7

Chapter 7: change your name or change your mind but i'll knowChapter Text

The thing about time travel is that Raijin doesn't actually know the exact dates for anything that happens except for the things that always seem to go wrong on his birthday. It's the biggest thing that keeps him from joining Konoha immediately. 

He could've just claimed to have seen the Yellow Flash's likeness and spun some story about how he thought they could be family, but that would chain him to the village and he wouldn't have been able to actually do anything with the scrutiny that would no doubt be put onto him as an outsider to the village in the middle of a war. 

The biggest wrench he can throw in Zetsu's current plans for the future is making sure Obito never becomes Madara's tool to carry out the Eye of the Moon plan. To do that, he either needs to interfere with the Kannabi bridge mission directly or rescue Obito from Madara' evil lair in the immediate aftermath. 

Ideally, he'd like to make sure that Obito never has to deal with basically dying and then getting bodily modified with Hashirama cells. Sage knows that trauma did Kakashi no favours and Raijin is selfish enough to want to spare his precious people the pain of loss. But as much as he'd like to just show up and rescue the current Team 7, Raijin is unable to purely because he doesn't know when the Kannabi Bridge mission happens. 

He can make all the rough guesses he wants but he isn't sure of the exact month, let alone the date. It's not like Kakashi ever talked about it. And Obito only really spoke to Kakashi while he was still around their ragtag group before his death. 

So, he guesstimates as well as one can when they are as mathematically challenged as he is, and he plans on hanging around in the civilian village closest to the Bridge on Iwa's side in the hopes that he can rush in as soon as he catches word of a confrontation with Konoha forces taking place. 

Except he's too late from the moment he shows up. 

An air of sombreness hangs over the town, whispers flying around about how the war is all but lost now. Up till now, Iwa has had the clear upper hand with their superior numbers, but with the destruction of the bridge that served as the main pathway to their line of supplies, the tide has turned in Konoha's favour, and everyone knows those tenacious leaf bastards will sink their teeth into this chance with everything they've got. 

'Oops,' Raijin thinks and swiftly turns tail to get the hell out of there. He probably doesn't want to stick around when he looks like he has basically stolen Namikaze Minato's ( a.k.a, Iwa's public enemy no.1) face. 

Okay, so, Operation: Rescue Obito and Kick Zetsu' Ass is officially in motion. Cool. He's got this. 

Step one: Stop running away from Jiraiya and actively try to get caught. 

Raijin doesn't think it's going to be very hard. He's loud and he wears orange whenever he can. At this point, he has basically made a career out of doing his best to stand out as much as possible. The attention seeking inner twelve-year-old in him is thrilled. 

He immediately sets up base in Jiraiya's favourite tourist trap town in Land of Tea and puts his whole heart and soul into standing out as much as possible. There's a guy here who owns a guesthouse/hot springs place and just so happens to be one of Jiraiya's contacts. Or at least he had been in Raijiin's time, but who knows about now. Nonetheless, this is where the blond decides he'll be staying for however long it takes for Jiraiya to finally catch up to him. 

He makes it a point to talk to everyone he can, from the ladies running the food stalls in the market to the old guys playing shogi in the park. He introduces himself by name, regales everyone with stories of his adventures at any given opportunity, makes sure to insert into conversation that, yes, he is in fact the Kogane no Arashi. 

Exactly twice he gets attacked by some losers who try to get the jump on him because apparently he has bounties on his head in places now too. Raijin makes sure to give his heartfelt thanks to them after handily kicking both their asses because their efforts have brought even more attention to him. 

Six days go by before he starts to kind of freak out. Even with all the ruckus he has been making, there's no sign of Jiraiya on any horizon, and he isn't sure how much time he can spare on hopefully securing his godfather's help before he needs to get a move on for Obito's sake. 

Desperate, he instructs a whole host of clones to go out and do the opposite of what he has been having them do this whole time: instead of using them to create false trails, he has them go out and make sure every possible trail clearly makes its way back to Raijin. While they're out, every clone has been ordered to stop and give out its location to any toad they come across for good measure, just in case one of them happens to be one of Jiraiya's summons. 

While he waits, a disgruntled Raijin thinks that maybe the credit for evading Jiraiya this long doesn't really go to him. Clearly the old man just sucks at finding people if he hasn't showed up yet despite Raijin's very best efforts. 

He really does have to do all the work around here.

Jiraiya isn't sure what to think when exactly four of his toads report back to him about Menace stopping to have a very pleasant chat with them about his current stay at an onsen in Tea, happily mentioning his exact coordinates before skipping away. 

The bullshit radar he has developed after years of being exposed to the fuckery his teammates used to get up to when they were all just brats is going off like crazy in the back of his mind. It's safe to conclude that the Kogane no Arashi is more than likely aware about Jiraiya's summons and is in fact looking to be found. 

What the Sannin can't figure out is why the kid wants to meet with him now after months of excellent avoidance. He's almost too wary to find out. 

But he thinks of Hiruzen-sensei's instructions and Tsunade's message about a boy named Raijin who looked far too much like Minato for it to be a coincidence, and his curiosity has him setting him off for Tea before he can think better of it. 

He's more than familiar with the little town that Menace is apparently holidaying in. Familiar enough that part of him wonders if Menace chose this place on purpose, but the kid couldn't possibly know of Jiraiya's fondness for this place. Right?

As soon as he walks into the inn he always stays at when he stops in this town, his eyes zero in on the head of blond hair that he has been chasing on and off for months now. Not like it's hard. The kid is practically falling out of his seat with the ferocity he's using to wave at Jiraiya, a shit-eating grin on his face. Jiraiya has to pause and blink. 

It's like looking at a Minato from some alternate dimension. He expected it somewhat from Nara Shikaku and Tsunade's descriptions but seeing the similarities in person is uncanny. If these two aren't related, it would be the craziest instance of doppelgangers he's ever seen. 

Like something out of a book. Now, there's an idea for his next book…

"Took you long enough," Menace comments, gesturing emphatically for Jiraiya to sit opposite him. There's a serving of karaage waiting for him. He wonders if and how the kid guessed his favourite food. Eyes narrowing, Jiraiya takes his seat. Regardless of the sunny smile being aimed at him, he gets the sense this isn't a shinobi he can let his guard down around. Raijin has consistently proven to be a step ahead, always holding cards of information up his sleeves. The kid is one tricky bastard.

"You're a hard man to find."

Raijin peers at him with squinted eyes. He looks vaguely offended for some reason. "Maybe you're not as good at your job as you think you are," he says slowly, almost like he has made an observation for Jiraiya's sake. 

Jiraiya gapes at him. Sage, the audacity of this kid. No wonder people have wanted to skin him for his insolence alone. "You—" he splutters. "Do you have any idea who you're speaking to?"

The kid lifts an eyebrow at him like he thinks Jiraiya is being particularly dimwitted. "Jiraiya of the Sannin," he says slowly. "Toad Sage. Sealing expert. Spymaster of Konoha. Pervert of legendary notoriety." When Jiraiya stares at him dumbstruck, Raijin only flashes him a look of amusement. "I know exactly who I'm speaking to."

A tricky bastard indeed. A dangerous one too. He knows a lot. 

The imbalance in their information on each other has Jiraiya losing his footing in this conversation right off the bat. Raijin clearly has no intention of giving up on leading where this discussion goes. The brat is good, Jiraiya will give him that. 

He laughs hoarsely. "You must have some good sources, kid."

Raijin snorts to himself. "Oh, you don't even know the half of it," he mumbles under his breath.

Jiraiya clears his throat. "Well, ashamed as I am to admit it, all I know about you is your name, title, and how good you are at losing someone on your tail," he says. "What made you want to meet me now?"

The humour drains out of the boy's face, replaced by an impressive air of seriousness that has Jiraiya sitting up straight unconsciously too. 'That's some charisma,' he thinks, grudgingly impressed. 

Holding up three fingers, Raijin leans forward slightly. "Three favours," he states. "I'll owe you three favours in return for your help, Jiraiya-san. Favours with no expiry date. You can ask anything of me too; nothing's off limits."

The Sannin whistles, eyebrows shooting up. "Quite the deal you're trying to strike here, kid. What kind of trouble did you get into that you need my help?"

Smoothly retrieving a folded bit of paper from the sleeve of his haori, Raijin places it down on the table and unfolds it to reveal a seal. 

Eyebrows immediately shooting up, Jiraiya stares blankly at the seal—clearly made in a style too personalised to be the standard mass-produced stuff. Raijin really is full of surprises. The sealing hand is nothing like Jiraiya's own meticulous, systematic and orderly one. This one is bold and loud and an artful mess, full of arrays used in ways he'd never think of himself. He might not be able to really utilise it, but Jiraiya can recognise an Uzumaki based style when he sees one, and here's another mystery for him to solve about the brat. 

Pushing a sliver of chakra into what Jiraiya concludes is a barrier seal meant to specifically prevent sound from escaping—a variant of which is also used in the Hokage's office—Raijin looks up to face Jiraiya, grave seriousness engraved into the lines of his face. 

"I happen to be contracted to fox summons," the teen admits, linking his fingers together. "They're actually integral to my information network, essentially serving as my eyes and ears all over the continent. Recently, one of them has come to me with an interesting claim that I may require help with verifying."

Sage above. A strong shinobi, acknowledged by Hanzo, responsible for stopping the brewing discontent in Ame, the architect of a fearsome information network, potentially related to Konoha's Yellow Flash, clearly somewhat skilled at sealing, and the first fox summoner Jiraiya has ever heard of. 

Where the fuck did this kid come from?

Jiraiya sighs, feeling the weight of every single one of his years. "What did you find out?"

Raijin purses his lips, impossibly blue eyes searching for something in Jiraiya's own for a moment. Finally, he says, "Have you heard of the Mountains' Graveyard?"

"Of course. What of it?"

The teen hums, one finger tapping at the table lightly. "You know the abandoned mine there, yeah? Well, according to one of my summons, it's not quite so abandoned anymore."

Eyes narrowing, Jiraiya quietly demands, "Get to the point, Raijin-kun."

Raijin sighs. "There are two Uchiha shinobi hiding there at the moment," he reveals. "One is a teenager, recently brought in and heavily injured. The other is an old man claiming to be Uchiha Madara. My fox says that there is a third party, but it isn't quite human. Supposedly, it is claiming to be the manifestation of Madara's will."

And whatever Jiraiya had been expecting, it most certainly had not been any of what just came out of Raijin's mouth. Rearing back, all he can think to say is, "What?"

The blond eyes him, frowning. "You don't have to believe me. I know that Uchiha Madara is famously believed to be long dead, and while I trust my summons, you have no reason to. What I'm more concerned with is the kid. He has been taken there against his will and Sayuri-san says he isn't allowed to leave. I'd like you to help me rescue him."

"What do you get out of saving a Konoha shinobi?" Jiraiya asks, refusing to show how rattled he feels by Raijin's claim of Uchiha shinobi hiding out in an abandoned mine.

Raijin furrows his brows in obvious disapproval. "I don't need to get anything out of it, Jiraiya-san," he states. "There's a kid stranded far from his home, trapped by a full-grown shinobi who is quite evidently deranged even if he might not actually be Uchiha Madara himself. That's not even getting to whatever the inhuman thing is. I'm likely the only one who knows where this boy is. I can't not do something about it."

Jiraiya exhales. "And you want my help?"

"I'd rather not risk going by myself just in case it turns out to really be Uchiha Madara and the manifestation of his will or whatever. And since the kid is an Uchiha, it's best if a Konoha nin is involved so you can take him home for treatment as soon as possible." Raijin shrugs, adding, "And you're strong enough that you can afford to follow me into unknown territory on nothing but my word. I probably wouldn't be able to convince any other Konoha shinobi I might come across."

There's a very specific place in his skull that starts to hurt first whenever Jiraiya is about to experience a stress-induced migraine. The last person to make it throb this way was Minato, and honestly, this is all the testing Jiraiya thinks is needed in order to conclude that Menace and Minato clearly share blood. 

Sighing deeply, the man rubs at his face. "Fuck, okay, Menace. You have yourself a deal. When do we head out?"

"Funny you ask that," Raijin starts, his grin returning to his face. "I was thinking right away, actually."

Jiraiya sighs again. He has a feeling he's going to be doing that a lot in his near future.