Minato, Are You Going to Kill Your Master?

"Hey... Tsunade, come swim!"

It was Jiraiya. Somehow, he had already made his way to the top of the waterfall and was shouting down at them.

Hearing his voice, the others looked up and saw Jiraiya atop the waterfall as well.

Seeing Jiraiya bare-chested and wearing nothing but a pair of baggy shorts, Shizune and Kushina merely glanced at him before awkwardly looking away.

Before long, Jiraiya dragged Minato out from behind him.

"Sensei, this is at least thirty meters high! Are you sure we won't die if we jump?"

Minato looked at the deep green pool beneath his feet and unconsciously swallowed.

"Look at you, so timid. You're a man who wants to become Hokage—you have to overcome the fear in your heart."

Jiraiya patted Minato on the shoulder, not forgetting to show off his four-pack abs. Still, even more eye-catching was the enormous scar across his chest.

That scar had not been left on the battlefield. Tsunade had given it to him. As for why she had hit him, that had something to do with his fondness for peeping on people bathing.

Though Jiraiya was lecherous and lustful throughout his life, he never married. Though he was carefree and boisterous, he was more serious than anyone when it counted.

That was also why Orochimaru felt this little brother of his was worth keeping around. He had a strong sense of responsibility, though he was somewhat idealistic.

"Come on, I'll show you how it's done first!"

"Yoohoo..."

With that, Jiraiya leaped up in front of Minato, performed a full 360-degree forward flip in midair, and dove straight into the pool beneath the waterfall.

Seeing Jiraiya resurface as if nothing had happened, Minato began to feel eager to give it a try.

Just as he was raring to go, a force suddenly pushed him from behind. Caught off guard before he had fully prepared himself, Minato was sent jumping down.

With a scream, Minato fell in a spread-eagle position straight toward Jiraiya's head.

"Damn it, Minato, are you trying to kill your master?!"

Jiraiya hurriedly sank beneath the water. A huge splash erupted, and it was seven or eight seconds before the two resurfaced.

The moment they emerged, both looked toward the top of the waterfall. When Jiraiya saw who was up there, ten thousand mud horses stampeded through his mind.

"Orochimaru, you did that on purpose, didn't you?!"

The man behind Minato was Orochimaru. He had merely given the future Hokage a light push, helping him bravely take that first step.

"Hehe, Jiraiya, didn't your disciple give you a surprise? I was just doing a good deed."

Orochimaru, also wearing nothing but shorts, had arrived at the top of the waterfall. Though he was nearly thirty, he looked only around twenty-five.

Beneath his pale skin were solid, well-defined muscles, with his eight-pack abs especially striking.

His years of taijutsu training had not been for nothing. His nearly perfect body proportions displayed the aesthetics of the human form to the fullest.

Even Tsunade, down in the pool, was momentarily distracted by the sight, let alone greenhouse flowers like Shizune and Kushina.

Even if they did not know how to appreciate it, they could compare. Neither Jiraiya nor Minato had a build like Orochimaru's. When people were compared, one died of envy; when goods were compared, one got thrown away!

Jiraiya, meanwhile, felt a mixture of envy, jealousy, and resentment. Later, he would see whether Orochimaru's muscles were all show and no substance.

Orochimaru had no idea what the others were thinking, nor did he care what they thought.

He likewise leaped up, spread his limbs wide, and lunged toward Jiraiya and Minato. Seeing this shameless man doing it again, the two hurriedly swam aside.

Another burst of splashing followed as Orochimaru dropped into the pool like he was blasting fish with explosives.

At the instant his body touched the water, he did not forget to absorb some of the kinetic energy.

That was why he entered the water as though nothing had happened, unlike Minato, whose face had turned red.

Minato and Jiraiya, both splashed in the face, looked resentfully at Orochimaru as he surfaced.

"Hehe, Jiraiya, my dive was more challenging than yours, wasn't it?"

"Tch, even Minato jumped better than you!"

As the two bickered, a bold female voice interrupted them.

"Jiraiya, Orochimaru, have you forgotten about me?"

Looking up, they saw Tsunade in a revealing swimsuit. At some point, she had reached the top of the waterfall and was looking down proudly at them, like a queen surveying the world from above.

Her explosive figure immediately made the hopeless Jiraiya's nosebleed gush.

Seeing Tsunade's curvaceous figure and long legs, even Orochimaru's cold snake blood began to boil.

Beside Tsunade, Kushina also looked at her enviously. Looking at Tsunade's assets, then at her own bamboo shoots, she could not help wondering how people could differ so much in certain places.

Before Kushina could think further, Tsunade grabbed her and jumped down with her.

The shriek, reaching who knew how many decibels, startled the birds in the forest and made the nearby Anbu ninja think something had happened.

When they rushed out in alarm and saw that Tsunade had merely dragged Kushina into a dive, they finally breathed a sigh of relief.

The Nine-Tails Jinchuriki was of critical importance. If anything happened to her, they would be in deep trouble too.

After scanning the surroundings and finding nothing unusual, they concealed themselves in the darkness once more.

"Kushina, are you okay?"

Seeing the still-shaken Kushina, Minato hurriedly swam over and naturally took hold of her delicate hand.

Jiraiya felt somewhat envious at the sight, then suddenly had an idea.

"Tsunade, are you okay?"

He copied Minato and swam toward Tsunade, but before he could get close—

"Water Style: Water Colliding Wave!"

With a scream, Jiraiya was blasted backward several times faster than he had come.

Seeing Jiraiya in such a miserable state, Orochimaru could only stop in his tracks. Yet when he looked toward Tsunade, she glared at him as well.

"You too. Get lost."

Well, he had not even said anything before being given the boot. It seemed his wish to admire her from up close had come to nothing.

"Big Sister Tsunade, Big Sister Kushina, come over here! There are lots of big crabs—ah!"

Shizune, who was too young to participate in the diving, was catching crabs in the shallow waters by the pool. Everyone turned toward her voice and saw a palm-sized crab clamped onto the underside of her hand.

"Come on, Kushina. Let's go take a look too."

Hearing Tsunade call her, Kushina could only bid Minato farewell with an apologetic expression, shattering Minato's hope of sweetly pairing up with her.

"Orochimaru, looks like you'll have to make another dish tonight."

Jiraiya, who had swum back over, called Minato over to catch crabs as well, leaving Orochimaru soaking alone in the middle of the pool.

But Orochimaru did not feel neglected. That morning, he had noticed plenty of field snails by the edge of the pool. They were perfect to go with drinks.

Thinking of that, Orochimaru swam toward the shore as well.