Chapter Two:
Naruto padded softly up to his new home. He ignored the looks he got from a few people in the halls of the building. He was used to it, after all. However, he wasn't sure how to feel about the new place. It was nicer than anything he had ever lived in by far, but only 6 and on your own was difficult. Also, as overjoyed as he was by not having to share a room with a hundred other orphans who wouldn't talk to him, and no longer having to be glared at by the angry eyes of the workers at the orphanage, the fact was, he had been kicked out. He had never before heard of anyone being kicked out of the orphanage, the last resort of the place for kids who nobody wanted, and they didn't even want him there. The hokage had promised he would be taken care of, food, rent, and what not, but he knew only to a certain extent. That was already evident by the shape of the building.
He arrived at his room number, and shoved the door with all his might (which wasn't much at that point) making the door scrape open. The apartment had an old, musty smell to it, but at least had no visible creatures or mold in sight, so that made things better. And the best part was, he was on the top floor, with a big window and a deck for him to go out on. He walked around a bit more and caught a hint of a light, flowery scent in the room. It covered the smell of the musty apartment, which was nice, and he enjoyed it as he looked at the old bed in the corner of the room. And then, upon further inspection of the bed, he found the surprise of his young life.
There were a bundle of new clothes on the moth eaten mattress, socks and all, along with two pairs of shoes. He dropped what little possessions he had in his arms and ran over to the clothes with his mouth open in awe. These were the only new clothes he had ever, seen in his life. He picked them up carefully, like a treasure of some sort, and felt the soft, new feel of the material in his hands. He was incredibly sure it wasn't the hokage who had done this, but then, who else would do it? He pondered for a second before seeing a small note next to the shoes.
'Look in the kitchen'
Although a simple note, Naruto barely was able to read it, and identified the message after a while, streaking his way into the kitchen. All of the cabinets where open, revealing hundreds of boxes of Ramen. Not only that, there was Ramen on the counters, and piled on the stove. And when he looked in the fridge, there were even a small variety of fruits and vegetables that were easy for him to eat. He danced around the kitchen screaming at the top of his lungs like any other 6 year old filled with delight. Ramen, was his favorite food in the whole, entire, world, and he had only had it once or twice as part of a special occasion, or at a festival given to him out of pity from the old man who worked at Ichiraku's. Plus, before this, he had a very small, very limited food supply at the orphanage (partly because they had a limited amount of food there, and partly because he was hated) and now, he could eat like a king.
In the midst of his celebration however, he heard a small flap of wind from the window, startling him a bit. He turned around to see a girl with long hair, and the mask of an ANBU fox. She had on a small white jumpsuit, rather than the typical uniform of an ANBU opps. member, clearly showing she was not a true member. Her hair made a light flapping noise, and also leaked in a bit more of the flowery smell he recognized earlier. They both just stared at each other, at a standpoint. Neither spoke, neither moved. The red fox eyes of the ANBU mask just stared at him, until he tried to get just a hair closer, and she fled out the window. He sprinted to the deck and hollered after her.
"Thank you!" He had no proof it was her who had given him the gifts, but then, who else could it be, and why would she be there? She stopped about two buildings over, and stood still, not even turning around. It was like his voice had had an effect on her, as if she was begging to hear more.
She stood a second longer, before he saw a teardrop glitter in the sunlight, and she disappeared.
Naruto sat up quickly, blinking the sleep from his eyes. He was awoken by the harsh sound of someone vomiting not too far off from the clearing. There was some coughing and hacking afterward, and a little more sound of vomiting. It make Naruto's stomach churn slightly, before he got up and walked over to the source. The girl from before was bent over in some bushes, still coughing sharply, holding herself steady against a tree with one hand, and holding her hair back with the other. She breathed heavily for a while and coughed a bit more.
"Are you gonna be ok?" She whirled around with small shock in her eyes. She cleared her throat and stood up weakly.
"Yes...I'll be fine, it's just the poison clearing itself out..." A small grunt was heard, as they both caught sight of Jiraiya leaning up against a tree with a slightly disapproving look in his eyes.
"I told you you shouldn't have let it take it's course. I could've make an antidote for you, and you wouldn't be losing your breakfast before you swallowed it." She shook her head and walked back to the clearing, steadying herself against a tree every few feet.
"Antidotes don't work well with me very often." Jiraiya raised his brow a bit, but said nothing as he and Naruto followed her. Naruto still swayed with exhaustion as he smelled the breakfast the sage was cooking on the fire. Simple fried rice, but it smelled extremely good. Inari sat down on a nearby rock and watched Jiraiya stir the rice with care and take it off the fire. He looked at her and spoke,
"You think you'll be able to eat?" She shook her head with some sadness.
"No thank you. I don't think my stomach will be able to handle anything until the middle of the day or so..." The sage shrugged and offered some to Naruto, who almost took the entire dish, had it not been for Jiraiya's rapid response, which was a quick swat of the hand, and a yank back of the rice.
They ate in silence for a while, until Jiraiya spoke to Inari yet again,
"So where are you traveling, If I may ask?" She shrugged with a small smile.
"Nowhere specific really. I mostly stay in the forest if I can, and then I'll visit small towns when I need clothes, or food, or something of the sort. What about you two?" Her eyes flickered to Naruto, and back to the sage.
"Nowhere right now, we're mostly just training in the forest." He said, not missing the glance to Naruto. "We're like you right now I suppose, we only visit town when necessary." She laughed a bit.
"Maybe we should partner up since we're so alike in our traveling. Why may I ask are you so far from the leaf village?" Jiraiya shrugged with a small grin.
"Just training the untrainable mostly." There was another small silence as the two men scarfed down the rest of their food, and Inari began to nod off to a small sleep, trying to snap herself out of it every other second. The sage shook his head.
"You can sleep if you want, We're just going to train, and we'll be in this area, so you're safe." And without even acknowledging the two, she sunk down and fell asleep. Jiraiya examined her features.
"I sure do feel like I've seen her before..." Naruto snapped his head up from his plateful of rice.
"Hey, you know I do too. I thought it was just me..." Jiraiya shook his head and watched her sleep.
"I know I've seen her somewhere...and her chakra...I've felt it before." He leant in a bit closer to examine her features, when her eyes snapped wide open, revealing the bright blue iris underneath.
"Can I help you?" She spoke in a calm voice, that was at the same time crackling with threat. Jiraiya grinned at her.
"Just making sure you'll be alright! Can't have you throwing up all day." He giggled pathetically and grabbed Naruto swiftly-who gave a cry of indignance- as he headed to the other side of the clearing. When they finally reached their destination, Jiraiya threw his pupil on the ground, along with a large bag.
"Put on the suit again and resume from yesterday." Naruto growled as he patted himself free of the dust.
"I suppose while you laze around and drink you're sake?" the sage just grinned and uncorked the bottle of liquor. Naruto sighed and began putting on the large suit, that started out extremely lightweight, as if it was just a puffy coat. Until of course, Jiraiya activated the seals. Then, it weight a ton. Naruto honestly had to admit, he hated the suit. With a passion.
In the meanwhile, Jiraiya sat on the ground holding his bottle of sake staring off into space. He was positive he had seen that girl before somewhere...And the senses she gave off, definitely far too in-tune for a regular person. And then there was the Akasuki after her...Why would they go after a regular girl? And how did she manage to get away from them long enough to make it a good chase for them? This was definitely something he needed to observe. Something the leaf village should be aware of incase it meant danger for them. Or on the up side, they may have made a good ally.
But then again...there was one last thing bothering the sage. She had a bit of a...wild side to her. As if she hadn't been in society for ages. She had a quick dart to her eyes, slight paranoia, and her movements were almost animal-like. Whether or not she was used to human company was yet to be established, but it was like keeping a wolf as a pet. You never knew when they would lash out and hurt someone. He looked over to see her observing Naruto's training, calm, but with an odd look in her eyes. Jiraiya couldn't place it, but it made him uncomfortable. She was merely observing, but it was more than that, she was processing and calculating.
He watched her stand up shakily and walk over, carefully padding the ground, and sit down next to the sage. She turned her head slightly, just barely looking at him.
"So tell me, how is the leaf village?" Jiraiya shrugged.
"Not sure, we've been away for almost three years now, but when we left it was doing pretty good...mostly safe, peaceful, and busy as usual." She nodded in thought. "And how is the third? He's very aged now, I hope he finally retired...he was too stubborn to quit last I saw him." Jiraiya's eyes narrowed slightly.
"He was killed in battle about four years ago against Orochimaru. Tsunade is the new Hokage, and she's doing pretty good so far from what I hear..." He saw Inari's eyebrows raise slightly.
"I'm very sorry to hear he is dead...He was a good man, very kind and full of joy almost all of the time." The sage nodded slowly, remembering his sensei.
"He loved that village." She faced him, her blue eyes locking on his.
"All hokage do." Jiraiya looked at her, trying to analyze her emotions, trying to see what she was being ever so discreet about. Trying to uncode the secret beneath the words.
"When was the last time you visited Konoha?" She turned back around, so he could only see some of her face yet again.
"Quite some time ago I suppose, I'm not entirely sure how long ago it was..." Jiraiya found a hole in her story.
"You must have been very young, why exactly were you traveling on your own to the leaf village?" She shrugged.
"I wasn't all that young...just visiting people in the village and getting updates on what I missed over the years." Jiraiya resisted a smirk. He had found the wound in her story. She was walking all around her answers, trying to change the topic. This could help him determine just who and what she was. But before he was able to prod at it any longer, she stood up and walked over back into some shade and took a new seat under there. He tried yet again to get a good look at her face, only to see her cover her face with a thick curtain of hair as she shut her eyes and rested underneath the trees. He sighed and uncorked his sake, downing a big swallow.
He looked back over at his pupil to see him huffing and puffing, struggling to run the last few sets of motions, and sweating like a hog. But as usual he kept his determined look on his face and pushed onward. Finally, as he finished the last few sets, Jiraiya released the seals, watching as Naruto flung off the suit and went leaping into the trees. It was his favorite part about getting the suit off. The freedom, the strength, and the speed. And no matter how tired the boy got, he would go leaping into the trees and through the forest.
He saw Inari watch in amusement as he leapt around with freedom and happiness, before getting back up and walking back to the original camp. She pulled out an apple from her sleeve (one she had found earlier, Jiraiya assumed) and began to eat a bit of it. Finally, Naruto came back to sit down as well, and then fall onto his back, lying on the ground. Jiraiya took another swig from his sake and looked at the boy.
"Don't get too comfortable, You're going to be practicing your Rasengan after this." As he said the last of his sentence, he saw Inari's head snap up and look at Naruto.
"You can imitate the Fourth's Rasengan?" Naruto glared at her.
"Not just Imitate! Duplicate." She raised her eyebrows in disbelief. The sage turned to her.
"So you've heard of the fourth's Rasengan before?" She snorted.
"Who hasn't?" The man had to admit, she was right. She then turned back to Naruto.
"So, can you 'duplicate' his speed as well?" Naruto looked away and crossed his arms. The sage chuckled.
"He's tried once or twice and always ends up somewhere completely different than where he's supposed to be. It's a little dangerous for him. But it's certainly something to work on..." Naruto whipped his head to look at the sage.
"It wasn't that bad!" Jiraiya rolled his eyes.
"Your second try you ended up twenty miles from your destination, at the top of a tree even." Naruto huffed angrily. For the first time, they both heard a genuine laugh come from Inari.
"You're definitely his son..." She giggled to herself, before being suddenly grabbed and two inches away from a very intent, very focused Naruto.
"What did you say?" He breathed, barely able to be heard. He saw goose-bumps appear on her skin, and she stared at him.
"What do you mean?" She wrinkled her brow just a bit. He held onto her just a bit tighter.
"My father...how do you know...who is he?" He had a maniacal look in his eyes, like he was prepared to do anything to get his answer. She was speechless, her eyes wide on her face. Finally, Jiraiya grabbed Naruto and pulled him off of her. He tried to push himself off of the sage and get back over to Inari who was still in a state of shock.
"Go over there and start on your Rasengan. Now." Naruto pushed a bit more until he felt a little shock run up his body. A warning spike of chakra from the sannin who was glaring down at him. It was a threat at this point. The sage meant business if he ever gave a warning spike, meaning if Naruto didn't back down and do as he was told, there would be hell to pay. And after a few seconds of cold silence, Naruto turned on his heel and walked back over to a group of trees. The sage watched him go over and turned his attention to the girl in front of him.
"What did you say?" He looked deeply into her eyes for an explanation.
"Nothing...Nothing important." She turned away and began walking toward the forest. "I'm...going to go for a small walk." Before entering the woods, she turned back to the sage, and gave him what he swore was a death glare. The sage just stood there with a bewildered look on his face. What exactly just happened?