Jiraiya Treats (Part 1)

"1,000 yen?"

Yūske cried out in surprise. Jiraiya was pretty generous—he'd even set different rewards for the mission.

But looking at the three of them, Yūske felt it really made no sense for Inuzuka Gakuto to lose to Minato and Dōtō in this regard.

Fair enough! Yūske gave an impartial answer.

An idea suddenly came to Yūske. He looked at the three of them with a wicked grin.

"Do you all want to get a reward?"

"Can we? But Lord Yūske was found by Aga. Teacher Jiraiya won't give us a reward."

Chōji Akimichi's eyes lit up at first, but after thinking it over, he felt it was impossible.

"Well, what if I was found by Dōtō?" Yūske said slyly. "Wouldn't that make the mission reward 5,000 yen?"

The three of them brightened up, but Minato soon came to his senses. "Wouldn't that be deceiving Teacher Jiraiya?"

"Minato, I heard today that you and Kushina Uzumaki often go shopping together."

"But Teacher Jiraiya is pretty rich. We'll just help him spend a little once in a while." Changing his tune, Minato spoke with a completely serious expression.

"Yeah!" Chōji Akimichi jumped up happily.

"Then how should we split it? I was the one who found Lord Yūske today." Inuzuka Gakuto grew a little anxious.

"Hmm, how about this? Inuzuka Gakuto gets 2,500 yen, while Minato and Dōtō get 1,250 yen each. What do you think?"

Afraid they would start arguing, Yūske helped them divide the money reasonably and fairly.

They finally returned to Jiraiya's house.

Seeing Yūske and Minato return, Jiraiya stood up to welcome them inside.

"Yūske, you have no idea. When I went to your house to look for you today, the friends around your mother looked at me like they wanted to eat me alive." The moment he sat down, Jiraiya patted his chest and joked with Yūske.

"Luckily, your father came out and bailed me out. He said you were on a mission, and I took the chance to run away. Speaking of which, did you really have a mission, Yūske?" After saying that, Jiraiya stared straight at Yūske with a teasing expression.

"Hahaha, you wouldn't understand the art of making an escape." Hearing about Jiraiya's experience put Yūske in a great mood.

"Teacher Jiraiya, I was the one who found Lord Yūske today!" Seeing that Jiraiya had not mentioned the mission reward at all, Chōji Akimichi hurriedly shouted.

"Dōtō was the first one to find Yūske? Aga, you didn't deliberately go easy on them, did you?" Jiraiya looked at Inuzuka Gakuto in disbelief.

"Teacher, I caught a cold. My sense of smell stopped working." Inuzuka Gakuto looked miserable, hating himself for being so useless.

"Then what about Maru?"

"Achoo!"

Maru squeezed out a string of snot with all its might.

"So your name is Maru." Yūske walked toward Maru with a face full of admiration and grabbed its front paw.

Σ(⊙▽⊙"a?

Maru stared at Yūske, utterly bewildered.

Minato quietly asked Inuzuka Gakuto, "Has Lord Yūske met Maru before?"

"Probably not?" Seeing Yūske's excited expression, Inuzuka Gakuto was no longer sure either.

"All right, all right, you three. Clean up and get ready to cook." As he spoke, Jiraiya took out 5,000 yen from his wallet and handed it to Chōji Akimichi.

"Yūske, stop playing around. I also invited Orochimaru and Tsunade. They should be here soon. Come to think of it, when we ate together last time, I never thought you'd become my junior disciple. Hahaha." Jiraiya pulled Yūske to his feet.

Seeing this, Maru immediately ran into Inuzuka Gakuto's arms and trembled. The way this man looked at it was all wrong.

"Still, your Kekkei Genkai is really strong. It's called String Style, right?" Jiraiya was very interested in Yūske's ability.

"You said you only awakened it recently. How far have you developed it now?"

"Barely the first stage, I guess. I feel like String Style has a very high ceiling, but I can't say how far I'll be able to take it." Although Yūske knew how to develop the String-String Fruit's abilities, actually doing it was still difficult.

"You could use the Kaguya Clan of Kirigakure as a reference. I feel their Kekkei Genkai is somewhat similar to yours."

"The Kaguya Clan?" Yūske remembered that. Once he had the chance, he would definitely have a proper exchange with someone from the Kaguya Clan.

Kimimaro. Someone came to Yūske's mind. In his previous life, he had felt it was such a pity. Such a powerful young man had simply been killed off by the plot.

This person who regarded Orochimaru as the faith of his entire life... If I get the chance, I'll save you.

As they chatted, Yūske suddenly sensed a wave of killing intent. Tsunade's eyes flashed red as she charged inside. In an instant, a massive amount of chakra had gathered in her arm.

Just as she was about to rush before them, before the blank-minded Yūske could react, Jiraiya had already dropped to his knees.

"Lady Tsunade, please show mercy. I just finished paying off my mortgage."

Jiraiya lifted his head, already covered in tears.

Hmph. Tsunade merely wanted to scare Yūske and vent her anger. She dispersed her chakra, dragged over a stool, and sat down, staring fixedly at Yūske.

Yūske's scalp tingled. He had no idea how to begin.

"Where's your explanation?"

After several seconds of staring at each other, Tsunade asked with fire in her eyes.

"Explain what?" Yūske suddenly remembered how Jiraiya had dragged him into the red-light district last night and shouted, "Jiraiya did say he wanted to save those fallen girls, but I righteously refused."

After a moment of silence, Tsunade stood up with a red face and punched Jiraiya flying.

"Who asked you about that?"

Tsunade's face was still red.