Once back in the village, we informed him about what had happened at the border. This also revealed my Wood Release, which both excited and worried Old Monkey.
In fact, he was more concerned that I possessed Wood Release and that Kusa and Iwa were about to form an alliance, which makes sense and yet doesn't.
The Hokage asked me to stay to see how my own Wood Release abilities were. I waited at least an hour for everything to be ready.
Finally, I arrived at the Hokage's private training grounds, where several jonin-level ninja were gathered, including the Hokage's advisors; in other words, Danzo and his sycophantic cronies, because that's what they are.
In the end, I performed several Wood Release jutsu, and nothing more. I overheard the successors starting to talk about me, but that was thanks to my status as clan leader.
Even if I'd had him right in front of me, I would have left them in their place and told them to go to hell; they got lucky this time.
Once all that was over, I was exhausted but also sweaty from the waiting, the trip, the mokuto demonstration, everything, so I went to the hot springs.
Once I arrived, I disconnected from everything, or at least I tried to, since, being a shinobi, I couldn't let my guard down completely.
I was already in the water; I only had a towel covering my body. I saw some women, recognizing some of them as shinobi as well.
I was going to take off the towel to get into the water, but something inside me told me not to. I activated my sensory ability and sensed it.
I quickly made some hand seals and touched the ground.
At that same moment, I heard the sound of someone shouting next to the hot springs.
The women who were in the hot springs came out to see who was making that noise; I didn't follow them; I just took off my towel, showered, and submerged myself in the hot springs.
After about 40 minutes, I got out of the hot springs. I followed the trail of destruction and blood, only to see Jiraiya tied up, all charred and broken.
"Hehehe," I started laughing in his face.
...
"I deserve it," said the toad, now quite recovered. "If I'd known you were going to the hot springs, I wouldn't have gone spying today; maybe I'm a total pervert, but I'm not depraved enough to fantasize about my own student."
Hearing that from Jiraiya, I felt the maturity of a veteran and respected shinobi, something that filled me with pride.
"Especially since my student doesn't even have a curve or isn't developed," and with that, all the respect I had vanished.
I just sighed at this, since I knew that hitting him or using a jutsu wouldn't change that perverted toad's mind.
"Well, at least you're here; we were all at a standstill in our ninja abilities." I took the opportunity to report on our current situation.
"It's true, I couldn't do many things like your sensei because of the war, but since things are calmer now, we can do more normal missions, which gives us the opportunity to train even on them," he said, standing up.
"Maybe you're a pervert, but you're not irresponsible," I said, trying to guide him to take responsibility as our teacher.
"Now that I think about it, I knew you had the Wood Release, and it's quite strong, since it was hard to get me out of those branches you had wrapped around me," Jiraiya said. "First of all, I need to see how you all are and see what you need to improve and where you should focus your abilities."
And with that, he left without saying goodbye, leaving me alone.
...
The next day, I went to the training grounds as usual. When I arrived, Minato and Kosuke were already waiting, and just as I was about to speak, a puff of smoke billowed out in front of us.
Once the smoke cleared, we saw Jiraiya standing on a toad, striking ridiculous poses.
"The one you've all been waiting for has arrived! Don't wait any longer; the super-perverted sage of Mount Myōboku is here!" Jiraiya announced.
The three of us stared in silence at Jiraiya's ridiculous introduction.
"I see my introduction left you speechless, but that's normal, given how amazing I am, a sage," he continued, talking about himself. I completely lost interest; I just sat back and continued practicing my fire element control with a leaf.
"Now that the three of us are together, let's have a quick training session so you can see how your skills are," the sage toad said.
"Oh, so we can go all out with the intention of killing?" I asked him, very interested.
"Come on, don't exaggerate," he replied, trying to calm me down with hand gestures.
"Then I'm not interested," he said, returning to my training.
The three of them looked at each other as a drop of sweat fell on their heads.
...
Once all the training was over, I returned to the residence. Kushina was meeting with Mikoto today, so instead of going to the house, I went to my office.
When I entered, I saw a woman in her thirties; she had dark circles under her eyes and I could already see a hunchback forming.
"Oh, Hitori, I see you were still working just now; it's great to have such hardworking subordinates." I greeted her with all the enthusiasm in the world.
"It's your fault; you force me to be in this office 24/7 while you do your ninja things; you should be doing all this work yourself," she began to complain.
"Not a greeting; since my subordinates fall under my thumb, I think I should give you more work as punishment," I told her.
"You practically make me work all day already; what more do you want?" she retorted.
"Yes, if you want, we can switch, and you can dedicate yourself to ultra-dangerous missions with a high chance of dying. Would you be able to leave Ryo alone? What kind of mother would you be, leaving your 5-year-old son an orphan?" With those words, I silenced her.
I quickly grabbed some books about the human body and others about DNA and sat down to read.
Hitori took some papers and placed them on a table in front of me.
"These documents need the clan leader's approval; a mere member can't approve them," she warned me.
I put down the books and started reviewing the documents.
Among all that nonsense, one caught my attention.
Permission to experiment on the Senju clan again.
"Again?" I asked Hitori, looking at her.
"I remember that during the early days of the Third Hokage's reign, after the loss of Wood Release, experiments were conducted on some members of the clan to try and revive the technique, which was a failure; that's when the clan's decline began," I was informed.
And it was true, the clan was in decline; at this point, it was practically useless as a ninja clan, since the only ones who could do anything to represent it were Tsunade and me.
That's when I made a decision: to transform the Senju clan into a merchant clan. Instead of expanding our raw power, which no longer existed, I decided to focus on what we still had: resources.
Taking advantage of the fact that the members had joined the civilian population, I somehow managed to bring them back with the premise of starting a company, the largest in the ninja world, one capable of dominating the world's capital.
This would be my main support for causing chaos in the outside world.
In the village, I would control its underworld, the lawless zone, and by default, most of the village itself, since people are inherently evil and more likely to have a run-in with them. Outside, in the world, I would have a powerful business conglomerate capable of backing my actions and stopping any potential attack from me.
"I see they're asking for the First Hokage's cells," I remarked.
"I know, it's blasphemous," he said.
"Tell whoever sent this that I'll think about it," he ordered.
"You're not planning on accepting that, are you?" he asked doubtfully.
"Even if we refuse, they'll steal the cells anyway; it's better to have control over how they use them," I explained.
At that moment, someone knocked on the door.
"Come in," I said, only to see Uncle Toad enter the office carrying several dangos.
"I've come to speak with my favorite niece, whom I haven't seen in years," she said cheerfully.
I just sighed.
"Hitori, you can go see your son; I'll have everything ready for you when you get back," I instructed her.
"Thank you very much," she said, bowing slightly before leaving almost at the speed of light.
"What a stunner, if only she weren't so disheveled," Kiraiya commented, watching Hitori leave.
"She's married and has children," I added.
"What a shame," she complained. "But I didn't come to see the women of your clan."
"Is that so?" I asked her doubtfully.
"Well, not really," she admitted. "But I'm amazed at everything you've accomplished in such a short time: becoming a Chunin, leading one of the most prestigious clans in the ninja world, obtaining Wood Release, and reviving a practically extinct clan. But honestly, I didn't expect you to focus everything on the market."
"I can't limit my leadership to just kunai and elemental jutsu; I also have to consider that my clan isn't what it used to be. I had to reinvent it. Thanks to that, I currently own 62% of the village's businesses, not to mention that I control 70% of the wheat production and 30% of the sugar production in the ninja world, and we're already working to increase those numbers."
Jiraiya hissed at that.
"You're not only a great shinobi but also a great businesswoman. Tell me something you're not good at," the wise toad joked.
"Gambling, that's something you have in your blood," I replied honestly.
"Hahaha, right, Tsunade was never good at gambling," he said, only to suddenly turn serious. "Speaking of her, do you know where she is?"
"No idea, maybe on the Suna front lines," he said tentatively.
"She left there years ago," he said, shaking his head. "Ever since Sakumo killed her son and sister-in-law, Chiyo went crazy for a while, but after a few weeks she calmed down and returned to the village. She hasn't been back to the front lines, so Tsunade wasn't needed; therefore, she left and never returned to the village."
"Deserted?" I asked, just to see if the wise toad knew something I didn't. Because if Tsunade had deserted, he would have known, being the clan leader.
"Luckily not," he said, shaking his head. "Before coming here, I went to see her; she's currently in the capital doing some jobs for the daimyo and gambling in the local casinos."
"I see," I said listlessly, going back to my book, since, frankly, I didn't care what happened to Tsunade; our relationship is over. And anything she can do, I can do too, and better.
Basically, she's no longer needed; she can stay here crying and gambling, as long as it doesn't interfere with my plans.
Jiraiya just sighed.
"I know you and Tsunade aren't on the best of terms, but knowing her, she'll most likely come back and probably ask you for money," he told me.
"She'll only get what's due, nothing more," he said, asserting my authority as clan leader.
The room fell silent; it wasn't awkward, but it was strange, since the last thing we'd discussed was something I didn't want to talk about.
"You study the human body," he said, glancing at the books I was reading.
"Yes, I'm interested in doing some experiments in the future," I replied.
"I see. Now that I think about it, I thought you'd stop doing missions when you became clan leader," the wise toad said.
"Stop doing fun things and lock myself in an office? No, thank you. I have Hitori for that," I said.
"I see. Well, I'll leave you then. I have other things to do," Jiraiya said. "See you," and with that, he climbed out the window.
"Should I create a seal so that anyone who enters or exits my office window receives an electric shock?" I asked myself, turning my attention back to the papers Hitori had left me.
With a hand seal, I created several shadow clones. Each one already knew what to do. I could have used wood clones, but those only have one mind connected, and I needed to be focused on what I was doing, so I opted for multiple shadow clones.
"Great-Uncle Tobirama, you really outdid yourself with this jutsu," I said, returning to my reading as my clones looked at the paper.