Time quietly flowed by, not carrying away a single cloud.
Four years had passed since Soji and the other three had become Chunin and set out on their journey once more.
The wheel of time had now turned to the summer of Konoha's thirty-seventh year. In another half year, it would be Konoha's thirty-eighth year, and they were all around fourteen.
They had grown from children under five feet tall four years ago to an average height of over five foot seven.
Of course, Kushina Uzumaki was the exception. She was a girl, after all.
One could not expect a girl to shoot up in height like several boys, though she had still grown to just over five foot three.
However, they had not encountered another opponent at the Elite Jonin level in all these years. At most, they ran into rogue ninjas with the strength of Konoha Special Jonin.
But even when they did, they were no longer as helpless as they had been when they faced Steel Bone four years ago.
After four years of tempering, it would not be an exaggeration to say they had traveled through virtually every corner within the Land of Fire.
Whenever they heard of bandits, missing-nin, or rogue ninjas causing trouble somewhere, the four of them would soon appear there.
The entire Land of Fire had become much more peaceful thanks to their relentless cleanup.
It might not have been national stability, but at the very least, ordinary people could survive without living every day in fear of being killed.
Meanwhile, as Soji's group steadily grew stronger, Jiraiya had been recalled by the Third Hokage two years ago and dispatched to the Land of Rain, where the Land of Wind and the Land of Fire were at war.
Tsunade and Orochimaru had