Tsunade's first instinct when she got back to the inn was to crash face-first onto the futon, sleep it off, then hit Konoha's casino for a serious binge.
But the moment she flopped onto the tatami, she forced herself upright again.
She patted her cheeks lightly.
"I've been lazy too long—get lazy once and you just keep wanting to slack off. I threw all that tough talk at the old man, and now that I'm back I don't feel like doing anything." She grumbled, then made herself stand and looked over at Shizune.
"Shizune, come with me to the Yamanaka, Akimichi, and Nara clans—and then to the Ninja Academy."
Shizune blinked. "Tsunade-sama, why those four places?"
"With those three, I'm going to set up a Konoha medical unit—one that doesn't take orders from the old man's crowd. If we recruit from anywhere else, we'll just end up with shinobi who follow his commands."
"The first three I named have already leaned toward Uchiha Chizumi. And the students at the Academy haven't fully formed their worldviews yet. Before they turn into the old man's loyal hounds, I'm going to pick out the ones with talent for medical ninjutsu."
Shizune gaped. "Isn't that blatantly poaching from the Hokage? Especially at the Academy—there's no way he'll let you run wild there, right?"
"Whether I 'run wild' is none of his business," Tsunade said flatly. "Besides, Konoha wasn't founded by the Sarutobi clan. And the Academy wasn't founded by Sarutobi Hiruzen."
"What are you standing around for? Move!"
Shizune shivered and pulled a face. "Yes, Tsunade-sama!"
…
Ninja Academy.
Sasuke had been out of it all day. Iruka's lecture, Naruto's chatter—everything went in one ear and out the other, as if his brain had given up on thinking.
He'd thought he could get over his father's death quickly.
He'd overestimated himself.
"Whew…"
He let out a long breath and muttered so only he could hear, "If Father did wrong, he has to bear the consequences. Same as Uchiha Itachi. I don't need to obsess over their deaths. A simple remembrance is enough—no need to cling to it…"
Maybe he convinced himself a little; some life finally returned to his blank expression.
"Looks like you're back."
The sudden voice made Sasuke turn. Yamanaka Ino had somehow taken the seat beside Naruto.
"Were you… talking to me?" he asked, unsure. "Have you been watching me in secret?"
"Mhm." Ino nodded. "To be precise, I've been watching you openly. To keep you from getting any extreme ideas and doing something stupid. You Uchiha… sometimes have a hard time controlling your emotions."
"If this makes you misunderstand what justice is, Naruto and I will restrain you immediately—before you slip into the abyss of crime. Once you fall that far, no one will be able to save you."
Sasuke had nothing to say—because she wasn't wrong.
Then he heard Naruto gripe, a little miffed: "Hey, hey—how come the second Ino talks, you snap out of it? I've been talking forever and you didn't hear a thing."
Sasuke snorted and shot back on reflex, "Because your pep talk had zero substance."
"What?!"
Naruto glared, teeth clenched.
Sasuke glared right back.
Watching them, Ino rubbed her smooth, fair chin.
"Yeah, he's definitely back," she murmured.
…
"Uchiha Sasuke probably isn't the Child of Prophecy we're looking for. The one beside him—Uzumaki Naruto—looks more likely. And Naruto seems to be Minato's kid, right?"
Fukasaku said from Jiraiya's shoulder. "Back then you trained Minato as the Child of Prophecy. Maybe his kid inherited some of that potential."
"Jiraiya, we shouldn't be wrong this time. The Child of Prophecy that Uchiha Chizumi mentioned being around him is Uzumaki Naruto!"
Shima said from the other shoulder. "Fukasaku and I are at least ninety percent sure Naruto is the savior the Great Toad Sage spoke of—someday he'll save the entire shinobi world."
Perched in the treetop overlooking a classroom a hundred meters away, Jiraiya peered through the window and could make out Naruto inside.
"Uzumaki Naruto… the Child of Prophecy…"
He finally felt a spark of excitement. "Looks like coming back to the village was the right call. Didn't expect that in under a month we'd lock down the real Child of Prophecy."
He paused, excitement shading into something more complicated. "Of course, this also counts as using Chizumi. Through his connections, we narrowed in on the Child."
"And Chizumi doesn't seem to mind being used. Or rather, he doesn't care if we figure out who the Child is. He has zero interest in the Child of Prophecy…"
As he said it, Jiraiya felt a faint, inexplicable deflation. Maybe because the 'savior' he valued so highly seemed, in that man's eyes, to be just an unusual kid—even though Chizumi clearly knew who Naruto really was.
It wasn't that Uchiha Chizumi couldn't grasp how important the Child was—more that he simply didn't put the Child on the same pedestal Jiraiya did.
Jiraiya couldn't shake the feeling that his own sense of scale was being crushed by the other's.
"Tsunade? What are you doing here?!" A familiar voice almost startled Jiraiya out of the tree.
He looked down to see Tsunade and her student Shizune had arrived at the Academy without him noticing.
Before he could scratch his head and make excuses, Shima spoke up from his shoulder: "Jiraiya is, of course, looking for the future savior of the shinobi world."
On the ground, Tsunade narrowed her eyes. "Savior? You mean that Child of Prophecy your big toad talks about? So you two toads have already helped Jiraiya find the person?"
Jiraiya winced inwardly—this wasn't good. Shima and Tsunade had traded barbs before.
"This has nothing to do with Shikkotsu Forest," Shima said.
"Tch. With that attitude, sounds like you really did find him," Tsunade replied.
Then her expression shifted. She fixed Jiraiya with a steady look and said slowly, "Don't use 'searching for' or 'training' the Child of Prophecy as an excuse to cross the bottom line of justice. You toads of Mount Myōboku—and you, Jiraiya—don't put yourselves on the opposite side of justice."
"Otherwise… I won't spare you out of old friendship."