"Kid, the adult world isn't that simple."
Jiraiya hung his sake gourd back at his waist.
He reached back and tugged the strap of the enormous scroll on his back.
"When I get back, I'll teach you what a real ninja is."
His hearty voice echoed down the empty street.
Jiraiya strode toward the village entrance.
His red outer robe billowed in the wind.
Shengu Xuan stood where he was, watching that retreating figure.
With a flick of his toe, he kicked a pebble off the roadside.
The pebble traced a parabola.
It landed precisely in a trash can ten meters away with a crisp clatter.
Shengu Xuan didn't know whether the adult world was simple.
But he knew how the original story went.
Jiraiya's trip to Amegakure would end only one way: with the Six Paths of Pain grinding him into the dirt.
Even one of his arms would be forcibly torn off.
In the end, his corpse would sink to the cold seabed, leaving no DNA to be found even for Impure World Reincarnation.
Shengu Xuan put his hands in his pockets, turned, and headed home.
The Konoha villagers along the way stopped in their tracks when they saw him approaching.
The crowd parted of its own accord, leaving a wide passage.
Several Anbu Ninja patrolling the rooftops immediately dropped to one knee and bowed their heads.
No one dared look Shengu Xuan in the eye.
Shengu Xuan ignored them.
He walked straight through the streets and returned to the secluded single-story house.
He pushed open the wooden door and slid the bolt shut behind him.
Walking to the window, he drew the heavy curtains to block the sunlight outside.
He kicked off his shoes and sat cross-legged on the wooden bed.
"System, settle the rewards."
The mechanical