Escape From Konoha

"What exactly happened here?"

In the center of the hollowed-out forest, a huge hole with a diameter of several hundred meters came into view roughly and directly.

The pits extend downward in an orderly manner, with no grass growing inside and a barren landscape. It is difficult to describe this scene accurately in words.

Jiraiya was squatting on the edge of the pit at this time, and just grabbed a handful of sand on the ground. Before he could hold it tightly, the sand in his hand had turned into powder and was blown away into the distance.

Even the small pieces mixed into it are like this at any time, turning into powder at the slightest touch. Seeing this, Jiraiya couldn't help but look solemn.

Although it is a bit unbelievable, this abnormal and well-defined pothole is obviously not formed naturally, nor is it carefully dug by man, but is caused by the ninjutsu of ninjas.

Moreover, within one blow, hundreds of meters of ground were sunk.

"Is it Tailed Beast Jade..."

No, Jiraiya quickly dismissed this speculation.

He had seen the miserable state of the earth after being blasted by the Tailed Beast Jade, but it was not like this.

However, if you can use ninjutsu to destroy the earth into this state, its power may not be any worse than the tailed beast jade.

"Who performed this ninjutsu...?"

Why do ninjas with such power appear in the Kingdom of Forest, which is adjacent to the Kingdom of Fire?

Jiraiya stood up from the ground, patted the dust on the clothes in front of him, dusted it off, and showed a thoughtful expression.

He didn't believe that a ninja with such abilities would just wander around the Kingdom of Forest with nothing to do and then leave.

Even using such a huge range of ninjutsu must have a purpose.

In his decades of memory, it can be said that there are almost no ninjas who can expand the power of ninjutsu to such a scale.

Except for Chiba Shiraishi from the Kingdom of Ghosts, there was no other such ninja in his memory.

However, this was obviously not caused by Chiba Shiraishi.

The opponent's ninjutsu that annihilated a thousand ninjas in one blow in the Kingdom of Wind was much worse than this in terms of the scale of the explosion and the resulting terrain.

In other words, it was caused by a ninja who didn't exist in his memory.

Thinking of this, Jiraiya no longer hesitated, and jumped to the bottom of the pit.

The desertification of the land here is even more serious. Even after a long time, there is still a sharp and cold breath lingering here, piercing the flesh and bones.

"Jiraiya-sama."

As a respectful voice came, four figures instantly landed and appeared in front of Jiraiya.

The leader is a Konoha ANBU ninja wearing a beige windbreaker, who serves as the team leader, followed by three Konoha ANBU, who all wear masks and carry a standard ninja sword on their backs.

Judging from their dusty appearance, they must have just arrived here not long ago.

"It's you, can you tell me what happened here?"

Jiraiya continued to look around, looking for any traces that could identify the caster.

Even a trace of it will play a key role in his verification.

"No, we are not particularly sure. We have just arrived here not long ago, and the information we know is limited. What has been verified so far is that it is only confirmed that this should be caused by some kind of powerful ninjutsu. But who caused it needs further research. investigation."

The Kingdom of Forest is adjacent to the Kingdom of Fire. It is an inland country and a small country living in the gap between big countries. Although the relationship with the Fire Country and Konoha has not been harmonious in recent years, and its domestic ninja armed organization Prajna is a radical element among them, after all, this country is also one of the gateways to the Fire Country.

This kind of thing is happening in the Kingdom of Forest. As the military representative of the Kingdom of Fire, Konoha naturally wants to conduct a thorough investigation here.

Ninjas with such abilities are by no means ordinary in the ninja world. If the other party can do such things regardless of status in the Kingdom of Forest, then it cannot be ruled out that the other party will do the same thing to the Kingdom of Fire.

To nip problems in the bud, the purpose of their ANBU's existence is to protect Konoha and Hokage and eliminate possible threats as soon as possible.

From this point of view, externally, their thinking patterns are no different from their roots. However, they will not use any means necessary to launch radical actions before investigating the truth of the matter.

"Judging from the results of my observation, he should not be that person from the Kingdom of Ghosts... Moreover, that person's identity at this time is the Minister of Military Affairs of the Kingdom of Ghosts. Under normal circumstances, a person of his status cannot leave rashly. From the country of ghosts. In this case, it will be very troublesome to investigate."

Jiraiya expressed his guess.

"We have the same idea here, so in order to further investigate, we collected a part of the soil containing the caster's chakra and prepared to take it back for testing. As long as we know the characteristics of the chakra, we can compare it with the ninjas in the intelligence system , I think we can soon find out the identity of the caster.”

The ANBU captain took out a sealed transparent bag with a small amount of sand stored in it.

This kind of sealed bag can preserve chakra for a long time and will not cause the chakra in the sand to disappear over time.

"However, ordinary chakra is volatile and does not last too long. However, this chakra has taken root in the damaged soil, and some parts of it still remain and have not disappeared. To be honest, the power of the caster is strong It’s terrifying. It’s like being destroyed by a tailed beast jade..."

The ANBU captain was speechless, with a hint of worry in his tone.

"besides……"

The ANBU captain paused and did not continue speaking.

"What else?"

Jiraiya became curious.

"We asked the residents of the town closest to here, and they said that there was sudden lightning and thunder in the forest last night, and it started to rain heavily, and then a huge 'ball' appeared in the sky, blocking the moon. I think this information is somewhat important. .”

"Thunderstorm... ball..."

Jiraiya pondered over the words, but came up empty handed.

From these words alone, there is no way to determine what happened here.

Moreover, the ‘ball’ covering the moon is a bit too exaggerated, right?

"It's also a little weird."

The ANBU captain continued.

He glanced around and whispered: "Generally speaking, in such a huge pothole, the lost soil will not disappear out of thin air, but in the nearby forest, except for fallen trees, we did not see a large amount of accumulated sand. This It's totally unreasonable. I wonder if the 'ball' that those small town residents saw covering the moon last night was..."

"..."

Jiraiya suddenly fell silent.

Somewhat shuddering.

So, a group of people left the pothole and continued to investigate the surroundings.

Not long after, a forest passage extending to the north of the Kingdom of Forests was discovered, with traces of battles remaining along the way.

Some places are still muddy, still recovering from last night's heavy rain.

But it does not affect the investigation of the ANBU ninjas.

The scorch marks on the trees are the best evidence.

The Anbu who followed Jiraiya collected some of the charred bark and brought it back to Konoha and handed it over to professionals for laboratory examination.

About an hour later, they arrived at the northern border of Lin Zhiguo.

The tall wall was completely broken, revealing the damaged buildings inside that were in ruins.

Like a pack of hounds that smelled flesh and blood, the ANBU bared their fangs and started taking action.

They stepped into the ruins inside the wall. Not surprisingly, this was the core location of the battle.

Without any explanation, he condensed chakra with his hands, pushed away the blocked rocks in front of him, and explored forward.

Finally, as the last rock was pushed away, what appeared in front of everyone was a built-in wall that was mostly damaged.

In front of the wall, there is a stone chair with a corner missing, and on the wall, there is a conspicuous mark printed on it that makes people unable to look away.

Round fan.

"Uchiha..."

Jiraiya narrowed his eyes and murmured the origin of the Uanfan symbol.

This is the family crest of the Uchiha clan.

"I have heard that in the past, although the main branch of the Uchiha clan was in Konoha, they would still establish some secret strongholds outside to communicate with clan members who went out, or to rest. I guess this is where they built it One of the secret strongholds."

The ANBU captain said so.

"Keep looking. The traces of the battle here are very new. It should have happened last night. There will definitely be something left around."

Following Jiraiya's order, the ANBU nodded and dispersed around to investigate.

Jiraiya was not idle either. After learning that this was a secret Uchiha stronghold, the bad feeling in his heart became stronger and stronger.

He jumped onto a boulder on the top of the ruins and stared straight ahead, as if there was something attracting him there.

I saw a black flame falling on a gap in the wall, burning quietly.

◎

Yu Yin.

On the platform of the tower, the rain pattered.

A tall figure stood in the rain curtain, as if ignoring the chill brought by the rain, just looking up at the gray sky, and there was a sad atmosphere around him that no strangers were allowed to enter.

It wasn't until there were footsteps behind him that he looked away from the sky and turned to look at the person.

"Kisame, the meeting is about to begin."

The person who came was none other than Xiaonan. After she finished speaking, she turned and left.

As he stepped on his footsteps, his voice gradually faded away, as if he just came to inform him of this order.

Kisame scratched his head in distress and muttered: "Really, you can't let me take a break. Itachi is dead, and as a companion, I at least have to mourn."

But looking at Xiaonan's appearance, it seemed that he was not prepared to give him time to mourn the death of his companion.

Kisame could only shrug his shoulders, walked under the eaves, shook the rainwater from his hair, and shook off the moisture on it.

Fortunately, the coat outside is waterproof, so there is no need to put on a new one.

Follow Xiaonan to the conference room of Yugakure Tower.

The same as the original configuration, a huge round table and ten stone seats surrounding the round table.

Every gathering, as long as the magic lantern body technique is not used for remote audio-visual conferences, is basically a real-person 'reunion' here.

When he came here, he found that two people were already sitting in his seat, it was the mixture of Black Zetsu and White Zetsu, and Beiliu Hu who had come from afar.

Other than that, it was just him and Xiaonan.

Four people in total.

The atmosphere in the conference room was, to be honest, a little too deserted.

Everyone sitting in the seats seemed to have a somewhat silent expression, not knowing where to start.

Kisame really wanted to tell a cold joke to liven up the atmosphere, but after thinking about it he decided against it.

If you tell cold jokes at this time, you feel like you will be targeted collectively.

Now is not the time for joking, but the situation is almost at the end of its rope.

Before half of the tailed beasts were captured, half of the core members were either sacrificed or captured due to various accidents.

"By the way, aren't the leader and A Fei here?"

Kisame felt that the atmosphere in the room was a bit uncomfortable, so he took the initiative to stir up the conversation.

"The leader has important matters to deal with. A Fei is currently recovering from his injuries and cannot attend this meeting."

Black Zetsu said in a hoarse voice.

"That is to say, there are only four of us in this meeting... no, five of us are participating?"

Kisame started counting with his fingers.

If Black Zetsu and White Zetsu were separated, there were indeed five people participating in this meeting.

"Factually speaking, this is indeed the case." Black Zetsu continued to speak in a low tone: "In addition, Kisame, you and Beiruhu are staying in Yuyin Village for the time being, and there is no need for you to go out."

"Um?"

Kisame raised his eyebrows, a little surprised by this decision.

"There are too many spies from the Kingdom of Ghosts outside. It is not 100% safe to work in pairs, let alone one person acting alone. That will only become a living target for hunting by the Kingdom of Ghosts and continue to reduce the effective strength of our side."

Kisame and Beiruhu are both extremely valuable fighting forces of the organization. If something unexpected happens to the two of them, then the organization will really have no one to use.

"I don't care, as long as you don't disturb my experiment."

Beiliuhu stated his decision very simply.

Kisame also nodded and agreed, agreeing to stay with Amegakure for the time being and not go out any more.

"Then, let's officially start the meeting..."

Seeing that Beiruhu and Kisame agreed to stay, Black Zetsu's voice sounded in the conference room again.

◎

Konoha.

Looking at the information gathered by the ANBU who had gone out, Tsunade frowned tightly and bit her fingers subconsciously. Judging from her posture, it seemed that she was quite troubled by the content of the information, so that her thoughts were confused.

"How about it, Shikaku, what do you think after reading this information?"

Tsunade asked Shikaku, who had watched the intelligence documents with her, for his suggestions and opinions.

The forest in the northern part of the Kingdom of Forest was suspected to have been bombarded by some powerful ninjutsu, and a huge crater with a range of several hundred meters appeared.

In addition, a building suspected to be a secret Uchiha stronghold was discovered on the border of the northern forest.

That building had also been damaged by the fighting and had been reduced to ruins.

In addition to the text description, the intelligence document also comes with a stack of photos recording the battlefield. Even if you have never gone to observe in person, you can still have a very detailed understanding of the battlefield.

"It's an exaggeration."

Looking at the huge potholes in the photo, Lu Jiu rubbed his eyebrows and gave such an evaluation.

There were potholes hundreds of meters in size. Shikamaru was very doubtful. Is this really something a ninja can do?

In any case, this is too exaggerated.

But the fact is before us, this is indeed caused by ninja using ninjutsu.

It is not that there are no ninjas in the ninja world who can achieve this level, but such well-defined holes do not fit anyone in Konoha's intelligence system.

and……

Looking at the huge pothole in the photo, Lujiu frowned again, feeling troubled.

"What's wrong?"

"No, I think this pothole is a bit strange, Hokage-sama."

"strangeness?"

Tsunade took the palm of the tea cup and paused slightly.

Shikaku put the photo down, pointed to the pothole above and said: "Here, although some of the trees on the edge of the pothole have fallen down, most of them are still intact and have not been damaged. I think that the trees that can cause potholes are The impact of the attack should be enough to blow away everything on the edge of the pothole... But in the end, these trees were still well rooted on the edge of the pothole, and the area of ​​damage was very limited. It didn't feel like... It was an impact from top to bottom, or from the inside out. Instead, the land was 'carried' away from the bottom up..."

Immediately, Shikaku pointed to the eyewitness testimonies of some small towns in the intelligence and mentioned the 'ball' that blocked the moon.

"The ANBU during the investigation speculated that the 'ball' that blocked the moon was made of rocks and soil that had disappeared from the potholes. I think this guess makes some sense. Otherwise, it cannot be explained why the forest on the edge was not crushed by the impact, but was damaged instead. Very small. Someone sucked the land away and formed a 'ball' in the sky."

Tsunade nodded slightly, agreeing with Shikaku's guess.

"By the way, I heard that Hokage-sama is very strong. I would like to ask, Hokage-sama, can you lift such a large piece of land at once?"

Shikaku asked with interest.

After Tsunade heard this, the corner of her mouth twitched and her face darkened: "It can't be done."

Although her strength was great, it was not beyond the common sense of a ninja.

She didn't know how much the accumulated rocks and soil weighed in such a huge pothole, but it was definitely not something that humans could lift away with brute force.

Even if she uses her strange powers, she can't do it.

And it is even more impossible to pull such a large piece of land out of the ground so neatly.

"This pothole, as well as the matter of the Uchiha stronghold, let the ANBU secretly follow up and investigate for the time being. The most important thing right now is the next Chunin Exam. Such a big thing has happened in the Kingdom of Forest. I am a little worried about this year's exams." Can the Chuunin Exam go smoothly..."

Tsunade's concerns were justified.

This incident in Lin Zhiguo was too sudden and happened without any warning.

If this unknown ninja came to the Land of Fire and had sex like this next, Tsunade felt dizzy just thinking about it.

After all, the Kingdom of Forest is so close to the Kingdom of Fire. This must be guarded against, and the identity of the caster must be found out as soon as possible. At that time, whether it is prevention or taking other measures, you will not be in a hurry.

Shikaku really wanted to say that this year's Chuunin Exams should be canceled... However, it had already reached this point and it was too late to regret it.

Not to mention, the ninjas in each village are already ready. Some ninja villages have already sent genin in advance to settle in Konoha Village to prepare for the exam. The sudden cancellation of the Chuunin Exams at this time was too difficult.

Neither the Hokage nor the other senior officials would agree.

But first, the operation to encircle and suppress Orochimaru failed, and the nearby forest in the northern part of the Forest Country was attacked by unknown ninjas, which seemed to be related to the Uchiha clan... Various accidents happened, so Shikaku had to be cautious.

"If Lord Hokage is worried, then increase the number of patrols in the Land of Fire to ensure that candidates from each village can reach Konoha safely."

Shikaku felt that this was the only thing he could handle right now.

In short, if this Chuunin Exam is to be successfully held, there must be no surprises midway.

◎

After resting in bed for who knows how long, Sasuke felt that he was finally able to get out of bed.

Although I still felt the bones in my body throbbing when I got out of bed, I was fortunate to be able to walk freely.

The overdraft of chakra is more serious than I thought.

But the main injury was caused by Itachi Susanoo's slashing attack.

With that level of slashing power, even the aftermath could easily shatter the bones of the human body.

Fortunately, his body is much stronger than that of ordinary ninjas, otherwise he would not just lie in the hospital bed for two days.

My eyes are a little stinging, probably because I have awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan. I am still a little uncomfortable using this power myself.

Thinking of this, Sasuke laughed to himself.

He kept saying that he disdained gaining power in this way, but in the end, he still gained this power beyond the Sharingan in the same way as Itachi.

In other words, he must also be longing for such a will in his heart.

Otherwise, as long as he does not have such thoughts in his mind and does not have such strong emotional fluctuations, the Sharingan will not be able to evolve independently.

Sharingan is the eye that reflects the soul.

After getting out of bed, Sasuke didn't take off the bandages and put on the brand new clothes that had been placed here. Just as he was about to walk out the door, a figure appeared at the door.

"Hey, little Sasuke, it's been a long time since I last saw you. Judging from your appearance, you must have recovered."

Appearing at the door was a baby-faced girl who looked to be only thirteen or fourteen years old, or even younger.

The other party was wearing clothes with "thunder pattern" printed on them, with his hands on his hips, and he looked like a majestic little adult.

But in Sasuke's view, the opponent's height and body shape were no different from a few years ago, and there was no growth at all.

"You are...Qianno, the leader of the Lightning Regiment."

Sasuke recalled the identity and name of this baby-faced girl.

The leader of the underground black market Thunder Group.

Employed by the Agricultural and Industrial Corps of the Country of Waves, the ninjas of the Lightning Regiment have been active in the Country of Waves, eliminating unknown armed forces that covet this land.

Although the Thunder Light Group has few members, everyone is very powerful.

The baby-faced girl Chino who can lead this group of elite ninjas is naturally no ordinary person.

As far as Sasuke knew, she possessed an extremely terrifying blood inheritance limit.

But...as the leader of the Lightning Regiment, why is she here?

Could the place where he is now be the Thunder Light Group's stronghold in the Kingdom of Waves?

In other words, this is the Kingdom of Waves, which is sandwiched between the Kingdom of Fire and the Kingdom of Water?

Taking a deep breath, Sasuke felt that he had discovered a shocking secret.

——The Thunder Light Group, which appears to be operating in the underground black market, actually serves the military of the Kingdom of Demons.

It is one of the secret units of the Ghost Country's military, the same as the Thorn Team. In the name of mercenaries, they secretly replaced the military of the Kingdom of Ghosts and controlled the Kingdom of Waves behind the scenes.

This Fire Nation...the largest maritime gateway!

Moreover, Sasuke thinks that if he remembers correctly, the Country of Waves has a cross-sea bridge that leads directly to the land of the Country of Fire, making the two countries unimpeded and making business transactions very convenient.

In the same way, attacking will become very convenient.