Rain Country (Third Update)

On the dark bridge beneath Root, Danzo stood there alone.

Then, a figure appeared before Danzo in an unusually abrupt manner. Xu Yue still spoke with the same respectful attitude and tone he had used when first meeting Danzo.

"Lord Danzo."

There was not even the slightest difference in his intonation.

"Yue, although I dislike you greatly, I acknowledge your loyalty to Konoha."

Danzo stared coldly at Xu Yue with his single eye.

Although Danzo’s methods were despicable and underhanded, his devotion to Konoha had never changed.

Originally, he had not wanted Uchiha Yue, who was connected to the Uchiha Clan, involved in this mission. But throughout Root, aside from himself, Uchiha Yue was unquestionably the strongest.

Now that the Fourth Hokage had just died and the position of Hokage remained undecided, Danzo could not spare the time. He could only rely on him.

"If only you did not bear the Uchiha name."

Danzo did not know what he had recalled as he spoke faintly. Back at that meeting, he had been the one who had argued forcefully that Xu Yue, while using the title of Anbu advisor as his public identity, could not act in the name of the Uchiha Clan.

"Please give your orders, sir."

Xu Yue did not respond to Danzo’s words and instead asked about the mission.

"Hmph. A rather concerning organization has recently appeared in the Land of Rain. It calls itself Akatsuki, and its momentum is formidable. I fear it may be detrimental to Konoha."

Seeing that Uchiha Yue did not give him the answer he wanted, Danzo went straight to the mission.

The Land of Rain lay at the intersection of the Land of Wind, Land of Earth, and Land of Fire. It had suffered war year-round, yet it also possessed Hanzo, known as a demigod. Among the smaller nations, its military potential was among the strongest.

It had been the main battlefield of the Second Shinobi World War.

However, due to the internal chaos in the country and the Land of Fire’s swift resolution of its troubles with the Land of Wind and Land of Earth, the Third Shinobi World War had had little presence there.

Only after Konoha blew up the bridge had it faced off against the Land of Earth there for a time.

The internal strife in the Land of Rain could be said to have been tacitly permitted and fueled by all three neighboring powers.

The potential displayed by the Land of Rain during the Second Shinobi World War had made all three nations wary.

On Konoha’s side, it was Danzo who had orchestrated it all!

Previously, when Iwagakure could no longer endure its war with Hidden Cloud and agreed to sign a peace treaty with Konoha, Danzo had strongly opposed it.

In his view, Konoha, having been the first to withdraw from the Third Ninja War, had more than enough strength left to deal Iwagakure a devastating blow. At the very least, they could have demanded massive war reparations. So he personally led a team to the Land of Rain and created the illusion of conflict between Konoha and Iwagakure, having Root members transform into Iwagakure shinobi.

But that time, he had encountered the legendary Rinnegan!

An organization with immense potential and cohesion, along with a terrifying genius possessing the Rinnegan within it—such a massive threat might truly unify the Land of Rain.

Danzo would never allow that!

Originally, he had intended to personally resolve the problem then and there. But Uchiha Yue had sent word that the Fourth Hokage was about to take office, so he had hurried back.

That brief delay had resulted in Konoha completing its peace treaty with Iwagakure.

Then, since he had already returned, he began considering how best to make use of Orochimaru. He planned to first force him out of Konoha and turn him into a stray dog, then extend an olive branch and have him work for him. Everything had been carefully arranged.

But just as he was about to act, the Nine-Tails Incident erupted. Trouble after trouble had come without end. When he had finally been able to free up some time, the battle for the position of Hokage had begun, and he had to remain behind to wait for an opportunity.

Over there, however, things likely could not be delayed any longer!

What he had originally intended to handle personally could only be handed over to this fellow…

"…Regarding this, I have already contacted Hanzo. Hanzo is old now and no longer possesses his former ambition. He is more than capable of maintaining what he has, but lacks the drive to advance. Cooperating with him is most suitable. You will serve as our representative there. I trust you can do it well…"

"Understood."

With the same utterly respectful expression, Xu Yue vanished from Root the next moment.

Seeing Xu Yue disappear, Danzo’s eyes turned somewhat cold. Looking at the mark on the ground where Xu Yue had appeared, he could not help but snort.

Though he was still quite a way from the Fourth Hokage’s level, this fellow had learned Flying Thunder God quickly enough…

After suffering a Heavy Strike in his clash with the Fourth Hokage, Obito’s originally fused body had begun to show signs of dissolving.

He had only just managed to stabilize it again.

"It seems I really do need some helpers."

His failure to obtain the Nine-Tails had made Obito recognize his own shortcomings once more. It seemed he still had to gain that person’s support!

Since your heart leaned toward the light, I would drag you back into darkness myself!

"How are the preparations on Konoha’s side?"

Obito, whose body had been stitched back together and repaired, asked Zetsu.

With half his body merged into the earth, Zetsu replied in a hoarse voice.

"That old fox Danzo would naturally never allow Akatsuki to grow too powerful. He already sowed discord between Hanzo and Akatsuki back then. Now, he has sent someone you know very well."

At the mention of someone he knew very well, Obito’s hand trembled involuntarily.

The image of that terrifying Wood Style: Deep Forest Emergence surfaced in his mind.

Even Madara Uchiha had hurriedly left behind a few instructions before dying ahead of time after fighting that person.

He had not expected that fellow to come!

Would there be trouble?

Obito, who had once felt that nothing mattered anymore, rarely revealed a trace of concern.

"If he joins forces with Hanzo, Nagato and the others will not really run into trouble, will they? No, I need to go and keep watch."

Having first stolen Madara away, then later stolen the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki while under that man’s protection, Obito was quite confident in his ability to protect himself and escape!

Although the other party now understood his characteristics, as long as he did not take the initiative to attack him, that man would have no way to deal with him.

"Rest assured. Hanzo did not even regard the Sannin back then. Now, only a disciple of one of the Sannin is coming to his door. The two sides will not get along so harmoniously…"

Hearing Zetsu’s words, Obito fell silent for a moment and said nothing more.

Zetsu was a backup Madara had left behind. He both assisted and monitored him, and knew much that Obito did not. It was very possible that there were other hidden pieces in the Land of Rain…

Dressed in a straw raincoat and wearing a conical hat, Xu Yue stepped into the Land of Rain. Looking up at the dark clouds and the oppressive thunder, he understood that the Land of Rain had not earned its name for nothing.

He had already put away his forehead protector. He had to conceal his identity to complete the rendezvous.

Root originally had quite a few shinobi assisting him, but Xu Yue had not traveled with them, and those people did not dare defy his orders.

Tap, tap.

Raindrops began falling to the ground. The muffled thunder that had only sounded intermittently before now gave way to a torrential downpour.

Xu Yue did not care about this bit of rain. He simply pressed onward, heading deeper into the Land of Rain through the storm.

This country, ravaged by war year after year, also showed Xu Yue the cruel side of warfare.

Perpetual conflict meant no farming and no production. Food supplies could not keep up, worsening the chaos even further.

In just a single day of travel, the number of bandits he had casually dealt with had already exceeded ten.

He had also used the Vanishing Facial Copy Technique to change his appearance using one of the bandits.

This was far more powerful than the Transformation Jutsu. Even the Sharingan could not see through it.

As a small nation, although it possessed a Kage-level powerhouse like Hanzo, its overall strength was far too lacking. Among the people Xu Yue encountered, even genin could be considered formidable figures.

"So this is the pain brought by war. Is this where Nagato’s later idea of making people experience pain came from? Unfortunately, I have not run into any current Akatsuki members."

The current Akatsuki was completely different from when the story began. It was a highly positive organization, and its members were not mysterious either. They were simply all quite weak.

During the Third Ninja War, he had used his identity in Root to make a few moves behind the scenes. He should have helped them survive another round, otherwise Danzo would likely have already urged Hanzo to act against them.

It seemed those actions of his had not been wasted.

"Here they come again? You people are becoming a little annoying."

Sensing the killing intent ahead in the forest, which remained undisguised even beneath the falling rain, Xu Yue raised a hand and lifted the brim of his rain hat, revealing scarlet eyes beneath it.

But at that moment, two figures suddenly darted out and arrived before Xu Yue, blocking his path.

"There are bandits ahead. Don’t go any farther."

Oh, he had just said he had not encountered any along the way. It seemed Akatsuki’s influence in the Land of Rain was far greater than he had imagined.

No wonder that power-hungry demigod had been so easily incited to act against them…

Third update. That’s all for today~

Thank you all for your support~

Also, I saw some readers worrying that the protagonist’s earlier actions would be seen through…

We should be grateful for this age of information explosion we live in. We have heard of things we have never personally experienced, and information is everywhere.

In that era, when communication mostly relied on shouting and news mainly came from newspapers, it was not difficult to fool people with a few tricks. Besides, the protagonist used his identity as an Anbu advisor to issue Reincarnation Space missions and confuse matters. It was practically the Reincarnation Space helping fabricate the evidence. How could they possibly see through that? If they could, then the Space would be a fake Space.

It was not that they were stupid. It was simply an asymmetry of information.

Even taking a step back, the protagonist’s personality was right there. So what if you discovered it was a deception?

Like in the giant world, the protagonist had even casually saved that Reincarnator squad at the beginning. He did not care at all whether they learned that information, intelligence, and plot…

Even if it implicated the real world, he would probably only find it somewhat troublesome.

Besides, the difference in appearance would not lead back to him anyway, so there was even less reason to care…

To put the protagonist’s attitude more bluntly: What does your life or death have to do with me?

Because of this, beneath the mask he had grown accustomed to wearing, he would usually still reveal the choices beneath that mask: a warm, kind, good person…