The Gallant Spy
-1-
"Every shinobi is fated to die, Jiraiya.
The majority of shinobi die unremarkably. Little can be written about the shinobi who died as a knife entered his back, puncturing his lung while he panicked after he was caught. A sudden explosion, a tripped trap, an elemental electrocution, most deaths leave little to be ruminated upon.
Some die dubiously. They are mown down by callous fingers, the freshest spurt on a stone floor soaked in blood. Shinobi are assassins, killers, and sometimes fiends. Our profession dictates that most members of it are ignominiously discarded.
Those unfortunate enough to survive active service wither. As time passes they grow old, their skills diminish, and they retire. But no shinobi leaves clean. A life of sin leaves none without enemies and dirty blood on their hands. Through their twilight years, some lose themselves to paranoia while others are not paranoid enough. The weight of secrets accumulated during a lifetime ensures that a shinobi will greet the Reaper with few accoutrements and only one destination.
And so every shinobi dies. But do not weep for the dead Jiraiya; death is not always a waste. Weep for those who in their cowardice or greed forfeit their families, friends, and companions to live on. Fight knowing that death stands idly in front of all we hold dear and die happily to save them. Protect what you love with your hands today, because no one else will. After all, every great story begins with an ending."
Few pieces of wisdom remained engrained in Jiraiya's psyche like those told to him by his sensei Sarutobi after he took his first life. Two world wars etched the words into the crevices of his soul.
In over two decades of service, Jiraiya separated himself as the key protector of Konoha. He led platoons of shinobi to victory and saved an innumerable number of his countryman's lives. He trained his apprentice, Minato Namikaze, into the greatest warrior the world had ever known, and brought peace and prominence to the Land of Fire.
Yet for his successes, Jiraiya was a man ruled by his failures. Countless specters lay on the fringe of his perception, those he couldn't save. None loomed larger than Orochimaru, his best friend, who he couldn't stop from abandoning the village and betraying its populace.
And so, Jiraiya had spent every available minute after Orochimaru's deception two years ago to develop the premier spy network of the shinobi world. His influence reached into every hovel on the entire continent.
Two hours ago, he had been fifty-eight miles away from his home cavorting with a few minor players in a local gang. Dressed in a simple business suit with his long flowing salt and pepper hair falling out the back, he could have been mistaken for an aged mob boss. The information he dredged up today would allow Konoha to break an important source of illegal weaponry from entering the Land of Fire. But, as Jiraiya poured his fourth cup of sake, the private door slammed open and a frantic courier burst into the den of the gang unannounced. The finger-breaker that Jiraiya had been amicably chatting with obviously sensed a set-up, as he then began attacking with a berserker's ferocity.
Jiraiya had attempted to diffuse the situation, but his words were not quick enough to prevent the nasty blindside punch he received from one of the gang's enforcers. With an angry headache emerging from the cold-cocked blow and the effects of the sake, Jiraiya viciously subdued the remaining threats with a few swift knife-edge strikes. Rage in full tilt, Jiraiya had turned to upbraid the idiot for ruining his cover and blowing his longstanding mission. However, the courier had stopped him cold with his first word, "Kyuubi".
The news was devastating. The demon Kyuubi, a destructive force of nature, had escaped from the seal of its human container and begun laying waste to his home. In under a minute, Jiraiya gathered his equipment from one of the guards he had knocked out and rushed outside. He drew a massive reserve of chakra and cried out for his toad summons help.
Yet, instead of the mountainous toad boss Gamabunta emerging from the smoke, a human sized toad emerged. Jiraiya paled. If he couldn't summon Gamabunta, his protégé Minato must have already summoned him, and things were worse than they appeared. Furthermore, instead of summoning a creature that could have spanned the distance he needed in a few long hops, Jiraiya wasted nearly half of his stamina without recourse. Worse, after massive losses in the last world war, Gamabunta remained the only toad large enough to cover the distance quickly.
Cursing, he reverse summoned the smaller toad, and then summoned the elder toads Fukasaku and Shima. Quickly silencing their normal friendly banter, he channeled through them to achieve Sage mode, focusing his mind and body with enlightened energy, and then scorched through the countryside to relieve his home.
Two hours of enhanced running would leave even the greatest warrior winded. The combined effect of physical exertion and chakra exertion demanded an inhuman level of endurance and concentration to maintain. However, by utilizing Sage mode and allowing only his maximum speed to do, Jiraiya had been able to shave nearly half the time off of what a normal shinobi might take.
No thoughts ran through his mind. His breath painfully sucked air into his diaphragm against the air displacement he created with his sheer speed and his heart pumped painfully. He could feel the blood pulsating through his veins. Every minutia of effort was directed into sustaining his pace.
As he approached the vicinity of Konoha, Jiraiya began to finally grind thought again. 'Who knows how long the damn idiot took to arrive at my location! The entire village might already be destroyed! How did the fox escape from its seal inside of the kid's wife? How unaware has the village been taken?' Too many variables were screaming for information without answer.
Jiraiya had thought he'd known fear. He was battle hardened beyond comprehension. He had fought Hanzo, the legendary leader of Ame as a young teenager during the Second Shinobi World War. Not only had he survived, but he also had been caught up in the Third Shinobi World War for good measure. Throughout the years, he had endured more assassination attempts and led more battle charges than any other shinobi in the history of Konoha. He killed hundreds if not thousands of elite enemy combatants. Yet, none of those battles had ever breached the walls of his home. In his lifetime, no enemy could compare to the demon known as a force of nature. Kyuubi, a nine-tailed beast of immense physical and spiritual power, was currently destroying everything he held dear.
If the seal of the Kyuubi had been violated, Jiraiya had already lost an amazing friend in its human container Kushina. She was likely dead from the immediate strain the seal would exert trying to subdue the Kyuubi's influence. If the seal breaking hadn't killed her, the physical construct of the Kyuubi had probably attacked her first. The malice from being imprisoned would lead the demon to strike her down painfully.
'And I was away! How could this happen! I knew that Kushina's seal was theoretically weakened from her pregnancy, and I accepted Minato's order to stay on assignment?! What a fool I am. How could any illegal weaponry be as dangerous as even the slightest sliver of a possibility of Kyuubi's escape? Idiot!'
Silencing his recriminations, Jiraiya took note of the setting sun. At this rate, he would be fighting in the darkness. 'Great, as if I needed another handicap, besides being how who knows how many hours late and exhausted from my techniques, against the greatest demon to exist upon this earth.' He knew he was approaching Konoha, but that did nothing to comfort his growing anxiety.
That was when an unnatural darkness swept over him. Fearing a preemptive strike against his rather large chakra presence, Jiraiya immediately retreated to a distance and leapt to the trees with a mighty push. Quickly positioning himself atop the largest tree in the area and preparing for a quick substitution, he almost lost his bearings upon the sight in front of him.
On the horizon, nearly twenty miles away, the towering Kyuubi partially blocked out the setting sun. Too far away for a proper view, Jiraiya was about to continue before he saw a massive black ball of destruction obliterate a wide swath of the landscape in the distance. Losing all of his color, he upped his breakneck pace. 'God, will there even be a home to save by the time I get there?'
Even from his distance, the malevolence of the demon could be felt. Primal urges screamed for him to retreat, escape, and save his own life. Not since he was a fresh recruit, could he remember the sheer terror that throbbed through him now. 'Too slow! It's already been hours between the courier's travel and my own. How is there even still fighting going on?'
Reinforced by the nightmare unfolding in the distance, Jiraiya's mind snapped to a desperate examination of all his possible courses of action. The vast majority of his battle ready techniques would deal insignificant damage to the Kyuubi. Worse, judging by the rapid movement of the Kyuubi against the horizon, the techniques that might work would be too slow to hit the beast. He had no time to prepare a seal based attack, and no toad besides the already occupied Gamabunta would survive initial contact with the Kyuubi.
And as powerful as he was in Sage Mode, Jiraiya knew that fighting the Kyuubi in an offensive battle was a losing proposition. Surely Minato and Sarutobi were on the front lines already, and if the Kyuubi was still throwing powerful attacks like that black sphere around, Jiraiya had little chance of turning the tide of battle. Yet, defending from that onslaught seemed even less likely.
Every possibility looked bleak. Only one constant ran through each scenario. Jiraiya would almost assuredly die at the tails of the beast. As the Kyuubi leveled part of a mountain in the distance with its next attack Jiraiya couldn't help but shudder. He wondered at how many had died that day before shaking himself out of his reverie. There would be time in the afterlife to grieve; now was the time to fight. This village and its inhabitants were all he had, and he would be damned if he did not protect them.
Preparing for the upcoming clash, Jiraiya stilled his mind. Extensive strategic planning had never been his forte, so instead he focused his energy on maintaining an open and flexible mindset. Miles passed as the seconds ticked and Jiraiya witnessed the devastation that Kyuubi wrought.
Fifteen minutes away, ten, five, three, two, one.
His counterattack would never arrive. Instantaneously, the monster that had ravaged his home was gone with the fleeting sun.
Tears flowed from Jiraiya like they hadn't for twenty-five years. Joy and relief started them, but anger and sadness flowed from there on. The unexpected disappearance of the Kyuubi could only mean one thing. The beast had been resealed through the efforts of a sealing-master. The only human capable of such a feat in Konoha was Minato. Of course, the cost of sealing a force of nature like the Kyuubi was catastrophic. Minato's very soul would be plucked from his body and delivered into purgatory to eternally fight whatever remnant of the beast he had dragged with him. Jiraiya had lost his protégé and adopted son to hell.
Finally bursting through the gates, Jiraiya retched at the extent of the destruction. Bodies, as if callously discarded like food wrappers on the thoroughfare, lay haphazardly along the main boulevard. Entire buildings collapsed, dissected from the force of the blows they endured. Other areas simply ceased to be, nothing left but void. Silhouettes of unknown people etched into the sidewalk framed the craters, as if a macabre gallery of art had opened.
Every step led to another horror. The majority of his lifelong home lay in ruin before his eye. Throughout his life, Jiraiya had been just a step too slow, a moment too late, and with every new shock from his latest failure unfurling; the depth of helplessness engendered slaughtered another piece of him.
The dead were lucky. The victims of Kyuubi were those who remained. Spattered amongst the carnage newly orphaned children sat shaking, sobbing into their grubby coats. In open view, a hung woman swayed as a bitter wind swept through the remains of a shattered home. In every direction families called out amongst the wreckage, screaming names in anguish. The miasma of death lingered tangible in the night air. No sign of normalcy remained and deep scars ran through the foundation of the village's infrastructure. Even the signature walls of Konoha stood piecemeal, gigantic gorges separating what little remained.
Jiraiya's psyche shuttered. Without the adrenaline of battle to guide him, he wandered feebly through the remains. As he drew deeper toward the village square, the damage only amplified. Across the street, blood ran from a cleaved off arm as a medic frantically tried to stabilize its owner. Around the bend, smoke rose from the corpse of a charred woman.
As the streets compacted, so too did the wreckage. Navigating the trenches of debris was difficult, and some areas lay impassible by normal travel. After stumbling his way through the makeshift maze, Jiraiya discovered the location of the bulk of the Konoha forces. Taking a deep breath and gathering himself, he approached them.
As he became known, eyes latched on to his familiar visage, but the gazes were level. No hint of the adoration he inspired within the ranks remained. The hollowed irises Jiraiya met left no depth to be contemplated. Slowly, they parted as Jiraiya walked towards the focal point of the group. He slowed as a familiar voice began to address the contingent.
"Loyal shinobi of Konoha, I address you tonight with a heavy heart. At approximately 13:00 hours, the seal of Konoha's resident Jinchuuriki failed releasing the Kyuubi. At current, no information has been ascertained to indicate the reason behind the failure. Fighting commenced immediately thereafter and continued for nearly six hours. At 17:30 hours, the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze finalized the preparation of a method of sealing the demon and subsequently enacted the technique. Twenty-eight minutes later, the technique finalized. Nearly instantaneously, the Kyuubi vanished from the battlefield. However, as a result of the immense burden of sealing the Kyuubi, the Fourth Hokage perished shortly thereafter. It is unknown at this time the exact damages that have been incurred from the attack. An exact number of casualties and wounded is also currently unknown. As information is obtained by the village you will be notified further. At this time, I, Sarutobi Hiruzen, have been appointed by the village elders and by a consensus of active Jonin to act in trust as the interim leader of Konohagakure. All able-bodied personnel are to assist in the ongoing rescue efforts directed by Nara, Shikaku and Inuzuka, Tsume. This ends the official announcement required by the bylaws of Konohagakure. Dismissed."
The clinical assessment delivered by Sarutobi was designed to bring order to a chaotic situation. All it really did was sicken those who heard it. Yet, no voices rang out to protest the hollow treatment of their collective woe; not for a lack of distaste, but simply because no words seemed capable of expressing the emotion that pulsed through the crowd. Jiraiya suppressed a burgeoning rage, quickly deflating and rising again, as he realized there was nothing left to direct it at.