Hello everyone! I had to update again, because it happens to be one of my favorite reviewers, UNCPanda's, birthday! Happy birthday dear, this chapter is dedicated to you! I hope you enjoy the humor to this chapter, because it was very fun to write!
Chapter 50: Jiraiya-sama becomes a Jii-Chan
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto
As for what I would suggest to read, Menagerie by silverfootsteps is an awesome collection of Sakura one-shots. Similarly, Bedtime Stories by Professor Make is an awesome collection of Soul Eater one-shots between Maka and Soul.
Xxx Naruto xxX
It only took fifteen minutes for them to get to town, but Naruto thought that that had been too much time.
He remembered the last time he had seen a festival in Konoha, but he couldn't remember the last time he had been to one with friends. He was excited to try all of the different kinds of food, and beat Sasuke-teme at all of the festival games. Naruto would reign supreme at festival games.
"Where should we start?" Sakura asked beside the two. Naruto's eyes scanned the area and he immediately felt his stomach rumble.
"I need food," Naruto said as he patted his stomach. He was happy to note his stomach no longer hurt; it seemed Sakura-Chan's special cream she had made really worked, even though he hadn't really enjoyed her putting it on him in the first place. She tried to be gentle, but it still hurt.
"Me too," Sasuke sighed as his eyes looked to the food stands. "What are you guys hungry for?"
"Ramen!" Naruto said cheerfully as he spotted a ramen stand. Who knew festivals would have awesome food like ramen?
"You can't go to a festival and eat ramen," Sasuke complained, and Naruto felt his hackles rise.
"You can too!" Naruto shouted. "Anytime is a good time for ramen!"
"So ramen and dango are out," Sakura said with a sigh, and Naruto could only pout back at the pinkette.
"Why is ramen out, Sakura-Chan?" Naruto couldn't stop himself from whining. "And why not dango?"
"Well I don't really want ramen," Sakura said with a grin. "And Sasuke-kun won't eat dango."
"But I really wanted ramen," Naruto stuck out his lip in a pout. He hoped the look would sway Sakura-Chan his way, but by the look on her face, it wasn't working.
"Why don't we have some traditional festival food?" Sakura suggested. "And if you really want noodles, Naruto-kun, you could have some yakisoba."
Naruto mused over the thought of having noodles in a different way, and he found the idea not completely unappetizing.
"I guess yakisoba wouldn't be so bad Sakura-Chan," Naruto said with a grin as he ran towards one of the food stands. Sasuke and Sakura slowly followed him from behind. "What are you guys going to get?"
"Probably some yakitori," Sakura said as Naruto watched her eye up some of the grilled chicken on a stick. Naruto shrugged as he grabbed his wallet. "What about you Teme?"
"Ikayayki," Sasuke said while eyeing up the grilled squid on a stick. Naruto grinned as he walked up to the stand in front of them.
"I'd like some yakisoba, yakitori, and ikayayki please," Naruto said as he grinned. He didn't have a ridiculous amount of money on him, but he had enough to buy his teammates food without having to worry. It was the least he could do for them.
"Naruto-kun," Sakura started to protest. "You don't need to buy us foo-"
"Don't worry about it Sakura-Chan," Naruto said as he passed her her yakitori. "It's a festival, live a little!"
Naruto watched Sakura frown before she shook her head. "Fine," Sakura said as a small smile worked its way onto her face. "But that means I'm buying us drinks!"
"That means you're stuck with the games Teme!" Naruto said with a chuckle as he passed Sasuke his ikayayki.
Xxx Sasuke xxX
Sasuke didn't mind spending his money on the games the Dobe and Sakura wanted to play. The two had already bought him something to eat and drink, but that didn't mean he wasn't going to grumble about it.
"Let's play this game Sasuke-kun!" Sakura said as she tugged his arm. Sasuke couldn't help but roll his eyes at the game she wanted to play; seriously, she wanted to try to catch fish?
"This game is easy," Sasuke said as he eyed the buckets of water before him. "Especially for you Sakura. You just have to concentrate your chakra-"
He felt a hand slap the back of his head and he winced. "You can't use charka for these games Sasuke-teme!" Naruto said with a glare as he walked behind him. "That's cheating!"
"Well the game still looks easy," Sasuke said while a slight snort.
"Looks?" Naruto questioned as he looked at Sasuke with wide eyes. "Have you never played these games before Sasuke-teme?"
That was a great question, Sasuke thought to himself with a slight frown. He knew there had been festivals in Konoha, but he couldn't remember the last time he had been to one. The last few years, Sasuke had been so focused on revenge that he hadn't even thought of enjoying a festival.
"So," Sasuke sighed at the look of hope on Sakura's face. Kami he couldn't say no to her when she looked like that. "How does one catch a fish?"
"I knew you'd do it Sasuke-kun!" Sakura said with a grin as she tugged him forward again. Sasuke was beginning to feel a little bit like a dog, being yanked around this way and that. "You need a poi, or one of those plastic nets to try to catch a fish. You try to scoop up the fish into the bowl."
"Seems easy enough," Sasuke said while he walked forward and handed the stall owner some money. He grabbed a poi and kneeled beside one of the pools.
Sasuke watched the fish swim around in the pool before he placed his hand in the water. When a fish swam by his poi, Sasuke flicked his hand up trying to catch the fish, but his poi net broke and he watched the fish swim back into the pool.
"You're never going to catch a fish like that Sasuke-teme!" Naruto said with a cackle. Sasuke glared at Naruto before throwing some more money at stall owner. Sasuke tried to ignore the amused look on the stall owner's face as he grabbed another poi net.
"Hn," Sasuke muttered as he put his hand into the pool again. He had been too quick with the flick of his wrist last time, and he had broken the net. He needed to try it slowly, and take his time.
Closing his eyes, Sasuke waited until he felt the water near his hand shift. Slowly, ever so slowly, Sasuke lifted his hand up toward the top of the pool. When his poi was near the top, Sasuke lifted it up with the utmost care as a fish swam slowly above it.
Sasuke allowed a smirk to make its way to his face as he slowly lifted the poi up out of the water. Just as he was about to put the fish into a bowl, his poi broke.
"Wha-" Sasuke couldn't even begin to comprehend how his poi net broke this time. He tried to ignore Naruto's loud cackling as he frowned at the broken net in his hands.
"Oh Sasuke-kun," Sakura tried to cover her laugh by turning away from him. That only caused Sasuke's frown to worsen. "I'll show you how it's done."
Sasuke grumbled but gave the stall owner even more money. He watched as Sakura kneeled down beside one of the pools. She slowly put her poi in the pool before turning to look back at Sasuke.
"This game takes equal parts care and speed," Sakura said as she nodded to the poi net. "You can't scoop too quickly or the poi will break, but you also can't be too slow or the poi will also break."
"Hn," Sasuke found himself hning in acknowledgement.
"First thing you should do is pick out the fish you want," Sakura said while her eyes scanned the pool. Sasuke watched her eyes land on a goldfish that was a little slower than the rest. "Once you find the one you want, you need to make sure you let the fish come to you. I know it sounds weird, but be patient. It'll forget about your hand soon enough and calm down."
Her words were true as the fish her eyes were trained on swam out of the corner and back towards the middle of the pool. Sasuke held his breath as Sakura's hand flicked in a motion that wasn't too quick, but not too slow either. As her poi broke the surface of the pool, the poi ended up breaking, and the fish fell back into the pool.
Naruto's cackle was to a ridiculous level, and Sasuke could only sigh in exasperation.
"… It's easier in theory," Sakura said mournfully as she watched the fish fall back into the pool. Naruto's cackling increased, and Sasuke was half tempted to slap him in the back of his head, only Sakura beat him to it. "You do it then Naruto-kun!"
"Gladly," Naruto said with a grin as he looked to Sasuke expectantly. Sasuke pulled out some more money out of his wallet (seriously how much money was he going to shovel out to get a stupid fish?) and gave it to the stall owner, who looked more than happy to be given so much money.
Sasuke watched as Naruto kneeled in front of the pool and scanned the fish quickly. Grabbing a bowl with his other hand, Naruto's hand plunged into the water and he quickly flicked up a fish. The fish landed in the bowl easily, and Naruto raised an eyebrow at both Sasuke and Sakura.
"See," Naruto said with a grin. "It wasn't so hard!"
"I bet you can't do that again," Sasuke said as he watched Naruto dip back into the pool.
"How much you wanna bet?" Naruto said with an odd gleam in his eye.
"Dinner," Sasuke said with a slight smirk at the challenge. "Whoever is right gets to pick what we eat for dinner."
"…Sasuke-kun," Sakura said with a frown. "I really don't want to eat ramen again."
"The dobe won't get another one," Sasuke said. He knew the Dobe had been lucky getting the first fish. There was no way he was going to get another one.
"If you're wrong you're getting us dessert too," Sakura said after a pause. "And you'll have to eat it too."
"Sure sure," Sasuke grumbled.
Xxx Sakura xxX
Sakura found herself at the ramen stall for the, Kami she didn't even know how many times she had been at a ramen stand with Naruto-kun and Sasuke-kun.
"You know Jiraiya-sama isn't going to let us keep all of those fish, Naruto-kun," Sakura said as she ate her miso soup. She had been half-tempted to ask the owner to put eggplant into the soup, but she knew better; not every stall kept eggplant on hand. And she had realized she was probably just missing Kakashi-sensei a bit, and hadn't really wanted the eggplant in the first place.
"But I named them all," Naruto let out a whine as he looked at the large bag of fish he had managed to collect. Sakura had stopped counting the number of fish after Naruto-kun had gotten his tenth. The blond just had to prove Sasuke-kun wrong.
"Hn," Sasuke said from the corner; Sakura could tell Sasuke-kun was still pouting about being wrong in the first place.
"Don't pout Sasuke-kun," Sakura said with a slight huff of amusement. "How were we supposed to know Naruto-kun was so good at goldfish scooping?"
"Hn," Sasuke said and Sakura noticed his pout worsened.
"Don't be such a poor sport, Teme," Naruto said as he munched happily on his ramen. "I even named one of the little fishies after you."
"You did?" Sakura found herself asking; Kami her teammates couldn't amuse her more if they tried.
"Yep," Naruto said with a grin as he grabbed his bag of fish. Naruto pointed to a fish who was smaller than the rest. Sakura looked at the fish and, Kami, was that fish glaring at the other fish around it? "His name is Little Sasuke."
Sakura snorted out a laugh, and she couldn't think of a better name for the fish. "Jiraiya-sama still isn't going to let you keep them all."
"I think I just want to keep Little Sasuke anyways," Naruto said with a grin. "I think he scares away the other fish with his glare… I mean look at poor Little Sakura-Chan. She's trying to befriend Little Sasuke, but Little Sasuke is having none of that."
"Did you seriously name goldfish after us?" Sakura questioned. She was beginning to worry a little about Naruto-kun's mental health.
"Of course not!" Naruto exclaimed. "This one's name is Momo because it reminded me of a peach!"
"I don't really know how to feel about that," Sakura said as she took in another bite of her soup.
"Ignore him," Sasuke said with a frown as he turned back to his own ramen, he of course had added tomatoes to it; Sakura found it weird, but completely Sasuke-kun. "Or you'll end up catching his stupidness."
"Stupidness isn't a disease Sasuke-teme!" Naruto said with a glare. "So Sakura-Chan won't catch it if she hangs out with me."
"… You just admitted you're stupid, Dobe," Sasuke said with a slight grin.
"Wahh!" Naruto said with a frown as he looked to the bag of goldfish. "Why is your namesake so mean, Little Sasuke?"
Sakura could only laugh at Little Sasuke's response; he glared at Naruto-kun. "Should we be looking for Jiraiya-sama?"
"I guess we said we were going to look for him, didn't we?" Sasuke mused as he ate another tomato out of his ramen. Sakura's eyes scanned the bowl and she wondered idly if he had eaten anything other than tomatoes out of the bowl. "Can you sense him?"
Sakura closed her eyes and expanded her chakra-sensing zone. She had been working on expanding it for a while now, and she could happily say her zone was much larger than it had originally been. Not that she couldn't expand it more, because she totally could.
Jiaiya-sama's chakra signature was wise with a hint of toadiness to it… Sakura really had a hard time explaining the different chakra signatures to the boys. She was able to find it a couple of blocks away.
"Found him," Sakura said as she opened her eyes. "He's a couple of blocks away."
"Probably at a bar or something," Naruto said with a frown. Sakura watched as he and Sasuke-kun stood from their spots at the stall.
"Aren't we going to finish dinner before we go corral him in?" Sakura asked as she stirred her still warm bowl of soup. She was still a little hungry.
"But he could be doing something pervy Sakura-Chan," Naruto whined out.
"He could also be trying to find information on Tsunade-sama," Sakura said with a shrug as she ate another bite of her soup. She sighed as she swallowed the bite down. It seemed the soup hadn't been as warm as she thought it was.
Naruto-kun was looking to her in a pout, and Sakura could only stand and begin to walk away. "Fine," Sakura said as she walked out of the stall. "But we're still getting dessert afterward… Sasuke-kun's buying."
"Hn," Sasuke grunted as he followed behind her. Naruto-kun saddled up on her other side, and she had to fight her grin; his fish were with him.
"Where'd you say the Pervy Sage was Sakura-Chan?" Naruto asked as the group continued down the street.
"I said he was a few blocks away, Naruto-kun," Sakura said with a shake of her head. "Take a left here and it'll be the next building on the right."
"Alright," Naruto said with a grin as he looked to Sasuke-kun. Sakura raised an eyebrow at the look on Naruto-kun's face; she didn't completely like that look. "Hold onto Little Sasuke and the rest of the fish while Sasuke-teme and I go get Pervy Sage."
"Why can't we come in?" Sakura asked nodding to herself and the fish.
"I don't want to corrupt your poor little eyes," Naruto said with a frown as he nodded to the building in question. "I know Pervy Sage is being pervy in there and I don't want to expose that to you-"
"He doesn't want to expose that to the fish," Sasuke said quickly as he sent a meaningful glance Naruto's way. Sakura raised an eyebrow as Sasuke-kun bumped Naruto-kun's shoulders.
"Right," Naruto coughed slightly into his fist. "I don't want my fish to see what their pervy Jii-Chan is up to."
"Uh huh," Sakura said with a nod. Sakura knew what he was doing, and yes it bothered it, but it also appeared Naruto-kun and Sasuke-kun were in it together. "Fine. I'll be over there when you finally manage to get Jiraiya-sama out of there."
Sakura leaned herself up against a building across the street and set the fish in front of her. She understood she was the only female of the team and that gave her teammates some rights to try to protect her innocence, but to keep her out of a strip club?
Whatever, Sakura sighed as she watched Little Sasuke glare at all of the other fish in the bag. Naruto-kun really should have gotten Little Sasuke a bag all his own. The other fish really didn't seem to like being glared at.
The two were idiots anyways, Sakura thought as she imagined what her teammates were doing in the strip club. Would they even know what to do?
"Do you think they'll get thrown out Little Sasuke?" Sakura asked as she raised the bag up to look at Little Sasuke. Little Sasuke only glared back at her in response, and Sakura figured that was his way of agreeing with her. "Yeah, I thought they would too."
Sakura looked up from the bag as she watched two bodies fly out of the club. Sakura fought a grin once she saw the familiar looking orange sweatshirt and blue shirt.
"We don't let little kids see the dancers," the bouncer said with a grunt as he turned back to the club. Sakura took the time to watch her boys wallow in self-pity before she walked over to them.
"That bastard!" Naruto yelled back as he tried to run back into the club; Sakura was thankful Sasuke-kun had a hand on his shoulder and was keeping him from running back inside. "He didn't even listen to what we had to say! He just threw us out like that!"
Sakura placed the bag of fish into Naruto-kun's hands before she started to head toward the club.
"Don't Sakura-Chan!" Naruto said with a whine. "The bouncer is really mean and he'll-"
"I got it Naruto-kun," Sakura said with a grin as she walked into the club. The club had loud music and was smoky, but Sakura knew exactly where she was going. Jiraiya-sama's chakra was like a beacon; she'd be able to find him in the dark if she had to.
"Hey wait," Sakura felt a hand on her shoulder, and from the voice, Sakura could tell it was the bouncer from before. Turning around, Sakura rounded her eyes a little and pouted out her bottom lip.
"I'm sorry," Sakura said as she felt her eyes get watery; Ino had once told her how easy it was to get the thing she wanted by giving big puppy dog eyes… thinking of Ino caused Sakura to think of someone else…
"You're uh-," it seemed the water dripping from her eyes was throwing him off. Sakura shook off the thoughts of Shikamaru-kun and stuck to her plan. "You're not supposed to be in here."
"I'm sorry," Sakura said, her eyes still watery. "I'm just looking for my Jii-Chan. I haven't seen him since this morning, and he was supposed to be back for dinner…"
"And it's already getting dark," the bouncer sighed as he ran a hand through his hair. "Alright little girl. What does your Jii-Chan look like?"
"He has really long white hair!" Sakura said as she made a large motion of how long Jiraiya-sama's hair was. Sometimes it was beneficial to look younger than she really was. "And he has-"
"Ah," the bouncer nodded with an exasperated sigh. "I know who your Jii-Chan is… I've actually been trying to have him leave for a little while now. Let's go get him."
"Really?" Sakura asked making her eyes wide and innocent; she was going to make sure the boys never lived this down. "Okay!"
The large bouncer brought her to the back of the club, and Sakura saw Jiraiya-sama easily. Even through the many women he had surrounded himself in, Sakura could spot his white hair easily.
"Jii-Chan," Sakura called over the music. Sakura watched Jiraiya-sama's ear twitch; it was obvious he had recognized her voice and was trying to look for her.
"Excuse me," the bouncer said while he cleared out the women dancing in front of Jiraiya-sama; Sakura was more than a little grateful the scantily clad women were gone. "Your granddaughter says she has been waiting for you for a while now. I think it's time you went home."
"My wha-" Jiraiya started before his eyes spotted her. Sakura only gave Jiraiya a mocking grin before she raised an eyebrow.
"Come on Jii-Chan," Sakura said as she nodded to the door. "All fifteen of your grandkids are waiting."
"All what?" Jiraiya asked his eyes getting wide.
Sakura couldn't help but tease him a little bit. "Yeah," Sakura said as she started to head to the door. "Naruto-kun has been pretty busy while you've been in here."
"… Just how long was I in here for?" Jiraiya asked as he quickly scampered to his feet and followed behind Sakura.
