The western border of the Land of Fire hosted a small forest that was completely untouched by the shinobi world.
In the vast Land of Fire, the Fire Capital and the Hidden Leaf Village had completely centralized the region's population, resulting in areas such as the Misty Woods being abandoned and left to Mother Nature.
Today, Jiraiya, one of the Legendary Sannin, the Toad Sage, was wandering around the edge of the Misty Woods, humming a carefree tune.
He was en route to Yuzaka Town, a place he had visited once before and liked quite a lot.
As he walked, he suddenly stopped, and his eyes narrowed a bit as he spotted a strange structure near the forest.
A large hut stood near the path, with a smoking chimney and a weird-looking sign at the entrance.
It was a red square with a diagonal mark running from the top left to the bottom right. The top right and the bottom left each held a small black trapezoid that mirrored the diagonal.
The structure itself was not that unusual to Jiraiya, but its location was. This region was a completely isolated area where only robbers and missing-nin bothered to stay. Even the closest town was at least half a day away from here. Finding a normal-looking house filled Jiraiya with curiosity, and he made his way into the hut.
The inside of the hut was clean. It held shelves of strange potions, carved stones of different colors, weapons, capes, and armor, but, interestingly enough, Jiraiya didn't recognize a single thing.
At the end of the counter, a young man, probably in his early twenties, lay in a small wooden chair. A cloth covered his eyes, and he was clearly taking a nap.
Jiraiya narrowed his eyes but found no traces of chakra or genjutsu around him.
"Hello?" Jiraiya called out to wake the boy.
"Hmm?" The boy, Shiro, lazily pulled the cloth off his eyes and looked toward the sound.
"Oh?" There was a clear trace of surprise in his voice.
"Welcome! Jiraiya, the Gallant Toad Sage! Sorry for the ugly display earlier. I didn't expect such a big fis-, customer to appear only days after I opened up for business."
"You know me?" Jiraiya's voice was suspicious as he looked at the enthusiastic boy.
"Of course! Who doesn't know the legendary pervy sage of Konoha, the king of peepers, the ghost of bathhouses, the legendary author of Icha-Icha Paradise himself!"
Jiraiya's face went from smiling to neutral to an astonishing shade of blue as he listened to Shiro list his titles.
"What? What are you talking about? Anyway, what is this place?"
"Ah! I forgot to introduce myself! My name is Shiro, a humble shopkeeper, as you can see. As for the shop, this is the Imprtium, my new business model. Nice to meet you."
"Imprtium? Then what do you sell?" Jiraiya asked with interest.
"I sell a wide variety of items, but to buy them you have to become a member of the Imprtium," Shiro said with a wide grin on his face.
"Member?" Jiraiya was confused.
"Let me explain. The Imprtium is actually an inheritance store. Many heroes and legends from a faraway place have entrusted their inheritances to the Imprtium, and the store was designed to grant these inheritances to suitable candidates, if it finds any. Any inheritance claimer can become a member directly and gain access to the store."
"Inheritance?" Jiraiya was getting more and more confused as he listened to Shiro talk.
"Hmm. Looks like you're confused, Mr. Jiraiya. Let me give you a trial version of a hero. The inheritance trial gives you the inheritance for one day. After trying it out, you can decide whether you want to buy it or not. How about it?"
Shiro realized he could never convince a master spy and intelligence officer like Jiraiya with words alone, so he brought out the big guns directly.
"A trial? Show me something, then."
Jiraiya was clearly intrigued after listening to Shiro.
Shiro walked to the left counter and pulled out a small wardrobe from below it.
Largo.
Jiraiya could clearly see the word on the front of the wardrobe as Shiro pulled it out.
Shiro took an item from the wardrobe, and Jiraiya recognized it as a banjo.
"What is this?" he asked.
"Largo, the frog bard. He was an unusual bard who traveled around the world with his frogling disciples, looking for inspiration for new melodies to bring back home. He loved to play the banjo with his froglings, empowering his allies on the battlefield with his musical abilities. This was his beloved banjo, which he hoped to pass down to a free-spirited individual. I figured it suits you well."
Shiro had a nostalgic expression as he held the banjo, but his thoughts were quite different.
Jiraiya as Largo, the f**king pos 5 nightmare. It would be pretty fun to see the old man dancing with his frogs from Mount Myoboku.
Jiraiya listened to the story of the frog bard and took the banjo from Shiro's hands.
Instantly, a flood of memories and abilities filled his mind as he grasped the banjo.