Over the next few days, Konoha noticeably grew livelier.
One genin team after another from shinobi villages across the various nations arrived in Konoha under the guidance of their jonin instructors.
The Chunin Exams had already begun in silence.
These outsiders had already started showing off every trick they had in order to gather information on their opponents.
Konoha saw everything they were doing, and at the same time tacitly allowed it.
After all, Konoha was the host. Its ninja already had home-field advantage.
As long as it didn't disrupt the villagers' lives, Konoha, the strongest shinobi village, didn't mind letting them make up for that disadvantage.
Still, to keep these outsiders from thinking intel-gathering in Konoha was too easy and underestimating the strongest village in the world, Hiruzen Sarutobi quietly strengthened village security and handed the job to the Uchiha clan.
With black hair, black eyes, and the Uchiha fan crest printed on their clothes, members of the Uchiha clan were intimidating enough just walking down the street, even without the standard green flak jackets.
It wasn't just outsiders who feared them. Even Konoha's troublemakers were afraid of them.
As Konoha's—and arguably the entire shinobi world's—top clan, the Uchiha not only held law-enforcement authority, they also ran the prisons.
If they caught you and threw you into one of those prisons, it was an experience worse than death.
Physical torture was the least of it. The truly terrifying part was being dragged into a genjutsu world by the Sharingan and subjected to all kinds of inhuman torment, leaving you drooling and half-witted for a long time afterward.
"So this is the military stronghold of the strongest country in the shinobi world?"
Yahiko, who had successfully infiltrated Konoha using a Wood Clone and a disguise technique, looked around at the incredibly prosperous village. The civilians were well-dressed, and the energy in their faces was completely different from the people of Amegakure. His expression was filled with mixed emotions.
Beside him stood Konan, who had also altered her appearance using a paper transformation technique, though her hair was still purple.
To better secure the Mutually Multiplying Explosive Tags Technique, Konan had refused to use a Shapeshifting clone to enter.
To protect her, Nagato had also chosen not to use a Shapeshifting clone and had entered in person.
To avoid being recognized, he had changed his physique with the Asura Path and put on sunglasses.
For Nagato, who had mastered Yin-Yang Release, that was an extremely easy thing to do.
Behind them stood a middle-aged man in a flak vest and a Grass headband.
In truth, he was a White Zetsu clone using a disguise technique.
Unlike the other villages, which had at least two teams participating, Kusagakure had only this one genin team in the exams.
Clearly, Yahiko's group hadn't just taken the Grass team's place—they had also eliminated the other team.
And when they registered for the exam, there wasn't a single issue with their ninja records.
Konan only glanced at her own file. Her face stayed expressionless, but inwardly, her heart sank a little.
That creature called White Zetsu was simply too terrifying.
Even without powerful combat ability, it could ignore every barrier and sensory technique, move underground at high speed, attach itself to a person without anyone noticing, absorb their chakra, and perfectly turn into them—even their chakra signature would become exactly the same.
If Lord Yoru hadn't been able to detect the Mayfly Technique and Spore Technique, Konoha might already have been full of White Zetsu's spies.
As for those small shinobi villages, there was no telling how many of their people were actually White Zetsu clones in disguise.
She had to find a chance to tell Lord Yoru this information.
Whether it was because she had been thinking about him so much, or for some other reason—
the moment Yahiko's group finished registering in the academy's main building and stepped outside, they ran into two figures head-on.
The instant they saw them, all three of them froze and their breathing hitched.
The White Zetsu clone walking behind them was so frightened it nearly dropped its disguise on the spot. It desperately wanted to use the Mayfly Technique and flee Konoha immediately.
It couldn't be helped, because the two figures walking toward them were simply too terrifying.
"You even had to submit their registration forms for them? Just what have you been putting them through these past few days? Yoru, they're still young. Don't push them so hard."
"They asked for it. What was I supposed to do? Besides, how are they young? At their age, we were already drawing blood in real fights. They still haven't even seen blood yet."
"How is that the same? Look at who you and I really are."
"They're geniuses too. They graduated even earlier than we did."
The ones approaching were none other than Gojo Yoru and Kushina Uzumaki.
At 188 and 170 centimeters tall respectively, their very presence was already oppressive.
To Yahiko and the White Zetsu clone's senses, the amount of chakra inside Kushina was as vast as the sea—so overwhelming that even Yahiko in his Tobi armor was nowhere near her level.
But the one who felt it most directly was Nagato behind those sunglasses.
And naturally, Nagato was also the one who reacted the most strongly.
What was more, Nagato's gaze didn't settle on Kushina Uzumaki, whose chakra was oceanic and whose hair color matched his own. Instead, he stared at Gojo Yoru's abdomen.
From the Rinnegan's perspective, Nagato could see two different colors of chakra.
Kushina Uzumaki also had two kinds of chakra within her—her own chakra and the Nine-Tails' chakra sealed inside her.
Though those two types of chakra seemed to occupy the same place, in reality, like the contents of a storage scroll, they existed in separate spaces.
But unlike a jinchuriki's two chakras, the two kinds inside Gojo Yoru existed in the same space.
One was an ordinary blue. The other was pitch black.
Even more incredible, when Nagato used his sensory ability, he couldn't sense that black chakra at all.
If not for the Rinnegan's ability to see through chakra, he never would have known that Gojo Yoru was hiding such a secret inside his body.
Black chakra… could that be the nature transformation of space-time?
Not ordinary chakra transformed into a space-time nature, but chakra that was inherently space-time in nature from the start?
Just like his own Rinnegan… was this the special quality of miraculous power?
Nagato thought to himself.
Unlike Yahiko and the others, whose attention was all fixed on Gojo Yoru, Konan's eyes had first gone to him as well, and she had felt an immediate surge of joy.
But very quickly, her gaze shifted to Kushina Uzumaki beside him, and her feelings became complicated again.
Kushina Uzumaki, the Nine-Tails' jinchuriki—perhaps Konoha's civilians, and even many of its ninja, still didn't know her identity.
But to powerful shinobi, the identity of Konoha's Nine-Tails jinchuriki was no secret at all.
The reason Gojo Yoru and Kushina Uzumaki were known as Konoha's strongest duo wasn't just because of Gojo Yoru alone.
One was the man standing at the summit of the shinobi world. The other was a surviving member of the Uzumaki clan and the jinchuriki of the strongest tailed beast. That was the real reason the two of them were known as Konoha's strongest combination.
Konan had known about Kushina Uzumaki for years already.
She also knew that Gojo Yoru and Kushina Uzumaki were childhood sweethearts. They were classmates, comrades, and lovers.
It was precisely because of this woman's existence that Konan had kept her own feelings buried all this time.
Konan didn't actually hold any hostility toward Kushina Uzumaki. What she felt was envy.
But as Gojo Yoru kept coming to see her, and as their exchanges in that mental space became even more emotionally intense than anything in the real world, that envy had gradually faded away.
Even so, now that she had seen Kushina Uzumaki—the woman rightfully by his side—with her own eyes, Konan still couldn't help feeling a little unsure of herself.
As if noticing the four of them watching, Gojo Yoru and Kushina Uzumaki suddenly looked their way.
The four of them immediately straightened out their thoughts and calmly walked away.
Watching their retreating backs, Kushina Uzumaki's gaze was focused mainly on Nagato, her eyes filled with wariness.
Then she turned to Gojo Yoru and said, "Yoru, be careful of that red-haired guy. His chakra is seriously frightening. There's a good chance he's from my clan."
Kushina Uzumaki felt no joy at meeting one of her own clansmen.
It had already been ten years since the fall of the Uzumaki clan.
Ten years was enough to change a great many things, including a person's worldview.
Just as Gojo Yoru had influenced her, leading her to accept Konoha and decide to spend the rest of her life in this village, willing to protect it—
if that red-haired man was also a survivor of the Uzumaki clan, or a descendant of one, then growing up after losing his homeland would certainly have shaped his values and personality as well.
At best, he might see other clan members as strangers. At worst, he might harbor hatred toward Konoha for standing by and doing nothing.
Of course, it was also possible that he didn't even know he was part of the Uzumaki clan.
What was certain was that he was very strong.
And somehow, when Kushina looked at Nagato, she felt the same fear one would feel upon meeting a natural enemy.
Unfortunately, the seal inside her was too strong. Gojo Yoru and Kushina Uzumaki had added layered seals on top of the Eight Trigrams Seal, forcing Kurama to remain inside the tailed beast space, completely unable to spy on the outside world.
Otherwise, Kurama would definitely have sensed something familiar from Nagato.
The Rinnegan and Yin-Yang Release—the very powers that had once separated them from the Ten-Tails.
"One of your clansmen, huh? Want to go say hello?" Gojo Yoru asked with a smile.
"No. We each have our own lives."
Kushina Uzumaki shook her head.
More importantly, she had sensed malice from all of them.
Kushina Uzumaki wasn't surprised. Forget those outsiders—even people inside the village were full of malice toward her.
Speaking of malice, a flicker of confusion finally passed through Kushina Uzumaki's eyes as she recalled Konan's gaze.
She hadn't thought much of it just now, but on second thought, something felt off.
Why didn't that purple-haired girl have any malice toward her?
"Since we're not going over to greet them, let's go register Asuma and the others."
Gojo Yoru draped an arm around Kushina Uzumaki's shoulder and walked into the academy with a smile on his face.
But inwardly, he was a little surprised.
Konan and Nagato had actually come into Konoha in person. What were they here for?
And they had entered under Grass-nin identities. Were they gathering intel, or was there some other objective?
And that reaction from Nagato—had he seen the space-time chakra inside his body?
If so, then the Rinnegan really could ignore the higher-dimensional sensing of space-time chakra.
All sorts of thoughts flashed through Gojo Yoru's mind, and he decided that once night fell, he would go speak with Konan.
That night, Gojo Yoru's space-time spirit body used the Flying Thunder God Technique to appear beside Konan.
Konan seemed to have expected him to come. At that hour, she was already sitting cross-legged on the bed, and barriers had been set up around the room.
Gojo Yoru turned into a beam of light and slipped into her body.
"…Lord Yoru, that's how it happened."
"I see."
Inside a mental space that looked like a sea of stars, Konan told Gojo Yoru everything—both Yahiko's thoughts and her own.
Gojo Yoru nodded in understanding, then smiled.
"That's actually a good thing. It gives you a reasonable way to unlock the Mutually Multiplying Explosive Tags Technique. Do you need my help?"
"No. But a few Konoha ninja may die in the process. Is that alright?"
Konan looked at Gojo Yoru a little uneasily.
"As long as they're not people I care about, I don't care in the slightest whether they live or die."
Gojo Yoru pinched Konan's cheek and spoke those cruel words with a smile.
"If it helps you, Konan, then I don't care how many unrelated people die."
"I feel the same way. If it helps you, Lord Yoru, then I wouldn't care even if my hands ended up drenched in blood."
Konan's eyes were just as resolute.
That was the difference between Konan and Haku.
Both of them were very kind, but the latter was merciful even toward enemies.
Konan, on the other hand, would try her best not to harm innocent people if she could avoid it.
But if it couldn't be avoided, then she would strike without mercy, transforming from an angel into an angel of slaughter in an instant.
Naturally, that was Gojo Yoru's influence.
In Gojo Yoru's eyes, aside from the people he cared about, no one else's life mattered.
When personal gain wasn't involved, he could follow the world's rules and act like someone with perfectly normal values.
But once interests were involved—if sacrificing others was necessary to achieve his goal—Gojo Yoru would discard those lives without the slightest hesitation.
If his immortality plan was to be realized, then that was a choice he would inevitably have to face.
If he wanted the Divine Tree to bear fruit, then he would have to turn the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path back into the Divine Tree and let it absorb the planet's life energy.
Once the planet's life energy was drained, all kinds of natural disasters would break out across the shinobi world.
Even if it didn't bring about the end of the world, the land would still be left in ruins, and countless animals and humans would be left homeless.
Gojo Yoru could step in and help them when that time came, but he would never stop what he was doing.
So, to keep Konan from becoming overly softhearted, Gojo Yoru had, since she was very young and throughout the past few years, constantly used emotional resonance in their mental space to influence her values.
The same was true for Kushina Uzumaki.
In Kushina's eyes and heart, Gojo Yoru's place came above everything else.
If it were for Gojo Yoru's sake, even if she had to destroy Konoha, she would do it without a moment's hesitation.
If even the shinobi world itself meant nothing to him, then what could the lives of strangers possibly amount to?
As though remembering something, Gojo Yoru suddenly reminded her, "Oh, right. If you manage to sneak into the forbidden techniques vault, then besides the Mutually Multiplying Explosive Tags Technique, check whether there's a scroll for the Shuriken Shadow Clone Technique too. You can take that one while you're at it. That jutsu would make your Paper Release much more intimidating."
"Okay."
Konan nodded obediently, then looked at Gojo Yoru with a quiet, searching gaze.
"Lord Yoru, that woman from earlier today… was that Kushina-nee?"
"Cough… cough… my space-time chakra is almost used up. I'll come see you next time."
Gojo Yoru coughed repeatedly, rubbed Konan's face hard, and then left her body.
Konan opened her eyes. Not only was there no resentment in them, the corners of her lips even lifted slightly.
If Gojo Yoru didn't care about her, he never would have reacted like that.
Which meant she still had a chance.
That was the angel's sly side.