Soon, Isamu and Minato returned to the original clearing.
The moment they arrived, they saw Kushina sitting atop a large rock nearby, happily preparing to devour her lunchbox.
The two immediately froze.
"How did she get here before us?"
Isamu and Minato exchanged bewildered glances.
A moment later, Jiraiya also arrived at the clearing.
The instant he saw Kushina casually eating lunch while everyone else had been desperately fighting, his face darkened immediately.
Good grief.
Everyone else had nearly exhausted themselves battling for the bells—
Yet this girl was calmly eating lunch.
That was truly outrageous.
Meanwhile, the moment Isamu and Minato approached Kushina, they suddenly noticed something hanging from her waist.
The three bells.
Their eyes widened instantly.
"Kushina!"
Minato rushed forward excitedly and hugged her.
"You actually did it!"
Even Isamu gave her a shocked thumbs-up.
"You're amazing."
"I seriously underestimated you before."
Meanwhile, Kushina herself looked utterly confused by the sudden praise.
"Huh?"
"What's going on?"
Could it be…
Did her brave charge earlier finally earn their approval?
No way!
"Hehehe…"
"It's nothing really."
"I just wanted to fight Jiraiya-sensei head-on…"
"But I still ended up falling into a trap."
Kushina scratched the back of her head sheepishly.
"What head-on fight?"
Isamu stared at her speechlessly.
"We're talking about the bells!"
"Kushina, stop pretending already. We know you stole them."
"Yeah," Minato added with admiration.
"I really didn't expect you to succeed."
"It's honestly incredible."
"Bells?"
Kushina blinked blankly.
"What bells?"
Now she was even more confused.
Why was everyone suddenly talking nonsense today?
At that moment, Jiraiya walked over, originally intending to scold Kushina for sneaking food.
But after hearing the conversation, he instinctively reached toward his waist.
Then—
His expression froze.
The bells were gone.
Immediately afterward, he noticed the three bells hanging from Kushina's waist.
"…What the hell?"
Jiraiya's eyes widened.
"When did those get there?!"
Hidden in the distance, Tian Qi laughed so hard he nearly fell from the tree.
"Hahahahaha!"
"Jiraiya's completely dumbfounded now!"
"There must be a thousand questions running through his head!"
Originally, Tian Qi had come hoping to watch the children slap Jiraiya in the face fairly and squarely.
Unfortunately, Jiraiya had shamelessly used an A-rank Water Release technique against a group of freshly graduated Genin.
Still—
This outcome was even funnier.
"Hehehe, Uncle Jiraiya!"
Isamu crossed his arms proudly.
"The bells are ours now."
"So you lost!"
"That's right!"
Kushina immediately joined in triumphantly despite not understanding anything.
"The bells belong to us now!"
"Can we eat lunch now?!"
Minato remained silent, but the excitement on his face was impossible to hide.
After all—
Jiraiya was one of the Legendary Sannin.
A genuine Kage-level Shinobi.
The fact that the three of them had managed to steal the bells from him was something worth celebrating no matter how it happened.
Jiraiya stared at the three children for a long moment before sighing helplessly.
"…Alright."
"I admit it."
"I was careless this time."
"I'll count this as your victory."
"Go ahead and eat."
Although losing the bells was embarrassing, Jiraiya truly didn't care much about appearances.
If nothing else—
His skin was thick enough.
Seeing the matter settled, Tian Qi quietly left.
There was nothing interesting left to watch.
Honestly speaking, the survival exercise itself had been fairly boring.
A few days later—
Danzo secretly sent word to Tian Qi.
The hunt against the Senju Clan had begun.
Sitting quietly at home, Tian Qi looked up at the dim night sky.
"Tonight…"
"is destined to be anything but peaceful."
"If the Senju Clan had left openly and publicly, Konoha wouldn't have dared act so easily."
"But leaving quietly in secret…"
"They practically handed themselves over."
Tian Qi sighed softly.
"Senju…"
Then he shook his head.
"Forget it."
"Thinking too much is pointless."
"The destruction of the Senju Clan has little to do with me."
"At worst, I'll just get blamed later for not intervening."
"That's all."
An uneasy night passed.
The next morning—
Konoha publicly announced that the Senju Clan, one of the founding clans of the village, had officially departed.
However—
The village never revealed where they had gone.
And so—
The once glorious Senju Clan completely vanished from the Ninja World.
Three days later—
After Isamu returned from his latest mission, Tian Qi called him into the study.
"Dad?"
Isamu yawned lazily.
"What do you want?"
"I'm exhausted from missions these past few days."
"If you've got something to say, hurry up. I want to sleep."
"Exhausted?"
Tian Qi rolled his eyes immediately.
"Who are you trying to fool?"
"Don't think I don't know what kind of missions Genin do."
"What's so tiring about searching for lost cats and walking old ladies home?"
"…."
Isamu instantly became speechless.
He had nearly forgotten—
The lazy old man lounging around at home had once been a terrifying legendary figure within Konoha.
Of course he knew what Genin missions were like.
"Relax."
Tian Qi waved his hand.
"I'm not dragging you out to train today."
"I've got something good for you."
"Of course…"
"If you don't want it, you can leave now."
"I won't stop you."
The moment he heard "something good," Isamu's eyes lit up instantly.
"A good thing?!"
"Why wouldn't I want it?!"
"Nobody can chase me away today!"
Seeing his son's immediate change in attitude, Tian Qi smirked slightly and pushed a scroll across the table.
"It's right there."
"Take a look yourself."
"A scroll?"
Isamu looked slightly disappointed at first.
But the moment he opened it—
His eyes widened instantly.
The scroll contained numerous powerful ninjutsu.
Almost every technique recorded inside was A-rank or above.
There were even several terrifying S-rank techniques mixed in.
"Dad…"
"T-This is…?!"
Isamu stared at Tian Qi in complete shock.
This kind of high-level ninjutsu scroll was practically a priceless treasure.
And yet Tian Qi had casually handed it to him like it was nothing.
Tian Qi leaned back calmly.
"It's a gift from a family member."
"Although he isn't here personally…"
"His concern for you is no less than anyone else's."
That's right.
This scroll had originally been left behind by Madara Uchiha years ago as a gift for Tian Qi's future child.
Now that Isamu had already reached Chunin-level strength, it was finally time to hand it over.
Thinking about Madara Uchiha, Tian Qi felt somewhat emotional.
To outsiders, Madara was cold, ruthless, and terrifying.
But toward family—
He wasn't nearly as heartless as people imagined.
At the very least, when Tian Qi had children, Madara had still cared enough to leave something behind for them.