Naruto: Pay-to-Win Ninja System

Turmoil gripped Konoha all night long.

Whether it was the fire within the village or the explosion outside, both events left countless villagers restless and terrified throughout the night.

Could it be that war was about to break out again?

Fortunately, after a night of chaos and panic,

the village suffered no further attacks,

bringing a bit of calm to many.

However, as the fire at the Orphanage finally died down, the hidden darkness beneath reemerged, triggering another wave of shock.

After all, in every Hidden Village,

the casualty rate among Ninja is extremely high!

And during wartime, it doubles or triples!

That's what causes so many orphans.

Originally, these orphans would be uniformly taken in by the village or sent to the Orphanage.

It was meant to provide some form of security and justice for those heroic Ninja who gave their lives.

But now?

The Orphanage burned down, revealing a blood-soaked underground laboratory for all to see.

Only then did the villagers realize—

This wasn't just not an Orphanage—

It was a soul-crushing hellhole!

Seeing how one by one, the remains of children were excavated from the site, the surrounding crowd grew furious! Their eyes reddened with anger!

Because no Ninja wants to witness this:

giving their lives for the village,

only to have their children become test subjects for Root after their deaths,

tortured repeatedly until they perished from harsh training,

or trained into emotionless assassins with no sense of self.

Who could possibly tolerate such atrocities?

As a result, many Ninja quickly launched a massive protest,

demanding a thorough investigation into the Orphanage.

Calling for severe punishment for the mastermind behind it.

Frankly, the battle outside the village felt distant. Since there weren't major casualties, most villagers didn't care much about it.

In contrast, the issue right under their noses—the Orphanage—directly threatened the safety of every Ninja's descendants.

Comparing the two, naturally everyone cared far more about the latter.

...

At the same time,

while the common villagers raged with outrage,

the higher-ups within Konoha also found themselves in a desperate state of panic.

Too many major incidents had occurred last night.

Destruction of the Orphanage, theft from the Backup Vault, assassination of senior advisors, suspected attack by a Tailed Beast from another village...

Each single incident alone would've been headache enough for Konoha's Administrative Department.

But now, they'd all struck together at once.

This was absolutely driving people mad!

Sitting alone in the Hokage's office, sighing quietly, was Sarutobi, the aged Third Hokage, his head full of white hair, his face filled with anxiety and fatigue.

He just couldn't understand—

Why so many disgraceful things always happened during his term!

It must be because he'd grown old.

And unlike the First Hokage, he lacked both prestige and formidable strength.

Otherwise, who would dare target Konoha!

Sigh...

"Knock knock knock—" came the sound of someone knocking on the door.

"Come in."

An Anbu operative entered, knelt on one knee, and removed his mask.

"Oh, Kakashi! It's you!"

"Done compiling everything yet?"

"What are the losses for Anbu and Root?"

Sarutobi composed his expression, feigning calm as he asked.

Kakashi bowed his head and quickly reported,

"Inside the village, eleven Anbu ninjas were killed."

"Outside the village, eight Anbu and forty-six Root ninjas fell..."

"Hss—"

Sarutobi inhaled sharply through his teeth, his face growing even grimmer.

This level of casualties was the worst since the Third Great Ninja War!

The deaths among Anbu weren't even the main issue.

This time, Root's backbone had likely been completely shattered!

Danzo probably didn't have even half of his usable forces left...

"What about the break-in at the Backup Vault? Did they find any clues about the thieves?"

"No."

Kakashi shook his head.

Anbu had already combed both the vault and the Backup Vault from top to bottom, searching every inch of ground.

They'd even deployed all kinds of tracking Ninken and ninja beasts to assist in the search.

Yet, they still found absolutely nothing.

It was as if those thieves had simply vanished into thin air...

Hearing this, Sarutobi frowned deeply.

This was already the second time the vault had been robbed!

And this time, they still couldn't determine who the thief was!

At best, they could only vaguely suspect Akatsuki might be involved.

Plus, one of their own senior advisors had died because of this!

So humiliating—the entire reputation of Konoha was being dragged through the dirt!

How could he not be furious?

"Tch—"

"What about last night's attack outside the village?"

Kakashi immediately handed him a stack of reports.

Inside was a detailed reconstruction compiled jointly by surviving members of Anbu and Root regarding the entire incident.

Sarutobi accepted the documents and flipped through them carefully.

After quite some time,

he slowly exhaled, his expression unreadable.

After all, judging purely from this report—

last night's events were just too absurd!

Itachi's sudden betrayal, the secret defection of Uchiha ninjas, Danzo and Root's planned ambush, followed by the unexpected appearance of the Tailed Beast attack...

When connected together, these events seemed even more incredible than during the Great Ninja War!

There were far too many coincidences at play...

Originally, Sarutobi had suspected

that the group responsible for the attack outside the village must somehow be linked to those who broke into the Backup Vault.

But now, the connection appeared increasingly puzzling and unclear.

Most importantly,

after such a chaotic night, they hadn't managed to identify a single enemy faction.

Just how utterly helpless was that!

"Kakashi, what do you think?

Do you believe these attacks are related?"

Sarutobi turned to Kakashi for insight,

hoping to rely on his sharp mind to untangle the connections...

"I can't make sense of what happened around the Orphanage yet.

However, I'm certain the Backup Vault theft and the attack outside the village were carried out by different groups!"

"If it had been the same group, considering their ability to sneak into the village without being noticed, they wouldn't have needed to launch an assault outside at all."

"They could've just brought along a Jinchuriki or the Tailed Beast and launched a surprise attack right inside the village—it would've definitely caused way more damage!"

"Therefore, my guess is—

the attackers outside the village should be a special operation unit sent by another Hidden Village."

"However, they just happened to run into a few members of the Uchiha Clan who were preparing to defect. That's why they swiftly eliminated all five."

"Then they suddenly realized there was a large group of Root ninjas following behind those five."

"So they assumed their ambush had been discovered and had no choice but to hastily launch a Tailed Beast Ball attack before retreating immediately..."

Kakashi shared his deduction.

He also believed it made the most sense as an explanation.

After all, they had no idea that someone had already mastered the [Flying Thunder God Technique], allowing effortless back-and-forth movement between inside and outside the village...

Upon hearing this, Sarutobi gave a slight nod.

In his view, this truly was a very reasonable assumption.

It clearly explained all the suspicious aspects of that start-strong-but-end-weak attack...

Sarutobi: "Are you certain those five were Uchiha ninjas?"

Kakashi: "Not entirely sure. Their bodies were severely burned, making facial identification impossible."

"But all five corpses had their eyes removed. Unless someone wanted to collect Sharingan, there wouldn't be much reason to deliberately remove a corpse's eyes."

"Alright, I understand."

Sarutobi nodded again and fell silent.

While tapping the wooden table, he began delving into his mind,

systematically narrowing down potential suspects among the Five Great Hidden Villages.

Since a tailed beast was involved,

there was no doubt the list of suspects had now been narrowed down to the other Four Great Hidden Villages plus Takigakure.

The Homura Hidden Village, which should have originally been the main suspect, was directly ruled out.

Next, although Takigakure possessed a tailed beast, it was merely a smaller hidden village.

Unless someone was mad enough to risk everything, they wouldn't dare provoke Konoha.

Therefore, its suspicion wasn't high either.

Furthermore, Sarutobi didn't completely rule out the possibility of Kiri collaborating with the Homura Hidden Village.

However, major changes in Kiri occurred three days ago.

News from that region had only barely reached the village yesterday.

A massive hidden village undergoing a coup d'état, the sudden death of the Mizukage, transfer of power, and many other major events...

would certainly create a mountain of urgent governmental affairs needing immediate attention.

How could they possibly organize personnel nonstop, dispatch jinchuriki, and attack Konoha?

With only two days available, and separated by an ocean in between,

it would be practically impossible for Kiri ninjas to reach Konoha within that timeframe!

This was precisely why Sarutobi excluded Kiri from his list of suspects...

"The remaining three villages with highest suspicion are definitely Iwagakure Village, Kumo, and Sunagakure!" 

Damn it, which one could it possibly be?!

Sarutobi furrowed his brows tightly, murmuring to himself in deep contemplation.

<><><><><><><><>

Thank you for reading! Your support will keep me updating!

~ Every 50 Powerstones = **4 Bonus Chapters** this weekend!

<><><><><><><><>

~ 100+ Advanced Chapters Available on Patreon!

~ More *Free* Chapters and Books Available on Patreon!

patreon.com/Tansnovel

<><><><><><><><>