" I know roughly where Tsunade is. Once things have settled down in a few days, I'll go find her and bring her back to take over as Fifth Hokage."
To avoid becoming Hokage, Jiraiya was more than willing to throw his teammates under the bus.
"Lord Jiraiya, you're going to find her yourself? Absolutely not!"
The moment he heard that Jiraiya planned to go find Tsunade in person, Shikaku, the brains behind Konoha's military affairs, flatly refused.
"Lord Jiraiya, you're currently Konoha's strongest fighter. With the Third Hokage dead and the village badly damaged, you should stay here to deter the various forces that are itching to make a move."
"Um..." Shikaku's reasoning left Jiraiya with no way to argue. He knew the man had a point.
As the only publicly known Kage-level fighter Konoha had left, Jiraiya really couldn't leave the village at such a critical moment.
Actually, Jiraiya didn't yet know there was another reason Shikaku opposed his leaving.
He was afraid Jiraiya might do what Princess Tsunade had done—turn around and leave, never to return and get dragged into Konoha's mess.
"But I'm the only one who knows where Tsunade is!" Jiraiya explained. "Even if someone else finds her, they won't have the strength to convince her to come back!"
Jiraiya's words left all the Konoha leaders in the room caught in a dilemma.
That was true...
Anyone sent to find Tsunade would need enough strength to withstand her Monster Strength punch. Otherwise, there was no way they'd get her to sit down and talk calmly.
"How about I go find Lady Tsunade?" Just as everyone was agonizing over what to do, Hao Shuai's voice rang through the meeting room.
Everyone turned to look at Hao Shuai. When they saw it was him, their eyes immediately