Hello again everyone. I'm pleased to see you're all still enjoying the story. Not much to say here other than the usual and a quick response to my reviews. There was a comment the other day about Yondaime (whom they really need to give a name) and Anko. While I've always planned to include both in the story (in fact, this chapter includes Yondaime's introduction) I don't have any plans for interaction between them. Their age difference is too vast, I think, for anything interesting to happen before Yondaime dies. Anko is two years younger than Kakashi, who we can approximate is about ten years younger than Yondaime, if not more. Since we were never given an age for Yondaime, it makes things difficult.

Which, of course, brings me back to my fudging of the timeline. All ages and times are simply my own best guesses and shouldn't be taken as cannon. And speaking of cannon, I'm probably going to hold off on my Anko chapters until the current filler arc concludes. While I don't tend to consider filler as an official part of the timeline, since as far as we all know, Kishi hasn't really had any input in the storylines, I want to see how this Anko arc unfolds before I start to include her. So if this arc goes on too long, there might be a bit of a break in the fic. Hopefully not, though.

Ok, so I did have a lot to say. Please continue to enjoy. Please read and review.

-sor

Things returned to normal more quickly than I might have expected and as the months grew warmer our conflict with Iwagakure grew less heated. True, there were still scattered confrontations, but they were minor and few lives were lost in the process. For that reason, life in Konoha was much as it had been when I was young. Missions were more common but they were simplistic so it was not unusual to find a ninja within the walls of the village more often than out. Most took advantage of this and indulged in unseemly amounts of leisure time, Jiraiya included. I allowed him to drag me to a few bars every now and again, but I preferred to put my time to better use now that I had it.

Finding solitude in Konoha was a challenge at times, especially during those first few months of quasi peace. Plus, given the overall jovial mood that had saturated the village ever since the Academy graduation, there was hardly a meter that wasn't occupied by one screaming brat or another. Those children were running about here and there celebrating their good fortune, calling themselves ninja when really they were nothing more than trained monkeys who were capable of only a few tricks. One did not become a ninja simply by getting good grades on his report card.

I had taken refuge on the rooftops, which most of the brats neglected to notice. They were more obsessed with running like fools through the streets with their forehead protectors on so that everyone they met would know they were ninja now. Ridiculous.

There was a trio below me, unaware of my presence where I rested on the roof, just above the benches the three were perched on, one yellow haired brat hanging upside down from the armrest like the monkey he was. They were loud, too. The yellow haired one was laughing like an idiot as he dangled, taunting his darker teammate, who stood scowling at him unhappily.

Did they make all the teams alike? Did every team have to have a Jiraiya?

I scoffed at them, resolving to ignore their bickering. I had retreated to the rooftops, after all, to pursue quiet study and I refused to let some noisy children disrupt my most important pursuit of knowledge. I had recently acquired a pair of new scrolls; ancient jutsu rarely put into practice any longer, but still useful. Enemies never expected one to use archaic jutsu. My sources had become increasingly productive since the lull in conflict and as of late I had been almost overwhelmed by their successes. So much so, that I had dismissed a few, finding no need to empty my pockets when only a handful of men would do.

When I say that I dismissed these men, I do not mean only that I thanked them for their services and sent them on their way. I mean that after their dismissal, they did not make it back to their villages of origin.

In any case, luck was not on my side that day as the monkey brat started shouting again. I could hear him clearly, even from such a distance. Some nonsense about becoming Hokage someday. That was a laugh! There was only one man in Konoha suited to following Sarutobi-sensei and that was not some yellow headed monkey child.

The brat's laughter was echoed from behind me, but I didn't turn. I had heard Jiraiya approach, but hadn't done him the courtesy of a greeting. He never seemed to need one anyway. It only amused him more when I ignored him, I think, so I was perfectly content to give him what he wanted.

His huge shadow fell across the scroll I had been attempting to read and a moment later his face was hovering just over my shoulder, so close that I instinctively shied away a few inches. The big oaf had no respect for personal space. I cast an unhappy glare over my shoulder at him, but as the expression wasn't something he wished to acknowledge, he didn't seem to notice it at all. "Studying again? And what is all this? These jutsu haven't been used in generations."

Before he could poke his nose any further into my studies, I rolled the scroll up and set it aside. "Every jutsu has its uses. It takes a very dense mind not to understand such a concept."

Jiraiya only laughed at that before dropping into a crouch at my side by the roof's edge. His eyes were focused on the monkey child, which came as no surprise to me. Ten years prior, Jiraiya would have been doing the same nonsense while pestering me to join him in such an undignified position. Or, more likely, attempting to get a look up Tsunade's skirt. Her chest had still been quite flat at the time; otherwise he might have been climbing trees in order to peer down her blouse.

There were no such thoughts on his mind now, though, or at least they were pushed to the side for the moment. I was never fool enough to think that perversion was very far from his mind. But for now, he was grinning like the idiot he was at those annoying kids. "Yours, I would assume?"

"That's right." He was laughing again, probably because little monkey had toppled from the back of the bench, landing in an undignified heap on the grass. I, on the other hand, was not amused. Jiraiya never took his eyes off the brats, but he spoke again to me. "I don't get why you didn't want to take a team. You're a smart guy. Coulda taught kids."

The thought of myself instructing a team of genin nearly made me laugh. I hated children. Even when I was a child myself, I'd hated children. Sandaime knew this and so he hadn't pushed me like some others had, though he did drag me along a few weeks before graduation to watch the runts train. He'd called them the most impressive group to come out of the academy since Jiraiya, Tsunade, and I. My first reaction was to think he'd begun to go senile at an early age. I was unimpressed by the lot of them. Certainly they could perform ninjutsu as well as any child, but there was nothing extraordinary.

Sandaime had told me my standards were set too high. Perhaps he was right, but I would rather have high standards than breed a village of weaklings. That was yet another part of the reason I refused to take on a team. I knew myself well enough to know that I would constantly be comparing them to myself and they would never measure up to the example I would have set. By the time I was their age, I was already leading my team on missions, not scampering about in the grass, proud of my ability to perform a perfect henge.

I dismissed Jiraiya's words with a curt wave of my hand. "I would have killed them in the first moment." I gave a slight gesture towards the monkey. "That one most especially."

"That one?" He hadn't taken his eyes off of the brat. "I like him. He reminds me of somebody pretty talented." As if to unintentionally punctuate the statement, the monkey brat toppled from the top of the bench again.

Again, I was not amused. Or rather, I was not amused by the boy's antics. I was, however, most amused by Jiraiya's attempt at complimenting himself. "One would imagine such a comparison would have you more worried. Or do you plan to teach him only to spy on the ladies' hot springs?" What was meant as an insult was taken as a compliment, though I expected no different from him. I had long since stopped being disgusted with Jiraiya. There was no cure for him. So long as his lechery did not interfere with my studies, he and I could exist in the same space, even work together, though I noted with what was perhaps a hint of sadness that our days as teammates were ended. Jiraiya had his team now.

A frightening thought, that. Jiraiya in charge of molding the minds of impressionable young children. Perhaps the monkey would enjoy his teachings, but the other two, I honestly pitied. They seemed like normal children. How could they guess that they would soon be in the hands of a pervert?

"Ah, maybe," I could practically see the wheels in Jiraiya's head turning, albeit at a very slow pace. "If he shows a talent for it, there's no harm in letting him tag along."

"No harm?" I even chuckled at that, though it was little more than a few soft breaths. I didn't even bother to grace that thought with further comment. But, perhaps Jiraiya was right. The boy already looked practically brain damaged. There was little more that could harm him. Rather than pursue such thoughts, though, I shifted the conversation away from Jiraiya's favorite pastime. "How long do you plan to keep them waiting?"

"Just long enough to be sure they're eager to play." He shifted slightly, one hand slipping into the pocket of his jacket. When I glanced his way again, he opened his fist, allowing a pair of bells to drop from his fingers where they hung, jingling softly on their strings. If I thought it possible, I would have said his grin had expanded another mile.

Even I had to smile. "Ah, I see. Be careful, Jiraiya-kun. Sarutobi-sensei won't be there to untie you this time."

As always, when I showed a hint of humor, it seemed to lift the fool's spirits far too much and this time it prompted him to give me one of those firm pats on the back I have always detested. He never seemed to notice my aversion to his touch. Sadly, I was far too used to it. "I have a bet with Tsunade over which will get the log. You interested?"

Leave it to Tsunade to turn everything into a bet. How ridiculous. "No, I am not interested. Though I would predict the little monkey brat."

Jiraiya didn't respond to my insult against his student, but he did grin a bit more, tucking the bells safely back into his pocket. "She chose him, too." His smile did falter for a moment, though, as he contemplated his bet. "Mind loaning me some cash to pay her off?"

At first I thought he was joking, but when he didn't laugh at his own joke, I found he was quite serious. "You shouldn't make bets with her that you cannot pay. If I keep helping you, I may as well make the bets for you."

"Not a bad idea." He grinned that grin that told me he was up to something and held out his hand as if he fully expected me to place money in it with no further argument. I had stopped paying off his debts years ago, when I'd discovered he had a weakness for sake and I did not intend to make it a habit again.

Rather than further indulge him, I gave his hand a shove before turning my attention back to the brats. "They're becoming impatient, Jiraiya. Perhaps you should stop begging for money and attend your duties." Indeed, the brat had gone from toppling from the bench to climbing on the adjacent stone wall, which was far too high for a boy his size. "Look, he'll break his head if you don't watch over him."

That boy was a disaster. Worthless in every way.

"He won't break anything." Jiraiya waved off my concern dismissively. "Kids are tough. They fall down all the time."

"Yes, but most of them don't do it on purpose," I commented, watching the boy take another fall from the wall, managing a sloppy little summersault in the middle of his descent. This one was showing off for the rest of his team. I was surprised I hadn't noticed sooner. Jiraiya had always pulled the same stunts when he had Tsunade for an audience.

"Ah, see. I told you he was talented!" It was just like Jiraiya to find such a trait favorable. Those two were made for one another. Let them enjoy it before they managed to get each other killed, most likely by a riot of women outside the bath house.

"Strange talents," I replied. The boy had remained sprawled in the grass for a moment, laughing at something only he seemed to find funny. "However, I think I have discovered a technique I would not bother to learn." I could survive without perfecting the fine art of showing off for girls.

"I always knew your priorities were screwed up." Jiraiya rose then, at long last, giving the trio of children one final appraising glance. It was strange to see him like this. Never once before had I ever seen the man look quite so responsible. It was a word I had never thought to use in conjunction with Jiraiya before, but it seemed to fit him well now. He looked down at those children like they had already mastered every possible jutsu in the world when really they were nothing more than worthless little puppets who may grow someday into decent ninja. Whatever affection Jiraiya had for them was pointless and yet I found myself almost jealous of him. Why? I couldn't be sure. Perhaps it was something so simple as knowing that no matter what idiotic things he said, those brats would always look up to him.

"Enjoy yourself, Jiraiya-sensei." I was sure to add a bit more sarcasm to that brand new title of his. Sensei. Ridiculous.

"You should come watch if you ever get bored with that stupid studying. It's bound to be an interesting test." With a final wave, given as an after thought, Jiraiya vanished from the roof, or at least to the naked eye it would seem that way. I could observe the movement, however, fast as it was, and I tracked it down to the stone wall where he appeared again, squatting along the top just above the spot in the grass where the monkey brat lay.

The boy scrambled to his feet, nothing but smiles despite the fact that he should have been embarrassed to be caught in such an ungraceful posture. He didn't seem to mind making a fool out of himself. Neither did Jiraiya. It was then that I feared for Konoha, especially after the brat said something that sent Jiraiya into a fit of laughter.

Had I wanted to, I could have slipped closer undetected, even by Jiraiya, and observed their conversations, which no doubt consisted of nothing more than discussion of 'super cool' jutsu and Tsunade's breasts. I was content, though, to observe from a safe distance. Once, I saw Jiraiya glance my way, grinning like a fool, in an attempt to no doubt sway me into accepting a team of my own.

Never in all my years would I do such a ridiculous thing!

But I did observe the test that day, despite my better judgment. Jiraiya surprised me. He was, and I thought such a thing with all the reluctance in the world, good with the children and they were responsive, even if they were loud and thoughtless. Retrieving a bell from Sarutobi-sensei had posed no real challenge for me, but it seemed as if Jiraiya kept the kids on their toes. Good for him. Though it could just as easily have been a sign of the lack of skill on his team.

The monkey brat got the log, just as I'd expected.

And just as I'd expected, I paid off half of Jiraiya's debt to Tsunade, mostly to prevent her from making it impossible for him to ever enjoy a cup of sake again. He attempted to thank me by dragging me to some club. Something with half dressed women doing nothing productive with their lives. Enjoyable as the view was, it was nothing more than another added disruption in my work. I left after the first hour. Jiraiya, trapped in a haze of smoke and sake, didn't even notice.