Naruto hit the ground, bounced, and was still.
At which point the screams from four girls, and growling from a dog, reminded her of her audience.
"Great," said Tsunade aloud, pinching the bridge of her nose. "What else could go wrong?"
"My Lady?!"
"Shizune? I need a drink in the worst way."
"My Lady, I really think you need to look at this!"
Tsunade looked up abruptly, focussing on the boy. No, he was still unconscious and sprawled out on the ground. Naturally she thought of the girls, but if any of them were as credible a threat as the boy had turned out to be - then wouldn't they have used some means of rescuing themselves rather than force her to get involved?
At which point she noticed the fires that the boy had set off. That were guttering and quenching themselves. Was her breath fogging?!
"My Lady," squeaked Shizune.
Tsunade finally turned to see what was up with her apprentice. There was that genjutsu user too, who was looking a little wild-eyed herself. She followed the path of their gazes with her own wondering what would cause Shizune to act like that. And their breaths were fogging too?
Jiraiya stood there, though he'd changed clothes. Gone were his bright colors and geta. Now he wore white, a pure snow-white. Around his neck was a double-string of juzu-style prayer beads. His forehead protector had more pronounced horns and the kanji there read "death" instead of "oil" for some reason.
He was also transparent and glowing.
"J-Jiraiya?" asked Tsunade, immediately frowning as she had stuttered that.
When Jiraiya spoke, the voice sounded odd - deeper and as if there were a strange echo underlying it. "It is not enough you kill me, but you have to hurt and frighten my students, Tsunade?"
Tsunade decided to push down that sudden feeling of fear within her. Why should she be afraid of Jiraiya after all? He might be one of the Leaf Sannin like herself, but he'd always been the weakest of them. "What game are you playing now, old lech?"
Jiraiya started walking towards Naruto, slowly, apparently deciding to ignore Tsunade's question. As he did so, he went slowly from transparent to fully solid.
"Kai," went the chunin genjutsu expert as she tried to dispel the illusion.
"I don't think this is genjutsu," said Shizune, looking very nervous.
"What did you mean, abandoning these kids?" asked Tsunade. "And why did you take so long getting back?"
"I did not abandon them. You killed me, Tsunade. Unfortunately, there are things I yet must do," said Jiraiya in that odd voice.
"Milady? His breath?" hinted Shizune.
Tsunade blinked and looked. The four really-damn-scared conscious kids were breathing rapidly, little clouds of white marking their respiration. Naruto - little deep puffs. Shizune and Kurenai - both visible breath. Herself the same, little clouds of white in the sudden winter-chill.
There were no little puffs of vapor around Jiraiya.
Jiraiya looked around, then made a gesture. "Switching Frost Aura out for Blood."
"What is THAT supposed to mean?" demanded Tsunade, who began stomping forward only to stop at the brittle cracking sound. She looked downward to see that the ground had frozen, especially in a trail that marked where Jiraiya had walked.
"You killed me. I was sent back. There are things that need to be done."
Tsunade blinked at the again-different voice. This was more normal Jiraiya-sounding, but also very different at the same time. Like something else was using his mouth and voice.
Jiraiya knelt down next to Naruto, checking his pulse.
"Hold it right there," said Tsunade, moving quickly to stop Jiraiya from doing whatever he was doing.
Jiraiya looked up, his gaze meeting her own for a brief moment.
Tsunade, Slug Princess, toughened veteran of countless battles, cynical and hardened from a life constantly surrounded by death, began screaming.
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(Posted Sat, 16 Jul 2011 18:13)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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