Ninja World
BORDERLANDS
The sound of clear Footsteps echoed in the quiet area as two figures moved on the open road.
The rain had thinned into a cold mist, one that clung to the trees like a dying breath. The sun in the sky had already begun its descent, giving way to its partner that would occupy the night later on.
Hard to tell initially but became more obvious as one departed the Hidden Rain borders.
The companionable silence was relieving. For Ryota at least.
The other however, didn't seem to share the same sentiment.
"So ..."
Still clutching his stump of an arm, wounds suppressed with with Chakra to keep it from bleeding out, Jiraiya began, eliciting a groan. That however, only seemed to make his grin grow wider.
"Got anyone special in your life yet kid?"
"Not you too."
"Huh?" The man seemed to catch on to something. "Ah! I get it. Classic peer pressure scenario where you're from huh?"
"Was the comforting silence really too much for you to put up with?"
"Hey. You weren't like this years ago. What happened to you?"
Ryota paused. Then placed his hand on his chin, pondering the question.
Jiraiya was stunned.
He was just trying to tease and start a conversation. Sure, Ryota was no longer as enthusiastic as he was when they first met years ago, but people change with the passage of time. It wasn't a big deal. But, did he really hit the mark on something? He didn't even know what.
"I can't say much. But to sum it up. I think ... I made the greatest discovery of a Man's journey through life."
'I .. did I really hit something?'
"What?"
Jiraiya asked, really intrigued to hear the answer.
"The appreciation of the comfort of My own bed." He replied with all seriousness.
".." If it were in the anime, Jiraiya's face would be lagging right now. Or so Ryota thought as he observed Jiraiya from the corner of his eye. It wasn't too far off though.
"Speaking of which." He turned to look forward again, eyes slightly dazed. "It's getting late back home. I'm sure she misses me already."
Jiraiya who was about to go into a long lecture about he virtues of life for a man to experience, paused again. Then smiled.
'Hehe. I knew it. The virtues of young love. Nothing more beautiful to behold ... Except Tsunade's 106cm bosom of course. I wonder if she'll let me actually behold it after my sob story and actually losing an arm this time.'
"Who're you talking about kid? Your Mom? Girlfriend? Fiance maybe?"
"My couch."
".."
"My bed. And gaming box. And ... ."
"How The Hell Can You!!! ... " Jiraiya's roar was interrupted by Ryota's messaging ringtone.
[Excuse Me Boss. You Have A Text Message]
Ryota's gave shifted as he reached into his pocket and began operating. Jiraiya stopped, looking curiously.
The Technology tree of the Ninja world was incredibly skewed. They had primitive refrigerators, walkie talkies and batteries, but phones and computers were basically non-existent.
Prior to meeting Ryota, Jiraiya would have never believed such a thing existed and could send messages across great distances effortlessly.
If it had been back in the war, any Ninja village that had this would command a great advantage. Better yet, that was only the most basic feature.
Jiraiya had immediately offered to buy back one from Ryota so he could bring it back to the Hidden Leaf. The result was infuriating.
After paying Fifty Million Ryo, what Ryota gave him wasn't the 'smartphone' he used as he called it, but a rigged smaller button phone he called 'Nokia' that had all the cool features taken off.
Worse still, the desired communication function was unable to be used because apparently, he and everyone living in the Shinobi world was too technologically primitive to utilize it.
Jiraiya immediately went berserk and battled Ryota with a Rasengan at the start. This was what lead to their first full fledged spar.
The result?
Jiraiya was of course beaten miserably and the legendary Saanin suffered the shame of losing to a child.
'What a Freak.'
The thought still made him blush with shame. When had he ever been humiliated? Oh .. almost every important event of his career. Thankfully, the camera function wasn't taken away. Although the images were quite blurry, Jiraiya's ability to store lasting images for his research had been improved exponentially.
Hence, the thought of taking the phone back to Konoha was killed and buried immediately. If he deleted all his stored source Material, he would feel aggrieved. If Tsunade saw it, she would kill him.
Moving on.
"Someone special?" Jiraiya asked.
"My Teacher."
"Oh. Is she hot?"
"She's a he you pervert."
"Ahem." Jiraiya coughed. Ryota paid him no heed.
"I should probably be heading back soon."
"Huh? It's been years, and you've barely been here an hour."
"I have school."
"School?" Jiraiya was stunned.
"You're stronger than any teenager I've ever seen. What the hell do they need to teach you?"
"It's complicated." Ryota replied. "I'm not explaining ..."
"Hmph. Alright then. Your teacher must be very strong huh? No wonder you rejected being my disciple."
"He is." Ryota replied indifferently. "But don't get it twisted. I didn't reject you because I have a stronger teacher. It's because frankly ... Well, you're kinda weak."
"..."
"No offense."
"Hey! Don't do that!" Jiraiya yelled.
"Do what?"
"Say something offensive then say No offense as if saying it means nothing."
"It's the truth. The truth hurts, doesn't it?" His nonchalant demeanor made it all the more infuriating.
"..." Seeing Jiraiya look like he was about to explode, Ryota felt the urge to chuckle with amusement as he turned to his phone.
'That aside, he's really banged up that well huh?' he thought inwardly. Perhaps Jiraiya thought he could hide it well, but nothing could be hidden from Ryota's eyes. He had used his X ray vision earlier.
Jiraiya's injuries were bad, and hidden underneath all that banter, was pain and exhaustion.
No surprise. The guy fought Nagato and the six paths of pain, was stabbed several times by black rods, had an arm ripped out, was mentally exhausted from discovering his past students were now world wide terrorists, and was severely chakra depleted. What little he had was spent on suppressing his wounds so he wouldn't bleed out to death.
If not for his intervention, his fate would be no different from the original timeline. Death at the hands of Pain.
Jiraiya's death would be a serious plot and character development arc for the Main Character, Naruto Uzumaki's growth.
Of course, Jiraiya was no longer going to die. At least not yet anyway. Maybe he would after Ryota left, maybe he would die in the Fourth Shinobi war, but for now, his original fate had changed.
The whole butterfly effect he had read about and watched in novels movies and movies should play out after this right? After all, from the way it looks, despite his interferences in the past, nothing much really changed.
Jiraiya's death at Pain's hands would have been a done deal. Of course, he didn't really cause any Major changes. When Ryota appeared in the Ninja world, several key events had already passed.
Like the night of Nine tails, The Hidden cloud Kidnapping of Hinata Hyuga, Death of Hizashi Hyuga, and he missed the Uchiha clan Massacre by a few months. The rest of his actions weren't really impacting any major plot points.
'Oh, there's that.'
Ryota thought, finally noticing something that was different.
'Why were there only Two Paths of Pain waiting for Jiraiya? In the original anime, it should have been all six. Well, five since Jiraiya killed one.'
For a moment, he considered asking Jiraiya, then concluded that based on Jiraiaya's actions at that time, he probably wouldn't know why either.
'Perhaps, my actions did cause something big. I just don't know it yet.' He mused.
He did always want to see just how much change he could cause despite not affecting the Main plots.
'Should I ... Stay a little longer?' The possibility appeared. 'Nah. Not today at least. I better get back to Jujutsu High before gojo gets worried enough to call my mom. Could come back tomorrow or the day after though. It might be fun to see how the new Ninja world is now and how it'll be shaped with Jiraiaya's presence. Knowing him, he'll probably die soon again anyway, but it'll be interesting to watch. ... I guess. Maybe I should go visit Karin. She'll probably be happy and angry to see me. I did promise her a gift for the next time I see her again. That reminds me. I remember all those fan hate arguments stating Sasuke wouldn't survive long in Shippuden without her.'
The last thought was particularly interesting to him. It was half the reason he went to Kusagakure to save Karin and her mother when he came to the Ninja world.
Now if there was one thing he could be sure of in this new timeline, it's that Sasuke and Karin never met.
So just how far would Sasuke, the Main supporting character go without Karin? His bet was the Five Kage summit.
"Hmph!" Jiraiya snorted and looked ahead, bringing Ryota out of his thoughts.
He turned back to the Text Message.
*Kid, You Doing Ok? Why Can't We Trace Your Phone?*
Valid question.
It was impossible to trace his location to another universe entirely. Then that brought the question. How the hell could Ryota send and receive Messages across Universes?
The answer was simple really. Binding Vows.
In the Jujutsu world Binding vows are considered by all jujutsu users to be one of the essential tenets of jujutsu sorcery. Binding Vows are essentially contracts that an individual can make with one's self or another person. The act of abiding by the rules and restrictions agreed upon in these contracts can result in a greater power or the achievement of a goal, but breaking a binding vow has uncanny repercussions.
Using this in conjunction with his Jujutsu Cursed Technique, Ryota was able to ignore the impossible restrictions and hence, send a receive messages across worlds with anyone he had given a phone with his special marking. It also serves as a form of Teleportation anchor, allowing Ryota to appear in their location after travelling between universes despite not knowing where they may be exactly.
"So, this Teacher of yours." Ryota's thoughts were once again interrupted by Jiraiya.
"I'm just curious, but .. To teach a monster like you, just How strong is he?"
The question made Ryota's eyebrows furrow as he pondered the question.
"To answer that. I don't really know. I've never fought him before, so I can't get an accurate grasp of his strength. But I do know his powers, and where I'm from, his Title is publicly Acknowledged as the Strongest there is. Kinda like how The First Hokage is to you guys here." Ryota uttered after thinking.
"Is that so huh?" Jiraiya said. "So, how far away are you from him? In power levels. After all, it is every student's dream to surpass their teacher. Isn't it?"
How could Ryota not see what the guy was heading to? He was clearly fishing for information. Not just to estimate the strength of Gojo but also to find out where he lived. Honestly, Ryota found it funny. He might not know much of JJK plotlines, but he knew of Gojo's powers. In the Jujutsu world, it was common knowledge really. Satoru Gojo may not be able to match up to the characters of Naruto that would appear at the very very end of Naruto, but before the fourth Shinobi war, even Hashirama Senju in his prime in a one on one would lose Nine times out of Ten. The Gojo clan's limitless Technique paired with six eyes was just that buggy. However, Ryota didn't mind. Jiraiya could never find Tokyo even if he searched for the rest of his life.
"Well, with my current strength, he could be a little trouble." Ryota said modestly, but even that made Jiraiya almost choke on his own spit.
"Hold on, are you saying you're stronger than your teacher? You wouldn't lose?"
"Nah." Ryota said indifferently, his voice and footsteps not faltering in the slightest. "I'd win."
....
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