Infiltrating Konoha

After getting close to Konoha, Oguri Hayashi stopped training this way. This method of pressuring himself, similar to a Gravity Chamber, was indeed highly effective for training.

When he canceled the Heavier Rock Technique, his entire body suddenly felt light. A slight lift of his leg could send him shooting forward in an instant. In just half a month, the strengthening effect he had gained was far beyond what ordinary weight training could achieve.

No wonder those Super Saiyans liked Gravity Chambers so much. This kind of weight burden affected every part of the body—not just the muscles, but also the bones, meridians, and internal organs. Everything was crushed by gravity, and one had to resist that pressure with all one's strength.

It could be said that this kind of gravity enhancement was truly the best way to train the body.

Moreover, Oguri Hayashi's training did not end there. While training his body, he maintained the Heavier Rock Technique. While tempering his physique, he was also training his Chakra and spirit.

His entire being remained in a delicate state of balance as he strove to maintain equilibrium between his spirit, body, and Chakra.

Now, whenever he trained, he trained all three at once.

Oguri Hayashi had finally found his path.

Or, in the words of this world, this was his Ninja Way.

Having finally found the strengthening path best suited to him, all he needed to do next was sprint down that road without looking back.

Like an ordinary person, he dispelled the Heavier Rock Technique and slowly headed toward Konoha.

Konoha was not like Kumogakure, where ordinary people who wanted to enter the village had to climb dozens of mountains and traverse winding mountain roads before arriving.

Built on flat land, with main roads extending in every direction, Konoha possessed the most prosperous trade routes in the world. It was precisely because merchants and nobles could easily travel to Konoha to commission missions that Konoha's ninja village had achieved such brilliance.

To put it bluntly, if commissioning a mission required trekking through endless winding mountain roads, who would be willing to go?

What was more, many missions involved matters that could not see the light of day. Clients had to explain them in person to ensure secrecy. After commissioning a mission in Konoha, they could also spend lavishly and enjoy themselves in its bustling streets. But what about Iwagakure and Kumogakure? Even their lodgings were cramped and oppressive. No normal person would want to go there, right?

If Iwagakure and Kumogakure had not monopolized the ninja missions in the Land of Earth and the Land of Thunder, and if those two countries had not been so far from Konoha, would those two ninja villages even have any business left?

As he traveled toward Konoha, the number of people on the road gradually increased. Some were nobles traveling for pleasure, some were merchants heading out to trade, and even more were Konoha civilians carrying their goods into the city to sell.

The people of Konoha had often complained that the First Hokage had placed the village somewhere without any natural defenses.

But in Oguri Hayashi's view, the First Hokage had been a man of extraordinary vision and ambition.

After sealing the Tailed Beasts, he had distributed them among the various villages according to their relative strength, maintaining a balance of power. Every village that possessed a Tailed Beast was equivalent to possessing a nuclear bomb.

They could maintain the most basic level of deterrence, ensuring that even if a village became weak in a certain generation, it would not be wiped out.

The ninja world then finally entered a fairly long period of peace, until the rise of the Land of Rain.

The entire Second Ninja War had been Hanzo of the Salamander, Amegakure's absurdly domineering leader, picking fights with everyone under the heavens.

It had to be said that Hanzo of the Salamander, the demigod, had truly reached an incredible realm of strength. He fought everyone—after taking on the Stone Shinobi, he took on the Sand Shinobi, then turned his attention to Konoha.

And yet, he had actually survived, leading the Land of Rain to stand proudly between the three great nations.

That was the true deterrent power of a Kage-level expert.

Furthermore, Hanzo was not merely strong himself. The poison gas released by his Summoned Beast, Ibuse, was even better suited for large-scale ninja warfare. In the Land of Rain's terrain of endless rainfall, the poison gas could not disperse at all. Most Genin and Chunin enemies would be poisoned and collapse before they even saw it.

It could be said that Hanzo was already recognized as one of the strongest people in the ninja world.

Back then, even the three Sannin joining forces against Hanzo had been unable to defeat him and could only retreat. Hanzo in those days had been so vigorous and magnificent that people could not help but admire him.

It was precisely because they had such a leader that the ninjas of the Land of Rain could follow him without hesitation on his path of expansion.

Konoha's territory was very peaceful. Whenever wild beasts appeared on the main roads, missions were immediately issued for ninjas to clear them out. Bandits were treated the same way.

That peaceful environment had also created Konoha's flourishing commerce. The closer Oguri Hayashi came to Konoha, the more keenly he could feel the prosperity of its trade.

As he continued toward Konoha with the merchant caravan, Konoha's scouts became more numerous.

Although no wars had ever broken out near Konoha's home territory, scouts from all places had never been scarce.

A large part of the duties of Konoha's ninjas and Anbu was to screen those entering the village, find and kill the spies, while not wrongly accusing a genuine merchant.

One had to know that this was an enormous task. The workload could practically be called nightmarish. He had done this kind of work himself when he had been a Genin.

Looking back on it now, it really was a warm memory.

His eyesight and sensory abilities far exceeded those of ordinary ninjas. Whenever he sensed Konoha ninjas, he used the Invisibility Cloak to conceal his body. Once the ninjas left, he restored his body again.

Ordinary people could not catch his ninja-like speed. As though he had never disappeared, he followed the merchant caravan in an ordinary and calm manner all the way to Konoha, avoiding most of the trouble.

At Konoha's gate, two sensory-type ninjas served as guards. No Transformation Jutsu could evade their senses. It could be said that passing through the barrier would be safer than entering through the front gate, because those two sensory-type ninjas belonged to the Uchiha Clan. At minimum, they were Chunin with two-tomoe Sharingan, perhaps even Jonin.

No one invading Konoha would choose such a foolish route. Thus, those two Uchiha Clan members looked utterly listless, yawning repeatedly.

Without Chakra fluctuations, he naturally possessed an invisibility effect. Other than members of the Hyuga Clan, no one could see Oguri Hayashi as he entered Konoha wearing the Invisibility Cloak.

Oguri Hayashi thus entered the heavily guarded Konoha with ease.

He entered the place where he had lived for twelve years, the place that could, for the moment, be called home.

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