Naruto: Cultivating to Immortality

Chapter 127 Investigation

Inside the Hokage Building office in the heart of Konoha.

Hiruzen Sarutobi looked at the report in his hand, a disdainful smile appearing on his lips.

These clans are all obstacles to the future of the Sarutobi clan. If the Sarutobi clan wants to become the number one clan in Konoha, like the Senju clan in the past, then weakening the strength of other clans in Konoha is essential. In particular, powerful clans like the Uchiha clan, which occupy an important position in Konoha, need to be weakened or even eliminated.

As for the Hokage position, the Uchiha clan is too naive. Even if they achieve great feats, it depends on the villagers of Konoha knowing. They control the propaganda channels. No matter how many victories the Uchiha clan wins on the battlefield, as long as they reduce their reporting and publicity, other Konoha ninjas won't know the details, and their influence won't be as significant. Minato Namikaze is now gradually maturing. Even if he hasn't reached his peak, as Jiraiya's right-hand man, Jiraiya's achievements can be attributed to Minato. Furthermore, by constantly exaggerating his achievements within the village, the villagers will only remember Konoha's newest genius ninja. If the villagers then influence their families, the common ninjas will have even greater respect for the accomplished Minato Namikaze.

With those commoner ninjas and the clans under his control, the election of the Hokage position remains firmly in his grasp. For the Uchiha clan to produce a Hokage is simply a pipe dream.

Now is the perfect time to leverage the Uchiha clan's strength to reverse the tide of battle and simultaneously deplete their power—a win-win situation. The key is to carefully plan which battlefield will best weaken the Uchiha clan.

Hiruzen Sarutobi, in his Hokage's office, meticulously calculated the actions of the Uchiha clan and those other clans not on his side. Ultimately, he decided to send the entire Uchiha clan to the battlefield against Kirigakure in the Land of Water. Kirigakure, through years of training under the Blood Mist policy, possessed exceptionally strong individual ninjutsu and were adept at Water Release techniques, perfectly countering the Uchiha's Fire Release. It was the perfect place to wear down the Uchiha. As for whether the Uchiha would be defeated, Hiruzen wasn't worried at all. He highly regarded the Uchiha's strength. With good logistical support and a sufficient number of ninja, Kirigakure had little hope of defeating the Uchiha; at best, they could only overwhelm them with numbers.

As for the rewards for merits from other clans, Hiruzen Sarutobi was extremely disdainful. Since he could distribute and arrange the rewards himself, those ninjutsu and forbidden techniques that posed a threat to his clan would not appear on the exchange list. Forbidden techniques were even simpler; it was no big deal to let the other party learn or watch those forbidden techniques that were completely impossible to learn or had very strict usage conditions. His clan had backups of all Konoha ninjutsu.

By allowing all the outstanding talents of these clans to be consumed on the dangerous battlefield, the Sarutobi clan can absorb more Konoha resources, enabling the clan to grow stronger.

Hyuga Kanan continued to roam the battlefields, completely unnoticed by the other ninjas. During this time, he had absorbed and refined the soul energy of over 5000 fallen ninjas. Although the quality was relatively low and ordinary, the sheer quantity still brought him immense gains.

However, during this month, Hyuga Kanan had a vague sense of crisis in his heart. This feeling made him feel somewhat uneasy. Hyuga Kanan knew that perhaps the large amount absorbed this time had already attracted the attention of the person behind the scenes, who might have already been checking the situation everywhere.

Hyuga Kanan decided to stop risking absorbing this soul energy. He should now find a place to slowly refine it. Furthermore, Kanan had a strong feeling that if he acted again, the chances of being discovered would be extremely high, even with the world's will protecting him.

But the world's will can definitely block the mental probing of those behind the scenes, so how could Hyuga Kanan feel discovered? There is only one possibility: there are monitors on the battlefield who do not rely on mental scanning, but on visual observation.

To be able to remain undetected by other ninjas while simultaneously monitoring the entire battlefield, there seems to be only one possibility: a humanoid creature that appeared later in the story, known as White Zetsu. These creatures can perfectly blend into the trees and move freely underground, making them undetectable even to the most perceptive ninjas in the ninja world. Therefore, they are the perfect surveillance beings.

Hyuga Kanan was somewhat alarmed. She wasn't sure if she had been discovered before, or if her spiritual sense was capable of detecting the other party's presence. Regardless, she would have to be extremely careful from now on and test whether she could actually sense the other party's presence.

With this in mind, Hyuga Kanan decided to go to the battlefield to observe carefully, without absorbing the soul energy of the ninjas. He wanted to conduct an experiment to ensure the safety of his future actions.

If he can't discover anything, then this mission should end here. He can't risk being discovered by the mastermind to absorb that soul energy. After all, no amount of soul energy is worth more than his own life. He's not going to be a fool who can take it but not live to enjoy it. Safety is the priority.

But if I could discover their existence, wouldn't it be possible to outmaneuver them, at least to confuse their observation and investigation, thus buying myself more time to cultivate? If I could confuse their observation and investigation, diverting their attention to others, then I wouldn't have to cultivate so fearfully in the future, constantly worrying that they would discover my existence and come out to eliminate me.

Once the idea formed in Hyuga Kanan's mind, he could no longer contain himself. He had even already decided to shift his focus. According to the information transmitted to him by the World's Will, there were two members of the Otsutsuki clan who came to the ninja world. Kaguya Otsutsuki was sealed on the moon, so what about the other? The World's Will indicated that the other Otsutsuki clan member hadn't died or left this world; clearly, they were also plotting something behind the scenes. Shouldn't he make both sides discover each other's schemes beforehand? By focusing all their attention on the other, he could truly relax and focus on training and improving himself.

Without further thought, Hyuga Kanan immediately took action. He needed to find a battlefield and carefully observe whether he could detect the enemy's presence before planning his next move.

This time, Hyuga Kanan was noticeably more cautious. He began slowing down when he was nearly a hundred kilometers from the battlefield, and his divine sense was no longer used indiscriminately. Instead, he concentrated his scattered divine sense, meticulously probing little by little. He reasoned that if even this level of probing failed to detect the enemy's whereabouts, he should abandon this operation and immediately return to his secluded training ground, avoiding any further activity. He knew that absorbing so much soul energy from so many ninjas had surely alerted the person behind the scenes, who would be closely monitoring the ninja world. Therefore, he needed to reduce his external activities to minimize the risk of exposure.

Hyuga Kanan's figure slowly approached the battlefield. This was one of the most intense battles between Konoha and Iwa ninja, with both sides deploying over 2000 ninja. Moreover, Iwa ninja were constantly receiving reinforcements from the rear. Konoha, on the other hand, was slowly retreating, using space to buy time as a tactic. At the same time, they were constantly stretching the Iwa ninja's supply lines, hoping to wear down the attacking Iwa ninja forces in this way. This would also make it easier for Iwa ninja's supply lines to be exposed, giving Konoha the opportunity to cut off the enemy's supply lines and cause the Iwa ninja forces at the front to collapse.

As they drew closer to the battlefield, Hyuga Kanan's focus grew increasingly intense. He believed that if they could indeed pinpoint the enemy's location, this area was the most likely place. Situated on the flank of the battle, it was a suitable distance from both sides' camps, and ninjas from both sides were constantly clashing nearby. This area was arguably the best surveillance position on the battlefield, and also the most fiercely contested area.

Hyuga Kanan continuously scanned the surroundings with his divine sense, not missing a single detail, while also activating his Byakugan to aid his observation. Hyuga Kanan believed that if even this method failed to find the enemy's trace, then he would need to immediately abandon the battle and leave.

Through meticulous probing, Hyuga Kanan finally discovered several strange figures hidden among the trees. Although they emitted chakra fluctuations, these were completely different from normal chakra, resembling more natural energy fluctuations. Furthermore, their bodies seemed to be identical to the trees, even their structure. Had the figures not moved and changed positions, Hyuga Kanan might not have been able to detect their presence.

Upon spotting his target, Hyuga Kanan tightly concealed his aura. In that short time, he detected the presence of more than five White Zetsu, but he wasn't sure if there were more. Simultaneously, his spiritual sense was firmly locked onto one White Zetsu. He needed to capture one to carefully study its aura and structure, making it easier to spot similar White Zetsu in the future.