Jiraiya Was Almost Beaten to Death

This still wasn't fucking enough—they had nearly dragged the village down with them and destroyed it. How could Tsunade not be furious?

"Second Grandpa must have been blind to take someone like Danzo as his disciple. If he knew what Danzo had done now, he would surely be terribly disappointed."

Tsunade clenched her fists and lowered her gaze in thought.

Konoha had suffered a devastating blow, but even so, she had no intention of returning. On one hand, she had hemophobia and was utterly useless. On the other, there was still Jiraiya. Orochimaru had defected, Hiruzen Sarutobi was dead, but wasn't Jiraiya still there?

With such a massive upheaval in Konoha this time, it was Jiraiya's turn to become Hokage!

It wasn't as if Jiraiya had become useless too and needed her to go back and save the day, was it? As for Katsuyu's talk about some world-ending disaster, Tsunade dismissed it as exaggeration and paid it no mind. No matter how strong that Uchiha Yue was, he was still only one person. How could he possibly have the ability to destroy the entire world? What a joke!

Just then, someone knocked on the door.

"Lady Tsunade, this is terrible! This is terrible!"

Shizune's voice came from outside.

"What is it this time? Shizune, come in."

Very soon, Shizune entered with a Konoha Ninja.

"Lady Tsunade, this is terrible! The Third Generation is dead! Konoha has been destroyed!"

The moment Shizune entered, she blurted it out.

"All right, I know. Sigh."

Tsunade waved her hand and looked at the Konoha Ninja behind Shizune.

"Are you here to ask me to return to Konoha? If so, leave. Go find Jiraiya and have him become the new Hokage! I'm already useless."

Before the ninja could even speak, Tsunade had anticipated what he was going to say and rejected him outright.

"Lady Tsunade, you... you can't say that! We already found Lord Jiraiya, but Lord Jiraiya has become disabled. I came to find you under Lord Jiraiya's orders. Please, you must become our new Hokage! Konoha can no longer withstand any more turmoil!"

"What? Jiraiya was perfectly fine. How did he become crippled?"

Tsunade looked utterly incredulous. Had Jiraiya gone to fight Uchiha Yue and been beaten into a cripple?

N-No way. A supreme expert capable of single-handedly standing against all of Konoha, killing that old bastard Danzo, killing her teacher, and killing a whole group of ninjas—even Jiraiya shouldn't have been a match for him, right?

If Jiraiya had gone to make an enemy of such an expert, he should have been beaten to death. How could he have merely become disabled?

Th-This made no sense!

"That was because..."

To Tsunade's surprise, Jiraiya had indeed become disabled because he went to fight Uchiha Yue. He had narrowly lost by one move. Of course, only a small number of people in Konoha knew that Jiraiya had nearly died within that domain without ever even seeing Uchiha Yue's face. The ninja who had come to find Tsunade knew only the slightly embellished version.

After hearing the ninja's explanation, Tsunade fell silent.

"It seems I have no choice but to return to Konoha this time!"

Tsunade thought. At the same time, if that was true, then Uchiha Yue's strength apparently had not reached an absurdly powerful level. The reason he had been able to kill Danzo and her teacher might have been because he caught them off guard, and because...

Teacher, you really have grown old!

Tsunade thought helplessly. Yes, if Uchiha Yue was not as powerful as she had imagined, then there was only one possibility. On one hand, he had caught the Konoha ninjas off guard and begun slaughtering them before they could react. On the other hand, Shimura Danzō and Hiruzen Sarutobi were ultimately two old men. They had been exceptionally powerful in their youth, but as they aged, their strength was no longer what it used to be.

The more Tsunade thought about it, the more convinced she became. After all, if Uchiha Yue really was that powerful, why had he not simply wiped out Konoha directly instead of letting the Konoha ninjas flee? That made no sense. But if Uchiha Yue was actually not as strong as they had imagined, then it made perfect sense.

Perhaps Uchiha Yue simply had no confidence in fighting all of Konoha by himself. Those Konoha trash had been scared away. If they had united and fought Uchiha Yue back then, that guy might already be dead.

Instead of things turning out like this, where she had to return and save the day.

"Let's go."

Tsunade sighed. Konoha truly needed her now. She could not let the village that First Grandpa and Second Grandpa had built with the efforts of their entire lives be destroyed just like that. As for her hemophobia, when she thought of doing it for the village, for the great Will of Fire, even that fear became insignificant at this moment.

Bang!

Pfft!

"Aah!"

A heaven-shaking scream echoed through Konoha as a figure shot like a meteor through the wall of the Konoha office and crashed into a latrine.

"Save him!"

"Lord Jiraiya!"

"Enemy attack! Enemy attack!!!"

For a time, all of New Konoha descended into chaos. Inside that foul-smelling toilet, Jiraiya lay at the edge of the shit pit, coughed, and spat the filth from his mouth. Both his arms were broken, his breastbone shattered, and stark white bone fragments pierced through his flesh, smeared with yellow filth and blood.

"Urgh..."

Jiraiya lay there, staring blankly at the sky. His vision grew darker and murkier. He seemed to arrive beside a river, where he saw Hiruzen Sarutobi waving to him from the opposite bank.

Death. He was going to die!

Tsunade's blow had nearly killed the completely unguarded Jiraiya.

Nara Shikaku and the others arrived at Jiraiya's side. Ignoring the little snacks stuck all over him, they quickly lifted Jiraiya and rushed toward the medical department.

Inside the office.

Tsunade stood amid the smoke and dust, her face incomparably furious, as though flames burned in her eyes. Her anger had reached its limit. Although she realized what she had done, she subconsciously raised her fist and looked at the bloodstains on it. Her body swayed, and she nearly collapsed.

This was what had happened: during this period, Jiraiya had suffered unbearable torment, pain, and even confusion. A broken leg could be fitted with a prosthetic, but his basket was gone!

The symbol of his manhood was gone!

How could he not be anxious? He had asked Konoha's medical department, but with its current level of technology, it was simply impossible to make him a new basket. However...