Konoha Year 33, April 1.
The Ninja Academy opened a new school year. The graduated sixth-years and the first-years who moved up freed up empty classrooms. Another batch of familiar faces left, and a batch of unfamiliar faces arrived.
Without anyone really noticing, Konoha's "crown prince" had gone from a new student to a soon-to-graduate student.
Next March, this much-watched Hokage's grandson, carrying the glory of the Senju, would become an official shinobi.
Yami, now a fourth-year student, paid extremely close attention to that Hokage's grandson.
The reason he cared so much about Nawaki was simple.
Nawaki was an anchor point.
Tsunade's little brother. The First Hokage's grandson. He would die at the age of twelve.
And his death happened during the Second Great Ninja War.
That meant that if no butterfly effect interfered, then when Nawaki turned twelve, the Second Great Ninja War would begin.
In other words, Konoha Year 35.
Yami had two years, at most three, to grow.
If Konoha's firepower fell short, their class could be sent to the battlefield at any time.
In special circumstances, they fresh genin might even be led by jonin or chunin into a major operation like the Third Great Ninja War's Kannabi Bridge campaign.
They could run into chunin or jonin level enemies at any moment.
Before the Second Great Ninja War broke out, Yami had to gain the strength to handle those hypothetical situations and hypothetical enemies.
Hands in his pockets, he walked into the academy. Aside from the new first-years, the students still stepped aside like they always had. They did not even dare meet Yami's eyes, afraid of provoking the infamous "demon king."
But no one knew that this "demon king" was only a shadow clone.
As early as last year, besides practical combat classes, Yami's real body had not gone to the academy at all.
If not for the possibility of being matched against Minato, where the shadow clone could be broken and expose his true strength, Yami would not have wanted to come to the academy in the first place.
…
May 17.
A piece of news shook the entire shinobi world.
A clan that had stood tall through a thousand years of the Warring States era. Distant kin of the Senju. Masters of sealing arts that made the world tremble. Loyal right-hand allies of the Senju.
The Uzumaki clan, and the nation they built overseas, the Land of Whirlpools, along with Uzushio Village, had been wiped out.
As an ally of the Land of Whirlpools, the Land of Fire did not even have time to react.
Because the invaders were not nearby island nations, nor small countries on the continent.
They were the four great powers, excluding the Land of Fire.
Unlike Konoha, which was formed from many great clans of the Warring States era, the Land of Whirlpools consisted of the Uzumaki and a smaller outside population.
They did not have the strength to withstand four great villages at once.
Facing a coordinated assault, they were crushed.
Countless lives were lost, and whatever remained was stripped away for research.
Those who survived were few and far between.
The ones most likely to endure were women who had married outside long ago and had already given up the Uzumaki name.
Still, there was one saving grace.
As Uzushio's ally, Konoha had always stationed shinobi there.
At the desperate request of Uzushio's leadership, the Konoha shinobi took the Uzumaki clan's last hope and escorted her back to Konoha.
By the time Konoha's reinforcements reached the Land of Whirlpools, it was already over. The island had become a ruined wasteland.
When this news reached Konoha, no one knew how the higher-ups reacted.
But Yami noticed something.
Lately, it was hard to see even a single shinobi in a green flak jacket on the streets.
Other than night patrols, you rarely saw silhouettes streaking across rooftops.
Clearly, the higher-level shinobi had been dispatched.
Where they went, Yami did not know, but he could guess.
Either they were on missions, or they had been sent to the borders.
The fall of the Uzumaki was the countdown to war.
Those four powers had already been feeding off smaller nations and expanding their territory.
Now they had seized the Uzumaki's thousand-year inheritance. Their strength would surge.
They would not stop.
They would only become more aggressive.
All it would take was one spark to ignite the entire shinobi world.
And with the Uzumaki reduced to dust in the pages of history, the person Yami had waited years for finally arrived in Konoha.
Starting the very next day, Yami went to the academy in person, for both academic classes and practical classes, waiting for that figure to appear.
He waited, and waited, all the way until the second semester, in September.
The fall of the Land of Whirlpools had hit Kushina too hard.
If not for comfort from the legendary Uzumaki elder, Mito, Kushina might have turned into a creature of hatred, like Sasuke, living only for revenge.
But simple-minded Kushina did not realize she was being "loved" into obedience, turned into a vessel by the village's higher-ups.
If no one pulled her out of the fire, then once Mito died, Kushina's future would be lived under constant surveillance.
Her range of movement would be locked to assigned areas forever, unless the village faced a crisis and needed the power of a jinchuriki. Only then would Kushina be allowed beyond Konoha.
"Tch. So it really was a conspiracy. Politicians really do have black hearts."
On the Hokage Rock, Yami sat at the cliff's edge, staring down at the beautiful village with eyes full of mockery.
At this moment, he finally understood how jinchuriki felt.
No wonder so many of them ended up twisted. Even the little brother of a Kage could not truly belong in his own village.
It was not that they were born wrong.
It was that the higher-ups pushed things too far.
Anyone would feel cold and bitter.
Yami had always wondered why Konoha in this era did not have the kind of barrier seen in later years. He thought it simply had not been obtained or developed yet.
But now he understood.
Konoha's barrier was born because of Kushina.
It still did not cover the entire village, but Yami, who often used his space-time ability to slip beneath the earth and leave Konoha, could see it as clearly as if he had the Hyuga's eyes.
A spiral-shaped barrier covered all of Central Street.
He was not unfamiliar with it.
In the story passed down later, this was the barrier Konoha used to monitor Kushina.
Yami had not expected it to appear this early.
That was why he felt such sharp irony.
The famous scene where Kushina was "heroically saved" had always been criticized, because people suspected a setup.
How could a jinchuriki like Kushina be kidnapped so easily?
Her mansion had no guards.
The Cloud shinobi found her with perfect accuracy.
They left on foot without being discovered by patrols.
There were no ANBU monitoring or protecting a newly arrived jinchuriki.
It even seemed like Konoha had no barrier at all.
And then, by coincidence, Minato happened to be out late at night, and he alone chased after them by following the clues Kushina left behind.
After that "rescue," Kushina finally had a bond in Konoha and was willing to live there.
Now, it all made sense.
It really was a game run by the higher-ups.
And the method was identical to the later trick Hiruzen used, with Mizuki, to deepen the bond between Iruka and Naruto.
The one pulling the strings was obviously the Third Hokage.
This discovery made Yami feel disgusted, but it also made him relax.
Minato was chosen as a piece in that game because he already liked Kushina, because he was a genius, and because he was Jiraiya's disciple.
Now Yami also had a backer, thanks to Orochimaru's investment.
He was also talented.
And after years of deliberately building an isolated persona, if Yami and Kushina developed feelings for each other, if they "saved" each other, Hiruzen would be even happier to see it.
"Good. Now it's showtime."
Yami's lips curled slightly. Then he stood up and vanished in a flicker.
(End of Chapter)
[Check Out My P@treon For +20 Extra Chapters On All My Fanfics!!][[email protected]/euridome]
[Thank You For Your Support!]