Chapter 520: Have Faith in the Sage of Six Paths!

Chapter 520: Chapter 520: Have Faith in the Sage of Six Paths!

At that moment, Kagami’s gaze swept over Danzo, who was standing in the front row.

Although Kagami hadn’t deliberately gone out of his way to investigate, over the past few days he had still heard quite a few things. For instance, Danzo had apparently been secretly reaching out to several shinobi clans within the village, seemingly preparing to make some kind of move.

Thinking of this, the corner of Kagami’s mouth curled in disdain.

The position of Hokage represented power, but it also meant responsibility. Kagami genuinely wondered whether something had gone wrong with Danzo’s brain for him to fail to understand such a simple principle.

The destruction of the village had indeed ruined the Third Hokage’s prestige and caused his reputation to plummet, but that still didn’t mean someone who hadn’t even shown his face on the night the village was attacked could replace him.

Even if an assembly of all the jonin really was convened and the Third Hokage stepped down, the person who replaced him would be either Jiraiya or Tsunade.

No matter how they went down the list, the position would never fall to Danzo.

At a time when the village was in the middle of reconstruction, jumping around and scheming like this would only bring humiliation upon himself and destroy what little reputation he had left.

Besides, the more obsessed someone was with power, the less they should want to become Hokage at a time like this.

After all, sitting in the Hokage’s seat right now was practically no different from sitting on a powder keg.

"I really wonder what gave him this much confidence. Could it be the ’Chimera Technique’?"

After a brief pause, Kagami continued inwardly, "Even if we successfully improve the Chimera Technique, whether he can actually survive the fusion ritual is still another matter entirely!"

This wasn’t because Kagami held some inherent prejudice against Danzo.

Rather, the more familiar he became with Danzo, the more he felt that the current Danzo resembled a politician far more than a shinobi.

And a politician’s stage obviously wasn’t a battlefield where life and death were decided in an instant.

No matter how powerful a politician might be, once thrown onto a real battlefield, how much of that strength they could actually bring to bear was difficult to say.

On this point, the battle between Danzo and Sasuke in the original timeline was already more than enough proof.

Against Sasuke’s Susanoo, Danzo practically lost a life with every punch. In less than a few minutes, he had already died three or four times at Sasuke’s hands.

For someone like Danzo, who had lived through several Great Shinobi Wars, such a performance was undoubtedly far below the level he should have been capable of.

Shaking his head inwardly, Kagami shifted his gaze toward the Hyuga clan standing in the front rows.

The eldest daughter of the Hyuga Main Family had been abducted.

Had something like this happened in the past, it would have been a major incident capable of shaking the entire village. But compared to everything that had happened on the night Konoha was destroyed, it barely caused a ripple.

As clan head, Hiashi was at least reasonable enough to understand that Hinata’s abduction wasn’t Rei’s fault, despite Rei having been present at the time.

After all, even if Hiashi himself had been there, he might not have been able to defeat Orochimaru and Kakuzu.

Nevertheless, the abduction of Hinata and Neji was still an enormous blow to the Hyuga clan. Not only had the clan immediately organized a dedicated rescue team, Kagami had also heard that they had sent people to make contact with the black market.

They intended to use the black market as an intermediary to establish contact with Orochimaru and ransom Hinata back through a transaction.

Thinking about the abducted Hinata and Neji, Kagami’s gaze subconsciously shifted toward the Uchiha clan, who were standing not far from the Hyuga.

It was rather ironic.

Sasuke had also been abducted amid the chaos that night.

And the ones who had taken him were members of Akatsuki.

With this, the reincarnations of Otsutsuki Asura and Otsutsuki Indra had both been abducted at the same time and thrown into danger.

Kagami couldn’t help but entertain a rather wicked thought.

"The Sage of Six Paths must be getting a little anxious right about now too."

After the funeral ended, Kagami dismissed Team Seven.

Just then, Shisui and Itachi hurried over to find him. Once the three of them reached a secluded place, they impatiently asked,

"Senpai, when are we making our move?"

Kagami naturally knew exactly what operation they were talking about.

The intelligence Shinichi had passed to Fugaku within the genjutsu world had already been shared by Fugaku with Shisui—the strongest member of the clan—and the Third Hokage.

In other words, the village had now secretly obtained the location of Akatsuki’s new hidden base.

Looking at the eager expressions on Shisui and Itachi’s faces, Kagami shook his head.

"Now isn’t the right time."

He had actually considered the rescue operation long ago.

Whether it was Naruto and Sasuke, the two saviors personally chosen by the Sage of Six Paths, or Hinata and Neji, the two children of the Hyuga clan, all four had close ties to him. Neji, in particular, was a disciple Kagami had personally acknowledged.

Now that these children were in danger, whether out of personal feelings or simple obligation, he ought to lend them a hand.

But if he couldn’t beat the enemy, then he couldn’t beat the enemy.

That was an objective fact, one that couldn’t be changed by anyone’s will.

With Kagami’s current strength, Nagato only needed to use a single Chibaku Tensei and the battle would be over. There wouldn’t even be the slightest room for him to turn things around.

The fact that he had managed to force Nagato to retreat before was already the result of Kagami exhausting every trick at his disposal while being blessed with incredible luck.

Otherwise, among those buried today, Kagami’s name would undoubtedly have been one of them.

Itachi didn’t know about Kagami’s difficulties, but he was a qualified shinobi. He understood that Kagami must have a reason for saying this, so he suppressed his anxiety and asked,

"Senpai, why isn’t now the right time?"

In Itachi and Shisui’s minds, Kagami in his identity as ’Yama’ was unquestionably the strongest person in the shinobi world.

He was the supreme powerhouse whom even Akatsuki’s Rinnegan-wielding leader had been forced to avoid confronting head-on.

So neither of them had even considered that the reason Kagami refused to act right now was simply—

He couldn’t beat them.

Kagami slowly explained, "What Akatsuki wants are the Tailed Beasts, so their target should be Naruto, not Sasuke. And Orochimaru has always coveted the Sharingan of your Uchiha clan, so Orochimaru’s target should be Sasuke, not Naruto."

Itachi immediately understood what Kagami meant.

"You mean they each captured the other side’s target, so they’ll inevitably find a way to make an exchange. And we can take advantage of that opportunity to strike and rescue all four children at once?"

Kagami nodded lightly.

With Orochimaru’s cautious nature, there was absolutely no chance he would meet Nagato personally to conduct the exchange.

Therefore, the transaction definitely wouldn’t take place within Akatsuki’s sphere of influence, and the person Akatsuki sent to handle the exchange most likely wouldn’t be Nagato either.

So rather than storming Akatsuki’s base head-on, it would be far better to wait until Akatsuki and Orochimaru carried out their exchange, then launch a surprise attack and rescue all of the children at once.

Shisui nodded repeatedly.

"That really is a good plan!"

In Shisui’s eyes, although Sasuke was important, Naruto, as the village’s Jinchuriki, was equally important. And with the eldest daughter of the Hyuga Main Family involved as well, he naturally couldn’t consider Sasuke alone.

Itachi also thought it was a good plan, but he still couldn’t suppress his concern for Sasuke’s safety.

"Senpai, Sasuke... he’ll be all right, won’t he?"

Kagami patted Itachi on the shoulder.

"Don’t worry. Sasuke is a Konoha shinobi too. Going through some hardship and setbacks isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It’ll help him grow stronger!"

There was one more sentence Kagami didn’t say aloud—

"You’ve got to have some faith in the Sage of Six Paths..."