![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
teamwork 2, chapter 6, scene... I don't remember.
Thanks to ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
rahedion_woif for the help with Jiraiya ^_^ Still not sure I like it, but it's a lot better than it was.
It's not the final version, if you see something that needs fixing, point it out plz, and I'll love you forever and ever and ever. Yeah, at least that much.
They broke up around three PM; Kakashi had, once again, better things to do with his time -- if the things were "stay home and freak out sneaky students", Naruto would... he didn't know what he would do, but he'd be annoyed.
They walked Sakura to the Hokage Tower, then Sasuke left to settle more Uchiha business stuff that Naruto didn't ask about. Naruto went back to the house in which they were camping, picked up the scrolls, and trekked back to the tower, muttering all the while about the stupid people who had chosen to build the district at the ass-end of Konoha.
He knew that Sakura and Tsunade would be at the hospital, so he just made his way upstairs, waving at the guards and whistling all the while. He didn't even bother knocking before he reached for the handle.
"If you're looking for Tsunade, she isn't here," a deep masculine voice bellowed cheerfully in his ear
Naruto eeped and whirled around. Jiraiya was looming over him, with a genial smile on his face and an evil glint in his eyes.
"Pervert-sennin!" Ack! Caught in the act! Wait, no, he had no way of knowing what Naruto was doing. Yeah. "Get a kick out of startling people?"
"Oho, so I startled you? Maybe you need remedial stealth training."
"In your dreams perhaps," Naruto grumbled, crossing his arms defensively. Jiraiya herded him toward the end of the corridor, and Naruto didn't have any choice but to follow reluctantly. "What do you want? ...You don't have another trip planned anytime soon, right?" he added suddenly, worried. Cool techniques or not, it really wasn't the right time to go on a field trip with the old man.
"Nah. Why?"
Naruto relaxed. "Oh, no reason, just got some stuff planned."
"Stuff, eh?"
Well, it was Jiraiya who had taught Naruto that hiding the truth was easier if you actually told the truth. Or part of it. And let them assume whatever they wanted. "Yeah. With my girlfriend," he added with a huge grin. The grin was sincere -- he always got a kick out of thinking of Sakura as his girlfriend, and this was the first time he said the term out loud in front of another person. It felt like a milestone, even if Jiraiya already knew.
"Ooh? Sounds like fun."
The old pervert waggled his eyebrows; Naruto made a face at him. "Don't you have anything better to perv about?"
"Perv! Perv, he says. I'm doing something infinitely better than perving." Jiraiya drew himself up proudly. "I'm drafting up my next epic."
Naruto snorted. "The boyfriend will be there too."
Jiraiya twitched.
"Boyfriend. Boooyfrieeend... Like a boy. To make out with. Still inspired?"
"...You just ruined a masterpiece, boy."
Naruto snickered, even as Jiraiya cuffed him.
"Kinda gross to be writing about your students anyway, isn't it."
"Bah! Who would want to read about YOU? The situation has potential, that's all. It would certainly be an original twist in a romance story."
Jiraiya had herded him to the empty meeting room at the end of the corridor as they talked; they leaned side by side against the windowsill.
"Romance, hah. You write smut, old man."
"Well, of course! What better way to celebrate the passion of two hearts -- or three -- finally coming together?"
Naruto grinned. "And now you sound like Gai-sensei."
He got another slap to the head for his troubles.
"So disrespectful."
They watched the plaza underneath, the streets of Konoha stretching and sprawling up to the forest.
"...You will be taking the proper precautions for your escapade, I hope," Jiraiya eventually commented, watching him from the corner of his eye.
"It's not like we could knock up Sakura-chan again, you know," Naruto retorted without thinking.
There was a flash of pained amusement in Jiraiya's eyes. What had Naruto gotten wrong now? ... Oh. OH. Those kinds of precautions. Well, damn, did the old pervert really know everything or what?
/Didn't think you could fool an old fox, did you,/ Kyuubi rumbled mockingly. Naruto grumbled his annoyance under his breath, at the old man and at the demon fox both. Since when did Kyuubi approve of anyone he knew anyway?
"... Yeah, we're taking all the precautions we know."
"Well, that's a step in the right direction." Jiraiya turned back to watch the city, appearing to lose interest in the conversation. Naruto knew better now.
Well then. If the old pervert had guessed what was truly going on...
"Hey, old man..."
"I told you already, don't call me that. What do you want, brat?"
"Well, I--"
/Leave false tracks./
Naruto closed his mouth, startled at the active interest the fox was taking in the situation. Kyuubi hadn't offered more than a few offhanded comments at random since the fire; it felt... weird to have him so close to the surface, so awake and aware. A little crowded in his head, as if they ran the risk of blurring at the edges if they didn't watch what belonged to who. Naruto didn't push him back down, even though he knew he would probably end up feeling the repercussions in the next few days.
'Why? He already knows.'
/Not all your watchdogs are as pitiful at stalking as you are./
'I'm not pitiful!' Naruto protested; and then he paused. He hadn't noticed spies any time today... '-- did you... notice anything?'
Kyuubi growled in annoyance. /With what? My nonexistent ears? The eyes you refuse to turn in the right direction? Stupid brat./
Naruto pouted. Like he could just guess what Kyuubi could or couldn't see, when half the time he barely noticed him. 'Why do you care anyway?'
/Do you WANT to be stopped now?/
... Well, no, he didn't. So fine! Fine. Stupid fox could stay, and too bad if Naruto ended up sleepwalking again. Now how to make Jiraiya understand what Naruto was on about, while still making potential spies understand something else entirely...
"Naruto?" Jiraiya was peering at him.
"Ah -- uh, sorry. We still don't know what they want with guys like me, do we? Those guys with the weird cloaks."
"We have a couple of guesses," Jiraiya replied, arching an eyebrow at him.
Okay. Okay, he could do it. Now if there were spies, they would assume he was asking because he was worried about Akatsuki. Which was classified info, but hey, he was the first concerned there. He just had to keep it... what was the word again? Ambiguous. "Think they want... Well, you know how my chakra is?"
Jiraiya hummed, but seemed to take a perverse delight in waiting to see how Naruto was going to end the sentence if Jiraiya didn't finish it for him. Naruto gave him a disgruntled glare.
"You see what I mean, old man. Do you think they might want to... To tap into it or something?"
"It's a possibility," Jiraiya commented noncommittally. "At first glance, it looks likely."
Naruto fell silent, hoping that he looked thoughtful, and not like he was trying to pinpoint eventual spies. As far as he could tell, there was no one at the window next to or over them, and the corridor was empty. He couldn't detect anyone, and if there were bugs in the room, they were wel-hidden, but surely Jiraiya would stop him if he said something incriminating.
Unless Jiraiya really didn't know anything and was pretending his ass off to trick Naruto into telling him, which was a strong possibility.
Bah. He had laid enough of a false trail with the Akatsuki thing. Hopefully they would think him too simple for a two-layered misdirection.
"Say, hypothetically, what would happen if someone set up a direct pipeline from my chakra to theirs?"
Jiraiya chuckled wryly and shook his head in open amusement. His eyes were wary. "Depends if the link is direct or filtered."
Naruto frowned. "Well, if it wasn't filtered they'd just burn their coils -- I mean that's what happened with Sasuke, and it was just a little bit of chakra."
Jiraiya nodded in approval. "Indeed. But sadly, they're smarter than that."
"So what would happen with filters?"
"Depends on the type... A hell of a power boost. Or a blast. Possibly a crater."
Naruto winced. "Eurgh. Craters are bad."
"It all depends on how smoothly the flow is drawn out; they would need to control the output and the power surges very carefully."
Jiraiya picked up a piece of chalk and idly started tracing lines on the blackboard.
"With a structure like this, you'd be more likely to survive it, and it also would give us more time to rescue you -- and if you add this here, it gives you -- the victim -- a little more control on the flow, so in case the... guys in the weird cloaks give you some slack, you can slow down the process yourself. It would still be a hell of a strain on both you and the receiver, but then they're not S-class for nothing."
Naruto winced. Sakura was very much not S-class. None of them were. "... But what if they, err. Wanted to be on the safe side? And looked for a way to echo the, you know, the healing thinger I do?"
Jiraiya added a few scribbles. "Then it should look somewhat like that; if you disrupt this, it will backfire rather spectacularly."
Naruto took note. No disrupting the kinda angular coiled ram-horn pattern inside that triangle. Absolutely not.
...What did it look like again?
"...But in this case," Jiraiya continued, "there would be problems with... personality contamination."
Personality what? ...Oh. Possession. Naruto remembered that objection from Sasuke and Sakura's conversation. "There's no filters for that?"
"Hm, depends on the type, of course. Filters in this --" quick sketch-- "structure seem counterintuitive, on account of--" Jiraiya pointed out little details "-- these, but they would regulate the wild fluctuations better, and keep only the -- let's say brainwaves -- that echo the target's waves. The two sets of brainwaves might echo off each other for a while, leading to mood swings, but then there wouldn't be anything new that wasn't there before in the target's personality."
Naruto cringed. "Err. Alright." He hadn't gotten any of that. And could the diagram be any more complicated? He would never remember it all.
/I will./
Naruto swallowed. '...Tell me why I should trust you to help Sakura not get possessed by you.' He knew that technically Kyuubi couldn't leave him; but apparently kitsune didn't really need to move to their next victim to exercise an influence on their minds.
/Feh! She's weak. Why would I want her?/
Naruto growled a little. It sounded dismissive enough to be the truth, and that was reassuring, but... 'Don't talk about her like that.'
Jiraiya was staring at him.
"Ah -- sorry, I got a bit... Distracted." Naruto tried smiling, and realized that his canines had grown.
"Naruto--"
"It's alright. I just -- I'm not gonna remember all that," he admitted, shrugging; he hoped Jiraiya wouldn't ask.
Jiraiya didn't; he just gave him a last narrow-eyed look, and then he sighed and leaned back against the windowsill. "Well then, you will just have to do what everyone does when they wish to educate themselves, and go to the library."
"But I already did! And there was nothing that helped enough on that stuff, even in the restri-- er. The specialized section."
Jiraiya sighed. Loudly.
"Hopeless. Subtle as a brick," Naruto heard him mutter under his breath. "Did you check this side of the library?"
Naruto looked out of the window toward where Jiraiya was pointing, and stared in confusion. The East side was for agriculture and carpentry and things like that. "Er, old man..."
"Who knows, maybe the Breeding and Pest Control section will have books pertaining to your... vermin problem."
Vermin, huh. Naruto didn't know if he was feeling amused respect or offended annoyance more. Perhaps both. If he got the chance, he would kill Jiraiya cleanly; the old man deserved that much.
... Kyuubi. Kyuubi didn't know. Not Naruto. Fuck. Naruto closed his eyes, and shoved the startled, bristling demon fox away; it hurt, they were too entangled to separate that fast. But he didn't want Kyuubi's stray thoughts in his head. The fox's deliberate comments were unnerving enough.
... Library. Pest control section. Alright. "I'll go and check."
"Be sure to do that. We wouldn't want said pest to run free around Konoha, now would we."
... Ack. His blooming headache didn't help his thought process much; but the comment was blatant enough that Naruto couldn't miss that Jiraiya wasn't bothering to pretend they were still talking about Akatsuki anymore. Oops. His little 'restricted -- er, I mean specialized' quip was probably too obvious to allow for even a second of misinterpretation.
Well, um. At least it probably meant no one was listening, or else Jiraiya would have looked more than slightly annoyed. Right? Right.
God, his head hurt, and there was too much light. He squinted, grinned sheepishly at Jiraiya; this time he made sure to keep his mouth shut.
"Any other advice, old man?"
Jiraiya gave him a serious look. "The Uchiha district already has protective barriers ready to go all around its walls; they would take some time and determination to breach. From the inside or from the outside. Use them."
Naruto nodded, subdued. Not being interrupted without warning was good. Making sure that the villagers were safe was better. Breaching the barrier would take some time, time enough for Tsunade and the ANBU to get there, perhaps time enough to evacuate. Better than doing it in the forest; distance wouldn't help much, Kyuubi was more than vindictive enough to trek through a few countries to get back to Konoha.
They stood there, by the window; and then Jiraiya reached out and ruffled Naruto's hair, hard enough to make Naruto's head move with it.
"Ow! Leave my hair alone, old man!"
"You should get going now, you cheeky brat. Oh -- don't forget: banzai!"
Naruto folded in two over Jiraiya's hand, breath knocked out of him. Wheezing, he glared up at the old man and stepped back, rubbing his stomach. "What the hell did you do that for?!"
Jiraiya laughed. "No reason, just for old times' sake. Everything works better if you're relaxed! Especially the mixing of chakra. And I hear Tsunade coming back..."
Naruto whirled around and listened. Oh damn. Heels stomping in the corridor. He was going to have a hard time replacing the scroll without her noticing; he'd already been lucky the first time. He turned back to face Jiraiya, who was leaning against the windowsill once again. "I gotta go, the old hag wants me to clean her office--"
Jiraiya looked amused. "How convenient."
"-- and she's gonna bitch if I'm not even started... er. Yeah, I guess." Naruto squirmed guiltily.
"Perhaps you're not entirely hopeless," Jiraiya commented as he turned to face him.
Naruto started smiling awkwardly.
"... Or perhaps you just got lucky." Jiraiya was holding a blue and white book, one Naruto had been damn sure was safely tucked away in his jacket. Naruto felt his pocket; the green scroll was still there. But his zipper was open. Argh! Stupid banzai trick.
"Get going, and don't forget to go to the library when you're done here. I'll give this back to Kakashi."
Oh, damn it. Was there anything, anything at all the old pervert didn't know? ... Kakashi probably knew, too. Hell, he'd probably told the old pervert in the first place. Bunch of sneaky, meddling bastards.
It was a good thing they were on Team Seven's side.
Naruto sighed, chuckled despite himself, and waved jauntily at Jiraiya as he walked out of the meeting room.
+
What issues are there left to tackle before the "applying the seal" scene? Because that applying the seal thing is the last scene of Teamwork2 and dude, I can't wait to get there.
breathe, people. It's not the end of the Teamwork universe, just of this fic. Next I can start doing a couple of one-shots until Teamwork 3 (the Chuunin exam) instead of dragging myself along week after week and writing "you were baaad" *boring political babble stuff* *tedious missions stuff*. That way I can just skip to a month or three later and only allude to other (hopefully resolved by then) issues while concentrating on a specific subject. Like, say, the "hey, Rookies 9, let's have fun together and oh btw we're a threesome" scene. Or the "Kiba's mom VS Kyuubi : Kiba's mom TOTALLY PWNS" scene. And stuff.
So, in this light, what issues did I set up that I need to take care of before the seal scene? ^^;
rahedion_woif for the help with Jiraiya ^_^ Still not sure I like it, but it's a lot better than it was.It's not the final version, if you see something that needs fixing, point it out plz, and I'll love you forever and ever and ever. Yeah, at least that much.
They broke up around three PM; Kakashi had, once again, better things to do with his time -- if the things were "stay home and freak out sneaky students", Naruto would... he didn't know what he would do, but he'd be annoyed.
They walked Sakura to the Hokage Tower, then Sasuke left to settle more Uchiha business stuff that Naruto didn't ask about. Naruto went back to the house in which they were camping, picked up the scrolls, and trekked back to the tower, muttering all the while about the stupid people who had chosen to build the district at the ass-end of Konoha.
He knew that Sakura and Tsunade would be at the hospital, so he just made his way upstairs, waving at the guards and whistling all the while. He didn't even bother knocking before he reached for the handle.
"If you're looking for Tsunade, she isn't here," a deep masculine voice bellowed cheerfully in his ear
Naruto eeped and whirled around. Jiraiya was looming over him, with a genial smile on his face and an evil glint in his eyes.
"Pervert-sennin!" Ack! Caught in the act! Wait, no, he had no way of knowing what Naruto was doing. Yeah. "Get a kick out of startling people?"
"Oho, so I startled you? Maybe you need remedial stealth training."
"In your dreams perhaps," Naruto grumbled, crossing his arms defensively. Jiraiya herded him toward the end of the corridor, and Naruto didn't have any choice but to follow reluctantly. "What do you want? ...You don't have another trip planned anytime soon, right?" he added suddenly, worried. Cool techniques or not, it really wasn't the right time to go on a field trip with the old man.
"Nah. Why?"
Naruto relaxed. "Oh, no reason, just got some stuff planned."
"Stuff, eh?"
Well, it was Jiraiya who had taught Naruto that hiding the truth was easier if you actually told the truth. Or part of it. And let them assume whatever they wanted. "Yeah. With my girlfriend," he added with a huge grin. The grin was sincere -- he always got a kick out of thinking of Sakura as his girlfriend, and this was the first time he said the term out loud in front of another person. It felt like a milestone, even if Jiraiya already knew.
"Ooh? Sounds like fun."
The old pervert waggled his eyebrows; Naruto made a face at him. "Don't you have anything better to perv about?"
"Perv! Perv, he says. I'm doing something infinitely better than perving." Jiraiya drew himself up proudly. "I'm drafting up my next epic."
Naruto snorted. "The boyfriend will be there too."
Jiraiya twitched.
"Boyfriend. Boooyfrieeend... Like a boy. To make out with. Still inspired?"
"...You just ruined a masterpiece, boy."
Naruto snickered, even as Jiraiya cuffed him.
"Kinda gross to be writing about your students anyway, isn't it."
"Bah! Who would want to read about YOU? The situation has potential, that's all. It would certainly be an original twist in a romance story."
Jiraiya had herded him to the empty meeting room at the end of the corridor as they talked; they leaned side by side against the windowsill.
"Romance, hah. You write smut, old man."
"Well, of course! What better way to celebrate the passion of two hearts -- or three -- finally coming together?"
Naruto grinned. "And now you sound like Gai-sensei."
He got another slap to the head for his troubles.
"So disrespectful."
They watched the plaza underneath, the streets of Konoha stretching and sprawling up to the forest.
"...You will be taking the proper precautions for your escapade, I hope," Jiraiya eventually commented, watching him from the corner of his eye.
"It's not like we could knock up Sakura-chan again, you know," Naruto retorted without thinking.
There was a flash of pained amusement in Jiraiya's eyes. What had Naruto gotten wrong now? ... Oh. OH. Those kinds of precautions. Well, damn, did the old pervert really know everything or what?
/Didn't think you could fool an old fox, did you,/ Kyuubi rumbled mockingly. Naruto grumbled his annoyance under his breath, at the old man and at the demon fox both. Since when did Kyuubi approve of anyone he knew anyway?
"... Yeah, we're taking all the precautions we know."
"Well, that's a step in the right direction." Jiraiya turned back to watch the city, appearing to lose interest in the conversation. Naruto knew better now.
Well then. If the old pervert had guessed what was truly going on...
"Hey, old man..."
"I told you already, don't call me that. What do you want, brat?"
"Well, I--"
/Leave false tracks./
Naruto closed his mouth, startled at the active interest the fox was taking in the situation. Kyuubi hadn't offered more than a few offhanded comments at random since the fire; it felt... weird to have him so close to the surface, so awake and aware. A little crowded in his head, as if they ran the risk of blurring at the edges if they didn't watch what belonged to who. Naruto didn't push him back down, even though he knew he would probably end up feeling the repercussions in the next few days.
'Why? He already knows.'
/Not all your watchdogs are as pitiful at stalking as you are./
'I'm not pitiful!' Naruto protested; and then he paused. He hadn't noticed spies any time today... '-- did you... notice anything?'
Kyuubi growled in annoyance. /With what? My nonexistent ears? The eyes you refuse to turn in the right direction? Stupid brat./
Naruto pouted. Like he could just guess what Kyuubi could or couldn't see, when half the time he barely noticed him. 'Why do you care anyway?'
/Do you WANT to be stopped now?/
... Well, no, he didn't. So fine! Fine. Stupid fox could stay, and too bad if Naruto ended up sleepwalking again. Now how to make Jiraiya understand what Naruto was on about, while still making potential spies understand something else entirely...
"Naruto?" Jiraiya was peering at him.
"Ah -- uh, sorry. We still don't know what they want with guys like me, do we? Those guys with the weird cloaks."
"We have a couple of guesses," Jiraiya replied, arching an eyebrow at him.
Okay. Okay, he could do it. Now if there were spies, they would assume he was asking because he was worried about Akatsuki. Which was classified info, but hey, he was the first concerned there. He just had to keep it... what was the word again? Ambiguous. "Think they want... Well, you know how my chakra is?"
Jiraiya hummed, but seemed to take a perverse delight in waiting to see how Naruto was going to end the sentence if Jiraiya didn't finish it for him. Naruto gave him a disgruntled glare.
"You see what I mean, old man. Do you think they might want to... To tap into it or something?"
"It's a possibility," Jiraiya commented noncommittally. "At first glance, it looks likely."
Naruto fell silent, hoping that he looked thoughtful, and not like he was trying to pinpoint eventual spies. As far as he could tell, there was no one at the window next to or over them, and the corridor was empty. He couldn't detect anyone, and if there were bugs in the room, they were wel-hidden, but surely Jiraiya would stop him if he said something incriminating.
Unless Jiraiya really didn't know anything and was pretending his ass off to trick Naruto into telling him, which was a strong possibility.
Bah. He had laid enough of a false trail with the Akatsuki thing. Hopefully they would think him too simple for a two-layered misdirection.
"Say, hypothetically, what would happen if someone set up a direct pipeline from my chakra to theirs?"
Jiraiya chuckled wryly and shook his head in open amusement. His eyes were wary. "Depends if the link is direct or filtered."
Naruto frowned. "Well, if it wasn't filtered they'd just burn their coils -- I mean that's what happened with Sasuke, and it was just a little bit of chakra."
Jiraiya nodded in approval. "Indeed. But sadly, they're smarter than that."
"So what would happen with filters?"
"Depends on the type... A hell of a power boost. Or a blast. Possibly a crater."
Naruto winced. "Eurgh. Craters are bad."
"It all depends on how smoothly the flow is drawn out; they would need to control the output and the power surges very carefully."
Jiraiya picked up a piece of chalk and idly started tracing lines on the blackboard.
"With a structure like this, you'd be more likely to survive it, and it also would give us more time to rescue you -- and if you add this here, it gives you -- the victim -- a little more control on the flow, so in case the... guys in the weird cloaks give you some slack, you can slow down the process yourself. It would still be a hell of a strain on both you and the receiver, but then they're not S-class for nothing."
Naruto winced. Sakura was very much not S-class. None of them were. "... But what if they, err. Wanted to be on the safe side? And looked for a way to echo the, you know, the healing thinger I do?"
Jiraiya added a few scribbles. "Then it should look somewhat like that; if you disrupt this, it will backfire rather spectacularly."
Naruto took note. No disrupting the kinda angular coiled ram-horn pattern inside that triangle. Absolutely not.
...What did it look like again?
"...But in this case," Jiraiya continued, "there would be problems with... personality contamination."
Personality what? ...Oh. Possession. Naruto remembered that objection from Sasuke and Sakura's conversation. "There's no filters for that?"
"Hm, depends on the type, of course. Filters in this --" quick sketch-- "structure seem counterintuitive, on account of--" Jiraiya pointed out little details "-- these, but they would regulate the wild fluctuations better, and keep only the -- let's say brainwaves -- that echo the target's waves. The two sets of brainwaves might echo off each other for a while, leading to mood swings, but then there wouldn't be anything new that wasn't there before in the target's personality."
Naruto cringed. "Err. Alright." He hadn't gotten any of that. And could the diagram be any more complicated? He would never remember it all.
/I will./
Naruto swallowed. '...Tell me why I should trust you to help Sakura not get possessed by you.' He knew that technically Kyuubi couldn't leave him; but apparently kitsune didn't really need to move to their next victim to exercise an influence on their minds.
/Feh! She's weak. Why would I want her?/
Naruto growled a little. It sounded dismissive enough to be the truth, and that was reassuring, but... 'Don't talk about her like that.'
Jiraiya was staring at him.
"Ah -- sorry, I got a bit... Distracted." Naruto tried smiling, and realized that his canines had grown.
"Naruto--"
"It's alright. I just -- I'm not gonna remember all that," he admitted, shrugging; he hoped Jiraiya wouldn't ask.
Jiraiya didn't; he just gave him a last narrow-eyed look, and then he sighed and leaned back against the windowsill. "Well then, you will just have to do what everyone does when they wish to educate themselves, and go to the library."
"But I already did! And there was nothing that helped enough on that stuff, even in the restri-- er. The specialized section."
Jiraiya sighed. Loudly.
"Hopeless. Subtle as a brick," Naruto heard him mutter under his breath. "Did you check this side of the library?"
Naruto looked out of the window toward where Jiraiya was pointing, and stared in confusion. The East side was for agriculture and carpentry and things like that. "Er, old man..."
"Who knows, maybe the Breeding and Pest Control section will have books pertaining to your... vermin problem."
Vermin, huh. Naruto didn't know if he was feeling amused respect or offended annoyance more. Perhaps both. If he got the chance, he would kill Jiraiya cleanly; the old man deserved that much.
... Kyuubi. Kyuubi didn't know. Not Naruto. Fuck. Naruto closed his eyes, and shoved the startled, bristling demon fox away; it hurt, they were too entangled to separate that fast. But he didn't want Kyuubi's stray thoughts in his head. The fox's deliberate comments were unnerving enough.
... Library. Pest control section. Alright. "I'll go and check."
"Be sure to do that. We wouldn't want said pest to run free around Konoha, now would we."
... Ack. His blooming headache didn't help his thought process much; but the comment was blatant enough that Naruto couldn't miss that Jiraiya wasn't bothering to pretend they were still talking about Akatsuki anymore. Oops. His little 'restricted -- er, I mean specialized' quip was probably too obvious to allow for even a second of misinterpretation.
Well, um. At least it probably meant no one was listening, or else Jiraiya would have looked more than slightly annoyed. Right? Right.
God, his head hurt, and there was too much light. He squinted, grinned sheepishly at Jiraiya; this time he made sure to keep his mouth shut.
"Any other advice, old man?"
Jiraiya gave him a serious look. "The Uchiha district already has protective barriers ready to go all around its walls; they would take some time and determination to breach. From the inside or from the outside. Use them."
Naruto nodded, subdued. Not being interrupted without warning was good. Making sure that the villagers were safe was better. Breaching the barrier would take some time, time enough for Tsunade and the ANBU to get there, perhaps time enough to evacuate. Better than doing it in the forest; distance wouldn't help much, Kyuubi was more than vindictive enough to trek through a few countries to get back to Konoha.
They stood there, by the window; and then Jiraiya reached out and ruffled Naruto's hair, hard enough to make Naruto's head move with it.
"Ow! Leave my hair alone, old man!"
"You should get going now, you cheeky brat. Oh -- don't forget: banzai!"
Naruto folded in two over Jiraiya's hand, breath knocked out of him. Wheezing, he glared up at the old man and stepped back, rubbing his stomach. "What the hell did you do that for?!"
Jiraiya laughed. "No reason, just for old times' sake. Everything works better if you're relaxed! Especially the mixing of chakra. And I hear Tsunade coming back..."
Naruto whirled around and listened. Oh damn. Heels stomping in the corridor. He was going to have a hard time replacing the scroll without her noticing; he'd already been lucky the first time. He turned back to face Jiraiya, who was leaning against the windowsill once again. "I gotta go, the old hag wants me to clean her office--"
Jiraiya looked amused. "How convenient."
"-- and she's gonna bitch if I'm not even started... er. Yeah, I guess." Naruto squirmed guiltily.
"Perhaps you're not entirely hopeless," Jiraiya commented as he turned to face him.
Naruto started smiling awkwardly.
"... Or perhaps you just got lucky." Jiraiya was holding a blue and white book, one Naruto had been damn sure was safely tucked away in his jacket. Naruto felt his pocket; the green scroll was still there. But his zipper was open. Argh! Stupid banzai trick.
"Get going, and don't forget to go to the library when you're done here. I'll give this back to Kakashi."
Oh, damn it. Was there anything, anything at all the old pervert didn't know? ... Kakashi probably knew, too. Hell, he'd probably told the old pervert in the first place. Bunch of sneaky, meddling bastards.
It was a good thing they were on Team Seven's side.
Naruto sighed, chuckled despite himself, and waved jauntily at Jiraiya as he walked out of the meeting room.
+
What issues are there left to tackle before the "applying the seal" scene? Because that applying the seal thing is the last scene of Teamwork2 and dude, I can't wait to get there.
breathe, people. It's not the end of the Teamwork universe, just of this fic. Next I can start doing a couple of one-shots until Teamwork 3 (the Chuunin exam) instead of dragging myself along week after week and writing "you were baaad" *boring political babble stuff* *tedious missions stuff*. That way I can just skip to a month or three later and only allude to other (hopefully resolved by then) issues while concentrating on a specific subject. Like, say, the "hey, Rookies 9, let's have fun together and oh btw we're a threesome" scene. Or the "Kiba's mom VS Kyuubi : Kiba's mom TOTALLY PWNS" scene. And stuff.
So, in this light, what issues did I set up that I need to take care of before the seal scene? ^^;
no subject
no subject
Thank you~
*bliss*
(Anonymous) 2006-10-30 02:47 pm (UTC)(link)This part, here:
There was a flash of pained amusement in Jiraiya's eyes. What had Naruto gotten wrong now? ... Oh. OH. That kind of precautions. Well, damn, did the old pervert really know everything or what?
should be "Those kinds of precautions." ("That" being singular and "those" being plural . . .) ^__~
MommyRogers
Re: *bliss*
(I SHALL EMAIL YOU SOON PROMISE.)
no subject
no subject
thank you, love ^___^
no subject
no subject
x___x;; *ded*
no subject
(Anonymous) 2006-10-30 04:45 pm (UTC)(link)'feeling the repercussions in the next days.' 'next few days.'
'watchdogs are more pitiful' what about 'watchdogs are as pitiful', don't know its personal preference
'Jiraiya sighed. Loudly. "Hopeless. Subtle as a brick," Naruto heard him mutter under his breath. "Did you check this side of the library?"'
The order makes it sound like Jiraiya says the first part loudly and the last part quietly.
Seperate them out a bit maybe?
'I'll give that back to Kakashi.'
'give this back' it's something close to the speaker.
As for issues, maybe Sakura wants to tell Ino she'll be moving out soon, you know, if everything goes well. Maybe a touching scene where Ino and Sakura swear eternal friendship and Ino waves goodbye as Sakura leaves perphaps to her death....yeah okay.
Going off to hide in a far away corner of cyberspaciness.
no subject
*snerk* I would, except it has to stay in Naruto's POV. Which makes me kinda sad because I had the perfect occasion for SasuSaku bonding, but Naruto is never gonna sit still long enough to watch them being jutsu geeks together more than five minutes.
no subject
But totally not a big issue. Other thing's you've set up... not a lot comes to mind. The library thing could be handled as a throwaway at the beginning of the next part. ...yeah I think that's about it, as far as I can think of.
Also, being sort of a huge fangirl here? This line: "Any other advice, old man?"
Jiraiya gave him a serious look. "The Uchiha district already has protective barriers ready to go all around its walls; they would take some time and determination to breach. From the inside or from the outside. Use them."
It makes me so so happy- somehow naruto-verse ninja actually using the environmental benefits they have is just WIN, and yay.
no subject
fufufu. Thank you ^^ It's probably fanon as hell, but oh well, it makes sense. XD;;
no subject
Everything flows much more naturally now too; the dialogue flows so well, the information is portrayed interestingly, and it's all so very in-character. I _love_ the Jiraiya/Naruto interaction juxtaposed with the Kyuubi/Naruto interaction. *squees in delight*
The Kyuubi/Naruto power/mind-struggles are really great throughout, but especially in this chapter. There's this subtle, natural flow of it which is just so _great_ and so powerful: [[ Vermin, huh. Naruto didn't know if he was feeling amused respect or offended annoyance more. Perhaps both. If he got the chance, he would kill Jiraiya cleanly; the old man deserved that much. ... ... Kyuubi. Kyuubi didn't know. Not Naruto. Fuck. Naruto closed his eyes, and shoved the startled, bristling demon fox away; it hurt, they were too entangled to separate that fast. But he didn't want Kyuubi's stray thoughts in his head. The fox's deliberate comments were unnerving enough. ]]
I wasn't paying "very close editing attention", mostly I was just all excited over seeing an update, but I didn't see anything misspelled, misused, or generally wrong. I'll probably go over it again [I know this chapter has been tough on you, but I hope you grow to like it cause it's really, really great] so if I see anything, I'll let you know.
Jiraiya and Kakashi do know everything. *le sigh* And I love it. It's especially awesome because they really are "on Team Seven's side." Also, Naruto thinking they're "meddling bastards" while Kakashi and Jiraiya think they're "cheeky brats" is so consistent, in-character, and _funny_. It's also just so true. *^.~*
Vale!
~ Monique ~
no subject
It's so fun to play with Kyuubi/Naruto. I'm regretting not doing it more often. XD But then that would be too fast a transition.
Jiraiya and Kakashi have eyes, and the kids really aren't as subtle as they think. XD
Thank you for the comment, love ^___^
no subject
Oh, love. XD I like how this worked out, with Kyuubi's influence and Naruto trying to be discrete and Jiraiya-- well, just Jiraiya. It's good seeing him again, he's fun to have around. I really like their interaction.
This chapter also, I think, highlights how serious and dangerous a thing the three of them are attempting is. And how complex, as well. I finally really get the sense that a lot of things can go horribly wrong, and Sakura had every reason to be -- not just worried -- but fully pissed from before.
no subject
it does? yay! ^____^ (... now i'm afraid i pushed it so far in toe OMGDANGEROUS spectrum that it looks selfish to even risk it. XD;;; )
no subject
no subject
no subject
Also:
>>"Kiba's mom VS Kyuubi : Kiba's mom TOTALLY PWNS" scene
I am already excited for this. XD
no subject
Hehe. You're just in a hurry to arrive to the sexx0ring -- er. 9__9 not that there should be sexx0ring at the end of this chapter. nope. Nuh-huh. *slinks off*
i'd be more excited if I knew what happens exactly. How do you go about teaching someone about INSTINCTS? D:
no subject
8D! yesplz.
no subject
Honestly? Total immersion. Forcing him to live like half-Naru/half-Kyuubi 24/7 ought to do it, because in your 'verse Naruto's demonstrated that when Kyuubi's dominant and Naruto's conscious (or lets him seep in a little) he can push Kyuubi's more dangerous instincts to the background (as in the scene in Teamwork 1 where he stopped Kyuubi from molesting Sasuke because Sasuke was hurt).
And I also cannot wait for Kyuubi vs. Kiba's Mom. Did I say that already? Just checking. I mean, not only is he going to learn pack instincts and pack mentality, he's also going to learn how a real pack leader behaves and that's going to appeal to his sense of honor and whatnot. And maybe help him feel less threatened by Sasuke because Naruto will eventually come to feel that he has to be the leader of his pack until Sasuke gets over this stupid Itachi thing (at least that's what I'm hoping for).
no subject
He got another slap to the head for his troubles.
"So disrespectful."
Ouch. Goes to show what Jiraiya thinks of Gai, eh?
The pretending to talk about Akatsuki thing was a nice twist, and Kyuubi's mind becoming intertwined with Naruto's to the point he couldn't tell his thoughts from the fox's for a moment was very creepy. Seems like possible foreshadowing.
Jiraiya's character felt slightly off at first, but that feeling faded as the scene progressed. Overall, it was good.
no subject
Where does it feels off and why? You can't say something like that and not point out things, how am i going to fix it otherwise. ;___;
no subject
no subject
The last part though shows that Jiraiya does look out for Naruto as he does in the series :)
I am looking forward to the Teamwork one shots....Foxplay is my fave so far x__x
no subject
♥
Pervert. :D ♥
no subject
it was cute when jiraya snatched kakashis book back ^^
i loved the way you wrote kyuubis "influence" on naruto. the way narutos canines would appear and the headache after having him on the surface to long... really great!
no subject
no subject
Query: You mentioned that you did a porny drabble not too long ago that got longer and then sidetracked when the trio got angsty. Where was that posted, if ever?
The Threesome
(Anonymous) 2006-11-02 12:53 pm (UTC)(link)no subject
(Anonymous) 2007-01-26 05:12 pm (UTC)(link)Issues that need addressing. Umm... No, I can't really think of anything off the top of my head- at least, nothing that the trio are likely to do right now. I mean, they aren't about to go and have dinner with Sakura's mom again, although I'd like to see more of her. Maybe more on how Sasuke deals with being in the neighbourhood? He seemed very suddenly to be okay with it all.