Time That Passes By

Chapter 35 - Before the Action Begin

Third Person's POV

"Hurry up, Jiraiya! You're too slow" Mai said as she jump from tree to tree ahead of Jiraiya.

"Not to say this, but no matter how it looks like I am the elder one here you know" Jiraiya said, catching up to her.

"I know that. Don't bring up your age in here right now. You're still capable of fighting against the Akatsuki leader, and you're telling me you can't keep up with this speed?" Mai said.

"You have been in a bad mood, did Kakashi do something again? that's why you're mad?" Jiraiya ask.

"It's because of your stupid book you idiot! If by the time I came back and if he ever influence Rin and Itachi with that book of yours I'm going to make sure I beat him up!" Mai said angrily.

Jiraiya laughed nervously and decide to smartly not say anything at all.

They're on the way to Amegakure, where they wish to find Konan, the last surviving out of Jiraiya's 3 students. As they finally reach there and get some information after a few days, they found out that there was a big battle just a few days back. They definitely found traces of some fight but there was no sign of Konan. 

"Maybe the fight was between her and the masked man?" Mai ask.

"Big possibility. There's no way that the masked man is going to leave Konan just like that. Something happened" Jiraiya said.

Mai suddenly look up to the sky, sensing something. A paper flew by and she caught it.

"Paper..."

"There's blood on it" Jiraiya said.

"Yeah..." Mai look at it sadly.

"Jiraiya...maybe..."

"I know... I know..."

"I'm sorry" Mai said.

"You didn't do anything wrong. Maybe I should have brought those kids back with me instead. Back to Konoha. During that war... Those three are brilliant. Too bad I couldn't watch them grow up. But they're a good shinobi" Jiraiya said.

"Yeah... they just... went to a different direction to pursue peace" Mai said. 

"I suppose let's go back then. There's nothing else we can do here" Jiraiya said as he start walking away.

"You sure?"

"Yeah"

Meanwhile~

Naruto found out that not only that Danzo has officially made Sasuke a Rogue ninja, but also that he found out that Sasuke killed someone in the Kumogakure. Not only everyone was devastated, he didn't know how to deal with things right now.

Itachi look at the kids as they look down on the ground. He can clearly see that they're sad and upset because of his little brother.

"Sasuke was like a brother to Naruto. Like a brother, a rival, a friend..." 

Itachi turn around looking at Kakashi.

"To Naruto, hearing this news for sure left him with mix feelings" Kakashi said.

"Won't he be deciding something soon? Knowing him, he'll do something reckless" Itachi said.

"Yeah, he will. I'm just not sure what exactly he'll do, until then I have to keep watching as to what will happen in the village while Mai's gone" Kakashi said.

"Now that Danzo's declared as the Hokage, I'm sure he'll do something else" Itachi said.

"Yeah, that's for sure. Don't do anything reckless, Itachi. Mai will kill me" Kakashi said as he place his hands in his pocket and walk away.