Naruto: I Have a Gravity Training Room-Chapter 459 - 457

Nowadays, Jiraiya didn't need to go looking for any "Child of Prophecy" anymore. His mindset had completely shifted.

He'd wasted years drifting before. Now that he was old, he no longer cared about living free and easy. Instead, he planned to devote whatever time he had left to the responsibility of protecting the shinobi world.

It wasn't that he didn't trust Kakashi and the others' scouting ability. He just didn't want to keep sitting around in an office.

Compared to paperwork, he figured he actually had some talent for reconnaissance, so he should do what he was best at.

Most importantly, he felt he was old enough to stop fearing danger. If he really did run into the Ōtsutsuki, dying wouldn't matter. Even if it cost him his life, he could still get the intel back.

Maybe that was simply what he believed he ought to do.

No one tried to stop him. They only told him to be careful.

At the time, Natsuki's thought was: Why didn't the shinobi world have that "life paper" technology from pirates? If they had something like Jiraiya's life paper, they'd always know whether he was in mortal danger, and they could use Hiraishin (Flying Thunder God) to blink over and rescue him at any time.

It wasn't like he hadn't thought about creating it. But making something out of nothing wasn't realistic.

He'd been able to develop chakra batteries because he understood chakra and had mastered fūinjutsu (sealing techniques), so there was a foundation for it.

But this so-called "life paper"… it had no logical basis at all.

All he could do was mention it in passing to Orochimaru, the strongest scientist around, hoping Orochimaru might look into it if he had time. As for whether it would work, Natsuki didn't hold any expectations.

Natsuki frowned as he finished reading the intel scroll. There really were quite a few strange incidents, but some of them became clearly unrelated to the Ōtsutsuki once they were investigated further. It was a headache.

Everyone else was in the same boat. Because they had zero memory of Kaguya's companion, trying to sift through these anomalies and identify anything truly connected to the Ōtsutsuki was unbelievably difficult.

And that was when the best brain in the room finally went to work.

As the office strategist, Shikamaru naturally attended the meeting. After reading all the intel, he focused on one particular report and brought it up for discussion.

"Everyone. I think this one is worth investigating more deeply."

Hearing that, everyone's eyes lit up. 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

They all knew Shikamaru was sharp. He might hate anything troublesome, but when it was time to work, he never cut corners. If he was speaking up on his own, it meant he'd noticed something.

Everyone leaned in.

"Victor Medical Equipment Company?"

They'd seen that one too. The company definitely had some anomalies… it just hadn't been clear why.

So everyone looked at Shikamaru.

Shikamaru explained, "This Victor, the CEO of a multinational medical equipment company, is a real businessman. Yet he participated in the previous shinobi war as a businessman. And pay attention to this: he fought directly. He was active on the battlefield, not just providing supplies!"

Everyone frowned. They all felt the same wrongness.

That war hadn't only involved the Five Great Villages and the great nations. Plenty of small countries, minor villages, and even individuals joined in. The personnel mix was chaotic, and there hadn't been time to thoroughly screen everyone. As long as they confirmed no White Zetsu had infiltrated, they basically let it go.

Even now, it didn't look obviously wrong. After all, plenty of people really had contributed to protecting the shinobi world.

Maybe Kaguya's companion had slipped people in back then too, specifically to investigate the Ten-Tails?

There was no proof, so they couldn't accuse anyone on a whim. But Victor wasn't a shinobi. He'd gone to war as a "businessman," stayed active on the battlefield, and survived. That alone was bizarre.

Even stranger, there wasn't much information about him. Most people didn't seem to remember him at all.

After the war, he seemed to vanish.

That was not normal.

So what, exactly, had he joined the war for?

Sure, maybe even a businessman could have the righteous impulse to protect the world. But according to the investigation file, this man was greedy to the bone and never hesitated to squeeze money out of anything. Calling him "righteous" was hard to swallow.

And even if he wanted to support the Allied Forces, he could have just provided supplies or donated medical equipment. There was no need to put himself on the front lines and risk his life.

The more they thought about it, the less it made sense.

If he'd gone to the battlefield personally, his motive was absolutely not simple.

As for the anomaly in the report: Victor's company in the Land of Valleys had recently been recruiting huge numbers of civilian workers, and quite a few of those workers had apparently gone missing. The recon squad had sensed something off. Even though they hadn't dug deeper, they still sent the intel back.

If Shikamaru hadn't caught it, everyone might have overlooked it.

Tsunade decided immediately. "Have Kakashi's team personally investigate Victor and that company. Tell them not to alert the target. Minato, you go to the other villages right away and ask whether they have any additional information on Victor and that company. Hopefully this leads somewhere. If the Ōtsutsuki are truly hiding in the shinobi world, that's far too dangerous."

Everyone agreed.

Once there was suspicion, they had to strip Victor down to the bone, no matter what it took.

If he was connected to the Ōtsutsuki, then waiting to talk about it later would be too late.

Minato nodded at once, tucked the intel away, then smiled toward his son, who was still working at a side table.

The next moment, he vanished.

The meeting ended for now, and everyone finally let out a breath.

Hashirama stretched lazily. "Whew! We were efficient today. Morning work's done. Let's all go drink and eat yakiniku!"

Tobirama stopped him immediately. "Big brother, drinking at noon? You want to be useless all afternoon?"

Tsunade was tempted too, but she forced herself to resist. "Then let's go to Ichiraku. I'm having the deluxe set, three bowls."

Naruto instantly gave her a thumbs-up. "Granny Tsunade's right! I want the deluxe set too!"

Sasuke and Neji didn't care. Food was food.

But the moment they opened the office door, they found a few girls waiting outside. Looking closer, it was Hinata and Hanabi… and Temari was there too.

Right, Temari was temporarily staying in Konoha as the Land of Wind's diplomatic envoy.

Apparently Gaara had arranged it on purpose, as a gesture of reciprocal goodwill.

Temari and Shikamaru exchanged a quick glance.

Both of them immediately turned red. That awkward, youthful sweetness made the older generation chuckle.

Kids these days.

So young.

So enviable.

Hanabi hurriedly said, "Sasuke-nii-san, Neji-nii-san, and everyone, my sister and I and Temari-onee-san know you've all been really busy, so we prepared some food. Let's eat together. The cherry blossoms are in bloom too. We can go sit under the trees and do some hanami. It'll be a good rest and help ease the fatigue."

Hashirama didn't even wait for Tsunade's response. The three older ones' eyes lit up at once.

"Good Hanabi! That suggestion is amazing! Then everyone, let's go enjoy the blossoms!"

(End of Chapter)

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