Time slipped by quietly. In the blink of an eye, a month had passed, and Arata Itsuki had spent nearly every single day immersed in training.
The tension of the approaching war grew heavier as the days went on. All of Konoha was on the move, its ninja mobilizing one after another.
Even genin like Nawaki were being sent out constantly on missions.
Tsunade too had begun training in earnest. As a front-line combatant, she couldn't afford to focus solely on medical reform right now.
But Arata—the "ANBU vice-captain" in name—hadn't received a single mission.
He couldn't help but wonder if the Third Hokage had simply forgotten about him.
But during a later meeting with Uzumaki Mito, Arata realized he was overthinking it.
Mito filled him in on all the major and minor events happening in Konoha during this period.
This included the private conversation between Hiruzen Sarutobi and the daimyō—
and several subsequent secret discussions between Hiruzen and Danzō.
All of it had been intercepted by Mito the moment it happened.
Learning that the war might erupt within two months at most, Arata's pressure grew heavier. Even with Kage-level strength, once a conflict involving tens of thousands of ninja broke out, an individual's power had limits.
In such a war, only super-Kage-level fighters could guarantee their survival—
and even then, only at the peak of that tier.
Look at Tobirama Senju: in the Fourth Great Ninja War he was strong enough to one-shot Orochimaru with a flick of his finger. A true super-Kage.
And yet he still died in the First Great Ninja War.
Whether there were hidden schemes behind his death didn't matter—what mattered was that even super-Kage could fall on a battlefield of nations.
As for the daimyō's real identity—if he truly was Hiruzen Sarutobi's father, then he could only be Sarutobi Sasuke, the legendary shinobi revered by the Uchiha clan.
Uchiha Sasuke's later name was chosen as a tribute to him.
Arata was stunned at first, but thinking it through, it made sense.
The man controlling an entire nation's finances and logistics couldn't possibly be unrelated to the Hokage.
From Mito's explanations, Arata also learned that before Sarutobi Sasuke, the position of Fire Daimyō had alternated between the Uchiha and the Senju—until the founding of Konoha, when the Senju monopolized it.
Their surname was merely hidden to maintain "mystique."
But what truly crushed Arata's confidence…
was the mention of that Great Monkey Sage that Sarutobi Sasuke had referenced.
In the world of Naruto, anyone bearing the title sage was a monster.
The sages of the Three Great Holy Lands.
The Toad Sage Jiraiya.
The Sage of Six Paths—beyond legendary.
Even Mito, who knew almost everything, could only say that the Monkey Sage's strength was "astonishing," surpassing her by an entire level.
She couldn't describe anything deeper.
Arata felt the first real weight of despair.
He had assumed Mito's presence on his side meant he could face the world.
Now he realized how naïve that thought had been.
And thinking deeper—so many things about summons and holy lands in the original story remained shrouded in vague mystery. Even the true nature of the Three Holy Lands was questionable.
There was one thing Mito didn't tell Arata:
the Third Hokage had seemingly realized he was being monitored.
Recently, he had been frequently leaving the village in subtle ways—
preventing Mito from intercepting his decisions in real time.
This gave her a bad feeling, but seeing Arata already under pressure, she couldn't bring herself to tell him yet.
After this conversation, Arata's training became even more intense—
to the point he barely spent time teaching little Shizune anymore.
The girl was young. Training her chakra could wait a year.
Still, Arata assigned her some basic taijutsu drills—
with her talent being average, she needed to build her foundation early or she'd struggle later.
---
Time flew under Arata's relentless will.
Konoha Year 29, January arrived.
By now, the village had fully begun its pre-war mobilization.
Border forces had more than doubled.
Even the great clans had committed their members without holding back.
The Sarutobi clan itself had dispatched most of its ninja, preparing for the possibility of facing all four major villages at once.
And it wasn't just Konoha—Sunagakure, Iwagakure, Kumogakure, and even Amegakure were all reinforcing their borders.
Anyone with even a bit of awareness could tell—
War was imminent.
You could sleep one night and wake to the outbreak the next morning.
During this period, Arata finally made time to use the Hyperbolic Time Chamber.
His pressure was immense—he saw no reason to delay.
The day after speaking with Mito, he found a secluded area and activated it.
The moment he entered, he felt violently uncomfortable.
It was a world identical in size to the shinobi world—
yet filled with nothing but endless white.
No buildings, no rooms, no amenities.
Not even the sleeping and bathing area seen in Dragon Ball.
He silently thanked himself for preparing food and water.
Otherwise he would've starved to death in this void.
Then came the extreme temperatures—
nearly 50°C at its hottest,
below -50°C at its coldest.
Enough to kill an ordinary person in a single day.
Arata's enhanced body barely endured.
But the most terrifying feature was the tenfold gravity.
Under this pressure, even a jōnin's organs could rupture at any moment.
Fortunately, Arata had improved his medical ninjutsu beforehand.
Aside from the initial shock, he relied on healing and sheer willpower to adapt.
He could have nullified the gravity by turning into lightning—
but that would defeat the purpose.
So whenever he trained taijutsu, he deliberately disabled his element form.
And the results were beyond excellent.
This training environment was several times more effective than anything in the shinobi world.