From Naruto onwards, I've become a dreamer.

Chapter 480 Black Zetsu's Pawn, Hidden Dangers of Iwagakure!

Naruto Uzumaki stepped through the portal of light and returned to the dark base.

A pale green flame burned quietly, illuminating the figures in the room. Upon seeing Naruto Uzumaki return, he said with a half-smile, "It's been so many years, why don't we catch up a little longer?"

"no need."

Naruto Uzumaki sat on the bed, his eyes lowered: "But you, what brings you here to see me?"

Over the past two years, Naruto Uzumaki's personality has undergone a complete transformation.

Perhaps due to being influenced by Orochimaru for many years, he became less talkative and more mature and composed.

The person sitting in the room slowly got up and came to the green lamp. It was Orochimaru. He seemed to be admiring a top-quality tool that he had personally forged, and he showed a satisfied smile: "Not bad, you have improved very quickly. It looks like you will be able to advance to Sequence 4 soon."

Naruto Uzumaki remained noncommittal, simply nodding slightly.

No one knows how many hardships he went through in the past two years to get to where he is today.

He looked at Orochimaru and asked, "What exactly happened in Iwagakure? Is it something you're so concerned about that you went to the trouble of personally infiltrating to investigate?"

"It's just a change in the ninja world," Orochimaru said meaningfully. "By the way, I'll go see an old friend and see how things have changed over the past few years."

"The results of it?"

Naruto Uzumaki frowned, sensing that Orochimaru's words had a hidden meaning.

"As a result, the meeting ended on bad terms."

Orochimaru sighed with some regret, a hint of remorse in his eyes: "Those who once walked side by side will eventually go their separate ways. Fate... sometimes, it's truly laughable."

"Judging from your expression, the problem with Iwagakure seems quite troublesome?" Naruto Uzumaki asked, even more curious. "You're a Sequence 3 Saint. Apart from those two 'angels' from the Aurora Society, who else can stop you?"

Yes, two years later, Orochimaru had already advanced to Sequence 3 of the White Tower Path: Insightful One.

At least in Naruto's eyes, a Saint of the Sequence Level 3, apart from the two 'angels' of the Aurora Society, is enough to roam the ninja world with impunity.

"Of course, the one from Iwagakure is a genuine angel."

At this point, Orochimaru couldn't help but feel a little discouraged. He considered himself a genius, but his progress on the path to becoming extraordinary was not very fast.

Onoki seemed to be extremely suited to the 'Black Emperor' path in just two years, rising from a Sequence 5 Chaos Mentor to a Sequence 2 Duke of Entropy.

Moreover, over the years, under the meticulous management of the two-day scale Ōnoki, Iwagakure has been completely transformed, both inside and out.

Even the daimyo of the Land of Earth has been completely sidelined by that old fox. Now he is practically an invisible emperor, secretly controlling everything in the Land of Earth!
"What exactly is Lord Adam plotting?"

This problem deeply troubled Orochimaru.

Two days after Onoki betrayed the Twilight Hermits' Society, he was not punished at all, and it was as if he had been forgotten by 'Adam'.

Despite Orochimaru's repeated attempts over the past two years to curb the development of the two-sided Onoki, Adam has refused each time.

It was as if 'Adam' was deliberately allowing the rise of Onoki in the two-day saga.

"Right now, your focus shouldn't be on Iwagakure."

Orochimaru rubbed his temples, looked at Naruto Uzumaki, and said calmly, "You should pay attention to the ascension ceremony. After all, you need to seal a 'demigod' all by yourself to complete it, which is no easy task. Do you have any thoughts on it?"

"I'm looking for a target."

Naruto Uzumaki said calmly, "Originally, the target was Sasuke Uchiha, but that guy's advancement was too slow, so I decided to find someone else."

"Oh?"

Upon hearing this, Orochimaru revealed a mocking expression: "Is that really the reason? Or are you just too heartless to do it?"

"Nothing to do with you."

Naruto Uzumaki snorted and raised his hand to summon the Travel Gate: "I will handle Sasuke's matter myself. You don't need to interfere."

After saying that, he stepped into the portal and disappeared.

"That's a really useful ability!"

Watching Naruto Uzumaki leave, Orochimaru sighed, "What a pity, it would have been great if it could have been made into an extraordinary tool."

The ability to travel anytime, anywhere is simply enviable.

When Sasuke arrived at Sunagakure, the scene before him shocked him.

It looked like a huge crater left after a bombing, with countless building debris piled up, and even the windbreak wall used to protect against the sand had a huge gap blasted out!

This shows just how brutal the battle that broke out that day was!

Sasuke arrived quickly and, with the help of ninjas sent by Sunagakure, he encountered Kakashi's team, who were acting as the vanguard.

"Sasuke, is that you?"

Sakura Haruno was quite surprised; she never expected to see her teammates, whom she hadn't seen for two years, here.

“That’s right, it’s me, Sakura, Kakashi-sensei.” Sasuke looked at the person opposite him, a sense of familiarity welled up inside him, and a bright smile appeared on his face: “Neji, Tenten, it’s been a long time.”

"What are you doing here? Where is Lord Jiraiya?"

Kakashi was a little confused; how could Sasuke suddenly appear in Sunagakure?

"On the afternoon you left, Jiraiya and I returned to Konoha," Sasuke explained the whole story.

"I see. So it was the Hokage who sent you to support us."

After figuring out the reason, Kakashi stared at her strangely: "But, where's Kai? Shouldn't he have come with you?"

Sasuke looked slightly embarrassed when this was mentioned, and touched the tip of his nose: "Uh, actually I was too fast. Guy and the others were still resting, and I arrived ahead of time."

"If we're going to catch up, let's do it on the road."

Just then, an old woman with white hair suddenly interrupted them: "The fate of the Fifth Kazekage is unknown, we should hurry up."

"Excuse me, Lady Chiyo."

Kakashi offered a slight apology, then turned to Sasuke: "Sasuke, you've just arrived in Sunagakure. Take a couple of days to rest. We still need to track down the Aurora Society."

"Wait, I'll go with you too!" Sasuke volunteered. "This little bit of exertion is nothing, so please don't worry about me."

At this moment, Kakashi took a closer look at his 'disciple'. Although he was covered in dust, he was in good spirits and showed no signs of fatigue.

"It seems you've really improved a lot in the last two years." He felt a little ashamed. When he took over Team 7, it happened to be the time when White Zetsu was impersonating the Third Hokage, and he had hardly taught Sasuke. Now that he could grow under Jiraiya's guidance, he felt very gratified.

Sasuke seemed to have seen through his thoughts, lowered his voice and said softly, "Kakashi-sensei, I already know about that matter, so you don't need to blame yourself too much."

"Lord Jiraiya, did he tell you?" Kakashi was slightly taken aback, but then seemed to realize something: "I see. It seems that Lord Jiraiya has acknowledged your power."

The two exchanged a glance and smiled knowingly.

"Okay, then follow me."

Kakashi no longer hesitated, gathered the team members, and followed Chiyo's footsteps.

"Have you found any trace of the Aurora Society?" Sasuke asked.

"Well, Sasuke, you don't know, but after Gaara was kidnapped, Kankuro immediately gave chase." Sakura quickly filled in the gaps in Sasuke's knowledge: "Later, Kankuro was quickly defeated, but he tore a piece of cloth from his enemy."

As they were talking, Kakashi had already summoned his ninja beast, a Pekingese dog. "Pakkun, lead us to this guy."

“Don’t underestimate Pakkun~” Sakura whispered affectionately in Sasuke’s ear, “Pakkun is an extremely powerful ninja dog with an amazing sense of smell. He can track down enemies with just a faint scent.”

"follow me!"

Parker sniffed for two seconds, then quickly darted away.

"Follow!"

Kakashi's team, along with Chiyo, the senior advisor sent by the Sand Village, followed Pakkun towards the Land of Rivers.

Meanwhile, inside a cave within the territory of the land of rivers.

Itachi Uchiha sat in his chair, scrutinizing the shadowy humanoid creature before him with amusement: "We've captured Gaara, the one you wanted. What's next, Black Zetsu?"

Yes, that shadowy humanoid creature was none other than the long-lost Black Zetsu.

After several setbacks, he had no choice but to approach the Aurora Society, intending to cooperate deeply. He used the power of the 'Divine Tree Fruit' as an incentive and successfully persuaded the Aurora Society to join the plan.

"Next, we need to figure out how to separate the tailed beasts."

Black Zetsu's gaze toward Itachi Uchiha was a mixture of caution and fear.

Itachi Uchiha was more terrifying than Muneki Uchiha, Obito Uchiha, and Madara Uchiha. This guy was unpredictable and clearly had mental problems.

"How do we remove the Tailed Beast?"

Uchiha Itachi remained seated, scrutinizing Black Zetsu with great interest.

"Under normal circumstances, if you have the Rinnegan, it won't be too much trouble."

Black Zetsu said with a headache, "But now that we don't have the Rinnegan, we can only try to forcibly summon the Gedo Mazo and then extract the Tailed Beast from the Jinchuriki's body."

"How to summon?"

Uchiha Itachi asked.

"Just leave this to me."

Black Zetsu grinned and said, "Without the Rinnegan, it's just a little more troublesome. Give me about ten hours."

Ten hours.

Itachi Uchiha tapped the armrest lightly with his index finger, his eyes flickering slightly: "The people of Konoha seem to have found us. It looks like we need to buy some time. What do you think?"

Black Zetsu bowed respectfully: "It's alright, leave the people of Konoha to me."

"Oh?"

Itachi Uchiha glanced at Black Zetsu with amusement.

"Chess pieces? I have plenty of those," Black Zetsu explained with a smile.

As they were speaking, another figure appeared.

Looking at the figure that had just appeared, Black Zetsu's lips curled up to his ears, and he let out a chilling smile: "Then, it's up to you. Go and stop them."

"Yes."

After nodding in agreement, the figure disappeared into the cave.

The Konoha people, who had just arrived in the Land of Rivers, bumped into a man in black.

"Are they enemy reinforcements?"

Kakashi abruptly stopped, staring at the mysterious man in black before him, and secretly became more vigilant: "Be careful, we absolutely cannot be careless before we figure out this guy's abilities."

"Is this... the Aurora Borealis?!"

Seeing her enemy right in front of her, Chiyo couldn't control her anger and tore open the scroll.

Two puppets appeared, radiating a fierce aura, and pounced on the man in black.

"Leave the task of gathering intelligence to this old man." Chiyo, once the strongest puppeteer, possessed unparalleled skill in manipulating puppets. Two seemingly ordinary puppets displayed a level of agility far exceeding that of ninjas, attacking the man in black from both sides.

"Using puppets to probe the enemy's capabilities?"

Upon seeing this, Sasuke narrowed his eyes slightly, and three tomoe quietly appeared.

However, just as the two puppets approached the man in black and were about to swing their weapons to attack, black mist emanated from the man in black. The next moment, the two puppets were frozen in place, their limbs and joints severely corroded, and a piercing, screeching sound came from them.

"That's... iron shot?!"

With the help of his Sharingan, Sasuke immediately saw through the truth behind the black mist.

The next instant, the black mist suddenly condensed into a solid shape, like a pitch-black iron pillar, dragging a terrifying shockwave as it crashed into the Konoha team.

Just then, Sasuke took a step forward and clenched his fist.

Boom! ! !
The clang of metal striking metal created shockwaves that swept across a radius of dozens of meters.

Sasuke's punch sent the iron pillar flying, its power so terrifying that even Kakashi and Sakura were stunned.

"Tsunade's monstrous strength?" Chiyo recognized it at a glance; Sasuke was using the same monstrous fist technique that her 'enemy,' Tsunade, used.

After blasting the iron pillar away, Sasuke landed again and said in a deep voice, "Be careful, that guy can control iron sand, he's troublesome!"

"Iron sand, iron sand!" Chiyo's expression was complicated as she looked at the man in black. Disbelief appeared on her aged face. "In my memory, the only ninjutsu that can use iron sand is the Magnet Release of the Third Kazekage of Sunagakure."

"The Third Kazekage?!"

As soon as these words came out, everyone was shocked.

"Is it you? The Third Kazekage?"

Chiyo walked shakily toward the man in black, her eyes red-rimmed, still unable to believe it.

However, the man in black removed his hood, revealing a face that Chiyo knew all too well—it was the Third Kazekage of Sunagakure, still looking just as young as he did back then.

"It's been a long time, Chiyo."

The Third Kazekage gazed at the aged Chiyo, a hint of reminiscence flashing in his eyes: "I never imagined that Chiyo, the desert flower who once vied with me for power, would turn into this."

"Why...why are you helping the Aurora Society?!"

Chiyo's eyes blazed with fury, which she forcefully suppressed: "Do you even know that Aurora Society kidnapped the Fifth Kazekage?!"

Is this what you wanted to say?

The Third Kazekage chuckled, a mocking glint in his eyes: "If that's the case, I would have known long ago."

"So, you're helping the Aurora Society willingly?" Chiyo asked through gritted teeth.

“You understand nothing, Chiyo.”

Iron sand swirled around the Third Kazekage, his eyes blazing with killing intent: "The Aurora Gathering is the hope of the ninja world. For that future, even sacrificing a small number of people is worthwhile!"

(End of this chapter)