Starting as the mastermind behind Naruto

Chapter 275 Shocking! Uehara Naraku is actually a member of Akatsuki!

"Hey, you lecherous immortal, stop hitting my head!"

Naruto Uzumaki instinctively covered his head, and was about to mutter a few words with a displeased expression when he suddenly realized something.

"A lecherous immortal?"

Naruto Uzumaki froze on the spot, slowly raising his head to look at the tall, white-haired man beside him. The man's face, marked with red ink, still wore an unruly smile.

It was Jiraiya who had just returned to Konoha.

Naruto's tears slowly streamed down his face...

Jiraiya looked down at Naruto as he wiped away his tears, then couldn't resist placing his hand on Naruto's head, ruffling his hair, and chuckling as he said, "Naruto, have you forgotten what I told you? A real man never cries!"

"I don't care!"

Naruto suddenly threw himself into Jiraiya's arms.

At any other time, Naruto would have wiped away his tears long ago and stubbornly tried to prove to Jiraiya that he had become a qualified ninja.

Now, Naruto Uzumaki felt only relief, as if he had survived a disaster.

Jiraiya had never seen Naruto so timid before. He gently patted his disciple's head and said, "You're so disobedient... If I leave, who will take care of you, you brat!"

"...What is that?"

Naruto mumbled something, smelled a bloody odor, and felt something touch his palm, wetting it.

That was blood seeping from the wound.

Naruto glanced at Jiraiya, whose face showed pain, then his expression changed drastically as he turned to push open the door: "Hey, Granny Tsunade, that perverted sage..."

Click!

The entire door to the Hokage's office was removed.

Tsunade calmly tossed the door panel to the ground, and when she looked up and saw Jiraiya, she immediately breathed a sigh of relief.

"hey-hey…"

Jiraiya smiled and gestured to Tsunade to show her his wound: "Tell me about your confession later!"

"idiot…"

Tsunade didn't take Jiraiya's words to heart at all. She simply stretched out her palm, and a stream of green chakra attached itself to her palm and landed on Jiraiya.

The next moment, after Tsunade examined Jiraiya's body, her expression changed: "Kakashi, Naruto, get Jiraiya to the hospital immediately!"

"No, no..."

Jiraiya waved his hand to stop them, and said softly, "My injury is actually not serious. A simple treatment will suffice. Let's not waste too much time, because we don't have much time to begin with."

"No!"

"Hey, Tsunade."

Jiraiya looked at Tsunade with a serious expression and said softly, "Please heal me quickly! The Akatsuki know I'm not dead and will soon invade Konoha. We need to formulate a plan to deal with Akatsuki immediately..."

"…good."

Tsunade nodded sullenly.

As someone who had experienced many battles, Jiraiya was very aware of his injuries. At the beginning, his injuries were indeed very serious, but now only some external wounds remained.

Fukasaku, the hermit, also noticed their presence. He leaped onto Jiraiya's shoulder, his face beaming with joy: "Little Jiraiya, you're back!"

"Honestly, after all this time, your intelligence is still so unreliable!"

Jiraiya couldn't help but pick at his ear, then glanced speechlessly at Fukasaku: "Last time you sent me news of Nagato and Konan's deaths, and now you're sending them news of my death?"

"Uh...hehehehe."

A slightly embarrassed smile appeared on Fukasaku's face.

In the Hokage's office.

Jiraiya sat down in a chair, quickly tended to his wounds, and began to get down to business: "First of all, after entering Amegakure, the first piece of news I received was that Hanzo of the Salamander, whom we had been trying to invite, was already dead."

"Did Xiao do it?"

Tsunade frowned, her expression turning rather grim. She clearly thought that the Akatsuki had infiltrated Amegakure and ambushed Hanzo of the Salamander.

Tsunade looked up at Jiraiya and continued, "If Hanzo of the Salamander is dead, what about that brat Uehara Naraku? Was he killed too?"

"No."

Jiraiya shook his head, a solemn expression on his face: "According to the information I have, Uehara Naraku actually killed Hanzo of the Salamander eight years ago."

As Jiraiya finished speaking, he chuckled self-deprecatingly, "No matter what, we could never have imagined that Uehara Naraku, this Rain Village ninja who constantly boasted about being willing to give his life for Hanzo, had already hung Hanzo the Salamander up in Amegakure eight years ago!"

"What?"

A look of surprise appeared on everyone's face in the Hokage's office.

Even Kakashi Hatake stared wide-eyed in disbelief, while Naruto Uzumaki and Sakura Haruno also looked extremely surprised.

Because they all had good relationships with Uehara Naraku.

Therefore, Class 7 undoubtedly considers themselves to be the people who understand Uehara Naraku the most, and also Uehara Naraku's friends.

Kakashi Hatake slowly pulled at his headband and whispered, "If what Jiraiya-sama said is true, then Uehara Naraku has been hiding for eight years... Everything he said about being for Hanzo of the Salamander was a lie."

"etc!"

The next moment, a layer of sweat appeared on Kakashi Hatake's forehead: "If that's the case, then a few years ago, during the Chunin Exams, he also orchestrated the assassination attempt on the Third Hokage and Danzo Shimura himself? In other words, he was never our friend..."

Kakashi Hatake's expression really wasn't very pleasant.

Because whenever Kakashi Hatake recalls Naraku Uehara, he can't help but feel a pang of regret. After all, during the Chunin Exams, the despair and pain on Naraku's face, the madness of a small ninja village fighting for even the smallest advantage...

To be honest, it's a little heartbreaking.

After all, such a powerful and talented ninja, with a gentle and easy-going personality, went astray because of Hanzo the Salamander's orders.

Thinking about it now...

Kakashi Hatake suddenly felt incredibly embarrassed.

Damn it, even though Uehara Naraku had already chopped up Hanzo the Salamander, how did that guy manage to go crazy shouting Hanzo's name with such despair on his face?

At that time, everyone felt sorry for him.

Some Konoha ninja even disdainfully thought that Amegakure was so pathetic that they would attempt to assassinate their Third Hokage for such a small gain.

It's truly unbelievable that Uehara Naraku always viewed Konoha ninjas as clowns back then, wasn't it?

Jiraiya glanced at Kakashi Hatake, his expression hesitant, unsure of what to say.

But the truth still needs to be revealed.

"That's right, he's been lying to us all along."

Jiraiya rubbed his temples, recalling Konan and Uehara Naraku's words, and slowly shook his head and sighed, "How should I put it? The reason why Uehara Naraku assassinated the Third Hokage was actually to cover up the fact that he killed Shimura Danzo."

Presumably, fearing we would suspect Danzo Shimura of his disappearance, they forged an alliance agreement between Danzo Shimura and Amegakure. This would show that if Danzo Shimura were alive and took power, Amegakure would gain enormous benefits.

In this way, we will never suspect Amegakure or Uehara Naraku about the murder of Shimura Danzo.

"..."

The people present had different thoughts.

Everyone involuntarily lowered their heads.

Sai couldn't help but laugh self-deprecatingly: "I never expected this. We always thought others were clowns, but we ended up being made a fool of by that guy..."

"What's the reason?"

Kakashi Hatake abruptly looked up at Jiraiya and said in a deep voice, "What was the reason Uehara Naraku killed Shimura Danzo? It couldn't have been to steal Konoha's secrets, could it?"

"no."

Jiraiya looked slightly puzzled. He lowered his head and said, "Because Shimura Danzo, together with Hanzo of the Salamander, almost killed Uehara Naraku's teacher back then, he killed Shimura Danzo and gave his corpse as a gift to his teacher."

"..."

Everyone present was speechless.

However, this sounds perfectly reasonable.

Tsunade shook her head and sighed, saying softly, "That little guy back then was really respectful of his teacher! Seven or eight years ago, when I met him, that brat was just like that, as if he was repaying a favor to his teacher..."

Seven or eight years ago.

When Uehara Naraku landed in Yugakure, he encountered Tsunade. The two met twice and gambled twice. Uehara Naraku lost a lot of money to Tsunade. Later, he simply threw the money directly to Tsunade, saying that his teacher was very grateful for the favor he had done for her back then.

"hehe…"

Jiraiya smiled, rubbing his cheeks and eyes vigorously, and said in a low voice, "That's not wrong. After all, we stopped Orochimaru from killing them together back then, and you even gave them some dry bread..."

"Um?"

Tsunade looked up in surprise.

Jiraiya rubbed his temples, forcing himself to stay awake, and said, "Because Uehara Naraku's teacher is... Konan."

"Xiao Nan?"

A flicker of surprise crossed Tsunade's face, followed by utter shock. She stared at Jiraiya in disbelief: "Jiraiya, you mean... that brat Uehara Naraku... has connections with the Akatsuki?"

The information sent by Iwagakure to Konan is still on her desk!

If the relationship between Konan and Uehara Naraku is real, it's hard not to associate Uehara Naraku with the Akatsuki organization, and Uehara Naraku has always been an important member in the fight against Akatsuki.

"Yes, this is something we could never have guessed."

Jiraiya sat pale-faced in his chair, as if recalling the shock he felt when he first learned of this: "That brat Uehara Naraku was actually a member of Akatsuki all along, and he was even the next leader of the Akatsuki!"

(End of this chapter)