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“It’s a baby!”
Jiraiya stiffened, turning to look at—
“He’s so adorable!”
“If only she knew,” Jiraiya thought to himself. Still, the child Konan referred to as a baby was most certainly not a baby, as last Jiraiya checked, his older brother’s son was academy age, but even more concerning, “How? I left you.”
“Konan insisted it was our turn to help you,” Yahiko said, while Nagato hid behind the orange-haired preteen.
“Who is he?” Konan asked, cooing over the child Jiraiya held up by the shoulders, a finger to her mouth. “He looks so worn out, the poor thing!”
“Yes, well,” Jiraiya turned, looking down at Sakumo’s child, who’d collapsed right into his arms the moment Jiraiya appeared, but then he squeaked out. “You three followed me?”
“We’re family,” Konan said, moving closer to peer at the white-haired child whose head lolled backwards from passing out. “The little one is the family of the sensei’s?”
Jiraiya let out a deep breath. “You could say that.”
“He either is or isn’t,” Nagato said.
“I’m kind of the black sheep of the family!” Jiraiya protested.
“Figures,” Yahiko laughed.
“How mean!”
And then he felt the child shifted from his arms, his eyes blinking as Konan pulled the child into her arms, hugging him close. “What is his name?”
“Uh,” Jiraiya blinked. “What did Sakumo call the boy?”
“You can’t remember?” Nagato blurted out.
“Yes, well…” And then he slammed a fist into the palm of his hand. “It’s Kakashi.”
“Scarecrow?” Nagato looked unimpressed.
Jiraiya opened his mouth to say he found his brother’s choice in names unimpressive only to stop as Konan cooed at Kakashi. “Little scarecrow.
“Huh. It fits,” Yahiko said. “He does look like a little scarecrow.”
Nagato moved closer, looking at the child, then, in awe. “He does! It makes sense.”
“Huh,” Jiraiya said. “So maybe it wasn’t as crazy as I thought.”
“Where to next, sensei?” Konan said.
“Well, I can’t just,” Jiraiya said. “How did you get past the guards?”
The three looked at each other.
“What guards?” Yahiko said.
“We just came over the wall where nobody was,” Nagato said.
Jiraiya let out a groan. “So instead of losing three brats to see to the one, even temporarily, I’m stuck with four now. What an unlucky number.”