Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto.
Warning: Quorra and Jiraiya met once again and they are not happy!
As always, thank you so much- why arent i dead yet, Angel Hatake, xxOchibixx, Paperboy Jacky, Guest (1), ShugoYuuki123, ZabuzasGirl, Kawaii Kunai, Guest (2), and Jemmy for the kind reviews!
why arent i dead yet- thank you and xxOchibixx for pointing out the error. I knew it was ANBU but when I say it aloud I pronounce it AMBU, oops.
xxOchibixx- Mae did cheat with Gachero's scroll, but Quorra doesn't know that. We'll have to wait and see if the truth comes out!
Guest (1)- Those are great theories and love when people share their theories. A few people have brought up the "experiment" theory. Hopefully Quorra will get the truth soon.
Jemmy- There's plenty more of that, enjoy!
Happy Reading!
Chapter Forty: Unwanted Company
My jaw as never dropped so low in my life; the audacity before my very eyes.
Pervy Sage, the "Great" Toad Sage, Jiraiya.
By the looks of it, Jiraiya wasn't too keen on seeing me either. He wore a face as if seeing his mother for the first time in twenty years and he had forgotten to write.
"The creeper." I was exacerbated. The ladies on the other side of the fence quieted down to listen.
"Quiet!" Jiraiya hushed. "You're going to ruin my research!"
RESEARCH?! I saw red.
"This OLD,
DECREPIT,
FUCKING
PEEPING TOM
is your trainer!?" I practically megaphoned at Naruto and anyone in a two-mile radius.
If the women weren't freaked out before, they certainly were now. A stampede of feet could be heard as they got their towels and rushed to the locker room.
"My ladies!" Jiraiya cried as he clawed at the fence to view his last glimpsed at their backsides.
Naruto didn't know what the make of the situation. "Wait just a second, you two know each other?"
Jiraiya and I froze in our tragic moments and became beets. We witnessed each other's faces ombre from peach to red.
"Oh, we know each other alright," Jiraiya confirmed, sarcastically. "Bare ass and all—"
"Don't you dare, Jiraiya!" I warned. It was horrifying enough to have experienced this in the first place, and in front of Team Eight, Leda, and Mae. But I would rather take Jiraiya to his grave before he revealed this to anyone else.
"So you don't know each other?" the blonde scratched his head. Bless Naruto's soul and his inability to put two and two together.
I pinched the bridge of my nose with frustration. "We've met before," I explained. "It wasn't the greatest encounter."
That was sugar coating it.
Jiraiya huffed with agreeance. "You can say that again. My manhood is forever scarred."
I growled at him. Growled.
"Where's Kakashi?" I snapped at Naruto. "Why isn't he training you?"
Naruto was now the one growling. "Don't know. He just told me he couldn't train me and took off." He crossed his arms and pouted distastefully.
So he doesn't know where Kakashi is either, I calculated.
"So you picked this freak to be your mentor, instead?" I thumbed towards the pervert.
"Hey!" Jiraiya yelled. I shrugged my shoulders.
"Yeah, he scared off my first mentor and now he's obligated to help me not fuck-up. He may be a porn addict, but he's actually really strong!" Naruto finalized.
Of course he is, I thought, rolling my eyes.
"Why is it always the perverted ones that become teachers?" I mumbled to myself, thinking of Shiri-Sensei and the academy.
"What?" Naruto asked.
"Nothing!"
Naruto, being the giftedly dense child thought nothing about it.
Jiraiya didn't want me in his presence as much as I did. "Alright, you heard Naruto, he has lots of training to do. Better be off then!" He shooed.
"Hey, Quorra! Why don't you join me? I could use some teammate competition." Naruto gave his signature goofy smile, like nothing could be wrong with the world and its perverts.
"No, no," Jiraiya answered. "I'm sure she's much too busy to be hanging around here—"
"I'd love to!" I answered, giving Jiraiya a menacing smile. If he doesn't want my presence, then my presence he will get.
Naruto cheered obliviously while Jiraiya groaned. He was both out of luscious women to conduct "research" on and presented with a girl who liked to take revenge.
"So, Naruto. Why don't you explain to me what Jiraiya-sama has been teaching you," I spoke, oversweet, smiling at his newest mentor.
Naruto threw his fist into his palm. "Right! Believe it!"
He guided me to the edge of the springs.
"I'm practicing the walk on water technique!" Naruto instructed. "First you build up chakra at your feet 'cause that's what touches the water. Then, you think about discharge because that's somehow important. And finally, you take a step and—
Before he could explain more, his foot went straight through and the rest followed behind. I tried not to laugh, covering my mouth and nodding deep in thought on his lecture.
Naruto wasn't as amused. "Damn it! Why can't I do it?"
What Naruto was trying to explain, but wasn't quite hitting the mark, was that in order to walk on water, one must concentrate chakra to their feet because that's the point that contacts with the water. Once you step foot on the water's surface, one has to constantly steady the rate of discharge because water was a moving surface. Too much or too little chakra given on any point of contact will throw the person off. AKA ending up like Naruto.
It was the same idea as the time Kakashi was testing my abilities and one of tasks was to walk up a tree. In that case, it would be easier because the trunk was a solid, non-momentum object— not like I could perform either.
Naruto pursued it again. This time he managed to not sink to the bottom. He moved like a baby taking his first steps across the water.
"Come on, Quorra! Give it a try!"
I stared questioningly at my feet. There was a time when Gachero-Sensei taught, or at least try to teach, Team Thirteen to walk on water. Mae, obviously, took to it with ease, running around the pond with excitement. Besides her excellent chakra control, she had an affiliation with water. Leda's attempt was aligned with Naruto's. She at first couldn't do it, but after determination and a mouthful of curses later, she walked like a drunk, but she could do it.
As they played and celebrated over unsolid ground, that left me behind. I was so bad, I couldn't even place a toe in the water without slipping under. No amount of determination was improving it either. Gachero-Sensei tried to comfort me by explaining that low amounts of chakra was harder to concentrate. This was because the less one possesses, the less of a chance one has to waste it. One had to be extremely efficient.
Naruto was doing well because, despite his failed attempts to use his chakra efficiently, he had an absurd amount so it hardly affected him. Granted, he had a long way to go.
With my recent disappointments, I wasn't sure if I was up to this. I wasn't overly found with showing Jiraiya how incompetent I was either. But I knew the only way I was going to learn was to try and try again. This will be my first training for the Chunins next year.
I hesitantly took off my leather jacket, closed my eyes and took a deep breath. I tried to imagine the chakra flowing within me, keeping me alive. Filled with secrets from before my time.
"Come on, Quorra, try it!" Naruto called from the waters.
My hands were in a boar sign as I tried to concentrate the chakra to the soles of my feet. I opened my eyes and saw the waving of the transparent springs, beckoning me to join. Anticipating the hot springs could potentially burn my flesh.
"Believe it!" Naruto yelled. "You can do—
But he stopped mid-sentence. His mouth stopped and his eyes stared as we couldn't believe what he was seeing. Honestly neither was I. Below me, I saw the refection of myself. My bright green eyes reflected on the water like a mermaid was below me. My brown wavy hair surrounding the half-human, half-fish creature like seaweed on a descending day. The mermaid smiled at me, my smile.
I was standing on water!
I tried to take my first step, anticipating how difficult the task would be with the prior knowledge mechanics, but the opposite happened. My first step was solid, effortless. Like I was walking on solid land. With the first came the second, and then third. I couldn't believe this. Was I dreaming?
Jiraiya was watching me, scrutinizing.
"You did it! Yahoo!" Naruto jumped before remembering he was over water and lost his concentration in a big splash. The aftermath waves threw me off balance and sunk into the water with a splash as well.
We were both laughing when we resurfaced.
"Damn, we were so close," Naruto growled and together we crawled out of the springs, soaked.
"Almost," I smiled, trying to contain my overexcitement.
"Almost isn't good enough for the finals," Naruto ripped his black tee off and threw it on the ground with a heavy, wet plop.
How was this possible? I couldn't even step a toe in before and now, on my first attempt, I could stand on water. Was it not a fluke then as Nurse Sheva initially thought? Did my net chakra really increase?
Naruto was having a hissy fit so Jiraiya stepped in.
"Enough, Naruto." He sat beside the agitated boy. "Build up chakra again."
Naruto snapped out of his episode. "Alright, yeah."
He clapped his hands into place and concentrated, closing his eyes like I did.
"Wow," Jiraiya said.
Naruto lifted a brow, wondering if Jiraiya had some tips. Maybe Jiraiya was a useful mentor after all.
"You have zero excess fat. How do you do it?" Jiraiya poked at the boy's abdomen.
Our curious faces quickly segued to anger.
"You're supposed to help him," I complained. "Not suck a major—"
"Do you mind? I'm trying to concentrate here!" Naruto scolded.
Jiraiya and I turned red. "Right, sorry." He smiled guilty. "Go ahead, please."
"Jerk," Naruto huffed with annoyance and tried again. This time as he wasn't disturbed.
As he concentrated his chakra, a black swirled tribal sun meld onto his skin. I've seen it before, the same tattoo design when Naruto was fighting Orochimaru in the Forest of Death. I was hopeful that what I witnessed then was my eyes playing tricks on me or maybe a combination of dehydration and high-level stress obscuring my vision. But, seeing it reappear now crushed my hopefulness.
I stared questioningly at Jiraiya, praying he would have answers. Naruto didn't have the tattoo a few minutes ago when he took his wet shirt off. It only appeared when he started using his chakra.
Also, his eyes weren't red, but that doesn't mean his eyes could become red soon. That he would be engulfed into this destructive beast once more.
Instinctually, I took a step back, then another. After the third step I caught myself. My brain was telling me there was danger; that I'd seen this before and it led to unhuman-like destruction. My brain was trying to protect me, telling me to run. It didn't want me to go through similar events that occurred in the Forest of Death.
Jiraiya placed his hands on the boy's markings and studied it, tracing the swirl of the sun's center, the rays, and five small round disks that circumference the image.
"Hey, quit it, Old Man. Can't you see I'm trying to concentrate here?" Naruto giggled at Jiraiya's touch.
But, my heart stopped me; reminding me that this was Naruto. We weren't in the forest anymore; we were no longer in danger. Naruto doesn't understand what was happening to him and it was up to me to help him.
The comment made Jiraiya's stare sterner, both of us in wonder. I wanted to ask a million questions but kept quiet in hopes they would soon be answered.
After satisfied with his investigation, Jiraiya nodded with finality and stood up.
"Alright, Naruto. Arms up," he commanded.
Naruto didn't understand what was going on. "Huh?"
"Come on, come on. We don't got all day," Jiraiya complained. "It's just a trust exercise."
Naruto listened to Jiraiya and threw his arms up, looking innocent. His eyes were still blue.
Jiraiya had his hand behind his back. When he brought it forward, each of his five fingertips were exuding chakra.
"Five prong release," and he thrusted his hand into Naruto's abdomen.
The young shinobi sailed backwards. The five small disks that were around the sun disappeared before the rest of the tribal markings disappeared behind it.
"Hey, what was that for!" Naruto yelled, rubbing his blank stomach.
Jiraiya waved him off. "That was nothing! I was just releasing a pressure point. Go try it now."
Naruto mumbled words of annoyance and tried once more. Once he concentrated his chakra, he took a hesitative step into the spring. He jolted with the assumption he would slip under, but he held afloat. One step turned to two as he ran across the spring.
"Yahoo!" He cheered. "You see that! I did it! I don't know what you did to me, but it worked!"
Naruto danced, jumped and twirled on top of the water. I was amazed to see the sudden shift in improvement.
"What did you do?" I asked, Jiraiya. He studied my face, trying to read how much I knew, unsure.
"Will it endanger him?" I asked.
"For now, no," he answered, truthfully. "That seal is a six hexagram. On top of it was a five prong seal. An odd on top of an even was why his chakra control was out of whack."
I knew Orochimaru put the Five Prong Seal on Naruto. Was he responsible for the hexagram, too? To hide his powers?
I touched my abdomen thinking of all the possibilities.
"Don't worry. It's not contagious," he laughed.
"That's not what I'm worried about," I spoke softly, watching Naruto continue to celebrate.
I'm worried about what I don't know.
ξ
By the time Naruto was done showing off, the sun was on its way to set.
"Alright, that's enough for today," Jiraiya gestured.
"What? What a minute, no way! I'm not ready yet. You said you would teach me some killer technique later if I mastered the walking on water technique. I'm just getting started, believe it!" Naruto preached.
"Your training is like cooking. You can't wash a boiling pot. We'll continue tomorrow!" And just like that, he was gone.
"ARGH, damn that Pervy Sage," Naruto threw himself on the ground with annoyance.
Jiraiya may be perverted, but he knew what was happening to Naruto and I was going to get to the bottom of it to find out what.
Sorry this wasn't a long chapter. The next series of events are very important and it wouldn't have flowed nicely unless I stopped it here. But! I thought to make it up, I would do something different. I drew how I perceived Quorra to look if you would like to check it out (Instagram username: Christianaaah). You don't need an account to view it.
Does she look similar than what you imagined? Different? If you guys like this idea, I could do this for my other OCs whenever I have a short chapter. If so, who would you like to see next?
Until next time!
xo