Chapter 375: The Senzu Beans Have Sprouted
Days slipped by, and five had already passed since Ahri joined the group.
Five days had been enough time for their newest member to get a basic feel for how the chat worked, and to start recognizing the faces of the members who spent the most time chatting.
Over that same stretch, Ryū's stamina had fully returned to a hundred percent.
Konoha's civilians and shinobi — evacuated during the crisis and sheltering in nearby cities — had all returned home by now.
When they'd first come back, following Minato through the village gates, even Konoha's senior leadership — Danzō, Hiruzen, all of them — had stood there absolutely dumbstruck.
They'd all watched with their own eyes as Konoha collapsed into a colossal crater. And now, walking back in behind their Hokage, they found the village standing almost entirely untouched, as if none of it had ever happened.
It was hard to process, genuinely — the kind of thing that left a person wondering if some genjutsu specialist had pulled them into an illusion without their noticing.
Even now, days later, Hiruzen — the former Third Hokage — still hadn't fully come to terms with what he was seeing.
In an office inside the Hokage Building, Hiruzen sat with his head turned toward the window, absently stroking his goatee.
Through the open window he could see the long street below, the crowds moving through it as usual.
He watched quietly for several minutes, until the sight of snow drifting softly down finally pulled him back to the present.
"Snowing again... I still can't quite wrap my head around everything that's happened. The village gets destroyed, and then it's just — back to normal, like nothing ever touched it? Minato says it's connected to that Ryū fellow somehow, though even he doesn't have the specifics."
Hiruzen turned his attention back to the papers on his desk, muttering to himself, "Konoha's troubles never seem to let up for long. Genuinely exhausting."
He wasn't Hokage anymore, of course, and over the past year and change Minato had steadily consolidated real authority — most matters passed through him directly now. Still, Hiruzen remained the current Hokage's chief advisor, and there was no shortage of things still landing on his desk to worry over.
He'd long since given up on the idea of investigating Ryū any further, though. The past year had taught him plainly enough that digging into the man was effort wasted.
No matter what angle they approached it from, unless Ryū himself decided to share something voluntarily, there was simply nothing Konoha could uncover about him.
Better to give up the investigation entirely than keep sinking time, manpower, and resources into a dead end.
At this point, with Ryū fully settled in the village and his strength on a level that bordered on absurd, Hiruzen figured the wisest course was to simply let things unfold as they would.
If Ryū never wanted to destroy Konoha, then everyone else could go on quietly living and building the village up in peace.
And if he ever did decide he wanted to destroy it... well, then that would just happen, because there wasn't a single thing they could actually do to stop him.
As far as Hiruzen could tell, every shinobi in the village combined, civilians included, still couldn't hope to match Ryū in a straight fight.
Given that, the only reasonable approach was a zen one — let things run their course.
He had no idea what anyone else made of that attitude, but Hiruzen had thoroughly made peace with it himself.
As for what this former Third Hokage actually thought of him — Ryū neither knew nor particularly cared. Nothing in the Naruto world posed him any real threat at this point.
Even Ōtsutsuki Kaguya, sealed away as she was, barely registered to him as anything special — pretty, sure, but not much beyond that.
As for actual combat strength? Honestly, pick almost anyone at random from the Dimensional Chat Group and they could probably beat her without much trouble.
That, of course, was talking about the group's seasoned veterans — the ones who regularly threw themselves into group quests. Kizaru, Kaguya, Whitebeard, Tatsumaki, and the rest of that crowd.
Meanwhile, back in the Dimensional Chat Group —
Eternally Seventeen: Admin-sama! Calling Admin-sama! @RawrSoFierce, @RawrSoFierce, @RawrSoFierce!!
Kaguya-sama: Eh... Yukari-nee, did something happen over there?
RawrSoFierce: Hm? What's up? Was just in the middle of a game, then heard the chat go off.
Eternally Seventeen: Admin-sama! The Senzu Beans have sprouted! Ahahaha, I really am a jack-of-all-trades youkai sage, aren't I — a little seed-growing project like this was a piece of cake for me.
RawrSoFierce: Eh?? That fast?! Did all of the beans sprout?
Eternally Seventeen: Not quite all — ninety-five percent sprouted. The rest just wouldn't take, it seems.
Master Roshi: I remember Korin once mentioning that out of a hundred Senzu Bean seeds, you're usually lucky to get two or three to sprout at all. Ninety-five percent is astonishing.
Master Roshi: Really goes to show — Dragon Ball world stuff is genuinely something else.
RawrSoFierce: If we can actually get Senzu Beans mass-produced from this, that would be an absolutely massive win for the whole group.
Nine-Tailed Fox Spirit: Senzu Beans? ...Um, sorry, what exactly are those?
Street-Corner Illustrator: Fair question, only five days into the group — Senzu Beans are a specialty item from the Dragon Ball world, Master Roshi's home turf!
Street-Corner Illustrator: And they're absurdly overpowered — no matter how badly hurt you are, as long as you're not already dead, one Senzu Bean brings you back to full health and full stamina, instantly.
Street-Corner Illustrator: Can't cure actual illness, though — as broken as they are, they're not literally all-powerful.
Nine-Tailed Fox Spirit: No matter how strong the person is, one bean fully heals them and restores all their stamina?
RawrSoFierce: Pretty much. Even someone strong enough to blow up a universe, if they're running on empty stamina-wise, a single Senzu Bean solves the whole problem.
Nine-Tailed Fox Spirit: That's incredible... something like that, just casually available, would have people fighting each other over it constantly.
Kaguya-sama: Absolutely. For a lot of people, having access to that is basically a second life in your back pocket.
Kaguya-sama: And once the Dimensional Chat Group manages to mass-produce these, forget "second life" — we'll be able to eat them like candy without a second thought. Yukari-nee, you're incredible!!
Eternally Seventeen: Hmph, well, I am a youkai sage — cultivating a few plants is nothing to me.
Eternally Seventeen: Eh? Admin-sama, why aren't you praising me too?
RawrSoFierce: Uh... Yukari's incredible??
Eternally Seventeen: Pfft... could you sound any less enthusiastic about it?
"..."
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