After Katsuyu's revelation, Takara began moving toward Konoha once he had rested enough. He had been taking step after step without stopping, and even he needed to take a brief pause to space out a bit.
Since Sunagakure had already paid for its actions, he shouldn't have any problem entering the village through the main gate. Although he didn't doubt that he would also be put under immediate surveillance, the key was to enter with the least amount of effort possible.
The situation was a bit different from Iwagakure, where Han lived quite isolated from the rest of the village. The Hokage Monument Rock was in one of the densest and most guarded areas of the village, near several key buildings, so generating continuous temporal stasis fields wouldn't be feasible, and the nearby people would soon notice something was wrong.
Everything would be fine as long as Jiraiya wasn't in the village.
Although he had been quite cautious during their previous encounter, he was worried that the moment he entered sage mode to locate the exact spot of the Kyubi's egg, the old man might instinctively sense an anomaly.
A week later, as Takara was approaching the village of Konoha, he was notified by his noxians that Iwagakure had noticed Han's disappearance and was sounding the alarms.
"Well, that gave me more time than I thought," Takara expected to have at most three to four days' margin; the fact that it was actually ten days was quite indicative of how much Han abhorred contact with other humans. It seemed that if it weren't for the person who delivered his life supplies, it might have taken longer. "Too bad it didn't last until my visit to Kumo; that would have been ideal, although if I hurry, perhaps the time lapse between the news and my arrival will be narrow enough."
Takara formed a complicated seal with his hand while continuing to advance and gave the order to the Shukaku egg to dissolve the current one so that when he left Konoha with the Kyubi egg, the new Shukaku would begin to reform, and by the time he reached Kumogakure, he would have its strength at his disposal as well as Kurama's.
The gates of Konoha began to be visible in the distance, causing Takara to tense up, ready to act the moment things went south and he had to resort to brute force.
It would be a shame since he was wearing his Sunagakure headband, and that would cause problems for that village. But he couldn't simply enter with the image of a rogue ninja without a headband.
"Purpose of your visit?" asked one of the Konoha ninjas in charge of the window by the gate in a bored voice due to the monotony of his job.
"To buy the complete collection of Icha Icha Paradise."
The Konoha ninja stared at him speechless, not knowing how serious he was with the mask on his face. But recalling the special edition of the book he had in his right pocket, it seemed reasonable.
A man of culture would travel far to seek volumes of knowledge.
"Alright, enjoy your visit," he said to Takara while winking at him as he extended the sealed pass.
"I'll make sure I do."
The companion next to him, who was taking a break to have some green tea, approached the ninja who had sealed the pass for Takara with a frown.
"Hey, what's the deal with that kid from Sunagakure?" he asked.
"Huh? Nothing, he just came to buy a local product." He didn't want his coworkers to know about some of his more questionable hobbies; you never know when that could leak among the kunoichi.
And he was still looking for a girlfriend!
"Hmm, for some reason, I have a bad feeling."
"He seemed fine to me."
"Did you see his face?" he inquired. "Why is he wearing so many bandages?"
"No, he said he had horrible burns from a training that went wrong," the ninja shrugged, as it was more common than it seemed to have such accidents, especially at such a young age. "Should I have recommended he go to the hospital? It's probably better than what he can get in his village."
"Forget it, my wife sprained her ankle during the attack they made and she still feels uncomfortable from the scare she got," the man with the tea in hand shook his head, sitting down and preparing to resume his duties now that he had the hot drink. "Better to save the medicine for us than for others."
"If you feel something is wrong, I can notify Anbu to keep an eye on him," the receptionist didn't want to fail in his job either; being cautious sometimes wasn't a bad idea.
And it was one of the tasks to put potentially suspicious individuals under surveillance.
"They won't divert someone to watch a kid who at most just became a chunin," the ninja with the tea shook his head. "Remember what happened with Otogakure? They're still understaffed and need everyone to work overtime."
"Yeah, nobody expected there would be so many casualties while following Jiraiya-sama," the ninja scratched his head, dismayed. "The number of strange ninjas in those facilities was..."
"Enough!" the ninja with the tea silenced him. "We're getting off-topic, and we shouldn't talk about these things; it could get us into serious trouble. Let's focus on our job, and when the shift is over, I'll treat you to some barbecue."
"I'll hold you to that!"
Inside the village...
"Strange, although there are sentries in various places, it doesn't seem like anyone is paying special attention to me. They seem more like routine patrols than focused surveillance," Takara was unaware of the losses from Konoha's confrontation with Otogakure, but that wasn't going to stop him from carrying out his plans.
As an iconic place in the village, the Hokage Monument Rock had several tourist areas where people could observe the carved heads in the rock, as well as obtain souvenirs and buy some specialties.
Takara stood out quite a bit with his attire, but it didn't make much sense to use the transformation technique at this moment; it would only draw more attention.
He sat on an isolated bench in a less crowded area, where the ninja version of Mount Rushmore could be clearly observed. After ensuring there were no ninjas close to him, he began to examine the structure with the Tenseigan.
"Indeed, something is wrong with this place," he thought when a large black blotch entered his vision, recognizable from his experience in fuinjutsu as some sort of seal to prevent espionage from people with abilities similar to the Hyuga clan.
Tentatively entering sage mode, he could clearly feel a large amount of chakra emanating from the monument's underground and spreading like a network around the village, constantly feeding the barrier that covered it.
"Maybe people have been imperceptibly affected by the barrier made with the Kyubi egg's chakra, and that's why they treated Naruto so badly?" he reflected.
Although it was an operation by Danzo and the Third Hokage to "tame" Naruto, the behavior of some villagers then could only be considered excessive even by human standards.
After all, Naruto was still a very small child, and putting aside those who refrained from doing him any harm, logically speaking, there would still be many more people like Teuchi who would sympathize with him and help him discreetly.
"Unless those people were also blocked by those two..."
Takara shook his head, getting rid of that line of thought and paying attention again to the underground chakra flow.
"Interesting, there seems to be a node in the Forest of Death," Takara observed as the Tenseigan intensified the finer details. "Is that why the ecosystem is so strange there? Has it also been affected after being exposed for so long?"
Just as he wanted to pay more attention, he felt a heavy hand fall on his shoulder, and his body instantly flickered as he raised his palms and prepared to counterattack while examining his shoulder to check for any hidden seals.
Sure enough, there was a small tracking seal in the shape of a tadpole!
Takara didn't eliminate it instantly but isolated it to prevent the seal from deepening.
"Oi, kid, did I hear you wanted to get your hands on my works of art?"
Jiraiya gave Takara a big smile, as if he hadn't just placed the tracking seal a moment ago, but inwardly narrowed his eyes.
"This kid... he's too tense, he's up to something," he thought, rummaging through his memory and recalling a certain report about a skilled puppeteer who participated in the Chunin Exams. "And his gaze makes me feel exposed... something is definitely wrong."
Meanwhile, Takara's thoughts were much more focused.
"Damn, I got too lost in the investigation and didn't notice when he approached!" His heart had skipped a beat, and if it weren't for his quick reaction, he would have instinctively attacked, and his plan would have gone down the drain.
What should he do next?
Takara was sure Jiraiya suspected something; otherwise, he wouldn't have used the tracking seal to keep him in check.
"It looks like I have no choice but to do that; it's the only thing that can attract Jiraiya enough to leave quickly," he thought while mentally giving Nakime an order to open a door to several streets away silently and let out some puppets.