A/N: Special mention to kitty132383- yes it was a Kawarimi (Substitution) jutsu. The other two (less obvious ones) were Kage Bunshin (Shadow Clone) and Kage Shuriken (Shadow Shuriken) no Jutsu.
Last chapter…
Turning around to face them, the aura in the room suddenly turned ominous; as if Master Makarov had a very important, impending doomsday announcement to make.
"Those people you fought weren't mages," he repeated slowly.
"They were ninja."
Chapter 2: Gramps, there's no such thing as ninja
Another blast suddenly shook the air, and for a split-second, Madarov almost hoped that he was already in the afterlife so that he didn't have to risk being blown into a million smithereens for a second time. Cursing, he prepared to launch another powerful Light Blast, his fifth of the battle already. Titan had proved to be effective in increasing his durability against the various explosives and fire attacks his opponent had been throwing at him; but he hadn't been immune to taking a partial amount of damage from them and the longer the fight dragged on, the more he began to feel the numerous telltale scratches and burns across his back and arms. The niggling little aches that were slowly, but surely beginning to take their toll on him; slowing his reflexes and making his steps just that little bit heavier.
Not as young as you used to be eh Madarov, he thought a little wistfully. Old boy wouldn't have been able to land a scratch on you fifty-years ago; maybe best to finish him off before you come out of this battle needing a wheelchair for the next fifty years.
The tall, shrouded figure opposite him was panting heavily; but to Madarov's intense annoyance, a cruel smirk remained etched upon his lips as he purred, "Beginning to feel the heat, jiji?"
Madarov glared. Taking a deep breath, he began to invoke, "Kyojin no Gekirin!"
The world suddenly erupted, as a cataclysmic wave of light energy suddenly tore its way across the vicinity, blasting everything in its way: trees, earth and rocks into millions of shattered pieces. The little yellow-haired man shielded his gaze from the blinding rays; even he as the Caster of that spell more than a little feared the destructive nature of the Giant Wrath he had just cast. Peeking through his fingers, he glimpsed the fiery yellow energy bathing his being, and the destruction it was wreaking on the landscape.
That should take care of him.
But suddenly from underneath him, a hand reached out and jerked his ankle, dragging him upside down. He cried out in pain as his jaw was abruptly smashed against the hard, rocky surface.
"Katon: Karyū Endan!"
He felt the blazing heat sear through his body, as the dragon-shaped flames combusted with the dry terrain; the resulting explosion surely leaving the land barren for eternity- a scar on the otherwise lush countryside. Hastily throwing up another defensive Shield, he managed to prevent his body being charred to ashes, although by the white-hot pain and rawness along his lower back, it had probably taken quite a roasting.
"I'll ask you again, who are you and what do you want with them?" he shouted. Or at least he tried to shout, although it came out sounding more like a rasp.
The dark-haired villain merely chuckled. "I can assure you that your Draegon Dacrimae will be well-protected, and that they will serve a far nobler purpose than serving as glorified energy containers." He took another step forward, flexing his knuckles. "It's just too bad you won't live to see that happy ending!"
Rapidly firing off another set of complicated hand seals, his opponent shouted, "Katon: Gokkakyu…"
Before he could finish, another powerful blast shook the surrounding area.
A jolt of surprise ran through Madarov as the smoke parted to reveal three figures in front of him. The taller, larger frames of the two at the side suggested that they were male while the centre figure had the soft, curvaceous frame of a woman.
The figure on the right splayed his hands in imitation of a kabuki pose while he lifted his feet in a similarly dramatic stance. A red line ran below each eye, and a forehead band with the kanji for 'oil' emblazoned on it sat snugly amid his spiky shock of snow-white hair. He seemed to be relatively calm, but there was no mistaking the confident, slightly cocky grin that tugged at his lips.
"Behold, the great ninja Jibaiya* has come to intervene in this battle! With my strength, valour and bravery, I will make this a battle to savour…"
The only word that registered in Madarov's tired brain was Ninja?
*Names changed for privacy reasons
"Oh ho ho! Looks like someone is enjoying my latest novel after all!"
Sakura quickly snapped the bright-yellow paperback shut, glaring up instead into the grinning face of one perverted toad-sage. Behind him, Naruto was shuffling somewhat apologetically, his trademark goofy grin nonetheless plastered all over his whiskered face. Shifting minutely away from the arm around her shoulders (that was moving discreetly downwards towards certain regions!), Sakura retorted, "We-l-l…your book is currently Number #1 on the Konoha Weekly Bestseller List."
The white-haired Sannin chuckled, and struck a familiar kabuki pose. "And for the fifteenth week running! What can I say," he winked at her, the roseate-hared medic immediately shuddering, "…I've written another masterpiece. It's been great for my reputation with the ladies, they now call me Jiraiya The Great Novelist in addition to singing praises of my prowess with my literal pen, as much as they praise my prowess with my other little pen…"
"All right all right," she replied hastily, not wanting the conversation to drift towards an exaltation of what Jiraiya's supposed other talents were. "I'll admit it's a step-up from Icha Icha."
He looked wounded. "Those were a different type of work! Comparing adventure with adult fiction would be like comparing a blonde with a brunette; each gives me pleasure, but in vastly different ways! And you utilize a different set of skills with each one." A dramatic sigh. "And Icha-Icha was a great series, ne?"
Sakura snorted. I suppose Jiraiya-sensei does deserve a little credit for turning a lifetime of rejections from Tsunade-shisou into a series of best-selling novels and making millions of ryo from them. Although I really can't forgive him for those novels turning Naruto and Kakashi-sensei into the two biggest hentais in town besides himself…
"Ano sa ano sa, Ero-sennin!" Naruto broke in. "Was "The Three Musket-Sannin" based on real experiences as well?"
"Don't be silly Naruto," she snapped. "Even if you've read the book, you should know there's no such thing as magic or mages!" Turning to Jiraiya, she added, "I guess one reason the book's doing so well is that people are fascinated by the world you've created. All the details on the different types of spells and magic are really convincing, and the characters are really life-like!"
"Who says there aren't things such as magic or mages?"
The sudden seriousness of his tone shocked her a little, but she replied lightly, "Oh come on Jiraiya-sensei, we know that the moulding of our physical and spiritual energy manifests itself in the form of chakra, and the only people capable of using it offensively are ninja- us. So I guess your idea of magic having the same concept of chakra is rather unoriginal, and you obviously plagiarized the concept of elemental ninjutsu when writing about the different forms of magic your mages can perform, but…"
"Sakura," he stopped her mid-way. She raised a slender pink eyebrow, slightly miffed at his rather rude interruption.
"I only write from actual experience – as can be seen from Icha Icha and the Tale of the Utterly Gutsy Shinobi. I thought that by now, everyone should know I have the poorest imagination on Earth; the best thing I'd be able to come up with on my own would probably be some tragic love story between Gamabunta and Pakkun."
The young jonin-medic was dumbstruck for a moment, before lashing out again. "But that's impossible! Everyone knows that chakra is the only way to perform jutsu, there's no such thing as magic and…"
"Sakura," he repeated, a mixture of exasperation and annoyance creeping into his voice.
"A joke's a joke Jiraiya-sensei, I agree that your novel is good but there's no need to take it this far as to convince me that it's actually real…"
Later that night, on their way back after a late supper at Ichiraku Ramen, the orange-clad blonde turned to his mentor.
"Ero-sennin."
"Baka, how many times have I told you not to call me that! May I remind you that it reflects badly on you too!" his companion squawked indignantly. "Do you want others to know that you were trained by some lecherous, perverted old man or by the famous, fabulous and fantastically skilled Jiraiya, member of the legendary Sannin, extraordinary Gama-sennin and now, celebrated best-selling novelist…" he rambled on.
The Kyuubi Jinchuuriki grew impatient at his mentor's increasingly long-winded self-adulation, as well as the growing stream of fancy words that Jiraiya was using, most of which he had absolutely no idea what they meant. "Ero-sennin!" he whined.
Jiraiya huffed, stopping in the middle of quoting how Icha Icha had supposedly spent 100 weeks on the top spot of Fire Country's Romance Bestsellers List.
"This afternoon…you weren't lying to Sakura-chan were you?" he asked somewhat worriedly.
The older man shook his head, a wry smile playing on his mouth. Seconds later, he realized what a big mistake this could potentially shape up to be.
"Naruto…" He sighed. He could already see the torrent of questions beginning to form on his godson's lips, as the cogs on his (seldom-worked) brain went into overdrive, trying to digest the possibility of there being another type of power besides chakra, of the possibility of there actually being people that could use and harness this power, this magic and of the possibility of these mages actually living, existing, somewhere out there, in another world…
"Ne…So they exist then? Mages?"
He paused for a long while, before nodding. "But don't spread it around though." As soon as he said that, he realized how stupid that sounded. Asking Naruto to keep quiet was like asking Shikamaru to stop being lazy, and Tsunade to stop gambling away the village's healthcare budget away every Friday night- Drunken Hokages and little hyperactive Jinchuurikis never changed their habits.
Naruto was already pumping his fists, a familiar look of determination on his tanned face. "YOSH! I want to know all about them!" he cheered, jumping up and down. "Are they stronger than us? Are they better fighters than us? Ero-Sennin, you have to know where can I go and find them, I'm going to challenge these mages to the battle of their lives, dattebayo! A Hokage has to be able to face any kind of enemy, I want to…"
Jiraiya shook his head. It was almost comical, watching a nineteen, no nearly twenty year old boy doing a crazy dance in a garish orange tracksuit, the shade so bright it glowed almost fluorescently in the middle of the darkened Konoha alley- the same boy that along with Uchiha Sasuke had brought about the defeat of the most powerful enemy that the ninja world had ever faced- the masked villain known as Tobi. That same hero of the Fourth Great Ninja War was now babbling away a hundred words a minute to the point of being imcomprehensible, the same as always whenever he got excited.
He guffawed. "If you like them so much, go and read about them in my book! I can't promise you that I can bring you to go and see them though, they live… rather far away and they can't be that easily found."
The Kyuubi container pouted. "But you and baa-chan and Orochimaru managed to find them."
"Ehehe…" he held his hands behind his head in slight embarrassment. "We didn't exactly go and find them, certain circumstances led us to them…you see, it was on one of our travels…"
"You had no right interfering in my battle like that!" Madarov roared indignantly, tearing out fistfuls of bright yellow hair in frustration as he stamped wildly around them. Opochimalu sniffed disdainfully at the little man, his yellowish eyes narrowing in barely concealed contempt; either at Madarov's apparent lack of gratitude or lack of vertical challenge to him.
"That was a ninja's battle we just saved you from," he hissed, taking a threatening step forward towards the raging Madarov. "One which someone of your kind would have absolutely no chance of winning! And we didn't mean to interfere, we were just passing by the area, sorry if we just saved your life!"
Madarov's screaming only got louder. "And what makes you so sure he was a ninja? Who says there are even such things as ninja? And how am I to know that the three of you aren't even lying to me?"
"Hey ji-chan!" Prunade retorted. "We're having a pretty hard time believing such things as magic and mages exist too! The fact of the matter is we rescued your sorry ass from being kicked by a ninja, (and a damn good one too I might add) and you could at least pretend to be grateful!"
"I didn't need saving you brats…!"
"Relax Madarov, Prunade," a grinning Jibaiya broke in as Prunade began cracking her knuckles threateningly and Madarov had begun to swell rather ominously. "At least we managed to recover whatever it was that Madarov here was after." He held out the five crystalline balls they had managed to snatch from the rogue ninja that Madarov had been battling. Prunade took one from Jibaiya's armful, gently bouncing it up and down in her palm. "It's actually kind of heavy."
Opochimalu was also examining one of the glowing balls, pressing one eye against its translucent surface. "They appear to contain some sort of energy."
"Aye," Madarov sighed, as he gently tucked the other three balls in his coat pocket. "These are what we call Dacrimae. In our world, Dacrimae can be used to store magical energy or spells. These particular type of Dacrimae," he lightly fingered the surface of one, "are Draegon Dacrimae. They are extremely rare, and very expensive."
"What's a draegon?" Jibaiya looked blank.
Madarov waved his hand impatiently. "I don't have time to sit here and explain everything to you foreign ninja brats, I've got to get back to my guild, report this incident to the Magic Council and return the Dacrimae to their storage place…"
"I'd say you have a lot of explaining to do on the way back then, ji-chan."
Madarov looked up in horror at the determined smirk on Prunade's face.
"If you ninja brats think I'm going to let you set foot in Magnolia, in Fairy Tail, you've got some nerve…!"
Jibaiya bent down and slapped him on the back, causing Madarov to stumble forward. "Fairy Tail eh? First mages, now fairies. I think I'm beginning to like your world Madarov! I'm already beginning to get so many new ideas for my new book…so lead the way! Hmm wonder if fairies still dress up in short little skintight..."
"You actually brought them back to the guild, Master?" Lucy couldn't disguise the look of surprise on her face.
Makarov snorted, a faint look of amusement crossing his expression. "Aye, and a right lot of trouble I had getting them to leave! That Jiraiya kept flirting with every woman in the guild, even had the gall to hit on Polyursica!" He chuckled. "Not that he survived that encounter unharmed."
Gray whistled slightly. "So they do exist after all, ninja."
Natsu grumbled. "Okay ji-chan, so you're telling us now that ninja exist. Great, but what are going to do about it? It's not as if your ninja friends are here to tell us what we can do to beat those guys."
The elderly guild master's eyes crinkled in another smile. "Be patient brat! You'll see soon enough." He reached under the desk, and drew out a red velvet pouch bag, the dark maroon slightly faded and dusty with age. Gently undoing the top, he put in his right hand and slowly pulled out a tightly bound cylinder.
"Master, that's a scroll."
"But not just any scroll, Lucy…"
"Here." Prunade held out her arms, a small red bag dangling from her right wrist.
"What's this?" Madarov grumbled as he peered inside curiously. "Trying to kill me before you leave eh? Some gratitude you brats are showing. "
Ignoring the jibe, the blonde replied, "Inside that bag is a scroll on which I've placed a communication jutsu on, it will allow you to summon us anytime in the future if you ever need us."
The guildmaster coughed. "I appreciate the kind offer, but…"
"We're serious, Madarov." Opochimalu glanced at Prunade, who nodded back. "We may have managed to retrieve your Dacrimae, but we didn't manage to catch the rogue ninja."
"We'll report and keep an eye out for him when we get back to our village, but in the meantime he may try to make another attempt at stealing the Dacrimae, or he may even attack your guild," Jibaiya agreed. "It's a way for us to keep in touch with anything that might go wrong here." His voice suddenly took on a firmer quality. "Ninja, mage…we're all comrades here. We both want peace for our worlds, and it's only going to happen if we agree to work together. If you ever need our help, don't hesitate to let us know. That's our ninja way."
Ninja way.
Makarov snorted. "I'd almost forgotten about it. Who knew those brats were right, and this thing would actually come in handy. Now I wonder how this thing works…" he eyed the scroll critically, running his fingers along the tightly rolled cloth. "I suppose I should open it..."
"Oi ji-chan!" Everyone turned to look at the roseate haired Dragon Slayer, a familiar glint dancing in his dark eyes. "Does this mean we're going to get to kick some ninja-ass?"
Master smirked. "Better than that, we might actually be learning how to kick ninja-ass, ninja-style! And if we're lucky, we might even get a little backup."
"Ikou ze, I'm all FIRED UP!"
A/N: In case you haven't figured it out, the flashbacks are actually retold from the viewpoint of a narrative from Jiraiya's newest book, 'The Three Musket-Sannin!'
So, turns out that Master Makarov has actually met our dear Sannin in a previous life (approximately thirty years ago to be precise). Surprised? I wonder what other surprises lie in store for both sets of our favourite heroes? Things are going to start getting interesting, so tune in next chapter to find out!
As always, reviews and constructive criticism most appreciated! :)
Kyojin no Gekirin- Giant Wrath
Katon: Karyū Endan- Fire Style: Fire Dragon Flame Bullet
Draegon Dacrimae- Dragon Lacrima
And if you haven't figured it out...Jibaiya, Prunade and Opochimalu are Jiraiya, Tsunade and Orochimaru with names changed to protect their "privacy"
