Escape from Konoha

Soon.

November 30 arrived.

Night.

At the third-floor window of an izakaya two hundred meters from the inn where Kumogakure's diplomatic delegation was staying, three Kumogakure ninja who had "deliberately" shaken off the Uchiha Clan's surveillance during the day watched the clock on the wall, waiting for eleven at night, when most of the villagers would be asleep.

Then, they quietly slipped out through the window and headed toward where Kushina lived.

At the same time.

Root Base, Lab Zero.

Li Yao, who had been floating in nutrient fluid inside a glass tank with his eyes closed, opened them. His curled-up body slowly stretched out.

Bang... crash, crash!

Eight Black Chakra Chains burst from Li Yao's back. As they shattered the transparent glass tank, four of the chains struck the ground and propped his body up in midair.

The instant the glass tank shattered, the Sealing Technique connected beneath it broke, sending out some kind of signal.

The Sealing Jutsu Formula Danzo had left in Li Yao's heart grew warm for a moment before Li Yao instantly erased it.

The moment the Sealing Jutsu Formula was erased.

Far away in the Land of Rain, Danzo, who was traveling through the rain, suddenly changed expression and hurriedly stopped.

He raised his scorching right hand and spread it open. A black Reverse Five Elements Seal pattern appeared in his palm, then quickly faded away.

"The Reverse Five Elements Seal has been undone!"

"Who did it?"

"Could it be Hiruzen?"

Danzo's face darkened. He did not believe Li Yao had undone the Sealing Technique himself.

Even if Li Yao had truly gained a Wood Release physique and awakened Wood Release, there was no way he could undo Danzo's Reverse Five Elements Seal.

That left only one possibility.

The Reverse Five Elements Seal he had placed in Li Yao's heart had been undone by someone else.

Whether that person was Hiruzen or someone else.

Danzo knew that something had gone wrong in Root, and something had gone wrong with his Wood Release test subject.

"No. I absolutely cannot let Li Yao fall into someone else's hands. At the very least, that brat cannot die yet."

Before Danzo obtained Wood Release, he would not allow anyone to kill Li Yao—not even Hiruzen. He had to return at once and find out what had happened.

Then... Danzo simply abandoned the ninja army in the Land of Rain and left.

He left behind only the ambiguous order, "Fall back and hold position," along with a group of dumbfounded frontline commanders.

What?

Even if you, Danzo, had something urgent to handle in Konoha, you could at least arrange someone to temporarily command the frontline army first.

You ran off, but command authority was still in your hands.

Then you left behind a single order to "fall back and hold position." How were they supposed to fall back? How were they supposed to hold position?

If nothing went wrong, fine. But if something did go wrong, whose responsibility would it be?

Danzo's abrupt absurdity left everyone reeling.

Yet amid their shock, their hearts grew solemn as well.

They had no idea what had happened in Konoha that could make Danzo return so desperately, without a care for anything else.

For a time, the higher-ups in the Land of Rain, unable to receive news from Konoha, were thrown into panic, and their clashes with the other three ninja villages decreased.

Sensing the Konoha Ninja's abnormal behavior, the other three ninja villages, uncertain of the reason, quietly pulled back their forces and guarded against a possible Konoha sneak attack.

Li Yao, who had caused all this, felt the Sealing Technique in his heart dissipate. A faint smile curled across his lips as he floated out of the glass tank.

Of the eight Black Chakra Chains, four supported Li Yao's body in the air like spider legs.

At that moment, Li Yao looked a lot like Doctor Octopus from Spider-Man. His eight Black Chakra Chains were like eight mechanical tentacles, entirely under his control.

Li Yao raised his head. Four Black Chakra Chains writhed behind him like octopus tentacles.

He stared at the ceiling, though he could not actually see anything.

Only the faint glow from the glass tanks illuminated the laboratory. Everywhere else was pitch-black.

Yet Li Yao seemed to see through the ceiling, through the secret base, to the Konoha outside, and beyond that, to the vast world beyond.

"A beginning?"

"Or an end?"

"Heh heh!"

Li Yao spread his arms as though welcoming a new life—or death itself. He was neither nervous nor excited, only filled with a detached sense of relief.

He chuckled softly. Whether this journey of his through the world of Hokage was beginning or ending would be decided today.

Time was running out. Danzo had surely noticed what was happening here, so he had to act quickly.

With a thought, countless fine black Chakra threads rapidly condensed over Li Yao's naked body and intertwined.

Very soon, everything from Li Yao's neck down, aside from his head, was tightly covered by a layer of fabric woven from black Chakra threads.

If he put on a Spider-Man mask, he would be a black-suited superhero Spider-Man.

But Li Yao was no superhero. And the one he liked was not Spider-Man, but Homelander, who knew the Crescent Sky-Piercing Archery.

Soon, black shoes appeared, followed by black pants and a T-shirt, and finally a black short-sleeved coat.

"Hmm... what is this?"

Seeing his reflection in the transparent glass tank beside him, the corners of Li Yao's lips rose slightly. He smiled again.

"As expected of my best bro!"

"Minato!"

"I really can't get over you. Even the outfit I unconsciously formed is imitating the Hokage ceremonial robe you would wear after becoming the Fourth Hokage."

"If this isn't true love, then what is!"

Li Yao's lips curled up wildly, and his face twisted into a crazed expression, but it soon returned to normal.

No rush!

Once he got out, they would have all the time in the world to play.

Li Yao withdrew the Black Chakra Chains around his body and descended from the air. His feet landed firmly on the ground as he walked toward the Chakra metal bed.

At this point, the only thing left here was the Devouring Seal Array connected to the Chakra metal bed, which he had not fully analyzed yet.

Li Yao wanted this Seal Array very badly. It gave off fluctuations similar to those produced when Wood Release Chakra devoured Chakra.

If the Black Iron Chains incorporated and fused with the Devouring Seal Array, their power would rise to an entirely new level.

When Li Yao had been lying on the Chakra metal bed before, he had focused solely on analyzing the nature transformation of Wood Release Chakra and had not analyzed the Chakra nature transformation within the Devouring Seal Array.

Now that he was leaving, Li Yao would not miss this chance.

Arriving before the Chakra metal bed, Li Yao pressed his hand against it. The Chakra he deliberately released was absorbed by the bed.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, Li Yao sensed the nature transformation and shape transformation of the jutsu formula Chakra within the Seal Array.

At the same time, within the Acupoint Space in his body, Li Yao controlled his Chakra to imitate those nature and shape transformations.

At that moment, aside from the normal Chakra undergoing imitations of nature and shape transformation, all the Chakra in Li Yao's acupoints had condensed into the form of Black Chakra Chains.

In truth, Li Yao's own Adamantine Sealing Technique had already been completed a year ago.

However, his Adamantine Sealing Technique was black, and he had developed it entirely through his own research, so he renamed it the Black Iron Chains.

The Black Iron Chains possessed a sealing effect far stronger than the Chakra released from a single acupoint or the Chakra of the Eight Trigrams Seal.

Their suppressive and binding power over Chakra was more than twice that of Acupoint Chakra and Eight Trigrams Seal Chakra.

Li Yao had not betrayed his own persistence. He had achieved an effect where one plus one was greater than two.

As for the sealing strength of the Black Iron Chains, Li Yao did not believe they were inferior to the Uzumaki Clan's Adamantine Sealing Technique.

Only in terms of physical toughness had he never compared the Black Iron Chains with the Adamantine Sealing Technique, so he could not be certain.

Originally, Li Yao had wanted to use Wood Release Chakra to replace the normal Chakra threads within the Black Iron Chains, thereby increasing their strength.

But two years had passed, and Danzo had not come to see him even once.

Li Yao knew how desperately Danzo desired Wood Release.

He realized that something must have happened in Konoha that Danzo could not get away from, leaving him without time to study Li Yao.

What could keep Danzo occupied for two whole years, unable to research the Wood Release he had been obsessing over?

Taking Li Yao's current physical age into account.

He quickly reached a conclusion.

It was highly likely that they were currently in the midst of the Second Shinobi World War.

Only a Ninja World War could leave Danzo without time to research Wood Release.

The moment he considered that possibility, Li Yao knew he had to get out.