Chapter 15: Meeting the old pervert

Arriving at the base of their borders again, they finally relaxed.

"Let's stay here for a day before returning you need rest and we'll guard the borders in case the Kumo shinobi us up to no good." Oden said.

"As for you, hurry back with these seals to the Hokage, this is of utmost importance." Oden said as he threw two seals toward the Anbu Commander.

The seals contained the rope treasure, the gourd treasure, and a message containing a full report on everything that had happened so far. As for the fan? He's keeping it for his clan.

He had gotten the respect of everyone in the group, both for his intelligence and for his strength so they all nodded.

The anbu commander caught the seals and flashed away, hurrying back to Konoha.

They all went to rest, except for Oden, he went further away and sat down, guarding the place.

His Mugengan was still active. At the level of eternal Mugengan, he could keep it active for as long as he wants.

But there are downsides to doing that, when his eternal Mugengan is activated, his sympathetic nervous system is activated, with his body in a fight or flight mode. His adrenaline is shot through the roof, and his organs are receiving less oxygen and is a resting phase while his heart rate goes up, the oxygen instead goes to places that will help him survive, such as the muscles.

This is great in a fight, but when he is in a safe environment, it causes him to not be able to rest, take it easy, relax, or get hungry, which can get in the way of his daily life which is why he usually deactivated the Mugengan when he isn't in a fight.

Suddenly he felt a powerful Chakra speeding toward the base, followed by other smaller chakras. The smaller chakras belong to the guards that stayed in this base before they left for the land of hot water.

Oden stood up, his Mugengan activating again, as he left towards the chakra signature, when he arrived in front of them, he noticed that the Konoha shinobi were behind a bigger, older man with long, spiky white hair.

'Jiraiya' Oden recognized.

"That's him Sannin-sama, one of the leading shinobi that went to handle the gold and silver brothers." The jonin said happily, feeling assured now that Jiraiya was here.

Jiraiya stopped and inspected Oden for a second.

"Brat, do you know who I am!" Jiraiya said proudly with a grin as he posed.

"..."

"I'm Jiraiya, the great sage of..." Jiraiya started.

"Leaving everyone unsatisfied." Oden finished

Jiraiya almost fell, feeling offended at those words he said with a scowl, "Brat, I'm the sage of Konoha, known widely as the pervy sage, great ero-sannin! I leave everyone satisfied!" at the end of his introduction he started regaining his pride.

"Except for Konoha, we have a Hokage that is made of old bones and we need a new one, yet the only one that can take his place is out chasing skirts..." Oden said as he turned around and started walking back to the base.

Jiraiya almost fell down, aghast at the fact that Oden believed that he didn't take up his responsibilities as a Konoha shinobi.

Jiraiya was very loyal to his village, in fact, he knew that he would even go so far as to kill his close friends if they ever turned against the village, not that he hoped to do so.

So the fact that this young Zaraki brat dared to indicate that he wasn't fulfilling his responsibilities made him very offended, but right now was a more important matter at hand to discuss so he let it slide.

"Brat! Wait, what happened to the Gold and Silver brothers? I came to save you!" He shouted as he followed after Oden.

The other shinobi just stood there awkwardly at the scene they had seen.

Oden got back to the base, with a pervert and a few canon fodders following.

When they reached the base they found the Ino-chiko-cho trio waiting.

"Oden-San, What happened, Ehh Jiraiya-sama?!" Shikaku said as he noticed the people behind Oden.

"Shikaku nice to see'ya" Jiraiya said with a smile.

"I'll leave it to you to update our late savior in need." Oden simply stated as he walked away.

The trio had an awkward look on their faces. For some reason, Oden always seemed like he couldn't be bothered with courtesy. Yet through his actions, they knew him to be very caring towards his clan members, villagers, and fellow shinobi.

Oden went to his former sitting place and started guarding again. But about 15 minutes later a tall, white-haired pervert walked beside him before sitting down.

Oden simply glanced at his face before ignoring him.

For a few minutes, there was just silence.

"I'm glad Konoha has someone of your caliber to protect it." Jiraiya finally spoke.

Oden ignored him again, quite frankly, Jiraiya was once one of his favorite characters, but living in this world made him realize many things.

He still liked Jiraiya but he was slightly disappointed in him for not seeing the bigger picture, which left Konoha very unstable.

Maybe his view had become like this because he was the son of the former clan head, and the current clan head, so he came to realize that a person of status doesn't live simply for himself, but more importantly needs to become a shielding roof for the people under him.

Maybe Jiraiya couldn't understand this because he grew up as an orphan, and only became someone of high status later on in life.

Nonetheless, Jiraiya's choice in leaving Konoha had left it weak and unstable, which made Oden disappointed in Jiraiya for not becoming more responsible.

Although he was disappointed, he also understood that Jiraiya was the most important shinobi to Konoha with the most accomplished missions under his belt. A hundred jonin couldn't compare to one Jiraiya.

"You should return to Konoha already, although it might look strong on the outside, it has become quite unstable on the inside." Oden finally spoke.

Jiraiya simply sighed.

"At first I went out in search of Orochimaru, in that search, I created a big network around the five villages. I would lie if I said that I was needed outside of Konoha for that matter, and if you'd told me this a few years prior I would have returned..." Jiraiya said reminiscing about his past. He wished to return but in recent years he has found clues of something that might endanger Konoha, which is why he was so late to return.

"Then what hinders you now?" Oden asked, already knowing the answer.

"I might have found traces of... something that could harm not only Konoha but all of the nations... I need to continue my search for that, it's above just the safety of Konoha." Jiraiya said.

"Maybe so, but a man that can't even protect his house, shouldn't dream of protecting the world." Oden simply stated as he stood up and left towards his companions.