"Well... I did say you won't believe me but here goes nothing. Otogakure." Shirokumo clearly states, he's waiting for someone to call his words bullshit.
"Aren't Sasuke and Alvarcus there?" Naruto whispers, more to himself than Jiraya.
...
Jiraya barely even registers Naruto's words. "Orochimaru sent you? What's his ingenious plan? To ask me to fix his arms since Tsunade was a bust? Tell him to cut off the damn things, then maybe they'll grow back whole!"
"I knew this was a bad idea." Shirokumo mutters. "Orochimaru didn't send me, I owe that creature no allegiances! He's a blight on humanity, no the world as a whole, that needs to be removed. That vile snake holds no sway over me."
"Bullshit!" Jiraya shouts. "He might hold no influence over you but he probably has his fangs sunk deep into your Summoner!"
"Oh you have no idea how correct you are, Toad Sage. Orochimaru has been trying to sink his repulsive fangs into my Summoner for years, back since he first discovered him. Orochimaru wants nothing more than to corrupt and turn my Summoner into his own pawn. The best part is my Summoner knows this and he's using it against the Snake Sannin for his own purposes and to be closer to him to make spying easier. For some absurd reason Orochimaru trusts my Summoner, maybe even more than anyone else."
"Hold up." Naruto cuts in. "Didn't Tsunade tell us that she had a spy in Otogakure? Yeah she did, his code name was Spider."
"Ah yes, that's what he went by." Shirokumo adds. "It's rather fitting, certainly made me smile the first time I heard that one."
Jiraya pauses for a moment, weighing countless pros and cons. He needs one more piece of information before he will act. "What is your Summoner's name?"
Shirokumo climbs over the ledge of the window to proudly look at the two shinobi. "My Summoner has done more for his home than anyone else in his generation. He's a shinobi who values his home above almost everything else, to the point that he's willingly abandoned it and has been cast out as a traitor and a missing nin. Even now, while deep in the hell that is Otogakure, he constantly is trying to find new ways to protect his home."
"His name." Jiraya narrows his eyes. "What is his name?"
"Does it matter?" Shirokumo shrugs.
"Of course it does!" Jiraya shouts.
"Not when I'm offering information on the Akatsuki." Shirokumo smirks as both Jiraya's and Naruto's jaws drop. "Yes, the group that's going after the bijuu. The one that has Konoha so scared that she sent away their jinchuriki with one of her Sannin. The one that Itachi Uchiha is a part of. Surely that drives home the severity of this group. But you already knew that, didn't you?"
"You have information on the Akatsuki?" Jiraya whispers. "Prove it."
"We know they exist. We know that they're gathering the bijuu for something. That's more than entire villages put together. We know more than that too and my Summoner and I are willing to share it with you. Provided of course that you pass it along to Tsunade and never mention either of us to her. She can never know it's from us."
"Wow." Jiraya sits down in shock. "Six years. I've been trying to find information on them for six years and you just pop into my life saying you know more than I've discovered in that entire time?"
"So Toad Sage, do we have an agreement?" Shirokumo boldly asks with a smirk plastered onto his face. "My Summoner and I will provide you with more information in addition to your own spy network if in return for us you pass it along to Tsunade and never tell her who you got it from. So you are aware, the Hokage is not the only Kage that my Summoner is thinking about sharing this information with. It's just a good place to start since Konoha obviously cares about stopping the Akatsuki while we try to sway the rest of the Kages to take them seriously."
"Yes. I would be a fool to refuse this." Jiraya readily agrees. "How often can I expect updates?"
"I don't know, that's up to my Summoner." Shirokumo shrugs. "Well then, now that that's all taken care of I'm going to leave now. I'll drop by again eventually. Not exactly sure when, but it'll happen."
"WAIT!" Naruto shouts before Shirokumo can disappear. "You said you're from Otogakure? Obviously your Summoner knows Alvarcus right? Since he'd have to sign the Spider Contract to do those things he did in the Chunin Exams. So that means you've seen him, right?"
'Interesting.' Shirokumo thinks to himself. 'Naruto is assuming that someone let Alvarcus sign the Contract, not that he went and reversed summoned himself to get us. He thinks that Alvarcus and my Summoner are two unique individuals and judging by the looks Jiraya is shooting me, he thinks the same thing. It's not an outrageous idea, it's very rare for someone as young as Alvarcus to survive a Summon's tests. Plus how would a thirteen year old have any information on the most elusive and hidden criminal groups of this day and age?'
"Yeah I've seen Alvarcus." Shirokumo tiredly provides a piece of information to the duo. "That brat has no idea what he's doing half the time and the other half he's training like there's a war looming on the horizon. Plus he's always with some black haired boy. They're damn near inseparable."
"Alvarcus and Sasuke. How are they? Are they okay? Do they need help? Orochimaru isn't experimenting on them, right? They're both fine? Have they improved? Do they know any new tricks? How about jutsu? Wait wait that's unimportant! Why did they leave? Better yet why did Alvarcus refuse to come back home?"
"Yeah I'm not touching that one. Bye." Shirokumo vanishes in a cloud of smoke.
"So." Jiraya turns to his student. "That happened."
Naruto looks very miffed at missing a chance to find out more about his two wayward friends. Both Sasuke and Alvarcus hold a special spot in his heart, they were the first two to actually reach out and include him. They are his first friends. "Yeah. Are you really not going to tell Tsunade about this mysterious Spider Summoner? Shouldn't we at least warn her that he's an Oto shinobi? He's gotta be strong right?"
"It's possible." Jiraya nods in agreement. "It's actually a pretty difficult ordeal to let someone else sign your personal Contract. Usually only those who have mastered or are very close to mastering their Contracts even consider letting someone else sign it. Even then it's usually an apprentice or someone who means something to the original Contract Holder. Knowing that Alvarcus has signed a Contract is impressive. Not only does it bump up his threat level significantly since summons can cover up your weak points but it also means that he either befriended the Contract Holder or used his connections to Orochimaru to have my old teammate force the Contract Holder to let him sign it. Either way he's more dangerous than I thought."
"Well yeah Alvarcus is dangerous! We've met him, he's got those weird black monster thingies! Not to mention all the jutsu he knows. His diversity is insane. But we're not talking about him."
"Correct. We're talking about Tsunade's ex-spy." Jiraya pauses for a moment in deep thought. He's weighing the pros and cons of telling Tsunade about who exactly his new contact is. "Is he trustworthy? I'm not sure, Tsunade did cut ties with him if he's seeking us out. That's something against him."
"But he's offering information on the Akatsuki, a group that we have next to zero on. And they want my head. Really not okay with all of that." Naruto points out. "I say we test him. Let him give us a few pieces of information, see how good he is. If he provides accurate and good intel, we'll use him. If not, we tell Tsunade and ask what she wants done."
"Not bad kiddo." Jiraya fondly tossels Naruto's hair. "Maybe underneath all that stupid there's a glimmer of hope for you!"
"Oi! Not cool! Don't mess with my hair!" Naruto halfheartedly tries to escape.
"Is – is the spider gone now?" A nervous female voice shakily asks from outside of the room.
"Of course!" Jiraya beams as he gallantly strolls out of the room. "I, Jiraya of the Sannin, have miraculously defeated the foe! Once he laid eyes on my might he fled in fear!"
"Fantastic. He's doing this again." Naruto groans out. "When will I be back in Konoha? At this rate it's going to be weeks. I just want to get away from all of this crazy for a bit! I swear he's going to corrupt me."
"OH HO!" Jiraya's loud booming voice penetrates the walls. "I'll have to use that for my books! I had no idea someone could be so flexible!"
"I need to get out of here before I go insane."
...
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