Fool's Gold

Yugao

Summary: One day she'll understand the real value of things.

Author's Note: Thanks to Ariel32 for making this happen. Haha.

Disclaimer: If I owned Naruto, Jiraiya never would have died.

You never lose by loving.
You always lose by holding back.
Barbara DeAngelis

The little restaurant (that served the best onigiri and peach tea in Konoha) was almost empty, and that was to be expected; after all, it was six in the morning and they had only just opened up for the day. However, the almost suggested that it wasn't completely empty, and this was because in the corner by the window sat two people: the first, a young woman with ash blond hair and a disinterested look in her amber eyes; the second, a young man, with fair hair and a grin from ear to ear as he dropped a leather pouch on the balsa wood tabletop.

The girl rolled her eyes in the perennial display of exasperation at his dramatics. But then again, Tsunade mused, this was Jiraiya she was talking about. The drama king act was a part of who he was, and therefore was only to be expected. "I ask you how your solo mission to the Bird Country went, and you answer me by shoving a bag of rocks in my face?" she asked, and an eyebrow rose in mild puzzlement.

"Go on, look in it. You know you want to," her friend chided as he removed the piece of rope that closed up the leather pouch. His hands were in his pockets and there was a triumphant grin on his face, so that Tsunade did get rather curious… not that she'd let him know, anyway. Calmly she pulled the pouch towards her and looked inside. Then, not believing her eyes, she picked up a piece of the shiny metal and lifted it up to the light.

And then she believed it.

"Iron pyrite," she said with finality as she dropped the piece back into the pouch, "Commonly known as fool's gold. Pretty, but definitely not worth half of what I'm sure you spent on it." She couldn't believe her teammate's idiocy. And this was what he was so proud to share with her? She couldn't help but feel more than a little embarrassed for him.

Jiraiya shrugged. "I know that," he said languidly.

"Then why the hell did you waste your money on this junk?" the blonde asked, angry now that her partner wasn't fooled, but knew fully well the whole time what he had bought. Her brow furrowed and her lips twisted into a scowl that was characteristic of her whenever she was talking to Jiraiya. Then, for added effect, she told him, "I can't believe this!"

"I didn't waste my money."

"Then what do you call this?"

Jiraiya didn't answer immediately. Instead he stood up and moved towards the window, where the newly risen sun had just begun to spill light into the room. Then he turned towards her and said, not answering her question directly, "The Bird Country is incredibly poor – not like the five great nations that swim in their own wealth. They have to rely on hard work and anything they find is instantly of great value to them."

"A child worked to mine this in that country," he said as he gestured to the pouch of fool's gold. He said all this wistfully, as if in his mind's eye, he was still there. He went on: "He thought it was gold and attempted to sell it to help feed his siblings. I didn't have the heart to tell him it wasn't worth anything. So I bought it. Tsunade, you should have seen the smile on his face. I knew then that it wasn't the value of this that mattered to me, but the fact that he gets to smile again tomorrow, and the next day, and maybe the next."

There was silence.

And then, suddenly, Tsunade laughed. In her hysterics she managed to cough out, "I c-can't b-believe how much of an idiot you are!" she said this with tears of mirth in her eyes, and she continued, "Y-you t-traded in a-almost all the m-money you e-earned from this m-mission to b-buy a bag of junk!"

Jiraiya sighed. "One day, Tsunade, you'll get it."

"I can't let you do this," she said obstinately. Thirty years had done little to change her; she was still ash-blonde and beautiful, with the same stubborn, disinterested look in her honey-colored eyes. Her arms were folded across her chest and she looked up at him with a fixed glare in her eyes. Then she continued, "Going up against the Akatsuki on your own? It's foolhardy and, above and beyond that, a suicide mission. I can't do that to you, Jiraiya."

Equally stubborn he stood in front of her, his arms over his chest in an imitation of her gesture of obstinacy. His brow was creased in concern. Unlike her thirty years had changed him quite a lot; he was stronger, taller, older, wiser. There was a new knowledge in his eyes that was absent in him when he was a young man. Maybe it was the knowledge that everything his former teammate said was true.

"I'm not asking for your permission to do this. I'm not going as a ninja of Konoha looking for his Hokage's consent. I'm going as Jiraiya, to set things right," he answered finally. There was a melancholy something in the air, but Tsunade could not understand, nor did she care at the moment, what it was exactly.

"But you might die!" she said, standing up in her annoyance. "You might die, Jiraiya, and I don't think…" but her voice died down before she could tell him how much she would miss having her around.

He smiled, the same ear-to-ear grin that thirty years had not taken from him. "Don't you trust me?"

"No," she answered bluntly.

He ignored the comment, and said instead, "Besides, Tsunade, you should know by now that it isn't the value of my own life that matters to me," he said, echoing the same words he told her thirty years ago to the day, and finished, "But the fact that you get to smile again tomorrow, and the next day, and the next."

Author's Note: NYARGH. Yeah, I just wanted to say that. Haha.