I no own, you no sue.
"Well, fuck me hard and slap me."
"Language, Jiraiya." The Third Hokage reprimands, "Though I might understand where you're coming from."
"Yeah, yeah, Old Man. Who knew sweet, curvy Reika-chan had it in her?"
"I am more concerned about her team. Your typical Genin team cannot take out three Chuunin, and a Special-Jounin, however newly fledged the man was, and all without major injuries."
"Not your usual team though – DeWitt's bastard kid, a Hyuuga. The Kagami girl isn't normal though – that clan is full of milk-sops – should've been a dead weight, if you ask me. Who knows where she gets it from."
"You are forgetting that it is the mixture of Kagami blood and other strong clans that often produce the geniuses of their generation."
"Like Orochimaru, ay? He was one." The older man winces.
"Not the example I was going to say, but yes, he was one of those geniuses birthed by a Kagami woman."
"Got what was coming to him." Jiraiya mutters, and his old teacher just sighs and scratches his head under the wide hat he wears in recognition of his office.
"Yes, he did. Returning to the point, I believe I know what to do with Team Four. The Chuunin Exam may be still going in Hidden Cloud, but Hidden Rock and Hidden Leaf did not show well or reach the final exam because of resource protection in the uncertain prospect of war. Of course it's out in the open now, so we are better informed to make decisions. Rock will be sending three teams to the Exams in Hidden Mist, I think we should match them, and send Team Four as one of the three. I believe if we pull them from the front and continue the six months of intense training their teacher started them with, we will reap three new Chuunin in six months time. A good show of strength from Konoha."
"Should give them orders to terminate any Rock Genin if possible, as well." Jiraiya offers, and smirks, "That might be easy compared to what they did to a fresh Special-Jounin. A successful field interrogation, not only that – their first interrogation - and they're year-old Genin. No doubt about it, I'm taking Reika-chan out tonight for a job well done." The Third nods.
"She certainly deserves it after everything she's done." The Toad Sage winces. "I did not mean the unfortunate result of that patrol. Let her know of our proposal over dinner, but she must keep it under wraps for the next three months."
"I got it. Is that everything?" The white-haired man wonders as he stands up. The Hokage inclines his head slightly.
"For today."
"See you, sensei." The younger man turns his back, waves over his shoulder, and closes the door behind himself. Leaving the Hokage to his neat but endless piles of paperwork.
Light jazz plays in the background, the restaurant interior dark-hued and intimately lit, elegant chairs upholstered in comfortable burgundy leather that squeaks as he sits.
"So," Jiraiya says conversationally as Reika takes a sip of her wine, "Guess what? Your team's going to the Chuunin Exams. Congrats!"
Caught off guard, she sprays a mouthful of good Shiraz-Cabernet in his face.
"Oh my god," she moans, hurriedly wiping her mouth with her napkin before offering it to Jiraiya.
"No, no, I've got my own, it's fine." He says hurriedly, dabbing at his face and dress shirt, and she takes it back, spreading it back on her lap.
"I'm so sorry – I wasn't expecting that, obviously." Reika sits back into her chair. She's wearing a lilac and periwinkle sundress – not as racy as she usually wears on their dates, not after the recent violation (which, quite frankly, has left both of them fumbling for safe topics and activities.) Without sex, they're beginning to realize, they don't have much to do together, really.
"It doesn't matter," but then a thought occurs to him (reality is stranger than fiction), and he has to pull out the little notepad Reika got him – the one he carries with him everywhere he goes, to jot down ideas (or sketch exceptional feminine figures he might have the pleasure to view) – and writes it down. It breaks the ice and Reika smiles when she sees the little book is almost full.
"You've gotten a lot of use out of that, then?"
"You bet. Constantly. Inspiration's everywhere. Why, just the other day I was down at the hot springs in Blaze District-" Reika snickers, smile spreading slowly and affectionately across her face.
"Oh, Jiraiya, what am I going to do with you?"
"Well-"
"I talked with Tsunade yesterday. At the hospital."
He couldn't help it. He went quiet and even perked up at the name, and she noticed.
"We talked about you, you know. She's almost ready to let go of Dan and move on, from what I can tell." She would know – her specialty was intelligence, particularly drawing information from people discreetly, often her targets didn't even suspect the kinds of conclusions she could make from simply looking at them, or listening. "I know I'm not up for much play anymore, and we're friends with benefits, but without the benefits bit, which just makes us friends that go on dates. And I know you love her, waited for her, even though she's taking forever to come around." Jiraiya smiles a little at that. "I'm tired of playing games, and this thing we have, it feels like a game, doesn't it?"
"We all have our part to play." He replies simply. Reika sighs, and shakes her head, pale hair loose for once. She looks down, contemplatively.
"This last mission made me realize, I don't want to play games. I've always been a loose woman - maybe because I'm trying to compensate for what my father did to me and my sisters – and I don't want my students to realize one day what I screw-up I've been the whole time, not if I can help it. No offence, but we've never been serious, and from what I can tell, your feelings haven't changed. God, listen to me. Try to talk normally, and it all comes out like a speech. You take me on a date in a nice restaurant and I spray you with wine and break up with you."
"No, baby, I get where you're coming from. So no more sex and dates. That's fine. Still friends?" He asks anxiously, and Reika's smile is watery.
"Good friends. Don't you doubt it." She reaches out to give his hand a squeeze. "You're a good man, I'm just not going to use you anymore."
"I dunno, I kinda liked using you, myself." The Toad Sage leers, and that does it for Reika. The sadness flees from her face, replaced by that dry, tell-tale amusement he's always tried to draw from her. "You'll still model for me, right, my lovely?"
"Only if you let me beta-read your books. You need a bit of quality control, and you haven't had anything near a rape happen in those books, and so help me, you never will."
"Oh come on, I live in a ninja village. Even I have ethics about that kind of stuff!" Reika crosses her arms, pleased.
"Good. So. Chuunin Exams?" Her eyebrow quirks, and he chuckles.
"Yeah. Those little demons of yours." Reika snorts inelegantly.
"Right, Mr. Sensei-of-Leaf's-Yellow-Flash. As if you can talk about that to me."
"Why thank you. That was a compliment, no? You trained those suckers well. Field interrogation, Ms. Reika Gintaki? A successful first field interrogation?"
"You got it. My name would probably be on the Hero's Memorial Stone if it wasn't for their disobedience. I was a little surprised at how blood-thirsty they became as soon as their first kill was over. They're going to surpass me, you know. Maybe not at intelligence or undercover work, but Hiko is excelling in sealing and medicine as well as his family's fighting style, Michiyo is the friendliest thirteen-year-old with the instincts of a killer I've met, and Walter? Walter could be anything. Awkward socially, I've mentioned that before, but massive stamina, precise chakra control, sharp mind. Good at everything except people. I'm telling you, sweets, they soak everything I give them up like a sponge. I don't think teaching was allowed to be this easy."
"So you think your kids are ready for Chuunin rank?"
"They'd handle it fine. Socially, they need to mature a little, but on the front, and tactically? They're ready to lead."
"So you're on board with the Third's idea?"
"Yes. Team Four will represent Leaf's strength, without a doubt."
"We're considering adding an official suggestion, as well."
"…Yes? Out with it, Jiraiya."
"If Team Four can, during the Exam, take out as many Rock Genin as they can, while following Exam rules, and still pass the tests, they are to do so. If they succeed, they will be paid a bonus, as if it was an official mission, but off the books, so it would be a payment of resources, extended clearance, or information."
"I'll have to ask them. Who knows? They might not want extra blood on their hands, but I think Walter and Michiyo would be glad to, and Hiko would do it for the resource payment alone."
"Team of bloody-minded bookworms!" He exclaimed.
Reika threw her head back and cackled. By the time she calmed enough to simply giggle, their waiter had delivered their appetizers and assured them their entrees would be ready soon.
"You have no idea how accurate that is, sweets." Reika said with a final giggle. Jiraiya shrugged and popped a parmesan-zucchini crisp into his mouth.
"When are you planning to bind your kids to that Summoning Contract of yours?"
"I hadn't thought of that, not yet." She says, dipping her bread in basil-infused olive oil before eating it neatly, licking crumbs and oil from her fingertips.
"Now's the time to do it – I let Minato sign the Toad Contract several months before his own Chuunin Exam. It'll give them an extra edge, as long as they have enough chakra to summon their partners."
"My contract is not like the Grand Summoning Contract, however. The cats don't grow as large as Gamabunta or Katsuyu. It uses less chakra – the blood doesn't need to be fresh, it's just there to prove the summoner's identity – and anyway, the chakra is just a beacon – the cats come on their own. It's all up to them, and not all the cats accept the summoner as a partner."
"Fascinating. You'll have to give me at look at the contract sometime. But anyway. You owe those kids your life – maybe it's time to trust them with your family."
"Maybe."
Their food arrives, and they tuck in, conversation halted for now. As she eats, Reika has a contemplative look in her green-grey eyes.