Being a rogue ninja is worse than being Hokage.

Having escaped the village, he began to move around erratically to conceal his true purpose of going to Kusagakure to contact Karin.

Konoha might still send ninjas to track him down.

Naruto only stopped running away when the side effect of being unable to gather chakra after Sage Mode failed disappeared.

He opened the sealed book and began to break the spell that Danzo had cast upon it.

As expected, in addition to chakra sealing, the Book of Seals also contains tracking techniques that can pinpoint the location of the Book of Seals within a certain range.

Sealing the Book of Seals first and then taking it away was indeed the right choice.

Otherwise, even if Naruto summoned the Nine-Tails, which was formed from the combined chakra of the One-Tail and the Nine-Tails, to the center of Konoha, it would be impossible.

In the plan to destroy Konoha, restricting the actions of "Root" meant that even though "Root" did not suffer much damage, it was still able to draw upon the necessary strength to hunt down Naruto amidst Konoha's pain.

With the chakra seal and tracking technique removed, there are no more hidden tricks set up by Danzo in the Book of Seals.

The fact that Danzo arranged so few techniques was not because he underestimated Naruto; he was probably also trying to prevent the Third Hokage from noticing anything amiss.

After all, according to the rules, only the Hokage has the right to use the Scroll of Seals.

It seems that Danzo once again did not inform the Third Hokage about his use of his eyes.

But this actually benefited Naruto, who successfully seized the Book of Seals.

After carefully storing the Book of Seals, Naruto began to carry out his first plan to leave the village.

This refers to what I just mentioned—contact with korin.

This escape plan would not have been possible without Kushina's chakra preserved within the Eight Trigrams Seal.

At a crucial moment, Kushina used the Adamantine Sealing Chains to suppress and deplete the Nine-Tails, and then reinforced one of the Four Symbols Seals that had been broken for Naruto.

It's really hard to say who will be the final winner between Naruto and Danzo.

Even though Karin doesn't know how to use the Adamantine Lock at this moment, she has the ability to do so.

After Naruto defected from Konoha, he also needed time to learn the techniques in the Book of Sealing... as well as various other matters.

Naruto himself also needed time, so he patiently waited for Karin to learn the Adamantine Sealing Technique.

But this is on the premise that Karin has already been successfully recruited by Naruto.

At least Orochimaru knew about Karin's special nature.

Whether it's Kagura's Mind's Eye or Karin's special ability to heal others.

Orochimaru, who participated in the Chunin Exams as a member of the Hidden Grass Village, couldn't possibly be uninterested in Karin.

However, destroying Konoha and Sasuke were higher priorities at the time.

Naruto killed Kabuto Yakushi because he was genuinely wary of the now-grown Kabuto.

This was also to delay Orochimaru's interest in Karin as much as possible.

If Orochimaru had wanted to, Naruto, who was still confined to Konoha at the time, would never have been able to win over Karin faster than Orochimaru.

The price of killing Kabuto was that Naruto's Sharingan, which had been previously captured by Yamanaka Fu, was now afflicted with the "Kotoamatsukami" curse, rendering all of Naruto's preparations futile.

But even after escaping this crisis, the death of Kabuto Yakushi, who held such a crucial position in the Konoha destruction plan—contacting Sunagakure, gathering intelligence on Konoha, and making contact with Sasuke—is a consequence.

—This indeed made Orochimaru lose all interest in Karin.

Delay Orochimaru's contact with Karin.

This is the benefit that immediately became apparent after Naruto chose to kill Kabuto and successfully defected from Konoha.

However, Karin was eliminated in the second Chunin Selection Exam.

Naruto, however, needs to wait another month for the right opportunity to carry out his plan to leave Konoha during the final round of the third Chunin Selection Exam.

Even if they avoided the situation where Karin was recruited by Orochimaru, which was something Naruto could not change.

What changes can happen in a month?

—Naruto, of course, couldn't take care of everything at once.

The plan to contact Karin went awry.

The intelligence Naruto intercepted after infiltrating Kusagakure indicated that Karin was no longer in Kusagakure.

It's in Hozuki Castle!

……

"That's right!"

The middle-aged guard suddenly called out to Naruto.

“Before I came to relieve you, I went to the mailroom—your girlfriend sent you a letter, and I picked it up for you and left it in your room.”

Naruto was slightly taken aback; this was the first time he had ever heard that "he" had a girlfriend.

"Thank you, uncle."

But Naruto quickly regained his composure and quietly expressed his gratitude to the middle-aged guard.

Chapter 2 Dragon Tongue

Although Naruto infiltrated Hozuki Castle for Karin's sake, he didn't rush to take Karin away.

The destruction of Konoha caused a great uproar throughout the ninja world, and the hearts of all five great nations were unsettled.

Those with ulterior motives wanted to use this opportunity to test whether Konoha would be completely defeated.

However, the reaction between Konoha and Sunagakure was also extremely swift.

The two sides that were originally at war immediately declared that they would further strengthen their alliance.

Sunagakure was already weaker than Konoha, and the wounds from the last Shinobi World War have not yet fully healed.

Moreover, although Sunagakure was not destroyed, it lost the Fourth Kazekage, further diminishing its strength.

Sunagakure was actually more worried about Konoha's safety than Konoha was.

Konoha's foundation was too rich. The village was destroyed and the Third Hokage died—yet they were still able to immediately assemble two of the Legendary Sannin, Jiraiya and Tsunade, who were both of Kage-level strength.

If Konoha is attacked by the other three great nations, Sunagakure will inevitably be unable to find peace as well.

Konoha has the ability to withstand the three great nations, but Sunagakure has absolutely no chance at this moment—besides Gaara, who is a Jinchuriki of a Tailed Beast but difficult to control, the only other ninja they can rely on is the elderly Chiyo, who is skilled in puppetry.

As for the three great nations of Water, Earth, and Lightning, they would actually find it difficult to seize the opportunity presented by Konoha's current weakness.

The Land of Earth and the Land of Lightning have always been wary of each other.

The Land of Water has been implementing a closed-door policy for a long time, and the situation within its borders is shrouded in mystery...

Neither the Hidden Stone Village of Earth nor the Hidden Cloud Village of Lightning could predict whether they would attack Konoha at this time.

Will the Hidden Mist Village of the Land of Water join them in attacking Konoha, or will they take the opportunity to launch a surprise attack on their homeland?

Therefore, for various reasons, although the three major powers coveted the fragile Konoha, their leaders restrained their impulses.

However, the choices made by those at the top are not necessarily accepted by those below.

The pro-war faction disagreed with the ruling high command, believing that now was the best time to attack Konoha.

To prevent these individuals from causing trouble without consultation, countries have recently been controlling these uncontrollable factors.

The simplest way to control them is to monitor these leaders of the pro-war faction and imprison the ninjas under their command.

These people in charge have the ideas but lack the ability to take action.

For this reason, a large number of prisoners have recently entered Hozuki Castle.

Naruto took this opportunity to successfully infiltrate Hozuki Castle.

The large number of prisoners being held in Hozuki Castle in such a short period of time has brought Hozuki Castle into the spotlight recently.

There was a concern that if Karin's chakra happened to be able to open the Box of Elysium, it would be unwise to expose the Box of Elysium under such intense scrutiny.

Therefore, Karin, a member of the Uzumaki clan with a large amount of chakra, was secretly imprisoned in Hozuki Castle, and the "Kusa no Mi" faction of Kusagakure, who controlled Hozuki Castle, was placed under their control.

The plan to "feed" Karin to the Box of Elysium has been temporarily suspended.

Since Karin is currently only being held in secret and is not in any danger to her life.

Naruto simply hid in Hozuki Castle to consolidate his strength.

Who would have thought that Naruto, after going to great lengths to defect from Konoha, would turn around and voluntarily go to Hozuki Castle to go to jail?

Or to put it more precisely, Naruto, disguised as a guard, watched others go to jail in Hozuki Castle.

……

The job of guarding the Ghost Lantern Castle is not hard.

The guards each had their own assigned tasks, and in reality, they didn't work continuously for very long.

Once the shift changes, the guards being relieved of their duties have at least half a day of rest.

Naruto's time outside of "going to work"

Basically, he just hides in his room reading the Book of Seals.

His hiding in the room did not arouse the suspicion of the other guards.

In Hozuki Castle, there are a whole host of rules that the guards must follow.

Even though the prisoners guarding Hozuki Castle had their chakra usage suppressed, their ninja strength was only that of genin and chunin.

But they were ninjas after all.

Compared to ordinary people who act as guards, they still have a natural advantage in combat.

Therefore, guards are required to have rest periods and not move around freely, but stay quietly in their well-equipped rooms.

Apart from receiving an extra month's salary, guards and prisoners have roughly the same amount of freedom.

They are essentially people trapped in this isolated island and city.

……

After changing shifts and returning to the guard apartment, Naruto found the room number "Sakakibara" and immediately locked the door upon entering.

Naruto took off his heavy helmet and threw it on the bed, observing whether the room had been ransacked or subjected to ninjutsu.