Urgent Mission

The Anbu messenger was the same as last time. When Qiuyang didn't say anything, he simply waited for him to agree.

Qiuyang could only sigh and say that he understood and would head over now.

Without waiting for the Anbu's reply, he used the Flying Thunder God Technique to teleport near the Hokage Office. He'd left a mark there on purpose.

When he pushed open the door to the Hokage Office, Qiuyang found the room quite lively. Tsunade and Jiraiya were there, along with Naruto, Sakura... and Yamato.

"You're quick!"

Seeing the village's only young genius ninja capable of using the Flying Thunder God Technique walk in gave Tsunade a headache.

She'd wanted to cultivate someone like Qiuyang. Whenever she learned he'd returned to the village over the past few years, she'd issued a Hokage summons, hoping he'd put the village first and take on some A- or even S-rank missions to contribute. That way, she could make an exception and promote him to Jonin without putting him through the exam process.

Who would've thought this kid was just like Jiraiya? Every time, he'd refused on the grounds that he liked traveling.

When she told him that following orders could raise his rank and improve his待遇, he'd simply insisted that Konoha's Genin were the strongest of all...

Tsunade didn't know what to say. Fortunately, whenever something happened in Konoha, Qiuyang was always very cooperative.

All she could do was reject old Danzo's proposal to have Uchiha Qiu Yang join Root while also trying to get Jiraiya to talk some sense into him.

But judging by Jiraiya's pathetic state, that was probably a dead end too.

Seeing so many characters from the original story gathered together, Qiuyang knew something big was going on. He grinned and greeted them.

"Teacher, Lord Hokage, you called me over this early. What are your orders?"

Jiraiya glared at his disrespectful student. Once he saw that everyone had arrived, he spoke gravely.

"We just received a distress signal from our ally, Nadeshiko Village. They're under a joint invasion by the Akatsuki and Iwagakure, and they're asking us for help."

What? Nadeshiko Village? Shizuka Nadeshiko?

"Teacher Jiraiya, what did you say? Is this the village full of women you tricked me into going to?"

Qiuyang was stunned. The dark cave from several years ago appeared in his mind again, along with that soft thigh pillow and the warm embrace he'd held at night...

Had something happened to her?

Jiraiya glanced awkwardly at the others, all of whom were watching with interest. For once, he blushed.

Before everyone else had arrived, Tsunade had told him how Nadeshiko had specifically come to find Qiuyang back then.

Jiraiya had never imagined that she'd taken their casual agreement seriously.

"Ahem. That's not the point. Our mission is to head out at once and provide support..."

"Who's coming with me? Come over here and put your hands on my shoulders..."

Qiuyang took a deep breath. He didn't care how much chakra a space-time jump over such a long distance would cost. He just wanted to fly to Nadeshiko Village and rescue that alluring girl from back then.

"Teacher Jiraiya, show me the location of the village on the map."

After Jiraiya pointed it out, Qiuyang used the locations of the Flying Thunder God Marks he'd left over the years to work out the shortest route in his mind.

"Okay, come over," he said. Naruto, Sakura, Yamato... and Jiraiya all placed their hands on his shoulders.

Teacher Jiraiya was going too?

Could he still have feelings for Nadeshiko's teacher?

Qiuyang shot Tsunade, whose lips had pursed slightly, a meaningful glance. Then he closed his eyes, brought both hands together in the sword-finger sign, and began sensing the first Yin-Yang Bagua Flying Thunder God Mark.

With a whoosh, the people in the Hokage Office vanished, leaving behind only afterimages.

A full minute after Qiuyang and the others had left, the mole Anbu who'd delivered the message finally returned to report. When he heard that Qiuyang had already come and left to provide support, he was stunned—

No wonder Lord Hokage valued him so much!

--

"Hey, Qiuyang, what kind of jutsu is this?"

When they reached the third Flying Thunder God Mark, Naruto asked in astonishment, his eyes wide. He'd also voiced the question on Sakura and Yamato's minds.

Naruto didn't know that the Flying Thunder God he was seeing was actually his dad's signature jutsu. He only thought it was ridiculously overpowered.

If you couldn't beat an enemy in battle, couldn't you just escape in an instant?

Jiraiya heard him and hesitated, but in the end didn't reveal the truth. Instead, he scolded Naruto.

"Naruto, this is the Flying Thunder God Technique. Don't distract Qiuyang."

He'd noticed Qiuyang's chest rising and falling slightly. Long-distance space-time travel was clearly taking a heavy toll on him.

"Get ready. I'll complete the next two jumps in an instant. From the next mark, it should take only about five minutes to reach Nadeshiko Village."

Aside from being amazed that Qiuyang could reach a battlefield so far away in under ten minutes, everyone immediately prepared for battle.

"Here we go!"

Hearing Qiuyang say that, Naruto suddenly felt uncomfortable, as if... those should have been his words, but someone had stolen them from him.

But before he could think about it, Qiuyang had completed the final two space-time jumps and arrived at a rocky wasteland.

There was no need for anyone to point the way. The repeated booms of explosions coming from the southeast made it clear where the invaded village was.

"Huff... huff..."

Seeing Qiuyang pant as though he'd been completely drained, Jiraiya patted his shoulder and told him to rest and replenish his chakra. He'd lead the others to help first.

Naruto was brimming with enthusiasm and was just about to cry out, "Here we go!" when he remembered Qiuyang had already said it. He stood there with his hand raised, not knowing what to do.

Jiraiya looked at his foolish student. "Let's go!"

"Wait..."

Qiuyang held out a hand to stop them. Under Jiraiya's puzzled gaze, he steadied his breathing, then crouched and placed his index and middle fingers on the ground...

It was the Second Hokage's sensory technique for detecting the number of enemies. He'd used it once when capturing White Zetsu, and it was even more refined now, with a wider detection range.

"There are about fifty people lying in ambush directly ahead of the explosions, around thirty-five to the left, and about twenty behind us to the right. But the twenty over there have much stronger chakra than the ones in the other two groups."

Qiuyang pointed to the left and suggested that Teacher Jiraiya take that more difficult route.

"I can't believe you even know the Second Hokage's sensory technique. Is there any jutsu you can't use?"

Jiraiya praised him, then led the other three toward the route Qiuyang had pointed out.

Their goal was to support Nadeshiko Village, which was under attack. They couldn't afford to get bogged down fighting the ninjas lying in ambush.

Qiuyang quickly sat down to catch his breath. While replenishing his chakra, he took out his original eyes.

His hands glowed with green healing light as he cupped the eyeballs, pressed them into his sockets, and opened his eyes. At first, all he could see was white. Then the eyeballs rotated down from above...

Nadeshiko, you absolutely must be all right!!