After a couple of hours, Jiraiya suddenly exclaimed with unrestrained excitement, "The beginning is done!"
The shout startled Takeshi awake. Blinking sleepily, the black-furred feline stared at Jiraiya with a mixture of confusion and annoyance. In front of the white-haired toad summoner lay a freshly inked manuscript, its ten pages neatly stacked, exuding a faint scent of still-drying ink.
Takeshi rubbed his eyes with his paw and thought, 'Jiraiya, your speed is outrageous!', Before he could say anything, Jiraiya turned to him, beaming with pride.
"How about it?" Jiraiya said, practically glowing. "Want to experience the literary genius of the great Jiraiya? Come on, I'll let you be the first reader. You should feel honored!"
Takeshi tilted his head, trying to process the declaration. While Jiraiya radiated confidence, he seemed to have forgotten one small detail: the novel's outline had come from none other than Takeshi himself.
Curiosity got the better of the cat. Suppressing his exasperation, he stretched and padded over to take a closer look. But as he approached, Jiraiya's expression shifted into one of alarm.
"Wait, wait!" Jiraiya cried, quickly snatching the manuscript off the table. "Your paws! You'll get it all dirty!" He positioned the pages so Takeshi could read without touching them, holding them high like a proud artist presenting their masterpiece.
Takeshi's sharp eyes darted over the lines of text. It only took a few seconds before the first comment spilled out. "Your handwriting is terrible, meow!", the words left his mouth before his brain could stop them.
Jiraiya froze. The jovial pride that had filled the room moments ago evaporated. His hand, still clutching the manuscript, trembled slightly, and his other hand gripped his pen with the intensity of holding a kunai.
Realizing his mistake, Takeshi's fur stood on end. Panic surged through him as he remembered just how precarious his position was. He had squeezed over 3,000 points out of Jiraiya earlier today, but if he kept pushing, he might genuinely get shipped off to Orochimaru as punishment.
He coughed lightly to ease the embarrassment, and then read it carefully. After he made hundreds of corrections, the plot was basically fine.
But one thing stood out, and it was both strange and revealing. Jiraiya's descriptions of male characters were rushed and barebones, but his depiction of female characters was exquisite. The words seemed to leap off the page, painting vibrant and multidimensional images of these women. With just a few words, it was very vivid. No wonder the Icha Icha series was so popular!
Takeshi took a moment before replying. "It's… good. But as the authors, I think we can refine it a bit more, meow."
"That makes sense." Jiraiya pondered for a moment, and then gave Takeshi a thumbs up.
This cat is really clever and has more ideas in his mind than himself. With it, writing a normal book suddenly seems not so difficult. But Jiraiya still likes to rely on himself and be independent.
The most important thing is to understand this cat's thought process, after which Takeshi's name can be removed from the Authors list in the future... This was Jiraiya's thoughts.
"Meow!" After that Takeshi called out, and ran away. It was not easy to fool Jiraiya, and he didn't want to stay any longer to avoid annoying this white-haired guy, but Jiraiya obviously didn't intend to let this cat get away, and picked him up and put him on his shoulder.
"Let's go back and find someone to read this. You are also one of the authors. You can't be left out when accepting criticism!" Jiraiya was in high spirits.
In the past, it was often tough for him to describe his book and showing it to others.
He didn't know what would happen this time, but he couldn't let Takeshi down. He would bring this cat along to share the joys of being criticized.
Takeshi nodded with tears in his eyes. He was quite reluctant to be dragged along in this. But sadly Jiraiya is still higher ranked and stronger than him.
At this moment, he deeply understands the mood that Kakashi usually feels when facing himself.
But deeply sympathizing with him will not affect Takeshi's bullying of Kakashi. It was because that kid was stubborn that he would betray his teammates if he was not taught a lesson, this is for Kakashi's character development. Well, points is the side benefit as well.
Jiraiya took Takeshi away. Not far from here, the Chunin of the Yamanaka clan fell into deep thought and then couldn't help sighing – 'Has it really come to this? Lord Jiraiya… taking creative inspiration from a cat? How tragic.'
Ofcourse Jiraiya knew the Chunin was hiding there but realizing it was out of his sense of duty and good intentions he didn't kick him away.
However, if he had known the Chunin's thoughts, there was no doubt the poor man would've been shipped straight to Orochimaru.
For the first time, Takeshi sat on someone's shoulder helplessly, because this time he was forced, he couldn't get any points, and he was accompanied by certain risks.
What if this manuscript is reviewed to be bad... Well, it shouldn't be. At least it couldn't be that bad. He comforted himself, but he couldn't help feeling a little uneasy, if this manuscript turned out to be a disaster, the blame might fall squarely on him. 'What if everyone thinks it's my fault? What if Tsunade sees this?'
Jiraiya had completely forgotten that there was a poor man in the camp who was handling Camp matters with his shadow clone.
At this moment, Jiraiya had only one thought in his mind – to find someone to take a look and appreciate his story.
While Takeshi would've preferred to not be in this situation, he couldn't help laughing when he saw Jiraiya running around like a headless chicken looking for right person.
After going around abit Jiraiya decided to find Naoki Gekko, mainly because Naoki is less biased, still young and doesn't have any tasks for now.
Asking him to read books will not affect his normal work. For example, if he asks Aburame Shibi, it may affect the efficiency of his current mission, as Shibi is the one handling Jiraiya's low priority paperwork at the moment.
Naoki having just returned from a mission will have break for sometime. He was not strong to begin with, and he was really tired from being alert in his mission for days.
Just as he was about to go out to exercise, he saw Jiraiya coming in into his tent with Takeshi, "Jiraiya-sama? Another mission?"
Jiraiya waved dismissively. "Not at all! I'm here to give you something special—a reward!"
The genuine smile on Jiraiya's face was eerily similar to that of his apprentice, Minato, but Minato is more skilled, and also it's just that Minato is handsome looking and has a kinder face.
Though Naoki was fooled and looked appreciative. Jiraiya took out the manuscript and handed them to him and said, "It's fresh off the press! The ink's still drying. Perfect for some relaxing reading," Jiraiya announced proudly.
Naoki stared at the pages, his initial enthusiasm draining rapidly. He hesitated before finally accepting the manuscript.
After hesitating for a moment, he picked up the manuscript. He hadn't read Jiraiya's books, but they were very famous among the Konoha ninja community, because the books he wrote were relatively... well, naive and boring.
It was not interesting for adults to read. But Jiraiya is still the commander of this camp and one of the Sanin... Naoki took a deep breath and took it to read carefully.
Being experienced in espionage and assassination, Naoki controlled his expression to look interested as he started reading
'Is this character based on Tsunade-sama?!'
The resemblance was uncanny, and for a moment, Naoki's mind raced with questions. Was Jiraiya trying to get himself killed?
Naoki eyes widened in shock. Although Tsunade has left Konoha, Her stories still circulates around Konoha that she can knock down a house with one punch. That is the beautiful and dangerous Konoha's princess.
In this world, probably only Jiraiya would dare to do something like this to Tsunade. Naoki was still shocked by how brazen this is.
Forget this written story, Naoki would support his just to know how Tsunade would react to this!
"How is it?" Jiraiya felt a little uneasy from getting no response.
"It's great!" Naoki answered without hesitation, and then continued to flip through the pages. The black wild cat took away the girls clothes?
He glanced at Takeshi. It seems that the reason why Jiraiya-sama wrote this way is related to Takeshi, otherwise, with Jiraiya-sama's more cautious personality, he should not have been so suicidal.
After pondering for a moment, he asked, "Jiraiya-sama, this book... is there anyone else involved in writing this?"
"Yes, Takeshi and I thought about this together." Jiraiya nodded.
'It is indeed as I thought' Naoki was impressed by Takeshi and decided to prepare flowers for his funeral. This cat is really wanted verify if he had nine lives.
This cat even dared to mess with Tsunade. It's a pity that Tsunade-sama is no longer in Konoha, otherwise, the scene must be very beautiful to see.
'What a pity...' He read page after page. Putting aside the reference of the characters , the beginning of this book can be called excellent.
With beginning so engaging to read, he kept reading seriously, but after he finished reading he felt unsatisfied at how quickly it finished.
"Jiraiya-sama, the story is great, but there is just one thing..."
"What is it?"
"Well, nothing, I just feel that there are too few pages, it's over too quickly." In addition to carrying out missions, the camp is usually very boring most of the time.
It is indeed a rare reward to have a very exciting novel to read, but only ten pages seem too little.
"Hahahaha, I will try my best to add more." Jiraiya laughed. It was the first time in his life that someone urged him to continue his story and write more. He was really happy.
But Takeshi didn't think so. He felt a little chill on back of his neck, especially when Naoki looked at him with a smirk, and the subsequent questions all pointed to a possibility – 'This bastard thought that the character in the book were my opinions!'
'If others also started thinking this, I'm dead! Tsunade will come for me specifically' Takeshi took a deep breath and calmed down his smol beating heart.
Now he could only hope that Tsunade would not think so too. She knew Jiraiya and must know what kind of person Jiraiya was.
'Calm down… It'll be fine… Tsunade knows Jiraiya well enough to realize this wasn't my idea. Right?'
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