Title: Hiding...

....

I just calmly walk up to the animal and see that it is a toad. I smirk at it, already figuring out who it is. 

"You know, is it just me, or are you Sanin  not very good at hiding." I say to the frog, who only looks at me normally like an animal would. I just raise an eyebrow at this.

The toad opens its mouth and slowly a man in a Jonin uniform comes out of it. He has long spiky hair, black eyes and his face had an awkward smile on it. He is one of the three Sanin... Jiraiya.

When I see this all, I just have a normal look on my face. As if this didn't bother me at all. But really though, his hiding was impeccable, I couldn't sense his chakra at all. My jutsu that allows me to sense emotions just saved me from a lot of troubles. I decided to say something first as I asked Jiraya. "I hope you weren't sent here to spy on me or.... I would have to take, certain... precautions  against it."

Immediately Jiraya started sweating cold sweat, a little as his face became a little nervous. I noticed his muscles instinctively twitching, even though he knows perfectly well that he stands NO chance against me, no matter what he might try. 

We are alone in a forest with him spying on me. He knows that I know, that if I kill him here, no one would even find his body after I kill him. The Hokage could say different things, but if we are being truthful here, I rule Konoha from the shadows. I could ruin it with just a snap of my fingers. So even the Hokage wouldn't dare do anything like that, of course he could kill my mother, but who cares about that. Maybe she will finally be useful now.

People say that when you have someone to protect, that will make you stronger... but that is all a lie. Only when you have no one to protect, and no one to worry about, only then can you become stronger. I have no true weakness, no one can threaten me with my mother's life or anything like that. So that is the reason I am daring enough to take risky moves, plus when people think that I care about my mother makes it even easier for me. 

But still... I can't just tolerate something like this, or other people might get some bright ideas. It seems like I will have to make an example out of Jiraya so other people know what the consequences of opposing me are. After all, if people think that I will just release the people that I catch spying on me, then they will take that as a queue to do so. 

While thinking all of this, I smile at Jiraya softly,  as he answers my question by simply saying. "I was simply here for a message."

I can see that he has already calmed down, and his ninja training has kicked in. He is no longer giving me a lot of information on what he is feeling. Well... not being intimidated by... isn't that rude of him. 

"Well now... you have put quite the hard decision on me." I said slowly as to emphasize that he wouldn't get out of this so easily.

....

-Jiraya POV-

Those cold eyes, that relaxed posture with his hands on his pockets. He doesn't see me as a danger to him at all. Well... he wouldn't be necessarily wrong about that. 

Yami has become someone VERY dangerous, the type of guy who could kill Danzo, a village Elder inside the village and face no persecution. Actually he even got some praise out of it. 

Sarutobi -sensei told me to just look for any suspicious activity around Yami. I didn't expect to be discovered so quickly. Especially here, in this forest where if he decided to kill me... no one would even notice. 

I can see it in his eyes, he WILL kill me if I step out of line. From what Tsunade says, Yami isn't someone to act without a plan where he gets the most benefits and the least losses. His intelligence might be at Orochimaru's level or possibly even higher due to his ability to plan things so perfectly and Yami has already surpassed Tsunade in medical ninjutsu.

He will most likely kill me here after getting the information that he wants from me. Suddenly I hear Yami say with a nonchalant voice. "So... did the Hokage send you for an errand… like spying on me or something like that?"

When I looked at his eyes, my instincts were screaming to tell him the truth, that YES the Hokage did send me to spy on him due to some suspicion of Yami having a flight risk, he might become a missing ninja. No one ever thought of this strategy, since he has the Inuzuka and his mother in Konoha. But due to some information that Orochimaru has revealed, it seems like Yami doesn't necessarily care about his mother. And a guy who doesn't care about his family, what is stopping him from simply running away. This was supposed to be a simple investigation but it turned into much more.

I keep my cool in this situation, my face and body language not portraying anything about my thought process, as I say to Yami. "No, the Hokage didn't send me here, I was simply curious about Tsunade's student that she keeps bragging about."

I smile a little as I say the last part, trying to lighten the mood. But  somehow Yami still didn't seem amused by this, and he isn't even giving me an escape from questions like this. 

Yami releases a small sigh and rubs his eyes as he says. "Well... I guess I could forgive you for this time since you are Tsunade's teammate."

I didn't know how to feel about that, so I simply nodded and didn't say anything. 

I took that as my queue to leave, I turned around and am about to walk away. Suddenly I hear Yami say again. "I don't think I gave you permission to leave."

As soon as I heard that I couldn't help but be filled with abject despair.... I now understood that Yami wanted to make an example out of me. So my body froze and couldn't walk anymore, suddenly black markings started appearing around my body. The markings had square forms.

I analysed that it was the paralysis seal... and the person who most likely cast is Yami Inuzuka. I didn't even see him when he even put on the seal. I didn't sense him touch me at all... don't tell me... he has surpassed even Minato and Kushina in Fuinjutsu... but that shouldn't be possible. Kushina is an Uzumaki AND  a Fuinjutsu specialist. Yami.... he also seems to know curse seals like the paralysis seal. Damn... what do I do now...

....

A/N: Yami can't let Jiraya go away so easily, since if he doesn't make an example out of Jiraya, a lot of people will be sending even more spies.... he WON'T allow that to happen. 

P.S: The ninja are slowly discovering parts of Yami's true personality. But that is within his range of expectations of course. Now even if they did know how Yami really was, they couldn't do anything, just like Jiraya right now.🤣👍

ANNOUNCEMENT: For every 1000 Power Stones in this story, this will get +1 extra chapter that day.