Urging Jiraiya

The next day.

"Ugh, I drank way too much."

After waking up, Jiraiya clutched his head and braced one hand on the table, barely managing to sit upright.

Fei Shi couldn't be bothered to get up. He and Jiraiya had started chatting and drinking at noon the day before, and before they knew it, they'd drunk until midnight and fallen asleep. There were still some things he'd meant to tell Jiraiya, but after drinking, he'd forgotten what they were. He couldn't remember, so he might as well stop trying! Better to just enjoy the drinks!

He checked his System Space. The Han Emperor was gone. He'd had more than thirty bottles, and now they were all gone. Three million points! Three million! Enough for thirty pairs of Three-Tomoe Sharingan! Agh!

How had I gotten so careless? I got drunk and brought out my entire stock so we could keep drinking. What a waste.

"Jiraiya!"

"Hm? What is it, kid?"

"..."

Fei Shi gritted his teeth. What do you mean, "What is it"? The booze was gone!

Han Emperor was incredibly expensive. He'd spent ages agonizing over the points before buying it, and now he was back to square one.

He lit a cigarette and took a deep drag.

"You drank all my booze."

"What?! It's gone?! Didn't you promise to give me ten bottles?! It's all gone?"

Damn it!

I haven't even blamed you for refusing to let go of the Han Emperor, and now you're turning around and blaming me.

"Cut the crap. I want to go to Mount Myoboku. Signing a Summoning Contract with them would be fine, too."

Jiraiya remembered that he'd promised to take him there and nodded.

"Sure, but let's get something to eat first. I'm starving."

Grrr~

Fei Shi: "..."

"Uh, ah, ahahaha! Hahahaha! Come on, come on. I'm buying today."

"You said Naruto was the Child of Prophecy. Are you sure? This isn't something to joke about. How could a little kid make the Nine-Tails come around? It's impossible."

"Look at you, getting all worked up. He's still so young. 'When Heaven is about to place a great responsibility on someone, it first tests their resolve, exhausts their muscles and bones, starves their body, and leaves them destitute. It frustrates their every endeavor, so that they may endure and grow stronger.' He's a Jinchūriki. You know how much ordinary people hate and fear the Tailed Beasts."

"At the beginning of the year, someone spread rumors that Naruto was the incarnation of the Demon Fox. A lot of people started hating him, and even some adults cursed at him in the street."

"What?! That happened?! Why didn't Sensei tell me?"

"It's been taken care of. I told him not to bother you. We also found the one behind it: Danzo. If the Third Hokage hadn't stopped me, that old bastard would already be dead."

"..."

"What did you do to him?"

"I took off one of his arms and one of his legs."

"You're ruthless."

"Anyway, Naruto is bound to suffer some hardships before he grows up. If he overcomes them, then he'll be the Child of Prophecy."

"'When Heaven is about to place a great responsibility on someone, it first tests their resolve, exhausts their muscles and bones, starves their body, and leaves them destitute. It frustrates their every endeavor, so that they may endure and grow stronger'... That really is a classic. So Naruto still has a long road ahead of him, right?"

"Exactly. When Danzo spread those rumors, I considered not correcting them, letting it become a trial Naruto had to overcome. But in the end, I couldn't bear to let him go through that. I told everyone what it meant to be a Jinchūriki. I told them that if Naruto hadn't become one, the Nine-Tails would have nearly destroyed Konoha, and that Naruto was a hero. I also told them he could be at risk of having his mind taken over by the Nine-Tails. They didn't say anything after that, but they still looked at Naruto with hatred because... that monster was inside him. They hated the Nine-Tails so much they wanted to eat its flesh and drink its blood."

"They were looking at the Nine-Tails, but it was inside Naruto... So Naruto thought he'd done something wrong to upset them. He didn't go outside for several weeks."

Jiraiya fell silent. Was the price of becoming the Child of Prophecy really that high?

He didn't know whether he should let Naruto become the Child of Prophecy. It didn't seem fair to Naruto.

"You can ask Naruto what he thinks when he's a little older, Jiraiya. Naruto lost his parents when he was little. Though Senior Biwako took good care of him, she wasn't his mother. He cares a lot about what the people around him think of him, and..."

"Fine. We'll ask him when he's old enough to start school. For now... let him enjoy himself."

"Sure."

"Then, Fei Shi, when are you planning to go to Mount Myoboku?"

Fei Shi thought for a moment before answering.

"December. I'll treat it like a vacation at Mount Myoboku."

Jiraiya: "..."

"Fine. I'll go to Mount Myoboku first and ask the sages if they'll agree."

"Sure. After that, you should spend some time with Tsunade. She really needs you by her side."

"...I... I'll try. I won't let myself fail again."

"You try. If you can't win her over, I'll go after her myself."

Jiraiya: "!!!"

"Besides, we're only related through a branch of the family three generations back. I'm a descendant of the First's close friend. If the old man were still around, he'd probably be all for it."

Jiraiya: "!!!"

"Oh! Right! My grandmother was the First's cousin. We'd be bringing the families even closer!"

Jiraiya: "!!!"

"And—"

"Stop! I'll pursue her! I'll do it right now! Isn't that enough?!"

Watching Jiraiya hurry off, Fei Shi was dumbfounded.

Had he overdone it? But...

"Jiraiya! You bastard, pay the bill!"

"Well, should I go find Orochimaru now? Or wait until the delegation from the Land of Lightning leaves?"

"Wait until they're gone. Right now, I don't know which snake den Orochimaru is holed up in."

The delegation from the Land of Lightning would arrive in two weeks. He wanted to see whether the Land of Lightning would still dare to act so arrogantly with him there.

He was on good terms with the Hyuga Clan now. He'd gotten to know them a few months after arriving in Konoha. The Third Hokage was also very supportive, though he wanted Fei Shi to take on some missions to prepare for eventually becoming Hokage.

Fei Shi hadn't refused. He'd sent three Wood Clones in his place. His chakra reserves were now comparable to those of the Seven-Tails, and each Wood Clone had twenty percent of his chakra. They might struggle against Kage Level opponents, but they could still take on elite jonin without a problem. As for now, he'd awakened the Tenseigan and reached Six Paths Level. His chakra reserves had also increased dramatically, exceeding the Eight-Tails' by a little, without even using the Nine-Tails inside him.

He'd thought the reward from that earlier mission was the Nine-Tails that should have been sealed inside Minato. He hadn't expected the system to create its own awesome, all-purpose Nine-Tails. He wondered if it had any other functions. The rewards he could get from signing in weren't very good lately. Aside from modern products, there wasn't much useful in the shop. As for the lottery, that feature had been sealed for ten years.ಥ_ಥ