Sealing Salientia - Chapter 21: Friendship - Author: PenSmoke

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, nor make any profit from writing this.

Previously on Sealing Salientia:
Subtlety was the name of the game here. Kurama knew that much for certain. He hoped that the strategy would pay off sooner rather than later. He had a red-eyed man to hunt down and kill. Then freedom to enjoy.

Kumogakure
December, Year 69

Jiraiya had found himself in the exact position that he didn't want to be in when he first left Konoha with Naruto about three and a half years ago. Faced off with a foreign shinobi that was superior to him in speed, this would have likely been a death sentence in those first months.

But, since his epiphany from Naruto about getting his chakra working again, this was the perfect chance to show off and test his skills like never before. He stood across a rocky jagged landscape from a Kumo shinobi, ready to do battle. He had his arm resting on his leg matrix while he stood, using miniscule movements to prepare a technique without arousing his opponents' ire. They were both waiting for a signal that the other was ready to strike.

A small breeze gusted across the cavernous territory, kicking up a cloud of dust as it raced across the boulder strewn mountainside. As the wind swept up the hill, a small pebble dislodged and fell with a 'clack-click' below. The tiny rock bounced a couple more times, the noise echoing off the dense rocky walls of the nearby hills. When it came to a rest, both opposing shinobi disappeared in a blur of speed.

Jiraiya angled his approach to take advantage of several large boulders that would act as a deterrent for a direct attack against him as he was moving. But it would only prevent an attack from the horizontal path. Sensing his opponent opting for the vertical route, he smiled. Exactly as planned.

Using one tap to finish the sequence on his leg, his hair grew noticeably spikier and hardened around the right side of his body, where the attack was incoming. A fist from the opponent stopped just short of being impaled on his hard as steel hair and the dark-skinned opponent jumped back to clear the area.

Just as to be expected of someone renowned for their speed, they seemed to attack in bursts of energy, hoping to catch him off guard. But Jiraiya was far too battle-hardened to fall for such trickery. His opponent was skilled, but sheer speed would not take him down.

The toad sage retracted his hair while drumming out another pattern on his leg. Touching three boulders directly around him that were tall enough to cover him, he enacted the next part of his plan. He knew that the enemy shinobi was a speed based attacker and impatient to boot. All that he had to do was some basic preparation and use the weakness to his advantage. After all, his last student had faced the same opponent plenty of times and won, always regaling Jiraiya with his exploits. While the toad sage didn't have the speed to match as Minato did, what he had was decades of experience and his sealing.

The three black ink designs spread out after his touch and began to thrum with energy. Not wasting a second, he quickly started to tap out another sequence, this time ending with a splotch of dark marking spreading out on the ground below him. He remembered the advice of his old sensei well, even many years later. Control the battlefield and you control the battle.

The ground in his area smoothed out to a glass-like level, becoming almost shiny and reflective, while the small indentations where he was standing were left untouched. The three boulders around him had finished their activation as well creating a barrier that was only above him, humming with energy. This should force his opponent to make a singular horizontally based entry.

Sounds of approaching footsteps meant that he'd get to see his gambit in play in a split-second. The man charging him was almost too fast for him to even react to, but that was the plan. A simple dodge and the battle should turn heavily in his favor.

The air started to crackle with electric energy. Jiraiya knew that he would need to dodge this or be knocked flat on his ass at best. Blocking was not an option, as the move would rip him from his position and likely severely wound him.

Judging from the sound of the rapidly oncoming footsteps, he calculated the distance and the speed that his opponent was closing in. He was charging him head-on, a blur of blonde and brown motion directly in front of him. The current trajectory would put him angling just between the narrowest gap of the three boulders that surrounded him, primed to use the boulder behind him as a bouncing pad in case the first attack missed.

He waited. If he ducked too early, the movement would be detected and the enemy would be able to re-direct the massive blow into connecting.

25 meters away. His fingers tapped on his leg.

10 meters away. His fingers tapped more.

5 meters away. His finger hovered over the final tap, waiting.

3 meters.

2 meters.

The voice rang out "Lariat!"

With the muscled arm emanating lightning energy baring down on him from just a meter away, he tapped the last finger to complete the technique he had been holding. With an audible "Swamp of the Underworld", he rocketed down faster than the oncoming arm could adjust, though only just barely. The tufts of his hair were grazed by the arm as it ducked towards the figure retreating into the ground, electric energy coursing through them.

He sank up to his neck in the mud and used the higher friction within the system to quickly swivel and watch his plan. He knew that the attack would be a long jump with no foot contact until after the arm impacted an enemy. What he was counting on was the landing after a miss.

Just as suspected, the feet touched down a moment later, expecting to stop. But the friction-less surface that he had changed the ground into held other plans for the enemy shinobi. Feet slid effortlessly and he noticed the shinobi flail wildly to regain balance. The natural reaction of pushing chakra into the feet was being negated by that this was a sealing effect, not just smooth ground.

When the enemy ninja apparently realized that, as well as saw that he was about to painfully smash into a boulder, he did the next standard reaction and made to jump. Pushing off of the frictionless ground was possible by pushing straight down, but the velocity with which he was sliding made such a feat impossible.

'CRASH'

The large body caromed off the boulder and onto the ground where he continued to slide, though not as fast. Jiraiya saw his opportunity and threw a kunai directly at the bare skinned figure that now lay on the ground.

The kunai flew through the air with a glint of steel reflecting off the near polished surface with haste. But the man on the ground expected an attack to come his way after the slide. Propelling his body upwards with a burst of muscled strength, the man leapt into the air to dodge the projectile.

Unfortunately for him, going airborne was the exact dodging motion that Jiraiya had expected and the barrier crackled to life above him. Singing the blonde hair on his head, the energy coursed through him as the barrier repelled the upwards momentum, sending him crashing back down a second time to the icy smooth ground.

A cadence from his fingertips of his leg later and the man was restrained by a pink flesh like mound that grew around them both as Jiraiya uttered the words 'Toad Mouth Bind'.

Jiraiya smirked as the throbbing esophagus of a giant toad coalesced around them both, trapping them in the sticky substance. By using methods to negate the mans speed, he had been successful so far in the duel, now he needed to achieve victory.

The hiss of metal against metal drew his attention though, as he saw a short sword being drawn from a sheath by the opposing shinobi. Normally, plain metal would stand no chance at cutting through the flesh of the giant mountain toad. However his opponent still had the lightning chakra bursting off of his body and it extended in an aura around the sword. The energy allowed for the wielder to make quick work of the restricting body parts, creating an opening for them to free themselves.

Jiraiya was now concerned, his ability to slow down his opponent was being limited. Each thing he tried would work once, but not continuously. He had to find a way to end this duel quickly. Allowing the pink substance to de-summon, as it was no longer useful to him, he had to quickly think of a new plan.

"You seem to have run out of tricks Jiraiya! How about we end this now? I'll even go full-speed for you!" the gloating voice called out from a dozen meters away. Jiraiya watched as the leg muscles tensed and the ground exploded from the energy burst as the man moved forward, much faster than before.

Jiraiya quickly ducked the first swipe but the man was much faster than before and followed the sword swing with a roundhouse kick into the gut that connected and knocked the wind out of him. Sliding back on uneven ground for a second, he braced for the next attack while trying to come up with a plan.

Multiple slices of metal tearing at air in front of his face were narrowly dodged. The blade user seemed to smile in glee as he forced the toad sage on the defensive. Jiraiya knew that he wouldn't be able to dodge the man's attacks for much longer, he didn't have the speed to keep up like Minato would have. He knew that he was going to have to take a risk. It could work, but he needed to time it just right.

Drumming his fingers allowed a quick substitution with a nearby chunk of wood, which was promptly impaled on the end of the sword from a jab. The lightning chakra around the sword made it explode a moment after being penetrated and Jiraiya gulped. It would not be good to be hit by that.

He had one plan left that might work. Reaching into a pouch he grabbed three more kunai that all had a sealing matrix written on them. Grasping two in his right and one in his left, he prepared for the next portion of the fight to commence.

A whoosh of displaced air from a fist that went just to the side of his head announced that the enemy was done with the distraction and already on him again. The toad sage missed the blow and tried a swipe at the man with his own blade, but steel met steel and the swipe was blocked. He let out a yelp of pain as the electric energy coursed through the blades and into his arm, leaving it feeling tingly. The kunai blade dropped into the dirt and he quickly wielded another in his left hand and a matching one in his right.

He fought the urge to grin as the man pushed him back a couple more steps and another of the kunai was knocked from his grip, flying off into the stone rubble of the battlefield. With the one kunai remaining in his left hand, he held up his right hand. Twisted and contorted into a strange position, it looked unusual. He saw a momentary glimpse of recognition flit across his opponent's face and the confidence immediately evaporated.

"No. You're bluffing. Only he could."

A burst of white light later and Jiraiya vanished, instantaneously appearing where the kunai was dropped behind the opponent, last kunai ready in his left hand, while locking his right hand in the same position as before.

The surprise of his disappearance left his opponent momentarily shocked and stationary. Jiraiya put the blade up to the small of the mans back and let out of huff of air. That technique was still amazingly hard to perform, he had no idea how his former student could do it so seamlessly as to avoid walking to the next room.

"Not a bluff." He moved the kunai forward just enough to pierce the skin, a small drop of crimson emitting from the puncture wound. "That's the match then, A." A nod of assent from his opponent and then they backed away from each other, bowing in a show of respect at the end of the conflict.

Cheering and jeering erupted throughout the stands that surrounded the area, shinobi of all ranks shouting their pleasure or lack thereof in the results of the bout.

It had been a basic spar to begin with at the Raikage's request. The light workout had turned into a friendly and regular competition over the next few weeks. Both elite shinobi had few equals to push themselves to the higher levels of combat and they enjoyed each other's company to some degree.

The two men had surprisingly bonded over their regular conversation regarding the peace deal and working towards an alliance. While both were often cantankerous and rude towards those who wasted their time, they both appreciated that the other got things done in a no nonsense approach, where what was needed was stated directly and accomplished quickly. They had swapped stories of their exploits and while A initially had resistance in continuing the budding friendship after learning of exactly who Jiraiya's most famous student was, he eventually relented.

This was the first time that Jiraiya had actually been the victor in the repeated bouts though, after almost six months of losing every other match. The matches often changed concepts and objectives. From 'first to draw blood' as today's had been, to protect a target from the other, or even first to destroy a certain target.

Nearly every time the Raikage had entered his Lightning Chakra mode, Jiraiya had simply not been able to keep up. In response, he had been training his speed and going over the techniques that Minato had shared with him about A and their battles. It had finally paid off too. He got a few hearty claps on the back from the sparse number of Konoha shinobi that were in attendance. There had been a small delegation sent from Konoha to the embassy that was being set-up, and the members of that group were amongst his only supporters in the matches.

Jiraiya had been put in charge of creating an air of diplomatic goodwill while searching for clues and he took his cover story seriously. He traded banter with a couple of the Kumo ninja that were tossing congratulations at him for finally winning a match while he thought about the past few months. Much insight had been gained regarding the Hyuuga heiress that had been kidnapped. It was a open secret within the Kumo shinobi community that the girl had been brought back to Kumo, that much had been easy to find out after getting a couple of shinobi plastered drunk and chatting them up.

Apparently the original plan had been to bring her back and treat her like a princess in hopes of her being the head of a new clan of Hyuuga in Kumo. However, Jiraiya's arrival and subsequent founding of an embassy with a small deployment of a half dozen Konoha ninja at the location took that plan down completely. While Kumo was happy to reap the benefits of their new alliance and security that no other nation would dare infringe upon the two powers, they weren't quite so open to give up a secret that would ruin said alliance.

They had secreted the girl out of town and made it a S-class secret punishable by death to reveal that she was ever even in the village to begin with. Once he had learned that, he had poured all of his resources and contacts to investigate where he could from outside the village.

It was funny in a way. He had decided the only way to get the information was to get access to the village. Now, by being in the village he had forced his target to be moved and now he was locked in place. Well, not for much longer. Tomorrow marked the one year date where he was supposed to return to Mount Myoboku and Naruto.

Accepting a high-five from a Kumo shinobi, he proceeded back to the Raikage's office to chat, as had became rather usual after their matches. Unlike Konoha, where the Hokage building was easily accessible to all people, the Raikage's office was atop a mountain peak, above and separate from the rest of the city. He supposed that this made sense in a military aspect by providing extra protection to the building via not allowing those without express permission near the structure. In his eyes, it also had a drawback. The Hokage had normally been known as being accessible to anyone, which created a camaraderie amongst the town where their leader was known and open to them if they so needed. Kumo's decision to isolate their Kage also had the drawback of making him less open to the public and therefore not as well-beloved as the Kages of Konoha had been. He was purely a military commander.

This also showed in the town layout itself. Unlike Konoha's sprawling market district, shops in Kumo were ninja related only. Either it sold ninja supplies, food or basics for their quarters. No extraneous money could be wasted. He sighed, because this also meant no red-light district. He hadn't thought that a ninja city could exist without such a thing, but here he was.

It had been alright though, he still could get his inspiration in various forms. For example, alongside the Raikage right now was a buxom young lady in her early twenties, stern-faced with shoulder-length blonde hair. Tanto sword dangling horizontally from her mid-back, she had a killer figure. It was only accentuated by the white sash that she wore around her midsection, which pushed her loveliest assets up into plain view from in front. As he was following her, though, that view wasn't available. So he let his imagination run wild with the long, smooth legs of a trained kunoichi. He took out his notebook and began drawing out her figure for use in a novel later. With her figure, she could definitely be a star. She was wearing a very low-cut outfit, with mesh armor underneath, a short skirt and red hand guards and high boots. Quickly finishing the sketch and a short note about her somewhat frosty attitude, which was appropriate considering her favorite phrase seemed to be 'cool', he closed the book before anyone noticed what he was taking notes of.

They approached the final jump and only the Raikage and himself made the leap, the rest of the gathered ninja stopping to disperse amongst the village after the walk back. Jiraiya quickly slipped in a glance at the front of the woman on his exit and confirmed his initial guess of at least 90 centimeters. Landing with a click-clack of his geta sandals, he followed A into the tower, eventually ending up at the primary office space. He collapsed into a large brown leather couch and awaited the questions that were sure to follow.

"So, how long have you been holding that back?" The question was lazily tossed over the shoulder of the Raikage while he was walking towards the main chair behind the large desk. The man extended his arms forward, fingers interlaced, cracking multiple knuckles while he did so. The somewhat forced air of nonchalance didn't fool Jiraiya for a moment though, he could tell that the man was somewhat angry about being bested.

"To be honest, I only managed to pull it off for the first time successfully a week ago. I am nowhere near as good as Minato was with it." Jiraiya replied honestly, not seeing any point in lying to the man about it. They were supposedly allies and it mattered little if he admitted the timeframe.

"I still find it amusing that they decided to send the sensei of the person who struck the most fear in us as a representative. Certainly the Fifth did not want to take any chances." A replied, keeping the lazy tone. "You have made sparring much more interesting. All the Kumo ninja would never dare try to actually beat me outside of B."

Jiraiya chuckled at that. "Yeah, that man doesn't seem much of one to hold back even if you asked him to. I haven't heard any rhyming recently though, where did you send him off to?" Jiraiya used the chance to try and pull a slight bit of information out of A. One thing that had been bugging him was the lack of the jinchuriki of the village. He knew of one Yugito Nii holding the two tailed cat and she was rarely seen in the village at all. Killer B was seen a bit more frequently, though you usually heard him instead. But, they rarely stayed in the village for more than a few hours and were often gone. It didn't make much sense to Jiraiya to have your most powerful weapons outside of the village when they seemed to be adored and loved by the populace.

"Oh, B is always flitting about, looking for something new to make yet another song about. You know how it is, mister author. Finding inspiration wherever you go." A said with a smirk curling his lips. The kage had heard of his reputation and Jiraiya had been somewhat shocked to find a small orange book amongst A's desk one day. Always willing to schmooze up to a potential contact, especially if it meant having a connection to the Raikage himself, he had given the man a whole autographed set. A continued speaking, "And thinking of that, I noticed you looking at Samui earlier. Unless you were doodling something else in that notebook." The smirk was even bigger now.

Jiraiya shrunk a little, somewhat ashamed at having been noticed. "Uh... that was..."

"So long as you don't use her name and at least change the hair a bit, I doubt anyone will ever make the connection. Just send me a copy of the next book when your inspiration is done and we'll consider it a secret, hmm?" A's pupils glinted somewhat dangerously at him. He could deal with an angry Raikage at using his troops as fodder for the novels, but he cared much less to have a highly trained kunoichi learn that she was a feature in such a book as his.

He nodded quickly. "Autographed and sent to your door right away, third copy made." At a raised eyebrow, he explained further. "One always goes into my own collection, the first copy. The second copy goes to my old sensei."

A gave a chortling laugh. "Hiruzen likes them too. Hah! That's amusing."

Jiraiya joined in a good chuckle for a moment before changing the topic to more pressing matters. "So, as you know, I'll be taking off tomorrow. I hope that we can continue to make progress with the embassy and build towards an alliance further."

The Raikage recognized the switch and affirmed his consent. "We are dedicated to extending the peace treaty as long as possible and an alliance with the Leaf seems to be a general boon to all things. We've already noticed more missions for our shinobi, better wares being brought in through trade and higher tourism through Lightning Country. The daimyo is very pleased by both the added security and higher revenue. I see no reason to not continue what appears to be a good thing."

The toad sage added, "I am glad to hear that. I guess that means goodbye for now. I look forward to another spar when I return next. Perhaps the score can be a bit more even next time, rather than you demolishing me almost fifty to one."

"Well, I am a kage and you're not." A said through another chuckle. He extended a burly fist, fingers splayed outward in an handshake gesture. "It was enjoyable to get to know you Jiraiya the Toad Sage. May our paths meet again in the future."

Jiraiya clasped the man in the farewell gesture, shaking firmly, noting the man's sizable grip strength and matching it as best he could, before breaking the embrace. He bid his own farewells and left the tower, deep in his own thoughts.

Jiraiya had made a new friend, at least as much as he could consider a member of another village to be a friend. Perhaps this would prove beneficial some day. For now, he had some toads and a blonde brat to see. And after that, a white eyed little girl to track down.

AN: And that ties up what Jiraiya has been up to the past few months. Next chapter will see the reunion of the two main characters! So many fun things to write about.

Important announcements:

First: I am going to try and publish weekly on Monday's. I typically don't work on that day and can usually find some time to gather up what I've written throughout the week, clean it up and get it out.

Second: I apologize for the long delay since my last chapter (9 days! Longest gap in this stories history.) I went on vacation with the fiancée and kids and wasn't near anything capable of typing large swaths of text.

Third: The original 20 chapters before this are getting cleaned up slowly but surely. Eliminating unnecessary perspective shifts, fixing grammatical errors and clearing up issues. One day, they might actually be clear from errors! EDIT: I have finally managed to get through all previous chapters, I believe that they might actually be clean now.