Being a rogue ninja is worse than being Hokage.

Despite the fact that the mission was to retrieve the defector Sasuke, Naruto also disappeared without a trace—the huge intelligence gap could buy Naruto tens of hours, or even days, to escape, and no one would pursue Naruto before Konoha could react.

However, after Naruto weighed the pros and cons and chose to kill Kabuto, Orochimaru's behavior during the Chunin Exams began to differ from the original story.

Naruto could no longer guarantee that the follow-up to his defection plan regarding Tsunade would proceed smoothly.

Since the plan to use Sasuke's defection to facilitate his own defection has become increasingly unpredictable—

—Perhaps leaving Konoha now would be a good choice.

The Third Hokage, who usually resides in the Hokage's office, is currently observing the Chunin Exams in the Forest of Death.

There are no longer any Kage-level ninjas obstructing the Hokage's office.

Naruto only needs to activate the Flying Thunder God Seal he left in the Scroll of Seals to take the Scroll of Seals away, and then use the Flying Thunder God Seal he marked outside the village when he went to the Land of Waves to leave the village...

Whatever schemes Orochimaru plans to use against Konoha next is none of Naruto's concern.

Naruto no longer needs to worry about Orochimaru's current unpredictable actions after he killed Kabuto.

Having pondered this, Naruto had already arrived near the Hokage's office.

He looked up as if he were staring at the Hokage Rock, secretly observing the Hokage's office beneath it.

Originally, this was to take into account the increased security forces Konoha would have during the Chunin Exams.

Fearing that his sensory ninjutsu would be detected by the Konoha ninjas, Naruto reactivated the Wind-Soothing Akatsuki technique, which he hadn't used since the Forest of Death.

Peeking into the Hokage's office at this moment...

But before he could sense the Hokage's office, Naruto suddenly discovered that a large amount of chakra was surrounding him in multiple forms.

These chakra were not unfamiliar to Naruto; they were members of "Root" whom Danzo had been placing to monitor him—the number of them monitoring Naruto had surged to an unprecedented level.

Chapter 51 Jiraiya

Sensing "Root" in an instant, Naruto immediately abandoned his idea of ​​sneaking into the Hokage's office!

He withdrew his gaze from the Hokage Rock.

He lifted his foot again and turned to leave without hesitation.

Continue heading towards Konoha Hospital.

Although Naruto's mind was racing during the pause, only a few seconds actually passed in reality.

For Naruto, who has always wanted to become Hokage, this is a perfectly normal pause.

The "Roots'" watchers were clearly unaware of anything amiss.

Can……

"What on earth is going on?!"

Naruto's expression remained normal, but his heart was churning with an uncontrollable storm of emotions!

Why did Danzo suddenly intensify his surveillance on me?!

Could it be related to Orochimaru?

Even before Orochimaru defected from Konoha, he already had a close relationship with Danzo.

Even the origin of Danzo's entire right hand is deeply connected to Orochimaru.

Could Orochimaru be colluding with Danzo again at this moment?

Judging solely from their identities, Orochimaru was a Konoha traitor, and Danzo was a Konoha high-ranking official...

Orochimaru and Danzo are enemies, they should be irreconcilable.

However, they are all self-interested and there is a high probability that they will exploit each other to cooperate again.

This is not a baseless conjecture by Naruto.

In the original story, the Chunin Exams were such a chaotic situation—the Sound Village and the Sand Village attacked Konoha together, but Danzo did not show up, which inevitably made Naruto wonder about Danzo's intentions.

Danzo, in particular, has an unstable right hand. When he has enough chakra, he can control his right hand, but once his chakra is depleted, the First Hokage cells in his right hand will go berserk.

Therefore, Danzo desperately needed Orochimaru's vast amount of data from human experiments to solve this problem.

Orochimaru was naturally aware of Danzo's "weakness"—his imperfect right hand.

If Root's current surveillance of Naruto is indeed related to Orochimaru, then what information about Naruto did Orochimaru reveal to Danzo? And how much did he reveal?

With Root's surveillance so tight, has Danzo decided to target Naruto again? Or is he still hesitating?

Problems lead to more problems.

Naruto, however, discovered that he couldn't even discern the true nature of Danzo's decision to have "Root" monitor him.

If the situation is extremely serious... the Book of Seals may have already been tampered with.

At that point, Naruto might have to abandon the Scroll of Seals, reveal the Flying Thunder God Technique, and leave the village directly...

However, if Naruto continues to use his disguise to maneuver, a rash attack could lead to a miscalculation that causes him to miss the initiative and completely lose the chance to obtain the Scroll of Seals.

Let's take another gamble.

Despite all the preparations Naruto had made, he still wanted to try to access the Book of Seals unless absolutely necessary.

The forbidden techniques related to the Second Hokage in the Book of Seals are what Naruto needs most.

The Second Hokage's forbidden techniques were largely designed to counter the Uchiha clan...

The Multiple Shadow Clone Technique distributes chakra evenly, making it impossible for even the Sharingan to see through the original body.

The Flying Thunder God Technique, which allows attacks to be launched from the blind spots of the Sharingan—

—The Second Hokage even used the Flying Thunder God Slash to severely injure Madara Uchiha's younger brother, Izuna Uchiha, leading to Izuna's death.

Just like the Second Hokage, Tobirama Senju, who devoted his entire life to studying the Uchiha clan.

Naruto's enemies, coincidentally, all possess the Sharingan.

In Konoha at this time, Naruto's greatest enemy is Danzo, who possesses Uchiha Shisui's Mangekyou Sharingan.

After Naruto's defection in the future, his enemy will be Obito Uchiha, who covets the Jinchuriki of the Tailed Beasts and identifies himself as the ghost of Madara—and secretly plots in the ninja world with the help of the Akatsuki organization.

Even Madara Uchiha himself!

Rather than developing new ninjutsu that may never be completed to fight these troublesome Uchiha, it's better to focus on that.

The forbidden techniques already present in the Book of Seals are simpler and more stable to learn or improve than to develop new techniques from scratch.

Naruto was well aware of the difficulty of developing new ninjutsu; since his time travel, he had only successfully developed the sensory ninjutsu, the Wind-Soothing Dawn Technique.

It can't even be considered a true development from scratch.

Naruto knew that the ninja world had a ninjutsu called Rain Tiger Free Technique, which used the natural weather to sense ninjutsu.

If Naruto hadn't understood the underlying logic that "natural weather" could also be used as a sensory ninjutsu, he would never have thought of the Wind Dawn Technique, which transforms "rain," the carrier of chakra perception, into "wind."

The more Naruto understood the complex and challenging situations involved in developing new ninjutsu, the more he appreciated the genius of the Second Hokage who was able to develop so many forbidden techniques, and the more he understood the value of the Scroll of Seals, which encapsulated the Second Hokage's achievements in ninjutsu.

Naruto's eyes flashed as he stepped into Konoha Hospital.

Let's finish the scene where they "worried about their injured comrade who was taken to an unknown location by the Jonin, and thus made their way to Konoha Hospital."

In the original story, Kakashi took Sasuke away from the arena to apply the Evil-Sealing Seal, a technique to suppress Sasuke's curse seal.

Kakashi then took Sasuke to a special ward in Konoha Hospital and arranged for Konoha's Anbu to protect him.

Kabuto would sneak into the ward to contact Sasuke, but Kakashi would notice.

But Kabuto Yakushi is still inside the Corpse Sealing Scroll in Naruto's ninja tool bag.

"I'm sorry, we have no record of Uchiha Sasuke checking in."

At the hospital's information desk, the nurse looked up from the patient admission records and answered Naruto's earlier question.

These are just some minor discrepancies...

Okay, thank you.

Naruto left the front desk, unsure whether Sasuke hadn't yet been admitted to the hospital by Kakashi... or if Kakashi simply wouldn't send Sasuke to the hospital at all.

However, Naruto didn't care much about Sasuke's whereabouts.

His intention in coming to Konoha Hospital to put on a show for the Root members who were monitoring him was greater than his concern for Sasuke.

……

After a brief stay at Konoha Hospital, they returned to the streets.

Naruto pondered his next move.

The people from "Root" are still monitoring him, showing no intention of leaving or reducing the number of people monitoring him.

This level of surveillance will likely be the norm for Naruto's daily life for some time to come.

Under such tight surveillance, figuring out how to carry out his own schemes in the shadows became Naruto's first challenge.

"What a hassle..."

Naruto felt utterly exhausted.

It's rare to understand Shikamaru's feelings, who always finds things troublesome.

There are usually two ways to solve a problem.

One option is to handle the trouble yourself.

Another option is for someone else to take care of your troubles, either proactively or passively.

Naruto's current method for dealing with trouble is the second one.

A tall, white figure ran against the flow of people on the street toward Naruto.

A group of young and beautiful women were also aggressively chasing after the white figure.

"Someone stop that bathhouse peeping tom!"

The woman spoke emphatically about the evil deeds of the white-clad figure.

"I'm not some bathhouse voyeur! I'm a super famous novelist who's currently doing on-site research!"

The white figure, holding up the binoculars, turned and retorted.