I, Naruto Uzumaki, don't need your approval.

Naruto shook his head slightly and said with a smile, "No, that's not it. I wonder if Mr. Orochimaru has any low-level ninjutsu scrolls or civilian ninjutsu? I plan to establish a ninja school in the Land of Waves for ordinary people."

Orochimaru was stunned for a moment, then spat out several storage scrolls from his mouth and looked at Naruto strangely.

He had seen many ninjas who wanted to rule the world, and he had also seen many other madmen and geniuses, but this was the first time he had seen a ninja academy open to ordinary people, and one that demanded civilian ninjutsu.

After accepting the scroll, Naruto looked at Orochimaru's back and said, "If you, Orochimaru, can abide by the rules of the Land of Whirlpools, the Land of Whirlpools welcomes you to join us. I hope we won't become enemies in the future."

Orochimaru left the secret room without saying a word, and then used the Reverse Summoning Jutsu to leave.

After Orochimaru left, Naruto took a deep look in the direction Orochimaru had gone. His invitation to Orochimaru was not a lie; the Land of Whirlpools needed a scientific research talent like Orochimaru.

In his memory, Orochimaru was able to create Sages through cloning after the Fourth Shinobi World War, and even mass-produce the Three-Tomoe and Mangekyou Sharingan.

However, the artificial fairies and kaleidoscopes produced in this way are much weaker than normal kaleidoscopes.

But this also proves that Orochimaru's research direction was not wrong. If Orochimaru had enough time, he might have been able to replicate the path of the Otsutsuki clan.

However, the Orochimaru of today is different from the Orochimaru who became indifferent to everything after the Fourth Shinobi World War.

It is full of uncertainty. Transactions are possible, but deep cooperation is absolutely out of the question, or you will be constantly attacked by venomous snakes.

Setting aside his distracting thoughts, Naruto opened the Ninja World Map and looked at the area where Ryuchi Cave was located.

Aside from his age, he only needs to learn Sage Mode to solidify his position as a Kage-level fighter and truly crush ordinary Kage-level powerhouses.

Chapter 154 The Movements of Iwagakure and Kumogakure

a few days later.

As time went on, the battle between the leader of Uzushio Village and the leader of Akatsuki continued to spread within the spy network.

Most insiders are skeptical of the information that Menma Uzumaki and Pain are stronger than the Five Kage, since there are far too many people in the ninja world who are comparable to or even below the Five Kage.

But after all these years, the Kage of the Five Great Ninja Villages remain Kage, unchanged in the slightest.

However, the spies unanimously acknowledged that the leaders of Uzumaki and Akatsuki were very strong, and they all passed the information on to their respective leaders.

Inside the Iwagakure Building.

The short-statured Third Tsuchikage, Onoki, was handling official business in his office. Faced with a mountain of paperwork, the old man felt immense pressure, and his already protruding intervertebral discs began to ache.

Just then, Kurotsuchi pushed open the office door and rushed over with intelligence: "Grandpa, this is intelligence about the Land of Waves."

Onoki took the information, glanced at it briefly, and then frowned.

Seeing her grandfather deep in thought, Kurotsuchi leaned over for a look and said, "Grandpa, Uzushio Village has occupied the Land of Waves. Does the leader of Uzushio Village really possess strength comparable to yours?"

"I have no idea……"

Onoki said somewhat uncertainly, "But if the information is true, the leader of Uzushio Village will be a formidable enemy, and the name Uzumaki Menma reminds me of the Land of Whirlpools, which was destroyed decades ago."

"Those people from the Land of Whirlpools were no less mad than the Uchiha clan during the Warring States period. If they had chosen to join Konoha, Konoha would probably have had an even greater advantage in the previous wars."

Kurotsuchi frowned: "The intelligence also mentions the existence of the Uchiha clan. Could Uzushio Village be an affiliated force of Konoha, secretly annexing surrounding small countries under the guise of the Land of Whirlpools?"

Kurotsuchi's guess is not without reason; anyone who sees Uzumaki and Uchiha ninjas will think of Konoha.

Onoki gently shook his head: "Probably not. If Konoha wanted to annex the surrounding small countries, it would have done so long ago. Those small countries are buffer zones between major powers. Unless it's that reckless Raikage, the other Kage wouldn't make a move."

"Furthermore, I know Hiruzen Sarutobi; he doesn't seem like the type to make such a decision, unless Danzo orchestrated it from the shadows..."

Kurotsuchi asked in confusion, "Then what should we, the Hidden Stone Village, do? Should we secretly contact the Land of Whirlpools to counterbalance Konoha, or should we treat them as a hidden enemy and suppress them?"

"Neither admitting nor opposing."

Onoki made a decision. In any case, the Land of Whirlpools and the Land of Waves were far away from the Land of Earth. Even if there were any headaches, they would be the problems of Konoha and Kumogakure. Uzushio Village and Iwagakure had no conflict of interest.

On the contrary, Onoki was somewhat worried about the strength of the Akatsuki leader.

The Akatsuki organization is a mercenary group operating between various countries. He has cooperated with Akatsuki many times and successfully extracted a lot of benefits from neighboring small countries.

But he never forgot that Akatsuki was a mercenary organization from Amegakure, a force belonging to Amegakure.

If the members are generally at the Jonin level, they will become a very useful weapon, capable of instigating wars between small countries. However, if the Akatsuki leader possesses the strength of the Five Kage, Amegakure will have two Kage-level ninjas.

A Kage-level ninja can only protect himself at best, but two Kage-level ninjas can take the initiative to attack and threaten neighboring countries.

Once Amegakure rises to power, Iwagakure will be the most affected, facing threats from four ninja villages and having its geographical advantage greatly diminished.

With a soft sigh, Onoki said to Kurotsuchi, "Kurotsuchi, have Yotsuchi keep a close eye on the Land of Rain."

Haven't the 'demigods' of the Rain Kingdom been lying dormant for over ten years?

Kurotsuchi was somewhat puzzled, but she nodded nonetheless. Her grandfather was the pillar of Iwagakure, and his judgments were never wrong.

At this moment, Onoki seemed to remember something and said, "By the way, where has Deidara been lately? We haven't heard any explosions lately. You should keep in touch with him more often."

Kurotsuchi's face darkened, and she said, "Third Hokage, Deidara has been locked up by you for half a month."

"Has it been half a month?"

Onoki paused for a moment, then smiled helplessly, “It’s time to release him. He has good talent in ninjutsu. He learned Explosion Release at a young age. It’s just a pity that all he does is explode. He calls it art. After he’s tempered, I plan to teach him Dust Release so that he can inherit my mantle.”

"Kuroto, you should get closer to Deidara."

Unlike Konoha, which faced internal strife due to an abundance of talented individuals, Iwagakure's biggest crisis was a talent crisis.

The village's ninjas are all quite capable overall, but most of them reach the level of Jonin, and there are no ninjas who can inherit the title of Kage. Deidara is the only young genius among them.

"Grandpa!" Kurotsuchi said with considerable dissatisfaction; she disliked Deidara, who was always exploding.

Onoki smiled and shook his head, not forcing Kurotsuchi. Even when they were little, Kurotsuchi always called him Deidara-nii-nii, but it was all because of his Explosion Release and his art.

"Let's go see Deidara and see if he's calmed down."

After saying that, Onoki floated up from his seat and drifted towards the door.

……

Inside the Hidden Cloud Village.

The Fourth Raikage was training his Jonin subordinates, who occasionally let out groans of pain, and then, with fanatical expressions, challenged the Fourth Raikage to wrestling matches.

The Fourth Raikage readily accepted, engaging in a fierce wrestling match with his subordinates and imparting the secrets of taijutsu training.

Such a harmonious scene is perfectly normal in Kumogakure.

The Hidden Cloud Village is also the only one of the Five Great Ninja Villages that is not in crisis. This is not only because the biggest traitors, Kinkaku and Ginkaku, were wiped out decades ago, but also because the Yotsuki clan is the only one in the Hidden Cloud Village that is dominant.

As long as the key positions in the village are all held by members of the Night Moon Clan, there will naturally be no crisis.

After taking down all her subordinates, the black-skinned secretary, Mabui, walked over in high heels and brought information about the Land of Waves.

The Fourth Raikage took the intelligence report, glanced at it briefly, and said in a deep voice, "It seems that another remarkable ninja has appeared in the ninja world. I really want to fight them and see who is the strongest ninja in the ninja world."

Mabu-i rubbed his forehead and couldn't help but remind him, "Fourth Generation Lord, both of these could threaten the village's future strategy. You should be more cautious."

The Fourth Raikage said dismissively, "They haven't infringed on the interests of Kumogakure yet, so it's not appropriate to take action against them. Besides, our greatest enemies are Iwagakure and Konoha, so we can't interfere with them for the time being."

"However, Konoha is truly a hypocrite. While verbally preventing us from invading small countries, they secretly used the name of the Land of Whirlpools. As for the Akatsuki organization, it should be a product of the alliance between Amegakure and Iwagakure. They are all schemers."

"Why don't we pick a place to fight? Whoever wins gets the territory."

The man in hemp clothing coughed and reminded him, "Lord Raikage, please mind your appearance."

Chapter 155 I'm Not Just a Jinchūriki

After making a deal with Orochimaru, Naruto did not immediately go to find Ryuchi Cave, but returned to Uzushio Village.

The giant snakes in Ryuchi Cave are far more ferocious than the toads of Mount Myōboku. They even devour each other to create the strongest snake.

As for the consequences of failing to cultivate immortal arts, there is not much difference between the two.

Whether you turn into stone or end up in the belly of a snake, the consequences won't be too different.

However, Naruto delayed setting off because he wanted to find a more suitable Sage Technique for human cultivation, such as the mysterious Sage Technique used by the First Hokage when fighting Madara Uchiha.

The origin of this Sage Technique may be the Shikkotsu Forest, the last of the three sacred lands, or a Sage Technique created by the First Hokage.

Ultimately, Naruto simply didn't want to believe the White Snake of Ryuchi Cave or Gamamaru of Mount Myōboku, because they had lived for far too long and had never shown their true strength.

The claims of being able to see into the future and being a prophetic child also made him wary.

Just then, there was a knock on the office door. Uchiha Izumi, carrying the collected materials, lowered his head and said, "Lord Menma, this is the Uchiha's record of Sage Mode. The rest has been lost in Konoha."

Naruto nodded and let Izumi go down. Before leaving, Izumi glanced at Naruto one last time, his eyes filled with fervor.

The Uchiha respected the strong, and even more so the strong who led them to establish the new ninja village. Moreover, within Uzushio Village, the Uchiha could even rise to high-ranking positions, something they wouldn't even dare to dream of in Konoha.

While having lunch, I flipped through records related to immortal arts.

Soon, Naruto frowned. The Uchiha clan had very little knowledge of Sage Mode, even less than he did. After the invincible Madara Uchiha fell, did the Uchiha clan never think of learning Sage Mode?

But thinking about it, it makes sense. It would be strange if the Uchiha clan knew the origin of the First Hokage's Sage Mode.

Unless Madara Uchiha kills the First Hokage and Izuna Uchiha studies the First Hokage's corpse.

Minato Namikaze noticed Naruto's recent search for Sage Mode and asked in the sealed space, puzzled, "If you want to learn Sage Mode, you can come to me. I happen to have studied Sage Mode before, but I'm not very proficient at using it."

Naruto glanced at Minato Namikaze: "You know Sage Mode, why didn't you use it when you were dealing with Kurama?"

Minato Namikaze's sore spot was hit. Activating Sage Mode was easy for him, but his endurance was really worrying. In addition, the Flying Thunder God Technique was a huge drain on chakra. If he really wanted to maintain Sage Mode in battle, he couldn't last more than three minutes.

"What I mean is, instead of wasting time searching for Sage Mode, you should go to Mount Myōboku to learn Sage Mode. Although Jiraiya-sensei is not a proper teacher, he is much better than Orochimaru. He wouldn't harm you."

Upon hearing this, Naruto stared at Minato Namikaze for a few seconds, then laughed and said, "Fourth Hokage, have you forgotten that I am the leader of Uzushio Village? If Jiraiya were to make me learn Sage Mode, it would be aiding the enemy. Would he betray Konoha?"

Minato Namikaze fell silent; Jiraiya indeed could not possibly betray Konoha.

After a pause, Naruto continued, "So from this perspective, I can't trust either Jiraiya or Orochimaru. Moreover, as far as I know, Mount Myōboku has been searching for the prophesied child who can change the world."

"Judging from that prophecy, both Nagato and I are children of prophecy, but the children of prophecy do not belong to Konoha."

"You consider yourself the child of prophecy?"

Minato Namikaze was somewhat surprised, but Naruto's actions could indeed change the world. Naruto's series of actions in Uzushio Village were all aimed at optimizing and upgrading the structure of Konoha Village, making him feel that Konoha had fallen behind.

"No, I hate being called the Child of Prophecy, and I hate their arbitrary selection of the Child of Prophecy."

"So even if I do go to Mount Myōboku one day, I will only make deals with them and will never become a spokesperson for Mount Myōboku."

After leaving Minato Namikaze in the corner, Kurama laughed loudly and said, "Naruto is right. I also hate those charlatan toads. The smell of toads is really too stinky. But actually, you don't need to cultivate Sage Mode. I am enough for you."

"Kurama is the strongest tailed beast. With my power, you can do anything."