They've Gone Bad

However, as a grandmaster in the medical field, Tsunade might have a solution. Jiraiya had waited and waited for her to arrive. Anxiety had made him lose his mind; the moment he called Tsunade into his office, he impatiently lifted his pants, only to be blasted out by Tsunade's reflexive punch.

That punch nearly took half of Jiraiya's life.

After washing the filth off herself and barely healing her body, Tsunade came to Jiraiya's bedside. She looked guiltily at Jiraiya, who was half-paralyzed and had nearly been beaten to death by her. She had already learned from the others why Jiraiya had acted that way.

So Jiraiya had been just one step away from becoming sisters with her.

She had not expected Jiraiya to suffer such severe injuries from fighting Uchiha Yue. Just now, she had thought he had merely lost both legs.

"I'm sorry, Jiraiya. I didn't do it on purpose..."

Tsunade looked at the barely conscious Jiraiya and apologized guiltily.

"It's... it's fine... Tsunade, can you put that thing of mine back... I really need them!"

Jiraiya slowly shook his head, then looked at Tsunade with hopeful eyes. Heaven knew how he had endured this period of time.

"Lady Tsunade!"

At that moment, a medical ninja arrived before Tsunade carrying a jar and handed it to her. Inside was the thing Jiraiya had been desperately hoping Tsunade could restore—the source of his life.

Tsunade took the jar and forced herself to look inside. Her expression immediately became one of intense disgust. So disgusting. So foul-smelling.

"Sorry, Jiraiya, but there's nothing I can do. They've gone bad. I'm not a god; I can't put them back."

Tsunade quickly handed the jar to the medical ninja beside her and spoke helplessly.

"No!!!"

Jiraiya howled in a tearful voice, immediately aggravating his injuries. He spat out a mouthful of blood, rolled his eyes back, and fainted.

"Jiraiya!"

Tsunade immediately stepped forward, fighting down her dizziness as she began treating Jiraiya.

Back when Jiraiya had first been treated, some ruined flesh and blood had naturally been discarded as medical waste.

Fortunately, Konoha had only just found a place to settle down at the time, and many things had not yet been rebuilt. Thus, after a frantic search by everyone, they finally found the organ amid a pile of medical waste. It had already completely deteriorated and become terribly putrid.

Only after being processed did it stop rotting further.

Not long afterward, Jiraiya barely woke up. His eyes were red as he stared blankly at the ceiling. Tears flowed from the corners of his eyes, and utter despair lingered in his heart. Regret—he regretted it. He should not have run in on his own back then. Now he had become like this. Time machine, where was the time machine?!

"..."

Tsunade sat in a chair beside him, sighed as she looked at Jiraiya in that state.

"Pull yourself together, Jiraiya. No matter what, at least you're still alive!"

"Since you managed to fight Uchiha Yue for three hundred rounds and only narrowly lost by one move, Uchiha Yue isn't invincible. Once you recover, we'll join forces and mobilize all of Konoha's strength to kill that Uchiha Yue who murdered our teacher and ruined you! We'll avenge our teacher and you!"

Tsunade looked at Jiraiya and tried to comfort him.

Not knowing the truth, she still believed Uchiha Yue was not all that powerful. No, it was not that he was weak, but that he was not so powerful as to surpass imagination, reaching the level of her granduncle and becoming a new God of Shinobi.

After all, if Uchiha Yue truly possessed the strength of her granduncle, Jiraiya would not have merely become disabled. He would have simply died.

"Not... narrowly lost by one move... Hahaha! Hahaha!!!! Narrowly lost by one move!!! Hahaha!!!"

Jiraiya suddenly laughed like a madman. Under Tsunade's baffled gaze, he vomited blood while laughing wildly, as though mocking his own overestimation of himself and their self-deception.

"What narrowly lost by one move, Tsunade? It was all fake! From beginning to end, I never even saw Uchiha Yue himself! If Konoha's companions hadn't protected me with their lives, then even if I had used every method I possessed, I wouldn't have been able to escape!"

Jiraiya spoke tremblingly, his eyes full of despair. Ever since Orochimaru had left, Jiraiya had constantly thought about how to defeat Uchiha Yue and kill that monster. Yet after racking his brains, all he felt was boundless despair.

"What?!"

Not long afterward, Tsunade learned the whole story from Jiraiya. Konoha's account to the outside world was more than merely embellished—it was a complete reversal of truth and nonsense!

What fighting Uchiha Yue for three hundred rounds and narrowly losing by one move? That had to be three hundred rounds in a dream!

"World-Ending Calamity... Can humans really become this powerful?"

Tsunade leaned weakly against the wall. Merely listening to Jiraiya's description, she could feel Uchiha Yue's overwhelming strength. Without even moving, merely standing there, he had nearly killed Jiraiya.

To Tsunade, he felt like the sun. The sun was the same way—it needed to do nothing but remain quietly in place, yet to mortals, it was a supreme giant god. To face the sun was like facing an ancient god; it meant stepping toward death. That was the sun!

Could Uchiha Yue be the sun or something?

Even Hashirama Senju had never reached the point of being called a calamity.

The hospital room fell silent. Not long afterward, Tsunade left the room, deciding to see the truth for herself.

Not long after Tsunade returned, a prophecy concerning the destruction of the world began spreading throughout the Ninja World. Aside from Konoha, which had nearly been wiped out, and the Land of Water, which had long since been controlled by Uchiha Obito, the other major Ninja Villages and nations also learned of this prophecy.

"Uchiha Yue? Destroying the world? What is that supposed to be? Ridiculous. A mere native, destroying the world... How laughable. Let me see what this is about."

Inside a temple somewhere in the Ninja World, Jigen was somewhat stunned. Looking at the message in his hand, he frowned, then smiled dismissively. Yet after finishing it, his frown deepened, and an ominous feeling arose within him.

"This is... the power of the Divine Tree? The Uchiha Clan, the Mangekyō Sharingan... the Divine Tree... Damn it!"

Controlling...