"..."
Shikamaru listened to the other person narrating the stories from Icha Icha Paradise, his expression somewhat awkward.
He glanced around; the hot spring guests were listening with rapt attention, making him even more embarrassed.
If the stories were purely fictional, that would be one thing.
But his father had personally told him that the stories inside were adapted from real events.
This left Shikamaru with no excuse to even argue.
He could only sneak into the hot spring pool to soak while everyone was engrossed in the storytelling.
As for the half-finished game of shogi?
In this situation, would anyone still want to play shogi?
Shikamaru soaked in the hot spring, closing his eyes to rest.
The only flaw was the storytelling of Icha Icha Paradise echoing in the quiet hot spring.
Splash.
Not far from Shikamaru, two people entered the water.
These two were very excited by the storytelling and whispered to each other for a while.
As they talked, they brought up some topics that horrified Shikamaru.
"The man with the full beard in the sauna earlier was so attractive, it made me feel restless."
"Yeah, it's just a shame, that guy was just teasing, not giving anything."
"What a pity, what a pity."
Shikamaru: "..."
Shikamaru could only pray that these two weren't talking about Asuma.
After a while, Asuma walked in.
Having sweated in the sauna, Asuma planned to rinse off at the nearby shower before soaking in the hot spring.
While he was showering on a chair, the two people next to Shikamaru exchanged glances and walked over with their tools.
"Hello, customer, we are service staff here to help you scrub your back."
"Oh? There's this kind of service, that's really nice, thank you both."
Asuma, who was washing his hair, readily agreed.
Two burly men began to wipe Asuma's body with towels.
As they wiped, the towels disappeared.
"Hmm?"
Asuma suddenly frowned, "Why is your body wash here hot?"
The two people behind Asuma immediately stiffened at his words, becoming nervous.
"I didn't expect you to be so thoughtful here, did you pre-soak the body wash in the hot spring to prevent irritating customers when used?"
"Ah, yes, yes, yes!"
"Exactly, customer, you guessed right, you're truly intelligent!"
Hearing Asuma come up with his own explanation, the two immediately breathed a sigh of relief and continued to apply body wash to Asuma.
Shikamaru witnessed this scene from the hot spring, but he dared not step forward.
"Don't blame me, Asuma-sensei."
Shikamaru was incredibly conflicted internally.
He was afraid that if he went up like that, he would be directly mistaken for a loli by those two.
Shikamaru thought that with Asuma's strength, these two wouldn't be able to do anything forceful, and there wouldn't be any groundbreaking developments.
So Shikamaru climbed out of the hot spring, dried himself, put on his clothes, and prepared to go find the hot spring inn owner to report what had happened here.
At the same time.
Jiraiya and the others had already arrived within the Land of Hot Springs.
On their way, Jiraiya took out a photo of their target, Asuma's team, and introduced them to Boruto.
During the introduction, Jiraiya deliberately paid attention to Boruto's eyes and emotions.
Boruto's gaze at Asuma in the photo was similar to his gaze when he first met him, both having a feeling of unfamiliar first acquaintance.
For Boruto, Naruto's son, not knowing him and Asuma almost certainly meant that they would die in battle not long in the future.
Jiraiya did not fear or regret death; he continued to ponder the underlying issues.
For example, if Bai Mo, this person from the future, had not appeared, would Orochimaru's Konoha Crush Plan have killed his teacher, Hiruzen Sarutobi?
If this were the case, then that Ōtsutsuki might not have been trying to eliminate the combat power around Naruto, but rather to return those who were supposed to die to their original fate.
Thinking of this, Jiraiya became a little worried.
He, Jiraiya, and Asuma were the targets, but besides them, there were very likely other targets in Konoha.
If this were true, he had to have the contact frog inform Konoha to prepare defenses.
Out of necessity, Jiraiya found another excuse to introduce other people to Boruto and took out new photos.
As photos were taken out one by one.
Jiraiya breathed a slight sigh of relief.
Boruto was very familiar with these people.
The only troublesome point was that Boruto had already met some of these people before.
This made it impossible to confirm.
"Hmm?"
When Jiraiya held the last photo, he once again saw unfamiliarity in Boruto's eyes.
Jiraiya's expression tightened, and he quickly looked at the person Boruto noticed in the photo… "It seems Anko also died in the future."
Jiraiya didn't expect this disciple of Orochimaru to also be gone.
However, Orochimaru currently had no hostility towards the Village, and Anko had long since cut ties with Orochimaru, so Jiraiya felt it was still necessary to give a reminder.
So he still summoned the contact frog, asking Konoha to keep an eye on Anko to prevent her from being ambushed.
The group arrived at the entrance of the hot spring inn, planning to rest here for a night before starting to search for Asuma's team's whereabouts.
As soon as they reached the entrance, they saw Shikamaru, who had come out to seek help from the owner.
"Great, it's Lord Jiraiya, please hurry and save Asuma-sensei!"
Seeing Jiraiya appear, Shikamaru no longer looked for the owner and urgently appealed to Jiraiya for help.
"What?! You've already encountered the enemy?"
Jiraiya was incredibly surprised, rolled up his sleeves, and was about to rush into the women's bath.
"Uh, not the enemy, and Lord Jiraiya, you're going the wrong way."
Shikamaru quickly grabbed Jiraiya's arm.
"Not the enemy? Then what is it? Did he faint from being too comfortable in the hot spring?"
Jiraiya reluctantly stopped, turned around, and asked.
"There are two people, pretending to be hot spring inn staff, helping Asuma-sensei apply body wash and bathe, but they're actually taking advantage of Asuma-sensei…"
"...Do you know what you're saying, Shikamaru?"
Jiraiya was speechless for a moment after hearing this.
Taking advantage of Asuma, what is that?
"It's true, Lord Jiraiya, I overheard those two talking while I was soaking in the hot spring, they've been coveting Asuma-sensei for a long time!"
Shikamaru anxiously explained.
"Don't worry, I believe you."
Jiraiya patted Shikamaru's shoulder, "How about this, Shikamaru, you wait here with them, I'll go in and resolve the problem, then come out to notify you. Before I come out, you absolutely must not go in."
"Understood."
Shikamaru nodded.
"Hehe."
Jiraiya paid, pushed aside the curtain, rubbed his hands, and walked in.
Two guys impersonating inn staff?
Could they be the legendary perverted women?
Entering the open-air hot spring area, through the thick mist, Jiraiya shouted loudly, "Everyone inside, stop! Let go of Asuma, come at me if you want something!!!"
....
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