Ye Zi patiently waited until Danzo, suffocated by frustration, drew his last breath. Only then did he approach the body to confirm that Danzo was truly dead. Upon confirming, he let out a quiet sigh of relief.
Thanks to the regenerative properties of Hashirama's cells, Ye Zi's wounds were bleeding less and less, though his body remained soaked in blood.
"Four Sharingan are still left. Was it due to insufficient chakra, or is there a cooldown interval between uses?"
After pondering briefly, Ye Zi decided not to dwell on it. With Danzo dead, there was no point wasting time on such thoughts.
Naturally, Ye Zi didn't plan to let the remaining Sharingan go to waste. He extracted them and stored them in a glass vial.
Since deciding to collect Sharingan, Ye Zi had been carrying several such vials specifically designed to hold eyes.
As for the roughly hundred corpses strewn across the ground, Ye Zi wasn't interested in any of them. He didn't even consider collecting their DNA samples, not even Danzo's. Taking Danzo's body back wasn't on his agenda either; instead, he chose to destroy it right here.
After setting Danzo's body ablaze, Ye Zi turned and headed toward Orochimaru's hideout.
While his wounds were beginning to clot, Ye Zi's face had grown pale from blood loss.
It didn't take long for him to reach the cave where Orochimaru was hiding. Inside, he found Sasori, Shin, Orochimaru, White Zetsu, and his Wood Clone. Additionally, two corpses lay on the ground: a woman and Kotoe.
Seeing Ye Zi walk in, covered in blood, everyone was taken aback.
The Wood Clone, upon seeing the original return, dissolved itself, its chakra returning to Ye Zi though it was only a small amount.
"It's rare to see you in such a sorry state," Sasori remarked, his own clothes torn in several places, surprised at Ye Zi's bloody appearance.
"At least you're alive," Orochimaru said coolly.
"Did you hit your head on a rock underground or something? You could've just run," White Zetsu mocked.
"Lord Ye Zi," Shin greeted him quietly from where he stood beside Kotoe's corpse, then said nothing more.
Ye Zi cast a cold glance at White Zetsu and replied flatly, "I ran into Danzo and his Root members. Since I was low on chakra, it took a bit longer to deal with them."
Orochimaru's eyes gleamed. "You killed Danzo?"
Ye Zi replied calmly, "Yes, he's dead."
After a moment of silence, Orochimaru sneered, "I never thought Danzo would meet his end at your hands."
Ye Zi didn't respond further. Instead, he walked over to Kotoe's corpse, knelt beside it, and silently gazed at her pale, lifeless face.
Thanks to Hashirama's cells, the body had yet to decompose. Apart from the paleness of her skin and a few missing tissues, there weren't many changes.
"Kotoe…"
Ye Zi's eyes filled with sorrow as he gently brushed aside her disheveled bangs and tidied her messy hair.
As he arranged her hair, memories of the day Kotoe shielded him from Minato's attack flooded his mind.
Shin quietly watched as Ye Zi tended to Kotoe's hair.
"Since the task is complete, we should leave here quickly. Don't forget, we're only two kilometers from Konoha," Orochimaru reminded him.
Ye Zi nodded slightly, produced a scroll, sealed Kotoe's body within it, and put it away. Then, he turned to White Zetsu. "You're responsible for carrying the woman."
White Zetsu looked at the black-haired woman lying on the ground and asked, "Who is she?"
"I don't know. I've only seen her a few times. I'm going to use her as a sacrificial offering," Ye Zi said, glancing at the woman.
The woman was Shizune.
Although he could've used a clone with Hashirama's cells for the sacrifice, Ye Zi found the idea distasteful.
By coincidence, before the Wood Clone found Kotoe's body, it had encountered Shizune and her team. After a brief skirmish, the clone subdued Shizune and killed her teammates, bringing her unconscious body and Kotoe's corpse to Orochimaru.
Hearing Ye Zi's command, White Zetsu reluctantly complied, lifting Shizune. The thought of carrying a person all the way from Konoha to the Land of Stone felt incredibly inconvenient and stifling.
"Sasori, are you coming back with us or splitting off?" Ye Zi asked after White Zetsu hoisted Shizune onto his back.
"Splitting off," Sasori replied calmly. "This trip to Konoha was only to assist you."
Ye Zi nodded and said, "I owe you a favor."
"You don't owe me," Sasori replied as he turned and headed toward the cave's entrance. While walking, he added, "Besides, I'm more interested in attacking Konoha."
With that, he left the cave and disappeared from sight.
In truth, Sasori had come to help Ye Zi, not out of interest in attacking Konoha, but to repay Ye Zi for helping him kill White Fang and deal with the Taketori clan.
After Sasori's departure, Ye Zi and the others also left the cave. Before leaving, they destroyed the cave and erased any traces of their presence.
The group of four then began their journey back to the Land of Stone.
Since their base's location had been compromised, they would need to prepare for immediate relocation once they returned. Although Konoha was likely too preoccupied in the short term to launch a retaliation, moving the base was a necessary precaution.
After several days of travel, Ye Zi's injuries had mostly healed, though he still looked pale from significant blood loss.
Upon returning to the base, Ye Zi didn't rest. Instead, he took Shizune, still unconscious, from White Zetsu and brought her to his room.
He intended to use Edo Tensei to resurrect Kotoe immediately. This method of revival was the only option available to him, and it was the reason he had retrieved her body in the first place.
Shin and Orochimaru, understanding what Ye Zi planned to do, chose not to rest either. They followed him to his room but stayed outside, waiting for Kotoe to be revived through Edo Tensei.
Ye Zi placed Shizune in the center of the room and then retrieved the scroll containing Kotoe's body. He summoned her corpse onto the bed but hesitated, unsure of what to do next. It was as if he suddenly didn't know the next step in the process.
Edo Tensei required a certain amount of DNA or personal tissue from the deceased meaning he would need to cut a piece of flesh from Kotoe's body.
Staring at Kotoe's closed eyes, Ye Zi remained silent and hesitant for a moment before finally taking out a blade and cutting off a small piece of her tissue.
After obtaining the necessary DNA, Ye Zi put Kotoe's body back into the scroll. He then approached the unconscious Shizune, laid out the scroll for the Edo Tensei ritual, and placed Kotoe's DNA in the blank section of the dark array.
At this point, all the steps were complete. All that remained was to activate the technique inscribed in the scroll to complete the Edo Tensei.
However, Ye Zi hesitated.
Edo Tensei was a forbidden technique that toyed with the dead and manipulated their souls. And now, he was about to use this forbidden jutsu on Kotoe.
In life, Kotoe had been willing to give up everything for him, even her life, valuing him above all else.
Now, bringing Kotoe back through Edo Tensei would mean making her sacrifice herself for him all over again.
Ye Zi didn't know why, but a sense of resistance welled up within him. He even began to feel reluctant to use Edo Tensei to bring Kotoe back.
"Heh... heh... heh..." Ye Zi let out a low, self-mocking laugh.
The laugh didn't last long before he made up his mind.
Regardless of his reservations, he had to bring Kotoe back through Edo Tensei. Wasn't that the very purpose of attacking Konoha in the first place?
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Currently on Chapter 495 - Konoha, Iwa and Kumo