The Little Sannin
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or the related characters, I just am borrowing them for my own delusions.
Chapter 3
Tsunade glared at the path that had been left un guarded out of their campsite. She smiled proudly as she remembered the children setting the traps that even Jiraiya and his toads had been unable to find.
My little Naru-chan is becoming a first rate trap maker and he's not even six. Tsunade thought proudly.
And Anko is going to knock Konoha's socks off whenever we return. She saw Anko as a daughter and the young girl while blood related to Orochimaru was loved by all three Sannin as much as Naruto.
We never favor one over the other, and they are protective of each other as siblings. She thought remembering the last trading town they'd been in and Anko had been bullied by some of the sixteen year old girls when she had entered a store looking for kunai and some chemical compounds to make her smoke bombs.
Little Naruto had been at the door with Shizune and heard the girl mocking his nee-san.
(Flashback)
"What, you think your going to be some kind of ninja? Don't you have to be part of a ninja village?" one of the seventeen year old girls snarked.
"And look at those clothes? She dresses like a boy, but then, she is rather flat chested…"
"YOU LEAVE MY SISTER ALONE YOU TROLLS!" Naruto roared. He knew Anko was self conscious about her body. She's only ten, but being around Kaa-san and Aunt Shizune… the little blond thought as he tossed a tag he'd smuggled out Jiraiya-tou-san's bag at the girls.
One of them seeing the sizzling tag screamed and they scattered. Naruto smiled and looked at his sister who was glaring at him. "I could have handled that myself brat."
Shizune was the only one other than the shop owner to witness the two siblings arguing, neither one paying any attention to the active exploding note.
Tsunade had been entering a bar when the explosion happened. Naru-chan! Anko! She was gone, the dust cloud was her only passing as she made it across town to see a surprised Shizune sitting on the ground holding a still squabbling pair of children. Her apprentice told her of what happened and Tsunade sighed before going to pay the store owner for damages.
(End Flashback)
Now she had the pair working on homework with Shizune, while her eyes kept watch for her absent teammates. What is keeping them? She thought.
"I don't like this. We're too exposed." She muttered.
XX
"Hey Orochi-teme, you got caught too." Jiraiya said from his own cage. His hands were bound along with his fingers.
Orochimaru glared as his head was killing him. "Pervert, not so loud."
"They haven't been here since dropping your pale ass off." Jiraiya said.
"Its not them I care about. My skull feels like it did that night the three of us went out after Dan's funeral."
He saw Jiraiya's look and the smile forming. "Pervert, focus."
"Whatever you say teme. I was just remembering Tsunade throwing us both out in our underwear just as that group of missionaries were walking past the hotel."
Orochimaru groaned, and that didn't help his aching head. "Why in Kami's name were you ever given the ability of speech? You're like one of Sarutobi-sensei's trained monkey's."
Jiraiya scowled. "No, I take that back." Orochimaru said and Jiraiya started to smile thinking his teammate was done with the insults.
"I need to apologize to the Monkey King for insulting his subject by comparing them to you."
"HEY!"
Orochimaru took in his surroundings. His hands were bound like Jiraiya's and he found he couldn't bring his arms close enough to his face to try and bite the bindings.
Fools don't know who they have apparently, or they would have gagged me. Orochimaru thought.
"Hey, teme, were Tsu-hime and the kids alright?" Jiraiya asked.
"When I last saw them, they were fine dobe. How did they catch you?" Orochimaru asked.
Jiraiya sighed. "I had some time before Naruto would have been up, and I decided to go upstream and look for a way to cross with the kids safely."
Orochimaru nodded. The Sannin went out of their way to protect the kids, even if they could have summoned a toad, slug or snake to cross, they felt the learning to forage was a better experience for the children to pick up until they learned proper techniques to walk on water or climb cliffs with chakra.
"Well, I thought I'd found a safe spot when I was pulled under into the mud and swarmed. I woke up here."
Orochimaru explained his own capture. "Who are they?" he wondered out loud.
"Not sure. They aren't wearing any kind of identification and all are wearing full masks and armor when I have gotten them. Nothing to identify with any village." Jiraiya said.
Orochimaru might have teased his friend and teammate by saying he was dobe, but Jiraiya was great at attention and detail. He plays the fool to the hilt and everyone always overlooked him. If I hadn't seen him away from Saru-sensei, I never would have known.
(Flashback)
Orochimaru had been upset over not getting a difficult A-ranked ninjutsu right under Sarutobi's watchful eyes and had stormed off. He'd walked the village rooftops and sulked. It was then at an abandoned training ground near the south wall that he'd found Jiraiya.
The man looked a mess. Orochimaru was about to comment from his tree when he watched as Jiraiya went thru the same seals he'd been shown and the jutsu exploded.
"Damn, again too much again. (sigh) Just once I wish Sensei would spend time with me on something like this…"
Orochimaru watched his teammate, the one he'd called 'dobe' and 'deadlast' since their time in the academy as Jiraiya had come to Konoha from a small farming village to the south near the border, while Orochimaru's father was on the council and he was a prodigy.
How is this possible? The genin thought watching his teammate, he saw that while Jiraiya had never really gotten the proper attention, he worked harder.
He's figured out…
Orochimaru watched him until he passed out from chakra exhaustion, and then watched over him all night as Jiraiya slept. Orochimaru learned that while Jiraiya might not have come from a clan or gotten jutsu's easily, once he got them, he could reinvent them and alter them, and he'd done that with the mud jutsu that their sensei had only shown him and Jiraiya had witnessed Orochimaru spending the day trying to master. That one moment had changed his opinion of Jiraiya. He'd still verbally sparred, but there was respect there now, and they both learned to enjoy it.
(End Flashback)
"Teme."
"Sorry dobe, lost in thought."
"About what? How to look more feminine than Tsu-hime?" Jiraiya asked with a giggle.
"No ero-baka." He sighed. "Can you fit your hands thru the bars?"
"Maybe, hold on."
XX
Tsunade jerked her head when the first trap went off. The smoke tags…
"Shizune."
Her apprentice moved getting both Anko and Naruto into the tent.
Tsunade was in motion and her fist connected with the first figure that had rushed thru the smoke into the camp.
She spun sensing another one and her foot sent the second one flying. However it cost her as she felt a senbon needle hit her in a pressure point and her muscles went slack and she slumped to the ground unable to move, or even speak.
No. the children. Shizune! She felt a tag put to her head. "Sleep Sannin."
No. No. Naru-chan. Darkness took her as the sleep tag put her out.
XX
"Hurry up Orochi-teme." Jiraiya said as he watched the tongue of his friend holding a pick and working the lock.
"Iths naht has heasy has you think." Orochimaru said around his elongated tongue. He'd managed to get the pick he'd hidden in his belt itself and was now trying to pick Jiraiya's lock since he could get at the Toad Sannin's because it was a better angle than his own bound hands.
"Yuck…I really don't want to know what just touched my hand."
"Phuck Hugh Hirhiha."
Click!
"Oh yeah!" Jiraiya slid out of the cuffs and brought his hands up and worked the bindings around his hands and fingers.
Orochimaru retracted his tongue and spit the pick into his lap. After cracking his jaw back into shape, spitting out a foul taste and rolling his tongue he looked at Jiraiya. "Hurry up dobe, I've seen Inuzuka pups who can do better five minutes after being born."
"Hold your girdle." Jiraiya said and smiled once his hands were free.
"We're almost out of this."
"Yes, but while your patting your fat ass on the back, who knows what they are going to try to do to Tsunade and the children."
Jiraiya's efforts doubled at that and he spat out a hunk of leather binding. "They touch the kids and there won't be anything left of them."
"Agreed."
Jiraiya's bindings came loose and he tore apart the ones around his ankles and then looked at his cage.
"Screw it. Being quiet gets me nowhere." He formed his hand. "Take notes teme, this is one of the best attacks Minato ever made."
The swirling chakra sphere formed and he reared back. "RASENGAN!" sadly the cage never stood a chance as Jiraiya went straight thru and hit Orochimaru's cage as well.
The smoke cleared, but Jiraya was already cutting the bindings. Once they were off the two Sannin were on their feet.
Pounding feet could be heard. "We don't have time."
Orochimaru put a arm out to stop him. "My turn." The door opened and the black covered ninja walked right into Orochimaru's attack.
"ACID CLOUD!" he spat the noxious green cloud and as it hit and passed there wasn't anything but melting piles of bone.
"Why didn't you use that before?" Jiraiya asked as they ran out into the obviously deserted camp.
"It's a wide range attack." Orochimaru said, then smirked, "Of course if you want I can send you to the Shinigami early."
Jiraiya snorted. "In your dreams teme."
"You really want to know what I dream about at a time like this?"
Jiraiya shuddered as they figured out which way they needed to go and were rushing along the river, trying to get upstream in time.
The explosion shook the ground a mile away from camp and both Sannin froze as they felt a wave of killing intent.
"I-Its not possible." Orochimaru said as he stumbled, kept his footing then returned to an out right run.
"The seal should be fine…Its Minato's best work, I should know, I taught him everything I knew, and he surpassed me." Jiraiya said as they continued to run, trees and the river becoming a blur as the Sannin felt the oppressive killing intent coming from where they knew the camp was. both had the same thought as they pushed their bodies harder. Please be okay. Please.
AN: I am happy so many like this story. Next chapter we meet the antagonist that will be a thorn in the side of the Sannin for years to come. What are his plans for the Kyuubi. Will Naruto and Anko be able to handle the truth? Next time.