Konoha Year 37, January 1.
Without realizing it, it had already been thirteen years since Gojo Yoru transmigrated into this world.
His birthday was still more than half a year away, but even so, Yoru had already passed the "early boyhood" stage of ages ten to twelve and officially entered early adolescence—thirteen to fifteen.
In this world, where the human body supposedly contains 130 trillion cells, this stage—along with the later adolescent stage of sixteen to nineteen—were the two major growth spurts.
After passing through these two phases, a kid who once looked young, short, and weak would transform as if reborn—like a completely different person.
The best example was Naruto in canon: at twelve, right after graduation, he was only 147 cm tall, then shot up to 166 cm, and by nineteen he had rocketed to 180 cm.
And his strength? Even more absurd. By sixteen or seventeen he was already Konoha's hero and the shinobi world's savior, and by nineteen he was fighting on the moon.
No matter what country you were born in, no matter what kind of environment you grew up in—if you lived in a world with chakra, everyone had to go through these two phases.
Even Jiraiya, who would eventually hit 191 cm as an adult, was no exception.
Even if someone's body matured early, their strength wouldn't skyrocket ahead of schedule.
These two stages were basically the Naruto world's two "genetic locks."
Even Nagato—who had transplanted Rinnegan, mastered six nature transformations within a year, and learned all mainstream Five-Element ninjutsu—couldn't break that lock.
Except… two people.
One was Uchiha Itachi: awakened Mangekyō at eleven, was almost as tall at thirteen as Anbu-era Kakashi, and that same year—together with Uchiha Obito—wiped out the Uchiha clan, earning the title of the shinobi world's number-one "filial son."
The other was Gojo Yoru: evolving once every six years, stepping onto a godhood ladder from the age of six.
Breaking a "genetic lock" seemed to demand an enormous price. Itachi, a Five-Kage-level monster while still young, was already riddled with illness before adulthood.
Yoru, by contrast, evolved once every six years, and after each evolution there was an invisible "bottleneck." That might be a limitation—but it might also be protection.
Otherwise, if he endured the "near-sudden-death sensation" every time all the way until his body fully evolved, then the moment an evolution ended he might be drained dry by backlash—instantly sent to the Pure Land, or even transmigrate again.
Having completed two evolutions, Yoru now—whether in power or appearance—didn't really look like someone in early adolescence. He looked more like an adult about to finish both growth phases.
The only thing that still fit the normal "locked" pattern was that, without releasing his Yin Seal, his ordinary chakra capacity was only at the level of an all-round jōnin.
At thirteen this year, Yoru had already grown to 178 cm—just 3 cm shy of surpassing Orochimaru, and already the same height as Kakashi when the canon story began.
His transmigrator's mental age gave him a presence that matched his height perfectly. When he talked with Tsunade last year, there was none of the awkward "junior vs. senior" distance. The bold, cutting-edge ideas he offered even made Tsunade deeply admire him.
A year of battlefield slaughter and command experience had also forged his gaze and aura to match his current status. Aside from close acquaintances, most people subconsciously forgot how young he was.
Among shinobi below Konoha's "trump-card" tier, people already called him "Gojo-sama" or "Yoru-sama."
If the war weren't still ongoing, it wouldn't feel strange at all for Hiruzen to assign Yoru as a squad's jōnin instructor.
Konoha's three-front war had begun on the very day Yoru first arrived at the border base.
And it was also that day Yoru got a harsh lesson from this era's shinobi—learning firsthand how different anime was from reality.
In anime, there were only so many pages. The vest-wearing shinobi and Anbu often felt like disposable extras—dying to a single kunai or existing just to make someone else's technique look impressive.
But in the real world, a chūnin was already a leader capable of commanding a team. Many "jōnin instructors" were only special jōnin level.
True jōnin—and "elite jōnin"—were all-rounders.
And a Five-Kage-class monster like Hanzō… once he had your information, even Yoru with space-time abilities still needed the right opening or an intelligence advantage to kill him.
Just trading blows with Hanzō made Yoru feel how terrifying Senju Hashirama and Uchiha Madara truly were—why the entire shinobi world didn't dare start wars when those two were alive.
And he understood even more clearly why pure-blood Ōtsutsuki called shinobi "lesser lifeforms."
They really were creatures from another dimension.
The Amegakure–border-front war had ended two months ago.
The Land of Rain passage, closed for two years, had reopened.
The Sand front vs. White Fang front and the Stone front vs. Danzo front didn't disrupt the shinobi world's normal operation.
Most factions believed those two wars would end soon too.
Even if they didn't, it would at worst become long-term low-intensity friction.
After all, the multi-front chaos had erupted only because Hanzō pinned down Land of Fire's border front, letting Earth and Wind find an opening to invade Fire and split its forces and elites into three groups.
Now that Rain had withdrawn, once Fire rebuilt the border base and restored that "signal tower," the other two fronts would gain a major boost in strength.
Wind and Earth hadn't broken those defenses in two years—now they had even less hope.
But what nobody expected was that Sand and Stone didn't pull back—Stone even intensified its offensive.
Pressure on Danzo front spiked abruptly, forcing the border front—finally able to breathe—to send troops to reinforce it.
When that intel reached the Sand front, Chiyo found her opening.
No one knew whether she wanted to coordinate with Stone and share Fire's pressure, seize the chance to break the White Fang front, or escalate to force Konoha to send Gojo Yoru—so she could finally get revenge.
Either way, at the end of Konoha Year 36, Sand also ramped up its assault. Both fronts saw several sizeable group battles.
It only seemed less suffocating because their locations didn't affect the wider shinobi world's day-to-day operation—otherwise the atmosphere across the continent would have been crushing.
Unfortunately, Chiyo either overestimated her side's strength… or, after spending the last year constantly facing Tsunade, she forgot one crucial fact.
Chiyo could stand as Hanzō's rival and suppress Hatake Sakumo so thoroughly because she possessed one of Sand's greatest legacies—the Chikamatsu Ten Puppets—and had modified her arms into puppet arms fitted with defense mechanisms, toxin dispensers, and other tricks that patched the puppet master's biggest weaknesses.
Her overall capability truly qualified her to be a Kage.
If Tsunade's monster strength and medical skill weren't the perfect counter to her, Tsunade wouldn't even be worthy of exchanging blows with her.
Even so, in Chiyo's many clashes with Tsunade, Chiyo had usually held the advantage.
And that led her to unconsciously forget: the reason she could suppress Tsunade despite being "countered" was because she was Chiyo.
Her son and daughter-in-law might not be able to do the same.
Taijutsu-style "nintaijutsu" shinobi fought without hand seals—just like pure taijutsu fighters. The difference was that Fire-style nintaijutsu users tended to fight head-on, heavy and straightforward.
Lightning-style nintaijutsu users—excluding a few reckless brutes from Cloud—almost always relied on speed to overwhelm opponents or to hunt for a one-hit kill like assassins.
Gojo Yoru and Hatake Sakumo were the perfect examples.
Yoru used speed to force Hanzō airborne and then exploited new intel to nearly kill the Shinobi Demigod—Hanzō never even had the chance to break Yoru's gas mask and summon his partner for poison.
And just as Yoru's trio and Hanzō had learned each other's patterns through repeated clashes, Tsunade had already cracked Chiyo's toxins and understood the Ten Puppets and puppet-arm mechanisms—she simply couldn't overcome Chiyo due to the raw gap in power.
But Sakumo was different from Tsunade.
As a top-tier assassin, he had been hiding his true hand the whole time. In repeated battles with Chiyo's son and daughter-in-law, he never revealed his ace—he just collected intel, again and again.
Wary that they might still be hiding a trump card—or a combined technique like Chiyo's—Sakumo even gave up many chances to land a killing blow.
Then, during the large group battles at the end of Konoha Year 36, that puppet-user couple was no longer facing Sakumo alone. They also had to deal with sudden attacks from other shinobi. Even when injured or when their puppets were damaged, they still didn't reveal any new techniques—their style stayed the same.
That was when Sakumo became absolutely certain:
They had no hidden trump card left.
And so the White Fang finally bared his fangs.
…
On the night of Konoha Year 37, January 1, news spread across both battlefronts. Through recon teams and Anbu, it quickly reached the Five Great Villages—and rapidly rippled across the entire shinobi world.
After Sand's "Intelligence King" Ebizō, Sand had now lost two more major assets:
Chiyo's son and daughter-in-law.
Chiyo's son was "only" an all-round jōnin, and the daughter-in-law was "only" a special jōnin with exceptional talent.
But together, as elite puppet masters backed by years of coordination and Sand's technical support, their puppets had countless abilities, complemented each other perfectly, and could unleash multiple joint techniques—powerful like composite ninjutsu.
As a duo, they were Sand's special trump card—like Konoha's Ino–Shika–Chō, capable of output far beyond their rank.
Before fully understanding their intel, even Sakumo had suffered a serious setback against them.
And now?
They died to the White Fang.
And just like Ebizō—
they were killed by Hatake Sakumo… in an instant.
Nearby Sand shinobi—and even Chiyo herself, who had been fighting Tsunade—didn't react in time.
Sakumo's speed was terrifying. His short blade, coated in Lightning nature, suddenly displayed form transformation—his slash traced a pale crescent, like a white moon.
The war had already caused heavy casualties in all four nations.
But until now, only one "trump-card" combatant had fallen: Ebizō.
Now a second "trump-card" force had been erased.
Konoha's White Fang became famous across the shinobi world.
And the unluckiest person of the Second Shinobi War appeared:
Chiyo—who had already lost her brother, and now watched her son and daughter-in-law die.
They said she went "mad" on the spot, radiating pressure that rivaled a Jinchūriki. Sakumo didn't even get the chance to decapitate her for memory-reading—he immediately withdrew his forces.
If not for Sand shinobi restraining her, and the last thread of sanity tied to her grandson back in the village, Chiyo might have stormed the White Fang front's main base.
That very night, when the news reached Konoha, Orochimaru and Jiraiya—both already back in the village on leave—were dispatched by Hiruzen to the White Fang front.
To avoid wasting time, Gojo Yoru personally used Flying Thunder God to transport them.
After more than a year apart, Yoru's trio finally saw Tsunade and Hatake Sakumo again.
"Gulp…"
Jiraiya sized Tsunade up and swallowed hard, his eyes practically turning into pink hearts. He flashed a sleazy grin and said, "Tsunade—you got even prettier!"
Tsunade's eyes sharpened like knives. "Jiraiya. If you want to spend some time in the ER, I'd be happy to help."
"Heh heh…"
Jiraiya immediately stopped scanning her up and down, scratching his head awkwardly as he retreated to the side.
Orochimaru could only sigh internally. After all these years, not a shred of change. With that attitude—and that courage—he'd never win Tsunade.
What happened next proved it.
"Long time no see, Sakumo-senpai."
Gojo Yoru greeted Sakumo first, then turned to Tsunade with a smile.
"Tsunade-senpai. Long time no see. You got even prettier."
Same line—totally different effect.
Tsunade actually smiled, stepped forward, and patted Yoru's chest. "A year and change and you really did grow a lot. You're nearly a full head taller than me now. With development like that, you should have ridiculous chakra. If you can form the Yin Seal at your age, it's not a Yin talent issue—looks like your mental energy is what's holding you back."
Jiraiya looked jealous… but couldn't resist complaining anyway. "Holding him back? Come on. The kid's not a Senju or Uzumaki descendant. For him to have this much chakra at his age is already insane. Of course, it's still nothing compared to me."
He looked unbearably proud on that last part.
And no one even mocked him. Tsunade just rolled her eyes.
Because it was true.
Like Kakashi, Jiraiya had massive chakra reserves from childhood. Back then, before he even signed a blood contract with summons, he used Summoning Jutsu recklessly—and actually tugged space-time power, accidentally stumbling into Mount Myōboku, one of the Three Great Sage Lands.
After signing with Myōboku, he began training Sage Arts almost immediately.
At that time he hadn't even finished early adolescence—maybe he'd only just entered it.
Either way, he definitely wasn't older than fifteen.
Meanwhile, Yoru and Orochimaru still didn't have the chakra capacity to qualify for sage training.
That alone showed just how monstrous Jiraiya's reserves were.
He was also one of the few in canon who could use Sage Art: Massive Rasengan.
Yoru, too, examined Tsunade—and couldn't help a flicker of admiration.
No wonder Jiraiya had that "pervert" look. Tsunade really had become even more beautiful.
Yoru's butterfly effect had changed a lot of people—though Nawaki still died to an explosion.
Tsunade was one of those affected.
One trait of the Yin Seal was that it could preserve youthful appearance.
But it preserved the state you had when you completed it—it couldn't rewind you to an earlier phase.
In canon, Tsunade completed the Yin Seal during the Third Shinobi War, long after her "golden bloom." She could never return to the peak look she had in the Second War.
In Yoru's eyes, Tsunade's visual peak was exactly the Second War era.
Around twenty-five or twenty-six: still carrying the last glow of youth, just starting to bloom into mature beauty—the most stunning stage.
So when he and Tsunade discussed reforming the Academy, Yoru had a sudden idea: he suggested she train the Yin Seal, and even shared his own experience.
Like he'd said before joining the war, Yoru wasn't interested in "protecting the country" on principle.
He only cared about certain key characters—once fictional, now real. If he happened to meet them, grew close, and helping them was no big deal, he didn't mind rewriting their intended fate.
Not for any lofty reason.
Just because it made him happy.
Under Yoru's suggestion, Tsunade completed the Yin Seal years earlier than canon.
With Senju blood and massive chakra, Tsunade's appearance for decades to come would be locked at her current state.
And there was another trait: the Yin Seal's fine chakra regulation could improve bodily function, keeping the body at peak condition.
Because of that, over the last year Tsunade didn't just keep her looks—her skin and figure subtly changed too.
Her skin grew even fairer, and her curves became more pronounced.
Especially when not fighting—once she removed her battle armor and wore only a white shirt with a deep-blue coat—her "legendary" chest looked even more overwhelming.
That was exactly why Jiraiya looked like such a drooling idiot: he'd noticed the change.
Pale blond long hair, an exquisitely beautiful face, a stunning figure, a bold heroic aura, immense strength, noble lineage—
Tsunade now truly deserved the title "the most beautiful woman in the shinobi world."
After more than a year apart, the five of them chatted for a long time.
Every topic somehow circled back to Gojo Yoru.
Back in Konoha Year 35, Yoru had still addressed them with "sir/ma'am."
Now, a year later, it had become "senpai."
And his accomplishments left them stunned—and honestly, embarrassed.
If not for being the same "type" and not wanting to lose a father's dignity in front of his son, even Sakumo might have asked Yoru to take his kid as a disciple once Yoru grew up.
When the small talk ended, Orochimaru's expression turned serious.
"Yoru won't stay here long. Things changed suddenly—Danzo-sama's front may need his support. And Flying Thunder God isn't a secret anymore. If Sand activates their Jinchūriki, they'll prepare thoroughly and won't give Yoru a chance to teleport away a Tailed Beast Bomb."
"And with Yoru's chakra, he can at most transfer one Tailed Beast Bomb. They might even use the bomb to probe him, then try to drain him dry."
"We have to prepare in advance for Sand activating their Jinchūriki—split the combat units and support units, and every detachment must have a barrier team."
"Until the war ends, Jiraiya and I will stay here to ensure we can deploy the Four Red Yang Formation."
Sakumo and Tsunade both nodded, faces grim.
~~~
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