Not Just Tobirama Senju! Orochimaru Did It Too!

No, Hiruzen Sarutobi couldn't be allowed to act any longer.

At the very least, he couldn't be permitted to break through to Orochimaru—or even to their teacher—this quickly.

Otherwise, if I found a chance to deliberately hand the Scroll of Seals to Orochimaru, privately study Wood Release, research the Sharingan, examine Lord Hashirama's corpse, and so on... everything would be exposed.

Shimura Danzō thought this as he watched Hiruzen Sarutobi already split off a shadow clone, preparing to use the Great Five Elements Consecutive Spheres Technique to wipe out the water dragon in the sky in one go!

Seeing this, Danzō immediately formed hand signs and unleashed the Wind Release: Great Breakthrough technique, blending his chakra into the Five Elements Consecutive Spheres and creating a flaw in the spheres, causing them to explode before they even touched the water dragon!

"Danzō!"

Hiruzen Sarutobi shot Danzō a fierce glare but said nothing more, instead making a hand signal.

The next instant, Hyuga Hiashi, Fugaku Uchiha—the clan heads of the two great dōjutsu families—along with the Ino–Shika–Chō clans and even more Konoha jonin, all struck together.

Dozens of jutsu were unleashed, and the water dragon in the sky was blasted apart, falling as a torrential rain.

That rain landed on Hiruzen Sarutobi's face, but it only darkened his heart further... The reason was simple: Danzō had just deliberately broken his Great Five Elements Consecutive Spheres Technique, and it was hard not to see it as intentional.

This directly sparked a new suspicion in him:

Perhaps Danzō really had dug up their teacher's corpse, used Impure World Reincarnation on it, and ultimately lost control...

Anxiety welled up from deep within Hiruzen Sarutobi's heart. He turned to Hyuga Hiashi and said, "Hiashi, use your Byakugan to keep observing that chakra coordinate. We continue moving."

Hyuga Hiashi heard this, widened his eyes, and looked toward the target—only to find that the mysterious ninja's chakra had vanished, leaving only Hinata's chakra behind.

This gave Hyuga Hiashi a very bad feeling. After all, the mysterious person had left Hinata, likely meaning they had already finished gouging out her eyes... taking Hinata's Byakugan with them.

"Hokage-sama..."

Hyuga Hiashi, with a grim expression, reported what he had observed.

"The mysterious person's chakra disappeared—even the Byakugan can't detect it?"

Hiruzen Sarutobi's face turned equally grim upon hearing this, and he quickly activated the Body Flicker Technique to press forward.

Seeing this, the other ninjas followed suit.

Meanwhile, in the heart of the Forest of Death, Roman lowered his hand, turned his head, and smiled at Hinata as he spoke: "Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet Technique—the effect is strong... almost too strong. It even gained a spirit, able to shoot water bullets at enemies to block their attacks on its own..."

Hinata Hyuga was stunned for a moment, then mused, "Actually, that's not hard to understand. After all, in the Chaos Hall, the one who resonated souls with us was Furina.

"In the future, 490 years from now, she obtained a Hydro Vision. When she uses her combat skills, she can summon three Hydro Elemental Lifeforms with self-awareness that attack autonomously!

"Chevalier Ushers, Mademoiselle Crabaletta, Mademoiselle Seelie... that's more than enough to prove her exceptional talent in controlling water elements."

"You mean, the water dragon I released having self-awareness and a spirit—that's thanks to Furina." Roman nodded in realization as he said, "Yes, that must be it!

"The soul resonance with Furina the other day didn't just give our Water Nature Chakra a qualitative change—it also imbued our Water Release Ninjutsu with a spirit!"

"Alright, alright, this isn't the time to talk about all that." Hinata Hyuga used her Byakugan to look into the distance and said, "Hiruzen Sarutobi and my father are almost here. It's time to leave."

"Leave? No." Roman shook his head slightly. "Neither of us has learned any technique to conceal our chakra. Plus, I've stored all my chakra in you right now, which makes your chakra stand out to your father like a firefly in the dead of night.

"Your presence is overwhelmingly obvious. There's no way we can escape."

Hinata Hyuga frowned slightly, looking at Roman. "If we can't escape, that's a problem... They won't find the one who cast the jutsu, and they wouldn't dare lay a hand on me, a young lady of the Hyuga Clan. But you're a different story.

"After all, Roman, even though you've moved into the Hyuga Clan at my invitation, in Konoha—a village built on identity politics—you're still a civilian with no chakra, unable to train in it... Danzō and the Yamanaka Clan ninja might very well use the Ninja Art: Mind Reading Technique to forcibly extract the memories from your head and figure out what's going on."

"They won't do that." Roman shook his head slightly and smiled at Hinata. "After all, everything I just used was Water Release Ninjutsu... and in an environment with no water around, surrounded by water-absorbing plants, I unleashed a Water Release Ninjutsu far beyond its normal rank!

"Tell me, who do you think Danzō will believe the caster is?"

A strange light flickered in Hinata Hyuga's eyes. "You mean... Tobirama Senju?"

"Exactly." Roman nodded slightly. "Plus, with all my chakra stored in you, Danzō will never guess that I was the one who cast the jutsu.

"He'd rather believe someone used the Impure World Reincarnation Jutsu to summon the Second Hokage, Tobirama Senju, from the Pure Land back to the real world.

"And in fact, based on my memories from before my transmigration, in this Naruto World, there happens to be a Konoha rogue ninja who obtained the Impure World Reincarnation Jutsu.

"What's more, that person really will use the Impure World Reincarnation Jutsu in the future to summon Tobirama Senju from the Pure Land!"

Hinata Hyuga, who also possessed the memories of her original transmigrator self before reincarnation, heard this and her eyes grew even brighter: "You mean Orochimaru."

"That's right. We just need to subtly hint that everything was Orochimaru's doing." Roman nodded with a slight smile. "Neither the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, nor Danzō will choose to expose in front of all the Konoha ninjas that their former student and secret collaborator, Orochimaru, used a forbidden jutsu like Impure World Reincarnation to dig up the Second Hokage Tobirama Senju's corpse—to resurrect and desecrate the Second Hokage with that technique!

"After all, if it gets out that Orochimaru did something like this, the fallout would be enormous!

"Pull up a radish and you drag up the mud—anyone with half a mind to investigate could trace the connection between Shimura Danzō and Orochimaru and find he's not clean either.

"As for the Third Hokage, being Orochimaru's teacher, he'd naturally be held accountable by association!

"Who knows—the election for the Fifth Hokage might even start early...

"In short, as long as we hint that everything was Orochimaru's doing, the Third Hokage and Shimura Danzō won't just refrain from having the Yamanaka Clan use memory-reading jutsu on me—they'll actually help cover it up!"

Tuesday, asking for a wave of monthly tickets, asking for a wave of follow-up reads!!!