Interlude 2

Pov: Fukasaku "Pa".

"Say, Pa," my wife, Shima, or as we currently called each other in our old age, Ma, asked. "Aren't you going to tell me what that strange scroll you and Jiraiya-chan started carrying is?" She leaned in, sitting next to me as we watched Jiraiya-chan train our new recruit, Minato-chan.

I picked up one of the fried larvae with the tongue that Ma had made. After swallowing, I replied.

"Not yet. But soon, I think Jiraiya-chan and I have gathered enough."

She just nodded while eating the larvae as well. Not many words were needed between us; after all, we had been married for over eight centuries.

I sighed as I watched Jiraiya-chan accidentally throw Minato-chan at Bunta-chan, causing the latter, who was sleeping, to wake up irritated and jump on Jiraiya-chan to beat him. I just hoped they didn't break things; it was tiring to fix everything every time they forgot where they were and started fighting like tadpoles.

Meanwhile, I let my thoughts wander back to a few days ago.

It was a surprise when I found that strange device, which I now know is called a Cellphone, in the middle of Mount Myōboku. At first, I thought it might be some kind of prank by Jiraiya-chan, but I quickly dismissed that.

The little gadget had no chakra, no senjutsu, which was impossible, or at least I thought it was impossible, as I had never encountered anything like it in my entire life.

I stared at the object, trying to understand it for a while, but unable to find anything, I took it to Great Sage Toad, or as everyone called him nowadays, Ōjiji-sama. I prefer to call him the old senile one, but what can you do.

Imagine my surprise when I went to ask for help with the strange object to find out what it was, and Ōjiji-sama asked me what I was talking about.

It wasn't uncommon for the old man to forget things or fall asleep in the middle of a conversation, but I'm almost certain his vision hadn't deteriorated to this point, especially in the way he saw the world.

Realizing that it seemed like he couldn't see or perceive the strange object, I hesitated to bring it to him. Everything was very strange; I was starting to think that this device I was holding could be dangerous, a trap even.

But Ōjiji-sama, in his senile wisdom, took the cellphone from my paws with his tongue. I was so surprised that I forgot to react, only snapping back to myself when the old senile toad opened his eyes in disbelief and started muttering.

"The future... disappeared?" He seemed scared at first, and I was too, as it wasn't every day that Ōjiji-sama, known for being able to dream of the future, said it had disappeared.

To my little old heart's luck, his scared look didn't stay on his face for long, just a second or two before it was replaced by a more contemplative and thoughtful gaze.

"Ōjiji-sama? Are you okay?" I asked, concerned, as he hadn't said anything for a while. Normally, I would just think he had fallen asleep at this point, but I could see he was wide awake.

He didn't answer me at first but resumed muttering.

"No... didn't disappear, but changed? Altered?... No, not that either." He seemed even more thoughtful, but before I could ask, he widened his eyes slightly and said, realizing.

"No! It's simpler than that!" He waved to himself as if he had discovered something important and handed me back the gadget. "Here, take care of this, Fuka-chan, it's important, I think...?"

I just took the device back from his tongue, confused. "Important? I think? Ōjiji-sama! You're not making sense!"

What was this? Did this old man finally go senile for good?

I waited for a response, but all I got in return was a slight snore. The old toad had fallen asleep right in the middle of our conversation again...

I sighed as I picked up a small pebble and lightly tossed it at the old senile's forehead, making him wake up.

"How rude, Fuka-chan, you could have just called me..." He rubbed his forehead where I had thrown the pebble. I didn't respond, ignoring his complaints, and asked again about the cellphone.

"What were you talking about earlier? The future disappeared? This metal contraption." I raised the cellphone. "Is it important? How? Why?" My only response again was a light snore...

I sighed as I threw another pebble. To my delight, this time, Ōjiji-sama didn't waste any time.

"It's not that the future disappeared, Fuka-chan, it's much simpler." He waved slightly as he explained. "It just stopped mattering." He said simply, making me just look at him incredulously.

"How is that simple, Ōjiji-sama? And what do you mean it stopped mattering?" I swore, if this is some elaborate prank between this old senile and my perverted disciple...

"I don't know!" He said playfully. "I just know that it doesn't matter anymore, I can feel my visions calming down, they still exist, but now they are divided." He pointed with his index finger to the strange device in my hands.

"In one of my visions, the strange metal thing doesn't exist, everything is normal, as it should be." He hummed lightly before continuing. "The second one is much shorter, it only goes until you write something on this strange thing, then poof!" He opened his hands slightly. "Nothing else matters."

"Nothing matters? Does this matter? Make sense, you old senile!" I shouted at him, to which he just chuckled lightly and pointed to the metal plate in my hands.

"Come on, try it, I have a good feeling about this." He seemed amused by the whole thing.

I ran my hand over my face. "Didn't you say your visions stopped after I wrote something on this plate?" He just nodded in confirmation. "Then why should I do it?"

He just shrugged. "I don't know, I just think it will work." He waved again to the object in my hands. "So... shall we?"

I just sighed and did what he asked. As I interacted with the strange object, he seemed even more confused, but after a while, I found the place that seemed to be for me to write.

It was kind of weird using this object, but I quickly got the hang of it and finished writing. [JiraiyaIsAnIdiot], that was the name I chose to use.

Of course, I didn't choose that name just because I still thought it was a prank by Jiraiya-chan; that was only ten percent of the reason. No, I chose that name for other reasons too.

Firstly, no matter how much Ōjiji-sama said he had a good feeling about this object, it wouldn't hurt to be cautious, so I put Jiraiya-chan's name since he had become famous over time, and the chance of them knowing him was higher.

So, in case this was some kind of trap or genjutsu that managed to deceive even Ōjiji-sama's senses, I could pretend to be someone else while checking the real objectives of the owner of this object.

And my efforts were not in vain. After putting the name, a strange window appeared, in it a young man, probably Minato-chan's age, appeared, fighting against strange creatures that looked like humans.

As he finished the short battle, I inspected the device. I quickly realized that I wasn't the only one in this strange stream? That was the name, I think. Since there were other names, and they seemed to interact.

I hesitated before writing, pretending to be one of Jiraiya-chan's teammates, to confirm whether this was some clever prank or if the boy on the screen suspected something.

Funny how my idea had worked so well, as the moment the young man read the name I had put and the message, he asked if I was a snake, a slug, or a monkey.

It seemed he had recognized Jiraiya-chan's name, and from the question, he also knew his teammates and the monkey boy who had a contract with Emma, Hiruzen. But from the way he had asked, he didn't know who was writing, so he couldn't see me, or else he would know it wasn't any of them.

I took advantage of his confusion and started my little act of espionage for information about this device. After confirming it wasn't a prank and it was the real deal, I even asked Jiraiya-chan for help, asking how he would act to impersonate him.

I admit it was funny to see the little expressions of confusion as I changed the writing style between acting as Jiraiya-chan's teammates, as the streamer, or Devas, as I found out later, seemed to know them from somewhere.

But what made me abandon the little act of espionage was when I realized the boy was a good person and was just as confused as anyone in the situation he was in.

I may not be much, but I considered myself a good judge of character, and Devas to me was not someone bad or manipulative...

I had to pause my little flashback to dodge a stone that flew in my direction due to the three idiots fighting like tadpoles without supervision.

I just sighed as I watched the mess they were making while fighting. A good part of the terrain was destroyed, or burned, or flooded, not to mention the trees uprooted and rocks broken everywhere.

I sighed as I turned around and started jumping away.

"I didn't see anything, I'm not fixing anything."

I could see that Ma had the same idea, as she started following me while jumping behind me.

As we left the destruction site, I wondered what Devas was doing; he hadn't started the stream yet, and it was almost noon...