"Ow! Damn, that hurt... Who was it? Who hit the great Jiraiya?! Huh?"
Jiraiya clutched his aching back as he scrambled to his feet and glared around.
His gaze eventually landed on the beautiful woman standing before him, and his eyes instantly went wide.
"So this is one of Konoha's legendary Sannin? A heartless man who abandons his wife and child in the streets. Disgusting."
Yugito retracted the chakra claws on her hands, let out a cold scoff, and turned to leave.
The person who had sent Jiraiya flying was none other than Yugito, who had just arrived from Kumogakure.
She had come to Amegakure for two specific reasons.
The first was the Great Toad Sage's chilling prophecy.
She needed to make absolutely sure her closest friend, Matatabi, would not fall victim to Uzumaki Naruto's degenerate hands!
The second was to deliver that bizarre Sage Mode manual from Konoha so Amegakure could study it.
Yet the very moment she arrived, she stumbled into this exact scene.
A woman had approached Jiraiya, tearfully bringing up an old promise between them, only for the legendary Sannin to turn around and flee without displaying the slightest trace of responsibility as a man.
"Abandoned my wife and child?! No, wait! You've misunderstood! This is a huge misunderstanding! I'm innocent!"
Jiraiya froze at Yugito's contemptuous accusation.
Once his brain rebooted, he immediately shouted after her to clear his name.
"Jiraiya, don't leave! Stay right here and explain yourself."
The middle-aged kunoichi grabbed Jiraiya's arm in a vice grip, physically preventing him from chasing after Yugito.
Left with no choice, Jiraiya stopped and turned to face the woman behind him.
"Tokiwa... I never expected you'd still remember that after all these years."
"Of course I remember. I originally came to Amegakure on behalf of my village to ask for diplomatic assistance, but I never expected to run into you here. Hurry back to the village with me and fulfill your promise!" Tokiwa grabbed his hand and tried to drag him away by force.
"No, wait! What promise am I supposed to fulfill?! Wasn't that old agreement supposed to be inherited by my student?" Jiraiya planted both feet firmly on the ground, refusing to budge an inch.
"And why were you shouting about 'our promise'?! The agreement was between me and your village leader! Phrasing it like that completely ruins my reputation! Look what just happened—that woman entirely misunderstood the situation!"
"Is there really any difference? Besides, Jiraiya, you've finally admitted the promise exists. Then hurry up and honor it!" Tokiwa tightened her grip on his arm, terrified he might use the Body Replacement Jutsu to escape again.
"Fine, fine. Stop grabbing me. I won't run. Come with me. I'll take you somewhere we can sort out that promise. On the way, tell me what kind of help you came to Amegakure to request. Maybe I can put in a good word and help you out." Jiraiya sighed in defeat.
The kunoichi standing before him, Tokiwa, hailed from Nadeshiko Village.
Nadeshiko Village was populated entirely by female ninja, and it operated on a highly peculiar village law.
Its kunoichi would leave the village, scour the globe for powerful male ninja, and challenge them to mortal combat.
If the woman won, the man was forced to marry into Nadeshiko Village.
Of course, to ensure the village remained populated entirely by women, the kidnapped husband would be unceremoniously deported back to his homeland once he completed his duty of producing a child.
If the child turned out to be a boy, he would also be shipped off to his father's family after leaving infancy.
It was a truly fascinating, bizarre settlement.
No one knew whether the founder of Nadeshiko Village—or perhaps the daimyō of the country it belonged to—had originally dreamed of building a massive harem, only to discover his physical stamina couldn't keep up, forcing him to invent this ridiculous system instead to save his dignity.
It was also entirely unclear what purpose was served by ensuring every single ninja in the village was female.
Even the core rule about defeating men and forcing them to marry in was logically flawed.
If a man was defeated in combat, did that not fundamentally mean he was weaker than the woman?
If genetic bloodline inheritance really mattered, wouldn't Nadeshiko Village gradually grow weaker with every successive generation?
And if the woman couldn't defeat the man, then the man had no reason to obey the village's obscure laws, meaning she couldn't bring him back anyway.
It was a beautifully flawed system that failed on every logical level.
In any case, when Jiraiya was still young and wandering the globe, he had once fought Nadeshiko Village's leader with marriage as the wager.
Perhaps the village leader had genuinely been highly skilled, or perhaps Jiraiya had deliberately held back to enjoy the view.
Either way, the battle ended in a draw.
Jiraiya then boldly declared that their students would inherit the contest.
Their disciples would settle the outcome in a future match, once again with marriage as the wager.
...
"What?!"
While walking through the rain, Jiraiya heard Tokiwa explain her true reason for visiting Amegakure.
He stared at her in absolute shock.
Then, he immediately decided not to ask any further questions.
It was much better for his health not to get involved in something this complicated.
His main priority was dumping that damned promise from his youth onto someone else as quickly as humanly possible.
Jiraiya brought Tokiwa to the top floor of Amegakure's central command tower and found Nagato.
Nagato was not alone.
Konan, Yugito, and Makoto were also present in the office.
Yugito hadn't known exactly where she was supposed to deliver the Sage Mode manual, so she simply presented herself as a Kumogakure diplomatic envoy, requested a meeting with Amegakure's leader, and handed it over directly.
At the same time, she asked to speak with Makoto.
Nagato had already planned to summon Makoto to analyze the manual anyway, so he called him over immediately.
"Jiraiya-sensei, what are you doing here? And who is she?" Nagato looked at Tokiwa and asked.
"Ah, Nagato... and Konan. Well, this is a rather long story."
Jiraiya quickly summarized the marriage wager he had made with Nadeshiko Village's leader back when he was young.
"So, now that they've come to collect the debt..... and you two are my students. That means you'll have to fulfill the promise in my place." Jiraiya spread his hands with an infuriatingly innocent expression.
"Nani?!" Nagato stared at his former teacher in pure disbelief.
He never imagined Jiraiya would barge into Amegakure's command center to discuss a blind date.
No, wait.
Did this technically count as an arranged marriage decided before they were even involved?
"There was actually an agreement like that?" A faint, teasing smile appeared on Konan's normally cold face as she glanced sideways at Nagato.
Then she abruptly realized something was horribly wrong.
Why had Jiraiya specifically mentioned her too?
"Actually, Tokiwa only happened to run into me on the street. Her original reason for coming to Amegakure was to ask you for diplomatic help. As for what she needs, I'll let her explain it herself."
Having successfully passed the thing, Jiraiya decisively stepped to the side.
"Well... I came to ask whether Amegakure could provide technical assistance with your genetic cultivation process. If we had access to it, Nadeshiko Village would be able to produce descendants without relying on marriage wagers anymore." After hesitating for a moment, Tokiwa explained her true objective.
"Genetic cultivation" was an extremely polite, vague description.
However, everyone present in the room knew all about Orochimaru's cutting-edge cloning research, so they immediately understood exactly what kind of technology she meant.
No wonder Jiraiya had seamlessly included Konan when discussing who could fulfill the promise.
With Orochimaru's IVF and cloning technology, even two women could technically honor the wager and have a child together.
"..."
A highly complicated mixture of emotions crossed Konan's face.
After struggling to process the sheer audacity of the situation for a moment, she turned and glared furiously at Jiraiya.
"Jiraiya! The person who should have fulfilled your promise was Namikaze Minato!
"You let Minato completely ignore the agreement, marry someone else, and have a child! Now you've come to dump the consequences of your youth onto us?!
"Why don't you ask Uzumaki Naruto? He's your student too! Do you really dislike us that much?! Whenever something terrible happens or a debt needs paying, you immediately think of us, while your Konoha students get every good thing!"