At the western border base of the Land of Fire, the base had already changed hands.
Realizing the three of them together were no match for Yahiko and the Six Paths puppets, the Legendary Sannin had given the order to scatter and retreat in advance, abandoning the border base and falling back instead.
That border base had now been occupied by Amegakure.
As for Sunagakure's ninja army, they weren't in this area at all. While Yahiko and the Six Paths puppets held the Sannin back, Chiyo, Rasa, and Pakura had already led their forces through the Land of Rivers—the buffer zone between the Land of Fire and the Land of Wind—and into Fire Country itself.
They had established a temporary base in the Land of Rivers and were preparing to seize cities in the southwestern region of the Land of Fire, helping Amegakure draw off and divide the forces from the western and southern border bases.
If Konoha didn't send reinforcements soon, then within a matter of days, both the western and southern border bases would fall to the Land of Rain and the Land of Wind.
And once the enemy pushed fully into the country and occupied cities full of supplies and civilians they could use as hostages, driving them back out would no longer be easy—especially against enemies whose speed had to be measured in Mach numbers.
At that point, troops would have to be pulled from other fronts, weakening those fronts in turn and creating openings for the other enemy nations.
Even a powerhouse like Konoha could be broken apart piece by piece and slowly ground down to death.
Luckily, the western front had only abandoned the border base. They had retreated to the nearest city and were preparing to use the dense vegetation to fight a drawn-out war of maneuver.
Neither Amegakure nor Sunagakure had captured the nearest city yet.
As long as the enemy had no hostages and no stockpiled supplies, then once they were forced to fall back and resupply, Konoha could hang on for a few more days.
Right now, Konoha's strategy was simple: drag the enemy out and stall until Gojo Yoru returned.
The moment Yoru came back, they would once again have the most absurd one-man combat power of the current age.
"What enormous, dense chakra... Could it be that Konoha's Nine-Tails jinchuriki has already become a true perfect jinchuriki?"
At the western border base, Yahiko stood on the highest floor, staring out through the window at the forest beyond. A trace of shock and wariness flashed through his eyes.
It was common knowledge in the shinobi world that jinchuriki possessed immense chakra.
What few people knew, however, was that jinchuriki also had levels. Different levels of jinchuriki could draw on very different amounts of chakra.
What a Byakugan or sensory technique could see or perceive from a jinchuriki's chakra was only the surface.
Even that surface alone was already astonishing.
A semi-tailed-beast transformation was already the stage where one could fire a Tailed Beast Ball. Just the chakra shockwave from a roar at that level could instantly kill a jonin with ease, and yet that was still only a case of severe tailed-beast chakra leakage.
Only full tailed-beast transformation represented the highest level of a jinchuriki.
At that level, the jinchuriki could wield all of the tailed beast's chakra, combine it with their own, and use secret techniques and composite ninjutsu on a level almost like a kekkei genkai.
And because that level gave them access to the beast's full chakra, only a perfect jinchuriki could truly be said to have unlocked the Tailed Beast Bomb as a usable technique.
In Yahiko's eyes, Tobi's chakra reserves were already as vast as the sea.
With Tobi fully cooperating, he could even use the Wood Golem Technique to smash apart an entire mountain with one punch.
A single seal from him could create lake-sized waves of water and fire.
Until now, Yahiko had never seen anyone with more chakra than Tobi.
Not even Kushina Uzumaki, whom he had seen back in Konoha.
But now, after Kushina began drawing on the Nine-Tails' chakra and tore away that surface disguise, Yahiko suddenly realized something.
Tobi's chakra reserves were only a lake.
Kushina's were a true ocean.
Yahiko could not help muttering, "So this is the chakra of the strongest tailed beast..."
Nagato walked over to stand beside Yahiko, looking out at the forest with him. With his powerful senses, he too could feel that incredible chakra approaching—both in quantity and intensity—like an invisible tsunami bearing down on them. In a calm voice, he asked, "Looks like the plan ran into an unexpected variable. The user of the Edo Tensei technique never showed up, and a single jinchuriki of the strongest tailed beast made up for Konoha's lack of manpower. What are you planning to do next?"
Yahiko sorted through his thoughts, then said expressionlessly, "It doesn't matter. Konoha's Nine-Tails jinchuriki really did exceed my expectations. But for us, their manpower being replenished is actually more beneficial."
"Before this, Konoha's forces were the ones taking one-sided losses."
"Now that the Nine-Tails jinchuriki has entered the field, the military strength of all five great nations will start bleeding at the same time."
"Even if this war doesn't reach the result I originally wanted, the national strength of the Five Great Nations will still be crippled. It'll take them who knows how many years to recover."
"And we're still young. We have time."
At that point, Yahiko's heart was full of satisfaction and accomplishment.
His parents had died in war.
Deep down, he had always hated the great nations.
He had simply once been too weak to even afford hatred.
Just like Hanzo of the Salamander, he had once dreamed of changing the world—of breaking the Five Great Nations' grip over the shinobi world and creating a new one where small countries would no longer be trampled.
The military bases of the Five Great Nations—or more precisely, the ninja of the Five Great Hidden Villages—were all his enemies. They were the obstacles he intended to erase.
In Yahiko's original plan, once all five hidden villages attacked the Land of Fire at once, Konoha's military simply wouldn't be able to cope.
And if the mysterious caster of Edo Tensei truly was someone from Konoha, then faced with that kind of pressure, they would certainly be unable to resist summoning an army of reanimated dead to help hold off the invaders.
At that point, Yahiko would be able to confirm completely that the one behind Hanzo-sensei's death was indeed a shinobi of Konoha.
Kushina Uzumaki's appearance had disrupted that plan. He could no longer determine whether the hidden mastermind behind the Edo Tensei technique really was from Konoha.
But now Konoha had suddenly gained this huge flood of additional manpower, and each of those "soldiers" had terrifying chakra reserves and could use the full power set of the Nine-Tails jinchuriki.
The other four great villages would absolutely be butchered by her on a massive scale.
And in order to deal with Kushina Uzumaki, those villages would also be forced to deploy their own jinchuriki.
The Five Great Hidden Villages were absolutely going to suffer catastrophic casualties.
Having personally engineered a situation where the Five Great Villages were tearing into one another like mad dogs, how could Yahiko not feel a deep sense of accomplishment?
The more people who died, the better.
The more they died, the greater the chance his dream would come true.
Perhaps sensing the twisted edge in Yahiko's thoughts, Nagato frowned slightly.
But unlike in the original timeline, Nagato here had not been shaped by Jiraiya's ideals. Instead, his worldview had been molded by Konan.
So rather than reject or resent Yahiko, he didn't feel much aversion at all.
He actually had a fairly good impression of Yahiko—the boy their age who had taught him the Six Paths techniques and given him the power to protect Konan-sama.
And as repayment, Nagato didn't mind helping him out, so long as it never put Konan-sama at risk.
So he asked, "Are we fighting?"
Understanding what he meant, Yahiko nodded at once, his eyes filling with killing intent.
"Of course. This is the best chance we'll ever get."
After feeling the intensity of Kushina Uzumaki's chakra, Yahiko had already marked her down as one of the targets that absolutely had to be killed.
With Gojo Yoru missing, now was the best possible opportunity to act.
Otherwise, once Yoru returned, the two of them would become the hardest combination in the shinobi world to deal with.
Deep in the forest, Kushina Uzumaki was moving at top speed.
Even after creating over ten thousand shadow clones in Nine-Tails Chakra Mode, the chakra inside her was still as vast as an ocean.
But the visual impact of her movement was simply outrageous.
When ordinary people used body flicker, they either concentrated chakra into their feet and exploded forward with incredible speed, or they fused themselves with one of the elemental natures and traveled through air, earth, or water.
Kushina's movement, on the other hand, looked like something else entirely.
One moment she would be leaping through the forest normally, and the next, a golden arm would suddenly extend from her body—stretching and enlarging like it had no limit—grabbing a thick branch. Her body would spin around once at high speed, then launch upward with the borrowed momentum like a cannon shell, blasting into the sky with a piercing roar of air.
She would shoot dozens or even hundreds of meters into the air, then fall back toward the forest, extend another golden arm, catch herself on a tree, land solidly, and repeat the process—again and again, rising and falling, each time covering an enormous distance.
Using that kind of insane high-speed movement, Kushina Uzumaki crossed from Konoha almost all the way to the western border in only a few hours.
After once again bleeding off all her momentum perfectly and landing lightly on the crown of a giant tree, she seemed to sense something and suddenly came to a stop, turning toward her eight o'clock.
Not long after, three flickering figures came into view.
"Orochimaru-sensei, Tsunade-sensei, Lord Jiraiya."
Kushina greeted them one by one.
The moment the three of them landed, Orochimaru immediately asked, "Kushina, what are your orders?"
Kushina answered honestly, "Lord Hokage said the western border base had already fallen, so my mission is to support you, Sensei. But on the way here, my Mind's Eye of the Kagura sensed the troop numbers on several fronts, and the gap between our side and the enemy was huge. So I remembered what Yoru told me, fully drew on the Nine-Tails' chakra, and used the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique to support everyone."
Then, looking at the uninjured Sannin in front of her, Kushina asked, even though she already knew the answer, "Are you all alright?"
Tsunade smiled bitterly. "If Orochimaru and Jiraiya hadn't both entered Sage Mode, and if those two toad sages hadn't helped out, we almost wouldn't have made it out alive. Once this war is over, I'm definitely making time to go to Shikkotsu Forest and learn senjutsu too."
Orochimaru, meanwhile, said with a serious expression, "Kushina, this enemy is very unusual—"
He then told her everything they had discovered and everything they had inferred.
Kushina, who had initially not taken it that seriously, gradually grew more and more solemn as she listened. Her eyes filled with shock.
"The Rinnegan? Isn't that a power from myth?"
"Before Yoru appeared, the space-time bloodline was also considered an impossible power," Orochimaru said. "The wielder of the Rinnegan—and that so-called Angel, who seems to rank even above him—may very well be the destined enemy of you and Yoru."
At once, fighting spirit flared in Kushina's eyes.
"The destined enemies of Yoru and me... If that's the case, then this battle really can't be avoided. Most of Yoru's information has already been exposed by now. Mine, on the other hand, they still don't fully understand. And what they've revealed about themselves is probably only the tip of the iceberg."
"Before Yoru comes back, I need to gather as much information on them as possible."
Orochimaru and Tsunade both said immediately, "We'll help you."
"No. I'll go alone."
Kushina smiled.
"I've already spoken with Katsuyu-sama. If I run into danger, she'll work with me to use Reverse Summoning. Besides, a lot of my techniques are massive area attacks. If you come with me, I won't be able to fight freely."
"So leave Amegakure to me. You three should go deal with Sunagakure's front."
Beating her chest confidently, Kushina added, "Don't worry. As long as I'm here, even if the enemy is the wielder of the Rinnegan, they won't be taking any cities in western Fire Country."
Feeling the pressure radiating from Kushina in Nine-Tails Chakra Mode, Orochimaru and Tsunade had to admit it.
The girl they had watched grow up had long since become far stronger than they were.
Just as the great ninja clans had once been unable to offer meaningful help to Senju Hashirama, against a monster who could single-handedly change the course of a war, fighting beside them sometimes didn't help at all—it only got in their way.
So Orochimaru nodded.
"Alright. But be careful. Don't put yourself in mortal danger just to gather information. Otherwise, we won't be able to face Yoru."
"Yes!"
Kushina nodded firmly.
The four split up on the spot. Kushina continued racing toward the western border base, while the Legendary Sannin went off to support the allied forces in the southwest.
After another long stretch of high-speed movement through the forest, Kushina landed atop another tree—and abruptly stopped again.
She lifted her head toward the sky, her eyes turning serious.
The sky above was a brilliant blue, the sunlight blazing hot.
Against that golden glare, a tiny black dot could just barely be seen.
As it grew larger, the figure of a girl in a blue-and-white jacket and black pants, with a pair of white wings on her back, came into view.
It was Konan.
The same Konan Kushina had only seen once, back in Konoha—and the same girl who, strangely enough, had shown her no hostility at all.
Suddenly, Kushina's expression shifted.
Her angle of sight dropped from the sky back to eye level, and she found that at some point, seven figures had already appeared on the treetops around her, forming a circle and boxing her in.
Six of them possessed the same purple ripple-patterned eyes.
The seventh was Yahiko, his face marked with burn scars.
Kushina did not immediately study the Six Paths puppets or focus on sensing the power of the Rinnegan.
Instead, she stared straight at Yahiko, who stood facing her head-on.
In Nine-Tails Chakra Mode, Kushina's Mind's Eye of the Kagura had been greatly strengthened as well.
With only a single glance, she confirmed her suspicion and said, "So it really was you. The one who used Wood Release in Konoha that day."
She glanced up once more at Konan hovering in the air, then at the Six Paths puppets surrounding her. Her eyes were full of caution.
"The black market's 'Angel,' the Demigod's student who wields Wood Release, and the wielder of the Rinnegan... Looks like I underestimated all of you. The three of you are all far more dangerous than I thought."
"You came here alone in your true body. That was arrogant, Nine-Tails jinchuriki."
Yahiko spoke flatly.
Kushina raised a hand and made a mocking little gesture, baring her teeth in a grin.
"On the contrary. I'm enough to handle all of you by myself."
The atmosphere instantly turned heavy and suffocating.
The battle was on the verge of erupting.