"From today on, you can't go back to the orphanage."
"Oh?" Ling Xuan raised an eyebrow ever so slightly.
"That place is no longer safe. Danzo's spies are everywhere in Konoha, and he'll be watching your every move. Until the finals begin, you'll stay at my safe house," Jiraiya said. "I've personally set up barriers and Sealing Jutsu there. Even Danzo wouldn't dare reach his hand inside."
This was no longer part of their deal. It was an act of protection for the village's future, carried out by one of the Konoha Sannin and a student of Hiruzen Sarutobi.
Ling Xuan looked at Jiraiya in silence for several seconds. This was the best solution available for now.
Protection from an S-rank ninja, an absolutely secure laboratory, and a walking library he could consult at any time.
There was no downside to any of it for his plans.
"Fine." Ling Xuan nodded without hesitation.
Seeing how readily Ling Xuan agreed, Jiraiya paused, then gave a wry smile. "You really aren't cute at all, kid. When ordinary children run into something like this, shouldn't they be crying and making a fuss?"
"Crying and making a fuss won't solve the problem," Ling Xuan replied calmly. "It would only waste time that could be spent dealing with it and expose my weakness. It's an extremely inefficient way of expressing emotion."
"..."
Jiraiya felt speechless all over again. Giving up on the idea of communicating normally with this human calculator, he simply waved a hand.
"Come on. I'll show you this sage's secret base!"
Jiraiya's safe house was tucked away in an extremely inconspicuous corner of Konoha. From the outside, it looked like the most ordinary house imaginable. But after Jiraiya used a complicated series of Hand Seals to undo more than a dozen interlocking