Konoha: Starting with Sage Mode

Having just leaned against the White Zetsu, it had also taken in the entire battle situation in the Konoha military camp and had a deep understanding of how unfavorable the current situation was to Madara Uchiha's plan to capture Chizuru Uchiha.

Putting aside Kirito Tohsaka, the biggest obstacle, Chizuru Uchiha has also become troublesome. The Mangekyou Sharingan eye technique she has mastered, which nullifies ninjutsu, greatly enhances her combat power. Even Madara Uchiha will not be able to capture her easily before her Mangekyou Sharingan is destroyed.

Not to mention that Chizuru Uchiha also possessed another Mangekyou Sharingan, the nature of which remains a mystery from beginning to end.

However, considering that the abilities of the Mangekyou Sharingan are usually paired together, the abilities of Uchiha Chizuru's other Mangekyou Sharingan are probably not simple either.

Without a doubt, a temporary retreat is the best option at present.

However, given Madara Uchiha's character, he might continue to fight to the death, especially since he currently possesses the powerful Edo Tensei puppet, Hashirama Senju.

Compared to other Edo Tensei puppets, Hashirama Senju is undoubtedly special. After activating Sage Mode, his strength far surpasses that of ordinary Kage-level shinobi. Even Kirito Tohsaka might not be able to gain any advantage against him.

Hashirama Senju was strong not only in terms of his own strength, but also in his first-rate combat skills. Otherwise, how could he have defeated Madara Uchiha, who possessed both the power of the Nine-Tails and the power of the Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan?

Madara Uchiha felt very uncomfortable listening to Black Zetsu's question. How could he not see that Black Zetsu was suggesting that he retreat?

"Do we have to retreat again? Ever since I woke up, it seems like I've been retreating the whole time. This is really annoying."

Madara Uchiha thought angrily.

He retreated again and again, and the mighty Uchiha Madara seemed to really be like a rat in a gutter, hiding at the slightest disturbance.

When exactly did this begin?

How did he become like this?

"So what? I already threw away dignity when I faked my death and escaped from Hashirama Senju. One more retreat won't make a difference. I can abandon everything for the Eye of the Moon Plan. I should have been prepared for this long ago."

Madara Uchiha remained silent for a while, seriously reflecting on his own actions.

Then, he glanced deeply in the direction of the Konoha military camp and said coldly, "Hmph, I will come back sooner or later, and when that time comes, I will definitely catch you."

As soon as he finished speaking, he manipulated the White Zetsu Tobi on his body to use the Ephemeral Travel Technique, quickly diving underground with the Black Zetsu and disappearing from sight.

Chapter 270: Orochimaru's Transformation

After Madara Uchiha left, the battle in the Konoha military camp also came to a complete end.

Judging from the current situation, the Konoha ninjas have won, but no one is happy about it. This is because the level of this battle is too high, and most of the Konoha ninjas have no sense of participation. Their biggest feeling in this battle is powerlessness.

Furthermore, Konoha suffered heavy casualties this time, with hundreds of people dying. Most of these deaths were caused by the Second Tsuchikage, Mu, whose Dust Release ninjutsu was too unreasonable. Ordinary defensive ninjutsu could not withstand the attack, and the bodies of those hit could not even be retrieved.

After bidding farewell to Homura Uchiha, Chizuru became very depressed. She left alone and did not allow anyone to follow her. She returned to her room in the military camp all by herself.

Seeing Chizuru's distraught state, Kirito wanted to comfort her, but didn't know how.

The death of her only relative was undoubtedly a huge blow to Chizuru, and the awakening of her Mangekyou Sharingan is the best proof of that.

Now she needs time to heal her grief and adapt to the effects of the Mangekyou Sharingan.

"Hua Lian, keep an eye on Chizuru for me. Don't let her do anything foolish. Also, whatever you do, don't look Chizuru in the eye. Her Sharingan's genjutsu abilities are now much stronger than before, probably even stronger than my Sharingan."

Kirito gave some instructions to Hana beside him.

"I understand, Kirito-kun. You can go do your thing without worry. I'll keep an eye on things here and make sure she doesn't escape my sight."

Although Karen was somewhat reluctant to take on the task of keeping an eye on Chizuru, she couldn't help but feel a bit of sympathy for Chizuru's current condition, and immediately accepted the task given to her by Kirito.

I trust you to do things.

Kirito praised him, then quickly left.

He still has a lot of things to do, such as researching the Rinnegan, finding a way to evolve the Byakugan into the Tenseigan, and figuring out the current situation of the Root organization as soon as possible.

"There's also the matter of rescuing Hatake-sensei. Now that Madara Uchiha has mastered the Impure World Reincarnation technique, he will definitely try to find the corpses of powerful ninjas and create Impure World puppets. However, if he has completely controlled Root, he might not need to do it himself."

The Impure World Reincarnation technique used by the Root has clearly been improved to some extent, indicating that it has been under research for some time. The Root members must have already been digging up corpses for quite some time.

Kirito returned to his room and said with a headache.

The matter of exchanging the Rinnegan for Hatake-sensei is imminent. Barring any unforeseen circumstances, he will soon receive a transaction notification from Uchiha Madara, and then the transaction will officially begin.

His preparations for this transaction had only just begun when Madara Uchiha received a huge assistant.

He's already at a disadvantage in this deal.

"How about destroying the Rinnegan?"

Kirito thought maliciously.

Once the Rinnegan is destroyed, Madara Uchiha's Eye of the Moon plan can basically be declared over. The Rinnegan is such a treasure that it has only appeared twice in the thousands of years of the ninja world. It is unknown how long it will take to create a new pair of Rinnegan.

Kirito quickly dismissed this tempting idea.

Madara Uchiha has clearly gone mad. The Eye of the Moon Plan is currently the only obsession that keeps him barely sane. If this obsession is gone, it's hard to imagine what kind of insane things he would do, especially now that he has mastered the Impure World Reincarnation technique.

"In the original story, Orochimaru spent many years researching and improving the Impure World Reincarnation technique. Later, he even used White Zetsu as a sacrifice to make this forbidden technique completely complete. How did Root improve this ninjutsu so quickly? Could it be that Madara Uchiha already knew that using White Zetsu as a sacrifice could greatly enhance the strength of the Impure World Body?"

Kirito wondered.

The Impure World Reincarnation Technique, a forbidden technique invented by the Second Hokage Tobirama Senju, naturally came into existence in the Nawaki family, which is the same family as Kirito's. Therefore, Kirito had seen this ninjutsu and had already mastered it.

However, given his intelligence, it would be extremely difficult for him to improve this ninjutsu, which involves life and death.

He estimated that to fully perfect this ninjutsu, one would need level 5 or higher Yin Release and Yang Release, or even the power of Yin-Yang Release.

It is necessary to conduct a detailed investigation of the roots left by Danzo as soon as possible.

Ultimately, they underestimated their opponent.

Kirito thought that Danzo was dead and that the dark organization that had left Konoha was no longer a threat, but he did not expect such a big commotion to emerge from the shadows.

Even if Danzo is dead, he should not be underestimated. As it turns out, if the residual poison he left behind is not completely cleaned up, it will still have a terrible impact.

"Dong dong~"

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door.

Upon hearing the noise, Kirito immediately said, "Please come in."

The visitor was Orochimaru. He pushed open the door and entered, his expression extremely solemn.

"Lord Orochimaru, there are some secrets I cannot tell you. In fact, I don't know much about them myself. If you want to know more, perhaps you can go to the Third Hokage."

Kirito was not surprised by Orochimaru's arrival and knew his purpose. He shook his head and sighed.

"Can't you really give me any information? Kirito, you should know very well how serious this matter is today."

Orochimaru, upon hearing this, said with great dissatisfaction.

The Impure World Reincarnation Technique is a ninjutsu of Konoha.

The fact that the enemy used this ninjutsu to attack Konoha this time undoubtedly indicates that the enemy is likely someone from within Konoha. In Konoha, very few people are qualified to access forbidden ninjutsu like the Impure World Reincarnation Technique; there are only a handful of people.

In this way, the target can be basically locked in.

However, if this matter involves Madara Uchiha, who is already dead, then the seriousness of the matter will rise several levels.

If things go wrong, Konoha could be destroyed.

Orochimaru still loves Konoha very much, and he doesn't want Konoha to perish.

"Lord Orochimaru, I can only say that this Impure World Reincarnation technique was probably not the work of the Third Hokage. As for Madara Uchiha, I really don't know much about him. I only recently discovered that this terrifying person was not dead through some clues he left in Konoha."

Kirito didn't intend to explain too much to Orochimaru, and gave an ambiguous answer.

He couldn't reveal anything about the Rinnegan or Madara Uchiha's Eye of the Moon plan for the time being, because he had learned about these things in advance through his time travel, and he simply couldn't give a reasonable explanation.

Of course, most importantly, he did not trust Orochimaru.

Ultimately, Orochimaru is on the Third Hokage's side and is not one of his own. They may still be allies now, but that may not be the case in the future. Who knows if he will go down the same old path after failing to be elected Fourth Hokage?

Judging from the current situation, there is a high probability that he will follow the same old path.

Orochimaru has already developed the idea of ​​achieving immortality, which is a major reason why he tirelessly pursues the Sage Technique that can prolong life.

When did he first come up with the idea of ​​achieving immortality?

Perhaps it started after he became a contractor of Ryuchi Cave and witnessed the power of the White Snake Sage.

In the original storyline, the white-scaled serpent form that Orochimaru used for his Eight-Headed Serpent Technique was likely his immortal form.

As for why he later abandoned immortal arts and turned to the study of immortality, it was because he discovered that he was not cut out for cultivating immortal arts and had no chance to obtain the power of immortal arts, so he made this second choice.

However, judging from the fact that he used Jugo's Sage Body to develop Orochimaru-style Cursed Seal Techniques, he still longed for the power of Sage Arts.

"In that case, I'll take my leave. But I will report what happened today to the Hokage as follows."

Seeing that Kirito wouldn't budge, Orochimaru decisively took his leave and turned to leave the room.

After learning that Madara Uchiha's target was Chizuru, he thought about leaving this dangerous place as soon as possible.

Although he didn't know how strong Madara Uchiha was now, he knew from Madara's display of the Impure World Reincarnation technique today that he had better avoid his sharp edge.

The single reanimated Uchiha Homura was enough to leave him helpless; if there were several other reanimated bodies of similar strength, he probably wouldn't even be able to escape.

Moreover, he heard that the few Edo Tensei bodies that Kirito personally subdued were actually no less powerful than Uchiha Homura.

He is still too weak. He must hurry up and research the Kirito-style curse seal technique, and then use it to improve and develop his own curse seal technique in order to obtain the power of Sage Mode.

"To thoroughly understand Kirito's cursed seal technique as quickly as possible, it would be best to find someone who has obtained this cursed seal technique..."

On his way back, this thought quietly occurred to Orochimaru, and a glint of light flashed in his eyes.

This time, he did not yield to his pride; the appearance of Madara Uchiha gave him a tremendous sense of urgency.

If you've lost your life, what's the point of talking about pride?

He had already foreseen that a terrifyingly strong wind would soon sweep through the ninja world, and if he wasn't strong enough, he would be blown to the ground, with no chance of rising with the wind.

"Sage Mode and Sharingan, this ninja world is getting more and more interesting."

Orochimaru lowered his head and gave a wicked smile.

Soon, a messenger eagle took off from the Konoha camp and flew quickly towards Konoha.

Meanwhile, in Sunagakure, an emergency meeting was being held in the Kazekage Building, chaired by the First Kazekage and Chiyo's son, Akasa.

After the death of the Third Kazekage, Chiyo was no longer in Sunagakure, and the future Fourth Kazekage, Rasa, currently lacked sufficient prestige, leaving Sunagakure in a state of leaderlessness.

At this moment, Akashi stepped forward. He produced six Jonin-level humanoid puppets in one go and displayed amazing puppetry skills, forcefully defeating all the elite Jonin who remained in the village from the Martial Faction. Thus, he temporarily took over the Martial Faction in place of his missing mother.

After taking control of the Sand Village's martial arts faction, Akazawa was also elected by most of the Sand Village ninjas to become the acting Kazekage.

With a formidable enemy at their side, the Sand Village was naturally monitoring the Konoha camp at all times. Therefore, the fact that the Konoha camp had been attacked by a mysterious ninja and suffered heavy losses could not escape the eyes of the Sand Village.