Konoha: Starting with Sage Mode

The Third Raikage shouted.

He's not stupid; he's already realized Kirito's intentions.

But how could he allow Kirito to capture him alive and become a burden to the village and his son? Rather than becoming a prisoner, causing trouble for the village and his son, and suffering humiliation, he would rather die.

We must not be captured alive by the enemy.

This was the Third Raikage's only will at this moment.

As soon as he finished speaking, the Third Raikage stomped his foot hard on the ground, instantly creating a huge crater full of cracks. The sealing array that Kirito had secretly set up in the ground was immediately destroyed.

Then, a powerful black electric current erupted from the Third Raikage's body once again.

This time, he channeled the powerful electric current formed by Lightning Release: Black Spot into the ground beneath him.

In an instant, a large number of dense black electric currents surged from the ground within a radius of tens of meters.

A figure, its body charred black, quickly emerged from the ground; it was Kirito himself.

The Third Raikage was overjoyed to see that he had successfully forced Kirito out by pouring lightning into the ground as before, and decisively used Hell Thrust: His True Hand once again.

In the blink of an eye, the Third Raikage's hand pierced Kirito's heart.

A large amount of blood flowed from Kirito's wound.

Clearly, the Third Raikage has successfully hit Kirito, who has a physical form, this time.

However, the Third Raikage showed no joy on his face at this moment, because the enemy in front of him did not look like someone whose heart had been pierced by him.

"Ouch, that hurts, but I finally caught you."

Kirito said with a smile, then grabbed the Third Raikage tightly with both hands.

The Third Raikage, realizing the immense danger lurking in the future, quickly unleashed a massive surge of electricity to attack Kirito before breaking free from his grasp.

No matter how hard he struggled, Kirito's hands were like shackles, tightly bound to his wrists.

Not only that, a blue chakra chain popped out from Kirito's chest in front of him, easily piercing through his lightning armor, making contact with his body, and quickly binding him all over.

The next moment, all the chakra in his body was sealed off and could not be controlled by him.

With his chakra imprisoned, the Third Raikage's Lightning Release Chakra Mode was also deactivated, leaving him a powerless cripple.

"who are you?"

At this moment, the Third Raikage finally noticed something amiss with Kirito. Looking at the black rods piercing his enemy's chest, he said with an extremely grim expression.

"I am Kirito Tohsaka, that's for sure. But the person standing in front of you right now isn't Kirito Tohsaka. As for why, you'll have plenty of time to find out later."

Kirito felt a surge of satisfaction upon seeing the Third Raikage's extremely ugly face, and gave a sly smile.

After he finished speaking, ignoring the Third Raikage's angry shouts, he opened and closed his eyes, revealing a pair of three-tomoe Sharingan eyes in the Third Raikage's eyes.

The next moment, the Third Raikage was trapped in a genjutsu.

The world is finally peaceful.

Meanwhile, deep underground in the Konoha camp.

A black-haired boy was sitting on a special chair filled with black rods, and at the foot of the chair was a sealing array composed of many black rods and sealing incantations.

A massive amount of chakra was released from the boy, and then instantly absorbed by the sealing array beneath him, disappearing without a trace.

The black-haired boy on the chair is naturally Kirito; he is Kirito's true form.

From beginning to end, Kirito never truly left the Konoha camp.

The reason he didn't leave was, of course, to act as a last line of defense for protecting the Konoha camp and Tsunade.

It's now confirmed that Kumogakure and Uchiha Homura have joined forces, so naturally, the only target he really needs to be wary of is that cunning old fox, Uchiha Madara.

From the current perspective, the Third Raikage is merely a pawn in Madara Uchiha's hands, used to distract them; his true intentions are still hidden.

Therefore, what he just sent to deal with the Third Raikage was just a flesh puppet, a flesh puppet created from his own genes.

This flesh and blood puppet actually has no combat power; it's probably just a little stronger than an ordinary person.

However, once he is fitted with black rods created by the Yin-Yang Release technique of the Rinnegan, and gains the ability to receive chakra from Kirito's main body from a distance, his combat power can approach that of Kirito's main body.

"Not bad, not bad. The puppets made from these black rods are really powerful. They are much better than my puppet strings. The chakra conduction speed is almost unimpeded and there is no waste. They are truly worthy of being made by Yin-Yang Release."

Kirito opened his eyes and smiled with satisfaction.

This time, the flesh puppet created from the black rods had a very successful first battle, capturing the Third Raikage in its very first move.

"Even if I combine the abilities of sealing techniques to create this black rod signal receiving chair and this gangster chakra transmission array, I can only control one flesh puppet. The power of the Rinnegan is certainly formidable, but I don't know how it can control six flesh puppets at the same time."

After his initial excitement, Kirito looked at the chair beneath him and the sealing array, and sighed.

The pursuit of perfection is Kirito's habit.

Unfortunately, with his current abilities, he is completely unable to replicate the Six Paths of Pain's abilities from the Rinnegan; he can only create a flesh and blood puppet that can be controlled from a great distance.

Meanwhile, at the Cloud Village's headquarters, Black Zetsu silently infiltrated the residence of a Cloud Village Jonin.

The Cloud Village Jonin who was here was no longer there, and the room was empty.

But as soon as Black Zetsu appeared, Madara Uchiha suddenly appeared and asked, "How is the situation progressing?"

"Reporting to Lord Madara, the initial objective of the plan has been achieved. The White Zetsu we sent to infiltrate the Konoha camp have successfully destroyed most of the supplies there. However, Tsunade is protected by Hyuga Karen and Uzumaki Nagato, so ordinary White Zetsu cannot rely on Tsunade at all."

Moreover, even after the chaos broke out, Tsunade remained calm and didn't come out of the central tent, so there wasn't a single opportunity to exploit.

Black Zetsu reported the facts truthfully.

Madara Uchiha was clearly not satisfied with the results reported by Black Zetsu, his brows furrowed slightly.

He captured Tsunade to threaten Kirito into handing over the Rinnegan intact; this was one of his ultimate goals in uniting with Kumogakure and Iwagakure to deal with Konoha.

But judging from the current situation, it's highly unlikely that he can accomplish this without personally taking action.

Seeing that Madara Uchiha was unhappy, Black Zetsu immediately threw out some good news that would make Madara happy: "Lord Madara, Kirito Tohsaka has made a move. I am absolutely not mistaken. That guy is in the Land of Rain right now. He is Konoha's secret weapon to deal with the Third Raikage."

"Is that so? That's certainly good news. Konoha is really bold enough to send this kid to the Land of Rain for support. It seems that those guys have forgotten about me since I haven't shown myself for so long."

Upon hearing this, Madara Uchiha's worry immediately turned into joy.

Tsunade was just one of the bargaining chips he used to threaten Kirito. According to everything Black Zetsu had collected, there were many other chips in Konoha that he could use to threaten Kirito.

Moreover, he really wanted to take action against Konoha.

This village has caused him too much pain and is a major obstacle on his path to achieving the Eye of the Moon plan. If given the chance, he must eliminate it as soon as possible.

"Lord Madara, I have already had White Zetsu, who disguised himself and infiltrated Konoha, scout out the approximate location of the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki. It's in the Forest of Death. If you go and destroy Konoha, it will be much easier for you to retrieve the Nine-Tails."

Black Zetsu was overjoyed to discover that Madara Uchiha intended to attack Konoha, and then revealed another piece of information that caught Madara's eye.

The Nine-Tails plus Madara Uchiha—that's the complete form of Madara Uchiha's power.

Madara Uchiha still felt a certain longing for the Nine-Tails, the pet that had been taken by Hashirama Senju and Mito Uzumaki. When he heard that Black Zetsu had successfully found out the whereabouts of the Nine-Tails' Jinchuriki, he felt a surge of excitement.

He knew very well how powerful the Nine-Tails was. As long as he could reclaim the Nine-Tails, then no one in the ninja world would be his match, not even if Hashirama Senju were resurrected.

Invincible in the ninja world!

Upon realizing this, Madara Uchiha immediately decided to set off for Konoha to retrieve the Nine-Tails.

But he eventually held back.

Because he suddenly realized that his current nemesis, Kirito Tohsaka, was not an ordinary opponent. Did this enemy not know the consequences of his arrival on the battlefield of the Land of Rain? Did he really have no precautions against him at all?

That's impossible.

If this opponent were that stupid, he would have killed him long ago. How could he possibly suffer losses time and time again?

After suffering a loss at Kirito's hands, he thought about it for a long time and realized that his opponent, Kirito, seemed to know him very well.

For example, the Rinnegan. The other party clearly had noticed the methods he left behind in Nagato a long time ago, and took the Rinnegan away at a crucial moment, which is why he is now in a very passive situation.

Otherwise, he would have already officially launched the Eye of the Moon Project and entered the stage of capturing the Tailed Beasts.

Chapter 286: Seizing the Five-Tailed Beast

"We still need to test the waters a bit. The most important thing right now is to successfully retrieve the Rinnegan from Kirito Tohsaka. We can't provoke him too much. We must make sure we have the person he values ​​completely under our control before we make a move. Otherwise, we might push him to the brink and destroy the Rinnegan."

After much deliberation, Madara Uchiha ultimately chose to play it safe.

He had no choice but to do this. He only had one pair of Rinnegan. If there were a substitute, he would never be so controlled and constrained in his actions, and he would not have to lower himself to capture some juniors as hostages.

Who is he? He is Uchiha Madara.

There was no time when he would resort to such tactics as capturing hostages to coerce others; he would simply kill his enemies and take back what he wanted.

"In order to realize one's dreams, one must eventually give up some things. But as long as the Eye of the Moon Plan is successfully completed, it will all be worth it. At that time, the ninja world will no longer repeat the tragedy of killing and being killed over and over again. Everyone can live happily, and I can see the people I care about again and live the life I want."

Madara Uchiha sighed with a somewhat forlorn expression.

But he quickly suppressed these emotions, becoming cold and ruthless again, and said, "Let's go, Black Zetsu, let's go to Konoha and take a look."

"Yes, sir."

Black Zetsu answered readily.

The next moment, the two used the Ephemeral Swimming Technique to quickly disappear into the ground and headed towards the Death Forest of Konoha at an extremely fast speed.

On the other side, in the northwestern part of the Land of Rain, bordering the Land of Earth, a large number of Iwagakure (villains of Iwagakure) are gathering on the border line.

Above this ninja force of tens of thousands, the Third Tsuchikage, Onoki, was floating in the air, with his son, Kyoto, the Five-Tails Jinchuriki, Han, and the Four-Tails Jinchuriki, Roshi, by his side.

"Onoki, how much longer are we going to wait? Konoha is already at war with Kumogakure, isn't it? Now is the perfect time to poke at Konoha's backside."

Old Purple had been waiting here for a long time. His temper was always short-tempered, so he couldn't hold back any longer and shouted at Onoki, who was standing next to him, without any politeness.

Onoki was furious to hear Rōshi address him by his name so disrespectfully, but for the sake of the bigger picture, he temporarily tolerated Rōshi's disrespect and said coldly:

"What's the rush? The battle between Konoha and Kumogakure won't end anytime soon. By staying here, we can still put pressure on Konoha. Powerful ninjutsu isn't only intimidating when it's used; sometimes, it's even more intimidating when it can be released at any time without being used."

"Besides, what relationship do Konoha and Kumogakure have with Iwagakure? They're both severely injured; it would be best if they just perished together. Iwagakure has absolutely no need to risk helping Kumogakure, much less fight Konoha to the death."

“That’s not right, Onoki. You told us before that Iwagakure and Kumogakure had signed a cooperation agreement. Are you trying to make Iwagakure break the agreement? If we do that, our reputation will be ruined.”

When Lao Zi heard that Ōnoki still had no intention of making a move, he immediately found a reason to refute it.

In fact, he didn't care at all whether Iwagakure's reputation would be ruined; he was just annoyed with Onoki and was deliberately picking a fight.

Furthermore, he genuinely wanted to wreak havoc on the battlefield and vent his anger at the years of suffering from being ostracized and imprisoned by the villagers.