Main World.
Konoha Year Twenty-Two, summer.
The Pure Land.
The gray-white sky never changed. There were no sun, moon, or stars, only a hazy glow. The ground was not soil but an endless, half-solidified "carpet" seemingly composed of countless tiny motes of light. A strange atmosphere mingling tranquility and deathly stillness permeated the air, as though even the flow of time had grown thick and sluggish here.
The Sage of Six Paths sat cross-legged on a lotus pedestal, the ripples in his Rinnegan turning slowly. His gaze pierced the barrier between the World of the Living and the Dead, turning toward the "nursery" he had tended for a thousand years-the Shinobi World. In the direction of Konoha, two new buildings stood out in the sunlight. One was the tall, imposing, stone-built Elite School. The other was the low, crude, wooden Commoner School.
A faint smile slowly curved his lips.
"Happy education... interesting."
He murmured to himself.
"Konoha is going to capitalize on its advantage of having so many powerful ninja clans."
Of course he knew what "happy education" meant. The Elite School would cultivate the strong, and the Commoner School would cultivate believers. The strong would protect the village, and the believers would sacrifice themselves for it. Each would get what they needed, each would have their place. This was not Tobirama Senju's design, nor was it Hiruzen Sarutobi's invention. It was Toyotomi Yinglang's proposal. That young man whom he could vaguely sense through the Dragon Vein's mist, yet whose face he could never see clearly.
"Toyotomi Yinglang... just who are you?"
He murmured to himself.
No one answered.
His gaze shifted away from Konoha, turning farther afield. In Kumogakure, Kinkaku and Ginkaku were purging the Yotsuki Clan's remaining forces. In Iwagakure, Second Tsuchikage Mu and Second Mizukage Gengetsu Hozuki