The timely arrival of the dishes from the server interrupted Jiraiya.
Naruto also took out a wine barrel and refilled Jiraiya's cup for free. Though he was annoying, he wasn't sloppy when it came to business.
Jiraiya, despite being so angry he almost flipped the table, still had to eat this meal.
Picking a few bites of side dishes and washing them down with wine, Jiraiya said, "You see, he doesn't agree, so I can't do anything."
Fuzhi Liuhong smiled. "But those were the rules you set yourself back then." This woman was formidable; with one move, she struck Jiraiya's weak spot.
"Uh..." Jiraiya was stumped. He looked at Naruto, who was eating voraciously, head down, and felt like he was caught between a rock and a hard place.
How could things be such a coincidence...?
"Naruto, why don't you think about it again?" Jiraiya tried to persuade him.
"No interest."
"How about we just drop this?" Seeing that Naruto was unyielding, Jiraiya turned to Fuzhi Liuhong.
"Rules cannot be broken," Fuzhi Liuhong delivered another blow to Jiraiya's soft spot.
Thud. Jiraiya slammed his cup on the table, muttering irritably, "Pour me some more wine."
This situation, being caught in the middle, was too uncomfortable for him. Only by drinking could he drown his sorrows, preferably to get drunk and buy himself some more time.
"You don't dare to fight?" Fuzhi Jingxiang, who had been silent for a long time, scoffed.
However, she clearly didn't have Naruto's MT (tank) constitution; her taunt failed.
"I have someone I like," Naruto answered her question indirectly. Although most men wouldn't refuse a match where winning meant a girlfriend and losing meant no consequences, Naruto was different. He was from Team Seven.
"He used that excuse before," Fuzhi Jingxiang's gaze flickered to Jiraiya, who was sulking over his wine. "But what was the result?"
Jiraiya's exploits were widely known in the ninja world, and the fact that he was still single was also rumored in various ways.
When Jiraiya refused her mother back then, he said he had someone he liked. But so many years had passed, and he was still single, making it hard to believe what he said back then.
Naruto looked at Jiraiya with disdain. "We're different."
He was pursuing a financially troubled woman from Konoha; I'm being kept by a rich woman from Konoha. That's a huge difference.
"What's the difference? It's just an excuse to deceive women," Fuzhi Jingxiang said coldly. She hadn't emerged from the shadow of her previous relationship yet. That boy had said he would propose to her upon returning to the village, but... She couldn't accept such a reality, so she found a reason that he had lied to her, even though she knew herself how flimsy that reason was. But at least it gave her some self-comfort.
The prettier a woman, the more she deceives, and when it reaches an extreme, they even deceive themselves.
[What I just said was true, though.]
Since you don't believe the truth, then I'll switch to a lie.
Naruto thought of an excuse while picking at his food. Considering the situation and rules of Fuzhi Village, an idea sparked: "Actually, I don't like women."
Upon this remark, everyone was stunned.
Jiraiya stared blankly at him, secretly pounding his chest and stamping his feet. What a brilliant excuse! Why hadn't he thought of it back then? Fuzhi Village was entirely composed of women; this one excuse invalidated their entire village.
"You..." Fuzhi Jingxiang pointed at Naruto, speechless. Although Naruto was a world with a strong subtext of bromance, and some even remained unmarried for their male friends, no one had ever said something like this.
Seeing Jingxiang so utterly speechless, Fuzhi Liuhong stepped in to defuse the situation: "Actually, it doesn't matter. Our village just wants a child."
Can't you tell I'm also a child?! If you want a child, go find Nagato; he has seven of them, including his main body.
"Say what you want, I'm not fighting, anyway."
This fight couldn't be fought. Win, and he'd be entangled for life. With his level of holding back, if he lost, it would be obvious, and he'd still be entangled for life. And he couldn't even escape; they would come to Konoha to find someone.
"Actually, I have a girlfriend. I was just lying to you," Naruto, unable to fool them, chose to tell the truth.
"A mouth full of lies," Fuzhi Jingxiang said coldly. From the moment they met, this person hadn't spoken a single truth. "What does your having a girlfriend have to do with me?"
Naruto tossed his chopsticks, leaned back against the chair, and felt a headache coming on.
Damn it, I forgot they only wanted ancestral chromosomes and weren't interested in me as a person.
Naruto wore an expression of a living Nine-Tails unafraid of boiling water: "Anyway, I'm not fighting."
From the moment Naruto took over the conversation, Jiraiya had been pretending to be invisible, wishing he could change his surname to Aburame. Although he usually lacked propriety, he was a man of principle.
Not running away when they first met meant he upheld his integrity. He also wouldn't force Naruto's will. And he couldn't go to Fuzhi Village to take the fall himself; that would be betraying Konoha. What seemed like a small matter had three major issues weighing him down.
Boom.
A puppet crashed through the wall and window, entering the room.
Squeak, squeak, squeak... Woof woof woof...
The loud noise startled Konoka and Shunfeng, who were braver than anyone when facing people but more timid than anyone when hearing sounds.
"Excellent timing!" Jiraiya exclaimed, slapping his thigh. Nothing could relieve this stalemate better than an accident.
"Miss Jingxiang, I've found you again," a man with a square face and glasses walked in through the broken wall. From his constantly wiggling fingers, it was clear he was controlling the puppet.
In the anime, you could see the blue chakra threads extending from the puppeteer's fingers; that was just for the audience's clarity. Normally, unless one had special eyes, chakra threads were invisible.
"It's you again!" Fuzhi Jingxiang frowned.
"Accept my burning love, Miss Jingxiang!" The square-faced man laughed loudly, controlling his puppet to approach Fuzhi Jingxiang.
"Hmph!"
Fuzhi Jingxiang let out a soft cry and swung her leg, kicking the puppet in the chest. However, she didn't use much force, merely kicking the puppet out of the room. She had fought this opponent many times, and each time the puppet would explode. There were other people in the room, and she didn't want to involve them.
Naruto calmed his two 'ancestors' (Konoka and Shunfeng) who were eager to charge at the man, feeling somewhat surprised by the square-faced man's appearance.
Naruto recognized the man; he just hadn't expected him to start pestering Jingxiang already.
One had to remember that Fuzhi Jingxiang was only 14 this year, still an 'unexpired loli.' The square-faced man looked at least in his twenties. Even though Naruto knew his goal was to hold Jingxiang hostage and control Fuzhi Village, Naruto still labeled him a pervert.
I didn't expect you, a bushy-browed, glasses-wearing man, to be a lolicon too.
Fuzhi Jingxiang took off her white robe and handed it to Liuhong, revealing her black, form-fitting suit. As expected of genes improved over generations, at 14, she was already blooming into a graceful young woman.
It made Naruto's eyes light up.
However, as a member of Team Seven, Naruto's focus wasn't on Jingxiang, but on the white robe.
Why didn't I notice it earlier? That was a white robe with a hood!
Feeling there was room for maneuver in this situation, Naruto walked over to Fuzhi Liuhong and asked, "Who is that?"
"He's a research consultant we hired from outside our village. After seeing Miss Jingxiang on a certain occasion, he has repeatedly challenged her, hoping to win her favor."
"So the '27' written on that puppet indicates the number of challenges?" Naruto asked, pointing at the puppet.
He knew that this square-faced man had a strange technique. After Jingxiang defeated a hundred of his puppets, a special jutsu would be triggered, transforming her into the square-faced man's puppet.
Naruto asked on purpose because he was interested in this square-faced man himself.
Men from Team Seven were truly extraordinary. Throughout the entire Jingxiang incident, he was interested in the white robe, and he was interested in the man, but he wasn't interested in Jingxiang.
Although the square-faced man's current puppet looked unremarkable, Naruto knew that his final, hundredth puppet would be quite mechanical, almost like a high-tech mecha from his past life.
This was a talent for researching Gundams, so Naruto planned to send him to the Land of Snow to research MP3s.
How could piloting a Gundam be as fun as listening to music?
If he wanted to pilot a Gundam (Susanoo), couldn't he just mooch off Sasuke?
Moreover, Gundams in this world were simply not good enough. Even the ultimate form of Gundam wouldn't be enough for his fox spirit to dismantle. What was the point of having one?
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