After saying that, Tsunade felt stupid. Her grandfather looked younger than her now, so how could she say he was old? And her grandmother. Every time she saw her grandmother's face, she couldn't help but feel a little envious.
"It'll be great if you can teach Shizune. After all, you're the strongest medical ninja in the village."
When Tsunade heard that, she didn't seem happy. Instead, she squinted at Torifu. "I'm going to ask you something, Big Brother Torifu. Don't you feel any guilt saying that? Of course, I can teach Shizune, but I won't agree with you saying I'm the best medical ninja."
Dan also chimed in. "That's right, Big Brother. With a wave of your hand, you can bring back someone who's lost half their life. Tsunade doesn't have that kind of ability."
Torifu shrugged. "I can't help it. I can't teach my medical ninjutsu to anyone else. If I could, I would have taught it to you already. The prerequisite for using this jutsu is having a massive amount of chakra, like what Hashirama Sensei has."
Tsunade no longer had any expectations for learning this jutsu. She had been pestering Torifu since she was a child, but she still hadn't learned it. But this forced her to develop her own medical ninjutsu, which made her go further and further on the path of a medical ninja. If Torifu had directly taught Tsunade how to use his healing jutsu, it would have seriously stifled her creativity. This was because, at present, Torifu hadn't seen any other medical ninjutsu that could match his. It couldn't fix severed limbs, but it could heal most other things, whether the wounds were internal or external. It could be considered a miraculous jutsu. When a product came from the system, it was a masterpiece. And its chakra consumption was very low. What he had said about needing Hashirama's level of chakra to use it was purely to deceive Tsunade.
"Okay, okay. It looks like I'll never get to learn your healing jutsu in this lifetime."
Torifu put Shizune on the sofa. The child wasn't mischievous and was quite calm. She just lay in Tsunade's arms without moving. It seemed that she really liked her. Perhaps it was fate that they were meant to be teacher and apprentice.
After staying for a while at the Katō clan's home, Torifu left and returned to his own place. He didn't see Minato in the yard, so he figured he had been called away by Sakumo for training or something. He didn't know the exact details. He put a rocking chair by the door, lay on it, and his wonderful life began again.
A week passed by quickly. The impact of the war had basically been resolved. Everyone who was still in Konoha attended the funeral. Torifu gave an impassioned speech on the roof of the Hokage building, which made many people cry on the spot. The attendance for the funeral ceremony afterward was much smaller. Torifu only allowed the families and friends of the deceased to attend.
Then, a new report came in. Kakuzu had already occupied an abandoned village in the Land of Rain and was developing it in an orderly manner. The villagers there probably wouldn't be returning. The entire village was empty, with nothing but houses left. The village they occupied had a good location. It could radiate to the entire Rain Province. This was the name Torifu had given it. The Land of Rain had fallen, so they couldn't just keep calling it that. Since the feudal lord had said that Torifu would manage the land, it was easier to just change the name to Rain Province.
And although Kakuzu and his group were busy building their new base, they hadn't forgotten to search for the two children. They searched not only the Rain Province but also the other two parts of the Land of Rain. They finally found the two of them in another abandoned village. The boy had orange-red hair, and the girl had purplish-blue hair. There was no mistake. The Lotus Organization ninja then took the two children back to the base to wait for Kakuzu to take them to the Land of Fire.
The two children were still quite scared, but the boy kept standing in front of the girl, looking very brave.
"Do you know that the leader of the Land of Rain started a war and lost?"
The two children shook their heads. They didn't know any of this. They were too young and didn't even really understand the concept of a country. They had become orphans when they were very young and had survived by stealing things and picking up garbage. To prevent the two children from resenting the Land of Fire, Kakuzu first told them the reason why the Land of Rain had fallen into chaos. It was all because of Hanzō, the leader of Amegakure. The two children listened in a daze. They didn't understand anything about Hanzō.
Kakuzu gave them some food. The little boy took it cautiously. After making sure it was okay, he gave most of it to the little girl. It seemed to be their custom. The little girl didn't refuse and just started eating.
"What are your names?"
"My name is Yahiko. Her name is Konan. We are family."
Kakuzu seemed to understand why the leader had to find these two children. The little boy had a gaze that wasn't something a normal child could have. He seemed to have an innate charisma of a leader.
'The leader's judgment is as sharp as ever.'
He looked at Yahiko and said to him, "You two, come to Konoha with me. You'll have a better life there. You can even become ninja and have a family. You won't have to wander around anymore."
Hearing all the beautiful things Kakuzu had promised, Yahiko couldn't believe it.
"Is... is that true? Can we have a family too?"
What a child wanted most was a family. Every time he saw other children being carried or held by their parents from a distance, his heart ached.
"Of course. I promise everything I've said is true."
"Can Konan and I stay together?"
When Konan heard that, she grabbed Yahiko's sleeve. They had been living together for over a year now and already considered each other family.
Kakuzu gave a rare smile. "Of course, you can. Don't worry. The person who will adopt you will give you a very good life, and you don't have to worry about him treating you badly. He's a very kind-hearted person."
At least, he was when it came to children.
Yahiko and Konan both smiled and nodded, agreeing to follow Kakuzu to the Land of Fire. Kakuzu ruffled both their heads. "I'll take you to the Land of Fire after you eat and get a little fatter. Otherwise, you're too thin to walk a long distance."
And so, they stayed with Kakuzu for three or four days. After that, they headed to the Land of Fire. This morning, when Torifu contacted Kakuzu, Kakuzu said that they would arrive in the Land of Fire tomorrow. Torifu had also used this time to prepare two empty rooms in the compound.
The Kumotsuru Clan compound was becoming a shelter for homeless kids in the ninja world. But Torifu didn't mind. The lonely compound had become much more lively.