fall into a light sleep Hitori no yoru ni
I'm beginning to learn kanashimi no shikumi
Anata no Nukumori kakushi
Afuredeta sonoyami ni obieru
Fall into a light sleep, on a lonely night
I'm beginning to learn the designs of sorrow
The hiding away of your warm presence
Makes me fear the overflowing darkness.

Half-Pain, Witch Hunter Robin ED

It began, as the important things often did, with minutiae.

Honestly, Jiraiya might have missed it entirely, had he not known what to look for. However, he had once served as mentor and guardian to another boy very similar to the one currently sleeping across the campfire from him, and so he knew exactly what to look for. True, he hadn't expected it so early, but…

Ah, well. Naruto did not conform to expectations – both in a negative and apositive sense – very much in anything else, so why should he here?

So, the white-haired Sennin was not surprised when Naruto's always-healthy appetite sharpened into a voracious hunger, one that made Naruto bolt even the most unappetizing of meals – food he would have turned his nose up at before, not wolfed down - and never seem satisfied. What remained of Naruto's childhood roundness melted away almost too quickly, leaving the boy lean and sharp, his bones jutting out at angles that gave him a pinched, dangerous look. Too often, Jiraiya was reminded of starvelings he'd run into, journeying into less…prosperous areas than Fire Country. Starvelings, with their thinness – and their despairing earnestness to fill their bellies.

True, Naruto was not in such desperate straits – and, as a trained ninja, he knew how to keep functioning despite a lack of body-fuel. Still, Jiraiya began to cut down on training, so as to give Naruto more chances to go hunting and foraging. Naruto, also expectedly, chose hunting most of the time. And Jiraiya never needed to order him to go hunt anymore, though reminding him to share the food was sometimes necessary.

(Besides, hunting was in itself a sort of training, wasn't it?)

Jiraiya was not any more surprised (although much more amused) when Naruto began to shock himself every time he touched something metallic. He was walking around with a constant static-charge, so that his hair stuck up more – even with his new, short, half-accidental haircut - and sometimes Jiraiya could see tiny arcs of electricity dancing over his pupil's skin, particularly over his fingers.

Arashi had had that, too.

He'd never been able to figure out whether it was chakra-leakage, or static buildup from constant motion, or some other strange physical result of the boys' Bloodline. In any case, it would perhaps be worth it to purchase a pair of gloves for Naruto, the next time they went to town…

The campfire sizzled and popped as a log collapsed into ashes.

At the slight sound, Naruto bolted upright. He moved with a violent abruptness, and as he swept the campsite with his eyes, there was more than a hint of a wild, trapped animal in his actions. His eyes met with Jiraiya's briefly, and then Naruto was gone; had whirled away like the sparks from the fire.

Jiraiya sighed. Naruto badly needed a full night of sleep, but tonight – as had been the case lately – he wouldn't get it. He wouldn't – couldn't – stay still long enough for it, no matter how much he tired himself out in the day.

Naruto had always been a restless child. Much of it could be ascribed to the lack of attention he'd suffered when young, until being manically hyperactive was the only way he knew to get acknowledgement. The rapid rate of healing and the chakra-reservoir that the Kyuubi gave him played a part in that too, Jiraiya was sure.

But that inability to keep still had never been as severe as it was now. Naruto literally could not even sit for more than a minute at a time before jumping to his feet – fidgeting the whole while. When he talked, he used his whole body to add emphasis, with quick violent gesturing and pacing; when he fought, there was a good deal of unnecessary movement. Even when he was moving, it always seemed like he wasn't moving enough – he fairly vibrated with pent-up energy.

Jiraiya sighed and turned over. Naruto would run until morning. Till then, all he could do was sleep.