Border Patrol Arc: An Old Friend

Yuina wondered whether this mission was adapted since Orochimaru was part of the team or whether everything was a coincidence.

Mizushi was a large town with a huge shipping port. After collecting what information they could they stayed around to train. Apparently they were meant to meet up with someone which explained Orochimaru's original insistence that Mizushi be the final destination.

"It's about time you showed up." Orochimaru stopped his in-depth explanation to address the tall man with the odd forehead protector. It was larger than standard, spiked, and sported the kanji for oil. She didn't know what that was supposed to mean. It only brought her peace of mind that Orochimaru alluded that this was the person they had been waiting on and the fact the white-haired man grinned enthusiastically at him like they were long time friends.

It might not be a far-fetched theory. Orochimaru seemed at ease in his presence. He didn't feel the need to keep his eyes on him. He didn't usher the man to get down to business. Even the way he spoke was as light as ever.

"You're still too rigid. I had to take a detour, I'll let you know." He placed his fist over his heart. "It's okay with me, I get it, but others might misunderstand." His eyes found hers. "I heard you finally got yourself a student too. About time, but you wouldn't want to give her the wrong impression."

Wrong impression? "He's not rigid at all." To the contrary, Orochimaru was adaptable. With his experiments. With her. She didn't understand how he could come to such conclusions.

They had a stare down before he placed a hand on his forehead and laughed. "Sensei found someone just like you."

Sensei? "Who is he?" Introductions were sorely lacking, if they were even allowed to disclose that.

"That's Jiraiya."

Eh?! "Like your teammate Jiraiya?" Another one of the Legendary Sannin? He seemed so…jovial? It also meant he was a Konoha-nin and unquestionably higher up the hierarchy. Like really high up in the ranks.

"Hehe. Have you been talking about me?" Jiraiya rubbed his nose.

"Hardly."

Jiraiya wasn't surprised. It would have been nice, but Orochimaru had always been on the reserved side. He trusted him and he knew he cared, but he could still hope that his friend could be more forthcoming. That he didn't always have to try to read between the lines. "Still, you should open up a little. It helped me bond with my students."

"How do you know he hasn't?"

To Jiraiya the answer was as simple as 'it was Orochimaru', but he instead replied, "Because I've been working on getting ears everywhere." He had to show off his intel capabilities. It was the reason he was there anyway. "Am I wrong?"

He wasn't wrong. There were things she learned about him from the frequency they met and the proximity of their working relations, but that was different than sharing personal information. Even then he was quite guarded. There was never a need to question it. It was just how things were. It was society's expectation. She was the same in return. She never spoke about family, desires, or experiences. Jiraiya was the anomaly in this situation, not them.

"We talk."

"Training doesn't count."

Did lab work count? "Does toxicology count? Or kinetic molecular theory and its probable relation to chakra? Or elemental dismemberment of atomic orbitals?"

"That's still learning. What are you teaching this kid?"

"I'm contributing," she mumbles under her breath.

"Are you saying you'll understand if we explain?" Jiraiya could be a handful at times, and has defied his expectations many times, but chemistry wasn't an area he was well-informed in. Jiraiya relied on Tsunade and him in that regard for many years while he altered his attention to sealing.

"Oi! Stop teasing me. I'm sure I could follow along. Maybe." Probably a vague following at best.

"You do have an area of expertise that may be useful, though. For theoretical purposes that is."

Yuina wondered what information he possibly could have that would help them.

Jiraiya's eyes lite up. It wasn't every day Orochimaru went around seeking help. Much less to him. "How can I be of service?"

"A description of how senjutsu works. You've spoken a little before, but we'd be interested to know to intricacies."

"What's senjutsu?" It wasn't a term Yuina had come across before.

"It's a branch of jutsu that involves natural energy," explains Orochimaru.

"All energy is natural." The words came out faster than she could think. A normal response when it was just the two of them. "Chakra is chakra regardless of whether it's internal or external."

"Not quite." Jiraiya decided to join the conversation before they spiral down a rabbit hole. "Our chakra is a mixture of physical energy and spiritual energy. Nature chakra doesn't do that. You wouldn't expect a rock to meld physical and spiritual chakra, would you?"

"I disagree." It hurt Jiraiya to have someone so clearly dismiss him defiantly. Even more from a child who should still be shaping their views of the world and be holding on to every word he said. "Every human has chakra even if they don't use it. Spiritual energy can be reduced to will. That's to say our mental capacities. Physical energies are our physical capabilities and limitations. This includes charka as much as our bodies. Mixing spiritual and physical energy is the equivalent of manipulating chakra to cause a reaction for things like ninjutsu. It's no different than mixing or shaking a solution for a different reaction. A lot of things don't have the synaptic connections needed to use 'spiritual energy' thus they remain in base physical form. As far as I can tell it's also a determinant for anomalies like nin animals."

There was still a lot to learn about chakra, but it wasn't like she hadn't made any progress in three years. It wasn't like people were on the wrong path. It was just that most didn't have the insight or vocabulary to break it down quite as much as she had. They're descriptions were adequate enough to do what they wanted so there wasn't a reason to question further.

"Maybe back to senjutsu," said Orochimaru.

"Sorry sensei."

Jiraiya tried to go back to his explanation but kept eyeing Yuina because of her breakdown of chakra. Truth be told, Senjutsu wasn't that hard for him. The toads told him what to do and it was easy enough to follow that he picked but the basics in a month. However, there was more to senjutsu than using nature's chakra.

Yuina picked up on the differences as well. She's been fascinating on the breakdown and potentially using it as an extra resource, but senjutsu used natural energy at near full capacity of a body's limit and therefore it was hard for most people to use and even harder to maintain. A container can only hold so much after all. It led to new questions like whether chakra manipulations needed to be internal. Even if it could it probably had severe limitations.

Senjutsu appeared to externalize to some degree. Almost as if the chakra extends outward to reach out through other chakras to increase sensing capabilities.

There was also a potential to take on animal traits. Yuina made notes to watch Kakashi because it seemed too much of a coincidence that Jiraiya was trained by his summons and just happened to take on frog traits. Did contracts alter one's chakra signature? She would never be able to answer that without outside help. She could feel chakra. It was like air, but she couldn't distinguish it like people claim sensors could do.

Jiraya thought that Orochimaru may have wanted the information to pursue senjutsu himself but he and his student were already breaking it down for other purposes.

So much for catching up with a friend.

He gave a scroll over to Orochimaru. He'd be back in the village in a month or two anyway.

He wondered how Minato was making out, and whether the other genius was anything like this one.

Yuina and Orochimaru were finally making their way back to the village.

"You don't have to take Jiraiya's comments so seriously." She couldn't tell whether they affected him or not, but it was best to clear the air as they continued working together. "Being quiet doesn't mean someone doesn't care, and even if you don't care it's a job. You're doing what you're paid to do."

He didn't respond so she didn't know how he felt on the subject.

"But…on our first day you asked about my goals and how you fit in to those." She needed to open up a little.

This mission both broke and reaffirmed her thoughts on the profession. It established that shinobi were mercenaries. It may lead to the stereotypical traits she associated with the word ninja like infiltration, assassination, and unconventional warfare at times but there had to be plenty of missions that weren't reliant on those skills. However, this mission also confirmed that Konoha-Iwa relations were bad. There might be time to rectify it, but Konoha was on edge and preparing for the worse.

"I still want to keep up the lab work, but train me more. Train me so I'm strong enough that I don't die."

A breeze brushed against her as she looked up at him.

She hoped she was wrong, but she couldn't afford to be the bottom of the barrel if war was their future.

"Very well."