After Nadeshiko Shizuka spoke, Senya fell completely silent.
He admitted that after hearing Shizuka's explanation, there had been a moment when he found it utterly absurd, ridiculous, and preposterous.
But considering the actual circumstances and what he knew of the TV plot, it was probably true.
Because in the TV version, Shizuka should have been courted by a young merchant with no fighting ability at this point. But according to Nadeshiko Village's traditions, that boy had no chance of being with Shizuka, so he had planned to prove his strength to the village.
In the end, he failed to prove anything and got himself killed instead, leaving Shizuka with her heart sealed in concrete, following only her master's orders.
It was not until her master, Fuzishou Tingxiang, told her about the unfinished agreement she had made with Jiraiya years ago before she died that Shizuka set out to find Naruto and fulfill the wager.
Now, it seemed that because Healing Potions had been driven to exorbitant prices on the black market some time ago, Shizuka and Nadeshiko Village's higher-ups had gambled their final sliver of hope for keeping Fuzishou Tingxiang alive on her wager with Jiraiya.
After all, for Nadeshiko Village to occupy a small patch of land and establish itself as a village in the survival-of-the-fittest Shinobi World, it had to possess some strength. Its pillar was Fuzishou Tingxiang, a ninja whose strength rivaled Jiraiya's.
So it made perfect sense for Shizuka to have left the village early to fulfill the wager. And since she had not been deceived by that merchant boy's sweet talk, she had probably trained twice as hard for half a year in order to win this wager and cure her master, Fuzishou Tingxiang.
Only after confirming her own strength had she set out for