The next day.
At the very heart of Konoha stood the tall building crowned with the giant character "Fire."
On the first floor, inside the mission hall, shinobi gathered in small clusters around the windows of the Mission Management Division, waiting for staff to assign work. Those who had already received their mission slips were speaking with clients, clarifying details and negotiating terms.
Contrary to how it looked in manga, missions were not only taken directly from the Hokage's office.
Konoha had an enormous number of shinobi, and the daily flow of commissions and missions was countless. If the Hokage handled everything alone, he would work himself to death and still never finish.
To ease the Hokage's burden, the first floor housed the Mission Management Division, which sorted missions by rank and assigned the safer B through D ranked missions to chūnin and below.
Only high-risk A and S ranked missions, or missions that involved jōnin-level combat strength, were sent up to the Hokage's office on the top floor for the Third Hokage to assign personally.
In other words, for most shinobi, there were only two times in their entire lives when they would go upstairs and receive a mission directly from the Hokage.
The first was right after graduating the Academy, when teams were formed. With a special jōnin or jōnin teacher backing them, they might get to "tag along" and experience it once.
The second was when a dangerous mission needed extra hands, in other words, cannon fodder. They were "qualified" to meet the Hokage then too, and that meeting might very well be the last moment of glory in their lives.
Many shinobi joked about it themselves. The most brilliant moments of a life were youth, and the instant right before death.
"Hey… is that…"
"It's her!"
"She's so beautiful…"
The noisy hall fell silent for a heartbeat, then erupted into hushed chatter.
Shinobi who had been crowding the counters began whispering and craning their necks toward the entrance. Even the clients in mid-negotiation were drawn by the strange reaction and looked over with curiosity.
The instant he turned, no explanation was needed.
He understood at once what had caused the commotion.
A girl, only thirteen or fourteen at a glance, with skin like polished white jade.
A mysterious violet pattern was painted on her forehead. Her eyes were covered with black cloth. Her skin was translucent, her lips a vivid red. She was tall, and though still young, her figure already carried a gentle fullness. Even in a loose kimono, the curves that shouldn't have been possible at her age were impossible to hide.
But the most striking thing was her hair.
Silver, softly curled, unadorned by pins or ribbons, as if it needed no ornament because it was ornament enough. It coiled naturally behind her head. When the spring sunlight hit it, gold and silver reflected together, and the girl seemed to glow like a living deity.
"Th-this… this is…"
He stared, slack-jawed, searching his mind for words and finding none.
He was a merchant who dealt in antiques and jade. He'd visited the most prosperous capital of the Land of Fire more than once, and he'd done business with nobles there.
Even in those noble mansions, he had never seen beauty on this level.
For a moment, he forgot about his commission entirely, stretching his neck just to savor the "spectacle" of the greatest village in the shinobi world.
If even someone like him was stunned, then the clients from small countries and mountain villages were worse, eyes fixed and unblinking. Only after the girl went up to the second floor and her figure disappeared for a long time did everyone finally look away, reluctant. When they met one another's eyes again, they saw the same regret reflected back.
"Sorry about that. We lost ourselves for a second."
"Perfectly normal. No need to mind it."
The men laughed awkwardly, yet somehow felt a strange sense of camaraderie. The slight distance of first meeting dissolved, just like that.
"Brother, was that girl one of your Konoha shinobi?"
The Konoha shinobi lifted their chins with pride at the question.
"She's not just any shinobi. That was Konoha's greatest genius since the village was founded, Konome Taketori."
In recent years, Konome came to the Hokage Tower often to see the Third Hokage. The first couple of years were still fine. She was beautiful, yes, but still within the realm of "human."
Yet in the past two years, for some reason, she had become more and more radiant.
Her looks were only part of it. What truly set her apart was that vibrant life in her very presence, the kind that made your heart feel clear just by looking at her. Dangerous, mysterious, and special. Add in the halo of being Konoha's number one prodigy, and it became a fatal kind of attraction.
She only had to stand there for you to know she wasn't like anyone else. Not one of the countless ordinary people living off rice and salt and daily chores, but someone from an entirely different tier.
So whenever she came, it was always like this.
They were used to it now. They could even recite her "legend" smoothly, as if it were their job, speaking with a superiority they rarely got to feel in their normal lives, soaking in the shocked looks from outsiders like it was sunlight.
"Brother, I'm not even exaggerating. I've heard she's basically the Fourth Hokage's successor in waiting."
The bragging grew louder, more ridiculous. To harvest more astonished stares, they blurted out rumors they didn't even know the source of.
Konome's scalp nearly tingled from embarrassment. She drove her surging Earth Release chakra through her shoes, even through the stairs, hardening everything beneath her feet. She quickened her pace slightly and moved with practiced grace up to the third floor, toward the Hokage's office.
Everyone said she'd grown gentler, that even her walk looked like that of a noble lady.
Only she knew the truth.
If she let malice, killing intent, or even a careless burst of speed slip free, the consequences could be horrifying.
Sometimes elegance was nothing more than necessity.
Whoosh.
A mild breeze pushed the closed office door open. Konome stepped inside with measured steps.
Sarutobi Hiruzen was reviewing documents. The moment he saw her, he extinguished his pipe on instinct and set it down upside down on the desk, trying to look innocent.
"Don't wait until you've ruined your body to see a doctor, Sarutobi-sensei."
"I trust your medical ninjutsu," Hiruzen said with a bright grin, waving the smoke away. He hadn't expected her to arrive this quickly, and he'd been caught red-handed.
Konome sighed and shook her head. The wind that circled her swept up the lingering smoke and shoved it out through the window in one clean motion.
Two years ago, Hiruzen had developed lesions in his lungs and coughed constantly. She healed him with medical ninjutsu, and while she was at it, used a fine, precise technique to draw out the tar and residue from his lungs.
She'd thought that would finally make him quit.
Instead, it was as if he'd found a safety net. He smoked even more than before.
"Medical ninjutsu isn't omnipotent. If you get lung cancer, even I won't be able to help."
"It's fine," Hiruzen said, utterly unbothered by the word "cancer." He signed the bottom of a thick report, then tossed it onto a stack of documents already piled like a small mountain. "I've lived long enough."
"Take these down."
"Yes!"
Three ANBU appeared from the corner as if they'd always been there. They lifted the documents, then gave Konome a respectful nod. Only after she nodded back did they leave quickly.
Click.
The door closed softly, shut by the same considerate ANBU who always handled it when Danzō and Hiruzen held private discussions.
These were Hiruzen's longtime personal guards. They understood exactly how much weight this last disciple carried in the Third Hokage's heart.
It was affection so deep that even the combined presence of the Three Sannin couldn't compare.
And more importantly, no one knew how many years the Third Hokage had left, but this girl was a rising star. Their dealings with her in the future would be long. Treating her with respect cost nothing.
Anyone assigned to the Hokage's office was intelligent. No one would look down on her because of her age. If anything, the younger she was while holding such status and strength, the more respect she commanded.
"You called me here for something?" Konome asked.
With the others sent out, she knew Hiruzen's reason wasn't simple.
"Has your bloodline illness shown any signs of acting up lately?"
Hiruzen's expression was grave. Five years had etched more lines at the corners of his eyes, folding like a fan when he spoke.
That again?
Konome's brows lifted slightly.
He had asked her about the bloodline illness multiple times already.
In truth, the moment she succeeded with the Reverse Eight Gates, the illness had been cured. Her condition had only improved year after year. Three years ago, when her Sage Body entered its second stage, she told Hiruzen directly that the bloodline illness had been resolved.
"Thanks to you letting me use the Forest of Death as my experimental ground all these years, I developed a technique that can completely solve it," Konome said. "There won't be any problems anymore."
Seeing no deception in her, Hiruzen finally let some of the tension drain away.
"It's just… I haven't seen you practice taijutsu in a long time. I thought the illness might have returned."
Only then did Konome understand his worry.
It was true. In these years, she rarely trained taijutsu.
First, because most taijutsu in the shinobi world had lost meaning for her. With body manipulation, she didn't need "training" in the usual sense. As long as her chakra was sufficient, her muscle strength could grow on its own.
Second, aside from her own shadow clones, there was no one left who could serve as a proper sparring partner.
Even the momentum from an ordinary swing of her hand had to be measured in tons. If she truly gathered muscle and chakra and threw a punch seriously, it would be an eruption at least a hundred, a thousand times stronger. Add in the amplification of ninjutsu-taijutsu techniques, and it became impossible to quantify.
Once, in the Forest of Death, she activated three major states at once and concentrated all her power into a single punch.
The Forest of Death was no longer a forest.
"I haven't been training taijutsu because I've been experimenting with a new combat approach," Konome said, choosing words he could accept. "It's not the illness."
"I see. Then I'm relieved," Hiruzen said, the last of his sternness easing away. His tone grew casual again.
"How do you feel about your team's jōnin teacher?"
"Fine," Konome replied. "Nothing new."
She didn't need to guess to know who Hiruzen had assigned her to.
Because of the heavy butterfly she had become, many things had already shifted away from the original course.
Konoha's "twelve rookies" had all become obsessed grinders after being "educated" by her presence.
Naruto and Sasuke, the original story's twin protagonists, had trained under Guy and Kakashi in this world, and their strength had surged far beyond what it should have been at this point.
The others weren't far behind.
And Sakura, originally top of the written tests, gradually fell behind the pace. Perhaps fate still had its own hand. Two years ago, Chihaya Tō came to her and said he'd found a genius medical shinobi in the hospital internship class, Haruno Sakura, and wanted to pull her into Root as an assistant.
Konome had only sighed at how Sakura had found her path early.
She refused to let Sakura enter Root. Sakura's true turning point belonged to Tsunade. Handing her to someone like Chihaya Tō would be a waste. After that, Konome didn't bother with the matter.
With Sakura moving into the hospital and waiting for Tsunade, that position opened up. And with how familiar Kakashi, Naruto, and Sasuke already were with her, Hiruzen would naturally place her into Team 7.
No thinking required.
"You didn't call me here just to ask those things, did you?" Konome said.
Hiruzen had been busy enough to clear out the ANBU. He wouldn't do that for small talk. The way he sat there now, calm and satisfied, made it obvious he was waiting for her to press him.
"Of course not."
Hiruzen smiled, pleased. Then he reached into the drawer beneath his desk and drew out a sealed scroll, his voice turning mysteriously light.
"A student graduates successfully. How could the teacher not prepare a gift?"
"This is…?"
Konome's eyes sharpened. With her ocular power, she pierced through the outer sealing formula instantly.
"A few years ago, Guy mentioned he wanted to give you his ninja turtle as a summoning beast," Hiruzen said, unsealing the scroll with one hand as he spoke. "And you rejected it like it was the most disgusting thing you'd ever heard."
He slowly spread the scroll open, revealing lines and lines of small black characters.
Konome could already read them clearly.
They were names.
Most of them began with the same clan name: Sarutobi. And Sarutobi Hiruzen was listed among them as well.
"This is the summoning contract between the Sarutobi clan and the monkey tribe," Hiruzen said, laying it flat on a clean spot of the desk. Pride was impossible to hide from his face as he explained.
"The monkey tribe is solid inside and out, hard as diamond. They can transform into a staff that extends and contracts freely, the Adamantine Staff.
Most importantly, they understand human speech, possess humanoid forms, and can weave hand signs with all four limbs to use ninjutsu."
His eyes gleamed.
"They are one of the most powerful summoning clans in the shinobi world. And my own summon is their king, the Monkey King, Enma!"
The Enma contract.
Konome drew a slow breath.
She was not unfamiliar with Enma's might. In the original story, Orochimaru himself called Enma the strongest summon.
And Orochimaru had been to Ryūchi Cave. He had seen Jiraiya's toads and Tsunade's slugs. Even so, he still gave Enma that evaluation.
Enma's strength was unquestionable.
But Konome's interest wasn't simply that Enma was powerful.
No matter how strong a summon was, it was still an external force. It would never be as reliable as the strength of the summoner.
What she truly wanted was this:
The monkey tribe's domain most likely contained dense natural energy, and perhaps a form of senjutsu distinct from the Three Great Sage Regions: Shikkotsu Forest, Mount Myōboku, and Ryūchi Cave.
Her Sage Body had been stuck at stage two for a long time now. It wouldn't take much longer to enter stage three, but she was nothing like the Senju. What she would awaken could be completely different.
She feared that even after reaching stage three, she might not obtain a perfect Sage Mode like Senju Hashirama.
If that happened, she would be forced to seek senjutsu from the Three Great Sage Regions, and the trouble involved didn't need to be explained.
But now…
Her problem might finally have a new answer.
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