Kirigakure.
A full half year had passed since Araki returned from the moon.
During that half year, the flames of war and unrest within every nation still raged on without end, while Kirigakure's development was also striding forward by leaps and bounds.
Sasori of the Red Sands studied the Otsutsuki clan materials Araki had brought back while beginning to train puppeteers. At the same time, he was also responsible for planning the Sea Train, making him the busiest person in the entire village.
The ones assisting him were Kana and Sara.
Sara was the young queen of Rōran. She had now become Sasori of the Red Sands's disciple, studying the Puppetry Technique alongside him.
The people of Rōran had also been secretly brought out and settled on a small island with a fairly decent environment.
Speaking of which, with the three of them gathered together, it really did feel somewhat like the Uzumaki Clan was reviving.
However, Araki had not concerned himself with any of the above for a long time.
Over this period, he had almost emptied his mind completely, sparing no energy to pay attention to anything else as he threw himself wholeheartedly into his contests with Unohana Retsu.
After absorbing the soul energy the Otsutsuki clan had accumulated over a thousand years, he believed that, in terms of soul strength, he should no longer be inferior to her... or at the very least, the two of them were now on the same order of magnitude.
And in truth, it was indeed as he had thought. When he faced Unohana Retsu again, he was no longer as powerless as before, no longer cut down to the ground in just a few casual slashes.
But that did not mean he could immediately defeat her either.
It only meant that