Chapter 47.2- Gamer of the Desert

He stared across the table at the elders of Takigakure. Right from the beginning of the meeting, things had been set for failure. First of all, he hadn’t noticed it at the time, but the announcer had failed to recognise them as the valid envoys of Konohagakure. Even worse, their obvious leader was spilling a bunch of bullshit that wanted to make Jirtaiya pull out his hair and stab the man with it.

The village leader in name only, Shibuki, was content sit back and watch as they got insulted buy his council of advisors. What a fucking coward, Jiraiya assessed in head.

“So what exactly are you saying?” Tsunade asked, a clenched fist being the only sign of her very obvious fury. It took a lot of audacity for these village elders to do what they were doing. Pissing off S-rank shinobi with nothing to lose was a surefire way to end up in a shallow grave with a painful journey there.

“What I am saying in exact and unequivocal terms is that we can not support you in this civil war of yours, to supplant the Hokage of Konohagakure. It is only even out of respect for your previous deeds that we have not sent word down to the Hokage himself and agreed to take this meeting” The one who went by Hizuki said in a voice that made Jiraiya itch to separate his head from his shoulders.

“Have you not listened to a word we’ve said? Danzo killed Hiruzen. He’s no rightful Kage of Konohagakure. You would be taking the right side in this” Tsunade said, arguing. She was always the more determined of them. Jiraiya could already tell that there was nothing they would be getting from here. Nothing useful, definitely. Just another rejection out of thw near dozen they’d managed to stack up.

“We only have your word for that, and even if he did, he has still been confirmed as the Hokage by the Daimyo, has he not?” The same man asked again.

“So you will not be helping us” Tsunade surmised

“Even if we could, we would not be able to. Shall we send dozens of our Jounin off with you to die in an ill-thought civil war in exchange for nothing? On the basis of your promises alone? Surely you see that there is nothing we can do for you” Another council stepped in here, perhaps sensing that there would be no stopping Tsunade’s fury if that idiot opened his mouth another time.

“Is that your word on this Shiibuki?” She asked, turning to the actual leader of the village.

“May-maybe you should ask one of the major villages. We really can’t help you with this.” Tsunade scoffed audibly and stood up. Jiraiya joined her.

“We will not be forgetting that Taki broke faith this day” She said as she turned to march away with him hot on her heels.


“So what’s the next step?” He asked her when they’d finally put some serious distance between them and the village government building that housed the council’s meeting room. Under the shade of the great tree, he could not get as good a view of her eyes as he should have, but he could still see a glint in them. A very familiar glint. People always remembered him for being the prankster of the lot, but little who lived in their younger days could deny the existence of Tsunade’s mischievous streak.

“We seek a major village, of course. One of the big 5. Or big 4, since we can’t really head back to Konoha to look for help in overthrowing the damn Hokage.” She said. He was about to reply to her when a tadpole suddenly appeared at the corner of his vision. That was the code that he and Naruto had developed for communicating with each other when they were separated.

“Back to the hotel. Now” He told Tsunade before disappearing in a body flicker. Keeping to civilian speeds had been a concession made for the peace of mind of those who watched them, but after how that meeting had gone, he couldn’t really care less about that. Especially not when Naruto was trying to get his attention. Logically, Jiraiya knew that it was not an emergency. The code they had for emergencies was a much more visible thing. No one would ever manage to miss Gamabunta appearing in the middle of a village.

Nevertheless, they made it to the hotel in good time, diving through the open windows to land in Orochimaru’s room in unison. His room was where both Naruto and Shizune had set up shop in their masters’ absence since he was the most secure place to be in the village apart from aforementioned masters.

“I got a letter, Ero-sennin” Naruto said at their entrance, already far more used to their antics than he’d been a scarce few months ago. Jiraiya, against his will, smiled at the nickname even as Tsunade chuckled and walked forwards to ruffle the boy’s hair and pick up the letter.

“It’s for me, you brat” He said on noticing the code in which it was written. Looking at the ink smudges on the edge of the paper, it was clear that this missive had been written with some amount of haste. It was also written in the most basic version of the coded language he used with his spies in Tsuchi no kuni.

“What does it say?” Tsunade asked, clearly reading something on his face as he read through the letter for the second time to make sure he hadn’t made any mistakes in deciphering the code. He knew he couldn’t have- so familiar was he with the code that he could have written it while half asleep and high on enough intoxicants to drug an elephant, don’t ask questions. But still, the news was just that surprising. He didn’t answer until he had completed his third read as he used this one to try to gather his thoughts so he could deliver the news in the most efficient way possible.

“The Fifth Kazekage, Gaara of the Desert, led an attack on the Village Hidden in the Stone. He maimed the fourth Tsuchikage, Kitsuchi, and in a fight against the Village’s Jinchuriki managed to cause the release of the Yonbi. Much of the Hidden Stone village was consumed in the conflict and the infrastructure costs are estimated to be in the billions of yen” He said briefly, not mentioning the bit about two men with vccloaks of black and red being seen leaving the area with both of Iwa’s jinchuriki. He’d assured Naruto that he would have time to prepare, and there was nothing to be gained from making the boy feel unnecessary panic. He’d tell Tsunade and Orochimaru about it once they put him to bed.

“So what do we do next? The number of great villages we can seek out just went down to three.” Tsunade said, making Orochimaru scoff.

“I maintain that we don’t need any of them. I have an army back in the hidden sound village that can help us with what we need. The three of us working together would make short work of that old cripple” He said, tone haughty and slimy as ever.

“I agree, but how would we match up against the Second Tsuchikage? Or the third? Especially under edo tensei? It wouldn’t be a fight” Jiraiya said with a long suffering wexpression on his face. This was not the first time they would be having this argument.

“I doubt that whatever stooge he’s had learning the jutsu would be good enough to bring them back at anywhere even remotely close to the peak of their powers. Besides, if you’re so worried about that, you shouldn’t have forced me to release the jutsu in the first place” The snake said, rising from his previously relaxed position on the couch to get in Jiraiya’s face.

The toad sage assessed the situation with an easy sigh before saying, “I wouldn’t have made you do that if you’d told me that Danzo forced you to teach the jutsu to his root agents, would I? Besides, that jutsu is an aberration, a mockery of nature and all that I stand for. I could not abide having it cast by one in my vicinity.” He said, refusing to back down from his teammate.

“If you two are not going to fight it out, then you might as well step back from each other” Tsunade said, stepping in between them and defusing the situation with the ease that came from having spent decades as the only thing between the both of them and all out combat. They heeded her orders and she smiled in satisfaction.

If there was one thing she’d noticed in this team reunion was just how the dynamics had changed. Instead of Jiraiya being the one who constantly attempted to pick a fight with Orochimaru, it was the other way around. She placed the blame for that squarely on the seal that both men bore on the right side of their upper bodies. Not the seal itself, but how it got there. She hadn’t gotten a real answer from either man, but piecing the brat’s words together gave her enough of an idea.

After Jiraiya released Orochimaru from Danzo’s fuingenjutsu, he had them both returned to the Toad realm. Freshly released, Orochimaru wasted no time in trying to claim his freedom and Jiraiya’s life on the way to it. Everything she’d heard and deduced about that fight told her that it had been as one-sided as a fight could be. Already in that famed sage mode of his, Jiraiya unleashed the beating of his life on the Snake summoner. Even when Orochimaru had been going for the kill and Jiraiya had been fighting merely to disable, the Toad Sage had handily claimed victory. After that, binding them both with the seal had been easy for him.

Tsunade herself knew that if she and Jiraiya fought while going all out, then the Toad Sage would invariably come out the victor. While she’d spent years wandering the countryside, and Orochimaru spent the time on his sick experiments, Jiraiya had become the most successful active shinobi in Konoha history, completing hundreds of S-rank missions where most Jounin failed to complete even one across their entire career. That experience had given him strength. Enough strength that the deadlast from the academy was now the most powerful of them all. Their Hokage, she’d sworn. Both she and Orochimaru were in agreement on that one fact. Jiraiya, as the one who brought them together, had shown that he was willing to do whatever was necessary for Konoha’s future. He was the one that the Jounin, Chunin, and Genin of the village would lay down their lives for. He was the inheritor of Sensei’s will of fire, whether he liked it or not.

“The question still remains, where do we go to seek for help?” Jiraiya asked, getting them back on topic.

“If it’s a choice between Cloud, Mist, and Sand, then there isn’t much of a choice, is there? And no, Orochimaru, Sound isn’t an option. Even with Stone’s help and the element of surprise, you still failed to take the village.” She said, shutting down her teammate’s idea before he got to voice it a second time. He scowled, but the lack of retort showed that he understood.

“I still don’t trust the Kazekage brat” Jiraiya said, needing no time to figure out her proposed course of action.

“I know. But we aren’t exactly spoilt for choice. He already has reason enough to have a bone to pick with Danzo and he’s clearly shown that he’s strong enough to hang with the best of them and come out swinging. He has strength, motive, and he’s also young. He’s the perfect choice.”

“I know you think he’ll be easy to manipulate, but trust me Tsunade, there is something foul in those eyes of his”

“I don’t care. We need help. He’ll give it to us. Orochimaru, your vote?”

XXXXX- TEMARI OF THE DESERT- TWO MONTHS LATER

“Faster” She heard him bark out as he weaved around Shira’s stabs. She scowled and opened both her hand fans to their maximum before sweeping them at him, causing a swarm of invisible wind blades to get sent at her annoying little brother. She hoped that being stuck in the middle of an exchange with Shira, he would be unable to dodge in time, but those hopes were all for naught as he leaned out of the way of one of Shira’s bone blades before slamming a palm into her teammate’s midsection before he could react in time.

Shira was sent flying off, out of range of the attack, and Gaara merely smirked at her before he did the bloody impossible for what felt like the seventieth time in this training session. He jumped in the air and contorted his body in such a way that not a single one of the invisible blades touched him. The glowing red eye in his left socket spun at them, as if it were mocking them.

XXXX

“Kai” She heard from beside her and turned to see Kankuro with his hand on her shoulder as Shira and Gaara fought each other a few metres away.

“Sharingan genjutsu?” She asked Kankuro, already knowing the answer to her question. Her brother settled for a nod as she scowled in annoyance. It was the seventh time she was getting caught like that, and even Kankuro who often hid behind his puppets had been caught a few times already.

She’d thought that getting him to make the concession of not using his sand manipulation or any of his ninjutsu would give them anything close to a fair fight, but even that was not enough. The glowing red eye he sported as he fought Shira to a standstill using nothing but pure taijutsu was just the ultimate cheat code. Even with Shira’s new ability to control his bones, it was all he could do to remain in the fight as Gaara refused to allow himself be pressured by the older boy.

“Is this how the Senju felt? Fighting against the Uchiha?” She heard Kankuro ask. It was probably a rhetorical question, but one that she still felt the need to answer.

“Very few Uchiha got as good with the Sharingan in their entire lives as Gaara has managed to in the last two months. Add to that the fact that his sharingan is fully evolved where most Uchiha never lived long enough to achieve that, and you’d get a completely different state of affairs.” She explained, making him nod. From the moment Gaara had shown up at home with a different person’s eye in his socket, she’d torn into all the information they had on the clan and their famous doujutsu. Not immediately, of course. She’d dedicated some time for chastising him for undergoing life altering surgery without even so much as informing them of what was going to happen. They were his siblings, damn it.

Not for the first time, Temari cursed her father for forcing Gaara to grow up without them

A/N; Progress, progress, progress. That’s the name of the game. Yes, Jiraiya is the strongest Sannin in this story. That’s both my head canon as well as pretty well established in canon. Itachi beat Orochimaru with ease, but said that if both he and Kisame fought Jiraiya, the best they’d bet would be a stalemate.