Chapter 5: Jirayia The Gallant

"I see you've brought someone with you Minato?"

A man of large stature stands up from his chair behind the signing desk. He has long white hair pushed up by a unique headband with short horns. His face is defined by red marks that go down from his bottom of his black eyes to the ends of his chin.

Despite his stern looking appearance he has a kind smile on his face very similar to that of his blond student.

"Yes, sensei. His name is Yasushi Konda. He's a fan of yours."

Jirayia leans down to meet me face to face before extending his hand out to me.

"Is that so? Nice to meet you Konda."

I vigorously shake his hand with a happy smile while Minato stands off to the side with an absent expression. I can see out of the corner of my eye that he's carefully analyzing me.

I assume that this is a test meant to see how much I idolize Jirayia. Depending on the interactions between me and Jirayia, Minato will judge if I'm someone he wants to sway to his side.

What's interesting about this is that Jirayia doesn't know, or is at least pretending not to known who I am or why Minato brought me here. This means that this is deliberately a test set up to see how far my adoration for Jirayia is and why I have that adoration.

To Minato, I only came up to talk to him because of Teuchi compared him to Jirayia as a shinobi. This would signify that I look up to Jirayia only because he is a powerful or capable shinobi.

If that is the case then Minato would be able to show me his own prowess as a shinobi and gain a admirer who could later become a companion.

What I talk about with Jirayia here is extremely important, if I talk about his book and other things that don't concern shinobi then Minato won't attempt to recruit me personally and would rather push me to Jirayia's side.

If I express interest in the jutsu Jirayia knows, the summons he has, or the missions he's completed for the village then Minato will most likely try to recruit me as his personal henchman.

If that really is the case then I'm definitely going to hype Jirayia to the maximum so that Minato takes a more humble approach when trying to get closer to me.

"You're Jirayia the toad sage right!"

Jirayia doesn't seem taken aback by my enthusiasm as he places his hand to his chin with an overly cocky smile.

"Of course! I am Jirayia the Gallant, the most handsome devil Konohagakure has ever seen."

"I've heard your able to summon toads stronger than Bijuu, is that true?"

"Uhh..."

Jirayia hesitates for a second before regaining his confident composure.

"Yes, of course! My summons are hailed across the lands as the strongest beasts to roam this mortal plane."

"Can you show me them? Minato showed me the summoning jutsu but he could only pop out a small toad."

Minato finally breaks from his silence with a startled cough.

"Konda, I didn't try when I was using the summoning jutsu. I can assure you that whatever Jirayia can summon I can as well."

Jirayia waves him away when Minato tries to do the hand signs for the summoning jutsu.

"Ahh, Minato my boy why don't I do it instead. I have a few decades of experience over your head so its best if the most qualified does the job."

He pokes me in the forehead with two of his fingers.

"Watch and learn young protege as the all mighty master of Myoboku shows off his superb skills."

I have no fucking clue how this man can say all this bullshit with such confidence. I don't think even I could be so shameless.

Thankfully this does confirm one thing, Jirayia is just like he is in the original anime. Overdramatic, confident, and basically just a comic relief character. I was worried that his personality or motives would be different from canon but they seem to be exactly the same just like Minato.

Since this is true for them then it's very likely that other people who originally played significant roles will act and be the same as their anime counterparts.

With this information I can be a bit more confident in the future. I've already taken one of the best opportunities available to me, that being the summoning jutsu.

In the near future I can't really think of anything that can significantly help me. Since I've learned the summoning jutsu by just touching the seal I know I can learn seals even easier than I can jutsu. So I should be able to just go to random parts of Konohagakure and learn seals by the dozen.

After all, the Hyuga have the Byakugan that can see through walls, wouldn't clans and government/military buildings have some kind of defense against that? Shouldn't there be detection seals around the walls of Konohagakure to warn against invaders? Konoha is one of the villages with the most access and knowledge about seals so there should be a lot to learn by exploring.

Besides that I can't think of much else to do. Things are pretty stale until I the school week ends and I can have time to reverse summon myself to a summoning that suits me.

I believe I've done a good job of portraying a particular image of himself in front of not only Minato but also Jirayia. I've shown that I have appreciation not only to Jirayia but all high level shinobi, that I'm interested in jutsu, summons and even becoming a shinobi myself.

For the rest of my time before the book signing officially starts I can continue to ask Jirayia questions about his adventures while praising his accomplishments. I'll definitely make sure to drop a few of my own secrets like knowing a C-Rank jutsu to really make Minato and Jirayia aware of my value and potential.

From now on the plan is simple, continue to grind experience, travel around Konohagakure learning sealing jutsu, and wait until the weekend comes so I have the time to summon myself to wherever I'm destined to go.

Hopefully everything goes to plan.