Suspicion and spycraft
Jiraiya had a new best friend.
Jiraiya’s new best friend was perfect. He had met his new friend while they both indulged in their shared pastime of peeking into the women’s baths, like a meet cute but for bros. They had the same hobbies, the same sense of humour, the same appreciation for the female form. His new friend was a terrifyingly competent medic and assassin, and Jiraiya had always appreciated competence in his associates. His new friend ran a moderately successful adult film studio. His new friend was keen to work with him on the full feature length uncensored adaptation of the Icha Icha series. His new friend was even willing to allow him full creative control of the script.
Jiraiya was starting to wonder whether or not to be paranoid about this.
If a friend seemed too good to be true there was usually a reason for that, and that reason was usually that they were actually an enemy spy plotting to steal all your secrets, destroy your village, and then murder you. Same rules as seduction missions really, but with less sex and more manly clasping of hands. It was a shame, but any way you sliced it, Shamal could have been custom ordered to be Jiraiya’s ideal best friend, and that was more than enough to set off all manner of warning bells in the paranoid mind of any self-respecting ninja.
On the other hand Shamal was an Aburame, Jiraiya knew that for a fact. He’d seen the terrifying plague of biowarfare capable mosquitos that the man kept under his skin (and wasn’t that a nightmare twist on the Aburame clan techniques). Aburame was a hard clan to fake, and not known for defections or successful attempts at bloodline theft. Not to say it couldn’t happen, but considering he’d managed to track down several of the man’s academy classmates, all of whom had clear memories of “that fucking pervert”, as well as a large swarm of close and distant relatives, some of whom had been present for his birth, Jiraiya was leaning towards him being a genuine Konoha ninja rather than a plant from another village. Some things just weren’t cost effective to fake.
That of course, didn’t rule out him being a political officer, an in village spy that probably wouldn’t murder him but would still steal all his secrets given half a chance, along with taking every opportunity to manipulate him. There were after all any number of factions within the village that would be more than happy to keep a closer eye on Konoha’s spymaster, and clan ninja had been recruited to them before. Danzo was of course the first and most obvious culprit to spring to mind, but he was far from the only power maintaining their own internal information networks, the Anbu commander, the elders, the clan heads, all of them were at it, to one degree or another. Even the Hokage had a few, and even Jiraiya did not know who all of them were, Shamal could easily have been one of them.
This bore further investigation.
Further investigation revealed no obvious connections to Danzo, thank fuck, the thought of Danzo getting his slimy claws into the Icha Icha franchise was enough to send a chill down Jiraiya’s spine. He shuddered to think what the old war hawk would do with such a deep and powerful connection to the primal urges of humanity.
There was also nothing out of the ordinary linking Shamal to the Hokage. Which was, less brilliant, Sensei abusing village resources to assign him a friend had quite frankly been one of the better options Jiraiya had considered.
There was however, some sort of connection to the self-styled “Arcobaleno”, eight of the most terrifying homicidal maniacs to graduate Konoha’s academy since Jiraiya’s own team had passed the exam in all their legendary glory. When and why and how Shamal had become friends with Chaos Reborn of all people was unclear, but friends they were, or at least something of that nature. They’d been seen socialising, regularly, Shamal had been present on the famous Moon country civil war mission with the plague of giant grasshoppers and the troupe of dancing bears, he was in fact down as primary medic for all eight of the Arcobaleno, including the ones that never made Jounin and therefore slid beneath the notice of people who really should have known better.
No wonder Shamal had taken Jiraiya’s reputation in his stride. He was used to spending his nights out drinking with legendary monsters.
And if he was in with the Arcobaleno he probably was alright. The Arcobaleno and their associates had always been a faction unto themselves in Konoha, but they were upfront about it, and their members didn’t tend to have any other affiliations besides their clan ties. Dangerous and unpredictable yes, but free of the more insidious politics of the village. Certainly they’d never been disloyal. In fact, it had been Verde of the Arcobaleno that had exposed Orochimaru’s crimes to the village, had done the right thing and blown the whistle on his own immediate superior despite the risk to himself, at a time when even Jiraiya had failed to see how far his teammate had fallen, that took solid principles and an impressive amount of courage. Jiraiya could respect that.
So maybe Shamal was trustworthy after all. Or at least, trustworthy enough to collaborate on an… artistic endeavour with. And really, between Shamal’s resources and Jiraiya’s creative genius this was going to be so, much, fun. And best of all, if Tsunade ever found out he could quite honestly say that it hadn’t been his idea, the fact that Shamal was a medic nin, in charge of the hospital no less, might even redirect her ire long enough for Jiraiya to make his escape.
Now came the real challenge, he supposed. Casting the lead roles in their project without the whole thing being leaked all over the village by sunset. Sensei was always wary of angering Tsunade too badly and after all it wouldn’t do to get shut down before they were ready to distribute.