Chapter 66

[A/N: I deleted the previous notice that showed revamped Dōjutsu for the Mangekyô and Eternal Mangekyô, so for those who got stuck with the old ones, here are the new ones]

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As the three of us were on our way back to Konoha after leaving Rōran in the morning, I suddenly felt one of my emergency tags getting ripped off.

'Of course this had to happen right now' I thought as I recalled which tag it was when I sensed the location

"Konan, Hizashi, Shiromari, I have something urgent to take care of, go back to Konoha without me." I announced which made Konan worried according to her expression so I quickly added "It's nothing dangerous, I will teleport back to the village when I'm done."

She let out a sigh of relief while Hizashi asked "Do we need to relay a message if we come back before you, Yuichi-sama?"

Nodding, I replied "Yes, tell them that I will take part in the war soon and that a meeting is planned for... Tomorrow at noon." before leaving them as I teleported away while putting on my mask just in time

The moment I arrived, I felt how scorching the temperature was as a fire was spreading in the building I appeared in, while behind me was a man slightly younger than me with broken round glasses and ragged clothes, while his body showed signs of injuries all around.

I could see that he was barely conscious, surely calling me as a last resort without expecting anything from it since it was something I gave this man more than twenty years ago.

"Here, let me heal you." I said as I made a clone that started to restore him in no time

I then looked around, exhaled as most as I could before using the Preta Path to absorb all the fire present in the castle since it was made of chakra.

'I never expected chakra absorbed this way to have some kind of taste... Spicy, I like it' I thought as I wiped my mouth

"P-Please help my daughter!" the man said when he was finally able to talk once healed and after he saw me absorb the whole fire

I closed my eyes for a second and sensed everyone who was around the castle before making more clones to go and heal them all.

"Your daughter is fine, I sensed her alongside a man who I suppose is a subject of yours in a secret tunnel leaving them outside of the castle... I sent a clone to fetch them, now tell me who did this?" I replied as I was slightly impatient considering the timing

"I-It's my brother, Dōto Kazahana, he's been greedy about my treasure for quite some time but I didn't expect him to go as far as burning my castle and everyone inside..." the man who was the daimyō of the Land of Snow, explained as he was still intimidated by my presence

When I traveled around the world back when I was fourteen, I came here as I searched for the Gold and Silver brothers' whereabouts while I disguised myself as a spirit to this man in front of me, Sōsetsu Kazahana, who was only nine years old back then.

I gave him something to call me if he needed my help since I really wanted to see spring in his country as well, a great place to go on a date or for some vacation.

And his daughter's name is Koyuki Kazahana, or more commonly known as Yukie Fujikaze in the canon, an actress whom Team 7 had to escort back to the Land of Snow.

"Follow my clone, he will bring you to your daughter... I will go back to you after I take care of that fucker you said was your brother." I declared which made him bite his lips, surely a little hesitant as to whether I should kill his brother or not

"Listen, if I didn't appear you would have died, leaving your daughter without any parents, and for all we know, she could have been found by him later on, and considering how your brother burned the castle without remorse, he would have killed her as well just to get whatever treasure you keep." I said to make him realize what could happen if his brother wasn't killed

"I understand, please be safe... Whoever you are." he replied as he didn't hesitate any longer since taking such decisions is important as a daimyō

"Don't worry, I will be fine." I replied before leaving towards his brother and his mercenaries

'They got beaten by some Genin in future, how could I lose' I thought before hearing the man I targeted declare "That's what you get for not giving me your treasure Sōsetsu, now the country will be mine and shall become strong enough to overthrow the Five Great Shinobi Nations!"

They didn't realize that the fire was put out since they were located behind the mountain where they could prevent civilians from escaping, truly ruthless from them.

"Pft, a man like you overthrowing the Five Great Shinobi Nations? My daughter could kill you, and she's only six!" I said as I appeared near him and his mercenaries

"Who-" one of his henchmen tried to say but was interrupted as I launched a Kunai infused with Frostbite Release which transformed his whole body into ice before crumbling down without any bloodstain on the ground

"Mizore!" a girl with pink hair yelled as she saw her partner die while Dotō shouted "Kill this man!"

Some mercenaries then started to use an Ice Release technique by gathering the snow around, but as they were preparing, the snow in a large radius around us melted as my body was covered in lava.

"You are all a disgrace for the true Ice Release users... How pitiful." I said before raising my hand to slam it down, creating a repulsive force that smashed everyone under the targetted area into nothingness

Only Dotō was left with fear apparent on his face while mumbling "I-Impossible... Our chakra armors should have protected us!"

"Yeah... No." I said as I teleported right in front of him before grabbing him by the head, wounding him as I strengthened my grip but not enough to blow his head

Since I awaken my eyes into Rinnegan, I could absorb living being with Suijin, the 'downside' was that it was slow and painful... For the victim.

"Suijin." I said as my right eye shone and Dotō's body slowly liquified as it was getting absorbed by my eye

He couldn't even scream as I was blocking his maw, only making as much sound as he could with his closed mouth.

'While absorbing chakra with the Preta Path has a taste, I'm glad Suijin's victims are tasteless' I thought as I was absorbing people and I really didn't want to get addicted to some flavor they could have

I also realized that it was Dōto who used a Fire Jutsu to burn the castle.

"Let's get back to Sōsetsu." I said out loud as I was going to shift my place with the clone that helped him join his daughter while warning them beforehand

The moment I opened my eyes after blinking, I was in front of Sōsetsu, his daughter who seemed to be younger than Tsugumi, and a middle-aged man with small glasses and naturally closed eyes.

"I've taken care of your brother and saved as many civilians as I could, we can go back to your castle now." I said as they were all looking at me in surprise

"D-did you take care of Dotō already? But he's Yukigakure's leader!" Sōsetsu exclaimed as he was hugging his crying daughter, glad that she was safe

"Well, about that." I first said as I put my hand on my mask before taking it off "I should introduce myself more properly, I'm Yuichi Senju, nice to meet you." I added as I smiled at him and presented my other hand to him for a handshake

...

"Please tell me you didn't have a heart attack and made my arrival pointless." I said as they were dumbstruck by the revelation and froze with their eyes wide opened

"Ah... S-Sorry, it's just unbelievable to have the Fourth Hokage in front of us... Just how?" Sōsetsu mumbled as he finally grabbed my hand after leaving me hanging, all while staying close to the young girl who finally stopped crying and tried her best to dry her tears

"Remember the 'spirit' you played with when you were young?" I said to which he nodded and seemed to realize "Well, it was me, D- Yuichi!" I added as I almost messed up my words

"I-I thought that it was only my imagination... That the bracelet you gave me was just something I found and imagined a story around it. I never expected you to be real, and even more to be the current Hokage. Thank you!" he exclaimed before bowing his head and his daughter's at the same time, while his attendant also did the same

"You don't need to bow, I gave you this bracelet and tag for a reason, I simply kept the promise I told myself to help the one who uses it." I replied as I scratched the back of my head while smiling

"Still... I want to reward you, but I don't know if I have anything of value to give." Sōsetsu mumbled as he was embarrassed to get help for free, even more from someone he thinks is busy since it's well known that Konoha is at war against Suna and Iwa

"How about the treasure, dad?" the young girl suggested as she showed the key she had hanging around her neck

"I would love to, but it's not operational yet Koyuki." Sōsetsu replied as he gently looked at his daughter while brushing her messy hair out of her face after running away

"Honestly, I would really love to see how this Land of Snow would look when it becomes the Land of Spring... That was what you always blabbered about when you were younger." I suggested, not telling him that I already knew what the 'treasure' truly was

"Well... The treasure is an engine I built over the year that would allow such a change to occur. I even designed and built mirror-like pillars that could use the power of the sun to generate heat and prevent snow from falling, but there is one problem." he explained as he touched his glasses like some mad scientist talking about their most proud creation

"Go on." I shortly asked as he was leaving the answer hanging

"It always snows... In the Land of Snow." he first replied as he was scratching his cheek because he was feeling awkward before adding "What I built cannot be activated because the sun is never visible, I would need for the snow to stop falling for at least one hour and it would work, unfortunately, I didn't find a way to do so."

Rubbing my chin as I was pondering, I thought of a way and suggested "I think I can help you with that... You just need one hour, right?"

"Yes, but I need to get back to the castle and activate the main engine to activate the pillars for the first time." he replied which was fine by me

"Then I will be able to take care of that, but we should do it later, for now I will help you with the aftermath." I declared before we moved back to the castle

Going back, we saw that the castle still took a huge blow from the fire, but luckily there weren't many casualties as my clones saved most civilians around the place.

Renovations were still needed, and food supplies needed to be given as the reserves were burned down, something that Konoha could provide with ease.

Of course, such help wouldn't be for free as it didn't involve me alone but Konoha as a whole, as such, I have to trade them food, building materials, and workers for something else.

The only useful things that the Land of Snow had would be their blacksmiths' and engineers' knowledge, as this country was more advanced than most, Konoha included if you don't take into account the beauty of technology that the Ancor Vantian represent.

I was never that much into technology myself, neither were most of Konoha's inhabitants, so getting our hands on this technology would surely be appreciated by the civilians if it can make their life easier.

I'm not talking about weaponry, of course as I already stole the blueprints for chakra armor back then and it was already being used by Konoha, only worn by medical-nin who are sent on the battlefields to protect them as they are the most vulnerable and important units of a war... Minus Tsunade, she doesn't need armor.

There was also something that Sōsetsu had to think about seriously, the loss of Yukigakure's usefulness when the Land of Snow will become the Land of Spring.

After all, every shinobi from that village mainly learned how to manipulate the pre-existing ice and snow around... Getting rid of it would pretty much maim them.

But after doing some researches on my side, I realized that most of them were loyal to Dōto, so I did a little cleaning.

I then suggested to Sōsetsu that he could hire shinobi from Konoha on a long-term basis until he could assemble a new hidden village with more traditionally trained shinobi, a village that would be allied to Konoha and with which we would exchange students.

Of course, I had a hunch that their engineers would find a way to develop more snow-making equipment that could allow their shinobi to use Ice Release even in the 'spring'.

They already created snow bombs, I didn't see any reason for them to not conceive something even better.

That would give them a chance to at least stay as a second-rate hidden village.

Nevertheless, the day expired pretty quickly, and the sun soon appeared again on the horizon, as clouded as the Land of Snow was, I could see it clearly for I was currently above the clouds.

'My meeting is at noon, let's be quick about it' I thought as it was still early in the morning and I honestly wanted to see the moment the Land of Snow would be reborn

I preemptively asked for a map of the Land of Snow, which was an island, to know where his towers were built and how far human settlements were erected.

Turns out that only the south half of the island was inhabited as the rest was just extremely impracticable glaciers or mountainous areas.

As such, I flew until I reached the place where I knew I could affect the entire south of the island, lowered myself into the clouds, and began using hand signs, something I rarely used, if not never, but had to use a lot of them as I was casting a technique that would be too chaotic if I didn't.

'Typhoon Release: Cyclonic Push' I mentally said as a blast of extremely strong and thick wind was occurring around me in a circular radius, pushing the clouds away from me while extending more and more until it pushed all the clouds away from the Land of Snow, miles away

If I hadn't used hand signs for this, I wouldn't have been able to maintain a precise vertical length, which would have completely obliterated some towns and mountains on the way.

Also, by using this technique high in the sky, I was able to create a circular current of wind that would prevent clouds from forming for up to five hours, long enough for the mirror pillars to start working.

*A few hours later*

After waiting for one hour as Sōsetsu supposed, we saw the snow around the pillars melting and the heat slowly spreading around, melting the land little by little, without even generating some avalanche or flood as the water it made was getting absorbed by the ground without having the time to become vapor as well.

And right now, as a few hours passed, the view in front of us was both breathtaking and unrealistic.

"...Wow." I let out as in front of me wasn't the usual snowy landscape, which was obvious since it melted, but the trees, the flowers, and the grass were bursting with life, presenting us with a colorful scenery as I could even see fruits ready to be harvested hanging around

It felt like the land's true form was always Spring and that a curse buried it under a never-ending snowstorm that simply froze the greenery in time.

'Different world, different logic' I thought as I couldn't think of any scientific reason for the vegetation to be like this right after being freed from the snow

While I was gazing at the scenery, enjoying the view, Sōsetsu and his daughter on my side were bursting into tears as he finally reached his lifetime goal, while the girl simply followed her father's emotions.

Looking at the sky to see where the sun was, I exclaimed "I didn't want to interrupt your moment, but I need to get back to Konoha... So, let's see each other again later, we still have to make the contract after all."

Sōsetsu, knowing that with my position I was supposed to be busy, reacted "Y-Yes, once again, thank you for what you've done, you will always be welcomed here." with a grateful smile and tears still dripping from his eyes

'Feels like I'm hearing that a lot recently' I thought before replying "You're welcome." with a smile and started to leave the place to get back to Konoha