UK:GSW Chapter 330 – Jiraiya: A Woman of Such Gravity, Her Feelings Are Simply Too Heavy
Salvation, rescue, help—these things are the easiest to trigger the suspension bridge effect.
And in the shinobi world, built on island-nation culture, this was even more true.
Many so-called destined romances began from such situations.
The classic examples were Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki, or Naruto and Princess Hinata.
Of course, if you insisted, you could include Naruto and the various female leads from the movie versions.
All of these were romances and admiration born from situations of rescue and help.
This was exactly the case with Nonō Yakushi toward Jiraiya.
From a young age, because of Danzo Shimura, she had seen almost nothing but darkness.
Constantly subjected to his manipulation and gaslighting, her life was almost entirely without light.
Her only hope, the only thing she pursued, was the Konoha Orphanage—her home.
Even so, she had always been under Danzo's thumb, often coerced with lines like,
"You wouldn't want the children at the orphanage to live poorly, with no funding, would you?"
This pushed her to accept that her standard for "good" and "happiness" was incredibly low—so low that anyone hearing it would think something was wrong with her.
Then, one day, the evil Root was gone, Danzo Shimura was crippled at home, stripped of all positions and honors.
This felt unbelievable to Nonō—but it did not bring her much happiness.
Instead, she was deeply afraid.
Having been conditioned to believe the orphanage could only rely on Danzo and the Root, she instinctively thought the orphanage was finished—that its funding would be cut off entirely and it would be forced to close.
For her, this was world-ending news.
Her mind spun into confusion, leaving her lost and despairing to the point of secretly crying alone in her room for days, racking her brain on how to raise enough money to keep the orphanage running.
Although she had once been a member of the Root, her strength was average, and she had no official shinobi status.
That meant she could not legally take missions through Konoha's regular channels.
After leaving the Root to become the orphanage's head, that status was gone.
She could take missions in secret, but if caught, she would be labeled a missing-nin and face severe punishment.
And besides—how could an average shinobi survive the far more dangerous world outside the village to earn money?
In such desperation, she came up with a non-solution—
to simply go to a brothel and become one of its courtesans.
At least then she could earn some money to barely keep the orphanage afloat.
Yes, Nonō truly thought this way.
It was the same path many tragic women at the end of their rope in the shinobi world—and even on Earth—would choose, because the world gave them no other options.
And it was at that moment of despair that the Hidden Leaf assigned a new head for the orphanage—Jiraiya.
When she heard the news, Nonō was astonished.
She never imagined the village would keep the orphanage going.
After all, the Root had been completely dismantled, and since the orphanage was directly managed by it, she had assumed it would be abandoned too—exactly what Danzo's brainwashing had made her believe.
As for Jiraiya of the Three Legendary Sannin, of course she had heard of him, but only through rumor, never in person.
And the rumors painted him as extremely lecherous, a man of poor character, though powerful in skill—
in short, the "disgrace" of the Sannin compared to the other two.
Yes, that was what the circle she interacted with believed.
Under Danzo's control, the only people she met were common villagers, elderly women, and such—and Jiraiya's past incidents of peeping at women's baths and being hospitalized by Tsunade were hardly secret.
Although since dedicating himself to the grand cause of genjutsu game artistry, Jiraiya had never once gone peeping again, a bad reputation could not be erased in just a few months—especially in the closed-off, warped mindset Danzo had instilled in her.
So, when she first learned the orphanage would be under Jiraiya, Nonō felt the sky collapsing.
She didn't know what would happen under his control.
Her mind conjured many frightening, unspeakable images.
After all, the orphanage had many girls, and many boys who were cute or handsome—and these were exactly the targets of lecherous men.
As a former Root kunoichi, she had seen intel on the noble class of the shinobi world—many of whom had indulgences that shocked her and twisted her worldview.
In public propaganda, nobles and daimyo were presented as lofty moral exemplars, role models for the shinobi world.
But this, of course, was deliberate manipulation by the ruling class.
Still, Nonō believed it completely, and thus assumed that, as one of the lofty Sannin, Jiraiya must be just like those nobles—a man of extreme indulgence.
With such thoughts, her expectations for him were as low as possible.
She even believed he might be worse than Danzo, and prepared herself to sacrifice anything to protect the children.
To protect them, she was willing to do anything—
almost ready to kneel before him and say, "Please, I'll do anything," like some tragic heroine.
However, once prepared for the worst, she found events unfolding in a way she had never imagined.
The moment Jiraiya took over the orphanage, he came to inspect it, his face tense and brow furrowed as if dissatisfied with everything.
At first, Nonō thought he was displeased with the people, perhaps with the number of children, and might even cut some of them.
She was so tense she almost carried out her "tragic kneeling" plan.
But when Jiraiya finally spoke, it was to express extreme outrage at the orphanage's poor state, cursing Danzo for being inhuman.
Nonō froze in shock.
It seemed… everything was not as she had imagined?
She then watched what Jiraiya did for the orphanage afterward—
and as her misconceptions shattered, she and the orphanage experienced true salvation.
Such a massive contrast easily forged intense emotional bonds.
With her rescue came Jiraiya's efforts—not only securing policy and institutional support for the orphanage, but also paying out of pocket to improve the children's lives and environment.
In her eyes, Jiraiya gained a sacred halo.
With so many buffs stacked together, her falling for him was inevitable.
She even began to dislike anyone who had spoken ill of him—
"How dare they slander Jiraiya-sama, such a wonderful man! Too much!"
Yes, she noticed he was lecherous.
But compared to the nobles she had read about in Root intel, could this even be called "lecherous"?
And besides—what's wrong with a good man being a bit lecherous? Could it possibly be worse than a bad man who isn't?
Danzo, for example, was not lecherous—yet what kind of monster was he? Could he even compare to Jiraiya-sama? Not in the slightest!
Jiraiya-sama is number one in the world!
I, Nonō Yakushi, will devote my life to supporting Jiraiya-sama alone!
Thus, the shinobi world gained its first beautiful woman with extreme admiration and wholehearted devotion toward Jiraiya.
And because of this, Jiraiya felt a tremendous pressure.
As an experienced man, he naturally noticed Nonō's change toward him, because she didn't hide her feelings at all—they were written plainly in her eyes.
If this were in the genjutsu game world, you might even see two little hearts in her gaze—like she was under some "charmed" buff from Jiraiya at all times.
Such intense feelings left Jiraiya baffled.
He didn't understand why she felt so strongly—after all, he thought he was just doing what was within his ability and duty.
As the orphanage's head, wasn't it natural to fight for its benefit and improve the children's lives?
For the first time in his life, he was faced with the love of a beautiful and graceful woman, and he felt sweat on his back.
Though he had drunk in pleasure houses, been flattered and served by beautiful women, and been called handsome, that had always been playacting—paid for with money, nothing more than the charm of currency.
He knew this well, and had never invested real feelings in it—nor had any beautiful woman truly loved him like this.
Perhaps the sixty-year-old Jiraiya in the original story could face such affection calmly.
But for the thirty-something Jiraiya now, this was too new, leaving him at a loss—especially as he had no plans to find a woman to marry.
He had once liked Tsunade, but even then it had been simple admiration.
After deciding to search for the Child of Prophecy, his feelings for her had been entirely lustful—and now, thanks to Uchiha Kei's influence, even that had faded.
Since beginning his path as a genjutsu game art master, his passion for real-world women had been steadily declining, moving toward, "What's so great about real women? The girls in the genjutsu world are the best."
With that mindset, meeting Nonō—beautiful, motherly, well-proportioned, and always dressed like a shinobi-world nun—naturally left him flustered and unsure how to handle it.
But Jiraiya was not one to hesitate too long.
He decided to speak with her, telling her directly that he was a wanderer, not someone to entrust her life to.
Whether she liked or loved him, there would be no happy ending, and he could not return her feelings.
He was completely open about it—
and though it might break a beautiful woman's heart or cost him a rare chance at love, he still chose to be decisive.
The wandering Jiraiya was the kind of man who, in matters of love, was hard to tie down.
If he were otherwise, even with his lecherous side, he could easily have won Tsunade before Dan Kato ever entered the picture.
But Nonō's reaction was entirely unexpected.
The adoptive mother of Kabuto Yakushi was stunned for a moment, then smiled gently and said:
"It's fine, Jiraiya-sama. For me, just being able to watch you, to follow you, is enough. I won't ask for more—so please, just let it stay this way."
Such "humble" words struck Jiraiya deeply, making him feel a gravity that stopped his wandering ways cold.
A beautiful woman of such gravitational pull was something he had never experienced, and something he struggled to deal with.
Especially when, in their later interactions, she truly behaved as she said—simply watching him with warm, affectionate eyes and a smile.
It gave him an invisible pressure and an inexplicable guilt.
The heaviness made Jiraiya sweat and squirm.
Knowing she was a good woman, he felt that continuing like this would waste her life.
Even if she would never mind or blame him, that only made him feel more guilty.
So Jiraiya thought long and hard, and with his earth-shattering wisdom came up with a brilliant idea—
escape may be shameful, but it's useful.
He volunteered to join the diplomatic mission to the parallel-world Hidden Leaf, deciding to take this chance to visit another world, meet his other self, and talk about the Child of Prophecy—
while also giving himself time to think about how to handle Nonō.
Her response was:
"All right, Jiraiya-sama. Please go without worry! I will take care of the orphanage. The children and I will wait here for your return."
She even presented him with a scarf she had knitted herself—
in a scene no different from a devoted wife seeing off her husband, or a loyal retainer sending her lord to battle.
Jiraiya felt the pressure grow—
as if that scarf, still carrying her fragrance, weighed ten thousand pounds, pressing down on him like gravity itself.
And so, the final mission roster became: Minato Namikaze and Jiraiya, traveling together.
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