Jiraiya had finished getting his weapons and other ninja essentials packed. He had closed and locked up his apartment and was now bringing Naruto to Rin's small apartment at the other end of the village.
The third had a mission that would be perfect for him. A few weeks ago there had been an anonymous request for a capable ninja to look into what seemed to be secret organization gatherings. This would be an S ranked mission, and one best done alone to help not attract attention. The third did not think he would be able to find a strong enough shinobi to do such a mission. He was very relieved when Jiraiya came to him to ask for a mission.
This mission was going to pay really well, but it would also take a while. Gathering information and spying without being noticed could take months. Jiraiya had to hope the villagers and some village ninja were more trustworthy now that the entire village had been repaired and emotional and physical wounds had time to heal. He would be a little worried about Rin's and Naruto's safety while he would be away
It was late at night and Naruto was sleeping soundly as he was carried to his new temporary caretaker. Jiraiya wanted to leave in secret and hoped very few people would notice his absence.
He knocked lightly on Rin's door, and She opened it immediately.
"Take good care of him, and good luck," Jaraiya said with a grin as he passed the sleeping Naruto to Rin.
"We'll be fine," she said softly. "I am able to take some time off work to watch him. I will make sure he stays safe." As she spoke she looked at Naruto with a determined expression.
Jiraiya understood. She would naturally feel protective of her teacher's only son, he thought. "I'll try to be back as soon as I can," he said more seriously.
Rin nodded, and in a puff of smoke Jiraiya was gone.
Jiraiya had used some of his best tracking abilities to find the group of ninja mentioned in the request. It had taken him almost three weeks to track them down.
They seemed to be having meetings in a small cave. He also found the meetings were very irregular, and never had any kind of set time, day, or pattern. Somehow all members seemed to know when a meeting was at once.
Without being discovered, Jiriaya had a very hard time finding many details. One day he managed to see dark shapes of six people. Then he had to move away quickly before someone noticed him. He felt sure they had noticed him, so he hid inside one of his toads, deep underwater for about two weeks, to avoid being detected again.
When he dared to come back up and spy again he was able to get more information slightly easier. He had a bad feeling they were doing this on purpose, probably to gain more members. They needed their group to be somewhat known to gather members, but Jiraiya still gathered the information. This was obviously a very dangerous group, and the third needed to know about it.
He managed to learn the group was calling itself Akatsuki. All the members were exiled ninja from different villages, and they were probably also all S class. Unfortunately he was not able to gather any names.
He tried to send toads in to gather information during meetings, but each were killed before it could reach Jiraiya. Finally a toad had barely escaped with some of Jiraiya's help. It had only managed to gather a couple words, but they were informative. Akatsuki was planning something to do with tailed beasts.
Jiraiya's thoughts instantly went to Naruto. He knew this could mean trouble for him in the future. He had to stay longer and learn more. But from that day on Jiraiya had not been able to learn anything more. He had to return with the knowledge he had, it had already been over three months anyway.
He was still very worried for Naruto. He thought he should start teaching him some very basic ninja skills. He could learn to fight even at such a young age. After all, he was the son of a genius . . .
At the very least, Jiraiya knew he had made a huge sum of money, and he would now be able to support himself and Naruto again. So with that thought in mind, he knew he was going to head back soon.
***
Naruto had noticed it was no longer the old strange man taking care of him. He now lived with a very calm and quiet younge girl. Naruto liked her, and always felt very relaxed around her.
She took him out of the village often, which he greatly enjoyed. He hated being stuck inside all day. Rin would regularly take him for walks into the forest, or to eat lunch under the large tree outside the village.
Whenever they did go out of the house and through the village Naruto was now fully aware of the angry glares he recieved. They bothered him, and he wondered what he had done wrong to make people so angry with him. Whenever Rin noticed someone glaring, she would pull Naruto behind her protectively. Otherwise Rin seemed to be ignoring all the angry people, so Naruto followed her example.
Then after a while the old man had returned, and Naruto didn't get to see the younge girl much anymore. The man would now do more fun things. He would also take Naruto out to the forest and even played fun games with him. Naruto soon began calling him sama, since that was the last part he would hear when other people talked to him. Jiraiya had tried to tell Naruto how to say Ji-rai-ya, and that "Sama" was not a name, but Naruto was too stubborn. Sama was much easier for Naruto to say, so Jiraiya gave up.
Naruto was learning how to throw a shiny knife at a target, and how to aim. Naruto always lost at this game, and could never hit the target right in the middle. But he was very slowly getting better. They also played dodging games, where Sama would softly throw several rocks at him, and Naruto had to dodge them. If one hit him, it had always been thrown softly enough that it never hurt. Naruto would try to throw rocks back, but could never even come close to hitting him
They also played tag. This was Naruto's favorite. Naruto would be told to run away and not let himself be caught. Then Sama would chase him. Naruto was best at this game, since he learned to climb trees and hide fairly well in various placed. But of course he would always be tackled and the game would end as Naruto giggled in Sama's arms.
After a few months, Naruto had learned to speak in full gramitical setences, and had finally agreed to call Jiraiya by his real name. Naruto had also discovered his favorite food, and asked for it every night for dinner. Jiraiya had never cared much about proper nutrition so the two had cup ramen daily.
Naruto's third birthday came and went. Nothing much really happened during it, but it was still nice. Rin stopped by and gave him a free meal pass at ichiruka's. She had learned he loved ramen, and thought it would be nice it he got to try some real ramen.
Jiraiya had given him some spending money to get whatever he wanted. Jiraiya told him he should save it for something he might really need someday. Naruto's three year old mind didn't really know what to think of money or what to use it for. But dinner at Ichiruka's that night had tasted so good, he had decided what he was going to spend all his money on. He had thought he knew what ramen tasted like, but this was heaven. He planned to come back as many times as he could.
Along with him becoming a year older, Naruto could now hit his target with what he knew now was called a shurikin. Now Jiraiya was teaching him how to throw several at once. Naruto was also learning how to strengthen his muscles so he could throw harder and run faster.
"Naruto, do you see those faces carved in the rocks? Jaraiya had asked one day after Naruto had mastered throwing three shurikin perfectly. Naruto looked up to see Jiraiya pointing at three faces carved in stone looking down at the village. "They were all ninja who have become the strongest in this village and have been respected by everyone. "You're going to become a very strong ninja some day" he said.
Naruto looked away from the four carved faces. "I know everyone else doesn't think I'm going to be strong," he mumbled
Jiraiya looked sharply at Naruto. "Don't ever let anyone tell you what you can or can't do," he said firmly. "Only you can decide if you will become strong or not. Prove them wrong."
Naruto didn't reply, but thought hard about Jiraiya's words. From that day on, he had decided to do just that. He was not goint to let anyone tell him what to do, even those angry looking people in the village. They all didn't think he was ever going to be worth anything, he would definitely proove them wrong. He would become a very strong ninja, one like those faces carved in the mountain. So one day this entire village could respect him too.
It was only a few months after that day that it happened.
Jaraiya couldn't belive it. Orochimaru, his friend, had abandoned the village. The third had discovered him experimenting with ilegal ninjutsu, and Orochimaru had escaped. The news had spread very quickly all over the village. Jiraiya had to try to bring him back, to talk some sense into him.
He quickly brought Naruto to Rin, and apolagized about the sudden need for her help. Then he told the third what he planned to do, and he followed after Orochimaru, determined to bring him back. It would be common knowledge in a weeks time that Jiraiya failed to bring his friend back. But Jiraiya for some reason didn't return after the failed mission.
That would be the last time the village would see the sanin for a while.