Although the remaining Anbu members weren't numerous, their efficiency was incredibly fast. They quickly brought the bewildered Koharu Utatane and Homura Mitokado to the conference room in the Hokage Office. The ordinary ninja who had been watching were all dismissed. Only the heads of the various ninja clans and the Daimyo of the Land of Fire remained for the trial and meeting.
After all, they weren't those low-ranking ninja who knew nothing. Although Hiruzen Sarutobi and his three advisors had done a lot of suppression and self-serving things during their tenure, they hadn't done only those things. They had also done many other things that benefited or protected the village. At least, apart from the Nine-Tails incident, there hadn't been any major crises.
Just as Hiruzen Sarutobi himself said, he wasn't wrong—he just lost. Even if their faults outweighed their merits, they didn't deserve to die, and their clans wouldn't let them die. This was why Tobirama initially only had them resign, without imposing any immediate punishment. Of course, the biggest reason was that it's never good for the dead to interfere in the affairs of the living.
After all, they couldn't stay in the shinobi world forever; they would eventually return to the Pure Land. Therefore, the wishes of the living should be prioritized, so the village wouldn't descend into chaos after their departure.
After some discussion and with solid evidence, Hiruzen Sarutobi and his three companions, along with their respective clans, would have to pay a total of nearly 10 billion ryō in compensation. Half of this would be divided equally among all the ninja clans present, as compensation for the oppression. The other half would be paid to individual shinobi like Kakashi and Menma who were persecuted.
In short, this sum would be enough to cripple the four clans, causing them immense financial loss. At least their businesses throughout the Land of Fire would shrink by more than half!
After discussing these punishments, the next step was to discuss the next Hokage. Based on strength alone, Jiraiya and Tsunade were the first to be chosen without hesitation. Menma, who had just displayed his might, was nominated by the Land of Fire Daimyo. Danzo shamelessly recommended himself, only to be immediately berated by Tobirama.
Finally, Menma was swiftly eliminated due to his numerous killings of Anbu and Root ninja, and his inhuman personality. Tsunade was also eliminated because Hashirama and Tobirama didn't want her to be involved in this mess again. Then, the Hokage position fell directly to Jiraiya.
That's right, it was forced upon him by the First and Second Hokage! They stated that they would personally persuade Jiraiya after he recovered. And they would personally assist him for a period of time to help him adapt!
Of course, Jiraiya, unaware of all this, was lying on a hospital bed in Konoha Hospital, his body completely bandaged. At this moment, drool dripped from his lips, a lewd smile playing on his mouth, as he stared intently at the boy, Akio, in his hands. Because the battle had taken place some distance from this hospital deep within Konoha, he was completely unaware of what was happening outside. He only noticed that there were quite a few people coming for treatment that day, and the commotion outside was somewhat disturbing his reading!
Just as Jiraiya was engrossed in the exciting part, blood seeping faintly from beneath his bandages due to his surging blood, the hospital room door suddenly pushed open from the outside.
Creak~
Jiraiya, as if by reflex, quickly hid the book under the covers, loudly protesting: "I didn't peek! I know my wound isn't healed and I shouldn't get excited! I just moved around a bit, which caused the wound to reopen!"
As expected, the nurse's reproach and complaints didn't come. Instead, a familiar male voice made him freeze.
"Jiraiya-sensei..."
"You are..." Jiraiya looked toward the door in disbelief. The familiar face that met his eyes made the Sannin's mouth gape open almost wide enough to fit a pigeon egg!
"Minato!!!"
"No, no, I must be dreaming!"
Unable to see any trace of a Transformation Technique, Jiraiya violently banged his head against the bed railing, trying to wake himself from his dream with pain.
Minato, pulling Naruto along, silently walked to Jiraiya's bedside. "Jiraiya-sensei, you really are the same as before, haven't changed at all."
Hearing Minato's voice again, Jiraiya finally believed this wasn't a dream and opened his eyes to look at the two of them again.
"Minato, you're not dead?!"
Still somewhat disbelieving, he touched the Fourth's hand beside the bed with his own hand, wrapped like a mummy. "And there's no Orochimaru's aura!"
Looking at Jiraiya's expression, Minato shook his head speechlessly. "I'm already dead. This is the chakra extracted from the Nine-Tails' seal by Menma. It's roughly like a shadow clone created using chakra."
Hearing Minato's explanation, Jiraiya finally showed a look of understanding. "Was the remaining chakra extracted? I didn't expect Menma to have such a skill! It seems his control over chakra is incredibly powerful; no wonder he could use the Nine-Tails' chakra so easily!"
After recovering for several days, Jiraiya had figured out what had happened. It must have been Menma who ambushed him with the Nine-Tails' chakra while he was helping Naruto break the seal!
Naruto glanced at Jiraiya, then at Minato. His face immediately fell, and he said with a disdainful sneer, "So the Perverted Sage was also your master, Dad? No wonder he wanted to take me as his disciple the first time he saw me. No wonder you got killed by Kurama's fingernails, Dad! With a master so weak, easily injured by the Kazekage and Kurama, there's really nothing we can do. If you had taken that Wood Release guy as your master, Dad, things might not be like this now!"
Minato: "..."
Jiraiya: "..."
Seeing Naruto shrugging and shaking his head, Minato didn't say anything, but Jiraiya instantly became furious!
"I was ambushed when I was releasing the seal on you! Ambushed, do you understand?! And when I fought your Kazekage clone, I wasn't serious at all! If I were serious, I could have beaten you to a pulp in no time! And that Wood Release guy is nothing! I could take on ten of him at once with his Wood Release for building houses!"
Jiraiya thought Naruto was referring to Yamato as the Wood Release guy, so he was unconvinced.
"Huh? You can take on ten?"
Naruto's face was full of disbelief as he turned to Minato. "Dad, didn't they say that First Hokage was called the God of Shinobi? Does that mean a sage is stronger than a god?"
"The God of Shinobi!?" Jiraiya was completely bewildered.
Minato's lips twitched. He didn't answer Naruto's question but nodded at Jiraiya. "He's the First Hokage, known as the God of Shinobi. Orochimaru resurrected him."
Jiraiya: "!!!???"
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