"Hello, brat."
Haruto sent a hail of projectiles at the newcomer, who weaved around them easily enough. The man had a harder time avoiding his follow-up strikes, which was probably what prompted him to speak out.
"Hey, ease up, you little brat! It's me."
The edgy jounin slowly lowered his arms and loosened his combat-ready stance, but only after verifying that an illusion had not been cast.
"Don't sneak up on me like that, Ero-sama! I could have barbecued you!"
Jiraiya snorted. "Yeah right, brat."
The twelve-year-old shot the older man a look that promised great pain and discomfort. The Toad Hermit found himself reassessing the benefits and costs of antagonizing Minato's brat needlessly, with emphasis on lowered benefits and raised costs.
"I see you have had a busy day," Jiraiya observed neutrally, surveying Kankurou's dead body. "The Kazekage's not going to be happy."
Well duh, captain obvious. Fortunately Haruto managed to keep from giving voice to that particular thought. Unlike that affair at the Hokage's office, this was a serious situation and Jiraiya probably wouldn't appreciate the wisecrack.
"He's also definitely not the demon's host. Say, why were you in the area and why didn't you intervene, Jiraiya-sama?" Haruto asked. As Jiraiya was way too smart to buy the nonchalant act, the blond didn't even bother to hide his interest. He even chose to forego the use of his pet moniker for the pervert to highlight the importance of his question.
Jiraiya thought for a minute before answering the second part of the question. "I wanted to test you."
In other words, he was saying, "I don't really trust you so I was spying on you." Fair enough. Haruto suspected as much and couldn't really blame the older shinobi. The mistrust was mutual, after all. At least the man was honest about it.
"And I thought you had it under control," Jiraiya shrugged. His eyes suddenly caught the disintegrating Haruto clone as it exhausted its internal chakra source.
The Haruto that Kankurou had fought had been nothing more than a pumped up chakra clone reinforced by a containment seal. The seal gave the clone form and rigidity and served the same function as a skeleton to the real thing. It allowed the clone to carry a greater chakra reserve and to maintain its structural integrity even after suffering great physical damage. This last reason was what made this seal so useful when combined with shadow clones as it covered the latter skill's weakness.
However, two defects ultimately made shadow clones augmented with seals a rare find in the ninja world, aside from general ignorance of fuuinjutsu. First, the seal did not add much resilience to the clone. While injury wouldn't dissipate the clone's physical form, it would still cripple its bodily functions. This explained why Haruto's clone had been so easily incapacitated after being caught in the peripheral edges of the blast. Second, there was the chakra cost. The seal required a gigantic chakra input to build the clone's cellular and organ systems without adding any functional benefit. In the final analysis, the seal clone was weaker than a normal shadow clone… by a lot. With these flaws, it wasn't hard to imagine why the technique was considered idiotic and fell into disuse.
Haruto stood that belief on its head in a single day.
Certainly, the act of creating a seal augmented clone wasn't a difficult task. Jiraiya knew that. Minato had accomplished that feat in under a week so Haruto's one-day miracle wasn't so miraculous per se. The seal configuration was also very basic and could be constructed following just the axioms of sealing. Haruto had even thrown a hissy fit over how he hadn't figured it out himself when Jiraiya showed him the technique. But for the boy to have been able to incorporate the combinatorial technique as the centerpiece of successful tactical battle plan? That was nothing short of being miraculous. In all his years, Jiraiya had never witnessed such adaptability in a ninja outside of a few Sharingan-wielding Uchiha members.
"He wasn't even a challenge for you, was he?" Jiraiya asked. Haruto shook his head to indicate how badly out of depth the Suna genin was. The legendary ninja decided to move on to other things. He could puzzle out Minato's legacy later.
"Did he say anything of interest? I was too far away to hear the actual words."
"Just a name. He mentioned that his teacher was Sasori." Based on the way Jiraiya's eyebrows rose into his hairline, Haruto guessed his hunch about this Sasori was right.
"Are you absolutely sure that's what you heard?"
The young ANBU nodded, taking careful note of how creases formed on the Toad Hermit's forehead as he contemplated over that moniker.
"This is very useful information and something I haven't considered before. Thank you, Haruto."
"Yeah, yeah, I'm the best. I know, Ero-sama."
"Ungrateful twerp." The smile on Jiraiya's face told Haruto the older shinobi wasn't being serious.
Haruto smiled back cheekily. Here he was, standing in the dark, half-talking, half-sniping with a member of the Legendary Sannin over the body of an assassin while one of his mentors lay drunk and asleep nearby. It was a bizarre, almost surreal scene to say the least.
"I'll take care of the body and make proper arrangements so we don't get bitten diplomatically," Jiraiya finally stated.
"Considering what Suna is planning, isn't it kind of late for diplomacy?"
"For Suna? Yes. But for the other countries? No. Appearances sometimes have to be kept."
Haruto looked sharply at the older ninja. Was that a double entendre? The white-haired man was turned away but his entire posture screamed yes.
"I love Sarutobi-sensei, Haruto, just like you. So why don't we get along? That's what he wants and that's important to both of us, isn't it?" Jiraiya suggested with what was perhaps the most serious expression he had ever allowed to grace his face. It was as if he was talking about a peace treaty or perhaps a binding oath of sorts.
"How do you know we love him the same way?"
"We do. Trust me, we do. I know more about you than you think," Jiraiya answered with the sort of smile that just screamed I-know-something-but-I'm-not-going-to-tell-you.
A foreboding silence descended. Something clicked in Haruto's mind and the blond suddenly felt a coldness that was independent from the chilly afternoon breeze.
"You know, the old man keeps those orange books of yours under his desk. I see him read them sometimes, especially late at night when all his secretaries have gone home to their families. Is that why you first wrote those books? To keep him company? Is that why you always bring attention to your perverted nature? As some sort of a tribute to him? And is that also why you deliberately provoked me into using my Oiroke no Jutsu in front of him today?"
If Jiraiya was at shocked at Haruto's insight, he hid it well. He also pointedly refused to answer the questions posed. The legendary nin looked at him with hard eyes as he formulated a response.
"I'll make you a deal, brat. I'll answer your questions if you answer mine. This transformation technique of yours, the Oiroke no Jutsu. Sarutobi-sensei mentioned to me that it had tactical functions. Seeing your performance today I don't doubt that. But was that the real reason why you invented the technique? He mentioned that he had repeatedly told you not to use that technique. I suspect you normally wouldn't have ignored Sensei's wishes so why the exception? And why so many times?" Jiraiya cracked a smile that was radically different from his normal perverted grin. "And if you knew I was deliberately provoking you, then why did you play your part as perfectly as I played mine? Why, if not for Sarutobi-sensei's benefit, hmm?"
Like Jiraiya, Haruto could not and would not answer the posed questions. Thankfully, the older ninja did not press his points, allowing the matter to slide.
"It's late. You should get your friend to bed, brat," Jiraiya suggested at last in a friendlier tone. Haruto nodded in agreement. It was probably a good idea for him to make himself scarce while the Sannin took care of things. He transformed into Genji and draped Yuugao over his back in preparation to use the Shunshin no Jutsu.
Before Haruto could leave, however, Jiraiya offered one last set of remarks for him to think about. "Your father was my best and most capable student. I believe you can and will surpass him. Just think about what I said and I'll see you around. Stay safe and good luck, brat."
"Yeah, you too, Ero-sama."
Haruto breathed a sigh of relief as he finally arrived at his destination with his companion.
"Was that Jiraiya… that I heard?" Yuugao slurred.
"Yep, that was him," Haruto grunted as he carried the woman through the doorway of her apartment and shut the door behind them. He looked around. The place hasn't changed much since the last time he was here. Yuugao might have been closer to him than anyone else barring the old man and the captain, but it still didn't mean that he was invited for tea every afternoon.
"Did I ever tell you? Haya-kun was such a pervert," the purple-haired woman whispered conspiratorially in Haruto's ear. "He loved the man's dirty books. Always trying to get me to do everything in them. Hehehe, Haya-kun was so kinky. Who knew?"
Apparently, Haruto didn't know and he never wanted to know! Sadly, it was too late to undo that particular learning experience. His mind was forever scarred and by one of his most trusted people, too. Life truly was cruel.
I guess that's what love is like, Haruto mused. For a long time, the twelve-year-old would have no idea how right he was.
Still, the young boy did try his best to ignore the grown woman's increasingly salacious and perverted tales. Ok, so he realized he was young and personally inexperienced with the opposite sex, not counting the lunch date with Sakura and Ino. Even so, he was pretty sure there was some social convention against blabbering intimate activities to members of the opposite sex that one wasn't involved with.
Finally he managed to carry Yuugao into her bedroom. In his haste, however, the blond ANBU made the mistake of trying to dump his sensei into bed when she had a vise-grip on his torso. As she fell, she pulled the smaller boy down with her.
"Yuugao-san, please let go," Haruto whined, realizing that his position left him with no leverage to hoist himself up. The female ANBU refused and even tightened her hold, causing her breasts to dig into his back. The youngster gave a most unmanly whimper.
"You're so cute, Haru-chan!" the drunken Yuugao declared, completely oblivious to the plight of her teammate. "…especially your girl form. Did I ever tell you about how Haya-kun tried to sell the idea of a threesome to me?"
Argh! Haruto mentally prayed for salvation. This entire conversation, or rather monologue, was wrong in so many ways.
Desperation drove him into increasing his resistance until he finally broke free of his prison. But just as he was about to leap to freedom, Yuugao's pained voice called out to him.
"Haruto-kun, please don't leave…" Haruto hesitated, twisted around and looked down at the forlorn and stricken expression on the older kunoichi's face. The purple-haired woman seemed half conscious as she gazed pleadingly at him through half opened eyes.
"Haruto-kun, please stay with me. I don't want to be alone," Yuugao called out again. Her words touched a cord and destroyed whatever incentive Haruto had to flee. He stood unresisting as slim hands guided him back down into the bed. Laying side by side, the kunoichi's arms circled around her charge and pulled his head into the crook of her neck. Despite their differences in size, the two fit together almost perfectly, like two pieces of a puzzle. Haruto reached down to grab the blankets and draped them over Yuugao and himself.
"Hmm, thank you Haruto-kun. You make me feel so warm," Yuugao cooed as she snuggled closer to her bedmate.
"You feel warm too, Yuugao-chan." Even more importantly than the physical comfort a second body provided, Haruto was amazed how calm and content he felt. All his normal misgivings, fears and recriminations seemed to have evaporated.
As Uzumaki Haruto drifted off gently into what was to become one of his best, most peaceful and not to mention, nightmare-free sleeps, he had but one thought. He really hoped Yuugao wasn't one of those hyper-violent anti-pervert types. It would completely suck if Konoha were destroyed in the coming invasion because its top defense planner was hospitalized by his sensei after she found him in her bed one morning.