The Summoning

The art of sealing was something that, whilst it did have it laws and rules, had almost unlimited potential. It could create new dimensions as per the storage seal, or make a paper turn into an explosive force that could kill you in an instant. It could even, with the summoning jutsu, create a pathway to a different place or even dimension. It was therefore a highly respected thing to be a master of it, and after just having seen Sarutobi Sensei summon a monkey Jiraiya realized that he wanted to be able to do it.

So, that's why he was here in Training Ground 3, ready to try his hand at this summoning business. He'd looked up the hand signs, which were only four in total (too easy!), and a little bit of its history. All in all it looked awesome and he wanted to have a cool, powerful summon at his beck and call. Screw monkeys, he'd get something even better! Oh yes, something like a dragon or a tiger, or even a bear would do. Hell, if he were honest anything would do, really, just as long as he did this and succeeded at something before Orochimaru. Bah Orochimaru – the genius everyone praised and lauded. He'd show them! He'd show Sarutobi-sensei and that flat chested demon that was Tsunade.

Having she demons as his summons wouldn't be such a bad idea either, now he come think of it. He grinned at that thought. Hell had no fury like a woman scorned right? They would need to be more…mature of body though. With lecherous thoughts of hot women on his mind (doing his bidding because that's what summons did) he started doing the justu.

His chakra responded to his call, molding into the form that the hand signs required it. He bit his thumb, drawing the blood required and his palm slammed into the ground, his brash voice shouting, "Kuchiyose no Jutsu!". Smoke filled the immediate area, making him cough and his eyes water.

Well, the good news was he hadn't blown himself up, the bad news was that he'd failed. Or, so he'd though until he heard somebody or something else coughing within the smoke. It, whatever it was, was also cursing quite a bit. By the Great Sage, had he actually succeeded on his first try?

A breeze on this fine spring day blew away the last of the smoke and what he saw standing there made his jaw drop and his eyes almost pop out of their sockets. Oh, he had succeeded alright. Beyond his wildest dreams and expectations.

Right there stood a girl – a beautiful, beautiful girl. Black as dark as midnight strung in a pony tail that reached only a bit past her shoulders. One of the shoulders showed. It was sleek with tanned skin just like his but it was so much more pristine – not as peasantry. The white shirt she was wearing was wide, and hung around her frame, but at the same time is showed off just the right hints of her body's contours. Her hands were dainty little thing, he could even make that out from three feet away. They were also wet, a few droplets falling down. His eyes followed them.

The legs were in full view, she only wearing a red unmentionable, and they were showing the same flawless skin that he had only seen in gravure magazines and what he imagined royals looked like. They weren't very long, but then they needn't be. His eyes traveled back up, passing along her rather short neck, and looked at her face. Her eyes were almond shaped, and the color of them was as dark as his own. Plumb lips formed an 'oh' below a slightly round nose. She was as exotic as it could get in Konoha. If anything she looked like she hailed from Kumo.

She was looking at him with much the same shock as he was taking her in. That moment of silence seemed to last for an eternity, this first encounter. And then it was broken as another breeze came through the clearing.

Her eyes so wide before with shock narrowed down into slits. He knew that look very well, Tsunade had worn it more than once. She pulled down her wide shirt to cover her unmentionable, and she opened her mouth.

"Who the fuck are you!"

It wasn't the most pleasant thing to hear, but her accent did tell him that she was not from Konoha. At all. Kumo was still an option, seeing as he didn't know that particular accent. He ignored the little warble that showed she was still nervous because that accent could mean only one thing; he had summoned her. It was such an absurd thought that he didn't believe it even if he wanted to. It had been a joke, a bad one at that. He had fully expected to fail.

This…it…it simply couldn't be true.

He put his fingers into a familiar form, called forth his chakra, and shouted "Kai!"

Nothing changed, the air didn't start to waver and she didn't start to disappear. She was still standing there, as solid, exotic and angry as she had been a second ago. He still heard her breath, which was rather quick, and if he focused felt her civilian level chakra. Her eyes had been flicking from side to side, roaming the training field and finally landing back on him.

"Alright Kid, Kai, whatever your name is w-where are we." She licked her lips, and again her eyes darted around.

There was anger there, yes, but there was also fear. This girl, who was certainly a few years older than him, he put her at 15 or 16, was afraid. She was shaking, though she was hiding it rather well. Whether from the cool breeze that passed every once in a while or the fact that she was in an unknown place he didn't know. Maybe it was both. It also confirmed any doubt he had left; she was not from Konoha and not an illusion.

She was as real as it got.

He was still blown away by this very fact and his mouth just worked up and down as he tried to say a sentence – any sentence really. Because how do you explain to a person that you just summoned them from their very home? Hell, how was he going to convince people that he'd actually summoned her – it was impossible! Chakra laced creatures with whom one signed a contract, sure, but a human? That was simply unheard of. Ah fuck, what a mess!

"I know you can speak! Answer me!" This time the tone was more urgent, more powered by fear than anger.

He took a deep breath. He was a ninja and ninja's dealt with the unexpected all the time. It was your reaction and your reaction time that saved you from death more oft than not. It was time to react and not the time to panic. Time to panic would come later. Right now he needed her not to panic. He had no idea at all what she could do, civilian chakra or not – she was still a summon.

His summon, maybe, if she trusted him.

"My name's not Kai, it's Jiraiya. And where you are – where you find yourself - is Training ground three of Konoha Gakure." He would be polite, Keigo all the way even if it felt all weird coming out of his mouth. Too many words for just such a simple sentence. Bah, there was a reason he always spoke plain.

She laughed, it wasn't a particularly sane one. "You have got to be kidding me? The Village Hidden in the leaves?" she scoffed, "Please if you're going to lie, lie better. Don't bring figments of imagination into it. I do have to give you credit for dressing the part, though." She crossed her arms, apparently finding it safe to do so. She looked more resolute, her eyes no longer flitting to the trees that surrounded them. "Where are we truly."

He filed that away for later, even if he had no idea what she was rambling about. He wondered what part he was apparently playing. In any case, she was still his summon, if only by the act of having summoned her. He would be damned if he let her go.

"Konoha, we are truly in Konoha my lady."

"I ask you again, do not lie to me. Tell the truth, boy." That last part was said bitingly, anger once again the underscore of her words. She had a fire, that was for sure.

"I say again, I do not lie. You are, perhaps, as you say not in Konoha proper, but you are in her territory. Of that I can assure you." Maybe those classes on politics and the correct language to use whilst escorting guest of high rank was worth something after all.

She sighed, rubbing the bridge of her nose. "Very well, Jiraiya say we are in Konoha, as you claim and you are who you claim to be, how did I get here." She looked positively sure that her argument was solid. Irrefutable she stood there, arms crossed and a cocky smirk on her lips. It looked devastatingly hot in her current attire.

He gulped, heat rising to his cheeks at the sight as well as at the prospect of having to tell her how she had gotten where she had. Oh well, there was nothing for it.

" Well…it seems I have…summoned you here by accident."

She blinked. And then she blinked again. "Summoned?"

"Yes."

"You are joking, right?"

" I am afraid I am not."

She truly looked at him this time, and there was a flash of some sort of recognition there, and of a dawning horror. "Jiraiya, how old are you?"

"I am 13, my lady."

"And this is the first time you have tried the summoning justu?"

He nodded, "That is correct."

She was just looking at him then, a gob smacked look on her face. "And you summoned me?"

"By accident, yes."

The wooden poles still stood behind him, and she walked towards them and put her hand on the one in the middle. Against the one he had been tied to. She didn't look at him, but still spoke to him; "And you haven't, say, summoned a toad before me."

He raised an eyebrow. That was oddly specific. "I assure you I would have remembered if I had."

She groaned and put her head against the pole which had many kunai marks embedded in it. "A dream…that's all this is. A dream." She suddenly bashed her head against the pole, hard. She cried out, and stumbled backwards and fell down. He wasn't fast enough, shocked to see her do it.

He rushed to her side and saw the bump already forming, but that wasn't what concerned him. No, it was the look on her face. Tears were gathering in her eyes, and she was trembling. "It has to be a dream…a dream, has to be."

She stretched out her hand, and touched his hair, the white tufts touching her fingers which were still a little bit wet and as dainty as he had known they would be. Suddenly he knew what she was doing. She might not have said the word Genjutsu, but it is what she thought she was entangled in and she was verifying reality in the only ways she knew. That's what she had meant by the part he was playing and the comment about a figment of imagination.

The realization dawned on her that he was truly substantial. That he was not simply a mirage. He saw her eyes cloud over with tears, and she mumbled. "It's not, is it."

And he shook his head, "No, it's not."

With that the exotic, nameless girl, he had summoned broke down and cried. He after a while put an arm around her shoulder, not knowing how to comfort an older, not fully clad girl emotionally unstable girl. She accepted and leaned into him after the worst had passed. She still sniffed and hiccupped, but it was an improvement.

She wiped away a few stray tears and said, "I'm sorry, you shouldn't have had to see that." She pushed herself away, her pride obviously refusing the acknowledgment of his support but still thankful for it. It was more than he'd ever get out of Tsunade if she'd been in this situation. She would have punched him hard, as always.

"No it's okay, if anyone should say sorry it is me."

She smiled a wobbly smile at that declaration, not looking at him but the emotion somehow still carried. They sat there, looking at the sun high in the sky, and the leaves in the breeze. One of them was blown to her, and she caught it.

She looked at it and said, "So, Konoha eh?"

He nodded, "Yes, Konoha. May I ask your name?"

Again that wobbly smile appeared, "You may." She looked at him, red rimmed eyes looking into his, "My name is Harumi."

AN: This was supposed to be a crack and humor filled one-shot and yet it evolved into something that was a bit more than that. The chapters, when this particular idea strikes, probably won't be very long (about this length). Really, we'll see where this one takes me because I have no idea. Also the title might change. Serioulsy, if any of you have any good ideas let me know.

Harumi: Spring Beauty

Cheers,

Ray the Red