They found a random place and spent the night there without much fuss.
The next morning, Reiji called Rie over.
"Rie, take Meiko and the others and get the house cleaned up today. Let them move in."
Still yawning, Rie nodded obediently.
"Oh, and pick up some gifts. We're visiting Lady Mito Uzumaki tomorrow!"
With that, he clapped his hands.
A second later, over a dozen shadow clones appeared. Reiji turned and said to them,
"Alright, you guys help Rie with cleaning the place up today."
"Yeah, yeah..." came the unenthusiastic reply.
Seeing that, Reiji didn't linger and quickly headed out.
First things first, it was best to meet with Tsunade, Jiraiya, and Orochimaru—wouldn't do to show up for a mission without knowing each other.
As he strolled down the street, Reiji casually bought a dog-head mask from a roadside shop and put it on.
The destination for this mission was Uzushio Village in the Land of Whirlpools.
Reiji had his reasons, and he didn't want anyone from the Uzumaki clan to see his face.
Mask in place, Reiji began tracking Tsunade using the Flying Thunder God seal he had once left behind.
Years ago, when he was undercover in Amegakure, he had taken part in the operation to kidnap Tsunade.
It was during that mission that he accidentally marked her with the Flying Thunder God seal.
Narrowing his eyes, he extended his finely tuned sensory network.
Seals at the Hokage's office, his home, and even the street stood out clearly.
Before long, he sensed one of his seals at the training field outside the village.
That should be Tsunade.
Following the signal, Reiji soon arrived near the village's outer training grounds.
He stopped at a distance and quickly formed a hand seal.
"Ox - Ram - Snake.
Secret Technique: Nurarihyon Technique!"
In an instant, a gray mist surrounded him as Reiji moved slowly through the trees, drawing closer to the source of the seal.
Pushing past a bush, the view opened up.
In a wide clearing up ahead, Jiraiya, Orochimaru, and Tsunade were sparring.
The three were going at it with full force.
Jiraiya and Orochimaru were focused on each other, exchanging ninjutsu back and forth.
Tsunade, meanwhile, played the part of the enforcer—throwing punches and kicks to break them apart.
She was like, "If you won't include me, I'll beat both of you to a pulp." Pure delinquent energy.
Orochimaru and Jiraiya kept a wary eye on Tsunade's monstrous strength while continuing their own back-and-forth with ninjutsu.
Reiji was pleasantly surprised—this version of Jiraiya was already quite formidable.
He wielded multiple nature releases with ease and had impressive mastery over Summoning Jutsu.
With a flick of his hand, he summoned a toad with iron arms that crossed in front of it to block Tsunade's whip-like kick.
Then, with swift hand seals, it breathed fire straight at Orochimaru.
Reiji watched from the side, thoroughly impressed.
Summoning Jutsu was seriously cool.
Tsunade, Jiraiya, and Orochimaru had all made contracts with one of the three great sacred lands: Shikkotsu Forest, Mount Myōboku, and Ryūchi Cave.
And those places were where Senjutsu was practiced.
Thinking about this, Reiji's gaze narrowed in on Jiraiya's hands. He muttered quietly to himself,
"Lightning Release Chakra Mode, activate."
In the next instant, lightning flickered in his eyes—his dynamic vision enhanced dramatically.
Oh? So the hand seals for Summoning Jutsu are Boar, Dog, Bird, Monkey, and Ram!
Suddenly, he felt a reckless urge bubble up inside.
If he tried performing those seals, would he be reverse-summoned to some weird place?
Kind of tempting to find out...
Just as Reiji was about to find a secluded spot to experiment—
A fleshy tongue shot out like a whip, wrapping tightly around him.
In the blink of an eye, he was yanked out from cover.
It was none other than a younger version of Gamabunta, summoned by Jiraiya.
At the same time, the three in the field stopped immediately, surrounding Reiji with alert expressions.
Seeing this, Reiji quickly shouted, "Wait! Don't attack! I'm one of you!"
He tilted his head to reveal the brand-new forehead protector under his chin.
Even so, the trio remained on guard.
After all, having a village forehead protector didn't mean much—any self-respecting infiltrator would swipe one first thing.
"Who are you, and why were you spying on us?" Tsunade asked coldly, clenching her fists.
Hearing that, Reiji struggled against the tongue, fumbling in his pouch before finally pulling out a mission scroll and tossing it to the ground.
"I was sent by Lord Hokage to join you on the mission to Uzushiogakure."
The three exchanged glances.
Jiraiya stepped forward, picked up the scroll, and carefully unrolled it, his eyes scanning quickly. Then he nodded to the others.
Only then did Tsunade and Orochimaru ease up a bit.
"Bunta, let him go."
As soon as the words left her mouth, Gamabunta retracted his tongue.
Reiji rubbed his shoulder, then held out his hand toward Jiraiya.
"You've confirmed my identity, right, kid? If you're still not convinced, we can go verify it with Lord Hokage.
Also—give me back the scroll."
Being called "kid" made Jiraiya twitch, but he couldn't argue.
The guy in front of him was well over 180 centimeters tall and looked like a full-grown adult.
What he didn't know was that Reiji was actually about the same age—he just developed faster thanks to long-term training in Lightning Release Chakra Mode.
"Here."
Jiraiya casually tossed the scroll back.
Reiji caught it and smoothly stuffed it into his ninja pouch, then introduced himself calmly.
"Name's... Darabunba. I'll be your teammate for this mission. Jōnin. Decent with taijutsu.
Hobbies? Eh, nothing I particularly hate or like.
Alright, your turn."
Jiraiya rolled his eyes discreetly.
Darabunba? What kind of ridiculous name is that?
Still, he went first.
"Jiraiya. Chūnin. I'm good with ninjutsu and Summoning Jutsu."
He gave Gamabunta's belly a pat as he spoke.
After him, Orochimaru, who had been quietly observing Reiji, said coldly, "Orochimaru."
Tsunade followed with a short and straightforward introduction.
With that, the introductions were done—and Reiji had achieved what he came for.
They settled on a departure time for the mission, and without wasting words, Reiji turned and left.
Once his back disappeared from view, Jiraiya relaxed and returned to his usual loud self.
"Bunta, you're awesome! Snagged a Jōnin just like that!"
Gamabunta gave Jiraiya a sideways glance and opened his mouth, sticking out his tongue.
The fleshy tongue was covered in tiny, densely packed cuts.
Not serious, but definitely nasty to look at.
Jiraiya frowned and rolled up his sleeves, ready to run after Reiji and give him a beating, but Gamabunta stopped him with one hand.
"You idiot, Jiraiya. That guy wasn't hostile."
Jiraiya tilted his head, puzzled.
Orochimaru chimed in coolly, "He definitely didn't have any killing intent... but he felt terrifying. It was like his whole body was brimming with destructive lightning."
Gamabunta nodded and pulled back his tongue.
"Yeah, the moment my tongue touched him, it stung like crazy—felt like it was about to snap. And he didn't even resist!"
Scratching his head, Jiraiya muttered, "Alright, fine. Jiraiya-sama will let him off this time."
Off to the side, Orochimaru kept his eyes on the direction Reiji had gone, silently musing to himself.
"Looks like Hiruzen-sensei found someone serious to team up with us."