Chapter Text
When Jiraiya first saw the Uzumaki twins they were ten years old. The boy was holding his sister’s hand and hurrying down the street while she struggled to keep up, using the sleeve of her orange jacket to subtly wipe her tears. Both were dirty and scratched up. The eyes of the villagers followed them, malicious and angry.
The sight stirred something within Jiraiya. It was a complicated mix of feelings that included guilt, because he had fled the Leaf after the funeral, drowning in grief and disappointment for his lost student. There was also anger, a white-hot rage that he had felt few times in his life because these were Minato and Kushina’s children. How dare these villagers dishonor their memory by treating their children this way?
Jiraiya followed the children back to an apartment building that was in shambles, watching from the window as the boy sat his sister down on a three-legged stool and cleaned her cuts. The tears that the girl had been trying to hide flowed and she hickuped on sobs and snot while her brother cooed reassurances. The look in the boy’s eyes told Jiraiya that he thought they were empty promises.
The toad sage shadowed them for a week. He watched and was surprised to see that all the villagers treated them the same. Jiraiya had been hoping that what he’d seen that night had been an aberration. It wasn’t. None of the adults raised a hand to the children, but they avoided them. Wherever they went the Uzumaki twins were stared at, whispered about, scorned. It was too much to hope that the children didn’t hear what was being said about them.
Worse was the academy, where the twins were segregated by their classmates. It seemed that the girl was more of an outcast than the boy. She was loud and brash, just like her mother, running around shouting about being the Hokage without having any aptitude for classroom studies or practical exercises. The girls were particularly cruel to her, making fun of her pigtails and orange clothes. The boy was more like Minato, studious and quiet. He was exceptional in both the classroom and the practicals. The only mark against his performance was that his shuriken and kunai never hit the mark, though with how often they landed near the Uchiha kid, Jiraiya suspected that was intentional.
There were a few students who approached him throughout the week, but he always stuck with his sister, who would have been alone otherwise.
The teachers were as biased against the Uzumaki twins as the rest of the village seemed to be. Jiraiya once witnessed the girl throw a punch at a pink-haired student who had been heckling her. The sensei that broke it up grabbed the back of her orange jacket and dragged her away without asking who had started the fight. The only one who seemed to care about the twins was a chūnin teacher with a decent rack, caramel skin, and a scar across her nose. She had barged into the other teacher’s office and glared him down until he released the Uzumaki into her custody.
The sensei had escorted the girl out and checked her for injuries before asking what had happened and chastising her appropriately for throwing the first punch. But the chūnin took both twins out for ramen that evening, so she was well above her peers in her treatment of the Uzumaki’s.
The more he watched the more chaotic the storm of emotions in his heart became and Jiraiya found himself approaching the twins by the end of the week. He waited until they were home before ringing the doorbell. It was the boy who answered, cracking the door and keeping the chain lock engaged.
“Hello…?”
Jiraiya smiled and hoped that it looked reassuring. The narrow-eyed glare that the boy gave him let him know that it hadn’t quite worked. Whatever. He cleared his throat and held up the take-out that he had brought. It was Ichiraku Ramen and he didn’t miss the glitter of interest in the boy’s eyes when he noticed the logo on the bag.
“Hey there, I wanted to talk to you.”
The boy’s eyes sharpened again, and he looked seconds away from refusing before the girl crowded up behind him squealing about smelling ramen. When she spotted the bag, she shoved her brother away and slammed the door, flinging it open sparse seconds after removing the chain lock.
“Ramen!” she shouted.
Jiraiya held the bag over his head and waded through the front entrance, not bothering to kick his shoes off as he searched for the kitchen. The girl followed him, chanting “ramen, ramen, ramen!”
It took several weeks of such encounters before he became a welcome visitor. The girl – Naruto, the name made a lump of emotion well in Jiraiya’s throat – took to him immediately. Her brother was more difficult.
Menma Uzumaki was much more reserved than his sister. She tended to trust too easily and throw herself into things without considering the consequences. The male Uzumaki was a watcher, just like Minato had been. The type of person who hangs back and analyzes things, ‘trust but verify’ as the saying goes.
Jiraiya had a heck of a time convincing the kid that he wasn’t some kind of pervert after the yellow-haired wonder discovered his books. The toad sage had no idea how the boy found out and almost swallowed his tongue when Menma bluntly asked him if he was some kind of pedophile during his second visit. But eventually, the kid came around and he found himself spending more time with them.
Naruto was boisterous and loud even with people that she had only just met. It was more genuine with people that she knew, and it was obvious that she used noise as a defense mechanism with people she didn’t know. Despite being the class clown and a terrible student, she was very sharp. She proved this when Jiraiya got tired of her horrendous clones and decided to teach her. Within the hour she had mastered the multi-shadow clone jutsu. Impressive considering that she had never laid eyes on the forbidden scroll.
It was that incident that piqued his interest and Jiraiya began to train them. He had hoped that Minato may be the child of prophecy that he was destined to guide, the one who would save the shinobi world. But that was not the case. Perhaps one of his children could be the one…?
If it was one of the Uzumaki twins, Jiraiya supposed it would be Menma. The boy was a prodigy as his father had been, listening intently to Jiraiya and mastering jutsu that should be beyond his capability. Naruto had more difficulty. Rather than learning through text, like Menma, she learned by being thrust into situations. That was one of the reasons that Jiraiya was tougher on her than he was with her brother. She also had the Nine-Tails sealed inside her, which was enough of a handicap without the learning curve.
In the end they both passed their genin exam after three months of training with Jiraiya. The tanned chūnin that Jiraiya had come to know as Iruka-sensei took them all to Ichiraku to celebrate. Both kids gulped down three bowls of ramen each and thanked their sensei sincerely for the meal. She laughed and told them that it was time to go home.
They parted outside the ramen shop, Iruka-sensei walking the sleepy genin home while Jiraiya went in the opposite direction. The streets of the Leaf became less and less populated the further out he went, wandering feet eventually guiding him to the old training grounds.
It was there that he stood and thought about the time he had spent in the Leaf, knowing that it was too much, and he would need to continue his wanderings soon. The toad sage had leads to follow and information to gather. Naruto and Menma would soon be placed on their genin team, sent on missions, honing the basic skills that he’d given them these past three months.
But still…
Jiraiya thought about Naruto and Menma.
The former confessed that she wants to be stronger to make the whispers stop. She wants to be Hokage so that everyone acknowledges her and Menma can make friends without worrying about her anymore.
This was confessed in a moment of weakness after getting thoroughly trounced by Jiraiya in a taijutsu match. It was the most thoughtful that Jiraiya had ever seen her and the fire lurking deep in her eyes reminded him of Minato.
Menma said that he wants to be strong enough to protect Naruto. This confession was less forthcoming than his sister’s. Menma was drugged up to his eyeballs in the hospital after suffering from chakra exhaustion from training with suiton. Naruto wasn’t in the room and Jiraiya doubts that the Uzumaki boy would have told him this otherwise. His eyes had been glazed as he said it, sorrowful and determined in equal parts.
The Leaf village has an abundance of capable jōnin, but Jiraiya’s gut told him that none of them would be able to prepare the Uzumaki twins for what was coming. Even if neither of them is the child of prophecy there is still conflict in the world. Naruto’s status as the Nine-tail Jinchuriki ensures that they’ll see more than most. There’s also the bias against them to consider. All but one of the academy teachers treated the twins like monsters rather than children. Both had the potential to be exceptional, but that potential was greatly reduced in such a biased learning environment. There’s no guarantee that any jōnin sensei that they’re assigned to would treat them fairly or be able to develop their skills.
Menma is a prodigy, learning jutsu well above his rank. Naruto already has impressive chakra reserves. If she were to learn how to tap into the fox’s chakra, she would be nearly unstoppable. No jōnin in the Leaf could teach her that. Hell, Jiraiya doesn’t know if he can teach her that. But he has a few ideas and that is a lot more than other jōnin sensei can boast.
(Jiraiya also hates the idea of leaving them in the village, under the malicious eyes of the villagers and their classmates. The protective feeling is like what he had felt for Nagato, Yahiko, and Konan all those years ago. He’s unsure how he feels about the comparison).
So, Jiraiya went to Old Man Sarutobi the next morning. He didn’t look surprised when the toad sage appeared in his office. Instead, he folded his hands together and said: “I’ve heard that you have taken an interest in the Uzumaki twins.”
“They both have potential” Jiraiya acknowledges, “I’m leaving the village soon and want to take them with me. To continue their training.”
“They need to learn to work on a three-man team. There are many capable jōnin that could advance their education.”
“Learning on the road is the best learning, just write it off as a mission. I’m going to be gathering intel while I’m out anyway. It’ll be good experience for them” Jiraiya countered.
“It is against procedure; the council members will not like it.”
“Tell them to stick it up their asses. Those kids aren’t going to get anywhere if the village keeps treating them like missing nin just because one of them is a Jinchuriki.”
The Hokage’s jaw clenched. Jiraiya had hit a sore spot and he was more than okay with that. He knew that the Third had been looking out for the kids, but Sarutobi didn’t see the extent of the hatred directed at the children. Or if he did, he ignored it.
Willful ignorance was one of the Hokage’s character flaws. Orochimaru was proof of that. Not that Jiraiya was exempt from that sin, but he refused to turn a blind eye this time. Minato and Kushina’s children needed time away from the village. They needed room to grow and wouldn’t get it surrounded by malice.
So, he stood firm, eyes locked with his old sensei. The Hokage signed and relaxed into his chair. “Alright. If you think that this is best, I will trust your judgement.”
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They left two days later. Iruka-sensei was there to see them off. She made them check their travel packs twice, and a third time for good measure. Naruto whined that they weren’t kids and the chūnin hugged her in response, pulling Menma in to join them and refusing to let go until they promised to write her. They did, and she beamed, telling Menma to keep her updated on his progress with suiton and Naruto to let her know how she progressed with clones.
The chūnin shook Jiraiya’s hand and told him to keep an eye on them. He promised that he would, adding a salacious wink for good measure. The look on her face became strained and he expected her to pull away as she had every time before, but this time she tightened her grip and leaned in closer.
The strained smile on her face became threatening and the legendary sannin felt a shiver go down his spine as she hissed: “If you teach them any of your bad habits, I will cut your testicles out with a senbon and drag you into the underground waterways. The pressure from there will squeeze the perversion out of you while also ruining your face so badly that not even hookers will want to lay with you.”
Then the smile was back on her face, and she broke the handshake to smile at the twins, who were utterly oblivious to what had just happened. Jiraiya made a mental note to watch his step around Iruka Umino.