At the same moment when Haruma's true body returned home, over at the plaza, "Haruma," together with Ino, Hinata, Shino, the Ino-Shika-Cho trio, Naruto who had broken them free from the illusion, and Sakura who had rushed over, all received an A-rank mission directly from Kakashi.
As mentioned before, in the Five Great Villages, elite jonin are already considered the core pillars and trump cards of strength. When the Kage themselves are incapacitated, elite jonin have the authority to represent them in issuing missions of rank S and below.
Thus, Kakashi gave "Haruma" and the others the same A-rank mission as in the original tale, to rendezvous with Sasuke, who was chasing after Gaara and his siblings.
To aid them, Kakashi even summoned his trusted partner, Pakkun, to track Sasuke by scent.
Under the cover provided by Kakashi and Might Guy, "Haruma" and the others followed Pakkun's lead. Naturally, they encountered multiple layers of resistance along the way.
Since the one here was merely a shadow clone, "Haruma" kept an extremely low profile, acting only as support with illusions and Water Release from a distance, letting the Ino–Shika–Cho formation handle the frontline.
Unlike the original story, where only Shikamaru, Naruto, Sakura, and Shino gave chase, this time it was a joint A-rank mission of Team 8, Team 10, plus Naruto and Sakura from Team 7.
When they finally caught up to Sasuke and Gaara's siblings, aside from "Haruma," all nine rookies had gathered in one place.
On the way, most Sound and Sand shinobi they encountered were restrained by "Haruma" and Shikamaru with genjutsu or binding techniques, while Hinata and Choji delivered the finishing blows.
It wasn't long before "Haruma" and the group caught up to Sasuke and Gaara. But by now, both Sasuke and Gaara's conditions were far from good.
Sasuke, who had been so confident back at the plaza, was now panting heavily, clearly exhausted. For a twelve-year-old, using the A-rank Chidori twice was already beyond his limit. Once at the plaza, and once during the chase.
Now, their positions had reversed because Gaara's One-Tailed Beast was about to erupt.
Seeing this, "Haruma" immediately concealed his presence, blending among the nine rookies. He fixed his attention on Ino and Hinata, prepared to spirit them away at full force if danger struck.
As for fighting Gaara, he left that to Naruto, who was about to unleash his power.
One-Tail Jinchuriki vs Nine-Tails Jinchuriki.
The clash was inevitable.
Meanwhile, the Hidden Leaf Village itself was plunged into chaos, second only to the Nine-Tails' attack years ago.
As the academy textbooks taught, whenever the village was endangered and the highest-level alarm sounded, the first duty of every active shinobi was to escort the villagers into shelters, and only then turn to repel the enemy with the strength of the entire village.
Right now, the Leaf was still in the defense and evacuation stage. The counterattack horn had not yet been blown, meaning this was the most chaotic moment.
And it was precisely in this chaos that Haruma's long-planned operation, "Leaping Over the Dragon Gate," would find its best timing.
Since every shinobi's priority was to protect civilians, even those who normally guarded the graveyard had left their posts.
Thus, no one noticed that within the graveyard, behind tombstones, massive stone slabs were silently rising, revealing the coffins buried beneath and every single coffin belonged to shinobi with family names, clan members, not civilians.
Each time a slab rose, a figure with a backpack appeared, pulled out a sealing scroll, and stored away the coffin inside. For certain key graves, the figure even opened the coffin to confirm the target's body before sealing it away.
These figures were none other than Haruma's shadow clones, transformed into Kabuto, Zaku, and Kin.
Standing before the tombstone engraved with Tobirama Senju's name, "Haruma" whispered with anticipation, "Hopefully, aside from Hashirama Senju, the rest of the Hokage are all buried here."
He then formed seals and pressed his hand against the ground:
"Earth Release: Earth Return!"
Yes. Haruma used an Earth Release jutsu.
Where had he learned it? Back during his first C-rank mission, by devouring rogue shinobi.
Unlike A-rank and S-rank techniques, lower-level elemental jutsu of B-rank and below were widespread across the ninja world, not exclusive to any one village.
Just as Water Dragon Bullet or Water Colliding Wave weren't exclusive to Mist or the Leaf, Earth Return, this C-rank defensive technique, wasn't exclusive to Iwagakure either.
It raised large stone slabs from the ground. Haruma, however, liked to call it his "grave-robbing divine skill."
But when he lifted Tobirama's slab and opened the coffin, it was empty.
Haruma didn't frown or rage.
Instead, he calmly nodded, "Seems like I'll have to move to Plan B."
If asked whether Hashirama's corpse was in his coffin, Haruma was 100% certain it wasn't.
If asked about Tobirama's, he could only say 50/50.
After all, while Tobirama had died to the Gold and Silver Brothers, his body had indeed been brought back to the Leaf. Otherwise, Orochimaru would never have been able to summon him with Edo Tensei.
But because Orochimaru had done just that, Haruma couldn't be sure if only fragments had been taken, or the entire body stolen.
Now, it seemed most likely that Orochimaru had indeed taken it all. Or perhaps the Hokage corpses were never buried in the graveyard at all, but hidden in sealed chambers elsewhere, just as Tobirama once had hidden Madara's body.
Whichever the case, the chance of obtaining Tobirama's corpse here was lost.
But Haruma wasn't worried.
He had Plan B.
Taking it directly from Orochimaru.
Once the Konoha Crush was over, Orochimaru, crippled and weakened by the loss of his arms, would be at his lowest point. Haruma didn't even need a mangekyo sharingan, his three-tomoe alone could crush him.
And if Orochimaru had fragments of Tobirama's remains or Hashirama's cells hidden away, they'd become Haruma's.
Even if Tobirama's body wasn't in Orochimaru's possession, Edo Tensei would let Haruma summon his soul, and once devoured, all of Tobirama's memories would be his anyway.
What Haruma now truly cared about was, were Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki's bodies inside their coffins?
If Minato's corpse wasn't here either, then it meant none of the Hokage were buried in the graveyard. Their legacies would have to be wrested from Orochimaru alone.
Again, he used "Earth Return."
Perhaps by luck, or fate unwilling to let Haruma's nine years of preparation end in vain, when the next slabs rose, and he opened the coffins of Minato and Kushina, he finally smiled.
Both bodies were there, though each bore gaping wounds in their abdomens, punctured long ago by the Nine-Tails' claws.
They were the Fourth Hokage and his wife.
Seeing them intact, "Haruma" quickly sealed the coffins, stored them away, and together with his shadow clones sealed the other slabs back down. Unless closely inspected, no one would realize these graves had been tampered with.
Once done, the three shadow clones left for Haruma's secret base. Their power was too unstable to risk returning to the village. Instead, they would bypass all enemies with stealth to reach the remote waterfall cave he had built as a years ago, deposit the scroll-filled packs there, erase their scent, then head toward the Naka River.
"...Found it!"
At the same time, another set of shadow clones, those gifted with the byakugan, had at last located Haruma's true target.
The big fish.