Chapter 72 - Chapter 74

Inside the land of fire, on a tree branch stood a young boy with slicked-back dark brown hair. He was smiling widely even though he was surrounded by multiple masked individuals. The boy had on the black kung fu outfit of his father's dojo and the people surrounding him had on the classic anbu outfit.

"If you would just come with us, you won't be harmed. We just want to talk to you." One of the masked men said. They had on no headband so it made it impossible to identify their allegiance.

"How about you tell your Raikage that I'm not interested in becoming his experiment. And if you want me to come along with you, you'll have to catch me." He said and smiled provocatively at the group.

"You'll regret that kid. Get him!" The supposed leader of the group said and the ninjas around the boy drew their weapon.

"RASENGAN!" From above the enemy leader, an old man with long white hair suddenly appeared and smashed a small blue energy ball into the back of the enemy ninja.

*boom* The branch that the ninja was standing on was blown to hell together with the ninja that got firmly planted into the ground below.

The stranger did a quick acrobatic move and with the help of the recoil of his attack, readjusted himself in mid air and landed on another branch.

"Legendary Sannin! Great Toad sage! JIRAYA HAS ARRIVED!" The man yelled with arms stretched widely in the air.

"Retreat! We can't fight that man!" One of them said and they all jumped away immediately and disappeared.

"There we go! You're welcome kid." Jiraya turned to the kid that was the target of this group of villains.

"What the hell, old man. You just ruined my mission!" He yelled at the old man with an annoyed expression.

"WHA... Be grateful, you brat!!" Jiraya said after recovering from the unexpected answer from the boy.

"I needed them! You just scared them away... dammit!" He fell on his back and sighed out loud.

"I'm sorry? I guess..." Jiraya tilted his head in confusion and continued talking.

"So anyways. What is a kid doing all the way out here? It's dangerous you know." Jiraya did like Hiruzen and took out a pipe from who knows where and started to smoke.

"Failing a mission because of an old man interfering." He waved his hand and a spiral appeared beside him.

"What do you need, young lord?" The masked man that appeared from the spiral asked with respect.

"Those that escaped. Capture them all before they make it back to their village." The boy said with many different emotions swirling inside of him.

"It will be done." The man said and disappeared from the place in a spiral. All the while Jiraya was watching this with careful eyes.

'That Sharingan? I wonder if Kakashi knows yet..' Jiraya questioned to himself but on the outside he kept his silly and unaware expression going.

"So what's your name kid? Mine's Jiraya. But you already knew that!" He smiled at the boy.

"Gildarts! But you already knew that, didn't you, Jiraya?" Gildarts looked at Jiraya with eyes that shone with intelligence that a 15-year-old boy shouldn't have.

"hahaha, you're pretty interesting for someone so young. You mind explaining how that Uchiha is working for you. Last time I heard he died and gave his last working eye to a friend of mine." Jiraya asked casually, but with an undertone of cautiousness.

"He has sworn loyalty to protect my family. You could say that a couple of years ago, my father made him see things differently. And he took him off a very dangerous path that would have led to self-destruction and maybe even the worlds end."

Gildarts was already 168 cm tall and he spoke with a tone of an experienced adult. Nowhere on his person could you see the child that he had been a few years ago.

"Your family is one big mystery, you know. You appear out of nowhere and you all possess incredible strength. Mind telling me where you came from?" Jiraya spoke to Gildarts like an old friend.

And the reason Gildarts told him as much as he did is that he was told Jiraya is one of the few people in this world who truly fights for the good side.

"You should meet with father. He'll tell you all about us if he likes you enough. I'm just trying to enjoy my life. I don't care about politics or whatever. I just wanna explore the world."

It's true that Gildarts doesn't care about running an empire or doing missions all his life. His father had countless people working for him that all did this. So he just wanted to explore the world and find all it's mysteries.

"Fair enough. A kid should be a kid. It's not fair for a child to train to become a killer at age 6." Jiraya looked a little lost in thought when he said it. He remembered a very special kid he met years back that really made him aware of what war does to people.

"Here take this! You should be old enough." Jiraya took out a book and threw it to Gildarts.

"What is it?" He caught the book and looked at the cover and saw the title. He looked back at the old man and smiled awkwardly.

"This is my masterpiece! This is some quality over quality kind of stuff. Very premium." Jiraya yelled at the top of his lungs as he flexed his biceps.

Gildarts opened the book and started to flip through the pages. The more he flipped through and the more he read the redder his face became. He also started to smile with a stupid innocent smile.

"This is art!" Gildarts said after flipping over the last page. He seemed to only be half awake at the moment. His head was in an entirely different reality.

"RIGHT! If only that old hag could see it that way. She just doesn't know art as we do." Jiraya said quietly while showing a clear annoyance to this person he was referencing.

"D...Do you have any more of this?" Gildarts said and faked coughed into his hand.

"Nope! But I'm currently on my way to a bathhouse a few km away from this place. I'm going there to relax and do some.... research." Jiraya said and gave Gildarts a gaze that said it all.

"Well, since this was such a tough mission I should be allowed to take a little break, right." Gildarts looked at Jiraya and received a quick nod.

"Absolutely! We all need a good break." Jiraya nodded along like the wise old man he is.

"Let's go then!" Gildarts stood up followed quickly by Jiraya. They both nodded and Gildarts followed the white-haired old man as he jumped away using the branches of the trees.

'Should I report this to Lord Dragon?' Obito had appeared on the branch that Gildarts sat down on. He looked confused, but he also followed along since his mission was to guard Gildarts.

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End