Hello all - third chapter, and the longest thus far! Enjoy! :)

Chapter 3: A Test of Character

By the time their group stopped for dinner, Jiraiya was exhausted and Tsunade boasted five blisters on her feet. Orochimaru asked for water, which was pretty extreme by his standards.

"Feel free to drink up now," Hiruzen said as they began to unpack at a small clearing a few minutes into the forest, "because we'll be coming to a clean little stream in a few hours and we can refill our water there. After that though, you'll have to conserve the water you have."

"We're not going anywhere after dinner, right sensei?" Tsunade asked, enviously watching their two clients, who were drinking aloe juice on a padded mattress. She turned to her sensei. "We're setting camp for the night, right?"

Hiruzen sighed, scratching his goatee. "I was planning on going a bit more, but I guess you're right. I can't carry Natsuki-san the whole day tomorrow." Only a little after lunch, he had had to begin carrying their female client while her husband struggled to stay on his feet for another few hours before Hiruzen took pity on his and called up a Shadow Clone.

"Yes!" Jiraiya exclaimed in relief, flopping down onto the rocky ground, not caring that it was dirty. At least his feet found relief. It wasn't really the distance they had walked – they'd been forced to run so many laps around the walls of the village that this distance was laughable – but rather the hardness of the beaten path and the heaviness of the packs they carried.

Orochimaru sat down beside him, bringing his knees up and curling up into a small ball.

To their left, Tsunade huffed, "Boys…" as she unrolled her sleeping bag, wincing as her feet came in contact with the ground.

Hiruzen unpacked some food from his pack, which was easily twice the size of any of theirs, and contained all the necessities for their clients as well as most of the food. The emergency food was split up amongst the three genin in case they got lost, but most of the weight of the packs came from all the weapons they were carrying.

They ate a simple dinner of white rice and a cold steamed bun each.

"For future missions, we'll be taking turns keeping watch at night," Hiruzen explained to his students as they finished the last of their dinners. "For the next few days, I might get you to do watches in pairs." Jiraiya and Tsunade simultaneously inched away from one another. "But I know you're all tired today, so I'll keep watch for the whole night, and make sure to sleep well!"

Their sleeping bags were strewn in a rough circle with the clients across from the three genin. Unfortunately, Tsunade decided to put her sleeping bag beside Jiraiya's while Orochimaru was on his other side.

"What?" she snapped, as he scrutinized her. "There isn't space over there, idiot."

He shrugged (before realizing it hurt to shrug against hard ground), but he knew there was space on Orochimaru's other side and he was confused as to why she had chosen this spot.

Jiraiya began to drift off to sleep and was about halfway there when he sensed movement near him. Realizing it was Orochimaru getting up, his curiosity was piqued and he woke up fully, listening attentively. What was he doing?

"Couldn't sleep?" asked Hiruzen's voice softly. Jiraiya strained to hear.

"I wanted to ask you something," Orochimaru's voice came from the same direction as that of the older man.

"Ask away."

"Is there a way to bring back the dead?"

There was a slight pause, and Jiraiya stiffened. Raising the dead? "Are you wondering about if there's any way to bring your parents back?"

There was silence for a moment again, and Jiraiya supposed that Orochimaru had nodded.

"It's rumoured that there is a technique to do that," Hiruzen said quietly, "but they are only rumours."

"Why hasn't anyone done it then?" Orochimaru asked quickly, excitement colouring his voice.

"Because it is unnatural," Hiruzen replied sharply. "I know your intentions are not evil, because you have a good soul, but there are many who would take advantage of it – imagine raising the most notorious ninja from the dead. It would be an absolute calamity. If the jutsu does indeed exist, it is something I would not hesitate to lock away forever."

Then his voice softened. "I understand the loss is hard to bear, and I won't lie and say it gets easier with time. But should you ever have worries or concerns … you have your team. You have us."

"Thank you, sensei," he whispered before Jiraiya felt him returning to sleep.

::~::

Morning came and Tsunade was woken by a very obnoxious voice.

"I like you too, Misaki-chan! Come here…" Jiraiya was muttering in his sleep, and Tsunade batted away his groping hands in disgust. In his sleep, he had rolled closer to her and they were almost face-to-face.

"Oi!" she hissed, punching him in the shoulder. "Wake up, you pervert!"

Jiraiya woke with a start, yelping upon seeing Tsunade's face so close to his. "What are you doing!"

"Protecting my virtue!" she retorted, blushing slightly, standing up and shaking off her sleeping bag. "Stop doing weird things to me in the morning!"

If Tsunade was honest to herself, she would have admitted that she liked this white-haired boy much more than she let on. He was annoying sometimes (not to mention that he was shorter than her) but he wasn't as mean as some of the other boys from their Academy class who had made fun of her, or just shunned her completely. Sure, he made fun of her too, but he didn't really mean most of the things he said – she was sure of that.

Tsunade was glad she was on his team because at least she wouldn't seem like a complete outcast with whom nobody wanted to speak. And Orochimaru really wasn't that bad either, and he'd proven himself to be quite strong as well. She felt quite safe in this team, especially with Hiruzen-sensei as their leader.

However, the blisters on her feet hadn't gotten any better and she winced with every step from the very start of their trek. She'd never been subject to such discomfort. The only injury she had really sustained was when she had accidentally cut herself with a kunai during her Academy; the cut had spanned from the base of her pinky to her wrist and it had taken a month for it to scab over completely.

They refilled their water pouches at the small stream that their sensei had promised, and Tsunade fought the urge to kick off her sandals and dunk her feet in, regardless of how many fish she killed with the stench of her sweaty feet. But she had refrained, because it would make her look weak, and continued onto the hard, rocky terrain.

"Tsunade-chan, are you all right?" Hiruzen-sensei called when she stumbled for the fifth time on a small crag. The landscape had become increasingly mountainous, and Hiruzen had told them that they would be approaching extremely steep paths soon. She didn't know how she would manage to climb those.

"My feet hurt," she admitted, trying not to make her voice sound whiny. Hiruzen was carrying one client and a Shadow Clone of his was carrying the other.

Hiruzen pursed his lips. "Do you need to be carried?"

"No!" Tsunade said hastily. She didn't want her teammates to look down at her and think she was weak. She tried forming chakra at the soles of her feet like during the tree-climbing exercise, but instead of making her feet stick to the ground, she put a bit more power into the chakra so that it pushed her upwards, like a small spring. It took a bit of getting used to, but eventually she was comfortable doing it, and most of all, her feet were no longer in pain.

"Very clever," Hiruzen commented. "But are you sure you have enough chakra to do that?"

She nodded. "Father told me that people in our clan have more chakra than other people."

Hiruzen smiled. "That's right," he said agreeably, "the Senju clan is quite a special clan."

The mountain ranges Hiruzen-sensei had mentioned were visible now, and Tsunade's heart dropped. It wasn't just steep – some parts looked nearly vertical!

"How are we supposed to climb that!" Jiraiya complained hotly.

Tsunade couldn't resist smirking at him. "Didn't you say you'd mastered it?" She hadn't believed him to begin with – even she hadn't mastered walking on water, so he couldn't have!

"It's not as difficult as it looks," Hiruzen assured them as the path began to steepen considerably. He didn't look tired at all despite not having slept the previous night. And he was carrying both clients! "You kids should go first so you can set the pace. I'll be right behind you."

Jiraiya went first, followed by Orochimaru, and Tsunade made sure she was last, so that she would be closest to their sensei just in case she fell. But as she began climbing, she realized he was right, and it wasn't even as difficult as the tree-climbing exercise. For some reason, the hardness of the rock actually made it easier to climb than the slightly softer tree bark. She had no trouble keeping up with the two in front of her, and she and Orochimaru had to pause several times to wait for Jiraiya.

"Hurry up, slowpoke!" she teased and she was rewarded with a grunt of frustration. Sometimes she just couldn't resist making him angry. "We're all waiting for you!"

"Slow and steady, Jiraiya," Hiruzen called. "Don't worry about us, just keep at your own pace."

But Jiraiya seemed to take Tsunade's words to heart, and his speed was increasing as he pushed himself up the mountain. She could feel that he was exerting way too much chakra, pushing his energy into the bedrock, but before she could say anything, there was a resounding crack.

She didn't have time to scream as a huge chunk of rock came hurtling down.

::~::

Jiraiya slumped against the bedrock in terror, hands reaching forward to seek purchase.

"Fuchiyose no Justsu!" his sensei shouted and made hand seals at the speed of light:

Boar dog bird monkey ram.

There was a loud crack again and a whole lot of smoke, and Jiraiya gripped the mountainside so hard that he was sure his fingers were going to be permanently molded into the shape of the crevices.

But the boulder that had just been hurtling down at them never hit, and he opened his eyes a tiny crack.

There was an enormous, humanoid figure perched on the vertical mountain with them on one bare foot. In shock, Jiraiya realized it was a gigantic monkey, dressed in ninja clothes and a tiger-fur pelt, his pose rather dramatic.

It was wearing a Konoha forehead protector.

The boulder was in one of its hands, like the size of a football in a human's hands, and its eyes glinted with human-like intelligence. Strangely, its face had a striking resemblance to Hiruzen-sensei's, apart from the tangle of white hair. Sideburns, Jiraiya realized with a sudden urge to laugh.

"Thanks Enma," Hiruzen called from somewhere below Jiraiya, and the monkey responded with a grunt as it tossed the boulder far away from them as if it weighed nothing. "You might want to shrink a little – I don't think the mountain can take much more."

The monkey snorted and right before Jiraiya's eyes, it began to shrink until it was about Hiruzen's height.

"Are these the kids you're teaching?" the monkey asked, his voice a low, rumbling noise.

"Yes. Tsunade, Orochimaru, Jiraiya, meet Enma."

The three of them managed to squeak out greetings. The monkey looked at them one by one, his gaze landing on Orochimaru for a little bit longer than the others.

"Well," Enma turned back to Hiruzen, "if you don't need any more help, I'm going to get going." Hiruzen nodded and the monkey disappeared with a salute.

"What-" Jiraiya started, but Hiruzen interrupted him immediately.

"Let's get up this mountainside first and then talk. Concentrate on this."

Jiraiya felt prickling shame crawl up his neck as he realized this was all his fault. Well, it was Tsunade's fault really, but he shouldn't have responded to her taunts. She was always trying to provoke him like that, and he'd just been so angry and frustrated that he had paid no heed to how much chakra he was pushing into the mountainside until it was too late and the boulder had nearly been upon them.

It took them only a few minutes to reach the top of the mountain, whereupon Hiruzen told them that they'd be stopping for lunch at the nearest clearing. At the top of the mountain there seemed to be a large forest of tall pine trees, and the ground was sparsely littered with green pine needles and brown acorns that had been ravaged by squirrels, no doubt.

They found an adequate place to sit down after kicking aside some pine needles, and Hiruzen handed them bowls of rice again.

Making sure Tsunade wasn't anywhere near, Jiraiya sought out his sensei, head bowed.

"I'm sorry," he mumbled to Hiruzen's sandal-clad feet. His toenails were rather ugly, stained yellow and cracked. Would Jiraiya's toenails turn like that too? Maybe he deserved it for endangering the mission. "I am really sorry for just rushing ahead like that."

He expected his sensei to yell at him. To shout out to everyone how horrible of a student he was and that he didn't deserve to be on this mission. That he should just paint fences and plunge toilets for the rest of his life like all the other kids at his level. Or maybe Hiruzen would skip all of that and just beat him to a pulp.

So naturally he was quite surprised when a hand dropped on his head and ruffled his hair.

His eyes widened and he looked up in surprise. His sensei smiled at him comfortingly.

"Aren't … aren't you going to yell at me?" Jiraiya asked uncertainly.

"Everyone makes mistakes, Jiraiya-kun. This isn't your first mistake, it won't be your last, and it certainly won't be your gravest mistake."

Jiraiya ducked his head.

"Don't worry about it too much. Just learn from it and remember that everyone has their own pace. Think of it this way: right now, Tsunade-chan is the tallest of you three, but you and Orochimaru-kun will probably grow taller than her." Seeing a sudden grin flit across the boy's face, the older man added hastily, "Now, I'm not saying that you two will necessarily always be stronger than her, so don't go telling her that!"

"Thanks sensei," Jiraiya said, still grinning. "How did you get that monkey guy to appear so quickly?"

Hiruzen grimaced. "Don't call Enma that to his face – he won't take kindly to it. He prefers 'The Lord of the Monkeys,' and he's my Summon – all great shinobi have Summons," Hiruzen said with a wink.

Before Jiraiya could question him further, there was a shrill scream.

Hiruzen was beside the female client in a matter of milliseconds, and she looked very embarrassed, but quite frightened as she stared at the ground.

"Snake," she said with a tremor in her voice and a thick accent marring the one word, but before Hiruzen could do anything, the woman's husband kicked the snake very roughly into the bushes. The woman relaxed then, laughing nervously, but Jiraiya noticed that both Hiruzen and Orochimaru winced.

As they set off into the forest – which had comfortable, soft dirt on which to walk – Jiraiya couldn't help but notice Orochimaru's strange behaviour. He seemed to be walking a little bit stiffly and furtively glancing around every few seconds. He would have said something to his quiet, unassuming teammate and asked what was wrong but for the blond girl who insisted on his ineptness as a shinobi.

"You didn't master it, did you?" she said, grinning in a disgustingly superior manner.

"Did too," he mumbled hotly, trying not to pay attention to her, because when he did, bad things happened. Like boulders.

"Then you come you were so slow back there?"

"Was not!"

"Were too!"

They bickered until Hiruzen stopped their entire group for an early supper a couple hours later. "We'll eat early so we can get another few hours in before stopping for the night," he explained. "Then it won't turn out like yesterday." Seeing his students' downcast expressions, he laughed, "Come on, think about it this way. If we go at this pace we'll be there by lunchtime tomorrow."

Hiruzen instructed Tsunade to stay with their clients while he took the other two into the forest to collect some wood that they could use to make a fire so that they could boil water and make instant porridge from the packets of powder that had been brought along. Jiraiya had looked longingly at the mat on which Tsunade was sharing with their clients, but his female teammate caught him looking and stuck her tongue out at him.

He'd turned away, refusing to sink to her level and stick his tongue out in return (though the thought was tempting), following his sensei and teammate further into the dim forest. Hiruzen stopped them at a fallen log and pulled out a kunai.

"Just wait until I have a couple of logs, and help me lug them back, all right?" he said as the edge of his kunai grew bright with chakra, something that would enhance the strength of his hacking. As soon as Hiruzen had informally dismissed them, Orochimaru all but shot off to their right, and Jiraiya followed him slowly in curiosity.

It took him about a minute to actually find the other boy.

Orochimaru was crouching down, his back towards Jiraiya, so he had to walk closer to see what his teammate was actually doing.

Jiraiya almost fell backwards when he saw.

Orochimaru was feeding a small furry body to a yellow-brown snake with a crushed tail.

"Is that … a squirrel?" he demanded, disgusted.

Orochimaru didn't flinch. "I think so," the pale boy said quietly, and for the first time, Jiraiya noted how similar his teammate's eyes were to that of the snake. The other boy turned to him with a pleading look in those eyes. "I couldn't just leave it there. The man … he crushed its tail, see?" And he lifted the deformed bottom half of the snake to show Jiraiya, who shuddered slightly. It wasn't that he was afraid of snakes – not even ones that were easily the length of his arm like the one Orochimaru was holding – but it was just the act of feeding something dead to a snake that revolted him.

Or was it dead? There were no bloody marks on the squirrel, but by the unnatural shape in which it was contorted, Jiraiya had assumed it was dead. But quite visibly, the squirrel's body twitched slightly as the snake attempted to shove it headfirst into its gaping jaws. He shuddered even harder – it was worse with something alive.

"Are you going to keep it or something?" Jiraiya was not sleeping next to Orochimaru if that was what his teammate was planning. He would rather share a sleeping bag with Tsunade! – all right, no, he wouldn't, but just knowing that he would consider it was a pretty clear indication of how revolted he was by this whole affair.

Orochimaru shook his head and turned back to the snake, which had finished swallowing the squirrel and was now gazing at them innocently with a conspicuous lump in its body. A pink, forked tongue flicked out. "I can't," he answered softly as he put his hand to the ground and allowed the snake to slither away slowly, tail deformed. "But I just wanted to help it out a little bit. You understand right, Jiraiya-kun?"

The other boy didn't know what to say, but luckily a holler from their sensei spared him an answer to that question.

::~::

The next day, their route was diverted when the two clients convinced them to pass through a small trading village through a series of excited hand signals and accented half-sentences. Hiruzen had sighed heavily, but agreed to the request.

The village of Isho, according to Hiruzen, had been a trading village for decades, and there were probably only two or three families who were actually residents there. Approximately another three hundred people were there at most times as merchants or shoppers, or people simply wishing to rest a night in the numerous inns.

It was a bustling, noisy place, and it became evident almost immediately that most of the people were civilians who shot them nasty looks and whispered things behind furtive hands.

"Konoha ninja, are they?"

"Sending children out to fight!"

"They should stay out of here."

"The Leaf's stirring up trouble again?"

"Another war's going to break out, you mark my words…"

Jiraiya turned to Hiruzen, whose face was tight, and Tsunade asked, "Sensei, why are they saying things like that? I thought Konoha was a peaceful place."

Hiruzen glanced at the curiosity-filled faces of his three protégés. "We are certainly peaceful relative to many other nations, but seeing shinobi tends to arouse this kind of reaction in civilians. Although I would have thought three kids would have made the situation better instead of worse."

"Why would they be scared?" Jiraiya demanded. "We're just helping some people like them to their homes."

"Well … there's been fearful talk of the Five Great Nations building up secret armies for as long as I can remember, and seeing shinobi from other countries doesn't help assuage that fear."

"Aren't we living in 'an era of peace'? That's what Father told me. Why would they be building up armies?"

"Not 'they'," Hiruzen corrected her softly. "It's all of us. The war stopped with an armistice, and not a peace treaty, although it's been proven how little those count anyhow." He frowned at a memory, and then turned back to them. "A lot of it is confidential information, but I daresay you'll find out if anything major happens. Now," he said, clapping his hands together in a fashion that convinced Jiraiya he was eager to leave this subject, "who wants to go for dango?"

Seeing the colourful displays of dango behind glass windows was enough to distract Jiraiya from the previous conversation, and he dashed over, Tsunade following almost as quickly but with a frown on her face. Hiruzen and Orochimaru sauntered over after the older man had made arrangements with their excited clients to meet back in an hour.

"Well, I think I made it clear to them," he said sighing and rubbing his temples. "I couldn't tell whether they understood or not though."

Frankly, Jiraiya didn't care about anything but the funny-looking green-and-pink dango that gazed at him enticingly, and he pointed to it eagerly.

"Well, go ahead and buy it," Hiruzen said in an amused tone.

Jiraiya's face fell. "I … didn't bring any money. I thought you were treating us!"

Hiruzen laughed. "I was only joking. It's Tsunade's birthday today anyway, so I'll treat you all."

Jiraiya turned to his blond teammate in surprise. It was her birthday? Well, nobody could really blame him for having forgotten because shinobi didn't really celebrate birthdays. Shinobi celebrated promotions and graduations, or success in a difficult mission. Besides, even Tsunade looked a little surprised.

"Aw, did you forget?" Hiruzen chuckled as he nudged his female student.

"I … maybe," she said evasively. "Usually my family makes a big deal out of it, so I don't really have to remember … But you still owe us the dango!" she said hastily.

"I didn't know you were older than me," Jiraiya said gleefully to the birthday girl after Hiruzen had bought them all dangos. "You're what, twelve now?"

"Eleven," she scowled, but her angry expression disappeared when she took the first bite of her purple dango. "This is really good!" she exclaimed, waving the taro-flavoured snack around excitedly.

Jiraiya's matcha-and-sakura dango was excellent too. Orochimaru had picked the plainest dango and was eying it suspiciously, as if he expected the sticky sauce to leap up and engulf him.

"Have you never eaten dango before?" Jiraiya asked. Orochimaru shook his head slightly, twisting the stick he held at the very bottom, as if afraid to touch the delectable food.

"Just eat it already!" Tsunade laughed, and Orochimaru hesitantly put the food to his lips, eyes widening most likely in surprise at how good it was.

Orochimaru finished his dango first, even though he'd been the last to start.

"Are you kids done here?" Hiruzen called. He'd gone away for a little while, telling them that he'd be back in a few minutes while shooting a pretty, young woman furtive glances. Jiraiya made a mental note to keep this in mind if and when he met his sensei's wife. It would be a good form of blackmail, he thought with a grin.

They met up with their clients, whose arms were now laden with items Jiraiya swore hadn't been there before, outside the shop.

"There's only a few more kilometers before we get to your village," Hiruzen said, trying to explain with gestures to the confused-looking clients. "A few more … oh, forget it, you'll see once we get there."

Satisfactorily full of the sweet snack, the three genin led the group with considerably more cheer.

"Happy birthday, Tsunade-chan," Orochimaru said with a small, shy smile.

She grinned at her quiet teammate. "Thanks, Oro-kun!"

"Oro-kun?" Jiraiya echoed, chortling. "What kind of name is that?"

"What, you want me to call you Jirai-kun, just so you feel included?"

"Don't call me stupid names!"

"Jirai-kun!" she teased in a sing-song voice.

"Tsutsu-chan!"

They glanced at each other, and all three genin burst out into laughter.

It was the first time Jiraiya felt true comradeship – or at the very least, a sense of friendship – with his teammates. Maybe we can be friends.

::~::

After dropping off their clients at their destination, there wasn't much to be said for the journey back, other than that it was considerably faster. Hiruzen took them on a different route that was much more dangerous.

"Now I have both hands free," he explained, even though Jiraiya wanted to say that no, he didn't, because one of his hands was holding that omnipresent pipe, "we can go on this route, which is faster, but more difficult to traverse."

Jiraiya could feel his ability to control molded chakra growing by the hour, and he was excited to see that he was soon able to surpass Tsunade in speed, having to wait for her behind them. But as a mark of their growing comradeship (as well as fear of being punched with a chakra-enhanced fist), he didn't tease her … as much as before, at least.

He had to admit though, he felt rather homesick by the end of the journey, and the steamed buns their clients had given them were becoming slightly stale. He couldn't wait to get home and be treated to a hot meal prepared by his mother, which was something he had never thought would be a problem, becoming a ninja. And to sleep in a warm bed – alone, and quite without a creepy boy and a weird girl on either side – was something he could only dream of on the nights he tossed and turned because of the unrelenting hardness of the ground.

So understandably, when the massive, red, village gates finally came into view, both Jiraiya and Tsunade were cheering and whooping. Even Orochimaru joined them as the three genin ran towards the gates and pounded on them, yelling for the guards to let them in.

"Kids, come back," Hiruzen said suddenly and all three students started at his sharp tone. Worry was etched across his face as a guard appeared at the top of the gate.

"Hiruzen, back finally?" the guard said in relief, and Jiraiya noticed he had the pale lavender eyes of the Hyuugas. "I was worried it wasn't you," he explained as he turned around and shouted an order to open the gates.

As they arrived at the village, Jiraiya was surprised at the subdued atmosphere. What was going on?

"What do you mean 'finally'?" Hiruzen asked the Hyuuga as the gates began to close behind them. "We arrived earlier than scheduled."

All three genin were listening intently at the serious conversation. The Hyuuga scratched his head, long ponytail swinging before he answered.

"There's some stuff that you might want to get notified about. Hokage-sama seems pretty worried at this point, but most of it is confidential and I only know a fraction of what he'd tell you. Maybe you should head over as soon as possible – I heard Danzo saying that they were waiting for you, and that the mission would begin as soon as possible."

Hiruzen's face was grim as he nodded before turning to his shocked protégés. "Listen, I have to go now, maybe for a couple of days. You guys keep practicing your chakra control, and try it out on water – still water first, and then moving water. Take a bit of a break though, and don't push yourselves too hard training. You all did well on this mission." With a tight smile, he clasped his hands together to form a hand seal and disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"What do you think that was about?" Tsunade whispered as they trudged home.

Jiraiya shrugged, but he was feeling rather unnerved by the whole affair, too. "Adult stuff they won't tell us," he said unhelpfully.

"Do you think sensei will be alright?"

"Yes," chimed Orochimaru, who had taken to speaking more during their conversations. "He's the strongest ninja after the Hokage, isn't he?"

That was an interesting way to put it.

"Is sensei really next in line to become Hokage?" Jiraiya asked Tsunade.

She frowned. "I think so. I heard Father talking about it, and he definitely said sensei was one of the candidates. I think he said the other was Danzo?"

A memory clicked in Jiraiya's mind. "The guy with the weird butt-chin?"

Tsunade tried to suppress a snort of laughter in vain. "He does not have a butt-chin. I'm pretty sure it's a scar … and it's an x, not just a line, so unless your butt got separated into four parts …"

"Don't be stupid…"

They split up on their separate ways to go home, and Jiraiya waved to his teammates cheerily. It was then that he realized Orochimaru was going in the direction of the graveyard again, and he felt a pang of pity for his friend.

Friend?

Jiraiya scrunched up his face. Well, maybe, he supposed. Orochimaru and Tsunade were his friends, and nobody could really deny that after their bonding during this mission. Yes, even Tsunade could be considered his friend.

What a strange world this was.

He reached the nondescript gray-blue building that he called home, and walked up three flights of stairs to his apartment. He sincerely hoped his mother was home, because he hadn't thought to bring the keys on the mission, and he didn't fancy sitting outside (foodless) even for another two minutes.

He rang the doorbell about five times before he heard his mother's hasty steps, and she opened the door looking completely surprised.

Jiraiya's surprise was equal, or perhaps even greater than hers.

"Mom?" he asked dazedly.

This woman before him was wearing a dress – a formal, red dress! – and make-up on her face. Her hair was curled into wavy chestnut ringlets and extravagant earrings – ones he knew his father had given her, and ones that she hadn't worn since he'd died – hung from her earlobes.

"Oh," she uttered breathlessly. "I … I didn't expect you to be back so soon!"

And then came another shock.

A man in a suit came up behind her, every move he made possessive and much too intimate for Jiraiya's liking when it came to his mother. The man looked about ten years older than his mother and a silver-gray colour touched his temples.

Then it hit him.

"Have you forgotten about Dad?" he shouted. "Who the hell is this!"

"Watch your language, Jiraiya!" his mother said sharply, glancing around furtively as neighbours began poking nosy heads out. She lowered her voice. "I didn't want to tell you just yet –"

"That you're forgetting about your old life?" He, unlike her, made no effort to lower his voice. "That you're forgetting about Dad?"

His mother suddenly looked furious. "Don't you say that, you horrible boy! Do you expect me to grieve for the rest of my life because of something that happened a long time ago?"

Jiraiya could only gape at her. Something that happened a long time ago?

Without another word, he turned and fled, ignoring his mother's protests.

As he ran, he ignored the pain in his feet from days of weary travel and the ache of his back that still carried his supplies for the mission. As he ran, he pretended he didn't hear or feel that rumble of his hungry tummy that demanded food. As he ran, he fought back hot, angry tears that threatened to spill over and forced them back into the recesses of his sadness. As he ran, he conjured the image of his father, smiling proudly.

He didn't know where he was going, because all he cared about was getting away from his mother. How could she do that? How could she just throw everything away? Had she forgotten about him?

Well, it looked like she had.

He stopped in the middle of a field, realizing it was the training grounds on which they held most of their practices. Fortunately, it was empty, and he sat down heavily on the grass.

He wiped away the little moisture that had gathered at his eyes, not caring that his hands were grimy and dirty from days of accumulated filth.

"Women," he mumbled, not knowing that this would be the first of many similar curses throughout the rest of his life. "Don't try to understand them."

His mother had never brought home other men before, and he'd taken this for granted, thinking that she was faithful even after her husband had died. His father had been a brave man, but he had been quite forgettable. He was a mere chuunin who had fought in one of the many units that Konoha had sent out, a unit that came back with less than one-tenth of the men with which it had set out, and that brave, proud man had just turned into a name that had been read out at a memorial service at the end of the war.

Was his mother doing this because they were short on money? Was that it? The man had looked quite unattractive, and he'd been considerably older than her, so maybe that was it. But they had enough, and with the little bit of money Jiraiya was contributing from his missions, it should have been even slightly more than enough. Maybe his mother didn't like this simple lifestyle. Maybe she wanted opulence and extravagant gifts.

He ground his teeth together as he shrugged off his pack, lying down on the ground and staring up at the blithe, blue sky.

If his father had been a decorated war hero, would it have been any different?

Well, he was going to make it so that no woman could forget him. He was going to become a powerful shinobi, and his name would be known throughout all the nations…

He closed his eyes happily.

But how was he going to do that? By training like everyone else? No … he needed a shortcut. Something that would make him surpass everyone else at once…

He bolted upright.

Hadn't Hiruzen said that 'all great shinobi have Summons'? Well, it wasn't going to make him the greatest ninja, but at least it was going to make him great! He grinned, considering the title The Great Jiraiya.

What was it that Hiruzen had said when he'd performed the jutsu? Jiraiya bit the pad of his palm hard enough to draw blood, like he'd seen other shinobi doing, and pressed it to the ground. Ah, yes –

"Fuchiyose no jutsu!"

But nothing happened.

He slumped back, frustrated. Was he really expecting the giant monkey guy to pop out of nowhere? Would it even be the giant monkey? Maybe his Summon would be a lion – he'd been compared to a lion before – or an eagle! That would be really cool!

Right, the hand seals.

What was it?

He searched his mind again, remembering that moment …

Boar dog bird monkey ram.

"Fuchiyose no jutsu!" he said again, and this time some strange black markings appeared in a circle radiating out from his thumb, and he looked up with a delighted grin, expecting –

Suddenly, it wasn't the training field anymore, and he was falling through the air and soon collided painfully with the ground.

Groaning in pain as he got up, he realized the ground on which he stood was a brick-red colour, so he certainly wasn't on the training field. Looking up, he was shocked by the green-blue hues everywhere; a furry mat covering distant mountains, the colour of the fan-like leaves on the strange trees surrounding him, and even the water that a stone toad spouted in a fountain to his right. The sky was a surreal azure blue, spotted with soft pink clouds.

Where was he?

He heard a commotion to his left, and he ran towards it, which in hindsight, probably wasn't the most intelligent course of action to take.

There was a small clearing, and he saw two enormous animals, a bright blue snake with yellow spots and a red toad with warts on its skin. Both were the size of large buildings.

He gulped. Surreal landscape and giant animals? Did he eat something that was making him hallucinate? Maybe he shouldn't have accepted the candy that old woman had given him on their way back…

With a sudden hiss, the snake lurched forward, venom dripping from its fangs that reached for the toad.

On instinct, Jiraiya rushed forward and grabbed the unsuspecting snake by the tail, using chakra to plant his feet firmly in the ground as he swung the snake in a circle before throwing it as far away as he could. He heard a loud crash and the snapping of flattened trees far off into the forest before he turned to the toad, trembling ever-so-slightly.

The toad had small yellow eyes, and there was a scar down one of its eyes that was prominent as he regarded the boy before him. Jiraiya realized the toad was wearing clothes – clothes! – and a sheathed sword was hanging by his side. He gulped again.

"A human child, eh?"

Jiraiya stumbled backwards, shocked. It was talking! Unfortunately, he voiced this out loud quite audibly.

The toad snorted – a strange thing for a toad to do, in Jiraiya's opinion. "A human child that states the obvious … though I'm surprised you got here. Not many humans can get to Mount Myoboku alive!" The toad leered down at him unpleasantly, but Jiraiya didn't react. The toad wasn't showing any outward aggression, so he supposed his life wasn't in immediate danger anymore.

"What is this place?" he demanded.

The toad frowned at him – or at least, Jiraiya supposed it was a frown. It was hard to tell what expressions could be translated from human to toad.

"Well, I don't know how much I'm allowed to tell you, kid, but Ma and Pa probably will, so I'll bring ya to them." The toad began ambling away.

"'Ma and Pa'?" Jiraiya echoed, chuckling as he followed the toad. "You still live with your parents?"

The toad turned to him with a glare – or at least a narrowing of its tiny yellow eyes. "They're the Elder Toads, and everyone calls them that, kid."

"Sorry," Jiraiya said unapologetically. "So what's your name? Should I call you Bro?"

The glare intensified and Jiraiya fought in vain to stifle a snicker. "That's Chief Gamabunta to you, kid!" he yelled, and posed dramatically, whipping out a pipe.

Jiraiya's laughter was full-blown now, but he didn't feel very terrified as the toad began to chuckle as well.

"So who're you, kid?" the toad asked with the pipe between his lips. Another smoker? Could he do the same ash thing as Hiruzen-sensei?

"Jiraiya the Great," he said, considering how he could pose and introduce himself in the future, as the toad had done, as they approached a giant waterfall.

"Well, Jiraiya-chan, there's Pa," the toad said, gesturing to a rock at the top of the waterfall.

'Pa' was tiny, green, white-haired – were toads supposed to grow hair, or was that mold from his old age? – and wore a little cloak that covered his entire torso. He couldn't have looked more different from Gamabunta.

"We've been expecting ya, boy," said the old toad in a gravelly voice, but it was precisely at this moment that Jiraiya realized something.

The toad's white hair looked suspiciously like his own … and those markings near Gamabunta's eyes were similar to his…

He groaned out loud in disappointment.

Not lions, not eagles … but toads? Seriously?

How uncool.

A/N: Hey everyone! Third chapter – woot! A couple of things I want to mention. First of all, I have never had a dango (like Orochimaru!) so please forgive me if I'm wrong about something T_T Also, I am well aware that my version of events differs from what the anime shows (with Jiraiya having liked Tsunade from the start, as well as how the three of them met), but I'm going to stick to this version and things will turn out the same in the end, for the most part. For example, the scene with the toads doesn't differ too much, but I will tell you now that there's going to be a significant time-skip later on, similar to Naruto when he went off with Jiraiya, which isn't exactly how they described it in the anime. Also, just to confirm, Jiraiya's family history is also completely made up, and I thought the little twist with how his relationship with his mother is reflects his attitude later on in life.

Anyhow! Please review, follow, and favourite! :)

-Jennifer *hugs*