Louise was pretty sure that she was bored out of her mind. After the exciting events of a few days ago, even more excitement had come into her life when the Princess came to her room to give a request for a secret mission. Louise had naturally jumped on the chance to be of any service to her childhood friend and had immediately accepted.

She ignored her familiar's eye roll, an obvious sign that he didn't approve of her accepting right off the bat without first hearing what the mission was. Then again the man was definitely making nice with the higher ups within Tristain as a whole.

Her familiar had come back with the thief Fouquet and she was shocked to learn that Ms. Longville had been the culprit the entire time. However, she hadn't had time for that news to really sink in before her familiar had swept passed her and headed straight for the Headmaster's office. He had been in there for awhile before coming out grim faced. It seemed whatever was discussed in there was important.

Afterwards they had retired to her room where she was accosted by the Princess who had come to beg a mission from Louise. It was to be top secret and was of utmost importance. She had listened to Henrietta talk about the Prince of Albion for the better part of half an hour and the secret letters that they had been sending back and forth to one another. However, with Albion breaking out into a war she needed to have those letters back or risk the insurgents turning their sights on Tristain.

Her familiar had listened to all of this information with a slight tilt of his head, before nodding once in agreement, his grim face returning.

"So you want us to take care of the problem?"

The princess had hesitated at her familiar's blunt question before she had steeled herself and nodded in agreement.

"If possible yes, I had heard what you'd done against Fouquet and had thought that your skill set would be suited to this task, Jiraiya the Super Pervert."

The princess ignored Jiraiya's twitching eyebrow at the nickname and took a second to glance at Louise as well.

"I also thought that Louise would be up for the task as well. I had heard she had had some hand in helping with the Fouquet problem."

Jiraiya had snorted at that and Louise blushed as she remembered merely being stuck on Jiraiya's back as his toad and the giant golem had clashed. That was one experience that she didn't wish to relive anytime soon.

Louise quickly decided to give an answer before her familiar could embarrass her.

"Of course we'd be able to take on this mission, Princess. It would be an honor."

Louise had then gotten on one knee to accept the mission, much to Henrietta's embarrassment, but her familiar just seemed faintly amused by the whole thing. He then tilted his head as if listening to something before casually walking over near the door.

"Well, that sounds good and all, but what are we going to do about the gaki listening in at the door."

There was a decidedly unmanly squeak as Jiraiya opened the door to reveal Guiche in all his eavesdropping glory. He looked suitably shocked that he had been caught.

"Ahaha, Princess, I didn't know that you were in here, I also have no idea about any kind of incriminating letter with the Prince of Albion, no idea whatsoever."

The Princess had once again seemed embarrassed, if the way her face flushed bright red was anything to go by, by having her dirty laundry aired, so to speak, but Jiraiya cut in quickly enough.

"Well, I guess I gotta take this gaki with me so he doesn't spill the beans, otherwise if you want it to stay a secret we're gonna have to kill him."

Although Henrietta looked mortified by the idea and Guiche turned quite a bit paler, Louise could tell that her familiar was just messing with the two.

"Stop that. We'll just take him along."

Louise accompanied her statement with a light slap on her familiar's arm although it felt like she had hit a brick wall. Guiche had looked as though he was going to be eternally grateful for her support and she merely rolled her eyes at the boy.

Henrietta then surprised her by bowing towards the three of them at the waist.

"Please, I beg of you three to make sure that this mission is completed! However I don't want anyone to die because of something that I set in motion. Make sure that none of you die in the process! I would hate to lose my childhood friend and her familiar, as well as the son of an influential general."

Jiraiya face had become much more serious as Louise nodded with determination and soon Henrietta had re-clasped her cloak and was gone in a rustle of cloth. Guiche had made some excuse and had then proceeded to flee from the room, leaving only her and her familiar.

"Are you sure about this, gaki? If we fail, it could get ugly."

Louise took a steadying breath as her familiar's eyes bored into her own. She almost faltered at the steely determination in his eyes. She remembered that tthis was a man who had done amzing things so far and he had been able to single handedly (admittedly with the help of his toads) take down Fouquet of the Crumbling Earth.

However the moment of self-doubt was brief as she thought about the times that she and Henrietta had spent together in childhood and the carefree faces compared to the look of worry that the princess now wore.

She let a look of utmost determination creep across her expression, one that matched the white haired man's, before she gazed directly into her familiar's judging eyes.

"Yes."

Her familiar looked as though he approved of her answering determination. With a short nod he ambled over to his own sleeping bag.

"Good eyes, gaki. Keep that determination right at the forefront of your mind. You're gonna need it."

The next day she, Jiraiya, and Guiche had all set out on horseback toward their destination, which had led to around two days of riding. They were now on the third day and this had led to her massive boredom.

For some strange reason Guiche had been perfectly content to ride in silence these last few days, merely taking in the various rolling hills that had passed them by as they made their way toward Albion. On the other hand her familiar had decided to ditch his saddle and was somehow riding on his horse lying on his back and watching the clouds go by, Derf safely ensconced in a sheath on the side of the horse. Louise was slightly baffled by how he was achieving this feat, but chalked it up to her familiar being batshit crazy.

Sighing, Louise felt her own attention drift up to the sky and away from the rolling hills they were passing through.

"Right then, I think you two have had a pretty decent break."

Louise was startled out of her thoughts as she looked over to her familiar and was surprised to see that he had changed his position and was now sitting cross legged on the back of his horse. If the gleam in his eyes was anything to go by she wasn't going to like what was about to come next.

"It has come to my attention that we've been doing nothing but riding these last few days."

He said this with a straight face as though it wasn't obvious to the other two traveling companions.

"I think it's time to rectify that."

Louise immediately knew that her uneasy feeling was correct as Jiraiya produced a handful of kunai. She flashbacked to the last time he had really been driving them towards something and realized that she had been taken her boredom for granted. Having sharp objects, even if they were blunted, thrown at you could really cause some trauma.

She glanced over at Guiche and was pretty sure his catatonic state was a result of some sort of flashback to barely dodging the kunai that her familiar was over fond of flinging at them.

"I think we'll take a break from riding for a bit, we've made decent time. It's time for you two to try not to die."

With his piece said, Louise realized that she and Guiche were now on the ground with Jiraiya standing ominously over them an almost manic glint in his eyes. The slightly nauseating disorientation of traveling so fast so suddenly was ruthlessly crushed (she might be getting a bit more used to traveling at such speeds after all) in favor of cautiously eyeing her familiar's weapons.

Slowly her eyes slid to Jiraiya's face and she felt herself shudder at the expression that was there. It was some kind of unholy combination of glee and excitement in anticipation for their pain.

Unfortunately it seemed as though her blond brother disciple still wasn't able to quite filter his mouth because he decided that now was a perfect time to try and make a snappy comment.

"Is this the part where we'll have to report you later on for child endangerment?"

Louise slowly slid her gaze over to her fellow student expression becoming void of emotion.

"I think I might hate you."

There was a second where her familiar's gaze became even more pronounced at Guiche's declaration, but it seemed that he was going to open with words for the time being.

"Now this is gonna hurt you more than it hurts me."

Guiche apparently still hadn't gotten the memo about these crazy sessions, because he decided to speak out at that.

"I, uh, don't think that's how that saying goes."

His response was met with a blunt kunai to the head that sent him flying backwards. Louise's eyes widened at that and she snapped her attention back to her familiar just in time to feel a the whistling wind of a kunai passing the spot where her head had previously been. Unfortunately, it was not enough for her to be able to dodge the two more after it and she too went flying into the ground groaning from pain.

"Now then, like I said before, don't die!"

Louise would definitely rather be bored.

Jiraiya shook his head as he observed his groaning students. He had gotten unbelievably bored as they had been doing nothing but riding the past few days, and if he was bored then his students were most definitely bored. He had decided to be a Good Samaritan and spruce up their dull travel a little. It also helped that they needed to keep in shape for what was coming.

He was sure that the two had never really been in a warzone before and that for all the bravado they had put on when they had accepted the mission, his makeshift "team" was more akin to fresh out of the Academy Genin. Hell if he had to rank this mission for a ninja it would be leaning more towards an A-rank. Maybe it was just destined for whatever team he was on to get the tough jobs?

In any case they had trained for a few hours until the sun began to set saturating the field they were in with an orange glow, one that Naruto would definitely have approved of.

Jiraiya took a minute to listen into his students and was satisfied when he heard their breathing beginning to even out. Good, it meant they could set up camp before they set out early tomorrow for the road. It would be something that they needed, while the training session had done wonders in keeping the two's thoughts off the impending important mission, Jiraiya had seen earlier that the two's thoughts had been drifting a little too far from the goal for his liking. And if he got to not be bored out of his skull for a few hours while the two did their damndest to hit him with their magic after that first volley, then who was he to complain?

"Alright gakis, stretch out a bit to warm down and then begin setting up camp, we'll leave at first light tomorrow. I'll go get some wood for a fire."

He was met with what he was sure were twin groans of affirmative (music to his ears) as the two got to their feet and began going through the stretches he had taught them. Jiraiya himself stood up and made a satisfying stretch before he began to wander off in search of something to use as firewood. He absently created a clone and set it about the task before flashing through his seals and summoning Pa.

The old toad blinked at Jiraiya and let loose a thrilled smile at seeing the Toad Sage.

"Ah Jiraiya-chan, what have you summoned me for this time. We've been quite busy since the war began."

Jiraiya winced at the casual way his old friend dropped the information that he had been wanting. While he had hopped peace would be able to be obtained without some sort of violence he always knew it was a fool hearty goal to try and achieve.

"It seems things have become a bit more complicated on my side as well. I've encountered a group that have some similarities to Akatsuki in this world. At the moment it seems as though they are trying to destabilize a few countries trough war, but if I'm reading it right I wouldn't be surprised if they're working towards a more nefarious goal."

Pa scowled at the mention of the black cloaked characters, but he was stroking his beard in thought as Jiraiya continued talking.

"I've been able to flip an informant and from what I found out it seems that I'm walking into a warzone that has been orchestrated by this group. I didn't know about a few details, but I can now see how this might boil over into the country that's been hosting me. I'm fairly certain that whatever the endgame is for these people it's not going to be anything good for the rest of the inhabitants of this world."

Fukasaku merely sighed as Jiraiya's report came to a close. It seemed as if the spymaster couldn't help but become embroiled in some sort of cloak and dagger operation, apparently it must be second nature to the man by now.

"Although I can sympathize, why are you so concerned about this?"

Jiraiya sighed himself at the elder toad's query. No matter how much he denied it he had started to become attached to some of the people within this world. He had begun to forge bonds and he knew that he was part of the old guard who was supposed to protect the newer and more promising people to take his place. It was why he was comfortable with waiting for a way home with his godson holding down the fort.

However, Jiraiya was a man who was deeply driven by the bonds that he made throughout his life. While he was content to let his godson do his thing he had gotten a bit restless at where he was. He needed to up his game if some sort of organization like Akatsuki existed here and from all he had heard about Reconquista there were just too many similarities to leave them alone.

"I suppose I just needed to get some steam off my chest, organize my thoughts before I jump back into the game that I need to play. I'll try and summon you as soon as possible, but it might be a bit. I have a feeling things are going to be a little bit hectic with what we are walking into."

Pa merely nodded his head in understanding before leaning on his can seemingly lost in thought. For a moment the two simply enjoyed the silence before Fukasaku decided to break it.

"It's in your nature to get attached, Jiraiya-chan. It was what allowed you to find us in the first place to become our summoner. I believe you are definitely ready to begin getting back into the swing of things. From what you've told me you have new students and another purpose to fulfill here. Leave things in Naruto-chan's capable hands for the time being back in our home world."

Jiraiya nodded and accepted the advice the old toad gave. With their conversation essentially over, he dismissed the old toad and looked over to the rising twin moons. He supposed he would have to be a bit more proactive in the training of the two gakis. While they were getting better at dodging the fact that they were hit with a surprise attack was more worrying than he had thought. He was sure that they would be able to handle any kind of grunts within Reconquista, but if a higher ranked member was on the scene he would have to pull his weight he supposed.

With a shrug and a roll of his shoulders he switched with his clone that had been with the teens as they had built a fire and let it dispel. After quickly sifting through the memories he assumed a more lounging position with his legs splayed out and leaning back on his elbows to look at the night sky.

"Is it hard taking a life?"

Jiraiya's eyes slide over to the pink haired gaki who had hugged her knees to her chest and was staring intently into the fire. It seemed that her question had roused his other student from his stupor as he seemed to express some interest in the subject matter that Louise had brought up.

Jiraiya sighed at the question as the two teens' attention turned to him expecting an answer to their query. While Jiraiya had done his fair share of killing, it always made him hate himself a little more. He was someone who strived for peace, and the ability to turn on his warrior mode was what had let him live until he was at the top. However the two had asked a question, so he supposed he should answer it.

"Not really."

At his blunt answer he saw that the two teens' eyes had widened in surprise, so Jiraiya decided to expound on his answer.

"It's insanely easy to take a life. Humans are actually pretty fragile creature when you get down to it, the only way we make it to the top of the food chain is through our ingenuity and sheer tenacity to survive. Even mages are still squishy and susceptible to damage. One good hit and that's it."

The two still seemed a bit incredulous at his reasoning so Jiraiya decided to continue.

"The aftermath however, that's something that's hard to deal with."

The Toad Sage once more turned his gaze skyward as he continued onward, not noticing how invested his students were becoming in his explanation.

"The thing is, taking a life causes pain, and that pain can turn into hate. Then the people who were related to the person will try their damndest to get their revenge and cause more pain and hate. It's a vicious cycle of hatred that seems as though there is no end in sight. Even the country we're going to is engulfed in their hatred due to the rebellion. They hated the ruling class so much that they have been slaughtering all the rulers to install someone they think will bring about peace, but even then because of that slaughtering, there will most likely be a spark of hate within your own ruler if I read this mission right."

Jiraiya then looked back to his two students shrugged.

"Thus the cycle of hatred continues."

There was a low whistle at that as Derf decided to chime in.

"Pretty deep there partner, I gotta say you're not entirely wrong, after all I'm a weapon designed for killing, there may have been people who wielded me who were noble, but in the end they still used me to kill. And I'm still relevant 6,000 years later."

Jiraiya winced at that and the look of horror that was slowly crawling over the other two teens' expressions. Damn it, he hated it when people learned the truth a bit too early. They weren't quite ready for it like Naruto was, despite him learning of it when he was younger than them.

"It's not all bad, since we know there is a cycle, we just have to find the way to break it. It's too late for this old war toad, but I definitely believe that I'll teach someone who will do so. In fact, I'm firmly of the belief that I might already have done so."

The two blinked at that as the Sage sent them a warm smile.

"The bonds we make are precious things, gakis. It's what make you try just that little bit harder. Let's you want to get home just that bit more. I've been of the firm belief that when I decide to teach someone, they need to understand the cycle and try as hard as they can to smash the damn thing to pieces."

The two sat up a little bit straighter at that, gaining a determined glint in their eye.

"Well, that should be all for now, catch some winks, we got a long day of traveling again tomorrow and you need to be ready for us to continue our training."

Jiraiya felt a grin slip across his face as the two groaned in exasperation. Music to his ears.

Louise was feeling somewhat miserable the fourth day of their journey, while she had been exhausted at first before going to sleep, she felt as though the talk that she had had with her familiar/teacher had been enough to emotionally drain her after having been physically drained with the training. However it was not to be and she had been up into the night just turning over the ideas of peace, bonds, and the cycle of hate that her familiar had mentioned. She also felt a small stab of irrational jealousy at whomever her familiar had taught before. It felt as though she still had a long way to go.

With a gigantic yawn covered by her hand (it was always good to try and act a noble whether they were on the road or not) she sleepily fell in line behind her familiar with Guiche bringing up the rear. Once more the man was lying down on his horse with his eyes closed and his hands behind his head as though he had no care in the world. He was also twirling a piece of grass around in his teeth.

The man was far too casual for their mission, but then again she supposed that he had been through many more important missions than either her or Guiche.

She really wished he could act his age though.

Shaking her head to try and get the blood flowing back to her brain so she wasn't so tired, she wasn't entirely sure if it was working. Sighing she just decided to accept that she would have to somehow learn how to nap on her horse and not fall off.

Just as she was sure she had found the right position to do so, her familiar's eyes snapped open and he looked toward the sky. Louise was confused as to what could have elicited this reaction, but her question was soon answered as a cry from some sort of animal filled the air.

For a moment there was nothing and then all of sudden a massive grey griffon landed near them. For a moment Louise was stunned by the animal's entrance she usually didn't see them outside of the knights who rode them in the palace. However, it was the rider that really caught her attention.

He was wearing a flamboyant blue hat that did nothing to contain his luscious grey hair and that fell past his shoulders. A well worn cloak was thrown about his shoulders shielding his tunic and trousers from the elements. Strapped to his hip was a wand that could be mistaken for a saber if it had not had a blunt edge.

"Ah Louise Francois! I've found you at last! It's taken me much longer to find you than I had thought it would!"

With a smooth practiced motion he dismounted from the griffon and approached the group. However he was stopped as a kunai buried itself near his feet. The man narrowed his eyes before he looked up towards her familiar.

"I wasn't aware that you had summoned someone so uncouth, Little Louise. It seems as though I may have to give this man a lesson in humility."

Louise felt a headache start to form, both due to tiredness and due to the man randomly appearing out of nowhere when they were supposed to be on a top secret mission. She knew that Wardes had her best interests at heart being her fiancé, but she felt as though he was definitely being overly familiar with her considering the last time they had seen each other she had been a child.

However, as she had tried to rub the migraine building behind her eyes away the two older men had been preparing for battle. Her familiar's eyes were cold as he observed the new arrival and he had his arms crossed, in consternation at being found so easily if she had to guess.

"If you're spoiling for a fight, Wardes, then I'm happy to oblige."

Her familiar's tone froze everyone in the clearing. She had thought that the two might not get along, but she thought it might be because Wardes might try and influence some of her decisions while her familiar seemed to be very on the side of voicing your own opinions. She hadn't expected them to be at each other's throats as soon as they saw one another. She was also taken aback that he knew Wardes' name.

"I must say that you have me at a disadvantage, although I knew that Little Louise had summoned a human familiar, I had not had the pleasure of learning your name."

Louise felt her eyelid twitch as her familiar let loose a very familiar grin. She was sure he was about to do something stupid.

"Well since you asked so nicely…."

With that Jiraiya struck a pose and flipped his hair about.

"I am the person who makes the darkness their friend and then sends them out to light the world!"

She blinked as she could've sworn she had just heard a sound that sounded as if two wood blocks had been beaten together rapidly.

"I am the manliest of men who make women tremble in awe and men tremble in fear at the mere sight of me!"

All of them stared in disbelief as her familiar blazed through the hand signs she had seen him use before and with a puff of white smoke he was once more standing on a bear sized toad.

"They call me the Gallant Toad Sage of Mount Myouboku: Jiraiya!"

For a moment none of them moved, before Guiche started to clap slowly before realizing no one else was and that the tension had somehow skyrocketed compared to before.

"Also one other thing, Wardes."

The mage that had arrived on the griffin merely raised an eyebrow at the venom contained within her familiar's tone.

"I think your insanity has preceded you quite enough, Familiar."

Louis blinked at the tone that Wardes had used. While she knew that the man was made of fairly stern stuff, she had never heard him use that particular tone of voice before. Perhaps she was getting spoiled in the more relaxed way in which she spoke with her own familiar.

It seemed as though Wardes would be bested in this particular exchange as the toad that Jiraiya was sitting on suddenly had its tongue shoot out at blinding speed and wrapped around the wind mage.

With a yelp the man was dragged over to her familiar in an instant and the humor had fled from the situation. Gone was the eccentric teacher that taught both her and Guiche. In his place was the cold blooded killer that she knew her familiar could become.

There was a beat or two of silence as the man merely stared down the mage. It made Louise shiver with some sort of emotion she wasn't entirely sure of to see her fiancé trapped as he had been.

"Well, if you want to be serious, let me tell you that other thing I had warned you about. All my summons are usually battle ready when they are brought forth to this plane of existence. Your pretty griffin got nothing on me."

Suddenly her familiar flashed through dozens of his hand signs, before Louise noticed a familiar glow on his fingertips. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Guiche's own eyes widen, but before either of them could cry out, either in warning or to condemn her familiar for once more using that technique, the white haired man had slammed his hand into the navel area of Wardes.

The wind mage let out a strangled cry, but unlike Guiche who had immediately passed out afterwards the man merely dropped to the ground after being let go and wobbled on his feet for a minute. He let out a series of coughs before shakily getting to his feet once more.

"What-"

He was cut off as his body was once more wracked with coughs. Apparently even though he was able to stay conscious he was in more pain than Louise had realized. A quick glance over to Guiche revealed his pale face as he took in the sight. He was probably thanking whatever deity he could that he had been unconscious for what Wardes was going through.

"What did you do to me?"

Louise had only ever heard her fiancé as a self-confident man who knew exactly what he wanted and was going to do everything in his power to get it. What had come out of his mouth was something she would have never expected of the man from her memories. If she had to put an emotion behind the words that he had spoke she supposed she could easily identify it: fear.

The man was afraid at what had just happened to him and if the small evil smile that spread across her familiar's face was anything to go by, he was aware of it.

"Oh you know, a little of this, a little of that. Tell me, why would Reconquista send their mole in Tristain on this mission?"

Louise blinked at the unfamiliar name, but if the way Wardes face was turning pale was any indication, he very much knew what her familiar had just started talking about.

"How do you know that name?"

Jiraiya merely grinned at that, showing a bit too many teeth.

"Well this is a nice change of pace, not going to deny it are ya?"

Wardes merely snorted in consternation at that before he straightened. It looked as though the pain was wearing off from Jiraiya's technique.

"There's no use in playing coy with someone such as yourself. Your goofy persona threw me for a second, but it's nothing that I can't handle. Let me show you just what happens when you know too much, Familiar."

Wardes almost spat the name out like a curse and Louise was taken aback by the vitriol in her fiancé's voice. However, it seemed that all it did was amuse the Toad Sage atop his perch.

"You're gonna have to try better than that, kid. I've been threatened better by people half your age."

He then made a point to look Wardes up and down as the Griffin Knight slid into a fencing stance with his wand blade raised loosely in his right hand and his other hand held in tight formation behind him.

"Probably stronger as well."

This seemed to be the final straw for the wind mage fore he let out an inarticulate cry and then attempted to cast something at Jiraiya only for absolutely nothing to happen. For a moment no one moved as the two who were fighting merely stared at one another then slowly moved their attention to Wardes' wand which seemed to have stopped working for him. Her white haired familiar merely raised an eyebrow at the fact that absolutely nothing had happened.

"Ah, I get it."

Wardes blinked at her familiar's matter of fact tone and Louise was pretty sure she was right there along with him wondering what the hell her familiar was going on about. She knew that he had essentially sealed Wardes' magic for some reason, but even she wasn't all knowing in how her familiar decided to conduct his affairs.

"It's okay, it happens to everyone sometimes. I mean the thrill of the fight makes you underperform and then all of sudden you just can't get into it and nothing happens. I expect it to happen to me some times, but I suppose performance issues are a bigger problem than I had originally thought."

Louise noticed that her fiancé was turning an interesting shade of red as he gaped like a fish towards her familiar. She heard a snort next to her and whipped her head to see that Guiche was holding back muffled laughter. Apparently the blond idiot could find amusement in anything nowadays. Or perhaps he was just glad that the shoe was on someone else's foot now and it was no longer his problem to deal with.

"I…you…!"

It looked like her familiar had successfully driven a well known mage knight into incoherence with his antics. She wondered if he was actually going to tell Wardes what he had done to the man's magic.

With an incoherent scream of rage Wardes made a mistake that would cost him. He tried and charge Jiraiya.

The Toad Sage merely huffed in annoyance before he flipped off his toad redirected the attack so that it was harmless and sent Wardes spinning ass over head to land painfully on his back behind the toad. With a small glance the toad that had been summoned was dismissed in a cloud of smoke as the man groaned on the ground.

With a sigh, her familiar crouched over the man, most likely cutting an imposing figure with the sun right behind him and staring down at Wardes with nothing but contempt. However, before this farce of a fight could continue, Louise felt it was in her best interest to step in lest some crazy slight would come back to haunt her in her later years with Wardes family. He was a prestigious mage after all.

"I think I've been fairly patient with your actions, but what the hell is going on you Perverted Sage? I don't know if you know this, but that man is of some import to my family as he is my fiancé."

Jiraiya blinked at her interruption before he let out a grumble of discontent at Louise's mode of address. Louise tried to keep a smile spreading across her face while she heard Guiche let out a short huff of laughter. It was the little victories that they had to take. Otherwise they would just be constantly kicked around by the man.

It looked as though Wardes had other plans though. Even from his position of weakness he managed to sound smug about his position. Honestly it pissed the pink haired Vallière off a little to hear him sounding so condescending, but she supposed he was of good noble stock if nothing else.

"Ah, Little Louise, I actually wanted to talk to you about that. I think we could greatly benefit from moving the marriage date up."

With those words Louise felt as if her entire world has frozen.

She didn't notice her familiar's eyes narrow at that declaration nor did she see Guiche's mouth drop open in astonishment.

She had always known that she would eventually marry and take another name, but she had always dreamed of becoming her own person first. If she married now, when she was on the cusp of starting to achieve the things she worked for, how would she be able to look at herself in ten years time and say that she had no regrets?

As of right now she had so many regrets that she couldn't even begin to count them. The fact that she hadn't gotten a spell to work yet, the fact that she was constantly made fun of in her lessons, the fact that her familiar seemed so much more versatile than she did, the fact that she hadn't grown since the last time she had measured herself against a doorframe!

There was just too much and she knew that if she agreed to Wardes proposal (even if they were already technically engaged) then she might cease to be Louise Francoise Lu Blanc de La Vallière. She just couldn't accept that as an outcome to her own life. She was in control and she would stay in control until the end.

It seemed as though her familiar was at least somewhat on the same page as well.

"Sorry, but no can do. The gaki's got potential to be tapped and I'd rather not have her in the hands of Reconquista. It'd leave a bad taste in my mouth. Plus you're a bit old for the girl. I mean you're already going grey."

Louise found the expression on Wardes face to be more satisfying than she most likely should have. She was sure that he had just taken quite a few slights against his character and he looked infuriated over her familiar's use of that name again.

"How the hell do you know that name!? And I'll have you know that this is my natural hair color!"

Jiraiya merely raised an eyebrow at that declaration. If Louise didn't know any better she thought that he might be enjoying the little byplay that was passing between him and Wardes. She was also incredibly curious about what that name meant and why it was riling her (former she supposed now) fiancé.

"I know a lot of things. It comes with the territory. And really? It's natural? I know I'm not one to talk, but grey is a little bit…"

Louise felt as though she was watching some sort of surreal play, but instead of fiction this was her actual life. It seemed as though her familiar couldn't help but rile the man near him up, while Wardes seemed to not be able to let go of his pride. She was pretty sure that Guiche might asphyxiate he was trying to contain his laughter so much.

"I'm going to kill you. Then I'm going to find everyone you love and kill them too."

Even Louise knew the man had gone too far as the small playful glint that had returned to her familiar's eyes had now completely fled. Suddenly Wardes completely paled and Louise was able to feel a vaguely nauseating something permeating the air where the two were. She couldn't put her finger on it.

It was gone just as quickly as it had come, but she was sure that Wardes had completely stopped breathing and a look at Guiche revealed that instead of laughter his pupils had dilated and he was looking at her familiar somewhat more warily than they had lately.

While she tried to puzzle what that could have been, her answer came from an unlikely source.

"Holy hell, partner."

Louise glanced to where the sword had been sheathed by Jiraiya's horse's side. He had once more slid from his sheath and if the thing had eyes she would swear that he was looking at his wielder very cautiously.

"Ah, sorry, forgot you were there Derf, might've been a bit much."

Louise glanced at Guiche who looked just as confused as she was. Apparently whatever had happened they hadn't really gotten the brunt of it. Currently Wardes was staring at Jiraiya as if he had never seen anything that could be more terrifying in his life.

"A bit much, I didn't even know I could be hit with killing intent. I had visions of myself bein' smelted down. You might need to tone it down a bit if you don't wanna cause heart attacks left and right."

Jiraiya let out a small chuckle at the swords concern. Louise supposed it was like the time he had been testing Guiche and herself? She was beginning to think that he had gone a bit easy on them this entire time, even when he had given them a small test. However, if it was enough to effect even a sentient sword then it must have been something almost unholy at full blast.

"I'm a bit insulted, I'm a professional. If I don't want someone to feel that, they won't. My former teammate is the one who doesn't care if it's controlled or not. Stupid snake bastard…"

He trailed off after that, looking lost in thought.

Louise thought that he looked somewhat sad after his last statement, she almost wanted to go comfort him. It was only the fact that he was so near Wardes, who had seemed oddly hostile, that she didn't move from her position.

It was because of this that she noticed the mage stirring. She realized what was going to happen just as the man's eyes snapped open.

"Look out!"

Apparently her warning was enough as Jiraiya was able to jump away from the man who destroyed the air that was around him in a whirlwind of wind magic.

He no longer looked like the cool and collected mage that Louise remembered from her memories. At the moment he looked quite maniacal. His hair was plastered to his face due to sweat, his eyes were bloodshot, and he was panting as though he had just run a marathon.

"What did you do to me!?"

Although the question was a low growl, Louise was able to hear it with no problem. She was actually surprised that the man was able to pull off any types of spells, although if his disheveled state was anything to go by it had pretty much sapped of almost all his willpower.

With a glare the man brought his fingers to his mouth and let out a piercing whistle that echoed throughout the field they were in.

Jiraiya's eyes widened as he realized what the man had done. He blurred into motion, but although he was fast, the griffin that Wardes had arrived on was faster. With an acrobatic jump the man landed on the back of his griffin and glared at them all for a second before he took off into the sky.

"No! Damn it, that was sloppy!"

Louise heard her familiar's growl and saw him flash through hand signs before he raised his right hand to his mouth and spit a fireball at the retreating mage. Unfortunately the man had gotten too far and was able to maneuver out of the way so that it dissipated harmlessly into the sky.

Louise watched on as Wardes became a speck in the distance and eventually she turned her attention to her familiar who was muttering to himself and running his hands through his hair.

"I haven't been that sloppy in forever. Damn it! I should have killed him when I had the chance, but I thought the seal would hold a bit longer. I underestimated how tough the bastard was."

With an explosive sigh, the white haired man put his hands on his hips and looked towards the sky. However, it was not his self-recrimination that caught her attention. No, she was much more interested in the word that Jiraiya had used to put a stab of fear in her former fiancé.

"What exactly is Reconquista?"

He familiar winced at her question. Ah. So she wasn't supposed to know about whatever this was yet. Well that just made her more determined to find out, after all he had definitely alluded to the fact that the mysterious organization definitely wanted her for some reason if what he had said to Wardes was true.

She heard a low whistle and looked over to Derf to see that the sword was immensely amused with her familiar's predicament.

"Been building yourself up as some unholy badass and you're outmaneuvered by the help and a little girl. I think you're losing some serious street cred here partner."

Jiraiya merely rolled his eyes as he strolled over to where Derf was popping out of his scabbard.

"Hey Derf, do me a favor?"

There was some confusion in the swords voice as he responded.

"Sure what do ya-"

However, the response was cut off as Jiraiya slammed the hilt back into the scabbard no one too gently.

"Shut up."

Louise rolled her eyes at that and decided that if he was going to be ornery then she had every right to try and mess with him as well.

"Ohhh, what a scathing comeback."

There was muffled chuckling next to her at her words, but it was quickly cut off as the man glared their way. While he wasn't directing any intent to kill towards them, he was still a pretty threatening figure.

"I'll have you know that I am a paragon at trading insults."

Louise saw her chance and she decided to take it. It was too good a setup not to after all.

"Whatever you say, Perverted Sage."

Louise would tell herself that she didn't enjoy the small twitch of annoyance that appeared on her familiar's eyelid, but then she'd be lying.

Teasing the man aside, she really did need to know exactly what sort of organization was after her. She would rather not be caught with her pants down and no way to fight wondering why she was being kidnapped. With that in mind she decided to try once more.

"Since you decided not to answer my question, I'll assume old age is catching up to you and ask it again. Who's Reconquista?"

The man seemed to deflate at that, if it wasn't for the fact that he was so in shape she might even have said that he looked as though he had aged a decade.

"Apparently, my luck sucks and I'm always going to deal with some sort of weird ass secret organization that wants my students for some sort of nefarious purpose."

Louise blinked at that rather vague answer, although that didn't fill her with a whole lot of confidence for the future, especially the nefarious part. She supposed that the training she was receiving would have to be enough. She might even try and make him increase the amount that she was doing just so she knew she was ready.

"In any case we're going to have to make sure that you're more protected on this mission than I would have liked. If they're already trying to make a play then they might be further up in their schedule than I had thought."

Well that definitely didn't make her feel any better. In fact she was pretty sure she was now going to be jumping at every shadow she saw on this mission from now on. Wonderful.

As Louise tried to beat down what she was pretty sure was a panic attack, she felt a warm comforting hand plop down on her head and muss up her hair. She let out an indignant squawk of protest at that. Even if she had been giving more liberties to her familiar, she was still a proper noble.

"Don't worry about it, gaki. I can tell you right now, once I've taken a mission on I complete it, and I'll defend my comrades with my life!"

Although she was pretty sure he was just paying lip service to her, she appreciated the gesture. She needed something to ground her after the encounter that they had just had. She would take what she could get. Therefore she gave her familiar a small smile and hoped that he could feel the trust that she was trying to radiate from her.

"As much as this scene pulls at the heart strings, my friends…"

Familiar and Master turned to look at the blond earth mage as he tossed his hair back and Louise could have sworn she saw sparkles as he gave them a winning smile.

"…I believe we need to continue on in our mission, we've been detoured enough."

Louise blinked at that and she was pretty sure her familiar did as well before he let loose a low chuckle.

"Well would you look at that, it looks like you have some good ideas after all."

With that said the man went back to their horses with the two teens following after him. He observed the horse for a minute before flipping onto it and settling once more in a lounge position. He even had the grass in between his teeth once more. She wasn't even sure where he had gotten that from.

"Let's get a move on gakis. We're not gonna get there by standing around."

With a small sigh Louise directed her horse back towards their destination. It was going to be a long trip, especially now that she thought she might jump at any shadows she saw regardless of Jiraiya's reassurances. Hopefully she was able to come back from this mission safe and sound.

Jiraiya felt as though the last few days were the calm before the storm. He had admittedly screwed up in allowing that idiot Wardes to get away and now Reconquista was most likely aware that he knew of their existence. While it was completely detrimental to any of his long term goals and plans, it still forced him to move some things up the schedule.

He had focused more on the training of the two teens that were accompanying him and he was certain that the average person wouldn't be able to kill the now. Hell he was pretty sure if anyone below Wardes level came at them they would win and if they worked together they would be able to survive at the very least.

It had taken him a bit to beat in the concept of teamwork into the two mages' prideful skulls, but once they had it they were a surprisingly well oiled machine. Louise was able to utilize her explosions much better now and Guiche was able to form a solid defense to help keep them from getting hit by sharp pointy things. It almost brought a tear to the old Toad Sage's eye.

They had arrived at the port town that would take them up to Albion without encountering any kind of interference and for that Jiraiya was grateful. While he was confident in his skills he was still annoyed at himself for his slip up earlier within the mission. The next time he saw that idiot wind mage he was just going to slit the guy's throat and be done with it. It might go against his peace talks, but he had fallen off that wagon long ago. When it came to shinobi he was pretty sure the only people bloodier than he were his deranged ex-teammate and his sensei.

Thankfully it seemed that Wardes' dumbass idea to try and join them had sent the members of Reconquista into their hidey holes for now. The unfortunate part of that is that Jiraiya wasn't sure when they would pop back up. He might have to contact his own person on the inside to try and see what their endgame might be in Albion.

He was positive that whatever it was it wasn't going to be good for the country of Tristain.

He had passed the final few days on the road writing in his notebook, not only was he collecting the information he had gotten and encoding it in his own language so as to confuse the hell out of anyone that might find it, he was also busy with his second passion.

While he had been busy training the two mages, he had also been hard at work trying to get a certain orange covered book within the countries that he now found himself in. He figured that he could make a killing since the people here craved the latest type of scandal and he would be sure to provide. His pride as an author demanded it!

It helped him to focus his thoughts and let him reminisce about how Naruto had begun his first steps of surpassing him because of the code that he had written on Pa's back what felt like a lifetime ago. Time had passed and he hadn't summoned the toad back yet, but he was sure that with his godson on the case there wouldn't be any types of problems.

With that thought in mind he had decided to treat his trip into these foreign countries as a well deserved vacation of sorts, one that he had probably needed for years. If he just so happened to be building his network at every small outpost they stopped at for supplies, then so much the better.

However, as with all good things they eventually reached their destination and it had fallen once more to Jiraiya to secure a passage on a ship up into the floating land of Albion.

The Toad Sage had never really heard of a flying continent before, but it was an intriguing concept if nothing else. He supposed that the Kingdom was easily defensible since its natural defenses were literally the sky. He also thought that the island itself could be made into a weapon if someone were to try and take it down from the sky, but hopefully it wouldn't have to come to that.

He had been able to secure their passage in a relatively short amount of time and the next day they were making their way towards the floating Kingdom. It was the first time on an airship and while it was a novel experience, he was sure he could survive the fall from this height with a combination of toad summons and jutsu.

Unfortunately for the two teens accompanying him, they had not yet lost their land legs and had spent quite a bit of time trying to recover from the bouts of motion sickness that were plaguing them. While Louise seemed to have recovered quickly enough, the blond gaki had not been so lucky. Instead he had been subjugated to more retching and heaving than Jiraiya thought was healthy and he had gone binge drinking with Tsunade once.

Well it made for fun entertainment if nothing else. He supposed he should be thankful that they weren't being attacked by-

"PIRATES!"

God damn it. Could he catch a break on a mission just one time? Was that too much to ask? Did he have to constantly fight people, was he going to have to fight a guy with a god complex again? Sighing at these unanswered questions he decided that it was time to see what was going on. If he was feeling pissed enough he might just blow the damn ship out of the sky and wash his hands of the idiots.

After thinking it over for a second he decided that that would be a bit cruel since he wasn't entirely sure if pirates weren't part of the army that the royals were utilizing to stave off the inevitable. A coup was a coup and things were going to get much uglier before they even began to get better. With Reconquista working to destabilize the government Jiraiya was positive that things were going to get much much worse beforehand.

With a sigh he launched himself up to the crow's nest and stuck himself there with chakra, startling the sailor that had been manning it in the process. He brought out his own spyglass and took a look to see if he could see any distinguishing features about the pirates that were coming to play. He was sure he could just blow their stupid ship out of the sky, but he had a feeling that might create some tension between countries, even if the coup was completely successful and a new regime was violently put on the throne.

He really hated that cycle sometimes. He gave a quiet hum of consideration before turning to the sailor that was up there with him who was looking suitably worried to have to suddenly deal with a pirate situation.

"About how long before we can make out anyone distinguishable among those scallywags do you think?"

The sailor looked slightly baffled at the Sage's nonchalance, but it seemed that whoever had trained the boy had done a good job because he looked as though he were trying to judge the distance and give Jiraiya an accurate answer.

"I'd say about five minutes. Ten before they're completely on us. We've unfurled the sails to full capacity, but their ship is smaller and more streamlined. It's not a matter of if they catch up, but when."

Jiraiya gave a nod of understanding to that, but that still didn't really tell him what his play was going to be. He supposed he would just have to impatiently wait the five minutes to see where the wind would blow.

Apparently the excitement was enough to wake up the magic talking sword as well from his back.

"Man I always like a good pirate raid. Or defense against pirates! Either way really, there's always a ton of fighting involved."

Ignoring his fight happy sword Jiraiya merely acted as though he was listening. An art he had perfected to piss off his teammates. H merely had to acknowledge Derf's existence in the right places and the sword would just continue on in his tangent. In the meanwhile that freed him up to see just who was trying to approach them and if they were friendly or not. He was pretty sure that in the timeframe that the sailor had provided (the boy had swooped back down to the deck to prepare for a battle) he would be able to completely decimate the other ship.

If push came to shove he could just jump over to the other ship and summon a toad to weigh the bastards down before coming back over here. Maybe not 'Bunta, but 'Ken or 'Hiro probably wouldn't mind.

However it seemed that luck was smiling on Jiraiya today. Just as he was beginning to think that it was a bust and he would have to kill a bunch of people today, their captain finally walked out onto the ship's deck.

Jiraiya was someone who thrived on information and he knew because of this mission exactly who he was seeing. He had made it his goal to make sure that he had an id on everyone who was important in the mission and he believed he had just found the one who might just have the greatest import.

Blond hair framed a handsome face. Though he couldn't see the eyes he knew that they were a light blue. The man was wearing a standard uniform (not very subtle, but then again, noble) and was commanding the respect of everyone who was on his ship.

With his suspicions confirmed Jiraiya decided that he would head off any kind of confrontation in the best way he knew how. By making an ass of himself.

A quick hand seal and he was on the ship carrying the pretty boy staring down dozens of people who had drawn their weapons in startled surprise.

The Toad Sage slowly raised his hands in surrender before he gave a shit eating grin at the blond youth in front him.

"Nice to meet you, Prince Wales. I think we need to have a little chat about the coup de tat in your garden."

Been awhile, eh?

In any case, this is going to be the first in what I am going to be calling the Big Update posts. I have updated five of my stories in rapid fire order in to promote my starting of my P a treon page. Now I won't be blocking any sort of access on the fanfiction site to my stories or gating them, this is simply a way for me to push myself into updating faster and gaining revenue to launch an anime review site. I had had a review site before, but it is now defunct due to struggling funds. If you're feeling generous go on over to p a treon .com (slash) RedhathackerSin, just take out the spaces and make the slash a symbol. I've already posted two anime reviews there, one for patrons and one for the general public. I've also put a poll purely for patrons on which of the five active stories that I've just updated I should do once more before the month of June is out.

Right then, enough self promotion. I must say that I'm terribly sorry that I haven't updated in an eternity. There were many things going on in real life that had to take my attention, but now I'm back in the game and hopefully I'll at the very least be updating this monthly. I've had the first like 1500 words typed up for years now, but I could never figure out where I wanted this story to go, now I know and it will be much easier to write more prolifically.

As another celebration due to my return, the other three chapters have all been streamlined, courtesy of xbox432. They really helped me out and even though they're no longer betaing for me, I think the older chapters read much nicer now, so you probably noticed anyway since it's been so long since I've updated and you have had to reread.

I'm going to take this opportunity to thank all of you who have still been leaving reviews favs and follows, even when I had been going through some tougher times all of this was still able to make me smile. With only three chapters we've cracked the 1,000 favs and follows mark and the reviews are still overwhelmingly positive! I think that's the end for me, if you just went to the end of the story, go back and re-read the edited chapters! If this is somehow your first chapter then it's on to the endgame for my author's notes!

If you're feeling generous please hit the fav, follow, or review. If you're feeling even more generous please hit up the P a treon. Onto the Disclaimer!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Zero no Tsukaima! They belong to Kishimoto Masashi and the late Nobaru Yamaguchi respectively. Please support the official release!

P a treon .com (slash) RedhathackerSin