Yes, but one of the usual interpretations is that Sarutobi is an old, old man and while he may have the physical strength to ram things through if he really had to, he doesn't have the will to either get Konoha into another war (as he's already lived through enough) or to execute old friends who may or may not be treasonous.
Naruto Time
- Thread starter SEG-CISR
- Start date
hi, college is hard
"I want to test your reflexes! Being a ninja is not only about throwing kunai or sparring in a circle! Life as ninja is not static! Be ever-moving as the licking flames of a great bonfire!" Gai and Naruto dropped from the trees into a circular clearing, where the Jounin turned to his charge.
"How so?" Gai's wake ruffled Naruto's hair, and he blinked.
The young ninja's instincts caught up with reality and he spun around, only to be hit by another wake. At the speed of thought, again he spun.
"Exercise one, my young student!" Exuberant shouting bounced to and fro in the training ground Gai had picked. "You are taking a letter to a local Lord, and a group of ninja accost you! Their teamwork is flawless, you can hardly tell them apart in the blur of motion!"
A glimpse of green and black in the corner of his sight, followed by a tap on the shoulder.
"One slashes at you! A Jounin may be able to tell them apart, block! But you are a young ninja at the onset of your springtime! Your reflexes can't match this! What could you possibly do?"
Shunshin.
A cloud of dust sprayed Gai and the exercise took to the trees, both ninja taking to wildly leaping from branch to branch.
"I can't match that kind of speed, but I'm good at this!"
"Correct, never remain in a situation where you are overmatched if you can help it! Change your environment, protect your fire lest it be snuffed by the wind and the rain!" Gai's voice rang from behind his head. Naruto spun on his heel between steps, spinning to find him. He felt as if the ninja was perfectly out of his peripheral vision at all times; he marveled at the man's speed. How could he move around him so languidly while at such a pitched sprint?
" Congratulations! You can see them struggling to keep up! What do you think is happening?" An arm wrapped around his midsection, and Naruto was running on air. Of course. Gai moved as he did because he was a sprinter next to a toddler. Naruto was fast, but Shisui was faster, and Gai was presumably faster still. The Jounin hopped from the branches and then set him down on the ground to ponder.
"What is happening?" A nod. "I can think of three things: They're not fast enough to keep up, one of them isn't fast enough and they're holding back, or I'm about to run into something." He held up a finger for each. Gai hummed in agreement.
"Which is most likely?"
"Well, where am I and who are they?" Gai beamed.
"It is good you asked for context, it shows an open mind! A good courier knows exactly where he is headed at any time. ANBU are often given courier missions, and they understand good reconnaissance, but we have never had someone dedicated unilaterally to this task! It is anyhow a good lesson for any beginner ninja to learn."
Gai turned to look around at the trees surrounding them, becoming subdued. "You are... in the Land of Fire, and you can tell these ninja are skilled, albeit young. They seem your age."
Hmm. "Headbands?" He followed the older ninja's eyes, and panned up to the sky. "Is Konoha far? Which way to it and my destination? I think I may be outmatched."
"A-ha! They wear no headbands, but you can tell they are trained in ninja arts. You are near Konoha, it is to the northeast, while the Lord lives to the south of here." Naruto blurred out of sight, heading northeast. Gai guffawed, following suit.
"What youth, young Naruto! You sense urgency in the delivery of the letter, so you will not wait on delivering it. Do you think heading back home for reinforcements is a wise course of action?" He noticed the form of the boy he was tailing shift, hair growing dark and long, and the boy did not respond until the forest cleared.
Naruto slowed, jumping onto the forest floor and running as fast as a normal child towards the street. He cried in distress as he approached a gaggle of matronly women. "Help! This guy keeps chasing me!" He pointed back towards a bemused Gai as the man stepped out of the treeline.
"What? What an unyouthful accusation!" The ladies did not agree with the flamboyant Jounin, and started shouting at him, approaching as a group. Once Naruto had diverted all the attention towards his instructor, he disappeared. Gai followed the blur of movement with his eyes as Naruto set off south-southwest.
"You should be ashamed of yourself! You are a ninja!" A purse hitting him right on the ear took the aforementioned ninja back to the present.
"Ah, an unyouthful yet delightfully nefarious plot by my young student to get me off his trail! I am Konoha's Noble Gentleman, the Green Beast!" He grinned brightly at the congregation of women, his shiny teeth reflecting incredulous faces.
"So you were chasing him!"
"That's right, you are a beast! You disgust me!" A din of shrill voices rose over the street as more older women were drawn to the congregation.
Gai took it with a bright smile still, image only wavering once.
He shook his head at his own image from the trees, chuckling. Ah, the wonders of youth's ingenuity! He has a fire in him!
Turning and heading off with his previous pace, he followed Naruto's trail. It was an imperceptible one, distinct only by faint imprints on the occasional scuffed bark skin. "Shunshin must allow for him to only take a step every dozen branches. Interesting, it comes so naturally to him that he must use his speed and jutsu interchangeably to get that impossible speed of his," he mused as he followed.
The trail took him to the training ground he had first chosen. Naruto was there, zipping to and fro along the clearing.
"Clever ploy, my student! Although most ninja would not take the behavior of citizens so lightly, and in fact some would tear them or yourself down at a moment's notice, incredulity is a good feeling to instill in your enemies! They would not have caught up to you in time for the delivery." Naruto nodded in thanks for the insight.
"Sensei always told me that being unpredictable is a good quality," he offered.
"Absolutely! Shisui was a great man; his ability to zip across the battlefield as fast as a thought, supplemented by his amazing genjutsu were a combination to be reckoned with. He was very unpredictable sometimes… not the quintessential Uchiha by any means." He smiled, remembering interacting with Tiger.
Naruto smiled, vowing to himself that he would one day be a more surprising ninja than sensei had ever been.
"I want to test your reflexes! Being a ninja is not only about throwing kunai or sparring in a circle! Life as ninja is not static! Be ever-moving as the licking flames of a great bonfire!" Gai and Naruto dropped from the trees into a circular clearing, where the Jounin turned to his charge.
"How so?" Gai's wake ruffled Naruto's hair, and he blinked.
The young ninja's instincts caught up with reality and he spun around, only to be hit by another wake. At the speed of thought, again he spun.
"Exercise one, my young student!" Exuberant shouting bounced to and fro in the training ground Gai had picked. "You are taking a letter to a local Lord, and a group of ninja accost you! Their teamwork is flawless, you can hardly tell them apart in the blur of motion!"
A glimpse of green and black in the corner of his sight, followed by a tap on the shoulder.
"One slashes at you! A Jounin may be able to tell them apart, block! But you are a young ninja at the onset of your springtime! Your reflexes can't match this! What could you possibly do?"
Shunshin.
A cloud of dust sprayed Gai and the exercise took to the trees, both ninja taking to wildly leaping from branch to branch.
"I can't match that kind of speed, but I'm good at this!"
"Correct, never remain in a situation where you are overmatched if you can help it! Change your environment, protect your fire lest it be snuffed by the wind and the rain!" Gai's voice rang from behind his head. Naruto spun on his heel between steps, spinning to find him. He felt as if the ninja was perfectly out of his peripheral vision at all times; he marveled at the man's speed. How could he move around him so languidly while at such a pitched sprint?
" Congratulations! You can see them struggling to keep up! What do you think is happening?" An arm wrapped around his midsection, and Naruto was running on air. Of course. Gai moved as he did because he was a sprinter next to a toddler. Naruto was fast, but Shisui was faster, and Gai was presumably faster still. The Jounin hopped from the branches and then set him down on the ground to ponder.
"What is happening?" A nod. "I can think of three things: They're not fast enough to keep up, one of them isn't fast enough and they're holding back, or I'm about to run into something." He held up a finger for each. Gai hummed in agreement.
"Which is most likely?"
"Well, where am I and who are they?" Gai beamed.
"It is good you asked for context, it shows an open mind! A good courier knows exactly where he is headed at any time. ANBU are often given courier missions, and they understand good reconnaissance, but we have never had someone dedicated unilaterally to this task! It is anyhow a good lesson for any beginner ninja to learn."
Gai turned to look around at the trees surrounding them, becoming subdued. "You are... in the Land of Fire, and you can tell these ninja are skilled, albeit young. They seem your age."
Hmm. "Headbands?" He followed the older ninja's eyes, and panned up to the sky. "Is Konoha far? Which way to it and my destination? I think I may be outmatched."
"A-ha! They wear no headbands, but you can tell they are trained in ninja arts. You are near Konoha, it is to the northeast, while the Lord lives to the south of here." Naruto blurred out of sight, heading northeast. Gai guffawed, following suit.
"What youth, young Naruto! You sense urgency in the delivery of the letter, so you will not wait on delivering it. Do you think heading back home for reinforcements is a wise course of action?" He noticed the form of the boy he was tailing shift, hair growing dark and long, and the boy did not respond until the forest cleared.
Naruto slowed, jumping onto the forest floor and running as fast as a normal child towards the street. He cried in distress as he approached a gaggle of matronly women. "Help! This guy keeps chasing me!" He pointed back towards a bemused Gai as the man stepped out of the treeline.
"What? What an unyouthful accusation!" The ladies did not agree with the flamboyant Jounin, and started shouting at him, approaching as a group. Once Naruto had diverted all the attention towards his instructor, he disappeared. Gai followed the blur of movement with his eyes as Naruto set off south-southwest.
"You should be ashamed of yourself! You are a ninja!" A purse hitting him right on the ear took the aforementioned ninja back to the present.
"Ah, an unyouthful yet delightfully nefarious plot by my young student to get me off his trail! I am Konoha's Noble Gentleman, the Green Beast!" He grinned brightly at the congregation of women, his shiny teeth reflecting incredulous faces.
"So you were chasing him!"
"That's right, you are a beast! You disgust me!" A din of shrill voices rose over the street as more older women were drawn to the congregation.
Gai took it with a bright smile still, image only wavering once.
He shook his head at his own image from the trees, chuckling. Ah, the wonders of youth's ingenuity! He has a fire in him!
Turning and heading off with his previous pace, he followed Naruto's trail. It was an imperceptible one, distinct only by faint imprints on the occasional scuffed bark skin. "Shunshin must allow for him to only take a step every dozen branches. Interesting, it comes so naturally to him that he must use his speed and jutsu interchangeably to get that impossible speed of his," he mused as he followed.
The trail took him to the training ground he had first chosen. Naruto was there, zipping to and fro along the clearing.
"Clever ploy, my student! Although most ninja would not take the behavior of citizens so lightly, and in fact some would tear them or yourself down at a moment's notice, incredulity is a good feeling to instill in your enemies! They would not have caught up to you in time for the delivery." Naruto nodded in thanks for the insight.
"Sensei always told me that being unpredictable is a good quality," he offered.
"Absolutely! Shisui was a great man; his ability to zip across the battlefield as fast as a thought, supplemented by his amazing genjutsu were a combination to be reckoned with. He was very unpredictable sometimes… not the quintessential Uchiha by any means." He smiled, remembering interacting with Tiger.
Naruto smiled, vowing to himself that he would one day be a more surprising ninja than sensei had ever been.
Gai's dialogue in canon is absolutely amazing.
"Look deep into my eyes and accept my sincere apology! Also notice my handsome manly features."
"Run...run towards the setting sun!... But don't mess up your hair!"
Honestly, he's made of flamboyant gold.
Anyway, that snippet was the end of chapter 2, I've decided. I posted the compiled version on ffn. As fun as writing amusingly articulate characters is, I did do some writing aside from finishing that thing; I've made some headway into the introduction to the next arc.
... I was supposed to post this as a oneshot that brushed over Naruto's life, but I just can't leave my characters. It's nice to come back and just write something in the midst of grueling work.
"Look deep into my eyes and accept my sincere apology! Also notice my handsome manly features."
"Run...run towards the setting sun!... But don't mess up your hair!"
Honestly, he's made of flamboyant gold.
Anyway, that snippet was the end of chapter 2, I've decided. I posted the compiled version on ffn. As fun as writing amusingly articulate characters is, I did do some writing aside from finishing that thing; I've made some headway into the introduction to the next arc.
... I was supposed to post this as a oneshot that brushed over Naruto's life, but I just can't leave my characters. It's nice to come back and just write something in the midst of grueling work.
Shiro and I once decided to fuck with people by concurrently writing the same idea in two different ways; we planned to publish it around the same time and not tell anyone we were working on them together, to see what drama we could start up. It was a more volatile, fun time for TFF then.
---
B-43
THE COURIER – Affiliation: Konoha
BOUNTY – 100,000r to 1,000,000r
- The Courier is Konoha's prime (speculated only) messenger ninja.
Used for time-sensitive information.
- Extremely fast, shows complete mastery of Shunshin.
Pointless to pursue unless wounded or by high Jounin.
- Affinity for short blades and speed-based combat.
- Bounty varies based on cargo.
"It seems that people have been noticing," the Hokage noted, leaning towards his paperwork-adorned desk. He stared at the Courier. "Perhaps the Suna treaty caught people's attention."
Naruto stared at his ninja registration picture above the short list of information and under his moniker. The captured Bingo Book of a dead ninja near Rain mocked him with a bounty for carrying a message. "I passed through Ame on the way," he responded simply. "Suna are our allies, so at least it's only Ame."
The Hokage sighed. "I wish it were so." The young boy gave him a look. "Not only Ame has an interest in knowing that we have a dedicated messenger for our most important information. Our men in Earth have heard the moniker used, and there are stirrings in Lightning. This doesn't look good."
After a moment, Naruto asked, "What should we do?"
"Reconnaissance. You will conduct it." The answer was quick and blunt. Naruto straightened. "I want you to get into Rain again, and scout Ame. You made it through it both ways, even though I told you it was a bad idea. Regardless, they detected you somehow and I want to know how. I know how long it should take to Suna, and how long it took you." Pride in his eyes warred with a frown on his face, and Naruto smiled slightly in thanks. "There should be fewer than five ninja in Ame who could've recognized you as the one to deliver the treaty. Ten people in Konoha are aware of the date you left – no one should have been able to figure out you were sent last-minute for a high-importance delivery."
"As far as the public is aware, you were only a public torch-bearer, a young Chunin on the rise we wanted to showcase," Shikaku Nara, the Jounin Commander, murmured from the shadows. Naruto craned his head to look at the previously-hidden ninja in the corner. Shikaku gave him a lopsided little grin. "Only five people in Konoha and three in Suna know how close we came to the breaking point – as it should be. The expectation that your innocuous patrol and cleanup missions would mask that was reasonable – no one should have known our important deliveries were in your hands rather than with circumstantial elite on location."
"It's not too ninja-like to have a courier," Naruto offered with a smile. Shikaku chuckled, and the messenger-nin turned to the Hokage. "So someone who happened to be good enough saw me by chance… or Ame has a way to catch people going through Rain." Naruto deduced.
"That's right," assented Sarutobi. "I want you to do two things before your mission." He gestured the young ninja closer, and pulled a scroll out of one of his desk's drawers. He handed it to the youth. "Morbid as it may be, a bounty is a big step in any ninja's life. Part of yours certainly comes back to your job, but nevertheless I would like to give you a gift. I want you to go talk to your old sensei Gai, and give him this note – check the scroll after." He handed Naruto a letter from within a pile amongst the piles of paper on his desk, and leaned back.
Naruto nodded at the unspoken dismissal, and turned to bow towards Shikaku and leave.
Towards where Shikaku had been, rather. "I never noticed him leaving. He's good."
Sarutobi smiled ruefully. "Indeed." His face took on a more serious tone as he continued, "Take care with this mission. You are not the norm for our ninja, and you are even as a Chunin almost entirely separate from our ranks and without peers and connections. This reconnaissance will be your test. Bring back a solid report from Ame." He put on a scheming-old-man face that made Naruto mildly uncomfortable, and shooed him out of his office.
Naruto for once took the time to meander when he headed out. He took in the sights of the village slowly and deliberately as he considered the meaning behind Sarutobi's words. The old Kage glared down from their great mountain, challenging would-be invaders over the horizon; the urban sprawl of an economic powerhouse of intertwined lifestyles piled upon itself in an amalgamation efficiency and inefficiency that stretched towards the walls of the village; people crossed his path with a dichotomy in their eyes of learned respect and instinctual hate.
He shook his head quickly, dropping the tangent of overcomplicated thoughts. He put too much meaning into things if he spent too much time on them. He continued on his trip, a little faster, a little more naturally, letting the thoughts of the Hokage's schemes go. He'd find out soon.
A block slipped underneath his feet, within it maybe a thousand people crammed into a mess of humanity called a condominium. Restaurants, shops, and public builds passed under him like grains in the sand. One thing Shisui, Gai, and the Hokage had tried to instill in him was a passion for the people in the village. He could feel a passion for the spirit and the idea of Konoha, but thinking about the grains of sand under him while he ran – that didn't fit him. He much preferred the big picture – it was easier, it was certainly more pleasant and natural to his fast-moving mind that thrived on lightly touching and quickly grasping the integral parts of things rather than delving deep.
He was excited to go see Gai, as it had been a while. Three years had passed in his career as a messenger-nin (recently full-fledged Chunin who did normal missions to take the heat off) and a lot had changed, but Gai remained an ideal of ninja prowess to him as much now as he had been after their first grueling week of training. Regardless of how Naruto had improved, only in his extreme niche specialization had he ever managed to outdo his mentor – Shunshin, and his trademark explosive running speed.
It wasn't enough to put him at the man's level, but that small edge made him prouder than anything else. More than the vest he wore, which was earned after an important mission to the Fire Capital. More than the power he wielded, that made him want to say damn right I'm a B-ranked bounty. Gai was an elite Jounin, and Naruto could safely say he was better than him at something.
He skidded to a stop near a thick grove of apple trees, around which circled a low-level training ground that Gai preferred for his more reasonable training. Since Naruto, a lanky kid named Lee had become Gai's new student, and seemed to idolize the man more than Naruto could in a dozen lifetimes. Unlike the sort of sprawling, large-scale training that he put Naruto through, Gai managed to localize what he did with Lee.
Naruto came upon the duo in a circle of dirt that was so often decimated that grass did not even think to creep upon its radius. Lee was doing a sort of spinning squat-thrust-jump exercise that he could not immediately see the benefits of, while Gai watched with a sharp eye.
It was an interesting juxtaposition that really described Gai: the focus on training and single-minded focus on excellence that drove the man and that he imparted on his students, and his love for the simple things. Making his students jump around covered in tension cords and weighed down by massive weights on the outskirts of an untouched copse of trees was so like him that Naruto had to smile.
"Ah, my old student, Konoha's Speedster!" Gai showed his mastery of holding a huge grin on his face while shouting, turning away from Lee as the blond approached. Lee dropped to the ground one final time, panting and sweating. Perhaps the salt in the sweat had killed the plants on that workout circle Gai had demarcated for his student?
"Sensei! Is this Uzumaki, your former apprentice?" Lee was older than Naruto, and taller to boot, but apparently had a lot of trouble with jutsu such that he'd decided on the dream of becoming a taijutsu ninja.
"Ah, indeed my cute student! Lee, Naruto here holds the honor of being Konoha's fastest ninja!"
Gai was a nice guy, full of praise and positive insight. He did have negativity if really asked for it, but he could really make a one feel good about himself. It was never too overt, however, and he usually complimented people's potential, or work ethic, rather than the work itself – a classic ninja who did not want his allies to become complacent.
From Gai, a compliment like "he is the fastest", a true no-holds-barred glorification of his skill, often came suddenly like a rolling boulder in a small cave. Naruto blushed.
"Only in a straightaway, sensei! You are much faster in a fight," he laughed easily, stepping forward to shake hands like a civilized person, but Gai just plucked him from the ground and wrapped him in a crushing bear hug.
"That may be true your shining radiance cannot match your sensei's magnificence in the flaring flurry of close combat, but in your forte you are unmatched!"
Lee blinked, maybe not too used to Gai's speaking tendencies yet, before grinning widely. Of course the apprentice loved that; impressionable kids loved to have a reason to be verbose.
"So what brings you to our training ground? Lee here was just training his hips for explosive power!"
Hips? That was probably to give power to hits across Lee's body. A blade quickly spun around the body could provide plenty of defense and offense, no force necessary, but Naruto did not judge the duo's choice of focus.
"The Hokage asked me to give you a note," he said over his thoughts, handing the letter off. "It is good to see you, sensei."
"Thank you my old student! It has been too long, but I understand the duties of a meteor like yourself screaming through the layers of the atmosphere that is youth! It is a busy, blazing life!" He opened up and read the note quickly. "Ah, the Courier. Very admirable, a B-rank bounty is admirable indeed! Although it saddens me that my moniker did not catch on. It was catchy!"
Naruto nodded absently, wondering if Sarutobi only told him to go see his old teacher to talk about his new bounty.
"Lee, my cute little student, we are done for the day! My littler student has an important mission he needs to be ready for in a week, and we will need all the time possible to prepare!"
Naruto flinched. Congratulatory and preparatory training from Gai? Gai was an A-rank ninja, sometimes S-rank depending on the Bingo Book – now that Naruto was de jure B-rank, he imagined training sessions might start treading onto what he saw Gai and Hatake do – conduct world-class ass-kicking. It was a great way to train, teaching great instincts and hammering in correct forms and behavior, but A-rank ninja kicked mountains' worth of ass, and Naruto couldn't match that.
Mere minutes later, proven correct, he collapsed for the first time. Gai told him to prepare for fisticuffs, and laid down the ground rules: mind the apple trees, no running away, no giving up.
Gai was a flurry of motion in battle, and Naruto was proud of himself for keeping up, but just one hit from the man was a bolt of thunder right in his sternum – probably cavitations in the air from the power of his blows.
He groaned, jumping to his feet. He rolled his shoulders and hefted a kunai in his off-hand – Gai was going hard in terms of speed, but still held back his strength enough that blocking wasn't outside of the realm of possibility. Gai gave him a look, extending the lull in the battle.
"I am proud of your skill and determination, my old student! You have grown tremendously in the past year!" As thanks, Naruto spun on his heel and kicked Gai's kneecap. "A solid hit!" Naruto deflected a hammer blow with his off-hand's forearm, retaliating with a follow-up swing of his kunai using the momentum. A powerful hand grabbed his wrist and flipped him. Naruto found his footing and struck at Gai with a cross jab, which was blocked. Not enough explosive power, perhaps.
"Good succession! But you need to be better than that in a straight fight; you can't run away from powerful enemies every time!" A quick mule kick flung Naruto into a tree, which groaned under the impact.
Gai approached, personality suddenly reflecting his elite ninja status for once. The shift in the mood was like a bucket of cold water pouring onto Naruto's head.
"It is true you've grown and have become one of Konoha's finest, but that is all based on your ability to escape and set up quick attacks against your enemies. True, you have a variety of skills, but in a high-level team you would not be an asset because of them – unless they all died and needed to send information to the village." His face seemed to be carved from stone. "It is contained in the scroll: your next mission is an initiation into ANBU. You will do it alone, but this week I will be teaching you how to be that kind of ninja."
Naruto gaped silently, sliding to the ground in front of a dented tree. Gai continued. "Your mission will take you to one of the most dangerous places in the world, and your speed is what would allow you to escape, but there are too many unknowns! Perhaps they have faster S-rank ninja than you, but just one advantage will only let you go out in a blazing glory against someone at that level. You need more, and I will make sure you are up to that level. " His dark eyes seemed made of obsidian, boring into his student with the most seriousness the boy had ever seen in them.
Naruto voiced one of the dozen questions in his head. "You were ANBU?"
Gai grasped Naruto's hand and lifted him to his feet, then leaned against the next apple tree, mentally gathering himself. "No, since my time as a Chunin I have been too high-profile to put me in a stealth-oriented corps. I have always been a muscle Konoha flexes when trouble approaches on the horizon. My approaches are very high-profile, and my shining flair is not conducive to the handling of ANBU assassination duties. However, ANBU is not only silent killing! There is a lot more to it." Gai held up his index finger.
"Konoha has a history and spirit that very much diverges from the norm in ninja villages. We respect mercantilism and entrepreneurship of civilians as much as the glory and power of ninjas – this means that we do not just rely on our elites' power to keep us safe, but also on our economy. The union of two lifestyles is what gives Konoha power, not our legendary ninja. Iwa has a powerful Kage too, and Kumo outnumbers us militarily. Even economically, civilian nations like Tea outstrip us, but Konoha and Fire are the most powerful village and country in the world. How does this happen?"
"The organization of the country. In case of war, Fire can field samurai legions while Konoha has ninja forces."
"There's more."
"We can enact economic sanctions?"
"Yes, that is true, but I was speaking of the country's ability to field both ninja and samurai. The alliances between Konoha and the Fire Lord are crucial to our power, and on a smaller scale the village's internal politics that include ninja and merchants allow us to have an equitable relationship with the Fire Lord rather than one as servants or totalitarian overlords, like all other ninja villages. Without our relationships, Konoha would not be the shining beacon of justice it is!"
"So… you're going to train me for the assassination corps by teaching me about relationships? I don't know how to do dates, sensei."
Gai cuffed him in the head. "Teamwork, Naruto. Despite your thus far illustrious career for a young ninja, you did not go through the normal channels that allowed you to bloom in a proper flowerbed. You have been a lonely child and are now a solitary apprentice, so you do not know of the joys of teamwork." The teacher ignored his student's protests, continuing. "You would not be losing to me in that spar with a self-sufficient partner alongside you. In the next week you will be prepared for the team-intensive lifestyle in ANBU as well as the requirements of a high-level mission where you may face enemies way out of your league."
Naruto nodded grimly, noting Gai's seriousness. It was off-putting that his sensei did not have as rousing a speech for him as he usually did, but understandable.
"Do not worry, Naruto, for your flames of youth shall not be dampened by the rainclouds of Ame! My training shall form the chloroplasts that will turn this experience and ANBU into an asset!" Ah.
"Chloroplasts?"
Gai's face lit up, happy to impart another part of his unexplainable knowledge about things that he had no business knowing. "Ah, yes-"
"All you need to know is that they're part of a plant," interrupted a deep voice. Kakashi Hatake languidly strolled out from the copse of trees, hands in his pockets. "You don't want him to go on a tangent about us all being thylakoids in the great green leaf. Chloroplasts make chlorophyll which makes the leaf green." The legendary ninja gazed at the sky wonderingly. "I think. He's given me this talk before." He glanced down at Naruto, sidling up to Gai.
"Anyway, Gai and I are going to put you through hell this week. Today, we kick your ass. Tomorrow, Lee is going to be your best friend and you two have to survive fighting us." Kakashi's eye reflected a twisted sense of glee. "You may get some rest before your mission, if you play your cards right. You ready?"
"Uh, no?"
"That's the spirit!"
---
B-43
THE COURIER – Affiliation: Konoha
BOUNTY – 100,000r to 1,000,000r
- The Courier is Konoha's prime (speculated only) messenger ninja.
Used for time-sensitive information.
- Extremely fast, shows complete mastery of Shunshin.
Pointless to pursue unless wounded or by high Jounin.
- Affinity for short blades and speed-based combat.
- Bounty varies based on cargo.
"It seems that people have been noticing," the Hokage noted, leaning towards his paperwork-adorned desk. He stared at the Courier. "Perhaps the Suna treaty caught people's attention."
Naruto stared at his ninja registration picture above the short list of information and under his moniker. The captured Bingo Book of a dead ninja near Rain mocked him with a bounty for carrying a message. "I passed through Ame on the way," he responded simply. "Suna are our allies, so at least it's only Ame."
The Hokage sighed. "I wish it were so." The young boy gave him a look. "Not only Ame has an interest in knowing that we have a dedicated messenger for our most important information. Our men in Earth have heard the moniker used, and there are stirrings in Lightning. This doesn't look good."
After a moment, Naruto asked, "What should we do?"
"Reconnaissance. You will conduct it." The answer was quick and blunt. Naruto straightened. "I want you to get into Rain again, and scout Ame. You made it through it both ways, even though I told you it was a bad idea. Regardless, they detected you somehow and I want to know how. I know how long it should take to Suna, and how long it took you." Pride in his eyes warred with a frown on his face, and Naruto smiled slightly in thanks. "There should be fewer than five ninja in Ame who could've recognized you as the one to deliver the treaty. Ten people in Konoha are aware of the date you left – no one should have been able to figure out you were sent last-minute for a high-importance delivery."
"As far as the public is aware, you were only a public torch-bearer, a young Chunin on the rise we wanted to showcase," Shikaku Nara, the Jounin Commander, murmured from the shadows. Naruto craned his head to look at the previously-hidden ninja in the corner. Shikaku gave him a lopsided little grin. "Only five people in Konoha and three in Suna know how close we came to the breaking point – as it should be. The expectation that your innocuous patrol and cleanup missions would mask that was reasonable – no one should have known our important deliveries were in your hands rather than with circumstantial elite on location."
"It's not too ninja-like to have a courier," Naruto offered with a smile. Shikaku chuckled, and the messenger-nin turned to the Hokage. "So someone who happened to be good enough saw me by chance… or Ame has a way to catch people going through Rain." Naruto deduced.
"That's right," assented Sarutobi. "I want you to do two things before your mission." He gestured the young ninja closer, and pulled a scroll out of one of his desk's drawers. He handed it to the youth. "Morbid as it may be, a bounty is a big step in any ninja's life. Part of yours certainly comes back to your job, but nevertheless I would like to give you a gift. I want you to go talk to your old sensei Gai, and give him this note – check the scroll after." He handed Naruto a letter from within a pile amongst the piles of paper on his desk, and leaned back.
Naruto nodded at the unspoken dismissal, and turned to bow towards Shikaku and leave.
Towards where Shikaku had been, rather. "I never noticed him leaving. He's good."
Sarutobi smiled ruefully. "Indeed." His face took on a more serious tone as he continued, "Take care with this mission. You are not the norm for our ninja, and you are even as a Chunin almost entirely separate from our ranks and without peers and connections. This reconnaissance will be your test. Bring back a solid report from Ame." He put on a scheming-old-man face that made Naruto mildly uncomfortable, and shooed him out of his office.
Naruto for once took the time to meander when he headed out. He took in the sights of the village slowly and deliberately as he considered the meaning behind Sarutobi's words. The old Kage glared down from their great mountain, challenging would-be invaders over the horizon; the urban sprawl of an economic powerhouse of intertwined lifestyles piled upon itself in an amalgamation efficiency and inefficiency that stretched towards the walls of the village; people crossed his path with a dichotomy in their eyes of learned respect and instinctual hate.
He shook his head quickly, dropping the tangent of overcomplicated thoughts. He put too much meaning into things if he spent too much time on them. He continued on his trip, a little faster, a little more naturally, letting the thoughts of the Hokage's schemes go. He'd find out soon.
A block slipped underneath his feet, within it maybe a thousand people crammed into a mess of humanity called a condominium. Restaurants, shops, and public builds passed under him like grains in the sand. One thing Shisui, Gai, and the Hokage had tried to instill in him was a passion for the people in the village. He could feel a passion for the spirit and the idea of Konoha, but thinking about the grains of sand under him while he ran – that didn't fit him. He much preferred the big picture – it was easier, it was certainly more pleasant and natural to his fast-moving mind that thrived on lightly touching and quickly grasping the integral parts of things rather than delving deep.
He was excited to go see Gai, as it had been a while. Three years had passed in his career as a messenger-nin (recently full-fledged Chunin who did normal missions to take the heat off) and a lot had changed, but Gai remained an ideal of ninja prowess to him as much now as he had been after their first grueling week of training. Regardless of how Naruto had improved, only in his extreme niche specialization had he ever managed to outdo his mentor – Shunshin, and his trademark explosive running speed.
It wasn't enough to put him at the man's level, but that small edge made him prouder than anything else. More than the vest he wore, which was earned after an important mission to the Fire Capital. More than the power he wielded, that made him want to say damn right I'm a B-ranked bounty. Gai was an elite Jounin, and Naruto could safely say he was better than him at something.
He skidded to a stop near a thick grove of apple trees, around which circled a low-level training ground that Gai preferred for his more reasonable training. Since Naruto, a lanky kid named Lee had become Gai's new student, and seemed to idolize the man more than Naruto could in a dozen lifetimes. Unlike the sort of sprawling, large-scale training that he put Naruto through, Gai managed to localize what he did with Lee.
Naruto came upon the duo in a circle of dirt that was so often decimated that grass did not even think to creep upon its radius. Lee was doing a sort of spinning squat-thrust-jump exercise that he could not immediately see the benefits of, while Gai watched with a sharp eye.
It was an interesting juxtaposition that really described Gai: the focus on training and single-minded focus on excellence that drove the man and that he imparted on his students, and his love for the simple things. Making his students jump around covered in tension cords and weighed down by massive weights on the outskirts of an untouched copse of trees was so like him that Naruto had to smile.
"Ah, my old student, Konoha's Speedster!" Gai showed his mastery of holding a huge grin on his face while shouting, turning away from Lee as the blond approached. Lee dropped to the ground one final time, panting and sweating. Perhaps the salt in the sweat had killed the plants on that workout circle Gai had demarcated for his student?
"Sensei! Is this Uzumaki, your former apprentice?" Lee was older than Naruto, and taller to boot, but apparently had a lot of trouble with jutsu such that he'd decided on the dream of becoming a taijutsu ninja.
"Ah, indeed my cute student! Lee, Naruto here holds the honor of being Konoha's fastest ninja!"
Gai was a nice guy, full of praise and positive insight. He did have negativity if really asked for it, but he could really make a one feel good about himself. It was never too overt, however, and he usually complimented people's potential, or work ethic, rather than the work itself – a classic ninja who did not want his allies to become complacent.
From Gai, a compliment like "he is the fastest", a true no-holds-barred glorification of his skill, often came suddenly like a rolling boulder in a small cave. Naruto blushed.
"Only in a straightaway, sensei! You are much faster in a fight," he laughed easily, stepping forward to shake hands like a civilized person, but Gai just plucked him from the ground and wrapped him in a crushing bear hug.
"That may be true your shining radiance cannot match your sensei's magnificence in the flaring flurry of close combat, but in your forte you are unmatched!"
Lee blinked, maybe not too used to Gai's speaking tendencies yet, before grinning widely. Of course the apprentice loved that; impressionable kids loved to have a reason to be verbose.
"So what brings you to our training ground? Lee here was just training his hips for explosive power!"
Hips? That was probably to give power to hits across Lee's body. A blade quickly spun around the body could provide plenty of defense and offense, no force necessary, but Naruto did not judge the duo's choice of focus.
"The Hokage asked me to give you a note," he said over his thoughts, handing the letter off. "It is good to see you, sensei."
"Thank you my old student! It has been too long, but I understand the duties of a meteor like yourself screaming through the layers of the atmosphere that is youth! It is a busy, blazing life!" He opened up and read the note quickly. "Ah, the Courier. Very admirable, a B-rank bounty is admirable indeed! Although it saddens me that my moniker did not catch on. It was catchy!"
Naruto nodded absently, wondering if Sarutobi only told him to go see his old teacher to talk about his new bounty.
"Lee, my cute little student, we are done for the day! My littler student has an important mission he needs to be ready for in a week, and we will need all the time possible to prepare!"
Naruto flinched. Congratulatory and preparatory training from Gai? Gai was an A-rank ninja, sometimes S-rank depending on the Bingo Book – now that Naruto was de jure B-rank, he imagined training sessions might start treading onto what he saw Gai and Hatake do – conduct world-class ass-kicking. It was a great way to train, teaching great instincts and hammering in correct forms and behavior, but A-rank ninja kicked mountains' worth of ass, and Naruto couldn't match that.
Mere minutes later, proven correct, he collapsed for the first time. Gai told him to prepare for fisticuffs, and laid down the ground rules: mind the apple trees, no running away, no giving up.
Gai was a flurry of motion in battle, and Naruto was proud of himself for keeping up, but just one hit from the man was a bolt of thunder right in his sternum – probably cavitations in the air from the power of his blows.
He groaned, jumping to his feet. He rolled his shoulders and hefted a kunai in his off-hand – Gai was going hard in terms of speed, but still held back his strength enough that blocking wasn't outside of the realm of possibility. Gai gave him a look, extending the lull in the battle.
"I am proud of your skill and determination, my old student! You have grown tremendously in the past year!" As thanks, Naruto spun on his heel and kicked Gai's kneecap. "A solid hit!" Naruto deflected a hammer blow with his off-hand's forearm, retaliating with a follow-up swing of his kunai using the momentum. A powerful hand grabbed his wrist and flipped him. Naruto found his footing and struck at Gai with a cross jab, which was blocked. Not enough explosive power, perhaps.
"Good succession! But you need to be better than that in a straight fight; you can't run away from powerful enemies every time!" A quick mule kick flung Naruto into a tree, which groaned under the impact.
Gai approached, personality suddenly reflecting his elite ninja status for once. The shift in the mood was like a bucket of cold water pouring onto Naruto's head.
"It is true you've grown and have become one of Konoha's finest, but that is all based on your ability to escape and set up quick attacks against your enemies. True, you have a variety of skills, but in a high-level team you would not be an asset because of them – unless they all died and needed to send information to the village." His face seemed to be carved from stone. "It is contained in the scroll: your next mission is an initiation into ANBU. You will do it alone, but this week I will be teaching you how to be that kind of ninja."
Naruto gaped silently, sliding to the ground in front of a dented tree. Gai continued. "Your mission will take you to one of the most dangerous places in the world, and your speed is what would allow you to escape, but there are too many unknowns! Perhaps they have faster S-rank ninja than you, but just one advantage will only let you go out in a blazing glory against someone at that level. You need more, and I will make sure you are up to that level. " His dark eyes seemed made of obsidian, boring into his student with the most seriousness the boy had ever seen in them.
Naruto voiced one of the dozen questions in his head. "You were ANBU?"
Gai grasped Naruto's hand and lifted him to his feet, then leaned against the next apple tree, mentally gathering himself. "No, since my time as a Chunin I have been too high-profile to put me in a stealth-oriented corps. I have always been a muscle Konoha flexes when trouble approaches on the horizon. My approaches are very high-profile, and my shining flair is not conducive to the handling of ANBU assassination duties. However, ANBU is not only silent killing! There is a lot more to it." Gai held up his index finger.
"Konoha has a history and spirit that very much diverges from the norm in ninja villages. We respect mercantilism and entrepreneurship of civilians as much as the glory and power of ninjas – this means that we do not just rely on our elites' power to keep us safe, but also on our economy. The union of two lifestyles is what gives Konoha power, not our legendary ninja. Iwa has a powerful Kage too, and Kumo outnumbers us militarily. Even economically, civilian nations like Tea outstrip us, but Konoha and Fire are the most powerful village and country in the world. How does this happen?"
"The organization of the country. In case of war, Fire can field samurai legions while Konoha has ninja forces."
"There's more."
"We can enact economic sanctions?"
"Yes, that is true, but I was speaking of the country's ability to field both ninja and samurai. The alliances between Konoha and the Fire Lord are crucial to our power, and on a smaller scale the village's internal politics that include ninja and merchants allow us to have an equitable relationship with the Fire Lord rather than one as servants or totalitarian overlords, like all other ninja villages. Without our relationships, Konoha would not be the shining beacon of justice it is!"
"So… you're going to train me for the assassination corps by teaching me about relationships? I don't know how to do dates, sensei."
Gai cuffed him in the head. "Teamwork, Naruto. Despite your thus far illustrious career for a young ninja, you did not go through the normal channels that allowed you to bloom in a proper flowerbed. You have been a lonely child and are now a solitary apprentice, so you do not know of the joys of teamwork." The teacher ignored his student's protests, continuing. "You would not be losing to me in that spar with a self-sufficient partner alongside you. In the next week you will be prepared for the team-intensive lifestyle in ANBU as well as the requirements of a high-level mission where you may face enemies way out of your league."
Naruto nodded grimly, noting Gai's seriousness. It was off-putting that his sensei did not have as rousing a speech for him as he usually did, but understandable.
"Do not worry, Naruto, for your flames of youth shall not be dampened by the rainclouds of Ame! My training shall form the chloroplasts that will turn this experience and ANBU into an asset!" Ah.
"Chloroplasts?"
Gai's face lit up, happy to impart another part of his unexplainable knowledge about things that he had no business knowing. "Ah, yes-"
"All you need to know is that they're part of a plant," interrupted a deep voice. Kakashi Hatake languidly strolled out from the copse of trees, hands in his pockets. "You don't want him to go on a tangent about us all being thylakoids in the great green leaf. Chloroplasts make chlorophyll which makes the leaf green." The legendary ninja gazed at the sky wonderingly. "I think. He's given me this talk before." He glanced down at Naruto, sidling up to Gai.
"Anyway, Gai and I are going to put you through hell this week. Today, we kick your ass. Tomorrow, Lee is going to be your best friend and you two have to survive fighting us." Kakashi's eye reflected a twisted sense of glee. "You may get some rest before your mission, if you play your cards right. You ready?"
"Uh, no?"
"That's the spirit!"
AAAAAAHHHHH
One-two punch combo, deflected. Knee to the stomach – knocked aside with a backhand and followed by a palm strike to the upper thigh. The opponent brought down a heavy-handed pound and he weaved out of the way. A spinning roundhouse kick followed as a riposte.
His opponent stopped his leg cold and spun him overhead and into the ground. Harnessing hard-won strength in his core, he absorbed the collision and kicked his heel into the offending hand. He was on his feet in half a moment, retreating to a better distance. He stared hard at the man on the opposite side of the clearing, pausing for a moment.
His opponent blazed forward and kicked him in the face.
"Gah!" Naruto crumbled, clutching his bloody nose. He rolled over on the ground in pain until his opponent picked him up by the scruff of his jacket. He stood unsteadily, peering up. Blood flowed steadily from beneath his hand.
Gai glared down at him. Naruto chuckled uneasily.
"What was that?" No verbosity there; the man was pissed.
"I thought that we were going to have an intense staredown." Naruto blew some blood onto the ground and wiped his nose with a sleeve. His teacher stared at him. He rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "We had broken up the fray, I thought it was time to catch our breaths for a second."
Gai grabbed the bridge of his nose, steadying himself on the heavy facial feature. "Arrogance is expected, but unbecoming of a rising star such as yourself, my youthful student. Someone with your exuberance should not get lost in its results and become complacent due to your skill."
"I'm sorry, Sensei, you know I don't usually lose focus like that." Disappointment from Gai was as unpleasant as his pride was uplifting and infectious.
"When I am training you, asides are acceptable, but you are a Jounin now. You should expect our spars to be serious contests of mettle between powerful peers, not instruction." Naruto would have been a smear on the ground if they had been serious.
"He would be pasted across the clearing if you were serious, Gai, no matter how much of a little prodigy he is," a deep voice agreed with the unspoken thought from behind him. A huge hand plopped onto Naruto's head, keeping him from turning and looking for who it was.
"Jiraiya!" Gai called out, wide-eyed. Jiraiya of the Sannin was here? Naruto dislodged himself from beneath the legendary ninja's hand and turned to look up, and up, and up. Gai was tall, but the white-haired man towered over both teacher and student alike.
"Gai, I have heard good things about you and this little guy here. I need to take him away for a bit, I hope that's alright with you?"
Gai still seemed somewhat confused by the man's sudden materialization, but nodded. "Yes, of course!"
Jiraiya grinned at the man –looking vertically up at a person was interesting, and Naruto could see really far up the man's nose– and then down to the young ninja. "You, squirt." He ignored the boy's affronted expression. "Walk with me! We have things to discuss."
"What do you need, sir?" Naruto quirked an eyebrow. Jiraiya gave him a look and turned away to hop onto a tree. Naruto silently waited for the response as he followed. The duo sped through the forest without exchanging any words to a foggy clearing near the border between training grounds and the village proper.
Jiraiya stopped at the edge of the clearing for a moment, then jumped across it and plopped down on thick branch beside a tall bamboo fence. He was silent, watching Naruto as the boy decided what to do – which was to take a seat on a thick root on the forest floor.
Naruto gazed up expectantly at the legendary ninja for a few moments, eliciting no response as the man picked through his robes for a notepad where he took a few notes. The young ninjas reiterated his question.
Jiraiya chucked. "Sir? You're a Jounin now, I'm not your sir." He put away his notepad, gazing around the clearing for a second before continuing. "I know you're a straight-to-business kind of kid, so here's what I want: what you found in Ame."
Ah. Of course; Jiraiya's spy network was renowned for how far-reaching it was for being run by such a widely-known spymaster, but no spy network had managed to get into Ame since pretty much forever. Or before Hanzo's and the Hokage's time, both essentially meant the same thing to him. Jiraiya would be interested in the recon mission into the illusive country. Naruto considered information the man might be interested in.
"Sensei told me something funny; your promotion depended on the quality of information and what you had to get through during your trip, it was a test of sorts. You're a Jounin now, and I've heard you have been training non-stop since – and only inside the village. I'm going to guess you found some groundbreaking things there, which Sensei told me to get from you myself."
Naruto scratched his head, leaning back. "He told you to just get it from me? I have trouble believing that." Jiraiya shrugged noncommittally in response. "I guess there is a lot I saw. Ame is very advanced technologically, they have buildings that reach into the clouds. I came across some very powerful ninja, too, and didn't see anything about Hanzo at all. What do you want me to go into?"
"All of it. We have time." Jiraiya reached into his voluminous kimono and pulled out a spyglass, fiddling with it before he looked into the foggy distance. After a moment of observing the silent legendary ninja, Naruto vaguely noted that it was actually steam, not fog. Jiraiya gestured the boy on as he continued peering into the steam with his spyglass. "Not all of the time, though – start with what you saw of the technology they have."
"Well, sure." Naruto kicked the dirt in front of him, gathering his thoughts. "I have never seen metals so widely used in such a scale. They have buildings made of the stuff. Just like with the Hokage tower, the strength of steel is great enough to hold up enormous buildings. I saw buildings that parted the clouds around them. I am going to assume that they have two things: a lot of resources, and the technology required to build things that tall."
"You got into Rain proper, then?"
"Yes, sir." Jiraiya took a moment to give him a look. "As the Hokage and the Commander theorized, they seem to have some way to track anyone within their borders. I believe that it goes beyond sensor ninja – as soon as I could really look at the city, I had a sense that I was being followed." He ran a hand through his hair. "It was a really large city, but it was rainy, so I had to get fairly close to where there were a lot of people to gather reconnaissance. At about the time the houses started turning into apartments and the roads were paved, I was being watched."
"How'd you travel?"
Naruto chuckled. "In the back of a cart. I used a henge to disguise myself as a bag of potatoes. Once I knew someone was watching me, though, I got out of there quick. Surprised her, for sure. She started chasing me, but I couldn't see her anymore after a couple of minutes, I assumed she lost me."
Jiraiya put down his spyglass, pausing in observing something that Naruto presumed was integral to the legend's understanding of water and wind jutsu – how steam rose up, perhaps – to turn around and stare at him straight on. "So she found you again."
"Yeah. At that point I was moving as fast as I could while still being hidden, enough to keep patrols off my back if they noticed something was off. I decided to spiral my way into the center of the city, I thought that that was a gradual enough entrance that whatever systems they had wouldn't really notice me."
Jiraiya raised his eyebrows in askance. "You know that sensors can track location, not just distance, right?"
"Well, see… I'm not a sensor. The Hokage had me train with Inoichi Yamanaka when I got back. He taught me what they can do, but I realized someone was still tracking me by the time I started having to hop up onto their huge buildings. Probably a half kilometer out from a giant building – I can't call it anything else, it's like two Hokage Monuments stacked on top of each other – which turns out, according to some maps I drew up afterwards, is about the center of the city, I realized I was being tracked."
"So what happened?"
"The blue lady – she had blue hair," he amended after being given a look, "found me again." He paused.
"… You fought her." Naruto was quiet, staring at his own knees. "You had a fight with an enemy combatant. In the middle of Hanzo's city." Jiraiya closed his eyes and breathed in through his nose. "Hiruzen told me a bit," he admitted. "Mostly about the infrastructural information on Rain, the maps, etcetera. Not about what you actually did to get it, though." He sighed before pulling out his spyglass to peer out into the steam. "You're an idiot. You ran away from her just fine beforehand."
Naruto took a moment before he continued. "She had friends. Someone that said he was an Uzumaki." He twitched his sight up at the sound of movement. Jiraiya had quickly turned back towards him. "There were three guys that had the same hair, and weird eyes, that came with him. They all looked alike and had a lot of face piercings, and the blue lady was leading them. He said he was an Uzumaki. She called him Nagato." He rolled his shoulders, frowning, losing focus on the ninja on the treetop. "They surrounded me, and I tried to run – I'm not stupid, I knew I was in a bad situation. The monument in the middle of the city? Their faces were on it. Those guys were the top dogs. When you almost step on something and watch it run away from your feet? I felt like that something, looking at them."
Jiraiya hopped off his post on the trees and landed into a squat in front of Naruto. "Tell me more about Nagato," he commanded, hard-faced.
"He was tall, thin, and really strong. He had short orange hair, and his eyes had circles in them, circles inside circles. The other guys had the same eyes and hair color than he did – based on that and the monument, I think they might be part of the ruling clan."
Jiraiya plopped heavily onto the ground, crossing his legs over the grass. He leaned back, gazing skywards for a moment while Naruto waited for a prompt of some sort. "Back in the war, I met a couple of orphans in Rain. Konan, Nagato, and Yahiko." He blinked slowly and brought his gaze back down to earth. "It seems you met Konan and Yahiko. But Yahiko seemed to have Nagato's eyes – and name. So did the other guys with orange hair. I am not sure what to make of this. You told this to Hiruzen, right? – nevermind, he wouldn't know how to make sense of this like I do."
"You knew them, then?"
"They were kids. Much younger than you. This was back when my team was still together – we had to leave them behind when we left for Konoha, I didn't know if they'd survived. We can talk about this another time." Naruto felt a glimmer of excitement within him at the note that the legendary ninja planned to further interact with him. "Either way, it's good you made it out, if they were hostile. How did that go?"
Naruto smiled wanly. "I tried to run, remember? I didn't even care that Nagato – Yahiko, whatever, the Uzumaki – told me he was an Uzumaki. That meant he knew me, and that was really scary, because they'd surrounded me without me noticing. He punched the hell out of me when I tried to get away. The buildings, let me tell you, are really just big frames with stuff between the steel supports. I flew through one of those huge buildings when he hit me, crashed into the next one. It was kind of weird, though, what happened after that." He scratched his cheek. At the other ninja's look, he continued. "It's just – Gai yells at me when I do it, he acts like people don't do it, I guess that when he's in the field he's just too professional –"
"Remember how I told you that we don't have all the time?"
"—they just sat there looking at me from the other rooftop when I hit the building and flew through. Just looked at the cloud of debris and the Uzumaki was telling me something I couldn't make out, like he thought was going to bounce back at them or something… So I ran the hell away as fast as I could. One of the other orange-hair guys used a jutsu that threw a flaming metal thing at me that blew up a rooftop, and they tried to follow, but I was just fast enough to get away with the head start they gave me."
Jiraiya stared.
Naruto scratched the back of his neck. "So, yeah. I got to escape because they were staring at the debris from their attack. I'm not sure what they were thinking, but their dramatic panache probably saved my life."
Jiraiya rubbed the heel of his hand into his cheek, taking it in. A wide grin slowly overtook his frown. "Wow, only you would have such dumb luck."
Naruto frowned, wondering if he should feel insulted.
Jiraiya chortled loudly at his expression, grabbing the boy's shoulder and shifting to a standing position. The boy scowled as he was manhandled again. "What's so funny?"
"There's so much stuff you shouldn't know, that you shouldn't have survived out there. I'm amazed sometimes at how kids like you and your father bumble through life and catch all the curveballs it throws at you like they're all coming straight for you." Naruto's eyes widened at the offhanded mention of his parentage, something that the Hokage was always coy about. Jiraiya kept going, eyes looking past him.
"Ah, I don't care, you're a big boy now. Kid, you ran away from a clan of guys using the Rinnegan in the middle of a metropolis unlike anything I've ever seen– because an old student of mine who's running the whole shebang was too damn dramatic for his own good." He started laughing at Naruto's face. "I don't know why this is so funny, but it is! Can't you see it?"
Naruto chuckled uneasily, compartmentalizing his turmoil. Jiraiya knew his father? The Rinnegan? Were all powerful ninja unhinged? Jiraiya had seemed well-adjusted, unlike some of Naruto's relations – Kakashi was a mostly just a dick, but him and Gai had quirks that made them unsociable in public settings. Jiraiya, much like the Hokage, seemed like a down-to-earth, smart guy, but now he seemed to be falling apart at the seams. And again, Rinnegan? What the fuck? Was he for serious?
Naruto's confusion and Jiraiya's seeming meltdown were interrupted by a creaking door and a cry. The younger ninja peered around the other's body and noticed two things: the fence Jiraiya had been perching by had opened up (and the entryway was billowing steam), and behind the fence, a few meters away, was an onsen. A group of women in towels – all ninja, Naruto noted – crowded around the entrance, some stepping out onto the grassy clearing and wearily glared at the duo.
No, just Jiraiya – Naruto was almost hidden behind him, and they were really specifically staring at the taller ninja. In fact, they were looking at one thing in particular.
Jiraiya, it seemed, just noticed he was still holding his spyglass in his other hand. Smooth as always, he slid it into his lapel and offered the women a wide grin. "Ladies! It is I, Jiraiya the Gallant! Defender of –"
"You were peeking on us!"
"Now, now, that's a very serious accusation!" A woman with purple hair and generous chest ran forward, shouted incoherently, and kicked the legendary ninja right between the legs. Jiraiya collapsed like a felled oak, a signal for the gaggle of offended women to advance on him and kick him while he was down.
Naruto watched this from a nearby treetop, his blurring retreat going unnoticed in lieu of the more succulent target laying prone on the ground. Once the women were satisfied, they yelled at the fallen ninja to not peek anymore, or else, and then walked back into the onsen.
A blink later, Naruto was by his companion's side. "… You alright, sir?"
Jiraiya flicked him in the nose, suddenly no longer a moaning mess on the ground, and also suddenly not on the ground. "Not your sir, kid."
"Ah!" Naruto stepped back with a cry, giving him a quizzical look.
"How'd you get out so fast? I heard you were good, but I thought people exaggerated. Kakashi was a Jounin at your age too, but he was actually not that good a Jounin." Naruto's face continued to be screwed up in a confused expression. "Look, here's what. I want to hear more about what happened in Rain. I also want you to teach me about the kind of stuff that you do. I'll teach you some nifty things in return, too. But I have to report to the Hokage."
"I –"
"Meet me at the Hokage's office at 7 tomorrow, bright and early!" And then he was off.
Naruto watched the man zoom away, noting that while Jiraiya's legs weren't as fast as his or Gai's, the man was quick enough in mind to make up for it. Thinking on it for a moment, it hit Naruto that Jiraiya had just offered to teach him things. He grinned. A legendary ninja teaching him? Last time that'd happened, he'd learned Shunshin. Maybe he could learn that speed of the mind with the man, like he learned the speed of technique with the Hokage and Shisui, and the speed of the body with Gai.
Naruto took to the trees as he left the clearing, wondering where Jiraiya would take him.
One-two punch combo, deflected. Knee to the stomach – knocked aside with a backhand and followed by a palm strike to the upper thigh. The opponent brought down a heavy-handed pound and he weaved out of the way. A spinning roundhouse kick followed as a riposte.
His opponent stopped his leg cold and spun him overhead and into the ground. Harnessing hard-won strength in his core, he absorbed the collision and kicked his heel into the offending hand. He was on his feet in half a moment, retreating to a better distance. He stared hard at the man on the opposite side of the clearing, pausing for a moment.
His opponent blazed forward and kicked him in the face.
"Gah!" Naruto crumbled, clutching his bloody nose. He rolled over on the ground in pain until his opponent picked him up by the scruff of his jacket. He stood unsteadily, peering up. Blood flowed steadily from beneath his hand.
Gai glared down at him. Naruto chuckled uneasily.
"What was that?" No verbosity there; the man was pissed.
"I thought that we were going to have an intense staredown." Naruto blew some blood onto the ground and wiped his nose with a sleeve. His teacher stared at him. He rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "We had broken up the fray, I thought it was time to catch our breaths for a second."
Gai grabbed the bridge of his nose, steadying himself on the heavy facial feature. "Arrogance is expected, but unbecoming of a rising star such as yourself, my youthful student. Someone with your exuberance should not get lost in its results and become complacent due to your skill."
"I'm sorry, Sensei, you know I don't usually lose focus like that." Disappointment from Gai was as unpleasant as his pride was uplifting and infectious.
"When I am training you, asides are acceptable, but you are a Jounin now. You should expect our spars to be serious contests of mettle between powerful peers, not instruction." Naruto would have been a smear on the ground if they had been serious.
"He would be pasted across the clearing if you were serious, Gai, no matter how much of a little prodigy he is," a deep voice agreed with the unspoken thought from behind him. A huge hand plopped onto Naruto's head, keeping him from turning and looking for who it was.
"Jiraiya!" Gai called out, wide-eyed. Jiraiya of the Sannin was here? Naruto dislodged himself from beneath the legendary ninja's hand and turned to look up, and up, and up. Gai was tall, but the white-haired man towered over both teacher and student alike.
"Gai, I have heard good things about you and this little guy here. I need to take him away for a bit, I hope that's alright with you?"
Gai still seemed somewhat confused by the man's sudden materialization, but nodded. "Yes, of course!"
Jiraiya grinned at the man –looking vertically up at a person was interesting, and Naruto could see really far up the man's nose– and then down to the young ninja. "You, squirt." He ignored the boy's affronted expression. "Walk with me! We have things to discuss."
"What do you need, sir?" Naruto quirked an eyebrow. Jiraiya gave him a look and turned away to hop onto a tree. Naruto silently waited for the response as he followed. The duo sped through the forest without exchanging any words to a foggy clearing near the border between training grounds and the village proper.
Jiraiya stopped at the edge of the clearing for a moment, then jumped across it and plopped down on thick branch beside a tall bamboo fence. He was silent, watching Naruto as the boy decided what to do – which was to take a seat on a thick root on the forest floor.
Naruto gazed up expectantly at the legendary ninja for a few moments, eliciting no response as the man picked through his robes for a notepad where he took a few notes. The young ninjas reiterated his question.
Jiraiya chucked. "Sir? You're a Jounin now, I'm not your sir." He put away his notepad, gazing around the clearing for a second before continuing. "I know you're a straight-to-business kind of kid, so here's what I want: what you found in Ame."
Ah. Of course; Jiraiya's spy network was renowned for how far-reaching it was for being run by such a widely-known spymaster, but no spy network had managed to get into Ame since pretty much forever. Or before Hanzo's and the Hokage's time, both essentially meant the same thing to him. Jiraiya would be interested in the recon mission into the illusive country. Naruto considered information the man might be interested in.
"Sensei told me something funny; your promotion depended on the quality of information and what you had to get through during your trip, it was a test of sorts. You're a Jounin now, and I've heard you have been training non-stop since – and only inside the village. I'm going to guess you found some groundbreaking things there, which Sensei told me to get from you myself."
Naruto scratched his head, leaning back. "He told you to just get it from me? I have trouble believing that." Jiraiya shrugged noncommittally in response. "I guess there is a lot I saw. Ame is very advanced technologically, they have buildings that reach into the clouds. I came across some very powerful ninja, too, and didn't see anything about Hanzo at all. What do you want me to go into?"
"All of it. We have time." Jiraiya reached into his voluminous kimono and pulled out a spyglass, fiddling with it before he looked into the foggy distance. After a moment of observing the silent legendary ninja, Naruto vaguely noted that it was actually steam, not fog. Jiraiya gestured the boy on as he continued peering into the steam with his spyglass. "Not all of the time, though – start with what you saw of the technology they have."
"Well, sure." Naruto kicked the dirt in front of him, gathering his thoughts. "I have never seen metals so widely used in such a scale. They have buildings made of the stuff. Just like with the Hokage tower, the strength of steel is great enough to hold up enormous buildings. I saw buildings that parted the clouds around them. I am going to assume that they have two things: a lot of resources, and the technology required to build things that tall."
"You got into Rain proper, then?"
"Yes, sir." Jiraiya took a moment to give him a look. "As the Hokage and the Commander theorized, they seem to have some way to track anyone within their borders. I believe that it goes beyond sensor ninja – as soon as I could really look at the city, I had a sense that I was being followed." He ran a hand through his hair. "It was a really large city, but it was rainy, so I had to get fairly close to where there were a lot of people to gather reconnaissance. At about the time the houses started turning into apartments and the roads were paved, I was being watched."
"How'd you travel?"
Naruto chuckled. "In the back of a cart. I used a henge to disguise myself as a bag of potatoes. Once I knew someone was watching me, though, I got out of there quick. Surprised her, for sure. She started chasing me, but I couldn't see her anymore after a couple of minutes, I assumed she lost me."
Jiraiya put down his spyglass, pausing in observing something that Naruto presumed was integral to the legend's understanding of water and wind jutsu – how steam rose up, perhaps – to turn around and stare at him straight on. "So she found you again."
"Yeah. At that point I was moving as fast as I could while still being hidden, enough to keep patrols off my back if they noticed something was off. I decided to spiral my way into the center of the city, I thought that that was a gradual enough entrance that whatever systems they had wouldn't really notice me."
Jiraiya raised his eyebrows in askance. "You know that sensors can track location, not just distance, right?"
"Well, see… I'm not a sensor. The Hokage had me train with Inoichi Yamanaka when I got back. He taught me what they can do, but I realized someone was still tracking me by the time I started having to hop up onto their huge buildings. Probably a half kilometer out from a giant building – I can't call it anything else, it's like two Hokage Monuments stacked on top of each other – which turns out, according to some maps I drew up afterwards, is about the center of the city, I realized I was being tracked."
"So what happened?"
"The blue lady – she had blue hair," he amended after being given a look, "found me again." He paused.
"… You fought her." Naruto was quiet, staring at his own knees. "You had a fight with an enemy combatant. In the middle of Hanzo's city." Jiraiya closed his eyes and breathed in through his nose. "Hiruzen told me a bit," he admitted. "Mostly about the infrastructural information on Rain, the maps, etcetera. Not about what you actually did to get it, though." He sighed before pulling out his spyglass to peer out into the steam. "You're an idiot. You ran away from her just fine beforehand."
Naruto took a moment before he continued. "She had friends. Someone that said he was an Uzumaki." He twitched his sight up at the sound of movement. Jiraiya had quickly turned back towards him. "There were three guys that had the same hair, and weird eyes, that came with him. They all looked alike and had a lot of face piercings, and the blue lady was leading them. He said he was an Uzumaki. She called him Nagato." He rolled his shoulders, frowning, losing focus on the ninja on the treetop. "They surrounded me, and I tried to run – I'm not stupid, I knew I was in a bad situation. The monument in the middle of the city? Their faces were on it. Those guys were the top dogs. When you almost step on something and watch it run away from your feet? I felt like that something, looking at them."
Jiraiya hopped off his post on the trees and landed into a squat in front of Naruto. "Tell me more about Nagato," he commanded, hard-faced.
"He was tall, thin, and really strong. He had short orange hair, and his eyes had circles in them, circles inside circles. The other guys had the same eyes and hair color than he did – based on that and the monument, I think they might be part of the ruling clan."
Jiraiya plopped heavily onto the ground, crossing his legs over the grass. He leaned back, gazing skywards for a moment while Naruto waited for a prompt of some sort. "Back in the war, I met a couple of orphans in Rain. Konan, Nagato, and Yahiko." He blinked slowly and brought his gaze back down to earth. "It seems you met Konan and Yahiko. But Yahiko seemed to have Nagato's eyes – and name. So did the other guys with orange hair. I am not sure what to make of this. You told this to Hiruzen, right? – nevermind, he wouldn't know how to make sense of this like I do."
"You knew them, then?"
"They were kids. Much younger than you. This was back when my team was still together – we had to leave them behind when we left for Konoha, I didn't know if they'd survived. We can talk about this another time." Naruto felt a glimmer of excitement within him at the note that the legendary ninja planned to further interact with him. "Either way, it's good you made it out, if they were hostile. How did that go?"
Naruto smiled wanly. "I tried to run, remember? I didn't even care that Nagato – Yahiko, whatever, the Uzumaki – told me he was an Uzumaki. That meant he knew me, and that was really scary, because they'd surrounded me without me noticing. He punched the hell out of me when I tried to get away. The buildings, let me tell you, are really just big frames with stuff between the steel supports. I flew through one of those huge buildings when he hit me, crashed into the next one. It was kind of weird, though, what happened after that." He scratched his cheek. At the other ninja's look, he continued. "It's just – Gai yells at me when I do it, he acts like people don't do it, I guess that when he's in the field he's just too professional –"
"Remember how I told you that we don't have all the time?"
"—they just sat there looking at me from the other rooftop when I hit the building and flew through. Just looked at the cloud of debris and the Uzumaki was telling me something I couldn't make out, like he thought was going to bounce back at them or something… So I ran the hell away as fast as I could. One of the other orange-hair guys used a jutsu that threw a flaming metal thing at me that blew up a rooftop, and they tried to follow, but I was just fast enough to get away with the head start they gave me."
Jiraiya stared.
Naruto scratched the back of his neck. "So, yeah. I got to escape because they were staring at the debris from their attack. I'm not sure what they were thinking, but their dramatic panache probably saved my life."
Jiraiya rubbed the heel of his hand into his cheek, taking it in. A wide grin slowly overtook his frown. "Wow, only you would have such dumb luck."
Naruto frowned, wondering if he should feel insulted.
Jiraiya chortled loudly at his expression, grabbing the boy's shoulder and shifting to a standing position. The boy scowled as he was manhandled again. "What's so funny?"
"There's so much stuff you shouldn't know, that you shouldn't have survived out there. I'm amazed sometimes at how kids like you and your father bumble through life and catch all the curveballs it throws at you like they're all coming straight for you." Naruto's eyes widened at the offhanded mention of his parentage, something that the Hokage was always coy about. Jiraiya kept going, eyes looking past him.
"Ah, I don't care, you're a big boy now. Kid, you ran away from a clan of guys using the Rinnegan in the middle of a metropolis unlike anything I've ever seen– because an old student of mine who's running the whole shebang was too damn dramatic for his own good." He started laughing at Naruto's face. "I don't know why this is so funny, but it is! Can't you see it?"
Naruto chuckled uneasily, compartmentalizing his turmoil. Jiraiya knew his father? The Rinnegan? Were all powerful ninja unhinged? Jiraiya had seemed well-adjusted, unlike some of Naruto's relations – Kakashi was a mostly just a dick, but him and Gai had quirks that made them unsociable in public settings. Jiraiya, much like the Hokage, seemed like a down-to-earth, smart guy, but now he seemed to be falling apart at the seams. And again, Rinnegan? What the fuck? Was he for serious?
Naruto's confusion and Jiraiya's seeming meltdown were interrupted by a creaking door and a cry. The younger ninja peered around the other's body and noticed two things: the fence Jiraiya had been perching by had opened up (and the entryway was billowing steam), and behind the fence, a few meters away, was an onsen. A group of women in towels – all ninja, Naruto noted – crowded around the entrance, some stepping out onto the grassy clearing and wearily glared at the duo.
No, just Jiraiya – Naruto was almost hidden behind him, and they were really specifically staring at the taller ninja. In fact, they were looking at one thing in particular.
Jiraiya, it seemed, just noticed he was still holding his spyglass in his other hand. Smooth as always, he slid it into his lapel and offered the women a wide grin. "Ladies! It is I, Jiraiya the Gallant! Defender of –"
"You were peeking on us!"
"Now, now, that's a very serious accusation!" A woman with purple hair and generous chest ran forward, shouted incoherently, and kicked the legendary ninja right between the legs. Jiraiya collapsed like a felled oak, a signal for the gaggle of offended women to advance on him and kick him while he was down.
Naruto watched this from a nearby treetop, his blurring retreat going unnoticed in lieu of the more succulent target laying prone on the ground. Once the women were satisfied, they yelled at the fallen ninja to not peek anymore, or else, and then walked back into the onsen.
A blink later, Naruto was by his companion's side. "… You alright, sir?"
Jiraiya flicked him in the nose, suddenly no longer a moaning mess on the ground, and also suddenly not on the ground. "Not your sir, kid."
"Ah!" Naruto stepped back with a cry, giving him a quizzical look.
"How'd you get out so fast? I heard you were good, but I thought people exaggerated. Kakashi was a Jounin at your age too, but he was actually not that good a Jounin." Naruto's face continued to be screwed up in a confused expression. "Look, here's what. I want to hear more about what happened in Rain. I also want you to teach me about the kind of stuff that you do. I'll teach you some nifty things in return, too. But I have to report to the Hokage."
"I –"
"Meet me at the Hokage's office at 7 tomorrow, bright and early!" And then he was off.
Naruto watched the man zoom away, noting that while Jiraiya's legs weren't as fast as his or Gai's, the man was quick enough in mind to make up for it. Thinking on it for a moment, it hit Naruto that Jiraiya had just offered to teach him things. He grinned. A legendary ninja teaching him? Last time that'd happened, he'd learned Shunshin. Maybe he could learn that speed of the mind with the man, like he learned the speed of technique with the Hokage and Shisui, and the speed of the body with Gai.
Naruto took to the trees as he left the clearing, wondering where Jiraiya would take him.
I completely understand the sentiment, I skipped forward because I felt like his interactions with Jiraiya are really important to move forward, and are particularly interesting to me so I'll keep pushing forward with writing. It's hard to find motivation to write with a busy schedule like mine, I have to say.
I totally get what you're saying, though. I have been thinking about some interlude describing Naruto arriving in Rain; I was going to have some sort of flashback but a narration from Naruto's perspective let me get his take on it some more. I'll try to get something out there with my take on Rain. I am a technologist and engineer, so I think I can really enjoy doing something like that!
I totally get what you're saying, though. I have been thinking about some interlude describing Naruto arriving in Rain; I was going to have some sort of flashback but a narration from Naruto's perspective let me get his take on it some more. I'll try to get something out there with my take on Rain. I am a technologist and engineer, so I think I can really enjoy doing something like that!
