Konoha: Starting with Sage Mode

Sakumo Hatake couldn't be more satisfied with this result, and he now had full confidence in his White Fang Squad.

Furthermore, these three children are all inheritors of the Will of Fire, which is wonderful.

"Okay~"

When Rope Tree heard that all three of them had passed the test smoothly, he jumped up with joy.

Then, he said to Sakumo Hatake with a grin, "Hakegi-sensei, shouldn't we go and have a proper celebration to mark the formation of our White Fang Squad?"

"That's great! I wholeheartedly agree. I recommend going to Yakushi Gourmet House. They recently launched a new deluxe barbecue feast there. I heard the beef is made from high-quality Wagyu beef imported from the Land of Lightning, and it tastes amazing."

Upon hearing this, Kirito's eyes lit up, and he immediately echoed his sentiment.

Chizuru nodded in agreement, then turned to look at Sakumo Hatake, a hint of anticipation in her eyes.

"Okay, we should definitely celebrate. It's on me today."

Seeing Nawaki and Kirito working together so well, Hatake Sakumo knew he couldn't escape a beating today and sighed.

"Wagyu beef imported from the Land of Lightning shouldn't be too expensive, right?"

Sakumo Hatake thought with some worry, then subconsciously reached into his pocket and touched his fairly full wallet, which immediately relieved much of his anxiety.

……

Deep within the Death Forest, in a massive underground base.

This is a newly established base of Root, where a large number of Root members wearing masks and dressed in black are active.

Darkness and oppression are the melody here.

"what!!!"

A scream filled with terror suddenly rang out, echoing through the underground base.

Upon hearing this sound, the members of the Root organization, except for a few newcomers, completely ignored it and continued doing what they were doing. Their eyes showed no emotion whatsoever, clearly indicating that they were already used to it.

After a short while, the intermittent screams finally stopped.

Then, a corpse, tortured beyond recognition, was brought out of a room and thrown into the deepest part of the underground base like trash.

Soon, a terrifying, horrifying gnawing sound emerged.

Meanwhile, in a dimly lit room in the underground base, a single candle was lit.

Danzo sat by the candlelight, coldly staring at the pool of bright red blood on the ground. A gloomy expression appeared on his icy face as he muttered, "Where exactly did I go wrong? Why is the Impure World Reincarnation technique so difficult? The success rate is just too low."

After months of studying and researching the Impure World Reincarnation technique and spending a great deal of resources, Danzo and two elite Jonin from Root who were absolutely loyal to him finally succeeded in mastering the technique.

So far, their success rate in using the Impure World Reincarnation technique is very low; they are lucky to succeed once out of every twenty attempts.

Furthermore, the puppets created by the Impure World Reincarnation technique are generally of very low strength, with the vast majority being at the level of Genin (lower-ranking ninja), even if the ninjas resurrected by Impure World Reincarnation were extremely powerful ninjas in life.

Therefore, these undead puppets have very low combat power. Apart from their immortality, which is a somewhat acceptable advantage, they can basically only be used as suicide cannon fodder.

After working so hard and spending a lot of already meager funds, all he got in return were some trash cannon fodder. How could Danzo be satisfied with that? Moreover, his biggest concern, which was to use this opportunity to revive powerful sealing ninjas to break the curse seal on him, had not yet been achieved.

Some time ago, he secretly sent people to the ruins of the Land of Whirlpools to steal a large number of Uzumaki clan remains from the cemetery there, intending to use them as a medium to create some powerful sealing ninjas using the Impure World Reincarnation technique.

His line of thinking is undoubtedly correct. If we're talking about where in the world there are a large number of sealing ninjas, then the Uzumaki Village in the former Land of Whirlpools has the most. Throughout history, there have been many sealing ninjas who have mastered powerful sealing techniques.

It's just that there are relatively few Uzumaki clan ninjas like Mito Uzumaki who possess both powerful sealing techniques and astonishing combat abilities.

Danzo has successfully used the remains of the Uzumaki clan members to create an impure body of the Uzumaki clan, including Uzumaki Mito's father, Uzumaki Ashina.

As Mito Uzumaki's father and sealing technique teacher, Ashina Uzumaki's sealing technique skills are undoubtedly exceptional. Perhaps he surpassed Mito Uzumaki, but he was still considered a top-tier sealing technique ninja.

Unfortunately, the reanimated Ashina Uzumaki created by him using the Impure World Reincarnation technique was too weak, only at the level of a genin. Even though it retained its intelligence and obeyed the commands of its caster, it still couldn't break the curse seal on Ashina.

Improving the Impure World Reincarnation technique to enhance the power of the Impure World Body has become Danzo's ongoing goal.

However, the difficulty of improving an S-rank forbidden technique is unimaginable, especially for a forbidden technique like the Impure World Reincarnation, which involves life and death, the difficulty of improvement is even greater.

To this day, Danzo has sacrificed hundreds of lives intermittently in his efforts to improve the Impure World Reincarnation technique, but has made little progress.

This outcome was a huge headache for Danzo.

The Root organization is not lacking in ninjas with formidable killing power, but ninjas with outstanding research abilities like Orochimaru are extremely rare.

"Lord Danzo, shall we continue?"

Seeing that Danzo hadn't made a move, a Root member wearing a dog-head mask suddenly asked, his voice weak.

"Of course, but you should rest for now and go call Shenhou over."

Upon hearing this, Danzo turned his head and looked at the Root member codenamed Inugami with his sinister, black-hole-like eyes, and said expressionlessly.

Even though he knew the Danzo before him was just a shadow clone, Inu felt immense pressure being stared at like that. He immediately lowered his head and respectfully replied, "Ha~"

After saying that, he immediately used the Instantaneous Movement Technique to leave.

"Continuing like this isn't a solution; it's too inefficient. We need to find someone who knows how to research ninjutsu to come back."

After the dog left, Danzo whispered, then casually waved his hand.

A wave of darkness suddenly spread from the shadow beneath him, quickly swallowing up all the light in the room and plunging it into complete darkness.

A moment later, the darkness in the room receded rapidly into the shadow beneath Danzo, like a receding tide.

By this time, the bloodstains in the room had completely disappeared.

"I remember a long time ago, Root also had a ninja with research abilities similar to Orochimaru, but he wasn't very noticeable. What was his name again..."

Danzo looked at the spot where the bloodstains had been, and a person suddenly flashed through his mind. He squinted and thought to himself.

The next moment, he turned his head and looked at the shadowy corner of the room. Then a Root member wearing a horse mask slowly walked out. He came to Danzo, knelt down on one knee, and presented a scroll with both hands.

Danzo immediately picked up the scroll, opened it, and began to read.

A moment later, a sinister smile appeared on his face, and he sneered in his heart: "So you've finally decided to go to the battlefield. Hatake Sakumo, Tohsaka Kirito, Uchiha Chizuru, Senju Nawaki, these annoying guys are all together. It's a good opportunity to wipe them all out in one fell swoop. Sarutobi Hiruzen, you've really done me a big favor."

The scroll contained very simple information: it described how Sakumo Hatake, Kirito, and another person were having a meal at Yakushi Gourmet Restaurant.

Danzo, being an intelligence officer, immediately understood from this clue that Hiruzen Sarutobi had sent Sakumo Hatake as a Jonin instructor to lead Kirito, Chizuru, and Nawaki on a mission, meaning that Kirito and the others were finally going to the battlefield.

In an instant, Danzo's mind conjured up a multitude of schemes and plots against Kirito and the others.

He had nothing better to do in prison, so besides practicing ninjutsu, he spent most of his time thinking about how to kill his enemies.

For example, Kirito, who is a thorn in my side.

Unfortunately, Mito was still around then, and with Mito protecting him, this kid couldn't use any of his tricks.

Now that Mito is dead, he longs for Kirito to return to the battlefield as soon as possible.

The day he had been waiting for had finally arrived.

Besides Hiruzen Sarutobi, this kid is the one he hates the most right now.

"To kill this kid, we must first eliminate the ability to perceive souls that comes from his spiritualization technique. With that ability, getting close to him won't be easy. I hope that old woman won't disappoint me."

Danzo stared at Kirito's name on the scroll and thought to himself.

The soul perception ability derived from the Spirit Transformation Technique was the most unique and powerful perception ability Danzo had ever witnessed. This perception ability involved the soul level, and soul ninjutsu was extremely rare. As for ninjutsu that could shield the soul, he had never even heard of it.

However, there is no ninjutsu in the world that is absolutely unbeatable.

According to his investigation, the Uzumaki clan possesses a soul-sealing technique that can seal souls, called the Corpse Demon Seal.

Perhaps powerful sealing ninjas could take a look at this soul sealing technique and develop a sealing technique that can temporarily block the aura of the soul.

He has planted the seed, and now he is hoping it will take root and sprout soon.

"Damn it, if my main body hadn't been temporarily trapped, I would have dealt with this wretched brat myself. Why would I need someone else to do it?"

Danzo felt a deep sense of regret, thinking that he probably wouldn't have the chance to personally kill his enemies in the future.

Under his wise leadership, the strength of the roots has been greatly restored in the past six months.

Since he managed to get his shadow clones out of prison, he has successfully and secretly recruited several Jonin who were dissatisfied with Hiruzen Sarutobi's appeasement policy into Root.

At the same time, by providing the Third Generation with a lot of useful information, he successfully obtained a large amount of intelligence funding from the Third Generation in secret. In addition, with the puppet merchants he has recently developed in secret, the financial crisis of the Root has been greatly alleviated.

If his true form could get out of prison, the power of his Root would definitely be enough to kill Kirito, this brat who hasn't fully grown up yet.

Then, Danzo quickly took out a blank scroll from his person, wrote some things down, and handed the scroll to the Root ninja codenamed Wuma, saying, "Give this to Usagi; she knows what to do."

"Ha~"

Wu Ma immediately took the scroll with both hands, said respectfully, and then returned to the shadows, disappearing without a trace.

……

In Konoha, at the Yakushi Gourmet Restaurant, the four members of the White Fang Squad slowly emerged. Kirito, Nawaki, and Chizuru were all in good spirits, but Hatake Sakumo's face was dark, and his right hand, holding his empty wallet, trembled uncontrollably.

Sakumo Hatake swore that this meal was the most expensive he had ever eaten in his life.

A full 500,000.

Although the Wagyu beef imported from the Land of Lightning was delicious, he felt so bad eating it; biting into the Wagyu beef, it hurt his heart.

"Mr. Hatake, what happened to your face? Are you feeling unwell?"

Rope Tree touched his swollen belly and said carelessly.

"It's alright, I'm fine. We've eaten and drunk our fill, and it's about time we went to carry out our mission. I'll go to the Hokage Building now to pick up the mission, and we'll meet at the village entrance in an hour."

Upon hearing Nawaki's unintentional remark, Hatake Sakumo suddenly felt an urge to beat Nawaki up, but he restrained himself and forced a smile as he spoke.

As soon as he finished speaking, he used the Instantaneous Movement Technique to leave.

Today, he needs to take on a job with better pay, otherwise he won't have enough money to treat people to meals in the future.

He never expected that there would be two big eaters in his White Teeth Squad.

"It seems the teacher is rather poor."

Kirito watched as Sakumo Hatake, his face dark with anger, left, and sighed.

As the eldest son of the Senju clan, Nawaki didn't really have a concept of money. When he heard Kirito say this, he said doubtfully, "No way, Hatake-sensei is so powerful, he shouldn't be poor. It's just 500,000 yen, he can earn it back by doing an A-rank mission."

"A-rank missions are not so easy to complete. Even the White Fang of Konoha would need a long time to complete one."

"Chizuru said coldly."

Unlike Nawaki, she was forced by her grandfather to learn how to manage some of the family's businesses at a very young age, and she was well aware of how difficult it was for ninjas to make money and how much spending power they had.

Ninjas are a profession where one carries their head on their waist.