Deactivating the Sensory Suppression Barrier, Naruto jumped from the back hills to the top of the Hokage Rock. Looking down from this position, the entire Konoha was in full view.
In the early morning, Konoha was already beginning to wake up. Early-rising villagers and patrolling ninjas appeared on the streets one after another, and the shops on the commercial street were raising their shutters one by one.
Come to think of it, it had only been about three months since he transmigrated into this world.
Within three months, he had mastered Kurama Mode, Flying Thunder God Technique, fused three elemental Chakra to obtain Light Release, and even acquired a complete pair of Mangekyo.
In today's Ninja World, there was basically no one left who could control him.
Just then, an Anbu quickly leaped up from below the mountain, arriving a few paces behind him in a few bounds.
"Jonin Naruto, Hokage-sama is looking for you."
Naruto turned around and glanced at the Anbu. 'Granny Tsunade is looking for me? Could she have encountered something even she can't resolve?'
Ever since Tsunade took office as the Hokage, she had never actively sought him out. She didn't assign him missions, nor did she invite him to attend meetings, completely treating him like a nuclear deterrent.
Sending an Anbu specifically to call him this time meant that she had encountered something that required deploying a "nuclear weapon."
Naruto nodded and leaped toward the Hokage Building, following the Anbu.
The two figures, one after the other, swept down from the Hokage Rock, disappearing into the village's cluster of buildings in a few leaps.
Not long after Naruto left, a ripple-like space fluctuation spread above the Hokage Rock. Immediately after, two figures dropped out from the spatial rift.
—
Hokage Building
Tsunade was sitting with her chin resting on her crossed hands, her brow furrowed deeply, with several intelligence scrolls spread across her desk.
Naruto closed the door and glanced at Tsunade's expression. "What's wrong, Granny Tsunade? Why the long face? Even that old geezer Danzo has never made you look this grim."
Seeing Naruto enter, Tsunade's tense shoulders relaxed slightly.
She picked up a scroll from the desk and handed it over. "Naruto, take a look at this."
Naruto took the scroll and unrolled it, his eyes scanning the contents.
The scroll contained a substantial amount of information: the Fourth Raikage, A, along with his bodyguards Darui and C, had already left Kumogakure and were heading straight for Konoha.
At the end of the scroll, there was a note stating that there was also unusual movement from Iwagakure, with Iwagakure Anbu activity along the border increasing significantly recently.
"The day your identity was made public, the Fourth Raikage's side started making moves."
Tsunade leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms. "I just received confirmed news that he has already taken his bodyguards and is secretly making his way to Konoha. We don't even have to guess what his purpose is."
She looked at Naruto, her meaning self-evident.
The Raikage's target is Naruto. Back then, during the Third Great Ninja War, Minato used the Flying Thunder God Technique to strike terror into the hearts of Kumogakure. The title of the Yellow Flash is still a taboo word in Kumogakure, and the older generation of Kumo ninjas still pale when it is mentioned.
Now that Minato's son is not only alive but has also become the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki, any Raikage would be unable to sit still. He will never stand by and watch Konoha produce a second Yellow Flash.
"Iwagakure isn't idling either."
Tsunade tapped her finger on another piece of intelligence on the desk. "That old fox Ōnoki can smell meat from a mile away."
Naruto read the scroll from beginning to end, and let out a cold laugh. "Good timing."
He tossed the scroll onto the desk. "I've been wanting to have a good meeting with this Raikage myself."
Since the opponent's target was him, there was nothing more to say. They had already sneaked over with bodyguards, so he just had to fight.
Tsunade stared at Naruto's face for a couple of seconds. Only after confirming there was no hint of bravado in his eyes did she ask, "Are you confident?"
Naruto smiled and nodded.
He truly didn't think this was a difficult matter to handle. Any single card he currently held in his hand would be more than enough to give the Fourth Raikage a run for his money.
Tsunade pulled a mission scroll from a drawer and opened it. She wrote a few lines, stamped it with the Hokage seal, and pushed it in front of him.
"Then this S-rank mission to stop the Fourth Raikage is yours. And this is the Anbu squad that will support you." Tsunade handed Naruto another scroll.
Naruto nodded and took the two scrolls, preparing to leave, when the office door was pushed open.
Shizune walked in quickly, clutching a scroll in her hand. Her expression was a mix of anxiety and helplessness, as if she had encountered something she didn't even know how to bring up.
"Tsunade-sama, look at this."
Tsunade scanned the scroll, and her solemn expression instantly turned into pure rage.
"Damn Jiraiya! Even at a time like this, he can't stay quiet for a second! It seems I must teach him a lesson he will never forget!"
With that, Tsunade clenched her fists and walked toward the door.
Naruto was a bit puzzled, not knowing how Jiraiya had provoked Tsunade again.
He followed her and asked, "What did Pervy Sage do this time?"
Tsunade briefly recounted Jiraiya's "glorious deeds" over the past few days.
The bathhouse owner had submitted complaints to the village more than once, saying that a white-haired man kept peeping over the wall of the women's bathhouse every few days. Not only was he peeping with his own eyes, but he was also using binoculars. The female guests were too terrified to come, causing business to plummet.
Every time a complaint came in, Tsunade would drag Jiraiya to her office and give him a severe scolding. He would behave for two days, only to climb back up on the third.
Tsunade cracked her knuckles. "The intelligence just now says he's at it again. I told him, if he did it one more time, I'd make him spend two months in the Konoha Hospital. He thought I was joking."
Hearing this, Naruto was speechless.
Jiraiya's hobby was engraved in his bones. It hadn't changed since the Sannin era. He got beaten up every time, yet never reformed. He didn't know whether to call him strong-willed or thick-skinned to an extreme degree.
He had originally planned to go back and pack his things to depart, but to witness Jiraiya getting beaten up, delaying his departure for a bit was perfectly fine.
Naruto followed Tsunade toward the center of the village.
As they turned into the commercial street near the bathhouse, they saw from afar a white figure dashing out of an alley at extreme speed. Chasing behind him was a large crowd of women armed with brooms and wooden tubs, led by the bathhouse owner charging at the very front with a mop, cursing up a storm.
Jiraiya ran incredibly fast, his white hair streaming in a straight line behind him. He cut through a small alley and turned onto the main street, running straight into the path blocked by Tsunade and Naruto.
Tsunade stood in the middle of the road with her arms crossed, a cold sneer on her lips.
Halfway through his run, Jiraiya saw this terrifying figure blocking his path. He braked hard, his wooden clogs scraping a white mark on the stone pavement. In a fraction of a second, his expression switched from panic to composure, forcing out a smile that looked worse than crying.
But Naruto's attention was no longer on this scene.
At the corner of the street, not far to the front-left of Jiraiya, stood two people.
One was a boy with blonde hair and blue eyes. The arrangement of his features felt incredibly familiar to Naruto.
Standing beside him was a middle-aged man whose black cloak obscured half of his face, revealing only one eye. The other eye socket was empty, and his entire body exuded an indescribable sense of composure and world-weariness.
"No way."
He muttered under his breath, then decisively abandoned his plan to watch Jiraiya get beaten up, turning to walk toward the duo.