4 Ch 3. Research material.

The in-between break Jiraiya had been mentioning was a hot spring. Izana, at first didn't know what it was, but Jiraiya was happily telling him about it. A hot spring is apparently an underground water source that was heated by the earth itself. It was supposedly beneficial for wounds and long time fatigue.

Izana was confused by Jiraiya's words, but understood the moment het entered the hot water.

It was like the fatigue was flowing out, leaving only the feeling of the heat of the hot spring. All the tension seemed to just fade away.

Jiraiya was bathing along with him, yet he was facing towards the wooden fence. Jiraiya had quietly moved closer to the fence, his hands pressed hard against the wood. At least that was what he assumed, as he could hear the wood groan slightly when Jiraiya had appoached it.

"Jiraiya-sannin what are you doing?"

Izana couldn't exactly tell what was going on, but could only feel the disdain from Ryuujin.

[Izana, don't be like him later. Remain morally upright and respect the privacy of other people. Otherwise karma will come back to bite you.]

Ryuujin's words only left him more puzzled.

What was Jiraiya doing to garner such disgust from Ryuujin?

"I'm doing research, RE-SEAR-CH. I'm writing a book you see, one of many. The hot springs and its many perks give me the inspiration I need to continue writting my stories."

A vulgar laugh escaped Jiraiya's mouth, yet Izana still didn't understand what was going on. What could he even achief by doing this. Is it that hard to write something interesting? He found the hotspring to be interesting enough though, sinking deeper into the water, hearing Jiraiya chuckle occasionally.

"They are so big, so gorgeous!"

Izana could even smell a faint smell of blood, but ignored it a Jiraiya didn't seem to react to it.

Eager to find out what Jiraiya seemed to be obsessed with behind the fence, Izana left the hot spring and went to the opposite bath.

Inside he could hear all kinds of voices, yet still didn't understand what was so special about it.

He walked inside, after which all the sound stopped.

Izana, abashed by the silence, stood there a bit dazed.

Afterwards he was immediately surrounded by all kinds of high-pitched voices.

"What a cute kid!"

"He's blind, how sad. Let this Onee-sama help you around a bit."

And, "He probably went inside the wrong bath."

Izana, completely confused about the situation he had found himself in now, was sitting inside on the lap of one of the women, the back of his head buried in something soft. The slightest movement made his head sink in deeper, as it was tightly cushioned between two rather large hills.

The women themselves were surprised that Izana didn't know what a 'woman' was.

He was given a deep and intense brainwashing session.

"You know, you have to be kind to women, especially the ones you like. Women like to get presents and attention. They don't like it when men are peeping on them when they are bathing, but we forgive you, being a small child. Now, older women you call by onee-sama, cause they don't like to be called old. Always compliment them and don't be rude. Furthermore…"

The brainwashing went on for a long time and Izana was really dizzy when he came out of the bath. Women were rather scary once they had their eyes set on you. He didn't understand what Jiraiya even liked about them, as they were rather demanding.

Stumbling out of the womens bath, he was met by Jiraiya, who had patiently been waiting for him.

As soon as Izana had left the bath and headed for their room, with the help of a kind guide, Jiraiya had transformed himself into Izana with the transformation-jutsu and entered the women's bath.

It wasn't until much later that Jiraiya returned, laughed vulgarly and began to vigorously write.

A slight scent of blood clung to the air, making Izana wonder how Jiraiya had gotten injured. His opponents would have been rather fiercesome, as Jiraiya had easily dealt with the reasearcher without a single injury.

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The next day Jiraiya took Izana to Konoha. It took nearly a week before they arrived. Izana's health improved, as did his stamina after he forced himself to walk as much as he could, so as not to burden Jiraiya. It proved to be effective, as he could walk longer distances without collapsing. Decent food helped a lot as well.

Jiraiya looked appreciatively at the kid, impressed at his stubbornness and willpower.

Still, Izana spends most of his time on Jiraiya's back or shoulders, dozing of after having forced himself to walk, having spent most of his energy for the rest of the day.

The same happened today, yet this time Jiraiya woke him up.

"We've arrived kid. Konoha, village of the hidden leaf."

Jiraiya fastened his pace, entering the village.

Jiraiya was shortly greeted by the shinobi at the gate, after which Izana felt as if they were falling, becoming completely weightless.

Apparently, Jiraiya was jumping across rooftops to fasten his pace.

When he stopped, he knocked on a door, followed by the sound of hasty footsteps.

"Coming!"

A woman swung the door open,

She immediately began to talk happily to Jiraiya when she saw it was him.

"Jiraiya-san, it's nice to see you again. Minato isn't home, but I'm sure he will be back soon."

"I'm not here for Minato, Kushina. I'm here for the kid."

Jiraiya put down Izana and showed him to Kushina.

Kushina observed the small child in front of her, who was barely visible from behind Jiraiya. Izana tightly held Jiraiya's pants, not knowing what was currently happening as Jiraiya explained the situation.

"I've never seen this type of sealing jutsu and I though, if it's Kushina then she will find a way. You are the expert in sealing jutsu."

Kushina stepped closer to Izana.

She closely observed the sealing formation, recognising most of the patterns, as well as the core of the formation.

Her fingers stroked the sealing jutsu; a strange energy entered the bandage, which fell to the ground, the seal broken. As the bandage burned away, Izana's eyes were burning from the sudden light, his hands covering his eyes. Peeking slightly through the small gaps, they slowly adjusted. When his eyes had become just a tiny bit better, Izana could see the woman in front of him.

The woman in front of him had long, bright red hair flowing down her back. It flowed freely, swishing back and forth like an unruly but bright flame.

Izana thought it was beautiful.

He liked it a lot more than his own black hair, which was coarse and unkempt. It poked outwards on all sides, springing right back up when he attempted to smooth it down.

Izana looked surprised at Jiraiya who he now saw for the first time.

He was surprised to see someone with such rough, white, lion-like hair. It was wild and long, seemingly taking on the same unabashed and cocky characteristics his owner had.

He had red markings beneath his eyes that seemed to stretch on downwards the more he looked, as well as a horned forehead protector with a swirling leaf pattern on it.

Jiraiya stroked Izana's head with a big smile.

It brightened up his face a lot, making Jiraiya appear a bit goofy.

"Good for you kid."

Izana smiled back at Jiraiya and bowed to Kushina.

"Thank you very much Kushina nee-san."

Kushina smiled from Izana's words, a soft laugh escaping her mouth.

"Ara, ara, Jiraiya-san did you teach him to do that? Could it be that he's your secret child?"

Jiraiya shook his head; exasperated she would even think that.

"You really have pretty hair nee-sama, I wish my hair would be like that, it makes me feel so warm just looking at it."

Kushina blushed slightly, as she began to stutter.

"Y-you… really t-think so?"

"I really do, Ryuujin said it seemed like the sunset. It really is a pretty colour."

Izana didn't know what Ryuujin had meant with sunset, but when Ryuujin had shown it to him, he could only agree. It was a really pretty colour. It was brightening his mood the more Ryuujin showed it to him.

"Enough chatter. I'll see you later today Kushina. I'm going with Izana to Minato and the Third. They'll know what's going on. I suppose you will hear the details later from Minato himself."

Jiraiya picked up Izana and sped across the rooftops towards a big building with the character of fire on it.

Izana dazzled by the new surroundings, was fervently looking around him, excited to see new things. Even the sky was such a pretty colour. It was such a pretty color, like the hair one of his friends previously had. Too bad he had vanished as quickly as he came.

As soon as they entered a big room, they were greeted by a huge stack of papers and a man with bright yellow hair. The only sound was that of rustling paper and scratches from a pen.

"Yo, Minato. I brought you something interesting."

Minato looked up from the papers and stared with surprise at Jiraiya. It had been a while since he had seen his teacher.

"Sensei, when did you come back? And who's this? A secret child of yours?"

Minato stood up from behind his desk and walked towards Jiraiya, clapping him on the back.

Jiraiya's eyebrow twitched slightly, but pressed down the irritation he felt over the slight jab he had gotten. Twice in a row that is.

"Maa, maa, a lot of things happened, but I found this kid at the missions location. He's one of the survivors. What's most interesting is that the kid is an Uchiha. Though I'm surprised you and Kushina think off the same bad things about me."

Minato looked a bit shocked.

His eyes widened as he rummaged over the implications this would have.

The Uchiha didn't report any missing persons.

There was clearly something wrong!

"Apparently the kid was there for multiple years, with no recollection of his parents. Not that that is surprising, the kids only around three years old."

Jiraiya added, clearing up some of the suspicions Minato had thought of, but not entirely.

Minato didn't know what to think about this.

He summoned an Anbu and let them ask for the Third.

Within ten minutes, an old man stepped inside the room. He wore a casual kimono, a pipe sitting lazily in his hand. A few age spots had occupied the old man's face, making him appear like a kind old grandpa. His white haired goatee didn't help either, as it made Izana have the urge to tug on it.

"Minato, why did you call for me, you should be able to handle the current happenings in the village with ease."

"My apologies Third, a situation occurred of which I had no prior knowledge of."

Minato apologized after which he gently pushed Izana towards the Third.

Izana looked closely at the Third, a seemingly kind old man.

His hands covertly twitched, the urge to tug getting even harder to suppress that before.

He needed to hold it in.

"Who might this be Minato?"

The third looked over Izana, but didn't find anything special, except for the large chakra reserves the child had. They were on par with a young Uzumaki child, one that had already become a chuunin.

Jiraiya chimed in, telling the Third and Minato about what happened, including Ryuujin.

"Hoh, so Amegakure succeeded in their experiment. Yet what is more unusual is the origin of this kid. He should be one of the Uchiha, but not one of the abducted children."

The Third gently bent down, patting Izana on his shoulder as he introduced himself.

"I'm Sarutobi Hiruzen, former Hokage of Konoha."

Sarutobi said, observing the reaction of the child.

Izana nodded, introducing himself as well, "I'm Izana.", after which he couldn't suppress the urge, as he grabbed the goatee. It was rather soft.

Before Izana could pull it, Sarutobi quickly picked him up, freeing his beard from Izana's hand.

"Now now, leave my beard alone. He has done nothing wrong."

Sarutobi chuckled, handing Izana to Jiraiya, who was gloating about the situation.

Sarutobi coughed, getting back on track as he thought of previous occurences that had been of note in the past. Especially those concerning the Uchiha or something that of similar origin.

"He should have been the child of an Uchiha. I remember the case of a pregnant Uchiha woman, one that had been abducted in the past. Unfortunately the woman was found dead in a gully. Her body was mangled to the point it was a surprise we had even recognized her."

Sarutobi was surprised to see the child now. He looked exactly like an Uchiha.

Long black hair, which reached his waist, accompanied with sharp looking pitch black eyes.

He was a bit on the scrawny side for a child his age, though it wasn't odd when the siatuation he had been raised in was brought into account.

Under all circumstances, the child would be left to the Uchiha to raise.

Sarutobi however, didn't dare to leave the child in the care of Uchiha Fugaku. He was only interested in strength, but the Third wanted to let the child grow up in a healthier environment, one where he would be loved. Jiraiya had even mentioned adopting him, but Sarutobi refused for obvious reason, being his behaviour around women.

He had no choice but to take him to Fugaku and hope for the best.

If the siatuation took a turn, he would retrieve the child, even if he gained the dissatisfaction from the Uchiha's. There was always a way to make it seem like an unfortunate accident after all. Things such as these had happened before after all.

"Jiraiya, leave the child in the care of the Uchiha. But keep a close eye on him, make sure that 'unwanted' attention isn't drawn to him." Sarutobi was especially hinting not to let Danzo know about his excistence. If Danzo got a hold of the child, he would become another tool for the Root.

"Understood sensei." Jiraiya said, understanding what his teacher meant.

It would be a dissaster if Danzo knew about the kid, even more so because he was a special kind of Jinchuriki.

Jiraiya said goodbye and took Izana to the residence of the Uchiha.