Chapter 186: Orochimaru Comes Down from the Mountain

Konohagakure, Hokage Office in the Hokage Building.

Yamanaka Chujiu stood before the window, looking at the bustling Konohagakure filled with shops and endless streams of people, and revealed a satisfied smile.

After years of effort, Konohagakure's policy of great unification had been steadily implemented, a super unified market had been built, and the power integration within the village was largely complete.

Thus, a brand-new economic order with Konohagakure at its core began to exert its influence, which was the reason for this prosperity that far exceeded the era of the Third Hokage's rule.

If this were a normal world, it would be impossible for any enemy to challenge Konohagakure, which held the strongest military force in the Ninja World, the most prosperous economy, and two-thirds of the revenue.

Unless the enemy came from the sky.

But this was the Ninja World, and there were truly enemies in the sky!

What was even more dire was that this time the enemy came from underground; a ghost who had been dead for decades had been resurrected!

Yamanaka Chujiu returned to his seat—not the Hokage's throne, but his seat as the acting Hokage.

He took out two scrolls he had just received, each marked with the word "Secret." He then tore off the binding strings, unfolded the scrolls, and saw lines of scribbled intelligence.

This was an emergency request for aid from Sunagakure:

Sunagakure had been raided by unknown intruders; the barrier remained intact with no traces of Ninjutsu activation, but all the guarding Sand Hidden Ninja were dead, and the One-Tails jinchuriki Gaara had gone missing. The Wind Shadow searched with all their might but found no traces of the enemy, concluding that they had been attacked by Space-Time Ninjutsu.

The Fourth Kazekage, in the name of an ally, requested support from Konohagakure.

Yamanaka Chujiu only read it once before coming up with the perpetrator's name: "Uchiha Obito, has the Akatsuki organization prepared for the Fourth Shinobi World War this quickly?"

He opened the second scroll with suspicion, not expecting it to also be intelligence regarding a jinchuriki being attacked.

A series of outposts in the Land of Earth had been attacked simultaneously; the Four-Tails jinchuriki Roshi, who lived outside the village, and the Five-Tails jinchuriki Han, who was out on a mission, had both lost contact.

The Iwagakure outpost closest to where the two went missing had been destroyed, the fortifications completely leveled by large-scale Earth Style and Fire Release Ninjutsu, with the rock layers fractured for miles.

A massive, extreme amount of chakra remained at the center of the battlefield, its pressure persisting for two days afterward; it was estimated that over a hundred Cloud Ninja had died in this attack.

Yamanaka Chujiu frowned tightly.

Both jinchuriki from Iwagakure were Shadow-level ninja who had been through hundreds of battles and were proficient in using Tailed Beast chakra, yet they were crushed head-on without even being able to send out a distress signal.

There was no one in the entire Ninja World who possessed such combat power.

Even Nagato of the Akatsuki organization could not do it.

Ever since Yamanaka Chujiu had seized the Pain Deva Path, it was impossible for him to have replaced the Rinnegan puppet in such a short time, let alone finish tuning the Rinnegan chakra.

Yamanaka Chujiu placed the two pieces of intelligence side-by-side on his desk, closed his eyes to recall the plot of the original story, and chaotic thoughts surfaced in his mind.

Two ninja villages over a thousand miles apart had been attacked simultaneously, and the targets of the attacks were very clear: the jinchuriki and the Tailed Beasts.

On the side of Sunagakure, the intruders had taken Gaara away silently without even touching the barrier; only Kamui could achieve this, so the one who acted must have been Uchiha Obito.

But on the side of Iwagakure, it was not a covert operation; instead, multiple outposts were forcefully breached, two mature jinchuriki were captured after the battle, and even the reinforcements were wiped out.

Who exactly did this?

Otsutsuki Isshiki, who had been operating in secret for thousands of years?

The descendants of Hamura, who watched the situation of the Ninja World coldly from the moon?

Or another Otsutsuki who traveled through time and accidentally entered this out-of-control timeline?

Yamanaka Chujiu slowly shook his head; he remembered a legendary figure who had long since died: Madara Uchiha.

Nagato, Samsara Heavenly Life Technique, Black Zetsu, Obito, Madara Uchiha...

Yamanaka Chujiu nodded firmly: "It should be exactly like this; Madara Uchiha has been resurrected ahead of schedule."

With Madara Uchiha resurrected and personally entering the field to execute the Tailed Beast capture mission, it was clear that Black Zetsu was truly anxious and had been frightened by the development momentum of Konohagakure.

They had no patience to continue operating the Akatsuki organization and were no longer considering infiltration or gathering combat power; they had started capturing Tailed Beasts directly.

This meant they were in a hurry to awaken the Ten-Tails and initiate the Eye of the Moon Plan!

The current landscape of the Ninja World was already vastly different from the original timeline.

Konohagakure had become the sole superpower to the point of annexing Kirigakure, and surrounding small countries like Iron Country, Tian Country, Tang Country, and Bo Country had "voluntarily" submitted, "willingly" accepting Konohagakure's rule.

Only the former Five Great Ninja Villages—Kumogakure, Sunagakure, and Iwagakure—were unwilling to give up, taking the lead to unite with other ninja villages whose survival space had been suppressed by Konohagakure to form an Anti-Konoha Alliance, secretly hoarding troops and constantly thinking of overthrowing Konohagakure's hegemony.

This was already a sign of the Fourth Shinobi World War; the various ninja village factions were fractured and unlikely to be twisted into a single rope, and the situation was even more troublesome than during the original Fourth Shinobi World War.

Yamanaka Chujiu did not keep worrying, but instead joked with a smile: "Why am I worrying here? I am not the Fifth Hokage of Konohagakure."

"For such troublesome matters, of course, we must let the Fifth Hokage, Teacher Orochimaru, make the decision!"

"By the way, having raised Jiraiya and Tsunade for so long, the two of the Legendary Sannin should also contribute some effort!"

Saying this, Yamanaka Chujiu summoned two Uchiha ninja and had them go to invite the babysitting dad Jiraiya and the gambling-addicted, irritable Tsunade respectively.

Yamanaka Chujiu went personally to invite his own teacher, Orochimaru.

In a secret laboratory in Konohagakure, Orochimaru was conducting research on the stripped Tailed Beasts.

Standing beside him were the Cloud Ninja Nii Yugito and the Waterfall Village ninja Fu, each responsible for recording experimental data.

Their current state was strange; the Tailed Beasts had been stripped from their bodies, and while the people had not died because of it, they could not leave the Tailed Beasts too far away, and they had not yet fully gained their freedom.

Orochimaru's method of stripping was clever, and what he was currently researching was exactly how to completely sever the connection between the Tailed Beasts and the jinchuriki, thereby analyzing the uniqueness of Tailed Beast chakra.

Yamanaka Chujiu's arrival interrupted Orochimaru's experiment.

But this experimental fanatic was not angry because of it; he knew how reliable his student was and would never come to disturb him unless it was a last resort.

Orochimaru waved his hand to let the two jinchuriki step back, then asked: "Chujiu, my dear student, what major event has happened in the Ninja World again?"

Yamanaka Chujiu smiled bitterly: "This time it is a truly major event; if handled poorly, it will be the end of the world that Jiraiya keeps muttering about."

Orochimaru was stunned: "Hiss, are you joking with me?"

Yamanaka Chujiu shrugged: "The situation is very serious; I am really not joking."

"I can be certain that Madara Uchiha has been resurrected."

Orochimaru was silent for a long while before saying: "Ah, if Madara Uchiha has been resurrected, then things have indeed become quite serious."

He sighed, took off his lab coat, put on his combat uniform, tied his rope belt, and draped his Hokage Haori over his shoulders: "Let's go. Under such a world-ending disaster, there is no room for a quiet laboratory table."

"Let me resolve the disaster first, and then I can properly enjoy my experiments."