Konoha: Starting with Sage Mode

Half an hour later, on a large tree with the Flying Thunder God mark engraved on it on the edge of the basin where the flying fortress was located, the Uchiha clone suddenly appeared. He looked at the flying fortress in front of him, which had been reduced to ruins, and his mood immediately soured.

"It's a pity they didn't choose to go in and search."

"The Uchiha clone said with a cold face."

He had, of course, left traps in the laboratory. If an enemy sneaked in and accidentally triggered one of the mechanisms inside, the laboratory would automatically detonate, killing the enemy inside.

Finally, the sealing technique, the Inner Four Symbols Seal, will appear, erasing all traces of the laboratory, ensuring that the enemy can obtain nothing useful from it.

Unfortunately, Madara Uchiha still had his brains and wasn't blinded by greed.

……

Konoha, basement of the orphanage.

Kirito's main body had already learned about the flying fortress from the Uchiha clone. He was only slightly disappointed. Losing a laboratory built at great expense was not a big loss for him, as long as the key things inside were not lost.

"There are still a year and three months left. I have already seen the path to becoming stronger. Now I just need to move forward with big strides. However, it is not enough for me to become stronger alone. The enemy is also forming alliances and constantly accumulating strength. I must also try to quickly improve the strength of the people around me."

Kirito closed his eyes and began to think about what he should do next.

In an instant, the faces of Chizuru, Tsunade, Nawaki, Karen, Minato, Kushina, and others appeared in his mind.

During this time, in addition to focusing on studying space-time arrays, the Rinnegan, and other things to become stronger, he also devoted a small portion of his energy to studying changes in the outside world, using the power of Konoha, the Night Organization, and the Abyss Organization to gather intelligence about the outside world.

Through extensive intelligence analysis, he realized that the newly established Demon Organization, a rogue ninja organization, was controlled by Uchiha Madara behind the scenes.

The nominal leader of this rogue ninja organization, Hiruko, attracted many power-hungry fugitives with her Oni-Garara technique and used it to artificially create a large number of powerful bloodline limit ninjas.

Furthermore, history shows that the tombs of many powerful ninjas and samurai were looted, and some ancient battlefields were also dug up by humans. This clearly indicates that Madara Uchiha was still using the Impure World Reincarnation technique to create an army of undead.

Finally, there is the situation of the other four major ninja villages. These four villages have shown great hostility towards Konoha and have been sending out many spies to steal intelligence. They are also secretly accumulating strength and expanding their ninja force.

The Hidden Stone Village's artificial human project, the Hidden Sand Village's puppet army project, the Hidden Cloud Village's ninja and taijutsu enhancement force project, and the Hidden Mist Village's bloodline limit ninja army project.

These plans are now being secretly and vigorously developed by these ninja villages.

If Konoha doesn't accelerate its overall strength improvement, its military power may be overtaken by these other ninja villages, at least in the lower and middle levels.

"If these ninja villages unite, Konoha will be in real danger. We must take advantage of the fact that they haven't developed yet and completely crush them. The remaining year and a half is the opportunity."

Kirito's expression turned serious as he recalled the information he had gathered about the Fourth Hokage's village.

With Madara Uchiha as a formidable enemy, he certainly didn't want to add any more difficulty. Therefore, he had to ensure that the four great ninja villages would cause trouble when Konoha fought Madara Uchiha in the future.

According to his thinking, eliminating them all would be the best option.

Because people's hearts are unreliable, Konoha also has significant conflicts of interest and historical issues with the other four great ninja villages. Not to mention that Konoha is very powerful now, and the four great ninja villages are extremely wary of Konoha.

In this scenario, the four great ninja villages might join forces against Konoha, possibly together with Madara Uchiha.

However, when Tsunade heard that he wanted to attack the four great ninja villages at the same time, she immediately rejected his crazy plan, saying that Konoha's current strength was simply not enough to fight against the four great ninja villages at the same time.

"We must prepare for the worst, my dear sister."

Kirito couldn't help but smile wryly as he recalled Tsunade's words about hoping for peaceful coexistence with the four great ninja villages.

His sister is indeed a person of impeccable character and possesses great leadership charisma, but she trusts others too much, which makes her easily exploited by enemies.

A few minutes later, Kirito made a decision in his heart and then left the laboratory.

……

In the Hokage's office, Tsunade was looking at a project proposal that had just been delivered.

The project proposal is titled "Enhanced Human Project".

"That brat really won't listen to advice. He really intends to make Konoha fight against the four great ninja villages at the same time."

Tsunade looked at the contents of the plan and immediately felt a headache coming on.

The plan mainly describes a ninjutsu that can temporarily boost strength. It can be described as a simplified version of Kirito's special cursed seal technique. With the addition of some auxiliary drugs, it can theoretically enable an ordinary person to reach the strength of a genin within a month, and some ordinary people with good potential can even reach the level of chunin.

It's not hard to see that once the contents of this plan are proven to be feasible, Konoha will have the terrifying ability to rapidly increase its military strength in a short period of time.

In this way, Konoha's ability to fight against the four great ninja villages will no longer be a pipe dream.

Chapter 328: Konoha's New Elder Council

In the Hokage's office in Konoha, Tsunade and the elders are gathered.

Since Tsunade became the Fourth Hokage, the members of the Elder Council have changed and expanded to five. The current members of the Elder Council are Hiruzen Sarutobi, Momoka Senju, Torifu Akimichi, Kazuma Hyuga, and Chizuru Uchiha.

Of the five members of the elder council, apart from Uchiha Chizuru, the other four were universally respected and there was almost no controversy surrounding them.

However, Tsunade ultimately overruled the objections and made the young Uchiha clan leader, Uchiha Chizuru, the fifth member of the elders' council.

It was Tsunade's decision that quickly ended the internal strife within the Uchiha clan and garnered support for Tsunade, the Konoha princess of the Senju clan, to succeed as the Fourth Hokage.

"Now that everyone is here, please take a look at this information. Please make your choices carefully, as your opinions are very important to me."

Once everyone had arrived, Tsunade distributed five identical copies of the document to them and addressed them with a serious expression.

The materials Tsunade distributed were the "Enhanced Human Project" that Kirito had given her not long ago. After reading the detailed plan, she was very unsettled and unable to make a decision for a long time.

From an emotional standpoint, she did not support Kirito's plan, which could be described as insane.

Because she knew very well that once the plan was actually implemented, the seed of ambition would grow rapidly in Konoha, and the situation could very well get out of control.

By then, Konoha will either succeed or die trying.

That was her first impression of the plan: it was too risky.

However, from a rational perspective, this is a plan that can quickly develop Konoha's strength to an unprecedented level, so that Konoha no longer needs to worry about the threat of other ninja villages uniting against Konoha, and can even accomplish an unprecedented feat in the ninja world: the Great Unification.

It has to be said that even if she were, she couldn't help but feel a little longing for her.

As the Hokage, she naturally has the obligation to make Konoha stronger.

Moreover, she was well aware that in chaotic times, only by possessing strong martial power could she protect herself and those around her. If she did not have enough power, Amegakure was the best example.

Faced with a severe conflict between emotion and reason, Tsunade had no choice but to seek advice from elders with sufficient experience and foresight.

When Hiruzen Sarutobi and the others heard Tsunade's serious tone, they were alarmed, realizing that something big must have happened. They quickly took the documents and began to read them carefully.

Soon, apart from Chizuru, whose expression remained unchanged, the other four elders all changed their expressions drastically, revealing surprise, fear, and longing on their faces.

"Tsunade, who came up with this plan?"

After a while, Hiruzen Sarutobi spoke first, in a heavy tone.

As the former Hokage, his vision was arguably the best among those present, and he was well aware of Konoha's current situation. In his view, although the plan was crazy, it was highly feasible. The only drawback was that the investment would be a bottomless pit, which could potentially overwhelm Konoha's financial resources.

Putting aside the simplified version of the enhancement seal mentioned in the plan, just the various enhancement potions made with precious medicines in the plan alone showed him how much money was involved.

However, he knew that once this crazy plan was launched, Konoha's strength would increase rapidly, and it could replenish the huge amount of low- and mid-level combat power lost in World War II in a short period of time, and even exceed it by a large margin.

Furthermore, Konoha's war potential will be greatly enhanced.

Without a doubt, this is a crazy and extremely attractive plan.

As soon as Hiruzen Sarutobi said this, Momoka Senju, Akimichi Torifusa, and Hyuga Kazuma immediately turned their gazes to Tsunade, while Chizuru yawned listlessly, as if she were an indifferent spectator.

"It was Kirito who suggested it."

Tsunade answered truthfully.

When Hiruzen Sarutobi and the other three heard that it was Kirito who proposed it, they all showed expressions of "I knew it," and then, with different expressions, they pondered and analyzed the pros and cons of the plan.

"The plan is good, but Konoha's current financial resources are simply insufficient to support it. If things go wrong, Konoha's finances might collapse before the plan even succeeds."

Thousand Hands Peach Blossom was the first to offer her suggestion.

It wasn't that she didn't support Kirito's plan, but she was worried that it would drag Konoha into the abyss. Tsunade had worked so hard to become Hokage, and she didn't want Konoha to be destroyed in her hands.

"Hmph, does this mean Konoha won't collapse if this plan isn't implemented? Madara Uchiha is watching us like a hawk, and the other four great ninja villages are more hostile than friendly towards Konoha. If Konoha doesn't improve its strength soon, it's unclear whether it will even have a future in a year or two."

Chizuru, who had been looking bored, suddenly turned cold and said sarcastically.

"Uchiha clan, don't speak so disrespectfully. Does Lady Momoka not know the current situation of Konoha? Does she need you to remind her? If the others in Konoha were as reckless as you, disregarding the consequences, Konoha would have been destroyed in the previous war long ago."

Akimichi Torifumi saw Chizuru mocking Momoka and immediately stood up to speak for her.

He was already very dissatisfied with the inclusion of members of the Uchiha clan in the council of elders, let alone a 13-year-old girl. Even though the girl was of high status and powerful, he still did not think she was qualified to join the council of elders.

"Heh~, if Konoha didn't have people like me fighting recklessly on the front lines, wouldn't it have been destroyed? And don't bring up age with me here. You and I are both elders, and our status is equal. I'm not standing here because I was given charity."

Chizuru, being an Uchiha, refused to be bound by the idea of ​​respecting elders and caring for the young, and immediately refuted it, showing no respect for the so-called senior.

"you……"

Akimichi Torifu was furious at Chizuru's disrespectful attitude and couldn't help but unleash a powerful surge of chakra.

Seeing this, Chizuru showed no fear whatsoever; on the contrary, she was eager to try.

She had long wanted to see the strength of the elders. As members of the Uchiha clan, strength equals status; this was a deeply ingrained belief among them.

As a pure Uchiha, Chizuru had this idea ingrained in her very being.

Therefore, she felt that the elders' authority should be distributed in the same way.

"Snapped!"

Suddenly, Tsunade clapped her hands together forcefully, producing a loud clapping sound.

The lingering smell of gunpowder in the room vanished instantly.

Akimichi Torifu and Chizuru both withdrew their chakra, but continued to look at each other with hostile eyes.

"Let's continue the discussion and avoid complicating things."

Seeing that the two had calmed down, Tsunade spoke with a stern face, while also feeling a headache coming on.

She had anticipated this kind of conflict when she brought Chizuru into the council of elders, but seeing it in person still gave her a headache.

The Uchiha clan are indeed a bunch of restless people. Allowing their members to infiltrate Konoha's decision-making bodies will significantly strengthen the village's militant faction.

"Lord Hokage, I personally tend to support this plan. After all, we are facing a formidable enemy, and improving our strength is the primary issue. However, we must consider practicalities. Konoha is currently in dire need of rebuilding, and we need money in many areas. This plan clearly requires a huge amount of funding to be launched."

"You know how many spies our Hyuga clan's search teams have uncovered during this period. Once this plan is launched, it will be almost impossible to hide it from other ninja villages. At that point, this plan might not be able to stop, which is very dangerous."

Even Hyuga Kazuma, who has always maintained a neutral stance, now voiced his opinion.

As members of the Hyuga clan enter Konoha's decision-making body, they naturally have to shoulder more responsibilities.

Because White Zetsu, a spy creature of Madara Uchiha, could infiltrate Konoha, Tsunade had the Hyuga clan form a special search team to monitor Konoha 24 hours a day and find the spies lurking in Konoha.