Chapter 53

"Indeed, I have no use for waste." Orochimaru spoke with a double meaning.

Pharmacist Kabuto's heart trembled. "Lord Orochimaru, how should we respond to Danzo?"

Orochimaru chuckled, a look of disdain on his face. "Danzo is obsessed with becoming the Hokage; he has been blinded by power. He thinks he is fighting for Konoha, but in reality, he has become a slave to power."

The smile faded from his face, and his golden snake eyes glinted coldly. "Agree with him!"

"This will cost us many people," Kabuto said.

Orochimaru gave Kabuto a cold look. "It seems you have suffered a great loss. Do you really want him to die?"

"He is indeed very powerful. We cannot be careless," Kabuto said, his face expressionless.

"Let the Sand shinobi handle it. I have no time to play games with that old fool Danzo. As for what you want to do, that's your business."

Kabuto nodded in understanding. Orochimaru was putting him in charge of the entire plan to assassinate Uchiha Akira. Whether it succeeded or not, Orochimaru didn't care.

He could do whatever he wanted, as long as it didn't affect Orochimaru's plans.

Kabuto adjusted the frame of his glasses, a glint of light flashing on the lenses.

"As long as I pass all the information about Uchiha Akira to the Sand shinobi, a ninja who can't use jutsu will be easy to kill! Yes... I'll also give them some poisons specifically targeting taijutsu. It will be foolproof."

...

A month passed quickly, and the final round of the Chunin Exams was held as scheduled. The atmosphere in the arena was quite lively.

The Third Hokage sat at the top of the stands with a smile, and beside him sat the Fourth Kazekage.

"Quite lively, Third Hokage. Life in Konoha is truly peaceful and stable. You have done a great job, Third-sama," the Fourth Kazekage flattered. It was because of the stability that the villagers came to join in the fun.

If they were hungry and cold, with their minds unsettled, they wouldn't have the time to treat the Chunin Exams as entertainment.

The Third Hokage smiled modestly. "Not at all, it is the result of the collective efforts of all Konoha shinobi. It is also the meaning of our existence as shinobi. The peace in the shinobi world is hard-won. What do you think, Fourth Kazekage?"

The Third Hokage was intentionally probing the Kazekage. He always felt that there was something strange about the Kazekage.

"The stability of peace is intoxicating," the Fourth Kazekage replied with deep meaning.

Oh!

Suddenly, a burst of cheers erupted from the audience.

The two of them stopped their wordplay and shifted their attention to the arena.

Seeing the two people in the arena, the Fourth Kazekage's lips curled into an imperceptible smile.

The Third Hokage's eyes flickered, and it was unclear what he was thinking.

...

Sasuke stood calmly in the arena, deaf to the cheers around him.

Looking at Gaara, whose eyes were filled with madness, Sasuke thought to himself, "So this is the One-Tailed Jinchuriki? I want to see what makes Jinchuriki so powerful."

"Uchiha Sasuke, I'm so excited to fight you! I can already smell the blood!" Gaara's face was twisted with a grimace.

"Sand Coffin!" Gaara extended his right hand.

The ground beneath Sasuke's feet suddenly turned into sand, rising up and enveloping Sasuke in an instant.

"Die!" Gaara roared, clenching his right hand tightly!

Bang!

A cloud of white smoke accompanied the explosion, and a shower of wood chips flew out from the sand ball.

"Substitution Jutsu? You escaped so quickly. But this makes it more interesting," Gaara's eyes grew even more mad.

He stood still, waiting for Sasuke to attack.

Bang!

A wall of sand suddenly appeared behind Gaara, blocking Sasuke's silent sneak attack.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

Sasuke moved like a ghost, rapidly circling Gaara, launching a frenzied assault.

Punches, kicks, elbow strikes, knee strikes.

But all of these attacks were blocked by the thin layer of sand.

After a prolonged attack, Sasuke quickly retreated, thinking to himself, "Such strong defense."

Gaara remained motionless, blocking all of Sasuke's attacks.

"My sand shield has the ability to defend itself. If you don't have enough power, you can't break through my defense," Gaara said coldly.

"Is that all the Uchiha can do?" A hint of frustration flashed in Gaara's eyes.

Sasuke remained unperturbed, and his right hand suddenly glowed with electricity.

A piercing bird cry rose into the air. A faint electric light flashed beneath his feet, and Sasuke's figure quickly disappeared.

Though young, Gaara was battle-hardened and sensed the danger.

"Absolute Defense!" Gaara shouted.

A sphere of sand suddenly enveloped Gaara.

Almost instantly, Sasuke's lightning-charged right hand struck.

Bang!

Sand and rocks flew as Sasuke's hand plunged into the sand sphere.

Sizzle!

The sand sphere suddenly sprouted countless sharp spikes, transforming into a hedgehog.

Puff! A cloud of white smoke. Sasuke disappeared, leaving behind a wooden post riddled with holes.

The sand slowly flowed like a liquid.

Gaara emerged from the sand sphere, his left arm bleeding profusely.

Sasuke's Chidori had severely injured his left arm.

"Uchiha Sasuke, you have successfully enraged me. I will make you pay!" Gaara's voice was sharp, and his madness was evident. A fierce chakra aura erupted from him.

The Third Hokage's face changed. Having spent his life in the shinobi world, he recognized this fierce and violent chakra aura all too well.

This is the chakra of a tailed beast!

The Sand shinobi brought a tailed beast to Konoha?!

Or a tailed beast that could go berserk at any moment, and was about to go berserk?!

He suddenly turned his head, staring coldly at the calm Fourth Kazekage.

"Fourth Kazekage, do you know what you are doing? You are challenging Konoha. You are provoking a war between the two countries!" the Third Hokage sternly shouted.

"Hehe. Teacher, I am indeed provoking a war between the two countries," the Fourth Kazekage suddenly changed his voice, speaking in a sinister tone.

After saying this, he extended his hands, grabbed the Third Hokage's arms, and leaped onto the roof.

"Rise!" Four figures suddenly appeared, shouting.

A purple barrier appeared out of nowhere, instantly enveloping the two of them.

"Teacher, do you recognize me?" Orochimaru revealed his true face.

The Third Hokage's face changed, his eyes becoming sharp. "Orochimaru?! Where is the Fourth Kazekage? What are you planning?!"

"I want to destroy Konoha," Orochimaru said calmly.

Boom!

Sudden loud noises came from various parts of Konoha. The ground trembled, clearly under intense attack. This made the Third Hokage extremely anxious.

"Teacher, you should stop worrying about others and start worrying about yourself," Orochimaru noticed the Third Hokage's distraction and spoke in a sinister tone.

The Third Hokage took a deep breath, suppressing his shock.

"Since that's the case, I'll deal with you first!" the Third Hokage said solemnly.

"Being able to fight you, teacher, makes me feel so excited," Orochimaru laughed nervously, his voice changing, making people shudder.

...

Uchiha Compound.

Su Zhong practiced his skills on schedule every day, and spent most of the remaining time reading books and researching.

In recent days, he had found some very interesting documents.

"Senjutsu?" Su Zhong muttered to himself. "So the reason why Hashirama Senju was so powerful was because of senjutsu? The Sage's Body?"

There were very few records about Hashirama Senju, and the information was very old, even dating back to before Konoha was established.

Only a few words were available for Su Zhong to study, but even this small amount of information had greatly benefited him.

He had read the original story and knew about Naruto's Sage Mode and the existence of natural chakra.

"Senjutsu chakra is a mixture of natural chakra and human chakra. Human chakra is a combination of mental and physical strength. When natural chakra, physical strength, and mental strength are balanced and fused, senjutsu chakra is produced. But what exactly is natural chakra?" Su Zhong pondered.

Combining his vague memories, natural chakra seemed to represent the power of nature.

In other words, natural chakra is the power of nature, a lively energy that floats in the world.

Human chakra is the power of the human body.

Human power is divided into mental and physical strength, which are the power of the soul and the flesh.

A bold idea sprang up in Su Zhong's mind: "Although I can't produce chakra, if my mind is completely integrated into my body, isn't that a combination of physical and mental strength? If I can absorb and fuse the power of nature, wouldn't that be another form of senjutsu?"

Su Zhong suddenly became excited, the more he thought about it, the more feasible it seemed.

However, how to absorb natural chakra?

This question was a huge obstacle for Su Zhong.

He had been trying for days, meditating and contemplating, trying to sense the power of nature, but to no avail.

Su Zhong was not discouraged. In his previous life, he had spent ten years in seclusion in the mountains, using a fragment of the Exorcist Sword Manual to create the Life-Stealing Sword Technique. He had faced many more problems than this.

Problems only made Su Zhong more excited.

The method of meditation and contemplation was not wrong. In the original story, Naruto had used the convenience of toad oil, but the path was correct.

The problem was that Su Zhong's mind was integrated into his body and could not be dispersed outward.

This blocked the path of using his mind to sense the power of nature.

"Spirit, dispersion, exploration?" Su Zhong's eyes suddenly lit up. "Isn't the Insight Eye another manifestation of the spirit?"

Su Zhong suddenly became excited.

After realizing that the Insight Eye was a manifestation of heightened senses, Su Zhong had been using it as a sensory tool without delving deeper.

"It's time to explore the deeper effects of the Insight Eye," Su Zhong muttered to himself.

Saying this, Su Zhong maximized the power of the Insight Eye.

Within a twenty-meter radius, all sounds flooded into his brain.

This made Su Zhong pleasantly surprised. His hard qi cultivation had hit a bottleneck, and he had been feeling frustrated and hadn't paid much attention to the Insight Eye.

But he hadn't expected that after months of continuous practice, the Insight Eye had improved again.

Suddenly, Su Zhong's face changed, and a cold, piercing light flashed in his eyes.

"Someone is trying to ambush me?"

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Loud explosions suddenly came from the direction of the Konoha gates.

The ground trembled, and from a distance, several massive creatures could be seen attacking the Konoha walls.

Su Zhong ignored these attacks; he only cared about the people he saw through the Insight Eye.

"Who is it that won't let me practice in peace!" Su Zhong was inwardly furious. "Only blood can make some people feel pain. Since they came, they won't be going back!"

...