A Sacrifice for Another

Chapter 19

Naruko and the others all sat down at Ichiraku ramen. They each ordered one bowl of ramen, well, except for Naruko and Kushina. They both ordered 10 bowls and sat, waiting for their meals to arrive.

Lunch went by quickly and they had talked about who would be trained by who. Obito decided to ask his father to train him and Rin decided to ask Tsunade to see if she would take her on as her apprentice. Naruko told Christina and Neji about her decision to ask Sarutobi if they could go to Ame to look for Nagato, Konan, and Yahiko. They said that they would come as well, and Naruko suggested that they bring Jiraiya, so that the kids wouldn't think they were being tricked.

The lunch ended and they all parted ways. Rin going back home to rest, Obito going to find his father, Minato and Kushina going home to relax, and the Time travelers along with Haku going to the Hokage Tower.

They arrived and asked for a meeting with the Hokage. Luckily, he was only doing some paper work, so they were able to go in immediately.

They walked into the door and Sarutobi looked up. He smiled, and was thinking 'Thank you! Now I can stop doing this cursed paper work!'

"Hey kids, what are you here for?" He asked.

"Ji-ji, we were wondering if we could go to Ame and look for these three kids, Nagato, Konan, and Yahiko. They were Jiraiya's students while he was there. They might cause some trouble in the future, and it would be good to get them on our side if we can." Naruko said, shifting Haku so she was holding him against her side.

"Alright Naruko, but on one condition. You must bring Jiraiya with you." The third hokage said.

"Sure! That was gonna be my next question anyways! We need him so that we can convince them that we're not lying." Naruko said.

"Alright then, here, let me draw up some passes to Ame. You go find Jiraiya. When you find him, bring him back here and I'll give you your passes." Sarutobi said.

"Okay Ji-ji! We'll be back soon!" Naruko yelled, already dragging Neji and Christina out.

Sarutobi just chuckled and set to making the passes. At least this was better than paper work.

Outside, Naruko was pulling them in a straight line towards something. Neji stopped.

"Naruko, where are we even going? Do you have some type of homing device on Jiraiya or something? It's like you automatically know where he is." Neji said.

"That's because I know him so well. It's around 2 o'clock. This is the hour where he does his best 'research' or so he's told me. So, he'll be at the bath house in the south side of town." Naruko said, making air quotes when she said research.

"It's disturbing that you know that." Christina said.

"Well, I spent three years around him, after that amount of time, you kinda pick up on routines like that." Naruko said.

They started walking again to the south side of town.

"Kaa-san, what's 'research'?" Haku asked, even making the air quotes like Naruko did.

"Haku-kun, everybody has something that they like to learn about. When they take the time to go and learn more about it, they do research. Unfortunately, Ero-sennin likes to do inappropriate research, and I don't want you to ever do that kind of research, okay?" Naruko said, looking her son in the eyes.

"Got it kaa-san! Don't do the research that Ero-sennin does." He said.

"Awww! Look, he even takes after me! He's already calling Ero-sennin, Ero-sennin!" Naruko squealed.