Cheers rose one after another!
At that moment, Konoha was like a pot of boiling water, bustling with life in an instant.
Cheers surged like waves through Konoha's streets and alleys.
Jiraiya stood at the head of the procession, looking at the familiar village before him.
Both sides of the street were packed with villagers eagerly awaiting their return. White-haired elders leaned on walking sticks and craned their necks on tiptoe, women held infants in their arms as their anxious gazes searched the crowd, and children clambered onto walls and rooftops just to catch a glimpse of the returning heroes.
"Mom, look! Is that Dad?" a young voice called out from the crowd.
"No, that's your Uncle Inoue..." The woman's voice trembled slightly, but she still managed a smile and waved at the passing Ninja.
The wounded were carefully helped into the village.
Some had lost an arm, their empty sleeves fluttering in the wind.
Some had their heads wrapped in bandages, leaving only one eye exposed, yet still nodded in greeting to the crowds along the road.
Others lay on stretchers carried by their comrades, their pale faces showing relief at having survived.
"Hang in there. We're almost there," a young Ninja carrying a stretcher whispered to the wounded man, beads of sweat forming on his forehead.
Medical tents had long since been set up in Konoha, and Medical Ninja moved among them.
"Over here! Critically wounded first!" a Medical Ninja shouted. Several people immediately stepped forward and took the wounded man on the stretcher into a tent.
Several Medical Ninja crouched beside the stretcher and carefully cut away the bloodstained bandages around the wounded man's leg.
The wound was deep enough to expose bone, its flesh torn open and its edges already turning somewhat white. It even gave