Inciting Jiraiya

The next day.

"Tch, drank way too much."

After waking up, Jiraiya clutched his head, bracing himself against the table with one hand to steady his posture.

Fei Shi couldn't be bothered to get up. Yesterday, he and Jiraiya had started chatting and drinking from noon, and they hadn't fallen asleep until the middle of the night. He had originally intended to discuss a few things with him, but after the drinking, he'd forgotten what he wanted to say. Think, I can't remember, so forget it! Just drink to my heart's content!

He checked his system space; the Han Emperor was gone. There had been over thirty bottles originally, and now they were all gone. Three million points! Three million! That was thirty pairs of Three-Tomoe Sharingan! Ah!

How could I be so muddled? I got drunk and took out my entire stock just to keep drinking. Sigh, my heart aches.

"Jiraiya!"

"Huh? What is it, kid?"

"..."

Fei Shi gritted his teeth. What is it, you ask? The booze is gone!

The Han Emperor was incredibly expensive; he had spent a long time saving up points to buy it, only for everything to be wiped out in one go.

He lit a cigarette and took a deep drag.

"You drank all my liquor."

"Ah?! 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 hogging the Han Emperor, and you have the nerve to turn the tables on me.

"Cut the crap. I want to go to Mount Myoboku. Signing a summoning contract with them would be fine too."

Jiraiya remembered the promise he had made and nodded.

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

Grumble~~

Fei Shi: "..."

"Uh, ah, ahahaha, hahahaha. Let's go, let's go. My treat today."

"You say Naruto is the Child of Prophecy, but can you be sure? This isn't something to joke about. Can a little brat like him really reform the Nine-Tails? It's impossible just thinking about it."

"Look at yourself, look at how anxious you are. He's only a child. 'When Heaven is about to confer a great office on any man, it first exercises his mind with suffering, and his sinews and bones with toil. It exposes his body to hunger, and subjects him to extreme poverty and destitution. It confounds his undertakings, so that by all these methods it stimulates his mind, hardens his nature, and improves his deficiencies.' He is a jinchuriki; you know better than anyone 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 Nine-Tails, and many people started to hate him. Even some adults would curse at him on the street."

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

"It's already been resolved. I told him not to bother you. I found the mastermind, too—it was Danzo. If the Third hadn't stepped in to stop me, that old bastard would be dead already."

"..."

"What did you do to him?"

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

"You're still as ruthless as ever."

"In any case, Naruto is bound to go through some hardships before he grows up. If he can push through them, then he is the Child of Prophecy."

"'When Heaven is about to confer a great office on any man, it first exercises his mind with suffering...' That really is a classic quote. So, Naruto's journey... still has a long way to go, is that it?"

"Exactly. When Danzo spread the rumors, I considered not debunking them, letting it be a trial Naruto had to face. But in the end, I couldn't bear to let him go through that. I told them the concept of a jinchuriki. I said that if Naruto hadn't become the jinchuriki, Konoha Village would have been destroyed by the Nine-Tails, making Naruto a hero. I also mentioned the danger of the Nine-Tails taking over his mind. Although they didn't say anything after that, they still cast hateful gazes at Naruto because... that monster is inside him, and they would love to eat its flesh and drink its blood."

"They are looking at the Nine-Tails, but since the Nine-Tails is inside Naruto... Naruto thinks he did something wrong to offend them. He hasn't gone out for several weeks."

Jiraiya fell silent. Was the price of being the Child of Prophecy really this high?

He didn't know if he should let Naruto be this Child of Prophecy, because it wasn't fair to him.

"You can ask Naruto what he wants when he's a bit older, Jiraiya. Naruto has been without parents since he was little. Although Biwako has taken good care of him, no matter how good she is, she isn't his biological mother. He cares deeply about how people around him view him, and also..."

"Alright, we'll ask him when he reaches school age. For now... let's just let him play."

"Fine."

"So, Fei Shi, when do you plan on going to Mount Myoboku?"

Fei Shi pondered for a moment and replied.

"December, I suppose. I'll treat it like a vacation to Mount Myoboku."

Jiraiya: "..."

"Alright, I'll go to Mount Myoboku first and ask the Sages if they'll agree to it."

"Sure. After that, go keep Tsunade company. She really needs you."

"...I will... try. I won't allow myself to fail again."

"You better try. If you can't win her over, I'll do it myself."

Jiraiya: "!!!"

"Anyway, the blood relation is beyond the third generation, and I am a descendant of Lord First's close friend. If the old man were still here, he might even give his full blessing."

Jiraiya: "!!!"

"Oh, right! My grandmother was Lord First's cousin; it would be keeping it in the family!"

Jiraiya: "!!!"

"And there's more—"

Jiraiya: "Stop! I'll chase her! I'll chase her! I'm going right now! Is that not good enough for you?!"

Watching Jiraiya hurry away, Fei Shi was left in a daze.

Was that too much stimulation? But...

"Jiraiya! You damn idiot, pay the bill!"

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

"I'll wait until they leave. I have no idea which snake den Orochimaru is squatting in right now anyway."

The Land of Lightning delegation was arriving in two weeks, and he wanted to see if they could still be so arrogant with him in the picture.

He had a very good relationship with the Hyuga Clan now, having made contact with them a few months after arriving in Konoha. The Third Hokage was very supportive, though he also hoped Fei Shi would take on some missions to prepare for eventually succeeding him as Hokage.

He hadn't refused, instead sending three Wood Clones. At the time, his chakra levels were comparable to the Seven-Tails Chomei, with each Wood Clone possessing twenty percent of his chakra. While they might have trouble against Kage-level opponents, they could easily crush elite Jonin. Now, however, he had awakened the Tenseigan, and his strength had reached the Six Paths level. His chakra reserves had also surged, exceeding those of the Eight-Tails by a small margin, even without tapping into the Nine-Tails within him.

He had originally thought the mission reward would be the Nine-Tails that was supposed to be sealed inside Minato. He hadn't expected the system to create an overpowered, multi-functional system itself. He didn't know if it had other functions, but the quality of the items he could sign in for lately wasn't great. Aside from modern products, there wasn't much useful in the shop. As for the lottery, that function had been sealed for ten years. ಥ_ಥ