Ever since entering Konoha, he had never taken off his Invisibility Cloak.
He was intimately familiar with every movement within this village, and likewise, the village was very familiar with him.
Any opening could lead to his cover being blown.
Using his taijutsu, he moved across the rooftops of civilian homes. Of course, Konoha's barrier to becoming a ninja was not high; anyone who entered the academy could receive ninja training. There were plenty of civilian-born ninja, and while ninja sprinting across other people's rooftops were uncommon, no one would make a fuss when they did appear.
He approached the Hokage's office at the speed an ordinary person would sprint a hundred meters, but once he reached its vicinity, he slowed down and walked toward it like a normal person.
Unlike Kumogakure and Iwagakure, which possessed natural defenses and therefore had virtually no guards stationed within, the Hokage's office was the most heavily guarded place in all of Konoha because of the constant flow of people.
Yet because there were so many people coming and going, Oguri Hayashi, his footsteps utterly silent beneath the Invisibility Cloak, boldly followed a group of ninja into the Third Hokage's office.
The Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, had a pipe in his mouth as he dealt with routine documents.
To be honest, handling routine missions was only a tiny part of a Hokage's daily responsibilities. Far more demanding were negotiations with the various ninja villages, trade in bulk goods, commissions from major nobles that could not be ignored, assignments from the Daimyo, and finally, preparations of supplies for ninja wars.
Although later generations used the peaceful period between the Second and Third Shinobi World Wars to separate the two wars, in truth, neither Amegakure nor the Cloud Ninja or Stone Shinobi had ever admitted defeat. They had merely called a temporary truce; no one had signed a surrender agreement.
In other words, the slightest friction could reignite the war.
As the center of the ninja world, Konoha's Third Hokage had no choice but to plan ahead before war came and prepare supplies for the next conflict.
Oguri Hayashi stood in a corner of the Hokage's office, silently watching it all.
He could sense several Anbu hidden in the room's corners. There were probably no Hyuga Clan members among them; the Hyuga Clan would not allow its own people to serve in the Anbu, and the Hokage would never allow the Hyuga Clan's power to extend into the direct forces belonging solely to the Hokage.
So, he was safe for now.
Probably.
He stood in an unoccupied corner, watching wave after wave of people pass through, neither sad nor pleased, as if watching a movie.
Ninja he had once been unable to encounter were everywhere in the Hokage's office.
Jiraiya, Princess Tsunade, and Orochimaru returned one after another to report in. The war had already reached a temporary lull, but Princess Tsunade looked utterly dejected. Not yet thirty, she already carried an air of deep weariness, making Hiruzen Sarutobi sigh repeatedly at the sight of her.
Seeing Princess Tsunade like this, how could Oguri Hayashi not realize that she had likely lost at least one of the people most precious to her?
Perhaps she had lost both of them.
He sighed inwardly, but his ki did not waver in the slightest. He watched as Hiruzen Sarutobi comforted Tsunade and sent her out, telling her only to rest for a while without allowing her to leave. It seemed Tsunade's departure from Konoha happened after the Third Shinobi World War.
Oguri Hayashi himself did not have a particularly clear memory of Konoha's chronology, but he could still infer roughly when this was from major events.
He saw Konoha's Yellow Flash, Minato Namikaze, incomparably young and heroic, five or six years older than himself.
He saw the First Generation Ino-Shika-Cho, who were about the same age as him.
He even saw Danzo, Koharu, and Mitokado Homura.
As for the younger, more familiar generation—Asuma Sarutobi, Kurenai Yūhi, and the rest—they were still merely a group of Genin, three or four years younger than him. They would never come to the Hokage's office.
He remained there quietly, silently watching people come and go. Then the Hokage got off work, until in the end, only two Anbu remained.
They were the night guards. There were also two Chunin out in the open, of course, but they were nothing to worry about.
When the moon had quietly crossed halfway through the sky, Oguri Hayashi finally let out a soft breath at two in the morning.
It was time.
In an instant, his body brimmed with Lightning-nature Chakra. With unmatched explosive force, he shot straight toward the Book of Ninja hidden within the wall.
Before the two Anbu could react, they saw him seize the Book of Ninja in an instant, plant both feet against the wall, then crash through the window like a bolt of lightning and vanish from their sight.
"Enemy attack!" The two Anbu could not understand how he had gotten in, but that did not stop these battle-hardened Anbu. One swiftly launched a flare, while the other immediately whistled sharply.
The piercing whistle instantly spread throughout Konoha.
Konoha had been shrouded in darkness, but after that shrill whistle sounded, the dark windows in every direction lit up all at once with a rapid series of clicks, as though they were welcoming guests from both sides of a road.
They were all ninja, at least Chunin-level. Watching from the sky, Oguri Hayashi felt his scalp go numb as goosebumps rose all over his body.
Konoha truly deserved its title as the greatest village in the ninja world. Just from the houses lighting up, one could tell how many ninja lived in this village. As the windows illuminated, ninja rushed from their homes like hamsters pouring out of burrows.
Oguri Hayashi, racing toward the village outskirts with lightning flashing around his body, was simply too conspicuous a target.
Quite a few ninja charged toward him in an instant without the slightest hesitation.
Some of these ninja were still in their pajamas, but they certainly had not forgotten their shuriken and kunai. A rain of kunai and shuriken filled the sky as they shot toward him, an incomparably spectacular sight.
But Oguri Hayashi's months of grueling training had not been for nothing. The Third Raikage could ignore B-rank and A-rank Earth Style techniques. Though Oguri Hayashi could not yet match the Third Raikage, ignoring a few kunai and shuriken was still possible.
But he had underestimated the heroes of the world.
An Explosive Tag was wrapped around a shuriken. After it was thrown ahead of him, it detonated instantly. The blast sent him flying, and he crashed into a civilian house like a meteor as the ninja immediately surrounded the building.
No one rushed into the smoke and dust to give the enemy an opportunity. Instead, they waited for reinforcements, preventing the enemy from escaping before using their numerical advantage to overwhelm him.
With just one Explosive Tag, Oguri Hayashi had fallen into a dangerous situation.
Had he truly underestimated the heroes of the world?
The blue lightning around Oguri Hayashi slowly weakened, eventually becoming a faint blue glow clinging to his body.
Unity of Motion and Stillness.
The Chakra version.
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