Konoha Year 52, spring.
Under the watchful eyes of the Fire Daimyo, Kumogakure’s diplomatic delegation, and countless villagers and visitors, Konoha and the Hidden Cloud formally announced the signing of an alliance treaty.
Neither side was particularly happy about it.
Konoha had suffered badly.
The Scroll of Seals had been stolen, a sizable portion of the village treasury had vanished, and its reputation had taken a severe hit.
With its current strength insufficient for another major conflict, Konoha had little choice but to swallow its anger and accept the agreement.
Kumogakure was equally furious.
The Two-Tails jinchuriki had been abducted and remained missing.
The Eight-Tails jinchuriki had been seriously injured, and a massive portion of the village itself had been destroyed.
Under those circumstances, Kumogakure simply wasn’t capable of launching another war—especially against Konoha, a village that had emerged victorious from both the Second and Third Shinobi World Wars.
And so, with both sides seething beneath the surface, the alliance was signed.
Afterward, each village immediately began pouring resources into uncovering the mysterious mastermind responsible for everything.
Unfortunately for them, even if they searched until the day they died, they would never imagine the truth.
The mastermind they were hunting…
was only three years old.
And he was living comfortably right under their noses.
The ordinary citizens of Konoha, meanwhile, couldn’t have cared less about the hidden tension behind the treaty.
The village erupted in celebration.
“We’re not going to war! Finally!”
“Yeah! Looks like we’ll get a few more years of peace.”
“The Hyuga Clan escaped disaster too. Their clan head doesn’t have to die anymore.”
“I heard Hiashi Hyuga had already prepared to sacrifice himself that night. Then Konoha was attacked before anything could happen.”
“Who cares about all that? The important thing is peace!”
“Exactly! Peace!”
“To peace!”
“Cheers!”
The Hyuga compound had finally regained its usual liveliness.
Smiles had returned to people’s faces, and nearly every conversation eventually drifted toward Kumogakure’s recent humiliation.
“Whoever did this is insane. One attack wiped out almost a third of the Hidden Cloud. Did you see the pictures? It left a crater big enough to swallow half the village.”
“I heard the damage was worse than what they’re admitting. Supposedly nearly half the village was destroyed, but the Cloud didn’t want everyone knowing how badly they got hit.”
“Hah! Whatever that technique was, it couldn’t have happened to a better village.”
“Exactly. After everything they tried to pull on us? Damn, that felt good.”
“I just want to know who did it. Has anyone that strong ever appeared in the shinobi world before?”
“Never heard of anyone. Whoever it was has to be at least Kage-level… maybe even beyond that.”
The Hyuga had been forced to endure Kumogakure’s pressure for far too long.
Seeing the Cloud suffer such a crushing setback was deeply satisfying.
At the same time, Hiashi had invited Hizashi and Neji to the main family residence for a private family dinner.
After everything that had happened, the strained relationship between the two brothers had begun to thaw.
Previously, Hiashi and Hizashi could barely stand being in the same room.
Even when circumstances forced them to meet, their conversations were cold and distant.
Tonight was different.
The family sat together around the table, eating, talking, and even laughing from time to time.
Once everyone had finished eating, Hiashi brought up something that made Hizashi freeze.
“Tenriki proposed a new clan policy.”
Hizashi looked toward him.
Hiashi continued.
“He wants us to establish a system that allows members who make significant contributions to the clan to have the Caged Bird Seal removed.”
The cup slipped from Hizashi’s hand and struck the table.
He stared at Tenriki.
Shock filled his eyes.
Then gratitude.
Tenriki calmly finished the last bite of rice in his bowl and stood.
“You two can talk about it yourselves.”
He grabbed Hinata and Neji and led them out of the room.
For once, Tenriki felt genuinely relaxed.
He had changed Hizashi’s fate.
And in doing so, he had also changed the tragedy that should have shaped Neji’s childhood.
That counted as a success.
There was more good news.
Tenriki had recently received an encrypted letter from Kakuzu.
According to the message, roughly one-third of the money Tenriki had given him had already been spent.
Kakuzu had also killed the two shinobi partners who had previously seen Tenriki, ensuring they could never reveal his identity.
As for the Scroll of Seals, Kakuzu had copied its contents onto a new scroll before destroying the stolen original.
That was only part of the letter.
Kakuzu had also explained his plans for the future.
Over the past year, he had gathered the scientists and researchers he’d managed to find and was preparing to establish a technology company based on Tenriki’s proposal.
Their first major product?
Mobile phones.
Apparently, Kakuzu had decided that if he was going into business, he might as well find out what it felt like to become a genuine corporate tycoon.
He even offered Tenriki half the company’s shares.
The letter also explained what had happened with Akatsuki, including Kakuzu hiring them to destroy a large portion of Kumogakure.
Akatsuki…
Tenriki considered the description Kakuzu had provided.
The person who approached him was probably Pain.
That explained something else.
When Tenriki first saw the photographs of the devastation in Kumogakure, the destruction had seemed strangely familiar.
Now he understood why.
Shinra Tensei.
Almighty Push.
A technique perfectly suited for flattening enormous sections of a village in one shot.
Things had worked out far better than Tenriki had expected.
The immediate crisis had been resolved.
He had obtained a copy of the Scroll of Seals.
And Kakuzu had effectively been pulled onto his side and was now helping him make money.
Considering Kakuzu’s obsession with wealth, Tenriki had absolutely no concerns about his motivation.
If there was money to be made, Kakuzu would work harder than almost anyone.
As for why Tenriki had chosen mobile communication technology…
The answer was simple.
The shinobi world’s long-distance communication infrastructure was primitive.
Most messages were still delivered through pigeons, hawks, and other messenger animals.
Its effective range was less than five kilometers, making it useful primarily for short-range battlefield coordination.
Much later, during the Fourth Shinobi World War, the world would develop far more sophisticated long-distance communication systems, even including remote video transmission.
That meant the underlying technology was possible.
It simply hadn’t been developed yet.
According to Kakuzu’s letter, the basic requirements for developing a functional mobile phone already existed.
What they needed now was further research and refinement.
Once the technology reached the market…
the profits would be enormous.
Judging from the unusually energetic tone of Kakuzu’s letter, the man clearly understood that as well.
Tenriki returned to his room and shut the door behind him.
Then he unrolled a scroll across the table.
The Scroll of Seals.
Its contents included countless forbidden and secret techniques collected from the era of the First Hokage all the way through the Fourth.
Some had been forbidden because the cost of using them was simply too great.
Others were sealed away because the techniques themselves were too sensitive to be allowed into ordinary hands.
Tenriki’s eyes moved across the scroll.
“Let’s see if there’s anything interesting in here.”
Wood Release: Tree Bind Eternal Burial.
Wood Release: Great Forest Technique.
Wood Release: Adamantine Beckoning Tree.
Eight Gates.
Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu.
Flying Raijin Jutsu.
Time Barrier.
Four Symbols Seal.
Eight Trigrams Sealing Style.
Contract Seal.
Reaper Death Seal.
Sealing Technique: Soul Blade.
Space Barrier.
Technique after technique filled the scroll.
There was an especially large collection of Wood Release techniques left behind from the First Hokage’s era.
Tenriki, however, found himself far more interested in the sealing techniques.
After all, sooner or later he would probably have to deal with something as troublesome as the Reanimation Jutsu—an ability that could bring back enemies who were practically impossible to kill through ordinary means.
The first technique that caught his attention was the Reaper Death Seal.
An ultimate S-rank sealing technique.
The caster summoned the Shinigami and used it to devour the target’s soul.
Powerful.
Extremely powerful.
But the price was equally terrifying.
Next came the Four Symbols Seal and the Eight Trigrams Sealing Style.
These were the techniques involved in sealing the Nine-Tails.
Then Tenriki found something designed to address the greatest drawback of the Reaper Death Seal—the fact that the caster’s own soul would also be claimed by the Shinigami.
Sealing Technique: Soul Blade.
According to the records, it was a companion sealing technique associated with the Fourth Hokage’s use of the Reaper Death Seal.
Because the technique exploited a one-time period of immunity to the Shinigami during the summoning interval, it could separate an enemy’s chakra into different components—such as dividing the Nine-Tails’ chakra into Yin and Yang—and transform those separated portions into souls.