Chapter 87: It's Not a Sin for a Man to Cry
Faced with the expectant gazes of everyone in the hospital corridor, Jiraiya took a deep, shuddering breath. He forced himself to recount what had happened, even though the mere thought of it felt like a physical weight pressing down on his chest, suffocating him.
Finally, after stumbling through the last of his fragmented account, all the strength seemed to abandon him. He crumpled to his knees, his head bowed low as silent tears streamed down his face, soaking into the sterile linoleum floor.
Danzo, who had arrived to demand an update, had been picturing a thrilling tale of espionage—a spectacular duel of high-level ninjutsu between Jonin. The reality of the report—that an Uchiha with a fully-matured Sharingan had been grievously wounded saving Jiraiya—left his head buzzing with cold fury.
'How in the world did Hiruzen teach this disciple?'he fumed internally.'He failed to kill a Chunin in a single blow and then fell for the enemy's disguise, leading to a conflict with his own comrade.''Just two commoners,' Danzo thought with disgust.'Even if they were killed by mistake, what does it truly matter?'
"Two Chunin and a five-year-old brat cost me an elite Jonin with a three-tomoe Sharingan, someone capable of completing S-rank missions," Danzo's voice was a low, venomous hiss. He sucked in a sharp breath through his teeth, the pained sound making it seem as if Uchiha Kou were his own prized protégé. "What an absolute joke. Do you have any idea how much money and resources it takes to cultivate a shinobi of that caliber?"
He rounded on Hiruzen, his one visible eye burning with accusation. "I said it from the beginning: assigning her to a Genin squad was a complete waste. She should have been placed directly into the Anbu, assigned to Sakumo's team. With a squad of elites on a mission, how could such an absurd, amateurish mistake have ever occurred? Now look. She's completely unusable."
Each word was a fresh blade twisting in Jiraiya's gut, and he flinched, his grief deepening into a chasm of self-loathing.
"No," Hiruzen interjected, his voice firm. "They weren't ordinary Chunin. The intelligence gathered by the Anbu was flawed." He produced a scroll, the latest report delivered by an Anbu operative upon his arrival at the hospital.
"Sometime ago, the strife in the Hidden Sand Village was more than just internal politics. The Anbu discovered that the Second Kazekage, Shamon, located the previous Daimyo's long-lost daughter and confronted him at the Daimyo's Mansion. The specifics are still unclear, but the outcome is not. Shamon was victorious, and the Sand ninja who had backed the wrong horse were purged."
He paused, letting the weight of the information settle. "This group of 'bandits' came from the Land of Wind. They included two elite shinobi from Sunagakure, one of whom was a Jonin."
Even as he said it, Hiruzen found himself at a loss. The intelligence might have been flawed, but a user of the three-tomoe Sharingan should have been able to handle a single Jonin with ease.
Danzo let out a short, derisive snort, a clear expression of his continued dissatisfaction.
Hiruzen couldn't stand to listen to it any longer. He waved a dismissive hand at his old rival. "Leave, Danzo." Jiraiya had made a grave error, but he wouldn't allow the boy's spirit to be so thoroughly shattered that his will to be a shinobi was broken.
Once Danzo had departed, Hiruzen turned his full attention to his student. "Jiraiya, you need to mature. The moment you graduated from the Academy and put on this headband, you ceased to be a child."
His voice was stern, yet carried an undercurrent of sympathy. "What's done is done. No amount of regret or lamentation can change the past. What you must do now is take responsibility for what has happened."
He knelt, bringing himself closer to Jiraiya's level. "Before you, there was a senior of ours, a classmate named Maruboshi Kosuke. During one mission, he made a misjudgment that led to the deaths of two of his teammates..."
Jiraiya's head snapped up, his tear-filled eyes latching onto his teacher as if he'd been thrown a lifeline. "What happened to him? What did he do?" he asked, his voice raw with desperation.
"He vowed to remain a Genin forever," Hiruzen said calmly, "to dedicate his life to protecting his fellow Genin."
Standing nearby, Orochimaru blinked, utterly bewildered. 'Is Teacher Hiruzen actually trying to comfort him?'he wondered.'Or is he trying to provoke him?'
Then, Hiruzen's tone grew steady and forceful. "I am not telling you this so that you will remain a Genin for the rest of your life. I want you to understand that everyone makes mistakes. What truly matters is that you learn from them. Kou willingly shielded you because she already saw you as a precious comrade. I have no doubt that she is glad it was her who was injured, and not you."
He placed a comforting hand on Jiraiya's trembling shoulder. "So, stop this pointless self-blame. Maruboshi Kosuke learned his lesson and now shields his companions. What about you? Strive to become stronger. Protect Kou. Protect everyone. Ensure that you never make such a fundamental mistake again. That is what you must do now."
Hiruzen's voice softened, filled with the warmth he was famous for. "Carry on this Will of Fire, Jiraiya. Protect your comrades. That is what Kou would want most to see."
The words washed over Jiraiya, and the storm of his emotions began to subside. Protect his comrades?
Yes. Teacher Hiruzen was right. He couldn't keep dwelling on the past; he had to look to the future. He would protect Kou. He would protect Tsunade, and Orochimaru, and all of Konoha.
From this day forward, Kou was his responsibility. He would take care of her for as long as she needed him.
"Teacher Hiruzen," Jiraiya said, his voice thick but resolute as he pushed himself to his feet. "I understand. I'll pull myself together."
Seeing the fire rekindle in his student's eyes, Hiruzen let out a quiet sigh of relief. Witnessing such a brutal incident so early in his career was a harsh blow, but at least it had taught Jiraiya a vital lesson. It was far better to learn it now than during a critical mission later in life. From now on, the boy would be far more cautious and would not repeat such an error.
The medical standards of the ninja world were impressively advanced. Even an injury as severe as a severed limb could be stabilized relatively quickly.
Considering her own monstrous resilience and the fact that it was just an ordinary, clean slash, Stelle decided to wake up late the following night.
The moment she stirred, a strange emptiness registered. She felt nothing from her right shoulder down. Turning her head, she saw the heavily bandaged stump, and the memory returned with a jolt: right, her arm was gone.
Stelle stared at the empty space for a long, stunned moment.
'At the time, I was so focused on recreating Shanks's famous scene that I completely forgot to check which arm it was,'she thought, a wave of deep annoyance washing over her.'If only I'd lost my left arm instead of my right! This is so inconvenient!'Though she had spent decades since the Warring States Period learning all manner of ninjutsu, developing bizarre techniques, and hoarding dozens of unused system rewards in her inventory, she had never, not once, seriously practiced using her left hand for anything important. It felt completely alien.'This is a huge mess. Now I have to get used to being a lefty.'It wasn't that she couldn't adapt; the real point of the exercise was Jiraiya. The "loophole" created by her constant, subtle assistance had now been patched. Her dramatic sacrifice had shocked him into taking his duties seriously.'Presumably, in the future, when he runs into the Six Paths of Pain, he won't be so reckless as to get himself killed,' she mused.
Then again, she had already changed so much of the timeline. Who knew what the future held anymore?
'Worst case scenario,'Stelle thought with a mental shrug,'I can always book him a resurrection package.'
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