CHAPTER 3 - FAMILY?
"So, what can you say me about him?"
"Mmmhh, not much. He seems to have joined a group, you know, one in which they all wear the same thing. You can't mistake, just look for someone with a long black cloak with red clouds and a ring."
The first man who spoke, a tall guy with long white hair, nodded before asking "Do you know the name of this group?"
"No, just that they're not someone to mess with."
"It doesn't matter, thanks."
The white haired man stood up leaving some money on the table of the bar for both the drinks and the information.
The place was a dark one, not somewhere people would spend their money or time if they could avoid it; but also where, buying a drink for someone, you can have loads of info.
The tall man knew this quite well, and in the last years had made sure to make as many friends as he could out of the people who frequented those places. The result was that now he had one of the best spy network of all the elemental countries.
He turned and was about to leave when the other man remembered something
"You know, I've also heard something about your other teammate, and it isn't about her gambling."
This was new. As far as he remembered she hadn't done anything else since she decided to leave the village.
He just hoped it wasn't something dangerous for the Leaf.
"What did you heard?"
"Well, it seems you're not just a loud mouth with women after all. Rumor is that she wants to see you."
He blinked. This wasn't new, this was surreal. "Where?"
Tsunade eyed her cards carefully. Two sevens, a nine, a queen, and a king.
She kept the sevens and changed the other three. Another seven, a eight and a ten.
She glanced at the other player ''What do you have this time?'' she wondered.
She showed her cards with a smirk "So, what do you say gaki?"
Naruto was looking at her cards while trying not to drop his, which wasn't an easy task given how big they were compared to his hands.
Finally he shuddered and showed his cards. An ace, a second ace, a third ace, a king, and another ace.
"WHAT THE HELL? How did you manage to do THAT?"
"Tsunade-sama!" Shizune said sternly coming from the kitchen
"It's bad enough that you taught him to play poker, at least don't swear in front of him!"
"But look, LOOK AT HIS CARDS! He must have a bloodline to do that! And it's the third time in five hands!"
"Well, he's just very lucky. And I think he's very tired too right now, aren't you Naru-chan?"
He answered yawning loudly and rubbing his eyes.
After all he was just a two years old child, and he needed some sleep in the afternoon.
It was amazing how he was so curious and sneaking at times and extremely lazy on others.
Shizune picked him up and brought him in his bed.
He rolled over and reached for his sponge that was on his bedside table.
The only other thing on it were the dark goggles
Tsunade gave him almost a month ago.
Naruto always wore them unless he was sure that there were just the three of them around.
Shizune went back in the living room of the house they were currently living in.
Tsunade had said that, if they were waiting for Jiraiya to show up, they should rent a place to stay because it could be a while before he came.
"He's sleeping. Tsunade-sama, when do you think Jiraiya-sama will show up?"
The blond sannin gave her a calculating look "Anytime now. It's been a month and he should know I'm waiting by now, and I'm confident he remembers I don't like waiting, especially him. Why do you ask, is something troubling you?"
The dark haired girl shook her head "No, on the contrary, I'm kind of happy we're staying in the same place for more than a week. Maybe it can help him..."
Tsunade sighed "Still worried that he hasn't spoken yet, mh? Don't worry, it's probably because he didn't have anyone to teach him, just give him some time."
Shizune opened her mouth to say something, but a knock at the door stopped her. Tsunade turned towards the door and yelled, "Who's there ?"
"Tsunade, it's me, Jiraiya, I've heard you really missed me and wanted to see me, can I come in?"
Somehow the two women could feel his perverted grin.
Tsunade's eye was twitching and as soon as she opened the door she punched Jiraiya in the face.
"Aww, what was that for?"
"Don't try that, you know very well what was for, and if you as much as try to make it sound like that..."
"Ok, no need to beat me. Jeez, and I even put a stop to my researches to come here."
Tsunade narrowed her eyes but didn't say anything, instead she motioned him to go inside and take a seat at the table.
"Ah, Shizune, long time no see," the toad sannin greeted her.
"Jiraiya-sama." She answered bowing her head.
They all seated around the table while Tsunade took out some sake and poured some for Jiraiya and herself. Shizune looked at them disappointed, "Isn't it a little too early to begin drinking?"
"Come on, it's just two old teammates celebrating their reunion.
Really Tsunade, your apprentice is too tense for her own good, she needs some free time to relieve all that stress."
At that the blond sannin chocked on her sake and started to laugh, while her apprentice stood with a red face and went out slamming the door.
Jiraiya looked at the door before turning to his old teammate
"What did I say?"
"Nothing, never mind." She answered chuckling.
It really was funny seeing Shizune so embarrassed, normally she was the serious and composed one and there was a strange sense of satisfaction in making her flustered like that.
Naruto had just fallen asleep when he heard a shout from the other room.
It seemed that someone had come to see his...?
He really didn't know what the two kind ladies were for him, he just liked how they both took care of him, especially Tsunade.
She often played with him, caressed his hair, gave him tender looks and she even sang him a lullaby once. It gave him a strange felling, like warmth and peace, and he found himself longing for it.
Suddenly he was brought out of his thoughts by someone slamming the door quite loudly. Deciding to know what was going on, he put on his goggles and left his sponge in their place.
He loved it, you can squeeze it all day and it will always come back the same.
He silently made his way to the door and slipped in the other room.
He saw a white haired man talking and drinking with Tsunade, apparently it was Shizune who had left earlier.
He was studying the unknown man when Tsunade noticed him and called him with a smile,
"Naruto, what's up? Did we wake you?"
Jiraiya turned to look who she was talking to and nearly fell from his seat.
He continued to stare wide eyed at the child while he went to seat on Tsunade's lap nodding in response at her question.
"Naru-chan this man with his mouth opened and the stupid expression is my old friend Jiraiya, we were in the same ninja team as kids.
Pervert, this is Naruto, and I would close my mouth if I were you, you're going to eat a fly if you stay like that any longer."
Said pervert didn't seem to have heard a word however, and looked at the blond medic with the most stunned face she had ever seen,
"B-b-bu-but how, when, who..."
He tried to calm down taking a deep breath before speaking again,
"I didn't know you had a child. How did it happened? When?
Who's the father? Wait! Did you call him Naruto?
Like the hero in my book? Does it mean I'm his godfather?"
"I'll just pretend I didn't hear you asking about my supposed making-a-baby thing. We found him about a month ago in the woods, he doesn't have family so we decided to bring him with us.
However, yes, I named him after your book, so you can be his godfather if you want."
Jiraiya grinned happily "Do you plan to train him as a ninja? I can help with that, after all I was the sensei of the current hokage"
"Exactly when do you plan to stop repeating that every two minutes?
Anyway, let's get down to business. I want you to bring me some documents from Konoha."
Jiraiya stood up at attention at that.
He knew why she didn't want to go there herself, but he couldn't imagine what documents she was talking about.
"I want you to bring me an adoption form."
The toad sannin stared at her with wide eyes.
It took five whole minutes for the shock to subside and when it did he sighed. He knew she'll probably kill him for what he's going to say but he had to.
"I don't think it's a good idea"
"What do you-"
"Listen Tsunade, I'm not saying not to adopt him, on the contrary, and I'm really happy for you, but you'll put him in danger. Before coming here I was gathering info about Orochimaru, he joined an organization of some sort-"
"What does it have to do with this?"
"I'm getting there.
Let's say that one member gets hurt and they need the best medic to cure him. Our dear ex-teammate, who I must admit has still some spies even in our village, can simply come for you and use him as an hostage.
And this can be applied to any other hidden village as well, you know that adopting him, effectively making him the sole heir of one of the most famous ninja clan, won't be a silent affair. This wouldn't be a problem if he were inside the village, where he would be safe, but if you're travelling through the elemental countries..."
"I know, but I can't come back Jiraiya, I just can't." Tsunade said with a sigh averting her eyes.
"But it would be the best thing for him. Do you really want him to grow up like a wanderer without a chance to have a home or friends? He's too young for that kind of life, if you want to adopt him you should start looking out for his future and let go of the past."
Tsunade bit her lip still not looking at him. She knew he was right but...
"You can always wait some years before coming back and adopt him officially, or maybe you can take residence in your grandfather's cottage,
it's in the forest so you would be in the village without really seeing it"
Now that was a good idea.
Who knew that her perverted teammate could think when he wanted to?
"You know, I think I'll do it. Just not now, give me some time and-"
She stopped mid-sentence, her eyes catching something she didn't want to see, something that made her release her killing intent.
Halfway through their conversation Naruto decided it was boring and didn't want to listen. Instead he slid down from Tsunade's lap and stealthily walked behind this Jiraiya person.
He had a large scroll he put down when he came into their house and Naruto also saw a number of papers with some notes and drawings.
He took them without alerting him and began looking through them.
He didn't read the notes, he couldn't, but the images he had no problem identifying them, they were naked women.
His curiosity however was stopped a couple of minutes after by a rising killing intent from Tsunade.
"JI-RAI-YA! KEEP THAT TRASH AWAY FROM A CHILD'S REACH!"
"Hey, it's not my fault!
And how the hell did you manage to sneak up on me, kid?"
"Don't swear in front of him, idiot!" Tsunade reprimanded slapping him upside the head.
Naruto tilted his head staring at the man through his goggles while he took back his papers from his grasp.
In the haste however Jiraiya dropped other papers, this time the ones
he used for seals and a couple of those used to check chakra affinities.
Naruto reached to pick up one of those but, as soon as he touched it, it burst into flames.
"YOU MORON! WHAT DAMNED THINGS ARE YOU CARRYING AROUND A FUCKING CHILD?"
Jiraiya sweatdropped ''So much for not swearing…''
However his thoughts focused on little Naruto, now safely hold in Tsunade's arms, and the ashes that were a paper for chakra affinities.
"Tsunade, you haven't taught him to channel his chakra yet, have you?"
"Of course not, it's not at the top of my list of things I want him to learn eventually."
"Then he must have a bloodline, there's no other explanation for him manifesting an affinity so strong so early.
I mean to have that kind of reaction without even channeling chakra… It's unheard of."
Tsunade looked at him oddly before sighing
"We had a suspicion. Naru-chan, why don't you show your eyes to your godfather, don't worry he won't freak out like that lady we met last week."
He seemed to hesitate a second, but eventually he took off his dark goggles, leaving them hanging around his neck, and looked the toad sannin straight in eyes.
Being somewhat warned by Tsunade's words he didn't show any kind of surprise at his slitted red eyes and just smiled at him.
"What about checking your chakra more closely, gaki?"
Without waiting for an answer he get down to work.
A couple of minutes later Jiraiya went through five handseals and the black inky markings he drew before glowed brightly under his palm.
The symbols all squirmed and suddenly formed a new shape under his hands.
In the end all that was left was a small circle around which there were kanji that symbolized the five elements Lightning, Earth, Wind, Water, and Fire.
"Now kid, this seal essentially works the same way of the paper you touched before. The main difference is that, while that burned too violently for us to see if you have a second affinity, this seal will tell us exactly how your chakra is with regard to every element. Now come here and give me your hand, I'll make you pour some chakra into this."
Jiraiya then took his hand and forced the child to release some of his chakra hitting some pressure points on his arms, a trick Tsunade used on him when they were genin.
Well, itis more like she used him as a practice dummy until she got that right, but the point is that after a couple of months spent with a numb arm he learned the trick too.