Bad News and Good News

As someone with a proper education and a normal set of values, Uchiha Kazuto could fully accept this—he didn't see any problem with it at all.

Wasn't this just perfectly normal?

After that, Uchiha Kazuto offered a few words of encouragement and left the Research Department.

Next, he issued an order to establish an Administrative Training Class in Konoha, recruiting a batch of students from the village—civilians and shinobi alike—anyone could sign up and study.

Konoha's political education was far too weak. A bunch of people whose minds were filled with nothing but fighting and killing, who aside from murder, playing dog for nobles, and completing missions, knew nothing at all—how could they handle politics?

Just managing all of Konoha was already the limit for these shinobi. How could they govern the entire Land of Fire?

So, Uchiha Kazuto set up the Administrative Training Class, added a configuration to reshape their values, boosted their learning abilities, threw in a mountain of books, and wrote a guiding policy himself for them to study on their own. As for the rest, they could practice it when the time came.

After doing all this, Uchiha Kazuto began to wait—waiting for the seeds to bloom.

Training, studying, drafting new laws...

"Waaah..."

At Mount Myōboku, Jiraiya was still crying uncontrollably. His eyes were swollen and red, his tears had run dry, his throat was hoarse, and the pain in his body had gone numb. He felt like he was dying.

Dying from crying himself to death.

He had arrived at Mount Myōboku a few days ago. At first, though he was a bit nervous and even somewhat panicked, he hadn't been too alarmed. He thought that once he got to Mount Myōboku and saw the Great Toad Sage, everything would be fine.

But now, he realized he had been overthinking it.

The toads of Mount Myōboku were completely baffled by his condition. They had no idea what was going on with his body. Even the Great Toad Sage had no solution for his situation.

No, there was still one way—Sage Mode. But it only helped at first.

After entering Sage Mode, his condition did improve a bit. Though he was still deeply sad and in pain, he stopped crying.

But that didn't last long. Soon, even under Sage Mode, he was still wailing in agony. This proved that Sage Mode worked, but only to a limited extent.

"Little Jiraiya, let's enter Sage Mode!"

At that moment, the two Toad Sages walked in and hopped onto Jiraiya's shoulders. Soon after, Jiraiya's crying stopped. With the help of Sage Mode, his body began to recover. Then, he started crying again—wailing loudly.

If it weren't for Sage Mode, Jiraiya would already be on the verge of death, truly crying himself to death.

"Little Jiraiya, I've brought you some bad news and some good news. Which one do you want to hear first?"

Soon after, the purple-haired Toad Sage, Shima, spoke to Jiraiya.

"Waaah... Good news? Bad news? Shima Sage, am I saved? Tell me the good news first!"

Jiraiya's face was a mix of sorrow and joy. At this point, for him, what could count as good news other than a solution to his current condition?

He had suffered so much during this time. For the first time, he realized that a person could actually die from suffering. If Sage Mode hadn't been keeping him alive, he would already be dead.

"Little Jiraiya, before you ended up like this, did you peek at someone bathing?"

Shima hopped off Jiraiya's shoulder and asked seriously.

"Th-this... waaah... Shima Sage, that wasn't peeking! I was gathering material for Icha Icha Paradise—it was for... waaah... for creation! CREATION!!! Waaah... ah..."

Jiraiya cried as he shouted, waving his hands to defend himself.

"Then that's it!"

Shima nodded.

"What? Shima Sage, is my current state related to my material gathering? Was there someone among them who could use some kind of curse?"

Jiraiya stepped back and asked in confusion.

"No, this is the good news I wanted to tell you, Little Jiraiya. I know why you've become like this. It's because you peeked at someone bathing, and that's why you're crying. Since you're from Konoha, now, if you're a member of Konoha and you violate Konoha's laws, you'll end up like this. If you want to recover, the only way is to return to Konoha and accept your punishment!"

Shima explained.

"What?"

Jiraiya was stunned by Shima's words, as if he couldn't believe what he had heard, wondering if he had misheard.

He understood every word, but why, when put together, did he not understand? Was this still Konoha?

What did it mean that violating Konoha's laws would make you wail uncontrollably?

No, what was going on? When did the village have such an ability?

And speaking of peeking, his teacher was the real repeat offender, always using that Crystal Ball to look around everywhere. He didn't understand how the world had become like this. He couldn't help but reflect...

"This is the bad news I have to tell you, Little Jiraiya. Your teacher is dead. Someone cut off his head. The current Konoha is no longer under your teacher's rule!"

No, this couldn't be right?

"Shima Sage, what did you say? My teacher is dead? What the hell happened!!!"

Jiraiya was truly shocked now, his voice rising several decibels. He stared intently at Shima in front of him, still crying.

"That's right, your teacher is dead. And the one who made you like this is the same person who cut off Hiruzen Sarutobi's head—Uchiha Kazuto, the current Hokage. After becoming Hokage, he enacted a series of laws. For those who violate his laws, the lightest punishment is like yours—uncontrollable crying. If you don't accept the punishment, you'll keep crying until you die. For serious offenses, you'll be burned to death directly!"

"Your current state is likely the power of Uchiha Kazuto's Sharingan!"

Shima explained.

How... how could this be... Teacher was actually dead, and killed by the Uchiha Clan at that.

"Wah... was it a coup?"

Jiraiya asked through tears, a blazing fire igniting in his heart, wishing he could charge straight to Konoha right now and kill that madman Uchiha Kazuto who had started the coup.

"It was not..."