Night loves to catch people, and even more to interrogate.

As soon as Lin Zi finished speaking, the playful expression on Jiraiya's face vanished instantly.

"Where?" Lin Zi paused, a hint of oddity flashing through his golden vertical pupils.

"Uh... the men's changing room. Honestly, I find it quite strange. Why would female ninja appear in a men's changing room to exchange intelligence?"

Jiraiya stroked his chin, spouting nonsense with a straight face, "Perhaps they have some unspeakable fetish. You know how Kumogakure is full of those muscle-bound bros."

As he spoke, he struck a few bodybuilding poses, his muscles bulging prominently.

Lin Zi remained silent for two seconds, completely abandoning any intention of communicating with this man.

He pushed the window open directly, his body moving like a boneless snake, sliding silently along the exterior wall; his pale afterimage vanished into the night in a flash.

Jiraiya froze for half a second, looking at his own posture—still hunched over the window frame, peeking at the women's bath fence opposite—and his face turned green.

"Wait, no, Orochimaru, wait for me!"

He cursed as he flipped over and leaped out, stepping on the window frame to give chase, nearly tripping over his own geta sandals and falling flat on his face.

Lin Zi had already reached the top of the men's changing room. He closed his eyes to sense the area for a moment, confirming that apart from those two strands of Lightning Release chakra, there was no one else below.

He knelt on one knee between the roof tiles, forming hand seals with one hand while chakra gathered frantically in his mouth. He looked down at his feet, his golden pupils seemingly piercing through layers of wooden beams and masonry to lock directly onto the two figures whispering below.

"Sage Art: White Rage Technique!"

BOOM!

A Red Light Dragon roared out from his mouth, smashing through the roof tiles and plunging straight into the men's changing room below!

A blinding light erupted, followed by a deafening blast.

The crude soundproofing barrier was torn to shreds like thin paper.

The two Kumogakure female spies had just stripped off their disguises and hadn't even had time to react before the sudden blinding red light and sharp sonic boom left their vision white and their eardrums in agonizing pain. They were thrown clumsily against the lockers behind them, their short blades slipping from their hands and clattering to the floor.

"What?!"

The taller female spy had just reached out to retrieve her blade when she heard a loud shout from above.

"Sage Art: Needle Jizo!"

Jiraiya leaped down through the hole in the roof, his white hair hardening into steel-like needles, pouring down like a torrential rain!

Pfft, pfft, pfft, pfft—

Countless black needles precisely pierced the sleeves, pant legs, and hemlines of the two women, pinning them firmly to the floor like two mounted specimens, unable to move.

Jiraiya landed steadily and crouched before them, the old lecherous smile back on his face as he casually brushed back his spiked white hair.

"Don't move around, you two beauties."

He pointed at the needles still vibrating slightly on the floor, smiling in a harmless manner.

"If you move even a little, these needles will really pierce into your skin. It'll be very painful~"

Lin Zi drifted down from the hole, brushed the dust off his sleeves, and glanced at Jiraiya. "Jiraiya, I didn't expect you to be quite the gentleman."

Jiraiya raised an eyebrow triumphantly. "Of course, who do you think I am? I am the great Sage Jiraiya! What, do you want me to sign a book for you?"

Lin Zi withdrew his gaze, his tone flat. "I take back everything I said. I feel like you only look normal when you're being a pervert."

"Who's a pervert?!"

Lin Zi walked over to the two female ninja pinned to the floor. He crouched down, flicked his fingers, and several small snakes slithered out from his sleeves, sliding into the collars of the two Kumogakure ninja along their necks.

"Hey! Where are your snakes crawling!" the taller female ninja shouted in a rage, her face turning bright red.

"Just a body search. Can you two not be so unreasonable?" Lin Zi didn't even lift his eyelids, his voice languid.

"Stop screaming. Do you think I'm some animal that thinks with its lower half?"

Jiraiya, standing nearby, suddenly perked up and leaned toward Lin Zi. "Yo, Orochimaru, so you have this kind of hobby?"

Lin Zi swung his hand back, shooing Jiraiya away like a fly. "Get lost, Jiraiya. I'm not like you; I'm conducting a proper search."

The snakes slithered around the waists of the two Kumogakure ninja, their cold scales brushing against their skin and causing them to shiver.

A moment later, a white snake raised its head, its tail tip clutching a crumpled map and a sealed secret letter, which it delivered into Lin Zi's hand.

Lin Zi scanned the map for a few seconds before tossing the secret letter to Jiraiya.

"This should be the code used by the Cloud Village here. I can't read it; you take a look."

Jiraiya took the letter, unfolded it, and scanned it twice; the expression on his face gradually turned grave.

"In three days, Killer B will lead a Kumogakure squad to Tanzaku Town to ambush Tsunade."

Jiraiya's voice dropped. "They plan to strike after Tsunade is dead drunk, kidnap her, and take her back to Konoha to trade for something—to see if they can extort some benefits from Konoha."

"And then?" Lin Zi asked, arms crossed.

"If Konoha yields, they will launch an invasion." Jiraiya gripped the letter. "Their spies learned that the Fourth Hokage is severely injured."

Lin Zi stood up, and the snakes withdrew from the spies, disappearing into the shadows like a receding tide.

The two female spies instantly collapsed on the floor, gasping for air, their backs soaked in cold sweat, completely drained of strength.

"Konoha is weak? The Fourth is severely injured?" Lin Zi sneered, licking his lips with the tip of his tongue. "Their intelligence is quite interesting. At the very least, it has broadened my horizons."

He stepped out the doorway, the night wind rushing in to whip his black ponytail into a frenzy. Suddenly, as if remembering something, he glanced back at Jiraiya.

"Jiraiya, what should we do with these two useless spies? We can't escort them back right now."

Jiraiya scratched his head. "There should be a squad nearby finishing up a mission. Once I place a seal on them, I can have them escort these two back."

Lin Zi nodded and said, "Handle it as you see fit. You could send word to Minato now to ask if he has any men in the vicinity, then figure out how to rendezvous."

Jiraiya nodded and said, "We have to head to Tanzaku Town within three days to rescue Tsunade."

He patted Lin Zi on the back, winking suggestively.

"Well? Do you feel a sense of crisis?"

"I don't have a damn sense of crisis. With the three of us together, how could the other side possibly stop us? Even if we really couldn't win, wouldn't it be easy for us to just run away?"

Lin Zi rolled his eyes.

Meanwhile, a thousand miles away in Tanzaku Town.

The gambling den was thick with smoke, the sound of clattering dice and the howling of drunks blending into a chaotic din.

Tsunade's face was flushed red. She planted one foot on a stool and shoved her last few chips forward. "Big! Open it up as Big!"

The dice cup was lifted, and the dealer smiled as he raked in the chips.

"Lost again... my luck is truly terrible!" Tsunade laughed heartily, grabbed a sake flask, and tilted her head back to gulp it down. "Shizune! Shizune!"

A young girl holding a piglet approached with a bitter expression. "Lady Tsunade, please stop drinking. If we keep gambling like this, we won't even have enough travel money to get back..."

Tsunade slammed the flask onto the table and waved a hand with drunken, hazy eyes. "Absolutely not! I've been losing every single day lately, losing every single hand..."

She let out a drunken hiccup, then suddenly narrowed her eyes, gazing out into the pitch-black night outside the window. A cryptic smile tugged at the corner of her mouth.

"But with this feeling, I can't help but think something huge is about to happen. But before that..."

She threw an arm around Shizune's shoulders and slapped another stack of IOUs onto the table.

"Let me have my fun first!"

Shizune clutched the piglet, looking at the mountain of IOUs on the table, and could only sigh before obediently sitting back down beside her.

"Something good... what could it be?"