On the way home.
"Jin, you look really annoyed. Did something happen?" Namikaze Minato asked. After all, seeing Jin slam the desk and stand up in the middle of class was not a sign of good mood. Even Instructor Inoue Satoru had been startled.
"No, nothing. I was just surprised we're graduating so early," Jin replied. On the outside, he wore a gentle smile. On the inside, he was cursing.
"Really?" Minato did not believe him. Jin's smile seemed to carry an extra layer of irony. Maybe it was just his imagination. Seeing that Jin had no intention of explaining, Minato did not press.
"Do you think we'll be on the same team?" Kushina cut in.
"I hope so," Jin said with a shrug. He did not have high expectations, though. After all, he was an Uchiha, the kind of person everyone loved to hate. Even his own clan did not like him much, but unfortunately, he could not temporarily change his surname.
In theory, being on Kushina's team would be the safest. If he could, he would accept it gladly. At this early stage, the Village would never allow the Jinchūriki to be put in danger. As her teammate, he would be far safer. Later, they would definitely be separated, but by then, he would have grown and become stronger.
"Ah, speaking of that, did you know a lot of ninjas have been disappearing lately?" Minato remembered to mention it. Some of his neighbors were ninjas, and they had vanished without a trace. From time to time, he heard crying coming from their houses.
"It has nothing to do with us." Jin cut off Minato's doubts. He remembered now as well. A major event was unfolding around this time. The Hashirama Cells experiment, started to increase Konoha's military power.
The missing ninjas during this period… Jin immediately realized it had to be because of that research. It was the one black stain Sarutobi Hiruzen admitted to carrying on his conscience. That also explained why the Ninja Academy's graduation had been pushed forward. The Hashirama Cells research had sacrificed a lot of people. Naturally, that affected the available manpower on the front lines. To fill the gap, Academy students were an excellent source of bodies.
"That decrepit old man." Jin clenched his teeth and muttered a curse under his breath. One day, I'll deal with him.
"What?" Minato, hearing Jin's murmur, asked in confusion.
"Nothing." Jin shook his head. There was no need to talk about it.
"Look over there." Uzumaki Kushina suddenly pointed at a tree in the distance. A man was perched up there, peeking furtively at something. Beside the tree was the women's bathhouse.
Jin's forehead filled with dark lines. He did not need to think twice to know who it was. In all of Konoha, only Jiraiya would do something like that.
"There's a pervert peeping!" Kushina roared, vanishing from where she stood.
Jiraiya, focused on his "research," only felt a gust of wind at his back. Before he could dodge, a kick slammed into him, sending him flying straight into the women's bathhouse.
"AAAAHH!!" "KYAAAH!!" "HELP!!"
Sharp screams echoed out.
"PERVERT!!" "IT'S YOU, YOU BASTARD JIRAIYA!!" "Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu!"
Firelight flared inside the bathhouse, and a fireball struck Jiraiya, blasting him back out again. He landed smoking at Minato and Jin's feet.
The two exchanged a look.
"He's probably dead." "Let's find a place to bury him."
They were about to move when…
"Wait!!" Jiraiya reached out a trembling hand. "I can still be saved."
With half his hair burned and his clothes in tatters, Jiraiya sat up with difficulty, looking miserable. But Kushina's fury had not cooled at all. She was not letting him escape.
"You disgusting pervert and voyeur!"
Kushina's red hair floated and whipped around like octopus tentacles. She looked like a living demon, and a faint golden light began to glow around her body. Kushina leapt, raised her fist high, and brought it down on Jiraiya with a crushing blow.
BOOM!!
A giant swelling popped up on Jiraiya's head. His eyes rolled back, and he fainted again.
When Jiraiya woke up, he was tied to a tree like a sausage. In front of him, three kids rubbed their hands together, ready to get started.
"Wait! I'm not a pervert!! It's research!! Research for inspiration!! You kids don't understand art at all!!" Why do I have to suffer like this?
"I don't know what kind of 'art' requires peeping into women's bathhouses," Kushina said, raising an eyebrow. That kind of behavior was unforgivable.
"I aspire to become a famous novelist!" Jiraiya declared proudly, even though he had not written a single line.
"Die a thousand times before you speak!" Kushina wanted to deliver divine justice to that shameless man. What kind of "colorful" novel needed inspiration from a women's bathhouse?
Minato reacted quickly and held Kushina back. "Kushina, he's Jiraiya, one of the Sannin."
Jiraiya's expression changed. He tried to pull himself together and put on a dignified, profound pose. "Kids, since you know who I am, untie me immediately."
Jin walked up to Jiraiya and clicked his tongue. "Lord Jiraiya, since we know who you are, why do you think we still haven't untied you?" "You also don't want your... 'research'... getting spread around, do you?"
Jin smiled wickedly, his tone openly threatening.
Jiraiya's face froze. Looking at Uchiha Jin, who kept that same smile, he realized that kid might be the most dangerous of the three.
"What do you want?" Jiraiya asked cautiously.
"We don't want much." Jin stroked his chin, thinking. Aside from the contract with Mount Myōboku, Jiraiya did not really have anything he wanted. And as for the toads of Mount Myōboku, other than the Great Toad Sage, the biggest fraud of them all, they were strong, but not the kind of summons Jin was looking for.
Thinking that, he looked at Jiraiya with disdain. This guy had no value at all.
"Hey!! What's with that look?!" Jiraiya snapped, furious at being looked at like trash. After all, he was an elite ninja who led Jōnin squads!
Jin ignored Jiraiya's protests and turned to Minato. "We should hand this guy over to the Konoha Police."
Jiraiya panicked. Anywhere but the Police! "Wait! We can negotiate! I can teach you ninjutsu!!"
The Uchiha in the Police were famous for their ruthless impartiality. A fine would be the least of it. He could end up in jail! Minato was tempted, but he already had enough ninjutsu now and did not feel the urgency he used to. The best thing was to stop Kushina from committing murder. If they really beat Jiraiya badly, it would be hard to explain.
"Wait, we can negotiate!"
Unfortunately, no one listened. "I'll contact the Police. Minato, you stay here and watch him," Jin said.
Jiraiya realized the situation was critical. His body turned into smoke, replaced by a log in a substitution jutsu, and his real body vanished. He had to run before it was too late. Those kids were impossible to deal with.
"He ran fast," Jin commented, wrinkling his nose.
Kushina clenched her fists, grinding her teeth. "I hate disgusting adults like him."
Minato scratched his head. Honestly, he had not done anything that serious, right?
Hokage's Office.
Sarutobi Hiruzen smoked his pipe, looking over the reports on his desk. He felt as if the ninja world was about to slap him in the face. The Sand and Stone ninja no longer bothered to hide their probing incursions into the Land of Fire. There were still no signs of massive armies, but clashes with Konoha ninja were frequent. Because of Konoha's numerical disadvantage, many enemy ninja managed to slip in and loot. The nobles and feudal lords of the Land of Fire had suffered heavy losses. Even the Daimyō had come to question Konoha's competence.
Poof. In a puff of smoke, Jiraiya appeared in the office.
"Have you made contact?" Hiruzen asked without lifting his head.
Jiraiya's mouth twitched as he looked at the burn marks on his clothes. "You could say that, but it wasn't easy."
Hiruzen raised his head and saw the miserable state of his disciple, all singed. "You were... attacked?"
"No." Jiraiya's gaze drifted unconsciously to the ceiling.
That was a wordless confession. Hiruzen felt a headache coming on. Jiraiya was the disciple most like him, but he did not need to be like him in that way. What a headache.
He changed the subject. "And what's your impression?"
"Those kids..." Jiraiya's face darkened as he remembered the trio. "They're not easy to deal with."
Especially that boy, Uchiha Jin. He was the worst of them all.
"After all, we have a complete genius, a taijutsu genius, and a Jinchūriki." Jin's taijutsu strength had been exposed for a long time, but the fact that he could use ninjutsu was known by very few. Even Hiruzen himself did not know.
Hiruzen sighed. Those three were the Village's cultivation priorities, representing three distinct forces. Namikaze Minato represented the civilians, Uchiha Jin represented the ninja clans, and Kushina represented the power of the Jinchūriki.
Konoha's civilians were not a simple, passive force. Many Senju clan members were mixed among them. The Second Hokage had decided to dissolve the Senju clan, making them abandon the surname and integrate into the population to become Konoha's foundation. That allowed the civilians to flourish suddenly. With Senju bloodlines as a base, many genuine geniuses also emerged. Unfortunately, talent was talent, and resources were resources.
"But, old man, do you really want to send the Jinchūriki on missions?" Jiraiya asked, confused. The Kyūbi's Jinchūriki was a matter of vital importance, a strategic weapon. And she was still a growing girl. Sending her on missions carried the risk of losing control.
"Kushina hasn't shown any signs of instability for a long time," Hiruzen explained. In the past, Kushina leaked Kyūbi chakra unintentionally, but in the last three months, she had been unbelievably stable. Not a single trace of Kyūbi chakra had been seen.
"Observe her for another half year. If she stays stable, she can begin taking on some missions." If the Jinchūriki could grow and become combat power, it would be a major asset. Now, with other villages launching surprise attacks, Konoha desperately needed fighting strength.
"Also, Sensei." Jiraiya's expression turned serious, losing its usual flippancy. "A lot of ninjas have disappeared from the village recently. You should know what's going on."
Hiruzen sighed and only shook his head, saying nothing. The silence, however, said everything.
Jiraiya's face went pale. "Sensei, ninjas aren't disposable goods."