Chapter 393 Return to the Hidden Rain Village

After reading the delegation document several times, the Third Hokage fell silent.

Before, he thought that Shisui was Danzo's puppet, but now it seems that Danzo is just Shisui's puppet. What Danzo has done in these days is just to give Shisui an opportunity to come to the forefront.

After taking a deep breath, the Third Hokage looked up at Uchiha Shisui and said:

"Shisui, you guys won the battle between the Guard Team and the Hokage Building in the end, but I'm curious about one thing, who is the ninja standing behind you? He knows me and Danzo so well."

Shisui glanced at the Third Hokage and said expressionlessly: "Third Hokage, didn't I tell you? Since the day I was attacked by Danzo, I have already transformed. These plans were made by me alone, without the participation of anyone else."

Seeing Shisui denying it, the Third Hokage became even more suspicious.

He knew what kind of ninja Shisui was. If there were no external interference, as long as peace could be maintained between the village and the security team, even if he ordered Shisui to die, Shisui would do it obediently.

It is impossible for the innocent and kind-hearted Shisui to become a conspirator who surpasses Danzo overnight.

After sighing softly, the Third Hokage continued to test: "Shisui, it has come to this point now, do you still need to hide it from me? Even if the Impure World Reincarnation Technique can make the dead speak."

"But with the skills of the ninjas behind you, you should be able to stop the dead from speaking."

Shisui looked at the Third Hokage and thought to himself that the Third Hokage was indeed an old fox. Even when he was in a difficult situation, he was able to think and guess that there were other ninjas and forces behind him.

Seeing that Shisui didn't say anything, the Third Hokage continued to analyze: "The ninja behind you doesn't seem to want to destroy Konoha. He didn't take advantage of the collapse of Konoha to destroy the Konoha Village. He just let me leave and stopped."

"So I speculate that the person behind you is not a ninja from Iwagakure or Kumogakure."

"The Kirigakure and Sand Villages are relatively weak, but they just had a civil strife break out in their villages not long ago. They have no ability to organize a riot in the Konohagakure."

"Moreover, I have a vague feeling that the collapse plan that occurred in Konoha this time is essentially not much different from the Sunagakure turmoil and the Mist turmoil. It may be another contest between the Akatsuki organization and the masked man."

"I just don't know whether the force behind you is the Akatsuki organization or the masked man."

After hearing the analysis of the Third Hokage, Shisui was sweating profusely and stared at the Third Hokage closely, as if he was looking at a monster.

The Third Hokage smiled helplessly: "Don't be wary of me. I am just a prisoner of you and your backers. Even if I know something, I can't cause any trouble."

"It's ridiculous to say that."

"When I was in the Hokage Building as the Hokage, I had to deal with all kinds of official duties on weekdays. I was overwhelmed by a lot of information and didn't even have time to seriously analyze things. I could only be a puppet in the position of Hokage."

"After being a prisoner here, I gradually realized the truth."

"Perhaps this is the case that those involved are confused but those who are not are more clear-headed."

At this point, the Third Hokage looked around and suddenly shouted, "Ninja hiding behind the scenes, why don't you come out and see me? I want to know the future of Konoha and the ninja world from you."

After hearing this, Shisui's expression changed slightly, and the secret joy in his heart disappeared.

He did defeat the Third Hokage and Danzo Shimura, but it was not due to his own efforts, but with the guidance of Lord Byakuya. It was Lord Byakuya who truly defeated the Third Hokage and Danzo.

After hearing the voice of the Third Hokage, Bai Ye, who was hiding in the dark, also appeared.

This time, Bai Ye did not disguise himself and appeared in front of the Third Hokage in his true form.

When the Third Hokage saw that the person coming was Bai Ye, he was extremely surprised.

He thought that the ninja behind Shisui was the masked man, but he didn't expect that it was him who personally invited Bai Ye, the guest of honor. This made it difficult for him to accept it for a while.

After a few minutes, the Third Hokage accepted this reality and looked up at Bai Ye:
"Why didn't I think it would be you? Why did you attack the Konohagakure? When did Shisui and Orochimaru become your allies?"

Bai Ye shook his head and said:
"Sama Sandaime, I want to correct one thing. Orochimaru and Shisui are both my subordinates, and is it strange for me to attack Konoha with my status?"

"The Third-sama seems to have forgotten that I am a descendant of Uzumaki."

The Third Hokage's expression changed slightly, and then he said:
"Is it because of the Uzushio Village incident? There was a reason why Konoha did not send troops to support Uzushio Village. Konoha was under siege at the time. By the time we solved the problem and went to support it, Uzushio Village had already been destroyed."

Bai Ye nodded and said, "Of course I know this, and I understand the difficulties of Konohagakure."

The Third Hokage was a little puzzled and asked back: "Since you don't hate Konoha, why did you attack the Konoha Village? I remember that there should be no conflict between Konoha and the Hidden Rain Village."

Bai Ye looked at the Third Hokage with a puzzled look on his face: "When did I attack the Konohagakure?"

"Didn't you play a role in the night of the Uchiha clan extermination and the plan to destroy Konoha? If it weren't for you, would Shisui and Orochimaru dare to join forces to formulate the plan to destroy Konoha?"

The Third Hokage stared at Bai Ye and was very dissatisfied with his attitude.

Bai Ye chuckled and said, "Shisui is my friend. Are you going to let me watch my friend being killed by his stupidity and naivety? Besides, if Danzo didn't attack Shisui, would he be killed by Shisui?"

"You should ask Danzo why he attacked Shisui?"

"If he hadn't attacked Shisui, would the conflict between Uchiha and Konoha have been eased and not reached the most extreme point?"

The Third Hokage was silent for a while, then said, "This is my responsibility, but why did you hook up with Orochimaru? He is a wanted traitor in Konoha."

"..." Bai Ye pondered for a while, then said:
"I had no intention of contacting Orochimaru, but he attacked me one day and I nearly beat him to death. In order to save his life, he volunteered to be my subordinate and he has done a lot for me over the years."

"As for why we attacked Konoha, this is a matter between you and your master and disciple. It has nothing to do with me."

Bai Ye's words left the Third Hokage speechless. The contact between Bai Ye and Orochimaru was too coincidental. However, with Orochimaru's personality, he would really attack a young genius like Bai Ye.

But Bai Ye’s iron plate was too hard, even Orochimaru himself was defeated.

The Third Hokage then asked: "Why did you attack Danzo? He shouldn't have offended you."

Hearing this, Bai Ye smiled kindly.

"The Third Hokage should know about Danzo's actions in the Land of Rain. Guess whether he and I were friends or enemies when he was in the Land of Rain."

"I have been waiting for Konoha's explanation for this, but you have been avoiding it."

"..." The Third Hokage was completely speechless. Danzo had attacked the Akatsuki organization in the Hidden Rain Village, so it was natural that he was killed by the Akatsuki organization. There was nothing wrong with it. After a moment of silence, the Third Hokage asked again: "Bai Ye, how do you plan to treat the Konohagakure in the future?"

Bai Ye glanced at Shisui, then looked back at the Third Hokage:

"With Shisui here, I don't plan to attack the Konoha Village. I also need to focus on dealing with the masked man. His actions threaten the safety of the ninja world and must be stopped."

"But I remember that there are no tailed beasts in your Rain Village."

"You remembered it wrong, Third-Kai, the Hidden Rain Village has a tailed beast. Even if the Hidden Rain Village didn't have a tailed beast in the past, it should have one now."

The Third Hokage seemed to remember something and said, "You guys also attacked the tailed beasts? Could it be that the Seven-Tails from the Hidden Tsuchiya Village is already in your hands?"

After realizing this, the Third Hokage did not react much.

When the First Generation distributed the tailed beasts, he took into consideration the average strength of the major ninja villages. With the current strength of the Hidden Rain Village, it is indeed qualified to obtain a tailed beast.

Bai Ye did not deny the Third Hokage, nor did he explicitly say that the Hidden Rain Village owned the Seven-Tails.

After answering so many questions, Bai Ye lost interest in continuing to chat with the Third Hokage. After helping Shisui step to the front, he also lost the reason to stay in Konoha Village.

Konoha Village is different from other ninja villages. It is very difficult to support Shisui to the position of Hokage.

Instead of putting a lot of energy into conquering the Konoha Village, it is better to concentrate on Naruto and Sasuke. Both of them will have super-kage-level strength in the future and can defeat an entire ninja village alone.

……

A month and a half after the Chunin Exam, Bai Ye finally returned to the Hidden Rain Village.

As soon as he returned to the Hidden Rain Village, Bai Ye was called to the Hidden Rain Building for a high-level meeting.

The content of the high-level meeting was very simple, mainly discussing the Chunin Exam, Konoha's collapse plan, and Danzo's subsequent rebellion.

Seeing Bai Ye sitting upright in his seat, Yahiko felt a huge headache.

Before Bai Ye went to Konohagakure to take part in the Chunin Exam, he had a bad feeling in his heart, thinking that Bai Ye's trip would definitely cause a lot of trouble.

As expected, something happened in Konoha Village.

First, the Third Hokage was attacked and killed by Orochimaru, and then Danzo died on the eve of the coup. These two were veterans of the ninja world, and their deaths were of great significance to the Hidden Rain Village.

It doesn't seem like it's a big deal.

The Third Hokage ruled Konoha for decades and was the longest-ruling ninja in the entire history of Konoha. He played an unpredictable role in the development of the ninja world.

But his death had little impact on the Hidden Rain Village.

The reason why the Hidden Rain Village maintains a good relationship with Konoha is because of Jiraiya, not because of the Third Hokage. As long as Jiraiya is fine, there will be no conflict between the Hidden Rain Village and Konoha.

As for the death of Danzo Shimura, they all felt more happy about it.

This ninja, who once brought great crisis to the Akatsuki organization, finally died at the hands of the Konoha Village on charges of treason. The only thing that made them regretful was that they were unable to kill Danzo personally.

However, Danzo is already dead, and the next thing to consider is how to deal with Konoha relations.

After the death of the Third Hokage, the position of Hokage will definitely fall on either Jiraiya or Tsunade. No matter who becomes Hokage, they will strengthen cooperation with the Hidden Rain Village.

But the future of the Hidden Rain Village can no longer accommodate this false peace.

Sooner or later, the Hidden Rain Village and the Akatsuki Organization will establish a ninja alliance and even become a unified country. And the Konoha Village will inevitably become a major obstacle for the Akatsuki Organization in the future.

From this perspective, it may not be a good thing for Jiraiya to become Hokage.

With the ability of Sensei Jiraiya, he will definitely be able to unite Konoha and unleash the full power of Konoha Village, fully demonstrating the advantages of size and population.

Yahiko and others also don't want to see Sensei Jiraiya on the battlefield.

But if the Akatsuki organization does not take action against Konoha, the Nine-Tails will definitely be taken away by the masked man first, and the masked man will be the one to deal with Konoha, and the ninja world will face a greater crisis.

As if seeing what Yahiko was thinking, Bai Ye said, "Yahiko, we don't necessarily have to attack Konoha. As long as the masked man can show enough threat, the ninja world can still unite."

After hearing this, Yahiko and Nagato's complexion improved a lot.

However, how to find a common enemy in the ninja world? The threat posed by the masked man at present is extremely limited. He may be able to alert individual ninja villages, but he is still very powerless when facing a large ninja village.

And there is an even more critical issue at hand.

An enemy that is powerful enough to threaten the ninja world can indeed unite all the ninja villages, but once this threat is resolved, the ninja world will return to a situation of mutual intrigue.

Thinking of this, Yahiko and Nagato subconsciously looked at Bai Ye, expecting Bai Ye to answer their questions.

This time, Bai Ye did not tell anyone what he was thinking and left the meeting room silently. It seemed that even he did not have any better solution.

Seeing Byakuya's departing back, Yahiko and Nagato also realized that Byakuya was not omnipotent.

After all, some things still require them to think about themselves, and Bai Ye cannot provide them with answers.

If Bai Ye knew their thoughts, he wouldn't be too upset. Compared with ninjas like Yahiko and Nagato who truly possessed the will of fire, he didn't have much feeling about these concepts.

He just provided Yahiko, Nagato and others with a method to rapidly develop and grow the Akatsuki organization.

After all, the strength of Akatsuki directly determines his own strength, and no one can stop him from becoming stronger.

The reason he left at this time was not because of the problems between Yahiko and Nagato, but because he noticed the trace of White Zetsu Afu.

Just now, Ahfu sent him a signal, telling him that Black Zetsu wanted to contact him about something important, but Black Zetsu would not contact him casually unless it was something important.

(End of this chapter)