The Land of Rain on the Brink of Chaos

Yichen flying at an extremely high speed. He estimated that his flight speed was three times faster than his full strength without using the Body Flicker Technique. However, if the Body Flicker Technique was taken into account, he would be faster on the ground.

However, flying in the air allows for a straight path, ignoring mountains and rivers. Therefore, the distance traveled is reduced by at least half.

Yichen flew at full speed and entered the Land of Rain in a single day. Without lingering at the border, he headed directly to the heart of the Land of Rain.

The weather in the Land of Rain is not as good as in the Land of Earth, so flying in the Land of Rain actually provides a greater degree of concealment than flying in the Land of Earth.

The terrain of the Land of Rain is gentler than that of the Land of Earth, with few high mountains. Yichen found a secluded Kajiyamari as his base.

This is a relatively barren Kajiyamari. Yichen had noticed this when he was in the sky.

From now on, Yichen's biggest concern is the Black and White Zetsu. The White Zetsu's reconnaissance relies on the dense root systems of plants underground. Unless absolutely necessary, he should stay away from places with plants.

After resting in the Yamanaka for a night and fully recovering his Chakra, Yichen left the Kajiyamari and went to a nearby town to meet with spies from Iwagakure.

Yichen was extremely cautious on this trip. When he arrived near the rendezvous point, he hid his main body and used Sensory Ninjutsu to create an Earth Style Clone to gather intelligence.

After making contact with four spies, Yichen finally confirmed the information he wanted.

Danzo concluded that Danzo was probably in the Land of Rain Yichen. Of course, the spies couldn't find Danzo's whereabouts, but they could find some information about the contact between the Rain Village and Root.

The two sides had been in frequent contact for a while, but now such contact has suddenly decreased. Yichen judged that the two sides had probably reached an agreement in secret, and it shouldn't be long before they took action.

Fortunately, the spies indicated that there was no large-scale mobilization of Rain Village, nor any sign of elite ninjas being assembled.

This is easy to judge. Taking Iwagakure as an example, in peacetime, a large portion of Jonin- level combat power like Yichen is on missions.

If a village wants to gather its elite forces, it should at least Jonin sending its Jonin (high-ranking ninja) on missions outside the village some time in advance. Otherwise, the village probably won't even be able to gather a third of its elite forces.

After all, the village can't send out all the remaining Jonin on missions; it has to leave a considerable number of Jonin guard the village.

The same applies to the Land of Rain. However, considering the Land of Rain's relatively small size, the fact that it has not yet recovered from the wounds of Second Shinobi War, and the growing influence of organizations like Akatsuki Organization within the country, the daimyo no longer supports Hanzo as much as before.

Therefore, the number of elites in the Land of Rain is even Hanzo. If Hanzo were to take action against the Akatsuki Organization, he would inevitably have to gather all the village's elites.

Yichen's next task was to determine when Hanzo would make his move based on the Rain Village's movements, and also to roughly understand their plan.

The former is easier, while the latter is inherently difficult to achieve, but Yichen has the original plot as a reference, so this is not difficult to accomplish.

Hanzo is cautious by nature, Yichen guesses that if given the chance, he would still kidnap Konan in the same way as in the original work.

Yichen can start from this aspect.

Yichen first went to the Akatsuki Organization's base. This time, Yichen used Earth Style Clone to cover his face and was told by the Akatsuki Organization who were left behind that the leader was not there.

Yichen wasn't surprised; he had deliberately chosen a time when Yahiko and the other two were out. Upon learning that they weren't there, Yichen quickly wrote a letter and then left.

The letter contained only one sentence: Be careful of Konoha lately.

After the clone delivered the message, Yichen's main body discovered that someone was indeed following him. Yichen was unsure whether the person following him was White Zetsu clone, so his main body did not come out.

The Earth Style Clone followed a pre-selected route to an abandoned, dilapidated house, and then deactivated itself.

This location is somewhat far from Yichen's main body, yet just within his perception range. It's a safe spot that Yichen chose.

According to Yichen's perception, the ninja, who was probably Chunin, followed the Earth Style Clone to the vicinity of the dilapidated house and observed it from the outside for a while.

After waiting for about ten minutes and finding no movement from the dilapidated house, the man went inside to check.

Unexpectedly, Yichen had set up a dense network of traps inside the house, and the man was riddled with bullets as soon as he entered.

Then a strange feeling appeared in Yichen's perception. Yichen could easily distinguish between the living and the dead using his Sensory Ninjutsu, but this tracking ninja was completely different from the ninjas who were killed normally in Yichen's perception.

His life characteristics did not disappear, but changed. Yichen was familiar with the changed life characteristics, which are unique to plants.

Judging from its vitality, this should be a tree.

Taking a deep breath, Yichen slowly calmed his wildly beating heart. He didn't move, but continued to wait in place.

Yichen needed to confirm one thing: whether he could actually sense White Zetsu's presence.

White Zetsu's abilities are limited, and judging from the situation in the original work, they probably don't have any Counter-Sensory Ninjutsu.

Therefore, Yichen was not worried about his location being exposed; he was currently hiding inside a building.

There were no plants near the building, and Yichen wasn't standing directly on the ground, but on a stone beam.

The Sensory Ninjutsu was maintained for one hour, two hours, five hours, but there was still no movement in his senses. But Yichen was not in a hurry. He had made up his mind that if he really couldn't find even a trace of White Zetsu, then he would simply abandon the mission.

If you can't even find a glimpse of the mastermind behind it all, and you still come out to plot, aren't you just asking for death? Madara Uchiha is still alive, after all.

Time passed slowly, Yichen, who had been patiently waiting, finally noticed something amiss two days later.

Every blade of grass and every tree within a few dozen meters of where the White Zetsu clone had disappeared was imprinted in Yichen's mind.

But now these plants are having problems; Yichen noticed that one of the trees has a slightly higher vitality.

Yichen's lips curled into a smile; he had finally figured it out.

If White Zetsu had hidden in that tree beforehand, Yichen definitely wouldn't have discovered it, because the difference in vitality wouldn't have attracted his attention.

But things are different now. Yichen carefully discerned the differences between this tree and the other trees in his perception.

Before long, Yichen discovered the key point. This feeling was unmistakable—it Natural Energy. Having observed Dango inside the Seal Number One for a month, Yichen trusted his judgment.

Considering that the God Tree grew by absorbing Natural Energy, and that White Zetsu was cultivated through the God Tree, Yichen felt that he hadn't guessed wrong. The composition of White Zetsu must be related to Natural Energy.

At this moment, Yichen had an impulse to capture a White Zetsu and take it back to study, to see if he could find any clues about Natural Energy in it.

However, Yichen ultimately held back.

But then Yichen had a new idea.

In Yichen's perception, a new life form emerged from the tree. This life form felt exactly the same to Yichen as a normal ninja, and no longer bore the mark of Natural Energy.

Yichen frowned, still trying to figure out what was going on. The White Zetsu that had emerged from the tree arrived at the tree that the previous White Zetsu had transformed into. Then Yichen sensed that the life force within the tree, which was formed from the first White Zetsu clone, had entered the second White Zetsu clone.

The first tree that the White Zetsu had transformed into actually died.

Seeing this, Yichen felt there was great potential. Perhaps capturing a live White Zetsu would attract Madara's attention, but what if he brought back a tree that White Zetsu clone? Would that cause less of a commotion?

However, this is not what we urgently need right now. Two White Zetsu have died in the same location; even a fool would know that this is no accident.

Yichen's target now is Danzo, not White Zetsu.

After waiting a while, the White Zetsu that had absorbed the life force re-integrated into the tree and then disappeared in one direction.

Yichen clearly felt that after White Zetsu merged into the tree, that feeling similar to Natural Energy reappeared.

After the White Zetsu disappeared, Yichen stayed for another day and, finding no further movement, used the Light-Weight Rock Technique in conjunction with the Camouflage Jutsu to leave the area.

Several days have passed, and now that Yichen has re-established contact with the spies, he has learned that Amegakure is gathering elite ninjas.

Are we finally going to make our move?

Yichen obtained some clues about the Root from other spies, and then, combined with the terrain of the Land of Rain he had learned over the years, he began to guess where Hanzo planned to make his move.

Yichen wasn't sure if Hanzo would follow the original story and make his move on a cliff. But it was still a possibility, Yichen started to combine the locations of Root, Amegakure, and Akatsuki Organization to find a suitable place for Hanzo his move.

In the Hanzo story, Hanzo laid down an Exploding Tag Formation. Yichen felt that even if Hanzo changed the location of his attack, he would still use this signature move.

There aren't many locations that can be used to place Exploding Tag Formation, are spacious enough, and allow one side to Hanzo a favorable position. Yichen only found a few suitable locations, and then focused his exploration on the vicinity of these locations.

There was no movement at first, but three days later, Yichen finally discovered Root activity from the root group in one of their locations. Using the Light-Weight Rock Technique in conjunction with the Camouflage Jutsu, Yichen hid at a distance and secretly observed the Root group team.

To Yichen's surprise, this small group of Root ninjas only circled around the area before heading in another direction.

Yichen was left completely bewildered. After thinking for a while, he realized that Hanzo and Danzo probably hadn't determined the ambush location yet, and these Root were there to scout the terrain.

Yichen dared not follow the Root ninjas, and could only use his Sensory Ninjutsu to confirm their movements.

However, this time, something unexpected happened. Yichen's Sensory Ninjutsu was detected again, just like the Yuki Kagami before.

In Yichen's perception, one of the members of the Root team trembled, then his Chakra surged, and the person suddenly became different in Yichen's perception.

Yichen was taken aback, realizing he had been exposed. However, since they were far apart, he wasn't afraid the other party would immediately come looking for him.

Yichen cared about most was the peculiar feeling this Root member gave Yichen.

This feeling was somewhat similar to Yichen of Nagato. In Nagato's perception, besides Chakra reserves being dazzling, the position of Nagato's eyes also gave Yichen a vague sense of unease.

Yichen knew it was the Rinnegan, but it had been Rinnegan before, Yichen couldn't sense its power. Later, after Nagato gradually developed the Rinnegan, Yichen was even less able to sense its power. Yichen guessed that Nagato had learned to conceal the Rinnegan's aura.

Now, the eyes of this Root are also somewhat strange. Because Yichen has been sensing Natural Energy for a longer period of time recently, he has become very sensitive to such unnatural things.

So even though they were far apart, Yichen still sensed something was wrong, and combined with the faintly chilling feeling emanating from the area, Yichen finally had a guess in his mind.

Uchiha! Sharingan!

The Sharingan can see through Camouflage Jutsu, so the previous plan is no longer viable.

Yichen had a headache. He quietly left the spot while thinking of a solution.

The Hyuga Clan has the Caged Bird Seal. Although the Cursed Seal of Root can restrain the Hyuga clan members, it cannot guarantee their loyalty to Danzo in the face of the Caged Bird. Therefore, there are no Hyuga members in Root.

However, Uchiha Yichen hadn't expected that there would be Uchiha members in Root. In the original work, the only Uchiha in Root and Anbu were Shisui and Itachi.

Actually, this was partly Yichen's fault. Originally, the entire Uchiha Clan was in the police force. However, after the higher-ups used the Uchiha as a tool to divert the attention of civilians during the White Fang Incident, the Uchiha's secret estrangement from the higher-ups turned into an open conflict.

At the time, this matter was orchestrated by Hiruzen Sarutobi and Shimura Danzō. As the Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi faced difficulties in making secret contact and communication. Therefore, the Peace Faction within the Uchiha Clan secretly contacted Danzo.

Danzo, who had been Hiruzen Sarutobi, was surprised by the unexpected Danzo and gladly accepted several Uchiha members into Root.