After a while, Tsunade said, "Then, during my time as the Hokage, I will nurture him with all my might so that he can stand on his own two feet as soon as possible. When he is qualified to succeed as the Sixth Hokage, I can retire and travel the world."
Jiraiya laughed. "That's your personality for sure. You haven't even become the Hokage, and you've already planned how to shirk the responsibility."
Then he put away his smile, his voice softening a bit. "Tsunade, how is your hemophobia now?"
Tsunade lowered her head to look at her open palms. These hands had once saved seven dying Jonin simultaneously on the most glorious battlefield, and also had been unable to face a single drop of blood after Kato Dan and Nawaki's death.
She looked for a long time, then slowly clenched her palms into fists.
"Before, perhaps I would still be affected. But the moment Naruto's Rasenshuriken stopped above my head, I suddenly realized that death isn't really a big deal."
"When a person is only a few centimeters away from death, some fears become less important."
Jiraiya asked, "So Orochimaru came to see you to have you heal his hands? What were the conditions he offered?"
Tsunade replied, "To resurrect Kato Dan and Nawaki. He said he could use Edo Tensei to resurrect them, on the condition that I use Medical Ninjutsu to heal his hands."
"I never intended to agree to him. I made an appointment to meet him just to make a clean break with him face-to-face."
"But I didn't expect that before he could even show himself, he was blasted out of the mountain he was hiding in by Naruto."
"Now, even if Orochimaru isn't dead, he is seriously injured. I don't know where he fled to heal."
Jiraiya said, "With Edo Tensei, the ones resurrected are just puppets controlled by the caster, not the real people at all. With your knowledge of forbidden jutsu, you should know this better than I do."
"What Naruto shattered today wasn't just Orochimaru's hideout, but also the emotional knot he had set for you. He did for you what I should have done, although the method was a bit rough."
Tsunade laughed, not replying.
The two chatted about the past, about Minato, Kushina, the Third Hokage, and the days they had fought side by side.
—
Early the next morning, the group had breakfast at the inn and set off on the journey back to Konoha.
Along the way, they chatted and laughed, and the atmosphere was much more relaxed than when they had arrived.
Naruto suddenly slowed his pace and walked beside Tsunade. "Granny Tsunade, I have something I want to trouble you with."
"What is it?"
"During the Chunin Exams, I met a member of the Uzumaki clan who had been left behind in the Land of Grass. Her name is Karin, and she is one of the last remaining descendants of the Uzumaki clan."
"She was previously imprisoned by Kusagakure as a medical resource for over a decade, so I brought her out of Kusagakure."
"She is currently staying in a small town within the Land of Fire. I would like to ask if you could arrange a legal identity for her in Konoha?"
Tsunade's footsteps paused slightly.
The Senju and the Uzumaki have been distant relatives since ancient times. Her grandmother, Uzumaki Mito, was a princess of the Land of Whirlpools.
Naruto has Uzumaki blood flowing in him, and she also has Uzumaki blood flowing in her. Now, Naruto has found another stray orphan of the Uzumaki clan.
"What about the parents of that child named Karin? Does she have any other relatives?" Tsunade asked.
"Her mother had her Chakra drained dry by the people of Kusagakure when she was a child. Her father is unknown, and she has no other relatives. Her only value in Kusagakure was that she inherited her mother's special physique." Naruto replied.
Tsunade caught onto the keyword "drained" in Naruto's words.
She couldn't help but ask, "What kind of physique?"
Naruto answered, "No matter how severe the injury, as long as you take a bite, it can instantly heal. Her mother was bitten to death just like that."
Tsunade's pupils shrank slightly, and her fingers clenched, emitting a faint cracking sound.
"I don't need you to tell me how miserable someone with this kind of restorative physique would be if discovered by those small villages, I can guess. I agree."
"After returning to Konoha to take over as the Hokage, I will personally sign her first civilian naturalization permit."
"If she wants to be a ninja, I can personally teach her Medical Ninjutsu."
"If she doesn't learn to protect herself, she will sooner or later follow in her mother's footsteps."
Jiraiya seemed to recall something and tapped his fist into his palm. "Naruto, I received intelligence back on Adofu Street stating that Kusagakure was attacked by an unidentified Wind Release expert. The ninjas left guarding the village were all killed, the village was blasted with deep craters a hundred meters in diameter, and Kusagakure was even partitioned and destroyed by other hidden villages."
"That Wind Release expert wouldn't happen to be you, would it, kid?"
Naruto nodded. "They deserved it. They bit Karin's mother to death, and then planned to bite Karin to death as well. I just made them pay a little bit of the price they deserved."
"A little bit of the price they deserved? You single-handedly nearly destroyed a ninja village, and you call that a little bit of a price?" Jiraiya's mouth hung open for a long time.
Tsunade, however, did not make any moral judgment on the fact that Naruto had nearly destroyed Kusagakure.
"Well done." She said.
Shizune, holding Tonton, followed silently from the side. She glanced at Naruto and felt that his back seemed a little taller.
"Alright, there is no time to lose. Naruto, go and pick up Karin. It's just right to have us few with Uzumaki blood return to Konoha together." Tsunade said.
Naruto nodded.
He took a Kunai out from his Ninja tool pouch and placed it on the ground, then locked his mind onto the Flying Thunder God Kunai in the inn of the small town in the Land of Fire and disappeared from the spot.