War's Call

Not long after Orochimaru left, the Third Training Ground grew lively. Namikaze Minato brought Kakashi and the others there, and Kushina arrived soon after.

"Minato, why did Lord Jiraiya tell us to come to the Third Training Ground? I was out shopping with Mikoto!" Kushina complained.

"Don't be mad, Kushina! Lord Jiraiya must have a reason for calling us here. Though all he did was send a toad to tell me to come, and he didn't say what it was about. We just have to wait patiently."

As Namikaze Minato tried to calm Kushina down, he also pleaded Lord Jiraiya's case. He was just as puzzled about why his teacher had suddenly summoned everyone to the Third Training Ground.

"Hey, Yamanaka Tohru, why don't you have a Jonin instructor or your own squad?" Obito asked, puzzled that Yamanaka Tohru was on his own.

"I do have an instructor. Look! The red-haired beauty next to Brother Minato is my teacher!"

"Brother Minato?! You actually call him Brother Minato?" Yamanaka Tohru's words made Obito bristle.

"She's my instructor, so I call her Sister Kushina. Sister Kushina is your instructor's girlfriend. That's why I call him that," Yamanaka Tohru explained.

"I don't care! I refuse to be a whole generation below you for no reason! Hey, Yamanaka Tohru, I challenge you to a duel!"

"Give it a rest, Obito. You'll get taken out in a second!" Kakashi's jab made Obito hop with anger.

Obito ignored him and unleashed the Uchiha Clan's signature ninjutsu on Yamanaka Tohru: Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!

Yamanaka Tohru shook his head helplessly. Chidori flashed, easily slicing the fireball apart, and then he used Lightning Body Flicker to appear behind Obito.

"That's game over, Obito!" Yamanaka Tohru's voice came from behind him, startling Obito so badly that he broke out in a cold sweat.

"Hmph! Hey, Yamanaka Tohru! I'll beat you one day, just you wait!" Obito refused to admit defeat, at least not out loud.

"Tohru, how did you do that just now? Was it a Space-Time Ninjutsu like Minato-sensei's? You disappeared like that at the Ninja Academy, too!"

Nohara Rin had also been startled by Yamanaka Tohru's sudden appearance. She remembered him doing something similar at the Ninja Academy. It had looked just like teleportation.

"This is a kind of Body Flicker Technique called Lightning Body Flicker. Lightning Release Chakra stimulates the cells, pushing the speed of the Body Flicker Technique to its limit. It's completely different from Brother Minato's Flying Thunder God. Besides, Kakashi left the Ninja Academy the same way back then," Yamanaka Tohru explained.

"Then why could we see that jerk Kakashi when he used Lightning Body Flicker?" Obito asked. It was what Nohara Rin had wanted to ask, too. If Kakashi had also used Lightning Body Flicker to leave the Ninja Academy, why had they been able to make out his silhouette?

"Heh, that's because he hadn't mastered the technique!" Yamanaka Tohru said with a laugh.

Kakashi didn't know how to argue with that, so he just snorted and glared at Yamanaka Tohru with his fish-like eyes.

"Tohru, come over here! Lord Jiraiya's back," Namikaze Minato called.

"Minato, are these two kids your students?" Jiraiya asked, glancing at Obito and Rin.

"Yes, Lord Jiraiya. This is Uchiha Obito, and this is Nohara Rin. Obito, Rin, say hello to Lord Jiraiya." Namikaze Minato introduced them.

"Hello, Lord Jiraiya!" Facing one of the Three Legendary Sannin, Obito didn't dare act up and greeted him obediently.

Everyone in Konoha knew of the Three Legendary Sannin's great renown during the Second Shinobi War. Even the Uchiha Clan had repeatedly instructed its members to show them respect.

Like the Third Hokage, Jiraiya treated every shinobi in the village equally and held no particular hostility toward the Uchiha Clan. After exchanging greetings, he got down to business.

"Not long ago, I received a mission from Teacher Sarutobi to gather intelligence in Sunagakure. In fact, I'd already infiltrated Sunagakure once, three months before this latest mission. There was internal strife in the village at the time."

"Internal strife? Lord Jiraiya, are you saying Sand Shinobi suddenly stopped their operations against Konoha three months ago because something was happening in their village?" Namikaze Minato asked.

"That's right. At the time, Sunagakure's genius puppeteer, Sasori of the Red Sands, defected. Sasori of the Red Sands wasn't just a genius puppeteer from Sunagakure; he was also Grandma Chiyo's grandson. His defection dealt a huge blow to Sunagakure's reputation. The Sand Shinobi had to put all their plans on hold to contain the fallout."

Jiraiya stopped speaking and looked at Namikaze Minato. He had devoted himself to training his student, whose ability to analyze intelligence was excellent. Jiraiya's pause gave Namikaze Minato time to process what he'd heard.

"Lord Jiraiya, did something happen to an important figure in Sunagakure?"

Namikaze Minato didn't disappoint Jiraiya. Based only on the news from three months earlier and the shinobi movements within the village, he had deduced that something had happened to Sunagakure's leadership.

"Minato's right. Just a few days ago, I infiltrated Sunagakure for the second time. The atmosphere in the village was strange. The Sand Shinobi were furious, all saying they wanted revenge on Konoha. I seized the opportunity to capture one of them, and only by using special methods did I manage to force the information out of him. It turned out that the Third Kazekage had gone missing—and he disappeared while pursuing Sasori of the Red Sands near the border of the Land of Fire," Jiraiya said gravely.

"What? The Third Kazekage went missing near the border of the Land of Fire?" Kushina cried in surprise.

The disappearance of a village's Kage was no small matter. What's more, relations between Sunagakure and Konoha had already been on the brink. Even Kushina knew what it meant for the Kazekage to go missing near the border of the Land of Fire.

"No wonder the Sand Shinobi suddenly gathered so many shinobi at the border. It looks like they're just waiting to choose a Fourth Kazekage before starting an all-out war with Konoha," Namikaze Minato said.

"War is coming," Jiraiya sighed.

In the original story, the Third Kazekage's disappearance had sounded the opening call of the Third Shinobi War. Yamanaka Tohru had already suspected as much when he learned that Jiraiya had summoned them to the Third Training Ground.

"Brother Minato, Uncle Jiraiya! Here are fifty Healing Talismans. I set them aside myself, so use them sparingly."

With that, Yamanaka Tohru handed twenty-five Healing Talismans each to Namikaze Minato and Jiraiya.

"Sister Kushina, here are fifty Healing Talismans. Use as many as you like. If you run out, just ask me for more."

The two men had looked at Yamanaka Tohru with gratitude and relief when they received their talismans. The village issued Healing Talismans to them, too, but even Jonin only received five each, while an old Kage Level shinobi like Jiraiya got ten.

No one would ever complain about having too many Healing Talismans—after all, they could save lives. The fact that Yamanaka Tohru had given them fifty had already moved them deeply.

But they hadn't expected him to turn around and give Kushina fifty on her own, with the understanding that she could ask for more when she ran out.

Namikaze Minato took it well. Kushina was his girlfriend, and they were so close that they'd long since stopped keeping things separate. Jiraiya, on the other hand, couldn't let it go.

"Hey, kid! Kushina might not even go to the battlefield. Why give her so many? I've risked my life for the village, and I only got twenty-five! And I helped you develop the Healing Talismans, too!"

Yamanaka Tohru ignored Jiraiya's protest. All he wanted now was to hurry back to the Yamanaka Clan and see how things were there.