Chapter 27: 'Chivalry'
"Wild lion's mane Jutus." Jiraiya muttered, the long white strands of hair following Gamabunta to the twins who were still trying to get toads out of their own hair. "Endless crevasse jutus." HE gasped slightly as he felt a massive amount of chakra leave his body, causing the ground to rumble as it travelled under the ground, pushing it away, moving the earth like water towards the first chasm in Konoha, and creating another one, streching otwards where Gamabunta and his siblings.
Making his way along the crevasse at slightly less than his usual spritely gait - he was tired, and had just made a huge hole in the ground - Jiraiya went to look for the twins, feeling the slight pressure on his hair form where it held them suspended above the large chasm, slicked with the oil that he had persuaded Gama to cover the ground with...
"Hey girls." he said, standing at the edge of the chasm and examining them. THey were both fairly grubby, and covered in thick black oil, their silver-blue eyes wide with disgust and terror.
"Let us down!"
"You pig! How can you treat girls like this!!"
"You two are both Kunoichi who want to be jonin." Jiraiya said, wrinkling his nse in distaste. It really bugged him when a kunoichi tried to claim the right to being a girl - they didn't need it, so that just made them lazy. "And it's two against one - I can't afford to give you special treatment."
"These two girls complain a lot." Gamabunta whined from his perch on the web of hair strung over the canyon. "It's really annoying."
"You complain a lot, Bunta." Jiriaya said, idly tossing a rock form the edge of the canyon at the toad. "Anyway, Mizuko, Ameko. Yield? Or do I have to drop you?"
"I vote you drop em. They probably won't die - there's pretty deep water at the bottom." Bunta said, tossing the rock back.
"That's not very chivalrous though is it. I'll just have to take them to mum, and hope she passes me."
*
"Did you use weapons?"
"No! I told you that already!"
"How did you use the terrain?"
"I moved Sarutobi-sensei's huge trench to suspend the girls over, if it had been a real fight, I could have simply dropped them down it. Do I pass?"
Ara studied her son for a minute, one hand brushing back her silver bangs.
"Fine, Now, let Mizuko and Ameko out."
"Alright!!" Jiriaya whooped, giving Gamabunta's warty, webbed hand a high five, dismissing him, before letting the web of hair around the two girls disintegrate with a handsign. He felt a horrible sense of dislocation as the strands of hair fell away, and he heard a very annoyed, female voice in his ear.
"You jerk."
THere was the familiar sensation of a kunai pressed against his throat, as he saw Mizuko standing in front of him, panting slightly from the effort of her genjutsu.
"I guess this means we win." She said, wiping a glob of oil out of her hair. "Ara should be here in a minute."
"Can't we talk about this? Ame-chan, you don't need to hold a knife at my throat. It's very unladylike."
"We're kunoichi trying to be Jonin. We can't afford to give you special treatment." Ameko said, tilting her knife slightly.
"Well, you could.... OW!" Jiraiya winced as Mizuko slapped him, the Kunai in her palm stinging his cheek. "God, all women are so... Next you'll be trying to cut my hair with a ku-" He broke off as the dark haired young woman took her knife to his hair. "This is so disgusting! Why can't you just cut it? It's horrible. So, until Ara gets here, I am going to make you presentable."
"If I have my hair long, then most of my jutsu take less chakra. Y'know, Lion's mane and it's derivatives... Anyway, how much time have you been spending with Tsunade to get this obsessive about my hair?" He asked, trying to come up with some sort of plan, preferably one that wouldn't get his throat cut.
"None - she spends all her time in the hospitals. You three are so busy, It's crazy. I mean your not even a Jonin, butthey keep on sending you out on those A-rank missions, its like the Hokage is trying to get you killed..."
"That's an exaggeration... Look over there!!" Jiriaya yelled, feeling the knife graze his throat as the two girls jumped - neither looked though.
"Do you think we're stupid?" Mizuko asked, studying Jiriaya's face with a scowl.
"Not really, but I think that I should get a reward for fast handsigns - Wild Lion's Mane Jutsu." Jiraiya managed to get his hair around Ameko's hand before she could stab him, and dodged away. "OWWWW!" Ameko's hand came with him, the rest of her attached - and she was fairly heavy. "summoning Jutsu." Jiraiya wiped his thumb across the neck, before slapping it down on the nearest surface. "Bunta, help!"
The toad looked around.
"How did this happen?"
"I don't know! Find Mizu-chan before she can genjutus us again. I'll deal with Ameko." Jiraiya spun to face the girl, who had managed to cut her way out of his hair and was even now forming various handsigns. "Genjutsu release."
"Suiton, Aqua blast."
Jiraiya was knocked back by a pressurised jet of water, and was thrown, winded, into a tree.
"We know more than just Genjutsu." She snapped, pulling out her kunai. Gamabunta meanwhile, was trying to grab Mizuko with his rather slippery webbed hands.
"Oh crud." Jiraiya darted away from the kunai as they thudded into the tree. This was going to be tricky....
*
Well, finally, there is another chapter. So, please enjoy.
