After the Chunin Exams, Konoha had been hit too hard by the war, so Jiraiya temporarily remained in the village and personally handled some of Konoha's more troublesome matters.
He took on some particularly difficult missions. At a time like this, manpower was incredibly important. Otherwise, there was no price that could have hired a ninja like Jiraiya to carry out missions.
But Tsunade did not care whether Jiraiya was willing or not. Even if Jiraiya wanted to slack off, all Tsunade had to do was glare and show off those steel fists, and Jiraiya could only obediently follow her orders.
Naturally, Jiraiya had been pressed into service as well. He had only just returned from a mission.
The moment he heard that Naruto had been injured while pursuing Sasuke and was in Konoha Hospital, he rushed over without even pausing to rest. Naruto noticed the faint exhaustion on Jiraiya's face and smiled slightly. "Pervy Sage, thank you."
Jiraiya froze for a moment and gave Ueno Kei a puzzled look, asking with his eyes what was wrong with Naruto. After all, he had heard that Naruto had been deeply affected by what happened with Second Pillar and was terribly despondent. Yet now he was acting like this? Jiraiya could not make heads or tails of it.
Ueno Kei wore an equally bewildered expression, so naturally, he had no way to answer Jiraiya.
Naruto, of course, could not have guessed what Ueno Kei and Jiraiya were thinking. He gave a self-mocking smile and said, "I used to think life would always be like this—train hard, become a ninja, earn everyone's recognition, become Hokage someday, protect everyone, and make everyone like me."
"I always thought that if things kept going this way, I'd be able to achieve my dream," Naruto said softly.