Wammyman: I am very, very sorry that I took this long to update. For the other day I had to suffer from the pain of getting my wisdom teeth removed. Also, I have had to spend quality time with my family. While reading this chapter keep in mind that it is difficult to work on this story as well as my other story "Target: Pichi Pichi Pitch" at the same time. Please enjoy my latest update.
Disclaimer: I do not own Death Note or Naruto.
Chapter 4: The Village Hidden in the Rain
After thirteen days of hiking, the sannin and the shinigami arrived to the village hidden in the rain. The village itself resembled an industrialized palace, looking almost as dark and depressing as the shinigami realm. Surrounding the palace was a great wall of steel that seemed impenetrable. However, Jiraiya was an expert at infiltrating fortified areas. So the sannin hooped into the belly of a toad that swam down a creek into the village.
"Infiltration of the village hidden in the rain, complete," Jiraiya said slithering out of the toad. Ryuk struggled to climb out of the toad.
"We would've gotten here sooner if you weren't such a player," the shinigami hissed.
"Oh, and finding a place for you to eat your precious apples in private didn't slow us down," the sannin growled.
"Oh whatever, we're here!"
So Jiraiya walked into the village to gather information. Along the way, he bought a poncho that he slipped on to shield his body from the ongoing rain. After all, in this village, rain was an everyday thing. For the clouds above the palace of steel were filled with an endless supply of moisture. But this didn't bother Ryuk, for the rain passed through him like a dagger or a bullet.
While strolling through the village, the sannin spotted a small shop that was selling hot buns. Jiraiya decided to stop there to fill the void in his stomach. Running the shop was a small, old lady with a warm smile.
"Hello there," she greeted, "what will ya have?"
"One bun please," said the pervy sage while taking a bun and handing over a small wad of cash.
"How is it," asked the old lady as Jiraiya bit into his snack.
"Delicious," he replied. The sannin got closer to the old lady, "you may not know this, but I'm actually the writer of a popular magazine."
"Which one, the play boy magazine," Ryuk interrupted. Jiraiya ignored the shinigami and went on, "once I write about how good your hot buns are, you'll have more customers than you can handle."
"Oh that's fine," the elderly woman giggled, "I'd love to have more business." Then Jiraiya glanced around the town.
"Things sure are calm around here."
"It certainly is. We owe this everlasting peace to Lord Pain."
"Lord Pain," Jiraiya repeated puzzled.
"Yes, he's the leader of the village," the old lady replied.
"Huh, wait, I thought it was the Great Salamander that led this village."
"Who," asked the old lady confused?
"Ah, never mind, thanks for the hot bun," the sannin left the stand. Jiraiya was confused by what the elderly woman had said. For he knew that the mighty Great Salamander is, or at least was, the ruler of the village. Could this "Lord Pain" be running the palace behind his back; or could he have overthrown the Great Salamander into the graveyard? One thing was clear, the pervy sage needed to gather information. Luckily he found the perfect place to start. A humble bar.
Before entering the bar, the sannin slightly turned his head toward Ryuk.
"Hey, Ryuk," he whispered, "I need you to do some recon for me."
"Again," Ryuk whined.
"Come on, you know there's an apple in it for you."
"Oh, fine," Ryuk walked away with his mouth watering. So the shinigami once again, eavesdropped on the private conversations of many humans. They usually discussed things that managed to peak into Ryuk's interests, but never benefited Jiraiya. However, in this village, the people never spoke. Ryuk heard nothing more than the rain tapping the ground. Figuring that it was pointless to continue listening to the villagers, Ryuk decided to meet back up with Jiraiya.
When the shinigami slid his head through the bar wall, he saw Jiraiya flirting and drinking with a young woman with large breasts.
"Aaaarrrgh," the shinigami screamed after phasing out of the bar, "I dropped my spare note into this world for the action! If I wanted to see any more of this mushy stuff, I'd have let Lucia live! That's it; this old fart's gotta go!" Ryuk opened his death note and got out his pen to write. Then he thought it over. Suddenly, Ryuk let out an evil laugh as he scribbled in his notebook.
"If I'm gonna kill him, I might as well have a little fun with it," he thought. As the shinigami put away his note and pen, Jiraiya walked out of the bar and met up with him.
"Find anything out," whispered the sannin.
"Nope," Ryuk shook his head, "hardly anyone here breathes a word. It's like a ghost town."
"Hmm, no matter, 'cause I got a lead. I was talking to this woman whose husband is a ninja here. He'll know something."
"Are you gonna use your charms to get the info out of him?"
"No! I'm going to set up a trap and force it out of him." So then the sannin got to work on the lower side of the village. Ryuk was eager to see what the old geezer had up his sleeve. For the trap was set, and Jiraiya was waiting to strike.
Eventually, two low-ranked shinobi entered the village. They had just completed their mission and were setting a course to their homes. While traveling down an alley, the shinobi spotted a bar. The two men decided to stop for a drink before going their separate ways. So they entered the bar.
Inside the bar, the men each ordered a cup of sake to their liking. The bar tender, with long white hair, delivered the sake to the shinobi. While drinking, the men discussed the success of their mission. Suddenly, the felt something ooze over their feet. They looked down to see a thick, red substance sucking them in. The shinobi yanked their feet out and ran for the exit; but then the door transformed into the red substance. In a matter of seconds, the entire bar was nothing but red.
Then the bar tender revealed himself to be none other than Jiraiya. The sannin approached the two shinobi.
"Where are we," asked one of the men filled with fear.
"Inside the belly of a toad," Jiraiya replied.
"What do you want from us," asked the other man.
"Whatever it is you know about Lord Pain!"
"And what'll you do if we refuse," protested the first man.
The sannin just smiled and rested his hand on the first man's face. Jiraiya focused his chakra, and turned the first man into a toad. Then Jiraiya scowled at the second man.
"I'll do the same thing to you if you don't spill it," Jiraiya declared.
"Why are you coming to me," asked the shinobi, "I'm just a genin! I don't know anything!"
"It doesn't matter how low on the totem pole you are, you have to know something." The man was silent. So Jiraiya rested his hand on the man's face.
"Alright, alright, I'll talk," the man shouted.
"Good," the sannin took his hand away, "now what do you know about Pain?" Then the shinobi sighed, "Not much. I've never even seen the guy, no one has. No one even knows where he is. Some people don't even think he exists, while others compare him to a God."
"Hmm, sounds kinda like L," Ryuk thought. Jiraiya slowly digested this information.
"Alright then, thanks," the pervy sage waved while walking away.
"Hey wait," the man shouted, "I gave you what you wanted! Aren't you gonna let me out now!"
"Nope," Jiraiya turned around, "you could still have information beneficial to the leaf village. Bye." So then the sannin walked onward while ignoring the shinobi's cries for mercy.
Jiraiya stopped walking when he got to the great toad's mouth.
"Gerotora," he said, "come out for a sec." Suddenly, a toad with an incredibly long body slithered out of the sage's mouth. Ryuk didn't know whether to be intrigued or disgusted at the sight of this.
"Jiraiya, what is it," Gerotora asked.
"Just open up for a second." The toad twisted his body around, and revealed a large body of writing and a complicated seal with an empty square nearby. The sannin placed his hand on the square, and focused his chakra into it.
"What are you doing," asked the toad.
"I'm about to confront a very strong opponent. This is just a precaution. Return to Mount Myobou, and if anything happens to me, go inside of Naruto."
"What! Having the key so close to the safe, I've never heard of it! No, I won't do it, he's not ready."
"Look, the fourth sealed the nine-tails into his son for a reason, now do it!"
"Uhh, okay, fine." So with that, Gerotora vanished and returned to his home on Mount Myoboku.
"So Kira," Ryuk asked, "are you going to confront L now?"
"Kira…L," Jiraiya displayed a puzzled expression.
"Oh right," Ryuk said, "you see, having the death note deems you Kira, and anyone who opposes you while hiding their true identity is deemed L."
"O-kay," Jiraiya raised an eyebrow. It was then that he realized that Ryuk must have dropped the death note more than once before. But the sannin deiced to worry about that later. Right now he had to focus on Pain.
After crawling out of the toad, Jiraiya instructed it to return to the leaf village with the shinobi inside of it. While walking down an alley, Jiraiya noticed that the rain had stopped and restarted after a brief moment. Jiraiya knew right there and then that it was a bad sign. So the sannin ran down the alley while Ryuk flew behind him, eagerly waiting for a fight to break out. Then Jiraiya reached an empty lot.
It was at this lot that Jiraiya saw a bird made entirely of paper flying toward him. The bird fired a huge stream of sharp paper, so Jiraiya blew a stream of flames from his mouth. Both streams ultimately canceled each other out. When the bird stopped firing, it remolded itself and added color, taking on the appearance of a woman with short blue hair, wearing a black robe with red clouds. Jiraiya then knew that this was a former student of his.
"Konan," he exclaimed.
"That's me," she replied, "I bet now you wish you had killed back us back then, right Jiraiya-sensei?"
"No, I don't regret letting you live!"
"Well you will soon enough," said a man with orange hair in a ponytail that wore the same robe as Konan.
"Yahiko," shouted Jiraiya.
"No, he's dead. And now you will know his pain!" Upon hearing this, Jiraiya noticed the various piercings on his face. He also noticed that this ninja had purple rippled eyes, just like Nagato, another former student of his. And with those eyes, the ninja was capable of seeing Ryuk as clear as day.
"And I'll make sure your friend there feels the same amount of pain as you," said the ninja. Both Jiraiya and Ryuk were shocked by the fact that this man could see a shinigami without touching the death note. Luckily, Jiraiya was able to come back to his senses.
"Don't worry about him," the sannin smiled, "he's just here to watch from the sidelines."
"You got that right," Ryuk replied. So the two shinobi bit heir thumbs and painted painted blood on their palms, then did a series of hand signs, then slammed their hands on the ground to summon their animal companions to aid them. Jiraiya summoned a giant red toad with a spiked sasumata and shield. Pain summoned a giant two-headed dog with eyes identical to his.
"And now the fun begins," Ryuk said with a smile.
Wammyman: I hope you enjoyed this chapter. When I post the next chapter, I will switch this story's rating to M due to much bloodshed in the next chapter. Of course this after I post that chapter. All I ask is that you please be patient. Thank you.