Konoha: Sage Body

"Danzo, what kind of backup did you leave in the Root? It's baffling that the Root, which you previously controlled, is now clearly no longer under Konoha's control, yet it continues to provide Konoha with such important information."

Sandaime looked at the encrypted intelligence in his hands, utterly confused.

In recent days, worried that the Root would do something to harm Konoha, such as spreading rumors that would shake the hearts of the people of Konoha, he had secretly dispatched a large number of ANBU ninja to look for traces of the Root, but with little success.

After Danzo's death, the Root abandoned Konoha and a large number of strongholds around Konoha, and withdrew all core members, leaving only some peripheral members who could not access the core secrets.

The Root's actions undoubtedly announced that the Root would break away from Konoha's control and then take revenge on Konoha.

Who knew that the Root's current approach did not at all seem like it was going to make enemies with Konoha, but rather that it intended to continue providing services to Konoha.

What exactly did this mean?

Does this mean that he doesn't want to be controlled by Konoha but still wants to continue serving Konoha?

Or does he hope that the Third Hokage will not continue to interfere in Root's affairs and ignore the current situation of Root, so that Root can continue to remain outside the Konoha system, and in exchange, Root will continue to serve him and Konoha?

The Third Sandaime does not dislike Root's current approach of obviously pleasing Konoha, but deep down he still does not want to lose control of a terrifyingly dark intelligence organization that knows so much about Konoha.

This is because they are a time bomb that could go off at any time, blowing up Konoha, him, and the Sarutobi clan.

The mere thought that the Root has a large amount of confidential Konoha intelligence in its hands, which could be leaked to Konoha's enemies at any time, means that Sandaime cannot ignore the Root's existence.

In his current state of mind, if the Root gets out of control, it must be uprooted and destroyed.

He wants all secrets to be buried in the darkness, never to see the light of day again.

Even if these secrets will one day see the light of day, it will have to wait until after the war between Konoha and Sunagakure is over.

"Come in."

Sandaime mused for a moment before speaking.

An ANBU ninja immediately appeared at the sound of his voice. He knelt on one knee, head bowed, and said respectfully, "Sandaime-sama, please command."

"Go and invite Akimichi Torifu, Clan Leader of the Akimichi Clan, to come here."

Sandaime gave the order.

The ANBU ninja immediately obeyed: "Ha~"

As soon as the sound died down, he used the technique of instant teleportation and disappeared from Sandaime's sight.

"What on earth does that shorty from Iwagakure want? He should be busy dealing with Kumogakure right now,"

Sandaime mused as he burned the piece of information in his hands with a candle.

Regardless, the information that the Root had sent was very important, and even if he had lost control of the Root and could not tell the authenticity, he still had to take it seriously.

Judging from the content of the information, Iwagakure is deliberately trying to ease relations between the two sides.

Akashige is the son of the first Kazekage and Chiyo's son, and has a high status in the Sunagakure.

Iwagakure is likely to use this as leverage to obtain certain benefits from Sunagakure, such as reaching certain agreements.

Although the conflict between Iwagakure and Sunagakure is even greater than that between Konoha and Sunagakure, it is not impossible that the two will reach some kind of agreement and then join forces against Konoha.

Sandaime hasn't been Hokage for nothing all these years. He understands that there is no permanent and absolute hatred between villages. As long as the benefits and threats are great enough, they can temporarily set aside their hatred and join forces to deal with the enemy together.

The current situation of Konoha is obviously very bad. What happened not long ago has been leaked, and the impact of Danzo's death is continuing to ferment.

As the saying goes, the people who know you best are often your enemies.

It is clear that the other great ninja villages are now taking advantage of Konoha's current weakness.

If this information is true, then the short man from Iwagakure definitely wants to plot against Konoha.

In order to prevent Iwagakure from secretly joining forces with Sunagakure to attack Konoha, Sandaime needs to deploy some troops to the border with Iwagakure to fortify the area, and he also needs to send a clear message to the general Akimichi Torifu to intimidate Iwagakure.

Torifu is his old classmate and comrade-in-arms, and he is very powerful. After taking the Akimichi Clan's secret medicine, he can temporarily display the strength of a Kage-Level powerhouse. In addition, he is very experienced in combat. With him sitting on the border with Iwagakure, he can rest assured.

"Alas, it is really unwise to have an internal conflict now. Couldn't they defeat Sunagakure first and then have their internal conflict?"

Sandaime was extremely tired of the current situation in Konoha.

For a moment, his dissatisfaction with Danzo and the Senju clan came to the surface again.

However, since Danzo was dead, he could only take out his grievances on the Senju clan.

To be honest, if he wasn't worried that taking action against the Senju clan now would further intensify the internal conflicts within Konoha and greatly sap Konoha's strength, he would have already wanted to use the power of the Hokage to punish the Senju clan.

After all, since the start of World War II, for the sake of his teacher and Tsunade, he had not mass recruited the Senju clan's ninja to go to the front lines to support the troops for a long time.

It is only reasonable for him to send the ninja of the Senju clan to support the front line now, and no one can find anything wrong with it.

"There is abnormal movement in Iwagakure, and I'm sure Kumogakure and Kirigakure will definitely make some moves as well. I hope that our comrades over there can send some useful information in time. But for the time being, the war between Konoha and Sunagakure must end as soon as possible, otherwise, facing the siege of multiple strong enemies at the same time, even if Konoha is stronger, it cannot afford to be tossed around like this."

Sandaime suppressed his resentment towards the Senju clan and once again became worried about the current situation of Konoha.

For the time being, nothing could deter the surrounding enemies with malicious intentions more than defeating Sunagakure.

However, defeating Sunagakure was no easy task.

Soon, Sandaime made a decision: the fastest way to defeat Sunagakure at the moment was to find out the source of the unknown funds that Sunagakure had obtained recently.

If the source can be found and destroyed, then Sunagakure will no longer be able to continue the war.

He originally wanted to give this task to Danzo to do, but now that Danzo is dead and the Root is out of control, then he had to choose another person to do this.

The White Fang squad, which is currently in the Land of Wind, is undoubtedly a very good choice.

Thanks to Utatane Koharu's suggestion, he actually planned to have the White Fang squad led by Hatake Sakumo return, and have Kirito, Chizuru, and Nawaki do other things. But now that the other ninja villages have changed their plans, he has no choice but to let this sharp blade penetrate even more deadly places of the enemy.

However, in this way, the situation of the White Fang squad will undoubtedly become more dangerous.

If the mission fails, the entire White Fang squad will likely be wiped out.

At this thought, Sandaime could not help but reveal a trace of worry on his face, before gradually returning to his expressionless face. He sighed, "Alas, there is nothing I can do. I hope you can successfully complete the mission and return safely. It's all for the good of Konoha..."

...

A few days later, in the Land of Fire, at a supply station on the edge of the battlefield where Konoha and Sunagakure were fighting, the White Fang squad, whose supplies were almost depleted, came here to resupply and to turn in the spoils they had obtained recently in order to receive the corresponding merits.

"My god, you've destroyed Sunagakure's supply lines, haven't you?"

A logistics officer in charge of supplies looked at the large number of storage-type Summoning Scrolls and more than ten heads of Sunagakure jōnin handed over by the White Fang squad and said in shock.

There were actually quite a few ninja squads tasked with cutting off the border of Sunagakure, but very few succeeded in taking the Summoning Scrolls containing supplies from Sunagakure. This was the first time he had seen a ninja squad like the White Fang squad that took out so many Summoning Scrolls at once.

"Hee hee hee, that's about right. With the White Fang Squad here, those guys from Sunagakure will never be able to easily transport supplies to the front line. Just calculate how many merits these things are worth,"

Nawaki said with great pride as he saw the military supplies officer's shocked expression.

He already sensed from the officer's expression that they would receive very, very many merits this time, and it might even be recorded as a merit for an S-rank mission.

In Konoha, ninja merit is calculated using the SABCD five-level mission system, with S-rank missions being the highest level of merit and the most difficult to obtain. Once obtained, it is a great honor.

At the same time, these merits are also an important currency for ninja to exchange for various precious items in Konoha.

One S-rank mission merit is enough to exchange for an S-rank ninjutsu in the Sealed Book.

"Ahem, please take stock as soon as possible, and then replenish us with enough ninja gear and medicine,"

Hatake Sakumo coughed, signaled Nawaki not to get carried away, and then said to the quartermaster with a smile:

"Yes, please wait a moment."

The quartermaster did not recognize the White Fang team, but he recognized the weight of the loot in front of him and answered respectfully.

In no time at all, the quartermaster had tallied up the merits the White Fang team had earned recently, a total of one S-rank mission and five A-rank missions.

"Great, now I'm a ninja with S-rank mission merits too, hahaha~"

Nawaki exclaimed in excitement after hearing that the White Fang team had received merits.

He felt that he had now taken a big step towards becoming the Hokage.

One S-rank mission and five A-rank mission merits were definitely a huge amount of merits. Among the many Konoha ninja, there were definitely not many people who could obtain so many merits.

Although Kirito and Chizuru were not as excited as Nawaki, they also showed happy expressions.

Because after they had these merits, they would have enough confidence to speak in front of other Konoha ninja in the future, and their status in Konoha would also rise.

This was a very good start, and these merits would be the best foundation for them to climb up in Konoha in the future.

Hatake Sakumo noticed the expressions of the three, and he just smiled slightly, without any fluctuations in his heart. He didn't feel anything about the merits he had currently obtained.

Since becoming a Kage-Level powerhouse, he had received many S-rank merits after completing S-rank missions. If he hadn't been in charge of the team during this period, he might have been able to earn even more merits in battle.

However, that didn't mean he wasn't interested in merits. He was currently thinking about how much money he could get if he exchanged these merits for money.

Half an hour later, Team White Fang finished resupplying and prepared to go to a nearby town to rest and reorganize for a few days before heading to the Land of Wind again to carry out the mission of destroying the enemy's supply lines.

But at this moment, a ANBU ninja wearing a dog mask suddenly appeared in front of them.

"Lord White Fang, this is something Lord Sandaime has passed on to you,"

the ANBU ninja immediately explained his purpose, and handed over a scroll with both hands.

Hatake Sakumo took the scroll, opened it, and his face immediately changed, revealing a puzzled expression.

After a moment of silence, he finally chose to accept the new mission assigned by Sandaime, and said with a grave face to the ANBU ninja, "Please go back and tell Sandaime that the White Fang Squad will definitely do its best to complete the task he has assigned."

After receiving Hatake Sakumo's response, the ANBU ninja immediately formed a seal and disappeared in a puff of white smoke.

"Hatake Sensei, is that a new mission?"

Kirito asked as soon as the ANBU ninja had left.

Hatake Sakumo did not say anything, but simply handed the scroll to Kirito.

Kirito took the scroll, and Nawaki and Chizuru immediately came over to take a look.

The scroll contained just one sentence: "Cut off the source of Sunagakure's unknown funds."

"What does this mean? Just one sentence, and there's no clue at all,"

Nawaki said, looking at the content of the scroll with a face full of confusion.

Chizuru was also very confused.

Kirito put on a look of confusion, but inside his heart he was already cursing Sandaime.

Sandaime's explanation of the mission for the White Fang squad was undoubtedly to ask them to infiltrate the Sunagakure village and kill the gold miner, Rasa.

Compared to the previous mission of cutting off the enemy's supply line, this new mission was undoubtedly hell level, and it was already beyond the capabilities of the White Fang squad.

Given Rasa's importance to Sunagakure at the moment, he would definitely be under the tightest protection, and it was possible that the Sandaime Kazekage, who was reputed to be the strongest Kazekage, was Rasa's personal bodyguard.

Therefore, the difficulty of the White Fang squad trying to get rid of Rasa is basically equivalent to the difficulty of getting rid of the Third Kazekage.

"Sandaime probably doesn't want to take revenge for personal reasons, is this old guy already confused so quickly?"

Kirito couldn't help but mutter to himself.

He knew what kind of person Sandaime was in the original plot. Although he appeared to be a very positive character, in fact, he had done a lot of wrong things, and he was irrefutably responsible for the decline of Konoha and the various chaotic operations he carried out in his later years.

For example, he connived at Danzo's mistakes. Danzo even plotted to kill him and seize power in a coup, but he was let off lightly. For example, he let go of Orochimaru at a critical moment, causing Konoha to suffer from Orochimaru's backlash. For example, he let Hisashi Hyuga go to his death. Even though Konoha was the victorious country, he was worried about another war with Kumogakure and sacrificed his companions.

Due to Sandaime's various unreasonable actions, Kirito does not have a very good impression of this Hokage.

Not long ago, he allied with the Senju clan and Uchiha clan to get rid of Danzo, which greatly humiliated Sandaime. Now Sandaime has given the White Fang squad a seemingly suicidal mission, and he can't help but suspect that Sandaime's goal is to take revenge on the Senju clan.

After all, both Nawaki and he were considered important for the future revival of the Senju clan.

Although the scroll contained little information, Hatake Sakumo naturally understood the specific task it contained and the difficulty of the mission.

As he looked at the three of them, his heart sank.

However, a mission was a mission.

Since Sandaime's order had been issued, he and the others, as ninja, must carry it out, even if it meant giving their lives.

So, he quickly gathered his thoughts and made a decision in secret, then smiled and said to the three, "The details of the mission can wait until we set foot on the Land of Wind again. Let's go, the teacher will take you out for a good meal."

...

On the other side, at the entrance to the Sunagakure, three people, their bodies completely covered in white cloaks, came through the wind and sand to arrive here.

As soon as they arrived at the Sunagakure village's gateway, the Gorge of the Slit Sky, they were surrounded by many Suna-Nin.

"Stop! Who are you?"

The leader, a Sunagakure jōnin, stepped forward and shouted.

The next moment, the man in the middle of the three removed his hood, revealing a dark-skinned face and the Kumogakure forehead protector he was wearing.

He was the Sandaime Raikage, who had received orders from the Sandaime Raikage to travel thousands of miles to Sunagakure.

As the Sandaime Raikage removed his hood, the other two also removed their hoods, revealing their true faces and identities.

The Fourth Raikage looked at the Sunagakure jōnin in front of him, who gave him no sense of pressure at all. A flash of contempt crossed his eyes, but he remembered why he was here. He forced a smile onto his cold face and said, "We are emissaries from Kumogakure, requesting an audience with the Kazekage."