Yanbai and Shikaku Nara silently watched Jiraiya make a drunken fool of himself.
Jiraiya probably spent most of his time toiling away at his writing and rarely talked to anyone, so once he had a drink, he became especially chatty.
Especially in front of Yanbai.
Yanbai could not tell whether Jiraiya was doing it on purpose.
His face flushed, Jiraiya waved his arms around as he drank, spittle flying everywhere.
"What is love, anyway? You actually know, don't you, Lord Hokage?"
"Why couldn't you and Lord Madara make it work? Because, fundamentally, you had the wrong equipment. It's supposed to be a lock and a key. How are two keys supposed to fit together?"
"But does love have anything to do with equipment? No, it doesn't. Love is a kind of emotional benefit."
"Marriage is really just a union of interests, either emotional or material. The former is called love and gives you emotional value. The latter is called gold-digging and gives you material value."
"What is love? Isn't it just two people being happy together?"
"What is true love? Isn't it just two people being happy enough to spend their whole lives together, sticking together for a lifetime without getting sick of each other, and still being happy?"
As he spoke, Jiraiya drunkenly grabbed a visibly uncomfortable Shikaku Nara. "Tell me, isn't it hard to find someone like that?"
Shikaku Nara opened his mouth and nearly blurted out, "Women are such a pain," but as he watched the hopelessly single Jiraiya rant drunkenly, he glanced at Yanbai.
Yanbai nodded at Shikaku Nara, signaling for him to humor Jiraiya for now.
Shikaku Nara hurriedly nodded. "Very hard, I suppose?"
"Exactly!" Sure enough, Jiraiya sighed loudly. "It's hard. It's incredibly hard! Finding the right person in a crowd is just too