A New Way of Writing

I must point out that I greatly underestimated whatever it is that Jiraiya does to track down someone, in this case, his unrequited love, Tsunade.

The stalker association would appoint him as the CEO!

After returning to the Sky Island with Ameyuri and a happy Karin, having successfully extracted quite a few secrets from Asuma's head (there were some glitches, but it's normal for the first time doing this), we spent a few days calmly sorting through the information and thinking about how to make the most of it.

Should we spread it, sell it, trade it, or keep it to ourselves?

Tsunade saw more darkness in the Sarutobi clan and didn't want to wait for Sunagakure to have everything ready, so she said her goodbyes and, after taking some money from the treasury room (a reasonable amount, to my surprise), she left with a Kinton cloud to go on a sightseeing route to relax and reach the Sand Village at her own pace.

She has total freedom of movement, and there was no problem, although it felt strange that she didn't take Shizune with her this time, which makes me think she wants to have some time alone. Just before leaving, she approached me, and I understood why.

"Shizune has been stuck studying the neural system for a month. Could you lend her a hand and help her understand?" she asked me as a favor.

She pointed out that she wasn't talking about the knowledge of the neural system they have in this world but the one I left in the library, which is much more advanced and modern.

Karin has been busy preparing to empty Asuma's mind, and Tsunade was still in transition while Nemu was busy with something I asked her, so she didn't consider herself focused enough to effectively help Shizune.

"Leave it to me," I said, extending my fist, and she responded by bumping hers against mine while giving me a sunny smile.

"Thanks," she sincerely thanked me.

"Don't mention it; we're practically family," I reminded her as I lowered my arm.

"Mmm!" Tsunade's smile grew, and for a moment, I superimposed it with the pure smile of Haku.

At least the one he had when I found him, before he became corrupted...

I bid her farewell along with Haku and Nemu while she hummed a melody I didn't recognize.

Now, why did I mention Jiraiya?

It turns out that after the appearance of the forested area in Sunagakure (very well received and setting in stone Temari's rise to Kazekage), Jiraiya somehow managed to connect that point with Tsunade (perhaps stalker instinct?) and rushed there with Naruto on his shoulder.

Literally, Namikaze's child was being carried on his shoulders like a sack of potatoes, and he was releasing rainbow-colored liquid along the way as the jolts emptied his stomach.

How do I know that? Tsunade was very observant when she told me everything later, let's leave it at that.

Anyway, when Jiraiya met Tsunade in a city near the border of the Land of Wind on her return and tried to do his number to pass on the role of Fifth Hokage to her, things didn't go as expected from his plan.

For starters, Tsunade maintained her disdain for the position of Hokage (much more than in the original timeline after learning what Sarutobi did) and Naruto, being the smart kid he is, disrespected a Kage power to her face.

I think it was something about never acknowledging her if she became Hokage or something like that.

Seriously, that kid survived in this world solely because of the plot armor.

Now, here ends any control that Jiraiya had the illusion of having due to several factors he was unaware of and some he did but didn't fully understand.

Tsunade had already overcome her hemophobia, passed her grandfather's necklace to Shizune, and already knew Naruto from the Chunin Exam. She wasn't impressed, although she agreed that he shouldn't have been treated that way.

She also had some psychological help from me (much more discreet than she might be aware of herself), resulting in her no longer needing to project her memories of Nawaki onto Naruto.

I even suspect that Asura's chakra in Naruto caused a reaction with Tsunade's necklace, containing the chakra of her previous incarnation as Hashirama, subtly manipulating Tsunade to be more tolerant of Naruto.

Because if you think about it, the bet she made in the original timeline is not consistent with Tsunade's character and smells fishy.

Add to that the fact that Tsunade also frowned when Naruto introduced himself as Naruto Uzumaki, ignoring the Daimyo's order in public, and Jiraiya didn't say anything while drinking as if he were deaf.

Clearly, he tacitly approved that Naruto ignored the Daimyo's order and called himself Uzumaki. He didn't care at all about the opinion of the Uzumaki clan in Seimeigakure, and that also angered Tsunade because she got along well with Mariko, and Karin was her colleague since she started studying advanced medicine under my tutelage.

The fact that Tsunade already had a place she could call home, with a real "family" waiting for her and supporting her without any subterfuge plans.

And look at what Jiraiya was doing.

So, it ended with Naruto unconscious, slammed into a tavern wall with a finger strike on his forehead by Tsunade, while she snorted annoyed and declared that she had no intention of ever taking the Hokage position.

Jiraiya then began trying to play the morality, loyalty, past friendship, will of fire, and I don't know how many more cards (why Tsunade said and I quote: Bla bla bla).

He even had the balls to threaten her with hunting her personally if she really became a deserter!

"Well, if you put as much effort as you chased Orochimaru, I'm completely safe," Tsunade told him to his face.

Heavens, how I laughed when I heard that part.

Really, I couldn't stop laughing for at least twenty minutes while holding my stomach and wiping away tears.

Naturally, poking at that matter made Jiraiya start acting like a fool who regrets what he's about to do but has to do it. Basically, he tries to project that he's on the right side.

Or rather, not. Not since Tsunade used her Devil Fruit power by surprise and bound him with vines with enough strength and time to drug him so he couldn't use chakra for many hours.

Then she temporarily paralyzed his vocal cords and some muscles to leave him in a fixed position before throwing him into a bar full of shirtless, shiny-backed, oiled-up men with shorts that made it clear what kind of bar it was.

Tsunade herself hesitated for a second if she had gone too far when she saw how the eyes of ALL the men in that place, there should have been at least sixty to seventy given its size, lit up, and one of them ran to put the closed sign on the door, looking furtively both ways on the street before lowering the blinds in a hurry.

But that same doubt disappeared as quickly as it came when she thought that when she left there, maybe she had given Jiraiya ideas for writing a new kind of novels...

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PS: All the men in that bar look A LOT like Prisoner Puri-Puri from One Punch-Man.

A minute of silence for Jiraiya...