--
Kakashi was completely unaware that Naruto was looking for him. He was instead completely focused on seeing to Sasuke's recovery. The boy had reached the point where he was conscious even if he was still being kept under observation, a state that annoyed him immensely. He wanted to get out of that damn bed. He wanted to start training again.
While Kakashi understood his pupil's desires, he had to keep the boy content with the knowledge that he could spend the next month focusing on Sasuke's training. While Naruto had gotten into the Final Exam as well, and actually had a fighting style and skill-set closer to Kakashi's own than Sasuke did, someone else had shown up who had an interest in the Gatekeeper boy, someone who Kakashi had no interest in antagonizing, and since in spite of his best efforts Sakura was not going to be there he didn't find it unreasonable to keep her to basic weapons practice for a month. He was sure she'd understand.
So, he arrived at Sasuke's room, completely prepared to respond to the boy's incessant bitching with information on more advanced Fire Purview Boons he might be able to master, when he noticed that the men assigned to guard him were acting rather oddly.
While they were supposed to be completely still at all times, he found their stillness utterly bizarre until he poked at one's cheek (something only he could get away with, he mused), and very quickly realized that both of these men were dead and propped up to look like they were still guarding Sasuke.
His pleasant demeanor vanished as he drew his knives, rushing inside.
A man was staring down at Sasuke, scalpel in hand, wearing an Intelligence Division outfit. In spite of having the boy completely in his power, the man in question simply stared at the kid, and while Kakashi couldn't make anything out from his backside, he seemed to be pondering something.
Not liking what he had already seen of this 'pondering,' he charged forward, knives in hand.
"Guardian Purview: Unseen Shield," the man responded, prompting Kakashi's knives to strike against some sort of invisible barrier. Not deterred, he struck again and again, feeling it very slowly weaken.
"I really should have put that up earlier, thanks for reminding me of my carelessness. I hadn't actually decided whether or not I was going to kill the boy, but I guess this settles things."
Rather than use the scalpel, he touched Sasuke.
"Health Purview: Restore Health. Health Purview: Control Aging."
Wait, what? That was almost shocking enough for Kakashi to stop his attack, but then he battered at it once more, though still confused by this guy's motivations.
"The doctors already…".
"Used Restore Health, but didn't know about how necessary it would be keep his age under control if they wanted him to live. Foolish people, really," and then the man leapt through the window just as Kakashi finally shattered the barrier.
--
Kabuto really hoped that Kakashi hadn't seen his face, but if he had, well, some things couldn't be helped. He could use his soap to change it later if need be.
"Fertility Purview: Natural Camouflage," he intoned as for now he relied on his appearance suddenly matching with the nearby plant life to keep him safe.
Should I have killed the boy? It would have been the kinder course of action. He didn't know whether Orochimaru would have been annoyed or amused by his rash actions had he chosen to do so; well, now his master knew that he was playing the part of the loyal pawn, at least.
--
Well, that settles things, Kakashi thought, looking to his student. I'm looking after you this month. Yeah, it's time to get Naruto to where he needs to be, then I can show you somewhere safe to train.
--
Naruto was walking around, trying to find his sensei, when out of nowhere a rabbit ran right into him. It jumped away, but left him with a note.
'Due to some urgent matters that have come up, I might not have the time to see to your training over the next month. If you have any complaints about this, you can find what you're looking for in either the red-light district or the wall surrounding the women-only public baths. Look for a man with hair whiter than mine. Good luck!'
Naruto had thoughts. Many, very angry thoughts. Kakashi had, rather than help him (he could still use a lot of assistance with the other Boons of the Darkness Purview), told him to get laid.
He wasn't even sure if that was legal; what counted as an 'adult' with Scions was somewhat of a gray area.
And with a man, too? An old man? What in the cold depths of the Underworld was Kakashi trying to pull?
Then he thought about the odd specificity of the instructions, and further still on the personality of his sensei, and began to wonder if this might not be a riddle.
So, with much trepidation he moved on to the red-light district. Being the middle of the day, there weren't many people there, which made him stand out more than usual. When offers came from some of the establishments, his face turned redder than the lights that gave it its name and he looked down, only to realize that he still needed to look for this white-haired man and so, steeling himself, he raised his gaze to see that of an exceptionally pretty woman in rather revealing clothing.
"Hey there, you look a bit young to be here. First time?"
He stammered to himself, trying not to stare but not certain where else to look, until he eventually blurted out
"I'm looking for someone."
"We place a bit of importance on confidentiality here, for understandable reasons. Maybe I can help, but no promises."
"Well, um, I'm looking for a man with white hair."
"That describes a lot of our customers, and information about customers is not something I give out freely." She looked him up from head to toe. "Hey, you're not that one kid, aren't you?"
Preparing to have to leave once they figured out he was a Gatekeeper, she surprised him when she instead told him, "come with me, I think I know who you're looking for."
She grabbed him by the arm before he could respond and pulled him into a nearby building, which only made the red on his face brighten when he realized what it was.
"Oh, Mizu, you brought a handsome one in today, but isn't he a bit young?"
"He's here to see Jiraiya."
The other girl seemed lost in thought for a bit. "Well, he's a bit busy at the moment, but I'm sure if you wait here, we can get him for you."
So they sat him down, asking if he was sure that he didn't want to 'get some experience' while he was there, and went back to their regular business. Naruto was more and more embarrassed by the minute, especially since they had placed him where he could be seen from the street. He really didn't want to explain this anyone.
Luckily, he was not aware of anyone he knew who would be likely to travel through such a locale…
"okay, since you girls were curious, here is where 'those' services are rendered," he heard Kurenai speaking.
"This is disgusting," Ino noted.
Then, much to his horror, Sakura responded, "I know, these poor women, being exploited like this."
"Now, many of them do choose this lifestyle, so don't be so quick to condemn them, but I will say that it's not one I could ever choose, and that honestly, I wouldn't be prone to starting anything with a man who visited here frequently."
They were, from the sound of their voices, rapidly approaching his location. Damn you Kakashi, damn you Kakashi, damn you Kakashi.
He desperately tried calling on his Appearance Knacks to make him look like a different person, but then realized that his orange clothing was way to distinct, so he tried ditching it, but then remembered that he wasn't wearing anything but boxers underneath, which then prompted one of the women in the establishment to comment that stripping wasn't allowed without payment, only for said woman to stop and give him a once-over, making Naruto realize that he had activated his Appearance Knacks but not directed them, which meant it had defaulted to Epic Beauty, and, while women of the night who worked with Scions regularly should be prepared for such tricks, this woman seemed to froth in lust and put her hands on his shoulders.
"Are you really sure? I can give you a discount."
The possibility that going with her might hide him from Sakura only didn't occur to him because nothing at all was occurring to him. The situation had him way too nervous, confused, and frustrated, until Sakura, Ino, and Kurenai passed by, saw a woman accosting a young man whose face wasn't visible, clearly disappointed in the abstract that someone would frequent such a place but not recognizing who, passing by unperturbed until Jiraiya finally found his way to the front and asked, in a loud, booming voice, "alright where's this Naruto kid?"
--
Then he saw a younger boy who could only be Minato's son mostly undressed and with a working girl all over him.
"Nice, Naruto, you didn't even wait to get in the room!"
This apparently got the attention of three women walking outside. One, a smaller girl with pink hair, cracked her knuckles.
"Naruto, fancy meeting you here," she noted, her tone of voice significantly less pleasant than her words.
"It was his fault!" The boy in question shouted, pointing at Jiraiya.
The next several moments included a lot of indignation, shouting, high emotions, property damage, and a meeting with the Great Kunitsokami that both made him seriously reconsider getting Jiraiya involved in the boy's training and his decision to remain in the Middle World.
--
In spite of both Kurenai and Sakura's protestations, Naruto and Jiraiya later found themselves at a nearby river going through several combat forms and seeing what he knew about Purviews.
Naruto was already frustrated with the man for the incident in the brothel earlier, so he really was not inclined to offer any pity in response to the supposed Minor God's frustrations with how far behind he was.
Still, Jiraiya showed him how to use his knives properly and, at least in the older man's eyes, corrected a misconception that Kakashi had given Naruto, as Stamina Knacks, not Dexterity Knacks, were in fact the most useful in combat, and he got started on teaching Naruto how to use those.
Naruto, for his part, was surprised to find out how glad he was that his other teacher had emphasized Dexterity; climbing impossible climbs and running at ridiculous speeds weren't nearly as tortuous as trying to go a weak without food or water, eating things that were physically impossible to digest, and, of course, taking the regular beatings that made him seriously wonder whether he was really being taught about Stamina or just being tortured by a lazy old man who didn't want to be there. The multiple times he left Naruto to go 'research,' typically whenever a group of young women chose to go swimming in one of the nearby deltas, certainly gave support to the latter hypothesis.
Still, applying what Sakura had told him about Dexterity Knacks way back when to this situation did, in fact, result in him figuring out how to use Epic Stamina, at least, even if the specific Knacks remained beyond him.
When Jiraiya was convinced he pulled it off, the man not only let Naruto revel in his excitement but took him out to dinner and ice cream to celebrate. And celebrate the boy did, truly proud of his accomplishment, right up until he learned that Jiraiya had left him with the bill. Briefly.
He did in fact come back when he realized that the Great Kunitsokami might yell at him later, but Naruto was still miffed. The boy had actually been starting to warm up to the man until then.
--
Everything Jiraiya had learned about the boy in the first two weeks of training matched up with what he'd been told. His mastery of the Darkness Purview, or at least an almost impossible to master ability from it, defied belief, but he couldn't figure out even his Associated Purviews.
His ability to master Knacks was normal for his age, maybe even slightly above average considering he knew both Epic Dexterity and now, thanks to the brilliant and handsome sage of Tishtrya, Epic Stamina even though neither of those were Associated with Izanami.
He was a bit of idiot, but not really dumber than many other Scions his age (including, though he'd never admit it, Jiraiya himself). So, what was holding him back from learning any of the other Purviews?
While Guide Sarutobi had never said anything, Jiraiya did have suspicions about another reason, besides giving Kakashi a more free hand to look after Sasuke and making him deal with his emotional issues over Minato's death, to have him take the boy in. He was skilled enough with the Guardian Purview to check out the seal controlling Mikaboshi, and, finally working up the courage to check it out, he saw immediately what was wrong.
Between Izanami being Associated with Darkness and being from the cosmological region of the Underworld that matched up with Mikaboshi's historic domain, them both being 'Japanese' for the laymen who didn't need excessive details on cosmological relations, Mikaboshi's own Ichor was able to spread out and blend with Naruto's, thus overwhelming it. Not enough to free himself, or even gain significant influence over Naruto as far as Jiraiya could tell, but enough that it was expanding Darkness within the boy and ruining anything else.
Sun would truly be impossible for him in his current state, and every other Purview would be significantly weakened, enough that the kid would need an abnormally high understanding to master them.
Did Izanami know about this? There were always rumors about her. Some said she never truly got over her 'death' by childbirth and banishment to the Underworld, wanting vengeance on the other Gods and secretly working to help the Titan Lords.
Ultimately dismissing that as Amatsukami mysticism that he couldn't deal with right now, he instead said to Naruto, "Hey, kid, let me see something," and then pressed his hand against the boy's stomach. Adjusting the wards ever so slightly…there!
"Hey, that tickles," Naruto responded as in confusion.
"It's important tickling," which sounded weird even to Jiraiya, so he continued before anyone could comment further on it. "Death, Earth, or Tsukumo-Gami. I don't actually know much about any of them, and couldn't pull off the last one if I tried to for a thousand years. Which do you want to learn?"
Naruto looked away, embarrassed. "I've never been able to, well, I mean I…."
"I have a feeling that things will be different under the tutelage of someone as brilliant as myself."
--
Dosu knew that he could only get into the Final Exam if one of the current contestants were removed beforehand. He also knew that Gaara was a lynchpin to some plan of Orochimaru's that put Dosu at risk but wasn't worth informing him about for whatever reason. So, while many other contestants might have been better to quietly kill, with this Gaara kid it was personal.
Dosu hadn't liked being a pawn as a powerless mortal. He hadn't liked learning that the power Vampirism offered only made him a pawn to an old feud between Clan Lasombra and the Village Hidden in Masks that forced the entire Clan into the Rogue life, in his case right from his siring.
The life of a Rogue was difficult, and in many ways was even worse for Vampires. While people tended to think of Rogues as criminals and dangerous Supernatural Men that worked outside the law and did nasty work, in reality the smartest thing for any Rogue to do, if possible, would be to suppress all supernatural abilities, find some obscure mortal village, and try to pass one's self off as human.
Vampires really couldn't do that, unless they wanted a paper trail at the local apothecary showing someone was mixing a formula for sunlight resistance or start rumors about the weirdo who only comes out at night and is always at the scene when someone has a hazy memory of blood loss.
When a Vampire went Rogue, it needed protection from the underground to keep Masks, the Imbued, and bounty hunters off of their trail, the kind of protection that only came from dangerous work.
Dosu went through all that without even the emotional satisfaction of going Rogue in the first place; that was his Sire's choice.
Thus, Dosu was ultimately glad to find himself part of a Village, to have a home and protection from those who hunted him, and he knew that Kin, a woman with a similar past of seeking out greater power than her mortal life allowed and finding it in a source that left her marked for dead, and Zaku, a man who, by a quirk of being born near supernatural radiation and thus confined to a failing Village in the poorest of the Lands (the most common Mission was to go out to find more food and water so the Village Hidden in Wastes wouldn't starve), felt the same.
Of course, now he realized that that 'Village' was just a trick to lure in desperate fools like himself and work them as pawns, and he had taken on this life because he was sick of being a damn pawn.
Glaring at that Gaara kid, who was just staring at the moon, Dosu prepared his attack. Not having been there to witness the fight between him and that one loud Scion, he couldn't be fully certain of the kid's capabilities, but a kid he clearly was, and Dosu had no intention of losing to someone so young again…I didn't lose the first time! he thought as he quietly intoned "Obtenebration Discipline: Arms of the Abyss," and used the natural shadows that the moonlit night produced to form several black tentacles that reached for the strange boy and…he had no idea where the flint had come from, but it surrounded him, ripping into him.
Far more grateful than normal for his Vampiric resilience to pain, he kept on with the attack, sending the tentacles into the boy, where, to his dismay, they were merely stopped by the boy's own tentacles. No, snake heads.
"It stirs," the boy said, "it wants blood."
The speed at which this thing (Dosu no longer felt it right to consider the boy a 'boy') gained the upper hand was too much for the Vampire. With the rocks digging into his flesh, with the clear understanding that there was something wrong with them (the same something wrong that he once felt in his unnatural darkness, now that he realized it, and the same thing that those prone to noticing still felt…it was weird what one might tend to think about at one's last moment), he came to the conclusion that he was going to die. Again. Except that this time there would be no Siring Ritual to bring him back more powerful.
He had considered this possibility, and had even prepared a note to give to Kin and Zaku that should become legible once he was beyond Orochimaru's ability to punish detailing what he had done and why, with instructions for how they might go Rogue (again, in Zaku's case, and effectively in Kin's as well) and survive.
Though he had hoped to do so with them, he realized that in the end his pride had been his undoing. Thus finished the story of Dosu, dying in one last desperate gambit to no longer be a pawn. He hoped the other two made it better than he did.
--
Dosu's enchanted note worked as he had planned. Kin and Zaku got the message. Now it was just a question of what in the Underworld they were supposed to do with this information.
"Dosu was a traitor! We'll turn this information into Lord Orochimaru directly, and he'll accept our loyalty…".
"Are you so naive? We're useless to him now."
She gestured to his missing arm and then to the bandages surrounding her head injury.
"I don't know that we were ever useful in the first place. Dosu is right, I'm here to be a sacrifice so Orochimaru can cement his alliance with Hekau, and…" she fought back tears.
After all her years of loyal service, giving everything to him, this was the fate that had been chosen for her. And now Dosu was dead. Moreover, Zaku, her last potential ally, was being an idiot.
"But, well, what do we do?" He demanded.
"I can't go back to the Land of Rot, or, or," his face scrunched in thought, a very rare expression for him indeed. "Or can we? I know the area, there's a lot of wasteland, hell, it's what the Village there is named after, that no one ever bothers to explore, so we could hide easily, and there are even some tribes of roaming cannibals, so you might be able to fit in there."
Kin didn't like the plan, but it was a plan, which put it above most of what else she had going on in her head.
"Well, I think that that's a perfectly well thought out plan," a third voice spoke out. "Don't you agree, Baki?"
From her first days in the Akhmat Cult, Kin had been taught to fear Mummies. The only reason one should get voluntarily close to one was to take their flesh for consumption, and that was only if you were certain. So, to have a relatively high ranked one glaring at her, finger running over an Amulet around his neck, she panicked.
Between the suddenly growing plants and the flying powder, she wasn't actually certain about what happened next, but she knew that she was suddenly on the ground, a surprising ways away from the hotel she'd been staying at, with a gray-haired but otherwise young man holding a scalpel to her throat and…a bar of soap?
"Zaku should be dead by now, or close enough to it, but you, my friend, I can still see a use for you. Of course, I can't let our Mummy friends know about that, so you'll have to make some changes, but first I need to ensure your loyalty. What did Dosu's note tell you?"
Realizing that this was one of Orochimaru's spies in the Village, she internally laughed. Well, Dosu, I'm sorry, but I think that you'd understand..
There was no other way to stay alive. So she told him everything, from her teammate's theories about how Orochimaru used them and planned to kill them off, to his attempt to take out Gaara, to his orders for them to escape.
"Aha," Kabuto responded to all of this, "and what do you think about all this? These ideas he had about Lord Orochimaru's intentions?"
Die eith the truth on your lips, some part of Kin shouted from within. Die, for once in your life, being brave.
But she wasn't brave. She was always a coward, it was why she had sought out the Akhmat in the first place, why she had run to Sacrifice instead of staying when the Mummies attacked her temple, so she only gave into her desires to stop running in the stupidest of ways.
"Dosu was telling the truth, we are just pawns to him."
Kabuto nodded, seeming to have an odd level of respect for her decision.
As the scalpel cut into her throat, she continued, "but we should be. For someone as powerful as him, to have the graciousness to accept little weaklings like us into his employ, well, Dosu never understood that being his sacrificial pawns is truly one of the best fates we could hope for."
Kabuto nodded once more, holding the soap against her face.
"Very well, I am satisfied," and started cleansing her. He dropped the scalpel to cover her mouth with his hand and stifle her screams as her flesh sloughed away.
--
Baki was increasingly annoyed as he saw neither Kabuto nor the Akhmat girl they had come here to kill. He had taken out the Mutant boy quickly, painlessly, and had taken the time to offer his prayers so that the boy might make progress on the path of Duat (or wherever Mutants ended up when they died), but that was barely a side concern.
When Kabuto showed up once more, not having her corpse in tow, Baki grew even more frustrated. A strange young girl he had never seen before followed behind him holding a bag.
"Tsumire, be nice and show Baki what he's looking for."
She was incredibly nervous about something as she handed him the bag, but he filed that detail away for later examination as he instead opened it up to reveal a red, smelly mess that he could only vaguely recognize.
"What…did you do to her?" While not normally one to shed a tear for an Akhmat, this was something else.
"I'm sorry," Kabuto bowed before him in something that was clearly meant to imitate an apology.
"Tsumire here is another spy of ours, and when Kin almost escaped, well, honestly, we don't like to use her because she can get a bit…excessive."
His allies continued to repulse him on every level. Still, the demands had been met; the Akhmat girl was dead, her loyalty to Sacrifice proven hollow, and thus things could continue as planned.
"Did any of her actions affect our evidence for the Great God-on-Earth that the two got overly aggressive and we were acting in mere self-defense? I don't want to get kicked out of the Village this early."
Kabuto smirked. "Hey, you wanted this, but if you're really so scared, well, then, I can have Tsumire here act as another witness. More eyes are always good. By Mictlan, why don't you take her on as your personal servant?"
This seemed to terrify the girl beyond all measure, but Baki barely noticed as he thought about Kin's current state and suppressed a shudder.
"If tonight's work was typical, then I have no interest in ever seeing that girl again."
Kabuto's smirk turned into a full smile. "Well, then, I think we're done for the night, wouldn't you agree?"
--
While Vampires did, in fact, bleed, they really weren't that satisfying. All of their blood was still and infused with something close enough to Sekhem (did they call it Vitae there? Gaara neither remembered nor truly cared) to remind him of everything he disliked about Mummies, so that one Vampire whose name he couldn't remember only teased him rather than satisfied.
He could have sustained the need for violence through solitude earlier, but now temptation called. Perhaps that Rock "Osiris" Lee kid, the one who made him feel physical pain for the first time in, honestly, he couldn't remember if he had ever felt physical pain. Acting on impulse, Apophis's Gatekeeper walked around aimlessly, trying to find where the boy might be.
--
A great mass of falling rocks came crashing down, crushing everything around them. They were heavy, capable of beating and battering the most resilient of mortals. Naruto had several bruises from the last time they had tried this, but this time he took Jiraiya's words to heart.
Calmly bonding with the Earth, understanding the ground, the dirt and rock and how they were both the same and different, knowing that, as the son of Izanami, they wouldn't hurt him, even if they struck everything around him. He channeled his Ichor.
"Earth Purview: Safely Interred."
It surrounded him, full of weight, full of power, ready to crush and smash. It did no such thing. He had mastered the Earth Purview enough to be safe from the Earth.
As he glanced around, letting out the breath that he didn't know he was holding, he realized what he had accomplished and, after a second of stunned silence, threw a fist into the air and screamed out loud.
"Yeah, I can use the Earth Purview!"
Jiraiya, who had just noticed a group of twenty-somethings going skinny-dipping in what they thought was a discreet location that happened to be visible from his current hilltop perch and hadn't been paying attention, casually mentioned something about how he was making great progress until Naruto threw a rock at him in anger and caused him to look down and realize that the boy had, in fact, shown that he had the Earth Purview now, which prompted to say with all sincerity, "you did great, boy, I really mean that."
He let Naruto enjoy the moment before continuing, "it's too bad that this specific Boon is going to be basically useless in the arena you'll be fighting in. Don't get me wrong, it's going to be very useful in future missions, but the specific situation you'll be facing next month is unlikely to involve being buried alive."
"What! Then why did you have me learn this?!"
Jiraiya shrugged.
"It's typically the first Earth Boon that Scions naturally inclined to it learn. If you couldn't learn it, then the Earth Purview in particular would probably be beyond you. Don't worry, it's not like I'd spend this entire month teaching you an ability that would be useless in the fight you're training for but essential to some unexpected crisis immediately afterwards. Now," looking over the Tortoise Scroll that contained the information for all Earth Purview Boons that were freely available to Heroes for study, "so, Echo Sounding can be helpful. Know where your opponent is at all times, can deal with a lot of trickery and illusion. Shaping is more difficult, and seems to take time, but if you're clever there are a lot of things you can do with it."
He then turned to the Bat Scroll with all the unclassified Darkness Boons.
"I wouldn't normally suggest this, but since you've already gone full Demigod with Darkness anyways, looking into Shadow Refuge could be worthwhile, and definitely will be in later missions, but the arena might very well have enough shadow to make a little use of it."
"What about Shadow Mask, I saw Shikamaru use it…"
"Would you have thought to use it on a hex-slinger's cards?"
"Well, no…but…"
"Shadow Mask lets you make something, including yourself, unrecognizable. It's an incredibly useful ability for an espionage mission, but in a one-on-one fight in a mostly featureless area where they already know that the other body is their opponent, well, what is it going to do?"
Naruto thought back on his fight with Kiba. "Well, maybe, I can get someone who has an ally confused with it, like, this Neji bastard has a wolf, and, well, um, I don't know."
"Wolves are too different from human bodies for Shadow Mask to work there. Underworld, kid, it's a stretch to think that Shadow Refuge will help you, and I'm only even suggesting it because Darkness comes so easily to you."
"Well, what about other Darkness techniques? You and a bunch of other people said that Shadow Bodies is Demigod level, are there any other Demigod-level Boons I could study?"
"The library won't give those out to a Lesser Hero, and I'm not familiar enough with the Darkness Purview to help you."
"Well, what Purviews do you have? Teach me one of those!"
Jiraiya sighed. "Guardian, Water, Stars, Asha, and Animal (Horse), if you must know. None of those are Associated with Izanami, though, so if it was this difficult for you to learn Earth, then I doubt that you'll get any of the others in time. Asha is impossible for you, by the way."
"Well, then how the heck am I supposed to pass this exam if all my abilities are suited to situations other than the one I'm being tested on?"
Jiraiya snorted. "Believe it or not, you exposed a genuine problem with the Exam's entire structure, but I have no interest in talking politics, so we'll leave it that."
He rubbed his chin, looking at Naruto in thought. "You know, if you're really determined, we could try for Animal. I've seen a lot of Scions, even those with subpar aptitude, figure that out even without Association."
"Really?" Naruto's frustration immediately shifted to excitement.
"Yeah, having a connection with the Animal type in question typically matters more than Ichor control, thought that's still important, so don't get any stupid ideas."
Thinking about his fight with Kiba, and how much having a partner could help, plus Neji would have that wolf of his…"okay, let's do it!"
--
Horses, the animal Jiraiya was most familiar with and thus the best bet for training Naruto if he really wanted to go with this route, were not overtly difficult to find in the Village. Horses for use by Animal Purview users were, if anything, even more common. Clan Dodekatheon's Poseidon Temple, Clan Tuatha da Danaan's Mannanan Mac Lir Temple, and a ranch bizarrely resembling something from the Weird West meant to cater to Pecos Bill's Scions all kept several, but it was the Tishtrya Temple run by Clan Yazata that they went to.
Since he had made it perfectly clear that he was not using his status as the only Minor God from Clan Yazata to still walk the Middle World in order to claim his position as Clan Head, and that son of Mithra's, whatshisname, could go ahead and keep it, he was more than welcome to the area, and the very small mortal Cult of Tishtrya was particularly glad to see him for the first time in a long time.
"Honorable son, what sacrifices may we make to you, so as not to make the same mistakes of our ancestors…"
Jiraiya cut the cultist off. "Nothing like that, we just want to see if the boy here can talk to the horses."
Nodding enthusiastically, he asked, "is this another son of your father?"
"No, he's Izanami's brat."
The man did not seem overtly disappointed. "All are children of Ahura-Mazda, and thus should be welcome here, even if some disagree-"
Jiraiya cut him off once more. "I don't want to hear about Clan squabbles. Just take me to the horses."
As they were let into the stables, Naruto felt the need to express some confusion. "Hey, pervy sage…"
"What? What kind of name is that?"
"An accurate one, but that's not the point. When he found out I was an Amatsukami Scion, he said that I was still a child of 'Ahura-Mazda.' Should your Clan be claiming other pantheons like that?"
Jiraiya sighed. He really did not want to get into a theological debate during a training session that he already expected to be going poorly.
"Clan Yazata believes that that there is a God that exists above the other Gods, not as the 'king of the Gods' like Zeus or Izanagi, but, well, an entirely different category of being."
Naruto's eyes widened at that prospect. "So, are his Scions super-powerful?"
Oh kid, you have no idea.
"He doesn't normally produce Scions. When he does, they're supposedly destined to change the world."
He shrugged. "Or end it. A lot of prophecies claim that he'll only ever have one. Even though the Angels and Blessed Cowboys typically claim that their 'One True God' is not Ahura-Mazda, they'll also insist that he had a Scion back in the World-That-Was, but that gets into inter-Village cosmological debates."
"Kakashi-sensei told us to avoid those like the plague."
"Your Guide is a wise man," Jiraiya agreed.
"So, pervy sage,"
"could you please stop calling me that!"
"Do you believe that this Ahura-Mazda Scion is going to exist, and do all this big stuff he's supposed to?"
Jiraiya sighed deeply, not entirely certain as to whether he should unload the many disappointments of his long and largely failed life onto this bright, impressionable child. The boy was already losing respect for the Legendary Jiraiya, and going into such failures…
"I met a boy that I genuinely thought was Ahura-Mazda's Scion once," he said almost without thinking. "But then he died, without accomplishing anything," his voice reduced itself to a whisper, "and thanks to this damn Village, I couldn't do a thing about it."
Naruto looked at him askance, surprised at the sudden shift in his teacher's emotions, but he wasn't immediately prying, and Jiraiya had no intention of volunteering more information of his own accord, so shoved that thought down, put on a happy face, and introduced Naruto to a bunch of surprisingly angry and haughty horses.
--
Techniques:
Guardian Purview: Unseen Shield-forms an invisible barrier around the user or whatever he wants to protect
Health Purview: Restore Health-a more potent version of 'cure wounds'
Health Purview: Control Aging-alter the physical aspects of age on a body, in whichever direction, past or present, the user wishes upon the target
Fertility Purview: Natural Camouflage-alters one's skin color and texture to match up the surrounding atmosphere
A/N: I tend to follow my impulses and just stick to canon when I have none. If you have any suggestions for where the story should go, or what I am bad but could improve on, please let me know.