Chapter 138: Detonation
"A three-year-old child?"
Orochimaru couldn't help rubbing his forehead for a moment. Why had he chosen such an unreliable summoned beast?
"Orochimaru. After losing your parents, you developed a fear of death. Later, by chance, you obtained an opportunity from a shed white snake skin, mastering curse marks and the Living Corpse Reincarnation technique—an immortal ninja." With every sentence Li Jiexuan spoke, Orochimaru's expression shifted.
By the time Li Jiexuan finished listing them as if reading off a menu, Orochimaru's pale serpentine face had already turned livid.
"Who exactly are you? What do you want?"
"No, no, no, Orochimaru—you always get the priorities wrong." Li Jiexuan grinned. "It's not about what I want. It's about what you want."
"What I want?"
"To destroy Konoha and kill the Third Hokage—what's your real goal?" Li Jiexuan shook his head with a smile. "Don't tell me it's revenge."
"You're not that narrow-minded. Everything you've done has only ever been for immortality."
Orochimaru's snake pupils widened sharply. He realized that Li Jiexuan understood him to the bone—almost as if he could see straight into his thoughts.
"Don't be surprised. I watched you grow up."
A three-year-old child speaking so solemnly to an elderly man was both ridiculous and eerie…
Yet Orochimaru believed him.
"I want Konoha's secret techniques!" Orochimaru ground his teeth. "I have never regretted defecting from Konoha. I only resent the Third for preventing me from studying those beautiful forbidden jutsu!"
Just as expected!
If it were only about killing the Third Hokage, Orochimaru would never have gone to such lengths. Only the secret techniques of immortality could make him pause.
"Very good. I'll give you that opportunity."
Li Jiexuan narrowed his eyes. "Within the next few days, Konoha will be destroyed. A large number of Konoha ninja will be drawn away by a joint exercise with Takigakure. At that time, Tsunade will be the only one left in the entire village…"
At that, Li Jiexuan grinned lightly. "Surely you're not saying you can't even defeat Tsunade…"
Among the Three Sannin, Tsunade undoubtedly appeared the weakest on paper. As for the matter of selling out his own wife, Li Jiexuan felt that aside from the flawless little Tsunade of the past, any Tsunade who had been touched by Dan and peeked at by Jiraiya was nothing more than a passerby…
Orochimaru bared his teeth in a sinister grin. "I'll handle her."
"In that case, see you then."
Li Jiexuan waved at Orochimaru with a smile and turned to leave Ryūchi Cave…
Over the next few days, events unfolded as they had before. Naruto's relationship with Old Man Genno grew closer and closer. However, the Anbu had already begun watching him. The tampering Genno had done was intentional. For someone who didn't have long left to live, the treasure hunt game with Naruto was the most important thing in his life.
But…
Standing atop the Hokage Rock, Li Jiexuan roughly tossed nearly a hundred explosive tags inside.
Although he didn't know which explosive tags Genno had replaced with inferior ones, Li Jiexuan only needed to add a spark—and it would be enough. Smoke slowly rose within Konoha Village as the plot officially moved onto its proper track…
In the Forest of Konoha, Genno was captured by the Anbu. He faked his death through self-detonation and escaped into the Hokage Rock through underground tunnels to hide. In the end, during the treasure hunt game, he collapsed from exhaustion and died of severe illness!
But this time, Genno would not be so fortunate…
"Who's there?!"
Inside the dark interior of Hokage Rock, Genno's eyes widened in terror. He never imagined that someone would already be hiding in the very place he had chosen as his refuge!
"Uncle Genno, long time no see. It seems you've changed your look?" Li Jiexuan stepped out of the shadows with a smile…
"It's you!" Genno's eyes widened in fear. This child always gave him an extremely eerie feeling.
"What exactly do you want?"
"Shouldn't I be the one asking you that? Uncle Genno, the explosive tags planted in the village and inside the Hokage Rock were all your doing, weren't they? Master Mechanist Genno!" Li Jiexuan rebuked softly, startling Genno.
And in that brief rebuke, a giant serpent from the shadows swallowed him whole…
Genno was dead!
But the plot no longer needed him…
The incident continued to escalate. The missing architectural blueprints and Genno's acting led Tsunade, just as in the original events, to issue a state of alert, sending nearly all the ninja in the village out to guard the borders.
Meanwhile, Naruto, Shikamaru, and the others continued investigating the truth behind Genno…
Soon, Naruto's group discovered that Genno had not died in the Forest of Konoha. The corpse there had been a fake prepared in advance. Afterward, they found that the blueprints for the Ninja Academy were missing. With Tsunade's approval, a search of the Ninja Academy began!
Under normal circumstances, that short-circuited detonator would never have triggered an explosion, but…
"If you want the Scroll of Sealing, sacrifices are inevitable!" Li Jiexuan grinned. The space-time kunai pierced through the wooden post with perfect precision, detonating the tens of thousands of explosive tags Genno had laid over decades.
"Boom!"
The entire Konoha roared, as if a thousand ceremonial cannons were sounding a funeral dirge at once. More than half of the village was reduced to rubble and shattered stone…
The Ninja Academy, as the source of the detonation, collapsed completely.
But thinking this could kill Naruto was laughable. Not even the Konoha Twelve would be injured. Naruto burst out from the ruins, staring at the devastated village, his fists clenched in fury.
"Grandpa Genno—if you're behind all this, I'll never forgive you!"
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