Disclaimer: I neither own the characters from Naruto or make any profit from this story.

Changing the Guard

Team 2 is changing, and none of its members are sure they like it. The first of the chuunin has been promoted to jounin, and with war along the borders of Fire Country their sensei is badly needed on the front; Hatake Sakumo is no longer able to perform his duties, and it takes a ninja with the strength of a Sannin to do them. So Jiraiya is off before dawn the day after Uzumaki Arashi is promoted. He doesn't say goodbye to Uchiha Mikoto and Sarutobi Konohamaru because he doesn't have much time, and Arashi is the only one who won't spear him with a kunai for knocking on his bedroom window at three in the morning when the end of the world isn't involved.

"Sensei?" Arashi rubs the sleep out of his eyes with the hand not fisted around a kunai, and manages to look much more cute than a jounin should ever be. Jiraiya grins.

Another glance and the boy is alert; he's taken in his teacher's black clothing, dark mask, and the cart-sized flourescent blue frog loaded down like a pack mule beside him. "Is there a mission?"

"There is," Jiraiya says, "but not for you."

"Oh," Arashi says, and that's all he really needs to say.

Jiraiya's been around his students long enough to see beneath the underneath, and the boy's expression says everything his words don't. "Team 2 is yours now; don't let Uchiha and Sarutobi push you around." He throws a packet up towards the young jounin. "That's the information on my replacement; he'll meet you at the normal spot this morning."

Arashi pales at the sight of the name scribbled on the folder and gives Jiraiya the closest thing to a panicked look he's seen out of the boy in years, and it takes a lot to keep from laughing. So he bites his lip and keeps half an eye on the horizon, waiting.

"I don't know how to do this," Arashi admits eventually. "I'm not sure I can."

If Jiraiya had been anyone else, he would have offered words of encouragement or comfort or tips on how, exactly, one dealt with emotionally unstable teammates, but because Jiraiya is Jiraiya and believes in learning by experience, he says none of these things and dredges up a crooked smile that makes his teeth gleam pearly white against darkness of the street. "You'll figure it out."

And then he is gone in a puff of smoke and muttering, angry toad, off to the front lines where his experience and strength may just make the difference between winning a war and losing it.

The boy who will eventually become the Yondaime merely stares at the spot where he once was with a vague sense of abandonment, and then goes to make a cup of tea. He has planning to do.