Hey this is my first Fanfic so whoever you are THANK YOU FOR READING!

I unfortunately have no beta so please be easy on my textual mistakes.

Disclaimer: I do not in anyway own Naruto.

VISION: GREY

Chapter 1

There were three of them.

He merely glanced at them before continuing his casual scan of the tavern. It was a nice place, not too small and sparse in its patrons. Overall, a perfect place for a man to relax. With a hand protected by a metal plated glove the man brushed away a spiky white bang, bringing to focus the huge smile he gave the purple haired bartender.

Jiraiya knew Uzuki Kenchi from their Academy days and fought as a frontline fighter along side him till Kenchi's retirement at the end of the Second War. The bearded man was as large as Jiraiya and great deal more frightening so seeing him work as a bartender in the tavern he opened near the outskirts of Konoha always brought a smile to his face. But there was a reason Kenchi opened the bar. As one of Konoha's reserve shinobi, the job gave him suitable cover as a lookout for any infiltrators that managed to make it that far into the Land of Fire.

Like those three idiot Iwa jōnin behind him. Kami knew how they got this far.

"So why did you call me to your dump?", he asked after taking a gulp of saké, " I'm sure it ain't to see your ugly mug."

"It sure isn't."

"Still as tight lipped as always, huh? Relax a little Ken-chan."

"Shut up pervert. I didn't call you here for your damn nicknames either", Kenchi said gruffly as he sat down on a stool behind the bar. His perpetual frown fell into a more weary look as he gave out a long sigh and said, "It's urgent Jiraiya."

Sensing the shift in the mood Jiraiya immediately sobered. Silently gesturing with his chin he asked, "Is that him?"

The big man nodded.

The 'him' in question was a small boy who apparently was tasked with server duty. Scrawnier than most four year olds, he barely reached above Jiraiya's knee. Raven black hair fell on his dusky shoulders uncut. He was dressed in an old sleeveless grey shirt and some torn up shorts as he served the Iwa nin, and hid his apparent precocious nature behind a large innocent grin. Jiraiya observed all this using the reflection of the saké bottles on display behind the bar and asked, "What's his name?"

"Rei. Shizukanaki Rei."

"That's a kinda girly name. Who thought of that, you?"

"His mother did actually."

"And who was she anways? Must have been something for him tobreak his vows."

"Shizukanaki Mai. Worked as a waitress here but she used to be hunter-nin before she retired." Kenchi paused, then slowly added, "She was quite something. As for him it was right after the Wazanabi Incident. He needed it guess." Kenchi snorted. "Wouldn't anyone?"

Jiraiya winced, accepting the rhetoric. "Well that explains that at least." He looked at the boy again, who had finished serving and had stepped behind the bar and into the pantry to wash the dishes. "Okay I get why I might be interested in this but that doesn't explain why exactly this urgent. I mean he has you. And you actually raised a kid before."

"That's not the problem."

"Then what is Kenchi?"

"His mother came from a clan. A clan with a Kekkai Genkai."

"A Bloodline Limit? What kind?"

"Something I have never seen before." He looked Jiraiya in the eyes and said, "He can passively absorb natural energy."

A silence came over the long-time sage of Mount Myōboku as he mulled over the discovery of the other sage just behind the bar. He glanced at the boy washing dishes and asked, "Is there a problem?", wincing as he said so. It was a pretty stupid question considering the circumstances but thankfully Kenchi got what he meant. "Not to us. But I'm not so sure about him."

The mere ability to absorb natural energy was enough to mark someone as threat. To be able to apply it in battle or in any other activity with a reasonable amount of control marked him as a Sage. The amount of power available to Sage was enough to discern him as an S-class.

But there were drawbacks too. Serious ones. Assimilating too much natural energy at a time could lead to petrification. But in even worse cases, sometimes Sage Transformation led to a near complete loss of humanity turning the users to nothing but mindless beasts pumped up with extra blood-lust. Seeing the kid wash the dishes eliminated that option at once. And he was definitely too mobile to petrified. Though… he could have just turned his ability off or something. "Do you mean all the time?", Jiraiya asked.

"Yeah."

"He doesn't look a statue. Yet."

"What?"

Oh yeah. Kenchi didn't really know about this did he? "When Sages gather too much natural energy their bodies could turn into stone. But that isn't happening with this kid."

"No it isn't."

"So what is?"

"His primary chakra somehow allows his body to accumulate natural energy without the increase in aggressiveness or anything. The only problem is that the process of accumulating that chakra causes extreme pain because it creates chakra burns on the his coils."

At this Jiraiya stole another glance at the kid and this time, he saw what he couldn't make out before. The odd twitch in the shoulder, a sudden lapse in movement, a stumble all betrayed the side effects of the extraordinary gift that was Sage Chakra. "Shit."

"Indeed. He needs help and both of us know that you're the only one in the whole Land of Fire that can help him."

"I can't stay here."

"I know."

"You want me take him with me?!"

"I believe that he possesses the right instincts for your kinda work."

Jiraiya hesitated. To say that any kid was ready for the work he did was ludicrous. But this was Kenchi, the previous Jōnin Commander of Konoha. And his comrade. Whatever recommendations he made couldn't be ignored. Seeing his hesitation, Kenchi turned his head towards the bar's basin and called out, "Rei."

The boy didn't bother turning his head to answer and instead paused, washed his hands of lather and walked over towards the two men. He had a graceful walk, Jiraiya noted hiding the obvious pain he was in. So Kenchi already set the groundwork of the kids shinobi career. A part of him was impressed that a child of four years could tread across a creaky hardwood floor without making a noise while an other part just felt sad that a child's future was already determined to be that of a soldier.

Jiraiya looked at the boy,who in turn looked back, observing for the first time the child's silver eyes. Something from the mother no doubt, he mused. They made him stand out, making him look more like nobleman than the peasant he was dressed like. "Shizukanaki Rei."

"Jiraiya-san."

"Already heard of me did ya? I bet Kenchi told all sorts of awesome stories of Jiraiya the Gallant, heh?" said Jiraiya, puffing his chest out.

"No Jiraiya-san. I only heard of you when you came inside the bar."

Jiraiya face faulted.

"Enough Jiraiya. You too Rei." said Kenchi, slightly amused. "Rei why don't you tell Jiraiya-san here about the men behind him?"

"The guy with the beard is the leader but the bald one got more chakra." Rei paused. "They all very tired. They wanna enter the village so they going to act like sellers. That's why they're wearing those kimonos. They also said something about a friend."

"How strong are they?"

"Not so strong. They got the good looking papers so they good at sneaking I guess."

With this Kenchi looked back at Jiraiya who could only hear the exchange in awe. "And thus we have three infiltrators not terrorists. Here to kidnap or initiate contact with an inside source. You find out."

He paused. "You go wash those dishes now Rei. Jiraiya here will take care of those three." As Rei excused himself and walked back, Kenchi looked at Jiraiya. "You convinced?"

Jiraiya for the third time that night found himself looking contemplatively at the boy. The ability to gather that much intel from a single conversation was undoubtedly impressive. "Did you…"

"Train him to infer information at a high level? No I merely encouraged it. Many tend to loosen their tongues around children."

"True." Jiraiya looked thoughtful now. "How easy is this for him?"

"He can instinctively understand people's motives from single conversations. He isn't a neat freak but he's got a uncanny sense of organization for a kid. It helps him process information easily. Relatively."

"Plus the fact that he's a sensor?"

"Yes. I supposed it came along with the territory of a Sage."

"Yes. Yes it does." Jiraiya sighed. "Okay I'll take him. But what does he think about this?"

"He'll be fine with it. He knows the own risks he has to face. And we're both desperate for the solution of… his issues."

"Tonight then?"

"I'll inform him."

"And I'll clean up that mess behind us."

"That's already taken care of."

"Huh?"

Jiraiya looked back only to see three trained Iwa jōnin sway around almost drunkenly before collapsing in perfect unison forming a dog pile on the floor.

The other few patron spared them a glance before returning to own drinks shaking their heads, muttering about pathetic lightweights.

"Light dosage of Jigoku doku. Suna based. They'll wake up in an hour with headaches from hell." Kenchi stood headed towards the back room. "Now, you go clean it up."

Jiraiya could only look at the boy's face with a smile as Rei gazed at the mountain in utter awe.

"Woaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh! This is the biggest place ever!"

Jiraiya looked at the wizened toad on his shoulder before they both burst out laughing. "No child", said Fukasaku, as the Great Toad Sage hopped of Jiraiya's shoulder onto the ground. "This is Mount Myōboku. Home of the Toad Clan for generations."

"So they're more toads like you Fukasaku-jisama?"

"Oh yes, we do."

"They ain't all like Pa here," interrupted Jiraiya, smirking as he looked down at the toad. "Most are way bigger. Pa here just one of the runts, eh?"

"I guess that makes Ma a runt too, huh?"

"Yeah, for sure-"

SMACK!

"And just who's a runt Jiraiya-chan?!"

"Not you Ma! Oh Kami my head…"

"And I suppose you're Rei, eh? My, my look at you! You're so skinny! I bet Jiraiya didn't feed you right! Don't worry Ma's here to fatten you up!" The purple colored toad literally jumped around in her agitation, the edges of her cloak flapping about.

"Um…. Thank you for hospitality." Rei, suprised by the attention he was receiving gave a hesitant bow. "Please take care of me."

"And so polite too! Noting like you Jiraiya, thank goodness for that!"

"Hey!"

"Enough, enough." Pa chuckled softly at the bickering. He turned to Rei. "Rei-chan this here going to be where you learn how ta use ya Sage Chakra. You can consider this ya home for as long as ya like."

Rei closed his eyes at the mention of home and Jiraiya didn't blame him. The kid spent his whole life thinking his home as Kenchi's bar. As for Kenchi himself he, surprisingly, didn't try to influence him. While the bartender was a great man he was a shinobi of the Leaf first. A shinobi would never give the advantage any chance of disappearing, so Kenchi must have had absolute faith in the kid's will. Even in the face of death most four year olds would be hard pressed to leave home and the people they love.

But this kid did. He made a choice to leave, a choice to live but yet a choice to serve. And here he was standing as tall as he could, hiding the constant pain he felt, slowing accepting the role put before him. Some-most-would argue that the kid had no choice but Jiraiya knew, somehow-just somehow-knew the kid would've taken this one, not for the fear of his life, but for Kenchi, his mother, the people that raised him. A small picture stuck out of his backpack, one that Jiraiya knew contained Shizukanaki Mai in front of the bar; capturing four years worth of memories in a miniscule frame. Memories that pushed his new protégé onwards.

Rei slowly opened his eyes and fixed his gaze upon the three Sages in front of him and said, "Thank you. When do we start?"

ONCE AGAIN THANK YOU FOR READING! PLEASE REVIEW!