The Vanishing Corpse

To Zhang Miao, everything before him felt like a nonsensical dream. Perhaps he was dreaming like this at night because he'd watched too much Hokage during the day.

Based on Zhang Miao's past experiences, once he realized he was dreaming, he could usually wake himself up quickly if he wanted to.

Unfortunately, this time, that method seemed to have failed. Zhang Miao tried several times but couldn't escape this strange dream. So, he decided to settle for the next best thing. He raised his own fair and tender little palm and slapped himself across the face.

"Slap!"

The crisp, loud sound immediately snapped Hiruzen Sarutobi, who had been lost in thought, back to attention.

Hiruzen Sarutobi's heart was heavy. The Nine-Tails' attack had dealt a severe blow to Konohagakure. Many excellent ninjas, including his wife Biwako, had perished in this catastrophe.

Now, even the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze, and the Nine-Tails' Jinchuriki, Kushina Uzumaki, were dead. This was a devastating blow, both personally and for the entire Leaf Village.

At the same time, Kushina Uzumaki's dying words had puzzled Hiruzen Sarutobi greatly. Minato Namikaze had said before his death that this child harbored darkness within his heart?

What darkness could a newborn child's heart possibly hold? That was absurd.

However, Hiruzen Sarutobi no longer had the mental energy to dwell on such things. Although the Nine-Tails had been sealed once more, there were still many aftermaths to deal with from this incident, and it seemed he would be the one to handle them all.

With this thought, Hiruzen Sarutobi immediately scooped up Zhang Miao and Naruto and nodded to the ninjas nearby.

"I'll take these two children back first. I'll leave everything else to you!"

"Yes, Third Lord!"

Receiving an affirmative reply, Hiruzen Sarutobi nodded and vanished instantly using the Body Flicker Technique.

The moment Hiruzen Sarutobi disappeared, cries of alarm erupted from the crowd.

"Ah... the Fourth's body is gone! The Jinchuriki's body is gone too!"

"They were just here, where did they go now? Could there be ninjas from another country lurking nearby? Quickly report this to the Third Lord! The rest of you, split up and search!"

"Yes!"

The bizarre disappearance of Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki's bodies was quickly reported to Hiruzen Sarutobi. Upon hearing this, he frowned deeply.

"Minato and Kushina had set up a barrier around the area to seal the Nine-Tails. I didn't detect any other presences nearby at the time."

As a Kage-level powerhouse known as the "Ninja Hero," Hiruzen Sarutobi was confident that no one could hide from him undetected.

Furthermore, the ninjas present at the scene were all from the Hokage's personal Anbu. With their abilities, it was clearly impossible for someone to stealthily steal the bodies of Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki from under their noses.

With this thought, Hiruzen Sarutobi frowned and turned his sharp gaze to the Anbu kneeling before him.

"This matter ends here. There's no need to investigate further!"

"Yes!"

To the Anbu, the Hokage's orders were absolute. Upon hearing Hiruzen Sarutobi's words, he immediately agreed and withdrew from the Hokage's office.

After the Anbu left, Hiruzen Sarutobi picked up his pipe, took a deep drag, and exhaled a long plume of smoke.

Amidst the swirling smoke, a sharp glint flashed in Hiruzen's eyes.

"Was this Minato's doing..."

He, known as the "Professor of Ninjutsu," had never heard of any ninjutsu that caused bodies to disappear along with the techniques. However, the possibility of them being stolen was extremely slim. Therefore, the only explanation was space ninjutsu.

And the one most skilled in space ninjutsu at the scene was undoubtedly Minato Namikaze, known as the "Yellow Flash." If he had left a delayed Flying Thunder God Technique formula on himself and Kushina Uzumaki, it would be easy to explain why their bodies suddenly vanished before the Anbu's eyes.

"But why would Minato do this? What was the reason behind it?"

Thinking this, Hiruzen Sarutobi fell into deep contemplation.

While Hiruzen Sarutobi was racking his brain, on the other side, Zhang Miao, lying on a large bed, was in a daze.

"So I wasn't dreaming, I actually transmigrated?!"

The reason Zhang Miao reached this conclusion was the crisp slap he had just received.

When he had slapped himself, Zhang Miao hadn't "woken up" as he'd expected. Instead, he felt a stinging pain on his face.

At the same time, a strange voice echoed in his mind.

"High-value item detected. Do you wish to retrieve it?"

Hearing this voice, Zhang Miao was stunned. For a moment, he didn't know how to react. It wasn't until Hiruzen Sarutobi picked him up that the strange voice spoke again.

"Host did not respond. System defaults to retrieval... Ding... Acquired Super Kage-level corpse (male) x1, Acquired Elite Jonin-level corpse (female) x1."

"..."

In the world of Hokage, the bodies of powerful individuals were indeed highly valuable.

Not only could information about the deceased's life be obtained from them, but they were also a necessary component for certain Forbidden Jutsu. For example, Sasori's human puppets and Orochimaru and Kabuto's Impure World Reincarnation required corpses.

The stronger the deceased was in life, the greater the value. This was why the various ninja villages had established specialized corpse disposal units – to prevent the bodies of their own ninjas from being exploited by other villages.

Zhang Miao naturally knew all of this. But what surprised him wasn't this; it was the entity that had spoken in his mind.

A System!

Zhang Miao enjoyed reading web novels and was therefore very familiar with the "System" trope, a common cheat for transmigrators.

Most importantly, he felt that it was already incredibly unbelievable that he could dream of Hokage's plot. Something as advanced as a System would absolutely not appear in his dream!

Most importantly, being carried by Hiruzen Sarutobi all the way back to the village, the whistling cold wind blowing against his face along the way kept telling Zhang Miao that this was a real world.

"It seems I've really transmigrated!"

As someone who had been through the wringer in society for many years, Zhang Miao quickly accepted the fact that he had transmigrated, and judging by the current situation, his circumstances weren't too bad.

Firstly, based on what Kushina Uzumaki had said earlier, the place he transmigrated to should be Konohagakure, and his identity should be Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki's son, meaning Naruto's older brother.

Moreover, judging by the situation earlier, Minato Namikaze had initially intended to seal the Nine-Tails within him, but then seemed to have sensed the darkness within his heart, which was why he sealed the Nine-Tails into Naruto.

From this point of view, he should be their biological son.

Zhang Miao also agreed with Minato Namikaze's reasoning, because only a child's heart would be pure and untainted. As an adult, Zhang Miao's life in society hadn't been smooth sailing, and he himself didn't believe that his heart was full of sunshine and devoid of darkness.

Thinking of this, Zhang Miao couldn't help but feel a sense of admiration for Minato Namikaze.

"He could see the darkness in my heart after meeting me for the first time. As expected of the renowned Fourth Hokage in the world of Naruto, or rather, as expected of my own father?"

At this moment, Zhang Miao suddenly had a thought: if Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki hadn't died, then his transmigration journey would likely have been very happy.

Of course, such a thought was fleeting, because Zhang Miao, who was familiar with the Naruto storyline, knew that the Nine-Tails attack on Konoha was just the beginning.

According to the plot, about ten years later, Orochimaru would launch the Konoha Crush Plan, followed by Akatsuki's attack on Konoha.

After Nagato's death, Obito and Kabuto would jointly launch the Fourth Great Ninja War, and in the end, when Madara Uchiha was revived, he would use the Infinite Tsukuyomi, plunging everyone into an eternal genjutsu.

Zhang Miao felt that with his current strength, if nothing unexpected happened, even if he didn't die during Orochimaru's Konoha Crush Plan, he would find it difficult to survive when Nagato, controlling Pain's Deva Path, attacked Konoha.

Even if he managed to dodge both major calamities, he didn't want to be left hanging on the God Tree like a piece of dried meat, waiting to die when the Infinite Tsukuyomi arrived.

And the greatest hope to avoid all this probably lay with the system in his mind!

Thinking of this, Zhang Miao eagerly asked in his mind.

"System, what exactly can you do?"