"Tsunade-hime," Jiraiya said as the door of the Hokage's Tower slammed shut behind them, "do you get the feeling that old man Sarutobi is avoiding us?"

Tsunade shot the door a backwards glance. "He knows something about this Suki case he's not telling us. When I went in to tell him about the Suki incident in the morning he was doing that thing with his pipe the whole time."

Jiraiya scowled. Their sensei was in many ways an inscrutable man, but when you know someone for two decades one picks up on little tics. Chewing on the lip of his pipe was one of the Sarutobi-sensei's few tells. If the old man was doing that, something was definitely up. "Are you sure?"

Tsunade gave only a terse nod in reply.

"Fuck," he muttered. "Fuck."

"What happens now?" Her voice was soft. With a jolt of surprise Jiraiya realized that Tsunade was deferring to his judgement.

"This changes nothing," he said after a moment, deciding. "It just means we have to tread softer."

He stopped and glanced at Tsunade. The expression on her face reflected his own uneasiness. It wasn't that Jiraiya was afraid of going against the old man. He had done so before, and would do it again if he thought he was in the right. So had Tsunade. But if it troubled even the old man… Jiraiya pushed the thought aside. He would get to the bottom of this. He owed Suki at least that much.

They reached their destination in brooding silence. Ichiraku Ramen was a new ramen corner stall that had only just opened within the past year. Jiraiya had since then found himself eating a lot of meals there. And why not? It was cheap, tasty, and young Ichiraku was always friendly.

There was only one other customer, a civilian, at the stall. After placing their order with Ichiraku, they both nursed their hot tea as Jiraiya considered how to approach this investigation. "I think we're probably done with the morgue."

Tsunade was apparently thinking about the same thing, for she nodded immediately. "What about your place?"

"Haven't been there since I got Suki out in the morning,"

"Has anyone else been there?"

"Not that I know of. And I have a number of booby traps set up around the entrances."

"Great. I'll ask Kibuka and Shiremaru to have a sniff around."

Jiraiya nodded, peering intently into the tea, following the languid swirling of the tea leaves at the bottom of the cup. It didn't make much sense. Suki had lived alone. If someone had wanted to murder Suki (which admittedly was a shinobi occupational hazard), why do it then, the one night when she had company? Had Jiraiya been the actual target of the assassination? The personal manner in which it was done seemed to suggest otherwise. She wasn't a discovered spy either, or the ANBU that had been sent to kill her would have liquefied the body.

The tea leaves had settled so Jiraiya shook it lightly, and the leaves began their dance again. He had a vague niggling feeling about this whole affair that he could not shake, like he was missing something that was right under his nose.

"Do you realize the potential for this?" Tsunade said suddenly.

Jiraiya blinked and looked up from his cup. "What?"

"That recursive chakra seal we found on Suki's neck."

"Another sneaky way to kill someone." He shrugged. Jiraiya himself knew a hundred and one ways to dispatch someone covertly, and he wasn't even a stealth specialist like Hatake. Not to mention what a medic like Tsunade probably had in her repertoire. "Big deal."

"No, really think about it," Tsunade said, annoyed, and not for the first time that day Jiraiya felt like a moron. "The seal amplifies chakra massively. If there was some way we could somehow… control it-"

Jiraiya snorted. That. "-and not die of it, you mean? Or have you forgotten that part? Don't tell me you're seriously thinking about this." It was a pipe dream that was almost as old as ninjutsu itself. He had heard rumours that Takigakure had some sort of 'hero water' that enabled its user to fight with the strength of many shinobi, but even in the rumours death was the price of the temporary burst of power. Soldier pills did basically the same thing too, on a more modest scale, but even there an hour under its chakra-boosting effects meant two more hours of recovery time later.

Tsunade shook her head ruefully. "I guess not."

At that point Ichiraku came up with their ramen, chicken fillet for her, black pepper tofu for him. The young stall owner paused after serving them up. "Jiraiya-san, Tsunade-san, I, ah… hate to say this, but you two smell-" he leaned in closer to whisper, "-like death."

Jiraiya noticed that the civilian had moved to the other side of the stall, apparently trying to eat his ramen and breathe through his mouth at the same time. He gave Ichiraku an apologetic shrug. "Sorry."

"We'll be out of here as soon as we can," Tsunade assured the stall owner.

With hot food in front of him, Jiraiya suddenly realized how ravenous he was. He wasted no time feeling guilty about stinking up the ramen joint, and began wolfing his ramen down. Having some food in his belly made the world seem like a better place, and he felt, if not completely like his cheerful self again, then at least content. A thought occurred to him as he attacked his second bowl that made him grin a little. "So," he said with a mouth full of ramen, "Tsunade-hime. Tell me true. Did we do it last night?"

Tsunade grimaced. "Listen, frogboy, if we need to have this conversation every time we drink, you need to find yourself a new drinking buddy."

"So… is that a-"

"Never before, never will," she said, shaking her head vehemently. "Never never."

"The princess doth protest-"

"Oh, shut up," she snapped, but Jiraiya noticed that she was refusing to meet his eye.

He slurped up the last of his ramen. "Toads, by the way," he said when he was done.

"What?"

"I summon toads, not frogs."

"Whatever. Pay up, frogboy."

Jiraiya lit up. "Does this mean that this is a date?"

She rolled her eyes. "For your own portion, moron. I've paid for mine already."

He shook his head as he dug out his wallet. "One of these days, Tsunade-hime."