This story is inspired by
Razuhfy: Age Is But A Number
Slythefoxx2: A Snakes Obsession
Thought I'd complete the trifecta.
Konoha Hospital
Naruto regained consciousness but didn't have the energy to open his eyes yet. He lay in the hospital bed, knowing where he was but refusing to believe it. Here he lay, in his own failure, yet again. Every single time things are going well it all goes wrong again. Getting recognised for beating the prodigy of last year's genin class, defeating an invading Jinchuuriki and officially becoming the apprentice of Gamabunta-Sama. What does he get in return? The closest person in his life gets killed by his own student. His Jiji was taken away from him because yet again life was going too well for him. The one person he could rely on was now gone.
Alone.
Alone yet again, nobody knew him like his Jiji did. He may have more connections now but none can compare to the relationship he had with the third Hokage. That hole in his heart kept getting bigger and bigger. He wanted to cry but Naruto had learned long ago that crying does nothing but irritate your face. 'What would Jiji say?' "Keep pushing forward Naruto, one day you'll be loved by them all."
Yeah right. Who was he kidding, the village pariah, the container, the unwanted kid.
"Hey kid, get out of your own head, I can feel your thoughts from over here."
Ah, of course, Jiraiya. What was she doing here? Surely she would be busy helping the village recover alongside Tsunade -baa-chan?
"Hey sensei"
Naruto opened his eyes to look upon the form of his admittedly beautiful sensei. She had helped train him for the chuunin exams. Only recently they had gone to bring Tsunade back to the village. In that time Naruto had connected with his sensei. While she had questionable habits, she was solid. Yeah he may have run into two S-rank ninja in that time but she was there when necessary. To make two notorious nuke-nin think twice about facing her said a lot about her abilities.
"Why are you here Sensei? Shouldn't you be out helping Tsunade with the village?"
"I couldn't leave my precious apprentice to recover alon could I?"
"Kakashi always did."
"Is that right? Seems like Kakashi and I are gonna have a conversation." The air around Jiraiya grew noticeably dark as she said this.
"Oi, sensei.." Naruto sweat dropped. Sometimes Jiraiya was a bit too much.
"Anyway, how are you keeping gaki? You seem to be healing up pretty well physically, but how are you mentally?"
… Why the sudden care? Nobody cared about my mental state? As always I just go through this by myself and keep on going. 'One day it'll all get better. Day by day, gotta keep movivng.'
"I'm fine sensei. I'll be up and at em in no time!" Naruto put on his usual carefree attitude but stopped as soon as she saw Jiraiya's face, why was she angry?
"Yeah that's not gonna fly kid. I can see right through that. Sensei died recently and now you're teammate left the village as a traitor. Tell me what's up. I know it's hard to trust but I'm asking for yours right now."
Oh.
She did care, this was new. How do I react? Let's go wiiith ignoring it.
"I don't wanna talk about it Sensei. I can deal with it by myself, I always do."
Jiraiya's face soured and turned. "Gaki, I'm your sensei, I'm going to be your sensei for quite some time and my belief is that the best way to deal with this is to face it head on. Take the plaster off quickly, It'll hurt at first but it will heal much quicker. I promise you I care, as little as that means to you right now, you'll learn I truly mean it."
Naruto squirmed, he really didn't want to deal with this right now. Being reminded of his failure right after waking up wasn't his idea of fun.
"I have a bit of experience with teammates turning missing-nin you know."
Oh yeah, right Orochimaru. The bastard that Sasuke had run off to. Maybe he'd let his sensei take the lead here and try and get through his thoughts. "Okay Sensei, I'm ready to talk. First though, are you disappointed in me? I failed again like I always do. Now another person has left and I'm alone again. Just like after the invasion and before Team 7. My circle gets bigger only to get the biggest pieces cut out time and time again. What do you even see in me?"
"Disappointed? Don't be ridiculous. You managed to summon a boss summon and learn the hardest pure chakra manipulation in the same month through sheer determination and willpower. As for failing? You stopped a Jinchuuriki that had gone into full Bijuu mode saved all of your friends and hundreds if not thousands of people. As for being alone, you have your precious sensei. Like you said it's about quality not quantity. I'll never fill the hole Sarutobi-sensei left but I hope to help ease your pain and remind you that whatever you think and however lonely you get. You can rely on me. That's the promise of a life time."
Naruto could cry, here was his sensei, someone he had only met 2 months ago and she was already creeping her way into his heart and becoming a supporting pillar to keep him sane. What did he do to deserve such a woman. Just to make sure however.
"Sensei, nobody has ever wanted me, I've only ever been put into situations with people who have had to deal with me and they've come to like me. So why are you different? You came and helped me, how do I know you won't leave like everyone else eventually does?"
"I have my personal reasons, reasons I'll reveal to you when you're ready, but really gaki? The main reason I'm willing to invest so much time in you is because a fellow lost soul recognises that crippling loneliness. How could I let someone I've come to care for suffer on their own? If only one more person goes to sleep peacefully and doesn't have to toss and turn, wondering if they mean anything to anyone, then that's enough for me."
Jiraiya… What a person. Suddenly Naruto felt okay enough to get out of bed. Alright one leg at a time.. "OW" Naruto collapsed to the ground but before he could hit it Jiraiya caught him.
"Kami damn it kid. You've only just woken up. Stay in bed and recover okay? I've got some errands to run but I'll be back when you wake up. Get some rest, you need it."
Jiraiya placed her charge back in the bed and waited until he passed out again. This village really messed her godson up, how could they do something to someone so cute? Minato really dropped the ball on this one. She would make right by her previous apprentice and raise Naruto right. This training trip was really gonna help him. She was sure of it. Now for these errands. The hot springs had recently been rebuilt and the female body wasn't gonna admire itself.
With that Jiraiya sealed up the room and jumped out the window. Let it be known she didn't take second measures when it came to the people she cared about.
A week later
Naruto had been in and out of consciousness over the past week. He had been visited by some of his fellow genin but most of them were still recovering from the mission. Gaara had come by to visit. It was a short sweet and quite awkward visit.
"How are you?"
"Recovering, and you?"
"The next time I see the Uchiha I will crush him."
This was said unblinkingly and then Gaara left.
Gaara was decidedly weird, but a welcome change from his usual classmates. Both of them understood loneliness. They just dealt with it differently.
Jiraiya entered the window in her usual fashion. "So Gaki I've got great news for you! We're going on a training trip for 3 years alright let's go!"
…. "Huh?" responded Naruto intelligently.
"Training trip, me you, with each other, 3 years. Let's go!"
"Again. Huh?!"
"To put it nicely, you've got a group of S-rank missing-nin after you trying to take the big ball of hatred inside of you. I'm gonna make sure that when they try it's gonna be damn near impossible. I've got three years to make you as strong as possible."
"Oh okay, when do we leave?"
"hmmmm how does right now feel?"
"But I haven't even gotten to say goodbye to anybody! And my apartment! I can't just leave!"
"That's what you think brat. I've gotten all the important stuff out of the way, anyone that wants to say goodbye is waiting for you at the gates. Make sure to take note who is there. These are the people you can rely on when we get back."
'As depressing as the thought of not many people wanting to see him off, his sensei was right. He had to make himself less available and see who his true friends were.'
"Okay sensei let's go. I trust you."
"I'd hope so Naruto, I do care you know. Your poor sensei had her heartbroken when her only apprentice wouldn't open up to her. Oh woe is me!"
"Oi stop sensei. That's not fair!" Yeah Naruto could definitely spend 3 years with her. As goofy as she was there were layers of depth there and an understanding between them that was difficult to explain but incredibly welcome.
Naruto got up out of bed and noticed that his wounds were fully healed. For all the bad the Kyuubi gave him, at least he got a bit of a trade off with his healing rate.
Jiraiya and Naruto made their way to the Main gate leaving Konoha. When they got there they noticed that a small crowd had formed.
Most notably Tsunade, Shizune and Iruka stood together to wave him off.
Off to the side were some of his graduating class. Shikamaru and Hinata were conversing secretly. Kiba and Chouji were still in the hospital after the retrieval mission.
Tsunade was the first to speak up. "Alright Gaki, as much as I hate the idea of this I have to agree the pervert has a point. She has a knack for training incredible shinobi so train hard and come back a man that I can be proud to call one of my ninja!"
She came close to him, hugged him, kissed his forehead and whispered in his ear. "Most importantly, stay safe, if you ever feel alone just remember your promise to me and the jewel around your neck. I'll see you in 3 years."
"I'll see you around Naruto-Kun!" waved Shizune
"Come back strong Naruto! The first bowl of ramen is on me when you come back!" Iruka said from beside her. Hmm they would make a good couple.
"Hey idiot, make sure you get strong when you come back, I don't want to be the only Jounin from our graduating class when you come back."
"Oi Shikamaru, I'll leave you in the dust. Make sure you don't slack off, as easy as that is for you." Naruto replied with a smile, he fistbumped Shika, he was a real one.
Naruto looked at Hinata. To put it nicely, Hinata was weird. She never really said much and normally fainted when he was around.
She ran up to him handed him a package, meeped and ran away. Before she made it all the way back to the gate she turned and said "Train hard Naruto! Ah!" aaand she was gone. Strange girl.
Naruto opened the package. It was ointment. What was with this girl and giving him ointment?! Again, strange girl.
"Alright brat, seems like it's time to go. We've said our goodbyes. Take one last look at the village because we'll be gone for a long time."
"Bye everybody!" He was about to turn to his new adventure before he saw something in the distance. It was a moving pink blob. Oh, it was her. Great.
"Waaait! Don't go yet Naruto!"
Oh maybe she could redeem herself a bit here.
"Make sure you train extra hard! So we can both go and rescue Sasuke-kun when he comes back!" Sakura said with a smile.
Silence.
Naruto felt the anger rolling off of Jiraiya. Time to fix this.
Naruto put on his goofy persona and shouted back. "Of course Sakura! When I come back we'll go out and get team 7 back again!" 'I'll pay him back with a rasengan in the chest.'
"Sensei, let's go."
Jiraiya said nothing but just stood there pinning the pink haired girl with a stare. After a moment. "Yeah, let's go kid. Wouldn't want to waste time we could be using to rescue Sasuke right?" She stared right at me.
'What did I do?'
Jiraiya grabbed Naruto by the arm and body flickered out of there.
"Alright brat, first of all, that is not a friend. I hope you know that."
"I know sensei, team 7 was my only real connection for a while. When we get back if Sasuke wants we can get him back, if not I'll return the favour he gave me with a rasengan."
"Get him back?" Jiraiya muttered to herself. "No worries, we can beat stupidity out of him."
"Oi sensei, I can hear you"
"That's the point."
"Oh."
"Alright, I couldn't tell you this outside the village but we're alone now. I told Tsunade we were gonna travel the world but personally that seems wasteful, and after a while it all looks the same anyway. I'm gonna bring you the home of your summons, Mount Myoboku. While we're there I'll introduce you to the elders and prepare you for the advantage you'll need to face S-rankers confidently."
"Alright Sensei let's go!
*Reverse Summoning no Jutsu*
So…. I know what you're thinking, female Jiraiya? Well fuck you is why. Had to complete the trilogy. To the FBI pls ignore this I promise this ain't sus.
Read, review, juice yourself, have fun or don't I genuinely don't care. This could genuinely be finished before GoS KEKW
Join the bloody damn Discord Server. Invite code is StPc5V (Probably?)
SEE YA LAAAATEEERRR