Konoha held a funeral. The Third Raikage personally came to the village to return the body of the Second Hokage, Senju Tobirama. He seemed genuinely apologetic that the coup initiated by his village's own Gold and Silver Brothers had resulted in the death of Konoha's leader.
His deferential posture won him a surprising amount of goodwill.
Sarutobi Hiruzen, already designated as the Third Hokage, had met the Raikage during his travels and knew the man was no fool. It was a decent start to a necessary alliance.
"Besides the Second Hokage's body," the Raikage added after the handover, "we also found the body of a Sand Village ninja nearby. Some of the search party saw... a soul ascending to the heavens."
"Thank you. That was Lord Emiya's soul ascending," Hiruzen managed, the smile on his face feeling forced and hollow. "We have... given up on using Lord Emiya."
In a sense, Konoha's losses in the coup were even greater than the Cloud's. They had lost Tobirama, their protector, and Emiya Shirou, their saint. It was obvious what had happened: before his death, Tobirama must have released the Impure World Reincarnation, finally allowing Shirou's soul to find peace.
"That's for the best," the Third Raikage said, a note of satisfaction in his voice.
The Cloud ninjas had been less than thrilled about Konoha "using" a figure like Shirou.
With the Second Hokage sacrificing himself to resolve their coup and Shirou's soul released, they could be satisfied with the alliance. Hiruzen, as Konoha's representative, held the ceremony with the Raikage right there in the village.
News spread. The First Great Ninja War, it was said, had finally ended under Emiya Shirou's intervention.
At Konoha Hospital, little Tsunade stood blankly in the corridor. Whenever she got out of school, she would subconsciously wander back to this place.
But the medical ninja who had taught her, who had rewarded her with sugarcane juice, who had cared for her with such serious, meticulous attention, was gone.
"Has Lord Emiya not come back yet?" she'd ask, trotting up to the nurses' station and stretching onto her tiptoes.
"Not yet," a medical ninja would reply, unable to meet the little girl's eyes, unable to tell her he was never coming back.
Tsunade would soon walk home dejectedly, kicking a pebble along the way. Mito knew the truth but couldn't bring herself to tell her granddaughter.
She threw Tsunade into training, hoping that a child's memory is short.
But Tsunade was smart. She soon realized something was wrong. She found Hatake Sakumo and, under her tearful threats, learned the truth.
"Lord Emiya... is never coming back."
"You're lying!" she screamed, punching him so hard he flew across the street before she turned and ran towards the village gate.
"Tsunade!" Sakumo scrambled after her, ignoring his own injury, terrified of what she might do.
Fortunately, Hiruzen, on patrol, stopped the crying girl.
He patiently explained why human souls ascend to the heavens before taking her back to Mito's house. "Lady Mito," he said, watching Tsunade sob in her great-grandmother's arms, his own heart aching. "It's better to have someone follow her for a while."
Hiruzen felt a pang of sadness. He had spent more time with Shirou than she had; the most formative years of his life, from boy to young man, were under Shirou's guidance.
Perhaps, he thought, when she grows up, she'll accept it.
The time Shirou had been with them was so short, a brilliant firework in the long stretch of a human life. Eventually, all fireworks fade to ash. That was the ending for everyone who died.
But some people leave behind more than just memories.
-----
As Tsunade grew up, she graduated from the academy, formed a team with two companions, and became Hiruzen's student. And there, she found she still had to face her childhood.
"Tsunade, you're very good at medical ninjutsu," Hiruzen said one day, handing her a stack of scrolls. "These are some case files I sent back to the village during my travels." He led her to a secret room, filled to the ceiling with the scrolls he and Danzo had carried back.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, this is way too much!" a boisterous, white-haired boy exclaimed, pointing at the mountain of scrolls. "If I had to study all this, I'd never finish!"
He grinned. "Good thing I don't want to be a medical ninja. I'd probably be studying until my hair turned white."
"Idiot! Your hair is already white!" Tsunade snapped, sending him flying with a single punch. She lowered her head, looking through the familiar handwriting on the scrolls, and a small, unconscious smile touched her lips.
"This looks very interesting," another, long-haired boy murmured, leaning closer.
"It wasn't interesting at all as a child," Tsunade muttered, picking up a scroll. "He would never play with me after surgeries because he had to write these."
"Every day when I was asleep, I'd see him writing. Every day when I woke up, he'd still be writing. Those people were easy to treat. Why did he have to write all this?"
She untied the ribbon, revealing the densely packed text and diagrams.
The long-haired boy looked at it seriously. "Even with just a superficial understanding, I think I know how to treat this disease now," he said, looking at Tsunade. "Whoever left these scrolls was truly a great medical ninja."
"Of course," Tsunade said, a hint of pride in her voice.
"Let me see!" the white-haired boy rushed over, only to be sent flying again. "It's a waste for your brain to look at these!"
"Jiraiya," Hiruzen chuckled, calling the boy over. "I have a gift for you, too. Some travel journals from my time on the road." He handed Jiraiya a notebook. "A great person left this behind. He also wrote some casual travel notes. You should find it interesting."
Jiraiya opened it. On the first page was a colored drawing of a sunrise, with notes on the location and local food. It looked like a travel guide.
"Let me see!" Tsunade quickly came closer. "This handwriting! This is his stuff!"
She looked at Hiruzen, pouting. "I wanted to travel, too! Why do you always give me case scrolls and refuse to let me see these!"
"Hehehe," Hiruzen just smiled. "Tsunade, you weren't even born yet when we were traveling. These are gifts Lord Emiya left for me. Besides, some things are more interesting when you discover them yourself."
"Is there one for Orochimaru?" Tsunade asked, noticing the long-haired boy standing off to the side.
"Of course." As if by magic, a two-meter-wide scroll appeared in Hiruzen's hand.
"A gift for me?" Orochimaru looked at it in surprise. As he unrolled it, he saw strange plants drawn inside, each to scale, with notes on their medicinal properties, toxicity, and origin. "These drawings... are all to a one-to-one scale," he murmured, instantly recognizing its value.
"I'm angry," Tsunade's face puffed up again. Everything Hiruzen took out was something she would have loved, far more interesting than case scrolls.
Why, in her childhood, was it always about treating this or that injury? Why had he never talked about these things?
"Tsunade, if you really want them," Orochimaru said, though reluctant to part with his gift, "we can take turns. Actually, those case files look very interesting, too."
"Sigh, I don't want these," Tsunade shook her head, an indescribable feeling in her heart. "What I'm angry about is, why did I never hear him talk about these interesting things? Every day, it was just how to treat illnesses and how to write case files."
"At that time, you were only interested in medical arts, right?" Hiruzen scratched his head, not quite understanding her thinking.
"Sigh... he still left too early," Tsunade sighed, and single-handedly lifted the heavy basket of scrolls.
Jiraiya and Orochimaru's eyes twitched at the same time. That kind of strength... really made one not want to anger her.
"Speaking of which... who is 'he'?" Jiraiya suddenly asked, flipping through his notebook. He saw a place where the owner's name was written. "Emiya Shirou... that name sounds so familiar."
Tsunade's body stiffened.
Hiruzen's expression suddenly changed.
Orochimaru's pupils constricted.
That name usually only appeared in fairy tales. For a time, there had been rumors about that name in Konoha, but they soon disappeared under Hiruzen's order. It was as if they were hiding in a shell, trying to forget him themselves.
"Jiraiya, Orochimaru," Hiruzen's expression became very serious. "Do not mention that lord's name, at least not in the village."
"Didn't we always hear stories about him as children?" Jiraiya asked, confused. "I remember he was a medical ninja."
"Idiot," Tsunade facepalmed. "If the person you heard about in your bedtime stories every night suddenly appeared in front of you one day, how would you feel?"
As she said this, she trailed off, her body suddenly rigid. Because she was the only one who had truly experienced it. Only she had seen the hero she admired appear before her, like a shooting star that streaked across her childhood.
"Actually, it's not that strict," Hiruzen's voice grew quiet. "That person's existence cannot be forbidden by a ban. Jiraiya, Orochimaru, the traces of that lord's appearance in Konoha were, after all, just our selfish order."
Hiruzen had issued the order: anyone who had met Emiya Shirou was not to mention his experiences in Konoha. Danzo had wanted to forbid any mention of his name at all, but that was impossible.
He wasn't a ninja of Konoha, but a treasure of the entire ninja world. They could only do their best to erase the traces of his existence in their village. The matter of Tobirama using Edo Tensei to revive him was too shocking, and coupled with Shirou's reputation, there were always people slandering the Second Hokage.
"I'm leaving first," Tsunade said, shouldering the basket and heading home.
"What's wrong with her?" Jiraiya asked, watching her leave.
"Probably..." Orochimaru shook his head, not saying what he wanted to.
He had seen Tsunade at the hospital before, had glimpsed that person's back in the setting sun. He could guess her mood.
But he couldn't tell others about her feelings. As a person with both high EQ and IQ, he knew very well that you didn't publicize the fact that your teammate went home to cry secretly.
Probably... that girl... is really sad, right?