Naruto: From Fake to Real, Deceiving the Ninja World.

Even though this is not the scene he wanted to see, since it has happened, he still has to make use of it.

"Naruto seems to be of school age now," Hiruzen Sarutobi thought to himself. "He should be able to make friends after he enrolls."

While he was thinking, he waved his hand, and Kakashi's figure disappeared silently from the office.

Hiruzen Sarutobi sat alone in a chair, gazing out the window at the peaceful Konoha, yet his brows were tightly furrowed.

Although he didn't want to doubt Hyuga Kumokawa deep down, Kumokawa's interactions with Naruto always felt like a thorn stuck in his heart.

He wasn't suspicious that Yun Chuan would do anything to Naruto, but he suddenly felt that he wasn't close enough to Yun Chuan and that he had indeed neglected to build relationships with the younger generation in recent years.

Given Yun Chuan's current talent and strength, even if he doesn't intend to take him as a disciple, their relationship shouldn't be limited to just superior and subordinate.

"Should we recruit him into the Dark Division?"

Hiruzen Sarutobi's eyes flickered slightly as he suddenly thought of the Uchiha child and Danzo's recent movements.

Root discovered a spy secretly colluding with Kirigakure, and Danzo planned to use that spy to test Itachi Uchiha's true worth.

As the Hokage, he was naturally aware of this matter, which was why Danzo had borrowed Uchiha Shisui from his subordinates.

That spy was, after all, a Jonin and also an Anbu ninja. It wouldn't be safe for Itachi to go alone, so it was understandable to add Shisui.

And the spy's name is...

"Kohinata Mukai".

Hiruzen Sarutobi murmured the name, thinking to himself, "Danzo has been making more and more moves lately. Why not let Yunchuan participate in the mission as well, and see what Danzo is really up to?"

Kohinata Mukai is a distant relative of the Hyuga clan. Although he did not awaken the Byakugan due to his thin bloodline, he is still related to the clan by blood.

This would also allow them to test whether Hyuga Kumokawa is truly loyal to the village, whether he has truly abandoned his clan's prejudices, and whether he is qualified to join the Anbu and continue to be given special training...

With this in mind, Hiruzen Sarutobi made a decision.

It's decided: Itachi Uchiha, Shisui Uchiha, and Kumokawa Hyuga.

Let these three people go and deal with Kohinata Mukai.

Just then, he seemed to remember something, took out a crystal ball from the drawer, formed a hand seal, and injected chakra into it.

The art of telescopes.

The image gradually appeared in the crystal ball, showing what Naruto Uzumaki's house looked like.

In the scene, Naruto Uzumaki is lying in bed, breathing steadily, with drool dripping onto the pillow. He's sleeping soundly, and there's nothing unusual about him...

boom!boom!

The office door was banged on so hard that Hiruzen Sarutobi frowned.

He knew that no one would be so offensive unless it was something important, so he decisively said, "Come in."

The moment the words left his mouth, an ANBU ninja pushed open the door and walked in, his chest heaving violently.

"Lord Third Generation! Urgent military intelligence!"

The ANBU ninja knelt on one knee, his voice hoarse and urgent, filled with undisguised horror, and even a slight tremor, as he presented a sealed scroll stained with mud and blood.

Hiruzen Sarutobi's heart sank. All his thoughts were forcibly suppressed by this sudden change. He abruptly stood up and grabbed the scroll.

He quickly broke the seal and unfurled the scroll.

The information on the scroll was written in an extremely hasty and even terrified hand.

Hiruzen Sarutobi's gaze swept rapidly across the words, his face turning ashen and solemn at a visible speed, finally turning into a horrified paleness.

Hanzo stormed into the rear base of Sunagakure, using power far exceeding that of his younger days, turning that area into a complete wasteland. Now he has once again declared war on Konoha and Sunagakure.

Furthermore, a meteorite tore through the clouds without warning and crashed precisely into the core area of ​​the battlefield in the Land of Rain?!

The meteorite impact triggered a massive shockwave and earthquake, wiping out almost all Konoha and Sunagakure ninjas in the central battlefield area, leaving no trace of their bodies!

Only a few reconnaissance squads and logistics personnel on the very edge of the battlefield survived, but they were too far away and suffered severe mental trauma, so the intelligence they brought back was extremely limited and chaotic.

"Meteorite? Are you kidding me? How could that be?"

Hiruzen Sarutobi's knuckles turned white from gripping the scroll so tightly that veins bulged on the back of his hand. His voice trembled almost imperceptibly as he asked, "Has the source of the information been confirmed?"

"Confirmed, Third Hokage!" The ANBU ninja's voice was hoarse. "The intelligence was sent out by an intelligence agent who survived on the edge of the battlefield, and other survivors also corroborated it..."

At the end of his speech, his voice became smaller and smaller.

Hiruzen Sarutobi swayed and almost lost his balance, only managing to steady himself by bracing himself against the corner of the table. He felt as if the scroll in his hand was incredibly heavy.

The situation was clearly very favorable before, but now the entire army has suddenly been wiped out.

The culprit, however, was a meteorite?

Why? Why is it such a coincidence?

Could it be man-made?

But how could anyone possibly do such a thing?

In a daze, Hiruzen Sarutobi raised his extinguished pipe to light it, only to find his fingers trembling uncontrollably.

Finally, he slumped down and put down his pipe, as if he had aged ten years in an instant, letting out a heavy sigh that seemed to carry the weight of the entire village.

"how so……"

Chapter 146 You Don't Need to Know My Name

In Hiruzen Sarutobi's eyes, Naruto, who seemed to be sleeping soundly curled up on the bed, was now in a completely different world.

Naruto stood blankly in the icy water, the biting cold seeping through his feet and spreading throughout his body.

Before me was a completely unfamiliar world.

The light barely illuminated the cramped space, and the air was thick with moisture.

Before Naruto stood the only creation existing in this space.

A row of thick, pillar-like railings extends upwards until it disappears completely into the impenetrable darkness overhead, with no visible top, seemingly without end.

Behind the railings lay an even deeper darkness.

"What is this place?"

Naruto looked panicked, facing the unknown fear with the child, and instinctively took a step back, the water beneath his feet rippling.

Finally, summoning his last shred of courage, his voice trembling, he called out into the chilling darkness, "Hey, is anyone there?"

The response he received was not a human voice.

"call……"

Seemingly startled awake by his voice, a long, deep breath suddenly came from the darkness, making the hairs on his body stand on end!

In the darkness, two crimson dots suddenly lit up.

The huge, fierce, and murderous vertical pupils, like two blood lanterns from hell, were locked onto the tiny Naruto Uzumaki!

"Roar!"

A deafening roar exploded, the sound waves like a giant hammer, carrying a foul wind, slamming hard into Naruto's heart, making his ears ring.

But what followed that roar was an enormous claw.

That sharp claw, several times larger than Naruto's entire body, gleamed with a cold light and pierced straight towards him!

“Monster…” Naruto’s pupils dilated with extreme fear.

Fear completely robbed him of his ability to move, like vines tightening around his heart and feet, freezing him in place, his mind blank as he stared at the approaching giant claws.

Time seemed to freeze at the moment the claws tore through the air.

However, just as that claw was about to touch Naruto's tiny body...

puff!puff!puff!

Several scarlet, blood-red thorns appeared without warning, bursting forth from the deathly darkness behind Naruto!

These thorns seemed to be alive, moving so fast that they left only afterimages.

They precisely wrapped themselves around the giant claw that had emerged from the cage, easily piercing the Nine-Tailed Fox's defenses like a red-hot iron, and instantly taking root within it.

A hissing sound, like flesh being pierced, rang out!

"Roar! My chakra..."

The roar abruptly shifted from a ferocious howl to one of shock and rage, disbelief flashing in its crimson vertical pupils as it hissed, "What is this thing?!"

Naruto finally saw what was on the other side of the railing.

The enormous fox head, with its ferocious face and bared fangs like interlocking daggers, exuded a murderous and violent intent to tear everything in its path to shreds!

However, this terrifying monster, which seemed to devour people at will, was now struggling violently due to the excruciating pain and the sudden restraint, its orange fur standing on end.

The thorns continued to spread wildly upwards along the claws and arms like maggots clinging to bones.

Ignoring the giant monster's struggles and bites, it absorbed its chakra and grew stronger as if nourished, with more thorns bursting from its "flesh and skin".

In the blink of an eye, the enormous monster was bound hand and foot by these eerie blood-red thorns, like a victim nailed to a cross!

"Wood Release? Adamantine Sealing Grounds? No, what the hell is this?!"

The Nine-Tailed Fox's earth-shaking roar was filled with humiliation and rage, but deeper within it, a hint of fear and dread was also revealed.

Why do these thorns possess both the chakra-absorbing properties of Hashirama Senju's "Wood Release" and the chakra-sealing properties of Mito Uzumaki's "Diamond Sealing Barrier"?

No matter how frantically it twisted its massive body, each struggle causing the cage to shake violently, it could never break free from the seemingly delicate thorns!

The spikes were deeply embedded in its chakra body beneath its fur and flesh, and each struggle brought double the pain and loss of chakra!

So its gaze passed over the utterly terrified human imp on the ground and fixed itself on the deep darkness behind the source of the thorns!

"Damn it! Who the hell are you?!"

The deafening question, like a thunderclap, jolted the stunned Naruto awake.

who? who is it?

Driven by lingering fear and curiosity, Naruto stiffly turned his head, following Kurama's gaze that was almost spitting fire, and also following the direction from which the blood-red thorns extended, to look behind him.

Then, a figure slowly emerged from the deep darkness.

His steps were unhurried, as if he were treading on invisible steps, each step carrying an indescribable rhythm, and the puddles beneath his feet parted on their own.

The first thing that catches the eye is his pair of eyes.

The eyes were blue, but not the blue of the sky; rather, they were like pure glaciers, cold and clear, possessing an almost inhuman divinity, radiating a dazzling light in the darkness.

His skin was so white it was almost transparent, like the finest porcelain, without a trace of blood. He had the typical appearance of an Otsutsuki clan member, which contrasted sharply with the damp and dark environment around him.

His long, silver-gray hair was meticulously tied back into a neat high ponytail, with a few strands falling across his forehead, adding to his cool and aloof demeanor.

He was dressed in an elegant and simple white robe, with a gray-white haori over it. The wide sleeves and hem of the robe moved without wind, and blood-red thorns grew out from under his robe.

He emerged from the darkness, as if stepping out of a painting.

Cold, noble, mysterious, profound...

These words perfectly describe him.

"Roar……"

The Nine-Tailed Fox's furious roar abruptly ceased. Its crimson vertical pupils stared intently at the suddenly appearing being that exuded a terrifying aura, and a low, wary growl escaped its throat like that of a wild beast.

Naruto was completely stunned, his little face tilted up, his big blue eyes wide open.

Finally, he blurted out instinctively, "Big brother, you're so handsome..."

However, he immediately regretted it as soon as he said it.

Her small body froze on the spot, her heart pounding wildly, her mind a complete mess.

He didn't know where he was, what the terrifying monster in the cage was, or who the person who had saved him, seemingly stepping out of a painting, was...

What if, what if I offend this seemingly strong older brother...

A deathly silence and bewilderment hung in the frigid air.

Those clear blue eyes calmly swept over the Nine-Tails bound by thorns, and finally landed on Naruto, who was standing frozen in the water.

"As a descendant of Hagoromo Otsutsuki, yet with such a diluted bloodline, and bullied to this extent by humans, is this what Hagoromo wanted to see?"