Ryu hummed his way home. Koji had been killed, and he handed the Scroll of the Seal of the Eighteen Dragons to his mother, he used the Infinite Paths of his, and manipulated his teammates and everyone else that he barely defeated Koji with the help of Kushina.
He did not like manipulating events, but of course he did not want to cause troublesome changes to this world for no reason. He had fixed all the damage done to their battlefield with Koji.
Gato had been dealt with and the Land Of Wave, to express their gratefulness, named the bridge which would give hope to the Land of Wave 'The Great Konoha Bridge'. They also decided to join Uzushio's protection.
The team was now returning home, and they were having a cool time. Yamato wanted to just return to his house and lay on his bed all day, and the other jounins were kind of having the same thought.
Ryu had basically changed most of their memories, Ryu took down two Jounins, Kuro and Zabuza, the others were defeated by the other Jounins, and Kuro was taken down with both his and his teammates effort.
~~
Team 7 arrived before Konoha's Gates, they greeted the Eternal Chunins, Kotetsu and Izumo, with a smile, but the two were too lazy to return it, and took another nap. The Team then walked towards the Hokage's Residence.
The entire trip had taken a total of around 2 months. Kushina was forced to leave her infant behind,Mina Uzumaki Namikaze, she had gotten his father's blond hair and her mother's violet eyes. She was really cute despite being just around one month old.
Minato smiled at them, when he noticed their presence inside his room,"Welcome, did you complete your mission?" The team nodded, noticing that none of them were missing, and that none of them were injured he let out a relaxed sigh.
'Thanks God no one got injured… I wouldn't be able to face Kushina if Ryu got injured…' Minato sighed, after all he had been the one to send Team 7 in the mission to the Land Of Wave, after learning the details, he had fired off all the staff responsible on reviewing missions.
After hearing the details from the Jounins, he gave them permission to leave, and ruffled his hair when they left. A look of fatigue appeared in his face, Minato no longer enjoyed being an Hokage, after a full fourteen years on the lead of the village,he had learned how much pressure the name held.
His training sessions were limited, he had to always be ready for more paperwork to complete, he almost basically never had free time. Then he thought of his youngest son, no more his youngest among his siblings.
"He has the Rinnegan… The eyes only held by The Sage Of The Six Paths, the greatest shinobi to have ever walked in these lands, and the God Of Chakra, the first user of Chakra in the Elemental Nations…" Minato muttered as he wiped the sweat from his forehead.
"My son has those eyes… The eyes which can create… Or destroy… Depending on the wish of the user. With that power, it doesn't matter if his enemy is a jounin or a Kage, they'll all be wiped under his power."
Minato sighed,"I wonder what Naruto is doing right now… His younger sibling is far more troublesome than he was, defeating two jounins,one's body is even MIA, not even recovered… I wonder how Kirigakure will respond to all of this… I don't think it'll be pretty."
Kiri might be in a civil war in the moment, however if their Missing Nin was killed by Konoha, they might just stop it just to demand an answer from Konoha, for killing their own target, that would be annoying.
"Now… What should I do about this Chunin Exam organized in Iwa… I don't really want my shinobis to go there, but I also want to prove that they are not weak… I know I'll send Team 8… Yes they'll be the best choice for now, they are experienced and have already joined one Chunin Exam in Kumo and one in Konoha…"
Minato took a deep breath and drank some water from a cup nearby before sighing again," I really think this Hokage job is making me feel way older than I am supposed to be." He then raised a picture, it was one of him, Jiraiya, Teuchi and another person.
"What would you do in this situation… Jiraiya-sensei…" He groaned,' I now have to summon all the jounin instructors, and ask them if they feel their team is ready to participate in this Chunin Exam.'
~~
Hayate and Yugao were eating some food in a random place in Konoha. Hayate felt way better, as Ryu had healed him even more after returning to Konoha, Ryu felt that the Curse of the Twelve Sages was indeed enormous.
It seems Hayate's ancestor had really angered one of them. That really made Ryu feel weird, the Twelve Sages were tightly allied to the Otsutsuki Clan, and they each had the power to rival that of the Otsutsuki Council.
They were all brothers, and came from the same place and planet, while not tied by blood, they were all tied by history. Their power had long since surpassed that of the Sage of The Six Paths. Of course that was because they were literally fifteen thousand years old, while Hagoromo only lived up to around a hundred years and a few more.
Due to the curse,Hayate's strength was reduced by a large percent, and even had to settle for a Special Jounin place, instead of a normal Jounin, however now that he was at his full strength, he probably could become a full Jounin
Hayate was in a good mood," I think we can just consider sending those three brats into the Chunin Exam, I mean they are pretty good…" He said, earning a roll of eyes from Yugao,"Please… They are just kids!"
Hayate snorted,"We were around the same age when we went into our first Chunin Exam too, just because it's a period of peace doesn't mean we have to lower the quality of our chunins." He said.
Yugao sighed," Fine… But we need to ask about Yamato's opinion, while he is not a jounin instructor of this team, he was with us through all the Wave Mission, so he should've a clear impression of each of our genins."