"Rogue ninja? Hell no. That's not some toy you grab on a whim. It's something you earn or it comes back to bite you hard. I'll get what I want without turning traitor."
Taiichi shook his head and slid the scroll back into place, eyes locked on the Spirit Transformation Technique scroll in his hands. This was the real prize. If they weren't standing in the middle of the command tent, he'd already be deep in it.
"You sound pretty damn sure of yourself," Jiraiya said with a crooked grin, but the words landed softer than usual. Taiichi wasn't wrong. The kid was Tsunade's student, Jiraiya's unofficial protégé, and he'd racked up enough merit in this war to buy half the Sealed Book if he wanted. By the time the fighting ended, he might actually walk out with every technique he'd been eyeing.
A bead of sweat slid down Jiraiya's temple. Having a student this talented was going to give the Third one hell of a headache later.
"So what the hell have you been doing the last two days? You didn't even bother reporting in," Jiraiya asked, forcing a serious tone.
Taiichi's mind was already half-lost in the scroll. He answered without looking up. "Hitting Sand supply lines. Took out another hundred-man escort today—killed a Jonin, torched a whole shipment. Problem is they're smartening up. Every convoy's rolling with at least a hundred shinobi now. Hard to get clean hits anymore."
He laid out the whole operation in detail—how he picked targets, how he hit and vanished, how Sand had started doubling escorts. Jiraiya listened in silence, then let out a low whistle.
"Son of a bitch. I figured you and Minato were stirring shit up back there, but I didn't realize you two were the reason Sand suddenly got so paranoid about their logistics."
Taiichi finally glanced up, a small smirk tugging at his mouth. "Minato-sensei's doing his part too. We're both keeping them jumpy."
Jiraiya rubbed his face. "Alright, get out of here. Go study your fancy soul jutsu before I change my mind and stick you on latrine duty."
Taiichi didn't need to be told twice. He flashed a quick salute and vanished in a swirl of leaves.
---
Back in his tent, Taiichi sat cross-legged on the cot and unrolled the scroll. The Spirit Transformation Technique wasn't like the usual five elemental jutsu. This one touched the soul itself—new ways to shape chakra, new ways to think about it. The deeper he read, the more the ideas started pouring out. He grabbed paper and started scribbling notes, pages stacking up fast.
By the time he looked up, it was past ten. A thick pile of notes sat beside him. He checked the panel floating in his vision.
[Spirit Transformation Technique Lv0 (42/100)]
[Yin Nature Transformation +200]
Not bad for one deep dive. Once he actually mastered the thing, the real payoff would hit.
The next morning he left three shadow clones behind—two in the medical tents, one studying the scroll—while his real body used Flying Thunder God to check on his hidden lab in Wind Country territory. The White Zetsu research was coming along. The creature's weird mix of plant and animal traits kept giving him fresh data, even if he had to be careful with the single live specimen.
After that he jumped straight back to the city he'd been scouting the day before—Nami no Sato, one of the bigger oasis cities in Wind Country.
The place felt alive but not panicked. War had raised prices, sure, but nobody was running around like the sky was falling. Taiichi grabbed a seat in a busy izakaya, ordered some local desert food he immediately regretted, and let his chakra sensing drift through the crowd.
Bits of conversation floated in.
"Grain prices are going up again—"
"Wind Erosion City's lord got assassinated for fighting the Daimyo's new war tax—"
"Roran's booming like it's not even in the desert—"
"Remember that caravan that rolled in a couple days ago? Cloud shinobi. They're heading for the capital. Cocky bastards—"
Taiichi's eyebrows rose. Cloud shinobi openly moving through Wind Country? That was new. In the original timeline they'd hit Sand after the Third Kazekage died, but so far that hadn't happened here. Maybe this was the opening move.
He finished the terrible food, paid, and started drifting through the city. It didn't take long to spot them—thirty-plus people in Lightning Country clothes, trying way too hard to look like merchants. Two of them moved like Jonin. The rest were all shinobi.
He grabbed a seat in a tea house across the street and watched. By midday the "caravan" started packing up. Taiichi followed at a distance as they left the city and headed toward the capital.
Once they were well outside the walls, the group split—pairs peeling off in different directions while the main body kept going with only ten people. Taiichi sent two shadow clones after the splinter groups and stuck with the main force himself.
By evening the side teams had returned. His clones brought back the memories: the Cloud team was mapping Sand outposts, mining sites, patrol routes—standard pre-invasion intel. They were also picking off small Sand squads when they could.
Taiichi grinned. Perfect. He had a plan now—something nasty, something that would make Sand and Cloud go at each other's throats while Leaf watched and picked up the pieces.
He left a clone to keep eyes on them, then used Flying Thunder God to jump straight back to the Leaf forward camp.
Jiraiya and Shikaku were still in the command tent when he walked in. Taiichi laid out the whole scheme without sugarcoating it. When he finished, both men stared at him for a long second.
Then Jiraiya started laughing.
"Kid, you're dangerous. I love it. Do it. Just don't get caught with your pants down."
Shikaku nodded, eyes sharp. "If this works, we buy Konoha weeks—maybe months—of breathing room. Make it happen."
Taiichi left the tent grinning like a kid who'd just been handed the keys to the candy store. The game was on.