Jingman!

"Oh?!"

Kakashi lowered his eyes to the book's cover. His usually languid eyes instantly sharpened.

The cover featured a curvy, dark-skinned beauty and an adorable, petite white-haired girl!

"Heh heh heh~"

The secretly lecherous Kakashi let out a strange laugh, tucked the book into his ninja tool pouch, and prepared to enjoy it at his leisure.

As for the payment, Kakashi had handed it to Shirozumi when he'd left for Konoha, finding a moment when no one else was around.

"Oh, right. Those Snow Ninja from before, and Kazahana Dōtō—were you the one who took them out?"

Kakashi was about to take his leave when he suddenly remembered the strange events during the earlier battle, so he asked while he was at it.

"Oh, that was a secret technique called 'Death Possession Blood,' used by someone in our organization. Its effects are..."

Under Kakashi's astonished gaze, Shirozumi told him just as he had Ōnoki: about Hidan's Death Possession Blood, his collection of blood, and how his aim was to intimidate.

"...I was just asking."

Kakashi's mouth twitched.

Shirozumi could have refused to answer, and Kakashi wouldn't have thought it strange.

But Shirozumi had not only told him; he'd gone into such detail that Kakashi didn't know what to make of it.

This was troublesome.

Kakashi's joy at getting his hands on the new edition of "Icha Icha Paradise" vanished at once.

When he got back this time, he'd have to report to the Third Hokage again.

Several months passed in a flash.

The Inter-mutual Alliance, formed by the Land of Snow, Land of Earth, Land of Water, Land of Waves, and Land of Rain, was progressing nicely.

As for the Raikage, just as Shirozumi had predicted, he'd returned and challenged the Daimyo of the Land of Lightning, wresting considerable power from him and beginning to develop the Land of Lightning.

But unlike the countries in the Inter-mutual Alliance, which had Shirozumi's detailed plans to follow, the Raikage had to figure things out for himself.

At first, the Raikage had focused only on seizing power and forgotten to delegate it.

He'd been working himself to the bone.

If he hadn't been a Taijutsu specialist, he'd have worked himself to death.

Fortunately, after receiving intelligence from the Land of Earth, the Raikage delegated the less important responsibilities to his trusted aides.

Only then did the Raikage finally get a chance to rest.

The Raikage had heard that Konoha was about to host the Chunin Ninja Exams, but he had no intention of sending Kumogakure's Genin to take part.

As he walked through Kumogakure, the Raikage heard villagers whispering by the roadside. They seemed to mention him and his younger brother, B, which immediately put him on alert.

With the changes underway in the Land of Lightning, he'd faced a few assassination attempts by petty criminals in recent days.

The Raikage wasn't afraid of assassination. He was only worried that someone might fail to kill him, then, with nothing left to lose, collude with outsiders and betray their own people.

So the Raikage decided to follow them and keep listening.

In the end, he discovered that the two were only discussing a novel. He was deeply disappointed, but also relieved.

Frowning at the mention of him and B in the novel, the Raikage used the Transformation Jutsu to buy a copy from a bookstore, planning to read it when he had some free time.

"Author: Kakashi Hatake. Hmph, Konoha."

The Raikage looked at the author's name on the cover and snorted.

Half a day later.

After reading a small portion of the novel, the Raikage's face had turned as dark as Black Zetsu's backside.

The Raikage summoned one of his subordinates and told him to inform his younger brother, Killer B, that he could leave Cloud Lightning Gorge and move around near Kumogakure.

The Cloud Ninja who'd been summoned was stunned.

Ever since the day the Third Raikage had died, the Fourth Raikage had been determined to protect Killer B perfectly. Even if it meant keeping him under house arrest, he wouldn't allow the slightest possibility of anything happening to him.

He didn't know why things had changed today.

After the Cloud Ninja left, the Raikage looked at the novel.

He could barely conceal his disgust and disdain, but in the end, he didn't throw it away.

There were two main reasons why the Raikage changed his attitude toward Killer B.

First, the novel told a story about him and Killer B. The Raikage didn't even dare recall what happened in the story, but the "ending" was that Killer B died.

That was what the villagers had been discussing just now.

Killer B had been confined in Cloud Lightning Gorge for more than ten years.

It wasn't surprising that the villagers, after reading the story in the novel, suspected that Killer B was already dead.

But the Raikage wouldn't have changed his mind for that reason alone.

What really mattered was a certain passage in the novel. It reminded the Raikage of the previous Eight-Tails Jinchuriki, as well as something Minato Namikaze had once told him.

That he needed to find something to fill the Jinchuriki's heart.

Konoha.

Kakashi notified the three of them at the training ground, entered their names for the Chunin Ninja Exams, and told them when the exams would be held before leaving.

On his way back, Kakashi took out the novel and began reading.

Today, Kakashi finally finished it.

That was right—it was his first time reading it, and he'd just finished.

Kakashi had been reading Icha Icha Paradise ever since he was eighteen because he read it over and over again.

It had taken Kakashi so long to get through this novel because whenever he came to certain scenes, he couldn't bring himself to keep reading.

Each time, he had to struggle with himself before his intense curiosity finally compelled him to continue.

The novel's title was similar to that of Icha Icha Paradise: Jingman Paradise.

It told a story set in a fictional world with a background similar to that of the Shinobi World.

This world had no Five Great Shinobi Villages, but it did have Five Great Sects.

They were still based on Wind, Water, Earth, Fire, and Lightning.

When the protagonist, Raikage, was young, he lost his ability to father children while saving a fellow kunoichi.

The kunoichi felt deeply guilty. To repay Raikage, she had a Medical Ninja transplant her Purple Bow and Arrow to him when she was mortally wounded on a mission.

Raikage accepted it through tears, declaring that he would live on with the kunoichi's Purple Bow and Arrow and continue to experience the world.

The end of the boyhood arc.

After receiving the kunoichi's Purple Bow and Arrow, Raikage cast aside his emotions and began training hard.

With yin and yang united within him, Raikage's strength soared. Before long, he became the leader of the Cloud Azure Sect in the Land of Lightning and an object of everyone's admiration.

Raikage's body was strong and pure.

Though cold on the outside, he cared deeply for his fellow sect members' safety. The entire Shinobi World called him the "Pure and Cold Immortal Maiden."

He was the dark-skinned beauty on the cover.

Next came the great battle between sects.

Raikage's father had died at the hands of the leader of the Rock Dawn Sect in the neighboring Land of Earth.

The leader of the Rock Dawn Sect was named Ōnumu. He was the petite, white-haired girl on the cover, and his age was unknown.

Then came all sorts of tangled love and hate, with no end in sight.

For example, when Raikage went to war with the Leaf Raid Sect in the Land of Fire alongside his junior sister, Kiku B, a yellow-haired man who always wore a gentle smile left an indelible mark on his body.

As he left the mark, he said, "You're the most beautiful girl from the Land of Lightning I've ever met," and reminded him to fill the emptiness in his junior sister Kiku B's heart.

After the ending came a preview of the next book. Raikage set aside his hatred and joined forces with Ōnumu and the other sect leaders to fight the ancient witch Radama, resurrected by her resentment.

Kakashi finished reading, feeling that he hadn't had enough.

There were many details he couldn't describe.

For example, Raikage and Kiku B practiced an extremely fearsome technique called the Thunder Raccoon's Crushing Hot Crotch.

To perform it, you first had to make two "V" signs with your hands.

Those were Raikage and Kiku B, and the force of their collision would crush an enemy's head between them.