Jiraiya Appears

Land of Water.

Kirigakure, Mizukage's office.

Raiga Kurosuki knelt in a cold sweat beside the corpse of Suikazan Fuguki. After reporting the details of the mission, he lowered his head, not daring to meet the eyes of the Fourth Mizukage, Karatachi Yagura, or the elder, Genji.

"Elder Genji, what is your take on this matter?"

Since an elite jonin of the village had died, it fell under the jurisdiction of Genji, who managed internal affairs.

"Hmm..."

Genji stroked his beard and slowly walked over to the body of Suikazan Fuguki. He lifted the white sheet to examine the puncture wound on his chest before speaking.

"I believe he is not lying."

"As for that immortal ninja, I do have some recollection of him..."

As an elder who had followed the First Hokage since the Warring States period, he was roughly the same age as Senju Hashirama and Uchiha Madara, and he knew many stories from the past.

He rubbed his shiny, bald head and pulled out a worn-looking summoning scroll he carried with him.

"Summoning Jutsu...!"

Opening a small booklet, Genji spread it out on the table and pointed with his finger.

"Kakuzu... an elite jonin from the former Takigakure. During the early days when various nations were establishing ninja villages, he was ordered to carry out an assassination mission against the First Hokage, Senju Hashirama... but he was undoubtedly defeated by Senju Hashirama's Wood Release secret techniques..."

"Although he faced the crisis of losing his life, what awaited him upon returning to the village was the stigma of mission failure and severe punishment."

"Fearing the endless retaliation from Konoha, the upper echelons of Takigakure even attempted to hand Kakuzu over to Konoha to appease their anger..."

"In the end, Kakuzu escaped from prison fueled by intense hatred. He killed all the high-ranking officials of Takigakure and stole the secret technique regarded as the village's greatest treasure..."

"It's actually true?!" Karatachi Yagura and Genji's two trusted aides, Ao and Gonbei, were stunned. To survive after clashing with the legendary God of Shinobi—this Kakuzu was a force to be reckoned with!

Although they didn't know what the "secret technique" was, judging by Raiga Kurosuki's description, Kakuzu seemed extremely proficient in all five elemental releases, possessed more than one life... and those nauseating black tentacles...

"Is that so..." Although it was hard to believe, Karatachi Yagura trusted Elder Genji's words implicitly. "It seems the punishment for Raiga Kurosuki can be rescinded..."

However, they needed to find someone to fill the vacancy in the Seven Ninja Swordsmen as soon as possible.

Land of Earth.

Iwagakure, Tsuchikage's office.

--Bang!

The Tsuchikage's desk was smashed to pieces. The disappearance of Roshi had sent Ōnoki into a towering rage. Ignoring the objections from the Iwagakure leadership and his own son, Kitsuchi, he declared Roshi an "S-rank missing-nin."

Land of Lightning.

Kumogakure, Raikage's office.

The atmosphere in Kumogakure was much better than in the other villages; after all, they were the "victorious" side, even if the Tiger Talisman they brought back had already split into two halves...

"...Still unable to test its abilities...?"

Upon learning that the talisman possessed special divine power, Kumogakure had initially considered whether to return it to the Daimyo of the Land of Fire in exchange for a 100-million-ryo bounty. But now... the shattered Tiger Talisman seemed to possess no power at all...

"I am sorry... Lord Raikage..."

A kept his head down. Although the Third Raikage was his father, much like an emperor and crown prince in ancient times, he had to show respect to the Third Raikage as the "village leader" in public.

"Forget it..."

Even though the Tiger Talisman was broken, the Land of Fire hadn't specified that it had to be intact. As long as they used some tricks during the delivery to make it look fine, it would suffice.

Land of Waves, with Kakuzu.

After Kakuzu was split into good and evil halves, they spent every day engaged in a "tug-of-war" between their left and right brains.

Upon reaching Gato's underground vault and seeing the mountains of gold, silver, jewelry, and cash, the evil Kakuzu's first thought was to excitedly "swim" through it.

The good Kakuzu, however, saw the countless starving refugees in the Land of Waves and wanted to spend the money to aid them.

The two Kakuzus disagreed. The evil Kakuzu lashed out first, leading to a fight between them... which ended in a stalemate...

Later, the evil Kakuzu felt it was time to replenish his missing four hearts, but the good Kakuzu fought him again, claiming he "didn't want his other half to kill anyone."

To this day... the evil Kakuzu felt he was going insane... "It's all because of that so-called talisman!"

With Uncle and Chixing traveling day and night, they soon discovered the location where the talisman was hidden.

This was the southwestern part of the Land of Fire, a town called "Tanzaku Town."

Indeed, it was the very "gambling city of the Ninja World" from the original Naruto series, the place where the Sannin gathered and the "happy home" of Tsunade.

The air was thick with the scent of wine and perfume, the shouts of gamblers and geishas, and the brothels were wide open in broad daylight, making Uncle unable to bear the sight.

In his own words: "Aiya! The scene before me is more terrifying and horrible than the claws of ten billion demons!"

Fortunately, gathering intelligence here was quite easy; it didn't take long for Uncle to find information regarding the talismans.

When the madam saw an old man like Uncle and a monster like Chixing, she had initially been dismissive, rolling her eyes at them.

That was until Uncle pulled out a thick stack of banknotes.

(Hiding behind the scenes, Qian Yu remarked, "You are underestimating the purchasing power of my Dimensional Points!")

"Oh my, sir~ I was just joking with you earlier."

The speed of her change in demeanor was truly worthy of praise. "I don't know what kind of luck that izakaya at the end of the alley has stumbled upon lately!"

"Their youngest son isn't even a ninja, yet for some reason, he can suddenly transform into anything! He can even turn customers into whatever animals they want to be!"

"Such a novelty is naturally a huge draw; these past few days, my shop hasn't had any customers at all~" After saying this, the madam even batted her eyelashes at Uncle, as if to say, "Would this vigorous old gentleman like to patronize my business?"

But Uncle walked away without looking back, heading straight toward the izakaya with Chixing, his mind made up.

"Oh my! There's an aura of dark energy!"

In front of the izakaya, there was no sign of the "impenetrable" crowds of customers they had imagined. Instead, the front door was destroyed, and the sound of "crackle and pop" could be heard coming from within from time to time.

Inside the izakaya.

"Ninja Art: Needle Jizo!"

The man was tall and wore a forehead protector with the character "Oil" written on it. His white hair reached down to his waist, and he was dressed in a red haori over a brown ninja outfit, wearing wooden sandals, ninja guards on his forearms, and a large scroll strapped to his back.

A figure dressed like this had an extremely high recognition factor, even in the world of the Hokage. That's right, he was none other than the "Perverted Sage"! Jiraiya!