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But that was also because Tōji didn't need to gather intel himself…

Otherwise, he'd rather "fabricate" some intel than go to Kirigakure or its surroundings.

He couldn't imagine it—if Tōji casually made up a few reports and sent them back to Konoha for Namikaze Minato to read, the whole world might "fall into chaos."

But for now, Konoha had only sent a small number of jōnin to spy on Kirigakure—namely Kokubō Kenji and his team—so Tōji wasn't worried about ending up in too dangerous a situation himself.

Given how little Konoha knew about Kirigakure at the time, Tōji figured he might never even live to see the day he was actually put at risk.

Forget about infiltrating Kirigakure—Tōji didn't believe anyone from Konoha could get intel out. 『Unless Minato goes to gather intel himself!』

From then on, Tōji spent half of each day handling his self-sufficient farming chores, and the other half pretending to be a fisherman out at sea—while actually training in secret…

The Land of Water had more Kiri-nin patrolling than the Land of Seas. But it was mostly for show—those patrol squads were usually just two chūnin… If even the borders only got that level of manpower, the internal power struggle in Kirigakure would probably soon turn into open conflict!

And… the number of genin seemed lower than expected. Had the "Bloody Mist policy" already severely affected the survival rate of new shinobi…

『This Obito is even more ruthless than the previous Kiri rulers…』 If you only looked at "performance" and not feelings, Obito had truly darkened to the extreme.

『Still, Madara was cuter!』 While developing new jutsu, Tōji would rest and compare the two men pulling strings behind the scenes in Kirigakure—two Uchiha big shots…

『By the way, could Madara's 【Tengai Shinsei】 be imitated with Earth Release…』 Tōji's thoughts began to wander again.

After witnessing Kamizuki Izumo create the "Mizuame" jutsu from scratch, Tōji truly believed that inventing jutsu required imagination!

And Tōji had plenty of "references"—he could just "borrow" from the original story he'd seen in his past life!

『I can't make a meteorite, but could I use Earth-nature chakra to condense a giant boulder…』 Once inspiration struck, Tōji couldn't tear himself away…

Days of inventing jutsu were like that—soaring freely on inspiration, then trying over and over, piecing together the path to success from failures… Amid the daily ups and downs, there were occasional little surprises.

Autumn was short, and winter was short too, because Lanxi Town was far to the south. Spring came as well—but spring would also be brief.

Who would've thought Tōji would coast so comfortably all the way to March of Konoha Year 48.

『Uzumaki Naruto…』 Tōji remembered that he himself had become a chūnin exactly a year ago, and Namikaze Minato had become the Fourth Hokage last March… And now, Kushina should be discovering she was pregnant.

Thinking about this, Tōji began to feel some concern for his parents back in Konoha.

『I hope Mom and Dad follow what the scroll says!』 Before leaving home, he'd actually been less worried than he was now…

『I wonder if Natchi's finished his mission… And Neru—did she really go check on Genta…』

Whenever he thought about the coming Nine-Tails Incident, Tōji's faint, almost nonexistent "noble sentiments" gave him a slight urge to go have a chat with Minato.

『When will they transfer me back to Konoha!』 Tōji still hoped—that when his parents needed him most, he could be there!

In this life, the ones he owed the most were his parents. It was precisely because he disliked bonds that he'd never made many friends.

So he could "coldly" watch others die one by one.

As long as he could survive comfortably, that was enough.

Everyone else was just fated!