A/N: Sorry this is late! It was finished a little bit ago, but it took longer than I meant it to to get it edited!
It's a bit longer than normal, as we're wrapping up the Investigation arc and heading into the climax, so hopefully that makes up for it at least a little bit!
As always, thanks for reading! Hope you enjoy!
There's so much red. Bodies scattered across the ground, left to lie where they'd fallen, the earth radiating a scent of wet dirt and blood.
Blood sprayed across the sides of buildings, pooling in the road, soaking clothes and making a formerly pristine business district look like something out of a nightmare-
Like something out of his nightmares.
The world spins, he's breathing too fast, he needs to steady it he knows that he-
...Sasuke never thought he'd-
He trembles, gasping out breaths as he tries to calm down. Natsu's talking fast, Naruto's back hot against his own, too hot, he hears growling and Natsu's talking faster he needs to-
He can't use his Sharingan. Not here.
He can't ever have something like this burned behind his eyes, can't-
For the first time in his life, Sasuke's afraid of what he'd see if he used his dojutsu.
How much clearer could this carnage become-?
He wishes he could fight blind, for a moment, like Natsu- but he's an Uchiha, and the one thing no one in his clan ever considered was fighting without their eyes.
He doesn't know how-
Natsu stops speaking, meaningless words cutting off sharply, and Naruto's roar trembles through Sasuke's chest.
Then the steady warmth burns, and Sasuke jerks himself forward even as he feels Naruto leap-
No no no nononononono-
They can't separate- they can't fight here-!
Sasuke spins, chasing after his teammate-
Natsu's taijutsu is a vicious flurry of movement, holding an edge Sasuke hasn't ever seen before, as he ducks and weaves between three shinobi.
Ahead of him, Naruto charges in with claws and a red sheen of chakra - not quite thick enough to form the tail Sasuke saw once before, but dark and wild all the same.
Sasuke doesn't know what to do. There's too many, far too many, and every time he catches sight of the business district, the blood and the corpses, he stutters, and two more are heading towards Natsu but Naruto isn't even trying to block, just charging in with fury and chakra and-
Sasuke never asked how much Naruto can heal. How many blows can he take before-
Sasuke never asked and-
He can't watch more people he cares about die in the middle of a bloody district, can't watch his teammates die in a street that looks more and more like home with every single blink-
Sasuke snaps out his wrist, shuriken distracting another shinobi, forcing them to dodge back from Naruto, eyes narrowed to slits as he tries to see as little as possible of the streets without compromising his ability to fight-
He loses track of Natsu after that, consumed in the pace of the fight, dodging enemies and Naruto alike as he tries to keep them off his rage-blind teammate.
He runs out of shuriken, finds himself down to his last kunai, and now would be a great time for Naruto's shadow-clones and their ability to copy his weaponry, but the blond is only half in-control, not quite lost to bestial incoherence but not using any sort of strategy, just brute force and his corrosive chakra.
Sasuke needs to check on Natsu, but looking for Natsu means looking at the street and the corpses and the nightmares-
Two shinobi step between him and Naruto, cutting him off from his teammate.
He flips his kunai, leaping back as he brings his hands together, tossing a fireball at his opponents.
They leap apart, then dash forward, closing him in with a pincer attack-
He spins, leaping toward the one at his right, calling out for Naruto as he does.
He can't take them both but-
But Naruto isn't buried like he was before, and the one at Sasuke's back should be between them-
He ducks low, dodging his opponent's lunge, and lashing out with his kunai.
The man spins away, kicking out and launching Sasuke back towards the other shinobi-
He twists in the air, trying to see-
A hand grabs his arm, fingers clenched tight enough to bruise, and then a scream.
Sasuke crashes to the ground, jerks his arm back, and nearly falls over when he's released.
A glowing red tail wraps around the torso of his second opponent, pinning the man's left arm to his side, and his skin blisters and burns beneath it.
The tail swings, first left, and then right, tossing the shinobi away, and Sasuke scrambles up, stumbling backwards more on instinct than anything, as his first opponent lunges just before him.
Eighteen shinobi.
Five went after Natsu, three are down.
One might be dead, just another corpse on the street, but Sasuke can't look, doesn't want to look-
He doesn't know where his last kunai went, still hasn't seen Natsu, and Naruto has scratches and scrapes that aren't healing despite his bubbling red cloak-
He only knows a couple fire jutsu, the basic academy set, and he can't do either of them without handsigns which means he needs time but he's not getting it-
Naruto screeches, entirely animalistic, and leaps past Sasuke- he hears cursing, would almost curse himself because there's too many to keep track of-
But then his first opponent is leaping back in, two more flanking him, and Sasuke slams his hands together for a substitution-
He needs to get out, now, his mind scrambles as he tries to remember something he could substitute with behind him, because he can't leave Naruto's back unguarded but he needs to get clear-
Two of the shinobi collapse as the third leaps backwards, just barely dodging something that moves too quick for Sasuke's non-enhanced eyes to see.
Then a silver blur crashes into the third shinobi and flips past, up to a roof and then down behind Sasuke, moving towards Naruto-
Sasuke's breath trembles out, relief overflowing.
They're safe.
Stupid stupid STUPID-!
Jiraiya curses, racing back to Ryokan. Heading a town over to Kemuri to follow a lead shouldn't have been an issue. But then his lead pointed him to Kurikotan, and it was only an hour away, by a shinobi's pace. But then Kurikotan pointed him to Minatoro, with only a few tidbits of information to justify it, and that's when Jiraiya realizes he's being led away.
Sloppy on the enemy's part. Kemuri had enough information to justify moving one town out, but they should have given up a little more if they didn't want him suspicious.
Even so, he's still nearly three hours out and while he can cut the time in half if he pushes himself, well.
A lot can happen in an hour, when shinobi are involved.
So he pushes himself faster, racing through the sprawling forests of the land of Fire at breakneck speeds.
He's Jiraiya of the Sannin. Three hours?
He'll make it in forty minutes.
Tops.
He catches his first glimpse of Ryokan just in time to see a plume of fire, chased by the echoing sounds of an explosion the way thunder chases lightning.
He pushes faster.
Sakura's a trembling core of horror at the back of his mind, and it's awful.
He's seen death like this before-
Fire and blood and the scent of roasting flesh-
He resists the urge to rub his neck as Naruto roars, the sound of it-
He doesn't know.
He shakes off the thoughts, confusing and unimportant, shakes off the twinges of a scar he doesn't even have right now, and shifts his footing.
"You sure three ain't too much here? Might be better to focus on the jinchuriki-"
Oh. An idiot. Natsu grins sharply, and doesn't give the man a chance to finish, lashing out with a right-hand jab before twisting back and scything fire at the two who try to take advantage of his opening.
They won't underestimate him for long, and-
So many people are dead.
Jiraiya's missing, and his teammates are children fighting against killers and he may not be able to smell much but blood and waste, but he doesn't need his nose to have caught the signs of Sasuke's panic.
He doesn't have time to worry about going easy and being careful.
His fire burns hot, searing the tips of his own fingers, melting the soles of his shoes, and he kicks them off, one slamming into the face of an enemy-
The man screams, melted remnants of the sandal sticking to his face as he stumbles back, and Natsu darts back into the fight, fingers twitching.
He can't use fire down his right arm, the curse seal twinging and reacting every time he tries.
The third time it happens, at Sakura's uncertain suggestion, he disengages from the fight with a swathe of fire, long enough to pull a kunai free of his pouch.
Jiraiya's sealing scrolls brush against his fingers, and he feels a ghost of an idea from Sakura-chan-
He doesn't have time to see what she's thinking, the shinobi back on him and giving him no chance to ask.
The blade's a distraction, at least, an easy way to keep from tossing fire down his arm and making things worse, and it comes in handy as he catches one shinobi across the hip and another at the wrist-
For a moment, things almost seem to be going well.
They can't predict his fire, as he staggers it through his strikes, sometimes going in with blade and fists and sometimes with the heat of fire across his knuckles, lancing out from his kicks-
It keeps them off-balance, keeps them guessing, and while a fight of stamina's not smart, he knows he can keep them off long enough for Sasuke or Naruto to turn around and take care of it.
And then he's throwing himself to the ground through nothing but pure instinct, rolling sharply to the side and flipping to his feet with a sharp back-kick of fire, giving him just enough clearance to realize two more have joined his corner of the fight.
"Get clear! I have an idea-!" Sakura-chan screams, which is easier said than done-!
Natsu curses as he leaps away from a strike, hand aching as he throws out more fire in retaliation.
He's going to have to figure out how to build Sakura-chan's fire resistance he can't fight like this-
His feet ache too, Sakura-chan's callouses all wrong for barefoot combat, even without the fire making everything worse, and five really is too many opponents when he can't rely on his nose and the wind to track the ones behind him.
All he can smell is blood and death and the stench of bowels exposed to open air.
Something screeches, animalistic and mad, as Natsu spins around and catches the back of his kunai along a shinobi's cheek.
The enemies surrounding him jolt, clearly concerned about the fight with Naruto, and Natsu takes the opportunity to shoulder himself past the shinobi he just cut, kicking fire at the back of the man's knee as he launches forwards.
"I'm as clear as I'm getting Sakura-!" he snaps, switching the kunai to his left hand and jerking out Jiraiya's scrolls.
"The ones that we duplicated- shove chakra in them and then toss them! Defective seals usually explode-!"
Natsu doesn't have time to sort out the Sasuke-made seals from Jiraiya's works, but then, he doesn't really have time to remember how to grab Sakura-chan's chakra either.
He shoves his magic through all of them, reaching for the lines and the power sleeping in them, tossing the scrolls out in an arc as he does.
His right hand tingles, uncomfortable, as he lets his magic surge, and as predicted, the scrolls explode.
Well.
It's probably more his own magic than the scrolls themselves, Natsu muses idly as he clears more space between himself and his enemies.
But it's always nice when the things he's trying to blow up actually want to blow up.
The explosion - or perhaps explosions, technically - rattle the street, nearby windows shattering with the heat and force of it.
The scent of burned flesh intensifies to something near-unignorable, and Natsu shoves the not-memories that try to crawl through him down. He painfully tightens his grip on the kunai, pulling a second one from his pouch as he feels Sakura tentatively peek out between her fingers at the carnage.
One shinobi still stands, another dragging himself back to his feet.
Three don't move.
Sakura-chan buries herself back into the corners of her mind with a cry, as Natsu slips into a ready stance.
They might be dead. They might not be.
But he doesn't know where his team is and the last thing he heard was Naruto's demonic shriek-
He can worry about everything else after he makes sure they're alright.
His hands don't tremble.
They feel like they should.
And then with a spurt of blood nearly small enough to miss, both his remaining opponents fall dead.
"I got here in time," Kakashi-sensei sighs in relief, Naruto slung over one shoulder and two kunai palmed in his free hand, both eyes clear and narrow, with Sasuke standing just behind him. "Thank the kami-sama. Where's Jiraiya?"
Kakashi's never been so relieved to see his brats. They're a mess, Naruto dazedly crawling back to consciousness, littered in cuts and scrapes, Sasuke still trembling minutely and refusing to look anywhere but at his team, and Natsu looking more like a feral demon-kid than Naruto ever has, wild-eyed and grinning like he should have fangs, arms and legs burned and bleeding, hair a dirt-and-blood crusted tangle.
Kakashi almost wants to hug them.
And then, before he even has the chance to reiterate his question and find out what happened to the sannin who was supposed to be watching them, the choice is taken entirely out of his hands as Naruto leaps up.
"Kakashi-senseiiiiiiiiiiii-!" he cries, slamming into Kakashi's legs with all the force of a Snow-Country train.
Kakashi ruffles his hand through the blond's hair, assuring himself of the kid's safety.
It was horrifying, that moment when he first laid eyes on his students - Natsu desperately breaking away from an overwhelming fight, Sasuke panicking as he tried to watch Naruto's back.
And Naruto, shrieking and throwing himself at the enemy again and again and again, and Kakashi was already remembering things best left forgotten and he didn't want to subdue his genin-
And then Naruto stopped.
Kakashi can't admit to how relieved he was, when the blood-red cloak receded, and his student collapsed.
Perhaps Jiraiya really was capable of watching the kids for a while.
Not that he'll ever say as such to the man's face.
"Maa… I'm glad Jiraiya was able to help." He offers with a smile, patting Naruto's head.
...the kid still hasn't let go.
Genin, he scoffs, a little bemused. He certainly wasn't that clingy as a brat.
Naruto blinks up at him, completely lost. "Huh? Whaddya' mean?"
Kakashi resists the urge to groan. Barely. "The Kyuubi's cloak faded when I showed up. Your control's improved."
Naruto blinks, then ducks his head into Kakashi's hip.
He pats the blond's hair again, more reflex than intent.
"I just- I don't- I don't wanna hurt my team again- so I was trying- I was trying so hard sensei I tried so hard-"
Oh.
He's crying.
Naruto's shoulders shake as he sobs quietly into Kakashi's vest, and Kakashi suddenly remembers why he argued against Hokage-sama for weeks about not taking a team.
He hates crying.
"Maa, there there, everything turned out fine, ne~?" he offers, patting Naruto's head gently. "Your teammates are fine, you did well." Yeah, that's right, Minato-sensei said once that compliments help when people are crying- or was that for angry people? Kakashi doesn't remember but it seems like good advice regardless. "You managed to keep them distracted long enough for me to get here, ne? All of you did well, Jiraiya-san shouldn't have left you alone with this- do you know where he is?"
"Nope," Natsu pops, leaning back, and then jerking forwards with a hiss when he puts weight on his hands. "Oh that hurts so much more than it did just a minute ago-"
He cuts himself off, launching to his feet and spinning to look out toward the edge of the village, and Kakashi takes the warning for what it is, twisting to shove Naruto gently behind him as he pulls a kunai with one hand and lifts his headband with the other-
Jiraiya slams into the street with enough force to send even blood-soaked dirt spraying, sharp eyes cutting across the scene to take stock of the situation before his battle-ready stance settles into something more relaxed.
"Hatake. I thought you were still investigating near the borders?" Jiraiya asks with a narrowed gaze, and Kakashi sighs, slipping his kunai away and pulling out a book.
"Well, you know how it is, when I got your second report and learned it came from Ryokan, I just couldn't stay away~ it's been so long since I last saw my cute little genin~"
Jiraiya's killing intent sharpens, and Kakashi scowls behind his mask as he snaps his book closed.
"Fine, fine, no need to get angry. We need to talk. This is a lot bigger than I think you've realized, and I couldn't trust the information to a messenger. Do you have a safe place?"
"They killed all the shadow clones Naruto had in the inn…" Natsu muses, leaning into Kakashi's side casually.
He glances down at the kid. If this one cries too he's dumping them on Jiraiya and getting out of here.
Jiraiya's face makes a complicated expression at Natsu's statement, but the man pulls up a front and grins despite whatever news so distressed him.
"But of course! Follow me!"
Natsu leans more weight against Kakashi, and the jonin can't help but sigh.
"Just this once, you hear me?" Kakashi grumbles, before scooping the genin up.
Natsu yelps and flails, protesting that he can walk, even as Naruto whines behind him to be picked up too.
Aah, genin.
How Kakashi missed them.
Kakashi-sensei's back and- and it feels so good.
Ero-sennin's not bad, Naruto thinks he could even be good if he weren't so busy with his job, but-
Something about Kakashi-sensei makes him feel so safe.
Not that that means he's off the hook, 'ttebayo!
He didn't even tell Naruto that he was family-!
Almost family, a voice whispers, and Naruto shoves it away.
Natsu's still hissing and snapping that he's fine, as Kakashi-sensei pins him down and cleans his burns.
Ero-sennin keeps looking like he wants to say something, but the one time he tried sensei growled so he's being quiet while Kakashi-sensei takes care of their wounds.
Naruto scoots a little closer to Sasuke.
"What happened to his shoes?" he asks, and tries to ignore how the Uchiha still trembles a bit.
He wants to ask what's wrong, but-
Sasuke has some small burns, burns Naruto can't help but recognize-
He clenches his eyes shut, pulling away from his teammate.
He was trying so hard, but he still hurt them-
Sasuke leans back into him, and it's so surprising Naruto freezes, panicking.
He doesn't say anything, frozen stiff, and Sasuke doesn't either, acting like he's not even aware of what he's doing, and they sit like that for what feels like years before Kakashi-sensei finishes with Natsu and turns towards them.
"The most recent intelligence says he was in Kusa," sensei says out of nowhere, and Naruto sees Jiraiya open and close his mouth, clearly annoyed.
He has no idea what that means, but Sasuke must, because he goes reaaaaally stiff, trembling gone.
"Wh- that's so close-" Sasuke cuts himself off, and Naruto has no idea what that means, no idea what sort of tone that even is-
Sasuke curls into himself.
"Why-?"
"I don't know. We've kept track of him, just in case he planned to… maa, you know, but unfortunately his motives are a matter of guesswork. He hasn't come this close to Fire in over two years now, but. He's not here, Sasuke-kun. Not here."
Naruto wants to ask, wants to ask so badly, but Kakashi-sensei's never sounded so concerned before.
Naruto didn't know he could even feel that sort of soft concern.
Sasuke's next breath comes out shaky, uncertain. "It just-"
"I know. I was in the first ANBU response team. I saw."
Something in Sasuke snaps, then, and it's almost like Naruto can feel it.
"Where were you?! He had- there were so many- hours, it should have taken hours-! So where-?!"
He's surged up, pushing Naruto aside as he hisses in Kakashi-sensei's face, and it feels like it's a question Sasuke's asked before, somehow.
Naruto knows all too well what it sounds like to ask a question so much that he can't even finish it anymore because he already knows the answer.
He surges up to his knees, wrapping his arms around Sasuke.
He doesn't really understand, but he knows that pain, knows how he asked and asked and asked about his family, until he couldn't even bring himself to do it anymore, until someone finally answered-
"I'm sorry." it's another surprise, hearing Kakashi-sensei apologize so bluntly. "I know you've heard this a hundred times before, and I know how dissatisfying it is- but we didn't know. He was ANBU, a Captain at that. He kept the alert from going out."
"Bullsh-" Naruto closes his eyes, hugging tighter as Sasuke lunges. "Let go of me-!"
The same answer, over and over and over again: "Your parents loved you very much. They died in the Kyuubi attack. I'm sorry, Naruto. I'll tell you when you're older. I promise you'll understand."
It haunts him, haunts him because he just wanted to know something, anything, and no one would-!
Not until the Kyuubi.
Not until Jiraiya.
His heart still feels like it could burst, the facts about his mother a swirling current of happiness curling through every fibre of his being.
Even if no one said anything until the Kyuubi said it first, he still knows now.
So maybe-
He uses Sasuke to pull himself all the way up to his feet, ignoring his teammate's snarling.
"Don't you have any ideas though?" Naruto asks, a little hesitantly, not quite letting go of Sasuke's shoulder, even though he half-expects to get punched. He doesn't really know what's going on here, but he knows those feelings.
Maybe his help won't be appreciated, but if he can-
He stares into Kakashi-sensei's eye, hoping maybe he'll just understand without Naruto having to try and explain-
Kakashi sighs, reaching over to ruffle their hair. Then he sighs, looking away, hands still resting on their heads.
"I- do have a theory. I'm not- I truly can't tell you some things, Sasuke, you have to understand that the entire situation is still under highest clearance, and you don't have that yet. But- well. I think that perhaps he wasn't the only ANBU to… break loyalty. I noticed something was wrong in the district as soon as I went on patrol, and raised the alert. The previous patrol team disappeared by the time we thought to start looking for them. No one found any bodies. I really can't say more than that. But he was well-liked. It's not impossible to think some people were willing to help."
Sasuke ducks away, pulling out from under Kakashi-sensei's hand.
Naruto's starting to think he knows what they're talking bout now-
That smell of blood Natsu mentioned back then, and the way Sasuke reacted-
He knows Sasuke used to be less of a jerk.
Or maybe just a different sort of jerk. Always acting like he was better than everyone else, always coming to school with really big bentos- he never even finished them! And- and he never shared but Naruto could only stare-
And then he didn't come to school.
And then he did, but he never talked, not about his big brother, or his extra training, or his cousin this-or-that-
And he never brought a bento again.
And the military police disappeared too, which Naruto didn't think too much on. They were really good at catching him in his pranks, so he was just glad that there was no one who could get him, though it was kind of weird where they all went…
And they always had those same fans that Sasuke always wears-
Naruto thinks he maybe knows what happened.
He's known Sasuke didn't have any parents for a little bit, and he also knows Sasuke did, once, and sometimes he'd wonder which was worse, maybe, on those bad days when everything hurt so much-
"As cute as all this is, you said this was urgent." Jiraiya interrupts, before Naruto can even scoot in to try and help-
He scowls. His teammate hurting is urgent! Even if he is a jerk, Naruto tacks on hastily, squinting at Sasuke as though he might have heard.
Sensei sighs though, and nods.
"Sunagakure is working with that new village, Oto, for a joint invasion of Konoha. There's reason to believe Orochimaru is behind it. Most of the shinobi are already in place, the ones I interrogated implied they were just waiting on the final order to attack. Their absence will likely be noticed soon though, so we need to move quickly if we're to get back in time."
"What-?" Naruto sticks his finger in his ear, trying to clean it out, attention snapping back to the adults. "Whaddya mean they're gonna invade Konoha-? What's that even mean-?"
Sensei ignores him. "Even if it isn't directly Orochimaru, with him still nearby, he could be taking advantage of the chaos. At the very least, you need to get back there as soon as possible. I likely should as well, but-"
Sensei looks at them, then, a visual gesture, and Jiraiya nods.
"I'd begun to suspect as much myself, though I've had a bit less luck finding anyone in-the-know enough to ask… If you already have a report written up, give it to me, I'll compare the details with what I've found."
Kakashi-sensei hands over a scroll before Jiraiya even finishes, then rests a hand back in Naruto's hair.
"And the brats? We can't take them back to Orochimaru's influence like this- have you found anything?"
Jiraiya grimaces, and Naruto feels worry settle in his gut. "I have a few ideas, one of which I actually feel pretty good about, but… even if we rushed it, it'd still take a couple days. I don't know if we have that sort of time, not if you left a trail. But if it's a joint invasion, Konoha can't be down someone like you- K'so, this is a mess." Jiraiya jerks a hand through his hair, scowling. "Can't leave the brats alone, either, kami-sama save us all…"
"I, uh," Naruto jumps a bit at Natsu's voice - he's been so quiet since Kakashi-sensei finished patching him up, "I actually had an idea? With Sakuni-chan. But we sort of need Inoichi-san's help… and it sounds like you guys really really need to get back to the village anyway… so maybe if we snuck in, so that guy didn't realize you knew anything, we could fix it before anyone knows we're there?"
Jiriaya turns, arms crossed, as he glares down at Natsu. "Details kid. I'm not dragging you unlucky brats into an active warzone because you had an idea."
Kakashi-sensei chuckles, pushing Naruto and Sasuke back a step. "Come along, you two. Let me patch you up while they argue it out, ne~?"
"Wha- but I wanna-"
"Hn-"
"No protests~! The adults are talking!" So saying, Kakashi-sensei hustles them out regardless of their complaints, grinning all the while.
Naruto takes it all back.
He didn't miss Kakashi-sensei even a little bit.
"...so, she figured, since I can sorta affect things I really shouldn't be able to with my fire, with a bit of extra help and someone working on the outside, we could just- burn it out? I dunno if that'd work with the ideas you had but we definitely need someone who knows a bunch about seals to be tracking it out here and-"
"No, no, I get you kid." Jiraiya groans, pinching the bridge of his nose.
It's insane.
Absolutely mad.
Inoichi'll likely have an aneurysm just hearing it, even before he hears he has to get into that mess.
"And you're sure you can burn it out?" Jiraiya feels the need to question, because - again, what?
Not a kekkei genkai my ass, he grumbles, as Natsu drags his fingers through his hair and gets them tangled on all the blood still caked into it.
"I mean- we're not like, certain-certain, but Sakuni said something about the guy in my mindscape and how he could help or something… And I mean. It's our head, y'know? So it really should be easy to just burn anything that isn't us. But you said back then, something about the seal being self-repairing and stuff - the only part we're not sure of is what happens if that shade thing manages to like, bury itself somewhere we can't find it. Which is why we need Inoichi-san, b'cause Sakuni and I just don't know if we could stop that ourselves… As long as he can do that part though, I know it'll work."
Natsu pauses, then scowls. "Dunno if there'll be side-effects though, since Sakura-chan's body's so much weaker than mine…"
Putting aside every question he has about the person inside Natsu's head, because if he asks he's probably going to want to tear his hair out in frustration, Jiraiya thinks it through.
He'd have to modify the seal ideas he'd already been working on, direct them more for chakra-monitoring and maybe add a couple hooks there and there-
Three, four hours tops? Probably less, unless something goes wrong.
Should be more than enough time - I can merge Hatake's report with my own en-route, and he can deliver it to the Hokage while I get Inoichi in on this. Everything goes well, Orochimaru won't even know I'm in the village til we're done.
If we can get there before the dead shinobi are discovered.
It's a risk, Jiraiya acknowledges, carefully weighing his options.
But is it more of a risk than taking either himself or Kakashi out of action for an invasion?
And considering the kids' unholy luck… will they even be safer out here?
The answer, Jiraiya knows, is an all-but-resounding No.
The kids could - and have! - found trouble in a locked safe-room.
And that was without Naruto.
...he really should have taken that into consideration before he agreed to watch them.
Sighing, he nods. "It's the best we've got, that's for sure. Let's find your team, brat. Faster we get out of here, faster we can get this dealt with."
If this backfires, Jiraiya's forswearing all responsibility.
Team 7's luck is obscene and he will not be held accountable for it!
Nope! Nada!
Sensei'll just have to deal with it!