Taking Stock of the Gains, Locking onto Prey: Kabuto Yakushi

At last, the torrential rain in the Land of Rain had ceased, and the endless mist slowly began to rise through the devastated forest.

Ye casually flicked away the last drops of rain from his fingertips and looked down at the clearing beneath his feet, which Susanoo had completely flattened.

Orochimaru had fled in a sorry state. Even one of the famed Three Sannin could only abandon half an arm and flee in panic when faced with an unnatural monster possessing both a Sage Body and a Mangekyō Sharingan.

Ye slowly unfolded the top-secret intelligence scroll seized from the pouch inside that severed arm. The encrypted seal upon it had already been forcibly shattered by Sage Body chakra, and he examined it beneath the faint moonlight piercing through the clouds.

He carefully reviewed the names and strongholds written in code. Then, a name that was all too familiar—and held an important position on Konoha's secret front—struck his eyes.

Kabuto Yakushi, head of the medical technical support team, Root's all-purpose spy in Konoha, and a top-tier talent who would one day stir up monstrous waves in the Fourth Shinobi World War.

The instant that name entered his sight, the system's cold mechanical prompt sounded in Ye's mind right on cue.

"Ding. It has been detected that the host successfully repelled one of the Three Sannin, Orochimaru, and intercepted core intelligence. A faction-building direction selection has been triggered."

"Option One: Infiltrate the Land of Water according to the intelligence, recruit remnants of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen and wandering rogue ninja, and establish an assassination organization. Reward: A-rank Water Style: Great Waterfall Technique."

"Option Two: Return to the Land of Fire and use your current strength to assassinate Konoha's council of high-ranking elders, creating great chaos. Reward: Top-tier Concealment Technique."

"Option Three: Travel to the border between the Land of Earth and the Grass Land, intercept Kabuto Yakushi before Root's conspiracy unfolds, and steal him away. Reward: Complete collection of top-tier medical ninjutsu and foundational analysis of Yin–Yang Release."

A sharp gleam flashed through Ye's dark eyes in the darkness. He did not hesitate for even a second. Those rogue ninja in the Land of Water were nothing but brutes who knew only slaughter.

They had no value as the core of a faction. Returning to Konoha now to assassinate a few old men with one foot in the grave would be an even greater waste of time. It would only force him to confront all of Konoha's foundations ahead of schedule.

He needed to build his own faction. He needed a laboratory that could develop the Sage Body and Sharingan to their fullest potential. A qualified top-tier force could absolutely not lack a genius-level research director.

Kabuto Yakushi was currently in his darkest period, completely abandoned by Danzo and arranged to slaughter each other with his adoptive mother, Nonō. This was the best time to win him over.

"System, I choose Option Three."

Ye decisively issued the command in his heart.

"Ding. Reward distribution in progress."

An immense, boundless torrent of information instantly flooded Ye's mind. It contained a supreme medical treasury of countless human dissection experiences, cellular activity research, and microscopic chakra pathway manipulation. His understanding of the essence of life reached an entirely new realm, while the foundational analysis of Yin–Yang Release opened up a whole new world before him.

Ye's body suddenly tensed. The Sage Body's enormous vitality resonated violently with this new knowledge. He raised his right hand, and with a thought—without forming a single hand seal—a streak of pure blue-white chakra instantly covered his fingertips, forming a Chakra Scalpel as thin as a cicada's wing yet radiating terrifying cutting power.

This microscopic level of chakra control had already completely surpassed that of most Konoha Medical Corps jonin. Satisfied, Ye dispersed the chakra from his fingertips and turned his gaze toward the distant horizon.

"It's time to go."

Without any unnecessary pause, Ye turned into a black afterimage and vanished deep into the forests of the Land of Rain. He had to reach the border between the Land of Earth and the Grass Land before the tragedy occurred.

Over the next several days and nights, Ye pushed the Sage Body's endurance to its limits. The endless forests of the Land of Fire were left behind him, and even Konoha's border patrols' sensory network failed to notice his presence. He sped through the night and morning mist, and his mastery of top-tier counter-surveillance allowed him to erase every trace of his tracks with ease. No one could discover this Uchiha youth who had just stirred up earth-shattering turmoil in Konoha.

Several days later, at the border between the Land of Earth and the Grass Land.

A desolate yellow-sand canyon stretched before him. Fierce winds howled between towering, uneven rock pillars, producing deep and continuous eerie noises. Sand and stones filled the sky, making the already dim heavens feel even more oppressive. The dry air scraped across the skin, leaving behind faint stinging pain.

Clad in a black robe, Ye stood silently atop the tallest rock pillar at the canyon entrance. Wind and sand battered his cold profile, yet could not stir even a strand of his hair. His pitch-black pupils were fixed on the only escape route below, while his presence completely blended into this lifeless wasteland.

The wait did not last long.

At the far end of the canyon, beyond the swirling yellow sand, a staggering figure appeared.

A youth wearing Hidden Stone Village's standard uniform emerged, his silver-white hair wildly disheveled by the wind and sand. His face was smeared with dirt and blood, and a clear crack ran across the lens of his round glasses. His left arm appeared to be seriously injured, and he clutched the wound with his right hand. Every step was extraordinarily difficult. He looked like the most common sort of battered survivor crawling out of a pile of corpses on the Hidden Stone Village battlefield.

But his act was too convincing—so convincing that even the rhythm of his heartbeat and the degree of chakra depletion perfectly matched the state of a dying man.

From above, Ye looked down at the prey slowly walking into his hunting net, a trace of appreciation flashing through his eyes.

Kabuto Yakushi's disguise techniques had indeed reached perfection. If Ye did not possess the system's omniscient perspective, even the Hyuga Clan with their Byakugan would likely have been deceived by such a disguise ingrained into his very bones.

A violent gust of wind swept up great clouds of sand and dust.

The injured Hidden Stone Village ninja finally seemed unable to endure any longer. His legs gave out, and he heavily dropped to his knees in the canyon's sandy ground with a painful groan. His glasses slid down to the tip of his nose, but his eyes frantically scanned the surroundings. Only after confirming that there were no pursuers did he cautiously prepare to tend to his wound.

The instant he reached toward his ninja tool pouch.

Ye leaped down from the hundred-meter-high rock pillar. He used no shock-absorbing ninjutsu, allowing the Sage Body's terrifying weight and gravitational acceleration to smash ruthlessly into the ground.

Boom!

The hard desert floor was blasted into a massive crater over five meters wide, and the violent shockwave instantly cleared away the surrounding wind and sand.

The silver-haired youth kneeling on the ground abruptly raised his head. The sudden change made fear and despair appear in his eyes at just the right moment.

Ye slowly emerged from the billowing dust, his gaze locking directly onto those round glasses.

"A medical ninja from the Hidden Stone Village?"

Ye's voice was not loud, yet it reached the youth's ears clearly through the raging wind.

"No... calling you Kabuto from Konoha's Root would be more appropriate, wouldn't it?"

The instant those words fell, the terrified expression on the silver-haired youth's face froze.