Whether Jiraiya was around was something the boys rarely paid attention to under normal circumstances. Unfortunately, they were on edge now, both hoping he would come back and worrying about whether he would!
A palm-sized wooden plaque hung quietly on the wall facing the room. It bore a cute frog's face. Four smaller wooden plaques hung on the side wall, each showing a solid red side.
Jiraiya had put up these plaques after taking the boys on as his students. Each one represented a person: the lone plaque represented Jiraiya, while the four smaller ones represented the boys.
The plaques had different designs on their front and back, and each side meant something different. The front was solid red, with no other designs or colors. It meant the boys were back at the base and inside.
The back of each plaque had a frog's face on it. Jiraiya had a thing for frogs, so he had chosen the design himself. It meant "back soon," indicating that the plaque's owner was away.
The purpose of hanging up these plaques was to guard against enemies and, as a bonus, cultivate everyone's vigilance. Whether it was Jiraiya or one of the boys, the first thing they did when leaving or returning was turn their own plaque to the correct side. The plaques' positions showed who was inside the base.
Although the war in the Land of Rivers had ended, the situation was still far from stable. A group of boys living here could easily attract unwanted attention at any moment. When they were all gathered at the base, they were at their most vulnerable: their location was obvious, they could easily be ambushed, and their guard was at its lowest.
To guard against sudden mishaps in the future, Jiraiya had specially made plaques to show everyone's status.
In other words, if a plaque showed red but no one was inside the base, that meant the person might have been captured by the enemy. Conversely, if a plaque showed a frog's face while its owner was inside, that meant the person in the room might be an enemy in disguise. With this secret signal, they could avoid a lot of danger.
Yuehua Ai looked at the frog's face on Jiraiya's plaque. He had no idea where the man had gone to fool around.
He wasn't worried about Jiraiya's safety at all. If even the remnants of some ninja forces skulking around in this backwater could give Jiraiya trouble, then he hardly deserved to be one of the Sannin.
"It's just as well that Teacher Jiraiya isn't here. We can—" Yahiko had just started to say that they could prepare a plan, but before he could finish, a burst of laughter came from outside.
"Haha! I could smell the grilled fish from a mile away. That's a good way to attract enemies, you know!"
Laughing, Jiraiya took off his rain gear and hung his raincoat on the rack by the door.
He sat down casually, leaned over to sniff the grilled fish on the table, and wore a look of pure bliss.
He picked up a skewer without asking and took a big bite. Nodding with satisfaction, he said, "Ai grilled this, didn't he? No one else could grill fish this well. Forget ninjutsu—when it comes to cooking, Ai has already surpassed his teacher!"
Jiraiya shook his head in delight as he spoke, then turned to the three boys standing frozen nearby.
"Hey, Yahiko, Nagato, Konan, why haven't you started eating? You weren't waiting for me to come back so we could eat together, were you?!"
"Ah... n-no, Teacher Jiraiya..." Konan stammered.
"N-no, ha... ha... we've already eaten..." Yahiko said, awkwardly scratching his head.
"Ohhh..." Jiraiya drew out the sound and turned his head, eyeing them with deep suspicion.
"Re... we... really..." Nagato stammered, unable to get the words out.
Jiraiya turned his attention back to the grilled fish and said nothing. As if he hadn't noticed anything odd about the others, he just hummed and nodded while he ate.
The atmosphere grew tense. Only Yuehua Ai and Jiraiya's chewing could be heard in the room. By the time Yuehua Ai had finished eating and Jiraiya had devoured most of the fish in his hand, Jiraiya suddenly seemed to remember something. He slapped his forehead, then turned to face the three boys.
"Right, I remember giving you a mission this morning. Since you're all back, I assume you've completed it. Tell me how it went!"
"Uh..." The boys exchanged glances, then swallowed nervously.
"What's wrong?" Jiraiya tilted his head and propped it on one hand.
"Nothing..." Yahiko still didn't dare tell him what they had done. He was just about to say it was nothing when Yuehua Ai spoke up.
"Teacher Jiraiya, we found those bandits you told us about and took care of them!"
Boys always seemed to make simple things more complicated than they needed to be. Rather than keep beating around the bush like you are, I may as well come right out and say it.
That was what Yuehua Ai thought.
"Ah!!!" Yahiko and the others went pale. They hadn't expected Yuehua Ai to be so blunt, without even trying to ease into it. His directness caught them completely off guard, and Jiraiya's reaction was just as unexpected.
"Oh." Jiraiya calmly nodded at Yuehua Ai's words, barely reacting at all. He even took out his flask and slowly poured himself a cup of wine.
Jiraiya took a contented sip, watching as bewilderment and panic flickered across the boys' faces. He couldn't keep up his stern, indifferent act any longer.
"You foolish boys! Yahiko, you actually thought you could hide it? I've known all about what you did. I was following you the whole time!"
Jiraiya pointed at them, looking rather pleased with himself. He said only that he had followed them, without clarifying how close behind he had been.
"Ah!" Jiraiya's words made the boys' minds go blank. Teacher Jiraiya had been following them the whole time, yet they had actually thought they could keep it from him.
Yuehua Ai had been a little surprised that he hadn't detected Jiraiya when he used his sensory abilities, but he hadn't suspected anything. He had simply assumed Jiraiya was trailing them from beyond the range of his senses.
"T-Teacher Jiraiya..." The boys bit their lips. Jiraiya sounded amused, but they still worried about what he thought of them.
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