Jiraiya

On the way home.

"Jin, you looked really angry," Minato Namikaze asked.

After all, slamming the desk and standing up in the middle of class didn't look like the reaction of someone in a good mood.

Even Satoru Inoue had been startled.

"No, I was just a little surprised that we'd be graduating early," Jin replied.

He was smiling on the outside while internally screaming bloody murder.

"Really?" Minato Namikaze didn't believe him. Even Jin's smile seemed to carry a hint of mockery.

Maybe it was just his imagination.

Seeing that Jin had no intention of answering, he didn't press the matter.

"I wonder if we'll end up in the same class."

Kushina Uzumaki chimed in.

"Hopefully." Jin shrugged.

He wasn't holding out much hope. After all, he was an Uchiha everyone disliked. He wasn't exactly welcome within his clan either, but unfortunately, he couldn't change his surname for the time being.

Theoretically, being assigned to the same team as Kushina would be the safest option. If he could, he certainly would.

At this stage, the village wouldn't let a Jinchūriki come to harm. As her teammate, he would naturally be much safer.

They would definitely be split up later on... but by then, he would have grown stronger too.

"By the way, have you heard about all the ninja who've been disappearing lately?"

Minato Namikaze suddenly remembered.

Some of his neighbors were ninja who had gone missing, and they still hadn't been found. Even at home, he occasionally heard crying.

"That has nothing to do with us."

Jin cut off Minato Namikaze's question.

He remembered now. Something important had happened during this period.

The Hashirama Cells experiments, launched to strengthen Konoha.

The ninja who had disappeared during this period...

He naturally understood that they had been subjects for Hashirama Cells research. It was the one stain on Hiruzen Sarutobi's record that had ever been acknowledged.

That also explained why the Ninja Academy was ending so early.

The Hashirama Cells research had sacrificed quite a few people.

Naturally, that would affect the front lines as well.

To make up for the shortage of manpower at the front, Ninja Academy Students were an excellent source of labor.

"That old bastard," Jin muttered through gritted teeth.

Sooner or later, he would take him out.

"What?" Minato Namikaze asked in confusion after hearing Jin mutter to himself.

"Nothing." Jin shook his head. There was no point bringing up something like this.

"Look over there." Kushina Uzumaki suddenly looked toward a tree in the distance, where a man was standing and peeking at something.

Beside it was... the women's bathhouse.

Jin's face darkened. He didn't even need to think to know it was Jiraiya. In all of Konoha, only he could do something like that.

"Peeping pervert!!" Kushina roared, vanishing from where she stood.

Jiraiya, who had been peeping, only felt a fierce gust of wind behind him. Before he could dodge, someone kicked him in the back and sent him flying straight into the women's bathhouse.

"Ah!!" "Ah!!" "Ah!!"

Screams rang out one after another.

"Pervert!!"

"It's that bastard Jiraiya!!"

"Fire Style! Great Fireball Technique!"

Flames suddenly flared inside the women's bathhouse. A fireball blasted Jiraiya back out, and he finally crashed down in front of Minato Namikaze and Jin.

The two exchanged a glance.

"He's probably dead."

"Let's find somewhere to bury him."

The two were just about to act.

"Wait!!" Jiraiya struggled to raise a hand. "I can still be saved."

With half his hair burned away, Jiraiya struggled into a sitting position. Much of his clothing had been burned off, leaving him in a thoroughly miserable state.

But Kushina had not vented her anger yet. There was no way she would let Jiraiya off.

"You perverted, filthy peeping tom!!"

Her flying red hair resembled octopus tentacles, making Kushina look like a witch come to life. A faint golden glow even lit up around her.

Kushina leaped up, raised her fist high, and smashed it down at Jiraiya with all her strength.

"Boom!!"

A lump rose on Jiraiya's head. His eyes rolled back, and he fainted.

By the time Jiraiya woke up, he had already been tightly bound to a tree.

He looked at the three people in front of him, who were cracking their knuckles.

"Wait! I'm not some peeping tom!! I was gathering material!! Gathering material!! What do you brats know about it!!"

Why did he have to suffer like this?

"I don't know what kind of material requires peeping into the women's bathhouse." Kushina raised a brow.

This was absolutely unforgivable.

"I'm a man determined to become a famous novelist!!" Jiraiya declared with pride.

Even though he had not written a single word of his novel yet.

"Die a thousand times first, then talk!" Kushina wanted to punish this shameless man. What kind of erotic novel needed material from a women's bathhouse!!

Minato Namikaze swiftly stopped Kushina.

"Kushina, he is Jiraiya, an elite jonin, after all."

Jiraiya's expression changed, but he still put on a profound look.

"Brats, now that you know who I am, untie me already."

Jin walked up to Jiraiya and clicked his tongue in wonder.

"Lord Jiraiya, since we know who you are, why do you think we still haven't let you go?"

"You wouldn't want everyone to find out about your peeping, would you?"

Jin wore a wicked grin as he threatened him.

Jiraiya's face stiffened. Uchiha Jin kept the same expression, but the curl of his lips gave him away.

This guy might be the most dangerous one.

"What do you want?" Jiraiya watched Jin warily.

"Nothing much." Jin rubbed his chin and fell into thought. Aside from the Mount Myōboku contract, Jiraiya did not seem to have anything he particularly wanted.

And those toads from Mount Myōboku were all quite strong, except for that biggest charlatan, but they were not the kind of Summoning Animals he wanted either.

With that thought, he looked at Jiraiya with disdain.

This guy was completely worthless.

"Hey!! What kind of look is that?!" Jiraiya was infuriated by Jin's expression, as if he were looking at trash.

No matter what, he was still an elite ninja who led a jonin squad.

But Jin ignored Jiraiya and turned to Minato Namikaze. "We should just hand this guy over to the Police Force."

Jiraiya immediately panicked. Anywhere was fine, just not the Police Force.

"Wait, we can talk this out! I can teach you ninjutsu!!"

Those Uchiha were famous for being stern and impartial. A fine would be the least of it; he might even be locked up!!

Minato Namikaze was somewhat tempted by that, but his current ninjutsu was sufficient, and he was no longer as desperate as before.

He should focus on holding Kushina back.

If she actually beat Jiraiya up, things would be hard to explain.

"Wait, we can talk this out!"

Unfortunately, none of the three listened.

"I'll go contact the Police Force. Minato, you two keep an eye on him," Jin said to them.

Jiraiya panicked at once. A puff of smoke erupted from his body, and he turned into a log as his real body vanished.

If he did not leave now, it would be too late.

These brats were impossible to deal with.

"He ran pretty fast." Jin curled his lip.

Kushina clenched her fists and gritted her teeth. "I hate disgusting adults like that the most."

Minato Namikaze scratched his head. Actually, the other man had not done... much, right?

Hokage's Office.

Hiruzen Sarutobi puffed on his pipe as he looked over the documents before him, feeling as though the ninja world was preparing to bleed him dry.

The Sand Village Ninja and Stone Village Ninja no longer bothered concealing their intentions to push into the Land of Fire.

Though there were no signs of large forces yet, they had already fought many battles with the Konoha Ninja. Konoha's disadvantage in numbers had allowed quite a few ninjas from other villages to break in and loot the place.

The territorial nobles of the Land of Fire had suffered tremendous losses.

Even the daimyo had come to demand answers.

Poof! Smoke billowed up as Jiraiya appeared in the office.

"Did you make contact?" Hiruzen Sarutobi asked without looking up.

Jiraiya's mouth twitched as he looked down at the scorch marks covering his body.

"Barely."

Hiruzen Sarutobi raised his head and looked at the charred Jiraiya.

"What happened to you... Were you attacked?"

"No." Jiraiya's gaze involuntarily drifted toward the ceiling.

That was as good as an admission.

Hiruzen Sarutobi had a headache. Jiraiya was the disciple most like him, but did he have to resemble him in every way?

It was... a real headache.

He could only change the subject.

"What did you think?"

"Those brats." Jiraiya's face darkened at the thought of the three of them.

"They're not easy opponents."

Especially that brat named Uchiha Jin. He was difficult to deal with.

"After all, one is an all-around genius, one is a taijutsu genius, and the other is a Jinchuriki."

Jin's formidable taijutsu had long since been exposed, but very few people knew that he could use ninjutsu.

Even Hiruzen Sarutobi did not know.

Hiruzen Sarutobi sighed. All three were people the village intended to focus on nurturing, and each represented a different source of strength within the village.

Minato Namikaze represented the civilians, Uchiha Jin represented the Ninja Clan, and Kushina represented the Jinchuriki.

Konoha's civilians were no simple force to be butchered at will.

No one knew how many members of the Senju Clan were hidden among them. After all, it had been the Second Hokage's decision to erase the surname and turn the Senju Clan completely into nourishment for Konoha.

That had also allowed the civilians to rise rapidly. Yet while the Senju Clan's foundation had produced quite a few geniuses among the civilians—

Talent was talent, and resources were resources.

"But, old man, do you really intend to let the Jinchuriki carry out missions?" Jiraiya asked in confusion.

The Nine-Tails Jinchuriki was of immense importance—a vital strategic weapon—and she was still just a little girl who had yet to grow up.

If she went on missions, things could easily go wrong if she lost control.

"Kushina hasn't shown any signs of instability for quite some time."

Hiruzen Sarutobi explained.

In the past, Kushina would always inadvertently leak Nine-Tails Chakra, but for the past three months, she had been remarkably stable.

Not a trace of Nine-Tails Chakra had been seen.

"Observe her for another half year. If she is completely stable, she can begin by carrying out some missions."

If the Jinchuriki could grow stronger, she would also become an important source of power.

Konoha urgently needed combat strength to deal with the raids from those two hidden villages.

"Oh, right, Sensei." Jiraiya's expression turned solemn, devoid of his usual casualness.

"Quite a few ninja in the village have gone missing lately. You should know what happened."

Hiruzen Sarutobi sighed, merely shaking his head without saying anything. Yet that silence said plenty.

Jiraiya's face turned livid.

"Sensei, ninja are not expendables."