Yamato? Jiraisui?

After explaining some matters that required attention to Jiraiya, Orochimaru quietly left again.

Before leaving, Jiraiya still earnestly tried to persuade Orochimaru, hoping he would not stray further down the wrong path.

On one side was the friendship they had shared since childhood; on the other was the Hokage's prohibition. Jiraiya neither wanted to hurt Orochimaru nor wanted him to continue making mistakes.

Most people had experienced this kind of conflict. Whether to uphold justice over family ties or choose to cover for them was truly a difficult choice for someone as loyal and sentimental as Jiraiya.

Orochimaru understood his well-intentioned advice, but the saying remained the same: a man in the world could not always act as he pleased!

Watching Orochimaru gradually disappear into the darkness, Jiraiya wanted badly to go after him and pull him back, but in the end, he did not take that step.

The next day, news that Jiraiya had brought a child back from outside the village gradually spread.

"Hey, have you heard? Jiraiya, one of the Sannin, brought back a child."

"Your information's outdated. I heard he got drunk and made a mess of things, and now the girl probably came knocking on his door."

"That guy always peeks into women's bathhouses. I knew it—his hands definitely aren't clean..."

Topics like these kept spreading among familiar shinobi, forcing Jiraiya to deliberately avoid people all day long.

"Sensei, are the rumors outside true? Is this child really...?"

Minato looked curiously at the child in Jiraiya's arms, then at Jiraiya's somewhat clumsy manner.

"Scram, scram! Why do you believe every rumor you hear? I picked this child up outside!"

Jiraiya glared at Minato before resuming his attempts to soothe Yamato in his arms.

Jiraiya had lost count of how many times he had said something like that over the past two days, but everyone assumed he was too embarrassed to admit it.

After all, he was a grown man in his thirties. No wife, no wife at all, yet suddenly he had an ignorant little child—it did not sound good when spoken aloud.

"Sensei, what's his name?"

Seeing that Jiraiya did not like discussing the subject, Minato simply asked instead, "How about calling him Jiraisui?"

"Jiraisui is great! That's a good name. Just like mine, it has the character for water in it. As expected of Sensei Jiraiya—you really have an eye for names!"

When two people hopeless at naming got together, they truly failed to spark any inspiration. If Orochimaru had been here, he definitely would have given Jiraiya a thumbs-up.

Jiraisui was smooth to say and easy to remember. The only one suffering was Yamato, such a fine young man.

This was also because Orochimaru had not explained things clearly at the time. Jiraiya thought Yamato was the child's original name, and feared continuing to use it might bring Orochimaru trouble.

But he did not know that Tenzō was the little fellow's original name. By such a fortunate blunder, Yamato successfully changed his name to Jiraisui. Just hearing it made it sound perfectly matched with Jiraiya. No one would believe they were unrelated if he went out and claimed otherwise!

And Minato's words were even less trustworthy. Kushina had been the one to name the Rasengan for him!

"Mm, Minato, from now on, you have one more task besides training."

Jiraiya watched Minato play with Jiraisui. The two got along quite well.

"Mm! Just say the word, Sensei. As long as it's a task you assign, I'll never refuse!"

Hearing that, Jiraiya was greatly comforted.

"From now on, you'll be responsible for changing Jiraisui's diapers and washing his pants!"

"Huh? No way, Sensei! I've never done anything like that!"

"Don't worry. You'll have to learn when you have children in the future anyway. Just consider this experience..."

Naturally, Orochimaru knew nothing about what was happening here. After handing Yamato over to Jiraiya, he had heard some rumors, but that was good news to him!

Once people spread the story around, mud that fell into one's crotch would look like shit even if it was not.

Jiraiya suddenly having a child did not draw the attention of Konoha's higher-ups. The Third Hokage merely came by to understand the situation.

Once he heard that the child was called Jiraisui, there was nothing left to explain. Everyone took it as a child Jiraiya had fathered with someone outside.

Seeing that explanation was hopeless, Jiraiya could only let them think what they wanted. Other people's mouths were their own—he could not exactly make the truth public, could he?

Orochimaru had not simply thrown the child at Jiraiya and washed his hands of him. He would still give Jiraiya some living expenses every so often.

It was not much, but it was a token of his feelings.

After all, Yamato—or rather, Jiraisui now—had ended up this way because of him.

Although Orochimaru was not entirely responsible for all this, even without him, Danzo would still have reached out to these people. There might even have been more victims.

That Jiraisui had encountered him in this life was both fortunate and unfortunate. Fortunate because Orochimaru's research abilities were far stronger than in the Original Work, so at least he would not have to endure such prolonged torment.

At the same time, he was unfortunate to have become an experimental subject for Hashirama Cells. Fate had played the same joke on him.

And Orochimaru had freed him ahead of time, allowing him to escape Danzo's control.

"Having that restless Jiraiya raise him is still better than leaving him with Danzo. At least his environment growing up will be better."

In the Original Work, Jiraisui had lived in darkness until he met Kakashi. Later, when he became Team 7's temporary teacher, he had always hoped to gain Kakashi's recognition.

Even in the Infinite Tsukuyomi, it had been the same. This time, Orochimaru had thoroughly changed his fate.

Unlike those whose way of thinking had already taken shape, where changing their fate first required changing their minds, a child's worldview had not yet formed. Relatively speaking, their fate was easier to change.

"An infrastructure fanatic and real estate tycoon—consider him support cultivated for Tsunade in the future!"

For the moment, Orochimaru set aside the matter of Jiraisui. With Jiraiya looking after him, he was not worried. Tsunade could raise Shizune, so surely Jiraiya, a grown man, could manage.

Orochimaru returned to his routine of moving between two places. During the day, he went to Danzo's base to conduct research; at night, he returned home on time to cook.

Of course, he could only go to Danzo's place in secret. He set out before dark and returned only after nightfall.

With the abilities of Mind Net, Orochimaru could avoid many watchful eyes in advance. His current sensory range had reached two kilometers. Although that was still far short of the five, six, or even ten kilometers common in this world—

Some advantages of his ability were stronger than theirs. For example, he could fight an enemy with his eyes closed and still clearly sense every movement they made, something the sensory shinobi of this world could not achieve.

Even so, he would send a Shadow Clone to the studio at Tsunade's house, creating the illusion that he stayed home all day.

This was naturally no difficult task for Orochimaru. His current Chakra reserves were enough to sustain a Shadow Clone for an entire day.

Moreover, the Shadow Clone at home was indeed carrying out research according to Orochimaru's plans, so he would gain something from it by the end of each day.