After taking over the snake uncle's foundation, Sasuke came to surrender on his own initiative.

Less than a day had passed since Onotake returned to Ono Village.

In the distant Land of Fire, Konohagakure.

The village, which had suffered brief but severe destruction, was now troubled by the arrival of another accident.

Konoha Village's senior advisors, Mito Kado En and Utane Koharu, quickly gathered the village's senior personnel and held an extremely urgent meeting. Everyone had a sad and anxious look on their faces.

"Akatsuki has already targeted Naruto. Fortunately, Kakashi and Kai drove them away, otherwise the consequences would be disastrous! This is a test, and also Itachi's veiled reminder to us!"

"Alas... the ninja's fighting power is declining... I didn't expect the village to have reached such a state that the Akatsuki organization's people could easily break in and leave without hesitation."

"...There is no other way. The village is in a period of transition right now. We just need to wait for another two years until Naruto's generation grows up."

"Speaking of this... Sasuke actually defected to the Sound Village. How are we going to explain this to Itachi?"

"Sigh... Although there was no sign at all, we were indeed careless. But the village really does not have more power to chase Sasuke back. However, since it is Itachi, he should understand the difficulties of the village..."

"He will. He is a different Uchiha. He is the most village-centered in everything."

"Um......"

In the conference room, Kakashi and Asuma looked at each other with puzzled expressions after hearing the two advisors' matter-of-fact words.

Because Itachi loves Konoha so much, can the village treat him with impunity?

What is this nonsense?

Then, the two white-haired old men's faces became sad again.

"And the leader of the Sound Village is so dissatisfied with the status quo that he actually went to the Taki Village to capture the Seven-Tails Jinchuriki alive. It seems that this guy's ambition is far more terrifying than we thought!"

"The key point is... according to the letter from the leader of Takigakure, that guy succeeded in subduing his own Jinchuriki in just a few blinks of an eye!"

"Being able to recruit a ninja with the Mangekyō Sharingan as his subordinate, that guy must be no simple person."

……

"It's a shame that Tsunade and Jiraiya are not in the village, otherwise the situation might be different."

"Your own village is in danger, Xiaochun, are you still thinking of supporting Takinin?"

"Are we just going to watch that guy expand his power recklessly?"

"It's just Nanabi, it's not like we're going to take over the entire Land of Taki..."

"Just? Haha...I'm afraid you haven't realized the seriousness of the matter yet!"

……

"The entire ninja world is now paying attention to our Konoha's next move. Danzo had previously vowed to take over the Sound Village. But now that the Seven-Tails has fallen into enemy hands and they have a strategic weapon like the Tailed Beast, it will be even more difficult for us to attack the Sound Village. If we fail, won't we become a laughing stock for all nations?"

……

"The responsibility is not entirely on us. We can only say that this guy is too weird. He actually set his sights on the tailed beasts..."

……

"So how should we deal with this now? Is there nothing we can do before Tsunade and the others come back?"

"Stabilizing the village is the only use for old guys like us..."

They stopped arguing, and looked at each other, feeling extremely melancholy and lost.

Nara Shikaku, who had his hair tied behind his head, shook his head and sighed.

"To be honest, after we lost the Third Hokage, and Master Jiraiya and Master Tsunade have not returned to the village, we are unable to shake the tough rock of Otogakure.

We must admit that our strength at the top ninja level is no longer enough to effectively suppress the Sound Village. After losing the help of Master Jiraiya and his men, we can no longer threaten the Sound Village. This is an indisputable fact. "

Hearing this, the two elderly consultants looked at each other, sighed slightly, and remained silent.

Kakashi and other elite jonin of Konoha below were all silent, and the atmosphere in the conference room was very depressing.

The Uzumaki was destroyed, the Senju disintegrated, the Uchiha clan was exterminated, and the Hyuga clan was separated.

These powerful ninja clans that were once friendly to Konoha and even established Konoha Village, not a single one of them had a good ending in the end!

Even a powerful ninja like Hatake Somo, whose strength and prestige were even higher than the Three Ninjas, did not die on the battlefield or at the hands of the enemy, but died at the hands of the shady politics of Konoha!

It has to be said that Sarutobi Hiruzen has done a good job in the past few decades on the road of "decentralizing power and reducing feudal lords".

so.

That's why Konoha has ended up in such a miserable state with no one to use it.

......

Hua Hua Hua——

The sound of water roared and echoed.

Under the hood, a pair of scarlet Sharingans were bright and sharp, looking down, and mist and strong wind were coming towards him in front.

I could only see the back of the hillside under the moonlight.

A magnificent waterfall, like the upside-down Milky Way, rushes down, shocking the heart.

"I think this is the place..."

One of the figures raised his hand and lifted his hood, revealing a terrifying shark face.

He stared sharply at the abyss under the waterfall, and then the two of them took steps at the same time, searching around the cliff from left to right, and finally found the path up the mountain.