Konoha: Sage Body

After Tsunade left, Senju Momo still chose to continue drinking, but her thoughts were no longer on enjoying the wine at this time, but rather on how to help Kirito quietly get through the current crisis he faced.

Sandaime received protest letters from the five villages of Sunagakure, Iwagakure, Kumogakure, and the other three villages with tailed beasts today, and as an advisor to the Hokage, she was naturally one of the people who knew about it.

Momo was of course furious about this. After learning about it, she immediately cursed the people of these ninja villages for being shameless.

It's a shame that these people still have the face to use the agreement they signed with Lord Hashirama regarding the distribution of tailed beasts to accuse Konoha. Why don't they think about who took the initiative to tear up this agreement first? This disgusting face really opened her eyes.

She really didn't expect those guys to be so shameless, choosing such a dirty way of diplomacy just to target an 11-year-old child.

Momo was angry, but she also knew that no matter how angry she got, it was impossible to change the wishes and choices of those shameless people. The only way to make these people honestly change their words and swallow the sputum they spit out was to completely defeat these bastards.

"Lord Hashirama should have crippled and disabled these shameless guys in the first place, not giving them the chance to recuperate and grow stronger. He shouldn't have been so kind to them, and he shouldn't have assigned them the tail beast."

Momo was furious when she thought about the protest letter, and subconsciously squeezed the wine glass in her hand tightly, hating and saying fiercely.

Then, she took a deep breath, emptied the wine glass in her hand in one gulp, and calmed herself down again.

"This kind of absurd thing, even if Sandaime this idiot is even more stupid, he can't possibly agree to it. Once he agrees, he won't be able to continue as Hokage. But Kirito's current strength is really a bit too showy, and those rats definitely don't want him to be comfortable. Even if they can't kill him, they will disgust him and undermine the prestige he has worked hard to accumulate in the village."

Momo calmly analyzed.

Given Kirito's current strength and potential, as well as his current identity as a Konoha hero, anyone who dares to openly demand that Kirito hand over the Shukaku is looking for death.

Kirito doesn't even need to get his hands dirty; the hawk ninja of Konoha, who are powerful and have a tough attitude towards outsiders, will teach those idiots who demand that Kirito hand over the Shukaku a good lesson.

However, there will definitely be some people who will spread the word around the village that Kirito's capture of a tailed Shukaku will result in Konoha being besieged by other ninja villages.

At that time, there will definitely be many disgusting people who will jump out and attack Kirito. They will hypocritically condemn Kirito on the basis of righteousness, engage in so-called moral coercion against Kirito, and spread disgusting rumors that Kirito is unwilling to sacrifice Shukaku for Konoha because he is afraid of death.

Konoha was simultaneously besieged by other ninja villages, which was undoubtedly a major event.

Once many villagers became aware of the incident, they would be filled with fear. In order to protect themselves, some of them definitely hoped that Kirito would tell Shukaku to return to the Sunagakure, and indiscriminately condemned Kirito.

This is the way people's hearts work. Most people are selfish. Once disaster strikes, many of them will find it difficult to withstand the test of humanity, maintain the bottom line of morality, and not betray the interests of others to save themselves.

Rumors can kill people, they can destroy a person.

Under the influence of public opinion, a hero praised by everyone can turn into a villain despised by everyone in an instant.

Momo, who has taken over the apparent intelligence system of Konoha since replacing Danzo, has seen too many similar despicable tactics.

Kirito's enemies, after finding that they cannot kill him on the front, will definitely try to destroy this young Konoha genius in this way.

Even if they fail to use the rumors to successfully destroy Kirito, they will still leave a thorn in his heart and create a gap between Kirito and Konoha.

This is truly unforgivable.

What's most infuriating is that this is a blatant conspiracy that is difficult to effectively resolve.

Although Momo is well aware that Kirito is smart enough to understand what is going on and most likely won't care about it, she cares deeply.

Kirito is the personal disciple of Lord Mito and the face of the Senju clan.

She can't bear the thought of Kirito's reputation being damaged by such despicable means, and she doesn't want to see anyone in Konoha treating a hero who has made such great contributions to Konoha's cause in such a way.

If something like this really happened, it might not break Kirito's heart, but it would definitely break the hearts of those soldiers on the frontlines who have also shed their blood for Konoha.

Kirito is now the role model for countless frontline soldiers, and the idol of those young blood ninjas who still have justice and ideals in their hearts. If he is treated in such an ignominious and unfair way, what will the other Konoha ninjas who regard Kirito as an idol think?

Will they still protect Konoha with passion?

Will they continue to believe in the Fire Will left behind by the First Lord?

"The Will of Fire absolutely cannot be allowed to be tarnished in the slightest. Anyone who dares to do such a shameful thing behind someone's back must die."

Momo said with clenched teeth after a moment of solemn contemplation.

The Will of Fire is the most precious thing that Lord Hashirama left to Konoha. It is precisely because of its existence that the major ninja clans regard Konoha as their home.

If the Will of Fire is tarnished, Konoha will exist in name only.

Momo realized the gravity of the situation and immediately stood up. She quickly went into her study and wrote more than 20 letters in a row, before handing them to her subordinates and telling them to deliver them to the recipients in person.

"I hope these people will make the right choice. This is a matter of principle. If anyone is unwilling to comply, there is no need for them to continue living in Konoha. Hashirama-sama, Konoha has indeed been growing, but in the process, many rotten roots have also grown. These rotten roots must be removed."

Momo quietly made up her mind after delivering the letter.

...

Uchiha clan territory, Chizuru's house.

Uchiha Homura was in his room, talking with a blue cat that stood upright like a human. The conversation was nearing its end.

The blue cat was Kirito's summoning beast, Tom.

"Tom, I've taken note of your master's request. Go back and tell him that I'll prepare what he wants as soon as possible,"

Uchiha Homura said to Tom with a smile.

After that, he took out a can of cat food from a drawer and handed it to the blue cat in front of him.

Tom's eyes lit up when he saw the cat food, and he immediately reached out to take it, exclaiming in delight, "Okay, I'll put in a good word for you in front of the boss."

"Tom, have you been growing recently? It feels like you've gotten a lot bigger,"

Uchiha Homura suddenly asked as Tom was about to leave.

The last time he saw Tom, he was only at the level of his knees, but now he was up to his chest.

Seeing as Uchiha Homura gave him the cat can, Tom was happy to satisfy Uchiha Homura's curiosity and said proudly, "You have a good eye. You're worthy of being the leader of the Uchiha clan. I have indeed been growing recently. Hehe, just you wait and see, in a little while, I'll definitely be able to become the fifth strongest ninja cat."

"I see. I wish you success soon,"

said Uchiha Homura thoughtfully.

The Ninjago clan had four powerful members, all of whom were large summoning beasts without exception, comparable in size to the tailed beasts, and extremely powerful in combat.

Tom was still far from being large enough to become a large summoning beast, but Uchiha Homura did not doubt Tom's words, because he had discovered a very special energy from Tom.

This energy was precisely natural energy.

As a leader among the Kage-Level powerhouses, he had of course discovered the existence of natural energy a long time ago, and there were also many records of natural energy in his family.

Unfortunately, the Uchiha clan seemed to have average talent in cultivating natural energy. Even though a Kage-Level powerhouse would be born in every generation, none of them had successfully cultivated natural energy and ultimately become a immortal.

Even so, the Uchiha clan has made some progress in the study of natural energy. The biggest discovery is that natural energy has the effect of causing living things to grow larger, and this generally only occurs with summoning beasts.

In the ninja world, every large summoning beast has more or less cultivated natural energy.

It is precisely because of the long-term cultivation of natural energy that the physical quality of these summoning beasts is incredibly amazing. Some of the best have even successfully fused their chakra with natural energy into Sage Chakra, becoming immortals with a long lifespan.

Tom has now successfully cultivated natural energy, and his future achievements are immeasurable. It is very likely that he will truly become the fifth king of the ninja cat clan.

However, he is very confused, because according to what he has heard from other ninja cats, Kirito's summoning beast Tom is actually a very ordinary ninja cat. Although his strength is quite good, comparable to an elite intermediate ninja, he has never shown any talent for cultivating natural energy in the clan.

If a ninja beast wants to cultivate natural energy, it also needs talent. If it is not a ninja beast from the three sacred places, and does not have an outstanding cultivation environment and a systematic and effective cultivation method, and if the talent is not high enough, then it will die.

Although there are large ninja cats in the ninja cat clan, there is no systematic and effective cultivation method, and there is no natural energy cultivation environment as superior as the three sacred places.

The Four Heavenly Kings of the Ninjacats were able to grow into large summoning beasts not only because they had a natural talent for training, but also because of some lucky encounters.

Each of their paths to growth is unique. Otherwise, with tens of thousands of Ninjacats and the foundation built up over thousands of years, there would definitely be more than just four large Ninjacats.

In the ninja world, the only ninja beast groups that can stably cultivate large summoning beasts are the ninja toads of Mt. Myōboku and the ninja snakes of Ryūchi Cave. Other ninja beast groups can generally only rely on luck.

Tom had no desire to continue chatting with Uchiha Homura. He still had other tasks to complete as instructed by his new boss, Kirito.

He decisively extended a cat's claw, gracefully opened the cat food can, threw the food inside into his mouth, and then jumped out the window and quickly disappeared into the night.

"So, old friend, what do you think?"

Uchiha Homura suddenly spoke up as soon as Tom left.

The next moment, an orange cat holding a bong came out of the shadows silently. If Kirito were here, he would definitely be able to tell at a glance that it was the boss of the ninja cats he summoned using summoning earlier, Tachibana Kagero.

Tachibana Kagero was now the size of a normal adult cat, and looked like just an orange cat with a somewhat unique style of painting, not threatening at all. However, Uchiha Homura had been on high alert the whole time.

He was well aware of Tachibana Kagero's strength, and knew that if he really caused trouble in Uchiha clan territory, it would not be a joke.

In fact, he had not seen the ninja cat leader for a long time, and the last time they met was decades ago. However, today, he had unprecedentedly asked other ninja cats to summon him to Konoha, simply to see Tom, who had become Kirito's exclusive summoning beast.

"This brat who hasn't been home for almost a year has indeed mastered the training method of natural energy. In that case, that Kirito kid not only masters Sage Chakra, but has also mastered a systematic method of training natural energy."

Tachibana Kagero looked in the direction Tom had left, his eyes burning with passion.

Tom, a shinobi cat with mediocre natural energy cultivation talent, had learned to cultivate natural energy so quickly after following Kirito, which meant that Kirito had the ability to allow other shinobi cats to learn to cultivate natural energy.

If the shinobi cat clan could obtain the method of cultivating natural energy from Kirito, then the shinobi cat clan might be able to establish the fourth summoning beast sacred ground in the ninja world.

"This method is probably not that simple, and the price you want to pay for Kirito to teach the Ninjacats the method of cultivating natural energy is definitely not trivial,"

Uchiha Homura said, pouring cold water on the idea.

He had actually noticed the fact that Kirito possessed Sage Chakra the first time Kirito brought the unconscious Chizuru back. He had keenly noticed traces of Sage Chakra on Chizuru's body at that time.

This Sage Chakra obviously did not belong to Chizuru, so it goes without saying who it really belonged to.

Later, he discovered that the curse mark on Chizuru's body also had fluctuations of Sage Chakra. Although the Sage Chakra born in the curse mark gave him a very poor and weak feeling, it was indeed Sage Chakra formed by the combination of Chakra and natural energy.

In this way, he understood the function of the curse mark that Kirito had placed on Chizuru.

It is no surprise that the reason why Tomoe is able to cultivate natural energy is also because Kirito placed a similar curse mark on him.

Therefore, if the Ninno Cat Clan wants to obtain a way to cultivate natural energy, they will have to be placed with a curse mark by Kirito.

"As long as the Ninno Cat Clan can obtain a way to cultivate natural energy, no matter what the price is, it will be worth it,"

Tachibana Kagero heard Uchiha Homura say this and said without hesitation: "Nonsense.

It is invaluable to allow people who are not naturally talented in cultivating energy and summoning to systematically cultivate energy in a methodical way. How could it be possible not to pay a huge price?

In fact, what he was most worried about was not paying a huge price, but being rejected by Kirito and having no way to learn the method.

Moreover, he was also very greedy and wanted to learn the method of cultivating Sage Chakra from Kirito. If Kirito was willing to teach him the method of cultivating Sage Chakra, he would be willing to pay any price as long as he was not told to go to hell.

"You do have insight, not bad,"

Uchiha Homura praised, his eyes showing appreciation as he saw Tachibana Kagero was willing to spend so much.

It was no wonder that the Uchiha clan was interested in the ninja beasts, as they were no less eager for power.

"If only that kid would be willing to pass on the method of cultivating natural energy to the Uchiha clan. But that's probably impossible. At least I won't see that possibility while I'm still alive. This kid will definitely only pass on this method to his true allies. And it's taboo for this kid to let others obtain the method of cultivating natural energy. Those arrogant guys in the clan won't be able to accept a curse mark that could bind them for life."

Uchiha Homura sighed as he thought about what Kirito had granted others to cultivate natural energy.

"Homura, you are on good terms with that boy, so remember to speak for me when the time comes. You have a guest, so I'll be going first."

Tachibana Kagero gave a slight smile upon hearing Uchiha Homura's praise.

Afterwards, he turned into a ball of white smoke and disappeared from the spot.

As soon as Tachibana Kagero left, Uchiha Kari immediately appeared in front of Uchiha Homura and respectfully said, "Homura-sama, the people from the Senju clan are here to see you."

"What does that old woman want at this hour? Bring her here,"

said Uchiha Homura, his expression slightly solemn.

Uchiha Kari went to do as he was told.

Soon, a ninja from the Senju clan came before Uchiha Homura and handed him the letter Momo wrote with both hands, saying, "Chief Homura, this is the letter the head of my clan asked me to give to you."

Uchiha Homura took the letter and opened it on the spot.

The content of the letter was about Sandaime receiving protest letters from other major ninja villages today, and there was something bad that Momo thought might happen next. In the letter, Momo clearly requested that the Uchiha clan remain impartial in the face of these possible misfortunes.

A few seconds later, his face became extremely solemn. Surprised, he thought, "It really is turbulent times ahead. It seems that this kid has made the other ninja villages feel fear, and for this, they have gone as far as to lose face."

"Please go back and tell your clan leader that the Uchiha clan will definitely remain impartial."

Uchiha Homura did not hesitate in response to Momo's request, and immediately made his stance clear to the Senju clan ninja in front of him.

Because of Chizuru, the Uchiha clan was now in the same boat as Kirito, and Kirito had also displayed amazing strength. There was no reason for the Uchiha clan not to follow suit.

As for the possibility that Konoha might be besieged by other ninja villages at the same time as Kirito?

That's nothing.

The Uchiha clan has never been afraid of a challenge.

"If that really happens, then Konoha will have to remove the shackles it has placed on the Uchiha clan. This crisis will be both a challenge and an opportunity for the Uchiha clan. If they can win the gamble, the Uchiha clan will definitely be able to rise from the ashes in Konoha."

Uchiha Homura watched the departing backs of the ninja from the Senju clan and mused, a look of anticipation on his face.

The Uchiha clan is not afraid of fighting now, they are just afraid of not having the opportunity to fight.

He now has a hunch that the time is not far off when the Uchiha clan will break free from their shackles.

As the most powerful ninja clan in Konoha, the Uchiha clan will naturally step forward when Konoha is in its time of life or death. In this way, the Uchiha clan can wash away the sins committed against Konoha by that person with their own blood and that of their enemies.

After the ninja from the Senju clan left, Uchiha Homura called one of his subordinates and said, "Tell Uchiha Shirou, Uchiha Taichi, and Uchiha Makoto to come."

Uchiha Shirou, Uchiha Taichi, and Uchiha Makoto were the three deputy commanders of the Uchiha Police Force, and were clearly the leaders of the fighting faction, the moderate faction, and the neutral faction within the Uchiha clan.

In order to support Momo's request, he decided to make good use of the Uchiha Police Force's power in Konoha.

On the other side of the village, in the Hyuga Clan territory, Hyuga Kazuma also received a personal letter from Momo from a Senju clan ninja.

Unlike Uchiha Homura, he did not give an immediate reply to the Senju clan ninja, but immediately summoned the elders of the clan to hold an urgent temporary meeting.

That night, many famous Konoha ninja received Momo's personal letter. Some of these ninja immediately gave a positive response, but just as many did not give an immediate response, just like the Hyuga clan.

In the Hokage Building, in the Hokage's office.

Sandaime was looking at a letter from Momo in his hands with a serious expression. He was the head of the Sarutobi clan and naturally received a personal letter from Momo as well.

After reading Momo's personal letter, he immediately made the same choice as Uchiha Homura.

He had no choice but to do so. In his opinion, Momo's letter was not a request but a clear threat. As Hokage, he simply did not have the possibility to refuse.

And if he personally promised Momo's request, it would be the same as the Sarutobi clan agreeing to Momo's request.

In that case, if someone from the Sarutobi clan dared to spread rumors against Kirito in the future and it was confirmed, then the Hokage would lose face.

To be honest, he personally had no intention of spreading rumors to slander Kirito, but he was afraid that his clan members would do so.

Momo's actions this time were undoubtedly a blow to him and the Sarutobi clan behind him. She was clearly indicating that she would keep a close eye on the Sarutobi clan.

"What a good move, Momo, but aren't you looking at me too despicably? Have I now become so despicable in your eyes?"

Sandaime used a Fire Release ninjutsu to burn the letter in his hand, and let out a dejected sigh.

A moment later, the dejection on Sandaime's face quickly disappeared, and it turned cold. A cold light flashed in his eyes.