The journey Jiraiya undertook alongside Itachi to locate Tsunade had been fraught with programmatic twists and turns. Due to her deeply ingrained hemophobia, Tsunade's initial response to Jiraiya's overtures had been one of mockery and flat refusal.
"The Hokage? What an absolute, textbook waste of time!"
Had Uzumaki Naruto been present, he undoubtedly would have erupted in fury, accusing Tsunade of dragging his absolute dream through the dirt.
Unfortunately for her, the asset anchoring Jiraiya's flank on this deployment was Uchiha Itachi.
Ever since he had systematically extracted his younger brother from the Foundation's deep containment, Itachi had found himself entirely at a loss as to how to explain the macro-parameters of the event to Sasuke.
This was especially true when Sasuke first stepped out of their quarters, only to confront a completely structurally devastated village and the freezing, highly hostile glares of the surviving populace.
The boy's face had instantly turned deathly pale, and upon returning home, he had retreated into a heavy, absolute silence.
The Uchiha clan initiated an armed rebellion?
My elder brother executed a supreme moral sacrifice, butchering our father, our mother, and the entire ancestral bloodline... yet that individual named Uchiha Kaede launched a cataclysmic counter-strike that borderline vaporized Konoha's infrastructure?
In an instant, Sasuke's cognitive matrix had been thrown into absolute disarray. He refused to communicate even with the brother he adored most, simply because his mind possessed zero capacity to compute how, within a single, violent night, his entire reality had been systematically deleted.
Observing his younger brother's physiological and psychological collapse inflicted a profound, lacerating agony upon Itachi's heart.
This exact variable was the definitive reason he had frozen his long-term tracking timeline with Akatsuki, opting instead to remain anchored within the Leaf's military apparatus.
Because the current administrative environment of Konoha was exponentially too harsh for Sasuke to navigate alone, Itachi had to maintain a physical presence to oversee his micro-development.
To facilitate this short-term deployment away from the capital to locate Tsunade, Itachi had been forced to formally delegate Sasuke's security and oversight to Captain Kakashi of the Anbu infrastructure.
In the current landscape, Kakashi was likely the singular asset capable of maintaining a stable, protective barrier around the boy.
Consequently, upon witnessing Tsunade's complete lack of administrative cooperation, Itachi's fingers instinctively twitched toward his weapon, only for Jiraiya to instantly intercept the vector.
Utilizing raw, coercive kinetic force to subjugate Tsunade was an exceptionally low-probability strategy.
Furthermore, Jiraiya harbored zero desire to see a violent tactical desynchronization erupt between Tsunade and Itachi—after all, she was the definitive candidate mapped to inherit the Hokage mantle.
Tsunade represented the singular, mathematically viable option to stabilize Konoha in the current era; both Jiraiya and Tsunade understood this administrative reality perfectly.
Yet, her internal equation was still missing a vital catalyst—a definitive push to force her to resolve her hesitation and return to the capital.
"Heh... it has been quite some time, my two ancient friends."
The sudden, mocking manifestation of Orochimaru instantly shattered the standoff.
Without a second thought, the snake sannin unleashed a wave of unadulterated ridicule directed at the late Third Hokage, branding their former mentor an absolute incompetent who had managed to get himself systematically executed by a mere junior of the Uchiha lineage—a reality he claimed completely desecrated Hiruzen's historical moniker as the Supreme Shinobi of the Era.
Though the concentrated stream of vitriol caused Jiraiya's pulse to spike with instinctual fury, he made a sudden, critical observation: Tsunade's underlying emotional baseline had been violently provoked and revitalized by the insult.
This was an exceptionally positive development.
"Lord Jiraiya, my objective was never to instigate a tactical conflict against Lady Tsunade. Rather, I intend to deploy a definitive measure to systematically resolve her hemophobia."
The moment Itachi broke his silence, Orochimaru's absolute attention shifted cleanly onto him. In an instant, the snake sannin's gaze locked immovably onto the hypnotic, spinning architecture of Itachi's Mangekyo Sharingan.
To aggressively force a therapeutic breakthrough against her hemophobia, the methodology Itachi elected to deploy was a highly calibrated injection of the Tsukuyomi illusion, utilizing targeted psychological stimuli to overwrite her trauma.
"I accept your terms!"
The exact millisecond Tsunade's vision locked with Uchiha Itachi's, her consciousness was systematically transited into the compressed reality of the Tsukuyomi world.
For several subjective days, she endured a high-velocity sequence of shifting psychological scenarios and deep internal monologues.
When the illusion finally dissolved, the legendary Tsunade of the Sannin had successfully reconstructed her internal resolve, permanently mastering her historical hemophobia.
As for Orochimaru, whose focus had remained completely saturated by Itachi's optical metrics, a subtle, highly enigmatic smile curled his lips upon witnessing Tsunade's breakthrough.
Although he harbored an immense, continuous envy regarding the absolute structural perfection of Itachi's Mangekyo Sharingan, Orochimaru currently possessed separate, long-term macro-objectives.
Consequently, having witnessed his two historical comrades successfully revitalize their parameters, he prepared to smoothly execute his exit.
"Orochimaru... remain with us. Help us rebuild."
Jiraiya's heavy, anchoring call caused Orochimaru's stride to experience a brief micro-pause. Slowly turning back, a trace of unadulterated disdain flashed across his features as he sneered, "Given the current, degraded baseline of your forces, you possess absolute zero capacity to contest that monster anchored in the Sand.
Remaining behind to assist you in conducting a war with a mathematically non-existent probability of success? I am fundamentally not engineered to execute such foolishness."
"Haha, Orochimaru, you absolute bastard..."
Jiraiya let out a booming, boisterous laugh, his overall baseline mood elevating significantly. Although Orochimaru's explicit dialogue was saturated with absolute rejection, how could a mind like Jiraiya's fail to decode the underlying subtext woven into the message?
From the exact macro-second Orochimaru had breached the perimeter to intentionally provoke Tsunade, Jiraiya had understood with absolute certainty that the Legendary Sannin had not operated with this level of synchronized, underlying cohesion in decades.
Turning his back fully upon his two childhood companions, Orochimaru's tone downshifted into a low, ghostly murmur. "The Second Hokage left behind a highly specific, anomalous forbidden formula.
Provided it undergoes a more refined, comprehensive optimization protocol... it may very well yield a definitive methodology to completely invert the current geopolitical balance of the ninja world..."
"Has that individual... truly scaled his power to such an absolute degree?"
Tsunade's administrative impression of Shiraishi remained heavily anchored in the distant past—recalling him merely as a highly unconventional medical ninja who had utilized specialized anatomical arts to mock her capabilities on the historical battlefield.
Hearing that he had evolved into a titanic, sovereign hegemon whose actions could cause the entire continent to violently resonate made Tsunade quietly question whether the baseline laws of reality had fundamentally rewritten themselves during her absence.
At her query, Orochimaru let out a highly amused, sweeping chuckle. "Our beloved, esteemed mentor... did he not ultimately perish beneath the absolute parameters of a secret technique engineered directly by that man's hand?"
"Orochimaru, are you definitely certain that the Uchiha catastrophe is structurally linked to Sunagakure?"
Having been detached from the capital's internal intelligence loop for an extensive duration, both Jiraiya and Tsunade possessed an understanding of Konoha's domestic friction that was fundamentally inferior to Orochimaru's, who maintained a continuous, back-channel intelligence pipeline with Danzo. In terms of raw macro-espionage, the two Sannin suffered from a severe data deficit.
This was especially critical for Tsunade; if she was to officially assume the absolute administrative responsibilities of the Hokage seat, her cognitive matrix had to immediately begin processing calculations through a strategic lens to counter the existential threat posed by the Sand.
"The displaced women, children, and infants of the Uchiha clan have already finalized their geographic transit into the Land of Wind.
Furthermore, on the literal Night of the Extermination, the primary commercial carriage convoys of the Roran Chamber of Commerce were tracked operating directly within the peripheral matrix of Konoha."
These two highly specific operational details were more than enough for a mind like Orochimaru's to reverse-engineer the absolute blueprint behind the event.
However, he had chosen to completely withhold this analytical deduction from Danzo, opting instead to share the data exclusively with his two historical teammates.
While the granular micro-dynamics of that night's battlefield remained shrouded in shadow, Orochimaru was internally certain of one fact: that bizarre, apocalyptic crimson sun and the subsequent deployment of the Solar Flare Toxin could only have been orchestrated by one mind on the continent—the current Kazekage of Sunagakure.
After all, Shiraishi's intense coveting of the Uchiha's unique Kekkei Genkai blueprint was hardly a recent development; back when the two of them had actively maintained an operational alliance, Shiraishi had routinely demonstrated a profound, highly analytical interest in the structural properties of the Sharingan.
At the exact same time Orochimaru was conducting his high-level interface with Jiraiya and Tsunade, along the peripheral borders of the Land of Rain, Uchiha Kaede stood with a cold, expressionless countenance, his gaze locked onto the sudden manifestation of Obito.
"Did the great Kazekage of the Land of Wind ultimately fail to grant you asylum within his borders?"
The moment Kaede entered his visual field, Obito let out a cold, mocking sneer. It was glaringly obvious that he harbored a deep-seated, instinctual distaste for Kaede's presence.
Ever since their historical initial encounter during the Nine-Tails invasion years ago, he had found this particular asset entirely jarring to his senses.
Nevertheless, Obito's strategic module computed the reality that it was mathematically impossible for Kaede to openly integrate into Sunagakure's military structure.
He had officially solidified as the most catastrophic, S-rank missing-nin on Konoha's high-priority execution registry; though the Sand maintained undisputed status as the strongest hidden village on the continent, they could not publically harbor an asset of such flagrant, extreme criminality without triggering an immediate, total diplomatic collapse.
Consequently, the singular viable operational trajectory remaining for Uchiha Kaede was to seek integration within Akatsuki—an organization comprised exclusively of rogue, S-rank combat assets.
"Did Uchiha Itachi fail to finalize his deployment into Akatsuki's ranks?"
When it came to raw verbal warfare, Kaede's cognitive processing speed was fundamentally unmatched. This singular rhetorical counter-strike pierced cleanly through Obito's psychological shielding, causing the muscles beneath his mask to twitch violently with repressed fury.
That absolute bastard Itachi... He had explicitly finalized a binding contract to embed himself within Akatsuki immediately following the campaign's conclusion.
Yet, here he was, comfortably remaining within the Leaf's infrastructure to placidly anchor the positions of those old consultants.
Did that creature possess zero concept of structural integrity? This was far from the first time he had flagrantly reversed his finalized terms.
"Compared to an asset of your profile, I infinitely would have preferred to see Itachi standing before me."
Though Obito's dialogue was saturated with sharp, defensive barbs, Kaede elected to completely filter out the hostility. He stepped forward with absolute indifference, preparing to casually cross paths with the masked man.
However, the exact millisecond their silhouettes aligned, a sequence of specialized chakra chains erupted violently from Obito's sleeve, locking around Kaede's physical vessel with a restrictive grip.
Despite his prior verbal assertions of absolute distaste, Obito's physical kinetics exposed his most critical, underlying strategic motivation.
"Given that you unleashed a catastrophic, high-magnitude forbidden formula of that tier on that fateful night... exactly how much of your baseline ocular power remains operational within your system?"
During Kaede's high-intensity engagement against the Third Hokage, the grotesque, dense accumulation of active Sharingan breaking through his biological tissue had left a profound, highly uncomfortable psychological impression on Obito.
Now, observing that Kaede's physical vessel had restored its baseline appearance while his massive, signature ocean of ocular chakra had seemingly evaporated into nothingness, Obito required absolute tactical verification of Kaede's actual output limits.
But what carried the absolute greatest macro-strategic weight in Obito's mind was a singular, burning question: that specialized solar matrix that had generated a wide-scale phenomenon mimicking the architecture of the Infinite Tsukuyomi... what was the exact structural blueprint behind its execution?
Because it directly intersected with the absolute parameters of the Eye of the Moon Plan, Obito's internal equilibrium had been completely, violently disrupted.
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