Uchiha Itachi, Sheltered by the Ninja World

The burning through its stomach caused the Iwajuku Giant Toad immense pain, which led it to voluntarily discontinue its spiritual communication and return its stomach to Mount Myōboku ahead of schedule.

Jiraiya was genuinely shocked Jiraiya see that the Iwajuku Giant Toad's stomach had been burned through.

He then realized that he had been careless. Seeing how easily the little girl Uchiha Izumi dealt with the black fire, he thought that he could handle everything by summoning the Iwajuku Giant Toad.

Luckily, the giant Toad took the hit for him, otherwise someone could have really died.

As for the injury to the Iwajuku Giant Toad, Jiraiya wasn't worried at all.

The hole burned through by the black fire was only 2 to 3 meters in size. For Toad with a body as large as a mountain, this wound was not even a fraction of the size of the stomach ulcers it had caused by its own overeating and drinking.

Moreover, although it appears to be burned through, the Giant Toad Stomach that Jiraiya summoned was not just a small part, but also only a small part in thickness.

In other words, the stomach wall of the Iwajuku Giant Toad was burned through, but it was only one-twentieth of the total thickness; at most, it was just damage to the gastric mucosa.

Jiraiya scratched his head. "Oh dear, this kid is so strong, he won't be easy to deal with."

He said to Uchiha Izumi, "Little girl, there are too many people here. Many of my Ninjutsu are not suitable for use here. I can only Teuchi with you."

9

Uchiha Izumi nodded heavily. She wasn't that idiot Uchiha Sasuke. Being able to team up with Jiraiya to Teuchi Uchiha Itachi would only make her feel happy.

If Shazo hadn't wanted to use Uchiha Itachi as a whetstone for her, Uchiha Izumi would definitely have dragged her fiancé along to kill Uchiha Itachi.

In fact, Shazo also wanted to die with his wife Uchiha Itachi, but after several attempts, he realized that Uchiha Rong probably wouldn't die by his hand.

Five years ago, Shazo's strength was not strong enough to be 100% certain that he would still be able to see Uchiha Itachi Uchiha Itachi's appearance when he crushed him.

He immediately realized something was wrong; his attacks, though clearly aimed, would deviate due to various unexpected events, and he could never kill Uchiha Itachi no matter what.

Finally Shazo unleashed his ultimate move, sparing no expense and consuming a hundred times the Chakra, to envelop Uchiha Itachi in layers of tree roots before slowly strangling him.

In this seemingly inescapable situation, only Uchiha Itachi's left hand remained intact.

Shazo still can't understand how Uchiha Itachi escaped from that airtight wooden ball. Surely he didn't sacrifice his left hand to save his life?

After Shazo completed his Kekkei Genkai Ring and his strength surged to above the Super Kage Level, and he began to touch the Sage of Six Paths Level tail, he could no longer see Uchiha Itachi's whereabouts.

For two whole years, tens of thousands of Ninja in the entire Konoha received no news of Uchiha Itachi, as if he had vanished from the Ninja World.

At this point, Shazo had somewhat figured it out. Uchiha Itachi's attitude was definitely that of a favorite son of the Heavenly Dao.

Aside from Uchiha Sasuke he wanted to die, no one could possibly kill Uchiha Itachi.

Anyone whose strength is comparable to Uchiha Itachi's will be crushed by his unreasonable fighting Talent.

Anyone slightly stronger than him will be crushed by the trump card bestowed upon him by Heavenly Dao.

Anyone far stronger than him will encounter various unexpected events that lead to their downfall.

With a powerful being like Shazo who could absolutely crush Uchiha Itachi, there's no way you'd see Uchiha Itachi's shadow.

Having figured this out, Shazo had no choice but to give up.

There was nothing he could do; he couldn't even touch a feather of Hagoromo Otsutsuki, let alone the lofty Heavenly Dao.

No matter how ambitious he is, or how powerful his Golden Finger are, he can't defy fate now.

Didn't you see how well the Heavenly Dao Heavenly Tribulation Shazo? He had clearly cultivated the Heartless Dao, yet the Heavenly Dao tricked him into undergoing Tribulation in the Mortal World using the strongest Succubus in Huaxia, and he did it willingly.

Well, such a calamity was actually a great opportunity. Not only Heavenly Tribulation Shazo enjoy it, but his overall condition also improved visibly, and he completely got rid of the negative effects of the Path of Heartless Dao.

Actually, as the Hokage, Shazo also wanted to meet the old man.

In short, he is now certain that he cannot see Uchiha Itachi, and can only abandon the idea of killing him with his own hands.

The very next day after Shazo chose to give up, a report about Uchiha Itachi's whereabouts appeared before him, infuriating him to the point of losing his mind.

Heavenly Dao is outrageous!

However, Shazo dared not change his mind, lest Uchiha Sasuke and Uchiha Izumi be affected, and he would never see Uchiha Itachi again.

If we can see it, we'll find a way.

Using the pretext of training Uchiha Izumi, Shazo relentlessly trained Izumi and Sasuke, doing everything he could to improve their strength.

He even risked having Uchiha Izumi challenge the Fourth Kazekage alone to increase her confidence and experience.

Shazo wants to try to bypass the blessing of the Heavenly Dao and kill Uchiha Itachi through Uchiha Izumi's hands. If that still doesn't work, then he can only place his hopes on Uchiha Sasuke.

When Uchiha Izumi and Jiraiya joined forces to attack Uchiha Itachi, the situation in the battle completely reversed, and Uchiha Itachi was soon in grave danger.

Shazo also focused all his attention on this, even ignoring the fact that his Clone was being tortured by Orochimaru and the Fourth Kazekage.

Uchiha Itachi was very strong, and he had immense confidence in himself.

But everything has its limits. When he faced two Kage-level Ninja, Uchiha Izumi and Jiraiya, he had no way to resist.

Jiraiya 50 years old this year. Because he has mastered Senjutsu, he has a longer lifespan than normal Ninja. He is currently at the peak of his strength, with no flaws in either Chakra reserves or combat experience.

Even if he were to fight Uchiha Itachi alone, his victory would be a foregone conclusion.

Even if Uchiha Itachi activated Susanoo and took out Divine Weapon such as the Totsuka Blade, he was still no match for the Toad Sage. His best result was that he died in the midst of the Toad Confrontation Chant song as the four Toad surrounded him.

Of course, given Uchiha's temperament, he would never fight Jiraiya to the bitter end; he would definitely choose to retreat when the situation turned unfavorable.

Jiraiya's strength was very comprehensive and balanced, which also meant that his tracking and control were not outstanding enough, so he was unable to restrain Uchiha Itachi and kill him on the spot.

Fortunately, with the assistance of Uchiha Izumi, the girl, in her Swift Style state, moved with ghostly speed, intercepting whatever Uchiha Itachi did.

Uchiha Itachi finally frowned; he smelled a strong aura of death, which jolted his groggy mind awake.

[Damn it, I already knew it was a trap, why did I fight Uchiha Izumi for so long?]

Once he regained his senses, Uchiha Itachi chose to run away without hesitation.

He's no match for that bastard who calls himself Madara Uchiha. That guy can just open the Spiral Gate and slip into the Kamui Dimension on the other side; nobody can do anything about him.

On the contrary, Uchiha Itachi himself, faced with this unfavorable situation, could only rely on his own two legs to escape.

This is Konoha, with over 20,000 Konoha Ninja. Uchiha Itachi was absolutely certain that he had no way of escaping Konoha.

Uchiha Itachi's transformation was too sudden.

One second he was fighting Jiraiya with red eyes, tears streaming down his Jiraiya, and he activated Susanoo repel Jiraiya and trap Uchiha Izumi in her Swift Style state.

The next second, Uchiha Itachi turned and ran away without the slightest hesitation or looking back.

Jiraiya and Uchiha Izumi were both stunned, staring blankly as Uchiha Itachi disappeared before their eyes.

Shazo frowned deeply. Uchiha Itachi was indeed the chosen one of Heavenly Dao. He had only slightly relaxed his control over his thoughts, and the thought of killing Itachi had just crossed his mind, yet Itachi had acted in a way completely inconsistent with his own personality.

It's perfectly normal for him to become emotionally agitated upon seeing Uchiha Izumi and to be unable to control his urge to defeat her.

The Uchiha Clan Massacre five years ago was Uchiha Itachi's biggest regret, especially since he killed his own parents and murdered high-ranking Uchiha members and Jonin in the Konoha Military Police Force building, yet failed to complete his plan to wipe out the Uchiha Clan.

Of the Uchiha who died, nine out of ten were his closest blood relatives.

The Uchiha who didn't die were all acquaintances of his, and many of them didn't even know him.

For Uchiha Itachi, who believed the Uchiha Clan had been corrupted and needed to be thoroughly cleansed except for Sasuke, this was the complete opposite.

The ones who deserved to die didn't, but all the "collateral" losses that had to be paid resulted in their deaths.

It's impossible that Uchiha Itachi didn't go insane.

All of this became Uchiha Itachi's obsession, and this obsession with wiping out the Uchiha Clan was then focused on Uchiha Izumi, the girl he thought he loved most.

Therefore, the moment Uchiha Izumi saw Uchiha Itachi, his mind was consumed by obsession, and he engaged in a fierce battle with Izumi despite falling into a trap.

Even with Jiraiya joining the battle and attacking alongside Uchiha Izumi, Uchiha Itachi did not back down.

After all, he still had so many trump cards up his sleeve, and he was even trying to retaliate when Uchiha Izumi was about to kill him.

But as soon as Shazo had a thought, Uchiha Itachi regained his senses, even to the point of being overly clear-headed, and made no plans or devised any tactics.

Ignoring the danger of his deteriorating eyesight, he Susanoo, seized the initiative in the most brutal way, and then ran away without looking back.

This is completely unlike Uchiha Itachi's style.

Shazo murmured, "Why is the Heavenly Dao so sensitive?"

"What exactly is Uchiha Itachi related to? He clearly didn't have long to live, yet the Heavenly Dao was willing to pay a huge price to keep him alive."

Shazo suddenly laughed, a laugh tinged with a hint of wickedness, "How interesting----"

"Alright, everything that needed to be retrieved has been retrieved. There's no need to continue this charade."

"First, Second, would you like to come with me to settle this matter?"

Tobirama Senju was somewhat tempted, but Hashirama Senju reached out and stopped him, laughing, "Fifth, you go by yourself."

"We're both dead, and Konoha isn't in any danger right now, so let's not let dead people like us stand up for ourselves."

"I always felt that doing this would have serious consequences."

Shazo gave a thumbs-up and praised, "As expected of the First Hokage who ended the Sengoku period and ushered in the Shinobi Village Era, your intuition is incredibly accurate."

"When I was born, the Third Hokage had already been Hokage for over a decade. By the time I was old enough to remember things, the Third Hokage had a good reputation, and the Sarutobi Clan hadn't become corrupted."

"But when I grew up, the Third Hokage had been Hokage for 20 years, and everything changed without me even realizing it. Even Hiruzen Sarutobi himself became timid, afraid of enemies from other villages, afraid of war, and afraid of the Uchiha Clan."

"He can spend money, even sacrifice the interests of the Land of Fire, to avoid war; he can avoid enemies from other villages. But the Uchiha Clan lives right in Konoha, right in front of the Hokage Building. He has no way to avoid them."

"And that's how the Uchiha Clan Massacre."

"The Hokage of Konoha is like the cells in the Human Body; when the time comes, they have to be replaced. Otherwise, their brains will become too old and confused, ultimately dragging the entire village down with them."

"Correspondingly, the deceased Hokage should not return, so that Konoha can move forward with its head held high, without being burdened by the heavy weight of the past."

Tobirama Senju frowned and asked, "You're making a lot of sense, so why did you let Orochimaru Impure World Reincarnation us with the Impure World Reincarnation technique?"

Shazo explained, "Well, the Ninja World is unstable, so every bit of power we have must be used to have enough strength to deal with the great dangers to come."

Hashirama Senju and Tobirama Senju nodded, agreeing with Shazo's explanation.

Prior to this, Shazo had already found the Uchiha Clan's stone tablet, the traces of Madara Uchiha's survival in the Battle of the Valley of the End, and...

The story of Amegakure's Rinnegan, the Akatsuki in Nagato, and Obito Uchiha's secret infiltration of the Akatsuki was told to the two former Hokage.

As heroes who had conquered the Sengoku period, they readily accepted the conclusions drawn by Shazo's "analysis".

Although the conclusion that Madara Uchiha was utterly brain-dead, and that his resurrection plan sounded like something someone with a ten-year brain thrombosis could come up with, it was simply absurd and outrageous.

There are too many potential problems in Madara Uchiha's resurrection plan. Even if all the executors are loyal, it still requires the perfect cooperation of the Five Great Shinobi Villages to be completed.

At the time, Tobirama Senju commented, "This isn't a plan at all; it's a pre-written Story Script!"

Shazo sneered, "It's definitely scripted. Madara Uchiha may be incredibly strong, but he's not very bright. He's just a Chess Piece being played around with."

"What exactly did the person who wrote the Story Script, the person who used Madara Uchiha as Chess Piece, want to gain from Madara Uchiha's resurrection? We do not know."

"The problem is, since he wrote down such a document, he will definitely move the Chess Piece and let the story unfold."

"To revive Madara Uchiha, it seems that we need to gather Tailed Beast. Today, the Tailed Beast are a symbol of status for the Five Great Shinobi Villages and are the threshold for triggering a Ninja World world war."

"In other words, this storyteller is confident he can turn the entire Ninja World upside down."

"This is such a powerful force, how can I not strive to gather every last bit of it?"