"Then you should do your best." Fujiwara Kirito looked up at the clear sky. He knew that, as expected, Pain and Konan had already begun searching in person.
After all, although Jūzō was an elite ninja, there was still a considerable gap between him and Jiraiya.
From the start, Pain never expected Jūzō's squad to capture Jiraiya.
It was just a smoke screen.
The real pursuers would be Konan and Pain.
After the brief episode with Jūzō, Kirito took Pakura on the journey home.
And this was the first time Kirito had truly brought Pakura back—to his home with Mikoto and Izumi.
"Lord Kirito, is this really okay?"
Pakura looked visibly flustered.
Her cheeks were blushing, like a bashful maiden.
From time to time, she turned her head to avoid Kirito's gaze and adjusted her bun like a bride meeting her in-laws.
"We're going to meet sooner or later anyway, aren't we? Besides, Mikoto-san and Izumi are both very kind. At most, they'll just scold me a bit, so you really don't have to worry."
Kirito held Pakura's hand and reassured her all the way.
Pakura gradually felt at ease.
As they entered the tallest clock tower in the Hidden Rain Village, they unexpectedly ran into Konan on the stairs.
"Did I come at a bad time?" Konan's tone was colder than before—not just in her voice, but in her expression and eyes. The way she looked at Kirito was full of subtle scorn.
This bastard really brought Pakura home openly after seducing her a long time ago.
Kirito was momentarily stunned. That line… such a familiar, iconic scene.
Then, just like Li Xunhuan from Little Li Flying Dagger, he pulled Pakura into his arms, extended his hand to Konan, and smiled. "No, you came at the perfect time."
"I'm talking about Pakura. I thought I said before—no outsiders in this tower."
Konan clearly didn't expect Kirito to respond like that. Her brows twitched slightly, and for a moment, something flickered in her eyes.
But she concealed it well.
It didn't escape Pakura's notice though. As a woman herself, she recognized the expression. She'd worn it too—hoping to be acknowledged and included.
Without waiting for Kirito's reply, Pakura took the lead. In Konan's astonished eyes, she stepped out of Kirito's arms and naturally took Konan's hand. "I'm not an outsider, Konan-nee."
That sentence was the same as saying, "We're all Kirito's women."
Although Pakura was from the same generation as Minato and a few years older than Konan, she had always been tactful, humble, and low-profile—to avoid putting Kirito in a difficult spot.
Konan was flustered. She thought Kirito had told Pakura about all the times he'd flirted with her. Her face flushed red, and she glared at Kirito. She turned to Pakura and spoke with a gentler tone: "Don't you know what kind of man he is? He doesn't have just one woman. He even has Uchiha Itachi's mother."
"I know," Pakura replied without hesitation.
"Then why are you still..." Konan's voice trailed off in disappointment.
All these years, Kirito had taken every liberty with her—physically and verbally.
With his handsome face, overwhelming power, and wicked charm, very few women could resist him.
If Kirito had been single, Konan might have long since surrendered.
But this man was a walking red flag.
Whenever she remembered that he had other women besides Mikoto and Izumi—possibly more outside—she got so angry she could chew steel.
"Lord Kirito might be a bit of a flirt, but he's sincere to every one of us," Pakura said softly.
Her calm response surprised even Kirito.
Konan said no more. She feared that if she kept talking to Pakura, she'd fall for Kirito's nonsense herself.
Switching topics, she said to Kirito, "It's good you're back. There's an intruder in the Hidden Rain Village. Can you sense where they are?"
Kirito concealed Jiraiya's infiltration. "I already sensed him when he arrived. He likely knew he'd been detected and hid within a barrier."
"But don't worry. Since he dared to come alone, he's probably not here to fight—just to gather intelligence. If that's the case, he'll definitely try to reach this clock tower. And once he does, with Pain's ability, he won't escape."
"True." Konan nodded in agreement, then paused as Kirito said, "Look, Konan… it's been so long. Don't you think we should...?"
"What do you want to do?" Konan's eyes flashed with caution.
Kirito waved to Pakura, who understood immediately, covered her mouth and chuckled as she left upstairs.
Once Pakura was gone, Kirito pinned Konan to the wall.
Half an hour later, Kirito—refreshed and content—led Pakura upstairs.
Konan was left slumped against the wall, cheeks flushed like a drunk maiden. "That damn bastard…" she muttered under her breath as she tidied her clothes.
Kirito opened the door with a key—his shadow clone hidden in the dark released.
Inside, Mikoto was in the kitchen, Izumi was teaching young Chiharu how to read.
Compared to Chinatsu, who had inherited the ability to hear all things and learned effortlessly, her younger sister Chiharu—just over a month younger—was more normal.
Though talented, she remained within the normal genius range.
Seeing Kirito return, the family lit up.
Chiharu leapt into his arms, and he spun her in a circle. After putting her down, Izumi took off his Akatsuki robe.
Mikoto was still cooking.
But when they saw Pakura come in, tension filled the air.
Kirito knew a storm was coming.
Three days later, Kirito slept with all of them.
And then the battle between Jiraiya and Pain finally erupted.
Boom—
The family of five was enjoying lunch when a deafening roar shook the entire clock tower.
Were it not for the barrier around the residence, the ceiling would've collapsed.
"What was that…" The girls put down their chopsticks, looking toward the source of the tremor.
No one could keep eating.
"Looks like the battle has begun. Stay home for now. I'll go check." Kirito stood up, slapped the floor with his palm, and summoned the Uchiha Flame Formation to protect the suite.
Strangely, the flames didn't burn the structure. They meshed perfectly with the tower's interior.
With a flash, Kirito vanished.
Jiraiya, battling Animal Path Pain, noticed the flame wall and exclaimed, "What the hell is that?!"
"It's a barrier, Jiraiya-sensei. Seems our fight is disturbing Kirito's home. We better hurry before he shows up. That won't be fun," Animal Path sneered and summoned a massive Yatagarasu to attack.
"That's Uchiha's Flame Formation… Kirito really is here. Only he could do this." Jiraiya's face darkened. He dodged the Yatagarasu while gathering senjutsu.
As man and beast burst through the tower's roof, Konan floated above with paper wings, observing the chaos below.
"So noisy," a voice suddenly whispered near her ear.
Startled, she hadn't even sensed him.
Paper shuriken rained in the direction of the voice—but they hit nothing.
Explosions sounded as they landed on the Flame Formation.
"Trying to kill your own husband?" Kirito's voice came from the opposite side.
Konan turned and saw him floating beside her, lavender wings extended.
She sighed, then snapped coldly, "You sneak up behind me, and now you're surprised I attacked you?"
"You really don't get romance." Kirito drifted beside her, hand reaching for her paper palm.
"What are you doing?" Konan glared, worried he'd try something perverted mid-air.
"Nothing. Just curious about your ninjutsu. Turning into paper—how interesting."
He couldn't help himself and played with it, wondering what her transformation would look like… elsewhere.
Konan ignored him. She knew that acknowledging him only encouraged his antics.
Meanwhile, the battle below reached a climax.
As in the original timeline: with help from the two Great Toad Sages, Jiraiya used genjutsu to defeat three of Pain's bodies, lost an arm to Asura Path, and was impaled by the remaining five.
Before he died, he tried to give the Flying Thunder God kunai Tsunade had left him to Fukasaku.
But under a barrage of missiles, it sank into the sea.
"What a stubborn old man…" Kirito muttered. "Well, lunch is calling."
As the sages escaped via reverse summoning, Kirito teleported to the kunai's last location, stored Jiraiya in the system warehouse, and vanished.
Pain, failing to detect Jiraiya's life force, assumed he was dead and left.
Back at the residence—
"Dad, why are you all wet?" Chiharu asked.
"I just saved an old man." Kirito's chakra evaporated the moisture from his body.
Then, under the stunned gazes of the women, he pulled the dying Jiraiya from the system.
After removing the black rods, he used god-level medical ninjutsu and fed him a senzu bean.
"AH! It hurts—wait… I'm okay?" Jiraiya blinked, then gasped as he saw his restored arm and throat.
He thought he'd died.
Until he saw Kirito.
"If you died, who'd explain to Tsunade?" Kirito leaned against the wall.
He'd already sent the girls back to their rooms—he wasn't letting this old pervert ogle his wives.
"What's going on…?" Jiraiya muttered, only to realize it was no dream.
"I saved you. Who else could get you out of that mess?" Kirito said calmly.
"…Yeah, I guess that's true, haha."
Jiraiya awkwardly laughed, but when he remembered Pain's Six Paths, his face darkened.
"I'm grateful, but I need to return to Konoha with this intel."
He bit his finger and tried to summon a toad—
But his chakra wouldn't gather.
"What did you do to me?" he demanded.
"Nothing. Just placed a seal on you. You're dead to the world now. Even if you go back, what will you change?"
Jiraiya was silent.
Then Kirito added, "Don't you want to see how your two students' story ends?"
And with that, he knocked Jiraiya out and sent him back into the system warehouse.
(End of Chapter)
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