Chapter 10
Blanket disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Star Wars.
Last time:
"Kabuto?! You son-of-a-bitch! I should have known you wouldn't stay dead."
"I could say the same of you Naruto-kun. You're simply too resilient to let something as inconsequential death stop you." he said conversationally, "But you almost killed Jiraiya here; wouldn't you feel guilty at murdering your own master? Reviving him was what this whole ceremony was for." He said motioning to a cloning cylinder behind him.
Of Snakes and Toads
Naruto stared at the cloning cylinder. "Do you want to see him Naruto-kun? Jiraiya-sama is right here." Kabuto soothed. Naruto stood his ground. "We don't have to be enemies Naruto-kun. Orochimaru-sama wants all those with sage abilities on one side. He believes that the three sannin should become one team again, using both ninjutsu and the force." Kabuto paused. "I'll tell you what. I'll stand over here away from the cylinder and you'll see what I say is true. Orochimaru-sama truly wants his old teammates back." He said backing away.
Naruto turned to his friends. "Stay here. He's a sage also. I can hold him off if things get ugly."
"Fuck that! I want to kill him!" said a raging Anko.
Kabuto called cheerfully, "Is that you Anko-san? How wonderful! Orochimaru-sama will be thrilled you're alive. You're one of his favorite students you know."
Anko saw red. It took all the others to hold her back. "Why would that snake want Anko?" asked Naruto. "Didn't he do enough to her already?"
Kabuto chuckled. You completely misunderstand both Orochimaru's wishes and my own. First, Anko-san could summon powerful snakes easily though she didn't have access to the main contract. This shows she could become a powerful sage; or to use the galactic term, force user. More importantly she never fell under the influence of the cursed seal like everyone else. That was her true test. She has unyielding willpower. Much like you Naruto-kun. I have to admit I'm a bit jealous of master Orochimaru's praises of her. But then again; she was his first apprentice.
"Where is Orochimaru now?" demanded Naruto.
"Come now Naruto-kun, I can't just –"
"Tell me where the snake is!"
"Very well Naruto-kun; there's no need to get hostile." Kabuto said in a soothing tone. "Master Orochimaru is off planet searching for Lady Tsunade. He plans to bring her back here to revive Jiraiya-sama. The proof is right here." He said pointing to the cylinder. "Please look; you'll see I speak the truth."
Naruto slowly walked forward. "How does he know Tsunade's even alive?" asked Naruto.
Kabuto answered, "He had a vision, Naruto-kun. Just like the one that led you here to be by your master." Naruto stopped for a moment and then ascended the stairs. He kept his icy stare on Kabuto who only smiled cordially as he motioned Naruto towards the cloning cylinder.
Naruto created two shadow clones and said, "Watch him while I look." Kabuto stood away from the clones making an effort to look as harmless as possible. Naruto peered in the cylinder….
It was Jiraiya. A seventeen year old Jiraiya. Naruto reached out with his senses. "He's alive but has no spirit…."
"Exactly the problem Naruto-kun." stated Kabuto. "We were fortunate that those scientists found him early on but for some reason Jiraiya-sama never woke up. Lord Orochimaru immediately set out to revive his old friend but could not figure out how; hence the need for Lady Tsunade. The scientists had originally set Jiraiya's body aside as a case study but there were no imperfections, just no soul."
"I still don't understand why Orochimaru would want to revive his enemies." growled Naruto.
Kabuto said emphatically, "Don't you see Naruto-kun? Orochimaru has seen that he made mistakes in his first life. He told me that when he and his team were in their prime they were almost unbeatable as a team. He said his biggest mistake in leaving the village was that he didn't ask them to come with him."
"Why should I believe you? He could be storing Jiraiya's body to take over later." asked Naruto.
"What would be the point? With the cloning technology available now we could clone bodies of ourselves for later use and stay young forever. For all that matter; the secret of eternal life may be in the force itself. We ninjas are few but those of us that also can access the force through sage mode could lead our people into a new golden age." replied the snake's apprentice.
"Can Jiraiya's body be moved?" queried the younger toad sage.
"I wish it could Naruto-kun but the sealing array we have here is keeping his body filled with natural chakra and I don't have a ship capable of transporting this cylinder." said Kabuto.
"But I do. Turn the body over to me and I will take care of him Kabuto." explained Naruto. "My comrades and I will leave you peacefully if you do."
"It was Orochimaru-sama's express wishes that I keep vigil over him Naruto-kun. I can't go against my master's orders. I'm sure you understand." Kabuto said with a disarming smile.
Naruto's glare made Kabuto flinch. "I'll be back soon." Naruto said dangerously, "You convince your master to hand Jiraiya over to me for safe keeping and you may live next time we meet, otherwise your life is forfeit."
Kabuto felt ripples of sage chakra coming off Naruto's body. He truly wasn't sure if he could take on the younger sage. "I will contact Lord Orochimaru in good faith Naruto-kun. Trust me, my master and I want to be allies with you, not enemies."
"One last thing Kabuto. No more chakra infusions from those Zetsus. It's doing more damage than good." commanded Naruto.
Of course, Naruto-kun. I will see you soon." Naruto went back to the others with fury still in his eyes as he left. He truly hated Kabuto and Orochimaru for everything they'd done in the past. But they were also keeping Jiraiya alive….
They marched out of the cave in silence with Naruto at the lead. They finally reached the entrance. "What the fuck was that all about? He's our enemy. Why did you not attack him? You stupid gaki!" shrieked Anko. Iruka was holding her back so she wouldn't attack him.
Naruto turned to her with a glare. For a moment Anko and Iruka felt a presence that could only be compared to the Third and Fifth Hokages they once served. It was bone chilling. "Jiraiya's body was right there. He could have been destroyed in the crossfire. Did you not think of that?! Also, I want Kabuto dead but he's the only lead we have to Orochimaru. You'll have your vengeance Anko, but it will have to wait. Be patient. We have other places to go -and Kabuto's not going anywhere. He'll be waiting for us when we return. That's the only thing he said I'm sure wasn't a lie."
For the first time in many years of memories Anko felt like a child that was being scolded after she did something wrong. "I'm sorry….Uzumaki Naruto." Naruto just nodded as he led them back to the ship. What he didn't realize is he had gained something very precious from Anko….Her respect.
When they got back to the Misfire they were all frustrated and just wanted to quit for the day. They had learned a lot but accomplished next to nothing in their eyes. Kabuto was basically holding Jiraiya's body as a hostage to keep himself alive. A subdued Anko went to her bunk. Iruka wanted to scold Naruto on behalf of his lover but the problem was Naruto was absolutely right. Seeing everyone was in no mood to talk Iruka decided to go comfort Anko from her ghosts of the past.
Ino was shocked at the way Naruto had handled the situation. With all the bad blood going around she was sure she would have gone for Kabuto's throat. Naruto was acting like a true leader….like a Hokage! She confronted Shikamaru about this and he stated that he had no doubt that if the Fourth Shinobi War was won that Naruto would have become the Sixth Hokage. "He showed it in the battle against Madara and he's showing it now. Someday he's going to be a leader that we would all follow willingly into the bowels of hell. I'm turning in for the night. This whole day has been too troublesome."
Naruto finally let go of his emotions when he was alone with Hinata. "His body was right there but his spirit wasn't!" he sniffled as the tears fell. "He was like a father or grandfather I never had. I just wanted him to jump up and say something perverse that would make all the women angry at him!" Naruto started to cry openly as Hinata held him.
She ran her fingers through his hair as he slowly let it all out. "Naruto-kun, you said the homes of the toads and the slugs needed to be visited too. Maybe we'll find something there." she said.
"Thank you Hinata-chan. You don't know how much it means to me for you to just be here." whispered Naruto.
"I'll always be here to hold you when you need me Naruto-kun. Let's sleep for the night and talk some more in the morning." Naruto closed his eyes and fell into a dreamless sleep in Hinata's arms.
A few days later Naruto set about finding the Shikkotsu Forest. After a great deal of meditating on natural energy sources he discovered that he could only sense the Ryuchi Cave and Mount Myoboku. "I'm positive that the forest still exists but I can't detect it. Is it shielded somehow?" He was getting a bit frustrated when he received the memories of a shadow clone that dispelled. Finally something brought a smile to his face. Naruto went to join the others. The crew of the Misfire were hard at work at the large lab facility they originally landed at. They were sifting through the wreckage with the help of some of Naruto's shadow clones. It took some time but they managed to set up a barrier to keep the Zetsus away. Now they were hoping to find something useful. "Doc, I need your help." said Iruka. He had just finished clearing part of a room in the lab when he stumbled on a computer terminal. "Can you access this?" he asked Doc.
Doc activated a link with the terminal. "We need to power it up but my initial readings show it's intact. Let's run an umbilical to the ship." Iruka called the others to help out. Under Doc's directions they soon had power to the lab.
Naruto appeared. "How's it going Doc?"
"I'm in the process of uploading all the data to the ships memory banks." said the droid. "Most of it is in basic password codes or wide open. There is hardly any heavily encrypted data I can find. I'd say these records go back five or six years with some gaps due to damage. We should be able to bring it up on the screen in the Misfire."
It would be sometime before they could sift through that much information. They broke for lunch on the ship. "What about Kabuto?" asked Anko.
"I have two henged shadow clones watching him. If he tries anything we'll know." said Naruto.
"When did you slip shadow clones in?" asked Ino.
"The ones I had up on the dais guarding him henged into rubble when it looked like they dispelled when I left. I'm hoping they will find out what Kabuto's up to and where his ship is." said Naruto with a smirk. "Speaking of Kabuto's ship; any luck with those tracking beacons Doc?"
"Actually I found one intact Naruto. I just had to recharge it." Doc replied sounding smug.
"What this all about Naruto?" asked Shikamaru.
Naruto explained, "The Misfire used to be a Military Police fast patrol ship from what Doc told me. Sometimes they would attach beacons to other ships so they could track the pirates or bandits back to their base and stomp them out. If we attach one to Kabuto's ship then we'll be able to follow him straight to Orochimaru. The special sensor rig we have on board is in good shape so all we needed was a beacon –and thanks to Doc we now have one. I'm going to make a group of shadow clones sweep around the Ryuchi Cave and attach the beacon once they find the ship."
"Sneaky. I like it." said Anko.
"I'm glad you approve." said Naruto, "Some of us need to go to Mount Myoboku in the meantime. I want to check it out before we go back to confront Kabuto."
"What about the Shikkotsu Forest where the Slugs were?" asked Iruka.
"I can't find it. I think it's shielded from me somehow." Naruto replied. "Anyway, who wants to go to the Toad's mountain with me? It will probably be about a six day trip."
"I'll go Naruto-kun." said Hinata happily.
"I'll stay here with Anko." said Iruka. "Shikamaru should also stay here and start going through all that data we've found. Take Ino with you as a chaperone. We wouldn't want you lovebirds to get carried away." Iruka finished with a smile.
"Sometimes I hate you sensei." muttered Naruto and Hinata at the same time.
"I'm not that bad!" exclaimed Ino. Iruka just laughed at their expressions.
Naruto, Hinata and Ino set off towards Mount Myoboku at first light. Naruto made a fresh batch of shadow clones to help the rest of the group sift through the rubble of the lab. Naruto and the two girls made good time focusing on avoiding Zetsus instead of fighting them. They were at the base of the mountain in three days. "This normally takes about a month on secret paths but everything is leveled now. All the traps and genjutsu of the mountain are gone. We just need to walk to the top. Maybe there will be some clues for us at the summit." It was a tiring climb for the kunoichis but Naruto didn't seem fazed by it. "This place was so beautiful Hinata-chan. I wish I could have brought you up to see it." Naruto said sadly.
"Naruto-kun, I wish I could have seen it too. Madara ruined everything." said Hinata sympathetically.
'God I feel like a fifth wheel' thought Ino to herself.
They reached the top only to find a wasteland. The remaining trees were fossilized. The toads were gone. Naruto looked around for something; anything familiar. He finally laid eyes on the Sacred Toad Oil Fountain surrounded by the crumbling toad statues. They seemed to be all that remained. He led the girls down to it. "See this empty fountain? This is where I was taught the art of senjutsu and became a sage. It looks like this is all that remains standing." He explained the toad statues standing around and how he could have become a statue himself if his training had failed. This drew gasps from the girls.
None of them sensed the thing watching them from higher grounds as it slowly crept towards them.
Naruto decided to head over to where the Great Toad Sage once lived since there seemed to be remnants of a foundation there. The girls decided to go cool off at a fresh water lake that had formed over the centuries. "I'll leave a shadow clone nearby just in case." Naruto told the girls.
"We're going to be bathing you pervert. We're filthy and sweaty from climbing a mountain. Hinata may not mind if you get an eyeful but I do!" retorted Ino.
"Sheesh! My clone's going to be on the other side of those trees. Just yell out if something happens! You'd think I was some kind of lecher…." Naruto grumbled as he headed away.
Webbed feet and hands moved silently; gliding like mist over the terrain. It hardly noticed the male meander away muttering to himself. The two girls though; it did notice. Even at a distance it could scent the succulent young flesh of the two kunoichis. It had been up here hungering for how long? Centuries….After the toads were wiped out it was the solitary guardian of this place and now those girls were splashing around in the pond that it controlled. A mere swipe of its' webbed hands and the water would become an extension of itself. It could easily pull a twenty foot alligator down into the depths. The two young women wouldn't stand a chance….Its' bulging eyes twitched as it grew closer. It listened barely comprehending their speech.
"Naruto-kun's only concerned for us Ino; you didn't have to call him a pervert…." scolded Hinata.
"Seriously? Hinata, the look in your eye when I mentioned bathing was so obvious." Said Ino. "I called him a pervert so he would leave for a little while. Otherwise you two would have been doing the horizontal tango on the edge of the lake. Don't try to deny it!"
"….You're so mean Ino…." sulked Hinata.
"Hinata; activate your Byakugan. I feel like we're being watched." said Ino urgently.
Hinata gave the area a quick scan. "Nothing's here but Naruto's shadow clone." she sighed, "He's over there facing away from the lake. He's far enough away that we would have to yell for him to hear us."
What they didn't know was the creature could turn transparent at will, even to the byakugan. So attuned to its surroundings the thing could move anywhere and not be seen. It took little notice of Naruto's shadow clone as it stalked by him silently. Both its' eyes were firmly locked on its' prey. Hunger!….perhaps it would play with them a little bit before it struck….it entered the edge of the water with only the thought of tender meat on its' mind. The water started moving on its' own. Hinata felt something brush around her leg but it disappeared.
Ino shrieked, "What the hell? Something just rubbed against my ass Hinata!" Hinata reactivated her byakugan.
"There are chakra streams in the water all around us. We're surrounded! We need to get out of this water now!"
"Naruto!" the girls shrieked.
Naruto's shadow clone hopped up at their yell. He ran down towards the lake and found the girls suspended in the air with multiple hands of water running all over their bodies. They were screaming out for help. The clone was at a loss. He stepped on the water and found it solid to water-walk on. Then shadow clone dashed across the water and yelled out, "I'm coming Hinata-chan!"
He heard a guttural noise that sounded like "NO!" and saw a flash of the creature's deranged, bulging eyes at the lake edge. The creature formed two large hands of water that crushed the shadow clone between them. The last thing Naruto's clone heard was the creature's cry before it dispelled….
Naruto was over at the foundation that remained of the Great Toad Sage's residence. He planned to meditate there and see if he could sense what had caused all the devastation. The young ninja swept an area clean with a minor wind jutsu where the old sage used to sit. While muttering "….not a pervert." to himself he sat cross legged and suddenly received the memories of the shadow clone. 'The girls are being attacked!' he thought. Immediately surging into sage mode he created some shadow clones to gather extra energy. "I've got to save them now!" he thought out loud.
When he arrived Naruto saw the two girls being restrained by some form of water manipulation. The two kunoichi were thrashing about trying to break free but it appeared to be useless. Then he spotted the source; a blue toad that seemed ephemeral and made up of natural chakra had its' hands in the water and was controlling it. 'Is it a spirit?' thought Naruto.
The toad had stars in its' eyes and looked as if it had won the lottery, it's face adorned with a leering smile. Then Naruto heard its' cry: "Giggle-giggle; giggle-giggle." It sounded like a cross between a dirty old man and a school girl. It was making cupping motions with its' hands as if it was trying to cop a feel. There was only one person in the universe that would laugh like that….Naruto charged his legs with sage chakra and came down on the creature like a bat out of hell. With a sage energy enhanced punch that would have made Tsunade proud he hit the creature while yelling at the top of his lungs "Damn you Ero-sennin!"
The ghostly blue toad was sent flying backwards into the rocks and trees knocking down several in the process. The water holding the girls immediately released them making them fall in the water. Naruto summoned a dozen sage powered shadow clones. "Find Jiraiya and give him a Medium Boot for touching our Hinata-chan!" The clones nodding before they cracked there knuckles took off.
"Let's go!" said the lead clone. The blue toad/ Jiraiya's girlish screams were heard throughout the mountain as Naruto's clones ruthlessly pummeled him.
Naruto dragged the waterlogged girls out of the lake and set them on the beach on their travelling cloaks. If he hadn't been so worried about them he would have passed out from a nose-bleed looking at the two kunoichi's wet, naked bodies. He gave them their towels to dry off with. "You saved us Naruto-kun. What was it that attacked us?" asked Hinata hugging him.
"I'm 99% sure it was Ero-sennin. My clones are giving him a thrashing now." he said pointing in the direction of the voice begging for mercy.
"I'm so disgusted. The water felt like it was feeling me up!" raged Ino.
"What's an Ero-sennin?" asked Hinata.
"Jiraiya" grumbled Naruto. "He seems to be in some sort of spirit form that looks like a toad."
"Are you sure it was Jiraiya Naruto-kun?"
Naruto noded his head in disgust. "No one else has a perverted giggle like that Hinata-chan and pulling a stunt like that is right up his alley. I'm going to leave four shadow clones here to protect you two while I go confront Jiraiya."
"Well, bash him and extra time for me Naruto." said Ino, "and thanks for saving us." She felt a bit bad for driving Naruto off earlier.
"It's alright" Naruto said. I'm going to go deal with a self-proclaimed super pervert."
Naruto marched over to the clones and looked at the smoking remains of Jiraiya's spirit form. He was flat as a piece of bacon. "Alright Ero-sennin; you've got a lot of explaining to do!"
The toad spirit jumped back up as if unhurt. "Dammit gaki! How many times have I told you to call me Jiraiya or Jiraiya-sensei? ….By the way, what happened?"
Naruto stared for a moment and then said, "You were feeling up the girls using water manipulation! Don't you remember?"
"I wish I could gaki but the last thing I remember were the toads being wiped out by Madara. I thought you were killed too. I guess I lost it after that. How long have I been senseless?" asked Jiraiya.
"About 10,000 years give or take a few months." replied a deadpan Naruto. 'He's a lecherous super pervert even when he's lost his mind!' lamented Naruto in his head.
"Well I sure wish I did remember feeling up some girls! Wait; did you say 10,000 years?! How are you alive let alone the same age as you were?"
Naruto sweat dropped at his master's antics. "It's a long story Ero-sennin but the short version is we were cloned back to life millennia after we died. Near as I can tell Madara's faded into history."
When Naruto returned the girls were dressed and waiting for him. They saw the ghostly blue toad tagging along with him. "You're running around with those two beauties? –And having a threesome no doubt." Jiraiya wiped a tear from his big toad eyes. "I'm so proud of you Naruto!"
"We're not having a threesome you dirty old pervert!" roared Ino with a blush.
"Tut-tut; my dear," spoke Jiraiya. "I'm not a pervert. I am a SUPER PERVERT!" he said taking a pose.
"Why did you attack us?" asked Hinata with the patented Hyūga stare in full force.
Jiraiya cringed a bit. "To tell you the truth I don't remember."
"You don't remember?!" shrieked Ino.
Naruto was trying to fend off a headache. "It's a long story Ino. Let's all sit down and discuss this. I think the reason Jiraiya's body never woke up is his soul has been here for the last 10,000 years. When my clones and I beat him up he came to his senses.
They talked long into the evening telling each other what had happened. Ino asked, "So if we take Lord Jiraiya to his body he should be back among the living again?"
"That's what I figure Ino." said Naruto.
Ino got a gleam in her eye. 'That means he'll be solid again and Hinata and I can beat the crap out of him for what he did.' she thought evilly.
"Is anything left of the toads or their contract Jiraiya?" asked Naruto.
"There's nothing left" Jiraiya said sadly."Just dust and memories I suspect the same of the Snakes truthfully."
"Any ideas about the Slugs?" asked Naruto.
Jiraiya "That forest is carefully hidden. I don't know where it is. Only Tsunade and her apprentices would know."
The next day they found that Jiraiya could 'possess' a shadow clone. Using the clone as a temporary body (and henging into his human appearance), they set off for the Misfire the next morning, discussing the Kabuto issue and sage mode along the way. Jiraiya would have to retrain his new body to use sage mode without the help of Ma and Pa. They also had to figure out if Orochimaru could truly be trusted….
POSTSCRPT:
And done. The longest chapter yet. This chapter got totally derailed. The original plot was to have Naruto and the others seize Jiraiya's body after a battle royale with Kabuto. Then Jiraiya was supposed to appear like Obi-wan Kenobi in his ghost form and re-inhabit his body but I reasoned that living alone for 10,000 years would have driven Jiraiya a bit crazy so he evolved into something like Gollum in Lord of the Rings except women's bodies were his "precious." Next time we'll see some interaction with Orochimaru. Blue out. 2/1/14
This chapter was retooled as of 4/10/14.