Chapter 124 The Third Hokage's Sigh

After dealing with the giant snake, Bai Ye returned to Jiraiya and waved his hand in front of his eyes: "Brother Jiraiya, are there any other beasts in the training ground? This giant snake is not enough for me to warm up."

Hearing this, Jiraiya's mouth twitched slightly.

Judging from the size of the giant snake, the opponent has at least the strength of an elite Chunin. It is naturally not difficult to deal with it with his strength, but Bai Ye is so young that he can actually solve it so easily.

Thinking back to his strength when he was fourteen or fifteen years old, Jiraiya was a little dazed for a moment.

In a trance, Jiraiya looked at Bai Ye with a more solemn look. He could not continue to treat Bai Ye as a junior. Bai Ye was qualified to be valued by him.

The scene of Byakuya sword slashing the giant snake also appeared among the Konoha ninjas participating in the exercise.

They were not sure whether the presence of the giant snake was part of the exercise, but Bai Ye's fighting ability surprised them greatly. What shocked them even more was the forehead protector that Bai Ye was wearing.

When did such a talented young man appear in the Hidden Rain Village?
Is this the reason why the village cooperated with the Hidden Rain Village?
Faced with the envious glances, Bai Ye naturally accepted them calmly. He could have his current strength entirely due to his own efforts and the insignificant help from the system.

After waking up from his trance, Jiraiya asked the Red and Blue Teams to continue the exercise.

He took Bai Ye back to the central area of ​​the Death Forest. While walking on the road, he asked curiously, "Bai Ye, who is your teacher? Why do you keep your strength secret?"

Bai Ye looked at Jiraiya with a puzzled look: "My teacher is Hanzo-sama, and when have I ever concealed anything about myself? I have always said that I am very strong, second only to the Five Kage."

Hearing this, Jiraiya pondered the memory.

It was discovered that Bai Ye was indeed not lying. The other party had been emphasizing his identity as Hanzo's disciple and emphasized that he was the savior of the Hidden Rain Village and the Akatsuki organization.

I was just wishful thinking, thinking that Bai Ye was exaggerating the facts, but in fact, he wasn't.

It can only be said that Bai Ye's appearance was too misleading, and because Yahiko and others were his disciples, he made a wrong judgment.

Not long after, Byakuya and Jiraiya returned to the exchange group.

Namikaze Minato and Yahiko had already witnessed Bai Ye's battle through surveillance, and there was a hint of complexity in their eyes.

Minato Namikaze is worried about Byakuya's strength. Although the village and the Hidden Rain Village have a good relationship at present, Byakuya is not his fellow apprentice after all and may become his enemy in the future.

In addition to this, there is the identity of Byakuya Uzumaki's descendant, and the Uzumaki clan has some resentment towards Konoha.

In addition to feeling grateful for Byakuya's improved strength, Yahiko was also worried about his own strength. When he first met Byakuya, Byakuya only had the strength of a Genin, while he was a Jonin.

Now Byakuya has a fighting force comparable to the Five Kage, and he is still a Jonin.

Over the years, apart from progress in management, he has achieved nothing in other areas. He is worried that he will not be able to keep up with the pace of Akatsuki and become a burden if this continues.

After this little episode, the exchange group continued to watch the actual combat exercise.

But after experiencing a small storm, everyone became somewhat absent-minded.

……

Inside the Hokage Building, the Third Hokage cut off the telescope jutsu and looked at Danzo opposite him.

The Third Hokage had no interest in Danzo's theory of the White Night threat at first. He thought that Danzo just didn't want to see Konoha and the Hidden Rain Village communicating, and that Danzo was too afraid of the Salamander.

So much so that anyone who is related to the salamander will attract Bai Ye's attention.

But now it seems that Bai Ye’s strength is enough to attract Danzo’s attention, and he is definitely not just a simple genius young ninja.

Danzo definitely didn't tell them the truth, and the spy activities in the Rain Country half a year ago were not as simple as they seemed. Tapping his fingers on the table, the Third Hokage asked seriously, "Danzo, how much have you concealed about the Akatsuki Organization and the Hidden Rain Village?"

Danzo remained calm, looking at the Third Hokage and said calmly: "Huruzen, you are no longer the Hokage."

Upon hearing this, the Third Hokage's face suddenly darkened, and the two advisory groups also cast their eyes on Danzo. It was obvious that they also wanted to know what Danzo had done.

Under the collective gaze of the advisory elders, Danzo felt tremendous pressure and revealed part of his experience.

The Third Hokage and the two advisors' faces suddenly changed when they heard that Danzo had sent people disguised as Iwagakure to cause sabotage in the Rain Country and contacted Hanzo of Salamander to wipe out the Akatsuki organization.

This was completely different from what they had imagined.

In their imagination, it was Hanzo of the Salamander who valued talents like Yahiko and Byakuya, so he trained them to become his successors.

But according to Danzo, the Akatsuki organization and the Hidden Rain Village do not get along well and have many conflicts with each other.

Danzo wanted to take advantage of these conflicts and use Hanzo to eliminate the Akatsuki organization and weaken the overall strength of the Rain Country.

There is nothing wrong with Danzo's plan, and weakening the Hidden Rain Village is also in Konoha's interest.

But the seemingly good plan ultimately failed. Not only was the Akatsuki organization not destroyed, but Hanzo was also defeated and became the new ruler of the Rain Country.

In other words, although the Akatsuki organization was founded by Jiraiya's disciples, it also has a great hatred for Konoha. After all, it almost perished at the hands of Danzo.

After thinking about it, Danzo decided to skip the matter of his cooperation with Bai Ye and emphasized solemnly:
"The biggest credit for Akatsuki's ability to replace Hanzo of the Salamander belongs to Byakuya, so we must not take it lightly. I suggest that my ninjas monitor the exchange group during their stay in Konoha."

Glancing at his old friend, the Third Hokage shook his head slightly and said, "Danzo, you can't show up again, otherwise it will affect the cooperation between the village and the Hidden Rain Village."

"The reason why Yahiko and the others didn't mention this is because they are old friends. If you go over to spy at this time, it will only make our relationship with the Hidden Rain Village worse."

"Minato won't agree to that, even if I intervene."

"Also, what on earth is going on with the giant snake that appeared in the Forest of Death? What kind of experiment are you and Orochimaru doing? Didn't I tell you to stop the Wood Release experiment?"

Danzo frowned and said, "I don't know exactly what Orochimaru is doing, but the failure in the election for Hokage must have been a big blow to him. He might be doing experiments to pass the time."

"However, the experiments he conducted definitely did not include human experiments."

After hearing what Danzo said, the Third Hokage nodded. During his reign, he once led a large-scale human experiment on Wood Release.

In order to gain the power of the first generation, many volunteers signed up enthusiastically.

Unfortunately, the probability of an ordinary ninja inheriting the first generation cells is less than one in a hundred. Even if there are one or two lucky ones, they will die within a month.

From then on, the Wood Release experiment became a taboo in the village.

Thinking of this, the Third Hokage said to several advisors: "What happened today is a secret. If Minato doesn't ask, we'd better not tell anyone."

Faced with the Sandai's proposal to protect Danzo, the two advisory elders neither agreed nor opposed.

What is the most important thing to become an advisory elder? Not to take sides and to keep your mouth shut.

After sighing a few times, the Third Hokage looked at the Kazekage outside the window. Unlike the Hokage's office, the consultant's office could only see thick tree trunks, but not the newly grown leaves of Konoha.

He began to miss the time when he was Hokage, at least he didn't have to guess what other people were thinking.

(End of this chapter)