Konoha: Starting with Sage Mode

Nawaki tugged at the chakra threads with his hand.

The next moment, he fell from the sky.

A heart-shaped indentation suddenly appeared in the sand on the ground.

"Ouch~, Kirito must have done it on purpose, it hurts so much."

Rope Tree ran out of the crater, clutching his head which was throbbing from the fall, and cursed under his breath.

"Hurry up, the enemy has already run more than a thousand meters away. Go after them quickly. You have one minute to finish them off."

At that moment, Kirito's voice appeared in Nawaki's mind.

Secret Techniques of the Mountains: The Art of Mind-Body Transmission!

Upon hearing that the enemy was approaching, Nawaki immediately stopped complaining and followed Kirito's instructions, rushing towards the enemy.

One minute later, Nawaki, having opened all four gates, successfully kicked a Sand Village Jonin who was skilled in using Wind Release techniques to death.

On the other side, Chizuru also killed an elite Chunin, but did not find the sealing scroll.

"The shipment has been completed."

Nawaki found a sealing scroll on a Sand Village Jonin and excitedly told Kirito.

The next moment, Rope Tree's body began to be pulled into the air.

Nawaki quickly put the Sand Village Jonin's body on his head, and had Kirito use the chakra threads wrapped around him to take him back to the Suzaku puppet in the air.

"It's almost been an hour. Let's find a safe place to rest for a bit before continuing."

After Nawaki and Chizuru successfully returned to the Suzaku puppet, Hatake Sakumo said to Kirito.

Kirito naturally had no objection to this. He immediately controlled the Suzaku puppet to land in an uninhabited desert ruin, and then began to conduct a detailed inspection of the Suzaku puppet to confirm that there were no malfunctions on it.

Sakumo Hatake, Nawaki, and Chizuru ate some food and soldier pills to quickly restore their chakra.

Soon after, Nawaki consciously came to a groove on the back of the Suzaku puppet and had Kirito activate the sealing technique "Earth Prison Hall" set up inside, forming a sealing array to charge the five chakra scrolls inside the Suzaku puppet.

Kirito then openly used the sealing technique, Earth Prison Hall, to absorb a portion of the chakra from the Rope Tree, then combined it with natural energy to create Sage Chakra, and finally transferred this Sage Chakra into the chakra pool within his body used to store Sage Chakra.

"Kirito, how many Sand Village sealing scrolls have we collected in the past two days?"

Out of boredom, Nawaki suddenly asked Kirito to check how many battle merits the White Fang Squad had accumulated recently.

"Twenty-one, including two large scrolls and five medium scrolls. We also killed twelve Jonin. If we hand these over, it will be enough for the Hokage to give our White Fang Squad two S-rank mission ratings."

Kirito answered without hesitation, a smile appearing on his face.

In the past two days, they have made many contributions to Konoha. The 12 Jonin alone are a huge achievement, not to mention the large amount of supplies they intercepted from the Sand Village. The loss of these personnel and supplies is enough to make the Sand Village feel the pain.

Unsurprisingly, the White Fang Squad has been added to the Sand Village's kill list, and is among the top of it.

"Really? We've made such a big contribution in just two days."

"That's what Rope Tree said in surprise."

"If you don't believe me, you can ask Mr. Hatake."

Kirito said with a smile.

Nawaki immediately turned to Hatake Sakumo, and seeing Hatake Sakumo nod, he excitedly said, "Hehe~, when we get back to the village, I'll see how Minato compares to me. I remember he only got an S-rank mission rating, I didn't expect to catch up so quickly."

"Minato, I wonder how he is doing now. I remember that Orochimaru's team should also be carrying out a similar mission to the White Fang Team in the Land of Wind. How come we haven't found them for so long? And their soul aura has disappeared. It's really strange."

When Kirito heard Nawaki mention Minato, he immediately narrowed his eyes slightly and thought to himself.

Meanwhile, in Konoha, at the Senju clan's residence, Momoka was entertaining a group of distinguished guests. Most of them were clan leaders from various Konoha ninja clans, or at least the second-in-command elders.

Among them was Uchiha Homura, the patriarch of the Uchiha clan.

As a result, the heads of the three major clans of Konoha gathered together in one room once again, a rare occurrence, and even displayed a harmonious demeanor during the banquet.

Seeing this, the other ninja clan leaders, except for the leaders of the Sarutobi clan and the Ino-Shika-Cho clan, were all extremely uneasy.

They all had a premonition that the Senju clan had invited them here because something big was about to happen, and it might even be a major event that would affect the current political landscape of Konoha.

Shortly after the banquet began, an uninvited guest suddenly descended from the sky onto the shore of the island in the lake where Konoha Prison is located.

Chapter 172: Digging Out the Rotten Roots

In Konoha Prison, a White Zetsu clone, disguised as a mysterious samurai, descends from the sky.

As soon as he descended from the sky, some highly skilled sensory ninjas inside the prison immediately noticed his presence and then notified their other comrades in the prison.

"Intruder!"

The same sound quickly echoed throughout Konoha Prison.

At the same time, an alarm signaling an intruder was sounded, echoing throughout the entire Konoha prison.

At that moment, four masked Jonin suddenly appeared from all four directions of the Konoha prison. They quickly took out a scroll from their bodies, and when they opened it, it contained a sealing technique for some kind of lightning release sealing barrier.

They gathered a massive amount of Lightning Release chakra and placed their hands on it.

In an instant, the sealing spells in the four scrolls were activated one after another, and four huge lightning pillars shot into the sky. They then quickly connected with each other, and countless bolts of lightning shot out from the four lightning pillars, connecting with each other to finally form four blue transparent sealing barriers.

Lightning Release: Lightning Bind!

As the sealing barrier was formed, a group of masked ninjas in black jumped out from some hidden places. They very consciously stood in front of the White Zetsu clone and dealt with the prison guards who rushed up for the White Zetsu clone.

These black-clad ninjas were few in number, less than twenty, but each one was a genuine Jonin. Even when facing enemies several times their size, they handled the situation with ease, crushing a large number of prison guards who were only Chunin level.

With others taking care of eliminating the minions and drawing most of the enemy's attention, Kirito could easily infiltrate the prison.

During the process, a White Zetsu head appeared from his shoulder, and then spat out a large number of black lines. These black lines fell to the ground and began to quickly gather together, eventually forming four masked monsters wearing masks of different colors.

They are the Earthly Grudge Masked Monsters.

The White Zetsu head now appearing on the shoulder of the White Zetsu clone is another White Zetsu clone used by Kirito to practice the Earth Grudge Fear technique. Kirito calls it the Earth Grudge Fear clone, and it is now being controlled by the White Zetsu clone who is playing the role of a mysterious samurai.

Four chakra threads shot out from the White Zetsu clone and pierced into the four masked monsters.

The four masked monsters shuddered and then unleashed four powerful ninjutsu—Wind Release, Fire Release, Earth Release, and Water Release—destroying the various sealing barriers and sealing arrays inside the prison, as well as the ninjas who had come to attack them.

Meanwhile, deep within the prison, in Danzo's room.

Danzo sat cross-legged on the ground with a gloomy expression. He already knew what was happening outside, and a sense of tension arose inexplicably in his heart.

"It seems that even after the deaths of the teacher and Mito, the Senju clan still has some ruthless individuals. However, this was within my expectations. Ninjas always think of taking someone down with them before they die, let alone the prestigious Senju clan. If they were to remain silent after being provoked, that would be extremely disappointing."

Danzo sneered inwardly.

Senju Momoka, the head of the Senju clan, invited the leaders of various Konoha ninja clans to a banquet at the Senju clan's territory. Shortly after the banquet began, Konoha Prison was attacked. The timing was so coincidental that no one would believe there was nothing fishy going on.

Clearly, the Senju clan learned of his attack on Nawaki.

Now they've come for revenge.

However, the Senju clan must not have obtained any real evidence, otherwise they would not have chosen such a simple and brutal way to deal with him.

This suited him perfectly.

He intended to use the Senju clan's attack on him to severely damage the Senju clan's prestige in the village, making it the catalyst for the various Konoha ninjas to divide up the Senju clan.

"You want to kill me in Konoha? You're dreaming."

Danzo thought of the troops he had deployed in Konoha Prison, and his unease vanished instantly. He closed his eyes again.

He was well aware of the Senju clan's current situation. Although they still had two ninjas, Tsunade and Momoka, whose strength surpassed that of ordinary elite Jonin, they had less than 20 Jonin in total. Lacking Kage-level ninjas, the Senju clan was no longer the strongest ninja clan in Konoha.

The strongest ninja in Konoha right now are from the Uchiha clan, followed by the Sarutobi, Hyuga, and Shimura clans, and then possibly the Senju clan.

With the Senju clan's current strength, trying to break into Konoha Prison is simply wishful thinking.

Because the Konoha prison's standing force consists of five Jonin and one hundred Chunin, plus the numerous powerful sealing barriers and sealing arrays here, these sealing barriers and sealing arrays are enough to be equivalent to twenty Jonin, and holding off twenty Jonin for several hours is not a problem.

Even if the Senju clan is wealthy and can afford to pay to avoid trouble, finding many desperate people from Konoha and outside the village to help him kill, he is not afraid.

Because the force protecting his Konoha prison is not only the regular troops of Konoha prison, but also ten Root Jonin he secretly transferred, three of whom are elite Jonin, each of whom is skilled in powerful secret techniques and forbidden techniques.

Finally, the ANBU sent by the Third Hokage to monitor him could also be considered his protective force. Among them were ten Jonin, five of whom were elite Jonin.

With such powerful protective forces, how could the mere Senju clan possibly break through their defenses and successfully kill a Kage-level powerhouse like him?

Just as Danzo was feeling confident about the protective forces in Konoha Prison, an ANBU ninja suddenly burst into the room and said in a commanding tone, "Danzo, a powerful guy has come outside. You're in danger. Move out immediately."

"Danger? This is Konoha, what danger could I possibly be in?"

Danzo sneered upon hearing the voice and tone of the person in front of him.

“I’m not negotiating with you, this is an order.”

The ANBU ninja continued to give commands, then began to form a hand seal.

Seeing that the ANBU ninja in front of him was still defiant, Danzo stood up, reopened his eyes, and stared at the other party with a cold, murderous gaze, making no attempt to hide his threat: "Sarutobi Takashi, do you think I wouldn't dare to kill you?"

As soon as he finished speaking, a chilling and terrifying chakra wave mixed with killing intent erupted from Danzo's body.

The pressure from a Kage-level expert acted directly on the Anbu ninja.

Upon seeing this, Sarutobi Takashi, the leader of the Anbu squad and the son of the third generation, immediately felt a chill run down his spine and sensed an immense crisis. Without hesitation, he activated the Vajra Mantra seal on Danzo's body, intending to use it to suppress the restless Danzo.

But he miscalculated. He suddenly realized that Danzo had disappeared and been replaced by pitch-black darkness. He was completely enveloped in darkness and felt himself sinking into a dark swamp, his body rapidly sinking downwards.

He knew he had fallen victim to Danzo's Dark Arts, and he immediately tried to form hand seals to dispel the illusion, but found that he could not move his body.

He didn't know when, but his body was bound by many dark tentacles, and he couldn't move at all. He could only watch helplessly as he sank into the dark swamp.

In reality, Takashi Sarutobi was bound by dark tentacles extending from beneath Danzo, his once bright eyes were now dull and lifeless, and his face behind the mask wore a blank expression.

The Dark Travel Technique combined with the secret arts of the Nara clan.

This is the result of Danzo's learning of ninjutsu during his time in prison. After mastering two types of ninjutsu, and constantly exploring in the darkness, his understanding of Yin Release has advanced by leaps and bounds.

One day, he successfully combined these two ninjutsu, which should be the integration of Nara's secret technique into the Dark Travel Technique. He used the Dark Travel Technique to deprive the enemy of their sight and secretly created dark tentacles with the ability of shadow imitation to bind the enemy.

The forbidden technique of Dark Travel is not only capable of depriving the enemy of sight, but also of creating dark matter that devours all light using Yin Release chakra.

These dark substances not only devour all light, but also greatly weaken the enemy's various sensory abilities.

Now, he has incorporated Nara's secret techniques into these dark substances, allowing them to control enemies without them even noticing.

Dark Binding Spell!

This is the name Danzo gave to the ninjutsu he created after incorporating Nara's secret techniques into the Dark Path.