XIV
This is the worst shower I've ever used. Pervy Sage, you cheap bastard.
Naruto moved his body to the side to avoid the stream of hot water giving off white clouds of steam that came from the showerhead and tried to adjust the knob. He had moved the dial a small distance to warm up the water, and the water heater decided that meant to scald him alive. He did not let his body touch the sides of the shower, which was one of several shower stalls that were separated from the main room of the bathroom by cheap, fish-print curtains, because grime and a strange yellow color covered the cracking tiles.
If I can't stand this then Sasuke probably won't even try to take a shower.
The water returned to a lukewarm temperature and Naruto relaxed into the stream. He rubbed his body, but he did not use soap. Being a ninja taught Naruto that it was not worth getting too clean, because you would get disgusting again before long. He enjoyed the refreshing feeling of the water in the morning to help wake up, but he never bothered with soap. He put his head under the showerhead and let water flow through his hair, and he ran his fingers through it to make sure it was saturated. The curtain was pulled open suddenly, and Jiraiya stood there, staring at Naruto with a slight frown.
"I don't know why you're showering, Naruto," he said, "You have training to do."
Naruto, who had been to bathhouses naked with Jiraiya, was more bothered by Jiraiya interrupting his shower.
"You were rolling around hung over when I got up, Pervy Sage. How are you so motivated? At least let me finish my shower," he said.
A towel hit him in the face. Naruto turned off the shower before it would have soaked the towel.
"I've decided to work with you two today, and I won't take no for an answer. You still want to be Hokage and fight for Sasuke, don't you?" Jiraiya said.
"Of course I still want to be Hokage, but what do you mean, fight for Sasuke?" Naruto said.
Jiraiya's features relaxed and he put his arm on Naruto's shoulder.
He said, "You can protect him, as he can protect you. In fact, I'm going to base much of our training on your team dynamic. If you two use your powers to work together and fight, you'll be the best team of ninja Konoha ever had."
"Pervy Sage," Naruto said, "You really think so?"
Jiraiya pulled him out of the shower and pushed him towards the bathroom door.
He said, "I know you will be. So dry off and go get some clothes on. Sasuke is ready and waiting in the room."
Naruto hesitated after he put his hand over the doorknob.
"Do you think that if I become Hokage and fight with Sasuke that we can…bring peace to the village?" he said.
Jiraiya looked down at the floor. After a few moments his eyes met Naruto's again, and he regained his composure. He nodded slowly and smirked.
He said, "You can if you go train hard. Get going."
Naruto wrapped the towel around his waist and shoved the door open so he could run down the narrow hall to their room. He almost fell by slipping around on the wood floors. When he reached the door panel for their room, he pushed it open and walked quickly in, letting his towel go loose and fall from him. Sasuke had opened the panel facing outside and was standing on the concrete balcony, his silhouette framed against the cloudless, blue sky. He glanced over his shoulder at Naruto.
"Well, well, well," he said, "Someone is late."
Naruto pulled his pants on and fastened his kunai pouch around his leg.
"He isn't usually this motivated after a night out. Believe it," he said.
He strapped his feet into his sandals and reached for the black shirt he wore under his jacket. He hesitated for a second as he looked at Sasuke's new clothes. The light blue jacket, white shirt, and dark green pants were more color than he had ever seen Sasuke wear.
Sasuke said, "Do you like my new clothes?"
"They're nice. The colors look good together, if that's what you were aiming for," Naruto said.
Sasuke tisked.
"Of course that was what I was aiming for, idiot. I'm trying to learn what colors I like so I can know what I want when I start painting," he said.
Naruto pulled his shirt over his head. He decided to leave his jacket, because it would be too hot out to be wearing it for training, and stood up.
"I don't know what you're thinking. I'm the future Hokage, not a fashion critic," he said.
"You'll have to out train me if you'll be Hokage," Sasuke said, "I doubt you can."
Sasuke smirked. He walked to Naruto and picked up the headband lying on the ground between them. Naruto closed his eyes as Sasuke reached around his head with the two ends of the blue cloth and tied it in place firmly. He leaned forward and kissed Naruto on the cheek. Naruto felt his light breathing as he pulled back, and he opened his eyes enough to see Sasuke's pale face framed by his black hair and his two, onyx eyes standing out in the middle of the light tan skin. His white teeth showed in a smile as he spoke.
"That's a challenge," he said, "Let's go train."
"I accept. I won't go easy," Naruto said.
"Naruto," Sasuke said, "knowing you, I would never expect you to. Let's go."
Naruto grabbed Sasuke's hand and walked to the door with him. He slid the door open, and Jiraiya was leaning against the wall opposite them.
"Are you ready?" he said.
Naruto nodded and heard Sasuke grunt his assent. They began to walk to the stairwell.
Nagato shook his head. All six of his bodies were standing at the entrance of the last compound of Orochimaru's he could find in the Land of the Sound. The others had been deserted, but this was much more than that. The gates of the underground compound, which was deep in the forest, had been crushed inward, and bodies of many ninja were scattered in the entrance. He used Yahiko's eyes to look down and see that among the corpses Sasori's old informant, Kabuto Yakushi, lay, his glasses still over his eyes as if he had fallen asleep. A kunai had pierced him through the heart, and coagulated blood covered his body. A tug on Nagato's elbow pulled him back to his own body.
"What do you see, Nagato?" Konan said, "Is there any sign of Itachi here?"
"The compound has been attacked, but there are no definite signs of Itachi," he said, "I'm going to go farther in."
He focused once more on the sensory output of the six bodies. He guided the five besides the Deva Path, Yahiko's body, to set a perimeter around the entrance of the cave and ensure no one escaped. He began his progress into the entrance with the Deva Path and felt that a large chakra source was not far away. In the gloomy, narrow, and wet cave he could see a large, steel door ajar. He pulled it open and leaned inside.
A large chamber with the roof entirely collapsed went on for hundreds of feet. At the far end a small, gray body was deep inside a crater-like depression in the wall. Nagato leaped across the distance with the use of gravity propulsion and saw that it was not a normal body as he approached. The bruised face of Orochimaru crowned a collection of snakes that had the vague shape of a human, but the chakra was not coming from here. Nagato returned to his normal body with enough attention to tell Konan what he saw.
"I can sense a large chakra, but it's not Orochimaru. Orochimaru is dead," he said.
He focused again on the Deva Path's perceptions. A loud cough and rustling in the dirt caused him to draw a kunai and walk over to the noise. He found, a few feet away and half buried in the dirt, Itachi Uchiha. Blood had mixed with his black hair, matting it, and covered much of the rest of him, flowing from a wound in his side. He wore only the basic, black undergarments and sandals that Akatsuki members wore beneath their robes. He coughed up blood and tried to push himself up but fell down again.
"Just kill me. I've already done what I set out to do," he said.
Nagato did not respond. He reached under Itachi's body and picked him up.
"What?" Itachi said, "What are you doing?"
"I need to know where Naruto Uzumaki is, Itachi. I know you were keeping tabs on Konoha," Nagato said, "Don't be afraid, though. I'll have Konan nurse you back to health so we can interrogate you properly."
Itachi pushed against Nagato but soon gave up, going limp.
"Why did you kill Orochimaru?" Nagato said.
Itachi said, "To save my brother. I've been lying here for two days waiting to die."
"Maybe you will have a chance see your brother again," Nagato said.
He began to carry him back to the entrance. The other bodies had not seen anyone try to escape, so he set his mind on his normal body.
"Konan, get ready to take care of Itachi's injuries as best you can and to do what you can for his disease. I'm bringing him to our location," he said.
"What did he do in the compound?" Konan said.
Nagato said, "He killed Orochimaru. He barely survived the fight, so we are lucky to have him still alive to bring in."
"Why did he leave the organization just to kill the likes of Orochimaru? It wasn't like Itachi to do something pointless like this," Konan said.
"He did it for his brother. I take it his little brother is now with the nine tails jinchuuriki, which would explain his eagerness to take on the mission to monitor Konoha," Nagato said.
Konan nodded. In the vision of the six paths Nagato saw himself and Konan, and he walked in the Deva Path's body to leave Itachi at Konan's feet. He lingered in his own vision on Yahiko's orange hair and pierced face, but he looked away and made the Deva Path turn around and join the other bodies. Konan leaned over and began to use medical ninjutsu.
"When we can move him let's head back to the area where we encountered Jiraiya. We can investigate any spa towns, if he's still the same man who taught us," Nagato said.
Through one of the paths he saw Konan smile with her eyes blankly staring at a point on the ground while she healed Itachi.
"It will be strange to see Jiraiya Sensei again," she said.
Nagato grunted and did not say anything more.
Sasuke let the lighting chakra dissolve from his hand, the crackling and popping coming to a sudden stop as he stood up and relaxed his body. It was a sunny day out, and he, Naruto, who was letting his own rasengan dissolve, and Jiraiya were training in a grassy grove in the woods they had found outside of outside of Inazawa. He did not wanted to fire a charged chidori until he and Naruto had gotten their technique and timing down correctly. Jiraiya made a hand sign and a shadow clone appeared next to him.
"Now, try to catch my shadow clone off guard," he said.
Naruto and Sasuke gave each other a small glance to make sure they were both ready for the attack. Naruto began forming his rasengan and running at the Jiraiya clone. Sasuke ran right behind him, feeling sweat run down his face and body from the day's exertions, and began to focus on gathering lightning chakra. Naruto jumped into the air with the pulsing, blue rasengan aimed at the clone's torso, and Sasuke ducked down, watching the clone's feet. They shifted to the left.
Got you.
When the clone leaped out of the way of Naruto's attack, Sasuke ran as quickly as he could and in an instant was tackling the clone with his whole body emitting lightning chakra. The clone fell to the ground, bolts of electricity arcing around its limbs, and disappeared in a puff of smoke.
Jiraiya said, "Using Sasuke's speed to your advantage to catch an opponent off guard will be an important part of your teamwork. However, you should find a way to hide Sasuke's movement so the opponent is not able to disable the both of you before you reach him. In fact, if you could send shadow clones to attack instead of your physical selves and waited for the moment to strike, then this technique would be more effective. Your raw power, Naruto, complements Sasuke's finesse very well. Try it again then we can be done for the day."
Jiraiya formed another shadow clone and stepped back. Naruto looked at Sasuke, and they nodded to each other. They each created three shadow clones that formed a perimeter around clone Jiraiya and began to run towards him while charging their rasengans and chidoris. Sasuke watched the movements of Jiraiya's feet and saw him prepare to leap high into the air. Sasuke ran as quickly as he could and dove between the clone's legs then flipped over and kicked it in the back. The clone quickly recovered and formed its spiky, white hair into a protective covering over its body and sustained the attacks of the clones, which dissipated after using all of their allotted chakra and crashing against the spiky shell.
Sasuke saw the opening. He released lightning chakra from his fist and delivered a punch to the shell that caused the clone to stagger slightly, and then from the other side Naruto hit the clone with his full force rasengan. The shell of hair dissolved and the clone itself disappeared under the assault. Sasuke fell to his knees, breathing in big gasps of air, and Naruto ran to him.
"Are you ok, Sasuke?" Naruto said.
He held his hand out to Sasuke.
"I don't have your stamina, idiot. I just used all of my chidori shots in less than half an hour," Sasuke said.
He grabbed Naruto's hand tightly and let him pull him up. Jiraiya walked to them and put a hand on each of their shoulders.
"That was good, using Sasuke as a set up so you could get your attack in, Naruto. You two already have done a lot today to develop teamwork. I think working so hard deserves a meal, and I, luck would have it, bought us something to eat."
"I've been so hungry for ramen since I woke up!" Naruto said.
Jiraiya said, "I hope you can make it until I get it out of the bag. It is ramen. Anyways, I'm very proud of you two. You showed me how your close bonds allow you to understand and use each other's strengths and weaknesses. If this pace keeps up you two will be undefeatable fighting together before long. Don't think it will be easy, though. I'm going to work you two hard until we get there."
Sasuke felt something he had not felt in a long time, a feeling of accomplishment. All of his training with Orochimaru had not made him proud, and with Kakashi he had always been focused on achieving greater power. Now that it was not occupying all of his thoughts, though, Sasuke felt proud that he and Naruto accomplished so much.
"Thank you very much, Lord Jiraiya," Sasuke said.
"Don't be so formal, Sasuke. Just call me Jiraiya. Anything is better than what Naruto calls me," Jiraiya said.
"It's simple and descriptive, Pervy Sage. Don't deny that you're a pervert," Naruto said.
Jiraiya let out a hearty, strong laugh.
"I'm the biggest pervert around. It's a pity you two don't like women, because I could show you some great things in Inazawa," he said.
"I've seen enough thanks to you. Believe it," Naruto said.
Sasuke laughed a little at the remark. Jiraiya raised his eyebrows.
Jiraiya said, "You've softened him up, Naruto. He actually laughs. Maybe he'll teach you to think before you go ahead with some of your stupid ideas."
Jiraiya sat down cross-legged on the ground and opened a paper bag he had set on the ground. He pulled out three plastic containers filled with noodle and soup dishes. Naruto and Sasuke sat down with him in a rough circle around the bag, making the green, crisp grass crunch.
"I've tried, but he doesn't seem willing to learn," Sasuke said.
Naruto poked him in the side with a sharp jab of the finger.
"I've gotten smarter. Come on!" he said.
Jiraiya threw a container at Naruto, who barely caught it. He handed Sasuke his, pulling out chopsticks and passing them around.
"Just eat. You're definitely good at that," he said.
Sasuke snorted. Naruto was certainly the most proficient eater he had ever met. They all opened their bowls and ate, the white-haired sensei, the blond-haired food lover, and the black-haired Uchiha enjoying rest and quiet together after a long day of training under the sun.