Red Is A Pretty Colour

Hiko's pov

I spent longer in the hospital with Pneumonia than I thought I'd have to, Lady Tsunade wanted to be extra careful because noone knew how long I had been under the water for. It wasn't all bad of course, Shikamaru and Choji came to visit me in the hospital and Kurenai even dropped by since she was already around. It was on that visit I discovered she was pregnant with Asuma's child, it was certainly a piece of good news with everything else that had been happening. The bad all hit one after the other, Asuma was killed, then we failed to seal the three tails, Naruto had just got back from a failed mission to capture Itachi Uchiha and now I had been called in to help break some tough news to Naruto.

Tsunade had gathered Sakura, Sai. Kakashi~Sensei and myself to help deal with Naruto's reaction. He had looked to Jiraiya as a father figure and now he was gone. I hadn't been close to him by any means, I spoke to him a handful of times, but he was a good man and loosing him was a great tragedy. A few of Jiraiya's toads wanted to be the ones to break it to Naruto especially since some of them had been there to witness it.

The door to the office opened and we all tried our best to hide our solemn expressions as Naruto entered with Kakashi~Sensei.

"So this is jiraiya boy's student, is it?" An elderly toad said.

"Yes, this is Naruto Uzumaki." Tsunade replied. "The child of prophecy you spoke of."

"What's with this old geezer frog? Who's he?" Naruto asked.

"Pipe down, watch your mouth Naruto. He is one of the two great sages of Mount Myoboku Lord Fukasasku. He travelled all the way here just so that he could speak with you." Tsunade said.

"Well to be more accurate I'm a great sage toad but never mind that, it doesn't matter. Answer me this, are you really jiraiya boy's student or aren't you?" Fukasaku asked.

"Jiraiya boy? A boy!? Don't treat the pervy sage like a kid! Who does this geezer frog think he is anyway?" Naruto said.

"I told you already, watch your mouth." Tsunade said.

"Naruto, he's the one that taught the sage jutsu to Lord Jiraiya. He's jiraiya's master." Shizune said.

"So you call him the pervy sage? I've never heard a more fitting name for Jiraiya boy." Fukasaku said after laughing.

"What does this geezer sage want? What did he come so far to talk to me about?" Naruto asked.

"I'm not exactly sure where to begin this, but let me see. I suppose the most important thing is, I'm afraid Jiraiya boy has died in battle." Fukasaku said.

"Wha- what are you talking about?" Naruto asked.

"I know that this Is very sudden so I understand if you don't believe me. For some time now rumours have been circulating that the leader of the Akatsuki was operating out of the village hidden in the rain so Jiraiya boy went there in person to verify wether these rumours were true." Fukasaku said.

"The leader of the Akatsuki was in the hidden rain village?" Sakura asked.

"As I recall that village is difficult to infiltrate. It's entirely closed off from the outside world." Sai said.

"Yes but master Jiraiya was highly skilled in infiltration and espionage tactics." Kakashi~Sensei said.

"Yes, exactly. Jiraiya boy encountered Pein, the leader of the Akatsuk however... Pein was a former student of Jiraiya boy's from many many years ago." Fukasaku explained.

"His student?" I asked.

"I don't know the particulars but Jiraiya boy called him Nagato." Fukasaku said.

"That goes way back to a time during the chaos of the third great ninja war. The hidden rain village had become a battlefield and Jiraiya took some war orphans under his wing. Who would have imagined... those kids." Tsunade said.

"But to defeat a shinobi as powerful as Jiraiya, how did this Pein manage such a feat?" Kakashi~Sensei said.

"It was because Pein possess the rinnegan." Fukasaku said.

"Rinnegan?" Sakura questioned.

"It's an ocular jutsu said to have been possessed by the father of all shinobi." Shizune said. "But I believed it was nothing more than a legend."

"The fabled ocular jutsu, the Rinnegan, it's power was supposedly beyond anything you could imagine." Fukasaku said. "But there's more. There were six of them all with the same eyes. I believe that Jiraiya boy uncovered the secret behind the six of them in that final terrible battle, but... even after he had his throat crushed by pain and he knew the end was near Jiraiya boy left a message. This was his message."

Fukasaku took off his cloak and turned around, revealing numbers burned onto his back. 9, 31, 8, 106, 7, 207, 15. It was something I had never seen before.

"I'm sure he did this to prevent Pein from catching on." Fukasaku said. "That's everything I know about Jiraiya boy's efforts."

"I wonder what he was trying to tell us, maybe we can decode this. Then hopefully we'll understand." Tsunade said.

"You let him go, is that right Granny?" Naruto said, glaring at the ground.

"That's right." Tsunade replied.

"Why would you let him do something so risky!? You knew pervy sage better than anyone Granny! How could you send him somewhere so dangerous alone!?" Naruto yelled.

"Stop it Naruto." Kakashi~Sensei said. "You out of all people ought to know Lady Tsunade's feelings."

"Naruto wait, where are you going?" Sakura said as Naruto began leaving.

"If the pervy sage had become the fifth hokage he would have never let Granny Tsunade take a risk like that. Never." Naruto said before leaving.

I sighed as I watched the door, Naruto likely wouldn't listen to anything anyone had to say for a while. He needed time.