"That's the ninken the Uzumaki kid had, right?" asked Tsume, sitting herself down on the edge of Hana's desk NOT covered in paperwork.
"Yes. Definitely one of the Inuzume's breeds. Like Akamaru, not typical looking for one of the breeds we maintain." Hana searched among the papers and found one that had a photograph paper-clipped to it. "Indications from the Inuzume files was that she was born sick and abnormally small. He didn't give her a very good chance of survival."
"From what I saw, she looked pretty alive."
"Well, obviously she did survive, and she's gotten a lot bigger. A little bit of fat she's going to need to work off in fact, kid most likely indulged her when she wanted snacks."
"Is that why she's so big for three years?" asked Tsume.
"That and Uzumaki likely took the directions of care from the Inuzume very seriously," said Hana. "According to her, she'd been sick three times-"
"She's talking at three years?" asked Tsume. Most Inuzuka dogs didn't start speaking until well after their sixth year. Some never learned, it being too difficult with their mouth-parts shaped too differently.
"She understands spoken language very well, and she has a lot of trouble speaking - but yes. She speaks." Hana shook her head. "She's going to be one of the fastest dogs in our clan, she's larger than is usual for her age, and she's very intelligent as well. She's also pretty well bonded to Uzumaki."
"Huh. The main reason I was after getting the dog back to us was because I thought the kid wouldn't be taking care of her right and because technically she IS of our clan." Tsume shook her head.
"I half expected her to be malnourished and neglected, but she's neither," said Hana.
"Well, if he wasn't abusing her and she HAS bonded to him," said Tsume, "I'm going to have to see about having her officially be one of our clan dogs but eventually reunite the two. Can't force her to accept one of our own as a partner if she's already found one."
"So you're Naruto Uzumaki," said the man, standing up from his crouch. "Not at all what I expected."
"What did you expect?" asked Naruto, curious.
"A loud-mouthed punk with delusions of grandeur," answered the man.
"Well then, I'm not sorry to disappoint you," replied Naruto. "You my sensei?"
"That I am. Jiraiya of the Sannin. Mind lowering the mask and pulling back the hood so I can see who I'm dealing with?"
Naruto did so, studying his sensei briefly. "I was told you'd meet me here, but originally I was expecting someone from ANBU. Maybe Boar."
"That would have been a good guess," admitted Jiraiya. "How much do you know about what the Hokage's uncovered?"
"Not a thing, I just graduated."
Jiraiya paused. "We'll talk, but not here. Follow me."
The building was obviously some kind of shrine, and just as obviously in serious disrepair.
"This place at least is reasonably free of spies and away from the Hokage's office," said Jiraiya. "Now what do you really know about what's going on?"
"Other than Team Urufu mostly getting killed by a burgler and then by someone else?" Naruto shrugged. "Not much."
"Okay. One member of the team apparently had a heart attack and died. The ninken of the team leader and one member of the team found someone had broken into the leader's home and confronted the intruder. Both were killed. Later, two more members of the team died investigating a suspicion."
"Okay," admitted Naruto.
"So sensei called on me, I investigated this. It took away time that I would have preferred to spend in research of other things entirely, but this was obviously more serious. When I DID start looking into it, I started finding some areas of concern."
"That sounds suitably vague," said Naruto.
"Your mother was Kushina Uzumaki, the Red Hot Habanero of Konoha. Known for her red hair, Uzumaki stamina, special chakra, and anger management issues." Jiraiya paused. "She was well known to quite a few people because she stood out. Even in a ninja village. She even had a number of friends. All of whom died within the first five years after your birth."
Naruto blinked as he tried to work his head around that.
Jiraiya nodded. "That's why we're training away from the village from now on. Well, that and I have to continue both of my other jobs. We have to find a way to draw this person out and then take the appropriate response."
Naruto considered the man in front of him for a moment.
"What do we know of them?" asked Jiraiya. "Experienced ninja, most likely NOT a foreign agent or organization though possibly with ties to one. They managed to use the system well enough that everything was labeled a coincidence until the attacks on Team Urufu."
Naruto stirred.
"YOU are not nearly powerful enough to deal with this," said Jiraiya. "Or subtle."
"You know who it is," said Naruto.
"I suspect," said Jiraiya. "If I knew for certain, you and half the village would have heard the fight. The Hokage agrees with the basic plan. For a cover story though, we're working on you as a tracking-stealth specialist and you have some unique fuuinjutsu that I'm supposed to pass on to you."
Naruto raised an eyebrow. "I do?"
"Yes, if I have to invent it myself in order for you to have something to demonstrate later," said Jiraiya.
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(Posted Tue, 10 Sep 2013 02:37)
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