Watching Kenichi Amemiya tuck the book away, Jiraiya gave him a very subtle, very knowing smile.
The "fellow man of culture" kind of smile.
His gaze toward Kenichi instantly became a lot warmer.
"Jiraiya-sama, you're the famous Toad Sage of Mount Myōboku, right?" Kenichi asked with a friendly grin.
He hadn't risked taking this book just because of curiosity.
Well… partly.
The main reason was the cover art—it really was too good.
A long-haired, black-haired Orochi-hime sat sideways on a chair, one leg raised, sliding into sheer black stockings. Sunlight slanted in through a window, outlining her figure and catching the glint in her eyes as she looked toward the reader.
Elegant. Dangerous. Just the right amount of suggestive.
Even Kenichi had to admit: as a product, it was flawless bait.
But the other reason he'd accepted it was tactical.
If he could get a bit closer to Jiraiya, there was something he wanted to test—Mount Myōboku's legendary toad oil, said to help people sense natural energy.
Kenichi wanted to know if that oil, applied to special metals, could temporarily let them hold Sage Chakra.
"Yeah, that's me," Jiraiya said, laughing. "What, kid—looking to learn Sage Mode?"
Kenichi shook his head immediately.
He already had a Sage Mode, and he had zero interest in turning his face into a frog cosplay.
"It's like this, Jiraiya-sama," Kenichi said. "I heard Mount Myōboku has a special toad oil that helps people sense natural energy. Would you be willing to… sell me a little?"
He made sure to say buy, not give.
He knew exactly where he stood. Their relationship wasn't nearly close enough to ask for freebies—money made people more reasonable.
"Oh?" Jiraiya's eyes sharpened a little, studying him.
He didn't answer right away.
After a long silence, he finally shook his head.
"No. Toad oil is a treasure of Mount Myōboku," he said flatly. "Only those practicing Sage Mode are allowed to use it."
What he didn't add was that even then, not everyone qualified.
That oil was hard to make. Very hard. Hence all those frog statues of "failed trainees."
"Got it," Kenichi sighed.
Honestly, he'd expected that answer. If toad oil was easy to get, there would be a lot more Sage Mode users in the world.
"Sage Mode is dangerous," Jiraiya added, hopping back onto his toad. "If you want to learn it, ask your teacher."
And just like that, he was gone—clean, neat, not looking back.
Kenichi didn't mind. The idea had only popped into his head because he'd run into Jiraiya; without toad oil, the project just got more annoying, not impossible.
Once Jiraiya disappeared from view, Kenichi pulled on a mask and walked properly into the black market.
No way was he strolling around here with his real face.
He was an A-rank Konoha missing-nin—his head was worth a lot of money. There were definitely plenty of people who would love to cash that in.
S-rank missing-nin were too risky to hunt.
A-rank? Much more tempting.
The black market was the same as ever—crowded, noisy, full of dangerous people pretending to mind their own business.
Kenichi didn't linger.
He went straight to a weapons shop and stepped inside.
"Oh? Customer, you're looking for a metal that can carry… a more special kind of chakra?" the blacksmith, a thick-armed middle-aged man, asked after listening carefully.
He looked like someone who could swing a hammer twelve hours a day without flinching.
"Yes," Kenichi nodded. "Standard chakra metal isn't enough."
Ordinary chakra-conductive metal shattered the moment he tried infusing it with Sage Chakra. It simply couldn't handle that level of energy.
The smith frowned, clearly intrigued but also unsure.
So Kenichi took out a piece of regular chakra metal and demonstrated.
He channeled only a tiny bit of Sage Chakra into it, held it carefully—
Boom.
The metal chunk exploded in his hand like brittle glass under a sledgehammer.
"I need something that can handle that," Kenichi said calmly. "So I came to ask if you have any ideas."
If he did this alone, he'd have to start from zero in a field he barely understood. But for professionals, this was exactly their domain.
"This kind of chakra…" The man's eyes lit up. "Very rare indeed."
He had examined the metal beforehand; it was genuine chakra metal, and good quality at that. The fact it still broke so easily told him the chakra itself was on a different level.
"It might take some time," the blacksmith admitted. "We recently acquired a chunk of meteorite from the sky. It can absorb a lot of chakra, but we're still working on smelting it down."
Apparently the melting point was insanely high, and they hadn't finished refining the impurities yet.
Meteorite.
Kenichi's interest noticeably sharpened.
"Can I take a look?" he asked.
The man hesitated at first, but once Kenichi put a generous deposit on the counter, he brightened and led him to the back.
"There it is," the smith said.
In a blazing furnace, a rough, dark mass glowed dull red, yet still held its shape.
"That meteorite?" Kenichi stepped closer, eyes gleaming.
"Yes. A stone from the heavens," the smith said proudly. "It can absorb a huge amount of chakra, then release it all at once."
Kenichi's mind was already racing.
If this thing really worked like that, it would be almost perfect for a next-generation thermobaric bomb.
With the smith's permission, he extended a hand and channelled a thin stream of Sage Chakra into the meteorite.
It… sank in.
No cracking. No explosion.
The meteorite simply swallowed it quietly.
Kenichi's excitement went up another notch.
"How much for the whole thing?" he asked.
If this worked, he wanted all of it.
The smith rubbed his hands together, his smile turning just a bit greasy.
"Well, as you know, with the current price of meteorite—"
Kenichi cut him off.
"Price. Just the number."
The man coughed, then lifted a single finger.
"One hundred million ryō."
Exactly one hundred million.
Exactly the amount Kenichi had left.
And that didn't include the cost of forging and shaping it. If they helped smelt and hammer it into usable pieces, the price would go even higher.
Kenichi stared at the meteorite, then at the smith.
"…I'll buy part of it first," he said at last. "If it works for what I need, I'll come back for the rest."
The smith's enthusiasm dimmed slightly at the lost massive sale, but business was business.
In the end, he sold Kenichi a solid chunk worth ten million ryō.
Not too big, not too small. Enough to run real experiments.
Kenichi weighed it in his hand, then stored it away.
"Let's hope this works," he muttered.
Upgrading the thermobaric bomb into a Sage Chakra-powered monster was proving to be a long, winding road.
But he'd already taken too many steps to stop now.
Note: If you're interested, you can read up to chapter 99+ at patreon.com/nakai01. Don't forget to give a power stone for more bonus chapters.