Konoha's shock

Konoha, Root.

With a sharp crack, Danzo sprang to his feet, his fierce eyes widening as powerful chakra fluctuations immediately radiated from his body.

The people seated below him looked at the shattered teacup by their feet, remaining bowed with their heads lowered in silence.

After a long while, even Danzo himself let out a heavy sigh and returned to his seat.

He asked in an icy tone, "Was it really done by that young disciple of Jiraiya's?"

The man with tied-back hair below him shook his head slightly and replied, "We can't be certain. During the battle in the Land of Rain, we were too far from the battlefield to make out that boy's face. But judging by his clothes alone, it was almost certainly Liumu."

A sharp glint flashed through Danzo's eyes at this, and he snapped, "I don't want to hear 'almost certainly.' He's Jiraiya's disciple, which puts him in Sarutobi's camp. Without absolute certainty, we cannot act rashly."

Danzo's struggle with Hiruzen Sarutobi had gone on for ages. Even six years later, after the Third, Hiruzen Sarutobi, had passed the Hokage position to Minato Namikaze, Danzo still had not changed his old ways.

If the person holding the Hokage position represented Konoha's public face, then Danzo was a dagger the village kept hidden in the shadows.

Moreover, this dagger needed no one to wield it. Danzo himself would find every possible way to plunge it into the chests of any opponents who might threaten Konoha.

"Where are they now?"

At the question, a trace of hesitation crossed the face of the man with tied-back hair.

"They left the village after knocking us unconscious, so..."

"Useless!"

Danzo slammed his palm hard onto the desk, though the darkness in his gaze finally eased.

"Send people to keep investigating Jiraiya. As for the Land of Rain..."

"Master Jiraiya?"

Inside the Hokage Office, Hiruzen Sarutobi was absent. Instead, Minato Namikaze stood to one side, listening to Kakashi report intelligence about the Land of Rain.

"We encountered Lord Jiraiya and Liumu there."

Kakashi answered truthfully, "And Liumu also told me that the people of the Land of Rain only wanted peace. As for who gave them that peace, it didn't matter."

Minato Namikaze was Jiraiya's disciple. Hearing that his own teacher had actually been at the center of that conspiracy left Minato uncertain for the moment whether his teacher had anything to do with the matter.

The Land of Fire was not alone in constantly watching the unrest in the Land of Rain. As the junction of three great nations, its situation could be described as extremely chaotic.

"Liumu? That classmate of yours from the Ninja Academy?" Something suddenly occurred to Minato, and he immediately asked Kakashi.

Kakashi nodded at the question. "That's right. He's already a genin, just like me."

Minato recalled the first time he had met Liumu, when he had been stunned by the boy's extraordinary taijutsu. Though Liumu was only five years old, Minato did not believe him to be any weaker than Kakashi, who was called a genius.

"What sort of person do you think Liumu is?"

Kakashi frowned and answered honestly, "Very strong, both in intelligence and ability. And with his strength, if he can come back for next year's Chunin Exams, he'll definitely make a name for himself."

Having become Jiraiya's disciple, Liumu now shared a bond with Minato as a fellow student of the same teacher. Now that even the usually conceited Kakashi was so generous in his praise of Liumu, Liumu's talent certainly could not be lacking.

After leaving the Hokage Office.

Kakashi took off his mask and returned home.

His father, Hatake Sakumo, was an elite jonin of Konoha. Known throughout the Shinobi World as Konoha's White Fang, he commonly used a chakra short blade that gave off a white glow.

As the son of a renowned figure, Kakashi had carried many people's high expectations since childhood. He had lived up to his reputation as a genius, graduating from the Ninja Academy at five to become a Konoha genin and breaking the record for the youngest Academy graduate.

But now, as Kakashi thought back to Liumu, rare sparks of excitement appeared in his usually languid expression.

A genius without rivals was lonely, and lonely people often developed twisted minds.

In the past, Kakashi could look down on everything, but Liumu's appearance now made him feel pressure unlike anything he had ever experienced.

The news that Jiraiya and Liumu had appeared in the Land of Rain caused quite a stir among Konoha High Command.

As the former Hokage, the Third, Hiruzen Sarutobi, argued his case before the daimyo, while Jiraiya's past achievements also gave everyone unwavering trust in him.

As for the matter of the Child of Hope that Jiraiya had previously mentioned to Sarutobi, Sarutobi had already begun to suspect something.

A year later.

Within the Land of Fire.

Two figures, one large and one small, crossed the mountains and came to a stream to wash the clothes in their bundles.

Jiraiya propped up fresh spring-water fish, securing them with a pile of stones. Seeing this, Liumu beside him released faint chakra fluctuations around his body, then spat out a fireball that ignited the dry wood beneath the fish.

Before long, the fresh, tender fish gave off a charcoal-roasted aroma. Liumu took several bottles of seasonings from his backpack, sprinkled them liberally over the grilled fish, then took one down and handed it to Jiraiya.

Jiraiya slowly took a bite, only to grimace repeatedly from the heat.

Even so, he kept praising it.

"Why didn't you tell me sooner that you could cook like this? You made me spend more than half a year eating wild game in the Land of Wind."

"What good would telling you have done? The Land of Wind is nothing but yellow sand. Even if I'd told you, could you have conjured up a couple of fish?"

After a full year together, Jiraiya and Liumu had instead lost the stiffness of their initial teacher-student relationship.

Not only did they speak more casually, but they could also tease each other from time to time.

The Land of Wind, where the two had previously gone, was a country extremely poor in resources. They had chosen it because it was relatively closed off. Even if Danzo learned of their whereabouts, sending people there would not be easy.

During this time, Liumu had finally gained some insight into controlling chakra.

He had at last fully mastered the simple Clone Technique and had now begun learning Fire Release ninjutsu.

"Are you really not planning to learn the Summoning Technique?"

Jiraiya blew out hot breaths as he looked at Liumu in puzzlement.

Liumu shook his head at the question. "No."

Jiraiya was speechless.

What teacher had to beg his own disciple to learn ninjutsu?

And what he would be learning was Mount Myōboku's summoning, no less.

The reason Liumu refused Jiraiya's Summoning Technique was not that toads were bad, but because...

They were too damn ugly.

His template system had summoning beasts in its prize pool. Since that was the case, why choose a toad that could not even beat a tailed beast?

Recalling how he had completed a system mission half a year earlier and received one use of the Time House from the system, Liumu thought he still needed to find some time to learn a higher-level ninjutsu.