"Sensei, go ahead." In the living room, the two sat facing each other, with Mirai listening intently.
Jiraiya nodded and asked Mirai meaningfully, "Kid, didn't you once ask me about my other disciples?"
Mirai remembered bringing it up to his teacher while they were at the hot springs, but he had forgotten about it afterward because of an accident.
He had heard his teacher mention those disciples before, though only briefly. He only knew that his teacher's expectations for someone among them had even surpassed those he had for Mirai.
"What kind of people are my other three fellow disciples?" Mirai asked with a smile.
At the mention of his disciples, Jiraiya smiled. "Three interesting little fellows. Like you, they had difficult lives and were orphans... Our ninja wars turned them into orphans."
Mirai's expression sank slightly, and he nodded. During the early days of the Second Shinobi World War, Konoha, Sunagakure, and Iwagakure had fallen into a prolonged deadlock in the Land of Rain. Many battles had taken place afterward. Naturally, the civilians of the Land of Rain could not escape unscathed.
He still remembered the Rain Village where enemy ninja had slaughtered everyone when he first met Jiraiya.
"Then they must have had a hard life before meeting you..." Mirai frowned. Although his parents had died when he was young, he had at least been born in Konoha, one of the Five Great Ninja Villages, and his parents had left behind enough money for him to grow up on.
However, those orphans had been born in a small country engulfed by the flames of war. For them, survival itself had become their greatest problem.
"That was why I chose to stay and teach them the skills needed to settle down during those troubled times," Jiraiya said. That had