Konoha's Hypocrites and True Villains

Jiraiya: "?"

He did not want to become a father out of nowhere. He was still young. He... he liked Tsunade.

"Do I really have to acknowledge it?" Jiraiya asked hesitantly. He already could not catch up to Tsunade; what if he had to bring along a child too?

"Of course! It's yours, and you won't acknowledge it?" Hiruzen Sarutobi smacked the back of Jiraiya's head.

Jiraiya winced and covered the back of his head. He... forget it, he would not argue.

If it was his, then it was his.

He was actually going to be a father.

He...

Maybe his child was the Child of Prophecy?

Jiraiya had a big heart and got over it in an instant.

Seeing that Jiraiya had not realized the seriousness of the matter, Nara Shikaku reminded him, "Not only do you have to acknowledge the child, you also have to marry the woman."

Jiraiya: "?"

"You want me to marry a prostitute?!" he roared.

"Listen to Shikaku," Hiruzen Sarutobi scolded him, then turned kindly to Shikaku. "Go on. What's the reason?"

If possible, he naturally hoped his disciple could marry a respectable woman.

"From the villagers' perspective, they know this woman bore Jiraiya-san a child. Jiraiya acknowledges the child but sends the woman back, which makes it easy for people with ulterior motives to attack him for looking down on her because she is unclean."

"Yes." Hiruzen Sarutobi nodded in agreement.

If Orochimaru and Masaichi pinned that label on him and immediately claimed that Jiraiya looked down on the women of the red-light district, Jiraiya would be in serious trouble.

Normally, everyone looked down on prostitutes. But with Delia kneeling and crying like this, people would sympathize with her, then condemn Jiraiya from the moral high ground.

"Not only must you acknowledge the child, you have to marry her in a grand procession," Nara Shikaku advised.

The courage to defy convention, a love of redemption and equality—so long as they gave that Delia a pitiful backstory about being forced into the red-light district, then marketed it properly, Jiraiya would become a real man in everyone's eyes.

Today's meeting had merely caught Jiraiya off guard. It had not driven him into a corner.

What happened today might even help him build an image as a reformed rogue and a devoted husband. He should become Hokage first; at worst, he could divorce her in a few years.

Nara Shikaku felt that he had easily crushed Masaichi's scheme.

There was a small interruption midway through. Orochimaru arrived and, under the watchful guard of all three men, plucked a hair with its follicle from Jiraiya's head.

With Hiruzen Sarutobi and Nara Shikaku persuading him together—

Of course, it was Hiruzen Sarutobi's authority as his teacher for decades that truly worked. Jiraiya was forced to compromise.

Tsunade...

Sob, sob, Tsunade!!

It seemed that Hiruzen Sarutobi would no longer need to force Jiraiya into marriage.

Because that afternoon, Orochimaru produced a DNA test report.

According to the test results, the child this woman had brought had only a one-percent chance of being Jiraiya's biological child.

In other words, it was not his at all.

Under Orochimaru's "interrogation," Delia initially refused to admit it. But the moment scientific evidence was placed before her, she confessed that she had wanted to extort a sum from Jiraiya and live the rest of her life without worrying about food or clothing.

After Delia was "exposed," Jiraiya practically wanted to kowtow to Orochimaru.

"Orochimaru, you still remember our friendship after all, right?"

"What friendship? Masaichi merely asked me to do it."

"Oh, stop being shy."

"I'll treat you to dinner tonight!"

Jiraiya walked a stretch of road with his arm around Orochimaru's shoulders, then hurriedly took Delia to Konoha's streets to clarify the matter and issue a public notice.

Seeing that his student was innocent, Hiruzen Sarutobi also breathed a sigh of relief and helped explain the situation.

Nara Shikaku kept feeling that there was some scheme at work, but he could not put it into words.

One link followed another.

The next day, Jiraiya completely lost his chance to run for Hokage.

The reason was abandoning his wife and child.

Yes, under the guidance of people with ulterior motives, the villagers believed that Jiraiya had forced Delia to admit she had come to swindle him because he wanted to become Hokage and keep his record spotless!

And honestly, that conspiracy theory was quite plausible and internally consistent.

At this crucial final stage of the Hokage election, if Jiraiya did not want to lose to Orochimaru, he could not afford the scandal of having a child with a woman from the red-light district.

The people of Konoha believed they had seen through everything.

For a time, phrases like "Jiraiya is a hypocrite" and "Orochimaru is a true villain" spread through every street of Konoha.

The claim that Jiraiya was a hypocrite was, naturally, Orochimaru's doing.

The claim that Orochimaru was a true villain was Jiraiya's side's counterattack! Their retaliation!

They said it all along—how could Orochimaru possibly be so kindhearted?

So that was it! So that was it!

Aaaah! My lifelong reputation, Jiraiya's lifelong reputation!!!

Now, even jumping into the Naka River would not wash him clean.

Whether he brought back that child who clearly was not his son or not, he would still have to bear the abuse!!

Furious, Jiraiya was determined to drag Orochimaru down with him even if it killed him.

Thus, both sides were branded with disgrace.

Konoha's hypocrites: Jiraiya, Minato Namikaze.

Konoha's true villains: Orochimaru, Masaichi.

If the teachers were hypocrites and true villains, what decent people could their students possibly be?

This time, the two sides truly became mortal enemies.

Whatever friendship they once had, it had long since come to an end!

My former friend Jiraiya (Orochimaru)? He died long ago!!!

Now, whenever the two ran into each other on the street, it was always—

"Orochimaru!!"

"Jiraiya!!!"

Masaichi had precisely targeted Jiraiya's usual libertine behavior.

It was as though Hiruzen Sarutobi had lost an arm.

He was furious as well.

Everything had been fine! Now Jiraiya had been driven out of the election.

Orochimaru! Do you still see me as your teacher?!

With the old man taking sides, Konoha's current political landscape became complicated, as if it had split apart.

Hiruzen Sarutobi's grand court versus Orochimaru's small court.

Orochimaru's disadvantage was that he had few people, but that was also his advantage. There were only a handful of them, and all were true villains of corrupt character. The attacks Hiruzen Sarutobi launched for Minato's sake were completely ineffective—if anything, they sounded like praise.

Recently, a saying had become popular throughout Konoha.

"A hypocrite is worse than a true villain."

"We can recognize a true villain and guard against him, but who guards against a hypocrite? You won't even know when a hypocrite betrays you."

Those words came from Masaichi's Shadow Clone.

Because of those words, quite a few people abruptly changed their view of the villains.

Orochimaru and Masaichi had turned Konoha upside down, but they truly had not tormented the common folk. On the contrary, the common folk's standard of living had improved.

The toy factory Masaichi had opened some time ago was thriving and had been continuously hiring villagers.

He had copied the operating model of a company from his previous life, distributing all profits after taxes among his employees.

After becoming Hokage, money would be nothing but a string of numbers. Konoha itself would belong to the Hokage, so Masaichi could truly say that he had no interest in money. He had to give his all to send his teacher to the position of Hokage!!