Here's something new that I've been looking forward to working on for a while. It's something quite different from the norm of Naruto stories, as my other story is, but I have a feeling this one will do better as a whole than Nightmares: A World at War.
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.
A Boy Among Men
By: Frozen Utopia
Jiraiya couldn't help the small wave of nostalgia that befell him as the massive red gates of Konohagakure no Sato came into view over the horizon, backed in a beautiful display by the rising sun. He had been out of the village on one of the most important scouting missions ever to be given to a ninja of Konoha, and the white-haired man couldn't have been more proud of himself.
The mission was of double SS-class, not because of the danger, but because of the secrecy and importance of the mission. He let his mind wander through all the incredibly important information, relics and ancient ruins that he had come across, finally flowing into the single thought of how he couldn't wait to see the grinning face of his genius blonde-haired student.
Knowing the kid, Jiraiya bet he had already made Hokage and was living his ultimate dream. He absently wondered if his only living student had finally found a girl and had a kid, that'd be the day! His eyes set forward in determination as he walked down the main road to the Hidden Leaf village. He had been out of the village on this mission for somewhere over seven years, and he'd had a lot of time to contemplate things; mistakes he's made, and one's he was going to try and fix.
One of these things that he had to fix, and fix immediately, was something that he had been afraid to tell his student. And it was as he made his way to the Hokage's office, his face set in a determined grimace, that he noticed something...wrong.
Just on the outskirts of the village walls, a distance off to the right and out of view from the two Chunin guarding the gates, lay a young boy...covered in blood.
Jiraiya picked up his pace, landing lightly a small distance away from the heavily beaten child. The boy couldn't have been more than three or four, was noticeably malnourished, and dressed in a ragged t-shirt and pants.
'Probably from a poor family, poor kid,'
Jiraiya absently noted that the boy's hair was a reddish brown, but not from natural coloring. It was a mixture of dried blood, fresh blood, dirt, mud and maybe even a little bit of refuse.
'The hell happened to you, kid?'
As he continued to inspect the boy, Jiraiya found a jagged scar, hidden among a veritable slew of gashes and bruises, running from the center of his chest up towards his chin in a sickening, bubbly red diagonal line. It continued up past his neck, under his chin and through the left side of his pale lips, stopping just under his nose.
The scar was deepest around the chest area, thinnest around the neck and chin, and became deep again when it shredded across his mouth. The worst part, however, was the whatever had cut the boy must have been incredibly superheated, as it left burn mark spreading out across his chest like a dry, barren desert.
From what Jiraiya could gather from the cut, the boy was lucky he was alive. The white-haired man guessed that whoever attacked the boy had slashed him across the chest, obviously attempting to bisect him from the middle up. The boy probably reacting from shock, pain or both fell backwards, changing the angle of attack, while at the same time probably saving his life.
Then, from what he could tell, he attacker lunged forward in a desperate attempt to further harm the boy (which sickened Jiraiya to no end) which led to the weapon temporarily lifting from its digging slash and only dragging across the more supple skin of the neck. Then, when the lunge took full effect, the weapon dug through the skin of the child's face, making its way past the boy's lips before he completely fell out of range.
All of this was processed by the tall Sannin in a span of only a few seconds, and he hastily, but carefully, lifted the small child into his arms and headed towards the gates of the hidden leaf, making double-time.
He absently tossed his return papers onto the desk under the small shack where the two Chunin gate guards sat, and without paying them any mind, he made his way to the Hokage Tower.
Sarutobi Hiruzen was taking a small break from his continuous and constant enemy, the mountain of paperwork that sat idly waiting like a snake in the shadows on his mahogany desk. He was reading an old, worn book, the last one to have been written by his long missing student, Jiraiya, one of the three Legendary Sannin. He giggled lowly and perversely very once in a while as he found himself once again absorbed in the outlandish and frisky actions of the books main characters, Kinato and Mushina.
So, he found himself surprised and flustered when a massive white blur crashed its way through his panoramic window, landing heavily on the floor of his office. After processing the scene before him for no more than a few seconds, the aged Hokage found his jaw slackening, and his ever-present smoking pipe dropping to the floor under his desk with a loud 'clack!' of wood hitting wood.
Standing before him (and panting slightly) was his previously missing student, Jiraiya, with an oddly shaped bundle in his arms. Before he could think of something, anything to say to his student, the man spoke first.
"Hey sensei, long time no see, eh? We can talk later; this kid needs serious medical attention." Jiraiya shifted his arms, showing that the 'oddly shaped bundle' was actually a child, one that Hiruzen Sarutobi knew all too well.
"Naruto,"
Without hesitation, the reinstated Hokage leapt through the hole made by his student not twenty seconds before, the very man following hot on his heels. As the two blasted over rooftops at nearly insane speeds, Jiraiya raised an eyebrow.
"So Sensei, you know this kid?"
The wizened man nodded curtly, eyes never wavering from his path.
"His name is Naruto Uzumaki. Jiraiya-kun, you and I have very much to discuss. A lot has happened in these last nine years,"
From the grim expression on the man's face, Jiraiya could tell he would not find the conversation enjoyable.
So what does everyone think? Remember to Review! Oh, by the way, for anyone who's read Nightmares: A World at War, I have not given up on it! The only reason I haven't updated chapter three yet is part writers block, part vacation. I was at Disney for a week, and starting Monday, I'll be at overnight camp for two weeks.
Frozen Utopia, Signing out!