Grace
Standard Note and Disclaimer still apply :p
Miako – Thanks to you, my new favourite word is now "lecherous" –Cackles!-
Jennjennr – I love Jiraiya too, me and my friend are like obsessed with him. There shall be more fun stuff mixed in with the serious.
As for those who were wondering about Naruto's tears, you are half correct… but I shall reveal more now…. Muahahaha.
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There was a sight they thought they would never see again. There was Naruto, in only his boxers, cleaning the dried blood off his weapons. But it wasn't this sight that startled them so much (although Naruto in his boxers WAS rather frightening). No, it was the fact that Naruto was crying.
"Hey."
"Naruto.." Sakura began, walking swiftly to the couch he was positioned on and taking a seat. Sasuke closed the door behind him and took up space on Naruto's other side. He eyed his friend, who he considered his honorary brother. Despite the rivers of salt water pouring from his eyes, Naruto wore a smile. Even now he tries to pretend everything it okay. He frowned.
"So we went on some missions today. A B-rank one. Me and Kakashi." Naruto claimed brightly, humming softly as he cleaned his weapons. They were already clean. Naruto's obvious fake smile became broader.
"It turned out to be an A-rank because of the cloud ninjas. But Kakashi and I killed 'em good." Too loud and too obviously trying to appear happy. Sakura and Sasuke knew how much Naruto despised killing, how much he wanted to avoid it. Everyone used to see him as a murderer, a monster and Naruto hated that, hated killing because it proved they were right. However, they had never seen him this bad over it. No, there must be something else bothering him.
"There were 5 of them, I killed 3! Heh, Kakashi got the other two." These words brought Sasuke out of his glum thoughts to study Naruto's face again. His frown deepened. Naruto was oblivious to the crease of concern in his friends' eyes.
"It was so weird too, I mean we just clicked..." at this point Naruto stopped cleaning his already clean weapons and slumped into himself, drawing in and not showing his face.
"Naruto?" Sakura said softly, putting a comforting hand on his shoulder. Naruto didn't shrug it off like he usually would.
"for a moment I totally forgot he didn't know who I was. Iruka doesn't either, I visited him you know. He didn't know anything. Heh, even the Ero-senin doen't recall a thing." Sasuke would later reflect that his next words to Naruto probably weren't a very smart thing to say for the moment. But Sasuke wasn't know for his tact with emotional problems.
"That's because they don't know you yet, Naruto."
"I never thought I'd have to see those eyes again."
Eyes? What eyes? Sakura looked confusedly at Sasuke, who answered her questioning gaze with his own. Who's eyes? Naruto sniffed, whipping his tears away only to have new ones replace them.
"I miss everyone." He admitted. "I miss the Ero-senin, I miss Kakashi, I miss Iruka.. I miss our friends. When we made the decision to leave, I never allowed myself to think about it, because it was too painful." He paused for a moment.
"Most of all, I miss baa-chan." He spoke. "True, she doesn't know me yet, but I never thought I'd have to see those eyes from her again. Those dead cold eyes." Here Naruto shivered. His brother and sister now understood. Naruto was homesick, homesick for the people who loved him.
"I miss when she would grab onto me with tears in her eyes after hearing our mission was an S-rank one, and that we nearly died. I miss arguing with her, I miss her hugs." Naruto wrapped his arms around his legs and curled up in the middle of the couch.
"She's the closest person to a mom I have." Sasuke put his hand on Naruto's head as Sakura embraced him. Normally Sakura wouldn't consider hugging a boy in his boxers only. But Naruto was the exception, always the Exception. In Hindsight, she was glad. Naruto's skin was hot and clammy, unusually so.
"I didn't know that out of everyone, Tsunade meant the most…." Sasuke said, noticing finally that Naruto's head was a bit hot, frowning he watched as Sakura put her hand on his forehead and a hand on her own. Her eyes widened. Naruto's eyes were closed and he seemed relaxed in his curled up position.
"Naruto, you have a fever." She stated looking at him worriedly. Naruto rarely if ever got sick. Sasuke then noticed a slight discoloration on Naruto's skin and pointed it out to Sakura. She frowned when looking at it and asked Sasuke to get some tissue paper. When he returned she took a gentle swipe on the discolored spot and smelt it. After a moment she paled.
"Poison."
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Young girls, young girls, young girls!
"Ohohohohohohoh" Jiraiya chuckled and laughed as he skipped towards his apartment. He tripped several times on his way up the stairs but that didn't dampen his mood. Konoha had such lovely young girls!
He walked down the corridor or rather, swaggered down the corridor and giggled lecherously. He stopped at his door and was about to open it when he heard voices. What a great opportunity to eavesdrop!
"I never thought I'd have to see those eyes again." Ooohhh? That sounded like his roommates voice. Jiraiya frowned.
"I miss everyone. I miss the Ero-senin, I miss Kakashi, I miss Iruka.. I miss our friends. When we made the decision to leave, I never allowed myself to think about it, because it was too painful."
Eh! Ero-enin! He was NOT an… wait. Okay, so maybe he was. That by no means gave the snotty kid the right shout it out to the whole world. Okay so maybe he wasn't shouting either. Jiraiya gave an indignant snort.
"Most of all, I miss baa-chan. True, she doesn't know me yet, but I never thought I'd have to see those eyes from her again. Those dead cold eyes." Jiraiya blinked and thought for a moment. Who was this granny Naruto was speaking of? Jiraiya narrowed his eyes as he stood in the doorway. He was aware that Tsunade had come up behind him and was aiming a punch.
He held his hand up, gesturing to the door, his face serious looking despite the pinkish hue caused from way too much Sake. Now Tsunade was listening in.
"I miss when she would grab onto me with tears in her eyes after hearing our mission was an S-rank one, and that we nearly died. I miss arguing with her, I miss her hugs."
Tsunade mouthed to Jiraiya. 'Who?' she asked. He shook his head and shrugged.
'Dunno.'
"She's the closest person to a mom I have." Jiraiya was getting frustrated. C'mon! on with the secret telling already!
"I didn't know that out of everyone, Tsunade meant the most…." That… sounded like the Uchiha. It was only Jiraiya's quick thinking to put his hand over Tsunade's mouth that kept her from revealing their position. Tsunade: Caring? Compassionate? Mom-like? It was purely unfathomable! However, Jiraiya thought back to the time when Nawaki had been alive, Tsunade had been caring and loving back then…
With his thoughts, he missed Sakura telling Naruto he had a fever, however he did catch the last word she said before Tsunade barged in the room.
"Poison."
Tsunade with her usual cold glare quickly assessed Naruto who was looking at her rather startled. Sakura sighed and wordlessly passed the tissue swab to her in which Tsunade sniffed and turned around and walked away. All this time, Jiraiya was in the doorway nursing a large goose bump on his head. Tsunade could be so mean sometimes…
He didn't have time to recuperate as she came barging back into the room with her medicine kit. She was rummaging around it before stopping and staring at Naruto in shock, her hand gripping her necklace. There, around Naruto's neck, was a necklace completely identical to hers. There was simply no way it could be faked, she knew it.
"I guess you were telling the truth-" she said calmly, her nervous fingers betraying what she actually felt upon seeing a second of Shodai's one of a kind necklace. She got over it quickly and administered an antidote to the poison.
"It seems as though the poison was designed to seep in through the skin." Naruto frowned, feeling very sleepy all of a sudden.
"I do recall he wore gloves." He mused out loud, now sitting cross legged in his boxers. Jiraiya had finally recovered and was staring avidly at Naruto before a small trickle of blood came out his nose.
"YOU!" everyone stared at him as he pointed to Naruto as if seeing him for the first time.
"You're sexy."
SMACK
And that's the story of how Jiraiya's head ended up in the wall.
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Naruto was asleep on the couch with a blanket covering him. Jiraiya was nursing his wounds, while Sasuke was dropping to sleep on the plush chair and Tsunade and Sakura were in the kitchen talking.
"So… you're my apprentice then." Sakura nodded at Tsunade.
"Hai." Tsunade frowned.
"Do you know how he got my necklace then?" Here Sakura smiled.
"Shizune-chan told me. You made a bet with him shortly after meeting him. You bet he couldn't learn Rasengan in a week. You bet on the necklace. Naruto trained so hard for that one week, he apparently didn't even sleep according to Jiraiya-sama." Tsunade twitched at the formal title the girl gave the pervert.
"You were attacked, Jiraiya and Shizune and Naruto came to help you. The one week was up anyways. Jiraiya was only at 30 of his power, so he took on the leader while the Minion fought off Shizune. Shizune was defeated and Naruto was up." Sakura chuckled. "Naruto back then was a Baka. He couldn't fight properly and had too much Stamina with too much Chakra. You were apparently brought down by your fears. You were about to be killed when Naruto took the blow. He caught the persons hand and used Rasengan on him, nearly killing his opponent.
"But. But his opponent was a medical Ninja that managed to create a Chakra scalpel and literally cut the muscles in Naruto's chest, preventing him from breathing. I heard from Shizune that you thought he was dead and yet refused to stop healing him. Apparently he grabbed the necklace and told you he won the bet before falling asleep.
You put the necklace on him I think, and then nearly died defending him from the one who Jiraiya-sama was fighting." Again that twitch at the formal ending given to the pervert.
"Then you kicked butt." Sakura finished, chuckling. Shizune had loved to tell that story. Tsunade had said nothing as she explained, and instead tried to picture the event in her head. She found herself trembling ever so slightly, it was a good story.
"Sou ka.." she muttered looking out of the room towards the living room and specifically, to the couch where a crown of yellow hair could be seen.
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"Do you accept our offer?" asked a dismembered voice from the deepest part of the shadows.
"Hai." Answered a different voice, silky and husky like.
There came laughter from all around before a whispering could be heard.
"Konoha will fall."
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Hahahaha.. my head hurts. Since last chapter was really long, this one is slightly short. ;; sorry sorry.
Also, I'm nearly done formulating the first chapter of another fan-fiction. It's going to be called Skeleton… unless I change it. So keep a look out ;; R R as always! Thank you for reading!