Torifu was one hundred percent assured leaving the village to Hashirama. His son was also being well cared for at his maternal grandparents' house, so he had no worries at all.
He could seriously fight Blaze now.
Early the next morning, Torifu changed into a fitting, long, white robe embroidered with golden cranes. He wore a jade crown on his head and a long sword at his waist.
Just from his appearance, he was indistinguishable from an Immortal.
But his actual strength was probably far from it.
"I wonder how much of my ancestor's strength I have now? I probably can't even match half of it," Torifu scoffed, shaking his head. He then leaped into the air and whistled. Aokumo and Ryūfū, who were incubating eggs in the crane nest, simultaneously flapped their wings and flew toward Torifu.
Torifu's chakra abruptly erupted around him, and a large amount of cloud-like vapor surged from his sleeves, propelling him forward at high speed through the air.
Wherever he passed, the clouds and mist were all dispersed, creating a "sky road" that stretched straight to the Land of Rain's Central City, as if he were parting the heavens.
His speed was incredibly fast. A Kage-level ninja would need half a day to travel from the Land of Fire to the Land of Rain's border.
Yet Torifu only took a little over an hour! He flew all the way from Konoha to Central City.
The amount of chakra consumed during this journey was immense. A normal person would have died from such an expenditure, having even preemptively used up the chakra for their next life.
But Torifu merely used it for travel.
Following a crane cry in the sky, the people on the streets of Central City all looked up towards the heavens.
"This… this is the Hokage-sama! And Aokumo and Ryūfū-sama!"
The Konoha ninja immediately recognized Torifu and his Summoning Animals.
The ninja from other villages were a bit bewildered. Wasn't the Hokage always in the city? When did he leave?
When Torifu landed, the cloud vapor swirled, and the entire street was instantly filled with white clouds.
The ninja paid no heed to this and all surged forward, surrounding Torifu completely.
Fortunately, Aokumo and Ryūfū were farsighted and only circled in the sky, never landing.
Seeing how troublesome the situation was, they simply slipped away and flew to the top of the office building to rest.
"Hokage-sama, did you go out this morning to attend to something? Do you need our help?"
The people capable of being in Central City were at least Chūnin; they had the qualification and strength to offer help.
"Thank you all, but no need. I just arrived at Central City. There is nothing I need help with. You just continue with your own pace," Torifu said.
After speaking, Torifu turned into a wisp of cloud vapor and slipped away through the crowd.
"Just arrived at Central City… could this be the Hokage-sama's main body!"
Combining the scene they had just witnessed, a theory arose in their minds: 'Did the Hokage-sama fly all the way here?'
However, this thought was instantly dismissed. Since Aokumo and Ryūfū had been by his side the whole time, he must have flown over by riding them.
The ninja, having nothing else to do, began discussing how the Hokage had traveled to Central City, but none of this mattered to Torifu; he let them say and think whatever they liked.
He was currently standing at the apartment door of Jiraiya and the others.
After ringing the doorbell, Minato opened the door. "Big Brother? What are you doing here?"
"I just arrived this morning. I figured Naori might still be resting, so I didn't want to disturb her and decided to stop by your place."
Just arrived this morning. Minato quickly grasped the keyword. That meant the person in front of him was his Big Brother's main body.
"Big Brother, why did you mobilize your main body? Has the mastermind made any moves?"
Torifu shook his head. "The mastermind hasn't made any moves, but I am about to. It's not a good idea to keep waiting like this. Since they won't come to me, I'll go find them."
My goodness, Minato thought. He hadn't expected Torifu to take the initiative to attack, and from the sound of it, he truly intended to go alone.
"We just finished wiping out the camp. If we wait a little longer, maybe they'll make a move?"
Torifu rubbed Minato's head after hearing this. "Of course. I'm not saying I can find them right away. The time spent not finding them will also be a form of waiting, in a roundabout way."
Minato was momentarily at a loss for how to refute this statement and finally could only remain silent.
Although the Land of Rain's territory was not very large, trying to find two people hidden very secretly within this one country was a difficulty comparable to climbing to the heavens.
However, climbing to the heavens was not a difficult task for Torifu, and neither was finding people.
It simply required him to expend a large amount of chakra to enhance his Perception Jutsu to the point where the clouds could spread to every corner of the Land of Rain.
The amount of chakra required to activate such a Jutsu was undoubtedly massive, but the one thing Torifu had the most of now was chakra.
Even if he ran out, he had many chakra recovery items in his ring. They had been sitting there gathering dust, but now they would finally have a use.
Therefore, there was no need to worry about the chakra issue.
The only thing he needed to worry about was Blaze. After so many years, Torifu was unsure how much her strength had grown.
But as long as he handled it cautiously, it would be fine.
Torifu and Minato's conversation woke up the others who were still sleeping.
When they learned that this was the main body, they were all surprised. "Master's main body has come, which means the Land of Rain is about to be in chaos," Yahiko stated.
Torifu nodded. "Yahiko is right; the Land of Rain will soon be in chaos. I will issue an instruction shortly. Everyone must either remain in Central City or return to their respective countries."
"Soon I will be performing a Jutsu, and the entire Land of Rain will be enveloped in cloud vapor. At that point, you won't be able to leave even if you want to."
Hearing this, the others were unconcerned, as they had nothing pressing to do and could leave at any time.
But Minato was somewhat dejected. His progress in Sage Mode training was currently too slow, and he had been planning to use these few days to quietly speed things up. The emergence of this situation made him truly unhappy.
Torifu saw what was troubling Minato and handed him a map directly. "After you return to the village, follow the location on the map, and you will see a huge lake. The natural energy there is no less than it is here; it will be enough for your training."
"And I also built a crystal tower there. You can live inside and quietly focus on your training."
The place Torifu was referring to was where he himself had practiced Sage Mode and where he had proposed to Naori.
The natural energy from such a large lake would be enough for Minato's training.
Torifu then looked at Jiraiya. "Just in case, I need you to help keep watch again."