After leaving Hikari's house, Masashi gave himself a mental thumbs-up.

  Haku wasn't asleep.

  While he and Hikari were chatting in the living room, that little boy had sneakily e out.

  He didn't he Sharingan for everything—that would be uimating him.

  Throughout the eera, he felt that he had performed exceptionally well.

  Not only had he further raised his favorability with Hikari, but he had also established a reliable persona in Haku's eyes. The way the boy had tried to hide his presence while eavesdropping showed both curiosity and caution.

  How could that ually bris?

  Unlike Karin, Haku was someone who could truly be absorbed as a loyal member of the Uchiha . From his memories of the inal timeli was clear that the boy was the kind of partner who would be extremely dependable orust was established.

  For people like that, Masashi could pce 100% of his trust in them.

  Kimimaro was another sudividual, though unfortunately, he hadn't ma him into the fold.

  As for Hikari's feelings, he uood them all too well.

  Ultimately, it boiled down to the fact that their initial acquaintance had been at the reception hall, which left Hikari with a sense of inferiority toward him.

  In this state, taking their retionship further would do more harm than good. Otherwise, things would have progressed long ago, given all the obvious signals she'd been dropping.

  It wasn't as if he couldn't uand them.

  Hopefully, things would improve once she met Pakura.

  If, by that time, she still had these feelings, he would have no problem accepting them openly. After all, he was unabashedly a ivore in this regard.

  When he arrived at the entrao his house, Masashi habitually g the house across the street.

  It itch dark.

  Thinking about the upiiations with Iwa in a month or so, he couldn't help but feel a slight headache. Politics are always more exhausting than bat. At least in a fight, you know where the attacks are ing from.

  Dealing with ōnoki wouldn't be easy.

  He could only hope that during this time, Pakura had mao leave a favorable impression of Konoha owo children she was looking after.

  As for Kurotsuchi, she could be sidered a wild card, but Deidara's potential bat abilities could prove invaluable iure.

  With one final g the house, Masashi returned home.

  ---

  A month passed in the blink of an eye.

  The Fourth Mizukage had achieved his goals in Konoha, leaving both sides satisfied—a true case of mutual be.

  The Hyūga was especially pleased, as Kiri had even voluntarily returned a Byakugan that had been lost in the past.

  Some of the credit for this also went to the Uchiha , as they had pyed a crucial role in these developments. Furthermore, their involvement was indispensable in the subsequent colboratioweewo sides.

  At the very least, the association responsible for this oute could only fun with the Uchiha at its core.

  For Masashi, the month he spent as a full-time teacher also allowed him to revisit his own training journey.

  One of the advantages of teag talented individuals was that the teacher could gain new insights as well.

  Naruto and Sasuke had extraordinary learning abilities.

  Even Karin had dispyed remarkable potential.

  But the most surprising of all was Haku.

  As Masashi had expected, the boy had an ialent for chakra molding. This meant that he was naturally suited for a fast-paced bat style, capable of quick bursts of power and critical strikes.

  He was uo engage in prolonged battles but excelled in finding and exploiting opportunities for devastating attacks, making him a challenging oppo.

  This style was akin to that of an assassin, but irely the same.

  Konoha's st "pace-setter" of this kind had been Minato, who was now the Hokage. The one before him had been the White Fang, who had sadly taken his own life.

  Masashi felt that Haku was an exceptionally patible student for him—much like how Tobirama must have felt when he first saw Hiruzen.

  There were so many teiques he could pass on to the boy.

  Especially Ice Release.

  He firmly believed that this Haku was the same Haku from his memories—one who would undoubtedly awaken the Yuki 's Ice Release bloodline limit.

  Thus, o day of the vacation, seeing that all four children had already mastered the foundational knowledge he had taught them, he decided to start their ninjutsu training before he departed.

  As always, he chose the grove he Valley of the End for their lesson.

  pared to a month ago, the four children now carried themselves with far greater fidend energy.

  "Today, I'll teach you a ninjutsu," Masashi announced, watg their eyes light up with excitement.

  "A fual teique that every ninja must master: the Three Basic Jutsu. I won't be teag the Transformation Jutsu or the Substitution Jutsu today. Instead, I'll teach you the e Jutsu."

  Hearing that they were about to learn ninjutsu, the childrehrilled.

  None of them thought the e Jutsu was unimpressive.

  After all, the e Jutsu was one of the most iic teiques of a ninja.

  Masashi broke a branch from a nearby tree and used it to draw diagrams on the ground.

  After writing down the words "Physical" and "Non-Physical," he drew two lines brang off from "Non-Physical."

  "The e Jutsu generally be divided into two types: Physical and Non-Physical es. Non-Physical es include only two subtypes: the basic e Jutsu you'll learn in the academy, which creates a kind of illusions, and the Illusionary e, which falls uhe category of genjutsu."

  "Teacher, whie is stronger?" Naruto leaned forward eagerly, his eyes fixed on the diagram.

  "es aren't about being strong or weak. It's about how useful they are," Masashi replied, moving his branch to the "Physical" side of the diagram. "Physical es, oher hand, be divided into four types: Shadow es, Medium-Based es, Transformative es, and Specialized es."

  After finishing his diagram, he gave a meaningful g the blond boy.

  Multi Shadow e Jutsu—a teique that Naruto from the inal timelireated as his bread and butter.

  However, shadow es had many advanced uses.

  Unfortunately, Naruto had ter focused most of his energy on perfeg the Rasengan, ing further exploration of the Shadow e Jutsu, which ity.

  As for Sasuke, who preferred direct frontations, getting him to use a e teique was more challenging than ving him to get married.

  Tossing aside the branch, Masashi cpped his hands to signal a pause, letting the children digest the information before tinuing.

  "Today, I'll teach you the simplest and most on type: the Illusory e."

  He slowly demonstrated the hand signs for the e Jutsu. "Watch carefully. Speed es ter—precision is what matters now."

  The four children immediately tried to imitate him, eager to learn. Naruto's fiangled slightly, while Sasuke's movements were sharp but rigid.

  The hand signs for the e Jutsu were simple and involved just a single seal. Even the Shadow e Jutsu required only a single cross-shaped hand sign.

  However, how effectively one used the teique depended entirely on the individual.

  Watg the children diligently practice the hand signs with both hands, he felt gratified.

  Some ninjutsu required intricate and challenging hand signs, but the Illusory e was retively straightforward.

  With practice, it could be performed with a single hand or even without any signs at all.

  Seeing their clumsy attempts at f the seals, he decided that their raining phase would foproving finger flexibility. "Keep practig. Your hands should flow like water, not move like wooden blocks."

  Among the four, Sasuke was the first to grasp the teique, followed by Haku.

  Sasuke's quick mastery didn't surprise Masashi, as he had likely been practig finger exercises long before this.

  Haku being the sed, however, was ued.

  But upon refle, he found it perfectly logical.

  In the inal timeline, Haku had dispyed the ability to perform single-handed seals in front of Naruto and Sasuke, showg his exceptional talent for chakra trol and his aptitude for refining and improvising hand seals.

  Once again, Masashi silently praised his own luck.

  He had truly found a gem!

  "Good work, all of you," he nodded approvingly. "Remember, mastery isn't just about getting it right o's about making it as natural as breathing."

  ---

  Masashi, ag as the official envoy of Konoha, set out on a jouro Iwa.

  During the war between Konoha and Iwa, the militant fa of Konoha had been highly active. But when it came time fotiations, it was entirely up to the dovish fa to step forward.

  There was no other way. Except for Kumo, where of ten were hawks and no other optioed, most vilges preferred to send dovish representatives fotiations. While doves might not always be likable, their goal was undoubtedly to achieve peace.

  Uhe goal wasn't iation but provocation.

  In this Konoha delegation, the only one who could nominally be sidered a hawk was Masashi himself.

  And this recisely why he found himself with a headache.

  He wasn't necessarily areme hawk, but the group apanying him was full of seasoned doves.

  Surrounded by a of doves, he couldn't help but feel uneasy.

  The delegation's chosen route led them through the Land of Grass to the Land of Earth.

  After traveliward across the Land of Grass and passing through the border area betweeh and Grass, the lush greenery began to fade.

  Eventually, a vast expanse of rocky desert stretched before them. Rugged and majestic mountains domihe ndscape. The air was dry and scorg, and the intense sunlight bore down on the mountains and the desert pins.

  The mountains were yellow, barren of vegetation. The ground was covered in cravel, and walking on it felt like stepping on solid rock.

  Both Deidara and Kurotsuchi were part of the delegation, and the two youngsters were in high spirits.

  Kurotsuchi's face had grown rounder, while Deidara looked thinner.

  At this moment, Deidara felt that Iwa was the most beautiful p the world—mainly because it was quiet there.

  That said, after spending so much time in Konoha, he found the people there to be quite kind, trary to his earlier assumptions.

  Although they were teically enemies, he didn't harbor much reseoward them.

  Staying home all the time truly limited one's uanding of the outside world.

  For instance, he had thought the supposedly timid Kusa ninjas were harmless, but they turned out to be rather ruthless—just g in skill.

  Simirly, he had believed Konoha to be overly aggressive, but they were actually quite magnanimous.

  What impressed him the most, however, was the White Ghost.

  His power was overwhelming and despair-indug.

  Deidara believed that to tend with such a teique, one would need a level of destructive force beyond imagination.

  Among Iwa's arsenal, only the Dust Release fit the bill.

  But apart from his master, no one else seemed to have mastered it.

  "Look, a ke!" someone in the delegation called out.

  Deidara gnced over.

  In the distance, a ke appeared, a captivating blue in the middle of desotion.

  Indeed, it was the Cold Lake, which meant they were close to Iwa.

  "Deidara, is this the way?" Masashi asked.

  "Yes. Follow the river, and once we reach a town, we'll be there," Deidara replied.

  Masashi nodded aured for the delegation to tinue.

  Since everyone was a ninja, there were ne or small vehicles to slow them down. These were capable men with swift feet, so their pace was reliable.

  After passing the ke, the delegation traveled approximately 15 kilometers north along the river. They then came upon an abaown.

  To the right of the town was a misty mountain range.

  As clouds moved across the sky and sunlight shifted, the mountains ged from yellow to bck. Winds from the other side of the range carried sand into the air, f the Land of Earth's characteristic stone rain.

  Aced to such weather ditions, the group sought shelter iown to avoid the "rain."

  Inside one of the buildings, they looked out the window to see the mountains fading into the distand the world outside shrouded in chaos, as if they had entered another realm.

  The "rain" came quickly and ended even faster. As the winds subsided, the storm ceased.

  The group stepped out of the rge building, but the air was still filled with swirling dust, unpleasant to breathe. They prepared to tioward the mountains, only to see a group of Iwa ninjas emerge from the hazy distance ahead.

  The Iwa ninjas' gazes first nded on Deidara and Kurotsuchi.

  Then their eyes fell on Masashi.

  Upnizing his face, one especially burly individual among the Iwa ninja stepped forward.

  "Wele, envoys from Konoha. I am Kitsuchi, here to guide you," he said.

  His appearance erfect embodiment of the stereotypical Iwa ninjas in outsiders' minds.

  His face was weathered, with rugged features and pierg eyes. His short hair stood stiff, and as he stood in the wind, motionless, he resembled a boulder rooted to the ground, unshaken by any storm.

  This rock-like man had a stern expression.

  Kurotsuchi's eyes lit up at the sight of her father.

  However, her time in Konoha had taught her restraint.

  Several seasoned doves in the Konoha delegation also perked up, ready to showcase their skills.

  This wasly a good habit.

  During Hiruzen's time as Hokage, the vilge had not been particurly stable. Before the White Fang and the Sannin came into prominence, Konoha's strategy had always been cautious, avoiding flict whenever possible.

  To align with this approach, the doves had developed a habit of sh people with fttering words at the first opportunity.

  Kitsuchi, however, was no ordinary person. As the son of the Tsuchikage and a ninja of Kage-level strength, he was one of Konoha's key watchlist targets.

  Before the doves could speak, Masashi interrupted, "Thank you for your effort. Please, lead the way."

  He gnced back at the doves with a helpless expression.

  The doves looked a bit sheepish, realizing they had been too eager to act. They were simply rusty; it had been too long sihey'd had the ce to perform.

  Sihe Third Great Ninja War, Konoha had won its subsequent two wars rather decisively. This had left their enemies more eager for peace, rendering the doves' skills somewhat redundant.

  Being a dove didn't necessarily mean they were true pacifists; sometimes, it was just a side hustle.

  Masashi didn't particurly want these individuals with him but uood it was standard procedure. These seasoned doves had numerous es, and the Uchiha wasirely estranged from them.

  During the Uchiha 's most difficult times, these doves had been among the most supportive.

  So, while they were a hassle, he could only accept their presence.

  Under Kitsuchi's guidahe group pressed onward.

  As they advanced into the mountains, the air gradually grew more humid.

  Emerging from a patch of forest, they were greeted by a vast wetnd. Grass grew tall, aquatits thrived, fish swam, and flocks of birds soared uhe blue sky and white clouds.

  The wetnds stretched endlessly into the horizon.

  Though Masashi had never been to Iwa, he remembered that the vilge was built within the mountains at the source of a major river to erong defenses and ample water supply.

  Judging by this wetnd, the enviro was indeed excellent.

  He halted, prompting the others to stop as well.

  "Would you like to rest here?" Kitsuchi asked, notig the pause. He assumed Masashi might be admiring the sery.

  "No, the Tsuchikage himself has e. Naturally, I should wait," Masashi replied, his gaze shifting skyward.

  Kitsuchi froze momentarily, then quickly uood. Like Masashi, he turned his eyes toward the sky.