Konoha Year 35, January 3.
In a forest outside Konoha.
Without any warning, the figures of Gojo Yoru and Orochimaru appeared out of thin air.
"Go back and rest well. I'll give you a few extra days off this time. Wait for my notice about the next meeting."
After registering their return, Orochimaru and Yoru—just like always—split up on the spot. Orochimaru headed to the Hokage Tower to turn in the mission report.
"Understood, Orochimaru-sensei," Yoru replied.
Yoru was happy with that arrangement.
Once he got home, the first thing he did was head to the bathroom for a shower.
The most inconvenient thing about being outside was, without question, bathing.
If it were an intelligence mission, Yoru could still find water sources out there—or use Flying Thunder God to stay overnight in a town.
If he felt like being extra, he could even go back to his Konoha home, sleep, and then return to the original point the next day to keep waiting.
But for escort missions, in order to protect the client, Yoru and Orochimaru had to stay close at all times. There was simply no time to bathe.
Yoru had it even worse. As the "student," night watch was always assigned to him—his rest time was squeezed dry.
If he could choose, Yoru would rather take a mission to wipe out a ninja squad and go through life-and-death combat than do escort work like this.
Still, this mission brought him an unexpected windfall.
"So the first thing I completed was actually space–time… is this the benefit of purity?" Yoru muttered.
With a towel wrapped around his lower body, he studied the boy in the mirror, ice-blue eyes filled with delight.
On his chest—slightly below between—there was now a tattoo.
A faint black diamond mark, pale in color but fully formed.
It was the Uzumaki clan's S-rank sealing technique: the Strength of a Hundred Seal.
After figuring out how the technique was trained, Yoru had come up with a wild idea—he wanted to form two diamond marks.
Others couldn't do it because they only had ordinary chakra inside them.
But Yoru had two separate, independent chakra types within his body.
A normal Strength of a Hundred Seal, formed from ordinary chakra, could only exist on the forehead—convenient for micro-adjusting chakra and keeping the body in peak condition.
But Yoru's space–time Strength of a Hundred Seal only needed to store space–time chakra.
So he formed it at the spot closest to his heart.
Perhaps because space–time chakra was "purer"—not separated into yin and yang, and unable to convert into the five elemental attributes—Yoru's space–time Strength of a Hundred Seal formed far faster than the normal version.
Now that the diamond mark existed, all that remained was long-term accumulation. Over time, Yoru would be able to break the space–time chakra capacity limit.
"With this, even if the 'gift of space–time' doesn't come again this year, my strength can still skyrocket."
He touched the diamond mark on his chest with his index finger, feeling a deep sense of security.
Truthfully, once he learned Flying Thunder God, Yoru no longer feared the Second Great Ninja War's outbreak at all.
His weaknesses were indeed obvious: without intangibility he could be caught in genjutsu, poison smoke could poison him, and with only average sensing he could be assassinated.
But as long as he stayed cautious, those weren't fatal.
No matter what enemy or situation he faced, as long as he used Flying Thunder God, he could immediately run.
Yoru's true fatal weakness had always been his genin-level space–time chakra capacity.
Even though his chakra control was now strong enough to form space–time chakra into a Rasengan, the amount simply wasn't enough.
If intangibility and Dimensional Slash didn't have such low consumption, Yoru wouldn't even dare use that high-dimensional "strongest shield and spear" set freely.
Now…
the hard days were finally over!
…
"Yoru, if I ask Orochimaru-sensei for help, do you think I can apply for early graduation too?"
On the bank of the waterfall pool, Kushina had finished her sensing training for the day and was sitting back-to-back with Yoru on the grass.
Staring up at the blue sky and white clouds, she suddenly asked.
"Why are you suddenly thinking about graduating early? Did some blind idiot at school bully you again?"
"Not really. I just think school isn't interesting at all anymore," Kushina complained. "Those guys can't take a hit. In taijutsu duels I'm scared I'll accidentally use too much force and send them to the hospital."
"A place where you have to hold back even in a fight is just boring."
Yoru's mouth twitched. "With your identity, even if you graduate early, you still can't take anything above D-rank missions. If you're bored, just send a shadow clone to school and let it deal with it."
"That's what's annoying!" Kushina snapped. "Training already exhausts me to death, and then I suddenly get hit with extra fatigue—ugh, I hate it!"
She jabbed Yoru with her elbow, making him suck in a painful breath.
"You tomato—if you hit my waist again, I'll kill you!" Yoru grabbed her hair and ruffled it aggressively, gritting his teeth.
"Stinky-mouth Yoru, you messed up my hair! Careful—I'll punch you into the ER!" Kushina pinched his cheeks right back, and as expected the two of them started rolling around on the grass again.
The two who "fought their way into friendship" now basically started fighting the moment they disagreed—brawling had become their main love language.
Kreeee—
Suddenly, three piercing eagle cries rang out together.
The two rolling in the grass instinctively stopped and looked up at the sky.
So did Konoha's ninja and villagers.
Then some jōnin who happened to be outside immediately changed expression and turned into afterimages rushing toward the Hokage Tower.
"This time it's three eagles… is that a special signal?" Kushina asked. Her shadow clone at school was the one slacking off, after all.
"The signal is the same—this time it's just ultra urgent." Yoru narrowed his eyes. "Calling an internal meeting this urgently… something big must have happened."
"What big thing could it be? Don't tell me it's a ninja world war," Kushina scoffed.
But she didn't notice how Yoru's expression was gradually turning serious.
Konoha Year 35.
August 9 would be the day Konoha's crown prince turned twelve.
If the butterfly effect didn't intervene, he might not even live to see his birthday this year.
And with the shinobi world already descending into chaos—given that even great-nation ninja were doing bandit work on their last mission—another world war breaking out wouldn't be strange at all.
"Let's go. Time to head back."
Yoru stood and reached out his hand, pulling Kushina up from the grass.
In the next second, the scenery around them abruptly shifted—from the waterfall pool bank to a warm, familiar room.
In stark contrast, the Hokage Tower's conference room was solemn and severe.
~~~
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