Chapter 6: Countdown to…
Jiraya was only seconds away from wetting himself for the umpteenth time in the last 2 years. Where in the world was that brat? And what would he tell Tsunade upon his return in a year?
It all started after Orochimaru left his hotel room that night. Jiraya noted the time was close to midnight and started to prepare the drugged ramen for his student. He knew the scent would bring the boy running from at least 3 miles away. Confident in his deception, he added the sleeping medication and turned in.
He knew something was amiss when he caught sight of the empty bed in the hotel room they shared and the full bowl of now stone cold ramen. But the sage did not panic at that point. There was a rare occasion that Naruto would pass out after a hard day of bribed work in a tree. On those days, he would just double the dose the next night. He always turned up the next night, ravenous for his favourite meal.
So when Naruto failed to turn up for the second night, he began to get suspicious.
After a week, he began to send messenger toads into the surrounding towns to search for the boy. As he did, he could swear that there was a harsh, almost malevolent glare coming from each and every toad he sent on the search. But that could not be right. He was just imagining things he reasoned to himself.
As weeks turned into months, Jiraya became more and more worried that he just might have compromised the entire objective by losing his target, rather his student's target.
In the time that Naruto had gone missing, Orochimaru became increasingly busy with running Otogakure, missions seemingly popping up out of no where after a large section of Oto's spy network suddenly became compromised. With that change, Jiraya began training Sasuke in earnest. It did work out in his own favour, since Konoha was looking for any info they could get on the emeny village.
However, it was getting hard to hide the fact that the person he was officially responsible for was now missing. Tsunade had suddenly increased his own mission load. She also wanted more updates from Naruto's training. He could usually keep track of what he said to who, but when he had to submit weekly reports and train a student like Sasuke, on top of increased missions and recon duties as the village Spy Master, it started to wear his mental acuity down. Hopefully Tsunade had not picked up on his slip ups in his reports.
As one year passed, he began to personally search for Naruto. Panic had fully set in, as Tsunade started really pressing him for more detailed reports on his progress. He knew he could not lie and say that he had left Naruto on Mt. Myōboku since she could easily verify that with her own Slug Summons.
No matter where he looked, it seemed as if the brat had just vanished.
Thankfully, he could rely on Orochimaru's advice and help. The snake sannin was a master of misdirection and deception. The side benefits were not bad either.
He had hoped that the brat would show up at some point. The dread that pooled in his core now was like a millstone that threatened to drown him in the deepest aquatic trench on earth.
His thoughts were interrupted by another slug summon appearing before him bearing another mission scroll.
He waited for the dreaded messenger to dispel before a heavy sigh escaped him.
"If that brat doesn't show up soon, I'll be minced meat when Tsunade finds out."