The Great Toad Sage passed away. Kaguya: "Tch, what convenient timing. You got off easy."

Konoha, the Hokage Office.

Inside the office, Tsunade and Jiraiya fretted over the orders sent by the Daimyo of the Land of Fire.

They knew about the Federation, and they knew more than most.

On the surface, the Federation appeared to be nothing more than a group of small nations that had united into a federal state to oppose the Five Great Nations.

In reality, the trump cards behind the Federation were so formidable that they were downright frightening.

Even setting everything else aside, Madara Uchiha and his Younger Brother alone were more than the current Konoha could handle.

"Jiraiya, what do you think we should do now?"

Tsunade set down the documents in her hands and looked helplessly at Jiraiya beside her.

Jiraiya was equally helpless. He took a deep breath before finally speaking.

"What else can we do? Sending us to the Land of Grass to bring Chiba Ryo back-is this some kind of joke?

We still don't know who that powerful Chiba Naruto mentioned before actually is, but there's one thing we can be sure of: Chiba Ryo is definitely connected to him.

Even if that powerful Chiba doesn't intervene, there's still the legendary Sage of Six Paths and the Rabbit Goddess..."

As he spoke, Jiraiya found himself unable to continue.

They weren't even remotely on the same level.

"Tsunade, my advice is to find some way to stall for now. Put it off for as long as you can."

Poof!

A cloud of smoke appeared, and a Toad from Mount Myōboku materialized on Jiraiya's desk.

"Little Jiraiya."

"Boss Fukasaku! What brings you here?"

The visitor was none other than Fukasaku, the Toad from Mount Myōboku.

But now, Fukasaku looked grief-stricken and dispirited, as though something terrible had just happened.

Jiraiya noticed that something was wrong with