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OPI Chapter 363: The Shadow Over Konoha
🕑 Added 2025-04-27 04:25:11 +0000 UTC"How could this be..."
Inside the Hokage’s office of Konohagakure.
Hiruzen sat with a grave expression, carefully listening to Shikaku’s report.
Yamanaka Inoichi, having suffered severe mental trauma, had only just returned, but soon collapsed and fell unconscious.
He was now receiving treatment at the Konoha Hospital.
Fortunately, Shikaku's condition was relatively stable.
Aside from his extremely pale complexion due to excessive chakra depletion, he suffered no serious injuries.
However, as the captain of this mission, nearly all of his hundred elite shinobi had been wiped out.
Among them were nine members of his own clan—it was easy to imagine the pain he felt.
Also present in the office were Shimura Danzō, Mitokado Homura, Utatane Koharu, Jiraiya, and Orochimaru, who had rushed over upon hearing the news.
Orochimaru, in particular, was deeply intrigued after discovering he couldn't understand the nature of the Teigu and Shingu.
He couldn't comprehend how they could possess such extraordinary properties and functions despite clearly not being made of chakra metal.
One could say they were in no way inferior to the Seven Ninja Swords of the Mist, or even Konoha’s own Sword of Raijin.
Thus, Orochimaru’s interest in anyone from Roran had only grown stronger—
Naturally, that included Aramaki, who was now approaching Konohagakure.
To be honest, he had even considered personally traveling to Roran to investigate.
The six people present could be considered the current high-ranking leadership of Konoha.
As for Tsunade, she had yet to return to the village.
As Shikaku continued his report, apart from Orochimaru, who remained expressionless, the faces of the other five grew increasingly grim.
The pressure in the room was suffocating.
Twenty jonin, thirty special jonin, and fifty chunin—all drawn from Konoha’s major clans.
Had been slaughtered wholesale by an imposter pretending to be the First Hokage?
The losses were catastrophic.
The worst part was that even Hiruzen didn’t believe he could defeat such an assembled force.
Let alone considering that it included Minato, who had mastered and even improved upon the Flying Thunder God Technique.
"So after sacrificing nearly a hundred elite shinobi, the information we’ve gathered is this: the enemy's name is Aramaki. His mental fortitude is so strong that he’s immune to genjutsu, including Mind-Body Switch and the Sharingan..."
"He can break free from Shadow Imitation and Binding Formation techniques through some unknown ability; he has no chakra in his body, rendering Gentle Fist’s chakra point strikes ineffective, leaving him completely unmoved."
"His taijutsu prowess is so overwhelming that he shattered the Hyūga clan head’s Rotation with a single palm strike, sending him flying and disappearing without a trace—his life or death unknown."
"And his Wood Release is so powerful that he knocked out the super-expanded Chōza Akimichi with a single punch."
In his slightly hoarse but captivating voice, Orochimaru softly summarized the key points of the gathered intelligence.
Aramaki’s image grew even clearer and more terrifying in everyone’s mind.
With each sentence Orochimaru uttered, the figure of Aramaki became ever more fearsome.
Even Orochimaru’s faint smile vanished completely as he finished speaking, his tongue unconsciously flicking across his lips.
"Even the First Hokage himself, in his prime, would be hard-pressed to surpass that..."
Jiraiya muttered stiffly, unable to imagine how they were supposed to face such an enemy.
"The enemy is still approaching us. Our top priority right now is to find a way to stop him—to repel him!"
At this moment, Danzō spoke harshly, his expression cold.
"If a hundred shinobi aren’t enough, then we'll send a thousand! If a thousand aren’t enough, then five thousand—or even tens of thousands!"
He refused to believe that anyone could defeat ten thousand shinobi alone.
Although Danzō and the others had seen Hashirama in their youth—
They had been far too young to witness his true strength in battle.
Thus, their understanding of his might remained confined within the limits of their imagination.
In this current era of the shinobi world—
Perhaps only the Third Tsuchikage possessed a clearer understanding of higher levels of power.
After all, in his youth, he and the Second Tsuchikage, Mu, had been thoroughly beaten by Uchiha Madara, an experience he would never forget.
Unfortunately—
Among the six people gathered in the Hokage’s office, none had such awareness.
They could not even imagine the level at which Senju Hashirama and Uchiha Madara once stood.
Naturally, they found Aramaki’s displayed strength both shocking and unbelievable.
"Jiraiya, from now on you will take command. Organize the defenses as quickly as possible—we must not allow him to set even a single foot inside Konoha!"
Hiruzen, for the moment, couldn’t think of any better plan.
"If necessary, I myself will take the field. Orochimaru, Danzō—you must also be ready. This is now a matter of life and death for Konoha!"
"Hmph, I am well aware."
Danzō seemed to catch a hidden meaning in Hiruzen’s words, glaring at him with open displeasure.
"You think I’m the kind of person who would stand by and let Konoha be harmed for the sake of personal gain?"
"You’re gravely mistaken about me, Hiruzen!"
"When it comes to my love for Konoha, as the 'Root,' my devotion runs deeper than anyone else's—including yours."
That was why Danzō always believed he was better suited to be Hokage than Hiruzen.
Because unlike him, Danzō would never hesitate or show weakness to outsiders.
"..."
Hiruzen chose not to comment, responding only with silence.
This only deepened the anger in Danzō’s eyes.
In Danzō’s view, Hiruzen simply didn’t understand him at all!
[Bang!]
Just then, the door to the office was suddenly flung open.
All six people immediately turned their gazes toward the entrance, their muscles tensing in an instant.
"Minato?!"
Upon seeing the newcomer, the tension in all six eased immediately—
But their eyes were filled with visible shock and suspicion.
Minato appeared utterly battered.
His legs were wrapped in thick bandages, and he sat in a wheelchair, pushed by his wife, Kushina.
Even the warm, sun-like smile he usually wore was gone.
All that remained on his face was deep worry and pain.
"What happened to you?"
As his sensei, Jiraiya hurried forward to ask.
When he’d heard from Shikaku that Minato had gone alone to engage Aramaki, Jiraiya hadn’t been too worried.
Because more than anyone, he understood just how masterful Minato’s Flying Thunder God Technique had become.
"Sensei, I’ve gathered more information on that Aramaki."
"But there’s something you must confirm first—during the fight, I found that my Summoning Technique failed. No toads from Mount Myōboku responded to my call."
"What?!"
Jiraiya was taken aback.
He wanted to blurt out that it was impossible—
But seeing the seriousness in Minato’s eyes, he swallowed his words.
"Then let me try."
Under everyone’s watchful eyes, Jiraiya skillfully performed the Summoning Technique, slapping his hand down onto the cold floor.
[Bang!]
A puff of white smoke erupted.
But as the smoke cleared, Jiraiya’s expression changed dramatically.
Because nothing had appeared.
"How is this possible?!"
Now Jiraiya realized how serious the situation was.
If he couldn’t summon the toads, he couldn’t rely on Reverse Summoning to teleport himself to Mount Myōboku either.
But why—
Suddenly, Orochimaru, who had remained silent until now, also performed the Summoning Technique.
The white smoke dispersed—
But once again, not even a single snake appeared.
Licking his lips, Orochimaru sneered coldly: "How interesting. It seems the Sage Regions know something that we don’t~"
...
Shinobi World, Pure Land.
The scenery was actually quite similar to what other worlds imagined as their underworlds.
A dim and hazy sky, a starless night veiled in drifting black clouds, yet the air was bathed in a soft green glow of unknown origin, gently illuminating every corner of this realm.
However, unlike the underworld of Starfish World, the temperature here was not scorching hot, nor was the ground covered in endless white sands like the Underworld of the World of the Titans, but instead, vast expanses of slightly soft, black soil stretched across the land, carrying a faint scent of earth.
Lush, shadowy forests were scattered everywhere, yet surprisingly, they did not give off any eerie or terrifying feeling, but rather exuded a quiet, harmonious atmosphere.
Within those dark forests, there are clusters of ancient wooden buildings that would seem extraordinarily old even by the standards of the shinobi world.
The settlement here was about as large as Konohagakure itself, and now and then, one could see human figures walking along the well-leveled roads, making it hard to believe this was the world of the dead.
Inside the largest wooden temple complex at the center of the entire settlement, the being worshipped across generations in the shinobi world as a god—the Sage of the Six Paths, Ōtsutsuki Hagoromo—was now sitting cross-legged in midair, silently observing through a massive crystal sphere two meters in diameter.
Through it, he watched Crocodile, who had returned to Sunagakure to prepare for the coming battle alongside Rasa, and Aramaki, who was charging ferociously through the Sea of Trees in the Land of Fire, standing atop the giant wooden ox.
"Who exactly are they?" Ōtsutsuki Hagoromo’s expression was a mixture of shock and suspicion.
He had already learned quite a bit about them through the souls of the shinobi who had died in battle, and yet, it was absurd—this Crocodile claimed to be the king of a Land of Wind that Hagoromo had never even heard of, and what’s more, he shamelessly asserted that they had fought before, even implying that Hagoromo himself had sealed him away in Rōran.
Slander! Utter slander!
Besides, Ōtsutsuki Hagoromo had never seen a giant over three meters tall before, yet here it was, right before his eyes, forcing him to wonder if he had truly been ignorant.
But how could that be? Back in his day, he had traveled the entire shinobi continent on foot, could it be that a new race of giants had emerged in just the past hundred years?
That didn’t add up either.
In the shinobi world, when living beings died, their souls would inevitably come to report to him here, after which they would be judged and managed by the generations of strong souls he had left behind, before being sent onward into the Six Paths of Reincarnation.
Of course, if a particularly powerful soul was found, and if it passed a certain test, it could remain in the Pure Land to prepare for future battles against other Ōtsutsuki clansmen who might invade the shinobi world.
"It seems all the mysteries will have to be unraveled in Rōran," Ōtsutsuki Hagoromo muttered to himself.
But before that, he wondered whether he should try to stop Crocodile and Aramaki somehow, because he had already realized that these two’s strength far exceeded the current shinobi world’s limits for resistance, and if this continued, the Five Great Shinobi Villages would surely be subdued.
"But what’s going on with those Sage Regions?"
At that moment, the souls of the Konohagakure shinobi who had fallen to Aramaki’s hand began arriving in the Pure Land, and as the master of the Pure Land, he could inspect the memories of the deceased at will whenever necessary.
Thus, with sharp perception, he caught a glimpse, through several of their memories, of Minato’s summoning technique failing.
Ōtsutsuki Hagoromo wondered whether he should make a trip to Mount Myōboku.
"As for the situation in the shinobi world, I'll leave it to them," he said.
