After leaving the Nine Heavens Evolving Heaven Palace, Yechen escorted Orochimaru back to Konoha.
This time, however, he did not stop outside the village. Instead, he used the Flying Thunder God Mark to teleport straight inside.
Entering through the main gate would certainly attract a great deal of attention. After all, many people knew that Orochimaru had defected.
Yechen brought Orochimaru to a secluded patch of mountain forest in the southern part of the village and waited for Minato Namikaze to arrive.
A little while later, to Yechen's surprise, Minato Namikaze arrived with Hiruzen Sarutobi and Jiraiya.
All three were genuinely astonished to see that Yechen had actually brought Orochimaru back.
This was also the first time Yechen and Jiraiya had met face-to-face.
After a brief conversation, Yechen handed Orochimaru over for them to deal with, then leisurely made his way home.
He had handed Orochimaru over so decisively because he knew the village would not do much to him. At most, they would impose a few restrictions.
Three days passed in a flash.
That day, Yechen visited Minato Namikaze's home as agreed and met his wife, Kushina Uzumaki.
She was a carefree woman, cheerful and hospitable.
During the visit, however, Yechen faintly sensed fluctuations of the Nine-Tails' energy coming from her.
With the Uzumaki Clan's constitution and Kushina's mastery of Sealing Jutsu, there should not have been any leakage of tailed beast energy.
This led Yechen to suspect that Kushina was pregnant.
A jinchūriki's seal did not loosen only during childbirth. Carrying a new life could cause the same thing to happen.
It simply was not as severe as it was during delivery.
But Yechen's senses were keen, so he noticed it while near her.
And judging by the timing, it was indeed around the time Naruto was due