Land of Giants {Obito x Reader x Various} Naruto AU

13. What a Trip

He turned and headed towards the small kitchen and began to boil some water. She looked around, wiping her eyes. She shook her head and let out a slight laugh at the sight of the terrariums Jiraiya had not only built but, connected to make the entire room a giant toad paradise. Most of the walls were hidden by vines, foliage and rock. She started to follow him to the kitchen, nearly stepping on a hopping toad.

"God, did they have a fucking orgy? There's so many of them!"

He let out a deep belly laugh, "A couple hundred orgies actually."

"Holy shit."

"Oh yeah, you should see the back yard, this is only like ten percent of their kingdom."

Y/N made her way to the large window in the kitchen. Sure enough, a huge enclosure spanned as far as she could see with the heavy fog.

"This is hardly a cage, it's more like a city," Y/N looked up to him as he focused on portioning the tea leaves into the strainers. He was just as nervous as she was. She had never seen him focus on something so insignificant before. No, he was avoiding eye contact with her. Rightfully so, after all she disappeared to fight in the war and didn't tell him about it.

"Those two things are one in the same, darling."

Jiraiya took two mugs to the living room where two chairs sat facing each other. Y/N followed him quietly with her head down. He didn't want her apology, so what could she say?

They sat across from each other, avoiding each other's faces. When Y/N reached for her tea, he saw the scars on her hands. They continued with small talk for hours. Catching up on little details of their lives since the war ended.

Y/N had been holding her empty mug and finally grew tired of clutching it. She was feeling less anxious and reached to set the mug down. Again, Jiraiya became fixated on the scars.

"What did they do to you?"

"Nothing I didn't sign up for, I suppose."

"Y/N, you gotta give me more to go on."

"I was part of the Root."

"Danzo's team?" he asked, although he didn't need to. Jiraiya was part of the special ops once upon a time. He was all too familiar with Danzo's cruelty.

Jiraiya set his mug down and pulled Y/N's mug from her hand, setting that down too. His hand, warm and calloused, clasped around her wrist. He pushed her black shirt's sleeve up and examined the scars.

"Take it off."

"Jiraiya. You already know..."

"Take it off, Y/N."

She pulled at the hem of the shirt, stretching the shirt over her head. She held the shirt by her side in her fist. His eyes trailed over every inch of her torso. Every gash, scrape, and gouge. As he did, she was suddenly too aware of the pain that had been inflicted upon her during the war.

"You're red. It seems he didn't completely brainwash you. You clearly still feel," He observed as he ran his calloused fingertips across her side.

She didn't speak, the feelings and memories she had repressed were returning.

"Put your shirt back on."

Y/N didn't move, she stared through him.

"Holy shit, Y/N?"

No response. She was stuck. It wasn't Jiraiya who was in front of her. It was her torturers faces. Their sharp teeth that she saw with the grins as their blades lacerated her flesh. The room that filled with gas as Tenzo, her dear Tenzo, picked her up. And then, it all went black.

~~~

She woke, wrapped in a soft blanket. As her vision focused, a large brown toad with red marking stared at her. It had golden eyes and its breathing was steady. She was in Jiraiya's bedroom; yet, she didn't remember much of how she got there.

She tossed the blanket off of herself and was hit by a chill. Her shirt was off. Had they been drinking? Oh god, did she try to make a move on him in her drunken state? Her head didn't feel like it usually did if she were drinking.

Her shirt was tossed over the foot of the bed. She grabbed it and put it on and opened the bedroom door. As she headed down the hallway, she saw Jiraiya asleep and shirtless on the couch. She stared at his chest. It rose and fell with an occasional snore. For his age, he was still in wildly great shape. But what her eyes fixated on the most was the giant scar he had in the center of his chest.

Y/N was working in a run-down bar illegally while she was still in high school. It was how the two met. Clearly her parents didn't give a shit about her. They weren't lovers, but she certainly was a sight for his old sore eyes. Jiraiya came in almost every night to talk to her during her shift. She had been wrapped around his finger almost instantly.

But, he realized he had made a mistake with her. She wasn't just some girl who was entertaining an old man. No, she was enthralled by his tales of war and adventure. For trailer trash like her, that was the way to see the world, who cared if she lived to tell about it?

By the time she graduated high school, she spent most of her free time at Jiraiya's home in the forest. Although she hated those toads, she loved being in his presence, and listening to his stories.

One night, they sat watching television when an emergency broadcast came on. The Hokage had officially enacted a draft, starting the next day. The draft was unusual. There would be no exemptions.

"I don't need to be drafted. I want to be a warrior like you!"

"You don't want to be like me. You want to be better than me."

"You don't think I can do it, huh?"

"Oh, I don't doubt for a second you can. But, just because you can, doesn't mean you should."

Y/N rolled her eyes. She finished high school without a single ambition. But, she loved Konoha, she wanted to fight to make her world a better place.

"I'm going to join."

"Y/N, no!"

"You heard the same words I did, they're drafting us anyways. No exemptions."

"There's always exemptions!"

"Jiraiya, I have no reason to be exempt."

"You can be my employee. My business here will fail without you."

"No. I've made up my mind."

"Why don't you sleep on it? Take some time to consider the nature of war."

Y/N let out a sharp laugh, one that made Jiraiya feel small and juvenile, "The nature of war? You can't be serious."

"I think perhaps I focused only on the glory. Y/N, I lost so many friends. There was just so much death."

She just stared at him as he went on.

"But I think what's worse than death is the grief the living carry with them. It's permanent."

"Jiraiya..."

He held up his hand to silence her as he lifted the hem of his shirt to reveal a nasty scar. It almost looked like a spider. It was spread out with tendrils stretching up to his collarbone and down to his navel. She reached out and ran her fingertips over the thick and contractured skin. Jiraiya's display had the opposite effect on Y/N. Once she saw this scar she knew she had to fight for peace.

Oh, how stupid she had been.

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