It took a long while before Hinata finally calmed down and stopped crying.
Once she realized she was still tightly held in Hikaru's arms, her face immediately flushed bright red.
She gently pushed him away and quickly ran over to Tsunade's side.
Back at Tsunade's side, she lowered her head, not daring to look in Hikaru's direction.
Tsunade noticed all of this, and internally grumbled:
"If you're that shy, then why hug him in the first place? Dammit, I wanna do that too!"
Chiri found the whole scene oddly familiar, like she had seen it many times before—but couldn't recall where exactly.
So, she voiced her thoughts to Nonō.
After listening, Nonō blinked at her and softly said, "You used to be like that too."
That one sentence snapped Chiri back to her senses, and a faint blush crept onto her cheeks.
Now that Ōtsutsuki Isshiki was completely dead, everything Hikaru needed to do was finally done.
So, he brought everyone back to the Konoha Administration Building.
The moment Tobirama saw Uchiha Izuna, his eyes narrowed slightly.
The Uchiha and Senju clans were bitter enemies in the Warring States period, and Tobirama's relationship with Izuna was nothing like Hashirama and Madara's. Their grudge was far deeper.
And after watching Hikaru these past few days, Tobirama had gained a vague understanding of him.
Izuna's reappearance clearly had something to do with him.
So after some thought, Tobirama couldn't help but say:
"Hikaru, I can handle the Hokage's duties myself. I don't need anyone else interfering."
Hikaru glanced at him in surprise. Someone actually turning down help?
If it weren't for the fact that the Edo Tensei body couldn't die again, this man would've already dropped dead from overwork.
And the fact that he could guess Hikaru's intentions? As expected of Tobirama Senju.
One of Hikaru's goals had indeed been to free Tobirama up for more research—Izuna was his replacement.
At that moment, Izuna stared at Tobirama's familiar yet detestable face, fury blazing in his heart.
He mocked, "A corpse-face like you is leading the village? How has this place not been destroyed yet?"
Tobirama's face darkened.
He hadn't intended to argue with Izuna, but that taunt was simply too much.
He shot him a cold glare and said word by word:
"Red-eyed brat, did you forget who sent you to the afterlife?"
Izuna's expression changed. Of course he remembered their fateful battle.
But even so, the words still struck a nerve.
The tension between them rose sharply. A new fight could break out at any second.
Hikaru watched from the side, mentally shouting: 'Fight! Come on, I wanna see blood!'
Unfortunately, the bloody showdown he envisioned didn't happen.
Hashirama and Madara each walked over to their brothers and gave them both a big ol' loving forehead flick.
After that, Tobirama and Izuna quieted down.
Though, whenever their eyes met, the air still crackled faintly—an unspoken tension refusing to die.
Since he didn't get the show he wanted, Hikaru gathered the girls and hit the road once again.
Even though the mission to find Madara was done, he still wanted to see more of the Shinobi World.
As for Konoha's affairs, he was more than comfortable leaving them to Tobirama and the others.
Mito Uzumaki felt the same way.
Not long after Madara was brought back with Edo Tensei, she packed up Hashirama and left for the Land of Whirlpools to visit family.
Meanwhile, in the Land of Iron, at Madara's former hideout, Black Zetsu sat alone, deep in thought.
When Ōtsutsuki Isshiki attacked, it had fled out of fear.
It had expected an earth-shattering battle between Madara and Isshiki. But to its shock, both vanished without a sound. The outcome left it in despair.
Then came the gossip trickling out of Konoha, shattering its composure even more.
It had waited a thousand years to find someone like Uchiha Madara, someone who could bring back Kaguya Ōtsutsuki.
And now? Madara returned to Konoha and basically said, "I'm done with the Eye of the Moon Plan."
How was it supposed to accept that?
Thankfully, Black Zetsu had extraordinary emotional regulation. Not even a thousand-year wait had driven it insane.
After a brief moment of silence, it once again vanished into the darkness.
Once Hikaru returned to the Land of Snow, he intended to finish the mission from Fūka Seiyuki.
But to his surprise, Hinata told him those Rogue Shinobi were already dead—she had taken care of them.
The news caught Hikaru off guard.
He looked at Hinata again, this time with a new perspective. She was even more resilient and calm than he remembered.
Years on the run had not only matured her—they had made her colder.
Hikaru passed the report on to Fūka Seiyuki.
Her eyes flickered with mixed emotions.
But what truly shook her was the fact that this all happened less than a day after asking for Hikaru's help.
That speed and efficiency let her fully grasp the power and influence of the so-called "New God of the Shinobi World."
After long contemplation, Fūka Seiyuki made a monumental decision.
No one knew what she and Hikaru discussed. All that was known was this: afterward, the Land of Snow leaned heavily toward Konoha.
After spending a few days there, Hikaru and the girls resumed their journey across the Shinobi World.
This time, though, they chose a more grounded approach—on foot.
Maybe they wanted to better experience local life. Or maybe they were just sick of hitching rides on Chōmei. Either way, the girls unanimously decided to walk the land, step by step.
And so, their long journey on foot began.
It's been three years since Ōtsutsuki Isshiki's defeat.
Hikaru and the others had traveled across most of the Shinobi World.
From bustling cities to desolate wilderness, their footprints were everywhere.
And in these years, much had changed.
The sudden death of the Daimyō of the Land of Fire triggered a bloody power struggle among his children.
The fight ended in mutual destruction—none of them survived.
Surprisingly, in the wake of that chaos, Konoha was able to smoothly take over the Land of Fire, with the Hokage becoming its de facto ruler.
This shift transformed not only the politics of the Land of Fire but the entire Shinobi World.
Other villages desperately tried to uncover the truth behind the upheaval, but all they found was vague intel.
Apparently, it all had something to do with a man named Satō Ken.
But now that he held high office within the Land of Fire, tracking down any real details about him had become nearly impossible.
The fate of the Fire Daimyō sent chills down the spines of the other four great nations' Daimyōs.
They began to fear that they might face a similar end.
This fear ultimately led to the Four Nations uniting—and the Shinobi World fell into an eerie, deceptive calm.