"Ngh!"

Even after hearing Jiraiya's words, Onigetsu still struggled to get free. 

Seeing this, Jiraiya sighed… Behind him, Minato and Nozomi were finished, having knocked out every single follower.

"As you can see, your 'sacrifice' has been foiled... I suggest that you start talking, or I'll have to force you. Where are the rest?"

"Hahaha... As if I'd speak! Lord Jashin will save me anyways… You people are ignorant! You may have stopped us today, but you will never extinguish us, for we are devout to our lord!"

Laughing maniacally, Onigetsu bit his tongue.

"Crap! He's trying to kill himself!"

Jiraiya tried to stop him, but it was too late. Blood-red markings covered Onigetsu's skin as his body burned under scarlet flames. Feeling pain, the toad released him and he burned to ash.

"Fuck… He's destroyed his body so that there's no evidence…"

If this hadn't happened, they could've brought him back to the Yamanaka and get his brain searched... Disappointed with himself, Jiraiya sighed.

"Jiraiya-sensei! The followers… They're burning too!"

Hearing Nozomi's words, Jiraiya turned around, but again, there was nothing he could do. Clicking his tongue, he walked over to the girls to get them out.

Just as he was about to untie them, the cave started shaking.

"What's going on?"

Minato got a bad feeling as he struggled to keep his balance. Next to him, Jun was already looking for ways to get the girls out safely.

"Gamagakure no Jutsu!" (Hidden Toad Technique!)

Performing another summoning, Jiraiya summoned a small, red toad. 

"Please take all of the girls, quickly!"

The toad nodded and hopped over to the girls, eating them up one by one. The three Genin stared in confusion, watching the small animal take in tens of girls into its stomach.

After it was done, it burped and hopped into Jiraiya's arms.

"Let's get out of here!"

The four of them ran away, narrowly escaping the boulders. Looking around the hall they had previously been in, they sighed in relief. 

Patting the toad, Jiraiya smiled.

"Well, at least we saved the girls… It's a shame that we didn't manage to get any intel on the Jashinists… That would've been extremely useful to the village."

---

The next morning, Jun woke up early. After they saved the girls, all of them went back to their respective houses, and the city was restored to normality.

That night, the whole city threw a party, celebrating the occasion. Of course, team Jiraiya were treated like true heroes. 

After so much celebrating, they had gone to bed very late. Looking around him, Jun noticed that his teammates were still asleep.

Taking care not to wake them up, he merged into the floor, reappearing on top of the castle's roof. From there, he could see the whole city.

Although the mission had gone well, he had been left frustrated. There was no one that even posed a challenge, making him desolate in his own way.

'Well, I guess it's already a step in the right direction…'

Sighing, he watched as the sun rose above the land of tea, making for an extremely beautiful sight.

---

Later that morning, almost the entire population of Edo gathered in the same place, seeing off the ninja who had become local heroes. 

At the forefront, Yamanoue stood next to his daughter, who was the girl Onigetsu had picked up by the neck. She hugged her father's arm as she watched the people who saved her.

Yamanoue bowed towards the four ninja, as tears flowed down his cheeks.

"Jiraiya-dono, Jun-dono, Nozomi-dono, Minato-dono… You have mine, and all of the village's thanks! We shall remember you for our entire lives… Please come back and visit yours truly every now and then, degozaru!"

"Quit it, man. You're embarrassing me here…"

Jiraiya scratched his head as he helped Yamanoue back up, but was met with unexpected resistance. Yamanoue just refused to stop bowing.

"Thank you, heroes!"

All of the girls bowed in unison, then their parents, followed by the rest of the townsfolk. Seeing this, team Jiraiya didn't know what to do.

Sighing, Jun looked up at the sky.

'I never thought that I'd have so many people thanking me like this… I guess I've really changed, huh?'

Instead of pleading for mercy, they were thanking him. This wasn't something he was used to.

---

#

Since they went on foot, team Jiraiya reached Konoha in a mere three days. Once they got back, news quickly got out that they had successfully completed an A-rank mission, startling the masses.

Suddenly, they had become the ones to beat... Every single genin team in the village had heard of their exploits, and couldn't wait to measure up against them.

Even some higher-ups had taken notice…

---

Early in the morning, near the lake that rested in front of Jun and Aito's cabin, three figures could be seen training.

Both brothers were going through their daily routines, accompanied by Akane, who was also following a regime that Jun had written out for her. In the past week, her physical abilities had improved by miles.

Jun was making sure to not slow down in his training and had his Sharingan activated at all times... The more he got used to it, the better it would get and the faster it would evolve. 

Once they were done, all three of them walked into the cold lake. 

On the first day, Akane found out that she couldn't just get in with her underwear like them, so from the second day on, she always wore a swimsuit under her clothes.

As their muscles recovered underwater, Aito furrowed his brows.

"Aniki… When are you going to teach me the new jutsu you promised?"

Aito was running out of patience. He hadn't mentioned it since his brother arrived, to not sound like a needy person, but he couldn't hold himself anymore.

"Oh! I forgot about that, sorry... I'll teach it to you immediately."

"Can... Can you teach me too?"

Hearing Akane's shy words, Jun smiled brightly.

"Of course, we're all family here, no need to be so reserved."

Hearing the word 'family', Akane felt something inside of her... Looking at Jun, she got angry and looked away, pouting.

'What a dummy! Wait… Why am I even mad?'

"..."

After they were done bathing, Jun stood in front of them. Sitting on their knees, they listened attentively as he spoke.

Placing a hand on his chin, Jun thought for a while. He hadn't really decided on a suitable technique to teach them.

'Oh! How could I forget!'

"Alright. The technique I'll teach you today is called the…"

---

Sipping on his cup of tea, Danzo quietly watched his bamboo fountain from the outer corridor of his residence. Hearing the sound it made, he calmed down and thought about the most recent turn of events.

"Uchiha Jun… Namikaze Minato… Both would be perfect for root."

He had been developing an underground force of Shinobi, that would carry out the dirty work for the leaf. Although it was only in its beginning stages, it was already showing signs of success.

Placing his tea on the corridor floor, he picked up two documents and carefully read over them. They were detailed records of both Uchiha Jun's and Namikaze Minato's accomplishments, as well as their academic grades so far.

Looking at Minato's grades, Danzo bit his lips in frustration. This was the best student the academy had ever seen, yet he couldn't obtain him. Apparently Hiruzen had other plans, and if they were under Jiraiya's protection, there was nothing he could do.

As for Jun, when he saw his grades, he felt that something was amiss. They didn't match up with his recent performance.

"Interesting… I'll keep an eye on both of them… Especially this Jun. If he starts showing signs of rebellion…"

Gripping the page tightly, Danzo thought of his sensei, the second Hokage,

"I shall get rid of the Uchiha clan one day…"