That They Are Full of Sticky Situations
Every properly trained shinobi has the ability to extend their available senses using the strength of their chakra: the Inu tribe could track enemies by scent alone, the Hyuga almost literally had eyes in the back of their heads, and a ninja of the Sound Village needed only to listen to be able to figure out exactly what moment her opponent breathed out before an attack. Raised in a world of microphones and telephoto lenses, Tori and Sam had never had to develop that kind of precision. The best they had ever done to access their own inward strength of spiritual and mental energy was the odd moment when knowing to suddenly stop the shopping cart saved them from a collision with someone else at Walmart. But sometimes instinct can cover for what a total absence of practice might leave behind… that was the only explanation for how Tori managed to regain consciousness from their latest marble-toss without falling out of the rather impressive birch tree the marble had landed them in. Her body's awareness of the potential drop kept her incredibly still even though the woman struggled to find any way to comfortably open her night-trained eyes against the brilliant daylight breaking down through the golden leaves.
"Nnngh," she groaned at the sun for its continued glaring. "Th's's th'wors…" she mumbled, and a nearby chipmunk froze at the sound and then scittered past on a neighboring branch, although it agreed. Random humans dropping onto trees when he had nut-gathering to do, was definitely the worst.
Raising a hand to block the sun made her sway dangerously, and the faint chakra-driven instincts that had kept her aloft so far instantly froze Victoria up and only after a breathless moment did she much more carefully and cautiously complete the gesture. With her hand blocking the bright glare above, she finally had an opportunity to peer at the forest canopy around her. Just a few branches away, but about ten feet closer to the ground, lay Sam: cleary still unconscious and very tenuously caught between three criss-crossing tree limbs only half-covered in red and gold leaves. A sharp breeze billowed up, sending more leaves scattering to the heavens. One crinkly star of leaffall caught on Sam's cheek, tapping it forlornly. Carefully, Tori leaned forward just slightly more, and felt dizzy when she saw the significant distance between her perch and Sam's was only half the space between Sam and the ground. That's..that's thirty feet. I'm thirty-feet in the air, that's almost a three story house! That's enough to kill a dude. That's enough to kill me! Oh dang, crap-muffins. And Sam! Heart pounding, Tori, one hesitant hand-shift at a time, managed to switch around so that she was balanced belly-down on the very large and sturdy limb she'd woken on. Her fingers trembled as she tried to find a grip on the too-smooth tree limb. It was scary, but she had to figure out some way to get down to Sam. She scooted slightly forward and taking a deep breath, called down. "Sam? Sam!"
Samantha groaned, blinking her tired eyes up at the worried and concerned cries of her best friend. Her body complained like she had just ran a marathon. Rubbing her eyes, Samantha murmured out an indiscernible question, feeling like she could sleep for another seven hours. The scratchy pricks against her skin caused Samantha to peek at her surroundings, eyebrows raising when she noticed she was perfectly resting against the skinny branches of a tree. Above her, Sam's pupils focused enough to see Tori's own, frightened ones looking down at Sam through the leaves of the tree they'd landed in. "Tori?" Sam wasn't quite sure what her question was supposed to be, but with her head feeling mixed up like marbles- Sam nearly jolted when she remembered what had happened. Holy fudge! And here I thought that landing on the mountain was rough. Twitching to try and find a more comfortable position that wasn't scratching up her arms, the cradle-like position she'd found herself in was only the icing to the cake and as Sam turned her head to look below her, a large crack reverberated through her entire body and she whipped her head to the side to find where the sound came from when she found herself falling off the relatively thin branches and down, down, to the bottom. It certainly didn't help her case when Samantha gave an effort to save her fall by reaching out to Victoria's outstretched hand with no success.
Victoria's shriek of horror raced forward to try to catch the falling Sam, but there was nothing she could do but watch as her friend's white face disappeared between the flame-colored leaves: Sam's own desperate shriek echoed hauntingly back at her.
Sam's arms and hands desperately tried to grasp at anything they could: rough bark scraped her hands, but her own weight and speed denied her fingers the opportunity to grip. Long, grey branches scraped and tore at her clothing. One vicious stem whipped hard across her face but then the last firm bole slipped past her and there was a breathless moment of free fall. OhmygoshI'mgonnadie! This is gonna hurt! she thought, though was feeling oddly numb, like the surprise of "free falling" from the top of The Rocket. And then her feet hit sideways off something and Samantha had just a split second to throw her arms around it before she and whatever she had grabbed hit hard into the ground with an explosion of leaves. Pain shot up her left leg and ankle and the same side's shoulder felt like the Hulk had slammed into it, but her cry was half as much relief as shocked pain. She had only half a second to process what had happened when the thing she had used to catch her fall at the last moment shot away from her, a blur of faded green and a red as bright as the leaves around them. The dramatic flutter of falling leaves hissed and whispered around the distinctive clack-clack of wooden getas. Vision still swimming from the effects of the marble, it took Samantha Winters a long time to be able to focus on the figure just a few feet away: its arms raised in a defensive stance. The sunlight gleamed off his horned forehead protector, Sam tried to focus on the man's face, to see if it was really as aged and lined as the wild mane of white hair seemed to promise. Finally, she blinked and the twin streaks of bright red cutting down from the corner of each eye was the little detail her tired mind needed to put it all together. "Holy...pervy sage?" she whispered.
Jiraiya straightened from his defensive position, his narrowed focus clearing while patting his clothes, looking down at Sam. "Well, I wasn't planning on doing any 'fishing' today, but I suppose now is as good a time as any."
Samantha's staring was long enough that she realized she'd had her jaw dropped, nearly star-struck and perhaps too dazzled to recognize the sannin's comparison. Samantha and Tori were very lucky to be dropped in another place where they could trust someone. At least, Sam was praying they'd be able to trust the sage ninja. Jiraiya noticed her ogling and took it upon himself to smirk.
"So, you've noticed the handsome Jiraiya, have you?" He had a gleam in his eye that Samantha wasn't quite sure what to think of, but the frown on Jiraiya's face replaced his smirk a second time, placing a hand on his hip. "What would a pretty young lady such as yourself be doing falling from the sky?" He looked up briefly at the rather large tree, then back down at Samantha. Shifting and wincing, her shaking hands gripped her leg. Ack, it's probably broken! she thought.
"I…" Sam stumbled over what she'd say, "Well… I… We…" What could she say? Sam wasn't the best at coming up with convincing stories right on the spot! She needed Tori for this. "My friend!" Jiraiya was one of the legendary sannin, he'd be able to help, right? "My friend is stuck in the tree! Please! Can you please help get her down? It's… a really long fall." Sam's whole side felt bruised. This was a not a good time to break anything. Just when we were sent somewhere else by that bizarre marble. Where is Jiraiya traveling to, anyway? Jiraiya glanced up into the tree, taking note of a currently stuck Victoria Lexington.
"There're two of you?" Jiraiya asked, surprise lacing his question. He placed the other hand on his hip, turning his body to face the tree, the crunch of the leaves beneath his feet seeming to brush the air like a chord struck on a keyboard.
"Yes! Please, help her! You're a shinobi, right? Can't shinobi do pretty much anything?" Samantha's plea was hardly hidden. Jiraiya's cocky smirk arose, and he closed his eyes in boast, "Well, to have such faith in an amazing shinobi like me, I can hardly resist your desire. Of course! The great and handsome Jiraiya toad sage shall come to the young maiden's rescue!" He hopped up off the ground as expertly as any toad he could summon.
In the tangled tree limbs above, Victoria was trying to summon all her vestiges of courage, balance, and upper body strength to climb down her much sturdier, but less branched tree. "Curse my pitiful childhood," she muttered, feeling about to cry for the fact that her best friend was somewhere far below, possibly dead, certainly in pain, and she was still so, so high up the tree. "Just once! Just once I should have at least tried to climb a stupid tree. I don't even know what I'm doing!" Whimpering - somehow that helped her courage to hear how pathetic she was - Victoria slowly started to slide down over the branch, toes stretching through the empty air to find the target limb below.
"Hiya."
"Blaghhh!" Tori shrieked in total shock at the sudden appearance of a wild man in her tree. Her toes jerked in fright as her weak arms gave up at just the same moment and she was fall - fall - "Urgh.." The very strong and immovable arm catching her knocked the breath from her lungs; stars spun dizzingly through the air around her.
"Whoa. Hold still, miss. We've already had one young maiden fall from the sky today. I think we've hit the quota."
Victoria could only manage some sort of breathless grunt before the wild man was jumping from branch to branch, Tori's dead weight in his arms seeming to present no more difficulty to him than that of a bag of flour. Dangerous, her mind whispered. Too strong. Shinobi? But it was hard to think more than that as the limbs shot past faster than mile-markers on the interstate.
The show-off Toad Sage landed on just one foot, grinning at the still-stunned Sam. He held the rag-doll shape of the panting Victoria against one side like a prized trophy. "The handsome Jiraiya does it again! Two young maidens saved from the dangers of the forest!"
"Heh," Samantha smirked, resting her left arm against her stomach, her right tenderly applying pressure to her left leg. Tori's one lucky duck she thought wryly. "Thanks. We could never have survived without you." Her dry sarcasm rolled off her tongue like sliced cheese, and Samantha could have laughed at their luck.
"So," Jiraiya began, after setting Victoria down, his sober tone putting Samantha on edge just a little, "What brings you ladies to the middle of the forest and so high up in a tree?" The probing question left little room for the two girls to get away with not answering. Samantha internally froze, racking her brain to come up with a reason, but couldn't fathom any reasonable reason to tell the suddenly calculating shinobi.
Wincing, Victoria pressed one hand gingerly against her aching ribs. "Bad...transport..spell," she breathed, telling the partial truth. "We were in a bad spot. The shinobi protecting us must not have had quite the right marks." She winced and hobbled over to Sam. "Are you okay, Samantha?" She half-crouched down, a silent question in her eyes. Do you know who this is?
Samantha nodded, "I'm fine. Well… I might have broken a leg or something. I'm pretty sure I've forever bruised my shoulder," she pointed to her aching shoulder, "But he thankfully broke my fall. The impact would've been worse if I hadn't landed on him." Recognizing Tori's hesitance towards the toad sage, Samantha whispered, "That's pervy sage, by the way!"
Tori's eyes widened. She was aware that there was, somewhere in the Naruto-verse, a man that was more pervy than Kakashi's naughty books: the man who wrote the naughty books. ...But that was all she actually knew about the legendary Sannin. Still, to be around another recognizable character: that had to be a good sign! And it confirmed that they were still in Naruto-verse. That was likewise good: meant her cover story made sense. She turned to face their unintended rescuer with a tentative smile. "We were really lucky to have you show up when you did, sir. Thank you very, very much."
Jiraiya's posture puffed up, "Well of course! No way could I, the great Jiraiya, let two lovely young ladies in need of my help go unattended. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some business to attend to." Jiraiya turned on his heel abruptly, beginning his journey anew. Samantha and Victoria looked at each other, confused. If this had been an anime, question marks could've been seen popping up around their heads.
"Wait!" Samantha called, confused, "Where are you going?"
"To town. I'm needed there. I've got very specific research that needs to be done."
"But…" Sam glanced down at her leg, then over at Tori, then once again at Jiraiya's back, "You're really going to leave us here in the forest?"
Jiraiya turned sideways to look at them, "Well, you can walk, can't you?" He glanced at Samantha, still favoring her leg with her hand. He sighed, then walked over and crouched down intending to apply pressure. Sam's heart pierced for a split second and she jerked away from his hand.
"You...you're not going to hurt it, are you?" She asked. Contrary to popular belief, Samantha was actually quite frightened of being hurt. Many people in the world were afraid of being dead, but Samantha was more afraid of the act of dying: the pain that came before hand, rather than being dead. So… any more pain that would be inflicted on her was something that Sam avoided. The most that she'd ever done in her life by way of being hurt was a fractured bone that could've been considered more annoying then painful. Jiraiya looked at her skeptically.
"In order to find out if your leg is broken, I will need to apply pressure to it. Whether it hurts or not will depend on if it's actually broken."
Biting her lip, Samantha mentally geared herself up and nodded, "Alright…" Jiraiya continued his motion and felt her leg, applying slight pressure on several areas of the calf. In one particular spot, Samantha hissed and jerked her leg a little.
Jiraiya hummed, "Well… it's not broken. Probably bruised to the bone. It's possible you've got a hairline fracture, but you'd need to see a doctor for that."
"A doctor?" Samantha could've cursed their luck, "Um… well… we don't… actually… have any money. See… we were moved to this spot so quickly that we weren't able to bring our things with us…"
Tori, still finding it hard to breathe around her bruised ribs, had watched the strange, old man, with his giant mane of tangled, matted hair check out Sam's leg. His features were kind, though, somehow at odds with his terrifying appearance and inhuman strength. "Can you tell us where we are, at least?" she asked softly. "And..um, are you a friend of the Leaf Village, Jiraiya-San?" She was definitely trepidatious of asking outright how to get there. In theory the presence of so many high-power soldiers meant that this world had a lot of enemies. Maybe Pervy-Sage hated Kakashi's town. That would be a problem.
Samantha's nerves heightened and twitched at Tori's question. "Tori!" Sam whispered with a quick tap against her arm, "What if we're not by the Leaf Village! What if he gets suspicious of us?" She tried to keep her voice down, but Jiraiya's raised eyebrow left her wondering.
"Oh-ho? Are you two, yourselves, a friend of the Leaf Village?"
"W-we are," Sam stuttered, connecting eyes with the Sannin.
"Kind of new friends.." Victoria hedged. "But, we do have connections there."
"Is that right?" Jiraiya drawled, "And who is this connection of yours?"
"Kakashi-san!" Samantha replied swiftly.
Victoria couldn't hide the twitch of surprise that Sam so quickly answered, but then she nodded, affirming the answer herself. Feeling uncomfortably unbalanced by the whole conversation, Tori scrambled to her feet, starting to help Sam up as well. "Yes. And he is likely worried about us. We should, um. …." She looked helplessly around.
"We were headed back to the Leaf Village. Kakashi-san and a few others had been travelling with us before we ended up here." Samantha, holding onto Victoria's shoulder for support, prayed that the white-haired sannin wouldn't see through the holes of their story. Despite his skeptical look, the admittedly handsome man sighed in resignation.
"Fine fine. I'll escort you to the nearest hospital to make sure that your leg is properly cared for-"
"But we're-"
"I'll be paying for it." Jiraiya interjected with a 'no-nonsense, I'm the boss' tone. "And then I'll check out your story..."
"Um, okay!" Sam replied, grateful that there wasn't more questions.
Tori smiled weakly at the scowling shinobi. They sure managed to make ninjas glare at them like that a lot… "Thank you, Jiraiya-san." He gave a small nod and then began to purposefully walk forward, the leaned-together Sam and Tori following a little more slowly. "So..I heard a rumor that the author Jiraiya was a traveler like you. You aren't the same Jiraiya, are you?"
The toad sage looked remarkably like Alex Louis Armstrong of Fullmetal Alchemist as he spun about, smirking triumphantly and striking a pose with his fingers and thumb framing the shape of his own jaw.
"Well, if you must know! You would be looking at the Jiraiya." He posed, and Samantha nearly laughed when she realized what his hopping indicated. "From the North to the South and the East to the West, not even the spirits can defeat this sannin! The White-maned toad charmer! The red-hot ninja who strikes fear in the hearts of men! But love in the hearts of his readers." The man cackled, before abruptly stopping, his large smile glaringly bright. "I'm impressed you know of my work. Are you two fans?"
"Er… well… something like that." Samantha smiled, a tiny strangled laugh reverberating off her vocal chords.
"We have a friend that is a very devoted fan," Tori explained. "Haven't had a chance to read anything ourselves though." And frankly a little scared to! They sell those things wrapped in plastic! They had spent hours at the bookstore one day while Kakashi browsed, having to consult a list he kept of which books he already had at home. At the time, Victoria had found it incredibly endearing to watch the silver-haired man fluttering and grinning at the numerous books. Samantha had been instantly drawn to the children's section: trying to find the kanji-equivalent of an alphabet book to use to teach Tori, leaving Tori to slowly flutter along behind Kakashi and soak in the sparkly shine of his little eye-smiles.
"So, what's that one about?" she asked finally after he had gleefully tucked a new selection onto his growing stack.
Pausing, he tipped his head a little. "You really want to know?"
Victoria nodded. "Yeah." Laughing, she gave a loose shrug. "Being around this many books and not being able to read a single one is driving me crazy. Will you let me live vicariously through you, Kakashi-San?" She gave a hopeful little smile and a shrug.
The ninja seemed pretty hesitant, but after a moment, he nodded. Stepping closer to her, he began to read the back in a very soft voice so as not to catch the attention of their fellow shoppers. Victoria's heart pounded and the blood rushed to her ears, leaving them a bright pink, but her whole world had narrowed to just the two of them and the words.
"'The Spring of Love is the latest stand-alone novel by Jiraiya and exemplifies the Love Sage's mastery of human seduction. Heroine Naoko, upset by her father's plans for her future, escapes to the mysterious and pleasurable hot springs of the North where she encounters many mysterious characters including the sharp-eyed Tadao in whose fine arms she feels safe, but whose hard lips bring her to the dangerous cliffs of passion. Yet, there is a dark secret at the hot springs: one which may prove more dangerous than even the bliss Naoko finds in Tadao's touch.'" After a long moment, Kakashi turned the novel around, gazing down at the cover featuring a beautiful woman holding a kunai: a ghostly figure behind her. "His last one was a bit gothic too," he added. "But the genjutsus he imagines for the battle sequences.."
Victoria felt dizzy from the soft, dusky scent of him and nodded slightly. "Sounds like..you really admire his work," she whispered. "How many books has he written?"
Kakashi gave a slight shrug. "He put out four this year. But he's been writing for a long time. Of course, most people just know his Makeout Series."
"Wow! That's incredible. It takes a lot of work to write. Four novels a year. That's so fast."
The shinobi nodded a little and stepped away to begin browsing again. "Writing is a real discipline," he observed. "Requiring much by way of emotion and strength." He picked up another book, looked only at the author name and then returned it to the shelf. "You and Samantha-Chan write."
Tori shook her head quickly, her flush staining her cheeks now, not just the tips of her ears. "Not like that," she argued instantly. "I've never finished a full book in my life. Or even finished a long story. I'm leagues away from being a real writer."
The ninja calmly continued to peruse and the silence made her feel a little silly. Finally, he looked over. "You will someday," he said simply. "I believe you have many stories within you, Tori-Chan."
"Your friend must have impeccable taste!" Jiraiya declared loudly, breaking through Victoria's thoughts. "Does he know that I have a movie coming out?"
"I'm not sure," Tori confessed, "But I know he recently bought The Spring of Love."
At her words the self-proclaimed Toad Sage deflated a little. Even the tips of his wild man mane seemed to sink. "Ah. Not a very fervid fan then. That book's been out over a year." He continued to skulk along, his wooden getas thunking sullenly.
Behind his back, Sam and Tori exchanged surprised glances. The flagrant display of autumn had made it obvious that they may have moved through time as well as space, but a full year? "Sam, I know that when we went with Kakashi to the bookstore that that was the new release he was excited about," Tori whispered as quietly as she could, glad that the wind picked up at just that moment to shriek playfully and toss the leaves about with a cheery crackling. "We must have traveled forward by like twelve, thirteen months then. What happens in Naruto's second year? Would that be before or after the attack on the village you told me about?"
"Hm, I'm not sure where that puts us, exactly... I know that Naruto goes on a training mission with Jiraiya for two years before they come back. That's like… right after the retrieval mission. And Jiraiya stays for a bit… but soon is gone while Naruto does another mission. So… Yeah. I don't know… I don't remember anything about a movie; but there were so many filler episodes… who knows?" Sam contemplated the thought. With how many awesome canon episodes there were already and how ridiculous the filler episodes were, she tended to avoid them as much as possible. Except for the important fillers. Like the Kakashi arc. Those were totally canon.
Victoria frowned and gripped Sam's arm a little tighter to support her as they walked over a section of the road that was more rocky. "So, does that put us in the more dangerous part you were telling me about? With the Orochi-guy? Or are we to the point of the Pein guys with the cool coats?" And..why are we here? Nope, Tori, no time to think about this. We gotta just focus on staying on our feet. There's someone here that Sam knows and seems to trust. We just gotta keep our head above water for now. We'll figure out the crazy voice-from-the-other-side thing later.
"Uh…" Sam was suddenly acutely aware of the Sannin in front of them. "Well… With Orochimaru? I'd say yes. But I can assure you that we're definitely not at that point in time when Pein arrives." She whispered to Victoria, even lower than before. Jiraiya wasn't around for the Pein arc. If he was even paying half the attention she was sure he was doing, then there'd be some pretty big spoilers he could not be allowed to even question. "But where we actually are? I would need to have a little more detail before I could place us." We're just super lucky that we landed in front of someone I can recognize from the anime… I'm not sure how we'd find our way to Konoha without knowing a character from it.
The wind picked up, howling through the trees, so Victoria felt safe responding to Sam. "At least we know one person that's gonna stay alive and be on the right side the whole time. Right? Kakashi doesn't go evil or anything does he?" Her little heart might break if he did...well, after it fell in love even more. Poor Tori always had a crush on the villain, at least a little bit. "Granted..he's probably not a huge fan of us right now. We sure left things suspiciously."
Samantha snorted, her blue hair annoyingly fluttering over her mouth while she spoke, "No, Kakashi doesn't go evil - thank goodness! - but you're probably right. There's no way that he'll be happy with us. I mean… we did kind of leave on a fight. At least… for me… man... " Sam's gut twisted with guilt when she remembered lashing out at the jōnin in annoyance. Hopefully it wouldn't be the end of their friendship.
Tori gave Sam's shoulder a small squeeze. "Well if N can forgive S for running out on him and the whole village, then I think His Royal Hotness could forgive us for poofing away. Especially since we had no choice in the matter." Her eyes widened in realization. "Hey. No one speaks alpha-numeric here. We can just spell things out when we need to share super important secret information!"
Sam muttered the letters before recognizing right as Tori explained just who she was talking about. "Alphanumeric, eh? Even though, technically, they can understand us? But I guess if we spell it out, it wouldn't make sense to them… Not a bad idea!"
"I'm practically an evil genius," Victoria agreed sagely. "I'd make a fabulous ninja."
"'You wish!'" Sam quoted the Harry Potter movie with a tiny giggle. "And hopefully His Royal Hotness is like N. I mean… considering N is such a special character… with his talk-no-jutsu and all. I kinda feel like it's pretty unique to him."
"We'll have him talk-no-jutsu Hotness," Tori declared with a nose wrinkle. "Then he'd have to like us, right? Or we could just sing a preeeeettty song. Woo him into liking us again."
Samantha laughed loudly, "Oh yes, I'm sure that would do wonders!"
The sound of the two girls giggling caught the ears of the white-maned man in front of them. Jiraiya sauntered closer to them, since he had resigned himself to their company for the duration of their time to the hospital. 'Time to butter up some hot women!' Sam could hear the man saying. However, that was only in her head.
"You lovely ladies can sing, eh?" Jiraiya smiled, encouragingly.
"Well... yes. We know lots of good songs I'm sure you've never heard of." Sam replied.
What song would one sing to impress a pervert? Victoria wondered. Her ever-impressive brain instantly began to sing the words "I've got a lovely bunch of coconuts, deedly-dee.." She snorted at the thought, but could not possibly say it aloud. "Yes, um. Did you want us to sing for you, Jiraiya? You could consider it a thank you for your kindness in escorting us to the village."
"Well, considering how much of a stretch we have before we get to the hospital, I wouldn't mind some entertainment." Jiraiya agreed.
"Are you sure?" Sam half smiled, cheekily.
"He doesn't know what he's getting into," Tori declared solemnly.
"No I think he doesn't," Sam agreed slyly.
"We are the unending jukeboxes of the shinobi world. Prepared to sing for hours songs no one knows and even we only remember half the words to." Victoria grinned evilly. "Should we start with some Panic?"
"I think that's a brilliant idea!" Sam thrust her only available fist into the air, then cleared her throat. "Please leave all overcoats, canes and top hats with the doorman from that moment you'll be out of place and underdressed-"
"I'm wrecking this evening already and loving every minute of it! Ruining this banquet for the mildly inspiring end.." Tori gleefully joined in, their two voices belting through the quiet of the autumn forest. Poor Jiraiya was in for a loooooooooong afternoon.
"With your new black slacks with accentuating off-white pinstripes - Whoa-oh! Everything goes according to plan!"
"That's it. The cancer is officially old," the pervy sage interrupted. Apparently the third time revisiting the same song was enough to try his patience: even though Sam and Tori's musical wanderings had visited many other songs in between. The girls cackled, but obediently let the song die. "Besides. Village up ahead. Can't have you two scaring the local wildlife."
"Pff, we're too awesome for that." Sam scoffed. "Besides. I think you secretly like that song." She winked at the Sannin and he simply hmphed. She didn't miss his smidgen of a smile that had crawled forth.
"Either way. Once we have your leg taken care of, I'll be taking you two back to Konoha." The two women only had a chance to look surprised before he continued. "That shouldn't be a problem, right? Seeing as how you two have a friend there. I'm sure they must be very worried."
"Uh," was Sam's eloquent response, "Right. Shouldn't be a problem at all." She stumbled on a rock, nearly face planting to the ground if not for Victoria and the surprising gesture from Jiraiya.
"How about I carry you the rest of the way. The faster we get your leg taken care of, the faster we can be gone." Jiraiya turned around, making a gesture for Sam to hop on his back.
Uncomfortably, Sam glanced at Tori, "I don't think I feel comfortable-" her self-conscious sentence was cut off by the impatient man who swatted a hand in front of his face.
"Not a big deal at all. I'm sure you'll be light as a feather!"
"He did manage to haul me down a tree," Tori reminded her with an expressive shrug. "Shinobis are mighty and not to be questioned on their offers of help, eh?"
Without further argument, Jiraiya scooped Sam onto his back and the two girls found themselves quickly to the village hospital.
Jiraiya checked in with the nurse and the two girls were herded off to a room while Jiraiya claimed he had some other business to attend to.
"Not his usual excuse." Sam commented quietly to Tori.
"No?" Victoria asked, claiming the spare chair in their assigned room after helping Sam onto the examination table. "What's his usual excuse?"
"Normally he says something like 'I need to do my research'" Sam brought a finger up as she quoted the man, "And he's usually got a creepy tone to the phrase. Because… he, er, is the super pervy sage."
"Do I want to- no, I probably don't want to know. Ignorance is bliss and all that." Tori stretched her legs out, rolling her ankles to ease the aches of their walk. Secretly, she was proud of herself. All that darn hiking must actually be building her endurance a tiny bit. "Okay. So what's the game plan? Just let the toad man frogmarch us home to Konoha?"
"I don't suppose we have a choice," Sam replied, thinking about the quaint Leaf Village and Jiraiya's adamant determination to prove their story. "What if Kakashi doesn't remember us? Or even the Hokage? We might be in a bit of a situation…"
"Awh, man, that would suck," Tori said with a frown. "You...really think he would forget us?" Her toes took to sadly nudging the floor tiles instead of their happy bouncing of the moment before. "I guess each time we travel we could be ending up in a different potential universe. There's no way of knowing if we are ending up in the same place we left."
"That's a bizarre thought…" Sam said, "Who knows if-" At that moment the door opened, and in walked a nurse.
"Hello there!" The woman smiled brightly, "I'm here to take care of you. Oh you poor thing." The happy nurse tutted, her eyes the direction of Samantha's injured leg. "That looks pretty nasty."
"Yeah… it definitely doesn't feel too good." Sam responded.
"Well, let's settle in and take care of the injury. Hopefully it's not too bad."
The difference between Earth medicine and Whatever-this-planet-was medicine was rather fascinating, and also disconcerting. Like the security cameras, but no television thing: there was weird gaps in technological advances. They took an xray and used a normal-enough looking thermometer. But then the doctor came in, drew a funny circle on Sam's leg and then some glowing happened. Apparently, that fixed Sam's leg, because while she was still limping a bit, she could put weight on it again. Tori shook her head, marveling at the whole craziness. Somehow, kids running up the side of buildings made more sense then this chicanery. "Well...that looks like it was weird. Did it feel weird?" she asked Sam as they slowly made their way down the hall to the hospital entrance where, theoretically, their new shiny-haired self-imposed escort waited…(Tori much preferred version one, if anyone were to ask).
"Yeah, dude. That was the strangest experience ever. It was like… tingly. The pins and needles type. You know, when your leg falls asleep?" Sam shook her leg, "Glad it's over. It was weeeeird." She glanced around at the hustle and bustle of people, "Now what shall we do while we wait? Think that super perv will mind if we sightsee?" Sam waggled her eyebrows.
Tori pursed her lips wryly. "One of these days I'm gonna take your random suggestions seriously and then we'll actually get thrown in ninja-jail."
"What's wrong with sightseeing?"
"It's the 'let's find a reason to evade the super powerful jounin we kinda owe money to' aspect of the plan that I frown on…"
"And who says we're evading? We've never been here before; we got left behind by the toad sage, and who knows if he'll be back? If he does come back, he'll most definitely find us. He's a ninja after all. One of the Sannin!"
"Yeah, so what does Sannin mean?" Tori asked, flopping herself down into a chair in the waiting room as though to demonstrate her lack of will to sight-see as it promised both potential angry ninjas as well as unnecessary exercise when they were already going to have to hike some unknown crazy distance to Konoha. "Is that like, a level above jounin? Cuz I thought that was Anbu."
Sam snorted. Wow I do that a lot. "Sannin literally means three people. So… he's one of the three legendary people. 'Cause 'nin' is the counter for people, and 'san' means three." In her explanation, Sam had written in the air the japanese characters for each piece of the word.
"Oh, so like some special club of legends?" Tori clarified, accepting the possibility of such a club with a nod. "So like..Shrimp Boy's group could be the Ramen Sannin."
"Hah! Nope. Not at all." Sam informed, "Basically… Jiraiya, Tsunade, and Orochimaru became the three legendary people because of their shinobi skills. They defeated the Salamander from Amegakure. The Land Hidden in the Rain. So it's only specific to them."
"But like..N, S, and Sk..they become three famous peeps too. They save the village and all that… Also, I thought Orochimaru was a bad guy. Dang, I think I need a chart or something."
"Eh?" Sam stuffed her hands in her pockets, "That's true. N, S, and Sk do become pretty famous, but that's not for several years from now when another… uh, war," she whispered the terrible name, "I think we'll call that four W from now on, yeah? That's suuuuper dangerous territory right there."
Victoria looked terribly confused. "Um. I'll just not ask about future stuff 'til we get there," she determined. "Less I know the better, probably. I'd be terrible at resisting torture. Heck, I can barely resist chocolate. Or papercuts. Or making really bad puns. Truly, that's all interrogation would have to do, set up some really bad puns and I'd sing like a bird."
"But what makes you think we'll even end up somewhere in the future? What if this was the last time we moved? What if we're stuck here? Besides… I was only answering your question." Sam pouted, "N, S, and Sk don't become well-known until a future date. O - we'll call Orochimaru that - is the bad guy, so that's not wrong. Plus! We probably ought not to write anything down… well… actually… I guess we could write in English. No one knows those numeric letters, right?"
"Greco-Roman alphabet, if all we are doing is spelling," Tori corrected easily. She felt the need to prove she was smart about something at least. She always felt kinda hopeless and dumb for not being able to follow Sam's explanations. Especially when she knew Sam had told her some parts two or three times now. She fiddled with her hair. "Sorry. I'm kinda lame at remembering all this, but I'm really, really glad that you're with me in all this Sam. ..And I'm sorry I yelled and you fell out of a tree. I've kinda been a baaaaad sidekick so far today."
"Aw," Sam gave Tori a side hug, "I'm super glad we're in this together, too, Tor. And- wait. You yelled at me earlier? I have no recollection of this."
"Yeah. I was trying to wake you up so that you wouldn't fall out of the tree, but then my bark scared you so bad that...you fell out of the tree. It was..a tree-ibbile outcome." She looked up at the still-standing Sam beseechingly. "Go ahead. Call me a birch. I deserve it."
"A birch?" Sam repeated, slightly confused, until it dawned on her what Tori had said and laughed loudly, "Oh goodness, Tor… you crack me up." The scowl that the nurses gave them to be quiet cut Samantha's laugh short. "Anyway… no need to be sorry. I'm pretty sure I would've tried to wake you up too, to save you from falling out of a tree in that kind of situation. Anyone would've done it." She shrugged and finally sat down with a sigh, "Now… it's kinda boring here. We should go sightseeing! My legs all better now, so what better time!" Sam wiggled both legs as proof.
"Ugh. Why do you want to do stuff all the time?" Victoria grumbled. "Let's sit here and make tree puns instead and leaf all the adventure talk to someone else. You decided to be a main character for six hours and it got us caught in the middle of a shinobi battle, stranded up a tree, and then relying on a wild man in the forest. That's it. I'm reclaiming the title. We are going back to the shojo way of things where I make moon eyes at the pretty boys and you laugh at me. No more of this shonen nonsense."
Despite Victoria's straight-faced claims, Samantha couldn't help but laugh half-way through. "You act like I decided to fall on the wild man." She giggled, "Besides… the shojo way of things would be so boring. Not that I had ever intended to be in the midst of all the shonen stuff." Sam pulled out the opaque marble, "Do you think it'll leave us stranded here for good, now?"
"I like boring. Boring means no one is dying. Big fan of that." Victoria gave the marble a gimlet glare. "And that thing..I'm not a big fan of that thing. And I think you should not touch it anymore unless it promises to be a nice marble and take us back to Kakashi. Or… or home. I recognize that is the more important goal, I promise." She blushed though at the Freudian slip which betrayed her real feelings.
"Sure you do," Sam smiled knowingly. "I'm a big fan of no one dying, too. But I'm pretty sure there's no rhyme or reason why the marble glows. I mean… it started glowing last time while still in my pocket." She shrugged and pocketed the thing.
Tori frowned slightly. "Well..I wouldn't say no rhyme or reason," she said cautiously, still feeling the idea out in her head before finding the right words. "I mean..right before it did was that whole weird thing with the parchment. Like, I don't know what in the world came over me, but it seemed like it was affecting you too: it seemed crazy important that we not let Hotness run off with it, and then right after he left with it is when the ball started to glow. It's way too weird to be a coincidence. Plus, everyone knows magic comes in threes. We'll be traveling with that thing at least once more. I guarantee it."
"Magic comes in threes, but this isn't magic. It's ninjutsu!" Sam stated matter-of-fact, "So… this might be the last time we ever moved. And… I do remember something weird happening earlier, too. I mean… I don't know about you, but I heard someone telling us to stop. That was… weird. Definitely weird. It seemed to come from everywhere." Sam tapped her toes, contemplative. "What do you think that means?"
"Maybe its a ghost?" Victoria offered, taking the downtime as an opportunity to fingercomb her hair. "Or one of those mind-jutsus. Hotness didn't even seem to twitch and he's supposed to be able to see anything with his eye, right? So it's probably safe to say that whatever it was wasn't physically very near us."
"If somebody's in our head simultaneously… yeesh. That's a bit creepy. Though, they didn't feel threatening when they were speaking. Just frantic… made me feel lots of anxiety."
Tori opened her mouth to agree when she caught sight of a wild nest of white hair in the window outside. "Look, he's coming back. Do you think you could pretend the doc told ya to rest your leg for at least an hour? I bet we could sweet talk him into lunch. And after a day and night and half day again, food's the only thing that'll keep me on my feet much longer."
"Tori, I like your thinking!" Sam grinned. Jiraiya came sauntering in, a smile for the nurses plastered on his face. He stopped to flirt with them until Sam loudly cleared her throat, multiple times, before he rolled his eyes and sped in front of them.
"Ladies." Even his tone sounded like his smile, "I see you're much better. Now. Shall we get moving?"
Victoria rose and made sure to "help" Sam from her own seat. "We'll have to be careful," she said. "The doc did say Samantha should take it easy as much as she could, but of course, we don't want to slow you down, Jiraiya-San."
Jiraiya's fingers twitched, taking a long look between the two girls, his smile seeming to plaster his face. "Ah, not a problem at all. Worst case scenario, I carry Sam." He smiled more genuinely after that, "In any case, we're losing daylight. Time to go."
"But wait!" Sam caught up to the man whose large stride got him to the exit quickly. Jiraiya held the door open, his eyes following Sam as she hurried next to him, not making a move to head outside, "Tori and I were feeling hungry…"
"Sam!" Victoria literally face-palmed. "What should I expect?" she mumbled to herself, "She's a Gryffindor. They're never discreet." A little louder she said, "We know it's a lot to ask when you're already doing so much for us, but..we have no one else to turn to. And no idea how we'll make it without someone to show us how to get back to Konoha. We'll find a way to pay you back someday, we promise."
"Uh yeah, we promise!"
"We-heh-heeell," Jiraiya rose an eyebrow, his smile somehow growing wider, "I can think of some ways."
"Get your mind out of the gutter," Samantha immediately responded, "I'm afraid we don't do sexual favors."
"Are you sure? I'm quite a catch, you know." He wiggled his eyebrows at them.
"Absolutely not," Tori confirmed, and then she realized how that sounded in response to Jiraya rather than what Sam had said, "I mean, the naughty stuff. Not you, you are a fine catch, but we are ladies and we don't do anything like the women in your books, Jiraiya-San."
"Oh? So you do know my work, do you?"
"Well, we've never read it ourselves, but our friend is obsessed. We know how pervy they are." Sam stated, factually.
"What! My books have absolute need for every scene I've written about." Jiraiya said with mock offense. They'd started walking outside, and Sam and Victoria followed the Sannin, hoping it was in the direction of really good food.
The heavens seemed to be smiling on Sam and Victoria that day because the typically unhelpful and self-serving shinobi seemed inclined to showing them a great deal more mercy than he ever seemed to extend to his ramen-loving student. He did buy them lunch, and after an hour or two tromping back into the forest, granted the foot-weary women a chance to break. He seemed content to perch on a log, reading through some pages of what they could only assume were his latest drafts. Victoria rubbed her aching arches with a fierce grimace, wincing a little as she bent. "Ya know, maybe I should have had the docs check out my ribs," she said to Sam. "They seemed to have done magic for your ankle and shoulder."
"Oh yeah. You feel out of a tree, too. Bummer." Sam said, thinking back, "Do your ribs hurt? Hopefully they're just bruised."
"Just when I bend or try to move too fast," Tori assured her. "And I only fell because Mr Love Sage scared me. Granted, I was probably gonna fall. I've never successfully climbed a tree up or down."
"Well this "Love Sage' saved you from a terrifying fall," the man drawled from his log across the road. He shook his bookmark at the both of them as though to emphasize his point. "Besides, having a heroic Ninja come to save the day is the stuff of books! If you read my stuff, you'd be flattered to come to that realization." He smirked as he went back to his current writings. One leg propped up on the other, the white haired Sannin began to write where he had left off.
Sam made a face at Jiraiya's matter-of-fact statement. "Like a knight in shining armor? We've got plenty stories of our own for that genre; though not with ninjas." Sam glanced at the draft sitting on Jiraiya's lap, "How often do you write, anyway?" Perhaps she could get an idea of what it was like for other authors. Especially professional ones. Her favorite author seemed to write daily, and Sam wondered if others were the same.
Jiraiya glanced up at his new blue-haired 'hostage', contemplatively, "I generally write whenever I have inspiration. A daily occurrence, really. Always good to keep my materials with me. My special research especially helps with inspiration," he giggled, "You could always be a part of my book if you wanted."
His suggestive tone left Sam grimacing once again, "No thanks."
Jiraiya shrugged, "Your loss, then. What about you?" He turned to Victoria.
Victoria snorted and rolled her eyes. "I don't think I'm the type of person that anyone would want to read a - a that kind of story about." She laughed a little darkly. Shaking her head again, Tori went back to rubbing her sore feet, frowning slightly at her wide soles and cankles. She usually was totally fine with her weight, having accepted it as a part of her present as well as her past, but some days were hard. ..Like the thought of a random stranger judging her and trying to describe her when all he could really know was what she looked like. People just were so quick to only see the surface and their own misconceptions would fill in the gaps before she ever had a chance to really show them who she was. "But you could toss me in for some comic relief, sure," she offered. "Make sure it uses lots of silly puns."
"And don't forget the bestie who cackles at it all!" Sam chimed in with a wink. Jiraiya started at the two women, slightly surprised.
"Well, if you really want me to," he said with a mischievous wink. Then went back to his writing, leaving the two girls almost bored sitting there.
Sam huffed out a sigh, leaning back on her palms, watching Jiraiya contemplatively once again. If we make it back to Konoha, I wonder how Kakashi will actually react. Would he think we were spies? Hm… I hope not. She bit her lip, scrutinizing their, in all technical terms, captor. We'd be way too slow to get away from him… Looking around at their surroundings, Sam found no possible way to escape without being easily caught. But… did they really want to escape? Jiraiya turned his writings to the next page, picking up his bookmark as he shuffled everything around. The sight of the bookmark caused Sam to furrow her brow, something feeling oddly familiar about that particular piece of parchment. She nudged Victoria, nodding her head in its direction, trying not to alert Jiraiya of her suspicions.
Victoria looked up from her feet and tilted her head. There was something weirdly familiar about the torn edge of the paper that Jiraiya was brandishing about. "Get it," something inside her hissed and she rose to her feet, shoes forgotten. With the same weird lack of control that she had felt chasing Kakashi across the clearing the night before, Victoria took an unconscious half-step across the wide margin of the roadway, hardly noticing the fact that Sam was right on her heels. Hold your horses, Victoria Guinevere Lexington, she mentally scolded herself back. What exactly is your plan here? Are you gonna just try the grab and run thing? You saw how well that went yesterday. Now think about this! Her brain, so quick to summon useless trivia, punctuation rules, or song lyrics spun its gears and spouted absolutely nothing out. But the need to try was worse than any itch. She and Sam found themselves across the road and peering over the shinobi's shoulder. "So..are these drafts?" Victoria asked lamely. Her eyes really though were peering at the scrap dangling from his other hand: it was an old, old piece of paper - well, parchment rather, the color of tea stains. Ancient creases and wrinkles marred its surface, but she could spot the same wiggly, curvy lines and calligraphic characters that had been on the piece they found from the Forbidden Scroll. This piece though was clearly different. The one from last night had been as wide as her hand and almost triangular. This was a thinner but much longer strip. Her fingertips tingled as she just held in the urge to snatch it.
Jiraiya hummed his confirmation that he was writing a rough draft for his series, staring intently at where he had left off, as if he hadn't recognized the presence of Victoria and Samantha peering intently over his shoulder. Instead, he jotted something else down, then smirked. "You two, ah, wanting a sneak peek of the Great Toad Sage Jiraiya's upcoming Makeout Tactics, eh?" He turned his head to look at both of them. "Well! If you'd like, I could read it to you and perhaps you'd like to demonstrate some of my awesomeness live, hm?"
"Ew! No." Sam grimaced, "But I am impressed by your work. This is what? Your fourth? Fifth volume?"
"Fourth!" Jiraiya announced proudly, "Don't you girls just feel lucky that you're in the presence of an amazing author? Would you like my autograph?"
"That'd be awesome!" Samantha cried out, jovially, an idea popping to mind. "It'd be even more awesome if it was on a piece of paper that you own. Like, even that bookmark! That would really be a dream come true." She reached out, feeling an incessant need to be in contact with the parchment: to have possession of it, when Jiraiya suddenly laughed and effectively closed the book, his "bookmark" saving his spot.
"You ladies deserve something far more grand than an old bookmark!" He got up and headed to his sack that he brought with him.
Samantha, feeling suddenly frantic, whispered to Victoria, "I'll distract him, you snatch that bookmark!"
Tori nodded firmly and casually made sure to position herself within easy reach of the bookmark. Sam's method of distraction was to talk Jiraiya's ear off about her own ideas about writing. Sam was always good for a rant! Tori watched carefully and at what she judged to be just the right moment, she pinched the edge of the bookmark and pulled it free as quick as she could. Of course, that was not quick enough for a shinobi. She didn't have even a chance to tuck it up a sleeve or into her skirt pocket before Jiraya's dark eyes stabbed into hers. "I don't believe that's yours," he drawled.
"Um, I just wanted to look at it a bit more," Tori said swiftly. "It looks really old and interesting. My grandfather collects artifacts and he's always talking about how its the forgotten pieces that have the most history." She held the parchment very firmly, but tried to seem as unconcerned and casual as she could in the midst of her giant lie. Some part of her was a bit disturbed at how easily the lies had started to come to her once they were in Konoha. "It seems pretty old. How did you come by it?"
"I don't believe that's any of your business." Jiraiya stated calmly, a hand held out to receive his property back. "Now if you please, I was using that for my bookmark."
"Ah, c'mon! If it's as old as Tor said, I'd love to know more about it! History is fascinating!" Samantha tried to persuade.
"Sorry. No can do. Now… I don't want to get aggressive, but if you force my hand, I will have to."
Victoria's eyes went very wide, as much out of curiosity as a little healthy fear. She started to extend the bookmark back to him when her elbows unexpectedly locked: her arms and fingers freezing. "Jiraiya-San, I just want you to know that I really appreciate everything you've done for me and Sam and I really will find a way to pay you back someday. So please forgive me for this." Tori whirled and started to run as best and quick as she could, shoving the parchment down her her shirt to rest over her heart that pounded harshly in terror.
Samantha quickly ran after Victoria, "Sorry!" She yelled behind her to Jiraiya, "We will definitely pay you back, someday!" And off they were! It was just a pity that they were up against one of the greatest Ninja around. One of the Legendary Sannin. It was a wonder that the two girls even thought that they had a fighting chance. Samantha and Victoria ran as fast as they could, which was actually quite quick for women who weren't actively in shape, but that victory lasted a moment. Jiraiya shouted something that would have been familiar to Samantha if she was really paying attention to his words and so, it was with shock and surprise that they were suddenly grabbed and pulled to a halt by some huge, sticky thing. It was like a huge, weird, grayish-pink python: the thing was warm, and it was wet, and it twisted tightly around her: pinning Sam's arms to her sides.
"Gleughhh!" Tori shrieked beside her. "Ew! Ew! Sam, what is it?" Victoria was captured, too, by the huge pink thing and she was thrashing back and forth to try to get out of its slippery coils. Samantha realized after a second that the weird bumps dotting the sides looked just like tastebuds. Is this a tongue? Sam breathed in sharply at the thought and was nearly overwhelmed by the nastiness of the stench: like someone had shoved her head into a bucket of dead, decaying earthworms.
"I think I'm gonna barf," Samantha made sure not to breath in through her nose.
""HHRRRRRrrrrrrrrrbbit!"
With a sense of dread, Samantha tried to look behind her, gooey, saliva-choked hair sticking against her neck and all. Her hat, thankfully, did not get encompassed in the slime of the thing which they now knew was a toad. A very large, very yellow, very bug-eyed toad. "This is disgusting," She muttered again.
"Oh gross! Oh gross!" Tori moaned. "I'm sorry, but this is so, so gross!"
It was then, that Jiraiya popped into view.
"That was a valiant effort, ladies. But you should have known to never go against someone as great as I!" He puffed up his chest a moment, before plucking the piece of parchment from where it still peeked out of the top of Victoria's dress. "I'll take this, thank you." He grimaced at the slime that it, too, had been covered in, before sighing and pulling out a scroll and sealing the parchment away. "Now, tell me who you really are and why did you want my bookmark?" He placed his hands on his hips, scrutinizing the two, slobbery-goo covered women.
"Well, you see, it's because-!" Samantha's remark was stunned to silence when a white light burst from Samantha's pocket, sharing its brilliance through the tongue that circled the Sam and Tori tightly. "Oh no." Sam lamented.
"Is that the stupid marble again?" Tori shouted: she clearly was not handling the toad-tongue thing very well. "I am this close to saying a really bad word!"
"Hrrunngh?" their toad captor ribbited in worried confusion as the marble began to pulse; more more quickly than it had the night before or even that fateful first day in the garden.
"What's going on! What's glowing?" Jiraiya shouted, his eyes narrowed even tinier than they already had been; suspicion on high alert. Samantha looked guiltily at the man.
"We'll tell you someday!" She promised in vain hope. She knew his fate. Not very pleasant, but ultimately worthy of an awesome warrior like him. "Don't worry, Tor! We'll… uh…" Will we be okay? Oh crap, I really hope we don't die. I just got better! The toad seemed to be likewise worried, because his grip on them both suddenly tightened a lot. Victoria screamed in sudden pain. Oh man! Tori's ribs! Samantha's internal panic had her trying to turn towards Victoria, but the toad's hold on them was now too tight to allow any movement at all. And then she was trying to call out to Tori even as Jiraiya yelled commands at his toad, and Sam felt the pocket pulse frantically against her thigh like it always did just before everything went dark. Was this going to be it? Would it take just her and leave Victoria? There was no way to get to the marble; no way to reach her friend. Sam felt the blackness rushing too quickly for her with the unstoppable force of a tsunami and there was nowhere to go and absolutely nothing Sam could do. It crashed into her and all she could do was pray.
A/N: What's up Fanfic readers! Here we are... back again with another fabulous chapter. How'd you like Seeing Jiraiya? He's always been such a character, no? Hehe love him. Even though RoyalVicTorie still has to know the awesomeness that is Jiraiya. She still has a lot to learn about how awesome even Itachi is... but don't worry, my fellow Naruto readers! RoyalVicTorie has officially begun to watch the Naruto anime! (unfortunately, fillers and all). So she's finally learning how amazing this world is, and learning to love the character's we're writing about. Gotta tell ya... before RoyalVicTorie knew of the greatness of this series, I would tell her stuff because I didn't think she'd actually start watching the show (because believe me, I had tried). And so, after she began watching it, was re-reading some of this story and she was like "WHAT! The Hokage dies!" because she apparently hadn't gotten that far in the anime and had completely forgotten that I'd told her this information. hahahaha it was just so hilarious to see her freak out over information she'd actually already known. Oh goodness. RoyalVicTorie is awesome xD Anyway...
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