After obtaining authorization from the Fire Country Daimyō, Jiraiya officially became the Fifth Hokage.
After taking the position, he found himself buried under far more work than he had ever imagined. Even with most internal affairs handed over to Tsunade, the endless stream of high-level missions and military intelligence reports kept him glued to the Hokage Building with barely any time to breathe.
Fortunately, with the assistance of the two elder advisors, Jiraiya wasn't completely crushed under the mountain of paperwork.
Once they finally cleared a chunk of official business, Jiraiya and Tsunade began discussing the village's future reforms. Their reference model was the Land of Whirlpools across the sea, though Konoha's specific situation required careful adjustment.
Thanks to the Land of Fire's wealth and Konoha's large ninja population, there was no urgent need to reform the economy or education.
For now, only two major departments needed immediate attention: the Anbu and the Root.
The former still had value and needed to exist. But the latter—though nominally a training branch of Anbu—had long since become Danzo's personal army.
Secretly gathering war orphans, turning them into disposable tools, and even forcing them to kill each other… that kind of training completely violated the Will of Fire.
After thinking for a while, Tsunade said, "My opinion is that we can retain part of Root's training model, but the 'survival of the fittest by killing your teammates' garbage has to go. Anbu aren't tools—they're comrades who handle the village's darkness."
Jiraiya nodded. "Agreed."
Anbu had originally been created as a covert operations force—the village's shadow. But with Root's existence, Anbu had practically become the "visible darkness," dragging the moral baseline of ninjas straight into the gutter.
After reaching a consensus, the two issued a reform order to Anbu.
As a department directly under the Hokage, Anbu's restructuring went smoothly. It wouldn't be long before it became something entirely new.
However, reforms in other areas didn't go nearly as well.
They ran into the same problems the Third Hokage once faced. Not only the ninja clans, but even many civilians resisted the changes.
The difference was that Jiraiya wasn't the type to back down.
Even under pressure, he pushed forward.
After finalizing Konoha's development plan for the next few years, Tsunade pulled out a stack of experimental project files compiled by Anbu—most originating from Root's laboratories. Some of them were already disturbingly advanced.
Jiraiya flipped through them, and right at the top was the Wood Release experiment.
The Wood Release project had started over a decade ago. Back then, aside from Tsunade—who saw it as a desecration of the First Hokage—most of the higher-ups had supported it.
If successful, it wouldn't just mass-produce Wood Release users—it would massively boost morale.
Because of that, countless ninjas had volunteered.
Every single one of them died.
The project was shut down after that.
Orochimaru's eventual defection had been triggered by his continued illegal experiments—kidnapping civilians and ninjas within the Land of Fire—which violated Konoha's absolute taboo.
Then Tsunade spoke quietly, "Jiraiya… I want to restart the Wood Release project."
Jiraiya frowned. The person who had opposed it the most now wanted to revive it?
"I don't get it."
Tsunade met his gaze seriously. "I'm not doing this for Wood Release itself. I'm doing it for its regenerative properties. My grandfather's cells can regenerate limbs. If we can replicate that, we can give prosthetics to people who've lost everything."
Jiraiya let out a breath. "That makes more sense."
Then he added, "Actually, there is a Wood Release user in the village—Tenzo. He's in Anbu right now."
"But according to Kakashi, Wood Release isn't some unbeatable power. The First Hokage dominated the world because he was strong—not just because of Wood Release."
"Don't expect miracles."
Tsunade snorted. "Relax. I'm not interested in mass-producing monsters."
...
Enjoying the rare moment of arguing with Tsunade, Jiraiya eventually slipped out of the Hokage office.
His destination?
A secret room.
His goal?
Absolutely not spying on women with the Telescope Technique to "gather inspiration" for his novels.
Definitely not.
The moment he stepped inside, he suddenly sensed something and immediately formed hand seals.
"Summoning Jutsu!"
Poof!
White smoke filled the room, and two small figures appeared—Fukasaku and Shima.
They hopped onto the table and stared at him.
"Little Jiraiya," Fukasaku said, "congratulations on becoming the Fifth Hokage."
Jiraiya scratched his head. "Yeah, about that—"
Then he froze.
Wait a second.
He hadn't even had time to inform Mount Myoboku yet. So how the hell did they already know?
And judging by Fukasaku's expression… this wasn't news to him at all.
As if reading his thoughts, Shima smacked Fukasaku on the head. "Old man, just tell him already."
Fukasaku scratched his cheek awkwardly. "Well… Little Jiraiya, I actually knew you'd become Hokage about a year ago. The Great Toad Sage made a prophecy. I just… wasn't sure whether to tell you."
Jiraiya's eyes widened.
"A year ago?!"
Shock quickly turned into something else—unease.
For over twenty years, he had believed in the Great Toad Sage's prophecies. He believed that a Child of Prophecy would appear and bring peace to the ninja world.
But reality had slapped him in the face again and again.
Even a "Child of Prophecy" could die.
After meeting Naruto—and being rejected by him—Jiraiya had begun to rethink everything.
Maybe there wasn't just one chosen child.
Maybe anyone could become that person.
Maybe the prophecy wasn't about fate—it was about hope.
But now…
He had finally made up his mind, stopped running, and stepped forward to change the world as Hokage…
And suddenly, he was told that this had all been predicted long ago.
It left a bad taste in his mouth.
Like his entire life had been guided by invisible hands.
Even worse—if he hadn't become Hokage, he probably would've accepted it without question.
That thought alone made his scalp tingle.
Shaking off the creeping unease, Jiraiya forced himself back to his usual carefree self and grinned.
"So, Sage Fukasaku… does the Great Toad Sage have any other prophecies for me?"
Fukasaku shook his head.
"After predicting that you would become Hokage… there were no more."
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