The Tale Of An Utterly Old Lady. [Jiraiya x OC]

Chapter 13 | The Awaited Meeting

Chapter 13 | The Awaited Meeting

"Hey, Jiraiya! Heard you were gonna hold a wedding! When is it?"

"I'd totally want to see your wedding, Jiraiya!"

"Congrats, Jiraiya! When and where is the wedding happening?"

"It's crazy to think that you're the first one to get married from our class, but congrats anyway, dude. When is it? Invite me!"

Somehow, more and more people learned about the news, and every one of Jiraiya's friends and acquaintances were eager to see it. Granted, it seemed like most of them were looking for entertainment rather than sending their legitimate felicitations to us. I couldn't exactly blame them for finding the news amusing, however. After all, it was the infamous pervert, scum-of-the-earth, hated-by-women Jiraiya who was going to be the groom.

"Everyone's getting all excited about your wedding," Tsunade, who we came across while in the middle of a walk, pointed out.

"How come they're all more excited than either Elena and I?" Jiraiya sighed. "What a pain..."

"So, what'll you do? Didn't you say you would only hold a small one?"

"Would? We will!" Jiraiya asserted. "Just think about the money it'll cost!"

"Jiraiya's right," I nodded my head. "I'd much rather get it over with and go on from there."

"You two...are so weird," Tsunade shook her head at us.

"Well, if it wasn't for the cost, it would be pretty cool to have a nice wedding!" I gushed. "Like planning how it'll look and dressing myself up!"

"But you said last time at the udon shop that you didn't care," Tsunade raised an eyebrow at me.

Once she brought that up, I thought back to the time I said that. I still felt the same as I did: even if we were to hold a ceremony—regardless of it being for a fraudulent marriage—the attendees wouldn't include the ones I truly wanted to be present there. Just the thought of being in the center of a significant event, surrounded by people I don't really know, upset me. Still, I enjoyed imagining what it would be like if it were all for real.

I laughed before voicing my thoughts out to Tsunade: "Well yeah, I don't really care either way...but I mean, it's always cool to be part of something grand and exciting."

"Maybe we should start saving up for one," Jiraiya suggested. "We can have a small wedding for now, but then once we've got enough, let's have an extra-grandiose one!"

"Sounds fun! It should definitely be all or nothing," I grinned. "Then, I'll be able to ask Umika-san and Usumi-jiisan to come, since they'll have the time to travel."

It was just a silly joke, I thought. It's not as if he was actually serious about this, was he?

I couldn't afford to entertain myself with such a self-serving idea.

Tsunade left to do her own thing (most likely gambling), and so Jiraiya and I spent our entire day practically just walking around and chilling at home. Because of the fainting incident the night before, he talked me into getting a good rest for the day.

And then finally, on the day after, my meeting with Hiruzen arrived.

Beforehand, Jiraiya warned me that there would most likely be unwanted ears listening in on the conversation—considering that we would be talking to the Hokage himself. The information we had was much too dangerous to let just anyone hear, so on the last time Jiraiya had met up with Hiruzen, he sent a small signal to Hiruzen to ask for a one-on-one meeting, where no one else could eavesdrop.