Naruto: Cultivating to Immortality

Chapter 81 Hiruzen Sarutobi's Speculation

Hyuga Kanan strolled through the bustling streets of Konoha Village, a strange feeling welling up inside her. Everywhere she looked, there were throngs of people, vibrant markets, and towering buildings. This once-familiar village had been revitalized with renewed life and energy.

He walked quietly, taking in the surrounding hustle and bustle. The prosperity of Konoha Village filled him with a sense of melancholy. He recalled the scenes of other villages he had seen along the way and felt a strange unease. Konoha Village hadn't changed much, just become more prosperous. Looking at the happy smiles on people's faces, Hyuga Kanan didn't know how he felt.

But Hyuga Kanan quickly snapped out of his thoughts. The development of the ninja world had nothing to do with him. No matter how miserable those small countries were, they had little to do with him. He was, after all, just an outsider.

These feelings stemmed entirely from his previous life living in peaceful and stable China, where he had never experienced the plight of people displaced by war in other countries, leaving him unable to adapt to the situation immediately.

As his strength increased, Hyuga Kanan understood the cruelty of the world even more, and now all he wanted was to move towards his goal more quickly.

Even though I am already quite strong now, I have to take another deep breath when I think about what I will face in the future. The road ahead is long and arduous!

He needs to improve and equip himself more quickly to change the predicament he will face later. He needs to be no longer a pawn in someone else's game, but a player, or even leave this world altogether.

During the Second Shinobi World War, he had already abandoned his identity as a ninja and had not communicated with the Hyuga clan at all. He then left the battlefield to find a place to cultivate and break through his limitations.

Nearly seven years have passed, and he is about to return to his clan's territory. He wonders what trouble the Hyuga clan will cause him, a clansman who has never cared about the Hyuga clan.

However, Hyuga Kanan only wanted to go back to see his mother before leaving to find a place to train. He also needed the Hyuga clan's help to collect the materials he was still missing, to speed up his collection so that he could finish gathering the necessary materials as soon as possible and return to training.

With that in mind, Hyuga Kanan quickened his pace. He had already spent more than a month appreciating the splendor of the ninja world, and his mindset was almost ready.

Soon, Hyuga Kanan mobilized his internal energy to accelerate, and his figure disappeared into the bustling streets of Konoha, heading towards the Hyuga clan's territory.

He had just sensed with his divine sense that a squad of Anbu ninjas was heading in his direction. They had obviously discovered him, a lone member of the Hyuga clan who had just entered from outside the village, and were coming to investigate.

However, Hyuga Kanan did not want any further involvement with Konoha, so he quickly left and returned to the Hyuga clan's territory, allowing the Hyuga clan to communicate with the Konoha leadership later.

Hyuga Kanan moved quickly, arriving at the Hyuga clan's territory, far from the bustling center of Konoha, in just a few minutes. Looking at the somewhat dilapidated gate of the Hyuga clan, he didn't linger and strode inside.

After discovering that their target had returned to the Hyuga clan's territory, the Anbu team immediately went back to the Hokage Building to report the situation. After all, the Hyuga clan is a powerful clan that the Anbu team cannot directly enter; they need authorization from the Konoha leadership.

It wasn't until after the war that Hiruzen Sarutobi had time to properly organize all the intelligence from the Konoha War. Among the intelligence submitted by the Legendary Sannin of Konoha, he discovered that Hyuga Kanan, whom he had agreed to have his ninja status revoked, had a record of fighting against a Jonin from Iwagakure and had even defeated him. This surprised Hiruzen Sarutobi.

After all, Hyuga Kanan was only 11 years old at the time, and he was able to fight against a Jonin of Iwagakure. He was a rare talent. However, I felt a little regretful and confused that he agreed to let Kanan retire and leave the Konoha ninja ranks.

During Danzo's mission, the enemy had such strong capabilities, yet they didn't communicate with the team and ultimately acted alone. They definitely need to be investigated again.

However, after leaving the battlefield, Hyuga Kanan disappeared from the ninja world. After the war, Hiruzen Sarutobi sent Konoha intelligence agents to collect information on the enemy, but after a year of fruitless efforts, he gave up.

Seven years have passed in the blink of an eye.

However, news just came from the Konoha gatekeepers that a lone member of the Hyuga clan had returned to the village. Hiruzen Sarutobi guessed that it was most likely Hyuga Kanan returning to Konoha, since Hiruzen Sarutobi, as the ninja mission manager, always assigned missions to Hyuga clan members. During this period, all Hyuga clan members who had been on missions had returned to the village; there were no one left alone outside.

Hiruzen Sarutobi's deepest fear was a repeat of the Uchiha clan's incident. During the First Hokage's time, Madara Uchiha inexplicably left Konoha, only to return a few years later with the Nine-Tailed Fox, engaging the First Hokage in a life-or-death battle. Although Madara died in the battle, he inflicted irreparable injuries on the First Hokage, ultimately causing him to succumb to his wounds and die within a few years, thus triggering the First Shinobi World War.

After all, when I talked to Hyuga Kanan, I found that this member of the Hyuga clan had no awareness of being a ninja at all, and even had a lot of misunderstandings about the ninja profession. Such a person is an unparalleled genius, and it is very likely that he will have some bad ideas.

As the current Hokage of Konoha, Hiruzen Sarutobi still has some knowledge of the situation when Madara Uchiha left Konoha. Madara expressed differing opinions on the village's founding, leading to a major disagreement with the First Hokage, which ultimately resulted in his departure. Upon returning to Konoha, his confrontation with the First Hokage stemmed from his belief that he had discovered the truth of the ninja world. He urged the First Hokage to abandon Konoha and join him in pursuing that truth, but the First refused, leading to the battle.

Madara Uchiha believed that Konoha would hinder his pursuit of truth, so eliminating Konoha in advance was the right thing to do, while the First Hokage was forced to fight in order to protect Konoha.

Hyuga Kanan's situation was so similar to that of Uchiha Madara when he left that Hiruzen Sarutobi also suspected that Hyuga Kanan, after discovering something outside, would see Konoha as an obstacle to his goal and launch an attack. Considering Kanan's talent in defeating an Iwa jonin at the age of 11, it was impossible to imagine how much he had grown in six or seven years.

Now, going directly back to the Hyuga clan, is it an attempt to incite members of the Hyuga clan to join the other side?

Thinking of this, Hiruzen Sarutobi could no longer sit still. He immediately led his ANBU squad towards the Hyuga clan's territory, as he needed to confirm their purpose for returning to Konoha.

Even though Hiruzen Sarutobi was very confident in his own strength, he knew that once these members of the bloodline limit families reached a certain level, they could completely suppress him.

Although he has continuously improved his strength over the years, he knows that there is little room for further improvement, and as he gets older, his strength will only continue to decline. Meanwhile, his opponent is constantly growing and may not have reached their peak yet.

I'm currently at my peak and can completely suppress my opponent. What I need to know now is their true intentions. If they harbor even the slightest hostility towards Konoha, then I will emulate the First Hokage and kill them directly for my village.

Even if the other party is a member of the Hyuga clan, and possibly the future of the Hyuga clan, I cannot hesitate in the slightest. Everything is for Konoha.

Despite these thoughts, he didn't slow his pace at all, quickly moving towards the Hyuga clan's territory, clearly not wanting the Hyuga clan members to be successfully manipulated. Otherwise, Konoha would lose one of its strategic weapons against external threats: the Byakugan.

Meanwhile, Hyuga Kanan was heading straight to his courtyard. He was planning to think carefully about how to get the Hyuga clan to help him collect the materials he needed. As someone who didn't fit in with the entire Hyuga clan and was considered a thorn in the side by the Hyuga main family, getting the Hyuga clan to help him was no easy task.

However, relying on myself to slowly collect them would take an unknown amount of time before I could successfully collect them. I don't have time to waste on such things. But refining my natal magic weapon is also very important for my growth in strength, so I can't give up the refining plan.

As he pondered, he walked toward his small courtyard, completely ignoring the pointing and whispering of the other Hyuga members around him.

Soon, a patrol of the Hyuga clan arrived directly beside Hyuga Kanan, blocking his path.

Hyuga Kanan was able to move freely within the Hyuga clan's territory without anyone stopping him, thanks to his bright Byakugan. However, since most Hyuga clan members didn't recognize him, the Hyuga clan's patrol team couldn't let him roam freely within the clan's territory any longer and immediately came to check his identity.

"Explain your identity? A stranger from the Hyuga clan!"

An older member of the Hyuga patrol asked politely.

He had been a patrol member of the Hyuga clan for over thirty years, and he was certain he had never seen the other person in the clan before. Therefore, he needed to verify the other person's identity himself. After all, those Byakugan eyes couldn't be faked.

"Uh!" Hyuga Kanan's thoughts were interrupted by the patrol members in front of him, and he realized his situation. He had been away from the clan for more than seven years. Back then, he was just an 11-year-old child. He had changed a lot in seven years, so it was normal that these people didn't recognize him. If it weren't for his obvious Byakugan, he might not even be able to enter the Hyuga clan's territory.