The war is over."
At the Hokage Building, beneath Shadow Rock.
The Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, advisors Koharu Utatane and Homura Mitokado, and the Root leader Danzo Shimura, were all gathered here.
Advisor Koharu Utatane looked out at the beautiful sunset, her expression relaxed as she sighed, clearly in a good mood.
After a brief silence in the meeting room, the other advisor, Homura Mitokado, spoke, "Although the war is over, there are still issues that need to be resolved quickly. Also, Jiraiya still hasn't returned. Hiruzen, the post-war Leaf Village is at a critical juncture of rebuilding. As a jōnin of the village, he shouldn't be acting impulsively at a time like this."
One could sense Homura's dissatisfaction with Jiraiya.
After the war in the Land of Rain concluded, Orochimaru, Jiraiya, and Tsunade were bestowed the title of 'Legendary Sannin of Konoha' by Hanzo, the leader of the Hidden Rain Village, and became famous throughout the ninja world.
However, only Orochimaru and Tsunade had returned. Jiraiya, having taken in three orphans from the Land of Rain, was still staying there.
Koharu also turned her head and continued, "Yes, Hiruzen, as a jōnin of Konoha, he has disregarded orders, taken in orphans in the Land of Rain, and has yet to return to the village. This has seriously violated the village's rules."
For such a ninja who seriously violated village rules, logically, they should be strongly persuaded to return. If they refused to listen, they should be declared a rogue ninja, captured and imprisoned in the Leaf Village, or even killed.
Otherwise, if such a ninja were allowed to act recklessly, the village's rules would lose credibility.
However, at this moment, the Leaf Village had not dispatched any ninja to persuade Jiraiya, nor had it announced that Jiraiya had become a rogue ninja.
As a disciple of the Hokage, the arrest warrant could only be issued by the Hokage himself.
Hokage Hiruzen tapped the ash from his pipe and said with a smile, "Don't worry, Jiraiya is an excellent ninja who inherited the Will of Fire. He knows what's important."
Homura and Koharu frowned, not entirely convinced by Hiruzen's words.
Hiruzen continued, "Jiraiya sent me a letter earlier. He said that doing this could ease the relationship between the Leaf Village and the Hidden Rain Village, and earn Hanzo a favor."
Homura's tone sounded even more displeased after hearing this. He knew that Hiruzen was unwilling to punish his own disciple and was making excuses for him.
"Hiruzen, you are too lenient with your subordinates. I told you, this is not the time for impulsive actions. He is a Leaf ninja, not a Rain ninja!"
Although the Leaf Village was the ultimate victor in this war in the Land of Rain, the path to victory was not smooth.
The most crucial point was that the Leaf Village defeated the Hidden Rain, but it did not defeat Hanzo, the leader of the Hidden Rain.
It was said that in the final battle of the Land of Rain war, hundreds of Leaf ninjas who followed Orochimaru and the other two in their confrontation with Hanzo all perished. In the end, only Orochimaru and the other two were spared by Hanzo and bestowed the title of 'Legendary Sannin of Konoha.'
Now, the animosity between the Leaf Village and the Hidden Rain could be said to be immense.
If Hanzo didn't appreciate it, or was a little petty, and directly killed Jiraiya, the Leaf Village would have no way to defend Jiraiya.
Hanzo only needed to accuse Jiraiya of 'stealing important information from another country' and announce it to the ninja world.
Other ninja villages would surely be happy to see the Leaf Village suffer, and would support Hanzo, making the Leaf Village an outcast.
"If anything unexpected happens, I, as Hokage, will take responsibility."
Hiruzen's words directly prevented Homura and Koharu from punishing Jiraiya.
"Danzo, what do you think of this matter?"
Homura didn't believe that Hiruzen could bear such a responsibility; he was merely biased towards his own disciple.
So he turned his gaze to Danzo, the leader of Root.
The latter had not spoken since he entered, sitting quietly to the side, but Homura and Koharu had to take Danzo's advice seriously.
"Didn't Hiruzen say so? If anything happens with Jiraiya, he will take responsibility. He is the Hokage of Konoha. Also, I have matters to attend to at Root, so I'll be leaving first."
Danzo stood up from his seat and walked out of the meeting room, not wanting to stay there any longer.
Even he couldn't change something that Hiruzen had decided.
This was the prestige of the Hokage.
In any case, whatever problems Jiraiya encountered had nothing to do with his Root organization.
If Jiraiya did encounter problems, he could openly criticize Hiruzen, so why not?
Homura and Koharu exchanged glances, not expecting Danzo to leave so abruptly.
"Since Danzo doesn't object, then the matter with Jiraiya is settled. Regarding the training of medical ninjas, Hiruzen, you must pay more attention. The Leaf Village is currently in urgent need of excellent medical ninjas like Tsunade."
Seeing that nothing could be done, Homura and Koharu also followed Danzo out. Before leaving, they urged Hiruzen to prioritize the training of medical ninjas.
Hiruzen shook his head. These three always tried to find fault with him.
However, thinking of Jiraiya's prolonged stay in the Land of Rain and his act of taking in orphans, in his teacher's eyes, it was too reckless and impulsive, truly unlike a ninja's behavior.
Guilt… or some other reason, Hiruzen didn't know.
But if he were to use forceful means to make Jiraiya return, it might lead to some unpleasant incidents.
As long as he could be useful at critical moments, Hiruzen could only turn a blind eye to this often unreliable disciple, writing him a letter to protect his own safety, and telling him that he didn't have to worry about the three orphans from the Land of Rain if danger arose.
The most important issues were next.
— The training of medical ninjas.
— Restricting the growth of Root.
These two matters were what troubled Hiruzen, the Hokage.
Especially the latter. Root, as a branch of the Anbu, had now completely become the personal organization of the elder Danzo, and even he, the Hokage, could not intervene, becoming increasingly mysterious.
The original intention of establishing Root was to handle some covert missions that could not be carried out under the name of the Hokage's direct Anbu. Therefore, Root was branched off from the Anbu and placed under Danzo's control.
Unexpectedly, it had developed to this day, with Root lurking deep within, implementing a more thorough secrecy than the Hokage's direct Anbu. The ninjas there had also lost their emotions, completely becoming Danzo's personal armed organization.
Therefore, balance was needed… How could he balance the various factions within the village now?
Hiruzen fell into deep thought.
When war came, everyone temporarily set aside their differences and united against the enemy. After the war, that was the true beginning of complications.
◎
The next day.
Ninja Academy, First Medical Ninja Experimental Class.
The instructor for today was not an Anbu medical jōnin, but a somewhat unfamiliar female ninja.
She wore the standard Konoha jōnin uniform, with light blonde pigtails tied behind her head, giving her a heroic and spirited appearance.
"I am Tsunade, a Konoha jōnin, and I will be teaching you medical ninjutsu starting today."
As soon as she walked to the front podium, she introduced herself to all the students in the classroom.
Below, people whispered. They weren't entirely unfamiliar with Tsunade.
She was one of Konoha's most popular jōnin, the granddaughter of the First Hokage, a disciple of the Third Hokage, and the village's most outstanding medical jōnin.
She had achieved remarkable feats in the recent war in the Land of Rain, and was bestowed the title of Sannin by Hanzo, the leader of the Hidden Rain Village.
They just hadn't expected her to replace the original Anbu jōnin skilled in medical ninjutsu and become their new teacher.
However, this only sparked some curiosity and excitement among the students. Compared to the mysterious Anbu jōnin who wore animal masks all day, Tsunade, a young, beautiful, and busty female jōnin, was a dream come true as a teacher.
For example, during class, they could enjoy a spectacular 'ball game' for free.
Shiraishi sat in the corner of the classroom, also secretly 'watching the game'… *ahem*, carefully observing Tsunade's every move.
As expected of a jōnin, the granddaughter of the First Hokage, there was not a single flaw in her every gesture.
It seemed the gap between himself and a jōnin was still very large.
Shiraishi now had a more intuitive understanding of jōnin.
When class ended, Ruri was waiting for him outside.
It was already five in the afternoon, and the sun was slowly setting in the west, painting beautiful evening glow in the distance.
Tsunade walked out of the classroom, carrying textbooks, and was slightly surprised to see Shiraishi and Ruri.
Of course, she wasn't paying attention to Shiraishi, an unremarkable student, but to Ruri.
The Uchiha fan symbol on her clothes was too conspicuous, allowing Tsunade to immediately recognize Ruri as a member of the Uchiha clan.
"You are?"
Tsunade seemed to become quite interested.
An Uchiha ninja, waiting for someone here, and a civilian at that.
Before taking over this class, Tsunade had looked through the files of all the students in Shiraishi's class.
Even on her first day teaching here, she had already retrieved Shiraishi's basic information.
Civilian, parents deceased.
These two have something going on!
"Lady Tsunade, I am Uchiha Ruri."
Facing Tsunade, a jōnin, Ruri displayed a respectful yet unyielding demeanor.
A jōnin, that was merely power and status she would obtain sooner or later.
Moreover, Tsunade's identity was too sensitive. As the direct princess of the Senju clan, she was, to some extent, a mortal enemy of Ruri's Uchiha clan.
If the other party intended to make things difficult for her, she would never sit idly by.
Tsunade merely nodded and said nothing more, nor did she make things difficult for Ruri, despite her Uchiha background.
After asking Ruri's name, Tsunade directly left the corridor.
"Why is Lady Tsunade here?"
Ruri asked Shiraishi, puzzled as to why a jōnin like Tsunade would appear here.
"The previous teacher was replaced. Now, Teacher Tsunade is in charge of teaching medical ninjutsu to the students of the First Experimental Class."
Shiraishi said indifferently.
"I see. It seems the village is truly sparing no effort in training medical ninjas."
"Indeed. When I first found out, I was also very flattered."
Looking at the smile on Shiraishi's face, Ruri was slightly speechless.
How could she not see any trace of flattery on this guy's face?
Men are so hypocritical.