[Alternate Space]
Dim and silent, as if completely cut off from the outside world.
Arisu sat with his eyes closed on a chair condensed from the void, the aura around him restrained, as though he were resting.
Suddenly, his brows furrowed slightly.
Yumeko's urgent and densely packed messages kept ringing in his mind, once, twice, more than a dozen times, almost carrying the persistence of "I won't stop until you reply."
"That little girl again...", Arisu muttered under his breath, his tone carrying a trace of helplessness, but no real anger.
He slowly opened his eyes, a hint of amusement flashing through them.
That girl's performance last time had been quite good.
As a chess piece, she was smart enough and obedient enough.
If anything happened in Konoha, she could just report it directly to him, saving him the trouble of handling everything himself.
With a casual point of his finger, he opened all the information Yumeko had sent.
A five-year-old silver-haired child, Senju Tobirama's biological son, awakened Wood Release on the spot, a character who did not exist in the original story...
After reading it, Arisu sighed softly.
"Another transmigrator."
He leaned back against the chair, his fingers unconsciously tapping the armrest.
Handle it personally? Too much trouble.
Besides, this kid had already established a connection with Senju Tobirama and Senju Hashirama. His bloodline had been confirmed, he had been acknowledged as kin in public, and Konoha's higher-ups already knew about him.
At a time like this, if he rashly eliminated him, it would instead be easy to trigger unnecessary chain reactions and might even expose their own existence.
Can't touch him.
At least not for now.
Arisu remained silent for a long time, various ways of dealing with the situation constantly flashing through his mind.
Kill him directly, suppress him indirectly, make use of him, observe him... One after another, he rejected them.
Just as he was almost about to decide to "leave him alone for now," a name suddenly flashed through his mind.
Arisu's movement paused slightly.
The next second, the corners of his mouth slowly curled into a meaningful smile.
"Got it."
Arisu muttered to himself, his voice echoing through the empty alternate space with a hint of interest.
"Since I can't act personally... then I'll let the most suitable person go and 'handle' it."
Arisu's figure slowly faded away in the alternate space.
The next instant, he had appeared in a quiet forest near the Sarutobi clan grounds in Konoha.
At this moment, Sarutobi Hiruzen was only six years old.
Sarutobi Hiruzen was sitting alone on a rock at the back mountain of the clan grounds, holding a somewhat worn beginner ninjutsu scroll in his hands and reading it seriously with a frown.
Sunlight filtered through the leaves, casting dappled shadows over his still-young face.
Suddenly, the air trembled slightly.
Arisu appeared silently before him.
There was no killing intent or pressure, yet a vast and sacred feeling that could not be described in words naturally radiated from his figure.
"You... who are you?"
Sarutobi Hiruzen suddenly raised his head, his entire body instantly going rigid.
His childish voice was filled with shock and vigilance. He instinctively tried to retreat, only to discover that his body was already out of his control.
The next second, the scenery around him twisted violently.
The trees, sky, clan grounds... all were swallowed up.
In their place was a world of pure, gentle white light.
There was no heaven or earth, no boundaries, only endless light slowly flowing.
Sarutobi Hiruzen stood within this light, his pupils contracting sharply.
He saw Arisu.
The man stood at the center of the light, transcendent in bearing, as though he had never belonged to this world in the first place.
"Sarutobi Hiruzen.", Arisu's voice calmly rang out.
"You are a descendant of the Sarutobi clan. Your ancestor, the one named Sarutobi, was once my representative. He handled many matters in this world on my behalf."
"Now, are you willing to become my new representative?", Arisu spoke indifferently from high above in the sky.
As soon as these words were spoken, Sarutobi Hiruzen's mind was struck as if by lightning.
The legends that had been kept strictly secret within the clan and passed down orally only through the clan leader's line instantly surged into his mind.
According to legend, the ancestor Sarutobi had once personally seen the "god" of this world.
That god never descended into the mortal world easily, but would choose representatives to walk among humanity and handle karma on his behalf.
And the ancestor had been the first person chosen.
Sarutobi Hiruzen's eyes widened as he stared fixedly at the existence before him.
He tried to circulate his chakra, trying to determine whether this was a genjutsu.
But no matter how he sensed it, this light and this vast aura that was almost primordial were terrifyingly real.
There was no fluctuation from a genjutsu, no trace of chakra, only a kind of... shock that felt like directly facing the rules themselves.
"This... isn't a genjutsu..."
Sarutobi Hiruzen's voice trembled.
The next second, six-year-old Sarutobi Hiruzen almost instinctively and reverently knelt down.
With both hands on the ground, he lowered his forehead and pressed it against the ground formed from light, his body trembling slightly from excitement and awe.
He raised his head, his eyes opened wide, filled with an almost fervent devotion.
"God... God..."
"Hiruzen... is willing."
Arisu looked at the little boy kneeling in the light and smiled slightly.
"You're just like your ancestor."
"As long as you work for me, your descendants will have nothing to worry about. The position of Hokage in Konoha... I can also let you have it."
Six-year-old Sarutobi Hiruzen's body trembled violently.
Hokage...
That was the highest position in Konoha, the peak every ninja dreamed of reaching.
The elders of his clan had said countless times that only someone who became Hokage could truly protect the village and protect their clansmen. Yet this "god" before him had directly promised to give him that position?
The excitement almost burst from his chest.
Sarutobi Hiruzen knelt even lower, his forehead pressed tightly against the ground of light, his voice trembling but exceptionally firm:
"Hiruzen... obeys! I am willing to go through fire and water for God!"
Arisu gently raised his hand and pointed at him from the air.
The next instant, a warm and gentle force instantly entered Sarutobi Hiruzen's body.
Chakra of all five natures surged through his not-yet-fully-developed meridians like a flood released from a dam, wildly rushing, merging, and settling.
Wind, Fire, Water, Earth, Lightning, five completely different chakra natures awakened at the same time, yet miraculously coexisted harmoniously without the slightest conflict.
At the same time, an enormous amount of knowledge flooded into his mind like a tide.
The principles behind basic ninjutsu, the structure of advanced techniques, subtle methods of chakra control, and even some secret insights that not even the clan elders had ever heard of... All of it was clearly imprinted in his mind, as if he had known it from birth.
The amount of chakra in his body also increased at an astonishing speed. In just a few breaths, he went from the level of an ordinary clan child to a level far beyond his peers.
Sarutobi Hiruzen's entire body began trembling violently, both from the impact of the power pouring into him and from the overwhelming joy he could not suppress.
Arisu withdrew his finger and said indifferently, "This is what you deserve."
"Next, your first mission. Go become Senju Tobirama's disciple."
"Become his student. Get close to him, get close to the Senju clan... and that silver-haired child who suddenly appeared."