The Miroku that Rengoku was playing, of course, was immediately taken away by Minato's shadow clones as soon as they entered the town.
It was Rengoku's first time hitching a ride on the Flying Thunder God, a very novel experience.
After all, one moment the scenery blurred, and the next moment he was somewhere else.
Ordinary people couldn't react in time.
No wonder there's a "home-return Minato" tactic.
Rengoku had already reverted to his original appearance.
They had chosen a secluded valley as their location, which could easily hold several thousand people.
After all the civilians had been rescued, although surprised, they didn't find it unacceptable.
In their understanding, the shrine maiden could do anything.
Miroku and Rengoku together found a relatively high spot to speak from, "My people, standing beside me is Uchiha Rengoku, the Fifth Hokage of Konoha Village in the Land of Fire."
"Our country has been repeatedly ravaged by the Moryo's Demon Legion. The Fifth Hokage could not bear to let you suffer and has agreed to relocate you to Konoha Village."
Hearing Miroku's words, the civilians from the Land of Demons fell silent for a moment, then began buzzing with excitement.
After all, they were all countryside folk; many of their homes didn't even have electric lights.
Now suddenly they were to become villagers of Konoha, one of the ninja world's five greatest villages.
This wasn't just an ancestral grave smoking green, this was the ancestral grave exploding.
"Lady Miroku! Is this true?"
"Will the Fifth Hokage really take us in?"
"But how will we get there?"
In this world there wasn't really such a thing as being unable to leave one's homeland, at least not for these people of the Land of Demons.
Among the top three most desirable places in the ninja world, Konoha was certainly one of them.
Even in the Great Ninja Wars, Konoha was mostly kept out of direct devastation.
It could be said to be one of the safest places in the ninja world.
The ordinary civilians couldn't believe it at first.
They couldn't believe such a good thing would happen to them.
Rengoku then spoke, "I am Uchiha Rengoku, Fifth Hokage of Konoha Village. What Miroku just said is true."
"The Moryo are demons who will turn your Land of Demons into a battlefield. Your shrine maiden could not bear to see you die innocent deaths on that battlefield, so she asked our Konoha Village to accept you."
"How you'll get there, you don't need to worry about that."
"But if you go to Konoha Village, you will become Konoha villagers and must obey Konoha's laws."
"If there are people unwilling to go, raise your hands."
The Land of Demons' civilians looked at one another, faces full of excitement.
"It's… really true!"
"We might actually be able to live in Konoha!"
"I heard every household there has electric lights and televisions…"
Rengoku realized he had still underestimated Konoha's appeal, these villagers had no objections.
They were all already dreaming about the days they'd live in Konoha.
"Then your shrine maiden will use her magic again to gather the other civilians and send you away together."
"When the new people arrive, you and they will explain things to each other."
After saying this, Rengoku and Miroku descended together.
"How many gathering sites remain in your country?", Rengoku asked Miroku.
"There's one more. Our Land of Demons only has three towns in total, but one has already been destroyed by the Moryo."
"The villagers fled, leaving these two remaining."
"Now only Izumo Town remains."
"Then tonight we'll move everyone to here, then transfer them out in batches."
Miroku naturally had no objection, now it depended on whether Minato could hold out.
"Minato, can you keep up with the recovery?"
Minato's expression was serious, "The Nine-Tails' chakra is slow to recover now, since each transfer moves so many people."
"He's been extremely busy tonight. Although I'm an Edo Tensei body, my own total chakra is limited."
"I still need to use the Nine-Tails' chakra as support."
"But when there are so many people, even half of the Nine-Tails has a lot of chakra drawn from it each time."
"Only after waiting tens of minutes for the Nine-Tails' chakra to recover can it be used again."
Rengoku considered and said, "Why not put the other half of the Nine-Tails into your body as well?"
Minato thought seriously for a moment, then shook his head, "I want to leave Naruto some self-preservation ability."
Rengoku nodded, "Alright, I also have some Nine-Tails chakra here; I'll expand your reserves first."
Saying that, he placed his hand on Minato's Four Symbols Seal.
His gaze shifted, entering Minato's body.
For the first time, Rengoku saw the Yin Nine-Tails.
The Yin Nine-Tails was sitting cross-legged like in meditation, working to restore chakra.
After transferring so many people today, the Yin Nine-Tails obviously looked very exhausted.
"Yin Kurama, you've worked hard today."
Rengoku appraised the Yin Nine-Tails; its appearance was essentially identical to the Yang Nine-Tails, only with a slight color difference.
["Why have you come here, Rengoku?"]
This Yin Nine-Tails didn't naturally know Rengoku before, but because it shared Minato's memories, it still felt grateful to Rengoku.
After all, Rengoku was the one who had Minato and Obito figure out how to release Minato and him from the godly body. (note: keeping original implication)
Rengoku smiled a little, "I brought you a gift."
He opened the Bond Star and directly found the Kurama entry.
He intended to pluck a star for the Yin Nine-Tails, but saw the Nine-Tails' name split into Yin and Yang.
Kurama (Yin)/Kurama (Yang)
Rengoku's expression was somewhat surprised, they were being treated as two separate entities.
He first opened Kurama Yang (Naruto's), and found it already had two stars.
["Ding, Kurama Yang level-1 and level-2 bonds unlocked."]
["Congratulations, host obtained: memory fragments."]
["Congratulations, host obtained: 10% of the original's chakra."]
A huge surge of chakra burst from Rengoku's hand.
The Yin Kurama immediately stood up, ["Rengoku, where did you get so much of my chakra?"]
This amount was 10% of the complete entity in Yin–Yang unification terms; according to Yin Kurama's proportion, that equated to 20%.
This chakra was absorbed into Yin Kurama; its expression changed, ["Why is this in a Yin-Yang merged state?"]
Rengoku kept a mysterious air, "You don't need to handle that, if you can absorb it, absorb it all."
Yin Kurama had been drained too many times today; of course it welcomed the replenishment.
["Though I don't know where you got this from, thank you!"]
A 20% chakra boost caused Yin Kurama's form to rapidly swell.
After Rengoku poured the chakra from the Bond Star fruit of the Yang Kurama into Yin Kurama, he opened Yin Kurama's Bond Star.
Yin Kurama also had two stars.
["Congratulations, host obtained: memory fragments."]
["Congratulations, host obtained: 10% of the original's chakra."]
Rengoku absorbed the memory fragments, then poured the remaining Nine-Tails chakra into Yin Kurama's body.
Yin Kurama looked astonished, ["There's still more?"]
If a complete Nine-Tails is 1, Yin and Yang each account for 0.5.
Now Rengoku had forcibly given Yin Kurama two increments of 0.1, and Yin Kurama already had about 70% of full-form chakra.
Rengoku didn't know whether this was exploiting a bug, but it seemed the Yin and Yang Nine-Tails counted as two separate bonds before unification.
He didn't converse much more with Yin Kurama; he directly retreated from the mental space.
"Well then, Minato, the recovery time should be shorter now."
Minato naturally felt the Nine-Tails within him strengthened, and he smiled, "Of course. Let's continue to transfer the others."