A few more rounds of the surprisingly entertaining game eventually made the last ten minutes of their downtime go flying by, and soon enough, Jiraiya of the Sannin, Gallant Toad Sage and a plethora of other titles, most of which involve the words 'Super' and 'Pervert', had shown up in a burst of smoke and green leaves.
To both Satsuki and Haruto, this would be the first time they saw the legend in the flesh and he did in fact look the part of a legendary sage and warrior, standing tall and broad shouldered, a confident smirk on his face, his arms crossed and the wind blowing his long and spiky white hair behind himself. He cut quite an imposing figure.
His outfit's innermost layer was quite basic, a simple dark green garb that covered a mesh bodysuit. His torso was further covered by a bright red vest, which broke the camouflage effect of his green garb, but of course, Jiraiya would advertise his presence in the battlefield, rather than hide it, and did so by having quite a few details that made it quite clear who he was, such as the horned forehead protector with a nonstandard symbol, his red facial tattoos, the distinctive clack of his wooden sandals or even the massive sealing scroll that he carried attached to his lower back.
Jiraiya alone was a massive morale booster for his side, and tended to absolutely wreck the morale of anyone he was fighting, just by showing up. How could he be anything but a great general, when he changes the tide of the battle just by sheer presence? Well, he was a spymaster, but he could serve as a commander in a pinch.
Even though neither Haruto nor Satsuki had ever met the man before, they recognized him immediately, as did mostly everyone else. That was the level of his fame.
Only then did it sink in to the two of them that their team had been chosen by a living legend, chosen by the man who had trained the fourth Hokage… and it made perfect sense.
It would only make sense, after all, for the Hokage to entrust the training of his daughter to the man who had turned him into the shinobi that he was. Sometimes, nepotism really paid off.
The man seemed to scan the area with his eyes in a few short movements of his head, and then he smiled, clearly finding the featureless rooftop that the three genin hopefuls had chosen for their lunch to be appropriate, nodding. "I, Jiraiya, the Toad Sage of Myoboku-zan, have arrived!" he declared, his face grim and serious for all of two seconds before it was split with a great big grin that was almost scary, "to be your teacher!" he added.
Naruko smirked, and crossed her arms over her not inconsiderable chest, closing her eyes in what was clearly an expression of smug superiority. "Of course!" she stated, after a second, "who else could be chosen by my father to train me?" she asked, rhetorically.
"I'd thought it'd be Kakashi," Satsuki stated, frowning slightly, "he did imply as much when he visited me last week."
"There was a last minute change of plans," Jiraiya admitted, nodding at her. "I'll explain later. Now," he began, as he sat down on the ground, "I say we begin by introducing ourselves."
"You've read our files. You know who we are. We know each other, we went to the academy together," Satsuki pointed out, not missing a beat as she listed the reasons why this was pointless.
"Do you really know each other?" Jiraiya asked, raising an eyebrow.
"He's got a point… I don't really know either of you," Haruto pointed out, looking between Naruko and Satsuki for a few seconds before returning his gaze to Jiraiya, seeing him nod in approval.
"You have a vague awareness of what each other is like, but you don't know what the others like, dislike, what their favorite food is, what their objectives in life are… all things said, you don't really know each other at all," Jiraiya said. "Of course, the files I read on yourselves had information that is completely useless to get to know you in person, too, so this is beneficial for me as well," he said.
"I see," Satsuki said, nodding in respect for the perfectly logical and sensible explanation. She'd expected something outlandish or him just telling them to do what he said without question. Much like Kakashi usually did. Then again, Kakashi seemed to delight in making her suffer to 'earn' her lessons, or so he said, so he was probably either just a dick or a way harsher mentor.
"Of course, he is right! My godfather is one of the best ninja out there," Naruko said, proudly, as if it was something to be proud of.
Satsuki hated her. A lot. Because of that boundless, infinite arrogance that just made her want to bend Naruko over and spank her until she stopped boasting about who her father was every other sentence. She was sure the girl had lacked a fierce disciplinarian in her formative years. Having her bottom spanked glowing red would likely do wonders for her attitude. Satsuki smirked to herself, thinking that 'glowing red' would be a good look on Naruko indeed. Still, she was right, Jiraiya really did make a name for himself entirely on his own talent, unlike many she could name who'd just gotten massively lucky.
"So… flower boy, you go first, because I like saying flower boy," Jiraiya said, smiling a confident smile that meant he would take no talk back. It was strange how he could so casually issue an absolute order, but Satsuki supposed it came with experience.
"Oh. Okay," Haruto said, clearly either not noticing or not caring about being called flower boy, "My name is Kazami Haruto. I like studying, and researching. I dislike violence. I guess my favorite food is steamed rice," he said, rubbing his chin as he thought about what kind of food he liked best.
It was usually a complicated question, Satsuki supposed, considering that he ate more than most Akimichi. Who knew if he even tasted the food he pushed down his gullet?
"I want to become a scholar," he said, with an air of defeated resignation. Satsuki assumed it was because he was seeking a civilian profession even though he'd become a shinobi. A reluctant ninja was a dead ninja. She just hoped he didn't wind up dragging both of his teammates down and causing their deaths. Satsuki had nothing against him, but she didn't want to die because of him either.
"I guess that's it. Uchiha-chan, what about you?" Jiraiya asked, turning around to face Satsuki with a raised eyebrow and an easy smile.
"My name is Uchiha Satsuki. I like tomatoes. I hate spicy food," she said, remembering the early years after she'd been orphaned.
"Ooh, bet Kakashi didn't like that," Jiraiya stated, very obviously amused. She assumed he knew full well that Kakashi did, in fact, like spicy food very much. Probably because she disliked it. Kakashi was a dick like that. Nah. He couldn't be that petty.
"I don't think he cared," Satsuki muttered, before shaking her head, "I will bring my clan back to greatness, and prove myself as the best head it's ever had!" Plus, there was also the idea of finishing her ancestors's work, but that wasn't a public fact. Plus, given who her ancestors were, it might be best not to mention it.
"Sounds good enough, I suppose. Now, what about you, Princess?" Jiraiya asked, turning to Konoha's Spoiled Rotten Princess, who seemed to be just as amused as Jiraiya had been, blushing slightly. "What can you tell us about yourself?"
"You wish to know about a noble's life? Well, the standard recital takes about two hours," she said, with a positively gleeful smile on her face.
"Just give me the short version," Jiraiya said, gesturing with his hand.
"I suppose I can do that," she said, nodding, "my name is Namikaze Naruko. I like my father and my mansion. I dislike idiots who think with their fists. My favorite meal… Ramen, I guess."
Huh. That was surprisingly simple and mundane for someone like her. Satsuki had thought she'd choose some super expensive, exotic meal that had to be imported from somewhere, or something equally outlandish and outrageous to her ego. Ramen definitely wasn't what Satsuki'd had in her mind for such a spoiled rotten brat.
"Figures," Jiraiya said, shaking his head, clearly amused still.
"I don't have a dream, because I know it's the future. I will become as great as my father," she said, simply.
"We'll work on that," Jiraiya said, nodding at her, before he turned to them entirely. "And you know who I am, of course, the gallant Sage Jiraiya, of Myoboku-zan. I like sexy girls, dislike violent flatboards and my favorite meal is… well, if I told you, Minato would castrate me, so let's not go there," he said, nodding and closing his eyes, as if in thought, "my dream is to achieve world peace through love, spread by my own work!"
"Peace?" Haruto asked, sounding somewhat forlorn, "sounds nice…" he said.
"Of course it does. But it's never going to come unless the people working towards it are real, SS class badasses. You know, like me," Jiraiya said, gesturing towards himself as he did. Then the man stood up. "Okay. Now, normally, this would be where your teacher would lie to you and tell you there's another genin test. There isn't. The test that follows is to determine whether or not you remain with the elites or are sent towards the regular forces. You'll remain genin either way. Tomorrow, I want you all at six AM sharp in training ground thirteen for your test. Remember, your career depends on this. You might not want to eat a heavy breakfast, you might just wind up returning it."
Haruto grimaced, Satsuki frowned and Naruko seemed unaffected.
Sometimes, Satsuki envied Naruko's simple and one track mind. Because it was at these moments that her blood ran cold, with the very real fear of failure, while her hated rival seemed to believe the very possibility of failure to be inconceivable. Though whether her confidence was misplaced or not…
That remained to be seen.
Either way, Satsuki did not fancy becoming part of the regular forces any time soon. She was an Uchiha, she came from an elite clan, and she'd be damned before she did them such a disservice as having a leader who became a career genin