In just half a day's journey, Habara led the group of ninja to their destination: the foot of the nameless mountain housing the secret realm. After all, it wasn't far from Konoha, only about a hundred kilometers – practically nothing for shinobi.
Naturally, they wouldn't venture deep into the barrier itself; Daigo's true body resided within, a secret best kept from unnecessary personnel.
Stopping at the mountain's base, Habara pondered for a moment and decided to give the peak a new name.
"Everyone, let's rest a bit and grab something to eat first. Then, we start working. This mountain… let's tentatively call it Shadow Leaf Mountain. Later, we'll establish our new base on the western slope, which we can temporarily call the Shadow Leaf Stronghold."
"Shadow Leaf…" Tenzo mulled over the name, sensing a possible deeper meaning.
"The Land of Fire already has the 'True Leaf'. We can, at most, be considered the 'Shadow Leaf.' Don't worry about it; I just picked it randomly," Habara said.
Tenzo quirked his lips. Habara claimed it was random, but Tenzo suspected otherwise. The stronghold's name sounded like it was branding itself as secondary, content to be a runner-up, but was that the reality?
By afternoon, Habara transformed into a construction foreman, assigning tasks. Using a small stick, he sketched a top-down view on the ground while explaining, "Alright, first we excavate the mountainside and level the ground. Kinoshita, take everyone and carve out a sheer cliff face two hundred meters long and sixty meters high along the ridge, running directly south to north."
Kinoshita Tadashi looked slightly confused. "Habara, this… chiseling the mountain, is it really necessary?"
"It is. Because I think it looks particularly neat when it's orderly," Habara offered an unassailable reason.
Kinoshita Tadashi: "..."
What more could he say? He accepted the order. For ninja, while the scale of such engineering was large, it wasn't insurmountable.
Habara thought to himself that the main goal was to get these ninja busy; busy hands wouldn't dwell on too many thoughts. He considered himself quite restrained for not making them polish the cliff face to a mirror finish with 2000-grit sandpaper.
In reality, if Habara himself took action, using his 'Gundam form,' a couple of vertical slashes would finish the job in minutes, complete with fine-tuning.
"After carving out the cliff, level a 200 by 200-meter platform in front of it. That should be enough space for the short term." Habara envisioned this as the future central area of the new stronghold, potentially developing into a radially designed town.
This was the initial task, and everyone quickly got to work. While ninja were all 'superhuman,' not everyone could wield large-scale ninjutsu like Habara. Thus, during the earth-moving work, some even resorted to primitive rock-breaking methods, using Fire Release to heat the stone and Water Release to cool it rapidly, exploiting thermal expansion and contraction.
One point worthy of praise, however, was that since most of these ninja were former subordinates of Danzo, they executed orders without fail. Habara wanted a perfectly flat cliff face, and they delivered precisely that. While not quite mirror-smooth, it was certainly extremely smooth.
The first day passed quickly. The ninja worked like slaves building a pyramid, toiling with rocks all afternoon. When night fell, some had to take turns standing watch.
After another full day, the perfectly leveled platform Habara requested was finally complete, leaving the ninja thoroughly exhausted. The task wasn't difficult, per se, but it was incredibly chakra-intensive.
Habara inspected the construction site with satisfaction. It really was remarkably flat. He mused internally that if they walled up the other three sides and put a lid on top, it would make a king-sized funerary urn.
As Tenzo watched Habara walk around before heading purposefully towards him, a bad feeling suddenly washed over him.
His premonition immediately came true.
Habara approached with a broad smile and said, "See this, Tenzo? This is the stage I've prepared for you. It's your turn next, make sure to put on a good show… Come on, let's start building houses along the cliff face."
Habara's mind worked quickly. "Twenty meters long, ten meters wide, six meters high. Average living space per person: 20x10x6. Build a row of houses along the cliff, exactly one hundred units."
Tenzo took a deep breath. "Habara, I have two questions. First, there are less than thirty of us. Why build one hundred units? An occupancy rate of 30% – do you think that's reasonable?"
"Why wouldn't it be? We need to leave room for population growth." Habara silently thought Tenzo truly lacked worldly experience, completely unaware of occupancy rates after blind real estate expansion.
"Alright then. Second question: have you considered the lighting?"
"Er…"
That actually stumped Habara. Building right against a cliff face definitely posed lighting problems.
"There will surely be light after noon. The lighting should be best just before sunset." The topic was becoming awkward because Habara genuinely hadn't considered it. "How about we change direction and start carving the mountain again?"
"No, no need! The light will come after noon!"
"Right, right! We're ninja, naturally suited to living in darkness. Who needs lighting?"
To prevent Habara from ordering a complete redo, some ninja started spouting nonsense. They really didn't want to do that work all over again.
"Alright then. Tenzo, get to work," Habara said, seeing that no one else seemed to find fault with his design.
With no other choice, Tenzo began weaving hand seals.
Thick, square wooden pillars grew methodically from the ground and the cliff face, rapidly assembling like building blocks.
Wooden beams, floorboards, ceilings, walls, partitions – Tenzo wasn't just building frames; he had to handle as much of the interior finishing as possible. The task was mentally taxing. He was only halfway done when his chakra ran out.
Mostly, it was the mental exhaustion. They were supposed to be a team, yet here he was, the only one working while over twenty others just watched. What was that about?
"So this is Wood Release…"
"Truly impressive, Wood Release."
Similar murmurs occasionally reached Tenzo's ears, making him feel increasingly like chattel slave labor.
While Tenzo worked, Habara strolled around the platform. He planned to plant two large trees below. The trees needed to be tall enough, partly to conceal Daigo's 'antenna' at their crowns, and partly because he intended to build two ring-shaped structures around their trunks, serving as office areas, similar in function to Konoha's Hokage Office Building.
Seeing Tenzo collapse from exhaustion, Habara slapped his forehead. "Right, almost forgot about this."
He formed hand seals, used the Summoning Technique, and summoned the puppet made from Daigo's original body.
Although functionally identical to other puppets Daigo controlled, this one held special significance as her former body. Daigo was quite attached to it. Since they were relocating, she naturally wanted to bring her 'humanoid figure' along. If Tenzo was willing to follow Habara, Daigo's position needed no explanation at all.
"What about Konoha?" Habara sometimes treated the Daigo puppet as Daigo herself, preferring face-to-face conversation.
"I left a standard puppet there to replace me," Daigo replied through the puppet.
"Good."
The systems back in Konoha wouldn't crash just because this specific Daigo puppet left. She had placed a standard puppet there, functionally identical, ensuring the three major systems continued operating normally.
However, swapping the 'humanoid figure' for a standard puppet undoubtedly felt somewhat awkward… highlighting the importance of a 'Graphical User Interface.'
As they spoke, Daigo walked over to Tenzo, placed her hand on his shoulder, and in an instant, Tenzo's depleted chakra was replenished. Tenzo felt revitalized.
But he wasn't happy about it.
Konoha Village.
Two reports lay on Kushina Uzumaki's desk.
One was a joint application from several ordinary ninja. Upon hearing that Jonin Habara had to leave the village to establish an external stronghold, they had independently requested permission to go and assist him.
The other was from Hyuga Hizashi of the Hyuga clan. He wished to take his son, Hyuga Neji, to Habara's location because Habara was Neji's teacher, and a student couldn't learn anything separated from their master. Hizashi himself intended to accompany them under the pretext that his son was too young and needed looking after.
Kushina Uzumaki sighed. Habara's influence among the younger generation, especially the commoner ninja, was truly significant, she thought.
Kushina, after all, came from a ninja clan – the esteemed Uzumaki clan, no less. From the moment she arrived in Konoha, the village had always valued her highly. Although she faced some mistreatment due to being the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki, the attention and importance placed upon her never diminished.
Therefore, there were many things she couldn't empathize with from a commoner ninja's perspective. Even though her husband, the Fourth Hokage, was also a commoner ninja, the Fourth was ultimately different… His exceptional talent allowed him to soar above the rest, a tree standing out in the forest. Commoner ninja naturally followed him, feeling proud of him.
But Habara was different. He was also a highly capable ninja, but the distinction lay in his creation of a platform for collective advancement. He was willing to lead everyone through challenges, forging ahead together… Although Habara never proclaimed any grand ideology or served as a guiding beacon, the expectations ordinary ninja placed on him were different even from those once held for the Fourth Hokage.
Thinking carefully, how did commoner ninja improve their skills before? Through the Academy's education? That was almost laughable. Konoha's Ninja Academy, frankly speaking, wasn't it just providing a form of 'happy education'? How were strong ninja truly trained? Mostly, within their own homes and clans.
Educational equality was something Konoha couldn't achieve.
Kushina frowned as she approved the applications from these ninja. In principle, she agreed. Since Konoha hadn't provided much official support for Habara's departure, she couldn't very well block the spontaneous support from the ninja themselves.
She could understand why some commoner ninja wanted to help Habara, but what was the deal with the Hyuga?
Kushina felt her brain struggling to keep up again.
She stood up and walked to the window. Opening it, she immediately heard cheerful shouts and laughter from outside. The reason was simple: Konoha's leadership had just announced Tsunade's succession as the Fifth Hokage.
Several days later, in a town near the border of the Land of Fire.
"Is he still not giving up?"
Tsunade mentally clicked her tongue. She glanced at Jiraiya trailing not far behind her, feeling he had never been this annoying in his entire life.
"If it's for Konoha's sake, why don't you just go back and be Hokage yourself?" she muttered under her breath again.
Suddenly, the conversation of two passersby reached Tsunade's ears.
"Did you hear? Konoha selected the Fifth Hokage."
"Really?"
"Yeah, really."
The exchange made Tsunade halt. She secretly breathed a sigh of relief. If there was a Fifth Hokage, then Jiraiya would have no reason to keep following her. Then, curiosity struck: who exactly had succeeded to the position?
"Who is it? Which ninja became the new Hokage?" one passerby asked the other.
"It's the granddaughter of the First Hokage, one of the legendary Sannin, Lady Tsunade."
This…
Tsunade completely blanked out. Her mind stalled for a good while before she processed that they were talking about her.
Tsunade? Granddaughter of the First, one of the Sannin – yes, that was definitely her. But when had she agreed to become Hokage?
Who is the Fifth Hokage? Tsunade. Who is Tsunade? Me. Am I the Fifth Hokage? No. See, the logic doesn't form a closed loop!
Snapping back to reality, Tsunade whipped her head around. She saw Jiraiya standing by the roadside, currently hitting on a passing woman.
This man was so lecherous, so utterly…
Punchable.
Tsunade stalked towards Jiraiya, her anger barely contained. The woman he was pestering was immediately scared off.
"Tsunade, what do you say? Have you thought it through? Come back to the village with me; Konoha needs you now," Jiraiya instantly adopted a serious expression, as if the street loafer from moments ago wasn't him at all.
He shouldn't have brought that up. The mere mention made Tsunade start clenching her fists.
"Jiraiya, did you relay some incorrect information back to the village?" Tsunade asked, forcing herself to keep her anger in check.
Seeing Tsunade's attitude, Jiraiya felt a bit puzzled. Normally, she just expressed disdain towards him, like avoiding stepping in dog crap. But what was this? It felt like she had stepped in it. "No, I haven't contacted Konoha these past few days. Regarding the village, I've consistently said that once you've made up your mind, you'll definitely return."
His words nearly made Tsunade's eyebrows shoot up. "And do you think I've made up my mind now?"
"Now?" Jiraiya looked Tsunade up and down, his gaze lingering somewhere below her neck and above her waist. He then said, "That depends on the voice of your heart. Your heart's walls are too thick; perhaps even you don't understand your own true feelings."
"Whether I've made up my mind or not, I don't need anyone else making decisions for me!"
Jiraiya barely had time to look up before he found himself flying backward. A sharp pain in his shoulder told him he'd just taken a solid punch.
He crashed straight through the fireworks shop across the street. Amidst screams and the rapidly spreading smell of gunpowder, the shop immediately burst into flames and explosions.
"Truly… an unprovoked… disaster…"
Jiraiya had no idea what taboo he had just broken. They were both well past their prime; surely just looking a bit lecherously wouldn't earn him a beating? That couldn't be right. Otherwise, he'd be getting beaten up daily.