Chapter Nine:

The Jounin Exam Announcement….

The Eve Before!

It was a long night and on into the morning for Jiraiya. Usually the old toad hermit would have spent the whole night drinking and chasing skirts, but tonight was different. He sat in his personal library finishing up a document he spent all night writing. He let out a sigh when he had completed the work and rolled the scroll up and tied it. Then he performed several hand seals.

"Ninpo: Fuin Jutsu: Makimono Fuin!" Jiraiya yelled as he placed a seal on the scroll he had just finished writing. "All finished with that," Jiraiya said aloud as he gazed out the window to see the sun starting to rise. "No use going to sleep now. I got a lot to do today."

Naruto was up earlier than normal this morning as his determination to get to his training got the better of him. Here it was the crack of dawn and he was already out training like there was no tomorrow. He knew the Jounin exams were coming soon and his excitement was starting to get uncontainable. Naruto summoned several clones to spar with. He took the time to take each clone out with a different taijutsu move, be it a throw, a punch or kick combo. Then afterward he'd do push ups, sit ups and stretches. He spent most of his mornings doing various taijutsu and weapons training. His afternoon training sessions usually were focused more on his ninjutsu and charka training. As Naruto finally finished his warm ups and was about to move to his next exercise he was surprised by a sudden smack on the back of his head that had in almost literally eating dirt.

"What the hell? Who the hell hit me?" Naruto bellowed as he pulled himself back up.

"I did brat, got a problem with it?" Jiraiya said to his student with a smirk.

"You scared the crap out of me and almost had me eating dirt cakes for breakfast so yes; I have a problem with it." Naruto replied.

"Well too bad kid." Jiraiya said to the teen.

"So what do you want, Ero-Sennin?" Naruto asked his perverted teacher.

"How are the Jounin exam preparations going?" Jiraiya asked.

"Alright, I guess. I'm not doing anything crazy or trying to learn anything new this time around. I'm just trying to touch up what I already have and master it better." Naruto told the older man.

"That's surprisingly smart coming from an idiot like you." Jiraiya replied.

"Shut up! I'm smart!" Naruto yelled.

"Sure, and eventually someone besides you will believe that." Jiraiya said to the teen. "So do you think you'll be ready?"

"I guess I don't really know what to expect, but hell it doesn't matter. I'll take it on full force just like I always do." Naruto proclaimed.

"That's just like you." The old man commented. "Here take this." Jiraiya said handing Naruto a scroll.

"What's this?" Naruto asked.

"It's something fun for you to learn before the exam." Jiraiya replied. "Well I got to go meet Tsunade. I have things to discuss with her." Jiraiya told the teen as he slowly walked off.

"Ero-Sennin…" Naruto muttered under his voice. "Something doesn't feel right for some reason." Naruto thought to himself as he watched his teacher leave before returning to the scroll and opening it up to read the contents. "This is…."

Sasuke and Neji were both working on their own preparations for the upcoming exams. Sasuke focused on more charka training and improving his jutsu just like Naruto was. Neji was focusing on boosting his stamina and speed to help him last long in case he had to face Gaara or Naruto whom both have a larger charka supply than him and to a second degree he knew of Sasuke's speed and his obvious skill with his techniques he wants to try and catch up to the speed of the Uchiha teen in case he faced him in battle. Naruto, Sasuke, and Neji all went the solo route for preparing for the exam. Gaara however, took a different approach. Gaara was training with Temari, Kankurou, surprisingly Shikamaru and even Lee. Gaara wanted to focus on toughening up and dealing with all different sorts of attacks such as Lee's speed and hard hitting taijutsu, while Kankurou, Temari, and Shikamaru had different ranges and ways of attacking. Even though he had learned how to master Shukaku, thanks to Jiraiya, he knew he was still new to using the power and wanted to test himself in strengthening his chakra both regular and demon, as well as finding effective, yet less deadly ways of defeating his opponents. Regardless, all four Konoha representatives were working extremely hard to get ready for the upcoming exam.

Tsunade was in her office with Shizune standing over her as usual, forcing the older woman to do paperwork, which much to Tsunade's displeasure seemingly never ended. She finally got her break however, when there was a sudden knock at her door.

"Come in." Tsunade called to the unknown guest. The door opened and her former teammate and fellow Sannin entered. "Jiraiya, you're using the door for once, what's the occasion?"

"I have something to discuss with you." Jiraiya told the woman.

"I see, well I had something I wanted to discuss with you as well, so I guess your timing is as good as ever." Tsunade told the man.

"You have something you need to discuss with me?" Jiraiya asked looking somewhat shocked.

"Yes, I just got to an old report about a year and a half ago from Suna." Tsunade said to the man and watched as he visibly paled and then gulped.

"A year and a half ago you say?" Jiraiya replied as sweat slowly started to form on his forehead.

"It sounds like you know something about what I was a going to ask." Tsunade said still watching her former teammate.

"I believe I might." Jiraiya once again replied.

"There's no real detail about what happened, just a message from Suna from a slightly pissed off Kazekage who asked us to please refrain from sending Naruto, Gaara, and you to their village for a while. He went on to say he did not approve of Operation Bloody River… Jiraiya what the hell did you guys do?"

"Well you see… We stopped in Suna during our training mission. Naruto saw how Gaara was treated and he cooked up some elaborate plan to sort of get back at the village. It would seem as dumb as we peg Naruto to be, when it comes to certain things, well he might be a genius." Jiraiya told the woman.

"You mean… pranks don't you?" Tsunade asked. Jiraiya merely nodded and continued with his story.

"You see at this time Gaara was still learning to control his chakra better and well I had him sign the toad contract and he was learning to summon toads. He was fairly advance at the training as he could summon anything short of Gamabunta. So Naruto being Naruto helped him by teach him how to use the Konbi Henge No Jutsu." Jiraiya told his former teammate.

"Combination Henge? Why would he teach him that?" Tsunade asked looking puzzled.

"It was all apart of Naruto's elaborate prank." Jiraiya replied. "Naruto had Gaara summon the biggest toad he could muster, and then from there he had Gaara use the jutsu to transform himself along with the frog into Shukaku."

"Shukaku! The Ichibi?" Tsunade said out loud in utter shock.

"That's not the bad part. It gets worse. So Naruto has him enter the village stomping and trashing and having him act as if Shukaku had broken free and was going to destroy the village. Needless to say the Kazekage and all of Suna's forces were being positioned to attack the beast. After everyone was in place, they sprung their trap on the village."

"What did they do?" Tsunade asked almost demanding. She was shocked when Jiraiya suddenly smiled.

"Gaara transformed into a giant, naked, female version of himself using a combination of Konbi Henge No Jutsu and Naruto's Oiroke No Jutsu. What happened afterward was the most embarrassing thing to befall that village in all of their history. Every single one of the men in the village had massive nose bleeds, causing the village to almost flood. That is why it's called Operation Bloody River." Jiraiya said to the woman, which caused both Tsunade and the surprisingly quiet Shizune to scream out in shock and almost collapse to the floor. Tsunade then in a bit of rage picked up her chair and threw it out the window… again. Then she slammed her fist through her desk and continued to scream.

"Naruto! I'm going to kill you!" Tsunade screamed. After several minutes Tsunade finally started to calm down and was then interrupted by a message being delivered by two of her Anbu, whom saw the mess in the office and sighed. Tsunade carefully read the message and smirked and then turned to her two Anbu. "I want you to bring Hyuuga Neji, Uchiha Sasuke, Gaara, and Uzumaki Naruto here immediately." Tsunade said as upon hearing Naruto's name mentioned one of the Anbu men who happened to be wearing a bear mask, started to sweat.

"Yes, Hokage-sama we shall retrieve them right away." The man wearing the hawk mask replied as the two left the room.

"I'll go get Neji-san and Sasuke-san. You can get Gaara-san and Naruto-san." The hawk mask wearing man said to the bear mask wearing man.

"No!" The man proclaimed. "I… I mean no how about I get Neji-sand and Sasuke-san." The man said almost pleading "This is bad, my budget still has recovered from the last time. It's about lunch time as well. I have to save myself and my poor paycheck." The man thought to himself.

"There is no way I'm going to get Naruto-san Gaara-san. You have any idea what time of day it is? It's lunch time!" The man in the hawk mask proclaimed.

"I got stuck with it last time, it's your turn!" The bear mask wearing Anbu argued.

"Then we must settle this, the old fashion way." The hawk mask wearing man said. "With a game of Rock, Paper, Scissors!" He bellowed.

"That's fine with me!" The other man replied as the both readied themselves each sweating severely.

"On three…" The hawk mask wearer said.

"1…"

"2…"

"3…"

"Rock, Paper, Scissors!" The both yelled as the man in the hawk mask shot out his hand and the bear mask wearing man did the same. Both men looked down and the man in the bear mask had scissors, while the man in the hawk mask had paper.

"I win!" The man in the bear masked yelled for joy.

"Come on man, I got a wife and three kids. Please, don't do this to me." The man in the hawk mask begged.

"What's that? I can't hear you." The other man replied with his fingers in his ears as he left to retrieve his targets, leaving his partner to cry.

Back inside Tsunade's office the two continued to talk for almost an hour. Jiraiya shared his new found information regarding a certain organization. Tsunade was not pleased with what she heard from her former teammate.

"You can't! I won't let you!" Tsunade proclaimed.

"You know this is how it's got to be." Jiraiya replied.

"Then I'll go with you." Tsunade said desperately.

"Don't be stupid. You're the Godaime Hokage and with the Raikage coming to the village for the Jounin exams and all there is no chance of you leaving. This is how it's got to be Tsunade." Jiraiya told his former teammate sternly.

'Then let me send some Anbu with you, or Kakashi and Gai or somebody." Tsunade asked.

"In this situation, it is best for me to go solo on this. It is enemy territory and the less people wandering around the better." Jiraiya replied.

"But Jiraiya…" Tsunade was suddenly interrupted by a knock at her door. The room got quiet and then a second knock she finally answered. "Come in." She said to the door and the four men who she had summoned entered the room.

"You called for us Hokage-sama?" Neji asked.

"Hey Ero-Sennin, still hanging around?" Naruto said addressing his teacher.

"Indeed, at least for a little while longer." Jiraiya replied getting a worried look from both Tsunade and Shizune that was ignored by the four Chuunin that had just entered.

"I called you all here because in one week's time, the Raikage will arrive here in Konoha and one day later the Jounin exam will begin. So finish your training and make sure you're rested and ready for it. That's all I wanted to say so get out." Tsunade said rather rudely but the teens complied and left all except for Naruto.

"Hey Ero-Sennin when I kick this exam's butt and become a Jounin should take me out to get some ramen to celebrate." Naruto said to the man excitedly.

"Alright Naruto, I'll do just that." Jiraiya replied, getting another look from both Tsunade and Shizune.

"You promise?" Naruto asked making sure Jiraiya wasn't playing with his head.

"I promise, hell it can be an all you can eat ramen buffet." Jiraiya smiled at his student who got even more pumped up.

"I'm going back to my training, see you later and be ready to go broke Ero-Sennin!" Naruto proclaimed as he quickly exited the room. The room then fell back to silence.

"Why? Why the hell would you promise that?" Tsunade said with a sad expression on her face.

"What should I of said? Naruto needs to focus right now. The Jounin exam is very important both to him and to Konoha. I won't become an excuse for why he fails." The man replied. "I'll be leaving first thing tomorrow. I must go and finish up a few things."

"Please! Please don't go Jiraiya!" Tsunade said almost pleading, and begging to the man. "Naruto needs you, Konoha needs you, and I…. need you."

"Naruto is grown up now. He's stronger than me and has better character than I do. Konoha will likewise be alright; the village is strong and will only get stronger with guys like Naruto, Gaara, Sasuke, and Neji around, and as for you and I… Now that… would have been nice…" Jiraiya replied as be walked over to the door an opened it. "Goodbye Tsunade…." Jiraiya said as he closed the door behind him. Tsunade was powerless to stop him and just dropped to her knees and began to cry. Shizune did her best to console her, but she too felt like she wanted to cry.

Jiraiya sat in his library much like he the previous night. He spent the entire night writing and thinking, and then more writing. As daylight dawned upon a new day once again, Jiraiya finally finished writing. He let out a sigh and placed the document on top of another pile of documents.

"There… I'm all finished." Jiraiya said aloud to nobody in particular. "I guess before I go I'll have one of my frogs deliver it to the editor. I bet Kakashi will love it. It's the perfect ending for the story. I sometimes wish my life could be like the main character of my stories… I guess it's stupid to think like that. It's been a good one as it is. At least it wasn't boring that's for sure." Jiraiya looked down at the stack of paper sitting before him next to it sat the scroll he had finished writing the night before. The scroll that he sealed had one word written on the outside of it.

"I guess it's time for me to go. I got a lot of ground to cover." The Gama-Sennin said as he got up. "Naruto, continue down your own path. Don't let anyone stop you from achieving your goals, your dreams. Minato would be… no, Minato is very proud of you, and so am I." With those words Jiraiya left the room quietly and looked ahead to the mission at hand.

The scroll he had left behind had one word written on the outside of it. That word was "Will".