The Next Morning……
“Hey, Naruto!” Jiraya’s annoying, loud voice filled the room. “How’s that ANBU I set you up with doing? Quit already?” The toad sage walked into the room, a grin on his face.
“SO IT WAS YOU, ERO-SENSEI!” Naruto shouted, throwing a kunai at the older man, missing by just a hair. “Damn, I should’ve aimed better.” Naruto muttered.
“Hey, hey, no reason to be angry!” Jiraya said, inching away from the kunai. “Geez…I just thought you’d need some company. And what better company than an ANBU?”
Of course, Jiraya didn’t tell him that he was also being protected by the Akatsuki. Naruto needn't know about that just yet. Then he would know that the ANBU really was his babysitter.
Naruto huffed. “It’s fine. She’s actually pretty quiet. Sometimes I don’t even know she’s there. Hime-san is really weird, but she’s gonna teach me—“
“What did you say her name was?” Jiraya said, looking into Naruto’s blue eyes with his own tiny black eyes. “Her name is Hime-san? That’s a pretty cool name. You know it means ‘princess’, right?”
“It does?” Naruto, of course, was clueless. “That is cool. She said her dad named her that.” He grinned.
“She was named by her father……?” Jiraya’s face took a serious tone. “Who was her father?”
Naruto blinked. Ero-sensei never looks this serious… “Are you just going to collect ‘research’ on her, you old perv?” His eyes narrowed.
“Now, now, not every girl I want to know gets research done on her,” Jiraya said cheerfully.
“That’s a lie, and you know it,” Naruto said simply and quite bluntly.
“……Well, so? What are you, her mother?” Jiraya sighed, taking a seat at Naruto’s bed. “Geez. I just wanted to know who her father was……” he placed his hand on his head, rubbing his forehead. “Don’t have to go all mother-in-law on me….”
“Well, I wouldn’t tell you, even if I did know!” Naruto said, sticking his tongue out at his master. “So you’re outta luck, Ero-sensei!”
“Whaaat?! You’d do that to your sensei?!” Jiraya stretched out Naruto’s cheeks. “You deserve a punishment—A JIRAYA punishment!” The two started roughhousing, pulling at each other and yelling.
Hime stood at the door, watching them quietly. She had been there the entire time. Her mask was in place, so her expression was unknown. She placed her hand on her chest. “Jiraya-sama……” she uttered quietly, so quiet that the two hyperactive idiot ninja didn’t hear her. Hime quietly tuned and walked out of the room, her hand still on her chest. “So you’re here, Jiraya-sama.……..? I better not disturb them.”
