Chapter 19 - Tsunade

Jiraiya stretched his arms above his head, yawning in the process. It was nearing sunset and he would have to find a place for him and his new apprentice of sorts to stay.

"Oi Gaki stop practicing for a bit! It's rude to go around practically glowing with chakra in a civilian town." Jiraiya growled, if he was honest with himself he was quite impressed with Naruto's work ethic. He had only had his mothers scroll for three days yet he was making great progress with separating the Yin and Yang chakra although he hadn't had any luck with keeping them separate. Before he could even begin molding the chakra how he wanted it, it would flow back through the chakra point and combine back together.

"But I am so close to being able to use the chakra, I can draw it back through the chakra point almost effortlessly, I just need some more time to learn how to channel it properly." Naruto said exasperated with his own lack of success.

"Look how about we check into that hotel there," Jiraiya said, gesturing to a decent looking building to the side of the road, "And then you can practice in the room while I give the town a once over."

Naruto agreed with the idea and was soon sitting on one of the two beds in the room. His chakra was visibly swirling around him as he struggled to form something from Yang chakra. Whenever something started to take shape he would either lose the chakra back into his system or it would randomly overpower and start turning purple causing him to immediately shut off the jutsu to prevent the Kyuubi's chakra from messing with his results.

A knocking at the door broke his concentration.

"Alright Ero-sensei, jeez did you forget your key or something!" Naruto yelled as he walked to the door, upon opening he saw the imposing form of Kisame behind the calmer visage of Itachi Uchiha.

"Hello Naruto-Kun, we would like you to come with us." Itachi said without any malice.

"Yeah not gonna happen." Naruto said as his face dropped into a serious expression, all trace of good nature gone.

In a blur of speed Naruto was wielding his swords and ready to strike at Itachi. Itachi ducked under the strike and stepped out of the way for Kisame to attack with his own sword.

"I love it when they fight back." Kisame said with a malicious smirk.

"ITACHI!" Screamed a new voice as Sasuke came around the corner, his sharingan spinning wildly.

"Hey Itachi that kid looks like you?" Kisame said slightly confused as he blocked a strike from Naruto and then ducked under the follow up swing of Naruto's second katana.

"He's my little brother, the only one I left alive." Itachi said solemnly.

"I'll kill you Itachi! Chidori!" Sasuke screamed as he charged forward. Itachi sighed before grabbing Sasuke's wrist and plunged his lightning coated hand deep into the wall.

"It seems you need a reminder of what I did so long ago. Tsukuyomi." Itachi said as his sharingan activated and transformed into its Mangekyou form.

Sasuke grunted and collapsed to the ground unconscious.

"The guy talks about killing you all the time and you take him out in one go…" Naruto deadpanned as he ducked under another of Kisame's devastating swings. "Can I call a time out?"

Kisame stopped mid swing looked to Itachi questioningly.

"Why do you want a timeout?" Itachi asked.

"I just wanted to know, what do you think you're chances are of beating myself and Jiraiya-sensei?" Naruto asked.

"Well I think Jiraiya could prove to be a challenge at the very least." Itachi answered honestly.

"Perfect." Naruto said with a smile before disappearing in a flash of red and reappearing with Jiraiya in tow. "If you want to run, now's your chance."

"Kisame retreat, now!" Itachi said, incredibly concerned. Kisame just nodded dumbly, his target looked to be a bigger challenge than originally thought.

"You're not going anywhere!" Jiraiya said as he slammed his hand into the ground causing it to become a fleshy pink substance. Itachi and Kisame took off down the hallway and around the corner.

"It's no use, no one can escape the stomach of the mountain toad." Jiraiya said confidently until the rounded the corner to see the wall burning with black flames. "Well shit."

Naruto agreed with Jiraiya's statement and watched in fascination as Jiraiya pulled out a scroll and quickly paint a complicated seal that absorbed the black flames into the scroll.

"Come on, let's go check on Sasuke." Jiraiya said, slightly annoyed that two Akatsuki members had escaped him.

Upon arriving where Sasuke had been left Jiraiya tried to think of a way to get the kid back to Konoha.

"Dynamic Entry!" Yelled the voice of Might Guy as he kicked Jiraiya in the face and sent him bouncing into the wall behind him. "Oh Jiraiya-sama I am so sorry, I thought you were Itachi's fearsome partner."

"He was blue Guy…" Jiraiya deadpanned.

"I was looking around the corner with my forehead protector, it is a little scratched and so the image was not that great." Guy said with a shrug.

"Whatever, think you could take this kid back to the village for me?" Jiraiya asked.

"Of course Jiraiya-sama. It will be my punishment for assaulting a hero such as yourself. And if I do not return Sasuke-kun to Konoha before sun sets this evening I shall run 500 laps around Konoha on my hands whilst carrying a boulder with my feet. And if I can not do that I will scale the Hokage monument using only my teeth. And if I can not do that I will.."

"Alright Guy, enough. We get it. Just take Sasuke and leave." Jiraiya interrupted, Guy saluted before picking Sasuke up and racing away.

"He has a few problems. Up here I mean." Naruto said as he gestured to his own head, Jiraiya nodded before entering the hotel room and sitting on the edge of his bed.

"And to think those two bastards ruined some perfectly good research time." Jiraiya moaned before dropping backwards onto the bed.

Naruto looked at his sensei and sighed before sitting on his own bed and began trying to manifest a chain made of chakra with varying levels of success.

-A few days later-

"welcome to Tanzaku town, a town known mostly for their gambling halls and Tanzaku castle that overlooks the town." Jiraiya said grandiosely.

"Shouldn't we be able to see a castle then? You haven't gotten us lost have you Sensei?" Naruto asked.

"No we're in Tanzaku but you're right the castle should be right there." Jiraiya said as he pointed to a giant pile of rubble. "How about we find somewhere to eat and then I'll check out the rubble while you find us a hotel room?"

"Sure thing, should we eat over there then?" Naruto questioned as he pointed to a random tavern.

"Whatever, let's hope the waitresses are busty." Jiraiya said with a perverted grin, his grin grew further when they entered and the waitresses were indeed quite busty but suddenly his grin was wiped off his face and replaced with a bland look.

"Ero-sensei? You alright?" Naruto asked slightly concerned at seeing his Sensei put on a no nonsense "Buisness" face. But suddenly Jiraiya's face split into a wide smile, seemingly forced.

"Tsunade! It's great to see you!" He yelled to a woman sitting in the corner with a young women beside her holding onto a small pig.

"Jiraiya what are you doing here you old toad?" Tsunade said as she put down her sake saucer. "And who's the kid? I thought you weren't taking on any more students after Minato?"

"Well I couldn't exactly turn down Sensei asking me to train Minato's son. Plus he's proved to be quite the capable ninja." Jiraiya said conversationally, intentionally avoiding her original question. "And how are you Shizune, you seem to have matured greatly since I last saw you."

"I am quite well Jiraiya-sama." Shizune answered.

"Jiraiya you still haven't told me why you're here. It can't be coincidence running into both teammates today." Tsunade said.

"So the castle was you and Orochimaru then." Jiraiya stated. "What did snake face want?"

"I'm not answering until you tell me why you're here." Tsunade said with a slight drunken slur.

"What I can't track down my old teammate for a nice drink." Jiraiya said but the glare he received from Tsunade made him drop the joking façade and get down to business. "Fine, Orochimaru attacked Konoha along with Suna and Iwa and his own personal village. Sensei was stabbed by Orochimaru's blade and is slowly being consumed by poison. We were tasked to bring you back to help heal the old man and hopefully convince you to take the position of Hokage."

"So that's how Orochimaru's arms got so badly destroyed. Anyway not gonna happen. The position of Hokage is cursed, if Sensei is dying that's sad but he had it coming as soon as he took the position." Tsunade said. "Only an idiot would take the role of Hokage."

"Are you calling my father an idiot? Are you calling my dream idiotic?" Naruto asked quietly.

"If you want to be Hokage then yes I am. Only a fool would want something like that." Tsunade scoffed.

"That's it! You, Me, Outside now!" Naruto said as he got up, Tsunade laughed but followed him outside.

"Look kid I could use a bit of a stretch so I'll humor you. But I won't need more than one finger to beat you." Tsunade said as she suddenly sobered up with a flare of medical chakra.

"I wouldn't underestimate him Tsunade, he has mastered his father's bloodline, even replicating Minato's marker seals based on your granduncles attempt at recreating the flash step and is well on the way to mastering his mother's signature technique." Jiraiya warned, Tsunade looked ready to laugh out loud at that assertion. "Plus Sensei wasn't the one to injure Orochimaru, Naruto did that."

Tsunade looked at Naruto in a new light as she prepared to defend herself against the young shinobi.

Naruto looked at Tsunade and couldn't help but feel slightly disgusted that she was who the Hokage chose for a replacement. Naruto crouched down slightly before in a blur of pure speed he struck at Tsunade but she didn't let the shock of his speed get to her. With just her finger she flicked him and sent him careening backwards.

"Well that was annoying." Naruto said as he picked himself up off the ground. "Take two."

Naruto held his hand out and a Rasengan formed rapidly, pulling a tri-pronged kunai out of his kunai pouch he threw it at Tsunade and prepared to flash to Tsunade. But recognizing the technique Tsunade caught the kunai on the tip of her finger and threw it up into the air the second Naruto flashed to it. Resulting in Naruto falling to the ground where Tsunade then struck the ground and cracked open a fissure.

"I'll give you one more try before I finish this." Tsunade said.

"I won't lose to you." Naruto growled as he pulled himself from the fissure. For a second his fiery determination caused Tsunade to remember her brother Nawaki and her lover Dan.

Naruto grit his teeth and concentrated, forming a chain from chakra. Grinning at his apparent success he launched the chain towards Tsunade before following it up with dashing forward and attempting a punch to Tsunade's solar plexus.

Tsunade blocked the punch with a single finger again, but the chain impacted her shoulder, except it merely dissipated into the air. Tsunade flicked Naruto in the forehead sending him flying back again.

"Strike three kid, you're out. But you know what, I'll make a bet with you. Master making those chains before the end of the week and I'll come back to Konoha. I'll even offer this necklace as incentive to win." Tsunade said as she held up her grandfathers necklace.

"Tsunade-sama you can't offer your grandfathers necklace it's the one thing you never wager!" Shizune said shocked.

"Just you wait, I'll win that damn necklace and make you heal old man Hokage!" Naruto snarled as he stormed off, although the second he turned around he smirked wide. The easiest way to manipulate a gambler is dragging them into a bet.

"Just so you know Tsunade, the kid held back and baited you into a trap." Jiraiya said later whilst having a drink with Tsunade.

"Yeah right, the brat couldn't even put up a fight against me." Tsunade countered.

"He let you win, the kid can travel faster than the speed of sound without using the final stage of his bloodline. If you hit him, it's cause he let you." Jiraiya said, Tsunade paused before growling and slumping to the bar in defeat.

"Am I really that easy to manipulate?" Tsunade asked. Jiraiya laughed as a waitress brought them a new bottle of sake.

A/N Not a long chapter I know but since it's been a year since I wrote anything for this story I think it's a good place to start to pick it back up again… although I just reread this story from the start and I can't help but cringe when reading it… Any way hopefully my writing has improved since then considering how woefully untrained I was then…

Thanks Trigger2332 out!