"Jiraiya, that idiot!" Orochimaru frowned.

Jiraiya's way of thinking was unacceptable. First and foremost, he was a Konoha ninja, and he needed to have his own stance.

Ultimately, those three children were not from Konoha, and if they grew up to be formidable, they might even become their enemies.

Moreover, the great war with Sunagakure had already begun, yet Jiraiya chose this moment to run off. If it were for some important mission, it would be understandable, but now...

Such behavior could definitely be classified as that of a rogue ninja.

"He certainly is somewhat foolish." Tsunade snorted, crossing her arms.

"Sure enough, he always messes up at the most crucial moment, he's never reliable."

Kazuki raised an eyebrow upon hearing this. At critical moments, Jiraiya was actually quite dependable, just like in the future when he looked after Naruto, he was always very reliable.

If it weren't for the intelligence Jiraiya obtained with his life for Naruto, it would have been extremely difficult for Naruto to defeat Nagato.

It was just that in Tsunade's mind at this point in time, Jiraiya was surprisingly unreliable.

However, upon closer thought, Kazuki could understand. After all, they had grown up together since childhood, and the current Jiraiya was indeed unreliable.

Furthermore, leaving at this time, Jiraiya was indeed unreliable.

With Jiraiya gone, their team would split up, and it was hard to guarantee that no troublesome enemies would appear in the future.

From the looks of it, Jiraiya wouldn't be back for several years, and their three-person team was pretty much going to completely disband.

"Oh, right, Kazuki, this is for you."

As if remembering something, Orochimaru took out a scroll and handed it to Kazuki.

"Hm?"

Kazuki took the scroll and opened it, finding the corresponding mission scroll and village departure procedures. This way, Kazuki's departure from the village to the front line was legitimate.

As for why no one knew about this before, it was due to concealing intelligence and information, giving everyone a surprise.

This time, Kazuki became famous overnight. He defeated Hanzō, who was recently called a Demigod, and then participated in the battle, madly slaughtering Sunagakure ninjas.

According to incomplete statistics, Kazuki killed at least over three hundred Sunagakure ninjas in this battle, including six Special Jonin, three regular Jonin, and one Elite Jonin.

Such a record was extremely terrifying. The total number of Sunagakure ninjas in the Land of Rain was less than two thousand, and this was after they joined in later to target Konoha.

Cooperating with the Ame and Konoha ninjas, this time, the Sunagakure ninjas on the Land of Rain front line were considered defeated.

"Sarutobi-sensei is preparing to promote you to Jonin. You've made such a great contribution, it wouldn't make sense not to promote you to Jonin."

"I didn't realize before that you were still a Genin. You've completed so many missions, yet Tsunade didn't think about promoting you all. Even Nawaki, before I left Konoha, I had already made him a Chunin." Orochimaru then sighed helplessly.

He wondered how Nawaki was doing now. Nawaki was over twelve years old and had already entered a period of rapid growth.

Once the war stabilized a bit, he could bring Nawaki, Mikoto, and Hizashi to the front line to adapt.

Hiding in the village to train was not a long-term solution, one still needed to adapt to the battlefield.

War would not end. Even if this war ended, there would still be the Third Great Ninja War in the future.

At that time, could Nawaki and the others still hide in the village?

At that time, Nawaki would become a main force and core, just like himself now. Adapting to the battlefield early was very important.

"I forgot before, Tsunade-sensei didn't promote me." Kazuki glanced at Tsunade, who was beside him.

In fact, Kazuki's three-person team had completed quite a few missions.

During that time, they almost did a D-rank mission every day, which boosted the number of missions for Kazuki's three-person team.

Later, when they went out on missions, Kushina's Chakra pathway had problems, and Tsunade went to the front line. Their team was considered to have retired.

Neither Kazuki nor Rinka had any intention of re-teaming with others. Instead, they went to Mito's place to train.

However, his teacher was truly unreliable. It was likely that Tsunade had forgotten to help them apply for Chunin before.

If Tsunade didn't do it, Hiruzen wouldn't promote them for no reason.

This would be overstepping his bounds, so all of this was Tsunade's fault.

Tsunade's gaze became evasive. This was indeed something she had forgotten, but it wasn't a problem. Although Kazuki wasn't the youngest Chunin, he was the youngest Jonin in history.

Moreover, with Kazuki's strength, merely becoming a Jonin couldn't fully showcase his current power, but there wasn't much Konoha could give Kazuki anymore.

"Oh, right, Kazuki, let's talk about Sage Mode."

Sensing Tsunade's embarrassment, Orochimaru changed the subject and asked.

"Sage Mode? What do you want to know? Ryūchi Cave also seems to have Sage Mode, right?" Kazuki had no intention of continuing to embarrass Tsunade.

This woman had always been unreliable, he wasn't unaware of that. At this stage, among Tsunade, Jiraiya, and Orochimaru, the most reliable of the three was Orochimaru.

No wonder both Hiruzen and Koharu believed Orochimaru was the best Hokage successor.

"Yes, Ryūchi Cave does have Sage Mode, but their training method seems to be very special." Orochimaru nodded slightly.

"To be precise, it carries great danger."

"Sage Mode is very powerful, it's mainly a kind of amplification. If you were to master Sage Mode now, you would also be able to directly enter the ranks of Kage."

Kazuki chuckled. "However, controlling Natural Energy and Sage Mode is naturally very difficult."

"In fact, whether it's Ryūchi Cave, Mount Myōboku, or Shikkotsu Forest's Sage Mode, they are all their own unique Sage Modes."

"Humans and their physical structures are different, even their cells are different. Therefore, what suits them may not necessarily suit us, and it also carries great danger."

"So humans need their own Sage Mode?"

Orochimaru suddenly understood. He felt this was the path he would take in the future.