Naruto: Paws and Whiskers

"Jiraiya-sama, Takeshi-san… uh, sensed some chakra fluctuations." a cautious voice broke the silence. The sound jolted Jiraiya out of his reverie, his face tightening as he muttered under his breath, "Not good." His reflexes kicked in, his instincts honed over years of peeking, especially when his "research" had landed him in situations like this before.

The voice belonged to a young patrol ninja, no doubt drawn by the lingering chakra fluctuations from Jiraiya's earlier use of the Wild Lion's Mane Jutsu. Despite not being high-ranked technique, he should've expected someone would inevitably find out about disturbance...

'Wait a minute,' Jiraiya thought, quickly assessing his situation. 'What am I even worried about? I'm not doing anything wrong! At most, I'm just...avoiding some paperwork. Well, don't be afraid, Jiraiya, you are a Great Gentlemen!' As Jiraiya prepped himself up, and his panic quickly eased.

Maintaining his composure, Jiraiya spoke with a calm, commanding tone. "Nothing to worry about here," he said, crossing his arms. "Takeshi and I were discussing something... confidential. You can continue on your patrol."

The patrol ninja Chunin from the Yamanaka clan hesitated before nodding. "Yes, sir." With a slight bow, he vanished using Shushin Jutsu. 

Takeshi, who had watched the interaction in silence, had to suppress a laugh. 'Konoha's spirit of innovation truly leaves much to be desired,' he thought, marveling at how master and apprentice both seemed to share a mutual tendency to avoid interruptions with the simplest dismissals: "Go do your own thing."

However, he didn't express his thoughts, because Jiraiya was still standing by, is the leader of the camp.

"Ahem," Jiraiya cleared his throat, reclaiming Takeshi's attention. "Well, that was a minor setback. Now, where were we? Ah, yes! Let's talk writing, Takeshi! I have a fantastic idea for the opening chapter, that will make it more exciting..." Jiraiya is worthy of being pervy sage, always staying true to his old profession. Takeshi used positive energy to correct his wrong path, but ended up adding fuel to the fire instead.

Takeshi immediately and righteously chastised him, "you can't just treat a story like a bowl of ramen, tossing in every spice and flavor. Some ingredients shine best on their own, meow~"

Jiraiya cocked his head, bemused. "Huh. Makes sense, I guess. But... wait. Can cats even eat ramen?"

"It was a metaphor! Meow!" he snapped, his ears flattening in frustration.

Jiraiya didn't care about being scolded loudly and completely forgot that he had wanted to chuck Takeshi in the lake or send him to Orochimaru before.

Now, if anyone wanted to transfer Takeshi, Jiraiya would probably refuse profusely, saying that it was very helpful and an ideal subordinate who goes out of his way to help his superior.

He shook the pen, with ideas coming to his mind, his eyes lit up, and he knocked his head with the pen, and then wrote down words like "a light blonde hair, soft, beautiful and curvaceous measuring upto 106..."

'At first part wasn't an issue, it was nothing, but later...' Takeshi's eyes narrowed as he read over Jiraiya's shoulder.

"A big family in the village, grandfather and uncle are in charge of village affairs, can be called a princess of the ninja village?"

"Why does this feel so familiar!"

Hiss~ 'Jiraiya, don't commit suicide like this! Tsunade might actually return just to beat you up!'

While Takeshi has no choice but to take huge risks to make points and earn rewards, so he needs to mess with people to survive and grow, but Jiraiya isn't bound by such circumstances. 'There are so many characters to refer to, why did you choose this Tsunade? Someone who has beaten you horribly before and would definitely do it again if she knew about this!'

The important issue is that he is an assistant. What if the monster girl comes back angrily and beats Jiraiya up, and then she will want to beat up assistant too!

"Wait," Takeshi interrupted, alarmed. "Jiraiya-sama, that sounds... a little too familiar, don't you think? People might, uh, get the wrong idea. They might even... think you're writing about someone specific."

Jiraiya grinned, feigning innocence. "Oh, really? Like who?"

Takeshi rolled his eyes. "You know very well who I mean, Tsunade-sama. I don't think she'd appreciate seeing herself as your, uh, protagonist."

"Well... you make sense." Then, Jiraiya cancelled out the "light blonde", and Takeshi was stunned by him.

What the hell! Deleting the blonde beauty, but rest of the identity still points towards Tsunade its obvious at a glance.

Takeshi let out a sigh of exasperation. 'Why did he have to be so... dense?' he wondered. If Tsunade ever got wind of this, the consequences would be dire. After all, this was a woman who could pulverize boulders with her bare fists.

Determined to save his own skin as well as Jiraiya's, Takeshi continued to argue for more revisions. It took nearly an hour of relentless persuasion and suggestions, but eventually, Jiraiya altered the character's appearance enough to avoid obvious comparisons to his former teammate. 

The most important thing is that Takeshi can explain to Tsunade later - 'I tried my best to persuade him, but he didn't listen!'

Thankfully there is no artwork involved. With Jiraiya's clever modification, the plot became

"The protagonist was walking around when he heard a noise, when he looked at a lady shouting towards a black cat running away with her clothes. Protagonist immediately decided to chase the cat.

The lady of such a rich family thought he was an upright man, so she fell in love with him at first sight." It was a simple plot yet Jiraiya was quite excited to write it, and he felt very happy because he was completely involved in the role.

Takeshi sighed softly on the side. If he could bring out various novels in his mind from past life, he could make alot of money, but it was a pity that he was a cat, and he was only one year old.

If he were a hooman and older, he could be a writer or director, instead of staying in a small village as a ninja. The profession of ninja is too dangerous and risky.

But then he thought... Without strength, the ninja world is full of dangers. If he didn't have strength to protect himself he and his family could be victims of a rogue maniac ninja,(Shinobi as a profession does cause alot of ninjas to crack.) Even Genin could slaughter their family.

"Forget it, I will deal with hand I am dealt with." Takeshi could only comfort himself in this way, and then his thoughts gradually drifted away.

After a while, he saw Jiraiya writing excitedly and muttering from time to time. Since Takeshi didn't want to interrupt nor leave in the middle of the writing as he might need to give his input again to save himself and Jiraiya, so he decided to open the system to check the system store.

Thanks to Jiraiya's help, his points have reached to more than 11,000. The greater the risk, the greater the return.

Curious to see what the system store had to offer, he scrolled through the list of available items, a mix of mundane and awe-inspiring options laid out before him. Some items caught his attention, like rare jutsus, ancient relics, and powerful tools. But one particular entry made his whiskers twitch in excitement.

The "Eight Inner Gates: Gate of Healing" had become available, previously locked due to not meeting requirements. Takeshi blinked in surprise. He hadn't expected to unlock it so soon,

'Gate of Healing… it restores physical stamina, useful in both offense and defense,' Takeshi thought, assessing its utility. Most ninjas exhausted stamina quickly in intense battles, and a move like this could make the difference between life and death. And as Gate of Opening will consume not only physical strength, but also disrupt ordinary use of chakra and fighting will consume stamina and physical strength.

The Gate of Healing will help to squeeze out a little more physical strength when stamina is exhausted. Whether it is escaping or counter-attack, will be quite useful.

At only 1,000 points, it was a steal, and with a quick mental command, Takeshi purchased the gate. The moment he did, a new option unlocked before his eyes: "Gate of Life." Although currently grayed out, the requirements of the third gate are much higher than the previous two gates. As the Gate of Opening and Gate of Healing are focused more on removing the mental limiters from the brain.

So the physical requirements for them is not too high. As long as the ninja trains hard regularly in taijutsu it is possible for them to open it.

But it is different after the third gate. Takeshi didn't care much. He bought Eight Inner Gates because it was cheap. There are still other things in the shop he can buy.

He continued to scroll down, various ninjutsu, secret techniques, and Kekkei Genkais.

Some are strong and some are weak, but Takeshi wanted to buy the Shadow Clone Jutsu before, though it was too expensive, so he was a little reluctant.

With now having Water Release Water Clone Jutsu... It will serve similar purpose anyways, and Shadow Clones won't be much useful to him currently.

He glanced over, then scrolled again, and saw a familiar jutsu in the price of at 13,000, Wind ReleaseL Rasenshuriken. With Takeshi's chakra nature inclined towards wind and water, so the price of buying of wind and water styles ninjtsus is relatively cheap, and he has mastered the Rasengan. As for this jutsu...

For normal people, Rasenshuriken is a suicidal jutsu in close combat, because after hitting the enemy, the Rasenshuriken will expand to form a huge chakra storm, which will hurt the enemy and user. Not to mention it will damage the user too during creation of it. That got Takeshi thinking, 'This shouldn't be much issue for me, my physique is far more durable and tougher. Not to mention the Sage Mode would also assist in this.'

And Takeshi has Flying Thunder God. In theory, as long as there is a mark and his reaction speed is fast enough, he can use Flying Thunder God to leave before the chakra storm affects himself.

While he didn't have the points required for getting Tailed Beast Ball, but throwing a Rasenshuriken is better than Shukaku's Wind Release: Drilling Air Bullet Barrage!

If he is strong enough to fight against the One-Tail or even suppress him with firepower, Shukaku will be furious. The One-Tail Beast must be able to give a lot of points, right?

"Hehehe!" Thinking of this, Takeshi felt that this jutsu has great potential. Although he is still short around 3,000 points, he is not a big problem with Jiraiya and Minato. He will have enough points soon enough.

(E/N: Out of 11,000 points he had 1,000 was spent on buying Eight Inner Gates: Gate of Healing)

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