Jiraiya truly believed that he understood Naruto. Naruto was a thirteen year old, blonde, hyperactive shinobi who was stubborn to the point of self-harm and would never give up.
When Jiraiya asked Naruto to come along with him to find Tsunade to appoint her as the Godaime Hokage, he didn't expect Naruto to have a condition, or for that condition to be that, before they left, Naruto be given time to take Jiraiya to what was formerly known as the Forest of Death.
Walking up to the towering trees that were both more terrifying and friendly than they were many decades ago when Jiraiya had last seen them, Jiraiya saw that the signs that had once proclaimed that the Forty-fourth Training Ground was dangerous had increased tenfold and that it hadn't been known as the Forest of Death for a while judging by the chūnin by the main entrance with uniforms proclaiming their jobs working at one of the forest entrances.
"Oh, hey, Naruto-san! It's so good to see you!" one of the Chūnin greeted Naruto in the most friendly manner Jiraiya had seen from outside of Naruto's bubble of precious people (or even some inside. His pink haired teammate was bound to get on a lot of people's bad sides in future).
"Yare, yare!" another Shinobi interrupted, bouncing with too much joy. "Are you here to finally relieve us of our duty?!"
Naruto frowned almost disappointedly (but he couldn't be disappointed, Jiraiya assured himself, Naruto was going to travel for over a month with a Legend).
"Sorry, guys, but Ero-sensei's taking me with him to get the next Hokage, so you've gotta hold down the fort for a little longer," Naruto apologised, almost uncharacteristically upset considering how happy Jiraiya had presumed he'd be to get more training on the trip.
"It ain't that bad, brat!"
All Jiraiya got for that comment was an immature raspberry from Naruto.
The once-excited shinobi deflated and fell to the floor yelling, "INJUSTICE!"
Another Chūnin pointed accusingly at Jiraiya, hissing, "Evil! You just want us to suffer!"
A beautiful kunoichi among the group was also irate and Jiraiya found himself wondering how he could get a woman so angry with him without somehow violating her.
"C'mon, guys," Naruto scolded. "It isn't that bad!"
The kunoichi huffed indignantly, yelling, "Yeah, it IS! One of them tried to molest me!"
Naruto blinked then went into a thinking pose.
"That's weird...the only one of them to ever get molest-y liked men...or maybe just Uchiha prodigies..."
Naruto's mutterings made Jiraiya freeze and he was glad none of the Chūnin had heard him. Uchiha prodigies? There weren't many despite the clan's supposed awesomeness, but the first that came to mind for Jiraiya was Uchiha Itachi. Could Naruto have once known the Clan Killer himself? Yet Naruto seemed not to be phased at the thought of the Uchiha prodigy he spoke of... It certainly wasn't Sasuke considering the lack of animosity and the fact that Sasuke wasn't anything near a prodigy.
On another topic: "Why would they only like men? And who's 'they'?"
"Mm?" Naruto broke out of his musings. "Oh, 'they' are the plants inside the Chakra Gardens! They've been feeding on chakra practically all their lives, so they're kind of sentient? Apparently one has taken a liking to Kagura-san." Naruto grinned and gave the kunoichi a thumbs up. "Good job, Kagura-obasan!"
"I'M NOT EVEN THIRTY, BRAT."
The few feet between the front of the chūnin watching the entrance of the 'Chakra Gardens' and inside the gate was an entire fiasco, including another complaint of inappropriate wildlife, Naruto getting several shinobi ticked off with nicknames and Jiraiya totally not trying to sneak peaks at one kunoichi's breasts. In fact, Jiraiya tried to sneak peaks at multiple kunoichi (every attempt ended in failure), so 'HA' to sarcasm!
Jiraiya was going to speak up about the unusual treatment the chūnin gave Naruto, but then he stepped into the Chakra Gardens. And suddenly he understood what Naruto meant when the plants in the training ground had been fed with chakra their entire lives. Jiraiya wasn't the best sensor outside of specific combat abilities, but he could feel the very air itself saturated with chakra, as though if someone set off a jutsu, it would be so unstable that it would either engulf the entire area or would hardly work like desired and just fail. Hopefully fail.
If the air was so heavy with chakra, Jiraiya wondered how much was in the plants — different thought: he wanted to know who fed these plants, because most of the chakra in the Gardens felt like they were of the same person, a very familiar but hard-to=place person due to the mingling of smaller portions of different chakra, including many familiar signatures, and Jiraiya quickly took care to try and remember them all. He might be able to identify them when he was around those people again.
Jiraiya stopped his musings to finally ask Naruto the question that had first crossed his mind, but was quickly silenced again as he found himself lost.
"Huh?"
He hadn't travelled that far, right? And Naruto was nowhere he could find. How could he lose a bright orange wearing, blonde haired jinchūriki that was louder than than the Uchiha ego?
Panicking, not that he'd ever admit, Jiraiya quickly called out for Naruto.
"Hey, BRAT!"
"WHAT?!"
Jiraiya most definitely did not scream when he found that he'd almost walked into Naruto. One hundred percent didn't scream and scramble back multiple feet, shrieking in terror as Naruto didn't try to hide his amusement. Totally didn't. But Jiraiya did notice the look that crossed Naruto's eyes as Jiraiya DID NOT scream. It was a look that Jiraiya recognised too well, that he'd seen on his late sensei, on his old teammates, even himself. It was a look many shinobi never had because shinobi died so young or were forced to focus on the future because of their duty.
But Naruto's smile, the light in his eyes and the faraway look he adopted - he was reminiscing of times so long passed they could only be remembered as feelings; maybe not fondness, but some sort of cruel nostalgia.
The pained look that flickered across Naruto's face went almost unnoticed, but wasn't forgotten when Jiraiya shouted back as Naruto burst out laughing that Jiraiya had been scared by Naruto. Which he hadn't!
Setting aside many questions, Jiraiya settled on the new one he'd gotten when Naruto had not scared him.
"Hey, brat, did you know that you and your chakra are practically invisible in this forest?"
The Look crossed Naruto's face again, yet somehow more tired and unforgiving, like there was a different but somehow equally substantial secondary pain behind the memories.
"Really?! That's so cool, I could totally get the jump on you any time I wanted!"
Jiraiya frowned. Now that he'd spotted just the little bit of inconsistency with Naruto, the oblivious attitude seemed off-putting. Jiraiya was sure more than ever now that no one could be that excited and positive all the time. Because now he knew even Naruto had ghosts that came back to haunt him.