Tsunade walked up to him, looked him up and down, and then said to the surrounding classmates:
"Don't listen to his nonsense."
"He was the very first one batted away by the monster."
"Pfft—" Someone chuckled.
Jiraiya's face flushed. "Th-That was a strategic retreat! I was drawing the fire!"
"Right, right, right, drawing the fire."
Tsunade nodded. "The kind of drawing where you lie flat on the ground and don't move."
The surrounding laughter grew louder.
Jiraiya grew anxious. "Tsunade! I saved you, after all—can't you give me a little face?"
Tsunade raised an eyebrow. "You saved me?"
"Of course! If I hadn't arrived in time—"
"You were the last one to arrive."
Tsunade mercilessly interrupted. "Orochimaru and I had been fighting for ages before you finally dropped out of the sky riding a toad."
Jiraiya opened his mouth, finding that he seemed unable to refute it.
The surrounding classmates laughed hysterically.
Just then, two more people walked in through the classroom door.
Orochimaru and Uchiha Gen came side by side, evidently having met on the way.
One of them had a calm expression while the other wore a smile, conversing in low tones as they walked.
"Gen, over here!" Someone waved at Gen.
Gen nodded and walked toward his seats with Orochimaru.
Passing by that crowd, he glanced at Jiraiya, who was still bickering with Tsunade, and helplessly shook his head.
Orochimaru ignored him completely, walking to his own seat to sit down, taking a book out of his bag, and quietly flipping through it.
Gen sat down beside him, smiling as he said in a low voice, "Jiraiya really is full of energy."
Orochimaru turned a page of the book and said indifferently, "I'm used to it."
Over there, Jiraiya was still trying to save face:
"...Anyway, this