Moonflower

Kikyo City!

A black-haired middle-aged man, appearing to be in his forties or fifties and with half his body wrapped in bandages, slowly sat up. He seemed to be suffering from a splitting headache, pressing his left hand against his temple.

As he awoke from the tatami mat, over a dozen dark and obscure auras emerged outside the door, all of which were keenly detected by his sharp sensory perception.

He opened his eyes, and a very strange visual pattern surfaced in his mind.

So this right eye is the Sharingan?

Guo Wang, who had just awakened from a long slumber, muttered to himself after reviewing the memories of the person whose body he had possessed.

However, he soon discovered something that left him speechless.

Although there was only one bed spread out on the tatami, he was not alone. A purple-haired girl with a snow-white, jade-like body was curled up in the corner, fast asleep due to immense physical and mental trauma.

This guy, his character is truly despicable.

As a rare cultivator who had condensed a Primordial Spirit within the heterodox sects, Guo Wang had unfortunately perished during a great catastrophe that engulfed the entire Dao Realm, only to arrive in this world because of a Five-Colored Stone he had been wearing.

He did not know how this fellow named Danzo had such good luck; having found this Five-Colored Stone in a river during his youth and discovering it could help him refine Chakra, he had kept it close to his person ever since. After twenty years of continuous nourishment by Chakra, Guo Wang finally possessed enough Primordial Spirit power today to completely devour the host's consciousness.

Of course, after flipping through the host's memories, Guo Wang could not help but secretly sigh at his own good fortune.

It turned out that just yesterday, "Kinoe," the subordinate Danzo had painstakingly cultivated for ten years and valued most, had betrayed the Root, even defying him to his face and completely trampling upon the Root's tenets.

Given Danzo's temper, even though he viewed this subordinate as his successor, since he had violated the tenets of the Root, the only outcome was death. Yet, just as he was about to strike a ruthless blow, he was stopped by someone.

His good friend, his lifelong rival, the Third Hokage Sarutobi Hiruzen.

If it were anyone else, even if his own parents stood in his way, Danzo would not have blinked an eye before drawing his blade, but for this one person, he had to show some respect.

The reason was simple: this was the only person in the village with more power than him and a higher level of cultivation.

Simply put, he couldn't beat him.

He had no choice but to concede.

And so, because of that damn Kakashi's tip-off and the purple-haired girl on the bed passing the message, his good friend had caught him red-handed with Kinoe, the Wood Release ninja he had hidden for nearly ten years.

Although Danzo had previously sent Kinoe to assassinate his good friend, exposing the existence of Wood Release, with his thick skin, as long as it wasn't caught in the act, he could flatly deny it and keep this Wood Release Kekkei Genkai—which could one day control the Nine-Tails—firmly in his grasp.

After Kinoe was taken away by his good friend, Danzo thought about it afterward and felt more and more like he had been set up. He had been manipulated by his desire to get rid of Kakashi, and because Orochimaru had defected last year, the Root lacked sufficient experts, leaving him no choice but to send Kinoe.

Using Kakashi to fish for Wood Release—how did I not realize it!

Filled with regret, Danzo was burning with rage. The more he thought about it, the angrier he became. Petty and narrow-minded, he wanted revenge, but he couldn't beat Sarutobi Hiruzen. After Kinoe was taken away, he was assigned to Kakashi's Anbu squad, which was a unit directly under the Hokage. Killing someone right under his good friend's nose would make even the most even-tempered person snap.

Although Danzo was furious, he hadn't lost his mind.

Thus, after thinking it over, he turned his attention to the purple-haired girl who had tipped off his good friend when he was surrounding and killing Kakashi and Kinoe.

He used the Root's channels to investigate her; she was a Genin with a clean background who had just graduated from the Ninja Academy and was still in the Anbu assessment period.

Seeing her beautiful and lovely appearance in the ninja registration manual, Danzo used a man's method to vent his pent-up anger.

Doing that sort of thing was certainly energy-draining, especially for Danzo, who was a fifty-seven-year-old man.

This bout of "battle" was even more exhausting than fighting his good friend.

And so, physically and mentally exhausted, he became an easy target for Guo Wang, who swallowed his entire consciousness in one gulp while he slept.

After the successful possession, the first thing Guo Wang did was check his new body, then secretly cursed his bad luck.

Being an old man nearing sixty, it was naturally not a good vessel.

His physical fitness could barely be considered average due to years of training in an energy called Chakra, but his right side had been almost crippled during the Shinobi World War when he overestimated himself against the Third Raikage. His original right eye had long since gone blind; fortunately, he had whimsically replaced it with a Three Tomoe Sharingan, avoiding the look of a one-eyed dragon.

His body was aging, and upon checking with his divine sense, he found no Spirit Root; he remained in a semi-crippled state. If not for the fact that the Spiritual Power in his Dantian Qi Sea was still decent, Guo Wang might have been so desperate that he would have committed suicide again to enter the cycle of reincarnation.

At least the energy within him is usable, and this strange Middle Thousand World possesses supreme methods for cultivating Space-Time. Perhaps in the future, once I have accumulated enough energy, I can return to the Dao Realm.

Comforting himself with this thought, Guo Wang began to focus on examining his right eye.

In Danzo's memories, he knew this was one of the most powerful forces in Konoha, and perhaps the entire ninja world, second only to the Wood Release that had just been snatched away by his good friend.

They called this power... Kekkei Genkai!

A decent term.

From one tomoe to three tomoe, and then to the final Mangekyo, it can actually turn the truest desires deep within the heart into reality. This power has already touched upon the 'rules of the world'—it is a part of the Dao.

Guo Wang slowly unwrapped the bandages covering his right eye. A blood-red pupil with three black tomoe arranged equidistantly appeared. Then, the power of his Primordial Spirit transformed into a wisp of cold, strange mental energy, carrying the various negative emotions he had experienced while overcoming his Inner Demon, and descended from his Sea of Consciousness into the eyeball.

Then, the three black tomoe rotated continuously, and after a blur, they transformed into a strange pattern.

Mangekyo!

"Ugh!"

Just then, a soft but thunderous moan sounded in his ear. The pattern in Guo Wang's right eye vanished instantly, turning into a pitch-black pupil.

Awake, are you?

The purple-haired girl frowned and slowly opened her red, swollen eyes, only to be startled to find a pair of exceptionally dark and deep eyes quietly watching her from the bedside. She jumped up, intending to bow, but felt a chill all over her body and remembered the painful scenes before she lost consciousness.

"Danzo!"

The two words, filled with hatred yet fear, spilled from the girl's still-youthful face, and Guo Wang couldn't help but feel a headache coming on.

"What is your name?"

Listening to the question from the demon before her, the young girl tightened her grip on the edge of the quilt covering her delicate body, forcibly suppressing the urge to strike, and lowered her head, whispering.

"Yugao!"

Guo Wang sifted through his memories, discovering the significance of that name within the Shinobi World, and as he looked at the bright yet crimson moon outside the window, his Primordial Spirit could not help but shudder.

"Moonflower—your parents chose well."