Chapter 160 - Medical Ninja

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Jiraiya's face was flushed red as he sat slumped in his seat, the table before him a mess of empty dishes. Akio's expression was equally grim, and he managed to force out a sentence:

"Tsunade, Kushina, let's go."

Tsunade gave a wry smile and left restaurant with the others in tow. Akio let out a long breath, visibly relaxing.

"Jiraiya's really come a long way. In another two years, he might not be so easy to mess with."

Tsunade shook her head with a bitter smile, and from behind came the sound of Jiraiya's anguished cry:

"You old monster! Didn't you say you were paying?!"

Akio, already some distance away, curled his lip and muttered, "Who told you to eat that much..."

He felt that even combined, the five of them hadn't eaten as much as Jiraiya alone. It wasn't like Akio lacked money, but it still left a sour feeling in his heart…

"Little Tsunade, I brought Nawaki back. Don't you want to go see him?"

Tsunade was taken aback, then nodded. "Kushina, want to come with me?"

"Then, Great-Grandpa, I'll be going too." Kushina followed Tsunade, and Minato, seeing this, also bid Akio farewell.

Only Akio and Orochimaru remained. Akio sighed helplessly.

"If you keep staring at me, I'm gonna gouge out those snake eyes of yours, you believe me?"

Orochimaru shook his head. "Senior, I have some business to attend to. I'll take my leave."

"Wait a second…" Akio stopped him. "There's nothing wrong with wanting a longer life — everyone does. But don't turn yourself into some half-man, half-ghost abomination."

Akio had always felt uncomfortable about the Impure World Reincarnation technique. The reason he hadn't left with Tsunade earlier was because he wanted to say this one thing.

Orochimaru nodded slightly. "Senior, I've already lost interest in immortality."

With that, he turned and left, leaving Akio frozen in place.

"Lost interest in immortality… Don't tell me he's interested in me now?" A chill ran down Akio's spine.

"…Whatever. It's not like he can do anything to me anyway."

This trip to Konoha had gone smoothly. Akio had resolved the issue between Kushina and Minato — even if the process was chaotic, the result was acceptable. Nagato was already over five years old and soon to begin his ninja training. Akio planned to bid farewell to Mito and return to Uzushio.

Besides, the kunai cutter project was nearly complete. He preferred not to leave just a shadow clone involved in something this important.

What he didn't expect, though, was to be stopped by Tsunade right as he was about to leave.

"Great-Grandpa, I have something I'd like to discuss with you."

Akio nodded. "Go ahead. What is it?"

Tsunade hesitated. "Can Nawaki form a contract with the Slug Summon?"

Akio paused, then smiled. "I already gave you the summoning scroll. You can let whoever you want sign it. I didn't have Nawaki contract it earlier because he was too young and wouldn't have needed it yet."

"He's made decent progress training with me these past six months. If he's lucky, he might even pass the jōnin exam. It's fine for him to sign now."

"However, as for Sage Mode, he's still far from ready. It's not the right time for that training yet."

At this point, Akio looked at Tsunade's forehead. The diamond-shaped seal had already formed. Not long ago, she had officially learned the Yin Seal from Mito.

"Speaking of Sage Mode, you could give it a try. The war's over now — how about I send you to the Shikkotsu Forest for a while?"

Akio was genuinely curious to see what would happen if Tsunade successfully mastered Sage Jutsu.

Tsunade hesitated. "Great-Grandpa, could we wait a bit? I still have some things to take care of in Konoha."

"I've been wanting to propose embedding a medical ninja in every squad, but with the war against Sunagakure going on, there was never an opportunity. Now that it's over, I want to speak to Sensei about it…"

Akio frowned slightly. Her words sparked a memory — that was indeed how it happened in the original timeline. Tsunade proposed incorporating medical ninja into every team, faced opposition from everyone except Dan Katō, and that led to them falling in love.

"This timeline's a bit off…" Akio muttered. "It's like we're two years behind the original story."

Not far away, Nawaki came over.

"Great-Grandpa, I heard you're leaving?" His face was practically glowing with joy.

"Hey… Nawaki!" Akio muttered, realization dawning. In the original story, Tsunade had urgently pushed her proposal after Nawaki's death.

"Are you really leaving?" Nawaki asked again, his excitement barely contained.

Akio glanced at him, exasperated.

"You're that happy to see me go?"

"No, it's not that," Nawaki mumbled, quickly wiping the smile off his face. "Can I go back with you?"

Akio's expression turned odd. What's this about?

Nawaki suddenly raised his head. "Great-Grandpa, please train me even more seriously!"

His passionate plea left Akio stunned for a moment.

"…What, did you inject yourself with adrenaline?"

Nawaki grinned. "I fought that damned Uchiha Fugaku again. I didn't win, but I didn't lose either!"

"If you train me a bit more, I will beat him next time!"

Akio sighed. Fugaku had been a jōnin for two years now. Nawaki's so-called "not losing" — Akio could picture the scene: turtle up with Earth Release defense jutsu and stall the opponent. Not a bad strategy for a kid.

After a moment's thought, Akio figured he was already planning to train Nagato. Adding Nawaki wouldn't be too much trouble.

"Alright, give it a few days. I'll bring you with me," he agreed. He also intended to linger in Konoha a while longer to see if he could gather some Witness Points from Tsunade.

So when Tsunade went to the Hokage's office to propose her plan to incorporate medical nin into squads, Akio tagged along.

"Elder Akio, do you share the same opinion?" Hiruzen asked immediately after Tsunade finished speaking.

Akio smiled. "Lord Hokage is wise and far-sighted. How could I possibly have any opinions?" He still hadn't completely gotten over the matter with Kushina.

Hiruzen gave a wry smile. "Tsunade, I understand what you're saying. Let's try it out in a few squads first."

Since it wasn't wartime, there would be no immediate risk of casualties, so Hiruzen didn't outright reject the idea.

"But in that case, you'll need to train more medical ninja, Tsunade…"

"Leave that to me!" Tsunade replied confidently.

"There's no rush," Akio interjected. "With this war over, we're likely entering a long period of peace. Tsunade, you can head to Shikkotsu Forest for your Sage training first."

Ever since he'd had the idea that Tsunade might master Sage Mode, Akio had been eager to see it through.

Tsunade hesitated, then nodded. "Sensei, I'll take some time away, then."

Hiruzen blinked in surprise. "You're training in the First Hokage's Sage Arts?"

Akio nodded. "You interested? Your natural aptitude isn't quite good enough." He shook his head as he spoke.

Hiruzen gave a helpless smile, feeling like he had thoroughly offended Akio this time…

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