[Jiraya]

Jiraya didn't know what to think of the kids in front of him. The blue haired one(Choujuro) had told them their story because the brown haired boy(Kukui) was still weary of him. The brown haired boy was the mastermind behind the Kirigakure academy's destruction and probably the guy the rebellion for Kirigakure is probably worshipping.

Jiraya couldn't believe it until the other two backed him up and the little girl called her sensei awesome enough to do that. Then it was explained how the girl was with them and Jiraya was reminded of Yahiko right away. He had the feeling that they were alike before but that just instantly reminded him of Yahiko... The boy did have a penchant for that kind of thing. Except for the adoption part.

The blue haired boy seemed to be the only semo-normal one there and Jiraya was surprised. With the kind of thing that happened to them and the things they already did, they should probably be anywhere but here in the land of water, mentally recovering. But no. They wanted to kill Yaguyra and save Kirigakure. It felt similar to the dreams of the last orphans he encountered.

The other two in their little group were likely not sane but definitely not looney bin levels of not sane. The blond was a Chinoike which shocked Jiraya and the other one was her best friend. The funny part of all of this was that they knew each other for less than a year before committing an atrocity(that Jiraya condoned. He did it to Iwa once) together.

Honestly they were set to be found by the Kirigakure rebellion soon anyways. And with the things they've done, they'd be welcomed with open arms. Especially the Chinoike. A small part of Jiraya didn't want to leave them in this place, knowing what could happen to them. But Jiraya couldn't get attached to them. With his past, he'd definitely would. And again, knowing his past and track record; they'd all be dead in a few years.

But he'd feel bad just leaving them alone. They were barely genin. Only a few weeks at best out of the academy

"So let me get this straight. You four blew up the academy, survived a hunter-nin and killed them, and then one of you adopted a child?" Jiraya felt he should ask again for clarity's sake. He was just checking up on them to make sure they were okay and ready to survive the cruel world they were in. So far, so good. Although they probably wouldn't be able to hold out against stronger opponents. Maybe they should find some place to train? Here would be a good place but Kiri-nin were going to be stupid enough to attack them here anyways.

The brown haired boy, Kukui nodded, "Yep," He was glancing around subtly like he was waiting for someone to attack them, "Now why are you here? I know one of the Sannin just isn't in the land of water for something trivial like writing a book,"

"Hey!" Jiraya shouted, "I'll have you know that writing a book such as Icha Icha violence isn't a trivial matter and it is exactly why I am here," No need to let these kids know what he was actually here for. Also, he may have dug himself a grave with what he just said.

The red haired girl, Tayuya, tilted her head at the sannin, "What's Icha Icha Violence?" Yep, Jiraya had dug his own grave with this one.

The blond, Himiko, looked at her, "Its probably part of a book franchise or something," Her face was distinctively red. Jiraya was not going to touch that one with a ten foot pole. No. Make that a twenty foot one. This conversation needed to be buried.

Tayuya nodded, "Probably a crappy book series then," Another insult to his life's work! If it wasn't an uncultured child, he'd have set them straight. But they were only a child. One that didn't grasp the beauty of his work. And one day they might, but that day would certainly not be now.

The silver haired one, Sanemi, sighed, "Alright then old man. Why help us then?" Oh thank god. Jiraya decided to ignore being called an old man. He was still in his early fourties! He was in his prime still. Not some old geezer in his fifties that'd loose to something like a measly six people. No way!

Jiraya smiled, "Well I, Jiraya the Gallant would feel bad for leaving innocent children to have to fight a Chuunin by themselves!" The man's flak jacket was a lighter color then a Jonin's would have been. Thats how Jiraya knew.

Choujuro smiled, "Well thank you then, Jiraya-sama, we might not have been able to survive that attack without your intervention," Finally a brat with respect!

'I should be leaving soon.' Jiraya realized suddenly. He was supposed to leave a bit ago but he encountered the brats," Finally someone with respect for the great Toad sage! Now I wish I could stay but alas, I have places to be. And since I have made sure you are all okay, my good deed for the day has been done!" Jiraya wished he could do more. But he didn't want to get his heart broken by death again. No. He was going to do something good and hopefully because of it these kids were going to live.

Although, he could always give them a little push. He saw them studying certain things... 'Why not? After all, they should have a bit more of a boost since they're dealing with being a missing-nin now!' He stood up and took out a few pieces of paper, "But before I do, could you brats tell me something your specializing in, If your going to survive in this world you are going to need a bit of a boost in knowledge!"

The brown haired boy's eyes lit up right away and he saw the same light Minato had when he made the Rasengan for a second, "Jutsu creation and Kenjutsu mainly. Although I do want to dabble in more lightning jutsu!" Yep, definitely that light. Jiraya knew this kid would go far if he even had a drop of the talent his latest student did. And oh god did that hurt to think about. 'I wonder if I should leave them a jutsu or two as well... Ah fuck it. They'll probably need anything they could get and homemade jutsu will never be made with out a base.'

Everyone else perked up. Goddamnit his poor old heart couldn't take it, it was adorable.

"Water jutsu!"

"Chakra flow!"

Medical Jutsu!"

"Genjutsu!"

Yep they were children. Jiraya smiled and chuckled, "A wide variety huh? I won't be able to help much in theoretical knowledge for the last two ut my teammate was the best medic in the world," Jiraya wondered how strong Tsunade would be now, "So I do know a thing or two about what's required for both of those, Chakra control," Idly he wrote down a few things in some paper.

He passed the papers to them all via throwing it into their grasp. 'God I love being a ninja. Their faces are priceless.' It almost looked like they teleported into their hands. In reality he just threw the paper faster then they could see. Although the way the boy narrowed his eyes at him after told the man he was a sensor and sensed the chakra he used. 'And that's my Charity work for the day.' Jiraya thought before looking at the five again, "Now that I've done that, I must leave! My book won't write itself you know!"

With that the man shunshined out of the open window, leaving four shocked kids and one stupefied brown haired boy

'Now to get help.'

[Kokushibo Hozuki]

Kokushibo had learned from his past mistakes.

Last time he let his hate get the better of him and it let the brats get away. He knew he'd have to play it safe this time. Especially around the boy with lightning release. Kukui Tanku was his number one enemy at the moment. Especially seeing as he nearly killed him.

But luckily for him he somehow lived and now was going to fight the brats soon. But he knew he couldn't now. No, no, no. He had to find an exploitable weakness. And he did find one.

The little girl they had with them.

Kokushibo didn't know when, but once he got to Hako and out of the boy's sensor range, he saw a little redheaded girl with them. One that was smiling and talking animatedly about how she was going to become the best at Genjutsu.

She likely just started learning how to use chakra too. So she wasn't a danger to him. It was perfect. Now, he could have kidnapped her at any time. But he didn't want to do it now. Why? Well Kokushibo's plans relied on traps, so he himself wouldn't get injured. 'I'll need a bit more ninja wire and kunai.'

If he wanted to kill them without them knowing, he'd need to use more of the tricks he had up his sleeve. He was cocky and arrogant the last time they fought. This time it'd be different. Kokushibo couldn't afford to be a cocky dushbag in front of them. Nor could he afford to be angry. Luckily he barely restrained his anger, just enough to where he won't try to attack them or yell at them on sight.

So things were going good in his plans so far. But he hadn't found a moment where all of them are unguarded He tried going in at night to kill them(before he had come up with his current plan) whilst masking his chakra signature only to find that the Chinoike bitch had a guillotine set up and she nearly cut his head off before he could do anything.

Yeah he wasn't trying that again.

'I hate waiting. I wish I could go home sooner rather than later.' The man's knuckled were turning white as he was gripping a kunai tightly. 'But I have a duty to make my home safer by killing these scum. For my child to be safer I need to do this. And for all my friends who these scum killed.' These people were meant to be his comrades. He had once met a boy named Obito Uchiha in the third shinobi war. Near the start actually and he once said. "Those who break the rules may be scum, but those that abandon their friends were worse than scum,"

That was when he tried to goad Hatake Kakashi into joining Kirigakure and Obito said that and explained that Kakashi would never abandon a comrade... It applied here. 'They didn't just break the shinobi rules, they attacked their own comrades, abandoned them, and are actively against them.' Obito was an Uchiha and therefore bloodline scum but Kokushibo agreed with his philosophy there. He may have been savable if he had lived.

Kokushibo then glanced at the people he was watching, they were training as usual.

'I need to get the opportunity soon otherwise they might become a threat beyond the lightning boy.' Maybe he should put up even more traps? Yeah that'd be a good idea. With plenty of explosive tags. It had been three days since he'd arrived in Hako and he had the perfect place set up already.

He just needed to continue to place traps and this time, not lose.

'I'll be back soon, love, and then we can mourn for our friends together.' Kokushibo thought sadly. He hoped his beloved was doing okay without him there. She had to be hit hard by all her friends dying as well. ''I'll make sure to finish the job this time so everyone can be proud of me, and happy that their killers have been sent to hell.'

'I promise to do everything in my power, to kill them, to protect everyone else.'

[Kukui Tanku]

'I can't believe it.' I was looking down at the paper's Jiraya had given us. I had no idea as to why the man was in the land of water or why he gave us free info. 'If I were to liken this to a game, this'd be a power up before a really hard boss battle. But in our situation its after.' The man being here was a true blessing to me.

Basically we all got notes on what to do to help us in our select specialties. Along with a basic jutsu. We've all read each others notes at least three times by now and the knowledge we gained was astonishing. 'I guess this goes to show how much help a teacher would be. At least this gets me closer to Jutsu creation.' I also got something for lightning. And thanks to the chakra flow notes Sanemi asked for, I was confident I could master it soon.

In simple terms, Chakra flow was like flowing chakra through your own body. You had to act like the thing you were flowing your chakra into was apart of your body. Not only that but each element you used chakra flow with was different. Different frequencies, different, amounts of chakra, different ratio's, and grip strengths needed to be applied. A good way to use chakra flow easier was by meditating. It allowed one to get more in tune with their chakra, body, and mind and because of that it allowed the user to use their chakra more freely.

'Actually I should start meditating now.' I sat down in a meditative pose and closed my eyes. I was alone since everyone else was doing something together and I decided to stay behind for some peace and quiet. Of course, I was prepared for an attack if one happened thanks to sensing but it was nice to be alone. I hadn't had true alone time in... months... 'I miss home sometimes. At least I could stay in my room all day when I wasn't sick and when I was, the nurses left me alone most of the time.'

[New skill unlocked; Meditating

Meditating: lvl 1

Increases the rate of recovery for Chakra points and Stamina by 2% whilst used, cannot move whilst using this skill]

'Huh. Neat.' Couldn't use this in a battle but before one it'd be nice. It'd also be nice after one when I want to just rest. 'Not gonna bother calculating how much less time it takes for my stuff to regen now.' Anyways, the other notes were the same as well. Giving information on the general topics that we were interested in.

For Himiko and Tayuya they got chakra control notes(along with stuff for genjutsu and medical jutsu but I wasn't interested in those at the moment) Basically Meditation was also vital to chakra control. Not only that but one's body and mind must be in perfect sync, so the more knowledge the better. There was also an exorcise which was water repulsion. Pretty much you had to be the Skycrawler on water... That was going to be irritating to do.

Choujuro's on swordsmanship was pretty simple. Just stuff on stances and movement. One neat bit was determining when and where to strike. Most people had a tell of when they were going to move and act. For example; that Kokushibo dude's was when he looked around a bunch and blinked. He didn't use his sword much but he was technically a swordsman. Another one would be one that Jiraya actually listed, Zabuza's tendency to raise his fingers into a half bird sign. I didn't know he fought Zabuza once but hey! It was cool.

His water jutsu notes didn't matter much to me sadly. Although I did memorize them for later. As I would be learning it someday for a secondary element. 'Just gotta master my own first.' Quality over quality was always a good thing. Although some quantity was nice.

'Now if only he wasn't so anal about my own notes.' Pretty much in his notes about jutsu creation he called me an ambitious idiot but that was good. Along with some other things and I was sure I reminded him of someone at that point. But pretty much there were two core components to jutsu creation. Shape manipulation, and elemental manipulation. There were three types of jutsu that could be made. Commonly there was Jutsu without elements but full of shape manipulation, then there were jutsu that combined both aspects of jutsu creation, and the final category was pure raw elemental chakra jutsus.

Jiraya recommended the two former categories. To create a jutsu one had to have really high chakra control for shape manipulation and plenty of mastery over the element they want to use for the jutsu. That was another reason why I was meditating so much. 'I really need to start the second step.'

At least the jutsu he left me was learnable for me at the moment. I didn't have the ability to make anything to complex or powerful at the moment. 'And commonly why most don't create jutsu is because there's plenty already out there. Although personal jutsu tends to be far more powerful.'

The jutsu I had to learn was a simple lightning one. Lightning release: Thunderclap arrow. Basically the jutsu was like Zeus's ability to throw lightning bolts except it was a lightning arrow. Commonly used in Kumo. 'Now I have longer ranged options then electromagnetic murder at least.'

Suddenly he felt a finger poke into his cheek and I opened my eyes to see Tayuya, "Hey sensei, what are you doing?"

I smiled, "Meditating, Why do you ask?"

"Because you said when we got back you'd teach me how to pickpocket some crapheads but you've been sitting there doing nothing for like an hour since we've gotten back!" She dramatically raised her hands into the air and I remembered the promise I made, "Its getting dark now!"

I grinned, "Well that's good. The best time to rob someone is always at night!"

Kushimaru Kuriarare]

Oddly enough, things have been going real smoothly. They were almost at Hako town, No tracks were straying from their path again, and Ito hadn't been whining if they were there yet. All in all, things were going fine for Kushimaru at the moment.

'I still wonder if this is worth it.' It was worth it for him personally to see Ito smile. But in a professional point of view? He was pretty much chasing up to four kids with potential ranging from none but a lot of luck or the potential to be tide changing. Knowing the land of water, it was likely the former. 'I really hope its the former though.' Kushimaru knew Mei wouldn't like it if the four he brought back were just some random brats with no potential.

Yes she was all for saving kids. But she'd like it if it wasn't her third strongest shinobi saving them when he could be out there, hunting Zabuza to take the Kubukiribocho back, to either give it to Mangetsu or have his brother learn how to use it. 'Maybe Ameyuri's going to do that?' She did hate Zabuza the most out of all the swordsman in the time they were all together. Kisame being a close second. Although she just really hated the Hoshigaki clan in general for reasons unknown.

Understandable though, most of them were pricks.

Anyways, Kushimaru just hoped this was worth it, otherwise he was going to be raked over the coals again and he really didn't want that. Nobody wanted that. 'Our next Mizukage is really vindictive when she wants to be.' Half the reason the rebellion started was because some upstart was petty and vindictive. And god wasn't Kushimaru fearing for his future somedays because of it. 'At least I have the safety of being her ally and friend.'

Half reassuring at best but still. It was reassuring.

"What are you thinking about, sensei?" Ito idly asked as they walked. She was happy as could be right now and Kushimaru knew it. They were in the middle of one of the land of water's biggest forests, right near the Valley of Creation where the second Mizukage and Tsuchikage fought respectively.

'Even I know its a rip off of the Valley of the End.' Kushimaru shook himself out of his thoughts as he looked at Ito, "Nothing much," He shrugged, "I'm really questioning why some asshat thought it was a good idea to rip off the Valley of the End?"

Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha were known worldwide to be the two strongest shinobi to have ever lived. 'Even if that rip off, Hikaku liked to say otherwise.' God how he hated that old man. Why was he still a shinobi at that old? Anyways, Madara and Hashirama's final battle was legendary and it created the Valley of the End.

That didn't mean the Tsuchikage and Mizukage's battle wasn't legendary, but it didn't care out a whole valley in just an attack. If anything, more earth was added to it in the end... Although that might be why it was called the "Valley of Creation"

Ito chuckled, "I never got that either really," Ito looked forward. Kushimaru then looked forward as well, "Oh hey we're almost out of here!"

Oh yeah, they were. At this rate, they'd reach Hako in a day. Which was also thirty minutes away from the Valley of Creation hilariously enough. Also, there was a restaurant nearby. 'Must be popular with tourists.' Kushimaru looked at Ito, "Wanna go get something to eat?"

Ito nodded, "Sure!"

[Chapter end]