Immediately afterward, the sound of his heartbeat grew stronger and stronger.
His body regained sensation as well.
Before long, he slowly opened his eyes.
He saw the gathered ninja before him looking at him with joyous expressions.
Shizune stood in front of him, wiping the sweat from her forehead. She held a syringe in her hand and smiled happily.
He slowly sat up and asked in confusion, "Wasn't I... supposed to be dead?"
Shizune shook the Power of the Heavenly Dao syringe in her hand and said with a smile.
"Third Hokage, this syringe was scratched out of a Scratch-off ticket."
"The owner said at the time that it could heal a person regardless of any conditions."
"I'd kept this syringe on me the whole time. When I saw you collapse just now, I hurriedly injected you with it!"
"So that's how it is!" The Third Hokage rubbed his head and looked toward Invincible Scratch-off.
Ever since that little shop had arrived in Konoha, there seemed to have been many more miraculous things around them.
After resting for a while, he slowly stood up.
Since he had not died, he had to continue doing what a Hokage was supposed to do.
Looking at the disorderly trees across the rooftop, he shook his head.
"What a mess. Let's clear them all out!"
As he spoke, his hands formed seals.
Only...
"Huh? Why has my hand seal speed slowed down?"
He smiled and shook his head, then tried again.
"Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu!"
Pfft! A tiny wisp of heat sprayed from his mouth.
He froze.
He hurriedly sensed the Chakra within his body.
"Nani? My Chakra is gone!" he screamed in shock, on the verge of a complete breakdown.
"If that's really the case, won't I have to start practicing ninjutsu all over again?"
He truly could not accept this outcome.
Kakashi coughed lightly beside him.
"Third Hokage, this isn't really that hard to accept. Losing your ninjutsu is still better than being dead."
Asuma took over, laughing so hard he was out of breath.
"Yeah, I think Kakashi is right!"
"The Team Ten I'm leading now has Umino Iruka as its introductory instructor. I think he's pretty good."
"Want me to put in a few words for you?"
Outside the crowd, Iruka heard the strange laughter and immediately got goosebumps.
Have him teach the Third Hokage? Be the Third Hokage's introductory teacher? Wasn't that a joke?
The Third Hokage's face darkened as he glared gloomily at Asuma.
But to his surprise, Asuma stuck out his tongue at him.
"You don't have any Chakra now, so you can never use Father's Love Technique on me again. Just thinking about it makes me happy!"
"Now I can finally play Scratch-off tickets without worry!"
"A--SU--MA!" The Third Hokage gritted his teeth.
Asuma gave a light leap and flew far into the distance.
The Third Hokage shook his head and sighed. "That son of mine is hopeless!"
He turned around and looked at Tsunade beside him. "You will take over as the Fifth Hokage from here on."
Tsunade froze. "Me? Am I suitable? Jiraiya should do it instead."
"No!" The Third Hokage refused without a second thought.
"If he becomes Hokage, the first thing he'll do will definitely be renovating the village's women's bathhouse. What a waste of money!"
Seeing how serious he was, Tsunade could not refuse again.
She could only nod lightly. "All right, I'll take the job. But Sensei, what are you planning to do next?"
The Third Hokage swallowed, his old face reddening.
"Go back to the ninja academy and retake the genin exam. I figure that in my lifetime, I can at least become a Jonin!"
Tsunade gave an awkward smile.
Wasn't that ridiculous?
Such an old man, attending class with a group of five- and six-year-old children.
And given his former status, what could a teacher possibly teach a teacher?
Tsunade said softly, "Sensei, we could actually make an exception and let you become a special Jonin..."
The moment he heard that, the Third Hokage turned serious.
"What exception? No exceptions! No one is allowed to bring this up again!"
"If I made an exception, who knew how much that little brat Asuma would mock me later!"
Though he had now lost all his ninjutsu, his words still carried weight.
Once he ordered them not to mention it again, everyone truly shut their mouths.
Invincible Scratch-off.
Shizune rushed over in a panic.
The moment she entered the shop, she burst into laughter.
"Boss, thank goodness for that syringe you scratched out."
"Otherwise, the Third Hokage would have been dead as a doornail today!"
"Since I'm so excited, get me a Scratch-off ticket!"
Wu Di's eyes lit up.
His mood immediately improved quite a bit.
He smiled and asked Shizune, "Since you're so excited, how big of a ticket are you planning to scratch?"
Shizune pulled out a silver note from her bag and slapped it onto the counter with great bravado.
"Give me a hundred-ryo one!"
Wu Di staggered, awkwardly swallowing.
So Shizune had never seen what a high-denomination silver note looked like!
She had made such a loud slap with just one hundred ryo!
He let out a long sigh and directly pulled a Scratch-off ticket from behind him and handed it to her.
Inside the forest.
Naruto and Sakura had been chasing Gaara the entire time.
They had pursued him all the way outside the village.
Suddenly, Gaara stopped and sharply turned around.
By then, most of his body had already taken on Shukaku's form.
He violently swung an arm.
More than a dozen millstone-sized balls of sand flew out.
Sakura failed to dodge in time and was pinned directly to a tree.
Seeing this, he let out a wild laugh.
Naruto bit his lip. He was so far away now that Gaara was completely outside the range of his Wood Style ninjutsu. He could only find a way to close the distance!
He waved his hand and directly summoned the Flying broom.
The instant he climbed onto the broom, Gaara suddenly raised his tail.
Countless marble-sized pellets of sand descended like a raging storm.
They completely blocked his path forward.
"Damn it!" he muttered, dropping beneath the trees to approach from the ground.
Gaara seemed to have anticipated it long ago.
He once again aimed his tail beneath the forest canopy.
However, with the branches overhead blocking it, noticeably less sand fell below.
Taking advantage of the gaps, Naruto edged closer bit by bit.
When he estimated that he was about twenty meters from Gaara, he quietly stopped and formed hand seals frantically.
"Wood Style: Thousand Years of Impalement Technique!"
Gaara was instantly restrained.
His half-beast head thrashed wildly, and he let out beastlike roars before somehow... fainting.
Immediately afterward, his body expanded by more than a hundred times.
A complete tanuki with earth-yellow fur appeared in the middle of the forest.
Naruto gave a lifeless chuckle.
"Heh heh, you're even pulling out hair while we're playing around!"
"If you keep this up, it'll be hard for us to be friends!"
He let out a mournful sigh and painfully scratched his head.
Suddenly, an idea struck him. "Right, I know Summoning Jutsu now!"
"If I summon the Great Toad Boss, why would I have to worry about dealing with that tanuki?"
He quickly formed seals and slammed his palm heavily onto the ground.
"Summoning Jutsu!"
Poof!
A tiny tadpole that had just grown hind legs suddenly hopped out.
Before you continue