Chapter 384: Orochimaru's Return
Tsunade had no idea what Ryū had actually done to sober her up so completely — one moment she'd been thoroughly drunk, the next inexplicably, perfectly clear-headed.
If not for the alcohol smell still clinging to her, she might have convinced herself she'd never had a drop.
She rubbed her aching temple, took a deep breath, glanced around, and finally said, grateful, "Thanks. Didn't expect to run into you here, of all places. I didn't... I didn't make too much of a scene, did I?"
Ryū, still working through his ramen, took a sip of broth and set an empty bowl aside before answering. "Wouldn't call it a scene, exactly. Though you did mistake me for your debt collector at one point, and promised to pay me back eventually."
Tsunade froze, an embarrassed flush spreading across her face — her memory of the drunken haze was patchy at best.
She genuinely hadn't expected to have mistaken Ryū for a creditor. Judging by that, though, she probably hadn't said anything too outlandish beyond that — thankfully her self-control had held up decently, even wasted.
Even so, she knew perfectly well that if Ryū hadn't sobered her up in time, there was no telling what she might have blurted out.
People said all sorts of things when drunk, inhibitions completely gone — who knew what secrets might have slipped out?
Realizing that, alongside the embarrassment, she also felt a quiet flicker of relief.
An awkward silence settled between them after that, neither one finding much to say — and Ryū's attention was mostly buried in his ramen anyway.
The steady slurping sound of him eating filled the space beside her, and Tsunade watched, genuinely dumbstruck, as an entire enormous bowl of ramen disappeared in under half a minute, leaving nothing but a little leftover broth.
Was she dreaming this?
Did this man not need to chew?
Was he just swallowing everything whole?
Honestly, it looked more like watching a snake eat than a person.
Or maybe he was chewing, just so fast it was simply invisible to the naked eye?
Don't be ridiculous — nobody chewed food at a speed the human eye couldn't track.
In the quiet that followed, Tsunade suddenly remembered something and asked, surprised, "Oh, right — you've been staying in Konoha this whole time, haven't you? Do you know what actually happened a few days ago?"
"I heard from pretty far away that Konoha had been destroyed — the whole village turned into some massive crater. And then I get back this morning and find the place completely fine, like nothing ever happened."
Ryū glanced at her and answered. "Some pack of giant beasts tried to invade the shinobi world. One of them wiped out Konoha. The rest got cleared out, and then someone put the village back together."
"Believe it or not, that's more or less the whole story. If you want the details, go ask Minato, or Hiruzen."
"..."
Tsunade sat there, utterly baffled, processing all of that.
A pack of giant beasts trying to invade the shinobi world?
One of them destroying Konoha?
The rest wiped out?
And then somebody just... restored the village?
It sounded like the kind of made-up story a child would tell — no logic connecting any of it.
Except this "story" had come from Ryū — the most unusual presence in all of Konoha, more unusual than even a Tailed Beast, by most accounts. Given his strength, there was no obvious reason he'd bother making up something like this for no reason at all.
Which meant this bizarre "story" was probably, genuinely true. Something like that had actually happened in Konoha, just recently?
Tsunade felt a distinct crisis of reality settling in — how did something this absurd end up being real life?
Genuinely dumbstruck.
Once she'd gathered herself, she nodded slowly, thoughtful. "I see... a pack of unknown giant beasts, huh. Come to think of it, I heard something about a sudden pile of giant carcasses appearing out on the Land of Fire's grasslands. Is that the same thing?"
"If the pile's stacked up like a mountain range, that's the one."
"..."
Tsunade suddenly felt like a lot of strange things had happened in Konoha while she'd been away. The village didn't quite feel like itself anymore.
The old Konoha, war-torn as it had been, at least felt normal in its own grim way. This new, peaceful Konoha — no active conflicts with any other village — somehow felt off in a way she couldn't quite put her finger on.
Why, exactly, that impression had settled over her, even she couldn't say for certain. Maybe she was just overthinking things.
Just as her mind started spiraling further down that path, one of Ichiraku's apprentices hurried over with two bowls of ramen, setting them down in front of her.
"Please, Lady Tsunade, enjoy — these are the two bowls you ordered earlier."
Tsunade watched, dazed, as the apprentice turned and walked away, then looked down at the two bowls in front of her, muttering, "...When did I order two bowls of ramen?"
She thought back and realized — right, must have been while she was drunk.
Well, whatever. She was hungry anyway. Might as well eat first, worry about it later.
Come to think of it, where had Shizune wandered off to? Hadn't seen her around at all.
Minutes ticked by, and Tsunade tucked into her ramen without much fuss, polishing off one steaming bowl in about ten minutes, broth and all, not a drop left.
Just as she was about to start on the second bowl, she happened to glance sideways and froze completely.
Ryū's side of the table had already accumulated a genuine mountain of empty bowls, one of Ichiraku's apprentices hurrying back and forth to clear them away for washing.
Which meant, in the same ten minutes it had taken her to finish one bowl, this man had put away twenty or thirty of them?
What in the world was this man's stomach even made of? Some kind of black hole?
Well — if she could actually make sense of this man, he probably wouldn't be Konoha's single most mysterious, and most powerful, resident, would he.
Tsunade let out an internal, resigned sigh and went back to her own bowl.
Meanwhile, at Konoha's front gate — a middle-aged man with spiky white hair, walking in wooden geta sandals, strode purposefully into the village.
His gaze swept over the nearly untouched village with open bewilderment, an increasingly confused expression settling on his face.
He felt, distinctly, like he'd been played for a fool — like he'd fallen for some baseless rumor.
Wasn't Konoha supposed to have been destroyed? Weren't all its residents supposed to have evacuated en masse?
Why did everything look, for all the world, like absolutely nothing had happened at all?
"Someone actually had the nerve to deceive Master Jiraiya, huh! You bastard! Whoever started that rumor better hope I never find out who they are — because when I do, they're getting a proper beating!"
Jiraiya's expression grew increasingly sour. The moment he'd heard Konoha had been destroyed, he'd rushed back from some considerable distance without stopping.
He'd barely rested along the way, pushing himself to near-exhaustion just to make it back as fast as possible.
And here he was, greeted by nothing but calm, ordinary peace — hardly able to trust his own eyes.
Where was the destroyed village he'd heard about? Where was the giant crater everyone had been talking about?
Sure, he hadn't actually wanted Konoha to be destroyed, obviously — but he was furious regardless. Whoever had spread that rumor deserved a solid beating, damn it!
And here he'd gone and fallen for such a low-effort rumor, brilliant as he liked to think himself.
"Well, whatever... I'm back in the village now, no sense turning around and leaving immediately. Chasing that Orochimaru bastard for months without a single solid lead — that man's counter-surveillance skills are frankly obscene."
Jiraiya's headache only deepened. The past several months had been spent partly on his usual research travels, and partly hunting down Orochimaru, who'd defected from the village.
More than once he'd thought he was closing in, only to realize, crushingly, that whatever "clues" he'd found had been deliberately planted by Orochimaru himself.
Every single lead had ended the same way — a dead end, with no actual sign of where the man had really gone.
"No idea what's got that guy so obsessed with immortality anyway. Doesn't he ever get sick of living that long? Personally, I wouldn't mind an extra few hundred years myself, though."
After a small cough, Jiraiya shook off the tangent and continued into the village.
He'd barely taken a few steps when a painfully familiar voice sounded from behind him. "Human life is far too limited. A rushed few decades, maybe a century if you're lucky — nowhere near enough time to accomplish everything I want to."
"Once you truly understand just how fragile life really is, you can't help but want to hold onto it with everything you have. I watched Katō Dan die with my own eyes. I watched Nawaki die too. I saw the look on Tsunade's face, helpless, in tears, after each one."
As Jiraiya's expression shifted to shock, the voice continued from behind him. "You may not understand my choices. I don't particularly care. I'm not claiming what I've done is right simply because it's what I chose."
"If you were in my position, I doubt you'd care much about anyone else's opinion either. Am I wrong, Jiraiya?"
The voice fell silent, and Jiraiya spun around at once, his expression openly stunned as he took in the achingly familiar man standing behind him.
Jiraiya half-wondered if he was hallucinating, pointing at the figure in front of him, sputtering. "You... you... what are you doing back here..."
"The Fourth Hokage — your own student, Minato — invited me back. Nothing sinister on my end, I promise."
Orochimaru's face carried a faint smile. "Your student found me in no time flat. You spent months searching and turned up nothing. Should I call that stupid, or just plain slow?"
Jiraiya: "..."
☆☆☆
-> 20 Advanced chapters Now Available on Patreon!!
-> https://www.pat-reon.co-m/c/Hollowborn
(Just remove the hyphen (-) to access patreon normally)
If you like this novel please consider leaving a review that's help the story a lot Thank you