Chapter 286: How Could That Old Bachelor Madara Have a Daughter?
After Naruto received the challenge letter, two gold dust clouds flew out of the Grass Ninja Village.
One side consisted of Naruto's Main Body accompanied by Uchiha Hikari, while the other side consisted of Naruto's Wood Clone and Hashirama taking a detour through the Land of Rivers.
The Land of Rivers, a small nation sandwiched between the Land of Fire, the Land of Wind, and the Land of Rain, possessed a complex geographical environment and a rather unique political landscape.
It lacked its own independent hidden village military force; national security and mission commissions usually relied on hiring Ninjas from the surrounding major nations.
These were mainly Ninjas from Hidden Sand Village, Amegakure, and Hidden Leaf Village.
This made the internal power structure of the Land of Rivers intricate and the flow of intelligence frequent, but it also meant its defensive forces were relatively loose, lacking a unified core will to resist.
Many people were unaware that the current Amegakure was not a monolith internally, but was instead split into two distinct factions:
One was the "Smoke Faction," composed of the former followers of Hanzou.
They specialized in using smoke, poisonous gas, and poison mist tactics combined with Water Release and Wind Release.
Because they dealt with poison year-round, they all wore respirators and had a strong resistance to conventional toxins, even being able to fight freely within poison mist environments.
The Smoke Faction's Ninjutsu system was better suited for positional defense, poisoning, and wars of attrition under a "demigod" style leader like Hanzou.
The other was the "Rain Faction," which swore loyalty to Pain, the current actual controller of Amegakure.
Their Ninjutsu mostly related to rainwater.
Their signature attire involved carrying umbrellas or wearing bamboo hats.
In rainy environments, their combat power would increase significantly, as torrential rain could not only mask their movements and signs of Ninjutsu activation but could itself become a medium for attack or amplification.
During the Chunin Exams, Naruto had once come into contact with contestants from the Hidden Rain Village.
He remembered that of the two teams of Rain Ninjas he encountered during the exams, one team all had names containing the word "Rain" and carried umbrellas.
Moreover, their names were quite interesting, called Shigure, Baiu, and Gouu respectively; their Ninjutsu was indeed closely related to rainwater manipulation.
After Hanzou's death, the remnants of the "Smoke Faction," having lost their leader and base, suffered purges and marginalization by the "Rain Faction" within Amegakure. A large number of personnel fled to the neighboring, power-mingled Land of Rivers, either becoming wandering Ninjas or being hired by local forces in the Land of Rivers or even foreign nations.
However, these fugitive "Smoke Faction" Ninjas had not completely given up.
They maintained contact with the few "Smoke Faction" accomplices still lurking inside Amegakure and often used the outskirts of Amegakure or the Land of Rivers as a springboard to sneak back into the Land of Rain. They engaged in small-scale infiltration, harassment, and guerrilla warfare against the "Rain Faction," attempting to reclaim their homeland or seek revenge.
This caused the border region between the Land of Rain and the Land of Rivers to often be shrouded in the shadows of assassinations, poison mist, and small-scale conflicts.
Meanwhile, Pain, who controlled Amegakure, relied on the Rain Tiger at Will Technique to maintain strict surveillance over a large area centered on the Hidden Rain Village.
This technique could not only sense all Chakra and living beings within the range of the rain's contact, achieving nearly blind-spot-free monitoring, but could also to some extent enhance the sensory and Chakra conduction abilities of "Rain Faction" Ninjas in the rain.
In the original story, when Jiraiya sneaked into Amegakure to investigate intelligence on Pain, it wasn't on a Sunday.
But coincidentally, Uchiha Obito also happened to enter Amegakure at that time to meet with Pain.
In order to further probe the background of this mysterious "Uchiha Madara," Nagato deliberately used the Rain Tiger at Will Technique.
This high-intensity perception not only helped Nagato preliminarily analyze the duration of Obito's "Kamui" intangibility ability but also unexpectedly captured the traces of Jiraiya, who had sneaked in at the same time, ultimately leading to Jiraiya's exposure.
Pain's existence was also the reason Naruto was unwilling to pass through the Land of Rain.
Naruto's Mangekyo Sharingan was still developing in the lab, and Urashiki's Rinnegan was also in Orochimaru's hands for inspection.
Naruto was a relatively cautious person; he didn't want to find himself with an extra Karma from Urashiki on his hand after transplanting Urashiki's Rinnegan.
Nagato was someone Naruto intended to keep for practice later.
If he were to go to war with the Akatsuki now, it might give the other major nations more time to prepare, and then the blitzkrieg wouldn't be a "blitz" anymore.
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The night was deep, and the forests on the border of the Land of Earth appeared shadowy under the moonlight, the silhouettes of the mountains like crouching giant beasts.
The air was dry, carrying the unique scent of rock and soil, starkly different from the humidity of the Land of Grass.
On a thick branch of a tall ancient tree, a figure stood quietly as if blending into the shadows.
He wore an inconspicuous long black robe and a uniquely styled tiger-patterned mask on his face, revealing only a deep and calm right eye.
It was Uchiha Obito, who had left the Kamui Dimension to test the strength of the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki.
He stood silently on the branch, his gaze like a hawk's overlooking the direction of the Land of Grass, as if he could penetrate layers of night and mountains to see the approaching "guest."
"Are they... just ahead?"
Obito's voice came through the mask, sounding somewhat low and hollow.
Almost as soon as his voice fell, a subtle, imperceptible ripple rose from the surface of the tree trunk beneath his feet. A white humanoid silhouette, as if "growing" out of the tree, slowly poked its head out; it was a Clone of White Zetsu.
The technique it was currently using was its unique infiltration Ninjutsu, the Mayfly Technique.
The Mayfly Technique, a unique infiltration-type Ninjutsu mastered by White Zetsu, essentially belonged to an extremely special application branch of the Wood Release system.
The principle of this technique was to fuse the user's physical body with the veins of the earth and vegetation with high precision; it wasn't simple hiding, but truly becoming part of the natural organic network.
The user could use the plant roots spread throughout the ground, flowing underground water veins, and other channels composed of organic matter to achieve high-speed, silent, and nearly untraceable movement.
During this process, the user's presence and Chakra fluctuations would be completely cut off, merging with the surrounding environment, making it extremely difficult for conventional sensory methods to detect their existence.
However, if the opponent was also proficient in Wood Release or had an extraordinary perception of natural energy and plant life veins, capturing the Mayfly Technique was not entirely impossible.
But for the vast majority of Ninjas, White Zetsu's infiltration was near perfect.
At this moment, this White Zetsu Clone had clearly just used the Mayfly Technique to conduct high-speed reconnaissance ahead.
"Yes, the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki and his companion are moving very fast. It won't be long before they officially cross the border of the Land of Earth.
Judging by their route and speed, they have ten minutes at most."
Obito nodded slightly, accepting the time estimate.
But he keenly caught a word in White Zetsu's speech:
"They?"
A flash of doubt crossed Obito's lone eye; White Zetsu hadn't mentioned earlier that there was more than just Naruto.
"Besides the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki, there's someone else?"
"Mm, there's also a woman."
The White Zetsu Clone nodded, its head wobbling on the tree trunk as if it were still recalling the scene it had just seen.
"When I first saw her... I thought she was Lord Uchiha Madara's daughter."
"Uchiha?"
Obito's tone suddenly rose, filled with obvious surprise.
This news was beyond his expectations.
According to the intelligence he knew, the Uchiha Clan was theoretically wiped out after the night of the massacre.
Sasuke was the only survivor of the massacre night, while Uchiha Itachi and he himself were the executors of that night.
Now, another woman had appeared who could be mistaken by White Zetsu at first glance as "Madara's daughter"?
"How could that old bachelor Madara have a daughter?"
Obito subconsciously muttered to himself, his voice carrying a sense of absurdity.
The Uchiha Madara in his cognition was a paranoid revenger, the architect of the Eye of the Moon Plan, a ghost lurking underground waiting for his chance, and an old bachelor who had never been married.
How could he have a daughter?
White Zetsu blinked, pretending not to hear.
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