Their conversation was naturally heard by Yuki Seisui, but he didn't care at all.
It was nothing more than a few ninja wanting something to brag about.
Not only did Yuki Seisui feel no displeasure toward it—he even felt a bit smug.
Looks like I've really made it, he thought. Other ninja are actually proud just to say they've seen me.
As he walked, thinking to himself, he unknowingly arrived outside Jiraiya's tent together with Uchiha Haru.
"Old man, get up!" Yuki Seisui snapped back to his senses and barged straight into Jiraiya's tent, crude and direct.
"You're here?"
When Yuki Seisui rushed in, he discovered that Jiraiya was already seated at the table.
Four cups of tea were placed on it. Jiraiya's eyes were closed as he spoke calmly, "Since you're here, have a seat."
"You three did very well this time."
Yuki Seisui exchanged a glance with Uchiha Haru, then unceremoniously sat down opposite Jiraiya.
"Jiraiya-sensei, next time you should at least research how to act like a wise master before putting on this kind of act."
Yuki Seisui picked up the tea in front of him and downed it in one gulp.
Jiraiya opened his eyes, a trace of anger flashing within them. "You little brat, just what are you—"
Before he could finish, Yuki Seisui cut in with a solemn expression. "Commander-in-Chief, when we're outside, you should address people by their official titles!"
"I call you Commander-in-Chief. You, in turn, should call me Seisui-sama, the Hero of Konoha."
Yuki Seisui's face was incomparably serious, leaving Jiraiya staring at him in stunned disbelief.
"What kind of bullshit title is that?!"
"You're just a jonin right now—and a jonin under my command!"
Yuki Seisui acted as if he hadn't heard him at all and continued, "When outside, one must use official titles."
"You damn brat!" Jiraiya pointed at Yuki Seisui, momentarily at a loss for words.
Uchiha Haru shook her head at the side and spoke up, "Jiraiya-sensei, did you already know we were coming?"
"Hahaha! Of course!" Hearing her question, Jiraiya burst into laughter and stood up, striking an exaggerated pose.
"I am Jiraiya, the Toad Sage of Mount Myoboku!"¹
"There is nothing in this world that can escape my notice!"
With his hands on his hips, Jiraiya looked brimming with confidence and pride.
"Really?"
"Of course it's real!"
"Then do you know what the Sage of Six Paths' mother was called?"
Jiraiya: "…"
"How the hell would I know that?!" Jiraiya roared.
"The Sage of Six Paths might not even exist, and you're asking me that?"
"That question is actually very simple." Yuki Seisui shook his head. "I saw it in ancient records. The Sage of Six Paths' mother was Otsutsuki Kaguya."
"You don't even know that, and you still dare say nothing in the world can fool you?"
Yuki Seisui looked at him with undisguised contempt.
"Damn you, you little bastard!"
After cursing, Jiraiya turned his gaze to the Sunagakure ninja behind them, his expression turning puzzled.
"The Sunagakure actually sent these people to launch a sneak attack… were they just delivering themselves to death?"
With Jiraiya's eyesight, it was easy for him to tell that among them there were only one or two jonin—the rest were chunin.
For a standard squad mission, this lineup would have been sufficient.
But this was a sneak attack on Konoha's main camp.
Sending only this many people meant certain death.
Hearing Jiraiya's words, Yuki Seisui thought for a moment and said, "There were two more, but I killed them right away."
As he spoke, Yuki Seisui glanced at Uchiha Haru and then stood up himself.
Minato not being around really is inconvenient, he thought silently.
"I'll go retrieve the bodies now."
"Mm." Jiraiya nodded, making no attempt to stop him.
Only after seeing those two corpses could he judge the situation more accurately.
Jiraiya and Uchiha Haru didn't wait long. Yuki Seisui soon returned.
He tossed two corpses onto the ground, then took out a transparent bottle from his clothes. Inside was a yellow liquid.
"There was also a bottle of this on them," he said.
"It looks like poison."
As soon as Yuki Seisui finished speaking, Jiraiya's expression turned extremely grim.
The moment the bodies were thrown down, Jiraiya had already recognized them—they were Chiyo's son and daughter-in-law.³
And now, finding this unknown liquid on them… though he didn't know exactly what it was, it was almost certainly poison.
Chiyo was most famous for her puppet techniques, especially the Ten Puppets of Chikamatsu, which possessed the power to wipe out entire cities.
But aside from puppetry, Chiyo was equally renowned for her mastery of poison.
It could be said that Chiyo stood unrivaled in both puppets and poison.
If it weren't for Chiyo's existence, Konoha wouldn't have needed to send Tsunade here at all—nor would they have needed to transfer half of their medical-nin forces to the Sand battlefield.
For other villages, ninjutsu was ninjutsu, taijutsu was taijutsu. Poison specialists were rare, and most toxins could be neutralized with a single antidote pill.
But Chiyo was different.
That old woman's poisons required Tsunade to formulate antidotes on the spot.
Chiyo's son and daughter-in-law had long since become jonin of the Sunagakure, so Jiraiya naturally recognized them.
They had inherited both Chiyo's puppet techniques and her poisonous expertise.
"That damn Chiyo… she actually wanted to poison us here!" Jiraiya cursed.
Seeing his reaction, Yuki Seisui asked curiously, "Jiraiya-sensei, you know these two?"
Jiraiya nodded and explained, "That one is Chiyo's son, and the other is her daughter-in-law."
"For her to let those two lead the sneak attack… Chiyo really planned this well!" Jiraiya said through clenched teeth.
"If they'd actually succeeded, our losses would've been catastrophic!"
Looking down at the two corpses by his feet, Yuki Seisui rubbed his chin.
"Then are these bodies still useful?"
"No." Jiraiya merely glanced at them and shook his head.
"There are seals placed inside their brains. Once they die, the seals activate automatically. It's impossible to extract any intelligence from their corpses."
"Because of those seals, some information may even be altered, producing false intelligence."
"So the bodies are useless."
Hearing this, Yuki Seisui broke into a smile.
"If they're useless, then I'll take them."
Seeing that smile on Yuki Seisui's face, Jiraiya suddenly felt a chill down his spine.
Every time Yuki Seisui smiled like that while he was present, it usually meant Jiraiya was about to be dragged into trouble.
"I'll use these two bodies to provoke Chiyo and the Sunagakure a bit."
As he spoke, Yuki Seisui glanced behind him—the Sunagakure ninja still under genjutsu had all fallen unconscious.
"These living captives are yours to deal with, Jiraiya-sensei."
Jiraiya nodded, then looked at the corpses on the ground and warned him, "Don't provoke them too much."
"Don't worry." Yuki Seisui's smile remained unchanged.
"It'll be fine."