The Sannin, three shinobi destined for greatness, and cursed with betrayal. These are the stories of their early years.
Chapter One
Jiraiya woke late in the morning with his head upon the desk, the papers he had spent most of the previous night toiling over. At long last he had fallen asleep, however, and so one of his drawings went unfinished. He glanced out his window, and smiled, he certainly had a perfect vantage point of the place across the street, but it was empty this morning. He glanced around at the clock…. 10:28 AM… He was sure to be in trouble. Jiraiya left the room and shuffled down the hallway. As he rounded a corner he came in contact with what felt like a sledge hammer and crashed to the floor. After regaining some of his senses, he looked up to see Tsunade scowling down at him.
"You slept in, YOU are going to make us late!" She snapped.
"Calm, Tsunade, Hozaki will be fine." Sarutobi-sensei said with a grin.
"Well, if he hadn't been up all night drawing naked pictures of women in the bathhouse, we'd have already met with Hozaki." Orochimaru commented.
"Gahck!"
Thud! A hammer-fist landed atop Jiraiya's head and Tsunade turned away dusting her hands. "I'll have to… confiscate these pictures and… um… dispose of them." Sarutobi said, but there was a strange tone in his voice that caused Jiraiya and Orochimaru to exchange curious looks. Sarutobi cleared his throat. "Come along, boys."
They eventually met with Hozaki. He was a fat, ugly man with a long beard and sagging skin. He smelled of sweaty body and alcohol. It took the young Genin a great deal of willpower to not allow their repulsion to show as to not insult their client. "You're those fire ninja I hired, right?" Hozaki asked.
"Ninja of the Leaf, yes," Sarutobi corrected the man politely and bowed.
"Whatever," Hozaki said and clapped his hands. A pretty serving girl entered and gave Hozaki a paper and refilled his cup. "Here," he said shoving the paper to Sarutobi and chugged down his drink. "That's your job. Now finish it quickly."
"Of course," Sarutobi replied and gave another small bow before leaving.
"I feel like I need a bath now." Tsunade said in disgust, wiping imagined filth from herself. "On second thought…" Tsunade glared at Jiraiya who was wearing an impish grin that quickly vanished.
"Anyway," Orochimaru said redirecting the conversation. "What is our mission, sensei?"
"Yes, so Mister Hozaki owns a home out in the nearby woods. Apparently, he has some kind of rodent and bug infestation that needs cleared out. That's where we come in, we are the exterminators." Sarutobi explained.
"So, we stomp a few bugs…?" Asked a disappointed Jiraiya. "Ninja were hired to squish bugs. This infestation was summoned by a rogue ninja that's using this fat guy's house as a hideout, right?"
"No, just bugs."
"But they-…"
"You're Genin, you're lucky you were even got to leave the village." Sarutobi interrupted. "Now, focus on the task at hand. We are going into the woods to kill bugs in a rich man's house. For this, he is paying the Leaf Village, and in turn, we are all getting paid for performing the mission, an easy mission at that."
"I plan on utilizing this mission for training. Quickness and reflexes, as well as hand-eye coordination, it's an excellent opportunity." Orochimaru said, silencing Jiraiya for the moment. He smirked when Sarutobi gave him an approving pat on the shoulder.
As they neared the area of the house in the woods an eerie feeling crept through each of the shinobi. "Something seems… Off." Tsunade finally says, breaking the tense silence. Sarutobi simply nodded as he led them up to the front door of the lodge. As he opened the door a spider skittered out, only to be crushed beneath Orochimaru's foot.
Orochimaru started into the building setting off a buzzing in the opposite side of the darkened room. Sarutobi, Tsunade and Jiraiyi followed Orochimaru into the house. The four of them cautiously approached the buzzing, none wanting to upset what they were certain was hive. Suddenly, a rat darted out, right at Tsunade, who let out a surprised yelp and jumped sideways, colliding with Jiraiya. The two Genin became entangled and crashed hard to the floor. The loud thud set off scurrying, scratching and multitudes of noises of the disturbed pests.
The front door slammed shut and sounded as though it was being barred from the outside. "We have been tricked." Sarutobi growled.
Orochimaru looked up at his sensei. "What do you mean? By that fat, drunk, Hozaki?" Sarutobi simply nodded in reply.
A swarm of oversized hornets sped at Orochimaru from their hidden nest in the darkness. The boy froze momentarily in surprise before launching several kunai into the swarm that dropped hornets, twitching and dying upon the floor. Before Orochimaru could react further, the swarm was upon him and only Jiraiya kicking his legs out from under him caused the swarm to pass the now collapsed Orochimaru. He nodded a quick thanks to Jiraiya then looked up at the hornets just as Sarutobi scattered it with a plume of fire. Something caught Orochimaru's eye, a camera, in the corner of the ceiling, was visible in the light of the flames. Then he noticed the little red recording light, and another light, in the opposite corner.
They were being recorded. They were being watched.