Night Reconnaissance of the Women's Bathhouse

Lin Zi sighed, too lazy to even listen to the chatter of the small fry surrounding him.

His golden slit pupils swept across the area, as if looking at a few breathing corpses.

"Sigh, if people don't value their lives, they truly are invincible."

Ten Thousand Snake Array: Modified

Before the words even faded, a dozen small white snakes lunged out from his sleeves, his pant cuffs, and even the shadow beneath his feet!

The speed was absurd; the bounty hunters didn't even have time to cry out before they were bound into human-shaped rice dumplings, their iron chains and capture nets clattering to the ground.

Lin Zi clapped his hands and turned to walk into the grocery store next door.

"Boss, buy a bundle of rope."

After paying with Jiraiya's money and stepping back out, he caught sight of some discarded, tattered burlap sacks in a trash heap at the street corner. He summoned two more snakes, had them grip the burlap with their tail tips, and sauntered over to that crooked old locust tree.

Jiraiya stood to the side, dumbfounded by the entire spectacle. But when he saw what Lin Zi did next, he couldn't hold it in and burst out laughing.

Lin Zi used the rope to tie the bounty hunters' ankles securely, hanging them upside down from the tree, and stuffed the foul-smelling burlap into each of their mouths.

The burly leader glared, his face turning beet red, able only to emit muffled "woo-woo" sounds, like a duck with its neck being throttled.

The townspeople, who had been fleeing in all directions just moments ago, were now peeking through cracks in windows and doors; seeing this scene, they were all stunned.

A little girl with pigtails pointed at the tree and chirped, "Mommy! Those grown-ups are playing on the swings!"

Jiraiya walked over, covering his face, his shoulders shaking, "I say... how did you become so twisted?"

Lin Zi stepped back to admire his handiwork and shrugged, "I gave them a chance. If they didn't run, who's to blame? Always blaming oneself just leads to wrinkles."

With that, he snapped off a tree branch, squatted on the ground, and scratched out some crooked characters:

Living decorations, please do not touch. -- Gift from Spirit Snake Sage

After finishing, he blew the dust off the branch and nodded with satisfaction.

Jiraiya looked at the ugly scrawl and laughed in spite of his annoyance: "You really are a genius, damn it."

"Let's go," Lin Zi tossed the branch aside and turned to walk out of town, "Time to get moving."

Jiraiya looked at his back, then glanced up at the dangling dumplings swaying on the tree, sighed, and chased after him: "Hey! At least let them down!"

"Let them hang for a bit, clear their heads." Lin Zi didn't look back, "It's dark anyway, they can serve as streetlights."

Following their footsteps, they soon reached a hot spring inn by the road with a lantern marked "Hot Water" hanging outside, casting a warm yellow glow into the twilight.

The owner was a chubby middle-aged man with a round face and a smile that looked quite amiable.

"Welcome, just the two of you?"

Jiraiya nodded and readily paid the fee.

The owner handed over two keys efficiently and pointed toward the depths of the corridor: "The hot springs are behind the first floor. Guests, please be sure to follow the rules and go to the men's bath."

He said this to both of them, but his gaze remained firmly pinned on Jiraiya's face.

Jiraiya scratched his head, smiling with an air of righteousness, "That goes without saying, we are law-abiding people, right?" As he spoke, he slapped Lin Zi on the shoulder.

Lin Zi couldn't be bothered to respond, merely nodding perfunctorily.

Inside his sleeve, a small white snake quietly poked its head out, flicked its tongue at Jiraiya, and retreated back inside.

The smile on the fat owner's face stiffened for a moment before returning to normal, though the hand handing over the keys trembled slightly.

The two entered the room, and Jiraiya casually pulled a crumpled notebook from his pocket, sprawled out on the tatami, and began scribbling with a pen.

He shouted while writing: "Orochimaru, I'm going to the women's bath to gather material for inspiration, can you keep watch for me?"

Lin Zi was putting on clean clothes and didn't even look up: "Go yourself if you want, don't drag me into it."

"Tsk, so cold." Jiraiya rolled over and climbed up, and just as he pushed the window open, he turned back with a lecherous grin, "Right, don't you have those little snakes for scouting? Lend me two, help me see which side has the better view?"

Lin Zi glanced at him speechlessly: "That's not how my ninjutsu is supposed to be used, is it?"

Despite saying that, he still shook his sleeve. Two small white snakes "whooshed" out of his cuffs and slid through the window crack into the night, moving as fast as two silver threads.

"Not helping you," Lin Zi closed the window tightly, his voice flat, "I'm just afraid you'll get beaten to death for being a pervert and drag me into having to find a new place to sleep in the middle of the night."

The two white snakes followed orders and began to slither through the ventilation ducts.

The pipes leading to the hot spring pool were scorching from the heat; the snake scales slid against the metal, making an almost inaudible rustling sound.

Below, white mist swirled, and the sounds of water and laughter drifted faintly from the women's bath, but the white snakes' pupils pierced through the steam, stopping at the men's changing room next door, capturing a type of chakra rarely felt in the Land of Fire.

In Lin Zi's perception, it was a chakra entwined with lightning.

This sensation inevitably stirred strange feelings; pricking at the white snakes' sensory nerves, the tyrannical and scorched scent unique to Lightning Release chakra, mixed with the sulfurous smell of the hot springs, stimulated the snakes.

Lin Zi issued an order, and the two white snakes quietly swam toward the source of the sound, coiling in the shadows of the rafters above the changing room.

It was strange; there were actually two women in the men's changing room. Both had brown hair, tall figures, and short swords at their waists. Their voices were harsh, and the air inevitably leaked the scent of conspiracy.

The soundproofing barrier they had set up was extremely crude; Lin Zi manipulated the white snakes and heard their conversation clearly.

"Tsunade, one of the Sannin, has been confirmed to be gambling in Tanzaku Town. She's already lost five million ryo."

"Strike while she's dead drunk. Konoha is weak right now, and the Fourth Hokage is severely injured."

"Killer B will arrive in three days to provide support. Whether we can take a bite out of Konoha depends entirely on this mission."

The white snake's tongue flickered, converting these syllables into chakra fluctuations that traveled back to Lin Zi's mind through the connection of their contract.

Although he had heard some incredible intelligence, Lin Zi was still puzzled by the fact that Tsunade had lost another five million ryo.

Are people in the ninja world all millionaires on average? Can they turn things into gold?

All the scenes played out in Lin Zi's mind, and quite a bit of the information left him feeling very strange.

His eyelids twitched, and his golden vertical pupils suddenly snapped open in the dim room.

"Jiraiya." Lin Zi suddenly sat up, his voice dropping low. "Stop obsessing over your damn hot springs; there's real work to do."

Jiraiya was currently clinging to the windowsill, peeking inside. He froze at the words and turned his head with a look of disgust. "What's the situation? Don't tell me the hot springs are full of old ladies? If that's the case, I'm not looking anymore; it's bad for my eyes."

"It's not that." Lin Zi stepped off the bed, his bare feet making not a sound against the floorboards. "Two pieces of trash have snuck into this inn—spies from the Cloud Village."

He paused, a cold glint flashing through his serpentine pupils.

"Furthermore, I've found out where Tsunade is."