Konoha: Starting with Sage Mode

As long as Mito Uzumaki lives, Kurama (the Nine-Tails) has no chance of taking over.

Even he had to admit that Mito Uzumaki was too powerful.

Even at her peak, Madara wouldn't have an easy time taking her down. One wrong move and she might be caught off guard and suffer a humiliating defeat. Moreover, she could perfectly control the Nine-Tails.

Black Zetsu knows all too well how terrifying sealing techniques are.

This kind of ninjutsu is unreasonable; even the Ten-Tails Jinchuriki and the progenitor of chakra have to bow down before it.

Mito Uzumaki was undoubtedly the strongest sealing technique master of her time. Historically, in terms of sealing technique alone, she might only be second to the Sage of Six Paths.

"Time is the best weapon, Mito. I never thought you would leave this world before me. Well, Hashirama must miss you a lot."

Madara disregarded Danzo's actions and fate, showing no interest whatsoever. He was only interested in Mito's situation, and remarked with a hint of reminiscence and hatred in his eyes.

"Lord Madara, should we secretly inform the other ninja villages of this?"

Black Zetsu said with great anticipation.

He was very happy to see the use of the power of other ninja villages to quickly kill Mito Uzumaki, further weaken Konoha's power, and provoke a ninja world war.

Moreover, once this woman dies, it will be much easier for Bai Jue to go to the Senju clan's territory.

Previously, White Zetsu was unable to spy on the Senju clan because this woman's sensory ninjutsu was terrifying; once White Zetsu got even slightly close, he would definitely not be able to hide it from her.

"Of course, since she's about to die, I, her old friend, will send her off sooner rather than later."

Ban replied without hesitation, a rare smile appearing on his face.

Mito, you despicable woman, you should have died long ago.

This is a good deal for you, allowing you to meet that big idiot Hashirama sooner.

"Yes, Lord Madara, I will arrange it immediately."

Black Zetsu said excitedly.

As he spoke, he was about to use his mayfly technique again to burrow underground.

"Wait a minute, tell me about Nagato's situation."

Upon seeing this, Ban quickly spoke up to stop Hei Zetsu.

Compared to Mito, he is now more concerned about Nagato's growth. His Rinnegan is currently residing in Nagato's body, and he cannot afford to have any mistakes.

"As for Nagato, he's currently hanging out with those two orphan kids, Yahiko and Konan, and they've formed a deep friendship. They're currently searching for the whereabouts of the Legendary Sannin on the battlefield, wanting to become their disciples. Don't worry, I've been having several powerful White Zetsu secretly follow them and provide them with relief, so they'll be fine."

Black Zetsu immediately gave a detailed report on Nagato's recent affairs.

"Oh, so you've found your partners? That's a great start. Let the White Zetsu and the others protect the other two children. They will be an important force for Nagato to see this world clearly."

Madara sneered when he heard that Nagato had found a friendly ally.

Only by loving deeply and then losing can one truly see this hopeless world.

"I see."

He readily agreed to the meaning of the black and white spots, and then raised another question: "So, what are your instructions regarding their search for the Sannin? The guy named Jiraiya among the Sannin is someone that group of dead toads from Mount Myōboku has their eye on. He's a very naive guy, and he might influence Nagato."

"Child of Prophecy? Hmph, what a boring thing. As long as Nagato isn't taken away from the Land of Rain, we don't need to pay attention to him. Anyway, it won't affect the plan."

Madara said dismissively, not believing that a naive guy like Jiraiya, who pinned his hopes on prophecy, would affect his plans.

In this hopeless world, naive people will only die faster.

Even if they don't die, they will gradually become disillusioned with this world and eventually hate this hopeless world.

Chapter 65: Undercurrents

After giving the instructions, Ban closed his eyes again and fell into a deep sleep, trying to slow down the decay of his body as much as possible.

He's not far from being buried now, but he's barely alive because the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path keeps supplying him with life force. Without the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path, the hidden injuries accumulated from years of battles would have killed him long ago.

He wasn't afraid to die, but he couldn't die now; he needed to keep living until everything was ready.

"I hope I'll hear some good news when I wake up next time."

Ban entered a dark slumber with anticipation.

Seeing that Madara had fallen asleep, Black Zetsu immediately used the Mayfly Technique to burrow underground and began to spread the news that Mito Uzumaki was about to die, as Madara had instructed.

Soon after, all the major ninja villages successfully obtained information about Mito Uzumaki through their spies planted in Konoha or through various secret channels.

The news that the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki is nearing his end is absolutely earth-shattering news for all the major ninja villages.

Especially since the current Nine-Tails Jinchuriki is Mito Uzumaki, once she dies, Konoha's top fighting force will be significantly weakened. It's unknown how many years it will take for a new Nine-Tails Jinchuriki to grow up.

The leaders of the four major ninja villages—Sunagakure, Iwagakure, Kumogakure, and Kirigakure—quickly convened a secret meeting. Soon after, a number of elite ninjas quietly left their respective villages, and a large number of spies who had infiltrated Konoha were also reactivated by their respective villages using various covert methods.

For a time, undercurrents surged in the ninja world.

On the surface, however, apart from Konoha still fighting on two fronts against Amegakure and Sunagakure, the ninja world was relatively peaceful, with Iwagakure, Kumogakure, and Kirigakure not making any major moves.

The gears of time continued to turn slowly, and soon another month had passed.

During this month, nothing seemed to happen on the surface in Konoha. At least the villagers were completely unaware that Danzo had been stripped of all his positions. However, all the major and minor ninja clans in the village were in an uproar. The fact that Danzo had secretly ordered his men to destroy the Senju clan's sealing barrier had not been completely kept secret.

Fortunately, the Third Hokage's skills and prestige are still good, and the culprit Danzo has been imprisoned and severely punished, so the high-ranking members of the various ninja clans have not caused any trouble.

As for Momoka becoming the new Hokage advisor, apart from the Uchiha clan, the high-ranking members of other ninja clans all chose to support her.

Momoka was thus successfully elected as the new Hokage advisor.

Thus, on the surface, nothing seemed to have changed in Konoha, but due to the shift in power at the top, there was an undercurrent of unrest within the village.

The most obvious change is that during this period, the Thousand Hands territory, which had been deserted since the end of World War I, has become lively again.

Many smaller ninja clans that hadn't been in contact with the Senju clan for a long time began sending people to visit. Children from many other ninja clans also appeared in the Senju clan's territory. They all played happily with the Senju children, and Nawaki naturally became the king of the children.

As for Kirito, he naturally got involved, sending out a shadow clone occasionally to make a show of things. With strength far exceeding that of a mere brat, he had successfully become Nawaki's right-hand man.

However, after Danzo's downfall, Kirito has remained very low-key. As usual, he clocks out of the sealing and medical teams on time and continues to study and work. His shadow clones also complete their daily tasks in an orderly manner.

Of course, this is only the surface-level situation.

In fact, Kirito's activities are no longer confined to the small area of ​​Konoha Village.

After successfully capturing a White Zetsu, he used his soul clone to possess the White Zetsu, thus obtaining a White Zetsu clone.

After several days of mastering the White Zetsu clone technique and learning to use its innate ninjutsu such as the Mayfly Technique, the Disguise Technique, and the Spore Technique, he began to use the Mayfly Technique and the Disguise Technique of the White Zetsu clone to explore the outside world.

Currently, his range of activity is not very large, only exploring within a few hundred kilometers of Konoha, moving around some surrounding cities and villages to see the outside world.

At noon that day, Kirito was still diligently studying various medical knowledge at the hospital. Thanks to his outstanding learning ability, his grades were already among the best in the medical class, and his progress in learning Healing Palm Technique had reached the final stage.

He's going to start using his palm magic on people today.

However, his targets were not the vast majority of Konoha villagers and ninjas, but rather some heinous death row inmates.

These death row inmates are basically rogue ninjas, enemy ninjas, and spies who have committed serious crimes. As expected, once these people fall into the hands of Konoha, their only fate is death. This is a way of making use of their waste before they die.

For example, the death row inmate in front of Kirito is said to be a Sand Village spy. He's probably been drained of all his intelligence by the interrogation department and is now being sent here for Kirito, a rookie medical ninja, to practice his Healing Palm Technique.

When the Sand Village spy was brought over, he was already under genjutsu control, and his hands and feet were firmly bound to the operating table by chains that could imprison chakra.

After Kirito put on his protective suit, he moved a small stool over, stood on it, and began treating the death row inmates alone on the operating table.

Today, he will perform an external injury surgery alone in this small operating room without any guidance.

The death row inmate had clearly undergone severe torture; there was hardly a patch of undamaged flesh on his body. However, the torturers were highly skilled, and although the injuries looked serious, they were actually just superficial wounds and not fatal.

Kirito confirmed this by conducting a thorough examination of the death row inmate's entire body using chakra.

Next, he began to treat the death row inmate's wounds with the Palm Healing Technique. First, he cut away the rotten flesh, then he used fine chakra threads to properly connect and repair the flesh, and finally he used Yang-attribute chakra to stimulate the regeneration of the flesh.

Half an hour later, after a lot of hard work, Kirito finally finished treating the various wounds on the death row inmate.

It must be said that performing an external injury surgery using palm magic requires a considerable amount of energy.

Kirito was already feeling a little tired, and his chakra was only about half left. As usual, he found a place to sit down, closed his eyes, and recalled the process of the surgery he had just performed, trying to find out the various mistakes that had occurred during the surgery.

"Ding ~"

Suddenly, Kirito opened his eyes, flicked away a poisoned steel needle with his fingers covered in high-density chakra, and then looked at the death row inmate on the operating table who had somehow broken free of the genjutsu and regained his mobility.

"Kid, you reacted pretty quickly. Thanks for healing me just now, your technique is really good."

The death row inmate stared at Kirito with murderous intent.

"Then you repay kindness with enmity; your actions are truly chilling."

Kirito sneered.

No sooner had he finished speaking than he suddenly struck out with his palm.

Bagua - Empty Palm!

A powerful shockwave formed by high-density chakra struck the death row inmate instantly, severely injuring him. He died with his eyes wide open, but in the end, he turned into a pile of sand.

Sand clone.

The next moment, a series of whooshing sounds came from behind Kirito.

Those were poisoned needles coated with deadly poison.

Chapter 66: The Traitor

"Knock knock knock~"

The poisoned needles pierced deeply into Kirito's body, with several of them successfully hitting his heart.

Kirito immediately fell backward.

Upon seeing this, the death row inmate sneered, thinking to himself that a brat is still a brat. Even if he is a genius, he is still just an unqualified ninja if he has never been on the battlefield.

"What are you so smug about?"

Kirito's voice suddenly came from behind him.

The death row inmate's eyes widened in shock; Kirito in front of him had turned into a puddle of water.

Water Release: Water Clone Technique.

"When did it happen? There were no hand seals."