Konoha.
As the village's borders gradually settled down after the Nine-Tails turmoil, Konoha seemed to have returned to peacetime, brimming with renewed vitality everywhere.
The Konoha Military Police Force managed a Training Ground beside the forest, where the sounds of bodies and weapons clashing rang out continuously.
Inside the Training Ground, Mitaraishi Anko panted heavily, her forehead covered in sweat. Her mesh undersuit was drenched through, and she stood there with her little mouth open, gulping down fresh air.
"Yoru, you... how did you improve so much?"
Across from her stood Uchiha Yoru, looking relaxed and casual, a smile on his face. After their spar, Mitaraishi Anko was clearly nearly exhausted, while he remained full of energy.
"Anko, it's not that I improved that much. It's that your training seems to have gotten a little lax lately. Teacher Orochimaru specifically asked me to keep an eye on you."
Seeing Mitaraishi Anko panting so hard, Uchiha Yoru's smile widened. She was the perfect helper. Orochimaru was bound to clash with Konoha's older generation in politics, and when that happened, the fallout would be considerable.
Orochimaru's departure would also signal the collapse of the forces gathered under Orochimaru's Political System. Anko would be among the first to suffer from it, and a genius would fall from grace.
After Orochimaru left, Mitaraishi Anko seemed to have barely grown at all. Even in the later years, she still used ninjutsu Orochimaru had taught her long ago. It was clear what her life had been like all those years.
He had to prepare for a rainy day. Orochimaru's failure was inevitable, but he did not want the disastrous defeat from the original story to directly trigger an avalanche-like collapse of his forces. Before that collapse came, he wanted to use his current status to inherit