Konoha Year 51.
April had arrived.
Two and a half years was neither long nor short, but Konoha had changed a great deal during that time.
The destruction caused by Madara's previous invasion had already been repaired, though Konoha's overall layout had changed because of it.
The great battle a year ago had been especially brutal.
Kirigakure had launched a massive offensive and invaded the Land of Fire, clashing fiercely with Konoha's shinobi forces inside Fire Country's borders.
Both sides suffered heavy losses.
At the same time, Madara had charged straight into Konoha and fought against many of the village's strongest shinobi.
That battle had nearly destroyed half the village.
In the end, under the leadership of the Fourth Hokage, Tsunade, Konoha had successfully driven Madara back and ruined his plans.
However, Konoha's losses had not been small.
At that moment, inside the Hokage's office, Tsunade had just finished handling the day's work.
Wearing the haori of the Fourth Hokage, she stood before the window and gazed out over Konoha.
No one knew what she was thinking.
Then, a knock came at the door.
Tsunade collected herself, returned to her seat, and said, "Come in."
Minato pushed open the door and entered, then bowed respectfully.
"Hokage-sama."
His expression was grave.
"Reports from our informants in Sunagakure have arrived. Ryota invaded Sunagakure. After overwhelming their defenses, he captured the One-Tail Jinchūriki, Bunpuku."
"Ryota..."
Hearing that name, Tsunade could not help rubbing her temples.
Ryota was the owner of another pair of Mangekyō Sharingan. He also had a monster similar to a Tailed Beast sealed inside his body.
More importantly, Ryota was extremely hostile toward Konoha.
He was an S-rank rogue ninja from the village.
Over a year ago, Ryota had attacked Kumogakure under Madara's name. After wreaking havoc there, he successfully captured the Two-Tails.
The Uchiha Clan and Konoha had both sent people to pursue him, but Ryota had displayed terrifying strength and managed to escape from several elite shinobi.
He had clearly joined forces with Madara.
And during the battle when Madara invaded Konoha, Ryota had also taken part.
Tsunade exhaled slowly and asked, "Didn't Sunagakure and Iwagakure form an alliance? Did Iwagakure just stand by and let him succeed?"
Minato relayed what he knew.
"Iwagakure did take action, but by the time their forces arrived, Ryota had already left with the One-Tail Jinchūriki."
"Hmm."
Tsunade responded quietly, her expression dark.
Because of Madara's threat, the pressure on her shoulders had never been light.
She knew Madara's goal.
He wanted to collect the Tailed Beasts, resurrect the Ten-Tails, and use its power to trap the entire shinobi world in an illusion.
"The One-Tail, Two-Tails, Three-Tails, Five-Tails, Six-Tails, and Seven-Tails..."
Tsunade tapped her finger against the desk, her expression shifting.
"Madara has already captured six Tailed Beasts."
"Only the missing Four-Tails, the Eight-Tails that has not yet resurrected, and the Nine-Tails inside Kushina remain."
"After staying quiet for almost a year, he has finally started moving again."
If Madara successfully gathered all the Tailed Beasts, who in the shinobi world could stop him?
The last time Madara invaded, Konoha had deployed almost all of its strongest fighters.
Even Nagato, who possessed the Rinnegan, had stepped in, and yet they had still nearly been crushed.
If Might Duy had not risked his life by opening the Eight Gates at the very end, Konoha might have fallen completely in that battle.
"If he invades Konoha again, we..."
Tsunade's voice trailed off before she finished.
But the meaning was clear.
If Madara invaded again, Konoha would not have another Might Duy.
Might Duy had barely survived after opening the Eight Gates, thanks to Tsunade's treatment.
But his limbs had suffered comminuted fractures, his chakra pathways and blood vessels had been severely damaged, and his body was nearly paralyzed.
The fact that he had survived at all was already a miracle.
Of course, by relying on the Eight Gates, Might Duy had also inflicted severe injuries on Madara.
Half of Madara's body had been crushed by him.
That might have been the reason Madara had stayed quiet for nearly a year.
Minato understood the pressure Tsunade carried as Hokage. His own expression was just as grave, but his tone was firm.
"I will not let Madara succeed, even if it costs me my life."
Madara's goal was the Tailed Beasts.
And the Nine-Tails Jinchūriki was Minato's pregnant wife.
For Kushina, and for Konoha, Minato would not allow Madara to succeed, even if he had to die to stop him.
"Enough. Stop saying things like that."
Tsunade waved a hand and said calmly, "If you die, what happens to Kushina? What happens to the child in her belly?"
"I am still alive. Jiraiya is still alive. Sakumo is still alive. Since when is it your turn, as the younger generation, to go off and die first?"
"Besides, before Madara invades again, that brat might already be back."
Her words of comfort paused there.
Tsunade's expression became complicated for a moment.
Regret, guilt, sorrow, and other emotions crossed her face.
But they disappeared almost immediately, as if they had never been there.
She was the Hokage now.
After a brief silence, Tsunade said to Minato, "Tomorrow, take me to Rōran. It has been over two years, and that brat still has not escaped. What a jerk. Once he gets out, I will definitely..."
"Hm? This is..."
Halfway through speaking, Tsunade suddenly sensed something.
She stood up abruptly, surprise and joy appearing on her face.
The Flying Thunder God mark at the center of her brow had been triggered.
Someone was locking onto it from an extremely long distance away.
That mark had been left by Seiryū.
Only Seiryū could locate it.
For short-distance teleportation, the Flying Thunder God Technique did not need to actively trigger the mark in advance.
But for long-distance teleportation, the mark had to be triggered to make the positioning more precise.
This meant one thing.
Seiryū was locking onto her position and preparing to use the Flying Thunder God Technique.
Swish!
The very next moment, a figure appeared out of thin air inside the Hokage's office.
Naturally, it was Seiryū.
"Yo, Tsunade, Minato. Long time no see. Hmm, no, that doesn't sound quite right. From my perspective, it's only been about an hour."
Seiryū greeted them naturally, just like before.
He had spent the night in Rōran and had been used as a pillow by a certain queen.
His body had not fully recovered from the exhaustion yet. Otherwise...
In short, he had slept well.
After waking up, he had eaten breakfast under Sāra's strong insistence. Then he located Tsunade's position and returned to Konoha with the Flying Thunder God Technique.
The moment he finished speaking, Seiryū saw a slender figure rush toward him.
A familiar scent entered his nose, and his body was pulled into a firm embrace.
Feeling the familiar strength in that hug, Seiryū grinned and said lightly, "Why are you being so enthusiastic too?"
"This doesn't seem like your style, Tsunade."
"So you still remembered how to come back?"
The solid warmth in her arms finally allowed Tsunade to relax completely.
This was not an illusion.
She released Seiryū and stared at him with her beautiful eyes, gritting her teeth as her tone turned sharp.
"I have been Hokage for almost two years, and you, my Hokage Assistant, were nowhere to be found. Without you, who was supposed to lighten my workload?"
But if one looked closely, there was a faint glimmer in the corner of Tsunade's eyes.
"As expected of you. You always know exactly how to leave me speechless."
Seiryū clicked his tongue.
"This is not quite the long-awaited reunion I imagined. The moment you open your mouth, you want to turn me into a workhorse. Is being Hokage that impressive?"
After a pause, Seiryū gave Tsunade a bright smile.
"I'm back. Sorry. Looks like I caused you a lot of trouble."
Tsunade continued staring at him.
Then she smiled.
It was a beautiful smile.
In the end, she only said one sentence softly.
"It's good that you're back."
There were no sentimental speeches.
But that one sentence contained more than enough.
Minato also recovered from his surprise and smiled gently, just as he always had.
"You didn't cause us that much trouble, but everyone was worried."
"You disappeared for more than two years. If you had not come back, my child would have been born before you returned."
"Child?"
Seiryū was stunned.
The story had already changed beyond recognition.
From Sāra, he had learned that during the two-plus years he was trapped, the shinobi world had been anything but peaceful.
And Minato had still found time to have a child?
His heart was far too big.
Seeing Seiryū's astonished expression, Minato gave a dry laugh.
"It was an accident. The child will be born in about half a year."
Kushina was pregnant.
Well, it was an accident, but not entirely unexpected.
The shinobi world had been tense, and Madara's threat had always hung over them.
Under Tsunade's appointment, Minato had taken charge of the Anbu, so the pressure on him had been considerable.
To help him relax, Kushina had done what a girlfriend would naturally do.
And then, they had gotten lucky.
"Hiss..."
Seiryū drew in a sharp breath.
Half a year from now.
October.
Was that not the time of the Nine-Tails incident?
What kind of timeline convergence was this?
Because of his appearance, the story had already taken an unpredictable direction, yet Naruto was still going to be born around the same time?
Had some old man watching over the Pure Land interfered?
Or was the destiny of Indra and Asura impossible to change?
Minato looked confused.
Was there any need for Seiryū to react so dramatically?
He knew, of course, that Kushina being pregnant as the Nine-Tails Jinchūriki during wartime was not ideal.
It gave the enemy a possible opening.
But there was nothing that could be done about it now. Minato truly had not expected it.
He could never bring himself to harm Kushina or the child.
Tsunade also felt that Seiryū's reaction was a little strange, but this guy had always been unreliable, so she did not dwell on it.
Instead, she noticed something else.
"Hm?"
Tsunade looked Seiryū up and down.
He really had not changed at all.
She asked hesitantly, "It has been more than two years. Why do you look exactly the same? How old are you now?"
"About that..."
The corner of Seiryū's mouth twitched.
"The Dragon Vein has the power to interfere with space and time. Although I suppressed the Dragon Vein and the rampaging natural energy underground, that power distorted time around me."
"From my perspective, only about an hour passed."
He had lost more than two years for nothing.
Just like that.
If those years had not been wasted, Seiryū's growth would have gone much further.
Perhaps last night would not have ended with something as simple as a good night's sleep.
Tsunade muttered, "Only about an hour passed?"
Things that defied common sense always seemed to happen around this guy.
"The power to interfere with space and time? The Dragon Vein can actually do something so incredible?"
Because Minato had sealed part of his own memories, he had forgotten about the details related to the Dragon Vein.
So he was genuinely surprised.
Then his brows suddenly furrowed.
He felt as if he had forgotten something important.
"Eh? Why do I feel like I'm missing something?"
The two people whose memories had not been sealed looked at each other and fell silent.
Tsunade quickly changed the subject.
"So your physical age is still the same as when you were trapped?"
A stray thought flashed through her mind.
Doesn't that mean I still have to wait a few more years?
What an inconvenience.
Seiryū naturally could not hear Tsunade's thoughts, and he said tiredly, "Mm. Aside from completely mastering the Dragon Vein, everything else is the same as before."
"Hmm. A few more years is fine. I can wait."
Tsunade nodded as she spoke.
Then she saw Seiryū's strange expression and froze.
Only then did she realize she had said her thoughts out loud.
After a pause, her expression remained perfectly calm.
"What I mean is, you need more experience before you can become Hokage. Otherwise, no matter how strong you are, becoming the Fifth Hokage would be impossible."
Seiryū felt that was definitely not what she had meant.
He revealed a meaningful smile.
"I don't think that was what you were talking about."
After spending some time as Hokage, Tsunade had learned how to keep her emotions from showing.
She said indifferently, "Then what did I mean?"
Tsunade really had changed.
She was more composed now.
And somehow, even more charming.
Unable to read anything from her face, Seiryū clicked his tongue.
"Boring."
Tsunade glanced at him and said slowly, "All right. You probably want to see the others, don't you? They have all been worried about you. Let's go together."
Seiryū smiled. "No need to worry. I already sent clones over."
"I won't play favorites. Otherwise, Kurenai will definitely throw a fit again."
Seiryū understood very well that he had to be fair.
Otherwise, if Kurenai found out that he had returned to the village and had not gone to see her first, she would definitely be unhappy.
Although more than two years had passed and Kurenai's personality should have become steadier, Seiryū's impression of her was still stuck at the time before he was trapped.
Tsunade fell silent.
Minato fell silent.
He had even thought of that?
As expected of Seiryū.
(To be continued.)
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◇ One bonus chapter will be released for every 200 Power Stones.
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