Konoha: Offer your heart to the Hokage!

After being given a cold shower, some people in Sunagakure did waver. But Kazekage Shamon, being an ambitious man, clearly had no intention of giving up so easily.

After the meeting adjourned.

Shamon summoned his trusted ANBU confidants: "Continue trying to establish contact with the Three-Tails. Find out why it fears Zenin Shinji. Make sure it releases the Tailed Beast Ball as ordered next time."

After everyone left, Shamen slumped into his chair, lost in thought.

He feigned toughness at the meeting, but in reality, he had already been severely damaged by Konoha's offensive and was considering seeking peace. However, as the Kazekage, and having agreed to launch the war against Konoha, he could not show weakness in public at this time.

The Sand Village has invested too much in this war, and due to sunk costs, it simply cannot stop.

It would be best if Iwagakure and Kumogakure could win, but if they can't...

Even if peace negotiations are ultimately pursued, the strategic value of uniting the people should be emphasized first, allowing Konoha to experience the same level of suffering. Otherwise, the terms of the peace treaty will be so heavy that those who sign them will instantly become traitors to the village.

According to the traditions preserved from the Warring States period, there are many ways to reduce the cost of peace negotiations.

Arranged marriages were one of the most common methods used.

Chiyo, as the main person responsible for this war, has already been regarded by Shamon as a bargaining chip for peace talks. As the widow of the First Kazekage, her status is special enough that using her for a marriage alliance can greatly save face for Konoha and significantly reduce the price that Sunagakure needs to pay for peace talks.

Therefore, Shamen relieved her of her elder position early on to avoid suspicion.

The goal of the marriage alliance had already been decided in the monk's mind.

The Second Hokage, Tobirama Senju, was the most suitable candidate.

Although he already had a wife, in this era, it wasn't uncommon for married men to take another wife for political alliances. If Tobirama Senju dared to accept for the sake of his reputation… Chiyo would become a poisoned nail buried in Konoha by the Sand Village!

The Second Kazekage, Shamon, was also a ninja with a long-term vision.

...

After being dismissed from her post, Chiyo secluded herself at home and refused all visitors.

She only has her five-year-old son by her side, who is now her only remaining source of emotional support.

If she loses her child as well, she will have nothing left to hold her back and may suffer a complete mental breakdown.

Two days later, an old subordinate came to the door with the worst news.

"Chiyo-sama, Ebizo-sama, he..."

A glimmer of hope instantly ignited in Chiyo's eyes, and she frantically asked, "How is he? Is he still alive?"

"Do not."

"Lord Ebizo has been controlled by Tobirama Senju using the Impure World Reincarnation technique and has appeared on the battlefield. He is covered in explosive tags, which have already caused many Sand Ninja casualties."

"His identity is too special. Commander Xi Hai at the front line specifically sent me to ask you what to do?"

Upon hearing this devastating news, Chiyo nearly fainted, gritting her teeth as she said, "Tobirama Senju, how dare he do this... I will never let him get away with this!"

"I will personally go to the front lines to seal Ebizo!"

"He was a ninja of Sunagakure in life, and even in death, his soul must not be toyed with by bastards from Konoha!"

Chiyo puts on her ninja uniform again and returns to the battlefield as an ordinary ninja.

She witnessed the horrors of the battlefield.

Many Sand Ninja hesitated to attack due to Ebizo's status, and were instead severely injured by his Mutual Explosion Tags, leaving them without even a complete corpse. This scene deeply wounded countless Sand Ninja present, leaving an indelible psychological scar.

"He's no longer Ebizo!"

Chiyo suppressed her grief and shed tears, ultimately sealing away the Edo Tensei Ebizo with her own hands, ending his suffering.

Having done all this, Chiyo returned home with the sealing scroll.

At this moment, only one almost insane obsession remained in her heart.

She wants to develop a true resurrection technique to resurrect Ebizo.

Tobirama Senju's wanton desecration and manipulation of the dead thoroughly enraged her. She was determined to prove to the entire ninja world that the true resurrection technique was not the despicable forbidden jutsu like the Impure World Reincarnation.

In addition, reviving Ebizo would not only help find out the whereabouts of the First Kazekage's puppet, but also fill the emotional void and regret in her heart.

Whether driven by personal feelings or by the hidden dangers of the village, Chiyo made up her mind to embark on the path of researching resurrection techniques.

The war did not end as Shen had expected.

But by a twist of fate, Chiyo still embarked on the path he had hoped for, devoting all his energy to the development of [Self-Reincarnation].

Chapter 146 Changes in the Ninja World: Silver Saints Enter School

Time flies, and soon it was Konoha year 19.

Over the past year, Zenji's deeds have been widely disseminated by various intelligence agencies in the ninja world.

He was thus dubbed the God of Medical Ninjas.

It's as if Konoha is blessed by the heavens, having nurtured yet another "god".

With the fighting raging on the front lines, the New Year celebrations that year were rather lackluster.

Perhaps due to the effects of the war, the ninja world did not experience another baby boom like it did during the Bronze Age, and the number of newborns at the Gospel Hospital declined.

However, there were still some babies born that attracted much attention.

Kenji Uchiha got married last year and had a son this year, named Fugaku Uchiha.

The gears of fate have taken another small step forward.

That day, she even saw Fugaku, who was still an infant, at the Evangelismos Hospital. Such scenes will appear again and again in the future.

With Fugaku already born, Minato, Kushina, Mikoto Uchiha, and others won't be far behind.

Once they are born one after another, the crown prince and the second son will naturally follow soon.

Shen Er secretly planned that once Naruto and Sasuke were born, he could try to access the Indra and Ashura chakra within them. That was the purest power of the Six Paths, something he couldn't miss.

But there's an old man in the Pure Land watching over things all the time.

So far, he has absorbed the power of Madara, Hashirama, and the Four-Tails. In the eyes of the Sage of Six Paths, this is at most a battle between ninjas. But once he sets his sights on the chakra of Indra and Ashura, as well as the remaining eight tailed beasts, he will inevitably attract their attention.

He wasn't sure if this attention would prompt the Sage of Six Paths to personally intervene.

This is, so far, our biggest hypothetical enemy.

The Sage of Six Paths is the most uncontrollable variable.

The Sage of Six Paths is indeed dead and unable to descend to the world of the living. However, the "Yin Power" and "Yang Power" he possesses can be bestowed upon the living, granting them the power of a Kage. Moreover, he can summon the souls of the Kage of the Five Great Nations from the Pure Land.

He even got into the habit of thinking three hundred steps ahead before taking a single step.

We need to be prepared for all of these.

The worst-case scenario is that he would fight a fourth or fifth war, standing on the opposite side of the Sage of Six Paths and the Allied Shinobi Forces.

But Shen Er wasn't worried; that day was still decades away, and he had plenty of time to prepare.

As new people are born, old people die.

Shimura Heizo and Sarutobi Hidekatsu, who were parasitized by Jin, died in battle on the Iwagakure battlefield before their life force could be exhausted. Sarutobi Hiruzen's father, Sarutobi Sasuke, also died in battle, killed by Onoki's Dust Release.

Shen'er was ultimately an honest man, and he gave them the most dignified ending, not trying to stop them from defecting. Of course, he also never found any mission that required them to defect for him.

The battle at the Hidden Stone Battlefield was incredibly fierce.

The Sarutobi and Shimura clans suffered heavy casualties in battle, making them a family of unwavering loyalty.

Hiruzen Sarutobi and Danzo Shimura were able to secure their positions as Hokage and Konoha elders thanks to the sacrifices made by their respective clans.

From a background perspective...

They are the children of firefighters with impeccable revolutionary credentials.

...

The bloodshed and carnage of the battlefield had no effect on him; he went about his work methodically.

Over the course of a year, Tobirama personally interviewed and recruited a total of eleven research-oriented ninjas for Root. Tobirama then placed the Tongue-Severing Seal on them, and Root officially and secretly began its puppetry research.

Puppetry is an extremely large system of techniques, encompassing many sub-fields such as puppet creation, manipulation techniques, and granting puppets their former chakra, making its content intricate and complex.

Konoha had absolutely no prior research foundation in this area. It was like a country that had just transitioned from agriculture to industry, and had accidentally obtained a fully-fledged nuclear bomb. Now, they could only rely on this single sample to gradually reverse engineer the core technology of puppetry.

Ninjas have far more cells than ordinary people, including brain cells. Their scientific research capabilities also cannot be compared to those of ordinary people; the bizarre technological development of the ninja world today speaks volumes.

The actual difficulty is not like developing a nuclear bomb, but it is not an easy task either.

It will be difficult to achieve results within at least two or three years.

In his ongoing research into puppetry, Shen's primary focus has been on how to allow puppets to acquire the chakra they possessed in life. This is similar to the Impure World Reincarnation technique.

The Edo Tensei ninja also got stuck at this step.

What surprised Shen Er even more was that the principles of the two techniques were highly similar. The technical difficulties could be complemented and integrated, thus accelerating the overall research process.

This significant discovery was not even told to Tobirama; instead, it was kept secret.

This inevitably brings to mind Orochimaru.

In the future, Orochimaru will assassinate the Fourth Kazekage, hand over his body to Sasori of the Red Sand to make some kind of deal, learn the puppet technique, and then impersonate the Fourth Kazekage to infiltrate Konoha, ultimately triggering a Konoha destruction plan that shocked the ninja world.

Original timeline.

The resurrected Tobirama during his time with the Impure World Reincarnation technique did not possess any chakra. It wasn't until Orochimaru resurrected Hashirama and Tobirama in Konoha that they began to have chakra. Although this process was accelerated through Orochimaru's intervention, he still couldn't reach that level.

In retrospect, the key factor that allowed Orochimaru's version of Edo Tensei to advance so rapidly was the puppet technique!

Just like the synthesis path of a technology tree: basic version of Edo Tensei + basic version of Puppet Technique = advanced version of Edo Tensei.

He couldn't help but feel that this step was the right one.

Without the unexpected acquisition of this Kazekage puppet as a research sample, even if Orochimaru had grown up and not contacted Sasori of the Red Sand to exchange puppet techniques, it would have been difficult for him to achieve a breakthrough in the Impure World Reincarnation technique.

Having identified a direction for a breakthrough, Shen Er did not rush to order all researchers to make breakthroughs in this specific area.

Although he was in charge, Tobirama still had the authority to directly question these researchers and check on the progress of their puppetry research. If the research direction deviated significantly and Tobirama noticed it, he would immediately connect it to the secret that the two techniques could complement each other.

If Tobirama were to obtain the advanced version of the Impure World Reincarnation and the Puppet Technique too early, giving Konoha an overly advantageous position in the war, it would be very disadvantageous.

The war must continue until he feels he can stop!

...