In Battalion Commander Yellow Dog's office, Yōkō reported on his mission in the Land of Rain.
Clearing an A-rank target from the Assassination Manual was mentioned only briefly.
He mainly focused on another matter:
"Chief, I encountered those white-barked subordinates of Uchiha Madara again. I overheard them mention something about the Valley of the End.
I suspect the Valley of the End is very important to Uchiha Madara; perhaps there's a secret base of his inside.
I'm not certain and want to investigate.
Uchiha Madara has mainly been active in the Land of Rain these past two years. Even if there is a base in the Valley of the End, it's probably abandoned and not that urgent.
The potential gains are small, but if there are any of Uchiha Madara's arrangements, the risk is very high.
It would be dangerous for just my squad to go, so I'd like to request your approval for two squads to jointly complete this investigation."
Yellow Dog nodded repeatedly. The Fox was still very prudent in his work. He said:
"The Black Ant Squad cannot easily leave the village. They need to monitor the Nine-Tails Jinchūriki and relay orders for the Hokage.
Both the Golden Eagle Squad and the Lynx Squad are outside the village, clearing targets from the Assassination Manual.
The Assassination Manual puts a lot of pressure on all squads.
Investigating Uchiha Madara is extremely dangerous. Let's wait until either the Golden Eagle Squad or the Lynx Squad returns."
Yōkō nodded repeatedly; Yellow Dog was quite reasonable.
Higher-ups inherently had a fear of death. When Yellow Dog was a Battalion Commander, he was one who charged through bloody storms. But since becoming the Anbu Deputy Chief, he had clearly become much more cautious.
Of course, Konoha's enemies were also more dangerous now. Uchiha Madara was an enemy Yellow Dog couldn't handle.
After leaving Yellow Dog's office, Yōkō exited the Anbu headquarters.
Entering the secret training room in the izakaya's backyard, Yōkō pulled down some vines from the wall and wove them into a mask with two swirling eye holes.
It was similar to Tobi's mask in the original story, but whereas Tobi's mask had one eye hole to match Obito's single eye, Yōkō wove one with two eyes.
This time, he would use a new alias, not his minor alias White Ghost, but a micro-alias: Spiral White Zetsu, impersonating a rogue ninja from the Sarutobi clan who had joined Uchiha Madara.
Using the micro-alias Spiral White Zetsu, and then the Five Elements Unrivalled Attack, he would splash dirty water on Uchiha Madara with his left hand and on the Sarutobi clan with his right.
Uchiha Madara was already so dirty; surely he wouldn't mind a little more dirty water... right?
As for the Sarutobi clan, they could just swallow this bitter pill.
The wooden vines spiraled upwards from the center, forming two swirls around the eye holes.
After carving a seal inside the two-eyed spiral mask to block perspective, Yōkō disappeared into the ground.
He moved extremely fast, transmitting rapidly through the network of organic matter underground.
In just over 10 minutes, he appeared at the Valley of the End.
Keeping White Crane alive was precisely for this moment: to deliver the false intelligence to Danzo.
Outside Konoha Village, Danzo led Root's current 4 members and over a dozen trainees, rushing urgently towards the Valley of the End.
There were originally 20 trainees, but a few had died during non-combat attrition and infighting during training.
On the way, Hei hesitated several times, wanting to speak but holding back. The Valley of the End was only 50 kilometers from the village; they should have called Kō to come along.
Kō was also a Root ninja. Couldn't Orochimaru perform tasks for Root?
Fifty kilometers wouldn't interfere with his experiments.
However, Lord Danzo seemed unable to do anything about Orochimaru, especially after he became the Hokage's assistant and was groomed as the next Hokage.
The Valley of the End was the site of the final battle between the First Hokage and Uchiha Madara.
They completely destroyed the nearby terrain, creating a waterfall and a canyon on a tributary of the Nakano River.
Danzo led his people into the canyon.
He stood on the water's surface, looking at the two hundred-meter-tall stone statues in the distance.
On one side was Senju Hashirama, on the other was Uchiha Madara.
These two statues were commissioned by the First Hokage, Senju Hashirama, to commemorate the Uchiha clan's greatest genius, Uchiha Madara, and also their final battle.
It was said that the Second Hokage, Senju Tobirama, strongly opposed it at the time, calling it childish – what village leader erects such massive statues of himself and his enemy? But the First Hokage insisted, and the arm couldn't twist the thigh.
Who would have thought that the First Hokage never actually killed Uchiha Madara, who is now active in the Land of Rain.
Danzo had suffered setbacks in several encounters with Uchiha Madara.
Between the statues of Senju Hashirama and Uchiha Madara was a waterfall dozens of meters high.
Danzo waved his hand. Hei and Ki, along with 10 trainees, stepped forward to investigate.
The Hyūga, Inuzuka, and Aburame clan members among the trainees cautiously approached the waterfall and began their inspection.
The roaring sound of the waterfall irritated Danzo.
Behind the waterfall, Yōkō, wearing the spiral mask, emerged within the turbulent white water cascade.
Danzo was very cautious; he would never take action himself if he could have his subordinates test the waters.
Even the most useful shadow clone wasn't as good as flesh-and-blood, responsive subordinates.
Before long, Hei returned to Danzo's side.
"Sir, we have repeatedly confirmed there are no life signs around the Valley of the End waterfall, but there is a small cave behind the waterfall!"
Hearing that several powerful sensory clan ninja all reported no life signs, Danzo relaxed.
"Take me to see that cave."
Danzo and the remaining Root members continued towards the waterfall.
When they were about fifty meters from the waterfall, Danzo suddenly looked up.
A figure appeared above the waterfall in an extremely bizarre manner.
His upper body emerged from the water surface. It didn't look like a water clone or a Water Body Flicker, but more like his body was directly composed of water.
The target wore a white mask with two spiral eye holes.
The spiral mask was woven from vines. His entire head and neck were covered in vines, clearly having an inseparable connection to Wood Release.
Yōkō crossed his arms over his chest, looking down at Danzo and Root in the canyon.
"Shimura Danzo, you dare come to destroy Lord Madara's statue!"
Hearing this person's strange, strained voice, Danzo subtly exerted force in his feet, ready to dodge at any moment.
However, in the next instant, a dazed look appeared in Danzo's single eye.
The Spiral White Zetsu formed a single hand seal, and four shadow clones appeared above the waterfall.
Five in total... Why did this look so familiar?
Wasn't this Sarutobi Hiruzen's opening move?
In the next instant, the daze turned into shock.
"Five Elements Unrivalled Attack!"
Each shadow clone formed a single hand seal with one hand.
Earth Release: Flying Rubble!
Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet!
Fire Release: Dragon Fire Technique!
Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!
Lightning Release: Roaring Thunder!
Individually, each technique was only a B-rank jutsu, but being able to release them with a single hand seal showed the Spiral White Zetsu's terrifying ninjutsu prowess.
The five figures spat out large-scale impact-type ninjutsu from their mouths!
Yōkō's current chakra reserve had naturally grown to 2.3 times that of an elite Jōnin.
The Cross Seal he developed could store the chakra equivalent of 5 ninjutsu.
Combined with the chakra he himself extracted, the scale of the five techniques was extremely exaggerated.
Each technique stretched over a hundred meters, heading straight for Danzo and Root within the canyon.
Danzo was exceptionally horrified. Dealing with five elite Jōnin-level elemental ninjutsu wasn't, frankly, that difficult, but...
If this was truly Sarutobi Hiruzen's Five Elements Unrivalled Attack, then the five elemental chakra natures would clash against each other, causing a terrifying secondary explosion!
Thus, elite Jōnin-level techniques would achieve an effect comparable to Kage-level techniques!
The power of the Five Elements Unrivalled Attack lay not only in the five elemental techniques having no weaknesses, but also in using the great explosion caused by the conflict of the five elements to create a special blast.
The Root ninja used techniques to defend one after another.
For a moment, Earth-Style Walls, Water Formation Walls, and Great Breakthroughs appeared throughout the canyon below.
Danzo turned around immediately and used the Body Flicker Technique with all his might.
BOOM!
Danzo faced away from the waterfall, with a terrifying explosive light erupting behind him!
It's happening! It's not just five simple techniques!
It really is the Five Elements Unrivalled Attack!
Instantly, the entire Valley of the End was engulfed in the explosion.
All the Root ninja, even Danzo who had fled immediately, were swallowed by the blast!
***
Dive deeper into the story with 50+ advance chapters, available now on Patreon!patreon.com/CNBLUE
If you're enjoying the novel, please consider leaving a review. Your support is crucial and helps the story grow immensely. Thank you!
(End of Chapter)