---Third POV---
"Tonight, you'll stay here first. Tomorrow, I'll take you to find a place suitable for you to live."
After discussing the tailed beasts' placent plan, Ryouma returned to his room and changed his clothes. He didn't throw away his old tattered outfit, though, instead, he put it in a box along with the fragnts of Lostvayne.
He had this habit in his past life: preserving old items from different periods. He always thought that when he got old and bored, he could spend a sunny afternoon reminiscing while looking at those things.
"Hey hey, where did all these animals co from? Did soone's summoning beasts escape?" Tsunade's voice ca from the courtyard below.
Ryouma ford a hand seal and teleported the box in his hands to his storage room.
"They're friends I brought back," Ryouma called out from the open window, "So don't rough them up, okay? Rin, help keep an eye on her."
After Rin responded, he quickly headed downstairs.
Seeing him co down, Tsunade casually asked, "Did you finish handling things over at Iwa? What exactly happened?"
"How did you know I was…? Oh, from Jiraiya-senpai, huh."
Earlier, Obito had ntioned he sent Jiraiya to the Konoha Hospital. Ryouma figured he must've accidentally revealed sothing, which led Tsunade to piece together part of the story. But even if she hadn't, he didn't plan on hiding it from her. After all, the news that the war between the Land of Fire and the Land of Earth had ended would spread soon enough anyway.
"Well, here's what happened…"
He briefly explained the mission he, Minato, and Obito had undertaken, focusing mainly on Iwa's surrender. The battle with Madara, however, was glossed over with only a few words.
Still, even though he made it sound easy, Rin and the others listened with shock and dread.
"Are you sure you really killed him this ti?" Tsunade bit her lip and asked.
"Yeah. He is definitely dead, no doubt about it. But he had an accomplice who hasn't been caught yet. That guy definitely won't give up on their plan, so we still can't let our guard down."
Black Zetsu was even better at stirring trouble than Madara. In fact, most of Madara's actions had been subtly manipulated by him behind the scenes.
As for Black Zetsu, if he could even be considered human, Ryouma didn't harbor much hatred. From his perspective, Black Zetsu's goal didn't seem evil. Of course, that might just be because Black Zetsu hadn't hard anyone Ryouma cared about, yet.
"By the way, didn't you say that the cost of your chakra mode was really high?" Rin tilted her head, trying hard to recall what Ryouma had told her in the past about that technique.
"Uh…" Ryouma quickly waved his hand in front of her to cut her off. "Yeah, it was costly, but it's been optimized now. Still within a manageable range, haha."
"Is that so?"
"By the way, where's Shizune? Didn't you co back together?" Ryouma awkwardly shifted the topic.
Luckily, Rin was easy to distract and imdiately followed his lead into the new conversation.
"Shizune and I made a rotation schedule. From now on, we'll take turns taking care of Tsunade-sensei."
"I see, but seriously? A grown adult needing her students to take care of her, kinda pathetic, don't you think?"
"Once you beco my student, you have to be prepared for that kind of duty," Tsunade replied as she reached out and tapped on Isobu's turtle shell. "By the way, is this really a tailed beast?"
Isobu was annoyed by her poking and flicked it tail. "That's a bit rude."
Tsunade raised an eyebrow. There was sothing kind of charming about this big turtle.
"Very well, I approve of you living here from now on."
Such a well-spoken pet was a rare find, definitely better than that dumb tanuki.
Seeing how well everyone was getting along, Ryouma felt much more at ease.
"Isobu needs a pond. Do you know any reliable craftsn in Konoha?"
"Craftsn, huh?" Tsunade crossed her arms and thought for a mont. Then she clapped her hands. "Actually, I do. Leave it to ."
"I'll help too!" Rin clenched her fists in excitent, eager to contribute.
It was rare to see Tsunade showing interest in sothing unrelated to gambling, so Ryouma didn't want to spoil her good mood.
Now that I think about it… why do I feel like I'm forgetting sothing? Just my imagination?
He looked up at the setting sun, feeling genuinely puzzled.
---
In the Land of Grass, Orochimaru had finally led Konoha's forces to the designated rendezvous point after rushing the whole way. But the scene before him didn't match the intel he'd received earlier.
"Where's Iwa's outpost?"
He pulled out a map and carefully checked their position.
According to the reconnaissance from the advance team a few days ago, this was definitely the place where Jiraiya had been held. So what was this random lake doing in the middle of the grasslands?
He stepped up to the lake's edge and crouched, dipping a hand into the water.
"Orochimaru-sama? Did you find sothing?"
"Heh heh…" Orochimaru let out a raspy chuckle as he stood and scanned the area. All around, broken walls and debris were scattered across the plains.
From that, he could more or less piece together what had happened.
"There's a strong residual chakra reaction in this lake. Most likely, the Iwa base used to be at the bottom of it."
"What?!" The ninja next to him gaped. "That's… that's insane…"
"Surprising, isn't it? But if it's Ryouma… doing sothing like this isn't impossible."
Orochimaru couldn't help but recall the ti back at Konoha Orphanage when Ryouma unleashed his chakra. The sheer intensity of it was far beyond that of even a Tailed Beast.
"Orochimaru-sama!"
A ninja from the Inuzuka clan ca running up.
"What is it?"
"Minato-sama left a coded ssage by that large rock over there."
"Take to it."
They quickly arrived at the marked spot. Orochimaru read the code left behind by Minato.
The ssage was simple: "Jiraiya-sensei has been rescued. Iwa has withdrawn. The rescue team has returned to Konoha."
He made a hand sign and used Earth Release to erase the ssage, then issued his order.
"Withdraw to the camp. Send the report back to Konoha. Ask the Hokage for the next step."
"Yes!"
Even though they had missed the action, he wasn't upset. At the very least, that Jiraiya was still alive. Life was fragile, after all. As long as you were alive, that was all that truly mattered.
---
After Orochimaru and the others withdrew, Black Zetsu sneakily erged from the grass.
He had just finished inspecting the entire battlefield, including the bottom of the lake, but couldn't find Madara's corpse. It seed that he had been completely destroyed by Ryouma.
As expected, after the lesson from Tobirama, faking one's death the sa way again was no longer a viable option.
Thinking of this, he couldn't help cursing inwardly, He clearly had a chance to escape, what a useless fool. He even let one of the Rinnegan get taken.
Indeed, Black Zetsu still didn't know that Ryouma had crushed the Rinnegan with his own hand. In his view, a treasure like the Rinnegan, no one in the entire shinobi world would willingly destroy it.
Even if soone didn't desire the Rinnegan's power, surely there'd be a few people who wanted to bring soone back from the dead.
Right now, the One-Tail, Three-Tails, Four-Tails, and Five-Tails were all in Ryouma's hands. Even the Nine-Tails was still in Konoha.
At this point, the only card he had left was Edo Tensei. But if even the living Madara wasn't a match for Ryouma, then a reanimated Madara would at best be more durable, but ultimately not decisive.
Facing this monster who even the reincarnation of Indra couldn't defeat, he racked his brain but couldn't co up with a good plan.
"Maybe I should just hide and wait for Ryouma to die of old age."
---
Inside the Hokage's office, Hiruzen calmly listened to Minato's outrageous mission report, puffing on his pipe as he confird once more. "So that's it, the Tsuchikage didn't demand the ownership of any tailed beasts, and even withdrew from the Land of Grass. Are you certain Madara is dead?"
"Yes. Ryouma personally destroyed his entire body, along with the Rinnegan."
Exhaling a breath of smoke, Hiruzen's shoulders relaxed. At last, Madara was truly dead. Now he could finally stop worrying about Konoha being attacked by him at any mont.
"You all did well. Now, regarding your student, Obito… no, never mind."
Hiruzen started to bring sothing up but thought better of it, shifting the conversation back to Minato.
"Minato, for now, I don't want you taking any more missions."
"Huh? Why?"
Seeing Minato's confused expression, Hiruzen smiled gently.
"Because in the near future, you'll be learning how to run a village from . You're going to be the Fourth Hokage."
Minato's pupils widened slightly at those words. Although he often heard people speculate he might beco the Fourth Hokage, he had always thought Orochimaru had a better shot.
"I…"
"What's wrong? You don't want to be Hokage?"
"Of course I do." Minato snapped to attention in an instant, his eyes firm with resolve. "I'll give everything I have for the village." This text is hosted at NoveI~Fire
Hiruzen nodded with satisfaction. "Good. Once the peace talks with Iwa are concluded, I'll personally go to the Daimyō's residence to formally recomnd you as the Fourth Hokage."
Of course, "recomndation" was just a formality. The succession of Hokage in Konoha had always been decided internally, the visit to the daimyō was just for official endorsent.
To be honest, he had hesitated for a long ti between Orochimaru and Minato as his successor. But in the end, he chose Minato.
One reason was that Orochimaru was too close to Danzō. But more importantly, compared to Orochimaru, Minato better embodied the Will of Fire.
Due to his past, Orochimaru had grown increasingly distant and unfamiliar, even to Hiruzen. A ninja with that kind of instability, even if he were his student, couldn't be trusted to beco Hokage. And there was one more thing: Minato shared a deep bond with Ryouma. All three of Minato's students were people Ryouma deeply cared about.
Ryouma's current status in Konoha was akin to that of a nuclear weapon. While it might sound presumptuous, Hiruzen truly believed that even the First Hokage himself might not be a match for Ryouma now.
If he had known Ryouma's strength would grow so quickly, he would've had Minato beco his ntor from the beginning. Still, it was fortunate that Ryouma was a child who also embodied the Will of Fire and valued his comrades deeply.
With that in mind, even the candidate for the Fifth Hokage was already in sight, it could be said that things were looking bright for Konoha.
---
The next morning, Ryouma set out early, bringing Son Gokū and Kokuō with him to find suitable habitats for them.
After teleporting outside the village using the Flying Thunder God Technique, he hopped onto Kokuō's back, unfolded a map, and pointed in a direction.
"Run that way, Kokuō."
"Alright!" With a burst of steam, Kokuō accelerated like an all-terrain vehicle, charging straight in the direction Ryouma pointed, leaving a trail of white vapor behind.
It loved this feeling of running freely, it hadn't run like this in ages.
Son Gokū and Shukaku clung tightly to Ryouma's clothes, at this speed, falling off would definitely hurt.
Ryouma, on the other hand, was completely unaffected. His Rikugan didn't just enhance his chakra control, the super analysis ability allowed him to master any human technique simply by observing it once.
If he were summoned as a Heroic Spirit in the Fate universe, his skill list would definitely be a row of A-ranks.
"There's a mountain range up ahead with over a dozen active volcanoes. The temperature is high all year round, and there are hardly any people around."
After explaining, he looked back and asked Son Gokū, "What do you think?"
"Souuundspreettygoood~" Son Gokū's voice was stretched long by the roaring wind.
"Great. Then let's speed up even more. That okay, Kokuō?"
"Heh." Kokuō snorted proudly from his nose. "Hold on tight."
With a violent blast of white steam, it transford into a flash of light, sprinting at top speed toward the volcano range within the Land of Fire.
They arrived in less than an hour.
"We're… finally… here…"
"Ughhh~" Son Gokū and Shukaku quickly dismounted, holding onto each other and vomiting.
"I really don't get you tailed beasts, what kind of body do you have to get motion sick?"
Son Gokū fared better, just dry heaved for a while.
Shukaku was another story. That guy had its own snack stash back ho, and it'd been binge-eating non-stop, thinking it couldn't get fat because it was a tailed beast. Now it was paying the price.
"Ahh… I'm alive again. So this is the place I'm going to live in from now on?" Son Gokū asked, panting.
Ryouma said considerately, "Take your ti to look around. There are still plenty of volcanic areas within the Land of Fire. If you don't think this one suits you, we can have Kokuō take us to the next spot. Is that alright, Kokuō?"
"Of course it is!" Kokuō raised its head proudly.
"What!" Son Gokū turned pale at the ntion of more running. It quickly waved its hands and said, "No, no, who said this volcano wasn't good? It's perfect. Absolutely trendous!"
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