By the time Jiraya had woken up, it was already nightfall. What had happened? Oh yeah! Tsunade had given him a rough beating and he had ran to granny Hanami to heal him, collapsing by the river bank. In a swift motion he rose from his futon, but a sharp pain overtook him like an electric current. He quickly fell on his back for once more, with a disheartened grunt, but continued to wobble either way. He was a hyperactive one alright.

"I wouldn't move as much, if I were you." He heard a soft voice urging him to stay still. It was Hanami baa-chan sitting at the corner of her dimly lit room, preoccupied with reading an antiquated book. Jiraya never took to any instructions or advice easily so he just continued to make frantic movements, like a fish out of water. The old lady seemed unfazed by his futile attempts and seemed concentrated on reading that yellowed book, gently changing the pages every few minutes with her slender fingers. When he finally realized that any attempt at getting up would be pointless, mainly due to the intense pain that was building up by the second, he settled down as he originally was instructed to do.

Only then did he see a change in the granny's behavior who was ignoring him up until now. As she lifted up her gaze, she gracefully stood up from the floor, placed the book in the nearby bookshelf and made her way to Jiraya's bedside.

She sat again next to him and gave him a piercing look. Jiraya gulped, knowing that look all too well. The old hag really did have an intense gaze if she wanted, that seemed to give even Sarutobi-sensei the chills. Her face might have been wrinkled, due to the passing of time, but her eyes were as striking as always, sticking out of her sunken in face like a sore thumb. Even though he had seen plenty of dojutsu users' eyes like the byakugan or the Uchiha's pride the sharingan, he had made up his mind that granny Hanami's eyes were the most conspicuous of them all, as they were mismatched in color. Her right eye, was a bright teal color whereas her left eye was violet. From the first moment he had seen her and her peculiar eyes, Jiraya had concluded that despite her withered appearance, she must have been a beauty when she was young. He could just see from the way she carried herself with poise. What seemed even more odd to him was that even though she was of the Senju bloodline she had never been married. He once asked Sarutobi-sensei out of sheer curiosity whether he remembered the old hag as a young woman and whether she had ever been married. His teacher, not sure how to tackle the question just blushed and told him to mind his own business while stroking his beard. That was weird.

"You seem to be getting awfully reckless the past few months, aren't you Jiraya-chan? You should know better than to violate a woman's privacy. Not very manly of you, is it?" she told him with the same soft tone as before which came to direct contrast with her menacing stare.

"Erm..you know I was collecting….erm intel and that demon girl Tsunade punched me and left me for dead. Thank you baa chan for healing me…but wait, how did you know? I almost turned the village upside down to find you…"

"Tsuna came while you were unconscious…" she answered, her features softening"she was worried she might have overdone it with the beating this time. You know, although her temper easily goes off, she is a gentle girl at heart."

Jiraya's lips formed a little smirk, that granny Hanami certainly noticed. He knew alright. Although she had a temper and seemed cold and condescending at first glance, Tsunade really appreciated both him and Orochimaru. Maybe he had overstepped his boundaries. He made up his mind that at tomorrow's training, he would give her a sincere apology. Hanami-baa chan though cut his thoughts short

"Four broken ribs, a ruptured spleen and a concussion" she announced "I healed the most part of this but you will need to recuperate for at least 2 weeks in order to be in top form again"

"WHAT?" Jiraya shouted "I can't possibly afford to stay bedridden that long. DO SOMETHING BAAAA CHAN"

"You should have thought of that way sooner, you little idiot" Hanami raised her tone "don't just go around waltzing in the wolf's lair. Geez, kids these days have nothing better to do other than peeking at naked women." She gave him another glare that left Jiraya with no further protests.

"Sleep now and rest"

As she left the room to leave boy at rest, she gave him another look as he was slowly drifting to sleep. Nostalgia overtook her as she thought to herself "Although Tsuna is his granddaughter, it is you, Jiraya that resembles Nii-sama the most. Idiotic goofball of a kid. Was he alive, what would he have thought of you? You probably would have gotten along pretty well" A little smile lined her lips and put out the lamps to let Jiraya sleep at peace.

"I hope you are always as carefree as now" she whispered melancholically outside his room, for she knew that the path the boy had chosen would not stray very far from misery.

**Author's comments**

Hooray! With this chapter the prologue has been completed. Next chapter will be more to the point as we will be going back in time. Even though the timeline will mostly be linear, do expect some jumping back and forth here and there. I wanted my character to interact with the young Sannin as well. Hanami is a no nonsense granny but she sure is fond of lil' Jiraya.

Hope you enjoyed,

xoxo CS