Uchiha's personal opinion

However, as an adult, and having just been beaten by the Uchiha, Jiraiya did not show any unusual expression on his face. After helping to tidy up, he slowly walked towards the place where they were currently gathered, led by Konan.

Upon seeing her mentor again, Xiao Nan chattered excitedly as she recounted her experiences over the past two years.

After Jiraiya returned to Konoha, Konan and Yahiko moved from the abandoned village to their current location, Iron Rain Castle, with a group of orphans. They occupied an abandoned mansion and lived there. They mainly earned money by taking on simple tasks from the castle residents or farmers in the surrounding area to buy food. In addition, they also cultivated some simple crops outside the castle. Although the yield was very low, it served as a basic food source and also helped the children develop their self-reliance. Even if these children who had gathered together chose to leave in the future, they would still have a skill to support themselves.

After being trained by Jiraiya, both Yahiko and Konan became excellent genin, capable of performing simple tasks such as searching for items or driving away wild beasts. Although the rewards were not high, they were enough to exchange for food and basic clothing.

"Looks pretty good~ You've become self-reliant and learned to help others. And I see you bought quite a bit of food, are you planning to improve your meals?"

Jiraiya casually pointed to the food he was carrying in his left hand.

"...Oh, these are dried fish sold from a very far place, they're actually not very tasty."

Xiao Nan was still in high spirits, "But one good thing is that it's extremely salty, and incredibly cheap. You can add a little to rice balls or rye bread, which saves you money on buying salt!"

"Is that so..."

Jiraiya suddenly felt a tightness in his chest.

"It seems the Shogunate and the United Company aren't entirely useless after all..."

Jiraiya chuckled inwardly, deciding that after overthrowing the shogunate's "dark rule," he must preserve the logistics function of the United Company so that more poor children could obtain cheaper food.

"By the way, where's Yahiko? Did he go on a mission?"

Jiraiya asked casually.

"He was conscripted by Lord Hanzo to fight in the war..."

Xiao Nan sniffed, looking somewhat downcast.

"This……"

Jiraiya frowned. "He joined Amegakure?"

"No... it's just that Lord Hanzo stipulated that all ninjas in the country, whether they are in the village or in the wild, must wear the Amegakure headband and be drafted during wartime, otherwise they cannot take on missions..."

Although Xiao Nan was a little down, she still patiently explained to the teacher, "Although Lord Hanzo's summons was mandatory, he did give us a lot of signing fees and battle rewards, otherwise we wouldn't be able to afford these dried salted fish..."

"...Thank you for your hard work."

Jiraiya remained silent for a while, then sighed and ruffled Konan's hair again.

At first, he instinctively projected the income level of Konoha genin onto Konan and Yahiko, but forgot about the income gap between the two countries.

Although Konan spoke lightly, upon closer reflection, relying on just two genin to carry out low-level missions that even the impoverished Amegakure village wouldn't bother with would probably result in pitifully low pay...

As for the so-called reclamation... the difficulty of growing crops in the rain-soaked land is unimaginable, let alone for a group of children with little experience.

"Living in the city is actually quite nice. Although there are more places to spend money, at least you don't have to worry about poisonous snakes, wild animals, or all sorts of insects when you sleep at night. Otherwise, like before, it would be very difficult to find suitable medicine if you were bitten by poisonous insects..."

Xiao Nan continued walking happily ahead, chattering away to describe to the teacher the wonderful life she would have in the city.

But this so-called "wonderful" situation only made Jiraiya feel incredibly heartbroken.

After navigating through a maze of winding alleys, Xiao Nan finally returned to the abandoned house where they lived.

Jiraiya took a quick look around. Although it looked particularly old, the details showed that it had been carefully repaired. The basic structure should be fine. For a group of orphans who had lost their parents at a young age, having a place to stay and not having to wander in the city was already considered lucky.

"Great Buddha, Zhenzhu! Come and help!"

Xiao Nan called out with great enthusiasm.

Then a group of children rushed out of the house. Among them, a rather burly man with his head covered in sawdust and dust took the various dried fish from Xiao Nan's hands, and a little boy with ninja makeup on his face handed Xiao Nan a cup of water.

All eyes were drawn to the tall and imposing Jiraiya.

"This is my and Yahiko's teacher—Jiraiya, the Jonin!"

Xiao Nan proudly introduced him to the group of children, saying, "You should call him Grandmaster!"

"Master!"

All the children immediately bowed respectfully, even the little boy with the arrogant expression on his face was no exception.

Jiraiya laughed heartily, helped everyone up, exchanged a few pleasantries, and then demonstrated his ninjutsu skills, using Earth Release to repair all the damaged parts of the house as if it were brand new, much to the delight of the children who had never seen much of the world.

"Teacher...I'm sorry..."

After finishing dinner and settling the children in, Konan poured herself a cup of hot tea and, with a hint of unease, quietly apologized to Jiraiya.

"You did a great job, why are you saying that..."

Jiraiya took a sip of tea and said with some heartache.

"I taught chakra training to others without your permission, teacher..."

Konan lowered her head. "Yahiko and I were just trying to give them some means of self-defense..."

"How could I possibly care about these things... You're overthinking it."

Jiraiya gently ruffled Konan's hair with a touch of sadness and said earnestly, "You and Yahiko have both done a great job. While struggling to make ends meet yourselves, you've taken care of so many children. This shows that my teachings have been effective, and you've both found your own ninja way..."

"……teacher."

Xiao Nan blinked away the tears from the corners of her eyes, "This time... will you leave again?"

"...Do you know who I am?"

Jiraiya's lips twitched, and he forced a smile.

"A Jonin from Konoha."

"That's the past..."

Jiraiya shook his head, first removing the oil-patterned headband from his forehead, then taking out the Konoha headband from his pocket and wiping it for a long time with a hint of reluctance.

"Konan, you should still remember how to identify a ninja, right?"

"remember."

Jiraiya nodded, carefully placed the Konoha headband on his forehead, then took out a kunai and scratched a deep mark on the Konoha emblem.

"This is who I am now."

"Rogue ninja..."

Xiao Nan was a little stunned.

Moreover, he was a rogue ninja from Konoha, the most powerful ninja village in the world today!

"I'm glad you understand..."

Jiraiya felt a pang of sadness.

"Then... teacher! You can stay!"

Konan rushed over and hugged Jiraiya's leg, pleading, "We all need you!"

Jiraiya ruffled Konan's hair, then called out towards the door, "Come in too!"

Xiao Nan looked back in surprise.

Daibutsu and Zhenzhu walked in somewhat awkwardly with their heads down.

Although they possessed chakra, their experience and cultivation were far from sufficient. Their supposedly concealed lurking was as conspicuous as a campfire in the dark in the eyes of a powerful figure like Jiraiya.

"Grandmaster..."

Daibutsu and Zashiki knelt down behind Konan in unison.

"...You all heard it, right?"

Jiraiya pointed to the rogue ninja headband on his forehead.

"Teacher, we don't care about these things. This is the Land of Rain!"

Konan spoke first: "Especially in the south, those Rain Ninjas only come once a year when collecting taxes. Otherwise, no other ninjas will come. It's a good opportunity for you to rest, teacher."

"Teacher Xiao Nan is right!"

The Buddha and Zhenzhu nodded repeatedly.

"...Would you also like to become my disciples?"

A smile appeared on Jiraiya's face.

"Master!"

Upon hearing this, Daibutsu and Zashiki immediately and readily kowtowed several times to Jiraiya.

"Get up."

Jiraiya stood up and helped the two of them up, saying emotionally, "In that case, you are now disciples of my lineage of ninja!"

"Teacher... what is our Ninja Clan called?"

Xiao Nan raised her hand and asked, "

"Our ninjutsu is called Akatsuki! We're known to the outside world as the Akatsuki Organization!"

Jiraiya ruffled Konan's light purple-blue hair again, a strange smile on his face, and said, "From now on, you'll call me..."

"godfather!"

Chapter 309 Special Mission of the Anti-Triad Unit

Newly appointed police inspector Minato Namikaze rushed to the police headquarters. After greeting the Uchiha ninjas in a friendly manner, he took the elevator to the door of Uchiha Tokumitsu's office on the top floor of the police headquarters building.

"Knock knock!"

Minato Namikaze took a deep breath to calm himself and gently knocked on the office door.

"Come in!"

Uchiha Tokumitsu's voice came from the office.

"Lord Tokumitsu!"

Minato Namikaze gently pushed open the door and stood at the entrance, bowing to Tokumitsu Uchiha.

"Don't be so formal...come and sit down!"

Uchiha Tokumitsu said with a smile, pointing with his right hand, which was holding a pen, to a chair placed in front of his desk.

"As ordered!"