As Tsunade kept reading, she became more and more interested and began to understand the situation.
In short, Raizen's plan worked extremely well. As they continued to defeat camps, Iwa's side began to realize what was happening, but by the time they replaced the losses, another camp had already been taken down at incredible speed. This went on for almost a month, until Iwa's side finally realized that continuing to send ninjas like that was unviable and deployed ninjas to all camps, even those that were still standing, which finally ended the chain reaction started by Kushina's team.
During the remaining month, some injured ninjas were withdrawn from the front lines, while others returned for different reasons and spread the news.
As normal people, civilians naturally feared war and everything it would bring. Not only them, but also the families of ninjas were worried. However, to the surprise of most, almost no wounded or corpses had been sent back during the first month, normally the period when the most are sent due to many still getting used to war, which surprised them and made them want to find out the reason.
When they learned about Kushina's team maneuver, most of the popularity went to Kushina and the other three jonin. Of those, two jonin were not well known and had no great stories during the battles, so they were pushed aside, and Raizen, being an Uchiha, was not someone many felt sympathy for. Thus, people ended up talking about Kushina, especially because her feats and strength warranted it, and because she already had some fame in the village.
Tsunade saw this and realized how strange everything was.
It was not strange for a ninja to gain many merits and popularity in a war. However, this usually took time, because an opportunity was needed. Most cases involved something that helped end the war or escape from a desperate situation. Kushina, however, created her own opportunity without waiting for others to do something.
Because of this, Tsunade could no longer criticize the old man.
"I suppose I was wrong, but... what do you think?"
"What do I think?" Hiruzen asked.
"That is right, haven't you spent years preparing Minato to be Hokage? You had better not be planning anything against Kushina," Tsunade said.
"Do you think I would do that? In the end, Konoha decides the Hokage. Minato is the option I chose in case there are no good candidates, he is not necessarily the next Hokage," Hiruzen explained.
"Maybe you would not, but that old fox Danzo surely would."
"Do not worry about Danzo, in the end he has to obey the Hokage's orders, whether he likes it or not.
And, in any case, Kushina's current merits are not enough to become Hokage."
"Yet," Tsunade added before leaving, still uneasy.
At the same time she left, Hiruzen took his pipe and smoked for a bit before calling a nearby ANBU.
"Hokage-sama," the masked ninja knelt before Hiruzen as soon as he appeared.
"Tell Shikaku to delay what we talked about a little" Hiruzen said without explaining. The ANBU did not need an explanation and disappeared immediately.
While this was happening, Kushina on the battlefield was happy with the current situation. However, there was someone even happier than her, and that was Kaito.
---
'Finally!' Kaito shouted internally, excited.
When Kaito learned that the current world of the Tower of Worlds was mid-level and that he would need synchronization points, which he did not have, he decided to split his entire team evenly.
And splitting them evenly in terms of strength, he sent everyone else one way and came alone.
The moment he appeared, he understood why he needed synchronization points.
When he opened his eyes, he felt an unprecedented weakness. Not only did his body feel fragile, without any abilities or any of the strength he had gained in Gaia, but he felt even weaker than when he first entered Gaia.
His first instinct was to look at himself in a mirror, but he could not move. His second instinct was to speak, but he could not either. Instead, an infant's cry came out of his mouth, and that was when he realized he was a baby.
From there, he had to endure years of boredom, nothing more than the life of a growing child.
He asked the system when he could return to normal, and it told him that using just one of the objects of death he had to obtain in this mission should be enough. In addition, with a balance of zero synchronization points, he could only bring one ability into this world, so he chose omnipotence.
Luckily for Kaito, Japan is a country that greatly values intelligence and children's grades, so just by having good grades, not only his parents but even his teachers allowed him to use the console that connects to the Naruto world everywhere.
In the end, Kaito became a genius child who never talked to others and was always with his portable console, but Kaito did not really care. His goal was simply to grow enough to move freely and discover one of the objects of death in the world.
And it did not take long for him to find two.
The first was very obvious. Literally all of Europe and part of Africa were under the command of an empire called the Holy Britannian Empire, and it continued to expand, seeking to conquer more and more.
The possibility of Kaito defeating them was absolute zero. There was no way that, with an ability that only lasted thirty seconds and only worked within a one-kilometer radius, Kaito could defeat that.
The only possibility would be if the emperor were within his range. That way, the moment he took his eye and regained all his abilities, he could fight an entire empire of normal people.
But that was impossible. There was no way for him to get there on his own, and his parents would never take him to a place as dangerous as the Holy Britannian Empire.
Because of this, Kaito had to keep searching, and after searching for quite a while, he finally found something else he recognized from his memories.
Beika City, the city where the story of Detective Conan takes place. It took him quite some time to find it, because despite the name, it is not really a city, but rather what the western part of Tokyo is called for some reason.
After continuing to search and finding nothing else, Kaito chose this option to try to return to his normal form.
After deciding, he tried to identify the object he needed to find. At first he thought it would be APTX 4869, but that was created by Haibara, so it made no sense. Then, realizing he had no idea, he thought it must be something invented by those who created this world. Since Beika existed, there was no way there was not one of the objects of death there.
In the end, Kaito came up with a few theories, but he still had nothing certain.
'They are objects of death, so someone bad must have them, right? Then it must be with The Wine Cellar, the name of the Black Organization in Detective Conan.'
So he convinced his parents to enroll him in Teitan Elementary School and waited for the arrival of the protagonist, and finally Haibara, who would lead him to The Wine Cellar.
"I cannot believe I waited years to test such a stupid theory like, it sounds evil, so the bad guys must have it.
If I at least had my inventory, I could have checked it using an 'uncertain possibility'" Kaito muttered.
"Kaito, did you say something?" asked Ayumi, a small girl with short brown hair who sat next to him.
"Nothing" Kaito said, pretending to be a seven-year-old, something he had somehow already gotten used to.
"Are you not playing your game today?" Ayumi asked curiously.
"Not today, I want to pay attention in class."
"That is great, school is very fun. I always tell you that you have to pay more attention.
Ah, the teacher is here, we will talk later," Ayumi whispered the last sentence before returning to her seat.
At that moment, the teacher stepped forward with a small girl with short light brown hair and a serious, bored expression.
"Class, today I want to introduce someone to you. She will be your new classmate starting today, could you introduce yourself?"
"Haibara Ai" the girl said curtly, and the teacher smiled awkwardly.
"W-well, it seems Haibara is quite shy. How about you sit in the empty seat on the right?"
Haibara nodded and sat right next to Kaito, who suppressed the urge to immediately ask her where The Wine Cellar was so he could escape his infant body.
Haibara noticed this and thought something was wrong.
"Are you okay?"
"Yes, just very excited" Kaito replied.
Keeping his excitement to himself, Kaito waited through the school hours, which felt endless.
Finally, the day ended and Kaito wanted to talk to Haibara, but others arrived before him.
"Haibara, where are you from?"
"Why did you suddenly transfer?"
"Do you want to be our friend?"
Several children approached and tried to talk to her, only to be frustrated by her attitude.
In the end, only Ayumi, Mitsuhiko, and Genta, the members of the Detective Boys, remained, along with Conan.
"Haibara, do you want to be part of the Detective Boys?"
"Detective?" Haibara asked, curious about the word.
"We investigate cases like real detectives" Mitsuhiko boasted.
"That is right" Genta nodded as well.
"Is Edogawa also part of it?" Haibara asked, looking at Conan with clear interest.
"Yes, Conan is the smartest among us" Ayumi nodded.
But Conan denied her statement.
"I am not smarter, I am more observant."
"Isn't that the same?"
"A smart person can solve something only once they have all the data. An observant person can find the data that makes up the answer" Conan said.
'Did he basically say he is even better than someone smart?' Kaito thought.
However, at that moment Conan looked at him.
"For example, today Takayama did not use his console, which he usually uses eighty percent of the time. Instead, at least three times every hour he looked toward Haibara. He also showed several other habits, such as tapping his pencil, moving his foot, among others, which indicate that he wants time to pass quickly. Combined with the fact that he stayed late, it indicates that he wants to do something, probably tell you something" Conan explained to Haibara.
"Do you want to tell me something?" Haibara looked at Kaito with curiosity.
But before Kaito could say anything.
"However, the fact that he did not say anything during class nor now means that he probably wants to tell you when you are alone" Conan added.
"Conan, do you not want to go show off somewhere else?" Kaito said, annoyed.
"Oh, look who reacts, he usually ignores everyone while pretending to be superior," Conan said.
"At least I..." Kaito stopped halfway. 'No, how did I end up arguing with a kid?'
Seeing him fall silent, Conan looked at him with a confident smile.
'That brat' Kaito complained internally.
______________________________________
+15 chapters in advance on Patreon.
p-atreon.com/IAMME26
(just delete the hyphen)
80 power stones = 1 extra chapter (cumulative)