Postwar Cleanup

Jiraiya looked pleased as he asked whether the Wood Dome that had just protected Nadeshiko and the others was Qiuyang's work.

"Nothing gets past you, Sensei. Haha!"

That was as good as an admission.

Jiraiya let out a sigh of relief. It seemed the survivors inside the Wood Dome had indeed been transported away by Qiuyang using the Flying Thunder God.

Thankfully, it hadn't been Yamato. Otherwise, when the Masked Man went inside to check, he would surely have killed everyone there.

But Jiraiya was still worried. The woman he'd once made a promise to seemed to be in a bad way.

"Come on. Take me to see how they're doing."

Qiuyang nodded and led the way. Since the enemy had already been eliminated, he didn't use the Flying Thunder God to get there.

Naruto and Yamato, who were still stunned by Qiuyang's Kamui and hadn't quite come back to their senses, hurried after them.

Yamato in particular had his head hanging like a wilted eggplant, his mind a complete muddle.

As the saying went, comparing goods made you toss some aside; comparing people could drive you to despair.

The Wood Release techniques he'd once been so proud of were like a grown-up's compared to a child's when set against Qiuyang's.

"Sensei, aren't you curious about how I can use Wood Release and the Second Hokage's jutsu?"

Qiuyang found the walk too quiet, so he cheerfully struck up a conversation with his teacher.

Jiraiya shook his head, saying he wasn't interested.

Or rather, he'd already been mentally prepared by the Great Toad Sage's prophecy.

If the person in the prophecy didn't have some extraordinary talent, then he couldn't be the person the prophecy spoke of.

All Jiraiya had to do was guide the person's thoughts and keep him from straying down an evil path.

As for how strong he might become, Jiraiya couldn't control that—and didn't want to.

They soon reached the place where Qiuyang had left the survivors. There, they found that Nadeshiko's severely injured teacher was barely clinging to life.

Sakura was drenched in sweat, using Medical Ninjutsu to keep her alive. When she saw them arrive, she explained the situation:

"She has severe internal injuries. She's already..."

She was holding on to her final breath, waiting for Jiraiya.

"J... Jiraiya... It's been a long time!"

"I'm sorry..."

Jiraiya sighed and went over to crouch beside her. He supported the middle-aged woman as she tried to lift her head. Their shared past flashed through his mind, but he was powerless to save her.

Just as he'd once been powerless to stop his dear friend Orochimaru from defecting.

"Y... young lady, I have something to say to Jiraiya. You don't... don't need to treat me anymore. You... please... step away."

Nadeshiko cried out, begging her teacher not to say that. But when she saw the stern look in her teacher's eyes, she didn't dare disobey. She stood there like a child who'd done something wrong.

Qiuyang found this other side of Nadeshiko rather intriguing. At Jiraiya's signal, he took her small hand and led her and her clanspeople a little farther away.

He had no idea whether his teacher and that woman were discussing political negotiations or confiding in each other as old acquaintances.

Either way, it had nothing to do with him!

"Uchiha Qiuyang, is there really no way to save my teacher's injuries?"

Qiuyang didn't answer. Instead, he moved closer and patted the top of her head, then drew her against his chest.

"Everyone has to experience parting and loss before they can grow up."

When he'd saved them, he'd already used his Sharingan to see that her teacher's injuries were too severe to recover from. Unless... Naruto, wielding Yang Release granted by the Sage of Six Paths, appeared, there was no chance!

But for Naruto, who hadn't yet obtained the chakra of the Nine Tailed Beasts, that was nothing but a pipe dream.

How could Nadeshiko not understand what he meant? She clutched his clothes with both hands and began to sob quietly.

Qiuyang patted her back and softly comforted her. He had the feeling that something very important between him and Nadeshiko had slipped his mind, but he couldn't remember what it was.

About ten minutes later...

Jiraiya approached the group with a heavy heart and announced what Nadeshiko's teacher had just entrusted to him—

From that day on, Nadeshiko would become the leader of the survivors. Jiraiya, representing Konoha, had also agreed to help them relocate to Konoha as a group.

After saying this, Jiraiya glanced meaningfully at Nadeshiko, who was clinging to Qiuyang's chest and sobbing her heart out.

Once Nadeshiko had recovered somewhat from the grief of losing her teacher, the first thing she had to face was how to handle the aftermath.

"I want to find and bury my dead clanspeople before returning to Konoha with you. Is that all right?"

Nadeshiko looked up at Qiuyang pitifully. Unable to bear it, he turned to ask Jiraiya, the leader of their mission.

Jiraiya nodded in agreement. He'd promised an old acquaintance he would look after these people, so of course he wouldn't refuse.

He did, however, make one request:

"We have to finish everything within a day. Otherwise, that old monster from Iwagakure might come back."

Nadeshiko was grateful to have the time and didn't complain that it was short. After wiping her tears on Qiuyang's clothes, she got ready to move.

"Nadeshiko, when I used Deep Forest Emergence, I made sure to avoid your clanspeople. You only need to search the areas where the trees aren't growing as thickly."

Nadeshiko conveyed her gratitude with her red-rimmed eyes. After taking care of her teacher, she led the remaining clanspeople in searching for the other villagers who had been killed.

Affected by the somber atmosphere, Naruto and Sakura went along to help too.

Qiuyang watched Nadeshiko's slender back and sighed.

If only the Ninja World had someone strong enough to overwhelm everyone else.

Take Naruto and Sasuke after the Fourth Shinobi World War, for example. They'd been strong enough to crush every ninja village. With them keeping everyone in check, the Ninja World had been much more peaceful, without disorderly expansion leading to war.

Unfortunately, with his current strength, Qiuyang couldn't overwhelm everyone.

"Captain Yamato, could you make enough wooden coffins for them once they've confirmed how many people were killed?"

Yamato was a warmhearted person to begin with. Seeing Qiuyang address him so politely as Captain, he agreed at once.

Before long, the group had gathered and prepared all the victims for burial. It took most of the day, and they laid them out in the clearing in front of the old shrine.

With Nadeshiko's permission, Qiuyang and Jiraiya used Earth Release from either side of the clearing to create hundreds of graves.

After burying all the victims, Jiraiya led the remaining villagers on the road back to Konoha.

Since some of them weren't ninja, the group moved much more slowly. After walking with them for a day and seeing that nothing else was amiss, Qiuyang approached his teacher during a rest stop.

Perhaps because Qiuyang's strength had made him feel threatened, Jiraiya had been hounded by Naruto all along the way, who kept demanding that he teach him new and powerful jutsu.

Jiraiya was thoroughly fed up. He was taking advantage of this rare break to rest with his eyes closed.

At the sound of footsteps, he thought Naruto had come to bother him again. He opened his eyes with a sigh, but relaxed when he saw it was Qiuyang.

"What is it? Don't tell me you're planning to leave the group and go do something else again?"

"You really do know me, Sensei!"

Qiuyang grinned as he sat down beside his teacher and asked for permission to leave the group and take care of another important matter.

The group was already inside the Land of Fire, after all. Ōnoki surely wasn't foolish enough to come here and pick a fight with them.

He had no choice!

He had to hurry and find Yugito, the Two-Tails Jinchūriki, and Rōshi, the Four-Tails Jinchūriki, and get parts of their Tailed Beasts.

Otherwise, if Akatsuki got to them first, it would be over. He had no confidence he could get the missing Tailed Beast parts from Nagato, who possessed the Rinnegan.

After Qiuyang wore him down, Jiraiya finally agreed to his request. He only asked that Qiuyang return immediately if he received a summons from the village.