"Soon… very soon…"
On a deserted island far from the ninja continent, inside an underground chamber covered in barrier formulas, Gojo Yoru lay on a soft bed, staring at the pocket watch in his hand.
Each time the second hand completed a circle, the anticipation in his eyes deepened.
He had no idea that, at that very moment, the eastern border base of the Land of Fire on the ninja continent was under attack by Kirigakure.
And even if he did know, Gojo Yoru wouldn't have cared in the slightest.
Right now, nothing in the world mattered to him.
Only his evolution did.
Even if Kushina Uzumaki, Orochimaru, Konan, and Tsunade all died, Gojo Yoru had already collected samples of their bodies. In the future, he would still have a way to bring them back.
Even if they died, he would not return during his evolution.
It was already 11:55 at night. In five more minutes, Gojo Yoru's birthday would be over.
The evolution had actually already begun to stir in silence. Normally, he would have been asleep by this hour.
For someone full of healthy vitality, insomnia was rare.
Falling asleep quickly and waking up full of energy was what a healthy person was supposed to be like.
But right now, Gojo Yoru wasn't sleepy at all. No matter how much he settled his thoughts or emptied his mind, he simply could not fall asleep.
The third evolution had already started warming up. The moment his heart began pounding like a drum, the upper limit of his potential would rise again. The capacity of his space-time chakra, along with every aspect of his talent, would reach a new level.
When the time on the pocket watch reached 11:59, and the second hand began its final lap, Gojo Yoru unconsciously held his breath.
Click—thump!
A sound even fainter than a mosquito's buzz echoed through the silent underground chamber.
Then a heavy pounding, like someone striking a war drum, suddenly reverberated through the room.
Lying there, Gojo Yoru saw his own chest jerk violently on its own.
The next moment, he looked like Goku in Dragon Ball GT when he saw Earth and began transforming into Super Saiyan 4—his eyes turned blank, his body twitched slightly, and his chest rose and fell violently.
The sound of his heartbeat was like someone beating a drum inside his body, and the rhythm was unbelievably fast.
If it had been an ordinary person, a heart beating at that speed would have burst blood vessels and caused fatal internal bleeding already.
Even during his first two evolutions, Gojo Yoru had never reacted this strongly. Back then, it had only felt like staying up too late—palpitations and tightness in the chest.
But now his body was actually convulsing, and his vacant eyes made him look as though he had lost consciousness.
In reality, Gojo Yoru had not lost consciousness at all.
If anything, his mind had never been clearer.
At this moment, he was like someone using the Spirit Transformation Technique—his spirit and his body had separated. Even if the body was harmed, the spirit felt no pain.
This evolution was more violent than anything before.
That mysterious power had directly split Gojo Yoru's consciousness away from his flesh.
Even if he wanted to sit up, his body refused to obey him.
And while his body was going through such an extreme reaction, all Gojo Yoru himself felt was a powerful wave of warmth, like soaking in a hot spring.
The palpitations and chest pressure from the first two evolutions were completely gone.
Just as Gojo Yoru had predicted, the third evolution was a major dividing line.
If this were a cultivation novel, it wouldn't be the equivalent of moving from early stage to middle stage. It would be like breaking from middle stage into late stage, or from late stage into the final perfected realm.
It looked like only a small advance, but the gap was worlds apart.
Just like Nascent Soul cultivators in those novels—those in the early and middle stages could still exchange blows, but the late-stage cultivators were true great cultivators, capable of crushing the middle stage and instantly killing the early stage.
Even before the evolution had finished, Gojo Yoru could already see one thing clearly.
Once this third evolution ended, the capacity of his space-time chakra definitely would not rise as simply as it had after the second evolution—from genin level to chunin, from chunin to jonin.
After the third evolution, his space-time chakra reserve would at the very least reach ace-combatant level, perhaps even Kage level.
At that moment, Gojo Yoru felt a wave of relief.
Thankfully, he had predicted ahead of time from the bottleneck in his overall talent that the third evolution would be a major turning point on his "path to godhood." That was why he had prepared so much in advance, thrown out so many smokescreens, deliberately distanced himself from the ninja continent, and come to this deserted island to undergo his third evolution.
Otherwise, with him set to lose control of his body for nearly two weeks, Gojo Yoru truly feared his enemies might seize the chance to assassinate him.
After all, right now he was nothing more than an ordinary person with no strength to restrain even a chicken. One kunai would be enough to finish him.
What Gojo Yoru, whose consciousness had temporarily separated from his body, could neither see nor know was that the space-time chakra inside him had already fallen into a violent frenzy, surging wildly through every part of his body.
The space-time Yin Seal, his S-rank secret art, was also being completely emptied of all the space-time chakra it had stored over the past few years.
At the same time, space-time power kept being secreted from his cells, resonating with the surrounding space itself, causing his body to merge into reality's spatial fabric.
Even if someone had sensory abilities capable of ignoring the barriers Gojo Yoru had set up, they still would not be able to detect his existence.
Even if a dojutsu's penetrating vision managed to find him, without the ability to distort or tear space itself, they still would not be able to touch his body.
In his current state, Gojo Yoru had entered an absolutely untouchable phase of intangibility.
Just as Gojo Yoru was undergoing this unprecedented third evolution, news of Kirigakure's attack on the eastern border base was also sent back to Konoha.
A special alarm immediately sounded through Konoha in the dead of night.
The heads of the great clans, who had already been asleep, the ace combatants still in the village, and the elite all-round jonin who had recently entered Konoha's upper circle all opened their eyes, leapt up, dressed at once, and shot toward the newly built Hokage Tower like blurs.
This special alarm was an emergency summons intended only for Konoha's upper leadership and elite all-round jonin.
The meeting room in the Hokage Tower lit up. The Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, was already seated in the main position, with the three elders—Shimura Danzo, Homura Mitokado, and Koharu Utatane—sitting to either side, all of them waiting with grave expressions for the others to arrive.
Very quickly, the clan heads—led by the Uchiha clan—entered and took their seats.
Then came Sakumo Hatake, Dan Kato, the Sarutobi team, Minato Namikaze, Mimura Hamaki, the other ace combatants and elite all-round jonin, and finally the Nine-Tails jinchuriki, Kushina Uzumaki.
Kushina sat beside Tsunade. Beside Tsunade was an empty seat, and next to that sat the current head of the Uchiha clan.
That empty seat was obviously meant for Gojo Yoru.
In this bloodline-obsessed world, status and hierarchy were painfully obvious. Civilians did not even have surnames, and having one meant your ancestors had once been prominent.
Even traditional architecture could only be built by shinobi clans and powerful noble houses.
Gojo Yoru and Kushina Uzumaki were not born into shinobi clans, but their strength and strategic importance had earned them seats among the clan heads.
If not for the need to show courtesy to Konoha's elders, then Gojo Yoru and Kushina Uzumaki should have been seated at Hiruzen Sarutobi's left and right.
Even in Gojo Yoru's absence, no one dared sit in his chair.
Once all the clan heads and jonin present in the village had taken their places, Hiruzen wasted no time.
"Just now, the support forces at the eastern border base sent back intelligence. Kirigakure has launched an invasion there. I have already dispatched reinforcements."
At those words, every jonin's expression changed.
The head of the Kurama clan spoke in disbelief. "Kirigakure actually attacked us? Why would they do that? And how would they even dare?"
In recent years, Konoha's power had been obvious to the world.
There were still many old people in the village who had lived from the Warring States era until now.
A great many of them had personally witnessed the power of Senju Hashirama and Uchiha Madara.
In terms of strategic deterrence, Gojo Yoru and Kushina Uzumaki might still fall short of Hashirama and Madara, but in terms of actual combat power, they had absolutely already reached the peak of the shinobi world.
Gojo Yoru's space-time bloodline, in particular, was something completely beyond normal standards.
As long as Gojo Yoru existed, even if Konoha were as short on talent as Iwagakure, it would still have nothing to fear from the other four great villages.
And the truth was the opposite—Konoha was not short on high-end combat power at all. Its national strength had already surpassed what it had been during the First Shinobi World War.
The current Konoha was stronger than it had ever been, stronger than it ever would be again.
With that kind of national strength, the fact that Konoha had not already gone to war and expanded its territory was only because it still honored the peace principles left behind by the First Hokage.
And yet, despite Konoha not making a move, Kirigakure had struck first.
It wasn't just the head of the Kurama clan. The other clan heads and jonin were equally stunned.
"Could it be that ever since the end of the First Shinobi World War, Kirigakure has not only recovered its strength, but has also entered an age of explosive talent growth just like we have?" one jonin said. "As far as I know, Kirigakure has an elite shinobi group directly under the Mizukage, like their version of the Anbu. That force consists of seven jonin wielding special ninja swords, each one assigned high-difficulty missions for the Mizukage. There's even a legend that the seven of them together could conquer a small nation in a single night. Every one of them is probably at the level of an ace combatant."
"Seven ace-level combatants?"
Many people clearly thought of the same unit, and their expressions turned grave. "If that's true, then Kirigakure really can't be underestimated."
Tsunade looked toward Hiruzen and asked, "Don't we have spies in Kirigakure?"
"We do," Hiruzen said with a dark expression, "but because of its geographic location and Kirigakure's near-total isolation, our grasp of their internal affairs is far weaker than it is for the other three great villages. And over the years, we've lost contact with many of our agents. They were likely exposed or killed."
"And Kirigakure is a very special kind of village. Its upper circle has always been controlled by bloodline clans. Our spies cannot penetrate that level at all, so we know nothing about their decision-making."
"So even I can't understand why Kirigakure would suddenly break the balance and declare war on the Land of Fire."
Shimura Danzo gave a cold snort. "Whatever the reason, since the enemy has taken the initiative to declare war, then we must make them pay a devastating price."
"Agreed."
All the jonin immediately responded with cold expressions, openly backing Danzo's proposal.
Ever since the shinobi village system had come into existence, Konoha had always been acknowledged as the strongest hidden village.
It had fought two world wars, taken on multiple enemies at once, and still emerged victorious.
Now that its national strength had reached the greatest level in its history, someone still dared declare war on it.
Every jonin present felt insulted.
And unlike during the Second Shinobi World War, when Hiruzen still had to bargain with the clans and hope they would send out their members—even had to unite the other clans and pressure the Uchiha—
the current Hiruzen had reached the peak of his authority.
Including the Uchiha and Hyuga clans, the two greatest noble houses, no shinobi clan in Konoha dared look down on the Third Hokage anymore.
Because he held in his hands the two strongest strategic trump cards: a space-time ninja and the Nine-Tails jinchuriki.
That combination was practically the young First Hokage and Lady Mito all over again.
And Konoha's future would belong to them.
This was exactly the time to build goodwill. Anyone foolish enough to oppose the Third Hokage now would not only offend the man currently in power, but also the future God of Shinobi and the strongest jinchuriki.
No one dared court death like that.
If Gojo Yoru had been present, many of them would have looked toward him before voicing their agreement, hoping to gauge his opinion first.
Two words: absolute loyalty.
After all, the great shinobi clans had joined Konoha for Senju Hashirama in the first place. The "bootlicker genes" inherited from their ancestors, plus the records those ancestors left behind, had made one thing very clear to them:
the gap between the God of Shinobi and ordinary people was not the same kind of gap as that between a genin and someone at the peak of the Five Kage.
It was a gap between two entirely different worlds.
Taking in all their expressions and reactions, Hiruzen Sarutobi felt an indescribable surge of satisfaction.
So this is what it felt like for the First Hokage and for Teacher Tobirama when they sat in this seat?
No schemes. No need to build pressure through alliances. Everyone simply gathered around you and shared your burdens—
Though Hiruzen knew full well that all of this was only because of Gojo Yoru and Kushina Uzumaki, he still felt a deep sense of accomplishment.
Under his rule, Konoha would reach a peak even the First and Second Hokage had never achieved.
So Hiruzen slowly began, "Since everyone agrees—"
But before he could finish, Hiruzen and every jonin in the room suddenly turned their eyes toward the side of the main seat.
A figure had appeared there without anyone noticing, kneeling on one knee.
It was an Anbu operative.
At a time like this, even Anbu—who answered directly to the Hokage—were not permitted to eavesdrop on a jonin council, much less enter the meeting room without permission.
If someone dared interrupt the meeting at such a moment, then something major had happened.
And sure enough—
the jonin watched as the Anbu operative bowed his head and reported respectfully, "Lord Hokage, this is intelligence just received from the western border base."
A bad feeling immediately rose in Hiruzen's heart.
When he took the scroll and opened it, his face quickly darkened.
Then he lowered it and said in a deep voice to the jonin present, "Something major has happened. Just now, Sunagakure of the Land of Wind also launched an invasion against the western border base."
The expressions of all the jonin changed drastically.