AN: Chapter title: The Search Begins
Naruto refused to rub at his tired eyes. Before he had left, Sasuke had handed him a tin of what he had assumed were Military Rations Pills, had been using one himself to stay awake. They were weaker than the ones that would normally give you a boost of energy for three days but also wouldn't result in an utter crash after a certain amount of time.
'He didn't tell me how awful these things are.' Naruto popped another into his mouth, barely suppressed the grimace that wanted to spread over his face the moment the bitter pill touched his tongue. He broke the hard pill between his teeth and chewed, hated the taste but he needed them after the long hours he and Sasuke had spent preparing for his sudden departure, working on, there hadn't been much of a chance to sleep.
Until the Toad Sage decided to rest, he would be running on fumes.
The Military Rations Pills would, hopefully, keep him on his feet until then.
Naruto spotted the gate up ahead, could only guess Jiraiya would be there like he said he would. He found himself thinking of the rather insane plan his Legate had thought up, had found himself agreeing with the more and more he spoke, how he explained it all. 'I'm still not so sure about this plan of his but we don't have much of a choice.'
'At least I was able to say goodbye to Karin.' She had been confused at the early morning wakeup but he had done his best to explain what was happening to her, why he would be gone for so long.
He had also given her his own contingency plan.
As much as he trusted Sasuke, as much as he wanted to think his plan would work, he would not risk his family being taken from him.
If the Hidden Grass tried such a thing, if they dared to hurt her, he'll burn their lands to ash. He'd sooner bloody an entire Legion than allow her to be taken, for them to hurt a single hair on her head.
"Well, took you long enough." Jiraiya appeared in the middle of his next step, Naruto not jumping at his sudden appearance only because he was still too tired to bother. "I was about to head out and see if you had slept in."
"I said I would be on time." 'At least I think I did.' Naruto covertly popped another of the pills into his mouth. "Now, what else can you tell me about this mission?"
"For one, I hope you packed enough." Jiraiya took in the pack on his back, Naruto dressed the same as he had been yesterday. "What kind of supplies do you have?"
"Enough." Naruto refused to let it be known Sasuke had tossed him the pack on his way out his tower in addition to the tin of Military Rations Pills. He had forgotten to pack entirely. While he had been busy saying farewell to Karin, Sasuke had readied it for him.
"You better hope so." Jiraiya had his own much larger pack on, resting above the large scroll he currently had hanging down his back. "The thing about these gambling towns is that they always overcharge. We're going to be roughing it unless you want to foot the bill for a room." He shook his head, laughed. "Last time I tracked her down was just after she left…She conned me into getting a room for her and the kid, left me with one hell of a bill. After she made me empty my wallet after she beat me in drinking contest. I ended up hungover and broke by the next morning."
"…I'll keep that in mind." Naruto adjusted one of the straps on his shoulder. "What else can you tell me?"
"We're going on a heck of a trip, likely around the entirety of the Land of Fire before we find her. The Hokage gave me a good lead to go off of but I'm not so sure about it. The big tip is that she'll supposedly be at Tanzaku Quarters for a festival but we'll still have a few weeks to burn until then. We'll check some of her usual spots to kill time."
"That seems…pointless." Naruto shook his head. "Why not just wait for her?"
"She'll sense us for one. She's both my and Orochimaru's equal in ability and I'm sure she hasn't let her skill decay since we last met. Second, rumors are going to get out. We're going to be as far from Tanzaku Quarters as we can be before we head there, hopefully make her drop her guards while we're at it. I'm trying to avoid a fight with her if I can. If she doesn't expect us, she'll likely drink herself into a good mood, maybe be willing to talk after a bit of gambling." The white haired Shinobi glanced to Naruto. "Trust me, it's better this way."
"…If you insist." Naruto looked away, his focus on the dark buildings they passed. No one seemed to be up beyond a few dozen Shinobi both coming to and going from the village so early, the two earning a few glances but they didn't seem deserving of a second look, they were being almost completely disregarded. Naruto found it a little odd, familiar with a certain attitude from civilians and Shinobi alike.
His confusion must've shown on his face, Jiraiya settled a hand on his shoulder.
"Hey, don't worry about that. Most people seem to have had some sense knocked into them recently." He grinned, offered a reassuring smile to his pupil. "There's no shortage of people who you saved with that army of yours. Any Shinobi worth their name will understand what that means."
Naruto said nothing.
He was currently eating yet another of the Military Rations Pills from the tin, was keeping his face turned away because he couldn't hide the grimace that crossed his face at just how bad this one seemed to be.
'Fuck, these are awful. Why can't my tongue just be numb already?' He pocketed the tin once more.
"To be honest, I'm curious how this is going to go." Jiraiya looked down the road, past what was on the path ahead of the two of them. "I haven't seen or talked to her in well over a decade. There's no telling what she's going to be like now, if she's going to even still think I'm her friend." He couldn't help but shake his head at how poorly things have turned out. "I guess we'll see if we find her."
Naruto wasn't paying much attention to the Toad Sage, was forcing himself to swallow the chewed up pill. For a moment, he thought he might even hurl from how bad it tasted.
The two continued on, past the gates and out onto the road. Jiraiya had handled the gate guards with a simple look, his travel already cleared by the Hokage himself. There was no need to deal with formalities with a mission like this.
A pair of Legionnaires had been leaning on their shields just outside the wall, idly conversing about one thing or another. By the design of their armor, they must had been from the Sixth. They had been busy recently, escorting any number of civilian contractors, supplies, and more to the village.
Both snapped from their relaxed stance at his arrival, bringing their fist to their armored hearts.
"Caesar, we weren't expecting you." One of the Legionnaires spoke for the both of them.
Naruto returned the salute without breaking his stride.
"Carry on my brothers." Naruto continued on, Jiraiya spending a moment to take in what had just happened.
The two were already leaving, not running but definitely in a rush of some kind as they left, headed deeper into the woods. Naruto could guess whoever had been in command of the escort was who they were going to see.
'Well, there goes keeping my absence under wraps.' Naruto considered catching up to the two, ordering them to keep his obvious departure a secret, but decided against it. 'Sasuke can handle it. Him and his Tribunes.'
He was still against the idea but this would be as well of a test as any. Regardless, they didn't have much of a choice still. Sasuke was sure to leave the village thanks to the whims of the Daimyo, would be gone at the same time as him. His Legion couldn't be left leaderless.
He popped another pill into his mouth, actually preferred the bitterness on his tongue than the bitterness of the situation they had found themselves in.
He didn't see the eyes on him for a moment, focused more on keeping his grimacing face away from the Toad Sage, settled for pretending to be interested in the trees around them, searching them for an imaginary threat.
'Those reports must have been biased against you Naruto. You're almost a dead ringer for your old man when I was teaching him.' If the blonde had longer bangs, loss the whisker marks, and his skin held a lighter tan he would have been a dead ringer for his greatest student and one of the greatest Shinobi to ever live. 'He was a genius with no equal in his day but you may just surpass him. That tireless nature of yours to improve, to never settle, it'll take you far. Maybe you'll even be the one the Great Elder spoke of.'
The Chunin grimaced as he popped yet another of the energizing bitter tasting pills into his mouth.
"Ugh, that's disgusting." He tried to hide how terrible they were, how often he was eating them, but Jiraiya had caught on rather quick.
'Looks like he had an all-nighter. Didn't think he would be this nervous.'
He couldn't help but compare even his grimace to his father's, how similar the two were even if son had never known him, the great man he was.
The small smile he bore, the proof of the Sannin being lost in his own thoughts, did not go unnoticed by Naruto.
It had never gone unnoticed before.
He simply chose to comment on it at last.
It may have also helped that his tiredness had burned down his normal patience to near nothing.
"You are looking at me rather strangely Toad Sage. Again." Tired blue eyes stared at the Sannin. "Ever since I've met you, since you aided my training to master the Tailed Beast, without fail, you've gotten that look on your face. Why?" He didn't look away as dark eyes regained their focus, whatever had distracted him was gone.
"You're really that curious?" Jiraiya wasn't laughing as he normally would, seemed set to actually answer. "What brought this on?"
"Is it that difficult to believe I'm, surprisingly, grateful to have you as a teacher? I would like to continue learning under you but you're distracted nearly every time we meet. If we're going to be traveling for so long together, I think I should know what's causing it." Naruto popped yet another pill from the tin into his mouth, grimaced at the taste. "Unless it's too personal. I wouldn't demand such a thing from you."
"Hmm." Jiraiya shook his head, his gaze shifting away from Naruto and back on the path they walked as his focus turned inward. He considered against it but it was pointless in the end. After everything that he had been through for the village, everything he had done for his home, it wasn't right to keep such a thing from him anymore. It had never been right to deny him the truth. The boy deserved to know. The fear that someone could take out an old grudge on the boy was nonexistent now. With his control over the Kyubi itself, with his Kinjutsu providing an army that couldn't be beaten, there was no need to fear anymore. He deserved to know regardless. He had a right to know. "You just remind me a lot of an old student of mine. He was a lot like you but I guess it should be a given. He was your father after all."
Naruto's attention was immediately laser focused on the Sannin. He came to an outright stop, forced Jiraiya to do the same as he stared unmoving at the white haired Shinobi.
"You knew my father?" The image of a Caesar was swiftly and suddenly gone. A boy, one desperate to discover anything about a parent he had never known, could not even remember the face of, replaced him. "What can you tell me about him Toad Sage?" The Caesar quickly reasserted itself. The man who called himself such did not act in any way to acknowledge any of what had just happened, no blush of embarrassment covered his face. He was stone faced through practice. "You obviously know who he is, correct?"
"Of course I do, I said I taught him didn't I? In fact, everyone knows your old man." Jiraiya lifted a hand, his finger pointing to a particular carving on the ever-looming Hokage Monument. "After all, his face is up there for everyone to see every day."
"What are you talking about?" Naruto turned his eyes in the direction Jiraiya pointed and, instantly, everything connected.
His eyes widened, his breath hitched, and he nearly fell over if he hadn't caught himself. He could not hide his shock this time. He could never dream of maintaining the image of a Caesar when he had at last learned the identity of his father.
"Th-the Fourth Hokage? He was my..." It was as if he was incapable of speaking such a thing.
"Yeah." His hand fell back down to his side, his mind wandering into the past once more. "Minato Namikaze was your dad."
AN: Well, all of that just happened. Nothing else to say really. Honestly, no major developments in the slightest happened in these past near dozen chapters. Yep. Nothing at all.
Moving on, got hung up on a lot of things, others were written much quicker in comparison. This update finally reached the point where it was a good enough length to push it out and see what happens next. Some of it has already been written, the rest is just an idea gradually taking shape.
Review if you want.
PM me if you want.
Peace.