My Lover's Keeper

51. Jiji

Jiraiya had always appeared to be a man of little worries. He lived each day on its own, gambled and drunk away his money. He also might have had a little unhealthy infatuation with beautiful women who always used him.

But Jiraiya never really wanted to be a drunk man. Yet growing up in the aftermath of the first war, serving in the second and third ones was not exactly a walk in the park. He had seen and done atrocious things in the name and sake of the great Country that was Konohagakure.

These things haunted him his entire life. So music was his outlet and alcohol was his getaway when things got too overwhelming. And for a while it seemed music kept him away from the jaws of alcoholism.

That is until someone younger, someone better than him had come along and pushed him out of the scene. He didn't take it well and slowly but surely he lost his place in the national orchestra and faded to nothingness.

Teaching wasn't something he ever considered doing. Yet he was thrust into it in his early thirties and that's where he found himself. A lowly music teacher in some high school with a meagre salary.

It wasn't easy at first to adjust himself to these changes but he saw how much he was influencing these kids and it suddenly made everything alright. He had a new purpose in life.

Sadly, in his lonesome; his past continued shadowing him.

When he got lucky in a casino once and managed to quadruple his money; he decided to do something meaningful with it and bought the shop. In his free time, he dedicated himself to the craftsmenship of guitars as a new coping mechanism.

He was slowly being swallowed by his depression. A silent disease that had been slowly eating away at him for decades. No amount of pills had ever made it easy and he often contemplated ending his life.

The smile he gave everyone, the obnoxious loud laugh, the fake confidence...

Everything was becoming too much.

Meeting Kushina and Minato might have been the highlight of his life. He was in his late forties. He still didn't know what made them offer to help him that day. Maybe his mask cracked enough for them to see his real face.

But having Kushina yell at him almost every two seconds about how he was a pervert and Minato reminding her they were there to help took his mind off of the dark thoughts he was having.

Then they started coming everyday. So he taught them what he knew about making guitars. They were family to him. They invited him to their beautiful wedding, where he may or may not have had a little too much to drink...and may or may not have gotten his ass kicked by Kushina for hitting on her.

But they started coming less often. They have started a family and he understood they wouldn't have time. He still was always invited for family gatherings but he slowly distanced himself as he started to feel he was nothing but a burden.

Until one harsh snowy day when Minato just got in his shop. He had never seen the blond man so broken in his entire life. So he did what every father would do; he listened.

Finding out about Kushina's cancer was hard on him too. She was this joyous, hyperactive, bubbly person. She was a mother to an almost seven-year-old. She was a brilliant woman.

He offered Minato financial support under the pretense that he needed help from time to time in the shop. Of course the blond saw right through the lie. He still was very thankful for Jiraiya's support.

Things didn't get any better and the day Kushina gave birth, Jiraiya was drunk and high in some hotel with a naked bimbo in his arms. He just wanted to escape his clusterfuck of a life for a while.