"You'll be alright?" Jiraiya asked one last time to reassure himself, receiving a nod from Naruto in return. His godson had started to become responsive again in the past two days, however the expressions were hollow. They never reached his eyes. And the boy was listless, haunted, instead of a thriving bundle of energy. Some of that would come back on it's own, he was sure, but part of his decision to become a Priest hinged on that class' healing ability, and the prospect it offered him to grant his godson long-term care.
Of course, should anyone ask, he'd insist it was all part of a plot to get into Tsunade's pants. Who knew? With the extreme healing powers he'd witnessed already, and the allure he could attain via offers to teach those to her, there was a remote chance it may even succeed.
He'd figure out what to do with success if it came to that. But that wasn't truly the plot, only a convenient cover.
Jiraiya had seen enough of death to cover a dozen lifetimes - a good part of the reason he played up being a pervert so much was that made him a target of seduction rather than assassination missions. And, yes, if you'd asked him, he would rather be seduced by beautiful kunoichi than be forced to take an endless sequence of lives in fending off an infinite series of assassins until one finally got him.
He'd seen too many S-rank ninja, convinced they were unbeatable, proved otherwise, to have any illusions as to his own mortality.
Jiraiya still had to resist the occasional seduction mission targeted at obtaining favors or information that he truly did not want to give up, and coach his resistance in a way such that assassins did not follow up the failed seduction mission. He didn't let on how nerve-wracking that could be at times, balancing those extremes.
Tsunade, on the other hand, had it even easier than he did. Even the most lunatic bastards realized that if you killed the medic, you didn't get healing. So she either healed you, or she didn't. People asked very nicely and offered her things she wanted, because forcing her just was not possible.
Besides, the Toad Sage saw little point in wasting an opportunity like this one learning something he already knew. Powerful jutsu he had covered, in summoning he already ranked among the best, taijutsu and kenjutsu were not his top skills but neither was he deficient in either of them. He also had stealth covered pretty well.
No, what this place offered that he was worst at was healing, and their techniques were clearly superior to anything he'd ever seen in that field before - and this after being teammates with his world's top medic. So his choice was very simple, if he was going to learn healing, go for the best available, and that meant being a Priest.
Of course, he had rather a lot of sins to confess first before his initiation.
Since that ritual required seclusion, a situation of just him and the other priests, he'd gone ahead and hired a small team, along with Stormwind's top Paladin, to stand watch over Naruto in the interim. Worst case, the initiation would take about a day, and with Naruto and the team protecting him sitting right in the antechamber of the cathedral, he'd hear if anything serious came up.
If trouble came brewing, these guards were at least good enough to raise a fuss before going down. They were supposed to be quite good, and any sounds of battle at all would be enough to alert him, as he planned to be listening, and would interrupt the ceremony to pop out to the boy's rescue.
Truly, there was nothing more he could do for the boy during the initiation ceremony.
Heart flagging at the boy's false smile towards him, Jiraiya shut the doors to the ritual chamber and set about becoming a Priest.
"Father, bless me for I have sinned..."
See other episodes by Sapphire Cat
(Posted Mon, 27 May 2013 00:16)
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