Hiruzen Sarutobi cultivated for a long time this time, and several years passed in the blink of an eye.
Hiruzen Sarutobi successfully entered the Mid-Stage Foundation Establishment!
Miki Xiaoai had reached the Seventh-Level Qi Refining, while Tsunade had reached the Fifth Layer of Qi Refining.
The new generation of Konoha ninja, Shisui and Itachi's generation, had fully matured. Naruto and Sasuke had also entered the Ninja Academy and begun their studies.
The greatest changes had been to the Shinobi World's landscape during this time.
Other than steadily expanding, Konoha had not waged any external wars.
However, the small nations surrounding the Land of Fire had already been completely brought under control in secret. Hoshigakure and the Craft Ninja Village had fully joined Konoha, retaining only their original names.
The Shinobi World had entered a rare period of peace, mainly because of the immense benefits Konoha had gained after absorbing and controlling the Land of Fire.
The Land of Fire's ruling class now existed in name only. The daimyō was now only responsible for managing the country and retained some status and standing, but he could no longer issue orders to Konoha as he once had. Instead, he had to follow Konoha's arrangements.
The Hokage Building had also been expanded many times and was now the tallest and grandest structure in all of Konoha.
"Teacher, the exploration has been completed."
The ship Hiruzen Sarutobi had instructed Orochimaru to build had long since been finished. With the Zero-Tails and Four-Tails as its power source, along with the technologies of the Sky Ninja and Seimei, it was an absolute war fortress.
"Just as we predicted, other continents exist beyond the Shinobi World, but all of them are barren!"
The Shinobi World was actually very small, only a tiny part of the planet.
Yet