"The war is over."
At the Hokage Building under the Kage Rock.
The Third Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen, Advisor Utatane Koharu, Mitokado Homura, and Root leader Shimura Danzo were gathered here.
Advisor Utatane Koharu looked out at the beautiful sunset, her expression relaxed as she sighed, clearly in a good mood.
After a brief quiet in the meeting room, the other advisor, Mitokado Homura, spoke: "Although the war is over, there are still urgent issues to resolve. Also, Jiraiya hasn't returned yet, Hiruzen, right now Konoha is at a critical moment of rebuilding. As a Jonin of this village, he shouldn't be acting on impulse at a time like this."
You could tell Homura wasn't pleased with Jiraiya.
After the end of the Land of Rain war, Orochimaru, Jiraiya, and Tsunade were given the title 'Konoha Sannin' by Hanzou, leader of Hidden Rain Village, making them famous throughout the Ninja Realm.
But only Orochimaru and Tsunade actually returned; Jiraiya stayed behind in the Land of Rain after taking in three orphans.
Koharu also turned her head and continued, "Yes, Hiruzen, as a Konoha Jonin, he actually ignored orders, took in orphans in the Land of Rain, and hasn't returned to the village. That's already a serious violation of the village's rules."
For a ninja who severely violates village rules, normally you should try your utmost to dissuade them; if they refuse, you would label them as a renegade ninja, capture them for Konoha Prison, or execute them.
If you let such ninja run wild, the village's rules lose credibility.
But Konoha hasn't sent any ninja to dissuade Jiraiya, nor announced that he's become a renegade ninja.
As the Hokage's student, an arrest warrant could only be issued by the Hokage himself.
Hokage Hiruzen shook 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; they weren't fully convinced by Hiruzen's words.
Hiruzen continued: "Jiraiya wrote to me earlier. He said this could ease relations between Konoha and the Hidden Rain Village, and gain us a favor from Hanzou."
Homura sounded even less satisfied after hearing that, knowing Hiruzen was going easy on his own student, making excuses for him.
"Hiruzen, you're too lenient with your subordinates. I told you, now's not the time for personal feelings. He's a Konoha ninja, not a Hidden Rain ninja!"
In the Land of Rain war, although Konoha was the ultimate winner, the victory didn't come easily.
The key point: Konoha defeated Hidden Rain, but not Hanzou, its leader.
It was said in the final battle of the Land of Rain war, over a hundred Konoha ninja fighting alongside Orochimaru, Tsunade, and Jiraiya against Hanzou were all killed. Only those three were spared by Hanzou, who gave them the title 'Konoha Sannin'.
Now, the hatred between Konoha and Hidden Rain ran deep.
If Hanzou didn't feel grateful or was petty enough, he could just kill Jiraiya. Konoha couldn't even protest.
Hanzou just needed to slap a 'stealing important information from another nation' charge on Jiraiya and publicize it to the Ninja Realm.
Other ninja villages would love to see Konoha humiliated, rally behind Hanzou, and make Konoha look bad.
"If something unexpected happens, as Hokage, I'll take responsibility."
Hiruzen said this, leaving no room for Homura and Koharu to punish Jiraiya.
"Danzo, what do you think?"
Homura didn't really believe Hiruzen could take such responsibility—he was just shielding his student.
So he turned his attention to Root leader Danzo.
The other man hadn't spoken at all since entering, quietly sitting, but Homura and Koharu still had to seriously consider Danzo's advice.
"Didn't Hiruzen already say it? If something happens with Jiraiya, he'll take responsibility. He's Konoha's Hokage. Besides, there are matters in Root I need to deal with, so I'll be leaving."
Danzo stood from his seat and headed for the door, not wanting to stay longer.
When the Hokage made a decision, even he couldn't change it.
That's the Hokage's authority.
Anyway, whatever happens with Jiraiya isn't Root's concern.
If anything does happen to Jiraiya, Danzo can openly criticize Hiruzen—why not?
Homura and Koharu looked at each other, surprised at Danzo's straightforward departure.
"Since Danzo doesn't object, we'll leave Jiraiya's issue as it is. Regarding medical ninja training, Hiruzen, you must keep a close eye—Konoha urgently needs talented medical ninja like Tsunade."
Seeing the matter settled, Homura and Koharu exited after Danzo, but before they left, reminded Hiruzen to focus on medical ninja development.
Hiruzen shook his head. These three always tried to catch him out.
But thinking about Jiraiya lingering in the Land of Rain and taking in orphans, as a teacher, Hiruzen still felt it was too reckless—just not how a ninja should act.
Guilt... or some other reason—Hiruzen couldn't say.
But if they forced Jiraiya to return with hard tactics, it might cause unpleasant consequences.
As long as Jiraiya is useful at key moments, Hiruzen chooses to turn a blind eye to this irresponsible student——he only wrote him asking to keep himself safe and, if danger arises, to ignore those three Land of Rain orphans.
Now the most important issues remain.
——Training medical ninja.
——Limiting Root's expansion.
These two things are what headache Hiruzen as Hokage.
Especially the latter: Root, as a branch of the Anbu, has become Elder Danzo's personal organization, so even Hiruzen himself can't interfere, and it's more secretive than ever.
Initially, Root was founded to handle covert missions unsuitable for the Hokage's personal Anbu, so a branch—the Root—was split off and handed to Danzo.
But Root's development has led it to lurk in the shadows and enforce a far more extreme secrecy than the Hokage's own Anbu. Its ninja have lost all emotion, turning entirely into Danzo's private military force.
So balance is needed... How can he balance the various village factions next?
Hiruzen fell into deep thought.
When war arrives, everyone temporarily sets aside differences and unites; after war, the truly messy beginnings start.
◎
The next day.
Ninja School: First Medical Ninja Experimental Class.
Today's instructor wasn't an Anbu Medical Jonin, but a rather unfamiliar female ninja.
She wore the standard Konoha Jonin uniform, pale gold twin-tails tied behind her head, giving her a heroic aura.
"From today, I am your new Konoha Jonin instructor for medical ninjutsu, Tsunade."
She walked up to the podium and introduced herself to all the students in the classroom.
Below, people whispered to each other; they weren't exactly unfamiliar with Tsunade.
One of Konoha's hottest Jonin, granddaughter of the First Hokage, disciple of the Third Hokage, the village's best Medical Jonin.
In the Land of Rain war, she gained impressive achievements and was granted the Sannin title by Hidden Rain Village Leader Hanzou.
No one expected her to replace the previous Anbu Medical Jonin who specialized in medical ninjutsu and become their new teacher.
But that only made the students more curious and excited; compared to the masked, mysterious Anbu Jonin, Tsunade was young, beautiful, and... had big boobs, truly their dream teacher.
For example, during classes, you could watch epic ball games for free.
Hakushi sat in the corner of the classroom, secretly watching the game... cough, cough, intently observing Tsunade's every move.
No wonder she's a Jonin, granddaughter of the First Hokage—her every action was flawless.
Seems the gap between him and a Jonin is still huge.
Hakushi now had a much clearer sense of what a Jonin really is.
After class, Ruri was waiting outside for him.
It was already five in the afternoon, the sun slowly sinking westward, painting beautiful evening clouds in the distance.
Tsunade hugged her textbooks and walked out of the classroom, catching sight of Hakushi and Ruri—she paused briefly.
Her attention, of course, wasn't on the ordinary student Hakushi, but on Ruri.
The fan insignia on her clothing was so striking that Tsunade instantly recognized Ruri as from the Uchiha Clan.
"You are?"
Tsunade seemed intrigued.
An Uchiha ninja, waiting here for someone—and that someone is a civilian.
Before taking over this class, Tsunade had reviewed all the student dossiers for Hakushi's class.
Even on her first day teaching here, she had already searched out Hakushi's basic details.
Civilian, orphaned parents.
These two are up to something!
"Tsunade-sama, I am Uchiha Ruri."
Facing a Jonin like Tsunade, Ruri stayed calm and composed.
Jonin? She'd have both the power and status soon enough.
Besides, Tsunade was a sensitive figure: the princess of the Senju Clan, direct bloodline. In some ways, she and Ruri's Uchiha Clan were mortal enemies.
If Tsunade wanted to give her trouble, she absolutely wouldn't just sit and take it.
Tsunade only nodded, said nothing more, nor caused Ruri any trouble, even though she's Uchiha.
After asking Ruri's name, Tsunade left the corridor.
"Why is Jonin Tsunade here?"
Ruri asked Hakushi, puzzled at why a Jonin like Tsunade would appear here.
"The previous teacher was replaced. Now Tsunade-sensei is teaching the experimental class medical ninjutsu."
Hakushi spoke mildly.
"I see. Looks like the village is really going all out for medical ninja training."
"Yeah, when I found out, I was honestly pretty shocked."
Looking at Hakushi's smiling face, Ruri was a bit speechless.
She couldn't see any sign of shock in this guy.
Men are just hypocrites.