Alone and Infinite.

Chapter 268 Turning one's hand to make clouds and rain
Kai only paused for a moment before quickly suppressing his strange reaction.

The owner of the music store thought this young apprentice was naive and had never seen much of the world.

It urged me on without my having to:

"What are you waiting for? Hurry up and bring it over!"

"Oh, okay, boss."

Kai lowered her head and ran back to her cubicle in a fluster.

"Sir, he's always been clumsy, and there's a lot of stuff. Should I just deliver it to your residence later?"

The boss solicitously took out a cigarette.

Li Xia waved her hand: "No need, I can take it myself."

I definitely can't accept the cigarette, since there are no cigarettes on the moon.

When Li Xia went out, she had a rather large portable music player in her hand.

He truly hadn't expected that the Naruto series would now have Walkmans.

It was quite strange, though. There was a TV, a radio, a movie theater, and even a strange-looking computer in Orochimaru's underground base.

However, we didn't see any firearms or vehicles, which just makes the tech tree seem particularly strange.

"Boss, that young man—"

"Yes, I saw it, but it's not certain. We've done everything we can, so let's continue with the original plan."

We've seen everything we wanted to see today, let's head back now.

Li Xia put the large earphones of his Walkman into his ears, and the hissing noise from the cassette tapes flowed out.

He didn't know whether it would work out or not, but just as he had told Aowu before.

Do your best, but don't force it.

As the sun set, Li Xia walked away, bathed in the afterglow of the sunset.

Kai, as usual, mopped the floor of the music store.

He carefully placed the cassette tape back into the shelf, and only breathed a sigh of relief when the roller shutter door was pulled down.

They crawled back into the small cubicle that combined the warehouse and bedroom.

Kai lay on the bed, his brows furrowed tightly.

Recalling what I saw this afternoon, it still feels somewhat unbelievable.

Impossible, Xia—wasn't he already dead?

They look exactly alike!
As a member of the Cloud Hidden's elite dark unit squad, Kai belongs to a special organization.

They are specifically responsible for infiltrating enemy ninja villages, and barring special circumstances, they may even spend most of their lives there.

Kai compared the faces he had seen that afternoon with those in his memory.

Apart from those white pupils, they are exactly the same in every detail.

If it really is Xia, why would he roll his eyes?
After much deliberation, Kai made up his mind and took a blank cassette tape out of the container.

Then he took out some strange-looking instruments from the cabinet next to him.

As he inserted the tape into the machine, Kai's hands moved swiftly, forming hand seals, and a faint spark of electricity emanated from his right palm.

Kai placed his right hand on the instrument, controlling the burner with a slight tremor.

After a long while, he finally let go, his forehead covered in sweat, and wiped the sweat from his brow.

He chuckled self-deprecatingly. He had been infiltrating Konoha for a year, and had been mostly silent.

Even the engraving technique is somewhat rusty.

After doing all this, Kai lay in bed and forced herself to fall asleep quickly.

The next morning, as usual, he put the damaged tapes along with the list of people to be restocked into his backpack.

He boarded the vehicle bound for a major city in the Land of Fire, and the ninja guarding the gate greeted him.

"Hey, Kai! Going to restock again? If there's a new album, can you get me a box too!"

"Okay, I'll definitely remember!"

Kai smiled, waved, and agreed.

Novel gadgets like Walkmans, televisions, and movies all originated from the major cities of the Land of Fire.

If we want to restock, we can only go there.

After trying various modes of transportation for quite a while, Kai finally boarded the airship. He let out a long breath and cursed Konoha inwardly with disgust.

Technological innovation had already begun in his hometown of Kumogakure, with steamships and various other machines powered by electricity.

Apart from some household appliances, there was nothing else to be seen in Konoha.

Just wait, Kumogakure will rise to power and become the dominant ninja village in this world!
"As usual, this is an order that needs restocking—"

Kai, looking travel-worn, didn't even have time to drink some water. After handing the order to the distributor, he took off his backpack.

He pushed it over: "These are damaged and faulty tapes. I'm not kidding, but you have way too many defective products here."

The bald boss took the receipt, glanced casually at the cassette tapes in his backpack, and his eyes were immediately drawn to one of them.

It was a rap album, and also a signal of a preordained agreement.

The bald boss took the backpack and nodded to Kai:

"it is good."

Kai felt as if a heavy burden had been lifted from her heart, and she suddenly felt much lighter.

Soon, this special tape was mixed in with the other tapes and sent to Kumogakure.

That night, the tape was picked up by a hand and inserted into a special device belonging to the Hidden Cloud Village's secret service.

[Executioner, you have successfully exposed his hidden identity: Special Jonin of the Shadow Squad, a special assassination unit from Kumogakure]

[Executioner, you currently hold three identities: Hyuga main branch, Konoha Anbu Special Jonin, and Kumogakure Anbu Special Jonin]

[Under investigation]

Li Xia was suddenly awakened from her sleep, only to see a large number of prompts refreshing on the panel in front of her.

He felt an overwhelming surge of excitement. The gains were secondary; he simply loved the feeling, the sense of unraveling the mystery himself.

Awoo opened his sleepy eyes:
"What's wrong, boss—"

The panel was shared directly with Aowu, and Xiaolong immediately perked up, staring in disbelief at the prompt above:
"Boss, it really worked!"

The man and the dragon lay on the bed, intently staring at the prompts on the panel.

[It has been determined that the Special Jonin of the Hidden Cloud Village's Anbu is affected by the 'Dragon Hunter' title.]

[This identity is currently not disclosed. According to the supplementary regulations of the Temple, the legitimate income of an Apostle should be protected.]

[Executioner: This role will not participate in the first round of main quest settlement.]

[Executioner, background information on this identity is about to be transmitted. The character's perception in the storyline has been adjusted accordingly.]

"That's it? It's gone?"

Awoo eagerly awaits the next developments, wondering if there will be any special gains.

Li Xia had already closed her eyes, and at that moment a stream of information was flooding into her brain.

These information flows are completely different from his own thought processes and memories; they are more like a very advanced way of reading.

This means storing what you need to read directly in your mind so you can access it anytime.

The amount of information transmitted from the Hall of Light was not much; with his current brain hardware configuration, he was able to read it through in just a few dozen seconds.

"That's enough."

Li Xia opened his eyes and whispered in the team channel:

"The title provides an identity and cost that is based on a higher starting point for you. It can only be said that it saves some time in the early stages."

To reap the rewards, you still need to work hard yourself.

The meaning of "Hall of Light" is actually quite clear.

Li Xia paused for a moment: "I've given you the opportunity, whether you can seize it or not is another matter."

He patted Aowu's head, seemingly becoming more relaxed. "Go to sleep, just wait."

Li Xia sent a complete message to Heitan for the first time through the team channel:
"Have Orochimaru find an opportunity to contact me."

"Meow!"

In the remaining days, Li Xia continued to visit most of the shops in Konoha as planned.

If the plan is interrupted because the hidden identity has been successfully activated, it is very likely to attract the attention of those with ulterior motives.

In particular, he had met Nara Shikaku before, and the other party's undisguised curiosity and interest at the time was practically an open secret.

Curiosity is a duty to protect Konoha, but expressing it directly is to give face to the Hyuga clan.

Put together, it means, "I think there's something wrong with you, but for the sake of the Hyuga clan, I won't pursue this for now, and you shouldn't try to cause trouble."

Or they could sit under the shade of a tree in the training field, listen to music with headphones on, and watch Hyuga Neji and Hyuga Hinata train.

After finishing practice, he took the two little ones out to eat and drink to their hearts' content, doing whatever they wanted.

So every day, Li Xia and her two children could be seen on this street; Konoha Village was very small.

Through Hinata and Neji's introduction, the other twelve Konoha 12 and their teachers gradually learned about him.

It seemed that this peaceful life would continue indefinitely.

It wasn't until Li Xia encountered a genin named 'Kabuto' in a tavern that things changed.

"Speak up, what is it? I'm busy!"

Orochimaru's hoarse voice, tinged with impatience, came from the mouth of the small snake in Li Xia's hand.

"Of course there is something!"

Li Xia completely ignored Orochimaru's 'disdain':
"I plan to contact the Hidden Cloud Village and inform them of this plan."

Orochimaru's voice suddenly turned cold and angry:
"I refuse! If you do that, all our deals will be canceled!"
That cat's life... You'll never see that cat again!

"hehe--"

Li Xia let out two cryptic laughs:

"With your Sound Ninja and Sand Ninja, you can at most make Konoha feel a little pain."

The Chunin Exams are only so big; how many Sand Village ninja can send? A hundred at most.

With over a hundred people, anyone in Konoha who isn't an idiot would realize something was wrong with the Sand Village ninja!

Shifting her body to a more relaxed posture, Li Xia continued her deception:

"Orochimaru, don't you understand? Konoha needs pain that penetrates to the very marrow of its bones to make this windmill, bound by parasitic vines, start turning again."

Not cutting the vines, or even just cutting one vine, is far from enough.

To convince Orochimaru, the mad scientist needs to see more rewards.

And you must understand Orochimaru's purpose; Orochimaru never intended to destroy Konoha.

Li Xia even suspected that Orochimaru's love for Konoha was exceptionally deep.

The little snake closed its mouth and fell into a long silence.

Li Xia didn't stop and continued to say, "We don't necessarily need to tell them everything."

We don't even need to ally with the Hidden Cloud Village; just convincing them that such a plan truly exists is enough.

They'll come by the scent themselves.

Furthermore, we must control the time variable and absolutely not let Yunyin know about this plan too early.

Otherwise, they would have enough time to gather their strength and could potentially cripple Konoha.

They must be involved to cause disruption.

After another long silence, the little snake finally opened its mouth and asked in a sinister tone:

"You have connections with Yunyin?"

Li Xia scoffed: "Orochimaru, as Danzo's partner, surely you know what happened when Konoha and Kumogakure signed the ceasefire agreement?"

The elder who held great power in the Hidden Cloud Village was framed and killed by the Hyuga clan. The Hyuga clan was forced to give up their lives in retribution.

This life belongs to Hyuga Hizashi, the twin brother of Hyuga Hiashi and father of Neji.

He impersonated his older brother and became a scapegoat in the name of the Hyuga family head.

Konoha won that incident, and the Third Hokage and Danzo achieved their goal of putting the Hyuga in a bad light.

The Raikage won. After this elder's death, no one could oppose him and seize power.

Who lost? It was Hyuga, who swallowed his pride and suffered the consequences.

The little snake fell silent once again, and Orochimaru, of course, knew about this.

Even within Konoha's core management team, this was something that everyone had worked together to bring about.

Therefore, Hyuga and Kumogakure have an old feud. Anyone might have connections with Kumogakure, but Hyuga would not.

In this era, shame and rumors could even drive renowned ninjas to suicide.

Even a ninja like Konoha's White Fang died by the blade of "human words".

To be forced to death the 'clan chief,' even if he was only the nominal 'clan chief,' is a blatant humiliation.

"Okay. What do you need?"

Orochimaru finally admitted that Li Xia's words made a lot of sense, and that it was only natural.

According to the original plan, Konoha would at most lose some cannon fodder plus the Third Hokage.

Could it be considered a big event?

Could the Hall of Light recognize Li Xia as someone capable of "causing trouble and accomplishing great things"?
Far from enough.

"Do I need to teach you how to fabricate evidence? You're an expert in this area."

There was one more thing Li Xia didn't say: after obtaining evidence against Orochimaru, he would add a point.

That is, Gaara of Sandstorm is the Jinchuriki of the One-Tailed Beast and is about to participate in the Chunin Exams.

Once this news is confirmed, Yunyin will be highly likely to believe it.

They have the perfect Jinchūriki, Killer Bee, the Eight-Tails.

No one knows the strength of Jinchuriki better than them; Jinchuriki don't even need to participate in the Chunin Exams.

This terrifying weapon of war was sent to another country under an unnecessary pretext, in conjunction with the 'Konoha Crush Plan'.

The purpose is self-evident: intrusion!

"Oh, right—" Li Xia added at the end, "In order to prevent Konoha from taking advantage of the situation during its painful period, Iwagakure should seize the opportunity."

How about we give them something to do?

For example, could they hire Akatsuki to carry out several attacks in the capital of the Land of Earth, creating panic?

Orochimaru, standing on the other side of the snake, fell completely silent. What was originally a simple plan to destroy Konoha had now involved the four great nations of Fire, Wind, Earth, and Lightning.

But he had to admit that Li Xia was right.

Among the major powers, only Iwagakure is strong enough and is close to the Land of Fire.

If they really go all out, Konoha, which has just been attacked, might not be able to withstand it.

Awoo watched as Li Xia continued to discuss the details with Orochimaru.

I couldn't help but be swayed by the boss's words.

Turn your hand and clouds will appear, turn your hand again and rain will fall!

With the leader's help, a chaotic war that would soon engulf the entire ninja world was about to begin.

Four of the five major powers are involved.

The only remaining water kingdom is running rampant around the world like a mad dog, searching for the 'culprit who wiped out the village'.

Is this the genius of causing trouble?
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1. Monthly pass 2. Recommendation vote

Today's average daily value: 1640
Writing it logically and coherently is giving me a headache; the layout is a real pain.

However, this approach should be feasible.
(End of this chapter)