Chapter 599
Chapter 599: Amatsukami’s Intelligence & Naruto’s Progress
While taking the two scrolls from Zetsu’s hand, Obito asked casually, “How did it go? Did either of them try to be over smart?”
Obito wasn’t too worried about Hyuga Kuroto and felt that Kuroto was in his control, but in regards to Uchiha Itachi, Obito couldn’t be so sure because, for some reason that Obito is unable to figure out, Uchiha Itachi was too calm while interacting with him.
Zetsu replied with a smile, “It went quite well actually… Sometime after I placed the marks, both of them rushed to those locations… And both of them were alone without any suspicious people behind them… maybe they are really worried about the two kids…”
Obito nodded with a thoughtful expression, then unfolded the two scrolls and started to read the information written in them.
As he read the information recorded in the scroll sent by Hyuga Kuroto, Obito’s face became extremely serious…
Zetsu hurriedly questioned, “What is written inside it?”
Obito replied in a deep tone of voice, “It is exactly as we suspected… According to what Hyuga Kuroto has written in this scroll, Amatsukami and Konoha are indeed suspected to have formally signed several agreements not long ago… Although the content of the agreements are unknown even to Anbu as Sandaime Hokage is the only one aware of the exact content, it can still be assumed that their cooperation is now formal because in the past month, the female Homusubi has appeared in Konoha several times and each time she appears, she walks inside the village through the main gate under the escort of Konoha’s Anbu and then personally meet up with the Sandaime Hokage…”
Zetsu raised his eyebrow in surprise, “Unexpectedly, the cooperative relationship between Amatsukami and Konoha has already reached this point… it seems we have to be more cautious in our future actions against Konoha…”
Obito nodded lightly, and added, “Yes… other than capturing the Jinchuriki of Kyuubi, we shouldn’t try to do anything else to Konoha… I need to warn Nagato too… otherwise, there is no telling what would happen if we were to encounter Yama!”
If it was in the past, even when Namikaze Minato was alive, Obito was never afraid of sneaking inside Konoha, in fact, not only was he not afraid, he always treated Konoha village as his personal back garden… he would sneak inside Konoha whenever he wanted, and then leave whenever he wanted… But after receiving this information from Hyuga Kuroto, Obito wouldn’t dare to do so anymore… Because if female Homusubi can openly come and go in Konoha, then the possibility of Yama as well as other members of Amatsukami appearing in Konoha is also very high, and no matter when he wouldn’t want to get himself surrounded by more than one member of Amatsukami at the same time…
In fact, not only him, but even for other members of the Akatsuki Organization, Konoha Village will be made a forbidden region, because unlike him, the others can not use space-time Jutsu or Izanagi to escape, and Obito doesn’t want to imagine the consequences of them running into Amatsukami.
Zetsu nodded and asked again, “Did your informant write any specific details of Konoha and Amatsukami’s cooperation? Or maybe any other detail of Amatsukami that we can use to our benefit?”
Obito shook his head, “Apparently, Homusubi only talked with the Sandaime Hokage, and didn’t engage in any sort of conversation with anyone else, as such, only Sarutobi Hiruzen is aware of the specific details of their cooperation… the others, including the Anbu, are not even qualified to know those specific details…”
At this time, Black Zetsu asked with a doubtful expression, “Do you really think he is speaking the truth? What if he is lying and wants us to stay away from Konoha? Or what if he does know the exact contents of the deal between Amatsukami and Konoha, but he is not telling us?”
Obito narrowed his eyes and asked, “What are you trying to say?”
Black Zetsu replied, “I am just asking whether the information he has given is really credible or not?”
Obito became silenced, then he showed the last part of the scroll to Black Zetsu and said, “See this part…? He seems to be quite impatient in regards to the safety of his disciple… Although this too could be an act, still, the fact that we have his disciple as hostage cannot be denied… what’s more, he also asked when can I provide him the way to remove the Cage Bird Curse Seal from his forehead… since there are things that he wants from the Akatsuki, therefore, I don’t think he will try to fool us… the information he has given should be true to some extent…”
White Zetsu nodded with a chuckle, “It seems we really have caught his weaknesses…!”
“The fate of the members of the branch division of the Hyuga Clan is really quite pitiful… But I don’t really have the time and energy to break the Cage Bird Cursed Seal… and once our plan succeeds, I wouldn’t even need to crack it… In the Genjutsu world, he will be free of the Cage Bird Cursed Seal…” then he added with a thoughtful expression, “But that aside, for now, one of our doubts has been confirmed… Amatsukami is only in contact with the Hokage of Konoha, this is why none of our spies in Kumogakure, Sunagakure, or Iwagakure were able to report any intelligence about Amatsukami cooperating with the five great shinobi villages… because it turns out that rather than cooperating will the leaders of all the villages, Amatsukami is only in cooperation with the leader of Konoha Village…”
White Zetsu nodded and said, “Since we have Hyuga Kuroto in our control, why don’t you force him to directly steal information from the Sandaime Hokage? Or maybe we can try to use him to control Konoha’s Hokage? Anyway, he has already betrayed the Konoha Village… and with Cage Bird Seal on his forehead, there is no turning back for him, as such, he shouldn’t dare refuse our instructions… so we can use him to control Konoha’s Hokage, and then obtain all the information about Amatsukami from Konoha’s Hokage…”
Obito thought about it and said, “I will think about it…” after that he unfolded the second scroll brought by Zetsu, and as soon as he read the content written in it Obito’s expression under the mask became strange and he became inexplicably silent…
Zetsu was surprised at Obito’s sudden silence, and knowing that the scroll was given by Uchiha Itachi, he couldn’t help but ask, “What is it? Did Uchiha Itachi give some useful information that would help us figure out the identity of the two Homusubi and help us deal with the two of them?”
With an inexplicable expression, Obito threw the scroll towards Zetsu and said, “Read it yourself.”
Zetsu unfolded the scroll with a strange expression and read the content written on it, “Uchiha Obito who was assumed to have died as a war hero in the battle of the Kannabi Bridge is suspected of being the male Homusubi of Amatsukami?”
Obito said with a sullen tone, “I don’t know if he wrote this intentionally or not… but he is implying that according to him Uchiha Obito is suspected of still being alive…”
…
Ryuchi Cave
Ichikishima hime smiled and while lovingly patting Naruto’s head, she praised him, “Naruto-kun… you learned it so easily and so quickly!”
“Huh? Already…?” Naruto had traces of serpent scales on his face along with vertically slitted slit golden eyes and reddish-orange eyeshadow was surprised by Ichikishima Hime’s words…
Ichikishima hime clasped her hand nodded, “Yup… you have already learned it… and I might as well add that among all the people I have taught Senjutsu as of yet, you were the fastest to learn… So, you are the most genius kid I have ever seen when it comes to Senjutsu!”
“Yosha! I managed to learn Senjutsu! Haha… Hahahahaha…!” Naruto who was praised by Ichikishima hime burst into loud laughter…
While Naruto was cheering and jumping in joy, Ichikishima hime couldn’t help but think to herself, ‘Even Kuroto-sama cannot match Naruto-kun’s talent when it comes to Senjutsu… it’s really surprising… it is as if this kid was born to wield Natural Energy!’
And Ichikishima Hime was indeed right.
As the descendant of the Uzumaki Clan, Naruto’s basic physique is very strong, moreover, he is also the reincarnation of Asura, and has been housing Kyuubi inside him from the time of his birth, so his compatibility with Natural Energy is very high, and because his understanding of Chakra itself is not that good at this point in time so when introduced to the concept of Naruto Energy, Naruto was able to sense it with much ease. Additionally, Naruto’s thoughts are very simple, he doesn’t any ideological burdens, and messy thoughts because of his young mind, so his compatibility with Natural Energy was also better.
This is completely different from the cannon…
In the cannon, when Naruto went to Mount Myoboku, there were several reasons, but the main reason was that he wanted to avenge Jiraiya, and for that he needed strength… although his reasons were completely legitimate and right from a certain perspective and motivated him to learn Senjutsu, these thoughts were selfish in a way and were also a source of ideological burdens on his mind. At the same time, Naruto was also made aware of what would happen should he fail to learn Senjutsu, so, he was also psychologically pressured.
But here at this moment, Naruto’s mind has no such ideological or psychological burdens are on … Heck, he isn’t even aware of what Senjutsu is, what sort of power will it give him, how strong will it make him, or what would be the consequences of failure that’s why his progress was so fast that it even surprised Ichikishima hime.
It must be known that Ichikishima hime has trained countless practitioners over the course of the past few centuries, and among all of them, Naruto has made the fastest progress…
Seeing the changes in Naruto’s physical appearance, and also the appearance of horns on his head Ichikishima said, “Okay, your state is stable… now let’s test the results…”
“Alright… when what should I do?” Naruto asked curiously.
Ichikishima hime pointed at the rock wall in the distance and said, “Try to punch that rock wall with all your might!”
Naruto looked strangely at Ichikishima hime, but seeing that she was being serious, he walked towards the wall suspiciously, reached out his hand, and touched the wall… feeling that it was extremely hard, he hesitated and said, “Onee-chan… this wall is so hard… if I punch it with all my strength, my hand will be injured…”
“Hehehe…” Ichikishima hime shook her head with a giggle, then motioned Naruto to trust her and not be afraid…
Seeing Ichikishima hime’s insistence, Naruto was helpless, he shut his eyes tightly, then took a deep breath while clutching the fist of his right hand, then with that, he punched the rock wall with all his might…
Smash!
The moment, Naruto’s fist fell on the rock wall, the rock wall was smashed and the cave shook…
Feeling the vibration and rumbling in the cave, Naruto was taken aback and exclaimed, “Wh-what…? Why is there an earthquake?”
Ichikishima hime smiled and after coming closer to Naruto, she asked, “Naruto… is your hand injured?”
When asked by Ichikishima hime, Naruto suddenly reacted and looked at his hand with a blank expression, at the same time, he looked at the rock wall where he punched then noticed the deep depression there along with all the cracks, and couldn’t help but mutter in a daze, “Did I… did I make this hole?”