457It had been a long day for the weary Toad Sage. He had been scouring Tanzaku for any leads on the whereabouts of his wayward teammate. Well, the less wayward one, anyway. Unfortunately, he hadn't come up with anything substantial beyond the mess left at the castle, but he could at least use that to confirm that she was in town. However, he could also reason that his other teammate was in the area, as well, and that unsettled him.
Not having found hide nor hair of the busty blonde and having left the young genin he took along with him on this venture in the woods to practice a technique he had given her, the gallant author decided that he needed to grab some dinner and maybe a drink to help map out his next steps. What he did not imagine when entering a nearby bar was that his search would conclude completely by happenstance. The first thing he noticed when he looked to the far wall was a familiar head of blonde hair with a diamond sitting at the center of her forehead. She was looking down at a hand of cards, which meant that she was at least sober since she didn't gamble while drunk. Her luck was already bad enough, no sense in making it worse by being intoxicated. She also wasn't alone, but he ignored that for the moment.
"Tsunade?!" he asked in shock, drawing her attention. Her eyes widened, and she shared his shock.
"Jiraiya?!" she exclaimed back, and two of the other occupants of the table turned their attention to him.
Now that he was paying attention to who she was with, he wasn't surprised to see a grown up Shizune beside her, clutching a pig to her chest. She looked fantastic in his esteemed opinion. Then, though, he noticed the girl sitting directly across from her. Her bright red hair gave him sudden, painful flashbacks to days gone, but he ruthlessly swallowed them to observe her red eyes behind a pair of glasses observing him curiously.
It wasn't until he stepped closer to the table that he truly saw the final occupant. Scarfing down a bowl of ramen with his free hand and a handful of cards in the other without paying him any mind was a teenager with spiky, blonde hair that stabbed him in the heart even more than the redhead. Only when there was no ramen left did the boy look up to consider him at last, and Jiraiya knew exactly who he was looking at. A specter of his prized student that he lost 15 years prior fell over the form of the teenager; the same blonde hair and the same piercing, blue eyes were staring back at him. The only differences were the whisker marks and a rounder face that was much more reminiscent of Kushina.
This was Naruto Uzumaki, jinchuriki of the Kyubi, and he was wearing a snazzy, black cloak with red clouds emblazoned on-
Wait, what the fuck?
Jiraiya screwed his face into a confused frown, and he noticed that the younger girl sitting beside him was wearing the same cloak, only hers had a hood while his just had a high collar.
"…You gonna stare at us all night, or are you gonna sit down?" Naruto finally spoke to the white-haired sage with a quirked eyebrow. The redheaded girl scooted over to make room for the man, and he dumbly sat in the offered spot.
"What the hell are you doing here, Jiraiya?" Tsunade sighed with a hint of frustration. "We were having a great game of Tsuchi hold 'em before you arrived. Seems today is the day for all the unwanted reunions."
Jiraiya frowned even more at the last sentence. "So, Orochimaru did approach you. What did he want?"
Shizune tensed, but a glare from Tsunade kept her mouth shut. Naruto was sending Tsunade a curious look, wondering if she'd tell him or not.
"Nothing," she replied in a clipped tone. "He was passing through and said 'hi.' Nothing more."
"Orochimaru doesn't just show up to say 'hi,' Tsunade," Jiraiya responded with narrowed eyes.
"And neither do you, so why are you here, Jiraiya?" she retorted, and Jiraiya would be lying if he said that didn't sting. He'd also be lying if he said that she was wrong.
"I'm assuming you heard what happened in the village if our teammate was around," Jiraiya responded.
"Yeah, he bragged about it," Tsunade replied with a sigh. "Sensei was a fool to not kill him when he had the chance."
"Regardless," Jiraiya continued, taking note of Tsunade knowing that little detail and putting it aside for later, "the village is in bad shape. It needs a Hokage, and the elders decided that it should be you."
Jiraiya expected a lot of possible reactions to that. The gasps that came from Shizune and the young redhead were one of them. A look of shock, a pensive frown, or even a furious punch to the table were some of them, as well. However, he was not expecting a derisive snort from Naruto and an unimpressed, deadpan stare from his teammate.
"I'll pass," she said much more calmly than Jiraiya was honestly expecting. She returned her gaze to the cards in her hand, and she motioned to the blonde across from her. "Give the hat to him, he's strong enough for it."
"Absolutely not," Naruto denied with a guffaw. "Just like you, I did my time in that village, and I ain't going back."
Now, that truly surprised the man. He wasn't entirely sure what to expect from the teen; he knew that Naruto left the village nearly a decade prior, somehow stealing the Scroll of Seals on his way out, and he had all but dropped off the face of the planet shortly thereafter. Beyond various unsubstantiated sightings of him around the continent over the years, Hiruzen and the rest of Konoha had just assumed he was dead.
Since that clearly wasn't the case, and Naruto sported a slashed Konoha headband, Jiraiya wasn't sure if his late student's son harbored any ill will towards the village. He truly did not want to have to kill Naruto if that was the case, but a rogue jinchuriki was dangerous enough on its own; a rogue jinchuriki of the strongest of the biju was a whole other story-
"You're thinking way too loudly over there, Jiraiya," Naruto chuckled while putting his cards down, snapping the man out of his progressively darkening musings. "I don't harbor any malice towards Konoha. I'm technically not even a missing-nin."
"But… your headband?" Jiraiya pointed at the slashed headwear, and Naruto shrugged.
"It's not even mine. I stole it from one of Orochimaru's hideouts a few years ago when I raided it for information on a specific jutsu I needed. As for the slash, it's an Akatsuki thing. Show him yours, Karin."
The redhead in question slightly jumped at being acknowledged, and she fumbled within her cloak before pulling out a slashed Kusa headband, taking great care to ensure that her sleeve did not fall down and expose her arm. Naruto ruffled her hair approvingly for only a second before his hand was smacked away by the irritated girl who didn't want her hair to be even messier than half of it naturally was.
"The only reason I'm even labeled a B-rank in the bingo book is because jinchuriki aren't supposed to disobey their masters, regardless of if they're even an active shinobi or not," Naruto chuckled bitterly once he had the older man's attention again. "I was 8 years old and starved for attention. I wasn't a threat to anyone."
"You're in the bingo book because you stole the Scroll of Seals," Jiraiya countered.
"Yeah, well, if it was so important, maybe the old man shouldn't have left it lying around," Naruto grumbled.
"It was literally locked away in a vault."
"You're focusing on the superfluous details. Besides, I gave it back. Not for free, of course, but I did."
"Seven years after the fact."
"The only Konoha shinobi I ever encountered in that time were ROOT agents who were explicitly trying to capture or kill me. Excuse me for not stopping to make conversation with them. Running into Kakashi in Nami no Kuni was the first non-hostile encounter I've ever had with someone from Konoha, in or out of the village."
Jiraiya flinched at the reminder that Naruto's life wasn't particularly stellar while he was in the village. He still remembered the shouting match he had with his sensei about that shortly after the kid hightailed it.
"And that's the village you want me to become Hokage for?" Tsunade snorted to her teammate.
"Real excellent pitch you've got going on here," Naruto piled on with a vindicated smirk, and he and Tsunade shared a high-five.
Even Shizune couldn't help the small smile that came over her. It was nice seeing her master being even somewhat jovial for once instead of stewing in her depression and drowning her sorrows with alcohol and gambling.
The long-suffering sigh that escaped Jiraiya only furthered the amusement of the table. He really needed a drink and to check in on his sorta-student to see how far she had gotten with the technique he gave her to work on. Until then, though, he decided to change course and learn more about Naruto. He could work on Tsunade later now that he knew where she was.
"Who's the brat, and why exactly are you affiliated with a dangerous mercenary group? Jiraiya asked him.
Naruto smiled fondly at the question. "This is my apprentice, Karin. She's one of the rare few Uzumaki that are still around."
Jiraiya's eyes widened, and he closely examined the girl who was now fiddling with her fingers under the newfound attention. "So the red hair…"
"Isn't a coincidence," Naruto finished with a nod. "She can make chains and everything. She's also got our special wibbly-wobbly Uzumaki chakra; she's a ridiculously powerful sensor and can heal with her chakra if you bite her. I found her in the outskirts of Kusa after a mission, and it didn't take a genius to put together what was happening to her after seeing the bite marks."
Naruto, noticing that Karin had started to retreat into herself at the mention of Kusa, placed a soft hand on her shoulder. When she relaxed at the contact, he smiled once again.
"Where did you learn so much about the Uzumaki Clan?" Jiraiya questioned, making a mental note of the girl's reaction, as well.
"Another time," he waved off. "As for Akatsuki, somewhere along the way after I skipped town all those years ago, I ended up stowing away in a merchant caravan. When I was eventually discovered and kicked off, I wandered in no particular direction until I ended up in a desolate shithole where it was raining nonstop. The goal was to keep walking until I either found civilization or just died of exhaustion, so imagine my surprise when I was randomly wrapped up in floating strips of paper and carried into a nearby hut."
He paused when he saw Jiraiya freeze and heard his breath hitch, but after sending a curious glance to Tsunade and receiving a shrug in return, he continued. "It turned out that my savior was an Ame kunoichi wearing this same cloak on her way back to her village after a mission, and she just happened to stumble upon a pathetic, malnourished orphan at risk of succumbing to the elements."
Naruto paused again when he noticed the pain on Jiraiya's face. After a brief moment, he continued again. "She said she was 'paying it forward,' but she didn't elaborate, at least not right then."
"What was her name?" Jiraiya asked almost pleadingly.
"Konan, why?" Naruto hesitantly responded.
"She's alive…" Jiraiya muttered to himself, and now Naruto was utterly confused. He looked to Tsunade who seemed like she was beginning to remember something, but Shizune only gave him an equally confused shrug when he turned his attention to her.
"Um, yeah, why wouldn't she be-" Naruto began before he was cut off.
"What about Yahiko and Nagato?" Jiraiya pressed, and both Naruto and Karin flinched back in surprise. Seeing this, the Toad Sage took a deep breath and got ahold of himself. "I heard that they all died in a battle with Hanzo. I was never able to bring myself to investigate personally. Are they alive, too?"
"Yahiko isn't," Naruto answered, and he saw Jiraiya's face begin to drop, "but Nagato is. He goes by Pain, though. It's kinda weird and really on-the-nose if you ask me."
Jiraiya breathed a deep sigh of relief. Even 2 out of 3 surviving was good news in and of itself. "And Hanzo?"
"Oh, he's been dead for a while. Nagato got it back in blood." Naruto then shuddered. "A lot of it, apparently. I got a lot of cool stuff that we wouldn't have otherwise, though, so it worked out."
"Nagato killed Hanzo of the Salamander?" Jiraiya asked incredulously.
"Yep," Naruto confirmed. "He's wicked strong. He has to be to lead Akatsuki, after all."
"Um, should you really be telling him all of this?" Karin turned to ask him, worried that he was divulging too much information.
"It's fine," Naruto assured. "After the business in Kiri and killing Gato, Akatsuki is already gonna be on the radar of every hidden village. Better to emphasize that we're on their side as soon as possible with those psychopaths in Tsuki no Me running around."
Meanwhile, Jiraiya was in shock. The same man who single-handedly trounced himself, Tsunade, and Orochimaru all at once during the Second War was defeated and killed by his former student. Even Tsunade was taken aback by the news. She didn't think anyone short of her sensei in his prime would've been a match for Hanzo, but she also didn't think Orochimaru would've ever been able to kill the old monkey. Now, she was curious about the whole thing. The kids they found in Ame had certainly grown to become interesting.
"What's so special about the Akatsuki?" Tsunade decided to ask.
"They're a band of mercenaries based out of Ame that have had their hands in several international incidents," Jiraiya answered.
"We are a state-funded organization that seeks world peace," Naruto indignantly corrected.
"How does participating in civil wars and assassinating shipping magnates lead to world peace?" Jiraiya pressed.
"We go about eliminating unsavory individuals who pose a threat to world peace," Naruto answered, though his response felt comically rehearsed. "People like Orochimaru, Gato, or even Danzo."
The mention of Danzo as an ancillary target gave Jiraiya a bit of pause. That could potentially put Akatsuki at odds with Konoha in the future, which he really did not want. He decided to probe a bit further. "And your involvement in the rebellion in Kiri?"
"Yagura was an unfeeling menace who did nothing but worsen the damage done by his predecessor," Naruto defended. "The same predecessor who, himself, fostered an entire generation of violent psychopaths like Zabuza Momochi and Kisame Hoshigaki with the Bloody Mist era."
"Point taken," Jiraiya put his hands up in surrender. "Orochimaru is one thing, but having Danzo as a target is a little dangerous, don't you think?"
"No more dangerous than attacking a sitting Kage," Naruto shrugged. "Yagura went down; Danzo can, too."
"That isn't what I mean," Jiraiya responded. "Kiri was already in a state of civil war and instability. Danzo, as deplorable as he is, is effectively an honored elder of the village. Assassinating him could lead to retaliation from Konoha."
Naruto's eyes hardened, and he fixed Jiraiya with a serious stare that briefly made the older man think he was looking at the Yondaime.
"You wouldn't if you knew what he's really been up to all these years," Naruto coldly replied before reaching into his cloak and pulling out a small storage scroll. "'Lotta interesting things can be found among Orochimaru's stuff. Peruse through the information in there and then reevaluate your position on the man. I guarantee you'll be commissioning our services after the inevitable shitstorm that'll cause."
"What's in here?" Jiraiya questioned after carefully accepting the offered scroll.
"Everything you'll need to get rid of Danzo, barring a few things," Naruto responded simply.
"What 'few things'?" Jiraiya cautiously asked.
"Things that would compromise certain assets in certain places," Naruto answered even more cryptically, but Jiraiya got the point. "I would've given it to Kakashi with the Scroll of Seals, but he would've just given it to the old man, and I didn't exactly trust his capacity to do what needed to be done."
Jiraiya wanted to take offense to the slight at the Sandaime, but he logically couldn't argue against it.
Tsunade, despite herself, was growing more interested by the second. Before they entered the bar, she wanted absolutely nothing to do with Konoha. Now, she had to admit that she was rather interested in seeing how that shitstorm would unfold if only to satisfy morbid curiosity. She wouldn't accept the Hokage title, but maybe she'd pop back in the village for a spell to watch Danzo's downfall. That would be fun.
In fact, on the subject of fun, she hadn't had a lot of it over the years. Gambling the bottomless Senju wealth away was nice, but at its core, it was an escape, one that came with the hassle of dodging debt collectors and bounty hunters that were overconfident (or stupid) enough to accept hunting down one of the Legendary Sannin. What always gave her a rush, though, was a good fight, and she hadn't had one of those in over 20 years. She knew that Naruto was strong if the stories he shared about his exploits with Akatsuki were any indication, but she didn't know exactly how strong the teen was. By the way he spoke and carried himself, though, he was plenty confident in his abilities.
"Say, Naruto," Tsunade began, grabbing the attention of the table, "how about a spar?"
Naruto was not expecting that at all, and neither was the rest of the table. Shizune nearly dropped Tonton in surprise while Jiraiya was gaping like a fish.
"Uh, sure," Naruto responded with a scratch to the back of his head. "You'll have to teach Karin medical ninjutsu, though."
"I'm not taking on another student," Tsunade promptly denied.
"I'm not asking you to," Naruto replied with his hands up in a placating gesture. "I'd just like for you and Shizune to help her along with the basics. I'm already training her in the use of her chains, fuinjutsu, and ninjutsu, but she also wants to be able to heal without having to resort to… well, you know."
Tsunade mulled over the request, and one look at a bright-eyed and hopeful Karin practically broke her will right there.
"Fine," she sighed. "Shizune will show her the ropes, but I still get my spar."
Shizune didn't even mind that she was volunteered to help the girl by her master. She was happy to assist Karin in any way, and she sent the girl a warm smile.
"You know fuinjutsu?" Jiraiya asked the teen, that part of the conversation sticking in his brain.
"I'm an Uzumaki, it was kind of our thing," Naruto replied with a grin.
Jiraiya hummed and rubbed his chin in consideration. "Maybe you could help provide a fresh perspective for my newest project. She's got a knack for fuinjutsu."
Tsunade's head practically snapped to Jiraiya. "Who in the bluest of hells would allow a young, impressionable girl to be mentored by you?"
"Ouch," Jiraiya lamented. "And she's not my apprentice, at least not yet. Apparently, she got creamed by a Suna kunoichi in the Chunin Exams because she had no counter against wind ninjutsu. She's a weapons specialist that sticks to long range, but she wanted to improve in the areas she was lacking. She found me before the finals and pleaded with me to help her. I wasn't even going to train her at first, but she was adamant that she needed to improve to not be the weak link on her team."
"And that resonated with you, I bet," Tsunade sniped with a smirk.
"You're so mean, Hime," Jiraiya sulked before continuing. "Her taijutsu was fine, and she's scarily accurate with weapons, but her skillset is much too limited beyond that. She has a real talent for sealing, though, and she's like a sponge with whatever I show her. She's out in the woods right now working on a jutsu I gave her to develop her affinity."
"What jutsu?" Naruto asked.
"Swamp of the Underworld," he answered, and he was a little perplexed when the entire table was staring at him blankly.
"…You left a genin out in the woods at night with a technique that essentially creates quicksand?" Naruto slowly asked. "Alone?"
Jiraiya went pale when it finally dawned on him, and he stood up. "You know what, I should probably go check on her."
"Yeah, you go do that," Naruto said with a shake of his head while Tsunade was pinching the bridge of her nose.
Naruto was about to wave the waiter over for another bowl of ramen until Karin grabbed his wrist and squeezed. He looked over at her, and he was immediately put on edge by her alarmed expression. He wasn't alone, as both remaining Sanin and Shizune also took note.
"Is it them?" he asked with none of the joviality he possessed earlier. When she nodded, he cursed. "How far?"
"Not far," she answered. "I think they're still out in the woods right now, but they're making their way here."
"Shit, thought we gave them the slip," Naruto muttered, and then he looked back up at Jiraiya. "I'm gonna tag along with you. Karin, why don't you head back to the inn that Tsunade and Shizune are staying at and get a head start on the medic training."
When she gave him a shaky nod, he sent her a bright smile that he hoped was comforting before ruffling her hair again. She slapped his hand away with a pout and a mutter of "you're not even that much older than me," so he knew she was okay.
"Tsunade, we'll have that spar first thing tomorrow," he assured her, and she gave him a confused nod before he turned to usher her teammate out of the bar. "Jiraiya, let's go find your student."
The Toad Sage was very much perplexed by the enthusiasm to assist him, but he knew that the sudden change in demeanor meant trouble was afoot, and him leaving his protégé behind could only mean that he was sufficiently alarmed about the situation and wanted to keep her out of harm's way. When they exited the bar, the two sped off out of the town and into the woods.
"I'm assuming that we're in for a fight," Jiraiya said to the teen beside him, idly noting that he was very easily keeping pace with him.
"Probably a bad one," Naruto confirmed.
"Orochimaru?" Jiraiya questioned.
"Worse," he responded. "Pop in on your student and then circle back. I'll lead them into a clearing."
Jiraiya nodded and flickered away, and Naruto proceeded deeper into the surrounding forest. After a few minutes of tree hopping, he dismounted and landed in the center of a clearing. He didn't have to wait very long for his tails to arrive in the clearing with him.
"Took you both long enough," Naruto commented. "I was so sure that I gave you the slip back in Shukuba, but I suppose you were always pretty good at catching me after a prank, weren't you, Itachi?"
"It's been a long time, Naruto," Itachi commented in his typical monotone. "Let's not drag this out any further. You'll be coming with us."
Naruto observed the two missing-nin standing before him. Itachi Uchiha needed no introduction, and neither did Kisame Hoshigaki standing alongside him with Samehada resting on his shoulder, both men clad in cloaks of their own. Whereas his Akatsuki cloak was black with red clouds printed in various spots all over, the cloaks the other two were wearing were black with a violet moon that had an eye peeking out of the center of it emblazoned on the chest of the cloak, symbolizing their allegiance to Tsuki no Me.
…It was such a stupid name and stupid cloak in Naruto's opinion. On top of that, as far as Naruto understood it, Tsuki no Me was formed because Nagato and Konan wouldn't buy their leader's "I'm Madara Uchiha" shtick, so he went to play with his toys elsewhere. That meant that they even had a stupid reason to exist.
Still, though, Naruto would be an idiot if he didn't acknowledge the fact that they were all S-rank criminals and complete monsters in their own rights. Tsuki no Me had nothing if not utter firepower at their disposal, and any run-of-the-mill B-rank (or even A-rank) missing-nin would be reduced to confetti in a matter of minutes if they took two of them on at once.
Fortunately, Naruto's own measly B-rank was woefully outdated.
A miasma of red chakra began to envelop him, and his eyes transitioned from the familiar blue to a blood red with slitted pupils. His already spiky hair became even wilder, and his whiskers thickened into bold, slightly jagged lines. "If you really want the Kyubi, you'll have to pray you can pry him out of my corpse."
"That can be arranged," Kisame cooed with a bloodthirsty grin.
This is a plot bunny I've had for a long while but was too lazy to explore. I figured I'd just give it life here and see where I end up going with it. No promises on when that would be.
Naruto is 2 years older than the Rookie 9, and Nagato is marginally less angsty.
Thanks for reading.