Tsunade slammed the door and left.
"Old man, you couldn't be more wrong this time!"
Jiraiya spat out those words bitterly, then slammed the door and left as well.
"Was I wrong..."
Hiruzen Sarutobi looked at his two estranged students, his face filled with confusion.
Iwagakure.
"Nanako!"
Didaze watched Nanako Uzumaki rush straight into his arms after school and patted her little head.
"Lord Didaze..."
Nanako Uzumaki blushed slightly, her voice a little shy.
This was the first time Didaze had come to pick her up. She had been attending school for over a week, and the Anbu had been taking her to and from school all this time.
"Just call me big brother. No more calling me lord!"
Didaze stroked Nanako Uzumaki's red hair again, then crouched down and spoke with a smile.
"Okay, Big Brother Didaze!"
This time, Nanako Uzumaki said it readily, without the slightest intention of refusing.
It seemed she had long since come to see Didaze as a big brother.
"Have you made any friends at school, Nanako?"
Holding Nanako Uzumaki's hand, Didaze asked her gently, as though coaxing a child.
"Of course I have!"
Nanako Uzumaki happily told Didaze about her time at school. Although she had transferred straight into the existing graduating class, that had not stopped her from making friends.
On the contrary, lots of people liked her because she was pretty.
What did children their age know? They simply liked whoever looked nice.
Besides, discrimination was not as severe in Iwagakure as it was in Konoha. Ōnoki would never let rumors run rampant in the village.
And if the adults did not spread rumors, slander others, or look down on anyone, the next generation would not pick up those habits either.
The main reasons Konoha's atmosphere was so awful were the Third's inaction and Shimura Danzō's reckless rumor-mongering.
"Then how about I find you a teacher, and you study with her after school?"
Didaze bent down, looking just like he was coaxing a child.
"Big Brother Didaze, I'm not a little kid..."
Nanako Uzumaki's little face flushed. Seeing Didaze act like this made her feel embarrassed too.
"Right, right, Nanako isn't a little kid..."
Didaze flicked Nanako's forehead, then laughed as the little girl looked at him reproachfully.
"Big Brother Didaze... you're so mean!"
Nanako Uzumaki rubbed her little head and gave a soft huff, seemingly expressing her displeasure.
"All right, all right. There's a surprise this time. You'll definitely be happy when you see it!"
Didaze took the little girl's hand and led her toward the Sealing Squad.
The person he was taking Nanako Uzumaki to meet was Karen, currently Iwagakure's strongest Sealing Jutsu user.
Although she barely had any screen time in the original story, she truly was Iwagakure's strongest Sealing Jutsu user at present.
However, since Iwagakure had few powerful Sealing Jutsu, even Karen, its strongest practitioner, had only barely reached Jonin level.
All he could say was that Iwagakure had been given far too little screen time, leaving hardly anyone a chance to appear. The main thing people remembered was Kurotsuchi's long legs.
Soon, with Didaze leading the way, the little girl arrived at the Sealing Squad with him.
"It's so big..."
Nanako Uzumaki gazed at the Sealing Squad in wonder.
The Sealing Squad's building was even bigger than the Tsuchikage Building, with a dazzling assortment of Sealing Jutsu.
Of course, most of them were garbage Ninjutsu. Not even the strongest was A-rank.
Most had been created by Iwagakure itself and were barely any better than the most basic method of sealing directly with chakra.
Most of the Sealing Squad's ninja used scrolls to perform seals. Only a tiny handful had mastered any Sealing Jutsu.
"Karen!"
Didaze called out when he spotted Karen excitedly studying an enormous scroll.
"Didaze, it's you!"
"I heard you've been pretty formidable on the battlefield lately. You've even got a new nickname?"
Karen was all smiles when she saw Didaze.
She was in a good mood. After all, she had gotten to see new Sealing Jutsu, and Didaze had earned them.
Didaze had encountered Karen once before, though that had only been when she gave a speech while he was little.
Karen had been very cold back then, leaving the stage after only a few words, in stark contrast to Ōnoki's long-winded speeches.
Later, Didaze had taken a mission involving the Sealing Squad, helping organize scrolls. Seeing how hard he was working, Karen had helped him sort them, and that was when he had made her acquaintance.
Still, they were only nodding acquaintances.
But as Didaze's fame soared, everyone who had met him before began recalling the boy they had once shared a little connection with.
"Oh? Since when did I have a nickname?"
Didaze was curious. He had no idea what nickname the people of the Shinobi World would give him.
As long as it was not something so embarrassing it made him want to curl his toes into the floor.
"Let me think... I think it was something like Bomb Maniac? That should be it..."
Karen pinched her chin in thought, then gave Didaze an answer that completely crushed his hopes.
"What kind of nickname is that?!"
Didaze nearly went mad. He could have just about accepted something like Explosion Maniac, but Bomb Maniac was truly unbearable.
Beside him, Nanako Uzumaki's little face was bright red, as though she wanted to laugh but did not dare.
"Don't hurt yourself holding it in. Laugh if you want."
Looking at the little girl covering her mouth, Didaze sighed helplessly.
"Hahahahaha..."
With Didaze's permission, Nanako Uzumaki burst out laughing.
"You've become a lot more cheerful..."
Didaze felt no anger at being laughed at. Instead, he was happy for the little girl who had once been so withdrawn.
He did not want her to remain that withdrawn for the rest of her life.
Judging by how she was now, the Uzumaki Clan was probably naturally carefree. The little girl had only suppressed her true nature because she had been bullied so badly before.
"Nanako, you should take this lady as your master from now on. She's the strongest Sealing Jutsu user in all of Iwagakure!"
Didaze waited quietly until the little girl finished laughing before speaking.
"The strongest Sealing Jutsu user?"
Nanako Uzumaki's eyes instantly widened, and the way she looked at Karen changed too.
"It's true that Lord Tsuchikage asked me to take you as my student, but I need to see just how much talent you have for Sealing Jutsu. If your talent isn't good enough, I won't take you even if you're from the Uzumaki Clan."
Karen said this to Nanako Uzumaki.
Didaze wanted to laugh when he heard that.
Nanako Uzumaki lacking talent? What a joke!
She had that unique constitution that allowed others to restore their chakra by biting her body. Even within the Uzumaki Clan, it was probably extremely rare.
Moreover, judging by how Karin had been able to unleash the Adamantine Sealing Chains without ever training in them in the original story, Nanako Uzumaki, as Karin's mother, certainly could not have lacked talent. She might even have been more talented.
Since Karin's father most likely had not belonged to the Uzumaki Clan, she should have been of mixed blood.
If someone of mixed blood could be that strong, wouldn't Nanako, a pure-blooded Uzumaki, be even stronger?
It was just that she had died such a miserable death in the original story, without ever getting to display her talent.
But Didaze believed that this time, Nanako Uzumaki would definitely be able to realize her talent and become a true Sealing Jutsu master of Iwagakure!