Yakumo's confusion indirectly highlighted the extreme secrecy of Shinji's 'Rinnegan Plan.' Even members within his organization were completely unaware of the Rinnegan's birth.
During class, Shinji kept a close eye on Karin.
Perhaps because Karin was the original owner of this newly awakened pair of Rinnegan, with no rejection issues, she showed no abnormalities throughout the day.
By the time school ended in the evening, Shinji finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Through 'Jikibi's' sensing, he noticed that even though Karin had awakened the Rinnegan last night, her dojutsu power was still slowly increasing.
Clearly.
After Karin consumed a massive amount of chakra to awaken the Rinnegan, the Rinnegan began to subtly feedback into her, gradually enhancing her chakra and physical condition.
It could be said that Karin had already half-stepped into the 'Six Paths Level' threshold.
In the current shinobi world, aside from the Sage of the Six Paths existing as a soul in the Pure Land, Toneri Otsutsuki controlling the giant Tenseigan on the moon, and Isshiki Otsutsuki (Jigen) hiding in the shadows, along with other true Otsutsuki, perhaps only Nagato, who also possessed the Rinnegan, surpassed Karin.
This was because, during the process of having the Rinnegan transplanted, Nagato had fully inherited the dojutsu power of Uchiha Madara's Rinnegan, as well as its contracted entity, the 'Outer Path Statue'!
Uchiha Madara, the previous reincarnation of Indra Otsutsuki before Sasuke, was at the pinnacle of strength in his era, only slightly inferior to the First Hokage, the reincarnation of Asura Otsutsuki. Thus, the dojutsu power of his Rinnegan was likely stronger than Karin's pair.
Coupled with control over the 'Ten-Tails' husk, the 'Outer Path Statue,' there was no doubt that Nagato's current strength surpassed Karin's.
When factoring in proficiency with the Rinnegan, combat skills, and experience, Nagato utterly outclassed Karin.
Of course!
This was only the current state. As Karin grew older, her combat skills and experience would improve, and the gap between her and Nagato would gradually narrow rather than widen. As for the 'Outer Path Statue,' it was both the key to Nagato's revival of the Ten-Tails and a burden that drained his life force.
That night, while Shinji was in his apartment using 'Jikibi' to monitor Karin's condition in real time, a whoosh sounded, and a figure landed on his balcony: "Uchiha Shinji, urgent mission. Head to the Hokage Building immediately!"
Shinji stood up at once, but when he looked, the balcony was already empty.
"Anbu summons?!" Slightly startled, he thought, "What's going on?"
Under normal circumstances, if a mission required Shinji, it wouldn't be delivered by the Anbu. After all, he was still just a Shinobi Academy student. This situation indicated an extreme emergency, and the village had no time to arrange for anyone else to deliver the message.
After quickly gathering his gear, Shinji rushed to the Hokage Building.
When he arrived, seven or eight teams were already assembled in front of the building. Shinji spotted familiar faces like Yakumo and Sasuke, as well as several masked Anbu.
"Quite the lineup!"
Muttering to himself, Shinji joined the others, quietly waiting in front of the building.
Soon, the Third Hokage emerged from the Hokage Building with a group of village higher-ups.
The Third cleared his throat twice before announcing, "We've just received an urgent message from Cloud Village. They've discovered traces of the Two-Tails Jinchuriki, Yugito Nii, and are requesting our assistance!"
"What? Wasn't Yugito kidnapped by the Akatsuki?"
"She's still alive?!"
"Why are they asking us for support? Did the Akatsuki hide Yugito in the Land of Fire?"
As soon as the Third finished speaking, whispers erupted among the crowd.
It was the Akatsuki's decisive defeat of Cloud Village and abduction of the Two-Tails Jinchuriki, Yugito Nii, that had brought the organization into the spotlight. Hearing that Cloud Village had found traces of Yugito, everyone began to speculate.
In the crowd.
Yakumo's expression shifted slightly as she thought, "Wasn't Cloud Village's Yugito captured by the leader? Did the leader's whereabouts get exposed?"
Sasuke, too, was pondering, "This is bad. Could Cloud Village have found the organization's secret base?"
Amid the confusion of others and the worries of Yakumo and Sasuke, Shinji, also in the crowd, was genuinely surprised.
"Yugito was discovered by Cloud Village?"
With a thought, he discreetly activated 'Jikibi' to sense Yugito.
Last night, after Karin successfully awakened the Rinnegan, his focus had been entirely on her, leaving him no time to check on Yugito. He hadn't expected such a slip-up in just one night!
As 'Jikibi' activated, Shinji quickly sensed Yugito.
She was still in the remote cave he had arranged for her, without having moved, as if everything was normal.
"This Yugito…"
Shinji promptly deactivated 'Jikibi,' silently marveling.
Though Yugito hadn't moved from the cave, Shinji discovered through 'Jikibi' that his chakra was no longer in her body, meaning she had broken free of his genjutsu.
Breaking free of the genjutsu yet remaining in place was clearly a trap set by Yugito—or rather, by Cloud Village—waiting for Shinji to fall into it.
Realizing this, Shinji inwardly rejoiced that he hadn't taken the shortcut of bringing Yugito directly to his secret laboratory last night. Otherwise, his secret lab would already be exposed.
After a few more brief words, the Third announced, "All teams, take note: this operation will be led by Jiraiya!"
Jiraiya stepped forward immediately, "All teams, maintain combat formations. Move out!"
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh.
In an instant, the ten teams assembled in front of the Hokage Building vanished one after another in a series of sonic booms.
At Koharu Utatane's request, Shinji was specially assigned to Tsunade's team, alongside Yakumo and Shizune, under Tsunade's command.
Sasuke was placed in Kakashi's team, accompanied by two chunin.
The remaining teams were a mix of pure Anbu squads and regular teams, with Shinji also spotting members of the Hyuga clan among them.
After leaving the village, Shinji asked Tsunade, "Lady Tsunade, what's going on?"
Yakumo quickly chimed in, "Yeah, Teacher Tsunade, what happened with Cloud Village? Did they find the Akatsuki's base?"
Seeing Yakumo's question, Tsunade explained the situation regarding Cloud Village's discovery of Yugito.
It turned out that Cloud Village's sensory unit had developed a special technique that could detect chakra sources within its range.
This technique was highly inaccurate for sensing ordinary shinobi, as their chakra fluctuations were small and prone to errors. However, it was extremely effective for detecting Jinchuriki, who possessed massive chakra reserves, especially someone like Yugito, whose chakra signature was already recorded by Cloud Village.
Previously, Yugito had been hiding in the Land of Hot Water near the sea, outside the range of Cloud Village's sensory unit, so they hadn't detected her. But now that Yugito had come to the Land of Fire, located in the heart of the continent, her presence was immediately exposed.