161. Sage Kisame!

The Hokage Building, office.

The Fourth Hokage, Jiraiya, was holding a high-level meeting with members of the Konoha Elder Council.

Aside from him, the other three members in attendance were Uchiha Fugaku, Hyuga Hizashi, and Namikaze Minato. Fugaku, the oldest among them, was only thirty, while Minato, the youngest, was barely in his early twenties.

Counting thirty-seven-year-old Jiraiya, this generation of Konoha's leadership was remarkably younger compared to the previous one.

"I called you all here today because urgent intelligence has been transmitted from the Land of Rain," Jiraiya said, sitting in his chair, making eye contact with the three men one by one before speaking with a grave expression. "According to reliable sources, Danzo and Orochimaru have fled to the Land of Rain and colluded with the Fourth Kazekage, Rasa. Along with them are a mysterious individual wielding the Mangekyo Sharingan, as well as my three former disciples."

As soon as these words were spoken, the three men in the room wore looks of astonishment, their complexions turning solemn.

The difference, however, was that the three focused on entirely different aspects of Jiraiya's statement.

"Danzo and Orochimaru have defected to Sunagakure? Kazekage Rasa's actions completely disregard Konoha. Is he preparing to declare war on us?" Hyuga Hizashi said in a deep voice.

Uchiha Fugaku paid no attention to that, instead frowning and pressing Jiraiya further: "Lord Hokage, who is this mysterious person with the Mangekyo Sharingan? Has his identity been uncovered?"

Jiraiya shook his head, gazing at Fugaku. "I was actually going to ask if you had any clues. It seems you don't know either."

Fugaku sensed Jiraiya's suspicion, his expression hardening as he replied, "I can guarantee that the Uchiha clan has absolutely nothing to do with this matter. However, since that person possesses the Mangekyo, there is a high probability he was once a shinobi of the Uchiha. I will send people to investigate thoroughly."

"With Clan Head Fugaku saying so, I am relieved." Jiraiya nodded, breaking into a smile. Based on his understanding of Fugaku, the man was someone who considered the bigger picture and held peace close to his heart; he wouldn't do something like colluding with an enemy nation.

Even if he had, he wouldn't have been so blatant about it.

At that moment, Namikaze Minato, who had remained silent, suddenly spoke to Jiraiya: "Lord Hokage, you once mentioned to me that after the Second Great Ninja War ended, you stayed behind in the Land of Rain to take in three orphans, spending several years teaching them ninjutsu. Are the three disciples you mentioned just now, who are currently with Danzo and the others, those very same three?"

"That's right." Jiraiya sighed, his expression turning even heavier.

He had originally thought Nagato and the other two had perished in the chaos of war, and had grieved for them for a long time, but now it seemed they were all alive and well.

Hearing this news, Jiraiya ought to have been overjoyed, but according to the available intelligence, Kazekage Rasa had somehow managed to rope Nagato and the others in, bringing them into Sunagakure's fold.

Nagato possessed the Rinnegan, the very same eyes as the Sage of Six Paths, and was recognized by Jiraiya as the Child of Prophecy. He had once firmly believed that Nagato would, according to the Great Toad Sage's prophecy, bring true peace to the ninja world.

Yet now, Nagato was standing on the opposing side of Konoha.

For Konoha, this was undoubtedly extremely bad news.

Consequently, after some deliberation, Jiraiya ordered the formation of an elite reconnaissance squad, with Namikaze Minato acting as team captain. The members included elite jonin such as Hyuga Hizashi, Uchiha Shisui, Hatake Kakashi, and Might Guy.

Their mission was to infiltrate the Land of Rain and investigate what was transpiring there.

"There is one more matter." Jiraiya tapped his fingers lightly on the desk, announcing another piece of news: "Mount Myoboku has decided to open up ten slots for cultivating senjutsu to Konoha. If you have suitable candidates, you may recommend them to me."

Upon hearing this, both Uchiha Fugaku and Hyuga Hizashi lit up with interest, their minds stirring.

The two of them had long heard tales of Sage Mode.

Especially not long ago, when Jiraiya had relied on Mount Myoboku's senjutsu to momentarily suppress the Monster-form Kisame Hoshigaki on the battlefield, recovering a great deal of face for Konoha.

How could anyone not covet such formidable power?

The first candidate that popped into Fugaku's mind was his son, Uchiha Itachi. Itachi was a precocious child, displaying astonishing talent in ninjutsu at a very tender age. If he had the opportunity to go to Mount Myoboku in the future, he would surely be able to master the Sage Mode there.

Hizashi also wished to secure as many slots as possible for the Hyuga clan.

After all, during the Third Great Ninja War, the Hyuga clan's performance had been mediocre. Especially compared to the Uchiha's Mangekyo Sharingan, they had been completely outclassed.

Within the Hyuga clan, the thirst for formidable power was stronger than ever before.

In contrast, Namikaze Minato was the calmest of the three.

Coming from a commoner background with no clan members to speak of, he naturally didn't need to break his head fighting for slots. Moreover, he had already visited Mount Myoboku long ago and had learned a half-baked version of senjutsu.

Still, Minato thought of his student, Kakashi, and decided to let the latter try his luck at Mount Myoboku.

Jiraiya took in the subtle emotional shifts of the three men.

In short, he intended to leverage the power of Mount Myoboku to build a senjutsu troop over the next few years, forging them into Konoha's trump card.

Only with this strength would Jiraiya have the confidence to confront ninja demigods like Kisame Hoshigaki, as well as potentially powerful enemies like Nagato.

Land of Water, Kirigakure.

Ever since Kisame became the Fifth Mizukage, he had taken a completely hands-off approach, playing the absentee boss and disappearing without a trace for over half a month.

Normally, with Elders like Aoshi managing the village's affairs, nothing would go wrong. But three days ago, the messenger of the Land of Water's Daimyo suddenly arrived in Kirigakure.

And he arrived with an aggressive aura.

Logically speaking, Kirigakure defeating powerful Konoha and winning the Third Great Ninja War should have been a nationwide celebration for everyone in the Land of Water.

Under normal circumstances, Kirigakure should also have secured more mercenary missions and military funding from the Daimyo's estate.

However, when the Daimyo of the Land of Water heard that after defeating Konoha, Kisame had unilaterally negotiated with Konoha without seeking any instructions from him, he was instantly enraged.

What made the Daimyo even more furious was that Kisame had neither demanded territorial cessions nor requested any war reparations from Konoha; instead, he had asked for a mountain of ninjutsu scrolls, cellular plant specimens, and a woman.

Oh, and a stone sculpture on the Hokage Monument.

In other words, all the benefits this war should have brought to the Daimyo's estate of the Land of Water had been swallowed whole by the Fifth Mizukage alone.

What the Daimyo found most intolerable was that a full month had passed since the war's end, and this newly appointed Mizukage hadn't even offered the Daimyo's estate an explanation—he was completely nowhere to be found.

It was simply a blatant disregard for the Daimyo's authority.

"Rebellion! An ignorant fool who knows neither the height of the heavens nor the depth of the earth!"

The Daimyo of the Land of Water could no longer contain his wrath and ordered Kisame Hoshigaki to present himself for an audience, only to receive the report that Kisame was in closed-door seclusion and unavailable.

Livid, the Daimyo immediately dispatched messengers to Kirigakure to interrogate Aoshi and the rest of the Kiri leadership.

"If Kisame Hoshigaki does not show his face within three days, the Daimyo's estate will not only halt all economic aid to Kirigakure, but will also dispatch a massive army to crusade against you and hold you accountable. By then, what awaits your Kirigakure will be complete annihilation!"

In front of the Mizukage Building, the Daimyo's messenger fanned himself and scolded Aoshi and the others with an arrogant air.

Hearing this, everyone exchanged glances, filled with worry and anxiety.

A country and a village system was a universally popular institution across the nations of the ninja world, but in reality, the major nations and their respective ninja villages were not mutually dependent lips and teeth; rather, their relationship leaned more heavily toward that of employer and employee.

In the original story, the Daimyo of the Land of Wind had once looked down on his own Sunagakure, intending to give more mercenary missions to neighboring Konoha, which resulted in Suna's strength being repeatedly undermined to the point of near collapse.

The Daimyo of the Land of Fire, too, dissatisfied with Konoha, had threatened the Fifth Lady Tsunade with dispatching a large army to destroy Konoha.

To the Daimyo's estate of the Land of Water, Kirigakure was similarly an expendable existence. Even if Kirigakure were wiped out by Konoha in the Third Great Ninja War, the Land of Water would not perish.

Whether it was the samurai of the past or the shinobi of the present, they were merely dogs raised by the Daimyo's estate. If a dog didn't listen, it was put down and replaced with another.

At least, that was how the Daimyo of the Land of Water saw it.

Faced with the impending threat of village destruction, everyone in Kirigakure was on edge. Aside from a faction of shinobi, the army controlled by the Daimyo's estate also numbered hundreds of thousands of ordinary troops—an equally formidable force.

Yet current Kirigakure, even counting all ordinary villagers, numbered only a few thousand people. What did they have to contend with the Daimyo's estate?

Only the invincible Fifth Mizukage, Kisame Hoshigaki, could save Kirigakure's fate once more.

In the small courtyard beside the Mizukage Building.

Inside a room, Yura tracked down Shizune, explaining the grim situation facing Kiri and demanding that she immediately find a way to contact Kisame.

Kisame and Tsunade had gone off to Shikkotsu Forest half a month ago, and not a single shred of news had been sent back, leaving even Yura wondering if something had gone wrong.

Hearing this, Shizune didn't dare dawdle under Yura's threat, quickly summoning a palm-sized slug from her sleeve.

"Lord Katsuyu, I'm sorry to trouble you." Shizune relayed the situation to the tiny slug, pleading with it to carry the message back to Shikkotsu Forest.

The tiny slug twitched its tentacles, turning into a puff of white smoke and vanishing with a soft *pop*.

All they could do now was wait.

***

Shikkotsu Forest.

More than a dozen shadow clones of Kisame Hoshigaki sat cross-legged in a circle on the open ground, their eyes tightly closed as they practiced senjutsu.

*Pop!* *Pop!*

Shadow clones continuously vanished, turning into memories and experiences that flowed into Kisame's main body. Meanwhile, he continuously replenished new clones, maintaining his cultivation efficiency at over tenfold.

Several days of cultivation equated to months of hard training.

After attempting numerous methods and expending a great deal of energy, Kisame's second stage of senjutsu training was nearing success.

The degree of cellular activation within his body was controlled within an acceptable range and was gradually stabilizing.

This process went far more smoothly than Kisame had anticipated.

On second thought, while cultivating senjutsu might be extremely difficult for most people, for those with true aptitude, mastery was only a matter of time.

In the original work, Uzumaki Naruto had taken merely half a month to master Mount Myoboku's senjutsu. Kisame considered his own aptitude no inferior to Naruto's, so there was no reason he should be slower.

At a certain moment.

*Pop, pop, pop, pop!*

All dozen or so of Kisame's shadow clones vanished instantly, leaving only his main body.

He slowly opened his eyes and stood up.

When a person entered Sage Mode, a certain degree of animalistic transformation would occur; the most typical example was Jiraiya, who developed numerous toad characteristics.

This was the so-called Sage facial markings.

The more pronounced these animal traits were, the lower the degree of Sage transformation. Taking Jiraiya as an example again, it had taken him over a decade to complete Sage Mode cultivation, and he even needed the assistance of Shima and Fukasaku, relying on the Amphibian Technique just to enter Sage Mode.

The degree of Kisame's Sage transformation was clearly much higher than Jiraiya's—infinitely superior, in fact.

Because at this very moment, not a single slug characteristic had appeared on his body; there was merely some black eye shadow around his eyes and a circular pattern on his forehead that resembled a black sun.

It was identical to the Sage facial markings Senju Hashirama had possessed back in the day.

"Lord Kisame, congratulations!"

A Katsuyu clone crawled over, congratulating Kisame with a deeply delighted tone.

Tsunade also walked over, staring at Kisame in shock with a very complicated look in her eyes.

Though she detested this fellow, she had to admit that his talent was enviable, far surpassing her own. In Tsunade's understanding, it seemed only her grandfather could compare to Kisame Hoshigaki.

"Please step back a bit, I'd like to test the power of senjutsu."

At that moment, Kisame spoke to the woman and the slug, specifically assuring Katsuyu that he would try his best to control his power and avoid causing destruction to Shikkotsu Forest.

Once they had retreated a certain distance, Kisame took a deep breath and pressed his palms together.

"Hah!"

With a low shout, a tiny sapling burst through the soil, rapidly growing into a ten-meter-tall tree.

Wood Release?

Seeing this, Tsunade's expression mingled surprise with confusion—if it was merely this level of Wood Release, even she could easily accomplish it, with no need to make a huge fuss and utilize Sage Mode.

However, she quickly realized she was mistaken.

Because that hundred-meter-tall tree did not stop growing; instead, it climbed toward the sky once more, shooting up to fifty meters, eighty meters, and ultimately exceeding one hundred meters in a remarkably short span of time.

*Rumble...*

Amidst a deafening roar, this hundred-meter-tall giant tree morphed, transforming in the blink of an eye into a massive, mountain-like wooden arhat.

The wooden figure stood one hundred meters tall, its muscles tightly corded, its face bearing the expression of a wrathful Vajra, while a lifelike wooden dragon dozens of meters long coiled around its arm.

Wood Release: Wood Human Technique.

This was one of Senju Hashirama's strongest techniques, utilizing massive amounts of senjutsu chakra to create a wooden arhat rivaling the size of a Complete Body Susanoo. This wooden figure could catch a Tailed Beast Ball with a single hand and go toe-to-toe with the Nine-Tails in close combat without losing the upper hand.

*Whoosh.*

Kisame leaped into the air, scaling the massive body of the wooden figure all the way up until he reached a triangular space atop its head.

It was akin to the cockpit of this wooden arhat, and at this moment, Kisame had become a giant mecha pilot.

"Is this the power Senju Hashirama possessed?"

Standing atop the wooden figure's head, he looked down at Shikkotsu Forest below, a sense of transcendence welling up from deep within him—like a deity looking down upon all living things.

From this day forth, he was the Sage, Kisame Hoshigaki.