Konoha: Starting with Sage Mode

The flames transformed into nine giant fire pythons, which opened their huge mouths and pounced on the purple-haired woman and the white-haired little girl.

Then, a sudden gust of wind arose, and the nine giant fire pythons swiftly transformed into dragons in the wind, rushing towards the two with even greater speed and ferocity.

The next moment, the purple-haired woman's purple tengu warrior suddenly swung its sword, and a purple lightning bolt flashed across the sky. With a thunderous roar, the nine fire dragons were instantly cut in half and extinguished unwillingly in mid-air.

"Hahaha~, Kirito Tohsaka, is that all you've got? You're only sending out these two special puppets to deal with the puppets I created using the White Snake Sage's body? Isn't that a bit too overconfident? If you keep dragging this out, Konoha will be destroyed sooner or later."

As long as the White Snake Sage doesn't destroy it, Konoha's calamity won't end.

The giant white snake, seeing its attack once again neutralized by the enemy, felt no displeasure but rather increased its joy. Suddenly, it spoke in human language, emitting a deafening sound.

As soon as she finished speaking, the purple-haired woman clapped her hands together, unleashing a powerful burst of Earth Release Sage Chakra, and a terrifying gravity suddenly descended.

Sage Art: Earth Release: Super Heavy Rock Technique!

The White Snake Sage, Pain of the Animal Path, was suddenly thrown from the sky. Then, a large number of tree roots rose from the ground and bound him tightly. More than ten purple chakra chains followed closely behind, successfully binding the White Snake Sage.

At this moment, a chakra fluctuation emanated from the white-haired little girl, vibrating the air, and a cold voice suddenly appeared:

"Konoha is not my Konoha alone. It's just a minor disaster. They can handle it without me. As for you, you should worry about whether you can leave in the future."

Animal Path Pain was captured by the Thunder God Puppet and Kirito's newly created Wood Release Puppet Grass God Puppet using a sealing technique. However, he showed no panic and sneered, "Is that so? Then I'll see how those ants can withstand my army of undead. It's time for Konoha, the ninja village founded by me and Hashirama Senju, to become history."

"I'd like to see how you make Konoha a thing of the past!"

Kirito's cold voice appeared again.

As they spoke, the Thunder God puppet controlled the Susanoo giant and strode toward the White Snake Sage.

At the same time, the Grass God Puppet clapped his hands, and a huge wooden figure grew out from a giant tree root, striding towards the White Snake Immortal.

Then, the two reached out their large hands towards the White Snake Immortal, making a gesture as if to pull out the huge black rods from his body.

These black rods are what Madara Uchiha used to remotely control the White Snake Sage's body. Once these rods are removed, the White Snake Sage will be completely defeated, and Madara Uchiha will lose the White Snake Sage as Pain's clone.

But just as the two giants were about to pull out two of the black rods, a huge snake head suddenly burst out of the White Snake Sage's body and bit the Purple Tengu Warrior's head in one gulp.

Immortal Technique: Shedding Skin!

This is a sage technique that the White Snake Sage painstakingly developed after suffering a great loss at Kirito's sealing technique. Originally, this sage technique was a powerful medical sage technique that the White Snake Sage used to heal his injuries. After being improved, it can resist sealing techniques to a certain extent.

Theoretically, the snake molt is used as a protective garment to isolate the sealing effect of the sealing technique to a certain extent.

Now, the White Snake Sage has been turned into the Preta Path Pain by Madara Uchiha, and this powerful Sage Technique has also fallen into Madara Uchiha's hands.

Caught off guard, the Thunder God Puppet suffered a severe blow. The core head of the Susanoo Giant was severely damaged, and a crack appeared in the purple chakra crystal on its chest. A large amount of blood flowed out of the Mangekyou Sharingan inside its body.

The Grass God Puppet reacted immediately. It controlled the giant wooden figure to grab the upper and lower jaws of the snake's head with both hands, and the wooden dragon wrapped around its body quickly wrapped around the snake's body as well.

But at this moment, the White Snake Immortal breathed out flames, and his body was also engulfed in raging flames.

Sage Art: Fire Release: Snake Fire!

The wooden man and the wooden dragon were immediately severely injured.

The Grass God Puppet remained unfazed, clapping its hands together, and countless more tree roots sprouted from the ground, relentlessly entangling the White Snake Immortal.

At this moment, the Thunder God Puppet also used the Thunder Transformation Technique to break free from the White Snake Sage's mouth, and the samurai sword in its hand, which was wrapped with highly condensed Sage Art Storm Release Chakra, quickly slashed at the White Snake Sage from a distance.

The massive purple chakra slash struck the White Snake Sage's head with tremendous force, penetrating deep into the wood and nearly slicing his head in two.

Despite being severely injured, Pain, the Animal Path, was still laughing loudly: "Hahaha~, Kirito Tohsaka, do you really still have time to dawdle here?"

Kirito, who was in the underground laboratory of the Konoha Orphanage, heard Madara Uchiha's words through two puppets. He frowned, and an ominous premonition arose in his heart.

Meanwhile, far to the north of the Snow Country, a giant wooden figure with five scarlet eyes suddenly broke through the thick, solid ground covering it and crawled out of the ground with a roar that shook the heavens.

"Roar!"

The enormous roar contained astonishing chakra, instantly shattering the snow and clouds within a radius of hundreds of miles, revealing a sky full of stars and a full moon in the night sky.

Chapter 371: A Desperate Gamble (Part 2)

"We've finally reached this point. Soon, my dream will truly come true. Just watch, Hashirama. My choice was the right one. As long as the Infinite Tsukuyomi is successfully activated, there will be no more strife in the entire ninja world, and no more pain and despair will be born. Everyone can live happily."

Madara Uchiha stood atop the Gedo Mazo, gazing at the moon, and sighed deeply.

The impure puppet Hashirama Senju remained silent. He stood quietly beside Madara Uchiha like a spectator. Although the two were very close, he stood there, feeling out of place with Madara, as if the distance between them was very great.

Madara Uchiha was no longer concerned with these matters; his only focus now was to get the Gedo Mazo to devour the chakra of the remaining tailed beasts as quickly as possible.

The next moment, he clapped his hands together and used his spiritual power.

"Bang bang bang~" a few sounds.

A puff of white smoke suddenly rose from the snow in front of the Gedo Mazo, revealing four enormous glass pillars, which were the clones of the One-Tailed, Five-Tailed, Eight-Tailed, and Nine-Tailed that Orochimaru had personally cultivated.

Now, the clones of these tailed beasts have all become physical entities, transforming into one of the tails of these tailed beasts.

Tailed beasts are aggregates of chakra. Thanks to this, after Madara Uchiha transferred a portion of the Gedo Mazo's chakra to these tailed beast clones, the formation speed of these tailed beast clones increased dramatically.

The clones of the Eight-Tails and Nine-Tails, which were not yet fully formed, were thus transformed into physical entities in just a few days.

As soon as these tailed beast clones appeared, the Gedo Mazo, which was almost alive, immediately turned its attention to them. Then, it spat out several chakra chains, quickly binding the tailed beast clones along with the glass pillars. After retracting the chains, it swallowed all the tailed beast clones into its belly.

A moment later, the Gedo Mazo let out another deafening roar, and a terrifying chakra wave suddenly erupted from its body. The ground beneath it was unable to withstand the chakra wave and sank violently.

Immediately afterwards, the sixth, seventh, and eighth eyes of the Gedo Mazo opened one after another, but by the time it got to the ninth eye, it was only slightly squinted and could not open it fully.

Seeing this, Black Zetsu, who was hiding in the shadows, sighed inwardly: "As expected, it is not possible to fully revive the Ten-Tails by relying solely on clones. The chakra difference is too great, especially the Nine-Tails part."

Madara Uchiha's expression remained unchanged upon seeing this situation, as if he had anticipated it.

The next moment, he clapped his hands together and used the spirit communication technique once again.

Two coffins slowly emerged from the ground. As the coffin lids fell, two people with horns on their heads and dressed in Cloud Ninja attire walked out of the coffins. The two looked exactly alike and were clearly twin brothers.

As soon as the two stepped out, a burst of Nine-Tails chakra erupted from their bodies, and they quickly entered their tailed beast transformation state.

These two are none other than the Kinkaku and Ginkaku brothers from Kumogakure. In their previous lives, they devoured the flesh and blood of the Nine-Tails. Due to their special bloodline, they unexpectedly obtained a portion of the Nine-Tails' chakra. When they were summoned by Madara Uchiha using the Impure World Reincarnation technique, this portion of the Nine-Tails' chakra reappeared in the world.

The Gedo Mazo was not polite either. When Kinkaku and Ginkaku entered their tailed beast forms, it spat out two chains that bound the two of them and swallowed them whole.

As the Nine-Tails' chakra within Kinkaku and Ginkaku was absorbed by the Ten-Tails, its ninth eye finally slowly opened. Although it was not fully open yet, it was already more than half open.

At the same time, a special chakra fluctuation gradually emanated from the Gedo Mazo, and its physical form began to change.

Madara Uchiha and Black Zetsu were both delighted to see this. The Gedo Mazo was clearly beginning to transform into the Ten-Tails. In just a little while, it would be able to completely transform into the Ten-Tails and no longer be just a shell of the Ten-Tails.

"Now it depends on their reaction. I need to stall for time as much as possible."

Madara Uchiha quickly composed himself and continued to concentrate intently on controlling the Pain members.

Initiating the Eye of the Moon Plan before the enemy could truly unite was a crucial decision Madara Uchiha made after having the Gedo Mazo digest the five complete tailed beasts.

He couldn't wait any longer; waiting would only make things worse.

His greatest enemy, Kirito Tohsaka, is an extremely unstable factor. It would be too dangerous to allow this Konoha ninja to continue to grow. Therefore, the safest course of action is to revive the Ten-Tails as soon as possible, become the Ten-Tails' jinchūriki, and gain invincible power.

However, whether they can successfully delay the inevitable is a question.

As the Gedo Mazo began to transform into the Ten-Tails, strange changes began to appear in the sky, and the chakra fluctuations emanating from it became increasingly powerful, making it virtually impossible to continue concealing the truth.

At the same time, in the Forest of Death, the Thunder God Puppet and the Grass God Puppet, who were still trembling with the White Snake Immortal, suddenly shuddered.

Kirito, in the underground laboratory of the orphanage, finally realized what Madara Uchiha had just said. He had thought Madara was referring to his sister Tsunade's current situation, but he never expected it to be like this.

"The Eight-Tails hasn't even been reborn yet, and he's already so eager to revive the Ten-Tails. It seems he's discovered something. No wonder he's a veteran who once dominated the ninja world; his vigilance and decisiveness are truly outstanding."

Kirito sighed.

Nourished by the power of Sage Mode for a long time, his perception ability far surpassed that of ordinary people. Even though he was far away in Konoha, he was still able to quickly perceive the chakra fluctuations caused by the Gedo Mazo.

The next second, he clapped his hands together, unleashing the Flying Thunder God Formation, and his entire body vanished instantly.

At that moment, in front of Kirito's original location, two people with Sage Art sealing talismans on their bodies and chained to two iron pillars suddenly opened their eyes, turned to look at each other, and then looked away.

They were Orochimaru and Hiruko. Kirito had just been interrogating them, trying to find out where Madara Uchiha was hiding.

"The windmill has started to turn, but who knows where the wind that made it turn will blow?"

Orochimaru suddenly said in a low voice.

Upon hearing this, Hiruko couldn't help but retort, "You still have the mind to worry about what's going on outside? Why don't you think about how to get out of here? That kid almost killed us just now."

Orochimaru said nonchalantly, "That would be perfect. It's a pity he won't let us die easily. Besides, death isn't the most terrifying thing. What's terrifying is having your fate forcibly arranged by someone else."

Chapter 372: A Desperate Gamble (Part 3)

Hiruko had no idea what Orochimaru was talking about, and he was indifferent to it. Seeing that he could no longer rely on Orochimaru to help him escape, he continued to silently think about how to escape. Now that Konoha's most fearsome jailer, Kirito Tohsaka, was not here, this was the perfect opportunity for him to escape.

Orochimaru, seeing that Hiruko didn't understand his words, merely gave a slight sneer, then closed his eyes again, ignoring this fool who was about to die and still didn't realize it.

If you were to ask where the safest place in the ninja world is right now, this would probably be it.

A storm that will sweep across the entire ninja world is about to arrive, and he is now destined to become a spectator, only able to quietly wait for the final outcome and hope that his prepared backup plan will have a chance to be implemented.

"If I had the chance, I would really like to witness with my own eyes where this world is headed."

Orochimaru thought to himself.

On the other side, Kirito suddenly appeared in the sky above the Forest of Death.

The moment he appeared, a terrifying burst of Sage Chakra erupted from his body.

The next moment, his whole body emitted a faint golden light, a simple immortal mask appeared on his face, and his hair grew rapidly and turned golden.

Upon seeing this, Pain, the Animal Path of Madara Uchiha and the Sage of the White Snakes, burst into laughter: "Hahaha~, you've finally decided to take action yourself. Unfortunately, it's all too late. You're destined not to save Konoha."

"Noisy!"

Kirito said coldly.

As soon as he finished speaking, a terrifying gravity suddenly descended, and Kirito was forced to use Sage Art: Earth Release: Weighted Rock Technique without any seals.

The Sage Art: Earth Escape: Weighted Rock Technique he used at this moment was several times more powerful than when he released it with the help of the Thunder God Puppet. The White Snake Sage's laughter stopped abruptly, and his massive body was pressed firmly into the ground, clearly enduring immense force.

At the same time, the Grass God Puppet once again used Wood Release: Silent Killing Binding Technique, manipulating a large number of tree roots to bind the White Snake Sage, thereby continuously absorbing the chakra within the White Snake Sage's body.

With this two-pronged approach, it's impossible for the White Snake Immortal to break free again in a short time.

Taking this opportunity, a small black ball quickly appeared in Kirito's right palm.

As soon as the black ball appeared, Madara Uchiha, far away in the Land of Snow, suddenly opened his eyes and exclaimed, "This kid's understanding of the Five Elements Yin-Yang Release Technique has reached such a level. That black ball contains the power of the Five Elements Yin-Yang, it is a very terrifying thing."