Title: Jiraiya's first novel

Chapter 1: About the immature need to get even

Disclaimer: None of the Naruto characters are mine…obviously.

Note: Personally I think it's hard to write Naruto, or at least to write it well… so yeah, I'm not so sure of how IC the characters are… also I'm a tad rusty when it comes to writing since I haven't been doing so in a while.

Warning: Nothing right now. I am contemplating making it a yaoi story, but haven't yet decided.

Characters: Orochimaru, Jiraiya, Tsunade, along with some others as well

Summary: This is the mission on which Jiraiya got the inspiration for his very first completed novel.

*

He'd done it, and he'd done it good, Jiraiya rejoiced in his mind, strutting along the dusty road rather proudly. This was the best day ever, he decided. It even beat doing research at his favourite bathhouse. Above them the sun shone brightly, it was in the middle of summer and it hadn't rained for almost a week so the ground was dry, and the grass was starting to look a tad yellow here and there. Yet the surroundings had never seemed so beautiful before, never this…

"Ouch!" he winced when Tsunade hit him hard on the shoulder. He glared at the blonde girl angrily. "What was that for?"

"Stop looking so damn pleased with yourself, perv," she snapped at him, glaring back at him. "If we bust this mission because of this I'll…"

"Bah, aren't you the one always saying he's the better shinobi of us?" he asked, rubbing his arm.

"The better shinobi of you two."

"Hey! He's not better than me!"

She snorted, looking away from him and whispered: "Don't start yelling Jiriaya, or they might get suspicious."

He opened his mouth to protest, but as he cast a glance ahead of them, he caught Orochimaru sending him a warning glare. Two against one, which was just not fair.

"You're just angry 'cause that pervy-lord guy…" he interrupted himself when he felt her hand on his shoulder, squeezing more than a little too tight for comfort.

"Shut up, Jiraiya," she growled at him, before she, as if against her will, loosened her grip and brushed past him furiously.

Jiraiya glared at her retreating back, and kicked a stone hard so it bounced into the dry bushes on the side of the road.

"As if it's my fault one of my teammates looks like a girl and the other is flat as a board…"

He saw Tsunade stop abruptly, slowly turning her head towards him.

"What did you say?"

Oh shit… he thought as he promptly turned and ran past the confused looking guards that belonged to the lord. He was closely followed by a yelling Tsunade.

*

Despite that little episode, Jiraiya's good mood didn't falter. After all, it wasn't everyday he outsmarted the snake, and not even a black eye could damper the thrill. Still he decided to keep at a distance from Tsunade at the moment, and while he trudged on behind the rest of the small party he replayed the events that had led up to his current good mood.

The mission had seemed rather straight forward when sensei had laid it out for them; the youngest daughter of their client, a wealthy lord, was to be married to the eldest son of lord this or that. However, lately there had been suspicions that someone was going to try to kidnap the client's daughter. Why, the client claimed to not know, and so it was their mission find out and stop it. Tsunade would take the part of the lord's daughter, while the actual daughter was to stay in the safety of Konoha.

Earlier that day they had stood waiting, all dressed up to fit the part of some wealthy lord's subordinates. It wasn't often that he got to see Tsunade dressed in something ladylike, so he greatly enjoyed it. He himself was donned in quite ordinary pants and shirt, much resembling his usual clothing only they were of silk instead of the thicker, and sturdier fabrics used for shinobi clothing. As usual Orochimaru wore a kimono, as was his habit, although this one too was made of silk.

It was when the party of the lord's son, the hime's betrothed, approached, that his day became considerably brighter.

Tsunade had straightened, smiling sweetly in a manner that made Jiraiya gawk in surprise, as the party approached, and she prepared to embrace her role as the hime, and greet her fiancé as a lord's daughter should. Hadn't it been for the fact that the lord's son, Yamada he had later learned, had completely ignored her and instead walked right up to their pale teammate, Jiraiya had little doubt she could've pulled of the hime act.

He could still recall the flabbergasted (this was something he'd decided to never forget, because how often did he get to see such a dumbstruck look on that pale face) look on Orochimaru's face when Yamada exclaimed: " Hime-sama, you're even more beautiful than I anticipated. I am surely a lucky man to get such an admirable flower as a bride."

Orochimaru had seemed completely lost for words, not that either he or Tsunade wasn't either.

"…huh…?" that was the only sound that forced its way out of the snake's white throat. Jiraiya began snickering at the mere memory of it. He had never seen his teammate at a loss of words like that!

He had seen Tsunade and Orochimaru both open their mouths to protest, but before neither of them had the chance to do so, Jiraiya, in a fit of utter ingeniousness (if he could say so himself) had spoken up: "You must forgive Ai-sama, my lord. She has been greatly anticipating this meeting, and to finally meet you is surely such a joy to her gentle heart that I'm afraid that you've stolen her very breath away." He had to admit that some of those lines came straight from the latest book he had been working on, but they had seemed to do the trick.

Luckily the lord had turned his attention to him just then, and had missed the horrified looks Orochimaru and Tsunade cast his way.

"Yes, of course," Yamada had said, turning a quite love struck (he had had to bite the inside of his cheek not to laugh out loud at that moment) gaze back towards Oro. "Such a delicate flower is surely as delicate on the inside as on the outside. Even your name, hime-sama, Ai, betrays your gentle nature."

Oro had been blushing, something that was even more obvious on his pale features, and by the look in his eyes Jiriaya had known that the blush was rather one of rage than shyness, but luckily the love struck lord hadn't seemed to notice the murderous look in those yellow eyes. Instead he had gone off in a long tirade about "how becoming it was to such a sweet flower to show her appreciation of his words even when words failed her."

That had been the point when Oro almost had seemed to snap, and Jiraiya remembered the way his fist had clenched tightly in those wide white sleeves, before slowly unclenching. Orochimaru had seemed to have taken a deep breath, and then gave the lord's son a small, although perhaps a tad strained, smile. He had known as well as Jiraiya had that exposing the lie at that point could've compromised the entire mission.

Jiraiya chuckled to himself at the memory, feeling another wave of triumph wash through him.

Yeah, he'd gotten him! He'd gotten him good! Still with a wide grin on his face he looked ahead to the front of the party where Yamada and Oro were walking side by side, the prior of the two gesticulating excitedly in a way he knew must be driving his teammate mad. As if he could feel Jiraiya's gaze on his back, Orochimaru turned his head and looked straight at him. The look in his eyes promised doom.

For a brief moment Jiraiya contemplated if perhaps this hadn't been his most brilliant of ideas, but then he brushed that thought aside. Whatever the snake could cook up in retaliation could not remove the fact that it had been worth it.

With a happy sigh Jiraiya put his hands in his pockets, humming a happy tune to himself. This, he thought suddenly, could turn out to be an excellent plot for a book. Perhaps he should make something of it.

*

Author's notes: I don't know where this idea came from. Just some random thought I guess XD At any rate, I'm a firm believer of that there needs to be more sannin fics around.

I'm still debating whether or not to continue on this story, since I already got a few stories that needs to be finished, but we'll see I guess.