Hunted or Busted: A Side Story

Dusted 2: Faded Grief

((((((((Hunted))))))))

"So how's he doing?"

Jiraiya let out a haggard sigh and shook his head while looking down into the foam of his drink, "You know, half the time you ask that question I feel like you're doing it just to rub it in my face."

"But mostly I'm asking out of genuine interest, you idiot." Tsunade retorted, slapping her friend across the shoulder with a frown, "You're taking care of a child, remember? A child going through a terrible loss and trauma." Jiraiya grumbled and scratched his head as the blonde sternly told him off, "You told me when you decided this that you were going to take care of him!"

"I am! What the hell do you think I've been doing for months?!" Jiraiya yelled back. Tsunade growled and slapped him in the chest. A few people looked over in surprise after the toad was absolutely floored by the woman's insane strength. He laid on the ground and groaned, "I've been trying as best I can. But it's not just hard..."

"I know. I know." Tsunade muttered before sighing and shaking her head. She offered her hand and Jiraiya was quick to take it as she pulled him up to his feet. He dusted himself off before she asked, "Has he been going through the stages like I told you?"

"I think so." The frog rubbed his shoulders before looking at the slug, "I think I've been keeping track. When we finally left and reached my home he just started getting pissed and angry at everything. You remember how much of a little shit he was when I first took him in?" Tsunade nodded, "That stuck for a while. After that I started finding plans for boat rides and Bullhead trips to Atlas. I even found him trying to sneak out a few times with a bag full of whatever he could get his hands on. He was trying to get back to Mantle. Not sure if that counts as bargaining but you're more of an expert on that shit than I am."

"And now?"

"Now?" Jiraiya lowered his head and took a deep breath, "Now he's just sad. He barely has enough energy to eat. Tsunade I don't know if you've ever seen a 12-year old without the willpower to live but it's just unnatural. I remember being that age and we'd run around the forests, daring each other to see how far we could go out into the deserts before we came back. I've never-"

"Yes you have." Tsunade interrupted before looking down dejectedly, "Orochimaru lost his parents at an age like that too, remember?"

"Oh. Right."

"He had to grow up a lot faster after his parents died." Tsunade stopped and looked at her old friend before shaking her head, "It's terrible that a child has to experience something like this, but it's still happening. I understand how hard it must be...but he needs you." She rested a hand on his arm and met his eyes, "Not just for food. Not just for a home. But he feels alone in the world. The only people he ever had in life are gone...and he must feel absolutely crushed by that solitude. If you want to help, you need to be there for him."

"But how?"

"Sometimes...just letting him know you're there can be a big step."

((((((((Dusted))))))))

Minato laid across his bed in complete darkness and stared into the wall by his new bed. He had skipped another day of attending that new school Jiraiya had enrolled him into in favor of staying in bed. He didn't even do anything. Not when Jiraiya tried to call him and tell him food was ready. Not before the frog left for the day and he remained sulking in his room.

It was sad. His father would be so disappointed in him if he could see him now. But he couldn't. He was gone forever. The last he saw of the man was him screaming at Minato to run; hide with the other people in the bunker and be safe while he faced off against the hordes of Grimm. Hours passed. The sounds of ghastly roars and untold destruction happening over their heads with no response or answer. His eyes remained glued to the door and his hands so tightly clenched his knuckles could have popped open.

But then finally there was a response. Soldiers and Hunters coming to their bunker and telling them it was over. The Grimm were pushed back. The bandits were gone.

The village was gone. Razed to the ground and left mostly in ash along with the rest of their world.

But his father was nowhere to be found.

Minato came back onto the surface, witnessing the terror and destruction that wrought his once thriving home and didn't care.

Because his father was nowhere to be found.

He pushed people out of the way. He slipped in between mourning parents and grieving families. He avoided Huntsmen and Huntresses calling for him to stop as he just kept searching. Searching for anything leading him to his father.

Until he found him...under a bloody sheet...along with dozens of rows of other people laid across the ground.

After that Minato just blanked. Everything that happened over the next few days were just one long session of fury and blurs. He only remembers finding his father's knife and taking up Jiraiya's offer. The offer to be able to do something more.

He wanted to. To do more. To get back at everyone that made it happen.

This was Atlas' fault for not coming to help them when they needed it. No, it was Mantle's fault for refusing their help altogether. It was the bandit's fault for trying to steal from them. It was the Grimm's fault for thinking them as just food. It was Jiraiya's and the Hunters fault for not getting there in time.

That was his thinking for so long before he just gave up.

What was he supposed to do?

Hold a grudge for a whole Kingdom? Hate a town that was burned to the ground? Hunt bandits that were already dead? Destroy the Grimm that didn't even exist anymore? Or despise the man that came to his aid and offered him a home when he had nowhere else to go?

That's when it happened. That he just gave up. When he realized that his entire life was gone and there was nothing he could do, he decided to do nothing. He thought it would just be better if he stopped trying.

But it hurt. It hurt worse than any injury.

Everything he thought about...every action he considered taking...made him feel worse and hurt more.

Was this what his life would be like now? Alone? Empty? Because it didn't feel like life. It didn't feel like it did before. It just felt...

Wrong.

His stomach growled and he coughed into his pillow. He winced once he realized just how dry and parched his throat was. He hadn't drunken anything all day.

He felt a need to get up and get something. He pulled himself off the bed and walked out of his room, one hand still firmly gripped around his knife. He came out into the main room and expected to find a dark and empty place.

Instead he found a dark room with his new caretaker watching the TV. Jiraiya must have heard him coming because the white-haired man turned to look at him with his eyes illuminated by the light of the television. The two of them stared at each other for a moment before Jiraiya looked back at the screen.

"I wasn't lying when I said terrible things like this happen all the time. But I guess I didn't specify just how often." Minato looked to the screen and saw a report about another attack somewhere on the coast of Vale. The frog pressed mute and ran a hand through his hair before chuckling, "I came from Menagerie, you know. You know about Menagerie?" He looked back for confirmation and Minato gave a small nod, "It's really beautiful. Filled with forest and greenery and more people than you've probably ever seen. But it's - hehe - it's crowded."

He rubbed his head, "When I was growing up I didn't really have a family. I was sorta just left behind because they couldn't deal with raising a kid. I always felt angry as a kid. Different. Like there was no point for me to be around anymore. So this guy - a monkey Faunus - took me and kept me under his wing. Did that for a lot of kids without homes actually. Tried to teach me right from wrong with mixed results. Even made me realize I could do some good by joining the White Fang and then later apply to be a Huntsman."

Jiraiya's smile faltered before he looked back and motioned for Minato to come join him. The blond boy was hesitant before making his way over and sitting beside the older man. He sat back in the couch as Jiraiya stared forward, "I can't remember when it happened. When I stopped feeling so angry and empty and started feeling fulfilled and happy. I had spent so much of my life like that but to be honest I don't even remember it anymore. Somewhere along the way I found...purpose."

Minato looked up at the Faunus before he turned to him, "I haven't been able to properly help you. I thought just being able to take you in would be enough of a first step but I was wrong. You've been going through by yourself and I'm sorry for that. Sorry I haven't been able to help you like I said I would. Taking care of another person is harder than I ever could have imagined but that's not an excuse."

Minato felt his hand land on his head and looked up as Jiraiya spoke, "I need to be here for you. I want to be here for you. I want to prove to you that there's something more past all this misery and sadness. That this suffering does not have to define you forever. The truth is I can't promise you it will get any easier. Losing people and watching others get lost never does. But you can get stronger and given time I know you can move past this. Because it might not seem like it right now Minato, but there's always something to give you a reason to keep moving on. Whether it's your curiosity...your will...the people around you...yourself...or the people you lost. There's always a reason to keep going."

...

Jiraiya heard a stifled sniffle and looked down at his young ward. The blond boy's eyes were filled with tears leaving streaks down his cheeks. He hiccuped and struggled to level his breathing but failed. Minato clutched his knife as tightly as he could as he doubled over and sobbed, "I miss him. I miss my dad so much! I miss my home! I-I don't know what to do! It hurts!"

"I know."

"I want it to stop! I just want it to stop! W-Why can't it stop?! Why can't it just go away?!"

"Because what you lost was a part of you. And if you wished it away like that...you'd lose it forever."

Jiraiya's hand lowered to the boy's back to help comfort him as the boy cried out. He cried in anger. He cried in pain. He cried for the first time since he lost his father months ago.

It was the first time Minato fell asleep without feeling so angry.

((((((((Hunted))))))))

Minato's eyes opened again when he saw the morning sun shine in across the main room. He had passed out on the couch after speaking to Jiraiya and crying for so long. He sat up, rubbing his eyes and noticing his knife was nowhere in sight. He looked back and saw it lying on the top of the table.

Jiraiya was doing his best to cook up a breakfast with very mixed results. There was burnt toast, poorly peeled fruits, spilled milk and cereal. Just a general mess of foods and drinks. The toad coughed and swiped away at the smoke rising from his failed attempt at an omelette. He gasped for air before noticing his charge, "H-Hey kiddo! I-I tried making breakfast! Check it out if you want!"

Minato looked around at all the terribly singed and inedible food. He looked back up as Jiraiya shrugged, "Like I said taking care of someone else is harder than I thought. But I'll keep trying better. Maybe invest more in prepared food instead of cookable stuff. I'll do my best on that..." He grinned, "And I'll do my best to help you too."

Minato remained silent and looked over the table. He grabbed his knife and before Jiraiya thought he would walk off again he pulled out a chair and sat at the table. He grabbed the most unburnt piece of toast and took a bite. Jiraiya chuckled when he was the boy grimace and gag before whispering, "I...I might want to go to school."

"Do it tomorrow." The toad said with a smile as he came over with his ruined omelette and started forcing it down, "For now let's just try to shovel this crap down together."

Minato have a small nod before he proceeded to eat possibly the worst breakfast he had ever had in his entire life.

And Minato slowly started to notice that the empty feeling inside of him wasn't as suffocating as it was last night.

((((((((Dusted))))))))

Done

How have I never gotten around to doing more Jiraiya. I forgot just how lovable that sick, perverted SOB can be sometimes. He's funny, but at the same time he can be so damn caring and fatherly. Hope I've been able to get that through. This is a younger Jiraiya than the one Naruto ever met so all that certainty and sagely advice hasn't been solidified just yet.

Another fun reason to write these characters I've rarely had the chance to explore. Just wait until I get around to the Madara story. That's going to be something else.

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