Darkest Before Dawn

Toads and Weasels

   "PERVERT!"

   The women in the bath house shrieked and cleared out with a new record of 3.8 seconds. Jiraiya let out an irritated grumble as he turned around and pinned a hard glare at the shorty that made him loose his research. She merely looked up at him with a smug grin.

   "Is there something wrong, Jiraiya-san?" she questioned sweetly.

   "YOU MADE MY RESEARCH DISAPPEAR! AGAIN!"

   Sakura laughed.

   "Well, since you couldn't stop an eleven year old from chasing away your so-called 'research', you owe me some mochi."

   Jiraiya stared at her incredulously. That connection made absolutely no sense.

   "Brat."

   "Pervy grandpa." 

~

   He wasn't sure how she did it, but she did. The little punk named Sakura Haruno had manipulated hm into buying her mochi. Jiraiya looked at her cruiously as she took a large bite of the sweet treat. Could this really be the girl that murdered Danzo Shimura in cold blood?

   "So Jiraiya-san, what's up?"

   He raised an eyebrow.

   "Normally you're not in the village." she elaborated, "I've heard that you usually do recon type stuff, and when you come back to the village, you have information worth telling in person. Do you mind sharing?"

   Her eyes were calculating, but blank. Her emotions did not show through her eyes, yet one thing you could see was that she knew something. Jiraiya leaned forward and rested his head on his open palm.

   "The details are classified, but let me sum it up for you. There's a small group of S-ranks consisting of twelve former Konoha shinobi. Everyone being sent to gather information had not returned; even I couldn't get close enough. We need someone to infiltrate, we just can't find anyone for the job."

   A smile crawled onto Sakura's face as she stood up from her seat.

   "Meet me back here on Friday at 12:00 pm, Jiraiya-san."

   She walked out of the shop, leaving a confused sannin behind. Her first destination was the Academy. She left a note in her sensei's mailbox saying that she would be absent the entirety of next week. After that, she went home, tossed a few things in her backpack, and walked out the gates of Konoha.

   She wasn't seen for six days.

   On Friday, Sakura had returned to Konoha. She was sitting at that same table in the mochi shop. About a minute later, Jiraiya walked in and sat across from her.

   "Alright, what's this about?" he asked. She took out a thick manila folder and handed it over. Jiraiya stared before grasping the folder reluctantly and flipping through it. There were about twenty pages with descriptoins of all twelve of the former Konoha shinobi, their techniques and weaknesses, and the list of possible places their bases could be. His eyes hardened at the information.

   "How did you obtain this information?" he questioned quietly. Sakura was eleven years old, A child. There was no way she was able to get this information alone. She grinned.

   "Please don't misunderstand, Jiraiya-san. I wasn't the one who dove right into enemy's headquarters although I was very close to doing so."

   "Then who did?"

   Sakura winked.

   "You have your secrets, and I have mine."

~

   Sakura practically skipped out of the mochi shop and crashed right into a waiting Itachi. Her cheeks puffed out as she raised her eyes to meet his pitch black ones.

   "You can't just stand in the middle of the road like this, Itachi-san."

   "If you had your eyes open and directed in front of you, I guarantee you would have seen me and not have walked forward."

   She stuck her tongue out and stuck beside him as they walked into the village. Jiraiya, who was still seated in the mochi shop, stared at the two retreating backs with a raised eyebrow. Itachi Uchiha and Sakura? What an odd pair.

   And an odd pair it truly was. Those who knew both of them knew that they spent much of their free time with eachother, strange as it was. That saying must be true then, 'birds of a feather flock together'.

   Jiraiya stood up from his seat, eyes still trained on the folder in his hands. Sakura was going to graduate the academy in four months. By then, he was sure Minato would assign someone strong enough to keep an eye on her. After all, you'd be a foolish man to not take caution for a pre-teen that had already had the impression of ANBU status.

   "She'll probably get Kakashi..." he mumbled to himself. He tossed some money on the table and walked out. Him and Minato had some things to... discuss.