After a week of vacation, Gojo Yoru and Uzumaki Kushina resumed their journey of missions.
In the lands of the Land of Rivers, where nature still ruled, mountain ranges stretched endlessly in every direction, forming a maze of rugged, winding paths.
A merchant caravan of twenty to thirty people was making the hard trek home.
Compared to the ordinary people, who were exhausted from constantly climbing up and down slopes and already panting for breath, the young man and woman walking at the very front to scout the road ahead still looked perfectly calm and composed.
The girl, her long red hair tied into a high ponytail, would occasionally close her eyes and form hand seals, activating one of the finest sensory techniques in the ninja world. Her invisible mind's eye covered a radius of dozens of kilometers.
Within that range, every person and animal—whether ordinary civilian or shinobi, large or small—would appear to her like signals on a radar, their chakra and life force clearly displayed.
That pair was none other than Gojo Yoru and Uzumaki Kushina.
Even though the duo of a space-time ninja and a Nine-Tails jinchūriki was already the strongest pair in both Konoha and the shinobi world, they did not only take S-rank missions.
More accurately, S-rank missions were ultra-high-level assignments involving national or village leadership. They did not come around all the time.
If they only accepted S-rank jobs, they would either starve or die in battle.
It was not as though Yoru and Kushina lacked money anyway. They took missions mostly as a way to travel and unwind.
So the merchant caravan had no idea that the "strongest duo in Konoha" standing before them were not even their real bodies, but only shadow clones.
Even as shadow clones, however, their strength was still at the level of ace combatants.
Kushina's shadow clone even had chakra reserves that were measured in "cards."
And because Yoru possessed Flying Thunder God, even his shadow clone could instantly swap itself and Kushina's shadow clone with their real bodies. The whole process took less than a second.
If an enemy set their sights on them, Mind's Eye of the Kagura would detect them before they even got close. In fact, the shadow clones alone could deal with them before the real bodies ever needed to return.
And if an enemy was strong enough to bypass Mind's Eye of the Kagura, get close without a sound, and destroy the shadow clones, that only meant the enemy was terrifyingly strong.
Trading shadow clones and a client's safety for that kind of intelligence was absolutely worth it to Yoru.
If the mission failed, then it failed. Not only would Hiruzen Sarutobi not blame him or Kushina, he would probably praise them for "fishing" so well.
Compared to two strategic deterrents like a space-time ninja and a Nine-Tails jinchūriki, a client's life was worth less than even a disposable genin.
That was just how cruel the shinobi world was.
Meanwhile, the real Yoru and Kushina were at a waterfall basin about fifteen kilometers away from the caravan.
Click.
The sound of a camera shutter was so soft under the roar of the waterfall that it was almost impossible to hear.
If not for the camera flash, no one would even realize the shutter had gone off.
On the shore of the pool, Yoru and Kushina were striking all sorts of poses for photos.
Some had them linking arms. Some had him carrying her in a princess hold. Some had her riding on his shoulders. Some had them kissing.
After they finished taking the "normal" couple photos, Kushina still wasn't satisfied. She even made Yoru use the Transformation Technique to change his clothes, adjust his height, and even turn back into a younger version of himself, just to satisfy all her weird little whims.
Usually mischievous by nature, Yoru surprisingly didn't argue with her at all. He was almost absurdly obedient, like a machine following commands.
Whatever Kushina wanted him to do, he did it—even if it ruined his image or would later count as blackmail-worthy material.
"...Okay, that's enough for today."
After who knew how many rolls of film, Kushina finally ended the photo session in complete satisfaction.
Watching her fiddle happily with the camera, Yoru wrapped his arms around her waist from behind, rested his chin on her shoulder, and said with a wicked grin, blowing a breath against her ear,
"Kushina-sensei's turn is over now. So tonight, it's Yoru-sensei's turn~~"
Whether it was his breath brushing against her ear or the words themselves bringing certain embarrassing images to mind, Kushina's pretty face instantly flushed red.
She lightly jabbed him with her elbow, broke out of his embrace, and walked ahead while saying,
"What do you mean, Yoru-sensei's turn? I have no idea what you're talking about."
Yoru didn't get mad. He just strolled after her with his hands behind his head and began chanting in a deliberately annoying sing-song tone:
"Liars grow long, pointy noses—that's Pinocchio. People who break promises get fat—that's what 'getting fat from breaking your word' means. And people who don't keep their promises end up hunchbacked and sagging, and their kids go hungry, because they're too ashamed to face anyone and have no capacity in their chest—"
He didn't say anything else. He just repeated those same lines over and over, changing the tone each time. Sometimes it sounded like a reminder, sometimes a warning, sometimes a curse.
It was way more irritating than just cursing at her directly.
"Alright, alright, stop chanting already! I said I'll do it, okay?"
Kushina clapped both hands over her ears, turned around to glare at him, and then raised her fist in a fierce threat.
"I'll let you take those kinds of photos, but you have to promise me you will never show them to a third person, and absolutely never let them leak out. If you do, I'll beat you to death and then kill myself."
"Heh... I promise I'll keep them on me at all times. I'll even seal them into my wrist scroll while I sleep."
Yoru ran over, scooped Kushina up, spun her around a few times, then pressed her against a tree and leaned down to kiss her.
Kushina, who had never been the shy type, immediately rose onto her toes, wrapped her arms around his neck, and kissed him back just as passionately.
When her feet got tired, she simply jumped up and wrapped her legs around his waist.
If not for the cross-dimensional River Crab God—just as powerful as the cross-dimensional underage drinking ban—and the fact that it would take some more time before those restrictions faded away, the two of them probably would have given in right there, with the sky as their blanket, the earth as their bed, mountains and rivers as their pillow, and geese honking accompaniment.
Even before graduating from the Academy, the two had already developed feelings for each other and made it obvious more than once.
After all these years, the relationship between Gojo Yoru and Uzumaki Kushina had long since reached the point where things simply flowed naturally.
Just like the relationship between Senju Hashirama and Uzumaki Mito, in Hiruzen Sarutobi's eyes, no one was more suitable to become Kushina's other half than Yoru.
And only Yoru was capable of keeping Kushina under control if she ever lost it.
Hiruzen even had a rather fanciful idea.
If Yoru and Kushina had a child together, and that child inherited both their bloodlines... wouldn't that be a more perfect version of Gojo Yoru?
Now that Yoru had patched up his two main weaknesses—sensing and medical ability—the only thing he still lacked was raw chakra volume.
To an ordinary ninja, chakra reserves at the level of an ace combatant were already astonishing.
But in Hiruzen's eyes, that amount was still nowhere near enough.
A massive chakra pool was the foundation for huge area-of-effect techniques, and also an absolute requirement for surpassing the Five Kage and becoming the next God of Shinobi.
If Yoru couldn't solve that problem, then even if his combat power surpassed both Hashirama and Uchiha Madara, his strategic deterrence would still fall short of theirs.
If Yoru possessed chakra on the same level as Kushina, Hiruzen could hardly imagine what his upper limit would be.
That was why Hiruzen looked forward so much to the two of them someday producing an even more perfect successor.
The Land of Rivers was an extremely weak small country that had always served as a buffer between the Land of Fire and the Land of Wind. Most of its territory was still raw, undeveloped wilderness—land the nation did not even have the power to exploit.
Those same areas had become secret bases for all sorts of nations, to the point where the Land of Rivers needed to notify surrounding countries before it could even think about developing them.
Because the roads were so steep and difficult, the Land of Rivers had never been able to build up a proper economy. It remained one of the few places in the shinobi world without any truly prosperous districts.
Its villages and towns were built either on mountainsides or at the foot of mountains. It was also known as a land of mountain villages and mountain towns.
The caravan pressed on, walking and stopping in turns, crossing who knew how many mountains before finally reaching a small town nestled beneath one just as evening approached.
"Gojo-sama, we'll be relying on you tonight."
"Don't worry. Protecting you is my responsibility."
The caravan leader lowered himself humbly and spoke with great respect as he negotiated with Yoru.
Yoru, who had quietly switched his shadow clone back out for his real body, responded just as politely.
Even so, neither he nor Kushina stayed close to guard the caravan. Instead, they simply let the merchants go find an inn.
The leader didn't dare object in the slightest. For the price he had paid, being able to hire the Embodiment of a Miracle and the strongest duo in Konoha as escorts was already the bargain of a lifetime. He wouldn't dare ask for anything more.
That same sense of awe was the reason they ultimately survived.
Just like on any ordinary mission, Kushina first spread Mind's Eye of the Kagura across the entire town to check whether anyone was targeting them. If she found nothing suspicious, she would mark the locations of all the local strong individuals. Then she and Yoru would stroll through the streets, checking out whatever local specialties the town had to offer.
Once a Hyūga awakened the Byakugan, they could only see within about one kilometer to start. Unless they awakened Ōtsutsuki blood, even in the future, seeing several kilometers away was already the limit.
And yet eyes like that were still considered among the finest sensory dojutsu in the ninja world. That made Mind's Eye of the Kagura, which could sense across dozens of kilometers, all the more absurd.
Just as Uchiha Madara had predicted, five years was more than enough time for someone to become complacent.
The one who had grown complacent, however, was not Yoru.
It was Kushina.
Yoru had never warned Kushina that there existed beings in the shinobi world capable of merging with the earth and all plant life.
For these five years, whenever they went on missions, Yoru had always left long-range sensing to Kushina while quietly using short-range space perception himself as a safety net.
Although his talent still limited him, and he still could not fully release his space perception without hand seals, during these five years he had managed to do something else.
With the passive micro-adjustment of the Yin Seal and by silently forming one-handed signs to merge space-time chakra with Yin Release chakra, he could, after building it up for a while, use space perception without visible hand signs within a certain range.
Because of his cautious nature, he did exactly that again this time.
The moment his prepared space perception spread out, his gaze flicked—so subtly it was almost impossible to notice—toward the eleven o'clock direction.
Over there was a burly laborer who looked exactly like a local resident. He had three overstuffed woven sacks slung over his shoulder and was walking with his head down and his back bent.
Workers like that were everywhere, and none of them stood out.
Men like him, worn down by life, spent more time staring at the ground than looking ahead. Unlike the younger men nearby, he wasn't even stealing glances at the beautiful Kushina.
And yet it was exactly this utterly unremarkable laborer who drew Yoru's attention.
Still, Yoru didn't keep staring at him. Outwardly, he continued accompanying Kushina through town as if nothing were wrong. Inwardly, his space perception remained fixed on the laborer, while the space-time chakra inside his body quietly started to gather.
The laborer was drenched in sweat. Just lifting his gaze even slightly would send sweat into his eyes.
As he walked past Yoru and Kushina, he had no idea that there was a ridiculously eye-catching couple right beside him.
Even if someone had possessed emotion-sensing perception, they wouldn't have detected any hostility or killing intent from him. He didn't even have chakra in his body. He seemed to be nothing but an ordinary civilian.
And yet just as that "ordinary civilian" had walked less than three meters past them with his back turned, a man wrapped head to toe in white bandages suddenly appeared behind him with no warning at all.
The man thrust both hands forward, holding between them a transparent white cube-shaped barrier that shone with dazzling white light. It expanded several dozen times in an instant, aiming to become a cube barrier as large as a house.
The laborer was less than three meters away from Yoru and Kushina. At that expansion speed, the barrier would swallow both of them in less than a blink.
No matter how alert someone was, their body simply shouldn't have been able to react in time.
Except—
Gojo Yoru.
The instant the bandaged man appeared, Yoru grabbed Kushina with one hand and yanked her behind him. At the same time, he slashed out with the technique he had already been charging.
A transparent black crescent collided with the expanding cube barrier and sliced through it as though it were tofu. The severed barrier expanded another few dozen times instantly, forming two towering white walls on Yoru and Kushina's left and right.
The bandaged man was cut in half together with the cube barrier.
So was the laborer behind him.
To be precise, everything in a diameter of one hundred meters had been cleaved apart by that transparent black crescent.
People and objects alike were cut with surfaces so smooth and straight that they looked artificial.
And compared to that slash mark, the scene on Yoru and Kushina's left and right was even more absurd.
Once the two dazzling white walls vanished, every person and object on both sides of the street simply disappeared.
The town now had a gigantic cross-shaped intersection carved into it.
Everything that had been enveloped by the white light had been decomposed into atoms.
The only reason the entire town still stood was that the barrier's range hadn't been any larger.
Within that area, Kushina was the only one who had survived.
At that moment, she stood behind Yoru completely stunned, not knowing what to do.
For the first time, she realized just how close death could be.
If Yoru hadn't pulled her back just then, she might not even have known how she died.
Staring at the bandaged man whose body had been cut cleanly in two—and yet from whose body no blood sprayed, only white dust floated out and slowly drifted toward each other—Yoru quietly named the technique.
"Impure World Reincarnation..."
The bandaged man also stared back at him. Even split into two halves, he still managed to force out a heavy voice.
"Space perception..."
Then, before his two halves could even rejoin, his body vanished without warning.
A kunai with a special array carved into it dropped to the ground.
At the same time, another white corpse emerged from the dead laborer's body, likewise split in half. It transformed into a small tree that had also been cut neatly in two—something that might well become a bizarre landmark in this town someday.
That tree, too, bore a special seal array.
Yoru's eyes darkened as his mind instantly unraveled the tactic.
A White Zetsu clone had been marked with a Flying Thunder God formula, then used Spore Technique to parasitize an ordinary civilian without chakra, thereby lowering both Yoru's and Kushina's guard.
Then, at the moment they turned their backs, the hidden mastermind—someone who had mastered Flying Thunder God—had transferred the bandaged man, who had already prepared Dust Release: Detachment of the Primitive World Jutsu, directly behind the civilian parasitized by White Zetsu, releasing the attack at nearly point-blank range.
It was an inescapable combo.
Because the concealment provided by Spore Technique was on the same level as Mayfly. In the original history, White Zetsu had attached itself to Sasuke Uchiha and Karin's Mind's Eye of the Kagura had never noticed it.
If not for Yoru's absurd caution, and the fact that his space perception had spotted a "tiny point of light" inside that laborer and kept tracking him while Yoru quietly charged Space-Time Release: Wind Severing Technique, even Yoru would have died on the spot.
The bandaged man was the Impure World Reincarnation body of the Second Tsuchikage, Mu.
That meant the mastermind using Flying Thunder God could only be one person: the reanimated Second Hokage, Senju Tobirama.
Ever since Tobirama's death, no one in the entire shinobi world had been able to master that S-rank forbidden technique again—the one that defied ethics, desecrated the souls of the dead, and involved space-time.
In the future, Orochimaru would eventually learn Edo Tensei, but even then, it wouldn't be until Shippuden, working alongside Kabuto Yakushi, that he truly completed the technique.
And yet when Yoru met the Second Tsuchikage's gaze just now, his space perception had clearly seen a Kage-apex level chakra quantity inside that body.
There was no question that Mu's strength was almost identical to what it had been in life.
At the moment, the only thing capable of fixing Edo Tensei's flaws was the all-purpose miracle known as Hashirama's cells.
"Uchiha... Madara."
Yoru mouthed the name in his heart.
He was absolutely certain that the one he had met eyes with just now had not truly been the Second Tsuchikage.
It had been the Shinobi Asura.
Thinking that, Yoru couldn't help but laugh inwardly.
"The combo itself was airtight... but I'm even more unfair. Your plan really was meticulous, but you already missed the best chance."
Ever since his space-time bloodline had been exposed, Yoru had focused on developing space perception precisely because he feared being assassinated by Madara and Black Zetsu.
Even after developing space perception, he had remained extremely cautious—especially in places crowded with people. He was always splitting his attention.
Because he knew that Black and White Zetsu possessed not only Mayfly, but also two more absurd techniques: Spore Technique and Impersonation Technique.
His space perception might be strong, but it still could not sense malice, and it could still be fooled by Impersonation Technique.
As for Spore Technique, Yoru had never encountered it before. He hadn't known whether or not it could bypass space perception.
Now he knew: it couldn't.
This "inescapable" assassination combo made his heart go cold for a moment—
but it also eliminated a major lingering fear.
Of Black and White Zetsu's three god-tier techniques, two were now useless against him.
Once Kushina combined Mind's Eye of the Kagura with the Nine-Tails' chakra and developed a malice-sensing version of Mind's Eye of the Kagura, then the two of them together would no longer need to fear any of those three techniques.
Exposing his space perception in exchange for that knowledge was completely worth it.
Even while his mind raced through all of that, Yoru's eyes remained locked on the Flying Thunder God formula in front of him, while the space-time chakra inside his body continued building, just in case Madara decided to double back and strike again.
At that moment, he heard Kushina's trembling voice behind him.
"Yoru... wh-what just happened? Who was that? Was that Flying Thunder God?"
Instead of answering, Yoru created a shadow clone with a single hand seal, then had his real body take Kushina away with Flying Thunder God.
His real self couldn't stay here tonight, and in the future he would need to avoid crowded places as much as possible. Otherwise, similar no-win assassination combos would probably be aimed at him again.
"That boy really was hard to kill..."
In the dim underground chamber, Uchiha Madara severed his shared vision with the reanimated body and opened his three-tomoe Sharingan. Crimson light flashed within them as he muttered,
"His reaction wasn't just because his nerves were fast. There's no way he could have anticipated a Flying Thunder God transfer plus Dust Release assassination combo, and yet he didn't dodge. He cut straight through Dust Release: Detachment of the Primitive World Technique. That means he had already sensed White Zetsu's Spore Technique and had even pre-charged his own technique in advance. He even sensed the space-time fluctuation of Flying Thunder God transfer... His evolved sensory technique must be space perception."
His tone made it clear that this was not a guess.
At the same time, there was admiration in his voice—and even a trace of respect.
"Five years, and he still keeps his guard up like that. That boy really is a natural assassin. Even back in our era, men like him were rare."
Then, with a touch of regret, he added,
"What a waste. If he had appeared in our generation, the shinobi world might never have ended up like this."
But then his expression hardened again, and his voice turned cold.
"In this filthy shinobi world, the only way to create a perfect world without war—one where everyone can be happy—is to sever all cause and effect."
As he thought of the Eye of the Moon Plan, Madara's gaze grew icier.
"Now that stealth assassination is off the table, then we'll just have to sacrifice the small self for the greater whole."
"In wartime, ninja are just consumables. Since they're all expendable tools anyway, I'll simply use all of them for my own ends. Let them each contribute a little to the making of the perfect world."
Rain Country. Rocky wastelands.
As always for a land of endless rainy seasons, thick storm clouds smothered the sky and heavy rain fell in sheets.
On a barren mountain ridge, two figures—one taller, one shorter—were running across sheer cliffs as though gravity didn't apply. Sometimes they would dissolve into water, only to re-form from the dense rainfall itself.
Zooming in, they were none other than Hanzō and Yahiko, master and disciple, training Water Instantaneous Movement.
Hanzō, whose body flicker was peerless in the shinobi world, seemed to have a special training method of his own. Yahiko, who in the original future had not been especially gifted in movement, now increasingly resembled the image of the "Ninja Demi-God."
Neither of them even bothered with mountain paths. Rocks tumbled from cliffs wherever they passed, and chains of explosions went off here and there, yet they always escaped in time.
After leaping across who knew how many mountains the same color as the stone itself, Hanzō finally stopped on a stretch of barren ground. He turned around and looked at Yahiko, who was already panting from exhaustion despite only being allowed to barely keep up, weights tied to his calves the whole time.
There was clear admiration in Hanzō's eyes.
"In just five years, you've already fused your Body Flicker perfectly with Water Release. Even with weights on, you can use it without hand seals. In another year or two, you'll completely conquer these rocky highlands."
"At that point, all you'll need is to deepen your coordination with Ibuse. Once you can carry Ibuse with Water Instantaneous Movement, your body flicker training will finally be complete."
A joyful smile lit up Yahiko's face, but he still answered modestly,
"I still have a long way to go. There's still so much I need to learn from you, Hanzō-sensei."
"Don't worry. I'll teach you everything."
Hanzō's gaze turned firm.
"The future of Amegakure... will rest in your hands."
Yahiko was just about to answer with equal determination when both master and disciple suddenly changed expressions.
"Who's there?!"
They both looked sharply around in all directions, only to see four purple translucent walls rise from the north, south, east, and west, then seal overhead into a giant transparent purple cube.
Then came the sound of heavy footsteps splashing through rainwater, drawing closer and closer.
With hearing that sharp, Hanzō and Yahiko immediately turned toward it.
A figure was slowly approaching through the rain curtain.
The instant Hanzō saw him, his pupils shrank violently.
"Second Hokage—you're alive?!"
But the words were out of his mouth only for him to instantly realize the truth. His expression darkened, and he shoved Yahiko behind him protectively while studying the figure ahead.
"Cracks all over the body. The black sclera. This is that notorious forbidden technique from the First Great Ninja War—Impure World Reincarnation. Is Konoha planning to settle
accounts after the war?"
Edo Tensei was one of Konoha's taboo techniques. Very few people knew about it.
That was because while Tobirama had still been alive, he used it often enough in tandem with Mutually Multiplying Explosive Tags.
To Hanzō, it was simply another S-rank technique created by Tobirama, one which a Konoha shinobi had now mastered. Its sudden appearance here could only mean one thing—they had come to settle old scores.
Uchiha Madara, who was controlling Senju Tobirama's body, looked at Hanzō with naked contempt.
This kind of trash wasn't even on the same level as the Second Tsuchikage, who had once brought Mu to Konoha in Madara's youth. And yet somehow this man had been called the "Ninja Demi-God."
People these days really would let anyone brush up against Hashirama's name.
So Madara asked, in a tone dripping with disdain,
"I hear your Water Release is impressive?"
Hanzō's expression changed again, and he shouted immediately,
"Yahiko! Summon Ibuse and let it get you out of here!"
But his warning came too late.
"Water Release—"
Madara formed only a single seal representing the water nature, then spoke the name of the technique.
"Great Exploding Water Colliding Wave!"
The next instant, viewed from outside, the giant purple cube seemed to fill from the bottom upward with water. In the blink of an eye, it became a massive transparent tank.