Chapter 407: Reincarnation of the Sage of Six Paths' Chakra?

Rensuke Sosuke made a name for himself again, becoming known to many ninjas in an extremely short time.

This time was different from before; previously it was because Sosuke's alias had too legendary an experience to easily spark discussion, but this time it was purely about strength.

The ninja world is a world where strength reigns supreme, and the fastest way to gain fame is to defeat an established strong opponent. The stronger and more famous the defeated opponent, the greater the impact.

Before participating in the Third Great Ninja War, Minato Namikaze was only somewhat famous within Konoha.

But after the war started, it was different. The new A-B Combo proved their strength with the corpses of veteran ninjas, while Minato Namikaze proved his strength by fighting the A-B Combo to a standstill, becoming the Yellow Flash that terrified the battlefield.

Of course, fighting doesn't always guarantee fame; it depends on the timing, the occasion, and personal intentions.

On the battlefield, it's hard not to become famous when making achievements. If Muyue happened to defeat Yegura and neither side publicized it, the impact wouldn't be significant.

Although Muyue didn't deliberately market his alias this time, because of the "Inheritance of the Ninja Sect," too many people were watching him. And when he fought Kakuzu, he did so openly, with both sides battling intensely. So the result of Muyue's fight with Kakuzu quickly spread.

The first to know were naturally the strongest force in the Land of Rain, Amegakure.

"Defeated Kakuzu, and maintained an advantage the whole time." Hanzo showed a thoughtful expression.

There aren't that many strong ninjas in the ninja world. Except for those hiding deep in the mountains and forests, even if their reputations aren't huge, everyone knows a bit about each other.

Hanzo had heard the stories of Kakuzu in the black market and knew that Kakuzu's strength was no joke.

After all, Kakuzu always targeted people with high bounties. High-bounty ninjas either had solid strength or special status. If Kakuzu lacked ability, he would have been killed long ago, not roamed the black market for decades.

Hanzo had previously clashed with Muyue in a battle of wills and knew Muyue was no ordinary ninja. But he hadn't expected Muyue to defeat Kakuzu so quickly.

"A pity he's not a ninja of my Amegakure." Hanzo shook his head regretfully.

Hanzo currently had a headache: Amegakure was facing a generational gap.

By the standards of an ordinary small ninja village, Amegakure was fine, but Hanzo had always aimed to match the Five Great Shinobi Villages. The next leader of Amegakure would also need to be a top-level ninja.

Unfortunately, Hanzo didn't see any young ninja in Amegakure with the potential to become a top-level strongman.

The recent addition to Amegakure, Kurosaki Ichigo, was good but not yet trustworthy.

"I should be able to hold out another twenty years. Amegakure still has time." Hanzo's expression returned to his usual calm.

As one of the apexes of the ninja world, Hanzo had enough confidence in himself.

Even though Muyue had beaten Kakuzu, Hanzo still only regarded Muyue as an excellent junior, not his match.

Hanzo wasn't arrogant without reason. Based on the battle data between Muyue and Kakuzu, Muyue's specialty was Fire Release, while Hanzo's specialty was Water Release, which counters Fire Release. Coupled with his superior combat experience and confidence in taijutsu, all comparisons led Hanzo to believe Muyue was no match for him.

Besides Amegakure, several large and small countries bordering the Land of Rain, as well as various ninja organizations, also learned that Kakuzu had been defeated.

In Konoha, at the Root headquarters, Danzo Shimura read the latest intelligence from the Land of Rain and inwardly cursed Hiruzen Sarutobi for being short-sighted.

If they had reinforced their ninja presence in the Land of Rain, they could have acted directly.

"I must find a way to obtain the Ninja Sect's Inheritance." Danzo began thinking about how to smoothly acquire the Ninja Sect's Inheritance from Muyue.

Then he would have both a Wood Release ninja and the Ninja Sect's Inheritance, making it only natural for him to become the Fourth Hokage.

However, Danzo faced a difficult problem: insufficient strength.

The forces he currently had in the Land of Rain were not enough to seize the Ninja Sect's Inheritance from Muyue.

Muyue was not only a strong ninja who could defeat Kakuzu, but he also had seventy-two ninjas following him—a considerable force.

But this didn't stump Danzo. He quickly came up with a countermeasure through empathy.

"I can ally with Hanzo against Sosuke." Danzo thought to himself.

With Muyue so strong and wanting to rebuild the Ninja Sect, if Danzo were Hokage and the Land of Fire had such a ninja force, Danzo would be unable to eat or sleep. One's bedside is no place for others to sleep peacefully.

The more Danzo thought about it, the better his plan seemed.

Hanzo would eliminate a major threat, he would obtain the Ninja Sect's Inheritance—everyone would have a bright future.

"I can also take the opportunity to deepen cooperation with Amegakure, let them join the war, and support my candidacy for the Fourth Hokage later." Danzo nodded in satisfaction.

If his plan succeeded, it would be the best outcome for both him and Konoha.

After refining his plan, Danzo immediately issued orders for his subordinates to begin operations.

First, he needed to investigate the relationship between the two parties. If it wasn't as he thought, then he would have to fan the flames of hatred between them.

Besides assigning tasks to the Root ninja, Danzo also began to think of ways to legitimately leave Konoha.

For such an important matter, he definitely had to meet Hanzo in person.

Land of Earth, Tsuchikage's office in Iwagakure.

Onoki looked at the latest intelligence from the Land of Rain with an interested expression on his face. "Ninja Master Sosuke, a Ninja Sect? Interesting."

He didn't care about the legendary experiences of Muyue; Onoki just had a feeling that this ninja was someone who liked to cause trouble.

In just over a month, he went from unknown to famous in the ninja world, and gained a group of followers.

However, what Onoki found regrettable was that Muyue was only making trouble in the Land of Rain. If Muyue were making trouble in one of the other four great nations, Onoki would not hesitate to join in and escalate the situation.

Onoki wasn't very interested in the Land of Rain; weakening the strength of Amegakure was not in the interests of Iwagakure.

He still hoped to use Amegakure to annoy Sunagakure and Kumogakure.

Although the village's ninja force had exceeded ten thousand, Onoki was not in a hurry to strike with full force; he wanted to first exhaust the strength of the other great ninja villages.

Therefore, Onoki had been implementing a "troublemaker plan," stirring up conflicts between the various ninja villages and making them wage war.

In a dimly lit cave, listening to Black Zetsu's report, Madara Uchiha frowned.

"Have you investigated this guy named Sosuke?" Madara Uchiha asked in a deep voice.

Nagato played a crucial role in his resurrection plan, so the sudden appearance of a strong person by Nagato's side greatly concerned Madara Uchiha.

"I've investigated, but I didn't find anything. Maybe this guy really has been in seclusion training, as he claims," Black Zetsu shook his head and said.

In fact, Black Zetsu was even more concerned about Muyue than Madara Uchiha, because Muyue had raised the banner of the Ninja Sect and claimed to have inherited its legacy.

If there was one person Black Zetsu feared the most, it was definitely the Sage of Six Paths.

Black Zetsu could be considered Kaguya Ōtsutsuki's third son, making him the younger brother of the Sage of Six Paths.

He had no means against that older brother who sealed away their mother; when the Sage of Six Paths was alive, Black Zetsu dared not come out and cause trouble.

If there really was a Ninja Sect legacy, Black Zetsu would only think it was a backup plan left by the Sage of Six Paths to prevent Kaguya's revival, not a legacy of Indra and Asura.

Didn't Black Zetsu know what Indra and Asura were like? Those two simpletons were not worth fearing at all.

So Black Zetsu very seriously dispatched White Zetsu to investigate Sosuke's past.

But Sosuke seemed to have popped out of a stone; all the intelligence Black Zetsu could find was what the other party himself had said.

Black Zetsu had wondered if this might be a fake identity, but there was no trace of Transformation Technique on Muyue. Even if the name was fake, based on his appearance, something should be traceable.

After comprehensive investigation, Black Zetsu concluded that Sosuke might really have been in seclusion training all along, which resulted in such investigation findings.

"Strengthen surveillance on Nagato's side," Madara Uchiha said after pondering.

Now he didn't have a good solution either; he couldn't just go out and kill the other party himself, could he?

Although Madara Uchiha was confident in his own strength, time had indeed eroded his body. The cost of killing Muyue might be a shortened lifespan, which would affect his overall plan.

Madara Uchiha wasn't too panicked either. Before, a powerful ninja had also appeared by Nagato's side. If Muyue didn't recognize the Rinnegan or had no interest in it, then he wouldn't be able to significantly affect his plan.

Black Zetsu nodded.

Actually, he had already dispatched White Zetsu to keep a 24-hour watch on Nagato's side; he was very worried that Muyue might be a backup plan of the Sage of Six Paths.

Black Zetsu even had a wild guess in his mind: perhaps Muyue was the reincarnation of the Sage of Six Paths' chakra.

It was possible. Which normal ninja would stay in the mountains training without coming out, and then upon leaving immediately seek to restore the Ninja Sect?

However, this guess was too bold, and Black Zetsu also thought the probability was very low. Although the methods Muyue had shown so far were impressive, they were still within normal bounds.

"It seems we need to speed up the progress a bit." Madara Uchiha prepared to use his own arrangements to further destabilize the ninja world.

Plans couldn't keep up with changes. To prevent major accidents, Madara Uchiha wanted to accelerate his plan, so he could die in peace and await his resurrection.

Muyue's defeat of Kakuzu attracted too much attention. His bounty on the black market skyrocketed, directly reaching an astonishing forty million ryo.

This was a terrifying number. Converted to S-rank missions, it could be used to post forty S-rank missions in Konoha.

Although the bounty had skyrocketed, the number of attacks Muyue suffered actually decreased.

After hearing that Kakuzu, a legendary ninja in the black market, had been defeated by Muyue, the vast majority of bounty hunters dared not act rashly.

Bounty hunters do love money, but they also value their lives—after all, there's no point in earning more if you're dead.

After defeating Kakuzu, Mu Yue's group didn't change their pace much; they just had one more person in the team.

Because Kakuzu's body was rather unusual, Mu Yue specially bought him a robe so he wouldn't scare ordinary people.

"Why care about those ordinary people?" Kakuzu didn't mind what he wore, but was puzzled.

"Just giving them the respect they deserve. We're all human; no one is inherently nobler than anyone else." Mu Yue replied seriously.

Kakuzu gave a cold laugh. "Sounds nice, but then why do nobles exist? Aren't nobles born superior?"

"Nobles are born with fiefs and privileges—how is that equality?"

All the ninjas looked at Mu Yue, curious how he would answer.

This question wasn't really an issue among ninjas; at worst, clan ninjas had more resources and secret techniques than civilian ninjas, but the gap between commoners and nobles was huge.

"You're right. That's why I think the system of noble privileges should be abolished." Mu Yue replied with a faint smile.

Kakuzu's eyes widened as he stared at Mu Yue—this wasn't the script he had imagined.

Mu Yue not only didn't refute him, but actually said something so "rebellious."

"Do you know what you're saying? The Daimyo are the biggest nobles." Kakuzu studied Mu Yue as if seeing him anew.

The most privileged people in the Ninja World were the Daimyo; their descendants could enjoy wealth and status without doing anything, and their every word could decide the life or death of countless people.

The other ninjas were also stunned, staring at Mu Yue—this was definitely the boldest thing they had ever heard.

"The Ninja Sect I want to create isn't exactly the same as the historical one; it will be a new Ninja Sect that learns from past failures." Mu Yue brought the topic back to the Ninja Sect.

Kakuzu thought Mu Yue was going to dodge the issue and was about to mock him, but then Mu Yue's next words were even more explosive.

"Rikudō Sennin was far-sighted, but the Ninja Sect he founded couldn't escape the limitations of its era; the biggest mistake was adopting the hereditary system."

Mu Yue actually started pointing out Rikudō Sennin's shortcomings.

The ninjas were very surprised, because earlier Mu Yue had been praising the Ninja Sect and admiring Rikudō Sennin.

"We must learn and absorb the good aspects of Rikudō Sennin and the ancient Ninja Sect, but we also have to discard the dregs, and dare to criticize boldly."

"No matter who makes a mistake, a mistake is a mistake. Don't blindly follow just because someone is an authority. If one day you find I'm wrong, you can point it out and make me correct it." Mu Yue said earnestly.

Kakuzu didn't know what to say for a moment; he could only silently note Mu Yue's words in his heart, waiting for the day Mu Yue would contradict himself. He didn't believe such a person really existed in the world.

The other seventy-two ninjas also gained a new understanding of Mu Yue.

"Uncle Sōsuke made a good point. From now on, if I ever make a mistake, you guys must point it out immediately—don't hold back just because I'm the leader." Yahiko said with a smile to his Akatsuki members.

He thought Mu Yue's words were absolutely right, but if he had to think of it himself, he never could have come up with such words in a lifetime. Yahiko felt even more respect for Mu Yue in his heart.

After that day, the content of Mu Yue's lectures changed a bit. In addition to ninja knowledge, he integrated some knowledge from his past life with the ancient Ninja Sect and the reality of the Ninja World to explain.