The Boy in the Park

Chapter Thirty-Three

Naruko fell asleep after a few hours —probably tired from the effort to keep up with Jiraiya's perverted nature.

In the end, the Sannin and he ended up outside the apartment, a bottle of sake in hand each. He actually wondered why he always finished with meeting people who had a liking to alcohol.

"So, the old man told me of how you've been taking care of Naruko up until now," Jiraiya said. His eyes looked at Shinku's with some sort of hidden gleam behind it. "I'm glad someone stuck up for the brat."

"Ah…I didn't do much, really," he muttered back.

"Considering what the rest of the village did? You did more than enough," Jiraiya sighed. "I told sensei I'd check on you thoroughly before even thinking of giving you guardianship over Naruko, and…"

"Giving me?" he asked.

"Yes, the Hokage has yet to decide on it, and since I was around I quickly decided to kill two birds with one stone and check," Jiraiya hastily added.

Shinku nodded then. It made sort of sense. Maybe Jiraiya was the version of the social services, when related to Jinchuuriki? Then again considering how the Hokage had stressed the importance of Naruko…

"So, tell me," Jiraiya said. "How did you two meet?"

Shinku slowly moved the sake bottle around for a bit, letting the alcohol swish around.

"She asked me what I was reading. I answered."

"Oh? Only that?"

"The next day, I was the only one who still talked to her in the park," he added slowly. "She was barely five, covered in mud, with red puffy eyes because one of the kids had pushed her away from their game. She asked if she could read with me…and I said yes."

"Did you know who she was back then?" Jiraiya asked back.

"No," he shook his head. "I mean, I knew the Kyuubi had been sealed in someone, but back then I didn't even know her name. Took me a while, but by then…well, I'd have felt horrible ignoring her afterwards. She was just a kid. There are adults who were worse monster back then than what she supposedly...was."

He shook his head once more. "Really, she was just…sort of pleading to be hugged, you know? To have someone, anyone to just go near her and tell her it was okay. That loneliness…it should have broken anyone's heart, but it didn't." He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "In the end…I suppose knowing or not knowing wouldn't have mattered. She was a lonely crying kid. What sort of monster doesn't go to see what's wrong?"

The civilian side of Konoha, barring a few key elements, began furiously to sneeze.

An Anbu standing guard blinked. "You think hay season has begun?" he asked to his colleague.

"I hope not," the other replied.

Jiraiya snorted.

"You're making it sound like she was followed by a crowd of madmen armed with pitchforks and torches."

"Point taken," Shinku remarked. "But very few looked beyond the words of others."

"And you were one of the enlightened?"

"I had my reasons to be among the 'enlightened'," he snorted. "Is it that difficult to believe?"

"Now, if you had any porn stashed somewhere…I'd believe you more easily."

"Naruko found one in the first hour of being in my apartment. I had to throw it all away." He took another sip of sake. "She needs to be at least forty before I even broach that argument to her."

Jiraiya laughed. "Well said!"

"So, you're training Naruko for the tournament, right?"

Jiraiya nodded. "I made her sign the summoning contract. Now, if she can get something more than a tadpole…"

"No strings attached?"

Jiraiya looked back at him perplexed, before a shining gleam of understanding settled on the Toad Sage.

"Ah, you're worried for her?"

"Of course I am." Shinku scoffed.

"Don't be," Jiraiya remarked. "I wouldn't dare harm her, not with such a strong Aniki to protect her! Oh, what can a poor Sannin do?" there was a thickly laid sarcastic undertone in his words, but that still didn't matter.

"I'm lethal with a frying pan," he deadpanned. "Frankly…" he sighed. "I hope things end up better for her, really," he looked towards a spot in the corner of the street. "You can come out, if you want a sip of sake."

Jiraiya looked at him perplexed.

He said nothing and waited a heartbeat. "Suit yourself."

He turned to Jiraiya. "I don't know if I'm followed or not every moment. So, I decided I'd randomly call on invisible people. If I'm right, they freak out. If I'm wrong, no one knows." Then he mumbled under his breath. "Being this a shinobi village, I suppose I'm freaking out half the Anbu corps patrolling the streets."

Jiraiya chuckled then. "Naruko rubbed off you?"

"No, that's all Anko," he replied. "The two are so similar I wonder if they're not mother and daughter."

He paused. "They aren't, are they?"

"What? No! You're drunk man, really drunk," Jiraiya snorted back. "There's no way, really…Anko would have to have been what, eleven years old back then? No way."

"I wonder," he mumbled. "Naruko's birthday is coming up."

"In October? That's a bit far isn't it?"

"Still…" he shrugged. "Maybe I can find something about the Uzumaki. She's an orphan, but maybe —just maybe— she does have some family left. Maybe they're assholes for having abandoned her…but maybe they just didn't know she's alive," he grimaced at the impossibility of that, "she deserves to know her parents' names at least...and I can waste a Sunday looking through the archives."

"Oh? Well, good luck with that," Jiraiya remarked. "I hear the archives are awfully disorganized, and reserved to shinobi personnel."

"I'm a teacher at the academy. I have a special pass."

"Well then…I suppose I should say 'good hunting'?"

"Thanks," he mumbled back.

What he completely missed however, was the narrowed look of suspicion Jiraiya gave him.

"You can come out, now," Shinku said once more. Jiraiya blinked. Really, who'd be so stupid to actually…

This time, the door of his apartment opened up to admit a sheepishly looking Naruko, who was scratching the back of her head as she gave a nervous smile.

Jiraiya face-planted himself against the ground, twitching slightly.

"Sorry, I heard you talk and…" she was wearing a loose pyjama with toads on it, and a frog cap beneath which her hair —loose and out of her ponytails— was held back behind her face.

"You should be asleep," Shinku sighed. "Come on now, Genin who don't go to sleep early don't become Chuunin."

"Well then," Jiraiya said with a small grin. "See you tomorrow, Naruko! Good night and thanks for the meal."

"No problem," Shinku shrugged as he closed the door and yawned once more. Naruko carefully grabbed the hem of his shirt by the wrist, holding on to it with two fingers and looking up at him.

"Aniki? I don't want you to spend your time in the archives for nothing…I did it too…there's nothing down there."

He frowned. "What?"

"I…I went down there more than once after I became a Genin. I mean, I even used Kage Bunshin and…there's nothing there. Really."

He sighed. He was too drunk to think straight about it. "Fine…what do you want for your birthday then, Naruko?"

"Ramen?" Naruko hesitated as he slowly brought her to bed. He actually wondered if he could ask the owner of the apartment complex to tear down the wall separating the two apartments —Naruko was practically living in his already.

He tucked her in with a small smile. "Apart from ramen."

"I've already got everything, Aniki," Naruko said with a small yawn, her bright blue eyes looking up at him. She bit her lips as he slowly hummed and slowly started to turn to move towards his own 'bed' —the sofa.

"Aniki?" Naruko called out to him, as he was midway towards his sofa.

He turned to look at her and raised an eyebrow. She was probably half-asleep already, and was mumbling more and more.

"I love you."

His eyes widened in surprise. He brought his right hand to his mouth and remained quiet, before heading over to his bed. It was a 'I love you, brother/sister/mother' form. Really. With Naruko there was no second meaning at all involved. She'd need to be reading porn for at least half a century before she'd end up saying that with another meaning behind.

He sighed as he rested in bed.

Really…he yawned, and then fell asleep.

When he woke up the next morning, it was to Sakura's form atop him holding a bright smile, her emerald eyes twinkling and exclaiming.

"Onii-sama! Let's make babies together!"

All right.

That was not how he planned to start the morning.

Author's notes

Never forget the Sakura.