Tsunade clearly knew the purpose of her return.
After the meal, she immediately pulled Kushina into the bedroom and conducted a thorough examination.
When the two came out, Jiraiya asked with concern, "How is it, Tsunade? Kushina isn't having any problems, right?"
"Her body is weak. With half a year of rest, she'll recover, so for now there's no problem. But what happens later is hard to say."
"What? I knew the matter of a jinchūriki wouldn't be that simple. Do you have a way to solve it?"
"Sorry, Jiraiya. I can't solve it—and it doesn't need me to solve it. I'm right, aren't I, kid?"
"Don't worry, Tsunade-sama. I'll continue improving it afterward."
Jiraiya looked a little curious. "What does this have to do with Makoto?"
"The sealing formula Kushina is using now to seal the Nine-Tails is no longer the Four Symbols Seal, but another kind of seal I haven't fully understood yet," Tsunade explained. Then she looked at Makoto.
"You're quite capable, kid. You actually developed that… that seal—what was it called again?"
Higashino Makoto: "Two Forms Seal."
"Right, Two Forms Seal. By reconstructing the balance between a human's spirit and body, it changes the fate of a jinchūriki dying after having their tailed beast extracted. That's impressive.
"But kid, do you know what this sealing technique means for the shinobi world? It's not only effective for jinchūriki. For some people who are severely injured and on the verge of death, it's also effective."
"I know."
Tsunade was right. Many times, when a shinobi suffered severe injuries, it wasn't that there were no methods to save them—it was that there wasn't enough time. The person died before their body could be properly treated.
But the Two Forms Seal could temporarily lock a wounded person's life in place, delaying death slightly and extending the golden window for treatment.
Sometimes, even one extra minute was the difference between life and death.
"Good that you know. If other ninja villages learn about this, you'll be in trouble. So protect yourself well—don't die so easily, kid."
"Don't worry, Tsunade-sama. Killing me won't be easy."
Tsunade paused.
Right. According to what Jiraiya had said, Makoto himself could fly, and now he had also learned Granduncle's Flying Thunder God Technique. As long as he wasn't foolish, killing him would indeed be very difficult—unlike certain fools.
Two figures she longed for day and night flashed through her mind.
Unfortunately, they were no longer here.
After pushing down the sudden surge of sorrow, Tsunade said, "Come on, Minato. I'll check you as well."
The seemingly weak Minato looked a little embarrassed.
"I'm fine. There's no need to check."
The methods he had used on himself could mislead the medical corps, but they certainly couldn't deceive Tsunade's eyes as the greatest medical ninja. One examination would expose everything.
In fact, refusing the examination was itself an answer.
Tsunade quickly understood the situation.
"Oh? It seems that after becoming Hokage, things are different. You've grown more scheming than before."
Jiraiya was no longer the fool he had been in his youth.
"What do you mean? Minato is fine?"
Tsunade: "Probably."
"If he's fine, why retire?"
Tsunade glanced at her idiotic former teammate.
"Why? Then you should ask our respected sensei. And besides, you should know perfectly well what kind of people those three old things under Danzō are, shouldn't you, Jiraiya?"
Jiraiya very much wanted to question his teacher, but he knew it would be useless and would only make things harder for Minato, so he could only sigh.
"I just hope Sensei realizes that sooner rather than later. Honestly, wouldn't it be better to retire properly and go home to enjoy his old age?"
Tsunade said disdainfully, "Hmph, I really don't know what's so great about that lousy Hokage position. When he had the chance, he wouldn't step down. Isn't that old geezer afraid he'll die in it?"
A certain Fourth Hokage: "..."
Jiraiya did not want to keep talking about this, so he changed the subject.
"Minato, what exactly happened that night?"
After Minato briefly explained what had happened, he deliberately emphasized, "I do not believe that mysterious man is one of the village's Uchiha.
"Jiraiya-sensei, when you travel through the shinobi world in the future, just keep an eye out for information about him. If you do see him, it would be best not to engage him in direct combat. His space-time ninjutsu is very troublesome."
"I understand. Sigh, the Uchiha..." Jiraiya thought of the Uchiha clan in the village. "Fugaku is going to have quite the headache as clan head now."
As a member of the Senju Clan, Tsunade did not have a good impression of the Uchiha, but neither did she bear them any particular ill will, so she could not be bothered to think about this mess.
At the same time, they also trusted Minato's judgment. That mysterious man was definitely not Uchiha Madara.
Minato did not mention that the mysterious man also knew Wood Release, and he was even less likely to reveal Obito's identity or the matter of the true and false Nine-Tails jinchūriki.
Since Jiraiya and Tsunade had already distanced themselves from the whirlpool that was Konoha, there was no need to drag them back into it. That would only make things even more troublesome.
Now that the public matters had been discussed, Tsunade stretched lazily.
"Well then, official business is done. Next, it's time to settle a personal grudge."
Jiraiya said, "Tsunade, since when did you make enemies with someone in the village?"
Tsunade pointed at Makoto, who had been pretending not to exist off to the side.
"Kid, come out. Let's have a chat. At such a young age, and you already dare to peep at me. You've got a lot of nerve."
"I didn't. I really was looking at the ball."
"You think I'd believe that nonsense?"
"Jiraiya-sama did it too."
"I've already beaten him up often enough. Now I want to try something new."
"..."
As expected of a woman pushing forty—she could actually say something that sounded so brazenly predatory.
...
At the training ground, Makoto stood on full alert, while Jiraiya remained perfectly at ease.
That violent woman's temper might not be very good, but she still knew her limits. Nothing serious would happen.
"Kid, I heard your medical ninjutsu is pretty good too?"
"It's all right, Tsunade-sama. Mainly because my mother taught me well."
"Who is your mother?"
"Higashino Megumi. Before she got married, she was simply called Megumi."
The period when Megumi had studied medical ninjutsu was precisely when Tsunade had been vigorously training medical-nin in Konoha. Most medical-nin of their generation had received Tsunade's instruction.
Tsunade carefully looked at Makoto's face, then thought for a moment.
"Oh, it's that little girl's child. I didn't expect her son to be this big already. It seems she raised you well. Now I'm relieved."
As soon as she finished speaking, she pressed down with her foot, stamping a pit into the ground, and rushed toward Makoto like a gust of wind.
Her fist swung out immediately.
Makoto only wanted this onee-sama to finish hitting him quickly and call it a day. He did not fight back, merely condensed a chakra shield to block the blows and obediently served as a human punching bag.
Bang~ bang~ bang~ bang~
A series of pounding sounds immediately echoed across the training ground.
After one round of punches, Tsunade stopped.
"Kid, put away that lousy turtle shell of yours. Can't you just let me give you a proper beating?"
Makoto felt the force he had just endured and formed a guess in his mind. He immediately agreed.
"Alright, Tsunade-sama. Please continue."
"That's more like it. If I beat you to my satisfaction, I won't hold it against you for peeping at me. Otherwise, I'll tell your mother about it.
"You're this good-looking, so there must be quite a few little girls secretly admiring you. You wouldn't want them to find out you're a pervert, would you?"
"Sorry, Tsunade-sama. Do you think someone who looks like me still needs to act like a pervert?"
Jiraiya: So you're saying I'm ugly.
"What an interesting kid," Tsunade said with a slight smile as she charged over again, throwing the same punch as before.
Makoto crossed his arms in front of his body to block. The blow sent him sliding back a considerable distance, his feet carving two straight grooves into the ground.
Tsunade had indeed held back. If she had really gone all out, Makoto would have already been blasted out of the training ground.
"Tsunade-sama, didn't you eat enough just now? You don't even have the strength to hit someone."
Because of that loose tongue, he immediately suffered a storm-like barrage of attacks.
While blocking, Makoto fully concentrated on sensing and learning Tsunade's chakra usage. The woman's monstrous strength punches were not purely physical power, but a sophisticated method of compressing and explosively releasing chakra. The control involved was extremely refined.
Soon, the punching bag that had been getting beaten began to fight back.
While imitating and correcting his movements, Makoto gradually went from passively taking blows to occasionally slipping in a punch of his own.
A moment later, when Tsunade threw another straight punch, Makoto answered with a straight punch of his own. Terrifying force and chakra exploded between them.
Boom!
With a loud crash, the ground was blasted into a bowl-shaped crater several meters in diameter, with countless cracks spreading outward like a dense spiderweb.
Afterward, the two of them jumped out of the pit and returned to stand beside Jiraiya.
"You learn fast, kid. Now I believe that Two Forms Seal really was developed by you."
"Thank you for your guidance, Tsunade-sama."
"Heh, I didn't teach you anything. You're just smart."
Jiraiya felt like an idiot. "Was it really that easy?"
Makoto said, "Not really. My force application is still too crude. I'll still need to spend some time getting familiar with this explosive technique before it can be considered mastered."
"Forget it. You'd better teach me that chakra shield instead. At least it would make it hurt less when I get beaten up."
"Well, for that, you first need to shape your chakra into a fixed form—a shield or a sphere. Then you solidify the shape using stabilization runes from sealing techniques. After that, depending on the type of attack you're facing, you fill it with chakra that has different nature transformations…"
"…" Jiraiya scratched his white hair, feeling that it sounded a bit difficult. He continued, "Forget it. I heard you helped Minato perfect the follow-up to the Rasengan. Let me see it."
Makoto raised his hand and condensed a Wind Release: Rasenshuriken.
"This is the ninjutsu created after adding the sharpness nature transformation of Wind Release to the Rasengan. As for the method, Minato-senpai should have already told you about it."
"He did mention it, but it looks like it'll still be hard for me to do. I'd have to strengthen the Wind Release nature transformation further. And this jutsu looks pretty dangerous."
Tsunade stepped slightly farther away.
"Idiot. Condensing such high-density sharpness-type chakra in your hand is extremely harmful to the human body. Disperse it quickly."
Makoto was already in a constant Sage Mode, so he did not feel any harm, but he still obediently dispersed it.
Jiraiya looked pained.
"Why is everything so difficult? I can't learn any of this quickly!"
Tsunade mocked him. "Idiot. If you want to learn it, first reach the same level of extreme chakra control as this kid."
Was Jiraiya really an idiot? Was his ninjutsu talent insufficient? Not really. He was simply the type who needed time to ponder and gradually find a learning method that suited him.
The path taken by Makoto and Minato did not suit him.
"Well, anyway, I already know the method. I'll figure it out sooner or later. Sorry about that, Makoto. Everything I know, Minato already knows, so there's nothing I can really teach you." After thinking for a moment, Jiraiya added quietly, "But I'm planning to write a novel that's suitable for men to read. Once it's published, I'll send you a signed copy."
"Then I'll thank you in advance, Jiraiya-sama."
Although Makoto had no interest in that kind of erotic novel, it could always be used to lure Kakashi in the future.
"Well then, if there's nothing else, I'll be leaving first. Remember—don't die so easily, kid."
After saying that, Tsunade turned and left, looking very carefree.
"Let's go together. Well then, Makoto, goodbye." Jiraiya chased after her like an eager follower while complaining, "Honestly, I originally planned to go see Sensei, but it looks like there won't be time now."
Makoto watched the direction the two of them left.
Most likely, they would not go see Sarutobi Hiruzen.
There were some matters they did not want to involve themselves in, so they could only send this kind of signal to their teacher—showing that their position was on Minato's side.
---
I will post some extra Chapters in Patreon, you can check it out. >> patreon.com/TitoVillar
---