The next day, after completing their final schedule, Fumori masaki and others saw the Kumogakure delegation off at the village gate.
The Kumogakure delegation concluded their trip and was about to return to Kumogakure.
"This visit has been incredibly insightful, and I finally understand why Konoha Village has been able to remain so powerful," the Third Raikage said earnestly to Fumori masaki.
"It's good if you can understand our beliefs. We also hope to promote prosperity with other ninja villages and countries. Although reality isn't that easy, I genuinely wish for it," Fumori masaki replied.
"Haha, me too, but as you said, reality isn't that easy." The Third Raikage couldn't help but laugh, and it was impossible to tell how many other meanings his laughter carried.
Beside them, Satomi and Sora gently embraced in farewell.
During this visit, the wives of the two village leaders got along very well, and there were some women's topics that the two village leaders couldn't intervene in.
Although there were some historical issues in the past, after so many years, neither of the wives dwelled on them.
"If you'd like, we can write letters and chat in the future," Satomi said with a smile.
"Mhm, whenever I have time." Sora also secretly wanted to write more letters and learn more, but due to the relationship between their villages, this couldn't be decided by one person's will.
She looked at Satomi, sighed softly, and said, "I truly envy you, being able to meet Fumori masaki."
"It's my good fortune. For others, it can only be said that they have fate but no destiny," Satomi said.
Sora smiled and didn't continue that topic, instead moving on to other things.
Satomi likewise didn't cling to it and followed Sora's lead to other subjects.
After their lingering goodbyes, Konoha Village sent people to escort the Kumogakure delegation to the border.
Once they reached the Land of Lightning, Kumogakure ninja would take over, and Konoha ninja would no longer be responsible.
After seeing off the Kumogakure delegation, Fumori masaki and the others returned to the Hokage Office Building for a meeting.
The meeting was to summarize the Kumogakure delegation's visit and to leverage public opinion from it, planning to further solidify the current ninja world order.
After the high-ranking officials had all left, Fumori masaki let out a sigh of relief in his office.
The leaders of Sunagakure and Kumogakure, two major ninja villages, had already visited.
It was unlikely that Iwagakure and Kirigakure would personally come to Konoha, so this level of high-spec reception was effectively over.
However, Fumori masaki didn't think it was over, because requests for visits from the leaders of other smaller ninja villages had also been sent to him.
Although the scale didn't need to be as grand as for Sunagakure and Kumogakure, they couldn't be neglected.
These individuals were also key figures in maintaining the Southern Alliance and needed to be properly courted.
Fumori masaki rested for a while, then picked up the reports on his desk and began to review them slowly.
He had just seen off the Kumogakure delegation, and new work was already beginning...
In the coming period, the leaders of most of the Southern Alliance member states planned to visit Konoha.
Fumori masaki didn't refuse any of them, accepting all requests.
This might be a busy period for him after becoming Hokage.
The newly established Southern Alliance was too fragile and needed careful nurturing.
Fortunately, aside from some key appointments that required discussions with the Hokage, other times were not so demanding.
Fumori masaki could spare other time to deal with his own affairs, such as the reports from Konoha ninja in the capital.
All reports were personally written by Asuna, and the encrypted text constructed by Sage Art was extremely secure.
It was almost impossible for anyone else to decipher it if it fell into their hands, and a single mistake could cause the cipher to collapse, resulting in no information being retrieved.
In Asuna's report, after the last conflict, Tobi had not shown up to provoke again, but had focused on fulfilling his duties as the leader of the Guardian Ninja.
However, this was like the calm before a storm, and it never meant that Tobi's danger had disappeared.
Asuna particularly highlighted the Chakra Samurai secretly trained by Tobi.
Although she didn't know what method Tobi used, the Chakra Samurai he trained improved very quickly and were very resilient.
This was something Asuna found very strange; even with Chakra stimulating the meridians, there was no reason for them to become so powerful.
Fumori masaki was also somewhat curious about this, as he completely didn't know Tobi's true identity or the methods he employed.
However, while he could understand Asuna's concerns, deep down, he didn't think it was a big deal.
The frontal combat capability of Chakra Samurai was no less than that of ninja, but the main advantage of ninja was in stealth solo combat.
Frontal combat was not the area where the advantages of the ninja profession could be best utilized.
Now, Konoha Village already had aerial combat units and powerful weapons like exploding cannons and landmines.
A samurai force in frontal combat no longer posed a practical threat.
Of course, the Daimyo might also have realized this, or perhaps he was alerted by Tobi.
According to Asuna's report, there seemed to be traces of similar technological research being conducted in the capital.
"This needs to be closely monitored, but when it comes to technology, the early adopters have an advantage.
The capital doesn't have much technological accumulation, so catching up with Konoha Village is unlikely.
Konoha Village's current technological research relies on carefully cultivated scientific researchers from the past," Fumori masaki thought, writing down his orders in the report.
Although he had this confidence, it was best to minimize costs and maximize benefits.
It was feared that in the next few years, conflicts between Konoha Village and the capital would inevitably arise.
This was for the best.
Fumori masaki was already quite fed up with this feeling of being constrained.
His precious daughter was almost dragged into it.
The sooner this matter was resolved, the sooner Asuna would be safe.
It was time to start collecting evidence of the Daimyo's perverse actions and defiance of morality, and to stir up conflict between the Daimyo and other nobles.
Konoha Village must uphold righteousness to legitimately and reasonably assume the highest ruling power of the Land of Fire.
This was an unshakeable principle.
While the concept of gaining power unjustly might be somewhat abstract, in situations where power is gained legitimately, it can indeed resolve many troubles and avoid many conflicts.
For the Land of Fire, after enduring civil war, to promptly meet the challenges of other nations, it was crucial to stabilize the situation as quickly as possible.
Days slowly passed.
Fumori masaki constantly monitored the situation in the capital, while also paying attention to Konoha's internal development and the relationships within the Southern Alliance.
Every day was busy.
Then, one day, Uchiha Kagami suddenly came to his office door and told him something.
"Masaki, I've found traces of the Totsuka Blade!" Uchiha Kagami said with some excitement.
Upon hearing this, Fumori masaki's face lit up with joy.
The Totsuka Blade was an incredibly powerful item, necessary to properly deal with Black Zetsu.
However, the Totsuka Blade was, after all, a legendary weapon; even the unrestrained Orochimaru searched for years without finding it.
Because it ultimately fell into Uchiha Itachi's hands, it was suspected that the Uchiha clan had a connection to the Totsuka Blade, so Uchiha Kagami was entrusted with finding it.
Now, Uchiha Kagami finally brought the good news to him.
Fumori masaki immediately put down the documents in front of him and led Uchiha Kagami to a secret room in the office building.
This room was usually for discussing important matters; no one was allowed in without the Hokage's permission, and even the ANBU responsible for security couldn't listen to the contents.
"Tell me, what are the clues?" Fumori masaki poured tea for Uchiha Kagami, placed the teacup in front of him, and then sat down to speak.
Uchiha Kagami took a sip of tea, cleared his throat, and then said to Fumori masaki, "Do you remember what the legendary Totsuka Blade is like?"
"The legendary Sword of Kusanagi, it seems not to exist in a material form, but as a spiritual entity," Fumori masaki said.
He knew exactly what the Totsuka Blade was like; because of its special form of existence, it could be stored in the world of the Mangekyo Sharingan and wielded by Susanoo.
"Yes, although the exact origin of the Totsuka Blade is unknown, it's likely something the Sage of Six Paths created in some way.
Yin-Yang Release, creating something from nothing, always produces strange things.
According to the records in the Ninja Sect classics, a weapon called the Ame no Nuhoko, used by the Sage of Six Paths, was based on the power of the heart and also didn't exist in reality.
The Totsuka Blade should be made with a similar method." Uchiha Kagami nodded.
"Such a spirit-based weapon, in theory, wouldn't exist in the material world. It must be in a very special place; that's what we previously concluded," Fumori masaki said.
"Yes," Uchiha Kagami said excitedly, "I consulted a large amount of data and finally determined the possible location of the Totsuka Blade.
This thing should exist in the spiritual world, in the gap between the Pure Land and the real world.
Such a place is extremely eerie and not somewhere ordinary people can enter.
Just maintaining one's physical form there is extremely dangerous, let alone finding the Totsuka Blade's location.
However, due to the special nature of the Sharingan, it possesses unique spiritual vision, so as long as a vantage point for observation is found, the Totsuka Blade's existence can be located."
The soul, one could say, is very mysterious.
In Konoha, only the Spirit Transformation Jutsu of the Kato clan could so powerfully manifest the spirit body, freeing it from the body's constraints.
Even the Yamanaka clan couldn't achieve such a feat.
"Because of this, only the ancestors of the Uchiha clan ever obtained this Totsuka Blade?"
"Mhm, but the Totsuka Blade can only be controlled by the Mangekyo Sharingan's dōjutsu.
Although such individuals occasionally appeared among our ancestors, the Mangekyo Sharingan ultimately led to blindness.
In reliable historical records, only Lord Madara possessed a Mangekyo Sharingan that wouldn't lose its light," Uchiha Kagami said.
Fumori masaki nodded slightly.
The evolution conditions for the Mangekyo Sharingan were stringent, requiring the combination of Mangekyo Sharingan from blood relatives.
However, the Mangekyo Sharingan itself was extremely rare, so gathering two pairs of Mangekyo Sharingan was incredibly difficult.
At the same time, the success rate of evolution was not absolute; the closer the bloodline, the higher the success rate.
In the past, under those circumstances, forming the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan was indeed not easy.
In Fumori masaki's speculation, for the Chakra of a reincarnated individual to awaken, the reincarnated individual must reach a certain level of power.
Perhaps the Indra reincarnate had to push the Mangekyo Sharingan to its absolute limit.
In the original story, Naruto vaguely sensed Indra's power from Sasuke after the battle between Sasuke and Danzo, indicating that Indra's power within Sasuke was beginning to manifest at that time.
However, at that time, Sasuke had lost his eyesight due to overuse of the Mangekyo Sharingan.
It is probable that in the past, even if there were individuals who awakened Indra's power, they either couldn't plunder Asura's power due to blindness, or their reincarnated counterpart died prematurely, and so on.
Black Zetsu waited a thousand years to encounter Uchiha Madara, and even then almost failed—in this timeline, he actually did fail—which highlights the difficulty involved.
"And after the user dies, the Totsuka Blade should return to its original location, awaiting the next person to obtain it." Uchiha Kagami took another sip of tea.
"In the past, preserving historical records was inherently quite troublesome, and our clan's situation... sigh, you know."
Fumori masaki showed a wry smile.
From Uchiha Kagami, he learned of Uchiha clan secrets not depicted in the original story.
The Uchiha clan had faced clan extermination, like in the original story, more than once; they had encountered similar situations twice in the past, mostly due to civil wars.
They barely survived and then rose again under the leadership of strong leaders who had been tested by civil war, but many historical records were lost due to the civil war.
The reason Uchiha Kagami searched for so long might be because so much information was lost, and he only managed to find traces of the Totsuka Blade in the existing historical records with great difficulty.
"So, have you found the exact location of the Totsuka Blade?"
"Mhm, in legend, the Totsuka Blade was a weapon used by Susanoo, one of the guardian messengers under the Sage of Six Paths, to subdue demons," Uchiha Kagami said.
"It is said that in ancient times, a demon emerged from the Land of the Dead.
The Sage of Six Paths bestowed the divine weapon, the Totsuka Blade, upon the guardian Susanoo, to guard the north.
A demon called the Eight-Headed Serpent was entrenched in the north.
Susanoo collaborated with a local miko, intoxicated the demon with sake, and then slew it with the Totsuka Blade!"
Fumori raised an eyebrow slightly.
Honestly, he always felt that the myths and legends of the ninja world overlapping with those of his previous life were just a coincidence, and that various theories emerged by combining them with the characteristics of the ninja world.
Moreover, the guardian deities of the Ninja Sect in myths were often used as names for ninjutsu, genjutsu, or dōjutsu, which made him very uncomfortable.
However, the story Uchiha Kagami told was one he had never heard before—of course, the awkwardness remained; Susanoo slaying the Eight-Headed Serpent was a famous legend from his previous life's island nation—but Fumori masaki immediately noticed that this story seemed to have a slight familiarity.
"The place you're talking about wouldn't be...?"
"It might be just as you think." Uchiha Kagami leaned slightly closer and said to Fumori masaki, "The Land of Demons, that is the legendary place where Susanoo achieved the great feat of slaying the Eight-Headed Serpent.
The remnants of the Totsuka Blade might be there!"