After a brief chat, Naori led Tsunade and the others away.
When they arrived downstairs, the medical ninjas had already started spontaneously treating the ninjas. However, the long line behind them stretched on, with no end in sight. They would likely be treating people well into the middle of the night, and they still needed to find accommodation for these medical ninjas.
Seeing this, Tsunade immediately bit her finger and swiftly formed hand signs. "Summoning Jutsu!"
A huge, white slug appeared in the city, accompanied by a cloud of thick smoke! Following this, a green light radiated from its body, and the wounds of all the ninjas it touched began to heal.
"My wound... it healed! It doesn't hurt anymore!"
"Seriously! My bruises are completely gone, too! What kind of medical ninjutsu is this? It can heal so many people at once!"
The ninjas from Konoha knew that Tsunade could summon the slug Katsuyu, but the ninjas from the other villages were unaware. They were currently awestruck by the restoration of their wounds and the sight of the giant white behemoth before them.
"Tsunade-sama, has another crisis appeared?" Katsuyu asked, confused. Everyone around was injured, so why were they so happy?
"No, Katsuyu. The ninjas here just suffered some injuries, but there are too many people. I need you to restore them, or the medical ninjas will have to work overtime," Tsunade explained.
The large slug nodded its head. "I see. Well, since everyone has been healed, I'll be returning now."
Tsunade gave an OK gesture, and then another burst of thick smoke erupted, and the enormous slug vanished.
When Torifu saw Katsuyu, he was momentarily stunned. After all, this was the Slug Sage from the Great Shikkotsu Forest, one of the three Great Sages. Although Tsunade could only summon a small fragment of it, it was indeed the Slug Sage. Torifu had always been curious about the Shikkotsu Forest, wondering how to enter it. He also wanted to observe the Slug Sage in person, but no matter how many times Torifu asked, Tsunade wouldn't reveal a single word. So, he had to give up, assuming the Slug Sage must have made Tsunade swear an oath not to expose Shikkotsu Forest. Torifu could understand that.
His curiosity about the Slug Sage was purely academic; he also wanted to ask how an animal could become a true Sage. Torifu planned to have Aokumo and Ryūfū try to develop in that direction, thinking that perhaps the Kumotsuru Clan's hidden land could become a new Sage region in the future, where countless ninjas would come to learn Sage Mode. However, that wasn't possible now, so he could only ponder it in his mind.
After Tsunade canceled the Summoning Contract, she went back with Torifu and Naori to rest. The other clan heads were housed in the apartment next to Jiraiya's.
Jiraiya, who was just stepping out for a walk, saw the group of clan heads and initially thought he was seeing things. It wasn't until the Nara Clan head patted him on the shoulder that he snapped back to reality.
"Clan heads? Why are you all here? Oh, wait, you're the reinforcements, aren't you!" Jiraiya's face broke into a smile. With so many people arriving at once, the pace of the mission in the Rain Province should increase significantly.
"That's right, the Hokage asked us to come for support. You're familiar with the situation here, so tell us about it quickly," the Yamanaka Clan head urged. As a sensory ninja, his personal fighting strength was slightly weaker, but his ability on the battlefield was irreplaceable. Asking Jiraiya immediately was his way of gathering intelligence to prepare for tomorrow's mission.
Jiraiya didn't hold back, telling them everything he knew and providing the marked map that Torifu had created. "You can discuss which direction you want to head to tomorrow now."
The clan heads looked at the map and quickly began to discuss, occasionally asking Jiraiya for his opinion. Since many of these individuals were his elders, Jiraiya was more reserved than usual, without his customary nonchalance.
"I didn't go out on a mission today, and I was lucky enough not to encounter any Kage-level enemies the past two days, so I don't know the density of the enemies deeper inside. I can't be much help."
The Nara Clan head waved his hand when he heard this. "No worries. With this old fellow here, we'll have all the enemy information within a day."
The Yamanaka Clan head raised his head proudly. As the head of Konoha's Intelligence Department, he truly possessed that capability. This was also why he had been called here. The remaining two elders were simply here to make up numbers and protect him.
With that, Jiraiya smiled and said, "That's good. If we can get specific information on the enemy, our attack will go very smoothly." Jiraiya didn't think the enemies would be that strong. After all, they were all enhanced by some secret jutsu and were said to die and spontaneously combust after a while. However, the ninjas didn't have time to wait, and since these were man-made creations, it was likely that one batch would die and another would appear. Relying on them to die out on their own was completely unreliable.
After a discussion, the clan heads quickly finalized their plan. The Ino-Shika-Chō trio of clan heads would act together. The remaining clan heads would act individually, killing any enemies they found and marking their positions on the map. For now, it seemed like a relatively effective plan; all that was left was to see how it worked in the field tomorrow.
The sky gradually darkened completely, and the clan heads suddenly realized they hadn't even gone into their homes yet, having chatted outside for so long. They immediately parted ways with Jiraiya and entered their apartments to prepare for rest.
Jiraiya reluctantly returned to his apartment. He had originally intended to go out and buy dinner, but after all that time, he hadn't even managed to walk fifty meters. Minato and the others were dumbfounded to see Jiraiya return empty-handed. Didn't he say he was going to buy food? Where was it? Did he eat it on the way?
"Alright, we'll have to call Big Brother. I ran into the reinforcements on the way and chatted with them for a while, which ended up delaying the important task."
Hearing that the reinforcements had arrived, Minato immediately forgot about dinner and quickly asked, "What's the news? Who are the reinforcements?"
Jiraiya listed the clan heads one by one. "For now, I've only spotted these clan heads. I don't rule out others, and the Kage-level reinforcements from the other villages should also be arriving soon. We can go pay them a visit tomorrow morning."
"Sounds good!" Minato agreed. Yahiko and Konan also nodded in acceptance.
As for Kushina, she was busy ranking up in her game and didn't have time for such matters. However, her hunger was making her controls slip, and she couldn't help but complain, "Jiraiya-senpai, why hasn't the food been bought yet!"