"Did Akaba come today?"
"He did! Updates will resume tomorrow!"
Outside the manga shop, people had already started lining up early in the morning to ask about the latest news. This had been going on for three straight days, but today finally allowed Sakuma Yunlang to give a straightforward answer:
Our superstar manga artist is back!
Upon hearing that Akaba was updating again, the crowd erupted into conversation. Some sat outside holding cups of juice, while others picked up old volumes and began flipping through them again.
Reading the old issues in-store was free, so it was common for poorer kids or bored customers to grab a volume, chat with friends, and read at their leisure.
Inside the small teahouse, there wasn't even a hint of the tense frontline atmosphere.
Of course.
Although the Land of Rivers had engaged in hostilities with Sunagakure Village, there had been no large-scale battles yet—only small squad skirmishes involving ambushes and assassinations. Internal village security hadn't been greatly affected.
While Konoha constantly complained about a shortage of talent, it still remained the strongest among the Five Great Villages. The forces of the Land of Rivers amounted to less than thirty percent of Konoha's overall strength.
In the Private Chamber.
Akaba had completed two chapters since early this morning—that was just his personal output. The Shadow Clones were even more productive.
Two clones working on Naruto Shippuden had each finished three chapters. Combined with the previous two remaining chapters, the ten-chapter update was now complete.
Progress on One Piece updates, however, moved more slowly.
It wasn't because the Shadow Clones were slacking off; Judicial Island simply involved complex scenes and heavy combat illustration work, which raised the difficulty significantly compared to Naruto Shippuden.
But since five chapters of One Piece had previously gone unprinted, even at this slower pace, finishing the remaining parts wouldn't take long.
Of course,
even after completing the manga updates, these four Shadow Clones still couldn't rest easy.
After delivering the wooden figurines of Tobirama Senju and Naruto Uzumaki, Kozuke submitted two more wooden carvings—this time featuring Hashirama Senju and Mito Uzumaki.
These were clearly a matching pair of woodcarvings.
Honestly speaking, Akaba found it awkward producing such symbolically significant characters. Who exactly was he supposed to sell these to?
They'd probably end up being giveaways.
Ah well, if it counted as charity work, losing a few here or there wouldn't make much difference anyway—not when he still had two works from Yagami Sachika left.
Yagami Sachika carved Hayate Gekko and Yugao Uzuki.
Another matching set.
His craftsmanship lagged only slightly behind Kozuke's, yet it remained equally exquisite and refined—just needing color added.
With four wooden figurines total, each one matched perfectly to a Shadow Clone.
As for the original body—
Well, drawing some covers and posters was similarly tiring.
A perfect plan.
Akaba mentally gave himself a thumbs-up.
The workload was light, and in a good mood with plenty of energy, he even drew several extra posters, personally signing them to be randomly inserted inside manga books.
He hadn't been drawing many of these manually lately, preferring to let the clones handle them quickly instead.
By lunchtime, things gradually picked up pace again.
First came news from The Third.
The Third didn't have much on his plate, but upon hearing about a carved figurine of Hashirama Senju, he showed up early to "support charity," hoping to get his hands on this important figurine before anyone else could snatch it up.
Akaba saw it coming.
For the line of Hokage figurines, all you needed was to promote them at the Hokage Tower in Konoha. The Third actually being willing to pay, however, caught Akaba off guard.
Then came Orochimaru.
He had come for Impure World Reincarnation, and within these three days, added another item to his research schedule.
Luckily, Orochimaru enjoyed researching and exploring the mysteries of Ninjutsu, finding pleasure in it without growing tired.
The Impure World Reincarnation technique left behind by the Second Hokage was already relatively complete—simply summoning souls and attaching them to sacrificed bodies required little work. Orochimaru clearly wanted more than that.
He realized the Impure World Reincarnation beings summoned through Tobirama's jutsu formula were too weak, nowhere near the power seen in the manga. Because of how deeply ingrained the manga version was in his mind, he felt momentarily disappointed and struggled to believe what he was seeing.
Akaba thought Danzo would come looking for him as well, but in the end, his teacher proved to still have some humanity—he knew Akaba had just recovered today and didn't disturb his day off.
Thanks to that, Akaba finished coloring the wood carving by afternoon.
Once the paint dried, he asked Sakuma Yunlang to deliver the wooden carving of Hashirama Senju to the Hokage Tower while he personally brought the Mito Uzumaki carving to the Senju compound.
Nowadays, Akaba didn't even need an introduction when entering the Senju compound.
Everyone let him right in—across the whole village of Konoha, they all knew—the genius from the Sakuma clan and Tsunade were having an affair.
As always, Mito Uzumaki lived happily with eleven children from the Uzumaki Clan. Though her appearance had aged, she was in good condition. Judging from her aura, she could live another three or four years easily.
If Madara waited for her natural death, he might actually die of old age first.
Thinking this with a silent inner grumble, Akaba turned the corner and walked into the courtyard.
Little Kyoyuki had already moved past the grief over her father's death and got along very well with the other ten kids. As soon as she saw Akaba approach, she immediately ditched both 'Great White' and 'Two White-Haired Ones,' running straight to jump into his arms.
"Meow~" Two White-Haired Ones cried out, then glared toward the door. Recognizing Akaba, it quickly lowered its head and scratched the ground with its paw, pretending not to exist at all and careful not to make any expressions.
"Little Kyoyuki, take them outside to play."
Akaba patted her on the head. Little Kyoyuki nodded.
As the former clan leader's daughter, plus being the most talented among them, she had become the de facto leader of this group of children—whatever she said practically went unchallenged.
In no time flat, a group of kids scrambled out holding manga and toys like they'd just won the lottery.
Two White-Haired Ones visibly relaxed, quickly following after its master.
In some ways, ninja beasts could be more perceptive than humans.
"It makes me happy to see you've grown stronger again."
Mito Uzumaki smiled brightly.
"I wouldn't say I've really gotten stronger—just slight progress."
Akaba smiled modestly.
Without counting the Eternal Kaleidoscope Sharingan or the Rinnegan, he truly had only made minor improvements, but the enhancements provided by those two eye techniques were far too powerful.
Then, he pulled out the small wood carving from his robe.
"What is this?"
Mito straightened up. Seeing a miniature version of herself, she couldn't help but laugh bitterly. "What am I supposed to do with this? You should sell it."
"It's fine. Just think of it as a bribe to you."
Akaba set it aside.
Afterward, he hesitated for several seconds before quietly asking, "Did the Third mention what happened a few days ago?"
"He did mention it."
Mito Uzumaki gave a slight nod.
"Then you should know that the Third has reached an agreement with the other ninja villages and will no longer hunt down the Uzumaki clan. I was thinking—would it be possible to bring these eleven children to meet the rest of our clansmen?"
Akaba shared his thought.
As one of the Dream Maintainers, he had complete clarity on everything happening within the dream world, so he fully understood all this background information.
To meet them?
Mito Uzumaki thought for a moment before replying, "We're approaching the Uzumaki Clan's ceremonial festival day. Let's wait until then."
"A ceremony? Hmm, alright."
Akaba didn't object.
Going during the ceremony might also give him a chance to see that mask linked to the Shinigami.
The other reason was that:
If he could get the Vampire Fruit out before the ceremony, Mito Uzumaki might actually have the opportunity to leave Konoha for some sightseeing.
Thinking it through, Akaba decided he'd make arrangements soon to retrieve the Vampire Fruit.
Jiraiya had been out at sea for over a month — it was time to recall him.
Simply dropping off the fruit would risk Jiraiya not finding it easily, so to ensure absolute certainty, preparations needed to be made in advance.
Akaba left, leaving behind a wooden sculpture inside the courtyard. Earlier, Mito wanted him to take it, but then got distracted and forgot.
Only now did she remember about the item.
However, after taking a few glances, Mito found the wooden carving quite beautiful — exquisitely crafted, perfect in form and color; probably unmatched anywhere else in the world.
Therefore, she gave up on returning it.
That day, Akaba enjoyed unusual tranquility. After visits from the Third and Orochimaru, few people came to bother him.
The next day, the manga finally updated.
When posters and advertisements were put up, those who hadn't read it for three or four days became extremely excited, lining up outside stores early in the morning.
If the manga hadn't arrived early, they'd probably be waiting forever.
The early delivery energized the waiting crowd. They rushed forward eagerly, grabbing copies even before the truck had fully unloaded. Within just one hour, half the issues were sold out, while the little teahouse was already packed to the brim with people.
Those who managed to secure seats sat happily reading.
In this issue, the battle was nearing its conclusion.
Ever since Naruto met Nagato, this issue focused heavily on their verbal sparring and ideological clashes.
Everyone took their time reading.
Perhaps the fight scenes were spectacular, but hidden within these dialogues were the author's personal views — musings on nations, war, peace, and such topics.
In this era, having just experienced war not long ago, smaller conflicts never truly ceased.
Even ordinary citizens in Konoha still understood how terrible war could be.
Therefore
They all clearly understood — what Nagato said made complete sense.
War, death, hatred, revenge — an endless cycle. Like in the First Great Ninja War, its cessation wasn't because people recognized the value of peace, but because every village had suffered too many deaths.
No one wanted to lose more lives anymore, so they just stopped fighting.
Major nations have more people and resources, allowing them to recover faster after wars. Even if some children lose their parents in battle, the village still takes care of them.
Smaller nations are different.
What Nagato described truly happened in the Ninja World. A recent example—had the Land of Bird even participated in any war before being swallowed by the Land of Wind?
Impossible.
Because it didn't even have its own ninja village—it was so small that rogue shinobi ran rampant all over the place.
How could such a country possibly provoke the Land of Wind? It had beautiful mountains and rivers, but lacked the strength to defend itself, so it got swallowed up.
Of course,
it's impossible for everyone to truly empathize. Most people living in Konoha—which is pretty peaceful compared to other places—feel bad for those smaller nations. But they can't really understand how helpless it feels.
Even ordinary citizens of Konoha feel this way.
However,
everyone then saw Naruto pull out a book.
The Legend of the Resolute Shinobi.
This book had appeared before—it once showed Naruto moved to tears.
Now, he pulled it out again.
To be honest,
just from reading the manga itself, Jiraiya and *The Legend of the Resolute Shinobi* seem like they couldn't be more different. After all, the real Jiraiya is just a little brat obsessed with art and comics. There isn't a trace of greatness about him.
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