"Not yet. I don't plan to give way to death."

"You and my great uncle both. Guess who else died for shit."

"But I'll make a bet, how about, since you brats are so passionate for this. One week. You impress me with a medical technique then, and I'll come back to the Leaf and take that damn hat. You don't, and I'll fuck off."

It's stupid. It feels like she's doing the same pointless thing, putting her anxieties about her fate into an endless slot machine.

But, well.

A week's the deadline Orochimaru gave her, too, isn't it.

"Deal."

"A week, then," Jiraiya says. He drains his cup and slams it back down.

"Now if you'll excuse me..."

"I'll get the check."

She stands up and leaves.

Jiraiya pours himself another drink.

"Uh. We worked her up to a conditional, at least?"

"And no one got hit," he says, taking a drink. "I'd call that a win."

"Did Danzo really tell you to say that, kid?" he asks Chihiro.

"Yes."

"Dammit..." he mutters.

"...Yeah I'm pretty sure she would've been a lot less hostile without that. Though. Uh. Does Danzo actually have the authority to do that without the Hokage signing off?"

On the bright side, if she does come back to the Leaf, she might now punch Danzo out of it.

"With the actual office being effectively unoccupied at the moment? He might."

Naruto really, really doesn't like this guy...

He mostly just expresses this by frowning.

He takes another drink.

"Anyway. Do you three have a plan for winning the bet?"

"I have two medical techniques I'm working on now. One's easier, one's more impressive. First would cure at a minimum blindness, regardless of cause, hopefully also paralysis and similar problems. Second would remove curses like my seal."

"Demonstrating those might be tricky."

"I know of at least one patient in the Leaf with paralysis issues. Tsunade could confirm someone had the condition, I could cure them, and she could confirm the cure."

"Most medical techniques would be hard to demonstrate, though. You have any suggestions?"

"Maybe something less... specialized?"

"I have a generic technique for fresh wounds, but I don't know that it's impressive..."

"If it's already finished, maybe you can put a few frills on it over the week. What's it do right now?"

"Heals arbitrary injuries that have not had a chance to scar and weren't instantly fatal, though major injuries need repeated castings, and it can't regenerate limbs. I used it to heal a gut wound plus some other assorted injuries during the invasion. Making it frillier without making it more specialized would be hard."

Jiraiya chokes on his sake.

"...I might not have a well-calibrated idea of what's impressive."