Chapter 24: Team Anko's vacation, part 3
Naruto and Jakken walked onto the training grounds of Team Gai. Jakken was not happy about this as Naruto warned him about starting any arguments. He was really wasn't concerned about Tenten but he was more concern about the reason they were here for. It didn't make sense giving their crazy sensei a weapon to torture them with. He didn't care how good she was.
They walked up to see Lee shadow boxing, Tenten hitting some targets and Neji working on his Byakugan. He was the one who alerted the team to their presence.
"Jakken, Naruto, what brings your youthful selves here today?" Lee asked with excitement.
"Are you always this excited?" Jakken asked. Before and answer could be given, Naruto cut in.
"We're actually here to see Tenten. We were wondering if you could show us your sword collection." Naruto said. Tenten didn't mind and pulled out a scroll. She unrolled it and smeared her blood over the symbols. Dozens of swords popped out and stood up on the ground.
"May I ask why you wanted to see them?" Tenten asked.
"Our blond pipsqueak wants to give our psychotic sensei a sword since she has taken up the blade." Jakken said.
"Look, I know that it's a crazy idea,"
"A very crazy idea," Jakken muttered.
"Still, she's getting real good. Maybe she would be appreciative of the gesture and lay off on us." Naruto said. Jakken gave him a look. "Just shut up and look at her collection." The two observed the swords in front of them. They didn't see anything that screamed Anko. Suddenly, Jakken looked at a blade. He picked it up and watched as the blade wobbled a little.
"What about this sword?" Jakken asked. Naruto looked to see the blade and was nodding at it.
"It said Anko alright." Naruto said. He then looked at Tenten. "What's this sword called?"
"I think it's called a jiang. The blade is very thin but sharp. It also bends so you can catch opponents around corners. It isn't too big around here. It's made mostly toward the east, somewhere beyond Mizu no Kuni (Land of Water). I know someone within the village who can make one like it."
"That'll be great. Thanks a lot Tenten." Naruto said.
"At least she's good at something." Jakken muttered. It wasn't low enough because Tenten looked in his direction.
"You got something to say?" she asked with a hard tone.
"Here we go." Naruto grumbled before getting out of the way.
"What? I was just saying that you knowledge of weapons is an asset to the village." Jakken said with a smirk.
"Don't play dumb, you son of a bitch! Kami, you're such a baby, just because I'm BETTER than you!" Tenten exclaimed.
"Ha, you ain't shit! I was out of the academy for over a year and I caught up to you in a matter of months. The only thing you can do with weapons is throw them in bulk and pray that it hits something." Jakken countered.
"You know what? I have half a mind to shove a kunai right up your ass." Tenten scowled.
"I'll like to see you try, you stuck up bitch." Jakken snarled. The two continued to argue while Neji, Lee and Naruto watched with interest. No one was stupid enough to get in between the two when they were like that. Lee could easily testify to that. When it looked like it was getting heated, Naruto had enough.
"Kuchiyose no Jutsu (Summoning Technique)!" Naruto shouted. Jakken suddenly found himself on the ground with something heavy on top of him. Tenten was in the same situation, being held in the air by the toad's tongue.
"What… are… you… doing... pipsqueak?" Jakken gasped out.
"Let me go Naruto!" Tenten shouted.
"Look, I think you two need to chill out. Obviously, this will not be solved by you two trying to wring each other's necks. So what I'm suggesting is a throw down. We'll set up an obstacle where there will be several targets. We'll tally up the score and the winner with be king or queen of weapons. Are you two in agreement?" Naruto asked.
"Fine," They both said. Naruto patted Gama who released Tenten and got off Jakken.
"The throw down will happen in three days." Naruto said. They nodded and the two members of team Anko left the training ground.
Two days later, Jakken and Tenten were warming up. Naruto and Lee were packing several shuriken holsters for the two of them. Iruka, Anko, Gai and a few others were also in attendance. Iruka had helped Naruto set up the course and the rules of the contest. Iruka then faced the two contestants.
"Ok, the rules are simple. Each one of you will run through the course once. There will be some still targets and moving targets. Each target has numbers on it, so that will be points toward your final score. The one with the most points will be king or queen of weapons. Do you understand?" Iruka asked. Both of them nodded and were handed the belt with pouches on it. "Okay, Tenten is up first."
"Hope you choke." Jakken said.
"Bite me bitch." Tenten said and readied herself to go. She stood and prepared to run.
"Go!" Iruka said and Tenten took off. She quickly threw three shuriken at the post, all hitting the targets. She threw another three, which hit three more targets. She hit a few more non-moving targets before tripping a wire. Five discs flew into the air with bull-eyes on them. Tenten quickly hit them out of the air and continued on. As she ran, she launched various shuriken at moving and non-moving targets, each one as difficult as the next.
The final part of the course was very hard as Tenten had to be very careful not to hit innocents. She got pass that part and hit the button, signaling the end of her run. She was breathing hard and was handed some water. Iruka and two others help tally up her score. They were very impressed with how well she did. They cleared up the course and next up was Jakken. He stood at the starting line.
"Go!" Jakken took off like a shot. He pulled out some shuriken and launched them like a rapid firing machine. He tripped the wire and the disc flew up. He quickly shot them down and continued on his way. When he ran out of shuriken out of the palm of his hand it took him some time to grab a few more. He was still hitting the targets but he had to slow down some.
The final part, Jakken careful launched his weapons at the ones who were the enemy. He could see that they were all kill shots. He hit the button and dropped to his knees. That was a hard run to do. Naruto handed him a bottle of water while the judges checked out the targets. They tallied up their scores and faced the two competitors.
"Okay then, Tenten, your score was perfect 3000 points. Jakken, your score was 2995. You were off by two degrees on one of the flying disc." Iruka said. Jakken groaned while Tenten cheered. The two faced each other and Jakken sighed. He stuck his hand out.
"I'll admit, you're the queen of weapons." Jakken grumbled.
"How about we both say that we're both rulers? You only lost by two degrees." Tenten said.
"I can live with that." Jakken said with a smile. The two shook hands and buried the hatchet.
"Aww, that's so sweet. Why don't you two kiss also?" Anko commented. That earned her a glare from Jakken. Everyone laughed and walked off the academy grounds. As they walked, Jakken could help but stare at Tenten's back. The sweat traveled down to her lower back and backside. The pants seem to cling to her. He saw that she did have a nice butt for a fourteen year old.
So focused, he did not realize that Anko had caught him. She leaned next to his ear with a smirk.
"That's a tight little rear on her huh? Is that how you like them? Don't be shy, you can tell auntie Anko." Anko joked. Jakken went red and turned his head away. Tenten refused the turn around mostly because she was red in her cheeks.
The book store owner sat behind the counter and read a book. It was the afternoon so business was kind of slow. He heard someone drop something on the counter. He looked to see that it his best seller, Icha Icha. He saw that it was the first book of the series. When he looked up, he was very surprised to see a woman. Her purple hair was down and she was wearing sunglasses, a tan colored trench coat that covered a white blouse and maroon skirt. The owner stood up and faced her.
"You don't see many women looking for this book." The owner said.
"I'm not as prudish as those women. It is actually a good book." She said.
"That it is." He took her money and packaged her purchase. "Enjoy your book." He said.
"Don't worry, I will." She said and quickly left the store. In her hurry, she bumped into someone and dropped her book. She was about to shout at the person when she froze up at who she saw. It was Kakashi. The one-eyed, masked man gave her a surprise look.
"Is that you Anko?" Kakashi asked.
"Anko? Who is this Anko that you speak of?" Anko said. Kakashi just kept looking at her. It was much different appearance than what he was use to. It made her look cute in a way. Anko was a bit uncomfortable with how he was looking at her. She quickly grabbed her bag and began to walk away.
"Aren't you forgetting something Anko?" Kakashi said. She looked out of the corner of her eye and saw that Kakashi had her book. "I didn't know that you found this interesting. It's a pretty good read. I can tell you some stuff about it. There's a tea shop near by. I'll buy you some dango." Anko was surprised. Was Kakashi asking her out? She quickly banished that idea. It was just a talk between two people who had a similar interest.
"Sure, why not? But I don't want to know everything. Just give me a broad view of the book." She told him. Kakashi nodded and the two headed for the tea shop. That's when Anko realized something. "Say, aren't the Jonin-sensei giving their exams today?"
"Is that today? Oh well, this won't take long and you're getting dango for free." Kakashi explained.
"Good point there, to the tea shop." Anko said. It would be two hours of talking before Kakashi left to test his students.
Naruto roared as he attempted to do this new jutsu. The objective of the exercise was to blow the rubber ball apart. It was an exercise that Jiraiya gave him as an apology for what he did. He called the new jutsu the Rasengan (Spiraling Sphere). The attack needed no hand seals, which was pretty cool. The first part of learning the Rasengan was for Naruto to pop a balloon filled with water. Naruto saw how Jiraiya did it was very excited to learn the jutsu.
It took Naruto a full week and a half to burst the water balloon. It was very hard for him to burst. While he was trying to figure out why the balloon wouldn't pop, Tora came along. The daimyo wife's cat was actually a friend of the team now. Tora batted around the ball for a while before it popped. It was in that instant that he remembered that the water balloon was all bumpy when Jiraiya demonstrated the first exercise. He thanked Tora by keeping him hidden for a week.
He practiced it but couldn't make the water swirl in different directions. He decided to use Tora's method and he easily popped the balloon. He did it a few more times and nailed it. He showed it to Jiraiya who was mildly impressed. He then gave him a rubber ball and left. Naruto figured that this was about power rather than rotation. Try as he might, he couldn't push enough chakra to blow the ball apart. He decided to rest as his arm began to sting a little.
Suddenly, something landed on his head. It jumped off and landed in front of him. He was surprised to see that it was Kōsuke.
"What the… Kōsuke, where did you come from? I didn't summon you." Naruto asked.
"We have a special portal here called the Enshinsui (Distant Body Water). It allows us to travel from home to Konohagakure." Kōsuke said. "Anyway, I came to let you in on something. It's about that girl you wanted me to get info on."
"Midoshi, you got some stuff on Midoshi?" Naruto asked.
"Yeah and it wasn't easy. I almost got caught a couple of times by the snakes. This girl is something else Naruto. She's definitely skilled in the arts and has now added the sword to her arsenal. She's also the only human that Manda likes. He doesn't like anybody. He's actually asking his subordinates to find out more about you since she seems to have an interest in you. Oh and he wants to eat you for putting a bruise on her." Kōsuke said.
"Gee, thanks for that." Naruto said sarcastically.
"Also, she has been raised by the snake clan since birth. I found out that she was born in a village that was near the secret entrance to the land of snakes. Manda use to have sacrifices given to him from this village. The village has a few people there so I gave Jiraiya the heads up."
"Thanks Kōsuke, now I can really focus on my training." Naruto said. Kōsuke nodded and hopped away. Naruto stood and returned to his training.
Midoshi sighed in boredom as Orochimaru went on and one about his invasion plans. Why she was here, she'll never know. She had only one objective and that objective was Naruto. She heard the sound of a rattle and turned to see a small brown rattle snake. She walked out of the room, following the snake and ignoring Orochimaru's mouth. As she walked down the corridor, the rattlesnake slithered up to her shoulder.
"Moa, how is your father doing?" Midoshi asked.
"He is fine. His burns have healed up nicely. I have brought the information that you asssked about." Moa said.
"Oh yes, did you have any trouble?" she asked.
"A little but it was not too difficcccult. The toads hold this Naruto in high regard. Gamabunta speaks highly of him. He is also the student of their current summoner, Jiraiya." He reported.
"Is there anything else?" Midoshi asked.
"He has and SSSS-rank secret surrounding him. It's this secret that made the monkey summoner train him personally. His skills have increased as well." Moa said. Midoshi smiled deviously at the information she received.
"Thank you Mao, you have done very well. Do not tell uncle Manda about this. You know how overprotective he can be." The rattlesnake nodded and the two continued on their way down the corridor.
Authors' Notes: Here's the next chapter. I hope you enjoy it. The next chapter will be the end of the team's vacation and it will be back to business as usual.