Konoha: Starting with Sage Mode

"Of course we should do it. We can't miss such a good opportunity. However, Hattori Masashige's whereabouts are elusive, and it won't be easy to find him. You can't track down the Skull Squad on your own, can you?"

Kirito replied, a hint of concern on his face.

"Please rest assured, Master. Leave the investigation of Hattori Masanari to me. I will find out Hattori Masanari's location within two days."

When Yamanaka Kumo heard Kirito agree, he was overjoyed and said with great confidence.

"Then we'll wait for your good news."

Kirito was surprised to hear this.

"Ha~, due to the urgency of the situation, I will go down and arrange for people to track down Hattori Masanari. I'll take my leave now."

Shan Zhongyun immediately stood up and bowed.

After saying that, he quickly left the room.

At that moment, Kirito watched the departing figure of Yamanaka Kumo, a strange expression on his face.

He never expected that Shan Zhongyun would be so capable as to find his other alias within two days. He wondered if the guy really had such great abilities or if he was just bragging to get him to agree.

To be honest, he now has a feeling of wanting to play tricks on the other party.

If the two of them don't show up, he'd really like to see how Shan Zhongyun will explain things to him.

Chapter 128: Madara Uchiha's Scheme

In a huge underground cavern in the ninja world, Madara Uchiha was sleeping on a stone chair. A day had passed since he returned from Konoha. He believed that he had successfully killed Mito and quickly returned here to sleep, not intending to waste a single moment of his lifespan.

Suddenly, a half-black, half-white creature, its body wrapped in strange, pitcher plant-like tissue, emerged from the ground.

It was Black Zetsu, which Madara Uchiha believed he had created with his own will.

Black Zetsu looked at the sleeping Madara Uchiha, pondered for a moment, and then decisively used a special ninjutsu to wake Madara Uchiha.

It originally did not intend to disturb Madara Uchiha, nor did it want to have much to do with Madara Uchiha, the fool who had been completely fooled by him. However, since this matter involved the host of the Rinnegan, it had no choice but to awaken Madara Uchiha in order to prevent any accidents from happening to the Eye of the Moon plan.

The mysterious disappearance of the five White Zetsu he ordered to monitor Nagato is definitely no small matter.

The surveillance of Nagato had been going smoothly until today, when an unexpected incident occurred.

It had always been very diligent in monitoring Nagato, listening to the reports from the White Zetsu sent to monitor Nagato every day. But today, none of the White Zetsu returned to report to it, so it knew something was wrong.

Sure enough, when the new White Zetsu he sent to monitor Nagato returned, he learned that all the White Zetsu he had sent to monitor Nagato before had disappeared.

Without a doubt, he was killed.

So, has the secret of Nagato's Rinnegan been discovered by someone with ulterior motives?

With insufficient intelligence, Black Zetsu knew that it could no longer remain optimistic about Nagato. It had to take new actions to ensure that the Rinnegan host would grow up as it and Madara Uchiha had hoped.

As Black Zetsu's special ninjutsu took effect, Madara Uchiha reopened his eyes. He stared at Black Zetsu, who was standing close to him, and said coldly, "What happened?"

"Lord Madara, I just received a message that all the White Zetsu we sent to monitor Nagato have disappeared."

Black Zetsu immediately offered an explanation upon seeing Uchiha Madara awaken.

Upon hearing this, Madara Uchiha's heart trembled, and a cold red light flashed in his Sharingan. A terrifying, chilling killing intent unconsciously emanated from his body, causing all the other creatures in the underground cavern to tremble.

The hint of killing intent that Madara Uchiha unconsciously revealed was quickly concealed.

At this moment, a cold smile appeared on his aged face, and he said slowly, "Have you found out who did it?"

"We haven't found out exactly who it is yet, but according to the information sent back by White Zetsu from Konoha, Jiraiya has secretly returned to Konoha."

Black Zetsu immediately recounted the clues he had gathered as quickly as possible.

"What about Nagato?"

When Madara Uchiha heard that Jiraiya had returned to Konoha, he was startled and immediately asked.

He doesn't care about Jiraiya returning to Konoha; he only cares about how the Rinnegan host is doing.

In his mind, Jiraiya was Nagato's main bodyguard before he grew up. Now that this bodyguard is not by Nagato's side, and the White Zetsu who went to monitor and protect Nagato has mysteriously disappeared, isn't Nagato in great danger now?

"Please rest assured, Lord Madara, Nagato is fine now. Jiraiya has already rushed back overnight. Just in case, I have sent out new White Zetsu to monitor and protect Nagato."

Black Zetsu replied.

It valued Nagato more than Madara Uchiha, so it naturally arranged for a new White Zetsu to monitor and protect Nagato early on.

Moreover, this time he specifically had White Zetsu use the Disguise Technique to disguise himself as a Rain Village ninja and lurk around the house, instead of underground.

"That's good. Tell me about the latest information regarding Jiraiya."

Madara Uchiha was relieved to learn that Nagato was safe and began to worry about the whereabouts of the five mysteriously disappeared White Zetsu.

With his knowledge, he could tell at a glance that the person who attacked White Zetsu did not have any hostility towards Jiraiya and Nagato. The other party was most likely there for Jiraiya, and then accidentally discovered White Zetsu and the others. In order to prevent the information from being leaked, they killed White Zetsu.

Therefore, the key to finding the mysterious person who killed the White Zetsu lies with Jiraiya.

"The last time Jiraiya left that house was because of a Rain Village ninja named Hattori Masanari. The purpose was probably for Konoha to trade two elite Sunagakure puppeteers from that Rain Village ninja. The person who contacted Jiraiya last night was most likely this person."

Black Zetsu revealed the information he had recently gathered about Jiraiya.

"The people of Amegakure?"

Madara Uchiha said in a skeptical tone.

"Yes, this man named Hattori Masanari is from Amegakure. As for whether his true identity is true, it's not very clear. Back then, he had disagreements with Hanzo and deserted during the great war between Amegakure and Konoha. After that, his whereabouts became unknown."

He was initially thought to be an insignificant guy, but after the war between Konoha and Amegakure ended, he immediately jumped out and showed great strength. His water-style ninjutsu was very powerful. He first defeated Tsunade, one of the Legendary Sannin, and then defeated and captured two elite puppeteers sent by Sunagakure to kill him.

The two elite puppeteers are the son and daughter-in-law of Sunagakure Chiyo. They possess a wealth of information about Sunagakure, and both Iwagakure and Konoha are eager to make a deal with them.

Furthermore, this guy's stealth abilities are superb; even White Zetsu has difficulty tracking him.

Black Zetsu detailed what Hattori Masashige had done recently.

"Is that so? I didn't expect that such a small place as Amegakure could produce two ninjas with decent strength. Is it a difference in ideology? Heh~"

After listening to Hattori Masanari's information, Uchiha Madara said with great interest.

This guy named Hattori Masanari had a similar experience to him. He also parted ways with Hashirama because of his differing ideals. Both he and Hattori Masanari were losers in the village's political struggle and were eventually forced to betray the village.

It seems that this guy named Hattori Masanari did a lot of things in secret after leaving Amegakure, and his strength has greatly improved.

Black Zetsu is very good at hiding, so his reconnaissance ability is probably also quite good. It's highly likely that he killed the White Zetsu who were monitoring and protecting Nagato.

"Could this guy already have his eye on the Rinnegan?"

Madara Uchiha thought to himself.

He now considers Hattori Masanari to be the same kind of person as him, only much weaker in terms of strength, influence, and rank.

Madara Uchiha was well aware of the immense value of the Rinnegan. He already believed that Hattori Masanari had his eye on the Rinnegan, but because Jiraiya was protecting Nagato, he did not dare to make any rash moves.

Once Jiraiya is no longer by Nagato's side, he'll probably be in danger.

Madara Uchiha didn't think much of it, because he knew the Rinnegan would be fine; it had just temporarily changed owners, and this new owner might be someone even more valuable than Nagato.

"What are the philosophies of this man named Hattori Masashige? Do you understand?"

Madara Uchiha asked Black Zetsu.

Information about Hattori Masanari was scarce to begin with, and Black Zetsu hadn't made any special effort to gather information about him beforehand. So when it heard Madara Uchiha's question, it was completely bewildered.

Ideas are very private matters.

Hattori Masanari hadn't publicized it much before, so how could it have known?

However, it was clear that this guy had always opposed Hanzo initiating the war.

So, after thinking for a moment, it replied, "He must be a peace-loving guy. He has always opposed Hanzo initiating a war."

"Peace-loving?"

Madara Uchiha was not satisfied with Black Zetsu's ambiguous answer.

"I'm sorry, Lord Madara, this guy has only recently become active in the ninja world, and since becoming a rogue ninja, his whereabouts have become mysterious, and he practices mysticism. As for information about him, White Zetsu and the others really haven't been able to gather much useful information."

Black Zetsu sensed Madara Uchiha's dissatisfaction and truthfully explained the specifics.

"Humph."

Upon hearing this, Madara Uchiha snorted coldly, expressing his dissatisfaction, but decided to let it go and no longer expect Black Zetsu to provide anything more useful about Hattori Masashige.

He was well aware of White Zetsu's abilities; they were good at gathering intelligence from the shadows, but not at fighting.

Given Hattori Masashige's current strength, White Zetsu would find it difficult to even get close to him, let alone fight him. It's unrealistic to expect White Zetsu to obtain information about Hattori Masashige.

However, since we can't collect them directly, we'll have to take a roundabout approach.

Madara Uchiha ordered, "Have White Zetsu disguise themselves as some Amegakure ninja and infiltrate Amegakure. Then, gather information about Hattori Masanari from the other Amegakure ninja. Hattori Masanari grew up in Amegakure, so the people there must know something about him. I need detailed information about this person."

"Yes, sir."

Black Zetsu replied respectfully.

It probably already guessed what Madara Uchiha was thinking.

This guy has his eye on Hattori Masanari and wants to use him as a new pawn.

Black Zetsu wasn't surprised by this, because judging from Hattori Masanari's resume, he was practically a low-level replica of Uchiha Madara, with many similarities between the two. The only uncertainty now was whether Hattori Masanari was dissatisfied with the Five Great Nations of the Shinobi World and whether he had the ambition to overthrow their rule.

If Hattori Masanari has this intention, then he and Uchiha Madara might be able to bring this person to their side, thereby accelerating and facilitating the implementation of the Eye of the Moon Plan.

"Hehehe~, if this guy truly loves Amegakure, then Amegakure's rise to power will inevitably involve clashing with the surrounding three great ninja villages. There might actually be a chance, after all, humans are such foolish creatures, they'll always be swayed by hatred..."

Black Zetsu sneered inwardly.

Its methods of manipulating people's hearts are masterful; it doesn't even consider Hattori Masashige a threat.

Therefore, in his mind, as long as Hattori Masanari is suitable, he will not escape his grasp, and sooner or later he will be able to turn Hattori Masanari into his pawn.

"Lord Madara, what should we do about Nagato? If the mysterious person is Hattori Masanari, Nagato might be in danger."

Black Zetsu reminded him.

"Let's keep things as usual. But from now on, let White Zetsu disguise himself as a Rain Ninja to monitor and protect Nagato. After all, the Land of Rain is the territory of Amegakure. That naive Jiraiya probably won't actively expel the people of Amegakure. Besides, as long as they are Amegakure people, Hattori Masanari will have no reason to deal with White Zetsu and his group."

Madara Uchiha pondered for a moment before giving his answer.

Although an interesting piece was unexpectedly discovered, the previous pieces cannot be easily discarded.

After all, it's not easy to find a pawn that can safely house and grow his Rinnegan.