Jiraiya wasn't revived through the Impure World Reincarnation. Even though his spirit had perished, his physical body still remained.
Under everyone's bewildered gazes, Jiraiya's body collapsed limply onto the ground and lay motionless for a long time.
They didn't understand exactly what had happened, but they gradually realized that Jiraiya was already dead.
At this moment, among Orochimaru's forces, only the Fourth Raikage remained.
Among the ninja dispatched by Konoha, several knew sealing techniques. Yugao asked around, selected them, and personally led them to support Might Guy.
"Only one left now. We should be able to handle it, right?" Hiroki asked.
"Rest assured, we'll manage," Yugao replied calmly.
After receiving her confirmation, Hiroki carried Jiraiya's corpse back to Konoha.
Meanwhile, Tsunade sat quietly at home, worrying about what situations Yugao and the others might encounter, even debating whether or not she should get involved herself.
Hiroki stepped into the courtyard, bringing Jiraiya's corpse directly before her.
Tsunade froze, at a loss for a moment.
Hiroki laid him on the ground and spoke, "He's dead. No need to worry about him being revived through the Impure World Reincarnation again. If you feel reluctant, you don't have to…"
Tsunade carefully stared at Jiraiya's face. Suddenly, her emotions became unstable. Before Hiroki could finish speaking, she interrupted excitedly:
"He's dead anyway, why bring him back?! Why bring him here? To make you see me like this? Just to torment me…"
Her words spilled out incoherently, but Hiroki roughly understood her meaning.
Losing someone you care about can leave your emotions bottled up. You need some kind of release.
Back when Hiruzen Sarutobi—the Third Hokage—passed away, Tsunade hadn't reacted like this. It seemed that Jiraiya held an even greater place in her heart than the Third did.
Thinking thus, Hiroki said, "I originally thought…"
Tsunade wouldn't listen to anything now. Even though no tears had fallen, she wiped at her face and turned away, her voice returning to calm as she cut him off, "Burn him."
"Seriously burn him?"
"If I tell you to do it, just do it." Tsunade couldn't help raising her voice slightly.
Shouted at like that, Hiroki also felt a bit displeased. He replied coldly, "I don't know Fire Release. Handle it yourself."
With that, he turned and walked toward the courtyard entrance.
Tsunade kept her back to the door, facing away from Jiraiya's body on the ground. She covered her face, as if trying desperately to hide her emotions.
"Tsunade-sama, what's wrong?" Shizune approached, drawn over by Tsunade's shout.
"Shizune, bury this person on the ground." After saying that, Tsunade hurried away without looking back, returned to her room alone, and began staring blankly into space.
"Jiraiya…" Seeing the corpse on the ground, Shizune was astonished.
On the street, Hiroki suddenly sighed, stopped walking, and turned around again toward Tsunade's house, wanting to do something more.
"What are you going to do?" Kaguya suddenly spoke up.
At the same time, she slowly appeared on the street as well.
"I was thinking about going back to comfort her a bit."
Kaguya let out a cold snort. "She's experienced far more than you ever have. Does she really need your comfort?"
"..." Hiroki had no reply.
Kaguya pinched his face, staring into his eyes. "Don't forget whose you are."
Though it felt a bit out of place, something inside Hiroki stirred when he heard those words. Without thinking, he grabbed her hand and leaned closer.
Seeing his face gradually moving nearer, Kaguya shifted her gaze, immediately releasing him and walking past toward Tsunade's residence.
Left standing there, Hiroki muttered inwardly: Judging from her teasing skills alone, she clearly can't be inexperienced in love matters at all...
Kaguya didn't find Tsunade inside the house. When she located her again, Tsunade was already on the balcony of the Hokage Building, leaning against the railing, silently enduring the cold wind.
The soft sound of footsteps reached her ears, and Tsunade slightly turned her head, recognizing the visitor from the corner of her eye.
Still looking down at the villagers moving below in Konoha, Tsunade spoke indifferently, "Come here to comfort me, Lady Kaguya? That doesn't seem like something you'd do."
Kaguya stopped walking without stepping beside her, merely watching her back with a calm voice. "I just hope you won't waste too much time on matters like these."
Tsunade couldn't help but smile bitterly.
"Maybe you truly cannot understand how I feel. If nothing is important, then there's nothing to worry about losing either."
"There are times when I think you're too cold-hearted, always so rational. But actually, in a way, that could also be considered fortunate..."
To Kaguya, these words carried a hint of veiled sarcasm.
Wasn't she the one who had lost everything?
But over the last millennium, those memories had faded. She simply chose not to keep recalling them constantly.
Suppressing her irritation, she coldly remarked, "Tsunade, a few days of tantrums will suffice. Don't overdo it."
Then, turning around, she left.
On her way back, she encountered Hinata again at the crossroad leading to the Hyuga Clan estate.
Meeting Kaguya's gaze briefly, Hinata flinched slightly, then pretended not to see her, silently brushing past without even offering a greeting.
Kaguya was momentarily speechless. Were they seriously expecting her to go around smoothing things over with every single one of them?
What a pain!
She sighed inwardly.
Inside the Hyuga household, Hanabi stood waiting along the path for Hinata's return. Spotting her arrival, Hanabi eagerly threw herself into Hinata's arms. "Big sister."
Hinata gently stroked her head with a tender look on her face.
As Hanabi nuzzled affectionately into her sister's embrace, she peeked out and stuck her tongue out playfully at Kaguya from afar.
"Nyah nyah nyah," she taunted, sticking her tongue out at Kaguya with a mocking face.
Hmph! My big sister is all mine now...
A twitch formed at Kaguya's lips as an unexpected urge to laugh surfaced.
Back in the old days, that brat would've been first on the menu for the God Tree.
Suddenly sensing something sinister in Kaguya's grin, Hanabi tugged Hinata swiftly back indoors.
...
The next day, Yugao and others returned to Konoha carrying the sealed body of A - the Fourth Raikage.
Tsunade had no interest in dealing with it. Besides, it was unlikely she could extract any useful intelligence from A.
Her mood wasn't likely to improve any time soon, and in her current state, focusing on Sage Mode training would be impossible. To distract herself, she simply got back to work.
Hiashi and Hizashi were surprised to find Tsunade unusually diligent. She spent far more time in the Hokage office than before and had started actively handling official duties — something that brought Hiashi a degree of relief.
Although he didn't mind assisting the Hokage, as head of the Hyuga clan, he also needed to manage internal family affairs.
If Tsunade was willing to take on her share of the workload, then he could focus more on clan affairs.
Hiroki destroyed A — the Fourth Raikage's soul and consciousness. He died once again, vanishing completely from existence.
Afterward, Hiroki turned his attention elsewhere. "Has there been any development regarding Hidan?"
"The Sarutobi and Shimura clans have actively tried hunting down Hidan, but none succeeded," White Zetsu reported truthfully.
At nearly the same time, several members from both the Sarutobi and Shimura clans appeared in Tsunade's office.
"Hokage-sama, Hidan murdered fellow village ninja. Please help us seek justice!"
Since Hidan had once stayed in Konoha for a period of time, outsiders and village-based ninja families quickly exchanged information and identified him.
"Hidan?" Tsunade raised an eyebrow. "He did stay in Konoha briefly, but he isn't a citizen here. In fact, he doesn't even have Konoha residency records. I can't control him — he's just a visitor."
"I don't really understand why you hold a grudge against him. Did something happen while I was unaware?"
The speaker hesitated, his expression faltering momentarily.
As they exited the Hokage Building, these people were filled with anger. "Even if we can't force her action, does she really not care at all that our ninja are getting murdered?!"
"When he was in Konoha, Hidan used to hang around Might Guy all the time! How can you call him just some tourist?!"
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"She doesn't even consider us part of the village anymore!"
Back inside the Hokage's office, Tsunade wore a cold expression.
She had already learned from Hiashi about the Sarutobi clan's secret operations.
She cared little about their stance.
If they truly wanted to leave, then do it quickly — better to remove them than keep them lingering half-heartedly in Konoha, forcing her to assign resources monitoring their activities.
Besides, she wasn't worried about them leaking anything sensitive — the Sarutobi and Shimura clans had long since moved away from Konoha's center of power.
Even Homura Mitokado and Koharu Utatane were now little more than figureheads.
After giving it some thought, Tsunade called in the principal of the Konoha Ninja Academy, along with grade-level supervisors and several top-performing teachers.
Iruka was among them.
"I'm planning to add another course at the school."
Tsunade stood with her arms crossed, facing Iruka and the others as she explained her plan.
If Kaguya's words were true, then raising the upper limits of ninja abilities was indeed necessary.
Clearly, Kaguya believed in Sage Art; otherwise, she wouldn't keep urging Tsunade to learn Sage Mode.
Of course, the path of Sage Art cultivation was fraught with difficulties. Tsunade had no intention of passing down the full training method to a bunch of brats who hadn't even graduated from the Academy yet.
Right now, she only intended to teach them the first stage:
Perceiving and resonating with natural energy.
Only those who could achieve this step would earn her attention.
After listening to Tsunade's explanation of Sage Art and natural energy, Iruka and the others felt quite confused.
Most of them worked at the Academy, handling mostly administrative roles. While they thoroughly understood the basics of ninja knowledge, their potential wasn't particularly outstanding.
Tsunade well understood their level. She sighed and said,
"Fine, I'll write everything down. All of you can give it a try. If anyone manages to perceive natural energy, he will become the future instructor for this course."
"In the future, Sage Art and natural energy will be our top priority."
And above all else, they needed to cultivate a group capable of using Sage Art before ninjas became extinct.
She added silently.
Upon hearing these words, Iruka and the rest trembled slightly.
"Lord Hokage, are you planning to reform the education system?" Iruka couldn't help but ask.
After a moment of silence, Tsunade nodded. "You may interpret it that way."
Iruka and the others left, but Tsunade remained deep in thought.
She didn't think any of them had what it took to master Sage Art—they were just too average.
After thinking quietly for a while, Tsunade activated a summoning technique.
The Slug Sage answered her call.
With a puff of smoke, a small slug appeared on the ground.
Carefully, Tsunade placed it on her desk. "Slug Sage, could you leave a few clones here in Konoha to teach Sage Mode?"
"Kaa-san, don't you have time to go to Shikkotsu Forest?" The tiny slug assumed she lacked time, so it asked.
"No, not for me—this is for teaching others."
"Huh?" The little slug didn't quite grasp her meaning.
"To tell the truth, I think we should spread the methods of Sage Mode training. Then you would become a holy master of this new era. Just like how the Sage of Six Paths was in the past, you will be the same for the future."
"Sage Art is definitely not suitable for widespread dissemination," the small slug said bluntly, finding her idea absurd.
Not everyone was cut out for Sage Art cultivation. Even a small mistake could be deadly—one wrong step might drive you mad, or worse, leave you turned to stone.
The petrified frog statues on Mount Myoboku were the clearest proof of that. The reason Shikkotsu Forest lacked such things was simply because fewer people went there.
With low success rates and high mortality, if this were actually spread around, who would consider her a saint? At best, they'd label her a demon causing harm rather than enlightenment.
Moreover, it was hard to predict humanity's attitude toward Katsuyu.
After all, they weren't even the same species.
Some humans showed no kindness to their own kind—how much less so toward outsiders?
What if the ninja decided to eliminate her after gaining greater power?
The very idea of human nature was terrifying to contemplate.
Before, she at least had sage techniques to protect herself. If those training methods were widely spread, she would lose even that last advantage.
"That's why we need you," Tsunade said with deep respect and earnestness.
"…" The [small slug] didn't respond, deliberately ending the summoning jutsu and vanishing in a puff of smoke before Tsunade's eyes.
Tsunade sighed helplessly.
...
At night when all was quiet, Asuma returned to his quarters after switching shifts with his companions.
A letter from Konoha had been slipped into his room.
After opening the envelope and reading its contents, Asuma's mood became heavy.
He found himself opening a drawer and pulling out another letter.
It was correspondence from Danzo.
"Could it really be necessary to follow his suggestion—to take desperate measures?" he murmured to himself.
Asuma sat at his desk, leaning forward as he began drafting a reply.
The next day, Hiroki left Konoha. He was heading toward the Country of Hot Springs to fulfill his promise to Yugao about overseeing construction there.
A Hyuga clansman hurried into the Hokage's office to report, "Hokage-sama, some Sarutobi clan members have secretly left Konoha. They left without authorization and weren't assigned any official mission for leaving the village..."
"Have they already exited the village?" Tsunade asked.
"Some were stopped, but others managed to escape. The patrols are currently tracking them down."
"A portion? Are many people trying to leave?"
"It's unclear—perhaps it's just the same group continually trying..."
"If anyone else tries to leave, let them go. Don't waste manpower chasing them unnecessarily." Tsunade spoke lightly, almost casually.
The reporting Hyuga clansman paused momentarily.
"However, those who have left won't be allowed to return."
Upon hearing this, the Hyuga nodded understandingly. "*I understand, Hokage-sama. Do you mean to officially mark them as missing-nin [rogue ninja]?*"
"…" Tsunade clearly hesitated for a moment. "Wait until most of them have left before announcing them as missing-nin."
The Hyuga nodded solemnly, indicating he understood, thinking internally: *So Hokage-sama saw this coming from the start...*
As he was about to leave, Tsunade called him back. "Wait—the people sneaking away… none of them belong to the Shimura Clan?"
"No," the Hyuga ninja shook his head.
"They really know how to keep themselves in check..." Tsunade muttered.
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