Main World.
Year thirty of Konoha, summer.
Country of Roran, West City Resettlement Area.
Jiefang sat on his doorstep. He had been sitting there all morning.
Morning light slanted over the low wall to the east, washing the flagstone path before him in pale gold. There was little wind. Grains of sand moved slowly along the ground, flowing past his feet before scattering. He held nothing, simply resting his hands on his knees, his gaze on the crown of a short tree in the distance. Its crown swayed gently in the wind, the edges of its leaves shining with that bright green peculiar to early morning.
He had not slept well the night before. It was not the bed; the beds in Rōran were steadier than anywhere he had slept on the road. It was the thread in his mind that kept winding-from Orochimaru to Hiruzen Sarutobi to Tobirama Senju to Hashirama Senju, finally settling on a name, like a rope that had been winding for too long finally finding somewhere to catch.
He had thought for a long time, then made a decision. He was going to Konoha to take a look.
He wanted to see Kushina Uzumaki with his own eyes-the Uzumaki clanswoman who had been sent to Konoha, the woman Mito had arranged to become the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki. He had seen her portrait and heard her name, but he had never seen her in person. He wanted to know whether she was doing well. It was not out of familial affection. Kushina Uzumaki had no direct blood ties to him; she was simply a fellow clan member. He only wanted to know what the Uzumaki clanswoman sent to Konoha was like now.
He also wanted to see Konoha.
To see just what that place, only two hundred