Konoha's Hextech Ninja

But this bizarre scene made him widen his eyes in surprise.

In that instant, Yagami Yoruichi had already punched the Root ninja in the head.

Strange power!

The chakra exploded the moment the fist struck, and the terrifying power instantly pierced through the Root ninja's brain, shattering his skull.

The shockwave from the punch sent the Root ninja's corpse flying, crashing into the wall and causing cracks to appear.

[Defeat an enemy hero to earn 200 gold.]

Upon seeing the pop-up system notification, Yagami Yoruichi was momentarily stunned.

Last time, I killed several Root ninjas, but I didn't get a single gold coin.

Clearly, those Root ninjas were not identified as 'enemy units' by the system.

But why was this time, another Root ninja judged as an 'enemy hero' and given 200 gold coins?!

Two hundred gold coins significantly boosted Yoruichi Yagami's progress in crafting the next piece of equipment!

If you kill ten more enemy heroes, you'll have enough gold for the Rift Maker!

In an instant, surprise and confusion intertwined in Yagami Yoruichi's mind.

It wasn't until another Root ninja appeared in the corner of her eye that Yagami Yoruichi snapped out of her daze and quickly turned her attention back to the battle at hand.

Chapter 115 Nara Shikaku's Gradual Intellectualization

"Ninja Technique - Super Beast Fake Painting!"

"Secret Technique - Insect Jewel!"

"Secret Technique - Shadow Binding Technique!"

One after another, ninjutsu and secret techniques, accompanied by a large number of kunai, shuriken, and explosive tags, attacked Yagami Yoruichi.

The Root ninjas didn't care whether it would affect the civilians in the capital; they only wanted to kill Yagami Yoruichi as soon as possible to silence him.

Yoruichi Yagami couldn't even think about why the system suddenly identified the Root ninjas as 'enemies'; she focused all her attention on the battle.

Orochimaru and his subordinates did not make a move; Yoruichi Yagami only had to face the Root ninjas.

The strength of this group of Root ninjas is not particularly strong. Most of them are at the Chunin level, with only a few reaching the level of Jonin or Special Jonin.

However, their methods are endless, and many of them are unique family secrets of the ninja clan.

Moreover, Yagami Yoruichi is, after all, just a shadow clone. Although her combat power is not much weaker than that of the main body, due to the characteristics of a shadow clone, she must do her best to dodge some attacks that the main body can ignore, and cannot suffer any damage.

This limitation made Yoruichi Yagami somewhat hesitant in battle.

After a brief stalemate, and having killed seven or eight Root ninjas, Yagami Yoruichi was bitten on the skin by a parasitic insect from the Aburame clan due to her carelessness, and her shadow clone vanished with a bang.

"Shadow clone?"

"Or did they escape?"

The six remaining Root ninjas surrounded the spot where Yagami Yoruichi's clone had disappeared, remaining silent for a long time.

Such a commotion was already known to the higher-ups in the land of rivers.

An army surrounded the battlefield from a distance, but dared not approach.

In the face of ninjas, these armies made up of ordinary people are nothing more than cannon fodder.

Only those who are equally skilled in martial arts, such as slapping and tearing, are truly capable. Most samurai only possess taijutsu abilities at the level of a genin (lower-ranking ninja).

Without orders from higher command, these troops were unwilling to go forward to their deaths, but they also dared not let the 'enemy' leave, so they could only surround them from a distance.

The Root ninjas, however, acted as if they hadn't seen them at all, waiting in place for something.

After a while, suddenly, a messenger rushed in with orders from the new daimyo of the River Province, and dispersed the army.

The Root ninjas had already collected their comrades' bodies and cleaned up any traces of battle that could reveal their identities, and then disappeared without a trace.

……

At a border post somewhere in the Land of Fire.

When Yagami Yoruichi received the memories transmitted by his shadow clone, he couldn't help but frown.

"Are Root and Orochimaru... cooperating to investigate intelligence in the Land of Rivers? Or are the affairs of the Land of Rivers originally related to them?"

As Yagami Yoruichi pondered, the memories transmitted by his shadow clones were mostly scenes of battle, with little truly useful information.

But whatever the purpose of the Root ninjas' appearance in the Land of Rivers, Yagami Yoruichi is very interested in sabotaging whatever the enemy wants to do.

Moreover, killing a Root ninja will earn you 200 gold coins, greatly accelerating the accumulation of equipment.

This also greatly benefits Yoruichi Yagami.

As for whether Konoha Village's interests will be harmed as a result?

Yoruichi Yagami didn't care at all.

To put it bluntly, the current Konoha leadership is all from the Third Hokage's faction, led by Hiruzen Sarutobi.

If there are to be losses, their interests will be affected first.

Once she has enough strength to oust Hiruzen Sarutobi and other high-ranking Konoha officials, and she or someone she approves of becomes the ruler of Konoha, Yagami Yoruichi will then start to value the 'overall interests' of Konoha.

"My shadow clones were first controlled by the ninjutsu of the Yamanaka and Nara clans, and then dissipated by the secret technique of the Aburame clan. In other words, among the Root ninjas who are still alive, there are at least ninjas from these three clans, and they are all Special Jonin or above."

Yoruichi Yagami analyzed the information she currently possessed: "There is also a Jonin who has mastered 'Ninjutsu - Super Beast Imitation Art', and a Jonin who is skilled in swordsmanship and fire release techniques."

"The rest aren't particularly strong. Of course, it's possible some are hiding their true strength. Root was all trained by Danzo, so it's normal for a few cunning old foxes to be there..."

"If Orochimaru doesn't intervene, my Shadow Clones are theoretically strong enough to deal with these Root ninjas. However, the nature of Shadow Clones doesn't allow for any mistakes. Also, in order to avoid revealing my identity, I can't use techniques like Rasengan or Super Strength, nor can I use Tobirama Senju's Water Release. I can only use the basic Five Elements Ninjutsu, which will limit my effectiveness."

"However, as long as we can disrupt Root's plan and kill a few more Root ninjas, it doesn't matter if we lose some chakra. They're just shadow clones anyway."

"But if Orochimaru makes a move, my shadow clones probably won't last long. I hope Orochimaru won't personally intervene, otherwise I'll have to give up."

As Yagami Yoruichi pondered, he quickly made a decision: to continuously use shadow clones to infiltrate and attack the capital of the Land of Rivers, thus disrupting Root's plans.

The shadow clone's memories had just been transmitted back, and now he was at the border outpost, surrounded not only by his three teammates, Ino-Shika-Cho, but also by the ninja squad stationed at the outpost.

Creating a shadow clone would be easily detected, so Yoruichi Yagami didn't rush to make a move.

I opened the system panel and glanced at my gold coin balance; it had reached over 1800 gold coins.

We are still 1300 gold coins away from the 3100 needed to synthesize the [Rift Creator], which means we need to kill seven more Root ninjas to reach the required amount.

Once the synthesis is complete, your panel stats will increase significantly.

"Why were those Root ninjas not considered enemies when they encountered an attack by Root during the previous bandit suppression mission, but they were considered enemies this time?"

"The system's judgment rules shouldn't change. The only change is that the root was disbanded after the last root attack. Could it be because of its 'identity'?"

"If you have the identity of a Konoha ninja, you won't be considered an enemy. But if you don't have that identity, you're considered an enemy?"

"But the Root ninjas didn't join any other ninja villages. So, the determination of 'hero units' isn't based on 'organization,' but on strength? If the strength meets the standard, the system will determine them as 'heroes,' instead of having to be official ninjas from an enemy village as I previously guessed?"

Many speculations arose in Yagami Yoruichi's mind.

These speculations can only be verified one by one in the future.

……

The next day, the team left the outpost and continued their patrol duties.

Midway through, Yagami Yoruichi seized an opportunity to create three shadow clones and quietly leave.

Yamanaka Inoichi sensed that Yagami Yoruichi's chakra had suddenly decreased, and couldn't help but glance at Yagami Yoruichi.

But he wisely chose to remain still and not reveal his findings.

Instead, during his next break, he quietly approached Nara Shikaku and told him what he had discovered.

"Is that so? It seems our younger generation is quite the restless one."

Nara Shikaku frowned, his mind racing, wondering if this was Yagami Yoruichi's own decision or Tsunade's instruction.

If it's the former, does Yagami Yoruichi have some kind of collusion with forces outside the village, and is passing on information about the village to the enemy?

If it's the latter, would our rash actions ruin Tsunade's plans?

Two possibilities correspond to two completely different choices.

Nara Shikaku recalled Tsunade's instructions when she approached him, asking him to add someone to his team.

"Take good care of Yagami Yoruichi? Is that an implication that I shouldn't meddle?"

Smart people tend to overthink, and Nara Shikaku's thinking began to become more like Tsunade's, developing in the direction of her wanting to compete for power with Mitokado Homura.

After much deliberation, Nara Shikaku's conservative nature prevailed, and he said to Yamanaka Inoichi, "Inoichi, pretend you don't know anything about this, but keep an eye on Yagami Yoruichi. Don't be too obvious, and don't let him find out."

"Not reporting to the commander-in-chief?" Yamanaka Inoichi asked in surprise. "If he's a spy, and he's passing information out..."

"Trust Tsunade's judgment. The power struggles at the top are none of our business; don't get involved."

Nara Shikaku stopped Yamanaka Inoichi from continuing: "Of course, we must keep a close eye on him. If he really does something detrimental to the village, we must stop him."

The Ino-Shika-Cho clan has managed to maintain a relatively safe position while remaining close to the core of high-level power amidst countless upheavals in Konoha Village, all thanks to their 'sensible' nature.

They would support whoever became Hokage.

Aside from direct orders from the Hokage, I will not participate in any events that may involve high-level power struggles.

Of course, under the orders of the Hokage's assistant, sending a few children to Shimura Danzo for brainwashing training was something that had no other choice.

Nara Shikaku couldn't accurately determine Yoruichi Yagami's purpose in her unusual behavior this time, but as long as there was a possibility of high-level power struggles, he would simply choose to pretend he didn't see it.

If Mitokado and Tsunade were to really fight...

"I hope things don't get out of hand. Honestly, I can't believe I'm running into this kind of trouble while doing a mission."

Nara Shikaku inwardly grumbled, but outwardly pretended nothing had happened, carefully cleaning up the traces of the group's camping and urging the team to continue their journey.

……

With the help of the soldier pills, Yagami Yoruichi's chakra was quickly restored.

In that short time, Yagami Yoruichi's three shadow clones had already crossed the border and entered the territory of the Land of Rivers.

To deal with Root ninjas, you don't need to be too strong; quantity is more important.

Three shadow clones, each with 8,000 chakra points, are far more effective than a single shadow clone with over 20,000 chakra points.

The tolerance for errors also needs to be higher.

In the previous battle, Yagami Yoruichi keenly realized that he lacked combat experience when fighting ninjas.

With more combat experience, shadow clones wouldn't be so easily controlled by Root ninjas.

This deficiency can be completely compensated for by creating more shadow clones.

Of course, the strength of the Root ninjas is undeniable. If the shadow clones have too little chakra or are too weak, they won't be of much use.

Three shadow clones, just right.

"First, scout out the Root ninjas' target. If they're discovered, then we'll start the war!"

Yagami Yoruichi's three shadow clones infiltrated the capital of the Land of Rivers and immediately began their operation.

Chapter 116 [Rift Creator], Five Divine Armor!

[Defeat an enemy hero to earn 200 gold.]

Kill the Super Soldier to earn 90 gold coins.

A series of system prompts appeared.

The memories of the shadow clone are transmitted back to the original body.

It took Yagami Yoruichi four attacks to wipe out the Root ninja in the capital of the Land of Rivers. At the same time, he also discovered an unusual piece of information: the new daimyo of the Land of Rivers seemed to have been colluding with the Root ninja all along.

Considering the mission briefing before this expedition, which mentioned the internal strife in the Land of Rivers, it's not hard to guess that Root was behind it all.

The number of ninjas in the capital of the Land of Rivers is not large; most of them are Root ninjas.

Even among the samurai with chakra, there were only two or three kittens.

It seems that too many people were lost in the last internal strife.