"Ehehe~ Ehehehehe..."
Jiraiya stuck his butt out, peering through the gap in the wooden fence, trying to catch a glimpse of the scenery inside. He let out a creepy giggle every now and then.
"Disgusting..."
Seeing Jiraiya's sleazy behavior, Nawaki curled his lip in disgust.
"Hm?"
Hearing the voice behind him, Jiraiya turned his head with a lecherous grin.
The moment he saw Tsunade's face, he jumped in fright.
"Ah... A-Are? Tsunade? What are you guys doing here?"
"Here to catch a peeping tom, obviously!"
Tsunade sneered, cracking her knuckles. Her smile looked cruel no matter how you looked at it.
Then, before Jiraiya could speak, she threw a punch straight at his face.
"Chotto matte! Wait, wait a second!"
Jiraiya dodged the punch in a panic. Feeling the sharp wind of the fist brush past his ear, cold sweat instantly soaked his back.
If that punch had connected, even if he survived, his face would have been flattened into a pancake...
"I wasn't peeping! I was just... gathering material! That's right, just gathering material for my book!"
Hearing this, before Tsunade could speak, Minato tilted his head, his eyes full of innocence. "If gathering material requires watching girls bathe, then why don't you ask the female members of your family to help you, Senior Jiraiya?"
"Ah, this..."
Jiraiya froze, speechless.
"Pfft..."
Seeing Jiraiya choked by Minato's words, Tsunade sneered. She retracted her fist for now and looked at Jiraiya calmly, waiting to see how he would explain himself.
"If Senior Jiraiya's family members were peeped on by others, how would you feel, Senior?"
Seeing Jiraiya stay silent, Minato pressed on. He genuinely hated peeping.
Among the Sannin, Tsunade loved gambling, but she didn't involve others. At most, the casino owners suffered a bit, but she never reneged on debts to loan sharks under the banner of "justice."
Orochimaru was a villain, but he was openly bad and never made excuses for his actions.
But Jiraiya peeping on women bathing and calling it "being a free spirit" was too much!
Is that being a free spirit?
That's just being a creep!
Minato didn't want to be the morality police, but he was a normal guy who would get a girlfriend sooner or later.
If this kind of behavior wasn't stopped, maybe one day his own woman would be the victim. Who could tolerate that?
Hearing Minato's words, Jiraiya's face twitched again.
He didn't know how to answer.
Being asked such a question by a five-year-old child made it impossible for him to defend himself, no matter how thick-skinned he was.
Minato continued, "Senior Jiraiya, as the disciple of the Hokage, doesn't doing this bring shame to the Hokage's name?"
At the mention of the Hokage, Nawaki perked up immediately. He pointed a small finger at Jiraiya indignantly. "Yeah! Don't you have any self-awareness as the Hokage's disciple?"
Jiraiya really wanted to say that the Hokage liked peeping too...
But of course, he couldn't say that.
So facing Nawaki's interrogation, he could only raise his hands with a bitter face. "Okay, okay, I know I was wrong! I promise I'll never peep again! Just let me off this once, okay?"
"Hmph. Coming from your mouth, that has zero credibility."
Tsunade sneered. "You've said similar things plenty of times before, and every time, you go back to your old ways before long. I think I should just beat you into a cripple so you can't go out and harm people anymore!"
"Eh... isn't that a bit too cruel?"
Nawaki was stunned. He didn't expect his sister to want to solve the problem directly at the source.
Tsunade shook her head and didn't speak.
Many people think peeping isn't a big deal because they think it's just "looking" and doesn't cause substantial harm.
But peeping is inherently a violation. The reason some people don't go further isn't because they don't want to, but because they don't dare to.
Thinking of this, Tsunade's face grew even colder. She turned to Minato. "What does Minato say?"
"Hmm—"
Minato thought for a moment and sighed regretfully.
"I support severe punishment! But... having said that, Senior Jiraiya is Sensei's teammate after all, and he gave me some pointers earlier. Beating him to death for one peeping incident seems a bit too heartless."
Hearing this, Jiraiya turned pale with fright. "Hey, hey! Minato, don't talk nonsense! Tsunade didn't say she was going to beat me to death!"
Watching Minato deep in thought, cold sweat dripped from Jiraiya's forehead.
At this moment, he suddenly realized that this boy, who looked gentle, sunny, and a bit airheaded... was actually black-bellied (scheming)!
Tsunade huffed lightly, ignoring Jiraiya, and waited to hear Minato's answer.
"Ah, I've got it!"
Minato punched his palm, looking innocent. "How about this? Let Senior Jiraiya write a letter of guarantee..."
"Phew..."
Hearing this, Jiraiya breathed a sigh of relief.
Scared me to death. This kid is still naive after all...
Tsunade shook her head slightly. For some reason, she felt a vague sense of disappointment.
Just as the two had different thoughts, Minato clapped his hands gently and continued in a warm tone:
"We can submit the guarantee letter to the Leaf Police Force. If any peeping incidents happen in the Leaf Village in the future, they will all be blamed on Senior Jiraiya! And we'll publish it on the village bulletin board!"
"Ehh—?!! No way!!!"
"Bwahahahaha!! A public execution? Interesting!"
Jiraiya's face instantly turned pale. After a second of stunned silence, Tsunade burst into loud laughter.
Jiraiya wanted to struggle, but Minato added another stab. "Also, make sure to write clearly that the peeper is the Hokage's disciple, Jiraiya!"
"Damn it! You brat! This is slander! You're framing a good person!"
Jiraiya completely lost it and started screaming frantically.
If what Minato said actually happened, he wouldn't be able to show his face in the Leaf Village ever again.
He was about to argue, but then he saw the corners of Minato's lips curl up into a gentle, sunny smile. But the words that came out made Jiraiya feel like he had fallen into an ice cave!
"Who cares?"
"Did you care about the victims' feelings when you were peeping, Senior Jiraiya?"
"!!!"
Jiraiya's pupils trembled!
Minato's words hit him like a blow to the head, making his ears ring and his mind go blank. His face turned as white as a sheet.
Yeah, who cares?
The person framing you knows better than anyone that you're innocent.
When I was peeping, did I ever care about what those girls thought?
In that instant, all the excuses he made for peeping, all those high-sounding justifications, seemed so ironic and laughable now that he was the victim.
He finally realized that his so-called "free-spiritedness" was really just being a low-life pervert.
And "pervert" didn't mean playful flirting; it meant twisted and creepy, just like the word implied...
When the fig leaf of self-deception was torn away, and he looked at himself from the victim's perspective, he suddenly realized how despicable his actions were.
At this moment, facing the girl he had liked for years, Jiraiya suddenly felt an unspeakable shame.
This shame gnawed at his heart, corroding his self-esteem until it was riddled with holes, forcing him to flee from their gaze in disgrace.
Watching Jiraiya stumble away, Minato turned to Tsunade.
"Was I too harsh?"
"No, it was perfect! Couldn't be more perfect!"
Tsunade rubbed Minato's head with one hand and gave him a thumbs-up with the other, laughing heartily.
Nawaki nodded repeatedly, but silently made a resolution in his heart.
In the future, absolutely, definitely...
Never get into an argument with Minato!