Everyone knew that Konoha would be the safest, most prosperous, and most promising place to live in the future.
For a time, countless civilians from neighboring villages, wandering travelers, and merchants fought tooth and nail to find ways to move to Konoha.
They all had the same calculation in mind: the sooner they moved to Konoha and became its residents, the sooner they could enjoy the benefits of the Shinobi World Lighthouse, ensuring peaceful, comfortable lives for generations to come.
The massive influx made Konoha ever more bustling and prosperous. Crowds thronged the streets, and signs of growth and vitality were everywhere.
Yet endless hidden dangers lurked behind that prosperity.
At that moment, Tsunade was caught between joy and misery.
She was happy because Konoha was thriving, its people united, and its influence at its height;
She was miserable because the newcomers were a mixed bag of unknown origins. No one could say how many foreign spies, enemy agents, and people with sinister intentions were hidden among them.
Naruto and Sasuke were no longer ordinary students of Konoha.
The two were the pillars holding the shinobi world steady, thorns in the sides of countless old-guard factions, remnants of hostile forces, and pawns of fate.
Given any opportunity to destroy Konoha's future, those lurking in the shadows would strike at any cost.
Even if future crises required Naruto and Sasuke, plenty of people simply would not care.
Tsunade remained vigilant day and night, setting up layer upon layer of defenses. Fearing someone would target Naruto and Sasuke, she searched for hidden threats every night.
But no one had anticipated that the first target of those in the shadows had never been Naruto or Sasuke.
It was Sakura Haruno, whose combat abilities seemed unremarkable and who, at this stage, was merely an