After leaving the Great Toad Sage's hall, master and disciple prepared to return to Konoha.
"Pervy Sage, do you think... the Great Toad Sage's prophecy might contain something irrelevant?" Naruto guessed. The "man with the same ocular power as Sasuke" from the prophecy had really been bothering him...
"How could that be?" Jiraiya waved a hand as he recalled, "The Great Toad Sage once gave me a prophecy too. He said I would become a wandering writer, meet the Child of Prophecy, and in the end... face a true choice."
After a pause, he said seriously, "Because I became a writer and wandered the shinobi world, I met Nagato, Yahiko, and Konan. Later, I met you too—the Child of Prophecy I believed in... And finally, after learning of your Memory Intelligence, I chose to go to Amegakure to find Nagato!"
"The Great Toad Sage's prophecies cannot be wrong."
Naruto fell silent. After a while, he suddenly struck his left palm with his clenched right fist. "Right! Maybe... all Sharingan ocular powers are more or less the same? Or maybe when the Great Toad Sage said 'the same ocular power,' he meant that they both have Mangekyō Sharingan?" After thinking it over, he added, "Because I feel like... I should run into that 'Obito Uchiha.' He has the Mangekyō Sharingan too..."
But as soon as he finished speaking, he rejected the idea himself. "No... If that were the case, then I've already seen Teacher Kakashi's Mangekyō Sharingan. His eye is the same as Obito's..." Naruto frowned and sank into deep thought.
Jiraiya sighed, stepped forward, and patted his disciple's head. Smiling comfortingly, he said, "If you can't figure it out, then stop thinking about it! Weren't we doing just fine before we knew about the future? The future... we'll deal with it when we encounter it!"
Naruto looked up and smiled with narrowed eyes as well, nodding firmly. "Yeah... charging forward and never giving up. That's the ninja way my future self taught me!"
"Come on, let's head back to the village."
Jiraiya took Naruto to find the toad responsible for keeping in contact with Konoha. Soon, a small toad dove into a miraculous spring on Mount Myōboku and arrived directly in Konoha. Then, using the Reverse Summoning Technique, Jiraiya and Naruto returned to Konoha's soil.
The next day, in the forest.
Every member of Team 7 had been equipped with a radio, and the three genin each hid behind a large tree. Hinata activated her Byakugan. This powerful Kekkei Genkai gave her a 360-degree field of vision with incredible penetration, and she was currently observing the target of this mission in secret...
"How far away is the target?" Kakashi's voice came through the three radios.
"Five meters," Hinata answered briefly and quietly.
"Ready. We can move at any time!" Naruto answered as well over the shared channel.
"Same here," Sasuke said flatly.
Kakashi said, "Good... go!"
Naruto, Sasuke, and Hinata leaped out from behind the trees and captured this mission's target in one swoop... Sasuke pressed his radio earpiece and reported the result. "A ribbon tied to its left ear. Target confirmed: Kojiro." He glanced at the brown cat in Naruto's hands.
"Mission complete. Return."
After following their team leader, Kakashi, to turn in the mission to the Hokage, Team 7's morning mission was over. Naruto suggested that Sasuke and Hinata go eat with him.
As for Kakashi... perhaps he was in a hurry to get back to his little yellow book, or perhaps he had realized that if he did not leave now, his wallet would be in danger again. Either way, the moment he turned in the mission, he used the Body Flicker Technique and vanished.
"Was that really necessary...? I didn't even get barbecue yesterday..." Naruto was deeply dissatisfied with Kakashi's slippery escape. In the end, he could only call out to Hinata and Sasuke. "Then let's go to Ichiraku Ramen!"
"Whatever." Sasuke was the first to head out. Over the years, seeing Naruto grow so explosively stronger right before his eyes had gradually given him the habit of refusing to waste even a moment.
"Naruto... you really like ramen, don't you?" Hinata asked cautiously. She needed to remember the preferences of the person she loved.
Naruto caught up with Sasuke without looking back, grinning widely. "Yeah, Ichiraku's ramen is great!"
Hinata happily hurried after Naruto and Sasuke.
At the Hokage's office.
Jiraiya leaned against the wall and looked toward the stack of documents on the Third Hokage's desk concerning the upcoming Chunin Exams. "The Chunin Exams will be starting soon, old man... Have you really made up your mind to keep Orochimaru here?"
The Third Hokage set down his brush and leaned back in his large chair. After taking several puffs from his pipe, he smiled hoarsely. "Jiraiya... letting Orochimaru go back then was already one of my greatest mistakes... This time, even if I die in battle 'again,' I cannot let Orochimaru escape..."
Jiraiya was silent for a while. "Old man, I won't let you die like that... And besides..." Jiraiya looked out the window. On the distant street, Sasuke walked ahead while Naruto followed close behind him, walking side by side with Hinata. He chuckled softly. "Don't forget, Naruto is very strong now... He isn't much weaker than he was in the war from his memories..."
The Third Hokage smiled too, smoke obscuring his aged face. With both relief and melancholy, he sighed, "Yes, the new era has caught up..."
Jiraiya ignored the old man's sentimental mood and rose to leave. At the door, he stopped with his back to the Third Hokage and said quietly, "Actually... Orochimaru eventually... stood on the side of the Shinobi Alliance too, didn't he?"
After saying that, he paused. Seeing that the Third Hokage gave no response behind him, he opened the door and left.
Inside Ichiraku Ramen.
The three sat side by side.
"I'll have a large miso ramen! Same flavor as always!" Naruto called out. He was already quite familiar with Ichiraku's owner.
Ichiraku's owner smiled and asked, "Got it. What about Sasuke? The usual for you too?" Sasuke nodded. Over the years, Naruto had dragged him here to eat more times than he could count. He really could not understand what was so addictive about this stuff.
"What about you, Hinata?" Naruto turned and asked, blinking his blue eyes.
Hinata was instantly struck dumb. Her cheeks flushed slightly, and she hurriedly sat up straight and nodded. "I-I'll have miso ramen too. A small portion is fine, thank you..." In truth, Hinata hardly ever ate ramen and did not really know what kinds there were.
Seeing this, Ichiraku's owner shifted his gaze back and forth between Naruto and Hinata and smiled knowingly... Then he said cheerfully, "All ramen is half-price today!"
"Huh?!" Naruto was surprised, though even more delighted.
Sasuke remained unmoved. Sitting there, he tried to draw out a small amount of Lightning Release Chakra and stimulate both arms with it... It was a method he had seen Kakashi use before.
The amount of Chakra he extracted and the movements he made were both minimal, so Naruto and Hinata did not notice. That also meant he had to focus even more carefully on the changes in his arms.
While waiting for the delicious ramen, Naruto idly tried once more on the tabletop... using Chakra to "draw" the Flying Thunder God Technique's formula.
Perhaps he really was gifted in Space-Time Ninjutsu. He had made smooth progress in understanding the theoretical knowledge on the scroll, but he had never been able to draw the "formula marking" required for the Flying Thunder God Technique... It left Naruto deeply troubled. He truly did not know how his father had learned it back then.
"Here you go! Your ramen!" Ichiraku's owner and his daughter Ayame brought over three bowls of ramen.
"Haha, time to eat!"
After finishing their ramen, the three walked out of Ichiraku.
"Naruto..." Jiraiya leaned against the wall by Ichiraku's entrance and called out to Naruto, who was patting his stomach.
Naruto turned around in surprise, and Sasuke and Hinata stopped as well.
Jiraiya walked over and placed a hand on Naruto's shoulder. "Go back and pack up. Come with me... we're going to bring Tsunade back."
Before you continue