Starting as the mastermind behind Naruto

Chapter 210 Go find the one who joined the battle to reclaim the Wind Shadow! (Fourth update! Thank you to the great Gongzi Qianji!)

The village of Sunagakure was filled with cries of despair.

After circling the village of Sunagakure once, the ancient dragon in the sky slowly hovered above the village, a sight that made everyone in Sunagakure tense.

Does the Akatsuki intend to completely annihilate Sunagakure?

However, it seems that the members of Akatsuki do not intend to do so.

Uehara Naraku stood atop the ancient dragon's head, pulled down his hood, and looked down at the miserable state of the Sand Village ninja on the ground. He spoke in a deep voice, "Hey, you Sand Village people, can you still breathe?"

"What else do you want to do?"

Granny Chiyo gritted her teeth as she stared at the culprit who had destroyed Sunagakure. If she could, she would rush up and kill that guy right now!

However, the reality is that provoking the enemy under these circumstances is clearly an unwise move. If the enemy were to launch another attack like before, Sunagakure would almost certainly be destroyed.

"Be more gentle!"

Uehara Naraku continued slowly, "I just wanted to confirm that you wouldn't send people to kill us, would you? It seems that's not the case!"

After riding the ancient dragon around Sunagakure for a week, Uehara Naraku gave a loud whistle and then rode off on his own!

Uehara gained a great deal from capturing the Jinchūriki of the One-Tailed Beast.

In addition to the Dark Harvest, I also received another very powerful reward.

Side Quest: Successfully conquered Sunagakure (1/1). Quest complete. Reward: Passive Talent Skill - Wind Power.

Wind Power: Allows free manipulation of wind-attribute chakra, enabling the use of Wind Release ninjutsu at will, and is a component of Truth-Seeking Balls.

When Uehara Naraku left Sunagakure, he was in a good mood.

However, the people in Sunagakure must be in a very bad mood.

"asshole!"

Granny Chiyo watched the dragon disappear into the distance and clenched her fists.

The village was filled with wounded or dead ninjas, who had completely lost their ability to resist and could no longer pursue the ancient dragon.

After seeing the monster leave, Granny Chiyo and Ebizo hurriedly directed the remaining Anbu members to organize a ninja rescue.

She even personally took on the role of a medical ninja.

Even though Chiyo always advocated for Sunagakure to strengthen itself, under these circumstances, they certainly wouldn't be able to reclaim Gaara, and they couldn't even hold their ground.

The stubborn old man had no choice but to succumb to reality. While treating the village's wounded, Chiyo said, "Ebizo, let's ask Konoha for help!"

"…yes."

Ebizo slowly nodded.

Fortunately, his sister has come to realize the harsh reality.

Given the current state of Sunagakure, it would be extremely difficult to rescue the Kazekage from Akatsuki, let alone deal with an invasion from a neighboring country.

Without Konoha's support, if the Third Tsuchikage of Iwagakure, Onoki, were to invade, Sunagakure would essentially be doomed.

They might not even be able to handle an attack from the neighboring Amegakure village.

Fortunately, since the alliance between Konoha and Sunagakure, the two ninja villages have not had any further conflicts and have even carried out many collaborations, including a military alliance.

For example, Gaara, the Fifth Kazekage who was just kidnapped, has his sister Temari still in Sunagakure discussing with Konoha the possibility of continuing to jointly host the next Chunin Exams.

Furthermore, Konoha has been investigating Akatsuki's intelligence.

Therefore, when news of the attack on Sunagakure by the Akatsuki and the capture of the Fifth Kazekage Gaara by the Akatsuki reached Konoha, the Fifth Hokage Tsunade did not hesitate at all and immediately dispatched Team 3 and Team 7 to Sunagakure to provide support.

To be honest, Tsunade was a bit overconfident.

However, these two teams are probably the strongest teams in Konoha.

Kakashi Hatake of Team 7 has improved his strength, and Naruto Uzumaki's strength has also increased significantly after returning from his training, barely able to control the power of the Four-Tails; Sakura Haruno has also mastered the Hundred Healings Technique, and they have also added Sai, who can be described as an all-around ninja.

Might Guy of Team 3 is undoubtedly strong, possessing astonishing power within his body; Neji Hyuga has also successfully risen to the rank of Jonin in just a few years, and with the support of the clan leader Hinata Hyuga, he has even acquired many of the main clan's secret taijutsu techniques.

As for Rock Lee, perhaps because he had few injuries and trained extremely diligently, he had become Konoha's second "workaholic."

Rock Lee can now easily open the sixth gate of the Eight Gates Formation, and in extreme conditions, he can even open the seventh gate, the Gate of Shock. This strength is no less than that of most Jonin in Konoha.

If it were a life-or-death battle among the Konoha Twelve, without considering Naruto releasing the Nine-Tails, Rock Lee would still be the strongest of the Konoha Twelve.

Reality is always so amazing.

The two strongest players from the same cohort back then were a cheater and a hardcore grinder.

As for Tiantian from Class 3, she was just lucky; she didn't seem to have anything particularly special about her.

In addition to Team 3 and Team 7, Tsunade also dispatched a team of ANBU members, consisting of Yamato and Yugao Uzuki.

In Tsunade's opinion, this lineup was strong enough.

However, when these Konoha reinforcements arrived at Sunagakure, they were still stunned by the scene before them, and could not even imagine that this was Sunagakure after the Akatsuki's invasion.

The village of Sunagakure is in ruins.

The once peaceful village is no more. The outer defense line has been reduced to ruins, and the village is full of broken walls and rubble, with hardly any intact houses to be found.

The warehouse, which had been urgently repaired, was temporarily converted into a hospital by Chiyo and the others, because there were simply too many injured people and not enough medical ninjas.

The streets of Sunagakure were filled with bandaged wounded people.

No, strictly speaking, everyone was wearing bandages.

Grandma Chiyo didn't sleep for several days and nights. When she had chakra, she used medical ninjutsu. When she didn't have chakra, she forced herself to perform surgery, apply bandages, and put on splints.

Sakura Haruno's arrival was a great help. As Tsunade's disciple, her medical ninjutsu was far superior to that of most medical ninjas in Sunagakure.

"Was this all caused by Akira?"

Naruto Uzumaki stroked the dilapidated earthen wall outside the hospital, surveyed the ruined ninja village, and clenched his fist as he looked at the village filled with the wounded.

Kankuro, with his arms bound, walked to Naruto's side and nodded with a somber expression: "That's right. After the Akatsuki members captured Gaara, they used a monster they were raising to destroy Sunagakure."

Kakashi Hatake tugged at his headband and asked in a low voice, "Did they attack Sunagakure to capture the Kazekage, who is the Jinchuriki of the One-Tailed Beast?"

"That's how it looks right now."

Kankuro looked at Kakashi and nodded.

Matt Kai slammed his fist on the earthen wall, cursing coldly, "Those bastards! They actually want to destroy an entire village?!"

"No…"

Kankuro shook his head, his expression growing increasingly grim: "Based on our speculation, aside from capturing Gaara, their attack on Sunagakure was merely a side effect. Perhaps they were just treating the attack on Sunagakure as a game..."

Kankuro slowly raised his head, looked at his destroyed home, wiped away the tears that involuntarily streamed down his face, and continued, "Because on that day, four members of Akatsuki were riding a monster, and two of them did not make a move from beginning to end."

This is the most terrifying place.

The enemy acted casually, and even concealed at least half of their strength, yet Sunagakure was completely unable to resist.

"Four people..."

Kakashi Hatake rubbed his forehead and asked softly, "Besides Deidara and Sasori mentioned in your intelligence report, is there any information on the other two?"

"Not only do we have no intelligence, but no one even knows their true identities."

Kankuro shook his head and continued, "Perhaps it's because they don't need to take action, since that monster alone is beyond our ability to contend with."

After he finished speaking, Kankuro gave a detailed account of the battle that night.

The Konoha ninjas grew increasingly alarmed as they listened, especially after hearing that before leaving, the Akatsuki members had casually ordered the monster to drop a massive fireball that destroyed Sunagakure. Sweat dripped involuntarily from everyone's faces.

Sai felt breathless: "A major ninja village couldn't even withstand an attack from four members... Is this the strength of Akatsuki?"

"Um."

Kakashi Hatake nodded, stroking his headband, and said in a low voice, "I still remember the feeling of fighting those Akatsuki guys in the Land of Grass. I was almost completely powerless to resist, and they seemed to be enjoying a game..."

"..."

Tian Tian involuntarily shivered and stammered, "If the enemy is that strong, do we really have any chance of winning?"

"It's not impossible."

Kakashi Hatake lowered his head and said in a low voice, "At least we know one thing: the Akatsuki members left north. Perhaps we can follow them north, and we can also ask Amegakure for support and invite them to join us in fighting the Akatsuki."

Sai nodded in agreement, saying, "Captain Kakashi is right. Konoha and Amegakure have always had an agreement to combat the Akatsuki..."

"Um."

Kakashi Hatake chimed in, "A group of rogue ninja from Akatsuki once served under the ninja demigod Hanzo of the Salamander, but later betrayed him again. Amegakure has always hated these rogue ninja to the core, and they must have a lot of information about Akatsuki."

"Amegakure Village..."

Naruto Uzumaki stroked the destroyed earthen wall, recalling a kindly smiling person, which made him smile slightly as well: "Without further ado, let's go find Uehara Naraku right now! He should be quite strong by now!"

Perhaps it's because Naruto Uzumaki only remembers Naraku Uehara.

After all, Uehara Naraku was very kind when he was in Konoha. It's just a pity that he eventually assassinated the Third Hokage under pressure from Amegakure, which created some rift between him and Konoha.

Of course, Naruto Uzumaki didn't care about that.

He had long since forgiven Uehara Naraku for assassinating the Third Hokage.

To be honest, if Uehara Naraku hadn't assassinated the Third Hokage, Naruto Uzumaki himself wouldn't know how he would have stayed in Konoha.

After all, the common understanding in the ninja world now is that the Third Hokage was fighting for power behind the scenes, murdering the Fourth Hokage and his wife, and even trying to control the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki as a weapon of war for Konoha.

Naruto Uzumaki really didn't want to face Hiruzen Sarutobi.

Perhaps he will betray Konoha like Sasuke?

There's even a possibility that he might join Akatsuki?

Thanks to Uehara Naraku's assassination of the Third Hokage, Tsunade was able to succeed as the Fifth Hokage, allowing Naruto Uzumaki to continue staying in Konoha and rekindle his past bonds with his teachers and friends.

I wonder if Uehara Naraku will regret it...

Actually, if Hiruzen Sarutobi had been alive at that time, he would have had a very good chance of inducing Naruto Uzumaki to betray Konoha.

Of course, there's also the possibility of revealing a flaw.

Naruto Uzumaki suggested that someone be sent to Amegakure to find Naraku Uehara and ask him for help in the Kazekage recapture battle. This suggestion was quickly approved by most people.

After all, the Konoha ninja present could all understand Uehara Naraku's helplessness in the face of Amegakure's interests, and they had also enjoyed living with Uehara Naraku.

Only Kakashi Hatake, who had met Uehara Naraku later, sighed softly, recalling how Uehara Naraku refused to budge an inch for the sake of Amegakure's interests during the Allied Congress negotiations.

At that time, Uehara Naraku was almost unrecognizable.

As a ninja from a small or medium-sized ninja village, the pressure was perhaps too great, causing Uehara Naraku, who was originally very popular and able to maintain a childlike heart, to gradually put on the mask he hated most.

Kakashi Hatake still remembered Naraku Uehara's innocent appearance. He let out a long sigh and said, "Hopefully, that Uehara guy... won't change too quickly!"

Phew, extra chapter complete.

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(End of this chapter)