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Such courage was a gift.
She would just keep walking on her own.
It was a morning like any other. A normal, unproblematic weekend morning. She was lying, actually. There was no way her morning today wasn't unproblematic. Akane was in deep thoughts again. The incident with Shisui a while back was keeping her mind restless.
She sighed.
And it must have become a daily routine for Akane—walking after taking her breakfast was her way of completely waking up to live her day.
After some time, she found herself in the village's market place. She specifically hated the crowd, but she needed to buy a few more ninja tools.
But oh.
Akane remembered: she wasn't in the legal age to buy new tools. She could if she was with a legal guardian.
Pausing on her standing point with a catatonic face, she turned around to another direction.
I'm an orphan . . . Right . . .
She could never get used to that thought. In years of living alone, she had let herself an impression that she was already an adult. Though she was just a little bit over ten years old.
Disheartened, she began walking with heavy footsteps—all whiny and grumbling.
Maybe she'd ask Shishui-san or Itachi to buy it for her. Or Kakashi-san could help as well. The three of them were the only persons she could depend on to.
Yet, all of a sudden—
"Oh-ho! Kigu da ne?"
—there was a voice that made her frown.
With an impassive expression, she pivoted.
"If it's a coincidence, it's a bad coincidence then," she said, peering over her shoulder and noting of disdain in her voice, "Jiraiya."
"Oi!" The white-haired old man uttered in his most incredulous tone. "That's Jiraiya-'sensei' to you!"
"Jiraiya–" she was canonically unfazed– "-san."
"A. Sensei. To. You.," he quipped, spelling each syllable out as if trying to lecture her. "Good grief, you've been losing your respect to me everytime I see you." He scratched his hair in the process.
The girl flinched a bit, a little of grimace. Yet an idea lit up on her idea.
"Well then," she spoke as she faced her previous sensei with astute demeanor, "why don't you be a sensei to me and come lend me a help?"
"Hmn?" Jiraiya inspected the young lady's word first, for there was a challenge in her tone. "What's it?"
