When Senzan finally met up with Jiraiya, the older man immediately started aggressively kissing up to him.
“Senzan, my boy!
I heard you just got back from the Hidden Waterfall Village?” Jiraiya rubbed his hands together with a sleazy grin.
“Did you happen to gather any, ah…
good material?
Mind sharing some to help me pad out my drafts?
I promise, the moment Make-Out Paradise gets published, I’ll give you the very first copy!”
Aside from being a legendary ninja, Jiraiya was also an aspiring author, and Make-Out Paradise was his magnum opus.
To finish his masterpiece, he spent his free time traveling the world, vigorously ‘gathering material’.
And Gekko Senzan just so happened to be his biggest supplier.
“Heh.
You must be joking, Lord Jiraiya,” Senzan deflected smoothly.
“I was strictly on a highly classified mission.
Where would I find the time to gather material?”
Jiraiya choked on his next words.
He knew perfectly well that prying ‘material’ out of Senzan’s stingy hands was harder than scaling a cliff barehanded.
But the Hidden Waterfall was an incredibly unique location.
With its strict isolationist policy, getting in was next to impossible—especially during this tense post-war period.
Senzan, with his unparalleled stealth capabilities, was practically the only person alive who could slip in entirely unnoticed.
“Hehehe, come on now, Senzan,” Jiraiya wheedled, changing tactics.
“Look, my student Minato recently picked up a brand-new jutsu.
How about I have him teach it to you?
You’re both from the same generation, right?
It’s only natural for comrades to help each other out!”
Minato stared at him.
‘What a wonderful teacher.
Selling out his own student before I even got a word in.’
“Oh?
Minato, you learned a new jutsu?
You really kept that one under wraps,” Senzan teased.
Truthfully, Senzan already had a pretty good idea of what Minato’s new technique was.
It had to be the Flying Thunder God Jutsu.
After all, the guy had just rescued the future Nine-Tails Jinchuriki.
He had absolutely earned a chance to browse the Scroll of Seals as a reward.
“I haven’t exactly mastered it yet.
I’ve only just grasped the basics,” Minato said, rubbing the back of his head awkwardly.
He shot his sensei a look of pure exasperation.
“Haha!
Minato, don’t be so modest!
That jutsu of yours is incredibly powerful,” Jiraiya boomed, slapping his student on the back.
“Hurry up and show Senzan!
Honestly, kid, I actually wanted to take Senzan as my apprentice in the beginning, but…
well, things didn’t work out.
Otherwise, you two would be martial brothers by now!”
Jiraiya’s feelings toward Senzan were a complicated mix of love and hate.
He loved the kid’s unparalleled knack for gathering material—the Transparency Jutsu was literally God’s gift to voyeurs.
But he absolutely despised how utterly ruthless the brat was.
Every single time they interacted, Senzan bled him dry.
“Heh, he makes a good point,” Senzan grinned shamelessly.
“Technically, I’m older than you, Minato.
If we had ended up under Lord Jiraiya’s wing together, you’d have to call me your senior!”
Senzan had thrown away his sense of shame a long time ago.
A tree without bark dies, but a man without shame is invincible.
“Alright, fine.
This is it,” Minato smiled helplessly.
He raised his right hand.
In a flash, a uniquely designed, three-pronged kunai appeared in his grip.
“Whoa.
That’s a highly complex jutsu formula,” Senzan commented, rubbing his chin and putting on his best analytical face.
“Looks like some kind of space-time ninjutsu?”
Those casual words hit like a tidal wave.
Both Minato and Jiraiya stared at Senzan in utter shock.
Minato was especially stunned.
He had only just barely begun to grasp the technique, and the formula was indeed linked to a specific spatial dimension.
How did Senzan see through it with a single glance?
“Senzan, that’s incredible,” Minato gasped.
“You figured out the core concept of the jutsu just by looking at it?”
“Not bad at all, kid,” Jiraiya praised, clicking his tongue in awe.
“Even I didn’t understand the mechanics of his jutsu right away.”
The master-student duo rained praise down on him.
It actually made Senzan feel a tiny bit embarrassed—but only a very, very tiny bit.
‘Pfft, it’s just the Flying Thunder God.
You’re a little late to the party, buddy.
I learned it ages ago!’
Just as Senzan was preparing to act incredibly smug, a blur of red suddenly appeared before the three of them.
“Minato!
So this is where you were.
I’ve been looking everywhere for you!”
The newcomer’s arrival caused Chomei to let out a soft sound of surprise from within Senzan’s mindscape.
‘Hey, kid.
That girl’s red hair…’ Chomei murmured.
‘Is she from the Uzumaki clan?
To possess that much chakra at such a young age…
impressive.’
Senzan replied mentally, ‘Yeah, that’s Kushina Uzumaki.
She’ll likely be the next Jinchuriki of the Nine-Tails.’
Hearing that the mighty Nine-Tails was going to be sealed inside a little girl, Chomei nearly burst out laughing.
At the same time, Kushina turned her gaze toward Senzan.
As an Uzumaki, she was incredibly sensitive to chakra signatures.
Fortunately, while Chomei might be at the bottom of the Tailed Beast power rankings, its concealment abilities were top-tier.
A mouthful of its special scale powder was enough to completely mask its presence.
Besides, Kushina wasn’t the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki yet; without that level of chakra augmenting her senses, detecting Chomei was completely impossible.
“Good afternoon, Big Sis Kushina!” Senzan greeted her brightly.
They were in the same graduating class, and since Senzan knew the future, he obviously didn’t alienate her over her red hair like the other kids used to.
Because of this, Kushina actually liked him quite a bit.
Naturally, she didn’t like him as much as Minato—the guy had literally played the hero and saved her life, after all.
Senzan!” Kushina blinked.
“Weren’t you out on a mission?
Never mind, I’m here for Minato.
Minato, let’s go!
You promised you’d go shopping with me today!”
Those words instantly ignited the fires of gossip in both Jiraiya and Senzan.
Master and non-student exchanged a very knowing look and started snickering.
Minato flushed with embarrassment, but he didn’t deny it.
“What are you two laughing at?!” Kushina snapped, glaring between them.
“I expect it from Lord Jiraiya, but Senzan, what are you laughing at?!”
Seeing her vibrant red hair literally starting to float around her head, Senzan snapped his mouth shut.
Are you kidding me?
Kushina was known as the Red Hot-Blooded Habanero.
Her temper was like a nuclear bomb with a hair-trigger.
He absolutely did not want to poke that bear.
Watching the scene unfold, Chomei clicked its tongue in amusement.
‘That stupid fox has always been so arrogant,’ Chomei cackled in Senzan’s mind.
‘With a host like her, he’s going to suffer for the rest of his life!
Hahaha!’
For the next few days, Senzan enjoyed a rare stretch of peace.
He spent his time raising his new kikaichu bugs and occasionally falling back into his ‘old habits’ to farm system stats.
That was, until the Anbu showed up at his door.
“Gekko Senzan,” the masked operative announced.
“Orders from the Third Hokage.
The Ninja Academy is currently severely understaffed.
You have been assigned to serve as a teaching assistant.”
Senzan stared at him.
‘What the actual hell?!’
Him?
A teacher?!
What the hell was he supposed to teach them?
Peeping?!
Petty theft?!
What was that perverted old man thinking?!
“Wait, hold on, I’m just a Chunin!
And I’m barely fourteen—”
“These are Lord Third’s direct orders,” the Anbu cut him off.
“You are to instruct the students in the art of concealment.
Report to the Academy tomorrow morning.”
With that, the operative vanished in a swirl of leaves, leaving Senzan completely and utterly speechless.
Teaching?
What kind of ridiculous joke was this?
But a second later, a devious smirk crept onto his face.
Wait…
teaching?
If he remembered correctly, the current crop of Academy students included some massive future big shots like Kakashi Hatake and Might Guy.
This was the perfect opportunity.
An opportunity to make sure the name Gekko Senzan was permanently seared into their memories!
In a flash, an endless stream of delightfully degenerate plans flooded his mind.