Tsunade

"The top priority right now is to return to Konoha. Fu should be safe here for the time being, which also gives us a chance to wait for the Akatsuki to reveal themselves and begin their tailed beast capture operations officially," Furen thought. Among the Akatsuki, Kakuzu, a ninja from the Land of Waterfalls, would likely be tasked with capturing the Seven-Tails first since it resides in a smaller country. Although Itachi and Kisame had already scouted Konoha for the Nine-Tails' jinchuriki, Naruto, the formal missions to capture the tailed beasts had yet to start. Typically, they would start with the Five-Tails from the Earth Country's Iwagakure, followed by Fu, the Seven-Tails jinchuriki in the Land of Waterfalls.

Furen wasn't too concerned about Fu's safety. Besides spending time training with her, he had also taught Fu techniques to control and harness her tailed beast chakra. Now that Fu had fully mastered both the Tailed Beast Bomb and the partial transformation, she should be able to escape from most Akatsuki members except for someone like Pain. Plus, Furen had a special connection with Fu, as the two had entered into a summoning contract with the Seven-Tails.

The Seven-Tails, Chomei, had become Furen's contracted summoning beast. However, unlike ordinary summons, the Seven-Tails couldn't be summoned by Furen at will; instead, he could communicate with it and draw chakra from it, similar to how a jinchuriki would. Since the founding of the ninja world, no one had ever succeeded in signing a summoning contract with a tailed beast, making Furen the first. He speculated that his ability to form a pact with Chomei stemmed from a special ability he'd drawn from Chomei's chakra pool.

Through the Seven-Tails, Furen could instantly be alerted if Fu faced any danger.

Without rest, Furen hurried back to Konoha Village in the Land of Fire. After delivering the mission report from the Land of Waterfalls, he arrived just in time for Tsunade's inauguration ceremony as the Fifth Hokage.

Under the Hokage building, all of Konoha's shinobi gathered, including the Anbu members who were rarely seen. On the wall behind the Hokage building, Tsunade's face had already been carved onto the Hokage Rock.

"It seems the Konoha higher-ups really didn't want Danzo as Hokage," Furen thought to himself, observing the rapid pace of Tsunade's appointment and even the speed at which her face was carved into the mountain.

After a long wait, the highly anticipated Fifth Hokage finally emerged. Standing atop the Hokage building, Tsunade slowly removed the Hokage hat from her head, her signature white cloak billowing in the wind.

"Fifth Hokage-sama!" All the Konoha shinobi cheered.

Muttering to himself, Furen said, "Hmm, the next step is to find a way to get hold of the First Hokage's Great Scroll from Tsunade."

After the death of the First Hokage, his enormous scroll was never seen again. Furen had heard from the reanimated First Hokage himself that it might have passed down to his granddaughter, Tsunade. However, obtaining it would be no easy task, as it wasn't only an heirloom but also a powerful storage tool with a vast capacity, according to the First Hokage's description.

"If I want to get the scroll, I'll need at least a 75% favorability rating from Tsunade," Furen thought, clicking his tongue in thought. Despite curing Tsunade's hemophobia during their battle, her favorability rating was only at 2%.

"The best way to gain her favor is probably through Konoha missions." Furen wasn't deterred by the difficulty of winning Tsunade over. Since she had decided to become Hokage, she was undoubtedly prepared to shoulder the responsibilities of that position. Now that she had healed from her trauma over Dan and Nawaki, her top priority was to serve as Hokage.

Since the death of the Third Hokage, Konoha had received a mountain of mission requests. During Furen's absence, the pile had only grown.

Once Tsunade's Hokage inauguration ceremony ended, Furen made his way to her office. Now that Konoha had a Hokage again, all mission requests required Tsunade's approval.

"I bet there are quite a few interesting missions at this time," Furen mused, knocking on the Hokage's office door.

"Come in," Tsunade's voice responded.

"Lady Hokage, I'm here to take on a mission," Furen said, entering the office. Shizune stood to the side, holding her pig, Tonton, assisting Tsunade with paperwork.

"Furen, is it? Back so soon after completing your mission in the Land of Waterfalls?" Tsunade held the B-rank mission report from the Land of Waterfalls in her hand.

"I've rested plenty on the way back. Since Konoha's mission load is overwhelming, completing them early will help ease your workload, Tsunade-sama," Furen replied.

Hearing this, Tsunade smiled, intrigued by his initiative. The first thing she had done upon returning to Konoha was review Furen's file, learning all about his background.

Given Konoha's current shortage of high-level shinobi, Furen was undoubtedly an excellent candidate to groom.

"In that case, let me assign you a relatively light mission." Tsunade picked a scroll from the pile. "This time, you'll be working with Tenten, who took the Chunin Exams alongside you..."

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T/N:

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