Konoha: Starting with Sage Mode

"A bunch of weaklings trying to change the will of the strong, and even trying to treat the strong like fools, what a bunch of clowns, overestimating themselves."

Orochimaru stared at the spot where the ANBU ninja had just disappeared, and sneered.

Chapter 216: Settling Everything

After leaving Orochimaru's laboratory, the ANBU ninja went straight to the military camp's liaison office to report the situation to the Third Hokage and Sarutobi Takashi.

Although he was quite capable, possessing the strength of an elite Jonin, he was merely an Anbu squad leader and did not have the authority to mobilize other ninjas in the military camp. If he wanted to intercept the Uchiha clan ninjas, he would have to rely on the strength of other ninjas in the military camp.

Otherwise, with only their twenty-odd members in the Anbu, they would be no match for those Uchiha ninjas.

Although there are few Uchiha clan ninjas here, there are still thirty-five of them. Each of them is an elite Uchiha ninja who has awakened the two-tomoe Sharingan or higher, and their strength is generally above that of elite Chunin. Among them, there are eight Jonin.

A messenger eagle quickly flew out from the liaison office, soared into the sky, and headed towards Konoha.

However, it had only been flying out of the military camp for a short time when a wind-style chakra bullet accurately struck it.

"The task assigned by Kirito-kun has been completed."

Hyuga Karen looked at the messenger hawk that was falling rapidly from the sky, smiled slightly, and then manipulated the chakra wings on her back to quickly swoop down, catch the messenger hawk, and then use the Rasengan to completely pulverize it and the letter on its body.

Kirito secretly assigned Hinata Karen the task of monitoring the ANBU members in the military camp and intercepting messages sent from the ANBU to Konoha using the Mind Transfer Technique.

After completing the mission, Hua Lian continued to fly and observe, using her white eyes to take in the military camp not far below.

Before long, she saw a new messenger eagle fly out of the military camp. Not only that, but four ANBU ninjas also secretly left the military camp from different directions.

Not long after these ANBU ninjas left, an equal number of ninjas left the military camp.

Karen could clearly see through his Byakugan that the ninjas secretly following the Anbu were all using Transformation Techniques, and each of them was a Jonin.

"Kirito-kun is amazing. He's managed to win over so many Jonin so quickly. It seems I don't need to get involved."

Hua Lian exclaimed in admiration upon seeing this.

Since Kirito took over as the frontline commander of the Land of Wind, he has naturally recruited quite a few people in recent days.

In fact, he had been working in Konoha for years, secretly getting to know many outstanding ninjas through his position at the hospital, and also using his superb medical ninjutsu to build good relationships with these ninjas.

Now that he has the power, the money, and the resources, he can easily recruit some decent subordinates.

The only slight pity is that most of these people come from the common people class. The Jonin he recently recruited are basically commoner ninjas who have no power in the military camp.

Ultimately, it was Kirito's own status as a commoner ninja that played a significant role in recruiting talent.

Many ninjas from clans are bound by their families and lack freedom. They are currently observing the situation, and only a few have the courage to make a choice behind their families' backs. Only young commoner ninjas are fearless.

"Let me see what you're made of. This isn't a place where just any Tom, Dick, or Harry can get in."

On the sand tower outside the oasis, Kirito slightly opened his eyes, looking in the direction of the oasis camp, and murmured.

Then, he waved his hand, and a kilometer away in the sand dunes, a large, yellowish-brown snake was pulled from the ground by a giant sand hand and then brutally crushed into a pulp.

Before long, the four ANBU ninjas were caught up by the four Jonin who followed them in the desert. After a fierce battle, each side had its victories and defeats. Three of the four ANBU ninjas were defeated, and the remaining one was defeated by Hua Lian who arrived later.

The news was completely blocked.

Meanwhile, in a dilapidated ruin in the Devil's Desert, a group of red-eyed ninjas are gathering.

Suddenly, a bolt of purple lightning appeared. Before the other red-eyed ninjas in the ruins could react, Uchiha Chizuru appeared at the highest point of the ruins, looking down at the twelve clansmen below.

"Lord Chizuru."

Uchiha Kaze was also there. When he saw Chizuru, he immediately greeted her respectfully.

Nine other young Uchiha ninjas, all of whom were elite Chunin, greeted Chizuru just like him.

Only the two Uchiha Jonin merely nodded indifferently to Chizuru.

“I will be in charge of this operation. If any of you are not satisfied, you may attack now.”

Chizuru slowly drew her famous sword, Lightning Clash, from her waist and said coldly.

As soon as he finished speaking, one of the Uchiha Jonin with a buzz cut immediately threw a smoke bomb at Chizuru, using it to obscure her vision. He then unleashed a fierce attack using Fire Release: Great Fire Dragon Technique, followed by a Wind Release: Great Breakthrough attack.

The wind intensified the fire, greatly increasing the power of the Fire Dragon Technique.

The two powerful ninjutsu techniques were executed in one smooth motion with incredible speed. Even if an ordinary Jonin were not killed by such a fierce and aggressive attack, he would certainly be caught off guard and thrown into a panic.

However, Chizuru was not an ordinary Jonin.

A wave of light blue water-style chakra sliced ​​the fire dragon in two, leaving a terrifying sword mark on the ground, before finally stopping steadily an inch in front of the flat-headed Uchiha Jonin and disappearing from sight.

Upon seeing this, the flat-headed Uchiha Jonin's expression turned extremely ugly.

As a Jonin, how could he not see that Chizuru had held back just now? Although he was capable of dodging, he had already been completely defeated in the direct confrontation just now.

He never expected that Chizuru, at such a young age, would have such sharp swordsmanship skills, capable of unleashing such a powerful chakra slash.

Moreover, Chizuru even knows Water Release, which is extremely rare among the Uchiha clan.

This is truly bizarre.

The flat-headed Uchiha Jonin was decisive; he put away his kunai and bowed to Chizuru.

Uchiha ninjas don't like the traditional respect for elders and care for the young; they only show respect to the strong and disdain to harm the weak.

Since Chizuru has proven with her strength that she is stronger than him, he naturally has to listen to Chizuru.

Upon seeing this, another Uchiha Jonin pondered for a moment before obediently bowing and saluting to Chizuru.

His strength is about the same as that of the flat-headed Uchiha Jonin. Judging from what just happened, he is definitely no match for Chizuru, so he shouldn't humiliate himself.

Seeing the two Uchiha Jonin bow their heads, Chizuru sheathed her Lightning Battle sword, then activated her Sharingan and used genjutsu on the Uchiha ninja below to secretly reveal the battle plan in the form of genjutsu.

The operation plan was simple: secretly infiltrate the Sand Village's headquarters, then use genjutsu to manipulate the martial arts ninjas on the list who were engaged in fierce battles, and make them launch an attack on Konoha.

The plan is simple, but it is quite difficult.

This mission was extremely dangerous; one wrong move and they might not have made it back.

However, all the Uchiha ninjas showed excited expressions, and none of them chose to back down. They then obeyed Chizuru's orders, quickly hid, and waited for night to fall.

During the process, two unidentified Hyuga clan ninjas joined the action team. They were responsible for finding the target, and later two more Yamanaka clan ninjas joined in to make contact.

Soon, night fell, and a pair of scarlet eyes appeared one after another in the pitch-black ruins.

……

Sunagakure Village, Kazekage Building, Kazekage's office.

The Third Kazekage was reviewing a mountain of official documents, looking haggard. The poison in his body had been completely cleared with the help of Chiyo's excellent medical ninjutsu. Apart from being a little weak, he was fine.

Unfortunately, Sunagakure's current dire situation leaves him no time for proper rest.

During his recovery from poisoning, a mountain of work piled up, and now he can only work twice as hard to deal with it.

By processing the documents on his desk, the Third Kazekage clearly understood how dire the situation was in Sunagakure, and how it was not far from economic bankruptcy.

With Ebizo's death and the theft of the One-Tailed Beast, the war between Sunagakure and Konoha can essentially be declared a failure. This has severely damaged Sunagakure's international prestige, resulting in a significant reduction in its mission workload, less than half of what it used to be.

Furthermore, with Konoha's ninja forces already in the Land of Wind, that despicable Kirito Tohsaka's control over the One-Tailed Beast is growing stronger every day, and Rasa's gold rush has come to a halt.

We can't stop now. If we send Luo Sha to the desert to pan for gold again, he might never come back.

The Third Kazekage understood perfectly well that if Sunagakure wanted to rise again, Rasa was of paramount importance. Sunagakure could do without anyone else, but it couldn't do without Rasa. Once Rasa, this Kage-level seed with amazing gold-digging ability, was gone, Sunagakure would soon become history.

With the workload greatly reduced, Rasa can no longer mine for gold to supplement his family's income. Sunagakure is now dirt poor. After paying a large sum of necessary compensation, all the Sunagakure ninjas will basically only be able to eat grass next month, and they are not far from eating sand.

"Damn Konoha, damn Kirito Tohsaka, I will never let this go."

The Third Kazekage was filled with hatred for Konoha when he thought about the current predicament of Sunagakure, especially for Kirito Tohsaka.

After venting his frustrations briefly, the Third Kazekage deflated and regained his focus on processing the documents.

The situation is now beyond their control; Sunagakure has no choice but to back down. Continuing to fight Konoha to the death will only lead to their demise.

Although he hated Kirito Tohsaka to the extreme, he also knew that this despicable Konoha ninja was no longer someone that Sunagakure could afford to provoke. As for wanting to get the One-Tailed Beast back from him, that was just wishful thinking for now. It was already good enough that the other party wasn't attacking them.

"I hope Elder Chiyo's trip to Konoha for the peace talks will have a good outcome. I think the Third Hokage probably doesn't want to see Sunagakure forced to fight Konoha to the death."

The Third Kazekage felt a pang of resentment as he recalled the shameful decision to use peace talks to stop Kirito Tohsaka from launching an attack on Sunagakure.

He originally did not intend to negotiate peace, but wanted to wait for Kumogakure and rely on Kumogakure to share the pressure from Konoha. However, Kumogakure failed to defeat Amegakure quickly. Instead, it encountered fierce resistance from Amegakure in the Land of Rain and became bogged down in the war, with no victory in sight for a short period of time.

Kumogakure could afford to delay, but Sunagakure could not, especially when he learned that Kirito Tohsaka had replaced Orochimaru as Konoha's frontline commander in the Land of Wind. He had no choice but to quickly send Chiyo, a heavyweight figure from Sunagakure, to Konoha for peace talks in order to alleviate the pressure from Konoha.

From the current perspective, this decision, though shameful, is very effective. That despicable and powerful Konoha brat is ultimately bound by constraints and cannot do whatever he wants because of his strength.

"Bang bang~"

The door was banged on loudly.

Hearing such a commotion, the Third Kazekage knew that something troubling him had probably happened again. His head suddenly started to ache inexplicably, and he frowned as he said, "Come in."

The next moment, a mature and beautiful female ninja quickly walked in; it was none other than Chiyo's daughter-in-law, Suna.

"Lord Kazekage, something terrible has happened! News has come from the front-line military camp that several ninjas have gone missing, and these ninjas are all extreme militant ninjas who strongly oppose peace talks."

"I can't believe it," said Sha Lan with a worried expression.

Because of her anxiety, she is currently in a state of extreme anxiety, and the panic in her eyes is hard to hide.

Upon hearing this terrifying news, the Third Kazekage's mind went blank for a moment, and his expression changed drastically. He shouted, "Immediately dispatch all the village's most skilled tracking ninjas to bring these people back. We absolutely cannot let them run amok!"

"Yes, Lord Kazekage."

Sandstorm was already flustered and somewhat at a loss, so she gave an answer subconsciously.

After saying that, she turned and left.

"Wait a minute, go and sound the alarm first, and order all the ninjas in the village to prepare for battle."

Upon seeing this, the Third Kazekage quickly stopped Suna and added another new order.

As the Shadow, he now has to prepare for the worst.

Upon hearing this new order, Sha Lan turned pale, realizing that the worst might really be coming. He forced a smile and said, "Yes, sir, Kazekage."

A few seconds later, a loud alarm sounded in Sunagakure, waking up a large number of ninjas from their sleep, who then rushed to the Kazekage Building to assemble.

Meanwhile, at the Sunagakure front-line base, a massive sandstorm was violently ravaging the area.

In just a few minutes, the yellow sand buried most of the Sand Village's base camp.

Many Sand Ninja could only helplessly hide inside buildings to protect themselves from the sandstorm.