"Sensei... which one should I write first?"
Jiraiya felt his fingers itching.
He wanted nothing more than to start writing his masterpiece immediately.
Just imagining the readers of Shinobi Battle Through the Heavens rushing to buy what they thought was its long-awaited sequel...
Only to discover it was actually a work of serious literature—and intending to curse him out, but ending up so engrossed that they couldn't say a word...
Filled Jiraiya with a strangely twisted sense of satisfaction.
I kind of want people to yell at me...
"As for the one based on Kirigakure, let's leave that aside for now."
"They're still our allies, after all. It wouldn't be appropriate for a Konoha ninja like you to write something like that."
As Hiruzen pondered the matter, he suddenly remembered the "promising talent" Hyūga Tenzō had mentioned to him several times.
According to Tenzō, Kaguya Nakamaro, who had inherited Hiruzen's Will of Fire, had already become a mature ninja who thought like the head of the Kaguya Clan.
He was someone destined for great responsibility.
Maybe someday...
I could have Nakamaro write A Kirigakure Chūnin's Life?
The image popped into Hiruzen's head, and the corners of his mouth twitched upward.
A member of the Kaguya Clan...
Publishing a book!
If the shinobi world ever found out, every ninja alive would be utterly dumbfounded.
Still...
With Tenzō around, and with a veteran of the Hyūga polishing the manuscript...
It might actually be possible.
"The main focus should still be promoting Konoha's Will of Fire."
Hiruzen's expression grew serious.
"But remember this, Jiraiya."
"Everything you write about Konoha must be based on the truth."
"Never exaggerate things just for the sake of making a stronger impression."
"It has to withstand the scrutiny of future generations."
Today's Konoha could legitimately claim to be the leading hidden village in the shinobi world.
That wasn't arrogance.
With such an overwhelming advantage...
If Jiraiya ended up writing things like 'The dishes in Konoha's cafeteria are washed thirteen times,' or 'Konoha's genin can pour together two cups of fifty-degree water and somehow make one hundred-degree water,'...
Those exaggerations would inevitably come back to haunt him in the future.
It was enough to write honestly.
Whether Konoha was truly a good village...
The people would judge for themselves.
Jiraiya nodded earnestly.
He understood.
This wasn't like flattering female ninja, where he could casually embellish and exaggerate.
Every word he wrote had to be chosen carefully.
"I have a few personal thoughts."
"Take them as nothing more than suggestions."
Hiruzen took another puff from his pipe and sighed.
"If you want to write about the suffering of ninja..."
"Then you can't just write about their suffering."
"You have to write about the cold metal of a fallen comrade's forehead protector, recovered after they died completing a mission."
"The betrayals born from fighting over power."
"The slash carved across a missing-nin's forehead protector."
"The forgotten achievements of old veterans after losing an arm."
"You have to write about those who spent their entire lives fighting for the village, yet whose sacrifices were never truly seen."
"You have to write that ninja are people first—not tools."
"And that the possibility of change is the light that deserves to be seen most in this boundless sea of suffering."
Jiraiya stared blankly at Hiruzen.
Sensei...
Perhaps he was a great literary master whose talent had simply been held back by becoming Hokage.
Seeing the look in Jiraiya's eyes, Hiruzen couldn't help laughing as he waved him off.
He could more or less guess what his old student was thinking.
Me? A literary master?
Hardly.
He had simply stood on the shoulders of those who came before him and borrowed a few good frameworks.
Besides...
Given the overall state of the shinobi world, most ninja had never been exposed to particularly sophisticated literature.
Their standards weren't especially demanding.
That gave Jiraiya much more room to experiment.
There was plenty of room for error.
As far as the humanities and social sciences were concerned, they had always been a blind spot for the shinobi world.
It was a vast, untapped blue ocean.
Someone like Izuna, who understood even a little about the psychology between men and women, was already considered exceptional among ninja.
"And remember..."
"Try to give your stories good endings."
Hiruzen spoke softly.
"Whether they're Konoha ninja or shinobi from other villages..."
"They've already suffered enough tragedies in their lives."
"Don't let them finish your book feeling as though there's not even room left to dream."
Jiraiya answered solemnly, "Don't worry, Sensei."
"Leave it to me!"
Just imagining his future—finishing his Sage Mode training each day, serving as Orochimaru's favorite experimental subject, and then spending his free time churning out novels—was enough to make Jiraiya grin.
He was simply too important to Konoha!
Sensei needed him too much!
At the same time, Jiraiya understood even more clearly just how much his teacher favored him.
Such an incredible opportunity to make a name for himself...
His teacher neither took credit for it nor handed it to anyone else.
He was letting Jiraiya enjoy it all by himself.
It was the kind of care only a loving father could give.
I will never let Sensei down.
Jiraiya silently swore that oath to himself.
Several hours later.
Beyond the borders of the Land of Fire.
High above the sky.
Mū and Hōzuki Gengetsu stood side by side on the deck of the Sky Village fortress.
This time, under Uchiha Madara's meticulous planning, the Sky Village had emptied its coffers, committing every last weapon and military asset it possessed to the assault on Konoha.
Ordinarily, no hidden village would wage war this way.
No matter what, they would always preserve enough strength to rebuild in case of defeat.
But Madara had never been one to play by conventional rules.
In his eyes, if Konoha could withstand the Sky Village's assault and still deal with everything that followed...
Then even if Konoha inherited some of the Sky Village's remaining assets, that simply meant Hiruzen had earned them.
They were exactly what the heir to his youthful ideals deserved.
There was no need to fuss over such trivial details.
Even so, Madara's mindset had clearly undergone a subtle shift.
At first, his goal had been to use war to make Hiruzen understand that the chain of hatred could never truly be broken.
Gradually, however, it had begun evolving into testing whether Konoha's system could withstand the kind of true crisis the shinobi world might someday face.
Just as the Second Tsuchikage had speculated about the thinking behind "Senju Tobimada."
Or perhaps...
Those two ideas had always complemented each other, capable of transforming into one another under the right circumstances.
"Seriously..."
"I've got to admit, you bastards who can fly really have an unfair advantage."
"If you couldn't fly, I'd have killed you years ago."
Standing beside Mū with his arms folded, Gengetsu sighed.
"Air power is downright cheating. It completely ignores all the limitations of ground combat."
Mū glanced sideways at him and couldn't even be bothered to argue.
If I couldn't fly?
Then why don't you complain that you can't turn invisible, split yourself apart, use Dust Release, or perform sensory ninjutsu?
Give me a break.
"The shinobi world really is full of hidden villages that can't be underestimated."
"Even the smaller ones have strengths worth envying."
"The moment you become arrogant is the moment your troubles begin."
"...What are we supposed to do about Kirigakure?"
Although Mū remained silent, Gengetsu continued rambling without the slightest irritation.
"Think about it."
"Before this, which one of us ever paid much attention to the Sky Village? At most, we vaguely knew it existed."
"And look at them now."
"They've developed their chakra-powered ninja tools to this level."
"Even one of the Five Great Hidden Villages would find them a nightmare to deal with if caught off guard."
After years of development and refinement, the Sky Village had built a complete integrated air, sea, and ground combat doctrine that came remarkably close to the principles of modern information-age warfare.
At its core was the massive airborne fortress, Ancor Vantian, supported by three aircraft carriers capable of launching flying craft, together forming a layered offensive and defensive system.
Moreover, during the chaos of the Sky Village's invasion of Konoha in the Second Shinobi World War, their leader, Shinnō, had been unbelievably fortunate enough to obtain inspiration from Tobirama's research into chakra generated from negative emotions.
Using that knowledge, he developed the Zero-Tails, whose chakra core functioned by absorbing negative emotions.
Ironically, although Shinnō was one of the greatest minds in ninja tool research, his true passion had always been strengthening his own body.
He possessed abilities such as Body Activation and Body Regeneration.
By channeling the Zero-Tails, he could even perform his ultimate technique, Physical Transmutation, which was said to grant him a special state where he could survive even after opening the Eighth Gate—the Gate of Death.
Unfortunately...
Shinnō's dream of conquering the shinobi world came to an abrupt end when he crossed paths with Uchiha Madara.
Gengetsu often criticized Kirigakure for its lack of sensory ninjutsu because it was, after all, one of the Five Great Hidden Villages.
A village that wished to stand at the summit of the shinobi world couldn't afford glaring weaknesses in any major field.
Smaller hidden villages, however, lacked such resources.
Forget being well-rounded.
Simply excelling in one area already counted as exceptionally fortunate.
All it had taken was a single glance from Madara's Rinnegan.
Shinnō became nothing more than a puppet under genjutsu.
And no one ever realized it.
"It's an extremely troublesome force."
"The Sky Village's equipment is fully capable of carrying out beyond-visual-range strikes."
"With those flying ninja tools, their mobility alone is enough to overwhelm ordinary shinobi."
After a brief pause, Mū finally answered Gengetsu's earlier question.
"Air power has always been the one capability every hidden village lacks."
"That's exactly why I developed the Light-Weight and Heavy-Weight Rock Techniques."
"Shinobi have fought endlessly over every inch of land."
"Yet no one has bothered to develop the skies above them."
"That's incredibly shortsighted."
Gengetsu nodded in wholehearted agreement.
As expected of his lifelong rival.
The man's vision truly was broader than most.
"If Iwagakure could acquire the Sky Village's ninja tools..."
Mū murmured thoughtfully, "Then the combat strength of our village's middle-ranking ninja would improve tremendously."
Gengetsu twitched his nonexistent eyebrows.
"Hey, hey."
"Let's not forget we're both being controlled by Senju Tobirama."
"He may be trying to reshape Konoha by attacking it, but he's not about to hand us weapons and equipment."
"At most, he'll just use these smaller hidden villages to do the dirty work."
Mū let out a sigh.
That damn Senju Tobirama was born evil.
To think he'd developed Impure World Reincarnation to the point where it could even be combined with puppet techniques...
Whether it was his personality, his strength, or the sheer obsession driving him...
The man had long since surpassed all reason.
"Tobirama doesn't pull his punches either."
"Konoha probably has no anti-air defenses."
"These munitions may not be enough to completely destroy Konoha..."
"But if they fail to react immediately, the damage will be catastrophic."
"A surprise attack from directly overhead, combined with airborne ninja infiltrating from the coastline..."
"Any hidden village would struggle to defend against a combination like that."
"He truly was a strict Hokage."
After witnessing Kirigakure's current state firsthand, Gengetsu no longer thought the so-called "Senju Tobimada" was insane.
If he had been in the same position...
He probably would have done something similar.
At the very least...
He definitely would have killed that bastard, the Third Mizukage Kiritori.
"I'm curious to see what Konoha looks like now..."
Mū narrowed his eyes.
"Senju Tobirama specifically told us not to interfere recklessly. He's probably worried that if we joined the fighting, Hiruzen might notice similarities between us and the bodies created through Impure World Reincarnation, exposing something he shouldn't."
"So it seems he still doesn't want Konoha to learn that the previous Hokage was dissatisfied with the village."
Whenever Mū thought about Hiruzen, he couldn't help feeling uneasy.
After all, Hiruzen's circumstances had been remarkably similar to Ōnoki's.
Both had been chosen by the First Kage as their successors.
Yet before either of them had fully matured, the Second Kage died in battle, forcing them to take over their villages prematurely.
Objectively speaking, a young leader thrust into office under those circumstances would naturally need a great deal of time to consolidate authority and unite the village.
If Hiruzen had struggled with that...
Perhaps Ōnoki had likewise failed to address Iwagakure's tendency to oppress its own ninja.
"By the way..."
"What do you think Senju Tobirama has been doing all these years?"
"I asked those artificial humans made from Hashirama's cells, but none of them said a word."
"So I dug through a few history books instead."
"They all claim Senju Tobirama died during the peace talks with Kumogakure."
"Supposedly, he was killed by the Gold and Silver Brothers."
Gengetsu looked down at the land below.
"Knowing Senju Tobirama's personality..."
"And considering he mastered the Flying Thunder God Technique..."
"I'd believe he died after being overwhelmed in a direct battle."
"But a man like him dying during peace negotiations?"
"That's almost laughable."
"The story has too many holes."
Mū folded his arms.
"Would Senju Tobirama ever trust peace talks with Kumogakure?"
"He would've been on maximum alert."
"Under normal circumstances, I'd laugh at such an absurd story."
Gengetsu nodded in agreement.
"It really is ridiculous."
"And yet later generations actually believed it."
"Looks like they never truly understood Senju Tobirama."
Without realizing it, the two of them had already fallen into circular reasoning.
Starting from the premise that Tobirama was still alive, they worked backward to explain everything else.
They never considered that Tobirama had encountered the once-in-a-million scenario of a wartime coup—or that even someone like him could make mistakes.
If anything, the information gap had only strengthened the legendary reputation of the original "Darkness of the Shinobi."
"My guess..."
Mū pondered aloud.
"...is that the Gold and Silver Brothers really did wound him badly."
"But instead of returning to the village, he went into hiding."
"Or perhaps he did return once."
"He gathered his research materials and experimental data before disappearing to continue his work in secret."
"Maybe he also wanted to see whether Konoha could continue developing without him."
"I once heard Ishikawa-sama say that the First Hokage and Uzumaki Mito kept Tobirama's research under extremely tight control."
"I remember hearing the same thing myself."
"Apparently, the techniques he developed attracted far too much hatred."
Gengetsu nodded.
"Old Man Byakuren told me something similar."
"Looking at it that way, someone with Tobirama's obsession with researching kinjutsu faking his own death to slip away doesn't seem strange at all."
"Tobirama and Hashirama really are like a pair of blacktip sharks."
"One was willing to kneel at the Five Kage Summit for the sake of peace..."
"And the other staged his own death and disappeared."
"People always say the Uchiha are extremists..."
"I think the Senju are far more extreme."
Mū looked at him curiously.
"What's a blacktip shark?"
"A really powerful shark."
"But also a pretty dumb one."
Gengetsu smacked his lips.
"Tastes pretty good when sliced into sashimi."
After a while, Mū narrowed his eyes again.
"We've entered the interior of the Land of Fire."
"We're about fifteen hundred meters above the ground."
"This is about the limit of the Sky Village's technology."
"But it's more than enough."
"Unless a member of the Hyūga Clan is walking around with the Byakugan activated at all times, no one will be able to spot us."
Both of them remained concealed beneath Dustless Bewildering Cover.
The Sky ninja inside the barrier couldn't hear their conversation.
To everyone else, they were nothing more than two invisible figures.
"The Hyūga would never keep the Byakugan activated inside Konoha."
"I know what that clan is like."
"I got along fairly well with the Kaguya Clan back in my day."
Gengetsu chuckled.
"That bunch only cares about preserving their bloodline."
"They've never had especially strong loyalty toward Konoha."
"I even considered asking the Kaguya Clan to help me lure a few Hyūga ninja over."
"The Byakugan can see too many of a village's secrets."
"It's a vicious cycle of mistrust."
"With so many powerful clans inside Konoha, there's no way they'd grant the Hyūga that kind of unrestricted access."
As someone who came from Kirigakure—a village filled with clans possessing Kekkei Genkai—Gengetsu understood that dynamic better than most.
"That's true."
Mū nodded before speaking to the White Zetsu inside his body.
"Notify Senju Tobirama."
"We're in position."
"Tell the forces on the other side of the sea to begin."
Whenever Mū thought about the White Zetsu artificial humans' terrifying telepathic abilities, he couldn't suppress a shiver.
"Thank goodness the Sage of Six Paths gave Senju Tobirama incredible scientific talent..."
"...but also saddled that bastard with a completely unhinged state of mind."
"If those two qualities had ever truly come together..."
"Konoha would've dominated the entire shinobi world long ago."
As far as Mū was concerned, pursuing eternal peace...
Was nothing but making life unnecessarily difficult for yourself.
The sensible thing to do was crush the other hidden villages first.
Being one step ahead made you a genius.
Being too many steps ahead turned you into an incomprehensible madman.
Like a swarm of locusts, Sky ninja mounted their flying devices and surged inland from the coast, racing toward Konoha.
Meanwhile, inside Ancor Vantian...
The Sky ninja gripped heavy hammers.
Combining ancient craftsmanship with modern engineering, they struck chakra-powered launch mechanisms that accelerated the runways, catapulting wave after wave of soldiers equipped with flying wing suits into the sky.
"...Something's wrong."
"When did Konoha become this huge?"
The moment Gengetsu and Mū caught sight of Konoha's borders, both of them froze in shock.
The village was enormous.
There wasn't the slightest sign of decline.
At the same time—
A shrill, piercing alarm echoed across the village.
In an instant, all of Konoha entered wartime readiness.
Far away, Uchiha Madara merely chuckled.
Not bad.
The village's response time is acceptable.
From the Mountains' Graveyard, Madara calmly directed the operation from afar.
"Launch a full-scale assault!"
"Unload every last bit of firepower!"
"Your first target..."
"Destroy Konoha's Research Department!"
The hypnotized leader of the Sky Village, Shinnō...
Obediently carried out Madara's will.
He issued a single order to every Sky ninja.
Fight to the death.
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