Becoming the Tsuchikage in the Naruto World

Chapter 305: The Face of Konoha

By the time the sensory ninja realized the gravity of the problem and sounded the alarm, the best opportunity to search for Ishiro had already passed.

With Ishiro's speed, he had long since left the area near the main gate and had fully penetrated the center of Konoha. Ishiro flew rapidly within Konoha Village for a while. Feeling the distance was about right, he immediately found a random room with an open window on the roadside and flew in.

It wouldn't be long before Konoha's barrier team would conduct a large-scale search. At that time, if Ishiro was still running, he would be a fool.

"I'll just hole up here for one night and go out tomorrow during the day when there are more people."

Before entering this house, Ishiro had already sensed with his Mind's Eye that the residents were all civilians. As long as the ninjas outside didn't come in, Ishiro would not be in danger of being discovered.

As for whether the ninjas outside would come in? Ishiro estimated they would not. When he infiltrated, he was disguised as Orochimaru. If Konoha determined it was Orochimaru, they certainly wouldn't come to check.

After all, with Orochimaru's ability and his familiarity with Konoha, it would be all too easy to evade a search.

And if Konoha determined through the sensory barrier that the intruder was not Orochimaru, but just a Jonin, then Konoha would not make a great fuss while the Cloud delegation was still in the village and the Iwa delegation was about to arrive.

Konoha would most likely use the sensory barrier to conduct a comprehensive check of Ishiro's chakra fluctuations.

However, Ishiro had long been prepared for this.

He took out a cloak painted with a sealing jutsu to block chakra fluctuations and put it on. Then he did his best to cast a chakra suppression jutsu, disguising himself as an ordinary person.

This infiltration was more likely to be exposed than the first time because Ishiro's chakra fluctuation had already been captured once by Konoha's sensory barrier; he was no longer a stranger.

Everything was more or less as Ishiro had expected. After the Anbu received the alarm, they moved quickly. A dozen squads swiftly sealed off the area near the main gate and conducted a thorough search of the area.

The result, naturally, was that nothing was found. Including the ninja hounds, all the ninjas skilled in tracking did not find any useful clues.

After a brief period of commotion, Konoha once again returned to calm.

At the Cloud delegation's quarters, a Jonin came in from outside and said to Ayumi Tahara, "Captain, there was some unusual movement in the direction of Konoha's main gate just now. Looking from afar, it seemed like many Anbu were searching for something. Someone might have infiltrated Konoha Village."

"The Anbu have now dispersed, and there has been no sound of battle. The infiltrator may not have been found."

"From the number of Anbu that went out, the infiltrator's strength should not be too strong, probably only at the Jonin level."

Ayumi Tahara pondered for a moment and said, "I understand. Do not get involved in this matter. No matter who the newcomer is, our plan remains unchanged. Getting the Byakugan and escorting it to the embassy is what we need to do."

After a pause, Ayumi asked again, "Danzō suddenly left Konoha during the day. Have the reason and his destination been found out?"

The man shook his head and said, "I mobilized a deeply hidden intelligence ninja, but the other party also received no news."

Ayumi frowned without speaking. The plan was about to begin, yet unexpected changes were coming one after another, which gave her a very bad feeling.

After thinking for a moment, Ayumi said to the public-facing head of the delegation, "Hashiryū, tomorrow you directly ask Konoha's reception personnel and try to get some information from them."

Hashiryū hesitated and said, "I'm afraid the Konoha ninjas won't reveal any information to us."

Ayumi shook her head and said, "We are not trying to gather intelligence, but to prove our own innocence. If we don't ask, Konoha will also suspect us. This will add difficulty to our plan."

"Yes." Hearing this, Hashiryū understood the reason and immediately complied.

"Also, be a bit more aggressive in tomorrow's negotiations. Konoha has definitely run into trouble. The few points that were decided a few days ago can also be brought up for haggling. Let's test Konoha's reaction," Ayumi added.

"Understood," Hashiryū replied with a look of admiration.

...

Not far from the Cloud delegation, on the rooftop of the Hokage Tower, Tsunade and Hiruzen, along with several Anbu squads, were looking over the entire village of Konoha.

Seeing the Anbu at the village gate slowly disperse, Tsunade sighed and said, "It seems they didn't catch the person."

Sure enough, not long after, the Anbu captain responsible for the search quickly arrived at the Hokage Tower and reported the results to Tsunade and Hiruzen.

After listening, Hiruzen asked Tsunade, "Tsunade, do you think it was Orochimaru?"

"It's most likely not. With Orochimaru's understanding of the village, he wouldn't choose to force his way in."

"However, we can't completely rule him out. That guy's research is strange and unusual. It's hard to say if he's already come up with some ninjutsu to change his chakra fluctuation to deliberately disgust us."

"But, whether it's Orochimaru or not, we don't have the energy to manage it. Assign more manpower to watch the Cloud delegation. I always feel that the key to the problem lies with this delegation that suddenly appeared," Tsunade said.

Hiruzen hesitated for a moment and said, "If it really is Orochimaru, then leave him to me."

Tsunade was stunned, then said nervously, "Teacher..."

Before Tsunade's words of persuasion could come out, she was interrupted by Hiruzen with a wave of his hand, "No need to persuade me. I need to make up for my past mistakes."

Tsunade didn't know if the mistake Hiruzen was talking about was failing to lead Orochimaru onto the right path, or not stopping him when he defected.

But since Hiruzen had already decided, Tsunade was willing to let him have his way. One was her teacher, the other her companion. The struggle in Tsunade's heart was actually no less than Hiruzen's.

For some unknown reason, at this moment, Tsunade suddenly thought of that annoying dead-last who used to always pester her.

...

The next day, many villagers in Konoha were discussing the matter of the Hyuga clan's young lady's first birthday.

Many people went from talking about Hinata to Hiashi and Hizashi, and then to Tokuhiro Hyuga. Then they talked about the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist, and finally, the topic turned to the legendary Genin, Might Duy. Then, a thing called "number one village confidence" uncontrollably emanated from these people.

Ishiro, still wearing that cloak but with a different, ordinary face, was wandering around Konoha.

Ishiro looked at these people, felt these things, and found that although Iwagakure's strength had greatly increased in recent years, this kind of top-to-bottom confidence had not yet formed. The Iwa ninjas, including Ōnoki, still had a feeling of fear or apprehension towards Konoha.

When facing Konoha ninjas, Iwa ninjas always had an inexplicable sense of inferiority.

Ishiro had been to Konoha twice. The second time was purely for destruction, so we won't talk about it. The first time he came, Ishiro was still just an advisor to Iwagakure, and his perspective on problems was different from now.

At that time, Ishiro hadn't noticed this kind of confidence in the Konoha villagers. Now, as the Tsuchikage, seeing this sense of pride in the Konoha villagers, he felt quite uneasy.

Clearly, Konoha's strength had been declining these years.

Ishiro still clearly remembered the despairing list when he had analyzed Konoha's high-end combat power back then: Hiruzen Sarutobi, Danzō Shimura, Orochimaru, Tsunade, Jiraiya, Minato Namikaze, Kushina, Fugaku Uchiha, Might Duy.

Back then, if not for White Fang committing suicide early, the number of people in Konoha who could display Kage-level combat power would have reached double digits. But now? More than half were gone, and there was even a rogue Kage-level powerhouse.

Back then, the Land of Fire, whether in military strength or economic influence, far surpassed the other four great nations. Ishiro remembered that back then, Iwagakure was so poor that even the pensions for war orphans had to be postponed, which showed how much the other four great nations besides the Land of Fire were suppressed economically.

But now, the Land of Fire was plagued by rogue ninjas. Even the Daimyo of the Land of Fire was envious of the Land of Earth. As soon as he heard that the Land of Earth was inviting the Land of Fire to join the trade route, the Daimyo of the Land of Fire had impatiently agreed.

Back then, the relationship between the Land of Fire and the surrounding small countries was clearly one of suzerain and vassal. For example, Hanzō was a typical pro-Konoha figure. For another example, with a little instigation from Konoha ninjas, both the Land of Grass and the Land of Waterfalls began to reject Iwa ninjas. The influence of the Land of Fire on these small and medium-sized countries was so great that the Land of Earth at that time felt deeply powerless.

But now, the economies of these small and medium-sized countries were basically tied to the Land of Earth. When the Land of Grass exchanged territory with the Land of Earth, they didn't even think about whether the Daimyo of the Land of Fire would object.

Back then, because they had just experienced the tragic Second Great Ninja War, the number of ninjas in all countries had plummeted. But the quantity and quality of Konoha's new generation far surpassed that of other countries, and their strength recovered at an extremely fast speed.

But the good times didn't last long. First, the Konoha Anbu were nearly wiped out several times in a row. Then, the Third and Fourth Wars caused the number of Konoha ninjas to plummet again, and the foundations of various ninja clans were almost exhausted. After that, they encountered the Nine-Tails and Seven-Tails attack incidents. Even Konoha's greatest advantage, its number of ninjas, was on the verge of disappearing.

But the residents of Konoha still exuded a sense of superiority.

Ishiro thought, even if he revealed his identity, these Konoha civilians wouldn't look up to him, at most they would just be afraid. They would probably still look at him as if he were a barbarian.

"How on earth does Konoha do it?" Ishiro began to think deeply.

...

For Hinata Hyuga's first birthday, all members of the Hyuga clan would attend, but they would not invite people from other clans. Ishiro couldn't figure out what kind of mentality was behind this "independent kingdom"-like practice of the Hyuga clan.

Had Hiashi never thought about the feelings of the Third Hokage and the Fifth Hokage?

However, this was a good thing for Ishiro. With no Hyuga members on the streets of Konoha, it was safer for him.

Ishiro seemed to wander aimlessly in Konoha for a while. In fact, he was checking Konoha's response to his intrusion last night.

But after a round, Ishiro was somewhat puzzled. In his Mind's Eye's perception, he did not find any ninjas on alert in the dark.

"Has Konoha given up on searching for me?" Ishiro pondered. "Or, does Konoha have a clear surveillance target, so they didn't choose to release a large number of ninjas for a blind search?"

Ishiro hesitated for a moment, changed direction, and headed towards the location of the Cloud delegation.

He did not get completely close to where the Cloud delegation was but stopped at a distance of eight hundred meters.

Ishiro extended his Mind's Eye's perception to its maximum, and then... hiss~.

Was Konoha surrounding the Cloud ninjas?

In Ishiro's perception, the number of ninjas within the Cloud delegation was only fourteen. But within a hundred-meter radius of these fourteen people, there were at least ten Anbu squads, which was forty people.

Ishiro didn't walk in that direction anymore. After carefully distinguishing the chakra of these people, he turned and went to the Hyuga clan's territory.

The Hyuga clan's territory was in the central area of Konoha, covering a huge area, and was not far from the Hokage Tower. Ishiro estimated that the straight-line distance between the Hyuga clan's territory and the location of the Cloud delegation was about two kilometers. In the context of Konoha's vast area, it was not far.

♧♧♧

-> SUPPORT ME WITH POWER STONE

-> FOR EVERY 200 PS = BOUNS CHAPTER

♧♧♧

-> 35 Advanced chapters Now Available on Patreon!!

-> https://www.patreon.com/c/Segais

(Just remove the hyphen to access patreon normally)

If you like this novel please consider leaving a review that's help the story a lot Thank you