"Okay, now we'll start with the second step," Jiraiya announced the start of the second step of the jutsu Natsumi was learning after taking a day's rest for her chakra coils to heal up a little.
"Yeah! I can finally get things going now!" Natsumi cheered.
"Here," he tossed her a rubber ball.
"You want me to pop this, too?" she groaned. She was really getting tired of trying to pop things.
"That's right," he said. "Hinata, watch carefully."
"Yes," Hinata activated her Byakugan. Both girls were stunned when he popped the rubber ball. It was not anything like when they popped the water balloon. The rubber ball exploded with a long bang instead of a pop like the water balloon. Hinata saw more than just that.
"It's about a hundred times tougher than the water balloon. Give it a try," he told Natsumi. She did so, and barely got the rubber ball to expand.
'It's tougher than I thought...' she mused.
"The first step emphasized rotation," Jiraiya held up a finger. "The second step emphasizes power," he held up another finger. "Since there's no water inside, it's hard to imagine the rotation of chakra, so it's difficult to rotate it."
"That's true," she agreed with him.
"Keep that in mind. Hinata doesn't have the problem of imagining the rotation of chakra because of her Byakugan, but I highly suggest she doesn't do this step until her chakra reserves get bigger."
"But why not? Why can't Hinata-chan do this step?" she protested.
"Because she'll collapse from chakra exhaustion. We can't afford to waste a week's worth of time for her to rest if she does."
"Rotating the chakra needed to pop the rubber ball should be no problem, but the chakra itself is..." Hinata trailed off. She saw the intensity of the chakra when Jiraiya popped his rubber ball. She did not think she could do it.
"But if she insists on trying, don't say I didn't warn you. I estimate a maximum of three tries before she collapses or gets close to it."
"What did you see in Ero-Sennin's rubber ball?" Natsumi asked Hinata. Jiraiya had not forbidden her from asking what Hinata saw.
"A huge amount of chakra being rotated," she replied.
"In that case, that's no problem! I have loads of chakra!" Natsumi declared confidently. Gathering as much chakra as she could, she tried popping the rubber ball again. The bumps were bigger this time, but nowhere close to straining the rubber ball.
"It barely rotated, Natsumi-chan," Hinata told her. "You put a lot of chakra inside the ball but the rotations were stopping very quickly."
"So I have to find the trick to rotate a lot of chakra?" Natsumi turned to Jiraiya for clarification.
"It's not as simple as that, but I'll let you figure it out on your own. Now then, I'll go gather some information," he cheerfully turned to leave.
"Wait, wait, wait! Let's train together, since we haven't done that for a while! You can take a nap here," she stopped him.
'Natsumi-chan...?' Hinata noticed the oddity in Natsumi's behavior.
"Don't demand attention like that," Jiraiya told her sternly. "Maybe you have the wrong idea here. I said that I would teach you a jutsu, but I have no obligation to teach you one on one. If you can't do it yourself, that's it for you. Stop acting like a kid, and act more like a professional ninja!"
"Then... Then..."
'Natsumi-chan is... She just wants to bond with an adult figure that has her undivided attention. Jiraiya-sama, why are you refusing her...? She just wants you to be there. She isn't demanding anything unreasonable,' Hinata looked worriedly at Natsumi, not voicing out her observations.
"Can you at least give me a little hint like before? I'll work on my own from there..." she tried for a compromise.
"Money," Jiraiya, without any shame at all, held out his hand for her to put money in. After a moment of awkward silence, Natsumi responded.
"Hey, Hinata-chan, can I borrow some money please? I'll pay you back, I promise!" Jiraiya had not returned her money yet, so her wallet was still empty.
"Oh, okay," Hinata moved to retrieve her purse.
"I wasn't being serious," Jiraiya's statement stopped her. "I told you that I need to gather information on Tsunade's location. I don't have the time to babysit you. Hinata, come with me."
"But..." Hinata was split between wanting to stay by Natsumi's side and obeying Jiraiya.
"I'll be okay, Hinata-chan. Just make sure Ero-Sennin is doing what he says he's doing!" Natsumi made the decision for her with a plastic smile.
'Please don't smile like that, Natsumi-chan...' Hinata frowned heavily as she followed Jiraiya, rather upset with the decision that Jiraiya made but unwilling to disobey him. He barely paid any attention to Natsumi at all, and she hoped the isolated training would stop soon.
***Break Line***
As Hinata followed Jiraiya through the city, she recognized the people that he had been speaking to the few times she was told to follow him. She was still working on her own task of finding a weakness of the Byakugan and her strong point with it. As she did that, she was told to observe how he gathered information in order to find his target, seeing as she was part of a track-and-locate team. She did not notice anything at first but now she realized Jiraiya had been getting on friendly terms with the people he spoke with. When he asked them about whether they had seen a certain woman, it sounded completely like a random topic between friends rather than an investigation about Tsunade. It was definitely a very good experience for her, except she did not have the friendly demeanor Jiraiya seemed to naturally possess.
When evening fell, Jiraiya returned to the adult establishment again to Hinata's dismay. This would have been the perfect time to at least stay by Natsumi's side but he never did that. All the isolated training must have been getting to Natsumi. Bowing and requesting for her leave stiffly, Hinata turned to return to Natsumi's location without waiting for any reply from Jiraiya. Because of that, she missed the serious look in his eyes as she left. When she returned to the forest, she found Natsumi collapsed on the ground with her arms spread apart.
"Natsumi-chan!" she exclaimed in panic and ran to her side. "What happened? Are you alright?"
"I'm... okay," Natsumi groaned out a reply. "This... is way harder than when I did it with a water balloon. And..." she raised her arms which were shaking violently with a lot of difficulty. "My hands and arms hurt." They then collapsed to her side like they were made of steel.
"This is terrible...!" Hinata inspected her chakra coils with her Byakugan and did not like what she saw. The coils from the core that went through her torso were overworked, especially the coils that went to her hands and arms. "Do you need help?"
"I'll be okay," she managed to sit up without using her hands. Nevertheless, she was still helped to her feet by Hinata.
"You should rest, Natsumi-chan. You managed to hurt your chakra coils all over again," Hinata suggested.
"No, I can't rest, not for this step. Ero-Sennin said this step focused on power. I can't keep resting if I want to succeed in this," Natsumi refused.
"But..."
"I'll be okay, really. But thanks for your concern. Join me for training when Ero-Sennin lets you stay with me!"
"But I can't do this step. Jiraiya-sama said it's too dangerous for me."
"And you're going to let that stop you? Come on, Hinata-chan. Ero-Sennin didn't say you couldn't do it. He said not to overdo it. Let's learn this jutsu together!" Natsumi encouraged her, renewing her confidence.
"...Okay!" Hinata did not know why she let Jiraiya's warning dampen her spirits so heavily. As long as she watched her limits carefully, she should be fine.
The next day, Jiraiya gave no instructions to Hinata so she was free to join Natsumi in her training. She remembered vividly how much chakra Jiraiya used to pop his rubber ball. The main reason she was hesitant to participate in the training for the second step of the unknown jutsu Natsumi was learning was because she was intimidated by the sheer amount of chakra required. Taking deep breaths to calm herself and gather her focus, she activated her Byakugan and poured as much chakra as she could into the rubber ball and rotated it. Her ball produced bumps at a rapid pace but the strain of so much chakra going through her arms and hands got too much for her and she stopped, unable to endure the pain. The moment she did, her vision starting swimming. She felt exhausted and drained of chakra, and she was breaking out into a heavy sweat.
"Hinata-chan, are you okay? You look really pale!" Natsumi exclaimed worriedly.
"I... I'm..." Hinata's voice was so soft, almost a whisper. Her Byakugan deactivated on its own from her fatigue and she was taking huge gulps of air. The humongous drain of chakra left her with a feeling of great weakness and she momentarily lost the strength to remain standing.
"Hinata-chan!" Natsumi managed to catch her, ignoring the fallen rubber ball.
"I'm sorry, Natsumi-chan... I guess this jutsu really isn't for me after all..." she told her, her tired voice full of regret. She failed to live up to Natsumi's belief in her, and that hurt her more than anything.
"No, it's my fault," Natsumi placed the blame on herself. "Ero-Sennin warned us that you weren't ready for this jutsu, but instead of listening to him I pushed you to train with me."
"Natsumi-chan..."
"But I still believe we'll both be capable of using this jutsu one day! I'll learn this jutsu first and then when your chakra reserves get big enough, I'll teach it to you! That's a promise!" Natsumi told her, bringing a tired smile to Hinata's face. "But not in this super sneaky way Ero-Sennin is teaching me..." she grumbled with an angry pout but upon hearing Hinata's soft giggling, it turned into a smile immediately. "Anyway, you have to take a rest. Don't worry about me. I'll be fine!"
"Don't push yourself too hard. If you train too hard, you might damage your chakra coils. Damage to them is very hard to heal, and can sometimes even be permanently damaged," Hinata cautioned her before relaxing underneath a tree. She fell asleep the moment she closed her eyes. She awoke in the early evening, feeling just a little refreshed.
"Hey. You're finally awake," Natsumi greeted her warmly, currently resting at her side with her face drenched in sweat. "You slept pretty long. It's already evening."
"It is?" she was surprised at first, and then she saw the orange sky. They started their training in the early afternoon. Was she that exhausted from just one attempt at the second step? She could also feel hunger beginning to show itself. "I'll go to the city and get us some food. Do you want anything in particular?"
"Nah, I'm okay. Anything will do. I'll eat when I return to the inn," she replied. Hinata did not fail to notice her arms slumped by her side and shivering uncontrollably.
"Please be careful with your training, Natsumi-chan," Hinata said before leaving to the city. As she bought dinner for both of them, she encountered Jiraiya along the way. Seeing the stamp card hung proudly around his neck, she knew he was going to the adult establishment again tonight. "Good evening, Jiraiya-sama," she bowed politely in greeting.
"Good evening," Jiraiya returned the greeting. "Getting dinner for the both of you?"
"Yes. Do you require dinner as well?"
"I'll be having it later at my special place," he answered with a dorky, perverted face.
"Jiraiya-sama..." Hinata gathered her courage to ask for a request. "Will it be alright if you could spare at least one evening by Natsumi-chan's side?" His silly look instantly vanished at that. "I'm not asking you to give her any hints or special attention. I'm just requesting you to stay by her side."
"You know that I do my information gathering while I'm here. New information can come at any time," he told her.
"Yes, but..."
"My answer is still no, no matter how many times you ask. Don't tell me Natsumi's so immature that she can't even train by herself?"
"No, that's not it. Natsumi-chan just wants to-"
"That's enough. When I have free time, then I'll check up on her. Until then, tell her that I expect her to keep working on the second step," he cut her off. "Go back to the inn and rest. Your whole posture just screams lethargic to me. You tried to do the second step, didn't you?"
"Y-Yes..." she answered, very downtrodden at his insistence to not even check up on Natsumi.
"I did tell you you aren't capable of finishing this step. Well, at least you didn't collapse from chakra exhaustion. But, I'll give you credit for trying," he praised her. "Well, I'm off!" the silly look returned to his face as he ran off to the adult establishment.
Hinata returned to the inn feeling quite sad. Her sadness switched to concern when Natsumi trudged into their room with barely any energy. With how bad her arms were shaking, she was barely able to change into her pyjamas after showering. She had to be spoon-fed by Hinata again during dinner and her sleep was not comfortable, the strain from the full day of training taking its toll.
***Break Line***
"Damn it... How many days have I been doing the same thing over and over?" Natsumi groaned out loud.
"It's been almost two weeks since you started on the second step, Natsumi-chan," Hinata answered. As each day passed, Natsumi's daily routines became harder to accomplish by herself. She could no longer hold chopsticks in her hand, so she either had to grab the food directly with her bare hands or Hinata spoon-fed her. That resulted in the other patrons staring at them in disgust or whispering none too quietly about how the two girls were inclined to be that way, whichever way that was. She had to make extra effort just to bathe and her sleep was often disturbed by pain.
Hinata suggested Natsumi rotate between doing the second step of the unknown jutsu and mastering the Hakke Kuushou to reduce her frustration with her constant failures and to reduce the strain to her chakra coils. It did reduce the strain and overall pain but it only frustrated her more because she made no progress with the Hakke Kuushou either. Her frustration with her failures at completing the second step affected her focus, in turn making her unable to properly concentrate for the chakra control needed to form the vacuum shell.
Natsumi recalled how Jiraiya mentioned the jutsu was A-Rank, the second highest out of six jutsu difficulties. He made it look so easy so she believed she would breeze through it and she was utterly wrong. Recalling that bit of information also dredged up the unpleasant comment Jiraiya said about her being an attention-seeking ninja. She bit her bottom lip to crush the negative emotions that threatened to rise by recalling it.
"Hey, Natsumi, Hinata," she heard Jiraiya call them as he approached her.
"Why did you come here?" she asked unpleasantly.
"Buy me some food down at the city," he told her with a happy smile.
"What? Why?" she protested. She did not want to take time away from her training.
"You're an apprentice learning a technique from me, you know," he shamelessly pulled rank on her.
"You could have just bought something before you came here."
"Because I wasn't hungry until I got here," he gave the flimsiest excuse. She pouted angrily as she left to do her given task, Hinata following behind her. The moment both girls were out of sight, he summoned a Kage Bunshin of his own to tail them under a Henge. His prowess as a spy would allow him to watch them undetected. If Hinata activated her Byakugan for any reason he would be busted immediately, but he doubted they would come across any situation for Hinata to do so. The clone watched as Natsumi bought some meat and pork buns for the group.
"He teaches me nothing, but he acts like a master at times like this," he heard Natsumi complain to Hinata.
"Don't say that, Natsumi-chan," Hinata tried to appease her. "I'm sure after you finish learning this jutsu, Jiraiya-sama will teach you more lessons."
"By telling me next to nothing about what I'm learning? No, thank you. Even Kakashi-sensei was better at teaching Team 7 how to do the tree-walking exercise, and that's the only thing he's taught the team." So Natsumi was beginning to lose trust in him.
"But you're not good at taking in documented and verbal information."
"I know that. That doesn't mean I won't figure it out eventually. I'll train hard, and I'll keep on training until I get it. But I can't do that if I don't know what I'm supposed to do. Like, the first step is about rotation, but Ero-Sennin didn't tell us that we had to do multiple rotations at the same time. At least I knew what I'm supposed to be working on. But this? All he told me to do is pop the rubber ball with power. Yeah, I get that it needs a lot more chakra than the water balloon and it's harder to rotate so much chakra. It's clearly not that after doing the same thing for so many days. But I don't know what to work on! What am I supposed to do? While Ero-Sennin is gathering information, I'm just wasting time and chakra!"
"And you're getting hurt more with each passing day. If you keep this up for too long, your chakra coils will..."
Jiraiya's clone listened carefully to their conversation. He admitted that Natsumi was right. Sometimes, no matter how hard you train, you could not overcome certain roadblocks without sufficient information. In her case, her efforts were going to waste because she did not know where to put them to. Perhaps a hint was long overdue... He stopped when he noticed the two girls had stopped walking. A child's pleading for his father to buy ice cream for him had caught their attention. Sneaking closer from another direction, he saw the father buying a paired ice cream that broke in two. The child complained that he could eat it all himself but the father told him his mother was waiting at home with the dinner she made before they left.
Looking at the girls again, he saw Natsumi with a truly lonely look on her face. Hinata was whispering words of comfort to her, making her smile a little but not removing the loneliness from her face. When it was clear they were heading back to the forest, he dispelled himself.
***Break Line***
Hinata grew worried when they saw the father-son pair in the city. Natsumi never showed signs of it, but Hinata knew she was jealous of children who still had parents.
Natsumi did not think badly of those children but it did remind her harshly of her orphan status and how lonely she truly was. Hinata's presence in her life filled a very large portion of the hole in her heart, but she could not fill the part of her heart that longed for her parents. To make matters worse, she never even knew who they were. She did not envy the pain Hinata must have went through when her mother passed away but she at least had pleasant memories of her to remind her of the times when she was still around. Surely even Sasuke still had those pleasant memories before his clan was murdered by his brother. She wished to have memories like that for herself. Maybe she could form one with Jiraiya, but he did not seem to be too interested in forming a good relationship with her, let alone a proper master-apprentice bond. The last one was purely her own opinion, though.
"Um, hey..." Natsumi started off with a timid greeting to Jiraiya. "Can you supervise my training just a bit today?"
"I don't have time for that. I have to head to the city after this," he refused. "If you don't think and grasp the trick on your own, you'll never master this. I told you two weeks ago. Don't seek attention like a kid. You're a ninja."
"Hah! I don't need you to remind me of that! I already know!" she boisterously replied with a blatantly false cheer. "I just asked on a whim. Leave already, Ero-Sennin!" After he left with his share of meat and pork buns, she kept up her mask as she picked up the rubber ball. "Alright! Let's get back to training, Hinata-chan!"
"Please stop it, Natsumi-chan," Hinata hung her head, but her soft voice was still very audible. Natsumi's fake smile immediately disappeared and was replaced with a miserable loneliness. She moved towards her and hugged her, trying to comfort her as best as she could. "It's alright, Natsumi-chan. It's alright..." she whispered. Natsumi's arms went limp and fell to her side, dropping the rubber ball in the process. Slowly, her arms moved to hug Hinata, pulling her closer ever so slightly. That spoke volumes about how much she desperately longed for company.
"It hurts... It really hurts, Hinata-chan..." Natsumi replied in a cracking voice, tightening the hug to stop herself from losing all control of her emotions. It helped a lot, but it did not stop the soft whimper that occasionally left her lips. After a few minutes, she regained some composure and released the hug. "Well, back to training for me," she said, rubbing her puffy eyes with her sleeve to clear the wetness that gathered there.
"Good luck, Natsumi-chan. I need to find Jiraiya-sama," Hinata wished her fortune with a gentle smile before running off. She needed a word with Jiraiya urgently. She would not let this go on any further. With the aid of her Byakugan, she easily located him in the city talking to one of the locals. Making no pretense of hiding herself, she stood behind him at a respectable distance and patiently waited for him to finish his talk. Once they baded farewell, he turned his attention to her.
"How could you do that to Natsumi-chan? I know you saw the look on her face, Jiraiya-sama," she said in a clipped tone but remained respectful to him.
"The both of you are ninjas. You should not be acting like kids anymore," he replied.
"Natsumi-chan may have been childish two weeks ago, but she wasn't like such just now. She was just looking to bond with you, and you won't give her a chance?"
"If I spend my time bonding with her, we will be wasting valuable time, time I need to gather the needed information to find Tsunade. And it would only lead to Natsumi acting even more like a kid."
"I would agree with you two weeks ago, Jiraiya-sama. But not today. Today was uncalled for."
"How was it uncalled for?" He had an idea of what she was referring to, but better to hear from her directly.
"You know by now that Natsumi is a very hard worker. Even when she was childishly seeking your attention, not once has she complained about how hard the training for the jutsu is. She worked so hard at your instruction, and she still is, yet you can't spare a small amount of time to even acknowledge her efforts? Are they not worth your notice?"
"Of course I notice them. That doesn't mean I have to shower praise on her when she hasn't even succeeded yet."
"I cannot argue with that, Jiraiya-sama," she conceded the point to him. "But that doesn't mean you have to wound her like that."
"Can you explain how I wounded her?"
"Please do not play coy, Jiraiya-sama. You know about her secret, so you should know how the village shuns her. We both know, yet cannot imagine, how lonely Natsumi-chan must be. She finally has a chance to bond with an adult figure in her life that is not her Jounin instructor and is still alive, and you won't let her. That hurts her even more than any amount of training can do to her. I have no right to criticize your role as the master or how you wish to teach her, but I can say this as Natsumi-chan's best friend. Please stop hurting her. Stop hurting her heart."
"Don't you know ninjas are supposed to be able to kill their emotions? If she can't even suppress her loneliness during training, how can she be a successful ninja?" That was a very dirty move, since Jiraiya himself hardly ever did that. He could be extremely professional in that regard if he really needed to, but he could remain largely himself in most situations. He did not mean a single word he said, but he needed to know if damage control was needed. He watched with a controlled neutral expression on his face as Hinata displayed pure shock at his words.
"I cannot believe you, Jiraiya-sama... Natsumi-chan was crushed at your refusal to bond with her to the point of tears. Now you say this...?" Hinata turned her back to him. "You're horrible..." she whispered under her breath before running back to Natsumi. Jiraiya heard her parting words though, and kept them in mind. Even when he spent the late hours of the night in the adult establishment as he always did, he could not fully enjoy himself. It looked like he needed to take some time to re-organize himself.
A few nights later, a major training accident happened. At the very end of her daily training sessions, Natsumi suddenly started screaming in pain. Her palms were an angry red like she had just rubbed her hands together very roughly for too long. She could not respond to any of Hinata's worried questions. Upon inspection with the Byakugan, Hinata found out that the chakra coils in her hands, particularly those at her wrists and palms, had burst at the sides. There were small cuts there, caused by overuse of chakra with too little rest. Now her chakra was constantly leaking out into her body dangerously, causing her tremendous pain from the inside. Out of desperation, she immediately closed the tenketsu of Natsumi's chakra core, effectively shutting down chakra circulation. Now paralyzed from both the pain and her strike, Hinata carried Natsumi back to the inn. Fortunately, she had stopped screaming by then and they did not get any unwanted attention.
After placing Natsumi as comfortably as she could in a futon, Hinata hurriedly asked the inn owner for a pail of ice and several pieces of towel cloth. After filling the pail with water, she removed Natsumi's jacket and saw that her wrists had turned the same red as her palms. She spread her arms apart and placed a few of the cold wet towel cloths over her wrists and hands as makeshift ice packs. To her surprise and increased worry, Natsumi had also contracted a fever so she placed a cloth on her forehead too. For the entire time she had known her, Natsumi had never fallen sick even once, perhaps due to the accelerated healing the Kyuubi granted her. For her to get the common fever was a source of legitimate worry. Hinata watched over her deligently, re-damping the pieces of cloth every few minutes and checking on her chakra coils. Throughout all this, Natsumi had fallen into a very uncomfortable sleep, often moaning in pain. After some time, the cuts in her chakra coils were closed up, again probably thanks to the Kyuubi but they were still spasming from the abuse they were put through. Her fever had not gone down at all.
Hinata snapped her head to the door of their room when it opened, only to reveal Jiraiya. In her worry, she forgot he shared the room as well since the girls were already asleep whenever he returned from the adult establishment. He walked over to them and saw the state Natsumi was in, but did not say anything. He caught Hinata's hostile look towards him, knowing he was not welcome by her at the moment. The hostility vanished when Natsumi let out another pained moan and Hinata returned to nursing her. Jiraiya quietly left them alone so as not to disturb Hinata.
When Natsumi woke up the next morning, she found Hinata curled up next to her still in her street clothes. Pieces of towel cloth were scattered around them with a pail of water nearby and Jiraiya was snoring away in his futon. When she tried to get up, her movement aroused Hinata from her sleep. Hinata cleared the dirt from her eyes and automatically greeted Natsumi good morning which she returned. It took a moment for Hinata to remember what happened last night and pushed Natsumi back down to the futon. Seeing how adamant she was that she not do any training for the day to let her chakra coils rest, Natsumi surrendered to her demands after she was told her chakra coils had actually torn from overtraining herself, and that scared her. She did not want permanent damage done to herself.
***Break Line***
"Damn it! It won't pop no matter how hard I try!" Natsumi yelled in frustration after a day of complete rest. "I'm only wasting chakra like this! Also, the more chakra I transfer into the ball, the more pain I feel."
"What are you going to do now, Natsumi-chan?" Hinata asked, monitoring the condition of Natsumi's chakra coils occasionally to prevent any reoccurrence of two days ago.
"The ball won't pop unless I make the chakra explode in the blink of an eye! But how do I do that?" At her wit's end, she grabbed the rubber ball and recklessly poured chakra into it.
"Natsumi-chan, what are you doing?" Hinata exclaimed when she saw chakra flaring around Natsumi with her naked eye.
"If I can't do this the way Ero-Sennin wants, I'll cheat my way through!" she gritted her teeth from the pain of pouring so much chakra into the ball. "Instead of rotating my chakra, I'll just fill it up until it bursts!"
"Stop, Natsumi-chan! You'll damage your chakra coils again!" Hinata warned but it fell to deaf ears. But miraculously, the ball gave out and a tiny hole was torn open, unable to hold the chakra it was being holding.
"Take that, you stupid ball...!" Natsumi wheezed tiredly even as her hands turned red once again. Luckily, Hinata told her her chakra coils held up quite well this time.
"Oh? Looks like you made some progress," they heard Jiraiya say.
"No thanks to you," Natsumi replied bitterly. "I only made a hole in it. It didn't pop like yours." The girls turned to face him and were surprised to see him holding a paired ice cream and a single one in his hands.
"Don't act so tough," he told her in a friendly manner to get her to relax. "Here," he handed the single ice cream to Hinata and broke the paired one and handed the other to Natsumi. "Good job for coming this far on your own. Hinata, thank you for being by her when I couldn't." Smiles broke out on the faces of both girls as they accepted their respective ice creams, their faith in Jiraiya restored greatly.
"This is tasty," Natsumi said as she sucked on her treat.
"I know, let's try something," Jiraiya suggested after they finished their treats.
"Try what? What?" she asked excitedly.
"Show me your right hand." He took a calligraphy brush from his vest and drew a stylised dot in the middle of her palm. He gestured for Hinata to do the same and drew the mark on her palm too.
"What's this?" Jiraiya did not answer her yet, instead removing his arm guard and showing her the same mark on his palm. "It's the same mark, but how is this going to help?"
"You're the type of girl who gets scolded for not being able to concentrate, right?"
"That doesn't matter now," she grouched.
"Look at this piece of paper."
"I looked at it," she said after looking at it in confusion. What was she supposed to see? Hinata had the same look of confusion too.
"Okay, look at it again," he told her after drawing the same mark on it. This time, both girls' eyes were drawn to the mark.
"What about it?" What was so special about that mark?
"It's not something I should go to great lengths explaining, but when you looked at the plain white piece of paper, you just glanced at the entire sheet, right?" Both girls nodded at that. "Then where did you look when I showed this? You most likely stared at the mark there." Both girls gasped at his accurate analysis. "When humans look at a plain white sheet, they don't know where to look and their eyes wander. But if you put a mark in the middle, a person concentrates on that area. It's called focusing on a spot. When a person concentrates, their mind stabilizes and they are able to extract unimaginable power. When you opened a hole in that rubber ball, you should've been desperately accumulating as much chakra as possible in that ball."
"Yeah! Yeah!"
"When you concentrate, you extract more power. But it's hard to concentrate without a focus. This is where this thing comes in. Listen up, Natsumi. When you try to accumulate chakra in your right hand, try to concentrate on that mark."
"Concentrate... Okay, I'll do it!" Natsumi announced with determination before her face soured momentarily. "You should have just told me this to begin with, Ero-Sennin. Those two weeks of wasted time, injuries and worrying Hinata-chan non-stop... If you had just told me I needed to focus, I wouldn't have bothered your information gathering. I would've known what I'm working towards, like when you told me about the rotation for the first step. Maybe I would've figured out the trick of how to focus to burst the rubber ball."
"That wouldn't have stopped you from whining for attention like a brat, would it?"
"...Probably not," she admitted.
"But I will say that I should have explained a little more of what to do when we started. In any case, I gave you a hint. Now, instead of searching aimlessly in the dark, work your way towards the goal. I'm off now." After he left, Natsumi returned to training with renewed determination.
***Break Line***
"It's not working," Natsumi panted after a few hours as she slumped against a tree. Because she now had a point of focus for her chakra, her chakra flowed much smoother through her chakra coils, reducing the pain and strain of outputting so much chakra. She had progressed to the point of popping a hole through the rubber ball with each attempt, but still failing to burst it. "What does it mean to concentrate?" she muttered to herself as she watched Hinata practice with the water balloon. With the tip of how to improve focus, Hinata was finally able to burst the water balloon with one hand. It took her some time to do so, meaning she still had to concentrate hard. She was alternating hands too to improve the chakra control in both her hands. By the end of the day, Hinata managed to perfect the first step. Natsumi only had wasted chakra to show for her efforts.
The next afternoon, Natsumi was again failing at bursting the rubber ball. She was flat on her back as she heaved for air, thinking about how to concentrate harder but finding no answer. Not willing to quit, she sat up to resume her training only to collapse to the side by a huge stab of pain in her wrists and hands. Hinata checked her chakra coils and told her she was straining them again from all the chakra she was using. They were in danger of having cuts again.
"I guess I'll just rest a little more then..." she decided. As she laid there, feeling woozy from her fatigue, a strong breeze came by, shaking some leaves off the trees. She watched quietly as the leaves reminded her of home, of Konoha.
"What are you thinking about?" Hinata asked as she sat next to Natsumi's head, hugging her legs together.
"Just thinking about what it means to concentrate. I'm concentrating as hard as I can, but I'm not doing it. I think maybe I'm being distracted by my own thoughts while I'm training," Natsumi replied.
"How about using your dream to be a future Hokage as your focus?" Hinata suggested. "Sandaime-sama gave his life to protect Konoha when it was invaded during the Chuunin Exam. Will you let the village be destroyed because you couldn't focus?"
"Of course not!" she declared with ferocity, standing up again. "Thanks, Hinata-chan! I think now I can finally concentrate!" Licking her thumb, she adjusted the stylised dot Jiraiya drew on her palm to resemble that of the mark of Konoha. "Let me give this one more try! If I still can't do it, then I'll rest until tomorrow!"
"I know you can do it, Natsumi-chan!" Hinata cheered her on before moving to give Natsumi space.
Natsumi grabbed another rubber ball and closed her eyes to concentrate and focus on the image of Konoha. Her home. The home she would keep safe no matter the cost, just like the Third and Fourth Hokage did. Her mind envisioned her chakra surrounding the mark of Konoha like a protective barrier even as she transferred her chakra to the rubber ball. When she felt like she reached her utmost focus, she started rotating the chakra as fast as she could. And when the rubber ball burst explosively, she was thrown back, digging a long trench into the ground until she was stopped by Jiraiya.
"Natsumi-chan! Jiraiya-sama!" Hinata ran up to them, immediately checking up on Natsumi. She quickly noticed burn marks on her palm. "Amazing... She accumulated so much chakra in that rubber ball that it burned her hand..." She did not have her Byakugan active, but she did not need it to guess just how much chakra was in the rubber ball. "When the ball exploded, it was so much more forceful than yours, Jiraiya-sama."
"This girl is full of surprises. Yes, she far exceeded the minimal amount of chakra and power needed to burst the rubber ball," Jiraiya praised Natsumi who slowly turned her head to face him.
"I burst it," Natsumi said proudly even with her very tired voice.
"Okay, it looks like the second step is complete."
"Let's start the third step quickly..." she said before falling unconscious.
"Natsumi-chan!" Hinata exclaimed.
"She might have suffered a small concussion from the rubber ball bursting," Jiraiya guessed. "But we don't have time to take a day's rest at the inn. We're moving to meet Tsunade now."
"You've found her location?" Hinata was surprised since all the times she was with him, she never heard him ask anyone about Tsunade directly. Did he do it in the adult establishment? Or did he only ask when he was alone? Whichever it was, it was good news.
"We'll return to the inn and get our belongings, then we leave immediately."
"Yes, Jiraiya-sama!" She was about to move when she noticed Jiraiya was not carrying the unconscious Natsumi. "Um, Jiraiya-sama...? What about Natsumi-chan?"
"Are you expecting me to carry her? You need more exercise than me, young lady! I'm already at my prime! You are still a growing ninja!" he told her before taking off instantly.
"Ah, wait, Jiraiya-sama!" She carried Natsumi in a piggy-back position as comfortably as she could. She did a quick check on herself and a tremendous blush exploded onto her face. Natsumi's limp arms were hanging dangerously close to two certain parts of her chest. Hinata wanted to switch to a princess carry but just imagining the stares of strangers and the implications of all the wrong things stopped her. Swallowing her own anxiety, she prayed that Natsumi's hands would not bump against her as she carried her. She did not think she could stand the embarrassment of that happening. She really did not want to faint due to that. She was already swaying unsteadily on her feet and struggling to get her act together. In the end, they had to spend one more night in the inn as Natsumi remained unconscious for the rest of the day.
***Break Line***
"Okay, let's go!" Jiraiya pointed his finger enthusiastically in the direction they were supposed to go.
"Don't act like a child, shouting 'Let's go!'" Natsumi muttered under her breath. Hinata giggled at her reaction, because she did the exact same thing as Jiraiya did when they left Konoha. "What's so funny, Hinata-chan?"
"You and Jiraiya-sama can so be alike at times," Hinata said.
"What? No way!" she exclaimed in shock. "I'm nothing like Ero-Sennin!" Hinata only giggled, causing her to pout. Hinata must have noticed something but was keeping it to herself for private entertainment.
"You don't need to be in a bad mood," Jiraiya said.
"Because we're still in the middle of training. There are three steps in the training, right? I've only completed two," she replied.
"You can do the third step as we walk," he told her.
"What? Really?" Her excitement deflated when he took out a balloon from his vest and blew into it.
"Here," he tossed it to her after tying the end.
"What? This is just a normal balloon."
"The first step was rotation. The second step was power," he summarized the previous steps as he blew up his own balloon. "And finally, the third step is this." He held out his balloon and the girls stared at it. Nothing was happening. He was not doing anything to the balloon.
"What do you mean by 'this'?" Natsumi demanded, her patience having run out and throwing a small fit, making him laugh in amusement.
"It looks like I'm just holding the balloon in my hand, but..."
"But? Nothing's happening."
"Then I'll do the same thing with my left hand. Let's see what's happening inside the balloon." In seconds, pure chakra visible to the naked eye gathered in his left hand and formed that sphere he used on the gangster long ago. Now that she had a much closer look at it, she noticed that the chakra inside it was rotating randomly and building up speed while not deforming in any manner, keeping the nice spherical shape. "It looks like a small typhoon, doesn't it?"
"So, the same thing is happening in your right hand?"
"Yeah, that is what's happening." He paused to let Hinata activate her Byakugan to confirm that was exactly what was happening, which she did. That only amazed both girls, since the rotating mass of chakra was not making the balloon move at all.
"There's more chakra in that sphere than when Natsumi-chan burst the rubber ball, and the rotation is incredibly fast," Hinata noted, her Byakugan revealing more details than what could be seen by normal eyes.
"In this third step, you must learn to use 100% of the abilities you learned in the first two steps and retain it. In other words, you have to keep your chakra's rotation and power at the maximum, create a thin layer within the balloon, and create an image that you're compressing chakra inside that layer." Natsumi and Hinata exchanged similar surprised looks with each other. That sounded exactly like compressing and maintaining the air inside the vacuum shell of the Hakke Kuushou but with nowhere near the ridiculous amount of chakra and rotation needed.
"So, this exercise is to keep the power and the rotation I learned in the two other steps and not pop the balloon, right?" Natsumi asked.
"You're sharper than before," he praised, not knowing she already had a small head start on this exercise already.
"But why do you have to do that?" The Hakke Kuushou consisted of firing the stable shell towards a target, but this jutsu consisted of slamming it into the target. Was there really a need for it?
"This is why. Watch." He tossed her his balloon and approached a nearby tree. If you do this after you've only completed the first two steps, this happens." He created the same sphere without the layer and slammed it into the tree. The sphere dispersed, only carving a spiral pattern on the trunk. "Now, this is what happens after you've mastered the third step." Both girls gasped in shock when the sphere did not disperse upon contact, instead grinding into the tree and making a hole from one end to the other. "If you can retain the small typhoon in your hand, the power will not disperse. The rotation will become faster, and the power will become more concentrated. Its destructive powers will be raised to the ultimate. That's how it is." Natsumi gave it a shot, but her balloon popped. "You can't hold back on the power. You have to use 100% of its power and rotation and maintain it."
It was then Natsumi realized the jutsu was impossible for her unless she managed to have complete control over her chakra. It was the first step combined with the second, but she had to control both of them at the same time and at her maximum capability. This third step was much more difficult than the first two steps combined.
"I told you, this is an A-Rank level ninjutsu that's difficult to master. Now, I'm done with the explanation. Do it while we walk," Jiraiya instructed her.
Natsumi wanted to protest about that, wanting to stay and train, but soon realized Jiraiya took a long time just to find Tsunade's location. He wanted to hurry so they would not miss her. Remembering that her training was to occupy her own time because he needed to get the information, she shut her mouth and obediently followed him.
***Break Line***
When they arrived at Tanzaku City, Tsunade's last known location, Natsumi popped yet another balloon from another failed attempt. Because they were entering a city area, she was advised not to do it when they were in a crowded area. When Jiraiya entered a small gambling area, she took the chance to attempt the third step again.
"Rotation, power... Use those to their fullest, and retain them," she reminded herself of the main pointers while Hinata inflated another balloon for her.
"Hey, kids. Do you want to play?" one of the available shop tenders approached them, tossing some dice in his hand. He briefly explained the game was a simple guess of odd or even on the dice rolls.
"No thanks. I'm training right now. Don't bother me," she rebuffed him.
"What are you talking about? This is a gambling place. Stop playing with that balloon, and let's play with these."
"No! I don't wanna play with those dice."
"What a boring kid!"
"Shut up!" She made the mistake of starting an attempt then when she was not fully focusing and the balloon popped faster than her previous tries. "Damn it... I failed again." For whatever reason, Jiraiya thanked her for the assist after he got the information from the shop owner, confusing her.
"Geez, where do I look now?" Jiraiya muttered to himself after going to the location the shop owner pointed him to and finding out Tsunade had already left.
"Natsumi-chan," Hinata tugged Natsumi's sleeve to get her attention. "That old lady..." she looked towards an old woman in a small stand who was gesturing for them to come over. Natsumi looked around themselves to make sure the old woman was not motioning to someone else before pointing to herself and Hinata, to which the old woman nodded. "Jiraiya-sama, please excuse us for a moment," she informed Jiraiya before they went to the stand.
"Fortune slips?" Jiraiya noted as he waited for them.
"Adults and children love fortune slips. There's one that tells you the result right away, so how about it?" the old woman advertised her fortune slips to them. That caught Natsumi's interest as she grabbed one for herself and another for Hinata. The old woman lent them a coin to scratch the slips. Both girls would walk away richer a minute later.
"You're cuter when you're fat," Natsumi cooed to her frog wallet lovingly as she rubbed it against her cheek, making Hinata giggle at how adorable she was acting.
'I didn't expect her to win twice with one try. Maybe she has some talent in when it comes to gambling. Her talent for techniques isn't very good, though...' Jiraiya deadpanned silently. Honestly, what were the odds of picking two winning slips at the same time? Natsumi won the top prize while the slip she picked for Hinata was a small consolation prize, but still a winning slip. He shook away his disbelief at Natsumi's luck and considered his options to find Tsunade. Knowing Tanzaku City was a castle city, the higher ground should help so he headed to a part of the city with higher altitude.
After coming across a man running in fear and telling them a snake monster had just destroyed the castle, Jiraiya picked up his pace. They came across the scene of the destruction, but no-one was in sight. He had just missed Tsunade and someone else he knew, and there was only one person he knew that utilized giant snakes. He went from one lead to another the whole day and when night fell, they still had not found any sign of Tsunade.
"She isn't anywhere! And you dragged us around all over the place. We still haven't found a proper clue, either," Natsumi complained.
"Let's have dinner here for now," Jiraiya stopped in front of a bar.
"This is a bar!"
"So?"
"We're still kids!"
"Dummy, I'm not telling you to drink. Just munch on the appetizers."
"We don't have to eat here, then. Let's go to a ramen restaurant instead."
"You sure are stupid! You get information from places like this." The moment he entered, he saw his target eating at the very bar he decided to enter at random. "Tsunade!" he exclaimed and pointed at her.
"Jiraiya! Why are you here?" Tsunade exclaimed in return, shooting up from her seat.
"I finally found you. Boy, am I tired," he approached her table and joining her for dinner.
"That lady is Tsunade?" Natsumi whispered to Hinata. She looked nowhere near Jiraiya's age, and she was his teammate when they were younger. "Is she really fifty?"
"Jiraiya-sama did say she always uses a Henge," she replied. "I'll take a look." Before they were noticed, she activated her Byakugan to take a look and remember what Tsunade really looked like. Upon seeing it, she immediately turned it off with a pale face. "I guess she's about fifty..." she said shakily. She would not be forgetting the sight she saw anytime soon. No wonder Tsunade was always under a Henge.
"She must look really bad if you're that pale," Natsumi replied with a sweat-drop, feeling somewhat glad she would probably never know what Tsunade really looked like. Seeing no protest coming from Tsunade when Jiraiya sat across her, they quickly joined him. Dinner was filled with a tense silence, with only the sounds of chewing and chopsticks being heard.
"What a day... seeing old acquaintances everywhere," Tsunade broke the silence.
"Orochimaru, right?" Jiraiya easily guessed. "What happened?"
"Nothing much," she replied, giving a look to her companion to keep her mouth shut. "We just said hello." She took out a deck of cards from her kimono blouse and started shuffling it. Jiraiya passed his plate of food to Natsumi so he could play with a game with her. "What do you want from me?"
"I'll get straight to the point. Tsunade, the village elders have requested that you become the Fifth Hokage," he told her, cutting the deck and reshuffling it. That announcement shocked the other three people sitting with them, with Natsumi choking on her food and Hinata panicking over her. "Have you heard about the Sandaime?"
"Orochimaru killed him, right? I heard from him directly."
"Orochimaru killed Sandaime-jii-chan? But he's one of you Sannin!" Natsumi interjected after safely swallowing her stuck food.
"That's right," Jiraiya confirmed as they played a round of Poker.
"Why? The Sannin are Konoha ninjas, right? So why?"
"Calm down, Natsumi-chan. Orochimaru is a missing-nin, so he's not really part of Konoha anymore..." Hinata filled Natsumi in. She did not know Orochimaru killed the Third Hokage either, but she at least knew of his infamy.
"Who are these kids?" Tsunade asked, glancing at them for the first time.
"The blonde one is Uzumaki Natsumi, and her friend is Hyuuga Hinata," Jiraiya introduced them. A look of surprised recognition appeared on Tsunade's face for a moment before she schooled it in, realizing Natsumi was the Kyuubi's host.
"What do you mean this person is going to be the Fifth Hokage?" Natsumi pointed rudely at Tsunade, dropping the subject about Orochimaru, satisfied with Hinata's simple information.
"Natsumi, be quiet for a while," Jiraiya told her.
"But..."
"Just be quiet," he warned her, getting her to stay silent. "I'll say it again. The village elders have requested that you become the Fifth Hokage, Tsunade. So, what is your reply? Will you accept the job?" Tsunade spent some time remaining quiet, seemingly contemplating about it. "What's your answer, Tsunade?"
"Not possible. I refuse," Tsunade gave her answer. For some reason, that amused Jiraiya.
"I remember those words. I asked you to date me a long time ago. You said the same thing and turned me down."
"What are you saying? Ero-Sennin, you told us that we're going to take this person back to the village and have her heal Sasuke and Kakashi-sensei, right?" Natsumi interrupted again. Her confusion at the situation was shortening her temper. "But you're asking her to become Hokage! What the hell? She even declined!"
"But we do need a new Hokage. I think that's Jiraiya-sama's mission assigned by the village elders," Hinata said. "I don't think we have the clearance to actually know about this. We are only Genin."
"So you tricked us?" Natsumi asked Jiraiya in disbelief.
"Don't panic. Only Tsunade is capable of becoming the Fifth Hokage," Jiraiya replied. He explained how Tsunade's achievements in the Third Shinobi World War contributed greatly to Konoha's victory. She was also the First Hokage's granddaughter. With her lineage combined with her abilities, she was the most suited to become the Fifth Hokage. If she became Hokage, she would have to go back to the village and then she could heal Sasuke and Kakashi. Getting her back was his mission given by the village elders and it was not something Genin like them should comment on, just as Hinata stated.
"Jiraiya... One of your new apprentices seems to be ruder, more stupid, and uglier than the previous one," Tsunade taunted Natsumi.
"What!" Natsumi rose to the taunt.
"It's hard for anyone to beat the Yondaime in those regards," Jiraiya agreed with his teammate, but not correcting her about his 'two' apprentices. Natsumi was his current and only apprentice, with Hinata being a helping hand. "His capabilities as a ninja were unrivaled during his time. He was talented with jutsu, incredibly smart, and popular. He was also handsome like me."
"But I'm a girl! You can't compare looks between a guy and a girl!" she argued, her feminity bruised by Tsunade's taunting.
"But even the Yondaime died young. He threw his life away for the village," Tsunade mentioned in a detached tone. "Life isn't like money. Only an idiot bets his life so easily. My grandfather and the Nidaime wished to end the war but they wasted their lives before they could accomplish that."
"You've changed, Tsunade," Jiraiya told her. "I don't know what you've been thinking, but to put it in such words..."
"I'm in my fifties, even if I look like this. Time changes people. Sarutobi-sensei is the same. If an old man tries to act brave, of course he'll die." Taking a look at her hand, she gave up the round due to her usual bad luck. "The title of Hokage is a piece of crap. Only an idiot becomes one." The table immediately shook as Natsumi tried to attack Tsunade for her words but was stopped by Jiraiya.
"Anyone who makes fun of the Yondaime or Sandaime-jii-chan deserves a punch in the face!" Natsumi shouted angrily.
"You've got guts to say that to me," Tsunade responded by putting her own leg on the table. "Step outside, brat."
"Jiraiya-sama, won't you stop them?" Hinata pleaded. There was no way Natsumi would be fine in a fight with a Sannin!
"It's too late for that," Jiraiya sighed in exasperation. "I don't think Natsumi will calm down until she has this fight." Seeing as nothing would change either of their minds, everyone headed outside to settle the argument in a physical manner.
"Even though I look like this, I am one of the Sannin. There's no need for me to get serious with a Genin," Tsunade said, completely dismissing Natsumi.
"What did you say!" Natsumi's anger rose because of the dismissal but paused when Tsunade held up a finger at her.
"A K.O. notice?" Jiraiya noted.
"This doesn't mean one minute. It's one finger. One finger will do against you," Tsunade told her opponent. "Come on, little girl," she beckoned with said finger.
"Don't screw with me!" Natsumi charged towards her while throwing shurikens at her and arming herself with a kunai. She lazily dodged them with a tilt of the head and stole her kunai by hooking her finger in the ring when she tried to swing at her head. Going low and attacking with an upward swing using only her finger, Tsunade knocked her hitai-ate skyward along with the kunai. Natsumi lost her balance trying to avoid the attack only to see Tsunade's hand in front of her face. The next thing she knew, she was tumbling head over heels on the ground with a huge pain centered in the middle of her forehead.
"Natsumi-chan!" Hinata cried out worriedly.
"A finger flick?" Natsumi whispered. There was no way the position Tsunade's hand was in meant anything else. "Why you!" she thought it was a move done purely to humiliate her until her kunai stabbed itself into the ground right in front of her from its fall from the sky. Her hitai-ate followed soon after. It was then she realized that Tsunade truly was strong.
"Hey, brat!" Tsunade called her. "Let me ask you one thing. Why do you care so much about the title of Hokage?"
"Unlike you, I'm going to take the title of Hokage for sure. Because... being Hokage is my dream!" Natsumi declared with a confident smile on her face that said she believed that claim wholeheartedly. Her smile vanished when she saw Tsunade looking away with a troubled expression. What about her dream made her act like that? She quickly erased that thought to take advantage of the sudden vulnerability. They were still in a fight, after all. Knowing she needed a huge move to win the fight, she opted to try out the jutsu she was learning. Focusing her chakra and rotating it, she formed the jutsu and held it in both hands.
Tsunade snapped out of her weird state of distraction when she heard Natsumi's rapid footsteps approaching her. She was shocked when she recognized the jutsu in her hands. She slammed her finger into the ground, creating a miniature fissure. Because of the sudden gap in the ground, Natsumi lost her balance and fell, the jutsu in her hand making contact with the ground and blowing her backwards into a bigger gap in the fissure and getting herself stuck. Tsunade inspected the damage the jutsu did to the ground and was unimpressed.
"Jiraiya, are you the one who taught her the Rasengan?" Tsunade asked Jiraiya.
"I'm her master, after all," he replied.
"Only you and the Yondaime can use that jutsu. Are you only acting like a master and trying to teach her something she can't master? Don't give her any ideas! That's why this brat likes to daydream that she's going to become the Hokage one day."
"I'm not daydreaming!" Natsumi snapped after being helped out of the fissure by Hinata and Tsunade's companion. "I can master this jutsu in one week! Idiot! You idiot!" If she had not done the first two steps of the jutsu Tsunade referred to as the Rasengan, she would have boasted that she could master it in three days like she did when she first started.
"You said it, brat. You can't take back your words."
"I'm not going to take back my words. That's my ninja way!"
"Then let's make a bet."
"A bet?"
"If you can master that jutsu within the time you stated, I'll acknowledge that you can become the Hokage. I'll even give you this necklace."
"Tsunade-sama, that's an important..." Tsunade's attendant tried to protest.
"I don't need a crappy necklace like that," Natsumi said.
"Don't say that, Natsumi. That's a unique crystal which could buy about three mountains if you sold it. It used to belong to the First Hokage," Jiraiya told her about the necklace's worth.
"I guess that's fine..." she tried to downplay it but the greed was clearly on her face, making Jiraiya and Hinata sweat-drop.
"Okay, but if you can't master the jutsu in a week, you lose. I'll take all your money," Tsunade said, bouncing a very familiar frog wallet in her hand.
"Ah! Gama-chan! When did she..." Natsumi screamed, searching all her pockets in a vain attempt to check if that was really her wallet.
"Tsunade-sama, why? That necklace is..." Tsunade's companion tried again to get Tsunade to change her mind.
"She can't do it anyway. Let's go, Shizune," Tsunade refused to talk about her decision and left the scene. She smirked in amusement when she heard Natsumi break down and cry in a comical manner about how all the adults around her kept taking her money, then yelling at Jiraiya to return her money before crying again. Taking a short glance, she saw Natsumi on her hands and knees with an aura of depression over her head in front of Hinata, who was rubbing her head in a consoling manner.
***End of Chapter***
Differences
When Naruto wants Jiraiya to stay with him after starting the second step.
Canon: Naruto gets scolded for acting childishly and when Jiraiya requests for money, he gets yelled at by Naruto for not acting like a professional ninja.
My version: Same until Jiraiya asks for money. Natsumi asks Hinata for the requested money when Jiraiya stops them by saying he wasn't being serious. Hinata also notices Natsumi's odd behavior and knows why she acted like that.
When Naruto asks politely if Jiraiya could supervise him after buying him food.
Canon: Jiraiya refuses, but sees how upset Naruto is by that even if he tries to hide it.
My version: Same, but is later confronted by Hinata who knows he saw how upset Natsumi was by his refusal. He pretends to be cold when she tells him to stop hurting her emotionally to check the situation.
Naruto popping a small hole in the rubber ball for the first time.
Canon: Naruto knows he is not outputting enough chakra when he suddenly realizes he can tell how much chakra is flowing because of the accumulated pain in his hands.
My version: Due to extreme frustration, Natsumi recklessly pours her chakra into the rubber ball until she pops a hole in it.
Naruto figuring out what enhances his concentration to complete the second step.
Canon: Naruto remembers the lecture Iruka gave him about lacking concentration.
My version: Hinata gives Natsumi a possible scenario in the future and asks if she would let the village get destroyed simply because of a lack of concentration.
Naruto's bet with Tsunade.
Canon: Naruto boasts he can master the Rasengan in three days, which Tsunade extends to a week.
My version: Natsumi remembers how hard the training was for the first two steps, so she gave herself a week instead of three days.
Extra Scene 1: When Jiraiya sends the girls to buy food for him, he tails them with a Kage Bunshin. It could be sheer coincidence, but this is what I think happened when he decides to bond with Naruto/Natsumi. Otherwise, how would he know to get the very same paired ice-cream as the father and son Naruto/Natsumi saw?
Extra Scene 2: There is a scene in the anime where they show Naruto trying to sleep in great pain with his hands and wrists covered in towel cloth. This is an original part I made up to use that scene. Natsumi overworks herself past her limits and damages her chakra coils and Hinata desperately tries to nurse her back to health. When Jiraiya checks on her, Hinata is not happy to see him because of his refusal to bond with Natsumi.
***Break Line***
Here is where the first clear difference between Naruto and Natsumi is shown. Naruto/Natsumi normally wears their emotions on their sleeves. The only emotion they try to keep hidden is their loneliness. The difference between Naruto and Natsumi is that Naruto has about four more years of being alone over Natsumi, so he is more independent and more emotionally resistant than her. For that same amount of time, Natsumi has been best friends with Hinata who is a sensitive girl, so Natsumi is more emotionally vulnerable than Naruto. But because of Hinata, Natsumi is generally smarter than Naruto, but not by much. She isn't as ignorant as him, at least.
Hinata also has character development in this chapter. Natsumi has always been protective of Hinata because she is a sensitive person. At the same time, because of her sensitivity, she knows of Natsumi's hidden pain and wants to help heal it. That makes her worry about Natsumi's well-being. That worry makes her protective of Natsumi's feelings, especially against those who would try to wound Natsumi emotionally. Her protectiveness shows up when Natsumi has a sudden bout of loneliness and wants to bond with Jiraiya who refuses in order to focus on his information gathering. She confronts him about it without any signs of fear and does not hide her displeasure for him until he bonds with Natsumi.
Next chapter is the conclusion for the Tsunade arc. Because Hinata is with them, she will have more interaction with Tsunade than the generic Hokage-Subordinate relationship in canon.
I look forward to getting more readers who like this story. Do Follow/Favorite/Review this story, and big thanks to those who are kind enough to do so!