Konoha: Starting with Sage Mode

Casalan is a spy Kirito left in Kumogakure to gather important information about the village.

Although Casalan made a mistake and was given the cold shoulder, she was not dismissed from her position as Minister of Pharmacy. She had a very clear understanding of the waste of various medicines in the hospital and the list of people who used them.

This information is actually very important; those who are interested can deduce a lot of hidden information from it.

For example, Kirito can deduce from the information that the Hidden Cloud Village suddenly and secretly transported away a large amount of medicine that the Hidden Cloud Village may be about to launch a war.

Furthermore, Casalan, the village beauty, has extensive connections within the Hidden Cloud Village. Many of her friends hold important positions in various departments of the Hidden Cloud Village, and she can often glean secrets from them while drinking with them.

For example, he learned from this that the Third Raikage was planning to launch an attack on Iwagakure next year.

Suddenly, 'Casalan' frowned slightly, thinking to himself, "What's going on? Have the number of secret agents monitoring Casalan increased again?"

Because the Spirit Transformation Technique: Soul Seed is a variant of the Kirito-style cursed seal technique, it also has the ability to grant the person who has the cursed seal the ability to sense natural energy. As the creator of this cursed seal technique, Kirito can naturally use this soul cursed seal to sense the natural energy of the outside world.

For a time, in order to gain Casalan's further trust, he even created a stable Sage Chakra to secretly enhance her physical attributes, allowing her taijutsu abilities to improve rapidly.

Casalan's talent for cultivating immortal arts was extremely poor; without the help provided by his curse seal, he would have no chance of perceiving natural energy.

Similarly, his cultivation of natural energy using Casalan's body was extremely slow.

To date, Casalan's perception of natural energy is only two to three hundred meters.

However, this range was enough for him to monitor the surrounding movements.

He had just released his perception of natural energy when he discovered that there were several more Cloud Village ANBU members secretly monitoring Casalan within a radius of 100 meters, one of whom was an elite Jonin.

Ever since he used Casalan, the Cloud Village's surveillance of Casalan has never ceased. However, as time went on, the level of surveillance kept decreasing, and the people monitoring him were usually only at the Chunin level, which Casalan himself became aware of.

But now, contrary to expectations, they've sent an elite Jonin-level ANBU ninja to secretly monitor Casaran, which is truly perplexing to Kirito.

Kirito's first thought was that he had been discovered by the people of Kumogakure.

He was surprised by this, but not surprised, because there were many strange ninjutsu and bloodline limits in the ninja world, and it was hard to guarantee that no one would discover the tricks he had made on Casalan's soul.

However, he quickly rejected the idea.

Because he was always very cautious, he never used Casalan's identity for espionage. He always took advantage of Casalan's unconsciousness to control Casalan's body and steal information by reading Casalan's memories.

Theoretically, the chances of him being discovered are extremely small, as small as winning the lottery.

"I should not have been discovered. Otherwise, given the Cloud Village's swift and decisive style, Casalan would already be undergoing a secret investigation in some dark room. So what would be the reason for the Cloud Village to intensify its secret surveillance of Casalan?"

After careful analysis, Kirito thought to himself, then closed his eyes and went into hiding again.

"That's really suspicious."

At the same time, in the Land of Wind, beneath a certain ruin in the Devil's Desert, Kirito, who was on night watch, looked at the campfire before him and said softly.

Based on the intelligence information obtained from Casalan so far, the Cloud Village may be about to launch a major operation. However, it is unclear who the target of the Cloud Village's group of dark-skinned barbarians will be.

It could be Iwagakure or Konoha.

At first, he only thought that the target of the Cloud Village was the Iwa Village.

But who could have caused the unusual change in the power monitoring Casalan?

Based on the information released by the Hidden Cloud Village regarding the control of Casalan, which was attributed to Konoha ninjas, he couldn't help but think that the Hidden Cloud Village's next major operation would target Konoha.

If the target of the Hidden Cloud Village is Konoha, then Konoha's situation will be dire.

"It seems that Danzo's death has had a huge impact. However, this impact is also related to me, a mysterious Kage-level powerhouse. People from other ninja villages certainly don't want to see the Senju clan achieve revival. And now that Konoha is mired in internal strife, with people's hearts unstable and divided, it is indeed a good time to weaken Konoha's strength."

Kirito's pupils, reflecting the flames, contracted slightly as he sighed inwardly.

If it weren't absolutely necessary, he wouldn't have considered killing Danzo at this time, because Konoha is currently at war with Sunagakure, and internal instability would have a significant impact on the front lines.

Moreover, Root does indeed occupy a very important part of Konoha's intelligence capabilities.

Unfortunately, Danzo was determined to die, so he had no choice but to get rid of him.

Otherwise, given Danzo's previous ruthlessness, he would have continued to betray Konoha's information to the enemy, allowing them to eliminate the White Fang Squad.

This traitorous bastard, if we don't kill him right away, are we going to keep him around for the New Year?

"For now, we can only take it one step at a time. After Danzo's death, the original plot has become quite different, and it's hard to predict what will happen next. However, one thing remains unchanged: as long as we continue to grow stronger and have enough power, we can suppress all dangers."

Kirito added a new piece of firewood to the campfire, then casually shot out a highly condensed chakra needle with his finger, killing a bat that was flying silently in the dark. His eyes suddenly sharpened.

Then, with a thought, an attribute panel that only he could see appeared in his eyes.

Chapter 181: Adding Points, Changes in Lightning Release

Kirito hasn't used the three enhancement points he got from Danzo yet. It's not that he doesn't want to use them, but he's not sure which enhancement option to allocate the points to.

He used to like adding points to the Sage attribute and Immortal Mode, but now he can't add points to them anymore.

In the "Wisdom" attribute, once the intelligence value reaches 5 points, it may already be the maximum value, or you may need at least 5 enhancement points to continue improving it.

As for Sage Mode, once this ninjutsu reaches level 3, 3 enhancement points are no longer enough to further enhance it; at least 4 enhancement points are needed.

He currently only has 3 enhancement points.

Now, Kirito faces the choice of whether to use these 3 enhancement points immediately or save them up and wait until he gets new enhancement points in the future to use them to improve his Sage attribute or Sage Mode.

After all, enhancement points are hard to come by.

Even for an important plot character like Danzo, he only received 3 enhancement points for killing Danzo. This shows how stingy he was with the enhancement points given by his cheat system. If it weren't a well-known plot character, even if the opponent was extremely powerful, he probably wouldn't have given them a single enhancement point.

Therefore, it's best to save those valuable enhancement points when using them.

He's been getting upgrade points a bit too frequently lately, but that's because enemies have been actively delivering them to him, and he's been fattening up his pigs before slaughtering them, which is why he's been able to get upgrade points in such a short time.

Of course, if he were to abandon his conscience and principles, and resort to any means to obtain enhancement points, he could also acquire a large number of enhancement points in a short period of time.

This is something that can be done, but it's unnecessary.

Kirito wouldn't do it unless absolutely necessary.

"Improving my strength as quickly as possible is naturally the best. I can't understand the current plot development anymore. It's all Danzo's fault for being such a piece of trash. He insisted on courting death, forcing me to kill him. What a mess."

Kirito sighed inwardly, then continued to ponder whether or not he should use the enhancement points.

Ultimately, his rationale led him to use his enhancement points, primarily because becoming stronger was essential to surviving the increasingly unpredictable plot and ensuring the survival of those he wanted to protect.

So which option should he strengthen?

Since the Sage attribute and Sage Mode cannot be upgraded, Kirito's current preferred upgrade options are Spiritualization Technique and the three Chakra Nature Transformations—Yin Release, Water Release, and Lightning Release—reaching level 4.

There are also the Vajra Lock and the Yin Seal.

Kirito is well aware of the wonders of the Spirit Transformation Technique. His current achievements are largely due to the several derivative abilities he has mastered through the Spirit Transformation Technique. Among them, the Spirit Transformation Technique: Soul Splitting Technique is the key to his success in the outside world.

If possible, Kirito would like to add another soul clone, but his Spirit Transformation Technique is currently only at level 3. Before reaching level 4, he cannot separate a larger piece of his soul to create a new soul clone.

"Currently, I can't add points to either the Sage attribute or Immortal Mode. Improving Spirit Transformation is indeed a good choice, but I can continue to improve my Rapid Soul Power with Soul Poison Pills. At my current rate of improvement, I should be able to automatically level up to level 4 in another six months. There's no need to waste precious enhancement points."

Kirito looked at the Spirit Transformation Technique and confirmed that it still needed 2 enhancement points to upgrade, so he gave up on using the enhancement points on it again.

In fact, there was another reason why he gave up using enhancement points on the Spirit Transformation Technique: the enemy already knew that he knew the Spirit Transformation Technique. Now that his fame was growing, he had long been on the blacklist of major ninja villages, and the enemy would inevitably target the important ninjutsu he possessed.

The fame of the Spirit Transformation Technique had already been made known by Kato Dan, another Konoha ninja who mastered the Spirit Transformation Technique.

What makes the Spirit Transformation Technique most famous in the major ninja villages is not its ability to allow ninjas to separate their souls from their bodies and kill silently from a distance, but rather the terrifying sensory abilities it grants to ninjas.

The higher-ups of the various ninja villages had long disliked Kato Dan.

Because Kato Dan is a terrifying assassin who is impossible to guard against, if a ninja's Yin Release ability is insufficient, he will die if he is possessed by Kato Dan's soul, and he will also expose all the secrets he possesses.

Therefore, for safety reasons, the leaders of the various ninja villages have been trying to assassinate Kato Dan, but they have never succeeded.

Kato Dan was able to survive numerous assassination attempts entirely because of the terrifying sensory abilities granted by his spiritual transformation technique, which allowed him to avoid many threats in advance.

In the original story, Kato Dan died because the enemy found his weakness. He was a person with a pure will of fire and was even willing to sacrifice himself to protect his comrades.

The enemy had anticipated his personality and knew he wouldn't abandon his comrades, so they ambushed and trapped him and his companions. In the end, they managed to kill Kato Dan by making him take the initiative to cover their retreat.

Otherwise, given Kato Dan's near-Kage level strength at the time, he would have left long ago if he had wanted to.

Terrifying sensory abilities are the core of a ninja's astonishing survival ability when they master the Spirit Transformation Technique. The enemy is certainly aware of this, and Kirito is currently worried that the enemy will develop a ninjutsu that can counter the Spirit Transformation Technique, such as a ninjutsu that can deceive the soul's perception.

If the enemy can do this, his perception will definitely be greatly reduced.

Although he has lost his two sensory abilities—soul perception, natural energy perception, and blood perception brought by the Blood Dragon Eye—the former is useless if the enemy blocks his chakra, and the latter's normal range of perception is very small.

To be honest, if the enemy can develop ninjutsu that can shield the soul, developing ninjutsu that can shield chakra is not a problem at all. In fact, there are quite a few ninjutsu that can shield chakra in the ninja world now. For example, Kirito has mastered some shielding sealing techniques.

These shielding sealing techniques can be made into sealing talismans for use.

There are also some special summoning beasts that possess the ability to shield chakra, such as the chameleon ninja beast with powerful stealth abilities controlled by the Animal Path of Pain.

“It is very necessary to master a new perception ability. Although the White Fang Squad has a high level of strength, if they are surrounded and the enemy has a Kage-level expert, it will be very difficult for them to escape unscathed. The people of Sunagakure must hate the White Fang Squad right now.”

If I were them, I would definitely kill this ninja team at all costs, even if it meant deploying nuclear-level power like a Jinchuriki.

Kirito thought of the damage and harm that the White Fang Squad had caused to Sunagakure, and while he chuckled to himself, he was also extremely wary.

Yes, he was certain that the people of Sunagakure were brewing some kind of big move and would definitely try to wipe out the White Fang Squad. Once they made their move, it would be a thunderous strike, and there would certainly be no shortage of Kage-level powerhouses.

"Retreat early and shift the battlefield in advance so that the enemy finds nothing," was Kirito's suggestion to Sakumo Hatake today.

Unfortunately, his proposal was rejected by Sakumo Hatake because he had not yet received orders to retreat.

Contrary to Kirito's expectations, the White Fang of Konoha that he knows now is clearly not the ninja in the original story who would abandon his mission to protect his comrades, but a ninja who will carry out the Hokage's orders to the end.

Kirito believes that this is simply because Kakashi hasn't been born yet.

The other person's change may have occurred after they unexpectedly became a father.

How can we acquire new sensory abilities?

Kirito was at a loss for the moment. In the ninja world, the sensory abilities of sensory ninjas are very diverse, most of which rely on their own talents, such as the Byakugan of the Hyuga clan, the amazing sense of smell of the Inuzuka clan, and the special perception of chakra that they are born with.

Therefore, most sensory ninjas are naturally gifted; those without such talent can only rely on learning sensory ninjutsu.

Sensory ninjutsu is extremely rare and precious, even Konoha doesn't have many of them, and it's quite difficult to learn.

Kirito currently only knows one sensory ninjutsu called Earth Listening Technique, which is the same ninjutsu used by Eiji in the original story where she places her fingers on the ground to sense the location of surrounding enemies.

The principle behind this ninjutsu is to temporarily enhance a ninja's perception of ground vibrations. As long as the enemy is moving, the ninja can quickly sense the enemy's location. The drawback is that it becomes useless once the enemy stops or is no longer moving on the ground.

Kirito's Earth Hearing Technique is level 1, with a coverage area of ​​approximately one kilometer.

"This sensory ninjutsu ability is quite good. If I improve it, I can most likely expand my sensory range. However, Chizuru, who is next to me, also knows this ninjutsu, and her level is higher than mine, so there is no need for me to improve it."

Kirito looked at the Earth Listening Technique option on the attribute panel, hesitated for a moment, and then gave up.