Chapter 99: The Rain Country on the Brink of Chaos
Flying high in the sky, Ishiro moved at incredible speed. He estimated that his flying pace was three times faster than his top land speed without Body Flicker. Factoring in Body Flicker, moving on land would still be faster in bursts—but flight allowed him to move in straight lines, unhindered by rivers or mountains.
Thus, his travel time was cut by at least half.
At full speed, Ishiro entered the Rain Country within a single day. Without stopping at the border, he immediately pushed deep into its heartland.
Unlike the Earth Country, Rain's constant cloud cover made flight even more concealed. The terrain was also flatter and less mountainous, making it ideal for air travel. Ishiro found a remote hill and used it as a temporary base.
He'd noticed this desolate little mountain from the air earlier—it was far from any dense plant life, which was now something he needed to avoid at all costs.
From this point forward, Ishiro's greatest threat was Black Zetsu and White Zetsu. Based on the original story, White Zetsu relied on plant roots and underground networks to spy. Unless absolutely necessary, Ishiro would avoid areas with rich vegetation.
He rested the night, let his chakra fully recover, then left the mountain the next morning to meet up with Iwa's informants.
He acted with extreme caution. Upon approaching the meeting location, he hid his real body and used a camouflaged Earth Clone to retrieve the intel.
After contacting four informants, Ishiro finally confirmed what he had been hoping to learn:
Danzō was already in the Rain Country.
Though the informants had no way of tracking Danzō directly, they had picked up on Rain-nin having recent but now declining contact with Root. Ishiro judged this meant both sides had likely finalized a secret deal. Action could come at any moment.
Fortunately, none of the informants had observed large-scale troop movements or elite shinobi mobilizations from Amegakure.
That was a clear sign. In a country like Iwa, when top-tier jōnin like Ishiro were assigned tasks, their missions were spaced out. If the village wanted to rally its elite, it would first stop assigning outbound missions to its jōnin.
Without preparation, they'd barely be able to gather a third of their actual elite force.
The Rain Country was no different. It was smaller, had yet to recover from the Second Shinobi War, and now had internal tension due to the rising Akatsuki and weakening Daimyō support for Hanzō.
So if Hanzō intended to make a move against Akatsuki, he'd need to gather every capable ninja in the village.
Ishiro now had two tasks: first, monitor Rain-nin activities to determine Hanzō's timeline; second, deduce the ambush location—something that should've been difficult, but he had the advantage of knowing the original plot.
Given Hanzō's cautious nature, Ishiro guessed he might still use the same method as in the original timeline: kidnapping Konan.
So Ishiro decided to investigate from that angle.
He first visited Akatsuki's base—using a masked Earth Clone—and learned that the leaders weren't present.
He'd planned for this. He had come during a time when Yahiko, Konan, and Nagato were away. Confirming their absence, Ishiro left behind a note containing only one sentence:
> "Be careful of Konoha."
As the clone departed, Ishiro's real body sensed someone tailing the clone. He couldn't be sure if it was a White Zetsu, so he stayed hidden.
The clone followed a preselected route and arrived at an abandoned shack, then dispelled itself.
This shack was within Ishiro's sensory range but far enough to be a safe observation spot.
Soon after, the pursuer—likely a chūnin—arrived, observed the shack for a few minutes, then entered to investigate.
Only to be riddled with traps Ishiro had set inside.
Then, something strange happened.
Ishiro could clearly tell when someone was dead using his sensory jutsu—but this person's signature didn't vanish. Instead, it changed.
And Ishiro recognized this new life signature: it was one plants would have.
Judging by its vitality, this "person" had become a tree.
Ishiro took a deep breath, calming his suddenly pounding heart.
He didn't move. He needed to confirm whether he could detect White Zetsu's presence.
From what the original story told him, White Zetsu didn't seem to have anti-detection abilities. So he wasn't worried about revealing himself just yet.
He was hiding inside a building, not on the ground, but perched on a stone beam.
Sensory ninjutsu remained active for hours—one, two, five—and nothing happened. But Ishiro didn't panic.
He had already decided: if he couldn't detect White Zetsu at all, he would abandon the mission.
No point trying to play games with a hidden mastermind like Uchiha Madara.
Finally, after two full days, Ishiro sensed something.
He had memorized every plant around the transformed White Zetsu site. But now, one of the trees had slightly more life force.
Gotcha.
If White Zetsu had hidden in the tree from the beginning, Ishiro never would've noticed. But the sudden increase in vitality was the giveaway.
After a moment of analysis, Ishiro detected natural energy in that tree's life force.
He was certain of it. After a month of observing Dan'go in Sealing Zone One, Ishiro knew what natural energy felt like.
It made sense—the Divine Tree used natural energy, and White Zetsu was made from it.
Ishiro had the impulse to capture one and research it for natural energy secrets. But he restrained himself.
Then he had a new idea.
As he watched, a second White Zetsu emerged from the tree. Unlike the first, this one had no trace of natural energy.
Then, something stranger happened: the second Zetsu absorbed the life force of the first, and the first tree-form died.
Interesting. Maybe capturing a living White Zetsu was risky. But bringing back a tree form might not alert Madara?
Still, it wasn't urgent.
He waited a bit longer and saw the new Zetsu re-enter a tree and vanish.
Once it was gone, Ishiro stayed one more day to ensure no movement, then used Camouflage and Light-Weight Boulder Techniques to quietly withdraw.
—
Days later, Ishiro made contact with the informants again.
This time, he got the news he had been waiting for:
Amegakure was summoning its elite forces.
It was happening.
He gathered more clues from other agents about Root's positioning, then used everything he knew about the Rain Country's terrain to deduce Hanzō's target site.
He wasn't sure whether Hanzō would ambush them on a cliff, like in the original story. But it was a good starting point.
He factored in Root's known positions, the Akatsuki base, and Amegakure's location, looking for places that would allow Hanzō to lay traps—like an Explosive Tag Array.
There weren't many places that fit the criteria: high, open terrain, good for laying seals and allowing Hanzō's side to control the battlefield.
He narrowed it down to a few potential locations and began focusing his surveillance on them.
At first, there was no movement.
But three days later, Ishiro finally spotted signs of Root activity at one of the sites.
Again using his flight and camouflage, he stayed hidden while watching a Root squad scout the area.
To his surprise, they didn't stay—they just surveyed briefly, then left in a different direction.
Ishiro puzzled over this until he realized: Hanzō and Danzō hadn't finalized the ambush site yet.
These Root ninja were scouting for terrain.
Ishiro didn't dare tail them directly, so he used sensory jutsu to track their movements instead.
And that's when something went wrong.
One of the Root members reacted to his detection. Ishiro hadn't experienced this since sensing Hyougetsu of the Hozuki Clan.
The Root ninja's body shuddered. Chakra surged. Ishiro suddenly sensed something different about him.
He froze—he'd been detected.
Thankfully, they were far apart. He wasn't worried about being immediately pursued.
But what startled him most was the strange reaction this ninja gave off.
It was… familiar.
Like Nagato, whose enormous chakra stood out like a sun. But this person's eye area gave Ishiro an eerie chill.
He remembered the feeling: Rinnegan. But now that Nagato had learned to hide its presence, Ishiro couldn't sense it anymore.
This Root ninja had that same wrongness in the eyes. Given his heightened sensitivity to natural energy, Ishiro noticed the anomaly from afar.
Then, it clicked.
Uchiha. Sharingan.
Dammit. Sharingan could see through Camouflage Technique. His stealth plan just fell apart.
Frustrated, Ishiro quietly moved away while rethinking his approach.
The Hyuga clan had the Caged Bird Seal. Root's curse marks could suppress Hyuga, but not guarantee loyalty. That's why Root never recruited Hyuga.
But Uchiha were a different story.
In canon, Root had only accepted Shisui and Itachi.
Ishiro had assumed the Uchiha were confined to the Konoha Police Force. But after the White Fang incident, Konoha's leadership used the Uchiha as scapegoats, pushing the clan from secret dissatisfaction into open defiance.
That event, orchestrated by Hiruzen Sarutobi and Danzō, forced moderate Uchiha to begin secretly aligning with Danzō.
Danzō, burned by Hiruzen's betrayal, welcomed them with open arms—and quietly inducted a few Uchiha into Root.
♧♧♧
-> SUPPORT ME WITH POWER STONE
-> FOR EVERY 200 PS = BOUNS CHAPTER
♧♧♧
-> 25 Advanced chapters Now Available on Patreon!!
-> https://www.patreon.com/c/Segais
(Just remove the hyphen to access patreon normally)
If you like this novel please consider leaving a review that help the story a lot Thank you