Beast

Tsunade fell silent.

Shiraishi Yoshijo, however, began to speak at length.

"Sometimes, I wonder why I'm still struggling at my age. Wouldn't it be better to throw this burden onto someone else and live a carefree life myself?"

"Whenever I have thoughts like that, even though I don't care about the people I killed, I still feel as if they're watching me. It's a strange feeling, as though they want to see me meet a miserable end. I suppose that's what they call guilt."

"To get rid of that guilt, I kept doing bad things, kept killing people, and rose above everyone else through it, successfully proving that I wasn't wrong."

"After becoming Emperor, that feeling vanished. I enjoyed everything there was to enjoy, and I should have been happy, but I only found things more and more boring. In the end, I realized something: people are merely collections of desires."

At that, Shiraishi Yoshijo finally turned around and walked over to Tsunade. Pulling her into his arms, he softly said, "I know what you want to say. Jiraiya isn't dead. I saved him."

Tsunade's eyes widened at his words, yet she inwardly breathed a sigh of relief.

"Really? Then why hasn't he returned to Konoha?"

"I did something minor to him. Don't worry, I merely sealed his memories. Perhaps when you meet again in the future, you'll discover something quite interesting."

"Why did you seal Jiraiya's memories?"

"Because he was an eyesore. And don't you think Jiraiya had suffered too much? Maybe without those painful memories, that guy will finally come to his senses."

Tsunade didn't know whether this was right or wrong. Would a Jiraiya who had come to his senses truly still be Jiraiya?

But that idiot was so foolish that it was almost pitiful.

"Fine, let's