Strategic Retreat, the Dirty Old Man's Amegakure Warning

Strategic Retreat, the Dirty Old Man's Amegakure Warning

Early morning, the sun shone brightly.

Inside Chenshu Senju's private residence.

Tayuya crouched on the floor with murder written all over her face, stuffing clothes into an enormous travel backpack.

Today, she wore the "personal secretary outfit" Chenshu Senju had dug up at a secondhand market.

It was really just a black, high-slit qipao two sizes too small.

The fabric clung tightly to her body, vividly outlining her devilish figure.

Especially while she crouched to pack, the collar of her qipao was stretched taut by that proud, heavy pair.

The deep cleavage looked as if it could send those poor knotted buttons flying at any moment.

The slits along both sides of her thighs went straight up to her waist, exposing vast stretches of dazzling pale skin to the air.

"Did you bring the keyboard?"

Chenshu Senju lounged in a grand chair, thermos in hand, and asked leisurely.

"I did."

Tayuya bit her lip, suppressing the urge to smash the keyboard into his face.

She was the captain of the mighty Sound Four.

Yet now, not only did she have to pour out his foot-washing water, she also had to pack his luggage like some old housewife!

She took a deep breath.

Pop.

One of the knotted buttons over her chest finally failed to withstand the outrageous pressure and shot off.

Two astonishingly soft mounds sprang free at once, swaying through the air in dizzying arcs.

Sakon, who was mopping nearby, brightened immediately.

"Good daughter, it's hot out. Let your father fetch a fan and cool you off..."

Sakon sidled over with a lecherous grin.

Bang!

Kimimaro kicked him straight into the pond in the courtyard.

"Get back to work." Kimimaro turned around expressionlessly.

Tayuya was so ashamed and furious she nearly lost her mind. She clutched her chest tightly, her face red enough to drip blood.

To hell with this personal secretary outfit!

For some reason, she felt that the unluckiest thing that had ever happened to her was meeting this black-hearted pervert.

"Enough. Quit fooling around."

Chenshu Senju stood up and casually picked up the backpack.

He swept his gaze over the five high-level hired hands.

"This business trip may take as little as half a month, or as long as several months."

"You five stay home. Your salaries will still be paid, and keep drinking your herbal medicine."

Chenshu Senju looked at Kimimaro and gave him a solemn instruction.

"If that old schemer Danzo sends Root people here to cause trouble, don't hold back. Plant them in the backyard as fertilizer."

Kimimaro dropped to one knee, his gaze fervent beyond measure.

"Yes! I will never let anyone step even half a foot into the courtyard!"

Watching this obedient bunch of subordinates, Chenshu Senju nodded in satisfaction.

This lousy place, the Hidden Leaf Village, was full of higher-ups plotting all day and ANBU keeping watch. It was a complete mess.

Now, with five near-Kage-level enforcers guarding his home, he could go outside and freeload resources to his heart's content.

This was the proper way for a transmigrator to live.

Growth was what truly mattered.

At the entrance to Konoha.

A light breeze passed by.

Jiraiya crouched beneath a tree, sneakily holding a pair of binoculars as he ogled some passing female ninja.

Every so often, he let out a lewd chuckle.

"Wipe your drool, dirty old man. It's about to hit the ground."

With one hand in his pocket, Chenshu Senju strolled over leisurely.

Jiraiya jumped in fright and hurriedly put away the binoculars.

"Ahem, what do you know? I'm searching for the soul of my new book!"

Jiraiya stood and looked Chenshu Senju up and down.

"Not bad, kid. I thought that old bastard Danzo would keep you tied up and unable to leave."

He had long heard about Root surrounding Chenshu Senju's residence yesterday.

"Who the hell does he think he is?" Chenshu Senju curled his lip.

"If I stayed in the village, that old schemer would make things difficult for me every other day. It'd annoy me to death."

Chenshu Senju glanced back at Konoha's massive gates.

"If I can't provoke him, can't I hide from him? This is called a strategic retreat."

"I'll come back after I've sheared all those fat sheep outside."

Jiraiya's eye twitched.

This guy's head was filled with nothing but freeloading and fleecing sheep.

What kind of Hidden Leaf Village ninja with the Will of Fire was this? He was practically a bandit wearing a forehead protector.

"Let's go. Our objective is to find Tsunade."

Jiraiya waved a broad hand and turned to lead the way.

At noon.

The two walked along the dirt road toward Tanzaku Town.

The sun beat down fiercely.

"Dirty old man, what are we eating for lunch?" Chenshu Senju rubbed his stomach.

"There's a town up ahead. We'll just have some ramen." Jiraiya answered casually.

"You're treating, right?"

"Why the hell should I treat? Didn't you just extort five hundred thousand in settlement money from the village?" Jiraiya widened his eyes.

"That's for paying my subordinates' salaries."

Chenshu Senju spread his hands as if it were only natural.

"Besides, yesterday you got a free look at Tayuya's premium bondage and mooched so much explicit material. It's already generous of me not to charge you copyright fees."

"It's only one bowl of ramen. Stop being so stingy."

Jiraiya instantly fell silent upon hearing that.

What the kid said somehow made so much sense that he could not refute it at all.

Thinking back to Tayuya's magnificent curves threatening to burst free, along with those artistically arranged vines, Jiraiya could not help swallowing again.

He would take the loss on this meal.

Inside a tavern in town.

The two ordered a table full of grilled meat and sake.

Chenshu Senju ate until his mouth glistened with oil, yet he still pulled out his laptop, set it on the table, and typed out a couple of lines.

He still had to rush out today's update for The Domineering Hokage Falls in Love with Me.

"That woman owes debts up to her neck. Who knows which casino she's hiding in now, acting like a fat sheep."

Jiraiya took a drink and brought up Tsunade.

"She won't be hard to find. Just look for the blonde, big-chested woman who loses every time she gambles."

Chenshu Senju nodded while multitasking, typing on the keyboard.

"Perfect. Once we find her, I'll use Wood Release to help her cheat at dice. We split the winnings fifty-fifty."

Jiraiya: ...

What kind of godly train of thought was that?

The young master of the Senju Clan, heir to the ultimate Wood Release technique, spent every day thinking about how to cheat people out of money?

If the First Hokage knew, he would probably be so furious that he'd crawl out of the Pure Land as a corpse.

Just as the two chatted nonsense.

A chilling draft swept through the tavern.

The sky outside seemed to darken somewhat.

Jiraiya set down his wine cup, and the drunkenness on his face gradually faded.

His eyes passed beyond the window toward the distant west.

For the first time, they carried a rare gravity and killing intent.

"Kid Chenshu."

Jiraiya suddenly spoke, his voice much lower.

Chenshu Senju's fingers paused over the keyboard, and he raised his head.

"The ninja world hasn't been peaceful lately, especially around Amegakure."

Jiraiya unconsciously rubbed a finger along the rim of his cup.

"The intelligence network I planted there went completely dark a few days ago..."

The air grew quiet.

"Not even a messenger toad has managed to fly out. The entire Amegakure has become like a huge black death prison."

"None of those who enter survive."

An unmistakable sense of danger seeped through Jiraiya's tone.

He faintly sensed that some deadly conspiracy capable of overturning the entire ninja world was brewing there.

It was an enormous crisis that would soon sweep everyone up in it.

Chenshu Senju listened quietly until he finished.

Of course, he knew what was hidden within Amegakure.

Six Paths of Pain, Nagato, Konan, and the entire Akatsuki, all brimming with perverse ideas.

Going there for a boss fight of that level right now would be nothing but delivering himself to his death.

His current task was to freeload Tsunade, not become a suicide squad member in Amegakure.

"Oh."

Chenshu Senju responded without expression and turned his gaze back to the computer screen.

"Maybe the roads were slippery from the rain, and your toads fell into a ditch."

Chenshu Senju tossed out the remark carelessly.

Drip.

The wine cup in Jiraiya's hand nearly fell to the floor.

That solemn, despairing end-of-the-world atmosphere he had spent so long building up—

was instantly dismantled into nothing by the words "fell into a ditch."

Jiraiya stood there with his mouth open for a long while, yet he could not force out a single rebuttal.

"You little brat... can't you be serious for once?!"

Jiraiya slapped the table in exasperation.

For some reason, he suddenly had the urge to shove the kid's head into the plate of grilled meat.