Konoha, the Kitahara household, late at night.
Kaede Kitahara set down his pen. A work report was finally finished. All he had to do was hand it over to the Hokage's Office tomorrow for review.
From the time he had first become a squad captain and was not used to writing work reports, to now, when he had already become very familiar with the required format, Kaede Kitahara had truly made tremendous progress.
Kaede Kitahara put the work report aside and looked around the room. He was starting to feel that it was a little cramped. It might be time to consider moving somewhere better. For a Chunin, this living environment was already quite good.
But for Kaede Kitahara, it was still too small. Japanese-style buildings were already compact to begin with, and besides, with his current wealth, he could be considered rich. There was no need to make himself suffer when it came to where he lived.
It was just that he had always remembered that Konoha would be destroyed in the future, so he kept feeling that buying a house was not urgent. It would be destroyed sooner or later anyway, so why waste the money? He might as well wait until Pain's invasion three years from now before considering the matter.
Even the Konoha Crush Plan was right in front of him. Who knew what area would become a battlefield? If the house he had just bought became part of the battlefield, who could stand that?
Thinking of this, he opened his diary and began today's entry.
[It's about time I considered moving into a bigger house. My current place is still too small. This time, I absolutely won't let anyone smash my house to pieces. Whoever dares wreck my house, I'll beat their dog head in.
Now I kind of understand those ordinary people in superhero worlds. After a full day of work, they come home and see some superhero pick up the car they just finished paying off and smash it into the house they still haven't finished paying for. Just thinking about it makes my blood pressure spike. I'm talking about you, Hulk!
Orochimaru, Uzumaki Nagato, future Otsutsuki Toneri, Otsutsuki Momoshiki, Otsutsuki Isshiki, Code, or whoever else, if any of you dare touch my house, I'll beat your dog heads in. Manually laughs.]
"That Old Man. How many times have I told him already? I'm not becoming the Fifth Hokage."
Jiraiya waved his hand and drove away the Anbu who had come to find him.
His head hurt a little. Recently, every so often, the Third Hokage would send someone to find him, wanting him to take over as the Fifth Hokage.
The reasons were always the same. He was old, and if no one took over as the Fifth Hokage, he was going to work himself to death at his desk, and so on.
But Jiraiya had no interest at all. Was the Third Hokage the only one getting old? Was Jiraiya not getting old too?
He was fifty, all right?
Look back through history. Which Hokage had ever taken office at such an age?
Oh. There actually was one. The truly most suitable Fifth Hokage next, Tsunade.
In fact, it was precisely because he knew Tsunade would become the Fifth Hokage that he had even less interest.
After all, Konoha had not truly reached a dead end. It still had choices.
The reason he was secretly lurking inside Konoha was not because, as the Old Man imagined, he had suddenly changed his mind and was willing to come back and take over Konoha. It was simply because he planned to hit Orochimaru hard.
He was going to teach that traitorous bastard who murdered his teacher a brutal lesson.
Once this matter was over, he would still leave. He would even take Uzumaki Naruto with him, because he needed to properly train Uzumaki Naruto. Naruto had astonishing potential, and in the future, he would even become the savior.
He was the key figure Jiraiya had been searching for all these years.
Not Nagato. Not Minato. Naruto.
At this stage, Naruto still had weaknesses in his basics. But based on what Jiraiya had observed in secret, Kaede Kitahara had been giving Naruto special training targeted specifically at his weak points. So Naruto was doing far better than Jiraiya had initially estimated.
As for fundamentals like the Three Basic Jutsu, although Naruto could not be called outstanding at them, he was completely different from the Dead Last he had been at the start.
At the beginning, Uzumaki Naruto's fundamentals had been absurdly poor. He could not even perform the Clone Technique properly, to the point that he could not even graduate. Among the students of his year, he had been one of the truly bad ones.
But now, in terms of those basic skills, he had basically caught up to the top group of his peers.
This also confirmed Jiraiya's earlier judgment. Uzumaki Naruto had inherited the bloodlines of Namikaze Minato and Uzumaki Kushina. Naturally, his talent for training could not be bad.
That could be glimpsed from his many battles later on too.
It was just that no one had paid attention to him before. No one had given him special training based on his traits. On top of that, the Nine-Tails' Chakra interfered with him, causing him serious problems even when gathering Chakra. That was why he had seemed like the Dead Last early on.
If he could receive proper education, things might have been different from the start. For example, there was that Uzumaki Menma who had grown crooked and gone down the wrong path.
Although Uzumaki Menma had completely gone astray, it was still clear from him that if Uzumaki Naruto received good education, he absolutely had the chance to grow into a genius.
"The diary updated?"
At this moment, Jiraiya sensed the diary update. He immediately used Sensory Ninjutsu to confirm that no one was nearby, then took out the diary and began reading.
"He's changing to a new house? Looks like he really plans to stay in Konoha."
Jiraiya muttered to himself.
According to his intelligence, the place Kaede Kitahara had always lived in was clearly mismatched with his financial strength. Combined with the many pieces of information Kaede Kitahara had revealed in his diary, Jiraiya had guessed that Kaede Kitahara probably had the thought of running away if things went wrong.
Now, it seemed he was finally settling down?
As Kaede Kitahara's strength grew stronger and stronger, the mentality he showed in the diary had also become more and more calm.
But then Jiraiya saw the few people Kaede Kitahara had listed, all of whom were clearly major villains. Among them, he already knew Orochimaru, Uzumaki Nagato, and Otsutsuki Momoshiki.
He had not seen Otsutsuki Isshiki, but he had heard of him. But who was this Otsutsuki Toneri?
And who was Code?
Why were there still so many villains?
Although he did not know who these two newly appeared names were, when placed alongside the already known Orochimaru, Nagato, Otsutsuki Momoshiki, and the others, the meaning was basically obvious.
Most likely, they were also beings who had once posed an enormous threat to Konoha.
Just the three Otsutsuki names alone made his eyelids twitch. They were definitely three extremely terrifying existences. Otsutsuki Kinshiki, who was also a member of the Otsutsuki Clan, was not even qualified to be listed here.
Clearly, Kaede Kitahara was only counting the truly powerful here. Someone like Otsutsuki Kinshiki, though strong enough and at least possessing Super Kage Level strength, was merely attached to Otsutsuki Momoshiki, so he did not even qualify to appear on this list.
"But Orochimaru, oh, Orochimaru. What exactly did you do to deserve being placed in the same category as these monsters?"
Jiraiya could not help roasting him.
His teammate really had made something of himself now. He could actually stand alongside people who seemed to start at Super Kage Level.
"Otsutsuki. Looks like the greatest threats in the future will come from these Otsutsuki."
Inside the Hokage Residence, Uzumaki Naruto had gotten off work early for once. Ever since learning certain things about the future, he had resolved not to spend every day buried in official duties anymore.
As for where all those extra official duties went?
Oh, Shikamaru was working overtime.
Hadn't Kaede Kitahara also said that Shikamaru was the future Eighth Hokage? In that case, Naruto was just letting him experience what being Hokage felt like a little early.
What did that count as?
Pre-job training. An internship before正式 appointment.
During the internship, there was no salary.
Among these people, Seventh Hokage Naruto knew about Orochimaru, Uzumaki Nagato, Otsutsuki Toneri, and Otsutsuki Momoshiki. But Otsutsuki Isshiki and that Code were completely outside his knowledge.
Clearly, they were also existences that would appear in the future.
"Kara. Back when the Akatsuki Organization was around, Kara hadn't entered its active period yet. But now, it should be coming soon."
Seventh Hokage Naruto spoke.
He had already silently listed Kara, Otsutsuki Isshiki, and Code as surveillance targets. Of course, as the Seventh Hokage, he could not personally investigate them. All of that hard work would have to fall on Sasuke.
But considering that Naruto might die in the future, the future enemies were obviously powerful beyond imagination. He had to make sure Sasuke stayed careful.
"Code, Otsutsuki Toneri?"
Inside a secret room in one of the Akatsuki Organization's bases, Uchiha Itachi felt a headache coming on. Two more beings he had never heard of before had appeared, and clearly, they were two more extremely terrifying existences.
Especially the one bearing the Otsutsuki name. A completely new series had appeared again.
Before this, there had been Otsutsuki Hagoromo and Otsutsuki Hamura, names with the same kind of pattern. Then there were Otsutsuki Isshiki, Otsutsuki Momoshiki, and Otsutsuki Kinshiki, all with that "shiki" naming pattern. Now, another Otsutsuki Toneri had appeared?
Did this name represent some brand-new branch of the Otsutsuki that had never appeared before?
"Chikushou, Orochimaru. I will absolutely never let you have the chance to destroy Konoha."
Inside a certain hot spring inn, Tsunade, who was soaking in the hot spring, slapped the water's surface. Her ample chest rose and fell with the ripples.
The moment she thought of Orochimaru actually daring to murder his own teacher, anger surged up in her heart.
"Impersonating the Kazekage, huh?"
Tsunade thought back to the scene in the previous video where he had disguised himself as the Kazekage.
She just did not know whether the current Kazekage had already been quietly replaced by Orochimaru.
And without any evidence, there was no way she could confront him.
This time, when she returned to Konoha, she had not even informed the Old Man. She suspected that among the Old Man's Anbu, there might very well be Orochimaru's people. For someone at the level of the Sannin, planting subordinates inside the Anbu was a very simple matter.
Not to mention, Orochimaru had once held a high position inside the Anbu himself. In particular, he had been colluding with Danzo for many years.
Once news of her return to Konoha reached the Old Man's side, it would probably be impossible to hide it from Danzo. If Danzo knew, then that guy Orochimaru would definitely know too. At that point, whether he would still dare show himself would become a huge question.