Touch - Chapter 16
Title: TouchFandom: Naruto
Rating: PG-13
Content Notes: None
Disclaimer: I have no rights to or claims on the Naruto franchise, trademark, copyright, or characters. This is for fun, not profit.
Summary: In the future what's left of humanity sends the Rokudaime Hokage back in time to make some changes. Sadly, they can't send all of her. When a seven-year-old Haruno Sakura decides to take an interest in Hatake Kakashi, the timeline shifts in some... unique... ways.
School broke for the summer with a stern lecture from the teachers about good behavior over summer break, trying harder next term (Iruka-sensei looked directly at Sakura when he said that) and relaxing before a bell rang and three hundred eighty-eight students ran toward their freedom as fast as their legs could carry them. Sakura, her trusty (modified) Shinobi Handbook and notebooks tucked away in her backpack, was no exception.
Summer brought the excitement of the upcoming chuunin exams and the chance to run wild with the other academy students. Every day, Sakura came home filthy and happy. Momo wrinkled her nose in disgust. Her father laughed. And her mother silently despaired.
Privately, Sakura and Rokudaime hoped that the summer and the chunin exams between them would bring a certain Toad-summoning super pervert back through Konohagakure.
How could Sasuke and Naruto live here all their lives and not have noticed the chuunin exams? Rokudaime thought with fond exasperation as she remembered her Team Seven days.
It happened more and more often since Naruto had taken up Sakura’s personal mission. Their escapades reminded Rokudaime of the ridiculousness that she, Sasuke, and Naruto had gotten up to during ‘Mission: See Kakashi-sensei’s Face!’ Currently, Sakura and Naruto were on ‘Mission: Steal Kakashi’s Mask!’ which was obviously entirely different from that other Kakashi-related mission.
Left alone, Kakashi had a disturbing tendency brood and mourn and generally take himself too seriously.
“Found him,” Naruto hissed loudly into Sakura’s ear. “Who’s that with him?”
Sakura waved a shushing hand at her partner. From around the curve of the bridge’s support, she could just see Tenzo and Kakashi meandering along the path that led over the bridge. They were arguing. Tenzo had a look of utter, despairing determination on his normally placid features. Kakashi seemed to be smiling pleasantly.
She nodded to Naruto.
Naruto nodded back.
They burst out of hiding. Naruto threw himself at Kakashi’s chest. Sakura lunged for Kakashi’s legs.
Kakashi disappeared in a puff of smoke.
“Aaahhhh! He’s got me!” shrieked her partner as he flailed wildly. “Save yourself, Sakura-chan!”
“Never!” Sakura shouted even as Kakashi hoisted her up by the back of her dress. “Gaaaahhh!”
In a matter of moments the jonin had a child tucked under each of his arms.
“I see you brought another friend today, Sakura.”
“She brought me last time too! I’m Uzumaki Naruto!” Naruto hollered. He waved a fist in the general direction of Kakashi’s left knee. “When I’m Hokage, you’re going to remember me! Believe it!”
Kakashi twitched.
“We’re here for your mask, Copy Ninja Kakashi!” Sakura shouted, playing her role to the hilt. “Give it up or else!”
It was stupid but it was fun. Spending time with her boys was always fun. Naruto’s wide, happy smiles and Tenzo’s discreet giggles were filled with real happiness. Those were precious to her. And Kakashi’s twitching eyebrow was delightful. She treasured each time that she saw it.
“Eh… How should I put this? No.”
She and Naruto thrashed and shouted death threats until Kakashi threatened to drop them in the river.
“Eh? Can you swim, Naruto-kun?”
“Yeah!”
“Bring it on, Cyclops!”
“Ye - What? No! It’s cold!”
Kakashi took the six steps necessary to dump them into the slow-flowing river.
The water was shockingly cold. Sakura huffed, watching bubbles of oxygen escape from her mouth to mingle with the bright strands of her hair in the clear water. When she kicked her way to the surface, Naruto was already there, treading water and waiting for her.
“Sakura-chan!”
“I’m fine.”
But it was harder to swim to the shore than she had thought it would be in sandals and all of her clothes. When she made it onto dry land, Sakura collapsed onto the grass. Her wet cheek pressed into the sharp blades of grass and her long, pale hair dragged through the dirt. Her heavy wet clothes pressed against her cold skin, weighing her down.
“You killed, Sakura-chan!” Small, pudgy hands frantically shook Sakura’s shoulder. “Sakura-chan! Sakura-chan!”
“Nrgh.”
Sometimes it was hard to remember how fragile her body was without the additional chakra pathways that had made Rokudaime’s body nearly invulnerable.
Stupid body!
Warm, heavy fabric fell over her back. Big hands picked her up and tucked Tenzo’s jacket around her.
Normally, I’d complain about this and thrash a bit but Tenzo gives the best hugs.
Sakura snuggled into the wonderfully familiar jacket with its wonderfully familiar scent. Tenzo was a skinny teenager with too many angles and not enough padding but she liked being manhandled by him best. And Tenzo seemed to like carrying her around.
“I think we’ve all had too much fun for one day,” Tenzo said genially. “Time to go home, Naruto-kun.”
“Awww!”
“See you tomorrow, Naruto-kun!” Sakura chirped.
“Bye Sakura-chan!”
When Kakashi tried to slip away, Tenzo caught him by the back of his vest.
“It is customary to see a girl home, senpai.”
Kakashi sighed. “This means that you’ll definitely have to be a judge at the challenge.”
Sakura, her cheek resting against Tenzo’s chest, watched Kakashi startle then smirk. Presumably, Tenzo had just treated Kakashi to his ‘scary smile.’
“Of course, senpai.”
When Kakashi knocked on her family’s front door, Mama answered it. She had her purse over one shoulder. Her distracted expression morphed into a blank stare. Then she closed her eyes and sighed.
Sakura could imagine what they looked like: a goofy, awkward shinobi carrying a small, filthy brat while another disheveled shinobi slouched after them. Her arm across the back of his neck, Sakura snuggled against Tenzo’s shoulder.
“Hello, again.” Kakashi had that bemused tone that Sakura loved so. “I believe we’ve found something that belongs to you.”
“Again? I’m so sorry that she keeps bothering you, Hatake-san.” She leveled a glare at Sakura. “She was supposed to be at her friend’s house.”
Sakura scowled. “Kaka-sensei likes to be bothered.”
Kakashi stiffened. “I’m not your teacher.”
“Not yet.”
Mama stepped aside, opening the door wider. “Would either of you like some tea?”
“Thank you but we can’t,” Kakashi said as he plucked Sakura out of Tenzo’s grip. He gently set her on the front doorstep and reclaimed Tenzo’s jacket. “We’re late for a meeting.”
“Oh, I’m so sorry! Sakura, how could you be such a bother?”
Kakashi smirked at Sakura then turned to go.
“He’s lying! Tenzo-san is never late! And Kakashi-kun is always late.”
“I am not!” Kakashi called as he dragging Tenzo away. “I’m only late when I run into you.”
“Liar!” Sakura shouted after him. “Bye Kakashi-kun! Bye Tenzo-san! I love you!”
“Goodbye Sakura-kun!” called Tenzo.
Without turning around again, Kakashi raised his hand in farewell.
“Who is that?” her mother asked as they watched the jonin walk down the front walkway.
“Tenzo-san. He’s nice.”
From behind Sakura came a deep, heartfelt sigh.
“Go upstairs and take a warm bath. I’ll see if I can get my beauty appointments pushed back.”
Thoroughly pleased with herself, Sakura skipped upstairs.
Mama killed Sakura’s good mood entirely when she wandered into the bathroom a few minutes later. She took a seat near the tub where Sakura was soaking.
“Sakura, he’s a terrible match for you.”
Sakura yelped. She turned to stare at her mother with wide, horrified eyes. “What?”
“I admit that he’s from a good family. And his reputation is impeccable. But he’s too old. He’s missing an eye! Your father and I agree that you could do much better. Why can’t you be stubborn about a nice boy your own age?”
Sakura glared and hotly lied. “I don’t love Kakashi-sensei!”
There was loving someone and being in love with that someone and while Sakura felt one for Kakashi, the other was icky like kissing toads no matter what Rokudaime remembered. Her mother, however, refused to see the difference between them when it came to Kakashi.
“That’s what I used to say to my mother about Hideki-sensei! I used to dream about growing up to marry that man.”
“It’s not the same at all!”
“Don’t worry. It’s probably only puppy love. But I’ll be grateful when it’s over. At least then you won’t be sneaking off to see him at all hours!”
Sakura gaped at her mother as she gracefully rose to her feet and slipped out of the warm bathroom.
“But - It’s not - Arrrgghh!” Sakura slapped the water with the palm of one hand. “Parents!”
She pretended not to hear her mother’s giggles from further down the hallway.
* * * * *
A seven-year-old Sakura was leaving the bathhouse with her mother and sister when she heard a very quiet, very masculine giggle.
Her fists clenched, her cheeks warmed, and her eyes started scanning the area around her.
Some pervert just saw us naked.
“Sakura?”
“Mmmm, just a minute Mama. I thought I heard something.” Sakura took a couple of steps toward one of the fences surrounding the hot springs. Of course the fence was on the girls' side of the bath. “Let me check it out.”
“Ma-ma! It’s probably a kitten or the wind or something.”
“Or a pervert spying on girls,” said Sakura as she continued to move toward the sounds. “What if some pervert took pictures of you naked, Momo-neechan?”
"Kill him," Momo ordered.
The suspicious giggling cut off abruptly, as if with a knife.
Sakura charged around the corner to find… nothing. There was just an empty alleyway with a delicate wooden bridge over a stream of steaming water. The ground was paved with giant flagstones and everything was silent.
I could have sworn I heard someone...
Sakura narrowed her eyes.
She brought her hands up in a release seal. Where shinobi like Naruto and later Konohamaru relied on their great strength to bludgeon their way out of genjutsu, shinobi like Sakura and Shikamaru relied on their great precision to cut their way through it.
Sakura marshaled her small, childish chakra then split it into two halves. One half was molded into a shield to protect the normal flow of chakra in her brain while the other half was molded into a blade with which to cut through the genjutsu.
“Kai!”
The air in front of the fence rippled. For a moment, Sakura thought that she saw two men. One had wild white hair, green pants, and a red coat. The other was older and shorter and wore the Hokage’s hat.
Then all she saw was a green frog.
Sakura, who had quite a bit of experience with Toad Summoners, bashed the heel of her palm into her forehead.
“I cannot believe this! And yet, somehow it’s not surprising.” The frog began to discreetly hop toward the other end of the alley. Sakura was on it inside of five steps. She grasped at it with quick, steady fingers. Sakura caught the frog gently. She cupped her hands around its round little body and held it up so that she could look it in the eye. “I just never thought the Sandaime Hokage would be a dirty old man! He seemed like such a trustworthy grown up!”
“Ribbit?” The summons said tentatively.
Sakura scowled at it. “You’re right! He’s a dirty old man who saw my sister naked! And my mother! And all those other women… At least that other Jiraiya and Naruto and Konohamaru all admitted to being super perverts! Well, we’ll show him!”
The poor frog looked quite nervous.
“Let’s not beat around the bush. You know and I know and now you know that I know that you’re a summons. That means you can talk.”
“R-Ribbit?”
The frog did a very poor job of not looking like it understood her. A certain, desperate gleam had entered into the frog’s eyes. Sakura narrowed her own eyes at the creature trapped within the prison of her hands. She made sure to move the frog up to eye level.
“Have it your way. But understand this. If you pee or poop on me or try to escape, I’ll rip your legs off and eat them. And I’ll make you watch. I’m going to be a medic nin, so you’d best know that I can do that. Got it?”
“R-Ribbit!”
“Good. And you’d better not puke either of those pervy old men up before I say that you can. They deserve a little suffering after what they’ve done! Don’t you agree?”
The frog just stared at her. It appeared to be mute with terror.
Sakura took that as agreement. She smiled her vicious, Hokage-style smile at the poor little amphibian.
“It’s nothing personal. I actually think you’re rather cute. But I won’t allow myself to be crossed. Not by a summons or a sannin or even a kage.”
Satisfied that she and the summons understood each other, Sakura turned and rejoined her family. Her mother and sister were waiting for her right where she left them.
“Well?” Momo demanded anxiously. “Did you get them?”
Sakura held her hands up triumphantly. “Right here.”
Momo’s expression, which had teetered on the brink of admiration, slipped quickly into ‘I can’t believe I’m related to this moron’ territory.
“That’s a frog. It’s huge and disgusting but not a pervert.”
“I think it’s adorable.”
When her sister huffed and started walking, Sakura and her mother followed her.
“Get rid of it,” said Sakura’s mother. “I won’t have wild animals in my house.”
“Ribbit!” The frog sounded quite heartfelt in its agreement.
“But it’s my adorable little prisoner!” Sakura protested. “I can’t let it escape!”
“Sakura!”
Sakura huffed out a sigh. “Can I at least show it to some of the other kids first?”
“You’re going to get warts,” Momo predicted darkly.
“Am not! Please can I show it to some other people before I let it go, Mama?”
Her mother sighed. “I don’t see why not. But leave Hatake Kakashi alone.”
“Of course!” Sakura agreed brightly. “He’d never be interested in some dumb old frog.”
The frog made a small noise, half indignant and half despairing, before going very limp in Sakura’s hands.
“Don’t worry, my adorable little prisoner,” Sakura crooned. “I’ll take good care of you.”
It might have been her imagination but it felt like the little frog shuddered against her palms.
Sakura smiled sweetly and did her best to resist the urge to skip.
* * * * *
“While I have to say that I am impressed by the leaps and bounds in your growth as a shinobi,” Sarutobi said, his tone irritatingly mild. “Shouldn’t your summons have vomited us up by now?”
“I’m sure he’s doing his best.”
Sarutobi nodded genially. “I agree but we’ve been in here for hours. Do we have enough oxygen to last much longer?”
“We’ll be fine for awhile.”
Sarutobi nodded again. He dragged the sleeve of his robe across his perspiring forehead and looked up at the cavernous palate over their heads. Jiraiya liked to think that his sensei was deeply impressed by his evasion techniques.
He suspected that his old sensei was mostly sweaty and irritated by the way their research trip had turned out.
A Hokage could not be caught spying on the nubile ladies of the village, especially when most of those same ladies were unforgiving kunoichi.
But how was I to know a little brat like that knew how to dispel genjutsu? Jiraiya thought, remembering a tiny girl with delicate features, long cotton candy hair, rounded cheeks and fingers without calluses. She had looked like a porcelain doll with her pale skin and wide forehead. But her eyes had flashed like a cat’s as she had inspected that alleyway. And then she had scraped up every scrap of her pathetic chakra reserve and done something to cut through his genjutsu. Using one of his infiltration techniques to hide from the girl had been a stroke of brilliance on his part. She must have phenomenal chakra control. She’d make a great medic nin.
A flash of Tsunade, in her flak vest with her hair in two pigtails and her forehead protector proudly in place, stole his attention for a moment.
“Did you know her?”
“Who?”
“The kid.”
“Ah, yes. Haruno Sakura. Civilian parents. Impossible to forget with that hair. She’s just started the academy.” Despite the circumstances, Sarutobi smiled to himself. “She’s lately taken an immense interest in Hatake Kakashi.”
“Kakashi?” Jiraiya asked, interest coloring his voice.
Kakashi was a brat but he had been Minato’s bratty student and Minato’s son in every way that mattered to Minato so Jiraiya felt a certain amount of responsibility toward the young man.
“Mmm. The meeting appears to have been accidental. She skips classes to follow him around like a puppy. It’s quite cute to watch even if it’s disruptive to the academy.” Sarutobi’s lined face creased into a smile at some memory. “Iruka - the head instructor - reports that he’s tested her. Academically, she’s almost ready to graduate. But she lacks the chakra reserves to be a genin. He says the only days he can count on her to attend are the days with taijutsu practice. She’s apparently dreadful at it.”
Jiraiya tried to imagine what a stiff, proper kid like Kakashi still was deep down would do when the academy’s Number One Delinquent decided that she was in love with him.
He laughed, delighted by the visuals his mind supplied. It’s good enough to be an Icha Icha book! Icha Icha Academics!
“I bet he’s going out of his mind!”
Sarutobi grinned. “He’s quite vocal in his displeasure regarding her attentions but one cannot help but notice how kind he is to her. His subordinate treats the child like she’s a favorite puppy or a little sister. It’s certainly engendered some teasing from within the ranks.”
“Good,” Jiraiya grunted. “Kakashi’s too serious. Dogs may like it but it puts people off. Maybe he’ll get some worldly connections out of this.”
Sarutobi grimaced. “Exactly. I think he secretly enjoys her attention. If she were older, I’d have some hope for him but as it is…”
“It’s just another thing,” Jiraiya nodded. He sat down on the tongue. “Minato would love it, of course. And he’d love that kid for loving Kakashi. He worried about Kakashi, especially after what happened with Sakumo and Obito.”
“He’s not well. Kakashi’s smart enough to pass every psych eval with flying colors and he looks well enough to the untrained eye but he hasn’t been well for quite some time. Not since Minato’s death.” When Sarutobi reached for his pipe, Jiraiya shook his head. The old man removed his hand from his pocket with an annoyed huff. “He might be pulled back to us either with more bonds in this world or a great shock but both seem unlikely at this point.”
“At this point, Rin’s his only real connection to this world. Her death might break him.” Jiraiya hesitated a moment then asked, “Rin’s not dead or maimed or anything, right?”
“Rin’s alive and healthy and completing a mission in Kiri as far as I know.” Sarutobi said. “She’s also taken an interest in Naruto.”
“Rin has?”
Shock colored Jiraiya’s tone. The last he had heard, she had lobbied quite fiercely for the boy’s death to ‘kill Minato-sensei’s murderer.’ It was understandable since she had never known that Minato was going be a father and people commonly mistook a demon’s host for the demon itself but it made Jiraiya terribly nervous. He always meant to look in on Mianto’s little medic, or at least inquire after her, but some corner of his foolish old heart could never quite forgive her for trying to kill his godson.
“Sakura has. ANBU reports that, despite being in separate years at the academy, they’re very close. He eats dinner at her home two to three times a week and they eat lunch together on the students’ kunai range often. They’ve recently declared it their mission to steal Kakashi’s mask.”
Jiraiya snorted. “I bet Kakashi loves that.”
“He’s thrown them in the river thirteen times so far this summer.”
“Determined little things.”
“Naruto seems much happier now.” Sarutobi’s smile was wistful. “It’s too bad that they won’t be on the same team. Their bond should be encouraged. Naruto deserves to have someone care for him.”
Jiraiya winced. His heart hurt at the implication that he was not doing enough for the boy - especially when he knew that he was not - but it took money to keep a child in an apartment and to pay for twenty-four hour ANBU protection for him. As Minato and Kushina’s son, and a demon’s host, Naruto needed both. Jiraiya had to work and work hard to make that sort of cash.
Plus, Jiraiya had never really been very sure what to do with small children. He secretly suspected that he might be a somewhat scarring teacher since his students uniformly seemed to turn out to be serious, responsible sorts no matter how wild or fun they were before. Or maybe being a sad, old man tended to rub off on the people around him.
And none of them had learned to really appreciate his hobbies.
All he said was, “You never know. Naruto’s chakra seems to be taking after Kushina’s. If I remember correctly, it took her a few tries to graduate the academy.”
A certain evil gleam sparked to life in Sarutobi’s eyes. Jiraiya shuddered reflexively.
“Yes, it did, didn’t it?”
Just then the landscape around them began to heave.
“Jiraiya?”
“Yeah.” Jiraiya confirmed as he stood up. “It’s time.”
Since he was a gallant and courteous sort, he let Sarutobi go first. So he was utterly shocked when he emerged from his toad only to find Sarutobi getting yelled at by the brat in question.
“I’m not even a genin! And this isn’t wartime! I know the laws! You can’t order me to keep my mouth shut! I can do anything I want and if I want to tell everyone that Sandaime Hokage is a raging pervert who peeks at girls in the hot springs, I can!” She planted her little fists on her nonexistent hips and narrowed her lovely kitty eyes with adorable menace. “You deserve to get beaten up by the kunoichi. I hope they stomp all your bones into powder and smush your organs flat!”
Jiraiya shuddered. Definitely a little Tsunade.
Sarutobi was flushed. He was waving his hands around in what Jiraiya knew he thought was a placating fashion and smiling that uneasy grin he had always ended up wearing whenever a younger Tsunade went off on him for being an old pervert.
“Sakura-chan,” Sarutobi cajoled. “I understand your confusion but I personally assure you that this is all a misunderstanding.”
“Hmph! Sarutobi-sama’s a perverted liar!” The girl tossed her ridiculously girly locks. “I’d beat you up myself if I could hurt you! Believe it!”
Jiraiya felt a grin tugging the corners of his mouth up.
Tsunade-hime, I’ve found your soul’s daughter.
While the Hokage tried to placate the loudly enraged little girl, Jiraiya looked around. They seemed to be hidden in the forest on Training Ground Three. When he arched his eyebrows at his summons, the frog gulped.
“She captured me, Jiraiya-sama,” Garaiya whimpered. “She said she’d make me watch her eat my legs if I tried to escape!”
Definitely not a puppy, Jiraiya thought, surprised despite himself at the viciousness of the sweet-looking little girl. Kakashi’s got himself a kitty with a taste for hunting.
Of course there was no way that she knew the flaw in his technique. While hiding Jiraiya in his mouth, Garaiya was trapped in the human world. Since the frog was entirely unsuited to combat, the girl’s threats had been unnecessary.
But he admired her efforts.
“It’s okay, Garaiya,” he soothed. He patted the poor, frazzled frog’s nose. “You did your best.”
“I - I’d like to go home now, Jiraiya-sama.”
“Of course.”
There was a pop and his summons disappeared.
Jiraiya turned to find the girl’s red-clad back disappearing into the tree line. He smiled at the sight of her rigid shoulders, straight arms, balled fists, and huffy stomps. It looked nothing like Tsunade’s ‘I’m In A Snit, Let Me Beat Your Ass To Pulp’ march but the spirit behind it was exactly the same.
Jiraiya raised his voice to carry, making sure it had that sly, mocking tone that drove Tsunade wild.
“So, you’ve never been tempted to take a peek at something you weren’t supposed to see? Not even once?”
The girl’s steps faltered for a split second. Then she continued marching forward.
“Aha!” Jiraiya crowed. “You have! When was it? Who was it? Sakura-chan’s a pervert!”
The girl hissed as she twisted to glare at him. Her footsteps had stopped.
“I didn’t!”
“But you were tempted. Maybe you even tried.” Jiraiya countered as bubbles of glee fizzing through his heart. The world, which had seemed so very gray and boring and unfair since Minato’s death, was suddenly slightly interesting again. “You understand Hokage-sama and me.”
The girl’s glare should have scorched the flesh from his bones.
Jiraiya found it invigorating.
“I just want to see his face! And I haven’t tried when he’s naked!” She sniffed. “I’m not a pervert!”
“But you do want to see Kakashi’s naked face, don’t you?” Jiraiya needled. Sakura actually glared harder. That look could be turned into a jutsu. “It’s close enough to the same thing. I’m sure we could come to some sort of an agreement, Sakura-chan.”
Her eyes narrowed.
It was only because he was looking into her eyes, trying to judge her emotions and which direction her thoughts might go, that he saw it. For the briefest fraction of a second, triumph gleamed in her eyes.
That. She was waiting for one of us to say that. All of her outrage and fury was channeled into getting us to this one moment. Jiraiya narrowed his eyes. You’re not as honest as Tsuande-hime, are you little Sakura-chan?
But she had the decency to frown and at least look like she was seriously considering his offer.
“I want an apprenticeship with Jiraiya-sama,” she said at last. “It’ll have to be over the summer holidays. And I want lessons from Hokage-sama during the school year when I’m here and Jiraiya-sama is away. And I want to be teammates with Naruto-kun.”
Jiraiya grinned. Demanding.
“If you wait until you graduate, you’ll get the most out of an apprenticeship with -” Sarutobi started only to be cut off by the slash of the girl’s small hand through the air between them.
“I could pass the academic portion of the exam right now. I just don’t have the chakra reserves to pass the practical skills test. And I won’t for awhile. But that doesn’t mean that I’ll just sit around and be bored.”
“An apprenticeship is a very personal thing between a master and student,” Sarutobi began again. “It requires a certain sympathy between the master and student’s strengths and weaknesses. You and Jiraiya are ill-matched; polar opposites even. You’d be much better off with an apprenticeship in the hospital.”
“I can learn that on my own and if I can’t, I’ll go find Tsunade-sh - sama. You want me to be quiet about what I saw. I want you to give me training and Naruto-kun, in that order.”
“I heard you love Hatake Kakashi,” Jiraiya teased. It was inescapable. That sort of personality type brought out both the best and worst in him. “Have you changed your mind and fallen in love with Uzumaki Naruto?”
The girl looked startled. For a moment, the fiery wrath in her eyes and the lines of determination on her young face faded.
“I do.” Her little face was slowly turning scarlet. “I love Kakashi-kun. And I love Naruto-kun. But who’ll look after Naruto-kun if I don’t? Naruto-kun has to be my teammate.”
Sarutobi’s expression had softened.
“Be that as it may, you cannot force Jiraiya and me to become your teachers, Sakura-chan. I can promise you that I will do everything in my power to see to it that you and Naruto-kun graduate together so that you may be teammates.”
The little girl’s expression hardened again. “I guess we’ll both have to be disappointed, Hokage-sama.”
She has us dead to rights. Even if she doesn’t have a shred of evidence, the rumor that he was caught spying on the women’s baths with me would be damaging to Sarutobi-sensei’s pull with the Council - those old bastards know him. Jiraiya studied the brat through squinted eyes. Sakura-chan’s as smart, determined and ruthless as Tsunade-hime. If she’s physically weak, her cunning makes up for it. She loves like I do - passionately, openly, and unapologetically. And she’s maybe a little bit pervy. Best of all, she loves those idiotic boys of Minato’s. And she has common ground with his girl.
Sakura turned crisply on the ball of one little sandaled foot.
“I don’t know, Sarutobi. Sakura-chan and I might suit one another nicely,” Jiraiya said lightly, trying to mask how very much he suddenly wanted to take the girl on as a student. “I’ll take you on, Sakura-chan, if you can keep up.”
The smile that she graced him with was breathtaking in its sincerity.
“Thank you Jiraiya-sama!” She enthused as she bowed deeply to him. “You won’t be sorry!”
“I suppose this means that we will both be happy,” Sarutobi murmured.
Then she kicked Jiraiya in the shin.
“Ow! What was that for?”
“Peeping on my sister.”
Then the wretched little brat kicked him again!
“Ow! What -”
“For my mama.”
Then the child grinned and scampered away.
“We’re going on a trial run! We leave the day after tomorrow!” Jiraiya called after her. “Be ready!”
She waved over her shoulder. “Yes, Jiraiya-sama!”
“How come she didn’t kick you?” Jiraiya whined as they watched the girl’s small back retreat from the training ground.
“She did.” Sarutobi grimaced. “Before you came out of the toad.”
“Ah.” Jiraiya was grinning again. “Good.”
When the girl was gone, Sarutobi arched his eyebrows at Jiraiya.
“You didn’t have to do that for my sake, Jiraiya.”
Jiraiya fixed his eyes onto the scabby bark of the tree standing across from him.
“I didn’t. I couldn’t resist. She’s a perfectly imperfect blending of Tsunade-hime and me. How often is someone like that going to literally stumble across me?”
Sarutobi’s expression turned pitying. “Still, Jiraiya?”
“Always,” Jiraiya corrected curtly. He too moved to walk away from the old man. “I’ll see you later.”