"Waking me up all of a sudden—did that brat Nagato trigger the Rinnegan's power?"
In a vast underground space somewhere, dimly lit, an aged voice rang out.
"Hee-hee—no, Madara-sama. Something interesting happened in the shinobi world."
A White Zetsu rose up from beneath the earth. With not the slightest hint of apology for disturbing Madara's sleep, it handed a portrait to Uchiha Madara, grinning.
"Something interesting popped up in Konoha. Even that 'shinobi demigod' from Amegakure took a loss at his hands."
"After Hashirama died, this world just keeps getting more and more boring. Since when did some kid who plays with poison deserve to be called a 'god'?"
Madara's tone was displeased.
If it weren't for the plan—and the fact that his body couldn't support it—he'd really like to go meet this so-called demigod and let him feel what true divine power was.
Madara took the portrait from White Zetsu and glanced at it. His "just woke up" irritation instantly turned even worse.
"This hair color… and this jutsu name… it really brings back bad memories." Madara shot White Zetsu a look. "Are you doing this on purpose to mess with my head?"
White Zetsu wasn't afraid of Madara at all, still wearing the same grin. "I just thought you were bored, Madara-sama. Want to send a batch of White Zetsu clones to monitor this boy? Oh, and the melee has already started. The moment Konoha entered, they went straight into three-front warfare. When the war ends, this campaign will probably be called the Second Great Ninja War."
"Monitoring a Flying Thunder God user is meaningless. With one blink, he can shake you off easily." Madara leaned back in his stone chair, the transplanted Sharingan in his eyes slowly turning. "I may hate that Tobirama brat, but I have to admit—his ninjutsu talent surpasses mine and Hashirama's."
After less than a moment, Madara suddenly asked, "How old is Nagato this year?"
"Six."
"At that age, he can enter the Ninja Academy and start learning ninjutsu," Madara said quietly, speaking with chilling cruelty. "Give him a little more time. If the Uzumaki and Senju blood in his body still doesn't trigger the Rinnegan's power, then give him a push."
"For now, have Tobi protect him." Madara added irritably, "Warn Tobi not to 'research' anything about bathroom urges, and not to get close to Nagato on his own. If anything goes wrong with Nagato, I'll turn him into a pile of crap."
"Madara-sama… isn't that a reward?" White Zetsu asked.
"Get lost."
Still grinning, White Zetsu asked, "And that Flying Thunder God user—what do you plan to do with him? Want to find a chance to plant Spore Technique on him?"
"That would only expose you faster." Madara rattled it off like a textbook. "Flying Thunder God's transfer cost is fixed. Only when you move huge targets or objects of shocking mass does the cost multiply."
"If you attach Spore Technique to him, you can hide the volume, but not the chakra mass. The moment he blinks, he'll notice something's off."
"To deal with a Flying Thunder God user, there's only one method: don't let him leave Flying Thunder God formulas nearby. When he tries to sense a distant formula, there's a brief window—kill him instantly in that moment."
"Otherwise, you can only exploit his weak point, like Kumogakure's Gold and Silver Brothers did—forcing him to stay."
White Zetsu couldn't help complaining, "What a disgusting jutsu."
As for why Madara knew Flying Thunder God so well, White Zetsu didn't dare ask.
"That jutsu can only bully people in the same 'dimension' as him," Madara closed his eyes again, utterly dismissing Gojo Yoru. "Once Nagato triggers the Rinnegan's power and can use the Deva Path and Preta Path abilities, that jutsu user will have no choice but to run when he sees him."
"The future of the next era belongs to Nagato."
"So we just ignore him?" White Zetsu asked.
"No need. And we can't control it anyway." Madara chuckled. "The ones most anxious right now are that brat Ōnoki, and then that junior named Hanzō. They'll do everything they can to eliminate that kid."
Madara didn't even mention Sunagakure.
In his eyes, anyone who hadn't reached the very peak of Kage-level was no different from roadside weeds.
Even in his current state, Madara could kill that kind of trash easily—and show them what a Three-Tomoe Susanoo looked like.
White Zetsu grinned. "Should we help them a bit from the shadows?"
Madara opened his eyes again, a hint of irritation showing. "If you're bored with nothing to do, go help Tobi protect Nagato properly. If you're truly interested in that kid, send a few clones to infiltrate Konoha and gather information on him—so we'll have an easier time dealing with him later."
"Hee-hee. Got it."
White Zetsu left that line with a grin and vanished from the underground space using Mayfly Technique.
…
The next morning, at the border base.
Gojo Yoru stared at the "movie-poster-like" portrait in his hand, utterly bewildered.
He woke up from a nap… and somehow debuted overnight?
"Kid, you're famous."
Jiraiya slapped Yoru on the shoulder and laughed. "Give it three days, max, and the whole shinobi world will know 'Black Flash · Gojo Yoru'—hahahaha!"
Thinking about what Yoru would face from now on, Jiraiya couldn't help laughing even harder.
If Yoru didn't have Flying Thunder God and that terrifying "meteor" trump card, Jiraiya, as a senior, would definitely worry about him.
But now he was laughing with obvious schadenfreude.
That was the price of fame.
Yoru glanced at Jiraiya and said nothing.
If they were just a little closer, he'd have absolutely shot back with something foul like: "You laugh that ugly—no wonder Tsunade-sama doesn't like you."
Orochimaru comforted him instead. "Being famous early isn't necessarily bad. With your current strength, training alone won't raise you much anymore. Life-and-death battles and harsh situations will better sharpen your physical and mental energy. What you need next is comprehensive development—preparing for future promotions."
"Don't worry, Orochimaru-sensei. I don't care about that," Yoru said with a smile, lifting the portrait. "I just think Hanzō moved too fast—he even came up with my title. That means last night's attack really did land."
"I think so too," Orochimaru smiled. "Last night he didn't even put the three of us in his eyes, but he chose to sacrifice his reputation to 'praise-kill' you. That salamander should be seriously hurt."
"Why not keep the information secret… or press the advantage?" Yoru asked.
"We considered it, but the cost is too high," Orochimaru said helplessly. "He even publicly announced the salamander is injured. But no one knows whether it truly can't be summoned—or whether that summoning realm has a second salamander."
"Before Tsunade develops the antidote formula and can mass-produce antidote, we can't do that. The Lands of Wind and Earth won't let us either."
"Right now, the three nations are temporary allies. Until supplies become scarce, that relationship probably won't break."
Yoru understood and didn't press further. He changed the topic.
"Orochimaru-sensei—anything you need me to do?"
Orochimaru, who could read his student's meaning with a glance, smiled. "Not for now. If you want to return to Konoha, go ahead."
"But before you go, leave a few Flying Thunder God formulas in the base. Next time, sense those and appear there instead of popping right beside me." Orochimaru's expression turned serious. "From here on, I may have to join battles at any time."
"Understood," Yoru nodded and turned to leave.
Then a voice reached his ear.
"Gojo kid—"
Jiraiya scratched his cheek, looking awkward. "I heard Tsunade say Nawaki also learned your hand-signless jutsu, Rasengan. You mentioned before you traded the Rasengan training scroll for sealing arts from that kid in Tsunade's house—Kushina. Can you trade with me too?"
"Uh… I already gave Orochimaru-sensei the Rasengan method too," Yoru said. "If you want to learn it, Jiraiya-sama, you can ask Orochimaru-sensei."
"That's different," Jiraiya said seriously. "If Orochimaru invented it, I'd have no shame about it. But you are the inventor. As a senior, I can't let you lose out. Is there any jutsu you want?"
In the past, those words would've made Yoru's heart race.
But now that Yoru had already signed with Ryūchi Cave, he didn't need Mount Myōboku's summoning contract.
When Kushina trained senjutsu in the future, Yoru planned to have her learn Ryūchi Cave senjutsu too.
By then, Yoru would be far stronger than he was now and could ignore Ryūchi Cave's "rules" outright.
Aside from Mount Myōboku's summoning, Jiraiya's strongest specialty was Fire Release—he could refine chakra into oil and greatly amplify fire techniques, producing Fire Release jutsu on the level of Great Fire Annihilation or Great Fire Destruction.
But beyond those two, anything Jiraiya knew, Orochimaru knew too.
And many things Orochimaru knew… Jiraiya didn't.
Yoru himself had fire affinity, and before Orochimaru taught him Earth Release, Fire Release was his strongest. He'd even developed Fire Release: Rasengan.
If he could get Jiraiya's "refine chakra into oil" method, his Fire Release would rise again.
Yoru was about to accept—
Then a thought struck him. He suddenly asked, "Jiraiya-sama, those hair-control techniques of yours—are they secret arts you developed yourself?"
"You mean Ninja Art: Needle Jizō and Ninja Art: Wild Lion's Mane?"
Jiraiya sounded proud. "That's right. I developed them as my own secret techniques based on my hair."
Glancing at Yoru's short hair, Jiraiya teased, "If you want to learn them, you'd need to master Yang Release nature transformation—and grow your hair out."
Yoru ignored the jab and stated his terms.
"I want the training methods for your hair secret techniques, and your experience developing them. In exchange—besides the Rasengan training scroll—I'll also include the method for injecting Fire Release nature transformation."
"Good eye. Deal." Jiraiya gave a thumbs-up and agreed immediately.
Orochimaru watched from the side without speaking.
He did have the Rasengan method, but he still hadn't learned it.
Among Sarutobi's students, Orochimaru had the greatest ninjutsu talent, but his chakra reserves were far below Tsunade's and Jiraiya's.
Just by looking at Rasengan once, Orochimaru knew he could use it only four times—five at most.
And he wasn't fast. His specialty was Earth Release, not Lightning Release.
A hand-signless jutsu that only paid off on a close-range hit had poor cost-performance for him.
If the enemy wasn't the real body, the chakra he'd waste on one Rasengan could cast several powerful elemental techniques instead.
Jiraiya waved the Rasengan training scroll and asked with a grin, "You don't mind if I teach this jutsu to my student, right?"
"Since we've already traded, do whatever you want with it," Yoru said casually—though he couldn't help picturing Jiraiya showing off Rasengan to Namikaze Minato and passing it on to him, and found it faintly amusing.
In some movie version of this, once Minato learned Flying Thunder God too, he might sigh: "I feel like I've been living in Gojo Yoru's shadow the whole time."
As for why Yoru traded for Jiraiya's secret technique development experience—
It was simple. He thought of Konan's Paper Release in canon.
Konan's Paper Release wasn't a bloodline limit. It was a secret technique she developed herself.
And it was that technique that made her one of the strongest among Kage-level fighters.
Paper Release could produce explosive tags; combined with Tobirama's Mutually Multiplying Explosive Tags technique and Yoru's Flying Thunder God marks, Konan would not only surpass canon by far—she'd become a walking, human-shaped "shuriken multi-shadow-clone jutsu," and would absolutely serve as Yoru's right-hand.
In canon, Konan developed Paper Release based on her love of origami.
That was strangely similar to Jiraiya developing hair techniques based on his own hair.
Yoru couldn't help suspecting that when Konan developed Paper Release, Jiraiya had helped a lot.
If Yoru understood how Jiraiya developed secret techniques, he was confident he could help Konan develop Paper Release.
And Jiraiya's hair techniques were also something Kushina could use—and she had to learn.
If she mastered that level of chakra control early, then when she later unlocked Nine-Tails chakra mode, she could shape the Nine-Tails chakra into all kinds of constructs, like it was part of her body.
Both Jiraiya and Yoru were very satisfied with this trade.
So after leaving a few Flying Thunder God marks at the border base, Gojo Yoru blinked away and disappeared.
~~~
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