"You're THE Jiraiya?" asked the technowizard. "The writer?"
"Yes, that's me," admitted Jiraiya.
The old guy behind the counter, Naruto estimated, could have been older than his village. Maybe even older than the mountain with the Hokage faces.
"Excellent read," said the old man. "I'm only on Chapter 7, mind you. Is it true there are two more in the series?"
"Why, yes, though I'm just gathering material for the third right now," said Jiraiya.
"Aw, who wants to read that boring stuff anyway?" asked Naruto.
"Youth is wasted on the young," said the old man. "They have no appreciation for subtleties or the interplay between the characters."
"True, very true," said Jiraiya, warming to the subject at hand. "You, on the other hand, appear to have experienced a long and eventful life."
"HA! A gift for understatement, I see," said the old man, grinning and revealing teeth that were white but also looked wrong somehow. "Exactly how I pictured the author to be. Who're the kids?"
"My niece and nephew," said Jiraiya, going to the cover story. "Naruto and Nanoha."
"Pleased to meet you," said Nanoha with a bow.
"Uhh, yeah, hiya," tried Naruto as he craned his neck looking around the shop.
"You were looking for technowizardry, not being familiar with it," said the old man. "Try this out. You pump the energy into the crystal."
Jiraiya frowned a little, but put the odd glasses on and channelled a bit of chakra into the indicated crystal.
"WHOA!" said Jiraiya, looking around. "What do you call these?"
"One of the banes of my existence, actually," said the old man. "Once word got out that I had developed these, none of the pretty young ladies would come by."
"You can see through objects with this, so..." Jiraiya took the glasses off cautiously. "This is... magnificent."
"Eh?" asked Naruto. "Howcome?"
"It has many practical uses," pointed out the old man. "Being able to see traps past a concealment, being able to find lost car keys when they've fallen behind something, and of course the obvious."
Naruto's eyes went hooded and his expression flat, as he put two and two together. "You look underneath girl's clothing, don't you?"
"That is setting #1," said the old man agreeably. "Can't blame an old man for having a little fun in his declining years, can you?"
"Actually, yeah," said Naruto.
"Well, tough," said the old man, ending that with a cackle. "I'm one-hundred-fifty years old. At my age, anything that keeps the blood pumping is a good thing."
"Oh, I wouldn't have put your age much beyond a hundred," said Jiraiya. "Nothing wrong with a little harmless fun, after all."
"Sh'yeah, right," grumbled Naruto as he looked around at the various shelves full of knick-knacks. It figured the pervy sage would get along with some other pervy sorta-sage.
"Anyway," said the old man, "I hear you're out teaching your kids the family craft. Some form of mysticism, right?"
"That's right, but how did you know?" asked Jiraiya.
"At the back of the book is a small blurb, telling about the author," said the old man. "So the kid's your apprentice and the girl's his sister? Blurb doesn't mention her, must have not had enough room. Hmmm. Might have something. Got a few odds and ends I've accumulated in my studies."
"Studies of what, pervishness?" grumbled Naruto as he picked up a small plastic box and tried to figure out what it was.
"No, technowizardry," said the old man. "Because magic isn't ridiculously overpowered here the way it is on Phase World and some other locations, I can work with the subtle stuff a little better. Seems your apprentice is a bit of a prude."
"I am NOT a prune!" protested Naruto.
"Prude with a 'd'," said the old man. "Oh, and you might want to avoid handling that too roughly. It might blow up."
Naruto put the plastic box down. "What is it? An explosive?"
"No, but it's technical and complicated and has a lot of magical power stored up in it," said the technowizard. "I've got it!"
"You've got something for us?" asked Jiraiya hopefully.
"Yes, I can make this cheap too," said the technowizard. "I made these up for a client who never came and got them."
Naruto peered curiously at the items put out on the counter. He listened closely to learn they were:
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(Posted Thu, 24 Dec 2009 17:24)
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