September 13 — afternoon.
After nearly a full month, Gojo Yoru finally returned to Konoha.
Along the way, he and Orochimaru hadn't run into any assassination attempts.
That meant when Yoru killed Tokiya, there hadn't been any White Zetsu clones spying nearby—good news for Yoru.
After entering the village, Orochimaru said to Yoru, "You worked hard these days. Go back and rest well. In a week, meet at the usual place. I'll give you your mission pay then."
"Alright. I'll head back first, Orochimaru-sensei."
Yoru nodded, and the two separated on the spot.
…
"…Come in."
Orochimaru went alone to the Hokage's office and knocked.
When he heard Sarutobi Hiruzen's voice, he immediately pushed the door open and entered.
Seeing his most prized disciple return, Hiruzen narrowed his eyes and asked, "Well?"
"I recommend strengthening border defenses," Orochimaru said gravely. "If nothing unexpected happens, frictions between small countries and great nations are going to intensify again. The Land of Fire will almost certainly be dragged in like it was before."
"What did you find?"
Hiruzen had just been about to light his pipe, but Orochimaru's next words made his expression change sharply.
"Hanzō has moved against the Land of Iron!"
Hiruzen's face grew heavy. "Amegakure went to war with the Land of Iron?"
"If it were a war, the news would already have spread across the shinobi world," Orochimaru said. "According to intelligence from our contacts, Hanzō went to the Land of Iron alone. I entered Amegakure to verify it—he truly isn't in the village."
Hiruzen didn't speak. He quietly lit his pipe and took a drag.
Beneath the smoke, his gaze looked deep, as if he were thinking something over.
After a long while, he finally said, "Orochimaru… are you worried that Amegakure and the Land of Iron may ally?"
"I can't rule it out," Orochimaru said, looking grim. "His strength is enough to face an entire nation alone, and he doesn't even try to hide his ambition. If the Land of Rain and the Land of Iron ally, I fear other small countries will follow their example and band together against us great nations.
After all, in recent years, the exploitation by the great nations has gone too far.
If those small countries form an alliance, a war larger than the First Great Ninja War is inevitable."
Seeing Orochimaru nail the seriousness so directly, a flicker of approval crossed Hiruzen's eyes. He said slowly, "Your concern is valid, but it hasn't reached that level yet. Those small countries are too far apart—uniting is nearly impossible."
"The only real threats right now are the Land of Rain and the Land of Iron. If those two unite, that region would no longer be the junction of three great nations—it would produce a fourth great nation."
"I'll report the intelligence and your proposal to the daimyo, have him increase military spending to strengthen border defenses, and warn the other two great nations. At minimum, we must not strike first."
After that, Hiruzen dropped the topic and smiled at Orochimaru. "You did very well on this S-rank mission. How did that child, Yoru, perform?"
Orochimaru's lips immediately curled upward. "His performance can only be described as perfect."
"That high?" Hiruzen looked surprised, then smiled. "Sounds like you went through quite a lot."
Orochimaru only smiled and said nothing.
He wasn't the type to show off. If it were Jiraiya, even if he'd promised to keep Yoru's secret, his microexpressions would have leaked plenty.
But Orochimaru was someone who could keep secrets. He believed Sarutobi-sensei would understand later—and wouldn't blame him.
After all, a space–time bloodline was simply too world-shattering.
Once it matured, its strategic deterrence would be even greater than a Nine-Tails jinchūriki.
Hiruzen, of course, had no idea his most obedient disciple was hiding such an enormous secret from him.
Seeing how satisfied Orochimaru was with Yoru, Hiruzen couldn't help asking, "Did you give him the Flying Thunder God scroll?"
"Yes. I already gave it to him," Orochimaru nodded.
Hiruzen's eyes filled with anticipation. "Well? Does he have the talent?"
"Hard to say yet. He hasn't even looked at it," Orochimaru said, shaking his head—though there was a faint smile on his face.
If even Gojo Yoru didn't have that talent, then truly no second person in the entire shinobi world would be able to learn Flying Thunder God.
…
By the time Yoru got home, it was near dusk.
After eating, showering, and washing away the fatigue, night had already fallen outside.
Sitting cross-legged on his long-missed soft bed, Yoru finally took out the standalone Flying Thunder God scroll again and slowly unrolled it.
The scroll was small, but the contents were anything but.
Right at the beginning was the Flying Thunder God formula—the thing that had blocked countless geniuses.
The Flying Thunder God formula had the flavor of sealing arts, but carried no direct lethality.
Just like a storage scroll: using sealing formulas to invoke invisible space–time power and create a special subspace.
The Flying Thunder God formula did the same—using sealing formulas to turn space–time power into a mark, attaching it to people and objects.
Because it was the unreasonable fusion of sealing arts and space–time power, the mark couldn't be erased through normal means.
Even if the caster died, every formula they'd left behind would still remain.
The moment you successfully formed a Flying Thunder God formula, it meant you could sense invisible space–time power—and thus had the qualification to train Flying Thunder God.
And that opening step alone had shut the door on countless geniuses.
Beyond the formula itself, the scroll also included Flying Thunder God Slash and Flying Thunder God Guided Lightning, with Senju Tobirama's annotations throughout.
Even through text alone, you could feel the strength of this super S-rank technique—and Tobirama's extraordinary brilliance.
"Heh… we're not even in the same league," Yoru couldn't help laughing.
All these years, he'd been trying to develop teleportation and long-range teleportation.
But forget long-range teleportation—he hadn't even found any clue for short-range teleportation.
And Tobirama, without a space–time bloodline, had achieved this super long-range teleportation purely through talent. The gap between their "talents" was like heaven and earth.
"With my current talent, I can't possibly learn this technique."
He said that, yet the smile on his face didn't fade at all.
The talent boost from his first evolution indeed couldn't learn this super S-rank jutsu.
Using ordinary chakra to perform sealing arts, then sensing invisible space–time, then perfectly fusing the two into a mark—what kind of nonsense was that? His eyes and brain understood it, but his hands didn't.
But sealing talent and space–time power were exactly what Yoru didn't lack.
Because his space–time chakra could skip all those steps directly.
No talent?
Then cheat.
~~~
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