"So, travelling?"

"For a certain value of the word, yes. I need to find something, and it will be much easier to do that if I actually leave the village."

"Not worried about how conspicuous you are?"

"Not particularly. But do have some faith in me, Shikaku, I can be inconspicuous when I want to be. I just don't want to be."

"Which is why you decided to wear a massive, heavy, and very attention grabbing cloak?"

"Of course. Anybody who wears such a cloak is going to be considered either a fool, or somebody to not mess with. I'm more than capable of disabusing people of the notion that the former might be true, and the second will serve my purposes perfectly well."

"Not worried about anything happening to you." He noted.

"Nope. Either way, I'll visit often. Once a week or so. See if I can't find a few interesting things for Shikamaru."

"That won't bother you?"

"Not particularly. It's not like I have a limit on how far or how often I can teleport, after all."

"I will admit, it kind of surprises me you're still here. Don't you have a spy network to run?"

"Oh, it can take care of itself without my intervention. Where'd you get the cloak?"

"I made it."

"Right. Either way, I'm not staying for too much longer, I've only been hanging around to fix the Barrier."

"And to check on Naruto."

He froze for a second, before turning to me, an easygoing smile on his face.

"Don't bother. Nobody can hide from me, I noticed what you were doing."

"Bleh." Jiraiya scowled. "You're no fun."

"Consider it revenge for throwing a Kunai at me."

"Are you still hung up on that?"

"Oh, no, I've long since gotten over it. I just derive amusement from your suffering."

"Well, that's not very nice."

I turned to him.

I didn't say anything, just stared.

He shifted uncomfortably. "Right."

There was an odd sort of freedom in simply being able to go anywhere you want, beholden to nothing and no one, tied down by naught but your own desires.

It was a feeling that I actually rather liked. One that I could get used to.

I could appreciate the sounds of nature, different, but oh so similar to the sounds of Konoha. Both had their own charms; Konoha in the sounds of people, nature in the quiet, the sounds of animals, insects, plants.

Konoha was an active place. Bustling, even if the Nara compound had been the third quietest place in the village, preceded by the Hyuuga compound, which was in turn preceded by the Uchiha clan compound.

The forest surrounding Konoha, however, was quiet. The weather was calm, there was a distinct lack of any bandits, and everything was charged with a calm, yet powerful energy.

Natural energy. Nature Chakra.

The very same, of course, energy that Sages drew upon for their Senjutsu.

Rather interesting, to me at the very least, was the fact that the further I got from Konoha, the weaker that energy seemed to get. Not drastically so, certainly, but noticeable enough to me. Konoha was just... unusually rich in energy, and I couldn't help but wonder if, perhaps, Hashirama Senju was involved in that.

Hmm.

Oh well.

Didn't particularly matter either way. Not at the moment, anyway.

I continued my walk down one of the paths leading away from the village, with only a map on hand to guide me. I'd checked it only once, to make sure that I was going in the right direction -I was-, before I had stowed it away in the same place-not-place that I kept my Keyblade.

Onwards, to the Valley of the End.

Some people are just idiots.

Bandits, most especially.

"WHY WON'T YOU DIE?!"

Like this guy, for example.

This guy and his three friends.

Their reaction to seeing a cloaked stranger moving down a road, coming from the direction of Konoha?

Jump them, and start stabbing.

And then continue stabbing when that stranger didn't fall over.

And then continue stabbing when that stranger picked up one of their friends and threw them head over heels into a tree.

Not the brightest bulbs in the box.

But that's okay.

It gives me the opportunity to practise the art of beating a motherfucker with another motherfucker.

I'm sure Sasuke and Naruto will appreciate what I learn here the next time I spar with them.

Now, come here you~

Later, I walked down the road, several sharp objects, a bunch of pieces of jewelry and a couple tens of thousands of Ryo richer.

The Valley of the End.

What a place. A site of history, formed from the battle of two of the most powerful shinobi in history.

Hashirama Senju, and Madara Uchiha.

Such was the effect that they'd had that this Valley had been memorialized, two statues in the form of both shinobi built up and carved out.

Both were equally massive, though Madara's statue was just the tiniest bit taller thanks to the hair, a single spike sticking upwards out of the entire wild, untamed mane of hair. The difference between the two was striking, as Hashirama seemed the more gathered of the two, neither wild, or untamed.

Despite the difference, however, both statues were the same in one respect. Both were posed to create the traditional Seal of Confrontation.

Interesting.

I stood at the base of Hashirama's statue, taking a moment to appreciate the sheer size of the statues, and of the Valley itself.

This place.

So big, so large, so important to the history of this World.

I had figured that, if it would be anywhere, the Keyhole would be here. It was a reasonable assumption, in my opinion; Keyholes appeared in many places, often either in the middle of nowhere, the middle of a hidden and not easily-accessible location, or in significant but not immediately accessible locations.

Traverse Town, for example, had its Keyhole in the center of town, hidden behind the water fountain. Significant, but the location had eluded people for quite some time, the Heartless included.

Clearly, however, I had been wrong.

Unless there was a trick to it I was missing, there was no Keyhole here.

I guess I should have known better to think that it would have been that easy.

Oh well.

For now, I had time.

The Keyhole couldn't elude me forever.