After storing the large chest full of scrolls into a sealing scroll, Haruma slipped once more into invisibility and vanished instantly from the Hokage Building.
To be able to so easily obtain the corpses of the Uchiha clan, Haruma really had to give thanks to Danzo. Clearly, Danzo had dug out the Sharingan from the Uchiha corpses and decided the bodies had no further value.
That was why, unlike the ever-benevolent Third Hokage standing before Itachi, Danzo did not compete for possession of the remains.
The ever-cautious Third Hokage, who always kept a hidden card in reserve, didn't destroy the corpses either. Instead, he had them preserved, perhaps to one day win over the loyalty of the guilt-ridden "kinslayer" Itachi.
The preservation was carried out by members of the official ANBU, and at that time, Tenzo was already one of their members. That was why he knew where the corpses had been hidden.
It was nine years ago, when Haruma first conceived his wild idea, that he realized Tenzo would be the breakthrough for his plan.
Reality had proved him right.
His grand "Leaping Over the Dragon Gate" scheme had been carried almost perfectly to fruition, with just one flaw.
Tobirama's body was not in its coffin at the cemetery, and so Haruma had not yet obtained the Impure World Reincarnation technique.
But it hardly mattered, he had already prepared a Plan B. All that remained was to retrieve one final object from one final place, and the backup plan would be a complete success. When that moment arrived, it would mark the instant of his "Transformation into a Dragon."
"Byakugan"
The instant he left the Hokage Building, Haruma activated his Byakugan and rushed toward his destination. Along the way, when he passed through an empty area, he formed a hand seal and created a Wood Clone. That clone then used the Wood Transformation Technique to change into an un-disguised "Haruma," utilised the camouflage technique and sped off toward the direction of the Konoha rookies and the Sand siblings. Its mission was to swap places with the "Haruma" among the new generation.
While Haruma and his three groups of clones were busy with their respective tasks, the tides of battle in Konoha had already shifted.
After evacuating the villagers to shelters, under the leadership of the great clans and the jonin, all the Konoha shinobi united. With the overwhelming strength of the once-mightiest ninja village, they began to crush the invading Sand and Sound forces. The three giant serpents from Ryuchi Cave were defeated by the mighty toad Jiraiya had summoned.
On the roof above the VIP seats, the Third Hokage performed the Reaper Death Seal, binding the souls of the First and Second Hokage within his spectral body. When he died, the Shinigami would devour his soul together with theirs. Even so, before he fell, the old Hokage sought to take down his wayward student, Orochimaru.
Alas, he was too old. Though he managed to seize Orochimaru's soul, he lacked the strength to pull it all free. Realizing he was at his end, he resolved to sever Orochimaru's arms, the very seat of his ninjutsu, and with that, he drew the curtain on the "Konoha Crush" plan.
Seeing this unfold through his Byakugan, Haruma quickened his pace.
Before long, he arrived at the far edge of Konoha, in front of a shrine-like structure. This was the Mask Storage Temple, a relic of the Uzumaki clan. Inside lay the one and only mask capable of unlocking the Reaper Death Seal.
Entering the temple, Haruma's eyes fell upon rows of dusty masks of various shapes and designs. He quickly found the Shinigami Mask. Storing it in its own sealing scroll, he then produced another scroll and sealed away every single mask from the temple.
He didn't know what the other masks might be used for, but since they were Uzumaki relics displayed alongside the Shinigami Mask, Haruma thought only one thing.
"The more, the better. The more, the better."
With his spoils collected and the scrolls tucked inside his cloak, the tension in his body finally relaxed. He felt as though he were floating.
For nine years he had entertained this insane idea. At first, his vision was small, focused only on raiding corpses from the cemetery. Then it grew, step by step, into the grand plan of "Leaping Over the Dragon Gate." For nine long years, he had simulated this very day countless times, preparing countermeasures for every possible mishap. And now, he had succeeded almost flawlessly. The only blemish was the missing body of Tobirama Senju, leaving his plan stuck at ninety-nine percent.
But within a few short days, Haruma would push that progress to one hundred percent, with no difficulty at all.
Just one final step, and he would ascend from a mere pawn of no consequence into a true dragon, one capable of stirring the entire shinobi world.
For that moment, he had waited and prepared for nine whole years.
Nine years! How many nine years does a man have in his life?
Were it not for his ingrained caution, the habit of leaving no flaws even at the very edge of Konoha, he might have shouted obscenities at the top of his lungs, just to release the wild ecstasy swelling inside him,
"I'm finally going to take off!!!"
After several deep breaths to calm himself, Haruma sped toward his secret base in the Land of Waterfalls.
On the way, he opened his Byakugan again to survey the state of the battle in Konoha. What he saw was that the war had already ended. On the rooftop, the Third Hokage had sacrificed his life, cutting away Orochimaru's arms and sealing his ninjutsu. The Sound Four, together with Kabuto disguised as an ANBU, were fleeing with their crippled master.
Haruma spared them no thought. Konoha, fresh from war, was not the place to carry out Plan B. That would happen in Tanzaku Town. For now, it was time to harvest one of the greatest fruits of all.
At his secret base, he quickly recovered the three backpacks his shadow clones had hidden away. Stowing them in another sealing scroll, he thought back to his preparations before the chunin exams. During those days in Tanzaku Town, he had used clones, Transformation Jutsu, and even genjutsu to buy up vast numbers of sealing scrolls from shinobi tool shops, all to prepare for raiding graves and the Mask Temple.
After sealing away the backpacks, Haruma cleansed his scent with a Water Style technique. He did not return to Konoha but instead left its borders, still cloaked in invisibility.
Here it was necessary to acknowledge the greatest advantage of Wood Release. Though Tenzo's Wood Release could reach only twenty percent of Hashirama's strength, its inherent benefits remained. And the greatest of these was not greening landscapes or creating houses, but the most fundamental of techniques.
The Wood Clone.
Unlike shadow clones, which had limits on how far they could stray from the original, Wood Clones had no such restriction. As long as they retained chakra, they would endure indefinitely. Even when their chakra ran low, they could replenish themselves by absorbing energy from others. Most importantly, unlike shadow clones, Wood Clones could share information with the original at any time without dispelling.
Now, Haruma received the reports from his Wood Clones in Konoha: one had perfectly swapped with his shadow clone, leaving no trace. Naruto had defeated Gaara, though the Sand siblings escaped thanks to Baki, Asuma's pursuit forced Baki to abandon his plan of killing the rookies; and the Wood Clone in the Hokage Building had erased all traces of Haruma's presence before retreating into the forest to dissolve into a small tree.
Having left Konoha behind, Haruma did not head straight to Tanzaku Town but instead stopped in a nearby village. There he infiltrated a house, used genjutsu to put the owner into a deep sleep, and finally unpacked all his sealing scrolls.
It was time to deal with the corpses stolen from the cemetery.
His three shadow clones had looted more than a hundred coffins from graves marked with the surnames of great clans. These were the resting places of Konoha's heroes, renowned figures and powerful shinobi who had died in battle, leaving their bodies behind.
Haruma had not chosen them for their corpses alone, though yes, ultimately, it was still for devouring. But at this point, he had long since outgrown mere corpses.
Dead bodies retained too little power. Even the freshest, like Shisui, yielded at best fifty percent of their former strength, often less. Most chakra and soul had already passed to the realm of the dead. As for bodies that had lain for years or decades, even preserved, the energy left within was often under thirty percent, sometimes less than ten or even five.
Such corpses held little value, unless they belonged to bloodline clans. In that case, the greatest benefit came from fragments of memory preserved in the brain.
But Haruma already possessed the Uchiha's sharingan, the Hyuga's byakugan, and the Yamanaka and Nara clans' secret arts. Only one thing remained missing was the Senju's Sage Body. Once he obtained that, he would complete his collection of the powers of Konoha's three great clans.
And among those hundred coffins, there were indeed Senju corpses. Not just one, but several. Alongside them were two from the Uzumaki clan.
Yes, two Uzumaki.
One was Kushina. The other, astonishingly, was Mito, like Kushina a Hokage's wife, and the very first jinchuriki of the Nine-Tails.