Disclaimer: I don't own nor have I contributed to Naruto in any way! Nope! None!
2nd Disclaimer: I don't own any songs mentioned in this fic!
Sky-eyed Kitsune: Don't have much to say…just read I guess
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Chapter Dedication: This is for the awesome Skele, KittyBlue, and SasuNaruAllDay. Reviews keep the yaoi fire in me burning! :Rock Lee pose:
Chapter Twelve: Because Tsunade Says!
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Tsunade's office was, in a few words, a pit in hell where she controlled the fires beneath that she used to burn her employees over a searing barbeque But today those thrashing pits were calm, and the office was quiet.
Translation: Tsunade was buzzed and sleeping on her desk with a sake bottle loosely gripped in her left hand.
"Tsunade!"
Jiraiya jumped to the side as Tsunade's desk nameplate went flying, hitting the hallway wall with a low thunk and sticking fast into the wood.
Jiraiya raised an eyebrow and dared to reenter the room.
Tsunade lifted her head, glaring at the man in front of her.
"What the hell do you want pervert?" she growled. She sat up fully and swished her sake bottle, giving it a longing stare when it sloshed only a little.
"Can't an old friend come and visit?" Jiraiya said innocently, closing the office door and taking a seat in front of the blonde woman's desk.
"No," Tsunade said flatly.
Jiraiya lifted up a brown bottle-shaped bag.
"I have sake."
Tsunade lunged across the table for the bottle, and Jiraiya pulled it just out of her reach.
"Bastard, give it!" she snarled, reaching forward more until her upper body was pressed against the desk, making papers and other office supplies fall to the carpet.
"One condition," Jiraiya said.
"What!?"
"You have to be my date to the meeting after-party."
Tsunade growled.
"Again?"
"Yes again. The meeting I can live through but the after-party is being forced on me. I don't want to have to fend off the paparazzi on my own."
Tsunade rolled her eyes. She knew that Jiraiya had no feelings for her other than friendship; he just didn't like testing his boundaries with women.
"Fine, now give it!!" Tsunade barked, and Jiraiya let her snatch the alcohol. She didn't bother grabbing a glass, and proceeded to rip off the top and chug down a mighty gulp. She sighed and melted back into her chair, settling the bottle on her desk.
"Honestly Jirai, you need to get a girlfriend," she said.
Jiraiya snorted.
"Yea, I need a girlfriend just about as much as you need implanted triple D's."
Tsunade smirked and puffed her enormous chest a little for good measure.
"I'm serious! You haven't had a date in four years, and you're 35 for god's sake!"
"I prefer to keep my private life just the way it is: private."
Tsunade scoffed and crossed her arms behind her head.
"If I let any personal details leak out then the paparazzi could twist it anyway that want," Jiraiya continued. "And Sanin Inc. will take a nosedive as soon as I do."
Tsunade's face took on a stern look, and she leaned forward, resting her elbows on the edge of her desk.
"Jiraiya. You have never once in your life actually let yourself loose. You've never opened up enough to let someone get close because your whole being revolves around your company. Don't you think it's time give the reins some slack?"
Jiraiya shifted his eyes down to the carpet.
Jiraiya forced a laugh from his throat as the businessmen around him all chortled at a joke one of them had made.
"Idoits," Jiraiya thought, waving goodbye to them as he made his way to the buffet table. He poured himself a glass of champagne, letting out a long sigh after taking a sip.
The after-party was a little more than halfway through, and he was already getting sick of the questions, comments, and stupid dry humor.
"Hey perv."
Jiraiya turned as Tsunade approached him in a pretty light blue dress that accentuated her luscious curves.
Jiraiya grunted in response and down the rest of his drink, setting the glass back on the table.
Tsunade crossed her arms over her impressive bust and gave Jiraiya the I-know-you-did-something-wrong-that-I-know-you-don't-know look.
"What?" he finally said, deflated.
"Have you even talked to one woman here tonight?" she said accusingly, and Jiraiya shot her a bitter look.
"Tsunade, you know that the last three women I dated were just gold-diggers out for my company's money. What makes you think that any one of them here tonight are different?" he said.
Tsunade didn't miss the small spark of hurt in Jiraiya's eyes. After all, it was never pleasant to find out that your girlfriend was only dating you for your money.
"How do you know until you've tried, huh?" Tsunade gave his shoulder a light punch before walking away to let the men shamelessly ogle her chest some more.
"Pfft," Jiraiya scoffed, pouring himself more to drink. He took it in his hand, sloshing the white bubbling liquid back and forth before taking another drink and cringing.
"These people have no sense of good wine," he grumbled.
"You've got that right."
Jiraiya turned at the new, obviously female voice, smooth with a bit of an edge to it.
She must have been a few years younger than Jiraiya, wearing a dark and simple cocktail dress, accenting her slim form. Her hair was a dark purple, framing her face in the front and tied up to spike in the back.
Jiraiya wasn't surprised. Beautiful women liked to hang around these after-parties looking for rich men to flirt with as their next victim.
Jiraiya simply raised an eyebrow in response.
"They only buy this champagne 'cause it's expensive," the woman said, sloshing her own drink around in disgust. "Not all the pricey stuff is that good though."
"True," Jiraiya said cautiously. He hadn't really met a woman that knew about drinks since Tsunade.
"They have some really good stuff down in the cellar," she said, placing her glass on the buffet table and turning around.
Jiraiya looked down at his unappealing drink, shrugged, and followed.
Jiraiya laughed a little as the woman sat on the floor beside him, a bottle of half empty wine between them. She laughed along with him, only much louder. She swayed a little where she sat, gulping more of the wine in her glass.
Jiraiya had learned that the woman's name was Anko and she was a designer in training. She wasn't far from Jiraiya's work building and, most surprisingly, she had only heard of Jiraiya and his company a few times on the news. Jiraiya was skeptical, but he didn't pursue the thought.
Ank paused in her laugh to look at the clock in the cellar.
"Oh wow, is it really that late?" she said, her words slurring slightly. She used the wall for support as she stood, only to fall forward and have Jiraiya catch her.
"Did you come with friends?" Jiraiya asked, helping her up the cellar stars.
"I didn't plan on getting drunk," Anko said with a grin. "Could you help me get home?"
Ok, now Jiraiya was pursuing those skeptical thoughts. That wasn't the first time he had heard the oh-please-help-me-home line.
Jiraiya sighed. "Fine," he said.
Jiraiya supported Anko's weight as they stepped out of his limo and helped her into her fairly nice apartment.
She handed him the key and she unlocked the door, stepping in albeit wobbly.
"Thanks Jiraiya," she said, smiling. "I'll see you around, ok?" And she closed the door.
Jiraiya blinked.
He hadn't been seduced, flirted with, or invited in. She didn't even drop any subtle hints.
Jiraiya scratched the back of his head in confusion as he made his way back to the limo, telling Iruka to drive home.
Jiraiya had in fact seen Anko around after that night. They both attended more parties and found themselves ending up talking in the wine cellars with a nice bottle of champagne in between them.
Soon Jiraiya found himself wanting to spend more time with the woman, so he invited her on walks through the local park, to a movie or even dinner.
Anko seemed to balance out the trouble with the media who kept on getting leaks of his personal life from God knows where. Hushed business proposals were suddenly on the cover of magazines and Jiraiya's personal life had become entertainment for the masses.
Jiraiya had set his most trusted investigator on the job, Kakashi Hatake, to find the source of the information leak. But Jiraiya wasn't as concerned as he could have been, but that's what love was doing to him. He admitted that after four months of meetings and dates he had fallen for Anko. He had finally gotten the nerve to ask her to be his girlfriend, and was overjoyed when she accepted.
As time passed he grew angrier and angrier as more information about his private life was hitting the street gossip page in the tabloids. Soon two years had passed and nothing was a secret anymore in Sanin Inc. On the one hand Jiraiya was practically losing his mind, but on the other he couldn't have been happier. Anko had stayed with him through the years, by his side to comfort him and walk him through the company's problems. Thoughts of a family with her made themselves apparent in his mind everyday, and he was just waiting for the right moment to pop the question.
Jiraiya turned over the silver ring in his hand, a diamond situated in the middle with smaller amethyst stones framing it downward.
Anko would be home soon, and Jiraiya was ready.
He stood abruptly as a knock came on the door, and he frowned when he saw Kakashi standing there.
"Found the leak," Kakashi said, holding up a manila folder stuffed with papers.
"Oh, come in," Jiraiya said. Kakashi looked around as he entered.
"Where's Anko?"
"Ah, she had to work late," Jiraiya said, sitting on the couch as Kakashi followed suit.
There was silence in the room before Kakashi sighed.
"Jiraiya, there's no easy way to say this."
"What?"
"The leak is coming from a reporter…"
"Of course."
"Under an alias."
"Not surprising."
"It's Anko."
"Well it…what?"
Jiraiya looked at Kakashi like he had turned into a scarecrow right before his eyes. Kakashi didn't speak as he handed Jiraiya the manila folder.
Jiraiya opened it, scanning through the files. His eyes got wider and wider, and he felt his hear ricochet off the sides of his ribcage when he saw Anko's handwriting on the rough draft of the next editorial.
Jiraiya let the folder fall from his lap, the papers spilling out over his shoes and onto the marble floor.
He didn't move when the door opened and Anko walked into the room.
"What's going on?" she asked sweetly, then paused when she met Kakashi's visible eye and her gaze flicked to the folder on the ground.
"It's over, that's what," Kakashi said, standing.
Anko looked from his to Jiraiya quickly.
"Jirai, hun! You can't just let Kakashi accuse me of-"
"Kakashi," Jiraiya said, not turning around. He waved a hand and Kakashi took a hold of Anko.
If there was any noise that followed Jiraiya didn't hear it, all senses blocked out as his eyes focused on the delicate handwriting spilling over countless documents, divulging his life's story.
"That bitch," Tsunade hissed, pouring more sake out for the man sitting in a chair in front of her. Jiraiya looked tired and worn, bags under his eyes and white hair looking a more sickly grey.
He took the cup offered, but didn't drink from it. He watched it swirl and ripple his reflection on the surface.
It had been one month since Anko had been busted by Kakashi, but Jiraiya still felt the after effects of betrayal as fresh as ever.
"You know Jiraiya," Tsunade said lightly. "Just because you don't have a wife, doesn't mean you can't have a family."
Jiraiya looked down at the slip of paper in his hand on which Tsunade had written the address for the orphanage he was visiting.
He knew he wasn't going to adopt a kid. He didn't want a brat running around screaming when they didn't get something they wanted. That wasn't a son or daughter to him, just an annoyance.
Jiraiya sighed as he entered the building, to children speeding past him and almost bowling him over in the process.
"And people wonder why I don't like kids," Jiraiya mumbled under his breath.
"Welcome, welcome!" the woman at the desk said, standing and approaching Jiraiya. "Please, allow me to give you a tour!"
Jiraiya, who wasn't really paying attention, nodded and followed the woman.
As they walked through the orphanage she pointed out every child, reciting their name, age, and personalities as if they were written on a script.
Jiraiya snapped back to attention when he noticed that she had skipped over a child.
"M'am, you forgot about him," Jiraiya said, pointing to the corner where a blond boy sat, hugging a fox plushie to his chest.
"Oh well he's not important sir," the woman said, waving a hand. "No one will adopt him."
Jiraiya raised an eyebrow.
"Why?"
"Well the boy is already twelve, a mute and extremely shy, and really, who wants an unresponsive son? Oh! But over here we have-"
Jiraiya didn't listen to the woman talking anymore, or continue to follow her. Instead he approached the blond boy in the corner who was staring out the window impassively.
The boy was small and thin for his age, locks of bright golden hair falling in spikes around his face. He raised his head when Jiraiya paused in front of him to reveal a pair of crystal blue eyes and whisker-like scars along each tanned cheek.
"Hello," Jiraiya said, leaning down to his level.
Naruto held the fox tighter to his chest.
"So…what's your name?"
Naruto only blinked back and Jiraiya almost smacked himself for forgetting that the kid was a mute.
"Never mind, never mind," he said quickly, "It's not important."
Jiraiya watched the emotions pass over the boy's face: anxiety, hope, shyness, curiosity…too many for Jiraiya to even count. That woman must have been really stupid to say that this boy was unresponsive.
"So, you like foxes?" Jiraiya asked. The boy nodded. "You look kinda like one with now whiskers on your cheeks."
The boy touched the scars on his cheeks before hiding them behind his toy.
"They're cool looking," Jiraiya said. The blond moved his face back out slowly from behind the fox, blinking in confusion.
"Well I think they're cool," Jiraiya said, shrugging. "I like toads, I think they're neat. My best friend says that if I were a toad I'd be a big fat one with warts all over."
Naruto laughed a little, trying to muffle his giggles behind the fox.
Jiraiya looked over at the clock on the wall.
"Well I don't know about you, but I've had a long day."
The blond watched sadly as Jiraiya stood and began to walk out. He paused and looked back at the boy.
"Are you coming or not?" he said. The blond said there for a moment in disbelief, before clambering off the chair he was in and running up to Jiraiya, hugging his legs tightly as tears trickled down his cheeks.
Jiraiya smiled and ruffled the messy blond locks.
"Let's go home, ne?"
Jiraiya rubbed his chin as he scribbled something on a document in his office. Naruto sat on the edge of his desk, swinging his legs.
Jiraiya looked up when a knock came at the door.
"Come in," Jiraiya said, a smiled a little when Tsunade stepped in.
Naruto's eyes lit up and a huge grin spread across his face as he leapt off the desk and lunged at Tsunade, hugging her tightly.
"Naruto!" Tsunade said, picking Naruto up with her inhuman strength. Naruto smiled again, lighting up the whole room as he gave Tsuande a small kiss on the cheek.
"He's gonna be a charmer Jiraiya," Tsunade said as she put Naruto down, who scrambled back into his adoptive father's lap.
"That's what I'm afraid of," Jiraiya grumbled, fluffing Naruto's hair good naturedly.
"Has he said anything?" Tsunade asked, sitting down in the chair by Jiraiya's desk. Naruto was too distracted playing with Jiraiya's red laser point pen to pay attention to their conversation.
Jiraiya shook his head.
"It's been a year, so I don't know if he will," Jiraiya said, shrugging. "But he's expressive enough without his voice anyways."
Jiraiya looked up as another knocking came to his door.
"Come in."
Naruto jumped from his father's lap when Iruka opened then door and he tackled him in a blur of gold.
"Naruto-chan!" Iruka said, hugging him.
"What're you doing here Iruka? You have the day off," Jiraiya said, smiling a little at his affectionate son..
"I know, but I promised Naruto that I would take him to the park." Iruka suddenly straightened as he addressed his employer. "If that's alright with you sir."
Jiraiya chuckled. "Of course Iruka. I trust you with his life."
"Don't become a mother hen now 'Ruka," Tsunade said as she grinned.
"I'm not a 'mother' anything!" Iruka said indignantly. He looked down as Naruto tugged at his sleeve, smiling softly.
Iruka scooped up Naruto into a tight hug and Tsunade scoffed.
"Yea, sure you're not, Missy."
Naruto looked up through the forest of legs that swung past him, people walking towering over him a lighthouse over the seashore.
He hated being so short for his age. Not that he ever told Jiraiya or Iruka. There were actually a lot of things he wanted to tell his guardians, even Tsunade. But thankfully his emotions showed enough to alert his small family of his needs. Though he still felt the desire to let them know other things, like his favorite song or a toy he liked a lot.
Naruto tired his best, but he couldn't seem to express himself enough without words, especially when it came to making friends.
School was not Naruto's favorite place to be. It wasn't that he didn't like learning, but it was hard to enjoy school when you had no friends. No other kids seemed to want to get close to something as unfamiliar as a mute child.
Naruto sighed sadly as he looked up at Iruka. He held the man's hand a little tighter as they walked down the sidewalk. They weren't far from the park, but the sidewalk was the easiest commute route for employees in the large corporate companies, so it was fairly busy.
But today was just insane.
"Careful Naruto," Iruka said, pulling the little blond aside before he was bowled over by a man swinging a large briefcase. "It's really busy today."
Naruto nodded, clutching Iruka's hand with both of his own now as they weaved in and out of the oncoming crowd.
Iruka turned as someone tapped him on the shoulder to face a middle aged woman, holding a map in her nervous hands.
"Excuse me young sir, but can you tell me how to get Oakland Boulevard?" she asked.
"Oh sure," Iruka said. He let go of Naruto's hand as he pointed on the map along the woman's path of travel with it and held the map with the other.
Naruto switched his hold to Iruka's pants.
He gasped when a large crowd came through, and he felt his fingers slip from the fabric of Iruka's pants.
He winced as the sea of rapidly moving legs shoved him this way and that, and backward until he fell.
Iruka nodded as the woman thanked him, and he looked down to take Naruto's when again.
"Naruto?" he said. He did a 180 to look all around him. "Naruto!? Naruto!"
Naruto vaguely heard Iruka's shouts over the chatter of the crowd and noises of the Tokyo streets.
"Naruto! Naruto!!"
He could tell Iruka was becoming more frantic as his voice rose and escalated from worried to panicked.
Naruto picked himself off, wincing as he noticed that he had skinned his knee, before running back into the crowd.
He leaned his head back to look up at the faces that passed, searching for the familiar warm one.
"NARUTO!!"
Naruto felt tears well up in his eyes. He felt helpless as Iruka called and called his name but he couldn't respond. A lump formed in his throat as the tears spilled and stained his whiskered cheeks.
"Ru…" he cracked. "R-Ruk! 'Ruka!"
Iruka whipped his head around.
"I thought I heard Naruto call me…but he can't speak!" he thought.
"'Ruka-nii!!"
OK, that was unmistakably his name being called.
Iruka followed the little voice, his heart pounding his ears like tribal drums, when he saw Naruto leaned down with his knees hugged to his chest on the edge of the sidewalk, tear streaks shining on his face in the midday sun as he weakly called Iruka's name like a wounded animal.
"Naruto!" Iruka cried gratefully, thanking the gods as he pulled the blond into his arms and held him tightly.
Naruto blinked, sniffling as he realized that Iruka was holding him. He clutched the fabric of the brunette's shirt.
"'Ruka-nii…'Ruka-nii…" he said softly between sniffles. Iruka pulled back and blinked at him, mouth agape. He bared a stunning resemblance to a fish out of water.
"You spoke! How!?"
Naruto shook his blond head, eyes screwed shut.
"S-scared…" he said.
"it's OK Naruto-chan, I've got you," Iruka said reassuringly. "You know you just spoke!"
Naruto blinked as his tears stopped, and his eyes grew wide.
"'Ruke-nii…?" he said, and a smile suddenly spread over his face.
He could finally speak.
A flashback chapter. :shrug: But it was important for you all to understand why Jiraiya is such a strict manager and won't let Naruto spend time with Sasuke. Review please!
IMPORTANT
I have an account of deviantart, and on there have started an art contest with the theme of "What if Naruto gave up chasing Sasuke". It started September 1 and ends September 30. And you, yes you my readers, will be voting on the art and literature pieces you like the best. There will be a link on my profile to each entry, and a poll allowing you to pick two pieces of work you liked the most based on how it flowed with the theme. Thank you!