This is where the Tsunade arc starts, I have made some changes to it, and it'll be (Hopefully) successful, the characters are kind of writing it at this point (Except Shikamaru, I write him because I like to torture him, and he's too lazy to write it himself), so anyways, enjoy!
EDIT:: Hey guys! (I know, I'm late updating... Bad me! T.T) Anyways! I've decided I WILL continue after the Sasuke Retrieval Arc! Though updates WILL be VERY sporadic. and long in coming, I'll do my VERY BEST to make them worth it! Oh and By the way, Shikamaru is going to be OOC. But that's mostly because, A. he's on pain meds & B. I love messing with him. Tsunade will be a bit OOC as well, but... Well... I just could kinda see her knowing Minato, and therefore having a fairly easy time deciding to help Naruto, and Plus, her no-good, twisted, evil teammate kidnapped the kid. Well! Read on readers!
Son of the Snake
Chapter 11
Tracking Tsunade
Naruto was sitting in a corner of his cell; though he was injured he was perfectly happy to sit in the coldest darkest corner, and sit there calmly as he lay back against the wall, arms crossed, and eyes open; drifting, watching people pass by. He sat there in complete silence, not even flinching when Shikamaru, or Jiraiya came by and just stood there watching him, unable to figure out what to say.
Shikamaru stood at the village gates with a bag slung over his shoulder with his right hand; his left arm was in a sling, his ribs were wrapped, and he was well drugged for the journey; the journey he had insisted on making. Of course Choji was his best friend, and refused to let him go off alone like that, besides he had to make sure that Shikamaru didn't get hurt worse, and had his pain meds on time, especially with all the walking they had ahead.
The boy just sighed standing there; right now the meds were in full swing, so he was feeling good… But he was worried if they didn't leave soon he wouldn't make it to the next town.
"Hey Shikamaru," Choji called, walking up to him. The other boy also had a pack, except his was sitting on both his shoulders.
"Would you like me to take your pack?"
"No thanks; I can take it."
"If you decide otherwise tell me and I'll take it ok?"
"Alright, but I'm fine."
"Hey kids," Jiraiya said, dropping from somewhere above them.
"You're late." Shikamaru growled.
"Only by ten or fifteen minutes…" Jiraiya got down and inspected the Nara. "You're looking a little pale there, are you sure you can make this?"
"Yes," Shikamaru said, a fire in his eyes, for once he had something he really had the determination to do, to start and follow through to the end. And he'd go to the end; he'd found out about what Kabuto did to Naruto's memories, and after a discussion with the white haired Sannin he'd determined that if there was anyone except Kabuto himself who could unlock those memories, it was Tsunade. So if nothing else then he could go ahead and use guilt cards.
"Are you positive kid?"
"Yes, so let's get moving before the happy drugs wear off." Shikamaru said walking off. Choji stared in amazement.
"Hey are you sure you should even be out of the hospital?" Jiraiya asked after him.
"No!"
"Boy he must really be on happy drugs if he's acting like this…"
"Let's go before he hurts himself… More…"
Three hours later…
Jiraiya stood ahead watching the two as Choji gave Shikamaru a piggy back.
"What happened?"
"The happy drugs wore off…" Shikamaru said, sounding utterly exhausted.
"Obviously, but what happened after that, did you trip or something?"
"Nope… Pain in my ribs spiked… Broken ribs are not fun…"
Jiraiya snorted, "No kidding."
"Shikamaru you can go to sleep, I'll carry you the rest of the way… And I'll wake you up when you can have more pain pills."
"Thanks…" Shikamaru said, closing his eyes, and conking out in three minutes.
Jiraiya watched it with curiosity. "Hey kid, why are you so nice to pineapple head?"
"Not pineapple head, Shikamaru- and… Well, you see, because of my weight all the other kids teased me and didn't want me to play. But Shikamaru was different; he was always nice to me."
"What about Naruto, why is he doing this for him, any ideas?"
"When we were younger he was our friend, he still is. Shikamaru would help him with homework if possible, and I would take extra lunch. He always seemed to be eating or hungry…"
"I see…"
"It was one of the scariest day was when he wasn't at the academy, and we couldn't find him at home."
"It must have been…" Jiraiya said, a companionable silence settling over them as they continued walking.
One hour later…
Choji put Shikamaru on the bed, successfully waking said boy up for his pills.
"What? We're to the hotel already?" Shikamaru grumbled.
"Yea and you're due for more pain pills."
"Oh great, they taste horrible…"
He door opened and closed and Jiraiya entered. "How is Pineapple head doing?"
"I can hear you, and not so great…"
"Well, with broken ribs and all this traveling… You'd think." Choji muttered handing over the pills and a glass of water.
"Well I'm going to go out and look for any sign of Tsunade; you stay here and…do whatever you usually do, talk, eat; whatever."
Three hours later…
When Jiraiya finally got back he found both boys conked out on one of the beds, there were three empty bowls on the bedside table; he assumed they'd gotten some dinner, and the food, and in Shikamaru's case the meds, had knocked them out pretty quick after that. He snuck to his own bed and collapsed into it sighing.
But he sat back up as there was movement and both boys sat up, obviously responding- though unwillingly- to the noise the Sannin had made.
"Back pretty late aren't you?" Shikamaru asked sing song like, obviously still half asleep and partly in La-la-land from the meds.
"Wha- Your medicines are working too well, quiet down and go back to sleep."
"Neh, sure… Zzzzzzz…"
"You too," He said pointing a finger at Choji. The boy laid back and sighed, going to sleep quickly as well.
"Peace and quiet…"
The next day they were all up early, Shikamaru sitting around as he waited for his pills to work, and Choji out getting breakfast while Jiraiya put everything away. After about half an hour more they had been fed and were leaving the town. The group of three continued in this fashion for the next couple days, Shikamaru pushing himself to his limits, and at times even past in an attempt to not slow them all down, and so far, so long as Choji was able to take his bag he was fine aside from the pain.
But they wouldn't have to keep this routine up long, because finally, after almost three days they found her… And how did they know that…?
"Yea, well, I had to kick them out because my hotel room was destroyed! And get this; they had the nerve to stay in town too."
"Thank you."
"Just get that woman out of this town!"
"I'll try my best…" Jiraiya said sweat-dropping. He was going to try, but he was worried she might punt him into another country if he annoyed her too much. They left the inn and went to the nearest place that served Sake; and alas, sitting at a table was Shizune and Tsunade. He walked over, Shikamaru and Choji walking behind him and they all sat down at the table.
Tsunade looked up, cheeks pink, and eyes half drooped; then looked back down. "What d' you want?"
"Oh come on, can't someone come and see their old teammate?"
"You have a look on your face, what do you want? 'Cause I probably won't agree."
"Well… If you really want to know, I have a few favors to ask you."
"Shoot," Tsunade said, bored.
"Well… Back home, there are a few kids who need your help…"
"No; I'm not going back there, ever."
"But Tsunade… Please, call one of 'em a special favor to me; your old teammate." Jiraiya said, giving her a look.
Tsunade looked… Annoyed… "What kind of personal favor?"
"Well, ya see…"
Five minutes later…
Well, when the situation was explained to Tsunade… She was well… How can it be put nicely…? Pissed, pissed explains it nicely… Ish…
"That lying, conniving, poisonous, destructive, evil, double-crossing, vile, horrible, idiotic, kidnapping, brainwashing, SON OF A-" She stopped since she was in the presence of children, and instead punched a hole in the table. "I'll help you… You're wrong when you say that it's probably only possible for me to do it, that is, if you want his mind to collapse, and him to go insane. You made the right choice to find me for this… But I still need one more thing before I'll go back…"
"And what would that be?" Shikamaru asked.
"Heh, heh, I've got to go tell Orochimaru off." She said, quite dramatically. There was a snore from the other side of the table and they found Shikamaru out cold chopsticks in hand, and meat on the end…
"That is the weirdest thing I've ever seen the kid do…"
"Well… It is Shikamaru… He's done worse…" Choji said.
Though no one said anything, it was easy to tell they were all thinking the same thing. He's fallen asleep in worse places… I'm not going to ask…
"So do you say we all get a good night's rest and I guess start on our hunt for Orochimaru tomorrow morning?"
"Sure; but hey, miss Tsunade, can you maybe help Shikamaru at all, he got hurt pretty bad, and the only reason he actually came is because the pain meds wore off a bit before the first town."
"Sure, why not…"
"Thanks."
Alright! Chapter done! So proud, although I'm kind of ashamed of it a bit because I made ANOTHER filler chapter, but it's necessary to keep the story moving, and Tsunade's reaction… Well, it might seem a little extreme, but you know what, what's done is done, and that's that. I'm not changing it. BTW the story is almost over; I'm probably going to end it after the Sasuke Retrieval Arc… Wow, I just looked at it, and in less than a year, I created this story 4/23/2013, and it's now 1/13/2014, I've written almost 23,000 words and about 39½ pages! Well see you all next time! ^.^