Konoha: Starting with Sage Mode

He had already found two suitable corpses in front of him: one was the corpse of the Third Kazekage, and the other was the corpse of the Third Mizukage. The former was transformed into the Hell Path by Madara Uchiha, and the latter was transformed into the Animal Path by Madara Uchiha.

Both of these corpses were renowned Kage-level powerhouses in life. After Madara Uchiha used the power of the Rinnegan to transform their bodies into Pain clones, their strength was not only fully restored, but they even became more powerful because they gained a portion of the Rinnegan's abilities.

It can be said that Madara Uchiha suddenly gained two more powerful Kage-level shinobi.

This is the power of the Rinnegan.

"Hmph, you're quite the talker, but there's too little material that can be used to transform into a Pain clone. I need more suitable materials."

Madara Uchiha responded coldly to Black Zetsu's words, but his expression had improved considerably.

"Lord Madara, I think that the materials suitable to serve as Pain's clones are not only those powerful ninjas, but also those powerful summoning beasts, such as the White Snake Sage."

Black Jue immediately offered a plan.

The battle between the White Snake Sage and Kirito made him realize that the ninja world was full of hidden talents and many unexpectedly powerful creatures. If Madara Uchiha could obtain the power of these powerful creatures, his strength would definitely increase greatly.

The Animal Path of Pain possesses powerful summoning abilities. It can not only form contracts with multiple summoning beasts, but also summon multiple powerful summoning beasts at the same time. It can even perform corpse modifications on these summoning beasts, similar to Pain's clones, to enhance their strength.

Clearly, this Animal Path clone has enormous potential. As long as it obtains the corpse of a powerful summoning beast, it can create a powerful summoning beast army.

"That old woman is indeed quite strong, but killing her will be no easy task."

Black Zetsu's suggestion immediately caught Madara Uchiha's eye, but then he shook his head and said...

Seeing this, Black Zetsu knew that Madara Uchiha was already tempted, and continued to urge him, "The White Snake Sage just fought a big battle with Kirito Tohsaka and was seriously injured. Now is probably the best time to make a move."

"It's still not a good idea. This White Snake Immortal has a strong ability to protect herself. If she is determined to escape, it is unlikely that I can completely stop her with my current strength unless I improve my strength further."

Madara Uchiha was very tempted by Black Zetsu's words, but he ultimately decided to play it safe.

He currently has no grudge against the White Snake Sage, but if he fails to kill him, it will put the White Snake Sage on the opposite side, which would be detrimental to his Eye of the Moon plan.

"Lord Madara, the Seven-Tails is in the Land of Waterfalls, almost within easy reach. As long as the Gedo Mazo devours the Seven-Tails, your strength will definitely increase greatly."

Black Zetsu immediately provided a solution.

Among the many tailed beasts, if we were to say which tailed beast is the easiest to capture right now, it would definitely be the Seven-Tails of Takigakure. Before the war, Takigakure was quite strong, but now it can barely be considered a second-rate ninja village.

With Madara Uchiha's current strength, he could easily suppress it by sending a single Pain clone.

To be honest, Madara Uchiha had been eyeing the Seven-Tails for a long time ever since he decided to launch the Eye of the Moon Plan, and he had already investigated the hiding place of the Seven-Tails Jinchuriki.

"Letting the Gedo Mazo devour the Seven-Tails is indeed a good method, but it is too early to capture the Tailed Beasts now. Once the Tailed Beasts of Takigakure are lost, it will inevitably attract the attention of the Five Great Shinobi Villages, greatly increasing the difficulty for us to capture them."

Madara Uchiha shook his head again.

In fact, he wanted the Gedo Mazo to devour the Seven-Tails even more than Black Zetsu did, so that he could obtain more chakra support from the Gedo Mazo and effectively solve the problem of insufficient chakra when controlling two Pain clones at the same time.

The Six Paths of Pain clones created using the Rinnegan are useful, but they consume too much chakra, with the Rinnegan accounting for the majority of the chakra consumption.

Even with his current chakra comparable to that of a tailed beast, he is still somewhat overwhelmed and needs at least the chakra of a tailed beast as a supplement.

"I see. Lord Ban is very thoughtful. I was just too impatient."

Upon hearing Madara Uchiha's explanation, Black Zetsu had no choice but to give up and stop urging Madara to kill the White Snake Sage.

"Your suggestion is actually quite good, but it's a bit too hasty. To deal with an enemy like the White Serpent Immortal, we must be fully prepared and not act rashly. By the way, how's the matter with Hiruko going?"

Seeing that Black Zetsu was no longer trying to persuade him, Madara Uchiha felt somewhat uncomfortable. He gave Black Zetsu a rare compliment before asking about other matters.

After he took control of the Old Roots, Hiruko also fell into his hands and became a core member under his command who continued to research and improve the Impure World Reincarnation technique.

However, since Kirito has developed a ninjutsu to counter this forbidden technique, the Impure World Reincarnation technique has lost its importance in his mind and is no longer the core of his Eye of the Moon plan.

Furthermore, since his knowledge of the Impure World Reincarnation technique has been exposed, his attempt to use the Impure World puppets to capture the Tailed Beasts would only expose his plan and make him an enemy of the Five Great Shinobi Villages.

Therefore, he must find new tools to capture the tailed beasts.

Therefore, he thought of establishing an organization to form a powerful ninja force independent of the major ninja villages, whose members were mainly powerful rogue ninjas from the major ninja villages.

As a seasoned Konoha rogue ninja, Hiruko was well-suited to handle this task.

Furthermore, in order to enable Hiruko to have sufficient ability to do this, he also endowed him with some good powers, such as the Sharingan, a Swift Release kekkei genkai ninja, and a Steel Release kekkei genkai ninja.

It must be said that Hiruko's development of the combined ninjutsu called Oni-Garara Technique was unique. It could forcibly fuse these bloodline limits into the body. As long as the body could withstand the rejection, one could master these powers.

Because of this, Hiruko, who was originally only at the level of an elite Jonin, suddenly became a Kage-level powerhouse with considerable strength, making him more than capable of temporarily serving as the leader of a rogue ninja organization.

"That guy is quite efficient. He has already established a base in the Land of Birds and recruited a group of decent rogue ninjas using his existing network of connections. It's just that there aren't any outstanding ones yet."

Black Zetsu had planted a White Zetsu spy next to Hiruko, so he was very aware of Hiruko's every move. When he heard Madara Uchiha smell Hiruko, he immediately gave an answer.

"I see. It seems quite difficult to get him to establish a useful rogue ninja organization in a short period of time."

Upon hearing this, Madara Uchiha frowned slightly.

Although he knew that building a powerful organization was not something that could be accomplished overnight, he still desperately hoped that Hiruko would establish a rogue ninja organization that could help him capture the tailed beasts as quickly as possible.

"Lord Madara, why not make good use of Hiruko's combination ninjutsu? Although that ninjutsu is dangerous, as long as we spread the word, there will definitely be many guys who crave power and come to us willingly. If some of them can survive, the strength of the rogue ninja organization will definitely expand rapidly."

Black Zetsu offered another suggestion, grinning sinisterly.

It had long been aware of Hiruko's fusion ninjutsu. Although the ninjutsu had many flaws, it was indeed a powerful forbidden technique that could allow a ninja to quickly increase their strength in a short period of time. It just required some bloodline limit ninjas and powerful summoning beasts.

However, these losses are not a problem. If they run out, they can just keep capturing. Anyway, with Madara Uchiha's strength, capturing a group of bloodline limit ninjas is not difficult at all. He can easily send out a Pain clone to do it.

It didn't even need Madara Uchiha to do anything; it simply bought it from some unscrupulous merchants.

It knew that in some lawless place overseas, there was a good place where you could buy all kinds of rare bloodline limit ninjas.

"That's a good method. Although it's a bit time-consuming and laborious, if it succeeds, it can indeed help the rogue ninjas grow up quickly and become a good weapon in my hands."

Uchiha Madara nodded, and said thoughtfully.

"Lord Madara, why don't we send those rogue ninjas to Ryuchi Cave to try their luck? If someone successfully signs a contract with Ryuchi Cave, then we can have a large supply of powerful summoning beasts without worrying about the material loss of the Oni-Garara Technique, and we can also secretly make arrangements for Ryuchi Cave."

Black Zetsu suddenly brought up the topic of Ryuchi Cave again and connected it to the formation of the rogue ninja organization.

It still couldn't forget about the idea of ​​making the White Snake Sage one of the summoned beasts in the hands of the new Pain or the Animal Path.

"The contract with Ryuchi Cave isn't easy to sign. If I want to obtain those summoning beasts from Ryuchi Cave, I might as well try using the Impure World Body of the Third Kazekage in my possession."

Madara Uchiha also became interested in this and shared his thoughts.

A contract between a ninja and a summoning beast remains valid as long as both parties are alive.

Therefore, the Third Kazekage's Edo Tensei body in his possession can use the Summoning Technique to summon the summoning beasts of Ryuchi Cave.

"It's probably not easy. After all, the news of the Third Kazekage's death has already spread throughout the ninja world. The summoning beasts in Ryuchi Cave must have known about this long ago. If the deceased Third Kazekage wants to summon them again, he may not get a response."

Black Zetsu stated his reasoning and evidence.

Then, it revealed a new use for the Third Kazekage's Edo Tensei form: "However, we can try to use the connection between the Third Kazekage and the Ryuchi Cave summoning contract scroll to summon this summoning contract scroll. If successful, then we won't need to undergo the Ryuchi Cave's test to sign a summoning contract with Ryuchi Cave again."

"This guy is really full of bad ideas. He actually came up with this method to bypass Ryuchi Cave's test and make the ninja sign a summoning contract with Ryuchi Cave."

Madara Uchiha was stunned by Black Zetsu's outrageous suggestion.

At the same time, he became increasingly wary of Black Zetsu, his clone. This clone's independent consciousness was clearly very high, and it was also very intelligent. If it weren't for its lack of sufficient power, he wouldn't dare to use it.

But for now, he still needs this cunning fellow to help him devise strategies and handle various miscellaneous tasks.

"Let's deal with it after the Eye of the Moon project is completed."

Madara Uchiha thought to himself.

Black Zetsu was unaware that Madara Uchiha had already decided to kill it, and continued to diligently offer advice to Madara, saying, "Lord Madara, if this plan fails, we can actually try with someone else."

"Oh, who is it?"

"Uchiha Madara asked."

"Orochimaru, he is the only known living contractor in Ryuchi Cave."

Black Zetsu replied.

Upon hearing the name Orochimaru, Madara Uchiha thought for a moment and finally recalled some information about Orochimaru: "It's him. I remember him. He was Hiruzen Sarutobi's apprentice, and he was a Konoha ninja with some strength."

"Lord Madara, don't underestimate this guy. Although his strength isn't very high, his mind is extremely sharp. If it weren't for Kirito Tohsaka's sudden emergence, he would still be the most talented ninja in Konoha, and he might even be the Fourth Hokage."

Seeing that Madara Uchiha wasn't very interested in Orochimaru, Black Zetsu immediately gave him more information about Orochimaru.

"So what? Since this guy is Hiruzen Sarutobi's apprentice, he's probably another one who inherited the boring Will of Fire. You want me to capture him, don't you?"

Madara Uchiha said with little interest.

Comparing people is a recipe for disaster; comparing goods is a recipe for discarding them.

With Kirito, a terrifyingly talented Konoha ninja, preceding him, Madara Uchiha was utterly indifferent to Orochimaru. He was merely a weak Kage-level ninja who posed no threat whatsoever, and one who didn't even have a bloodline limit. He wasn't worth Madara's attention.

"Lord Madara, you've misjudged him this time. Orochimaru is an anomaly in Konoha, and his current situation there isn't very good."

Black Zetsu grinned and sneered.

Chapter 313: The Alienated Orochimaru

"Oh, you mean this person can be used?"

When Madara Uchiha heard Black Zetsu speak so highly of Orochimaru, he finally understood what it meant.

If Orochimaru could be turned to the side, that would certainly be a good thing.

In fact, he had already begun to secretly try to make contact with the Uchiha clan in Konoha, attempting to turn those Uchiha who harbored resentment towards Konoha against him.

Of course, this was just an unintentional act on his part. He never expected the Uchiha clan of Konoha to play any significant role, since he had already come into the open, and Konoha's vigilance against the Uchiha clan was certainly extraordinary.

Moreover, Konoha is Kirito Tohsaka's territory. Given his methods, the Uchiha clan would probably have been dealt with before they even rebelled, leaving them with little ability to resist.

But Orochimaru is different. No matter what, he is a hero of Konoha, who made great contributions to Konoha's victory in the war. He is also the apprentice of that brat Hiruzen Sarutobi, and can be said to be a member of the Hokage lineage with impeccable lineage.

Even if he fails to win the Hokage position, his status in Konoha will still be at the top level, making him a true high-ranking member of Konoha.

To others, it seemed almost impossible for Orochimaru to betray Konoha, and there was no reason for him to do so.

But even such a person, once he chooses to betray, will undoubtedly cause immense damage to Konoha, and may even become the key to his destruction of Konoha.

Suddenly, Madara Uchiha began to take an interest in Orochimaru.

"Yes, Lord Madara, Orochimaru seems to have fallen victim to the White Snake Sage's scheme. His body is now undergoing mutations, and his personality is becoming increasingly cold-blooded. In order to cure these mutations, he has secretly established many laboratories outside Konoha and conducted many shady experiments."

Black Zetsu slowly recounted the information he had gathered from his surveillance of Orochimaru, which immediately made Madara Uchiha even more interested in Orochimaru.

They conducted many experiments that couldn't be seen in the light of day.

Based on this alone, Madara Uchiha was certain that this Konoha ninja named Orochimaru was not the inheritor of the Will of Fire, and would most likely be another Danzo-like figure.