Tsunade strode through the gates of Konoha, kicking up dust beneath her feet!
What a rush!
I'm finally back!
But there was little joy on Tsunade's face. Her honey-colored eyes swept over the familiar streets, and beneath her dusty green flak jacket, her full chest rose and fell with her hurried breaths. Her figure was enough to draw any man's gaze.
But the oppressive air around her made everyone within ten meters instinctively give her a wide berth.
Now, she was going to get some answers out of the old man!
"Yo~ Tsunade, you're back too? Where's Dan? Didn't that guy come with you?"
A voice full of teasing and laughter came from nearby. Tsunade didn't even have to turn around to know who it was.
She spun around. Sure enough, there was the man with the glaringly white hair. Jiraiya was leaning against the curtain at Ichiraku Ramen, arms crossed and wearing his trademark irreverent grin. He tried to ease the tension with the same smooth tone he used on women at the tavern.
"Hmph. You've got some nerve, wandering around the village. I thought you'd crawled into the wall of some women's bathhouse and gotten stuck there."
Tsunade wasn't buying it.
She stepped forward, and the force of her presence made Jiraiya straighten up without thinking.
"Dan had to stay in the Land of Earth to continue keeping watch. After I left, there wasn't much strength left on the Land of Earth's front line. But you! I thought the teacher wouldn't call you back!"
"Tell me, has the old man spent so long in the Hokage's office that his brain's been clogged up with pipe tobacco?!"
Tsunade's voice was low, but every word seemed to grind between her teeth, brimming with fury. "Making a ten-year-old kid the centerpiece