Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
AN: Okay, new story. I was looking over some stories on this site and came to the conclusion that there weren't many stories where Tsunade took on Naruto after the Sasuke arc. Or maybe I just haven't been looking hard enough.
AN: One more thing. Naruto will eventually mature in this story, and at first it'll seem that Naruto is completely out of character, but, he does that sometimes in the manga and he surprises us with how articulate he can be. But most of the time, he really is an idiot, even if no one has helped him along at all. I think he could be so badass with just a little help. So hope you enjoy the story.
Chapter One
Tsunade-shishou
"You want me to what?"
She couldn't help but stare at the other blond with a bit of shock and trepidation. She really didn't know what could be going on in that head of his but she could tell just by looking at him that something serious had happened. Whether it was the failure of the mission or something else, she could see that something was different about him. From the look in his eyes to the rigidness in his posture, she knew he was being serious.
"I want you to train me. You're the only one that I really feel that could teach me what I need to know to get to the level I need to be. There's no one else."
She just stared at him for a moment before speaking. "Why is it that you want me to train you, and what do you mean that I'm the only one that can do it?" She wanted to see where he was going with this, even though she had a good feeling about what he meant, she wanted to hear it from him first.
"Like I said, you're the only one who can really train me to my full potential, at least that's what I think. There are very accomplished jounin in the village who could train me as well, but they're already bogged down with either missions or students and would hardly be here all the time. Not to mention that I wouldn't want to try to take away someone's teacher from them."
He took a breath before continuing. "The other reason that I came to you was because you're going to be in the village all the time even if you have business to attend to."
He must have been thinking about this for a while now. He seemed to be serious about this, but she couldn't help but wonder what had brought this on, and what happened to Jiraiya teaching him. It seemed like they were thinking the same thing because before she could ask, he continued on.
"I was excited about learning from the pervert at first, but he wants me to give up on getting Sasuke back. When I told him I wasn't going to give up on something so easily, he stormed out after saying he wasn't going to teach someone who was as big an idiot as me. It hurt for a while, but I thought about it, and the more I thought about it, the more I thought that I wouldn't really learn much under him.
"So far, he hasn't really taught me anything in the three months that I've known him. Sure he showed me the rasengan and let me sign the toad contract, and he didn't even really teach me how to do it mind you, but other than pushing me off a cliff he hasn't taught me anything. All he's done is just peak on women while letting me struggle along with no instruction whatsoever."
She looked at him with wide eyes while he spoke, obviously impressed that he was holding himself so well. It was a side of him she hadn't seen before and it was rather refreshing the see this side of him than the obnoxiously loud and brightly colored person that he usually was. She still wasn't sure whether or not it was enough to- wait... did he say tossed off a cliff?
"What do you mean," she said slowly, her temper rising to dangerous levels, "tossed off of a cliff?"
He could obviously tell that she wasn't happy when she heard that, and with a bit of nervousness that he hadn't shown in this meeting until now, he said, "Well, the pervert wanted me to learn how to use the Kyuubi's chakra. It wasn't something I really wanted to do though, not that I told him that, so he pushed me off a cliff to use it's chakra to summon Gamabunta.
"If I hadn't done that then I probably would've died. The thing is, it has been useful, in my fight with Neji and Garra. When I fought with Sasuke I had to use it to match his use of the curse seal, but, I started to lose control of myself. Not only that, but it hurt to use it. It burned worse than any fire that Sasuke could make and I don't really want to rely on that power alone."
Okay, it was official, she was going to kill Jiraiya for this little stunt the next time she saw him. She looked the boy she liked to think of as a little brother as she thought it over. The more she thought it over, the more she knew that he was right. No matter how powerful Jiraiya was, he was just as lazy, just as perverted, and just as stupid as he was in his early years, no matter how much experience in the field he had, and that's not what Naruto needed right now.
She knew he had potential, an amazing amount of potential if he could master something as hard as the rasengan in a month with little to no instruction. She knew that it would be difficult to teach him her art as he didn't have the control for it, but she was sure with some hard work, okay a lot of hard work, he could easily be at that level. Along with the Kage Bunshin, he really wouldn't have a problem learning all of the book work.
Speaking of Kage Bunshin, she really wished she could use it to fill out her paperwork for her, but, the documents wouldn't really be official if she didn't do it herself. Oh well.
She looked at him for a few moments, thinking this over one more time. Yes, it could work, but only if he was willing to do his part.
"Okay kid, I'm willing to try this, but, you need to be fully committed to this, you need to follow every one of my instructions, do everything I say when I say it with no complaints. We can make this work, but you need to be serious about this, I won't train a slacker."
His eyes widened hugely and he looked like he was going to start yelling in celebration but managed to stop himself in time.
"Thank you Tsunade-sama," he said in a respective tone she hadn't heard from his mouth until now. "I won't disappoint you."
"You better not kid. Meet me at training ground four tomorrow morning at seven sharp. You're my student now, and I don't know whether Kakashi's bad habit of being late has rubbed off on you or not, but know that I won't tolerate anything but the best. I can still decide not to train you if you don't meet my expectations."
He looked at her with nothing but determination and she knew she was making the right decision. As he walked out the door, she couldn't help but think that he had no idea what he was in for.
XxXx
Tsunade, he had found out, taught in a way that Naruto had never been taught before. She basically beat him into the ground with her amazing speed and strength, all the while showing him what he was doing wrong, what she wanted him to do, and how she wanted him to do it.
He had never really had such a hands on teacher before, and while he was bruised and bloodied at the end of every day, he felt it was worth it as he knew something new at the end of each day. When she had showed him that the Kage Bunshin could be used to learn, he almost blew a gasket over the fact that no on had told him before. Instead he used that bit of anger to push himself harder than he had ever pushed himself before.
Before he had gone to ask Tsunade to train him, he hadn't really been sure of what he was going to do. He had no teacher that was willing to teach him, Kakashi didn't count, he was still a bit sore that the man hadn't taught him a damn thing besides how to climb a tree and he knew that the jounin were busy with missions.
He knew that not many people in the village would be willing to train him, and the ones who might already had students of their own to take care of. He had racked his mind for an idea, hoping to come up with something when he had thought back to when he learned the rasengan. He thought about what had happened and couldn't help but wince at the way he had handled it.
Oh it had turned out okay in the end, but if he had some real training, he could've handled the situation so much better. He thought about how much damage he had taken in that fight from just a touch. It had shocked him how much damage a medic could do in battle. It also showed him that he couldn't rely on the Kyuubi to heal any injury that he had, as Kabuto had proven that he could easily block the that power.
If it hadn't been for Tsunade, he would've died. He knew that there was a reason that Tsunade was the Hokage and a Sannin. It meant she knew what she was doing. He knew that if it hadn't been for Tsunade and Shizune, Choji and Neji wouldn't be here right now. He knew that she was the only one who could help him now and to be honest the only one who he really wanted to help him at this point.
If he was going to survive against people like the Akatsuki, he would need more than just rasengan, clones and toads to help him against the various S-rank people that would be coming after him. So when he was cleared to leave the hospital, he summoned up his courage, and requested a meeting with her.
XxXx
He learned more in that first month with Tsunade than in his entire ninja career. She had him summon clones in groups in ten, fifty clones in all and had them work on different things while working with him on his taijutsu and his dodging abilities.
If he was going to be a medic nin, it was something he needed to know how to do. While she basically beat him into the ground, she had the first group of clones work on his terrible chakra control by having them balance themselves on a rushing stream while holding leaves on his forehead.
It was harder than he thought it would be. He had to focus his chakra in two different places, his feet and his head, not to mention trying to keep himself in place on top of the river with nothing but his chakra holding him in place.
Tsunade had told him that he would be working on this until she deemed him ready for the next exercise which she said would be much harder. She wanted him to get to a point where it would be second nature to him before moving on with more advanced techniques.
The other clones were doing something that, to Naruto, was even worse than being beaten down and nearly drowning. They were studying. He knew that if he wanted to advance and learn, it was something he had to do. So, he grit his teeth, sucked it up, and started reading the numerous books that Tsunade said he needed to memorize.
The first thing he learned was that the human body was a disgusting, incredible thing of nature. Sort of like child birth. He learned about the skeletal, muscular, and nervous system first. It had honestly baffled him how it all worked and when he asked Tsunade about it, she just laughed before saying it would all make sense later on.
Halfway through that first month, he was told that he was ready to jump to the next control exercise, which consisted of using his chakra to create strings and attach them to an item of his choosing and try to make it move.
She told him that it was an exercise that puppet users used to manipulate their puppets to do what they did and that it took fairly good control to do it as well as they did. He was getting better at dodging her attacks, seeing as they completely destroyed the training field they used every time.
Tsunade, having spent two weeks working with him on his taijutsu, decided to give him a little test, to see how far along he was coming. Instead of just having him dodge blows or showing him moves, she decided to spar with him. It was to be a straight taijutsu match, no clones, no ninjutsu, just the two of them and their fists. Of course, no matter how you looked at it, Naruto was at a sever disadvantage.
Turns out, all that dodging he had been doing had really paid off, because she wasn't holding anything back. It wasn't long, however, before she managed to get a good it in which had him doubled over in the ground in pain.
She just looked at him with stern eyes before speaking.
"And you want to be the Hokage one day? Pathetic. One hit and you're down for the count. I knew I shouldn't have wasted my time on you."
As she turned to walk away, she heard the familiar sound of shuriken heading her way. She quickly dodged before having to block against rapid kicks and punches before sending him to the ground again.
He stood up, slowly but surely, before getting back into his stance.
"I won't give up. Not even if you manage to break all the bones in my body. I will be the Hokage one day, don't you dare call me pathetic. I don't give a damn if you are my sensei now. I'll prove to you I've got what it takes."
She looked at his battered form before giving a small chuckle.
"That's what I wanted to hear from you brat." She got into her stance once more. "Lets keep going, if you think you can handle it?" she said mockingly.
"You bet I'm ready old lady," he said loudly. A vein popped up on the side of her neck. Oh he was going to pay for that one.
This continued on for some time before they got back to their previous routine, which consisted of either dodging or getting hit.
He still got the tar beat out of him but she was refining the slop that he called taijutsu in her own way. It took the rest of the month before she felt that he had learned enough from the constant reading and chakra practices that she felt he could handle the most basic technique of medical jutsu.
The Shosen Jutsu (Mystical Palm Technique) was the base for almost all of the medical techniques out there. This was the test that Naruto needed to pass. If he could successfully use this technique then that month of training wasn't worthless.
The test was to successfully keep a fish alive with only medical chakra. She observed him as he poured his chakra over the almost dead fish, looking at his subtle but obvious signs of stress. He was giving his all into keeping that fish alive, he knew what he was doing, but she still wasn't sure if he had the control for this type of training.
It hadn't been five minutes before the fish started flopping around and jumped back into the water. Naruto, face sweaty and with obvious signs of exhaustion, looked at her expectantly, waiting for her to say something. She looked at him before speaking.
"Well done brat, you really did it. I can say right now, that I'm proud of you, but you've got a long way to go if you want to be called a decent medic. For now though, take a break, you earned it kid," she said as she got up to tend to the mountain of paper work waiting for her at her desk. "I'll see you in a week and we'll pick up from there."
"Yes Tsunade-sensei, I'll see you then," he said and proceeded to head home for some much deserved rest. He didn't last five minutes before passing out on the bed into a dreamless sleep. His last thoughts were of having Ichiraku ramen when he woke up. It had been far too long since his last bowl.
R&R