The Newspaper and the Three Little Ones

Half a month later, at the Konoha Ninja Academy:

"That's so cool!!!" Little Jiraiya, looking like a white-haired little hoodlum, stared at the newspaper in his hands, practically bursting with excitement.

"Hey, are you done reading it? I bought that." Little Orochimaru—Orochimaru...—stood with his hands on his hips and shook his head helplessly at Little Jiraiya.

"What does it matter? With the two of us, what's yours is mine..." Little Jiraiya pouted and stuck out his tongue at Little Orochimaru.

"Forget about that. Look at this! Our big brother is so awesome!" Little Jiraiya put an arm around Little Orochimaru and excitedly shared the newspaper's headline with him.

Little Orochimaru sighed, then said helplessly, "He's only your big brother, not ours... Never mind. More importantly, I want to know whether those grocery stores will open again this month."

Little Jiraiya looked confused. "Huh? What grocery store? Aren't they always open?"

Little Orochimaru shook his head. "I mean the grocery store downstairs on our street. Grandma Ryoko has trouble getting around, and the grocery store in the central Commercial Street is too far away. If the one on our street isn't open today, I'll bring Grandma Ryoko a bag of rice after class."

Little Jiraiya blinked, then nodded and handed the newspaper back to Little Orochimaru. "All right, take a look."

Little Orochimaru took it and flipped straight to the lifestyle section on the back. When he didn't see a notice, he looked a little disappointed.

Children were very good at accepting new things.

In fact, some of the older people in Konoha still weren't in the habit of buying newspapers. But the children had taken to reading them. (There was so little entertainment around that the newspaper had an entertainment section, which sometimes featured short stories or interesting tidbits. It was very appealing to the children of Konoha, who had so few ways to pass the time.) They could even learn to read from the paper. The result was truly something no one had expected.

But the outcome was good, so Yuya couldn't be bothered to interfere.

A clear voice rang out as Tsunade hummed a tune and walked into the classroom.

Little Jiraiya spotted her and quickly raised a hand. "Tsunade, Tsunade! Over here! Your brother's in the newspaper!"

Tsunade's face darkened. She strode over and punched Little Jiraiya in the stomach.

Little Jiraiya doubled over like a shrimp and sprawled on the floor, still pointing at Tsunade. "Y-you violent girl..."

Tsunade planted her hands on her hips and shouted at Little Jiraiya in annoyance, "He's not my brother! He's not even part of my clan!"

Clearly, Tsunade still held a grudge against Yuya.

That was only natural. Last time, Yuya had said he would make the clans that hadn't sent support to the front pay for it. But in the end, nothing had happened.

Of course, life for ordinary people in Konoha was getting better. Meat that people could never have dreamed of eating before was now available from the Cannery. They could choose fish (brought over from Kirigakure), beef (brought in by merchants from Kumogakure), or, if they wanted something more unusual, lizard meat (yes, from Sunagakure. After all, there weren't many kinds of animals in the desert. It was edible, but... anyway, Yuya hadn't ordered much. He'd brought in a hundred kilograms to make into canned food, and it still hadn't all sold after six months. There really weren't many people adventurous enough to try it.)

But to Tsunade, those changes had come little by little, day by day.

She was living through them, and she was still a child, so she had no real sense of how much things had changed. Naturally, she thought Yuya hadn't done anything.

Besides, Tsunade's parents and the neighbors around her were always praising Yuya, saying he'd done all sorts of good things.

Well, Tsunade was a child. She already thought Yuya hadn't done anything, and the people around her kept praising him. Naturally, she'd become contrary and wanted to go against them.

After knocking Jiraiya down with one punch, Tsunade turned to Little Orochimaru. "What does the newspaper say about him this time? Is it saying he opened some factory or shop again and is urging ordinary people to go to work?!"

Little Orochimaru shook his head and turned the newspaper around so Tsunade could see the headline. "He went to the front line and fought the Raikage. Apparently, he seriously wounded him."

(Second Raikage: "Slander! This is slander! He's slandering me! He's slandering me!")

Tsunade froze, then looked utterly disbelieving. "How could that be?! He's the Kage of an entire village!"

Little Jiraiya pointed at the newspaper. "That's what it says, anyway. But Big Brother Yuya was seriously wounded too. Apparently, he even fell into a coma."

Tsunade immediately grew anxious. "What?! Seriously wounded and in a coma? Is he going to be all right?!"

After all, she'd often gone to Senju Hashirama's place to play with Yuya when they were little. She was bound to care about him.

Little Jiraiya rubbed his chin. "Hmm, hard to say. The Raikage's no ordinary opponent. Big Brother's really strong, and he seriously wounded the Raikage, but he must have taken a lot of damage himself, too.

"There's no telling."

Tsunade's face went pale, and she spent the rest of the school day distracted.

She wanted to hurry home and ask the adults what had happened.

Especially her father.

Tsunade's father was Senju Hashirama's son.

A few years ago, he'd been declared dead while carrying out a mission. Little Tsunade didn't know why her father had made that announcement, then held another wedding with her mother.

But when she thought about it, nothing had changed. She still called him Dad, so she hadn't paid it much mind.

But Tsunade's parents knew the reason.

It had to do with Senju Hashirama disbanding the Senju Clan and scattering its members throughout Konoha.

He didn't want the Senju Clan members to be targeted by anyone with ulterior motives because of him.

There was no way to hide Tsunade's existence. Konoha had already made peace when she was born, and everyone in the village knew about her. They couldn't just erase a person's existence.

But Tsunade's father was different.

He was the son of the God of Shinobi. Just imagine how many people would have their eyes on him. What if someone really could extract genetic information related to Senju Hashirama?

Then wouldn't they be able to mass-produce copies of the God of Shinobi?

That temptation was too great. The other villages would go mad for it.

So Senju Hashirama simply announced publicly that his son had died on a mission.

After all, as an Anbu Ninja, his son had only been close to a few people. If the secret got out, they could find out who had leaked it.

So they went straight with a false death, then publicly remarried his wife some time later and changed his surname. From then on, he was no longer part of the Senju Clan.

Without a doubt, Senju Hashirama's plan had worked.

Even by the time Tsunade became the Fifth Hokage in the original history, there had never been any rumors of the Senju Clan being attacked.

Even a genius from Konoha like Orochimaru had to rely on repeated experiments to get Wood Release. In the end, he created Yamato, a severely watered-down version of a Wood Release Ninja.

To be fair, Yamato wasn't weak. But everything depended on what you compared it to.

Senju Hashirama, the God of Shinobi, was so absurdly powerful with Wood Release that Yamato—despite being an elite Jonin—looked pretty pathetic by comparison.

Anyway, Tsunade might not have known any of the details, but she knew that if she asked her father, he would know whether Yuya was dead or not.

But there was no need to ask.

After school, Tsunade hurried out of the academy.

Seeing her rush off, Little Jiraiya and Little Orochimaru assumed she had something urgent to do. Spurred on by childish bravado, they chased after her.

But they had barely been out of the school gates for a few minutes when they saw a young man walking toward them...

He looked gloomy, his head bowed as if deep in thought. All three of them recognized him.

He was the person from the newspaper:

Kamigane Yuya.

I confess, I'm at fault. In an earlier chapter, I casually wrote that Tsunade's father had died. Then a reader pointed out that Nawaki hadn't been born yet, and I realized I'd messed up. I was going to change it right away, but after thinking it over, I figured that as the son of the God of Shinobi, Tsunade's father couldn't possibly have escaped people's attention. After all, when Nawaki died, his internal organs had been completely removed. There was no way Hashirama's son wouldn't be targeted. As for why Nawaki would be targeted, that's simple: Tsunade's mother is also from the Senju Clan, though she's an ordinary person. I've said many times before that every clan has ordinary people, but after giving birth to Tsunade, this mother wasn't ordinary anymore. Later, I can write Nawaki as one of the only two known ninja from the Senju Clan. The other is Tsunade, of course. They wouldn't dare touch Tsunade, and they probably couldn't beat her anyway. But Nawaki isn't an ordinary person—he's a ninja! Naturally, he became a target. After all, the temptation of Wood Release was just too great. This explanation seems reasonable enough. (Of course, I've already changed so much in this book that Nawaki can't possibly end up like he did in the original history.) [I've landed in Xi'an. The knife-cut noodles at the high-speed rail station are so damn awful... and outrageously expensive, too, though I can get reimbursed...]