[Land of Fire]
Rengoku's clone brought along Kimimaro and Haku, and came ashore from the Land of Fire's border.
All the way heading toward Konoha Village, the situation in the village had already stabilized. This clone of Rengoku was not in a hurry to rush on the road, but instead taught Kimimaro and Haku along the way.
During the daytime, they hurried on the road. At night, they usually camped in the wild.
When they encountered cities, they would buy some things, restock, and also take a rest in the city.
But most places in the Land of Fire were still desolate and uninhabited.
Many places belonged to natural topography, and there weren't even any roads.
The fastest way to move, tree jumping.
After Kimimaro's nutrition caught up, his strength progressed rapidly.
And in terms of taijutsu, Kimimaro belonged to the talent-type.
That is, his combat intuition was extremely astonishing. He could often anticipate where Rengoku's next attack would land and counterattack.
At Kimimaro's age group, he simply had no opponent.
But Rengoku held battle memories of the entire Uchiha clan's combat members, with abundant experience. Being Kimimaro's teacher was more than enough.
As for Haku, Rengoku's teaching treated him as ranged firepower, after all, Haku was slightly weaker in taijutsu.
Currently, Haku's use of Ice Release was limited to his innate abilities.
Rengoku wasn't in a hurry to have him develop Ice Release. He even only taught him Hidden Mist Technique and Water Clone in terms of ninjutsu.
He would wait until Haku grew older and had more chakra before teaching damaging ninjutsu.
The three of them walked and stopped along the way, taking half a month to travel from the Land of Fire's border to Konoha Village.
When they arrived at the forest outside the Uchiha clan grounds.
Rengoku's main body was already waiting there.
On the road, Kimimaro and Haku already knew that the one bringing them along was a clone of Rengoku, but it was a rather special clone.
"I'll leave it to you. I'm heading back to the Land of Water now. If the situation over there stabilizes, I'll inform you again," The clone handed over Kimimaro and Haku to Rengoku's main body.
Rengoku's main body nodded and didn't say much, "Let's go, Kimimaro, Haku. This is the Uchiha clan grounds."
Rengoku waved his hand. With the same indifferent expression and demeanor as on the road, Kimimaro and Haku's sense of incongruity lessened a bit.
Haku curiously asked, "Rengoku-sama, can your clone share memories?"
As he walked toward the clan grounds, Rengoku answered, "This is a clone created by my dojutsu. It can share memories."
"If it were a type like Shadow Clone, then it could only share memories after dissipating."
Rengoku had already taught them knowledge of Shadow Clones, so this was just a review.
"You two haven't encountered many peers since childhood. I'm serving as principal of the ninja academy in Konoha. Tomorrow I'll arrange for you to enter the school."
Haku quietly asked, "Rengoku-sama, didn't you say on the road that the ninja academy wasn't of much use?"
Rengoku smiled, "In the past, the ninja academy wasn't much use. But now that you've come, I'm going to make them work hard."
"I'll arrange a place for you to stay first. Get some rest tonight. We'll talk about the rest tomorrow."
———
After this half-month period, both Orochimaru's laboratory and the Uchiha's hospital had all been completed.
The medical equipment Orochimaru needed, the ones from Iwagakure, had already been delivered.
Instead, Konoha's side was dragging its feet and still hadn't fully delivered.
Inside Konoha Hospital, order had basically been restored.
Those who could be saved were basically all saved. Those who couldn't usually died on the spot.
As long as they were brought into the hospital, the death rate was already extremely low.
Tsunade herself stayed inside the hospital. No matter how hard she tried to avoid it, she would still see blood.
However, under high-intensity work, Tsunade had become somewhat desensitized to seeing blood from a distance.
An entire month of non-stop effort had worn Tsunade out terribly.
Saying she had taken over the hospital was just in name. In reality, she had neither the time nor the energy.
If it weren't for the fact that the Uchiha had become so powerful, Tsunade wouldn't have returned at all.
If she hadn't run into this disaster upon returning, Tsunade wouldn't have wanted to stay either.
But before Tsunade was ready to leave, Jiraiya had already secretly slipped away.
Seeing that the Uchiha were rapidly developing, and also that last time Rengoku didn't seem to have any interest in competing for Hokage.
He decided to continue his travels, continue peeping, continue writing books, and continue searching for the Child of Prophecy.
So he left a note in the Hokage office and quietly slipped out.
By the time the Third Hokage read the note, Jiraiya had already left Konoha Village.
The Third Hokage immediately summoned Tsunade and informed her of the matter.
"That bastard! He actually ran off!"
Tsunade could be said to be extremely furious, because under the Third Hokage, there were basically no highly powerful people.
The Third was old, and people like Kakashi were still young.
She and Jiraiya, at least one of them had to be in the village.
As long as either of them was in the village, Konoha could maintain relative stability.
Clearly, Jiraiya had dumped the mess on Tsunade.
In the Hokage office, besides the Third Hokage and Tsunade, there was also Koharu.
After all, she had already become Hokage Advisor. She could now get involved in political affairs.
She knew Konoha needed to maintain stability, so Tsunade's presence was essential. Therefore, she was now very warm and pleasant to Tsunade.
"Tsunade, ah, with Konoha in this condition, you really can't leave."
"As long as you stay, whatever requests you have, we'll agree to all of them."
Tsunade rubbed her temples. She had been busy in the hospital and basically hadn't had time to think much about this.
Now being told so suddenly, Tsunade was really caught off guard.
But after a moment, she sighed, "Alright, I'll stay for a while."
"Old man, I've saved so many people recently, shouldn't the village show some appreciation…"
Tsunade made a rubbing gesture, the motion for counting money. She hadn't gambled in a long time and was itching badly.
The Third Hokage laughed cheerfully, "That's only natural. Don't worry, we've already prepared it for you."
So, the Third really knew how to handle things. A box was already placed beside the desk.
He pushed the box over to Tsunade. When Tsunade opened it, it was full of large denomination bills.
While taking the chance, the Third Hokage said to Tsunade, "In the powers Rengoku requested, medical resources were part of the deal."
"Now that their hospital is complete, and they've already selected some Uchiha clan members, they're just waiting for you to go train them."
Tsunade closed the box and asked in confusion, "Uchiha training? Me?"
The Third Hokage replied, "That's right. Medical resources included this clause. Otherwise, their hospital wouldn't be able to function."
Tsunade rolled her eyes, "This kind of thing just let Shizune handle. I'm not going."
The Third Hokage persuaded, "You can take this chance to meet Orochimaru, see why he's staying with the Uchiha."
"Orochimaru and you have been comrades for so many years, some things should be let go."
Tsunade frowned in thought. Her conflict with Orochimaru didn't have much to do with his defection.
It was more about ideological clash. Orochimaru was utterly indifferent to life, willing to break any taboo for experimentation. And he used her grandfather Senju Hashirama's corpse for experimentation, which touched Tsunade's reverse scale.
"Fine, I'll go meet him tomorrow," Tsunade was indeed a little curious why Orochimaru could stay with the Uchiha.
"Anko wants to see Orochimaru, pass the message for her."
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