Rogue Ninja

After hearing Yota’s words, the Third Hokage frowned slightly, but ultimately agreed without hesitation.

However, Yota knew perfectly well that even if Konoha declared Danzo a rogue ninja, they would certainly not hunt him down. They would probably not even touch the Root under his command.

Danzo had originally handled Konoha’s dirty work anyway. He could simply find a new base, as long as he had no apparent connection to Konoha.

Yet Yota had never intended to kill Danzo in the first place. The saying went that killing a man meant crushing his heart—once Konoha declared Danzo a rogue ninja, his dream of becoming Hokage would be utterly shattered. When left with no other choice, Konoha could accept a ninja hidden in the shadows, but it would never allow a rogue ninja to swagger into the position of Hokage.

For a man like Danzo, who was obsessed with becoming Hokage, losing all hope of becoming Hokage was probably even more unbearable than death!

"Since you’ve agreed, Third Hokage, we’ll consider this matter settled." Yota waved his hand. He had lost nothing, and had even gained a Mangekyo Kotoamatsukami, so he did not care about anything else.

Rather, if attackers who brought him such abundant gains showed up every day, Yota would probably laugh with delight even in his dreams.

Ignoring the mess Konoha had become behind him, Yota left with Hiashi Hyuga.

With a crash, Danzo, hiding in a dark base, revealed an expression of extreme fury and swept every object off the desk before him.

"They actually declared me a rogue ninja of Konoha! They even expelled me from Konoha! Damn it, I’ve rendered Konoha so many services!"

"I truly don’t know what contributions you’ve made. Why don’t you tell me?" The one delivering the notice to Danzo was Jiraiya, his head already full of white hair.

The usually bold and easygoing Jiraiya was now looking at Danzo Shimura as though he were looking at a maggot. If not for the Third Hokage’s repeated instructions, Jiraiya would have gladly removed Danzo’s head and sent it to the intelligence division for examination while declaring him a rogue ninja.

A flicker of anger rose in Danzo’s heart. He raised his head, only to meet Jiraiya’s icy gaze. It felt as though a basin of cold water had been poured over his head.

This bastard really wants to kill me! If I make any move at all, or even show any dissatisfaction, he’ll absolutely dare to do it!

Jiraiya did indeed want to act. After all, his student Yahiko had died because of Danzo. If not for Yota, Nagato and Konan would still be trapped in darkness, unable to free themselves.

Therefore, he genuinely wanted to bait Danzo into making a move. If Danzo lost his head and dared to do anything improper, Jiraiya would not mind carrying his head back to report to the Third Hokage.

"I understand! Even if I can never return to Konoha in the future, I will still contribute to Konoha!"

Jiraiya swept his stern gaze over Danzo and snorted coldly. "It had better be as you say!"

With that, Jiraiya suppressed his disgust and walked out of Danzo’s secret base.

Only after Jiraiya had gone completely far away did Danzo’s roar ring out from the underground base.

For the remaining time, the entire ninja world seemed to return to peace.

Although Yota wanted to change this world, he had no intention of relying entirely on violence. He had long since formed an idea—if it succeeded, he could easily obtain rulership over the Naruto World.

But first… he had to find a route to the moon.

His subordinates were searching for a portal to the moon. Yota had not been idle either. Recently, he had begun studying a certain cultist’s immortal body.

Although he was very interested in Hidan’s immortal body, Yota did not hold out much hope. After all, in the original story, Akatsuki had more than one or two experts in human experimentation, yet not a single one had shown interest in Hidan’s immortality. That indicated this kind of immortality definitely had its own flaws.

After conducting research—namely, using the Munch-Munch Fruit’s power to fuse a trace of Hidan’s bloodline—Yota did indeed figure out Hidan’s immortality.

The Yin Release Chakra and Yang Release Chakra within Hidan had completely merged into one. In other words, his spiritual energy and physical energy were no longer separate. To be more precise, his soul had been completely anchored within his body.

Even if he were cut into eighteen pieces, his soul would not leave because his body had died.

In fact, a careful observation would reveal that although Hidan possessed an immortal body, his body’s regenerative ability was not particularly powerful. He could neither regenerate severed limbs nor heal wounds in a short time.

This kind of immortality naturally had enormous flaws. First, he could not use ordinary ninjutsu. Even the power within Hidan was now completely different from normal Chakra; it was only called Chakra because every form of energy in the Naruto World was given that name.

If one had to call it something, this energy could be called Cursed Power. Its nature was cold and sinister, filled with the aura of some kind of curse.

Under such circumstances, Yota naturally did not want to pay the enormous price of ruining his Chakra system just to gain immortality.

After that, there was not much left for Yota to do. Or rather, in the short term, aside from gathering Tailed Beast Chakra to create the Ten-Tails, there was not much benefit left to squeeze from the Naruto World.

He had yet to find the passage to the Giant Tenseigan on the moon, and there was no need to rush to gather Tailed Beast Chakra either.

So far, he had already collected the Chakra of four Tailed Beasts: the Two-Tails, Three-Tails, Six-Tails, and Eight-Tails. If he truly wanted to, obtaining the Chakra of the other Tailed Beasts would not be difficult. It was simply that Yota was somewhat worried that devouring the Ten-Tails’ God Tree might cause Kaguya to be reborn within his own body.

Thus, Yota had not deliberately sought out the Chakra of the other Tailed Beasts. He had merely told the people of Akatsuki to keep an eye out for them—for example, the movements of Jinchuriki who had already left their ninja villages.

"Found it. It really was rather troublesome."

A faintly complaining voice sounded as Orochimaru walked in, carrying a mask in his hand.

"I don’t think you’d consider a mask troublesome. This represents the Uzumaki Clan’s highest-level Sealing Jutsu!"

"Hmph, it does have some research value. At least my efforts were not wasted." After saying that, Orochimaru continued, "How are you planning to release the souls inside it?"

"Hmm…" Yota glanced at Orochimaru, leaving him with an inexplicable feeling.

At this point, Orochimaru had yet to perfect Living Corpse Reincarnation. He had not even begun his first reincarnation, much less come up with the idea of exploiting the Death God’s loophole.