Five years later.
Gisei Shiraishi, wearing a butterfly mask, moved rapidly through the forest.
Behind him, more than a dozen Rain ninja followed in hot pursuit.
They were relentlessly throwing shuriken at him, and the sound of explosive tags detonating echoed continuously through the trees.
He was on a mission.
Ever since the meteoric rise of Hanzo of the Salamander, the Land of Rain had become increasingly restless. Not only were they collecting ninjutsu, secret techniques, and forbidden jutsu from everywhere, but they were also aggressively expanding their military power.
The Five Great Nations were becoming increasingly wary of the Hidden Rain Village. The Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, had begun frequently sending Anbu to gather intelligence on them.
Gisei was one of them.
However, his luck wasn't very good; he was discovered the moment he crossed the border into the Land of Rain.
Chased all the way like a stray dog.
Gisei glanced back at the Rain ninja, a smirk appearing at the corner of his mouth.
They didn't even understand the basic principle of not pressing a desperate foe too hard. Truly, even if they died, they would die in vain.
After fleeing for another half hour, Gisei suddenly stopped.
Seeing this, the Rain ninja behind him immediately fanned out to surround him.
"You guys are really persistent. You've been chasing me for nearly four hours. I just don't understand—how much money did Danzo pay you?"
"Danzo? You're a Konoha Anbu, right? Come back with us obediently, and you might suffer a bit less."
One of the Rain ninja spoke up, a mocking glint in his eyes.
Over the past year, Konoha Anbu had frequently entered the Land of Rain to steal intelligence, annoying Hanzo to no end. Hanzo was a ruthless man; he had issued a standing order to kill any Konoha ninja on sight, without exception.
These Rain ninja were all border guards, and very few Konoha Anbu who encountered them managed to leave with their corpses intact.
Gisei sighed deeply.
"I really overestimated the lower limit of human stupidity. Are you guys really ninja?"
"I ran for so long and suddenly stopped, and you guys just went with the flow and surrounded me?"
"I really don't know what to say. Well, let's leave it at that. Time to send you on your way!"
Lightning crackled in Gisei's hand. The electricity traveled along thin steel wires that were already in place.
Dense steel wires covered every corner of the dense forest around them. All of them began to flicker with dangerous lightning.
"Lightning Style: Scorching Flow Kill!
The expressions of all the Rain ninja surrounding him changed drastically, and they immediately tried to jump back.
The Rain ninja who had spoken earlier grabbed a teammate and used him as a human shield.
"A trap? You..."
A fist radiating terrifying heat punched straight through both him and the teammate he was using as a shield.
Instant death.
Gisei looked at the Rain ninja fleeing in all directions and shook his head.
Within his Instant Thunder Formation, no one could escape his pursuit. Even if Hanzo himself came, it wouldn't work.
Half a minute later, he returned to the original spot to clean up the mess.
First, he lined up all the Rain ninja corpses. While they were freshly dead and their chakra hadn't completely dissipated, he began to absorb it. Every corpse he drained turned into skin and bones.
After absorbing from all of them, a flash of high-temperature electricity passed by, incinerating the remains.
After destroying the corpses and eliminating all traces, he packed up the Instant Thunder Formation, took out a soldier ration pill, and tossed it into his mouth.
"Really tastes awful. Sigh, better hurry up and regroup with the captain and the others. If I'm late, I'll get scolded again."
As he hurried along, he sensed the chakra he had just absorbed. Among the dozen or so Rain ninja, there seemed to be only two Jonin; the rest were all small fry. They couldn't even fill a single acupoint seal.
Gisei sighed again.
He had been fighting and killing for the past five years, yet he had only filled a little over twenty acupoint seals. If he wanted to fill all of them, how long would that take? Forever?
He could now release at most twenty acupoint seals, but even just these twenty gave him a massive amount of chakra.
He already possessed Jonin-level chakra naturally. Adding the stored chakra, he could instantly push his reserves to Kage level with more than enough to spare.
As for his Instant Thunder Formation, it was essentially a trap set up with conductive steel wires. Inside this web, his Lightning Body Flicker could achieve speeds comparable to the Flying Thunder God.
Of course, the development of the Lightning Body Flicker wasn't limited to this; he could also use it in tandem with his lightning butterflies. However, he wouldn't use that lightly. Regarding intelligence, the less others knew, the longer he would live.
Even his teammates didn't know about it.
Arriving at the border of the Land of Rain, he followed the secret code and found a hidden cave. There was firelight inside.
Gisei walked in, alerting the three people inside: White Fang (Sakumo Hatake), Hanadanuki (Aonobu Kawai), and Shintori.
Hatake Sakumo: "You're the last one again. Can't you ever be on time?"
Civet Cat: "Something must have happened again. No need to ask, the answer is 'Lord Danzo's fault'."
Shintori didn't speak; the Sharingan under her mask slowly closed.
Gisei walked in, scratching his head.
"I couldn't help it either. I was discovered as soon as I entered the Land of Rain. Chased all the way, I almost ran my legs off."
"I don't know what benefits Danzo gave the Rain ninja to hunt me down. Luckily, I was alert and lured them into the Instant Thunder Formation."
He didn't need to say much about what happened next. So far, no one had ever escaped from the Instant Thunder Formation.
His three teammates naturally knew about this. It was just that hearing Gisei blame Danzo after only two sentences...
Hanadanuki: "Why is your resentment towards Lord Danzo so great? I heard you even blame Lord Danzo when you forget to bring paper to the toilet..."
Gisei: "..."
Hatake Sakumo: "Lord Danzo is a high-ranking Konoha official after all. Can't you be a bit more respectful? In the past few years, you've blamed Lord Danzo for at least a thousand things. It makes it very awkward for us every time we see him."
Gisei sighed. "I know."
He said that with his mouth, but his heart said otherwise.
Is the 'Konoha Scapegoat King' still Danzo Shimura if he doesn't take the blame?
Gisei felt that as long as he was alive, two black pots (blames) a day for Danzo were guaranteed.
Before, he was afraid of Danzo because he was weak. Now? Who was he afraid of? If he really got pushed too far, he could bring people to wipe out Danzo's nest in minutes!
He was a man with a background now. If he still lived in fear like before, it would be a waste of such good resources.
With the improvement of his strength, Gisei lived with more and more confidence in Konoha.
Danzo basically took a detour when he saw him. Not because he was afraid, but because he really couldn't afford to lose face like that. Every time they met, Gisei would say some sarcastic nonsense, making it awkward for Danzo to act or speak. Either way, Danzo came out looking bad.
The Third had talked to him about this several times, but unfortunately, it was useless.
Saying one thing to your face and doing another behind your back—I learned all this from you old schemers.
As for whether Danzo would turn openly hostile, Gisei felt there was little chance of that happening inside the village. But every time he left on a mission, he was extra vigilant.
Just like this time—being discovered the moment he entered the Land of Rain? Gisei felt it definitely had something to do with Danzo.
That was why he said those things to the Rain ninja.
Whether there are dates on the tree or not, hit it with a pole twice first.
Even if it really had nothing to do with Danzo, he was definitely taking the blame for this.
One can only say that once a person's perception is formed, it is incredibly difficult to change. If someone saw cows flying in the sky since childhood, and one day suddenly found a cow eating grass on the ground, he would wonder how the cow fell. Don't cows eat clouds?
Even if others told him cows can't fly, he wouldn't believe it.
Gisei had decided Danzo was not a good person. Growing up in Danzo's shadow, trying to make him believe Danzo was a good guy...
Hehe, you must be an undercover agent sent by Danzo. Eat my blade first!
Fortunately, he hadn't encountered any fatal crises in the past few years. Otherwise, he would dare to take a blade to find Danzo the moment he returned to the village.
As for whether it would weaken Konoha or cause chaos? Would someone planning to become a rogue ninja care about that?
Don't think he was joking. In the past few years, he had fully understood just how much power the ninja clans possessed.
Take the Takemoto clan for example: more than a dozen Jonin, and over a hundred Chunin and Genin combined. And this was just one ninja clan. The current Konoha had at least thirty-plus active clans.
The Third's group was considered the largest faction, supported by the two great clans, Senju and Shimura. Underneath were medium and small clans like Yamanaka, Akimichi, Aburame, Inuzuka, etc.—an interest group composed of nearly twenty clans.
The Uchiha formed their own faction, and the Hyuga were a traditional noble clan that always remained neutral.
The rest were basically all on Gisei's side. As long as he didn't die—or rather, even if he courted death—the Third couldn't do anything to him.
If his own clan were still around, even if he went head-to-head with the Third and the others, he wouldn't be afraid at all. It was just a pity that his clan was left with only him as the banner carrier.
But Gisei wasn't panicking at all.
He was a man who relied on his clan. It didn't matter if the clansmen were all dead; have you heard of the Ninja Butterfly Unit?
In the past few years, under the banner of "mutual trust," he had gotten quite a few benefits from Mei. The rule that Ninja Butterflies were not allowed to go into battle ended with him.
He conducted a census in Butterfly Habitat Valley, and the results were quite shocking.
There were over one hundred and thirty Ninja Butterflies who were Jonin when they were alive, and nearly two hundred Chunin and Genin butterflies.
There were over a dozen past clan heads, each a ruthless individual who had raised at least three butterfly species. These clan heads were all part of Mei's collection. She used her ability to manipulate life force to extend their lives indefinitely.
As for the combat power of these Ninja Butterflies, Gisei had also roughly tested it.
Because Ninja Butterflies were a species formed by clansmen using the Cocoon Binding Technique, they inherited everything from the user. Whatever abilities the user could use when alive, these butterflies could use them all.
They could even possess human bodies—not the Transformation Technique, but true possession of physical bodies.
Gisei had asked Mei about this, and she said it was her ability; her power had caused the butterflies to evolve.
Regarding this, besides calling it perverted, Gisei also had his wishful thinking completely shattered.
He had become a thorough freeloader living off a woman.
After finishing the census, Gisei got cocky.
Really cocky.
He just wanted to ask: Who else?
Who else!