Barrier Upgrade, End of the Third Shinobi World War

In other matters, he had yet to fully master the experiment of using the Chimera Technique to fuse a second bloodline.

Sure enough, fusing a second bloodline was far more difficult than fusing just one. By the time he reached the fifth bloodline, he would probably have to learn from Hiruko and seek out the right location and timing.

But an annular solar eclipse was far too demanding a condition. He needed to make some adjustments to the requirements of the Chimera Technique.

For now, both his experiments and chakra training had to be put on hold.

He had been away from Konoha for quite some time. He never set a fixed duration for completing his missions, precisely to avoid establishing a pattern that others might notice.

This time, however, he had already been away for as long as originally planned, so returning was a must.

Minamoto Takuya looked at the meteorite in his hand, thought for a moment, and sealed it into a scroll with Sealing Jutsu.

There was still plenty of time. There was no rush to let that arm of the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path take on the form of a "Tailed Beast," so he could bring it back to Konoha and continue cultivating it. Completing his star chakra training would still be a significant boost to his combat strength.

Besides that, Minamoto Takuya surveyed his surroundings. This underground base was simply too vast.

And with White Zetsu's all-pervasive escape techniques, he had to take precautions.

Fortunately, this was not the Fourth Ninja World War, so the other side had to consider the expenditure of White Zetsu as well. They would not deploy an army of a hundred thousand White Zetsu—at most, a few dozen or a few hundred.

At that moment, he was somewhat relieved that it was White Zetsu and not Black Zetsu.

If it were Black Zetsu, no matter how vigilant he was, he would never be able to detect its infiltration.

After all, it was an existence that had once deceived the Sage of Six Paths!

There was only one Black Zetsu, and only one Obito Uchiha. What a blessing.

One had deceived the Sage of Six Paths, while the other possessed an ability that could completely ignore barrier-type Sealing Jutsu. They were impossible to guard against.

Now, Minamoto Takuya planned to overhaul the Sealing Jutsu in the Experiment Base, using his enhanced chakra to set it all up.

"Shadow Clone Technique!"

He formed hand seals and produced four or five Shadow Clones. After exchanging a glance, they split up and got to work.

The Shadow Clones were responsible for setting up Sealing Jutsu along the walls surrounding the Experiment Base, while he laid a barrier around its outer perimeter.

This barrier was not meant to stop intruders from entering. Rather, the moment chakra entered it, it would immediately trigger the Summoning Technique, allowing him, far away in Konoha, to instantly learn that a chakra-bearing creature had entered the barrier.

What if that creature was not White Zetsu? That did not matter. Whatever it was, it warranted caution.

After all, he had already cleared out all the Summoned Beasts around the Experiment Base. The only creatures left were ordinary animals without chakra. Even if such animals passed through the barrier, they would not trigger an alarm.

Thus, he had yet to be summoned directly from within Konoha's barrier due to a barrier alert.

In truth, being summoned once or twice would not attract much attention. People in Konoha used the Summoning Technique to summon all sorts of Summoned Beasts. His case involved being summoned instead, which was a little unusual, but as long as it did not happen often, no one would realize it was him.

Now, if the barrier summoned him over, the first thing he needed to determine was who had intruded.

If it was not White Zetsu, but some ninja who had stumbled upon the place by chance, then he could simply kill them.

But if it was White Zetsu, then he would have to relocate the base. In truth, Sealing Jutsu had been inscribed on most of the important equipment inside the Experiment Base, allowing it all to be transferred in a short time.

He had an entire set of contingency plans for that.

Still, if possible, he hoped those plans would never have to be used.

He was not worried about whether the barrier could detect White Zetsu. No matter how good White Zetsu was at concealing its presence, entering this base required Earth Release, which inevitably required chakra!

After completing the barrier upgrade, Minamoto Takuya put on his mask and left using the Summoning Technique.

"Has anything major happened recently?" Minamoto Takuya asked as he sat at the table drinking tea.

"My lord, there is one matter we have only heard about. It seems the war between the various ninja villages has ended this time." The person beside him was one of the leaders Minamoto Takuya had recruited, and he kept his eyes fixed on Minamoto Takuya's feet.

Even though Minamoto Takuya had removed his mask, the man did not dare raise his eyes even once.

In fact, even if he did look up, he would see only a blurry image—and would also be tortured by the Life-Death Talisman.

Minamoto Takuya was quite pleased by the man's tact and rewarded him with some money.

His words did remind him of something. Calculating the time, it was indeed about time for the Ninja World War to end.

Come to think of it, although Nagato and the other two had been deceived, resulting in Yahiko's death, their goal at the time had technically been achieved.

Had Hanzo not deceived them by claiming he would rely on the Akatsuki Organization's strength to present a Peace Negotiation Proposal to the major nations?

And now, the goal of ending the war had been accomplished, though unfortunately, it was not because of the Akatsuki Organization.

Minamoto Takuya shook his head. Yahiko and the other two had been too limited by their perspective in the Land of Rain. They saw only the severe losses suffered by the Land of Rain, yet failed to notice that the major nations had also been enormously drained. Even if no one had proposed peace, the war could not have continued much longer.

Thus, they fell into the schemes of Hanzo and Shimura Danzō, and Yahiko died on the spot.

Such was the sorrow of small nations and their ninja in times of war.

Of course, he was only sighing over it. If they had not fallen for the trap, he would have found it troublesome instead. Who would have summoned out the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path he wanted?

If Nagato had been given time to recover, it would have become extremely difficult for him to obtain fragments of the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path from him!

As Minamoto Takuya considered what would happen after the end of the Third Shinobi World War, one thing was quite clear: after the war ended, Minato Namikaze became the Fourth Hokage.

Perhaps Konoha was now full of stories about Minato Namikaze's extraordinary feats on the battlefield, building momentum for him.

That made this the perfect time for him to return to Konoha.

As for what Minato Namikaze did after becoming the Fourth Hokage, Minamoto Takuya could not remember anything particularly notable. He only remembered the Nine-Tails Incident during Minato Namikaze's tenure, in which Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki both died.

It was not difficult to understand. The war had only just ended, and every nation was naturally recuperating, so it was perfectly normal for nothing much to happen.

It seemed he did not have too much to do during this period. He could use it to digest everything he had accumulated so far.

Body training to increase his chakra reserves, training in various ninjutsu, studying and improving his Sealing Jutsu, continuing his research into the Chimera Technique, fusing the second bloodline, and devising a method to awaken the Sharingan after fusing the Uchiha bloodline...

After thinking through everything he needed to do and sighing that there was so damn much of it, Minamoto Takuya rose to his feet and headed toward Konoha.

Next, he would welcome Konoha's new Hokage, Minato Namikaze!