Poof!
Smoke billowed as a sea breeze swept through the street, dispersing the haze. The fleshy, pulsing walls of the toad's stomach vanished, and the trio found themselves standing back in the middle of Awa. Jiraiya was busy tying off the scroll in his hands.
Once the scroll was secure, Jiraiya looked at the despondent Mou. "I'm going to erase everyone's memories of this incident. You won't have to worry about Kincho's situation affecting the rest of your life. The other fishermen won't remember buying the stone fish either. You can continue living here in peace."
Mou lifted his head, his eyes pleading. "Lord Ninja... I don't want to forget Kincho. I swear on my life I won't tell a soul about him."
Jiraiya paused, lost in thought for a moment, before shaking his head. "You can't keep all your memories of him, but... I'll do my best to let you remember him in some way."
Mou looked disappointed, but he bowed his head nonetheless. "Thank you for everything, Lord Ninja."
Jiraiya didn't say anything more to the man. Instead, he turned to Tatsuma and Minato. "Protect your minds. Don't go losing your memories by accident."
"Yes, Jiraiya-sensei," they replied in unison.
Tatsuma watched Jiraiya with intense curiosity. He was fascinated to see exactly how his teacher intended to wipe the memories of an entire village.
The simplest way would be a massive Genjutsu overlay, but Jiraiya wasn't a Genjutsu specialist. Sure, he knew the basics, but he certainly wasn't proficient enough to perform surgical memory alteration on this scale.
In fact, when Tatsuma and Minato had started learning Genjutsu, Jiraiya had actually gone out of his way to borrow old study journals from another Konoha Jonin, Yuhi Shinko. A teacher who couldn't even explain basic illusions without a cheat sheet definitely shouldn't have been able to pull this off.
Jiraiya caught Tatsuma's skeptical look. "Waiting to see me make a fool of myself? You'll be waiting another hundred years, kid."
He pulled out a second scroll and spread it on the ground. The process looked almost identical to the Drunken Dream Seal he had used earlier. When his palm hit the paper, the ink formulas suddenly surged outward, racing across the ground like living shadows.
The array expanded until it covered the entire boundary of Awa. Tatsuma couldn't hide his shock at the sheer scale of the sealing barrier.
"Dreamland Sealing Technique!"
The ink covering Awa began to glow with a soft, white light. As the radiance enveloped the boys, Tatsuma felt a wave of sudden, heavy exhaustion wash over him. He bit his tongue and pulsed his chakra, forcing himself to stay conscious.
He quickly realized that the strength of this sealing jutsu didn't lie in its raw power. On the contrary, the sealing force was quite weak and easy for a ninja to resist. Its true strength was its gentleness. Such a "soft" seal was useless in combat against ninjas, but it was perfect for safely influencing civilians.
Thud.
As the white light faded, Mou slumped to the ground, fast asleep and snoring.
Jiraiya bent over to roll up the now-blank scroll. He shot a smug look at Tatsuma. Tatsuma just curled his lip.
"Both of those were Lady Mito's techniques, weren't they? You're basically just a human battery for her jutsu."
Caught red-handed by his student's sharp wit, Jiraiya felt a flash of embarrassment. He quickly grew defensive. "You think being a 'battery' is easy? If I had even a drop less chakra, neither of those jutsu would have worked. Take you two runts, for example—even if I squeezed every last drop of chakra out of both of you until you were husks, you wouldn't have enough to power a single one of these."
"Yes, yes. Compared to two eight-year-olds, your chakra reserves are truly magnificent, Sensei," Tatsuma replied, his voice dripping with sarcasm.
Jiraiya reached his limit. BONK! BONK! He delivered a "chestnut" to both Tatsuma and Minato's heads. "You ungrateful brats!"
Minato rubbed his head, looking betrayed. "Wait, what did I do?! I didn't say anything!"
"I saw you smiling!"
Jiraiya turned around with a huff. "It's time to head back and report. Since neither of you did much work this time, you can treat me to Yakiniku when we get back!"
"As expected of a Sannin... so petty. Truly nitpicking the small stuff."
"What was that?!"
"I said you're 'principled and precise.' It's a compliment! A man of letters like you should know that, right?"
"Uh... Hmph. Of course I knew that."
Jiraiya held his head high, affecting an air of disdain. Internally, he made a mental note to check a dictionary the second he got home. If that brat Tatsuma was lying to him... heh, he'd find a way to make the kid pay.
The journey home was much smoother than the trip out. They didn't run into anyone needing help, nor did they need to stop and gather intel. By the evening of the second day, they were back within the village gates.
In the end, Jiraiya didn't actually make the kids pay for dinner. He made a flimsy excuse about how eating too much meat late at night would ruin their sleep, then gave them both a day off.
For Tatsuma and Minato, the mission was over. For Jiraiya, however, the real work was just beginning.
He had to write the mission report, undergo a debriefing, visit Uzumaki Mito, and properly hand over the scroll containing Kincho. These were the tedious responsibilities of a Jonin leader.
Tatsuma and Minato hadn't been trained in the bureaucracy of the village yet, so Jiraiya couldn't offload the work on them. And even if he wanted to, Hiruzen Sarutobi would have skinned him alive for making eight-year-olds do his paperwork.
Of course, the paperwork wouldn't take all day. Most reports followed a standard template. The real reason he gave the boys a holiday was that Jiraiya desperately needed a break himself.
He was a hardworking ninja by the standards of the younger generation, sure, but he wasn't a workaholic. Life wasn't just about mission reports; it was about hot springs and beautiful women. Even though it was the transition between summer and autumn—not exactly peak hot spring season—a thinner crowd had its perks. It meant he could focus his attention on a single "view" without getting distracted.
"Help! Someone! There's a pervert!"
The following afternoon, Tatsuma and Minato were finishing their training and heading home for dinner when they heard a chorus of murderous feminine screams echoing from a nearby district.
They shared a look, a silent understanding passing between them. They both nodded.
Even though they weren't close to the scene, and even though they had previously agreed not to judge things without evidence... in this specific case, they both reached the same conclusion instantly.
Their sensei was at it again.
Right on cue, Jiraiya appeared, leaping across the rooftops above them like a man possessed. He didn't even stop, just turned his head as he flew by. "You two! Tomorrow morning, 8:00 AM! Meet at the Senju Estate!"
"There's the accomplices! Get them!"
Tatsuma and Minato didn't even have time to complain about Jiraiya's terrible notification method. Suddenly, they felt the hairs on the back of their necks stand up. It felt as if a dozen apex predators had locked their sights onto them.
"Crap! Sensei's trying to drag us down with him! Run for it!"