Mission complete

The system's mission required a Konoha Forehead Protector to be completed.

But because of his own status, Jiraiya did not have one at all.

Hearing Liumu ask him for a Forehead Protector, Jiraiya racked his brains in embarrassment. Finally, after a moment, he said to Liumu, "Your senior brother and sister should have a Konoha Forehead Protector. I remember that stinking snake left his Forehead Protector in that little wooden house before he left."

"Oh? Stinking snake?" Liumu looked at Jiraiya in confusion, his brows drawn together.

"Orochimaru, who's known as one of the Konoha Sannin alongside me and Tsunade," Jiraiya explained irritably.

Seeing the distaste that showed deep in Jiraiya's eyes when he mentioned Orochimaru, Liumu covered his mouth and burst out laughing.

A Forehead Protector was a symbol of a ninja's identity, and it also served as something like an identification card.

With it, strangers could tell where you came from by the emblem on your Forehead Protector.

"Let's go." After the two had rested for a long time and tossed the unconscious man in black into the depths of the cave, Jiraiya looked outside at the sky, where the rain was growing heavier, and showed a rare hint of urgency.

An endless expanse, a wilderness plain.

Two figures, one large and one small, braved the rain as they sped toward the little wooden house at the foot of the mountain.

"Creak."

As the long-neglected wooden door let out a pitiful sound, Jiraiya frowned and brushed aside the cobwebs covering the wooden house, his expression suddenly turning wistful.

Following close behind, Liumu looked at the desolation inside, and his expression, too, grew a little downcast.

Reaching out to touch the thick dust on the dining table inside, Lin Ye said, "Looks like no one has been here in a long time."

He thought back to five years ago, in Konoha Year 37, when Jiraiya, still caught up in the Second Shinobi World War, had first met Nagato and the other two here. Who would have thought that in less than five years, this place would have become so run-down?

After rummaging around a little, Liumu found a Konoha Forehead Protector in a small, dark wooden box beneath the bed. Beside the Forehead Protector was a paper crane covered in dust.

"It really was here."

Liumu held up the Forehead Protector for Jiraiya to see.

"Where did they go?" Jiraiya picked up the paper crane, his brow furrowing slightly.

The one he considered the Child of Prophecy was among them, and in the Land of Rain, so turbulent now, Minato and the other two were only sixteen or seventeen.

"Maybe... they're still somewhere in the Land of Rain."

Seeing Jiraiya's expression, Liumu pretended to speculate. "This is their home, after all. They probably wouldn't go too far. Should we go look for them?"

Jiraiya shook his head at that.

After casually looking around the house and letting out a deep sigh, he said to Liumu, "Let's clean this place up and stay a few days before we leave."

Jiraiya's thoughts were as easy to read as his rugged appearance.

It seemed he could hide them from no one except Tsunade.

This was the place where they had first met Jiraiya. By his reckoning, Nagato and the other two had left precisely to keep Jiraiya from finding them. After all, as the most turbulent combat zone in the war, this place might have been the original impetus for the founding of the Akatsuki.

They wanted to change this place, to change this landscape of year after year of war, and, even more, to bring change for orphans like themselves whose parents had died tragically when they were born.

The wooden house was small, with pitifully few belongings inside, so it took Liumu and Jiraiya little time to make it much cleaner.

Looking at the Forehead Protector clutched in Liumu's hand, Jiraiya smiled, took it from him, and fastened it around his arm.

At the same time, beneath his kindly brows, his eyes held a solemn formality.

"Once you put on Konoha's Forehead Protector, you officially become a true ninja of our village. If, one day in the future, you dare to do anything that harms Konoha, then as your teacher, I will eliminate you myself. Do you understand?"

"Ding! Congratulations to the host on officially becoming a Genin. Timely Mission completed. Reward: Fate Roulette draws +1. Please check your reward promptly."

Without his usual languor or his carefree, unrestrained expression, Liumu listened to the notification in his mind, looked at Jiraiya right in front of him, and nodded solemnly.

"Don't worry. I was born a good person."

"Born a good person?" Jiraiya laughed heartily at Liumu's words, then replied, "In peacetime, a good person can naturally earn everyone's respect. But now... who knows how many good people's bones lie buried on the battlefield?"

"Liumu, remember this. As a ninja, you may have to carry out many missions you don't want to do. Even so, as your teacher, I hope you never forget one thing: before you're a ninja, you're a person. And as a person, you must have the most basic human conscience."

Rain poured down, and the Land of Rain was utterly desolate. Having lost his places to seek inspiration, Jiraiya decided to teach Liumu, the disciple he had just taken in.

"You..." Watching Liumu perform the Clone Technique, Jiraiya suddenly felt a little regret over his impulsive decision back then.

But who could have imagined that someone who could shatter a stone statue dozens of meters tall with one punch would struggle so much to perform a ninjutsu as simple as the Clone Technique?

An unknown amount of time passed. After repeatedly failing to perform the Clone Technique, Liumu had barely any chakra left. Glancing at Jiraiya, who had already fallen asleep beside him with his head propped up, Liumu sat down with a wry smile and examined the mission reward he had just received in his mind.

Another chance to draw!

Looking at the "1" beside the number of draws beneath the Fate Roulette, Liumu wondered what template the system would draw for him this time.

"Would the host like to draw now?"

"Yes!"

Liumu nodded. As he watched the Fate Roulette start up again, a dark brown card shot out and immediately appeared in his palm.

"This is..." Liumu glanced blankly at the template's image, then immediately began examining the written description beneath it.

[Taotie template: The embodiment of greed. It has a dragon's head and a sheep's body, eyes beneath its armpits, tiger's teeth, and human claws, with a large head and an enormous mouth. Extremely gluttonous, it is one of Huaxia's ten great divine beasts. It bears the fire of three flavors, without attribute or limit, formed by heaven and earth. The system classifies it as a summonable divine beast.]

"Tao... tie!" Looking at this name that had existed only in his memories, Liumu suddenly started coughing.

Taotie had become his summoned beast?

Liumu rubbed his eyes hard, then gave his own arm a sharp pinch.

"Hiss..."

Looking at his now bright-red skin, Liumu finally confirmed that he was not dreaming.