Jiraiya's death was like a single drop falling into the ocean, not even stirring up a splash.
It didn't even compare to Onoki and Hanzo's deaths—at least when the intel division heard about those two, they actually sat down and analyzed the situation for a while.
For Uchiha Yoichi, it just meant adding another shikigami shrine.
Once Konan collapsed on the bed, completely exhausted, Uchiha Yoichi left her side. If he kept coming a few more times, and kept using Nagato's "you decide for yourself" pep talks to egg her on, Konan might really turn into a juice machine.
After returning to Konoha, Uchiha Yoichi placed the spirit bodies of Jiraiya, Hanzo, and Onoki into the pre‑built shrines, then protected them with a barrier. From here on, as long as he kept supplying sacrificed spirit bodies as offerings, the Three Shikigami would grow stronger and stronger.
Once he occupied the Pure Land, he could keep nurturing them with the power there for a while longer, and in the future they could also become part of Uchiha Yoichi's strength.
Used in battle, shikigami were extremely hard to defend against—at least, ordinary Ninjutsu basically couldn't do anything to them. Immortal Techniques infused with Natural Energy could injure them somewhat, though.
After settling the shikigami, Uchiha Yoichi didn't have much left to do for the moment. There were only two enemies left in the Ninja World: Otsutsuki Hagoromo, who'd been compiled into Hell, and Otsutsuki Isshiki, who was hiding in the shadows.
Yoichi planned to use the shikigami to deal with the former. As for the latter, his concealment was too deep. Hatake Sakumo's intel unit had been running for a while now, but they still hadn't picked up any leads.
Uchiha Madara was already dead; not long after being brought back to Konoha, he committed suicide.
Even if Uchiha Madara hadn't killed himself, Senju Hashirama and Senju Tobirama wouldn't have let him go. The relationship between Hashirama and Madara was complicated, but Hashirama cared more about Konoha.
After Uchiha Madara's death, his corpse was taken over directly by Senju Tobirama, aside from the Rinnegan, which was handed over to Uchiha Yoichi.
Yoichi's second clone had already been cultivated, though he'd hesitated a bit when it came to choosing which eyes to give it.
In the end he still chose the Tenseigan—after transplanting a pair of Byakugan, he used Otsutsuki Chakra to force them to molt and evolve into Tenseigan.
Otsutsuki Urashiki's Rinnegan was kept preserved. Right now he had two pairs of Rinnegan in hand: one from Otsutsuki Urashiki, and the other from Uchiha Madara.
In a critical moment, both could boost the village's combat strength.
————————————
Bang!
Bang, bang!
From high up in the sky came one muffled thunderclap after another. Even though it was dozens of kilometers away from Konoha Country, the civilians of Konoha could still hear it.
But since the sound was coming from the sky, the civilians thought it was just thunder before a rainstorm, and the Security Team even put out a notice saying it was just a simple weather pattern, so no one paid it any mind.
In reality, though, that unending thunder was from two figures clashing in midair.
One of the figures had a pair of wings of fiery feathers growing from her back—this was Senju Yoko, now the Phoenix Jinchuriki. The one sparring with her was Uchiha Yoichi.
Senju Yoko's speed in the air was like a falling star. She even left afterimages behind as she launched a stream of attacks against Uchiha Yoichi from every direction.
Every punch and kick carried terrifying force, the released impact enough to shatter a mountain.
But Yoichi blocked all of these attacks, and even reflected the force back along her limbs, shaking apart the Undying Fire wrapped around Senju Yoko's fists and feet.
"Last move—Unrivaled Strength!"
Scorching golden flames erupted from Senju Yoko's body, then surged toward Uchiha Yoichi with an incredibly terrifying power.
But Yoichi suddenly turned, his hand shooting out with blinding speed to clamp down precisely on Senju Yoko's wrist, stopping her cold.
"You're forcing it too much, Yoko!"
Then he grabbed her and flung her backward, tossing Senju Yoko straight into her own clone.
Bang!
"Nngh!"
Senju Yoko smashed through the clone, dispersing it, and let out a muffled cry of pain.
Seeing this, Uchiha Yoichi hurried over and asked, "You okay, Yoko?"
"Nnh…"
Clutching her wrist and putting on a pained act, Senju Yoko huffed, "I'm telling Mom on you!"
"I'll heal you up. How old are you and you're still tattling?"
Uchiha Yoichi was helpless against this daughter of his, so he used Ōmononushi no kami to heal her injuries. Not that he even needed to step in—at the Phoenix's level, this kind of damage would heal completely in under a minute.
Once Senju Yoko recovered, Uchiha Sasuke flew over carrying Uzumaki Naruto on his back. They were here to watch the fight, but since Naruto couldn't fly and would have to keep running in the air using Geppo, he'd just glommed onto Sasuke instead.
Three years had been enough for Sasuke to partially transform with Ghidorah, growing a pair of Ghidorah's wings from his back.
"Father, you and Yoko-nee are so strong!"
Uzumaki Naruto yelled loudly when he saw Uchiha Yoichi and Senju Yoko coming over; ever since Kushina moved into Uchiha Yoichi's house, Naruto had changed how he addressed him.
Back then Kushina had prepared a whole bunch of things to say, but before she could finish, Naruto had already accepted it. He just didn't change his family name, still calling himself Uzumaki Naruto.
Uchiha Sasuke said, his eyes burning with fighting spirit, "Father, I want to spar with you too. Please give me some guidance on my recent training."
Hearing that, Naruto cut in, "Me too, but I need to go up to the surface to give guidance..."
Uchiha Yoichi beckoned the two of them over. Seeing this, Sasuke and Naruto came closer, but Yoichi simply reached out and poked each of them on the forehead, then said to them with a smile, "Let's leave it for another day. When you can beat Itachi, I'll start guiding you."
Sasuke said with a sulky face, "Father says that every time..."
"Next time for sure, next time for sure!"
Uchiha Yoichi said with a laugh, then linked Sasuke, Naruto and Yoko with Chakra, and directly teleported them back using the Flying Thunder God Jutsu.
When they returned to Konoha it happened to be noon, so Uchiha Yoichi took them straight home for lunch.
It had already been three years since he stepped down from the Hokage position. The current Hokage was Uchiha Shisui; Nawaki had lost to Shisui by a narrow margin.
The main issue was that he was a bit short on renown, and when Nawaki was resurrected, the Ninja World War was already over, whereas Shisui had actually taken part in the war.
Uchiha Yoichi had completely thrown all Hokage matters aside. Even if Shisui came to consult him on something, Yoichi would push it off onto the Second or the Fourth. He was living in total ease and freedom.
The only downside was that constantly running around everywhere took a bit of time. He secretly had three disciples, and Kaguya and Konan both needed to be placated—especially Konan, who seemed to be treating getting pregnant as her goal, asking for him more and more frequently.
Sometimes when Uchiha Yoichi deliberately acted impatient and busy, Konan would even proactively put on various different uniforms and insist on squeezing a few rounds out of him.
The cultivation of the Shikigami was also going smoothly. By the second year, the Three Shikigami had already been successfully cultivated and had taken control of the Pure Land Gate.
Once they'd reached that point, they could finally make a move on Otsutsuki Hagoromo.
Uchiha Yoichi called Kaguya over, and the two of them entered the Pure Land directly in their physical bodies.
When they found Otsutsuki Hagoromo, his expression was very calm, only the tone of his voice carrying a hint of unwillingness. Gamamaru's Spirit Body had also appeared in the Pure Land, having been brought over by Otsutsuki Hagoromo after his death.
After a bout of battle, Uchiha Yoichi killed Otsutsuki Hagoromo and returned his power to Kaguya.
After reclaiming Otsutsuki Hagoromo's Chakra, Kaguya's strength increased quite a bit. In the Ninja World, she was now the strongest existence besides Uchiha Yoichi.
In fact, if they were just comparing raw Chakra, even Uchiha Yoichi couldn't match her.
After reclaiming Otsutsuki Hagoromo's Chakra, and on top of that learning the Genetic Primordial Energy Cultivation Technique from Uchiha Yoichi, Kaguya no longer needed to fear Isshiki. It was just that they still couldn't find him, making Kaguya and Uchiha Yoichi feel as if there were a mouse hiding somewhere in their house.
It wasn't exactly a threat, but it was disgusting.
If Otsutsuki Isshiki had moved his base into a Different Space-Time and devoted himself to nurturing a Wedge vessel there, then Uchiha Yoichi wouldn't have much he could do about it.
Unless he could find the point where one entered and exited that Different Space-Time.
After dinner, just as Uchiha Yoichi stood up, Senju Yoko pulled him away, and Tsunade, who was nearby, got dragged along as well.
Once they were in the courtyard, Senju Yoko spoke up, "Father, Mother, I plan to go back."
Tsunade froze for a moment when she heard this, looking like she hadn't processed it yet. After a brief daze, she came back to her senses and hurriedly asked, "Yoko, why go back when everything's fine here? If you stay..."
Before she could finish, Tsunade cut herself off, then sighed. She suddenly remembered that there was another "her" over there. Being able to keep her daughter by her side for three years was already very rare.
Uchiha Yoichi had already guessed this beforehand—just a few days ago she had suddenly asked him to fully charge the Plow with energy and had been requesting daily sparring and guidance.
Now Senju Yoko's strength was enough to support an entire country, and she could still steadily grow stronger. There was nothing to worry about once she went back.
Besides, over these three years, Uchiha Yoichi had often used the Plow to go accompany the Tsunade in that other Space-Time; he had just kept his own existence hidden over there.
Senju Yoko said with a cheeky grin, "Father, you have to come visit me often, that's our promise!"
"Don't worry, Yoko."
After saying their goodbyes, Senju Yoko went back inside to bid farewell to everyone one by one, and even grabbed Naruto and Sasuke by the collars, making them promise that after she left, they weren't allowed to bully the Yoko of this Space-Time—since Senju Yoko had been bullying these two "big brothers" all the time.
Once the farewells were done, Senju Yoko activated the Plow in the courtyard and returned to her own Space-Time.
After Senju Yoko left, everyone was downcast for a while, especially Naruto, Sasuke, and Karin. In their hearts, Senju Yoko was like a big-sis boss figure, and then she had suddenly gone away.
But when Uchiha Yoichi saw Yoko leave using the Plow Treasure Tools, he suddenly felt the urge to do another time-space hop himself.
After three years of peaceful, comfortable life, it was about time he figured out a way to power up again.
And by using the Plow to travel through time and space, he could also go to the future to scout out the whereabouts of Otsutsuki Isshiki. Leaving such a mouse in his house always made him feel a constant itch in his heart.