Chapter 245: The Road Home

The hills outside Tanzaku shook beneath giant summons.

"Fire Release: Fire-Oil Flamethrower!"

Jiraiya fought through the drug still weakening his body and combined his technique with Gamabunta's oil. Flame swept across Orochimaru's immense snake form and roasted it black.

Before the charred body finished falling, Manda erupted from the ground. The great snake coiled around Tsunade's waist and tightened to crush her.

Blood still triggered the fear that had kept Tsunade away from combat for years. Her body locked for one dangerous instant. Then Naruto's refusal to remain down and the memory of everything Orochimaru threatened pushed her through it.

Tsunade roared, seized Manda by the tail, and swung the summon through the broken landscape.

Kabuto landed on the snake's head in torn, bloodstained clothes. "What a violent woman. She deserves her place among the legendary sannin. Even so, the current Acting Hokage sounds more troublesome."

Orochimaru watched Tsunade and Jiraiya from beside him. "Of course. For her to release this much power through her hemophobia, however, only Tsunade could manage it."

The three summons collided again. Craters opened between the hills while Naruto and Shizune struggled to remain clear of the battle.

"Orochimaru!" Jiraiya shouted from Gamabunta's head. "Today I will capture you and bring you back to Konoha to answer for your crimes."

"Answer for them? You remember what you said when I left, and you remember my reply." Orochimaru's useless hands burned against his sides. "Tsunade refused to heal me, but she is not my only solution. We will end this here."

He dismissed Manda.

The snake vanished in smoke, taking the stable platform from beneath Orochimaru and Kabuto. Their retreat technique activated before Jiraiya could cross the space between them.

"Do not think you can escape!"

Jiraiya prepared to pursue. The old failure of letting his teammate leave once before passed through his expression.

Behind him, Tsunade collapsed.

"Grandma Tsunade!"

Naruto forced himself up and staggered toward her. Jiraiya looked from the place Orochimaru disappeared to his fallen teammate and abandoned the chase.

At the Hokage Tower, Tonbo counted the days.

"It has nearly been a month. Why have Naruto and Jiraiya not brought Tsunade back?"

He had waited long enough for fresh flowers on his desk to wilt.

During that month, Tonbo became intimately familiar with the Scroll of Seals. He had learned to use many of its techniques, and Multiple Shadow Clone accelerated every line of research. Heart Steel now had a clear path forward.

Tonbo intended to seal the Yin transformation of Spiritualization inside Heart Steel, using sealing techniques to join the two structures. The result would defend him against unknown cognitive attacks more effectively than the original version.

The seal already gave Tonbo confidence that Tsukuyomi could not penetrate it easily. Adding Spiritualization would make Heart Steel itself more aware, much as the will of Gaara's mother continued to protect him through his sand.

That awareness would remain distinct from ordinary life. It would monitor Tonbo's cognition, behavior, and chakra pattern. If an attack changed any of them, the spirituality inside Heart Steel could recognize the difference and restore him. The new design would correct the original weakness of checking only at fixed intervals.

Development would still require time. Tonbo had gained more of that time through his clones, but none of it made him want to remain Acting Hokage.

One group of clones tested the sealed spiritual pattern, another compared the results with ordinary Heart Steel, and the rest continued Forced Execution. Each failure returned to the original as experience rather than requiring the same mistake to be repeated in sequence.

The work never ended. Even with his intelligence, spending every day on administrative problems felt wasteful. He had already enjoyed the office's authority and extracted its best benefit through the Scroll of Seals. The more advantages he gained, the more urgently he wanted to leave.

"The workday is over. I am going home."

Tonbo formed a seal.

"Reverse Summoning Technique."

Smoke enveloped him. When it cleared, he stood in his living room.

A large figurine covered in summoning runes occupied the center of the room. It was the result of a month of research. Once Tonbo established a summoning medium, he could use it to return to the marked location from almost anywhere.

Unlike a battlefield mark thrown onto an enemy, the large anchor could remain stable, contain abundant formula space, and receive routine maintenance. Its size made it useless for stealth but ideal for crossing the distance between the Hokage Tower and home at the end of a long day.

He had learned Flying Thunder God in principle, but he could not use it in combat as Minato had. Sealing was not Tonbo's central discipline. Placing a complete coordinate formula on a moving target through instantaneous hand seals remained beyond him.

Without Minato's speed and marking skill, Flying Thunder God's fixed coordinates offered less value than Reverse Summoning. Summoning crossed not only distance within one world but, under the right contract, boundaries between dimensions. That property mattered far more against the Ōtsutsuki.

Ayame emerged from their room.

"You are home, husband."

"Is the baby behaving?"

She covered a laugh. "It has been a little more than ten days. What movement do you expect? Has the paperwork confused you?"

Tonbo's efforts had succeeded. Ayame was pregnant again.

"You are right. At this point, the baby is still only an embryo."

He laughed with her, already pleased by a life too small for even his senses to treat as a child moving beneath her hand.

On a main road through Fire Country, Tsunade received less welcome news.

"Konoha already has an Acting Hokage?" she said. "Then why do I have to return? Let him keep the job."

Naruto reacted with equal outrage. "What? Who is it? After everything we did to convince you, they chose someone else?"

"His name is Tobitake Tonbo," Jiraiya said. "He is young. The advisers and many jōnin believe he could become Hokage one day, but he lacks the qualifications now. The village is not in Minato's era anymore."

Jiraiya grinned. "Besides, he resembles me in one way. He does not want the chair."

Minato had possessed youth as well, but he entered the succession with wartime accomplishments, a legendary name, and the deliberate support of Hiruzen and Jiraiya. Tonbo's reputation was substantial among shinobi, yet the village knew him chiefly as an analyst and captain. A crisis appointment could not manufacture the same foundation overnight.

"Tonbo?" Tsunade searched her memory. "The shinobi people call Captain Tonbo?"

His reputation had reached her even outside the village.

Naruto brightened. "Uncle Tonbo is amazing. He has treated me well since I was small. It would not be bad if he became Hokage."

For a moment, Naruto felt as if the journey had been wasted. Then he remembered Kakashi, Sasuke, and Lee. Tsunade remained the only person likely to heal them. Bringing her back still mattered.

"He is a genius in certain fields, much like Minato," Jiraiya said. "But talent is not the same as readiness for the office."

He remembered Tonbo's invisible illusion techniques and the countless beautiful women the man could create through genjutsu. No respectable innocent invented that much detail without extensive observation. Beneath his restrained exterior, Tonbo might possess tastes at least as questionable as Jiraiya's own.

Those same illusions made him an extraordinary intelligence specialist. They did not yet make him the proper Fifth Hokage.

Tsunade's interest sharpened.

"A genius you compare with Minato? Then I want to see what sort of man earned that judgment."

They continued toward Konoha.