A few moments later, Hiruzen and Jiraiya stopped their quarrel. The final conclusion was that Jiraiya would not be the next Hokage, but that he would be the one to search for Tsunade and bring her back to Konoha to take the job.
“Sensei, I would like to take Naruto with me as well. Like this, we can finally spend some time together.”
Before Hiruzen could answer, however, Yuna started to speak.
“Oh my?! What about me? You are my godfather as well, right? How come you only want to take Naruto? *Sniff* You don’t want me, just like everyone else in the village?”
Jiraiya staggered back a little when he saw that Yuna was just about to cry.
“N-N-No! I-I…err…”
Before Yuna could fan the flames any further, Hiruzen rolled his eyes and started to speak.
“Please go easy on Jiraiya, he isn’t used to you yet.”
Jiraiya was dumbfounded when he realized that Yuna tricked him. He is in charge of Konoha’s spy network, so he needs to be incredibly skilled at reading people, despite that he didn’t notice that Yuna was acting at all. Yuna, however, simply glared at Hiruzen in annoyance.
“The next time you stop my fun like this, I will make it public knowledge that you have almost completely removed Orochimaru’s poison from your body and that you are on the way to recovery. You might have lost most of your strength, but considering you didn’t lose your dominant arm, you should still be able to write and do paperwork.”
When Hiruzen heard that his face became pale in terror. For a split second, he considered getting rid of his other arm as well, but when he realized that this would make it impossible to read books as well, he discarded the idea instantly.
“Y-Yuna, there is no need to go that far. I am really sick, you know. If someone my age who has all these wounds is forced to do all that paperwork, he certainly wouldn’t survive it.”
Yuna only rolled her eyes at him and tossed two book towards Jiraiya, who caught them easily.
“I am coming with you. Take these two books as some kind of compensation. You might not trust me and frankly, that is pretty normal, but as long you don’t plan to do something stupid, you really have no reason to distrust me. Oh, but if I have to sacrifice you to save Naruto, I will do it without a moment of hesitation, hehe. Oh well. See ya!”
After Yuna said that, she casually left the room, leaving a dumbfounded Jiraiya and a lightly chuckling Hiruzen behind.
The moment the door closed, Jiraiya looked at Hiruzen in disbelief.
“What the hell is going on, sensei?! How can she act like this without any consequences?”
Hiruzen could only chuckle weakly when he heard that.
“That is just how things have developed. I don’t even dare to think how things would have played out if Yuna didn’t take care of everything. I am not sure about all the details, but I am absolutely certain that the strength Naruto, Hinata, and even Anko showed during the invasion can be, to a huge degree, attributed to Yuna.”
Jiraiya widened his eyes when he heard that and looked at Hiruzen in disbelief.
“That is impossible! She is the same age as or even younger than those three. How could she possibly train them to reach such a height!? There must be another person in the shadows doing that. Maybe an Uzumaki that managed to contact them early on?”
Yet again, Hiruzen could only chuckle.
“Yeah, I actually met that person once and have never seen her again after that. I don’t believe for even a second that that wasn’t a fake Yuna prepared.”
“But why do you think it was Yuna? Why do you think Yuna is the source of it? Someone else could have prepared that fake to divert attention, after all. Isn’t it impossible for Yuna to be the one who is responsible for it?”
Another chuckle escaped Hiruzen. He couldn’t help but feel nostalgic for all the ridiculous things that happened around Yuna.
“Correct! It is completely impossible. That is what makes it so weird. Can a three-year-old escape her ANBU guards? Of course not! Yet she did so consistently. Can a three-year-old earn enough money to rent a flat? Of course not, but weirdly enough, Rose-sensei’s first book appeared on the market one week after that happened. Additiona…”
“WAIT!!! Did you just imply that Yuna wrote Garden of Lilies when she was three years old!?”
Hiruzen shrugged his shoulders and continued talking.
“Who knows? Considering she can casually take out copies of the next release before even I can get my hands on it, it seems reasonable, doesn’t it? Well, truth be told, all the things I just mentioned could have been done by a third party, but there is one aspect that clearly stands out. Something that can’t be easily faked by others.
It is the way she acts that stands out. No matter who taught her, I don’t believe for even a second that a three-year-old can be unreadable in front of an ANBU, but that is exactly what happened again and again. She is simply unreadable. Didn’t you just get tricked by her as well, Jiraiya? You thought that she was genuinely sad that you didn’t want to take her with you, but as soon as I exposed her, she switched moods instantly and instead played the role of someone offended.”
Jiraiya couldn’t help but look at Hiruzen with incredulity in his eyes. Now that he thought about it some more, it was indeed very weird how he was tricked this easily. In the aftermath, it was rather obvious that Yuna was playing with him, but he felt genuine guilt when Yuna looked at him while almost crying.
“Sensei, what should we do about this? Now that you have said all those things, it became rather obvious that there is something weird about Yuna. What should we do?”
Hiruzen laughed out loud when he heard that question from Jiraiya.
“Hahaha, what can we do? We already talked about this a few moments ago. As long as we don’t force her to do something against her principles, there is no problem. There is no other path left.
The moment the Ichibi appeared inside that stadium, Yuna won. A lot of people inside Konoha now garner very positive feelings for the Uzumaki clan. The Uzumaki clan detained the Ichibi and as a result of that, it didn’t kill a single person.
Naruto is seen as some kind of minor war hero who fought the Ichibi head-on and defeated it. Hinata defended the Shinobi academy from invaders and Konoha is currently brimming with children happily telling people about her tale.
And, most importantly, there are already rumors floating around Konoha that I am only alive because Yuna and Anko fought beside me, which, by the way, is true.
On that day, they managed to entrench themself so deep inside Konoha that it became impossible to do anything about it and, truth be told, there is nothing bad about that. So far, Yuna’s actions only helped Konoha again and again. Instead of an unstable element that could betray Konoha at a moment’s notice, she explained very clearly what she wants from Konoha for her to stay an ally.
Spend some time traveling with her, Jiraiya. Her personality isn’t exactly complex. Judge for yourself what you want to do and what you think of her. She might be abnormal, but at least she has principles.”
It took Jiraiya a while to ponder about what he just heard, but after a few moments, he nodded his head in understanding. For now, he would travel with her for a while and see how things would go. Considering that Hiruzen had a somewhat positive opinion of her, he wasn’t too worried, but couldn’t help himself but be curious about Yuna.
‘I pretty much never talked with her properly, so let’s see how this works out. For now, however, I have two books to read, guehehe.’
