great help. You must have come back this time for a deal with Iwagakure, right?"

Hanzo, having received confirmation from Kirito, said happily.

These days, he finally heard some good news: Hattori Masakado was indeed loyal to Amegakure and was willing to hand over this precious interrogation ninjutsu to the village free of charge.

Indeed, his decision to swallow his pride and invite Hattori Masashige back to the village was absolutely the right one.

"Indeed, my deal with Iwagakure was not going well. The concealment abilities of Iwagakure are far inferior to those of Konoha. When I went to find them, I discovered traces of Konoha and Sunagakure, as well as many mysterious forces. I also found that old woman, Chiyo."

With this old woman around, my deal with Iwagakure is likely to be extremely dangerous. I had no choice but to come back and ask you for help.

What I traded with Iwagakure this time was a large number of Earth Release ninjutsu, including one S-rank ninjutsu. These are key to Amegakure's future rise, and we absolutely cannot afford to lose them.

Kirito, seeing that Hanzo already understood his purpose, explained it clearly and emphasized the risks and importance of the transaction.

“That old woman is indeed a huge problem, but don’t worry, as long as I’m here, she definitely won’t be able to cause any trouble. However, how do you plan to trade these things with Iwagakure? Earth Release ninjutsu is not something Amegakure is good at, and Iwagakure certainly wouldn’t be so kind as to trade away their precious S-rank ninjutsu to us. It’s probably an S-rank ninjutsu that they themselves would have a hard time mastering.”

Upon hearing this, Hanzo looked puzzled and said...

The Amegakure people specialize in Water Release ninjutsu, and their ninjas are basically born with a natural affinity for the water element. They do have other elemental attributes, but they are rare. In addition, the Amegakure people lack training resources and are simply unable to devote their energy to learning other elemental ninjutsu besides Water Release.

There are also S-rank ninjutsu. These things look precious, but the difficulty of mastering them is extremely demanding. Basically, no one can master them successfully. They can only be used as a foundation for people to admire.

Therefore, in his mind, it was not a good choice for Kirito to trade with Iwagakure for Earth Release ninjutsu, which was not highly valued on their side. It would be more worthwhile to ask for more resources to train ninjas.

"Hanzo, what do you think are the difficulties hindering the development of Amegakure?"

Kirito noticed that Hanzo didn't seem too optimistic about what he was trading with Iwagakure, and suddenly asked a question.

Hanzo was stunned by Kirito's question and then began to ponder deeply.

To be honest, he wasn't really sure what the biggest problem hindering Rain Village's development was. In his heart, he felt it was the suppression of Rain Village by the three major powers around it.

So he voiced his true thoughts: "It must be the suppression we face from the three major powers around us."

"What you said isn't wrong, but that's not the root cause. This is it."

Upon hearing this, Kirito sighed and pointed to the sky above.

By this time, the clearing skies over Amegakure had ended, and the sky was once again shrouded in thick, dark clouds, indicating that it would likely start raining again soon.

"weather?"

Hanzo asked, puzzled.

"That's right. The biggest problem restricting the development of our Rain Country is this terrible weather. Because of this terrible weather, our Rain Country's agriculture simply cannot develop, and our country can only import large quantities of food from neighboring countries."

A country with a weak agricultural foundation cannot be self-sufficient in food, and its population will certainly not be able to grow. Moreover, if other countries block food exports to our Rain Country, many people in our Rain Country will starve to death.

In fact, other major powers don't even need to wage war against us. Simply imposing a food export blockade on our country would likely be enough to bring about our own destruction. Without the Land of Rain, our Rain Village would cease to exist.

Kirito nodded and shared his opinion.

Upon hearing Kirito's explanation, Hanzo's joy vanished instantly, replaced by an overwhelming sense of heaviness. He now deeply felt that the future of the Land of Rain and Amegakure was far too difficult.

Then, he continued to ask with doubt, "What does this Earth Release ninjutsu have to do with the climate? Could these Earth Release ninjutsu change the climate of our Land of Rain?"

"You're right, Hanzo. These Earth Release ninjutsu do have the potential to change the climate of our Land of Rain. The reason why the climate of our Land of Rain is so bad is because the terrain in the west of our Land of Rain is too high, which blocks the moisture from the eastern sea."

"If in the future we can use Earth Release ninjutsu to slightly alter the terrain of the west, creating an opening so that moisture from the eastern ocean is no longer blocked by the terrain, then the terrible climate of our Land of Rain will definitely be significantly improved."

Kirito said this with conviction.

Hanzo was a rough and uncultured man, skilled at murder and arson, but he didn't understand much about such advanced geographical knowledge. However, seeing Kirito speaking so confidently, he was immediately impressed and thought that what Kirito was saying was very promising and might actually succeed.

"Can it really succeed?"

Hanzo, after all, wasn't the kind of fool who would trust someone completely based on just a feeling, and asked doubtfully.

"Of course, I have consulted some geography experts. It may take a long time, maybe more than ten years to complete, but it is a feasible method. Changing the climate of the Rain Country is definitely an important condition that the Rain Country must achieve to develop and grow stronger."

Furthermore, Earth Release ninjutsu combined with our Amegakure's Water Release ninjutsu is also very powerful. You should have seen Iwagakure's collective Earth Release ninjutsu, right? With these Earth Release ninjutsu, our Amegakure might be able to replicate them in the future, and even form a unit capable of collective Water Release.

"With these two forces working together, and combined with the advantageous terrain of our Rain Kingdom, we can certainly pose a significant threat to the enemy."

Kirito continued to boast to Hanzo about the benefits of trading Earth Release ninjutsu with Iwagakure.

"Alright, you're the one who captured those two elite puppeteers from Sunagakure. If you want to trade them for these, go ahead. I'll come and help you with that."

Seeing that Kirito had no intention of changing the terms of the trade with Iwagakure, Hanzo had no choice but to give up on arguing with Kirito about the matter. In any case, whatever Kirito received from the trade with Iwagakure would benefit Amegakure, so it was worth it for him to lend a hand.

However, he still preferred that Kirito trade with Iwagakure for a batch of resources that could quickly train a large number of ninjas, so that Amegakure could get out of its current slump as soon as possible.

But since things had come to this, he could only accept the facts.

"I've been waiting for you to say that. However, this transaction is of great importance. You must keep your support here a secret and not let a word of it leak out."

Kirito smiled when he heard Hanzo finally agree to his request in person.

With the demigod Hanzo backing him up in the Land of Rain, his safety is greatly enhanced. Even if Chiyo and Kakuzu join forces to deal with him this time, as long as Hanzo takes action, these risks are nothing.

He might not even need to lift a finger; Hanzo might take care of both of them, allowing him to easily gain enhancement points.

"Don't worry, I know what to do. I will definitely not leak any information this time."

Hanzo made a solemn promise, his voice revealing a deep-seated murderous intent.

"See you then."

Upon seeing this, Kirito promptly took his leave.

As soon as he finished speaking, he formed a hand seal, and his entire body turned into a pool of water.

Then, a wooden sign fell down.

Hanzo caught the wooden sign with lightning speed, and once he saw the words engraved on it, he immediately threw it into the air.

The next moment, he quickly drew the chain sickle from his waist.

With a flash of light, the wooden sign was shredded into pieces, scattered like snowflakes in the rain, and disappeared completely when washed away.

"The future of the Land of Rain... I hope it's as bright as you say, Masashige..."

Hanzo looked up at the sky where it was raining again and sighed.

If this can truly bring some sunny days to Amegakure and reduce the time the Land of Rain spends weeping, then this deal with Iwagakure will be quite worthwhile.

……

Three days later, in the border town, at night, Huang Tu and twelve Iwa ninja were ready. After repeated and careful reconnaissance, and confirming that they were not being followed, they all used the Shadow Clone Technique to leave a shadow clone in place to cover their tracks.

Then, they all used the Earth Dragon Concealment Technique to sneak underground and quietly leave the border town.

Meanwhile, in an izakaya (Japanese pub), a man wearing sunglasses with a very low profile saw an insect on his fingernail suddenly fly up. He immediately got up and quietly left the izakaya.

In the sky, a tiny eye noticed the man in sunglasses coming out of the izakaya and quietly followed him.