Goodbye, Jiraiya

After finishing their meal, Naruto and Menma said their goodbyes to Itachi and Shisui before leaving the dango shop.

The two wandered aimlessly through the streets of Konoha, stopping every now and then. Many shopkeepers greeted them proactively, calling out "Young Master" over and over again.

"I still don't get it. When did they start acting like this?" Naruto looked around, then turned to ask Menma.

"Ah, that? It happened after the time Kurama went berserk inside us. Once they found out our father was the Fourth Hokage, they started acting like this." Menma gave a vague explanation, his hands shoved deep into his pockets as he answered Naruto.

In truth, Menma knew they didn't truly accept him and Naruto from the bottom of their hearts. They were mostly intimidated by Menma's strength, combined with the status of Minato Namikaze.

"Eh? Is that... the Toad Sage?" Naruto suddenly looked in a certain direction, having spotted a very familiar figure.

Menma looked over and saw a middle-aged man with long white hair, dressed entirely in red, sitting cross-legged outside the bathhouse with a lecherous grin on his face.

Is Jiraiya... peeping? Menma thought to himself. "Let's go, Naruto. Let's go say hello to Master Jiraiya." With that, Menma walked toward Jiraiya.

"Hey! Toad Sage, what are you doing here?" Naruto shouted loudly.

Jiraiya was startled and turned around in a hurry, only to see Naruto looking at him with curious eyes, while Menma was staring at him with a look of utter contempt.

"Hmph! Master Jiraiya, you're peeping, aren't you? That's really pathetic." Menma let out a cold snort, exposing Jiraiya directly.

"What? How can you call what this sage does 'peeping'? I am clearly gathering inspiration for my novel. What would a little brat like you know?" Jiraiya retorted.

"Huh? Peeping? Toad Sage, so you're a pervert after all." Naruto said upon hearing their exchange.

"This sage disdains arguing with two brats like you." Jiraiya turned his head back to look inside, his face written with lechery.

"Brother, let's call him Pervy Sage from now on. I feel like that's more fitting." Menma said to Naruto after witnessing the scene.

"Yeah, yeah, I think so too." Naruto nodded in agreement.

"Hey! Pervy Sage! You're actually peeping here!" Naruto shouted, his voice loud enough for the people inside to hear.

Hearing the commotion outside, the people inside fled in a panic.

Seeing this, Jiraiya exploded. "Ah! You two brats!" Jiraiya landed two sharp knocks on the heads of Naruto and Menma.

"Ow~ you're actually hitting people!" Naruto rubbed his head, tears welling up in the corners of his eyes.

"Is he flustered because he was called out? Tsk~ he won't even let people speak the truth." Menma rubbed his head, pouting as he muttered under his breath.

"You little brat!" Hearing Menma's muttering, Jiraiya landed another blow.

"Bam!" A punch landed squarely on Menma's head.

Menma sat on the ground rubbing his head before standing back up.

"Brother, let's go. Don't stay with someone who couldn't even protect his own disciples." With that, Menma pulled Naruto away.

"Hey, brat! What do you mean by that?" Jiraiya asked, watching their retreating backs.

"Does Master Jiraiya not understand what I mean? Then let me be clearer. I'm talking about why you weren't in Konoha that day. You claim to be a sage, yet you couldn't even save our parents." Menma stopped, not turning back, his face devoid of any emotional fluctuation.

Naruto was stunned, looking back at Jiraiya and then at Menma, before immediately becoming heartbroken.

"No one seems good enough in front of Minato Namikaze, right, Master Jiraiya? But even so, you weren't there that day. If you hadn't been so slack and hadn't gone off chasing some 'Child of Prophecy,' our parents wouldn't have died, and we wouldn't have become orphans!" Menma's words were laced with disappointment.

Naruto shed tears upon hearing this; he tugged on Menma's sleeve as if to signal him to stop.

Menma still didn't look back and left the area. Naruto wiped his tears, took one last look at Jiraiya, and followed him.

Jiraiya felt a complex mix of emotions. He felt that Menma was right; if he had been in Konoha at the time, perhaps things wouldn't have turned out this way.

In truth, Menma didn't dislike Jiraiya. In his past life, he had cried his eyes out when he saw Jiraiya fall in battle against Pain. He did this simply because he hoped Jiraiya would stay in Konoha longer, so that he could better teach Naruto.

It was nearing noon. After such a scene, the two had no mood to continue wandering. They arrived at the Hokage Rock, looking down at Konoha below.

Menma lay down, looking at the clouds, and said leisurely, "This is what life is about. If only every day were this relaxed." Menma sighed.

Naruto, usually a chatterbox, was much quieter. He also lay down and looked at the sky, tears still streaking from the corners of his eyes.

"Huh? Why are you crying again?" Menma turned his head to look at Naruto.

"I'm not crying, I just got some sand in my eyes." Naruto wiped the tears from his eyes and continued looking at the sky.

"Blue sky and white clouds, this is the life I yearn for. Comfortable and peaceful, no worries, no pressure." Menma said, stretching out his hand and sighing as he looked at his own youthful palm.

"Alright, let's go catch some fish to eat. Even though we aren't short on money, it's nice to experience life once in a while." Menma sat up and looked at Naruto.

"Yeah, I think that sounds good. Should we go find Kiba and the others to join us?" Naruto also thought it was a good idea and sat up to suggest it.

"That works. If you want, we can call Sasuke too." Menma thought for a moment and said.

"That's not a bad idea. Let's split up." Naruto agreed and proposed.

"Alright, you go find Sasuke, Sakura, and Kiba. I'll go find Shikamaru, Ino, and Choji," Menma said.

"Great! It's settled!" Naruto set off first.

Menma created four shadow clones, assigned them the people to find and the items to buy, and then headed toward the stream where they used to catch fish.

Before long, the group gathered by the stream. As soon as they arrived, they saw Menma leaning against a large rock with his legs crossed and his hands behind his head, looking perfectly content.

"Hey Menma, you're so despicable. You sent your shadow clones to do the work while you just took a nap here," Naruto said, sounding a bit unbalanced.

"You... can't do that?" Menma tilted his head slightly.

"See what I mean? This guy only knows how to act cool." The group huddled together, and Naruto whispered, with everyone nodding in agreement.

"Didn't you say we were going to catch fish to eat? You invited me here and now I haven't even had a meal," Choji complained, though his hand never stopped moving as he snacked.

Menma sat up and walked over to the group. "How about this: the girls will be responsible for gathering firewood, and we boys will handle the fishing." Menma scanned the group and noticed Sasuke wasn't there, though he had already guessed Sasuke probably wouldn't come.

"That's not enough of a challenge. How about we compete to see who catches the most? Whoever catches the least has to admit they aren't a man, deal?" Kiba suddenly proposed.

The group looked at Kiba. That damn competitive spirit—before anyone even said "go," Naruto had already run to the stream and started working.

"Hey! Naruto, you idiot, I didn't say start yet!" Kiba shouted, immediately chasing after him.

Shikamaru was speechless. With no other choice, he followed along, figuring that catching just one more fish than the person in last place would be enough.

In the end, only Menma and Choji were left, looking at each other.

"Choji, aren't you coming?" Menma asked.

"I'm so hungry I don't have the strength. I'm not joining; I'll just go help Ino gather firewood," he said, heading in the direction Ino and Sakura had left.

The others in the stream took off their shoes and shirts to catch fish, with only Menma keeping a bit of distance from them.

After all, with Kiba and Naruto around, things were bound to get rowdy. If they started making a scene, the fish would be scared away, and if they didn't catch anything, they'd be going hungry for lunch.

As the saying goes, food is the fuel of life; skipping a meal makes one miserable. Thinking of this, Menma used the Shadow Clone Technique to start catching fish.

Seeing Menma in the distance, Naruto immediately used the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique as well.

Kiba was furious when he saw this. He then looked at the leisurely Shikamaru and felt a surge of joy, confident that he definitely wouldn't be in last place.

After a while, Menma's four clones each held two fish, and he walked over to Ino and the others carrying a small bucket.

After setting the fish down, Menma dispelled his clones. By then, Naruto, Kiba, and Shikamaru had also walked over.

Naruto's two clones set down the fish they were holding before dispelling, and Kiba also put down the fish he had caught.

"Looking at this, Menma has 8 fish, Naruto has 6, Kiba has 2, and Shikamaru... has none?" Ino said, looking at the fish on the ground.

"So that means Shikamaru is in last place, huh?" Naruto said with a grin, looking at Shikamaru.

"No! The one in last place is Kiba!" Shikamaru retorted, pulling out four tiny shrimp the size of pinky fingers.

"..." The group was speechless.

"What? Meat is meat, no matter how small. Besides, no one said it had to be fish," Shikamaru said, seeing their expressions.

"Then you can eat the shrimp yourself and starve," Naruto said, and the others nodded in agreement.

"There's plenty of shrimp, and there are crabs too," Menma said, setting down his bucket. Only then did the others notice the bucket was full of shrimp and crabs.

"So, who is in last place now?" Kiba looked at the group with anticipation, and everyone turned their gaze toward Menma.

"Yare yare, a ninja must learn to see through a trap within a trap. Shikamaru is right; you didn't specify it had to be fish, so you have to be precise with the rules in a competition," Menma said, feeling that Shikamaru made a fair point.

"Well, it's still not me, right? Choji didn't even catch a single shrimp," Kiba said, still unwilling to give up.

"Choji said from the start he wasn't participating," Menma said with a helpless shrug.

"But..." Kiba hadn't finished his sentence before Naruto interrupted.

"I'm telling you, Kiba, are you a man or not? If you're a man, you have to be a good sport and accept the loss," Naruto said, looking at Kiba with disdain.

Good grief, it seemed that whether Kiba admitted defeat or not, he wasn't a man anyway. Menma had wanted to say that, but he hadn't expected Naruto to beat him to it.

"Alright, alright, everyone's hungry, right? If you're hungry, let's grill the fish. Why are you all just sitting there?" Menma played the peacemaker, putting an arm around Kiba's shoulder.

Just like that, the group spent the afternoon laughing and joking. In the blink of an eye, the sun began to set, and after saying their reluctant goodbyes, everyone headed home.