Chapter 29: The Cursed necklace

"I want an explanation tsunade" said jiraiya calmly sitting back in his seat.

"My reason is simple, I believe that being the hokage is a job for idiots!" said tsunade "Who wants to become a hokage? Who wants to put their life on the line, for a stupid village, following a silly ideology?"

"How dare she" thought naruto, he clenched his fists breaking the chop sticks held in them. Jiraiya could sense naruto's immediate anger and he placed a calm hand on the boy's shoulder.

"Tsunade you have changed, a lot, what has happened to you? The tsunade I knew would have done anything for her village, you even helped out in the ninja wars" said jiraiya miserably.

"That was a long time ago jiraiya, people change over time" said tsunade "I have been in the world for ages and have come to the conclusion that people that risk their lives for others are weak, stupid ninja".

"THAT'S IT!" roared naruto hitting the table with his fists and standing up. There was a silence around the table, tsunade's companions looked shocked and jiraiya turned to look up at naruto trying to meet the blonde's eyes to tell him to calm down but the blonde was not calming down.

"That's what brat?" asked tsunade smiling at naruto, the smile never reaching her blue eyes.

"If you continue to insult the memory of our beloved third hokage, I'll have no choice but to silence you forever!" cried naruto pointing a finger at tsunade "You have no right to sit there smiling, whilst that man risked everything to bring peace to my village, before you judge others, get off your bloody backside and go and fight on a real battlefield!"

"I have fought MANY battles, you little squirt!" sneered tsunade standing up to face naruto off "Lots of battles before you were out of nappies, so I suggest you sit down before I silence YOU forever!"

"Tell me something, when does that weird aging jutsu you're wearing, wear off?" hissed naruto gesticulating at tsunade's massive breasts to emphasise his point "There is no way a 80 year old is this fit!"

"THAT'S IT, OUTSIDE!" shouted tsunade her face turning immediately ugly and her face going bright red.

"Lady tsunade please, he is just a boy!" pleaded tsunade's companion.

"I challenge you to a fight little boy" said tsunade ignoring her friend.

"And I accept believeeee it!" snapped naruto.

"Naruto" said jiraiya sternly.

"Hold on a minute, are you naruto uzumaki?" asked tsunade astonished.

Naruto did not respond so jiraiya nodded.

"Even better, follow me" said tsunade and left the table and the bar.

Naruto turned to jiraiya "I'm ready, pervy sage believe it!"

"I hope you know what your doing" said jiraiya.

(B)

They all stood outside the bar, naruto at one end of the street, tsunade at the other, tsunade's companion and jiraiya stood to the side, jiraiya looked calm and naruto was thankful that his teacher had faith in his abilities.

"One finger kid!" shouted tsunade holding up a finger.

"One finger for what?" asked naruto perplexed.

"One finger will win this fight" said tsunade, smiling cheekily at the blonde haired boy in front of her.

"Don't underestimate me granny! I'm going to be the hokage one day believe it" cried naruto

"Granny" thought tsunade, her eyebrows knotting together in fury, she took a deep breath then asked naruto out loud "Tell me kid, why do you want to become the hokage?".

"Because… becoming the hokage, is my dream" replied naruto matter-of-factly.

Those words had some effect immediately on tsunade, naruto sensed, that the words had thrown the older woman from the battle at hand, and he silently conjured up a rasengan. He remembered the three basic things that are needed to create the rasengan and he focussed on nothing but the ball in his hand, blocking out any outside influences. Finally he was ready and he sprinted towards the big busted woman in front of him.

"What the hell!" tsunade screamed, she had left herself open to naruto's dangerous technique in that split second and naruto had seen it and chose the right moment to attack, he was hopeful that he was going to be the first genin ever to triumphant over one of the legendary sannin, but his dreams came crashing down in a second.

Tsunade quickly side stepped the attack, took hold of naruto's wrist and brought it down with the rasengan to the ground, there was a big explosion, naruto and tsunade were thrown back by the explosive force of the technique. What was left where they had been fighting, was a gigantic crater that had narrowly avoided hitting tsunade.

"Jiraiya-who-the-hec-is-this-kid?" asked tsunade picking herself slowly off the ground; she had scars on her arms because she had landed on both arms to stop herself from being taken too far away from the vicinity.

"This is naruto uzumaki, my new apprentice" stated jiraiya, then added "Amazing isn't he?"

"The fourth took 5 years to learn that technique, even you, only managed it in that same time as well" said tsunade staggering slightly "Aren't you afraid that he might surpass you like how orochimaru surpassed sarutobi sensei".

"Naruto isn't like that, orochimaru was different, you know that" said jiraiya.

"Orochimaru? That snake freak, you were on the same team as him?" asked naruto stunned.

"Indeed we were, he was once a leaf shinobi like all of us" explained jiraiya.

Naruto's mouth opened to form the words "what" very slowly when he heard that orochimaru was once from the leaf village, the same village like him.

"Oi kid!" shouted a voice, calling naruto immediately out of his reverie.

"Don't get too cocky, I wasn't expecting the rasengan at all, but believe me, we'll have another fight one day, here let me give you something" sniggered tsunade, she began to untie a necklace that was wrapped around her neck.

"NO LADY TSUNADE DON'T!" cried tsunade's companion.

"Its okay shizune, it's been with me too long, it needs a new owner now" said tsunade, she walked slowly towards naruto and held it out waiting for him to take it.

"Just what is that exactly?" asked naruto suspiciously.

"A necklace given to me by the first hokage, it's supposed to be very lucky" said tsunade.

Naruto looked carefully at the necklace then carefully looked back at tsunade who was surprisingly walking away from him and jiraiya.

"Tsunade, I still don't have a reason why you are not returning with us to the leaf village!" yelled jiraiya.

"I've given my answer, I need some sleep so do me a favour and bog off" answered tsunade.

"HEY AT LEAST TURN AND LOOK AT US WHEN WE'RE TALKING TO YOU, YOU OLD GRANDMA!" shouted naruto. This woman had been getting on his nerves; the way in how she talked to jiraiya was ticking naruto off enormously, even though sometimes the old perverted teacher deserved it at times, but naruto was damned if he was going to let a complete stranger talk to his teacher like that.

Suddenly before he could do anything, however, tsunade had flash stepped behind naruto, naruto turned and he was immediately seeing stars because tsunade had flicked him painfully on the forehead. His forehead protector came flying off and landed heavily on the ground.

"OW! you're going to pay for that!" moaned naruto, jiraiya had to calmly hold the youngster back from attacking tsunade again.

"Goodnight boys" yawned tsunade and she looked at shizune and signalled for her to follow, and both of them left, leaving jiraiya and naruto alone in the streets, this time leaving a bruise on naruto's forehead.


"Pervy-sage what are we going to do now?" asked naruto rubbing the bruise on his forehead and picking up his forehead protector ready to put it back on. It had been one flick to the forehead, but it had hurt like crazy.

"We'll stay here, I'll pester her for a while, if that still does not work, we'll follow her, something seems very off about the way she's behaving" whispered jiraiya thoughtfully.

"Other than the major fact that she's 80 and she is a hottie?" asked naruto.

"Oh that's an aging jutsu she's invented, pretty good isn't it? She looks like how she used to look when she was 20, I guess that's how she hides herself these days" explained jiraiya.

"Whatever works I guess" muttered naruto.

"Okay, time to crash out, we have an early start tomorrow, naruto, so get a good sleep" said jiraiya.


As naruto and jiraiya were preparing for bed that night, there came a knock at the door, naruto boldly went to open it, and it was shizune, tsunade's companion and assistant.

"Hello, I'm sorry to disturb you at such a late hour, but I came to apologize for lady tsunade's behaviour this evening" said shizune solemnly.

"Oh don't you worry, that old bag doesn't upset me" scoffed naruto.

"Don't say such things about lady tsunade! You don't even know her" snapped shizune.

"Okay sister, calm down" said naruto worried.

"Shizune come in, I am interested to know what's bothering her as well" ordered jiraiya.

"Thank you master jiraiya".

"Lady Tsunade has been a great and trusting friend to me for many years" began shizune "My uncle, in case you didn't know, was once lady tsunade's lover, and I believe after his death, and the death of her little brother nawaki, that's when we lost the old lady tsunade"

"She had a little brother, what happened to him? And her lover?" asked naruto astonished.

Naruto looked at both jiraiya and shizune who suddenly had depressed faces.

"Nawaki was only a kid, no older than you naruto, and he desired to become a hokage as well, just like his grandfather- he was killed in battle long ago... tsunade arrived too late to save him" said jiraiya "As for tsunade's lover dan, they courted for two years, he died during another ninja war, this time in tsunade's very arms"

"She has developed a fear of blood, she has never got over either of their deaths" sobbed shizune "At times she goes out alone for long hours of the night, I worry so much for her".

"That's another reason why I had to come here as well, I must warn you, naruto uzumaki about something" said shizune suddenly.

"Huh, about what exactly?" asked naruto nonplussed.

"About that necklace you are wearing, it seems it has some kind of curse on it, the first hokage died wearing it, nawaki and dan wore it and it killed them as well" explained shizune "So I suggest you take it off".

"Come on, do you honestly think I believe in all that voo doo crap?" sneered naruto.

"Naruto-kun please, I'm being very serious about this" pleaded shizune.

"Then I'll die then" said naruto simply "Believe it I ain't scared of dying"

"Naruto-kun you are a very strange boy" chuckled shizune "You look so much like nawaki".

"Shizune, at dinner tonight, tsunade didn't seem at all surprised when I mentioned that the third hokage was dead, why is that so?" asked jiraiya abruptly.

Shizune stopped laughing immediately at the question and fell very silent.

"Please shizune, if tsunade is in danger I need to know at once" pressed jiraiya.

"I'm sorry I must go, lady tsunade might get suspicious, forgive me" said shizune and dashed out of the room.

"That didn't go very well" whispered naruto "I never knew how much she had gone through, I thought she was just a bitter old hag, but now I know she has a reason to be like that".

There was a long silence then jiraiya stood up and stretched himself.

"Hmm, lights out naruto, I've got a MAJORRR headache" yawned jiraiya.

"You shouldn't have drank all that alcohol then!" teased naruto.

Both of them turned off the lights and got into bed.


The next few days continued the same way, whilst jiraiya practically stalked tsunade day in and day out trying to persuade her to return to the leaf village, naruto started his training again, practising early in the morning and late at night, to be honest, he didn't care whether tsunade came home with them or not, because after what she said in the bar (even though she had a right to be bitter) it still stuck in naruto's gut that she thought that a hokage was a job for idiots, but then again, he did want her to come with them back home just in order to heal sasuke's injuries.

While naruto remained torn about his feelings about tsunade, he was unaware that tsunade had been watching him training behind the bushes at night and sometimes in the afternoon when he caught his 15 minute naps. But naruto, who was so caught up in his training failed to sense her presence.

But after a couple of days, naruto did start to sense a suspicious presence and decided to take a walk and check to see who was following him. The person took to the bait with enthusiasm when naruto left his regular training area for another; he turned a corner, then quickly hid himself in some bushes, and waited for the unknown person to show himself or herself.

Naruto was surprised to see that the person who had been watching him so intensely had been tsunade. She looked pensive, even a bit faraway and deep in serious thought.

"I hope she isn't a paedophile, the pervy sage is pretty perverted" thought naruto, his eyes became big in shock "Oh no! That's it isn't it, this one likes little kids that is why she wants to stay forever young".

"HEY!" screamed naruto appearing immediately out of the bushes, almost starling tsunade, tsunade calmly looked back at him, quite annoyed at having been outwitted by a mere genin, but still remaining curious about the blonde haired boy.

"Hey what kid?" asked tsunade pretending to be innocuous.

"Why are you following me? You old paedophile!" Naruto yelled.

"Paedo- what the bloody hell are you saying!" snapped tsunade eyebrows knotting together in fury.

"Gosh what is wrong with you legendary sannins, first it's the pervy sage and now its you, I'm sorry but I already have someone!" cried naruto.

"The pervy – oh you mean jiraiya, ha-ha, you're very funny, you do know that" said tsunade slowly, and then smiling knowingly "I'm not following you to molest you, now stop shouting before ninja arrive".

"Then why are you watching me?" asked naruto.

Tsunade stopped laughing and went back into her pensive expression; she slowly asked "I'm just wondering naruto, how old are you?"

"13, why?" answered naruto abruptly.

"You are the same age my brother was, before he died" said tsunade, she then turned to naruto again and asked again "And tell me naruto, what would you do if you became hokage?"

"Protect my homeland and all the people in it, they are my family after all, even though they treat me like dirt at times" said naruto "Now are you done with all these questions, I need to get back to training".

"Yes I am, goodbye naruto" said tsunade sweetly, then she did something that completely shocked naruto, she lifted up his forehead protector and placed a kiss on his forehead.

"A kiss for good luck" she said.

Naruto looked at the big breasts appearing in front of his face and simply replied "Thanks"

Before tsunade went however, she called out to naruto one more time, naruto turned around still looking quite surprised and she said "Whoever that girl is that you're waiting for, she is a very lucky girl".

Naruto waited until tsunade rounded the corner and whispered "It's like I'm surrounded by a bunch of perverts believe it!" and he went off to start practicing his jutsu again.


It was finally their third day of their stay in tanzaku city, and naruto was going to have a shower to prepare for another day of training, he had a towel wrapped around his shoulders and he was walking past jiraiya's futon when he noticed there was something strange about the way in which his sensei was sleeping. Usually jiraiya would wake naruto up first, instead of vice versa, even more so, because jiraiya had went to bed BEFORE naruto did. Plus he was also supposed to be keeping tabs on tsunade. Naruto went over immediately to investigate. He crouched down and began to prod jiraiya hard in the ribs in order to wake him up.

"Oi pervy sage, pervy sage" said naruto , after a while of hard poking and even shaking, naruto become increasingly worried about his teacher, his breathing was now becoming more shallower and he looked more drugged up than asleep.

"SHIZUNE!" cried naruto dashing from the room into shizune's and tsunade's room two floors up, naruto banged on the short, black haired woman's room door, and was relieved to find that she was in the room.

"Quickly Perv- jiraiya-sensei is not waking up! Help me!" babbled naruto wildly. Shizune calmly accompanied naruto back to his hotel room and saw jiraiya lying on the mattress still out cold.

She crouched down and checked the shaggy white haired man's pulse, and then she brought out a bottle with some liquid inside it.

"What is that?" asked naruto fearfully.

"Something to bring him back around, don't you worry naruto-kun" replied shizune, she waved the liquid underneath jiraiya's nostrils and immediately the old man's eyes opened.

"Wha-what is going on" muttered jiraiya sleepily trying to make sense of his surroundings, he saw naruto and shizune and added "Naruto, shizune, what are you doing in a bar?"

"A bar? Pervy-sage you're in our hotel room!" cried naruto.

"Not so loud, why do I feel so weak?" asked jiraiya "I don't even remember coming back here".

"Lucky you did, this type of concoction could have put you into a deep coma" said shizune now worried "But only a medical ninja could have made this up, this is usually used only in hospitals and the dosage is always measured accurately because of its lethal qualities".

"THAT'S IT!" yelled jiraiya receiving an ephiphany "I was talking to tsunade last night, where is she? I was asking her a few questions and she left me saying she wanted to go to bed!"

"Oh no, what day is it?" asked shizune abruptly nearly making both jiraiya and naruto jump in her urgency.

"Err Sunday" replied naruto.

"Oh no she's gone, gone to meet him already!" cried shizune.

"Meet who shizune?" asked jiraiya seriously.

Shizune was kneeling on the ground; her hands firmly on her knees, her hands had turned as pale as a ghost.

"It looks like, although, I tried to talk her out of it, it seems she has gone to meet him after all" whispered shizune to herself.

"WHO FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE?" roared jiraiya.

Shizune shied away from jiraiya's loud voice and then replied "Orochimaru"

"Orochimaru, orochimaru is here, in tanzaku city?" said jiraiya aghast.

"It's like the workings of fate, I always wanted to meet that beast again" hissed naruto punching a fist into his palm determinately.

"Why is orochimaru here shizune? What exactly does he want with tsunade" asked jiraiya.

"He wants her to cure him, he has a curse on his hands, stopping him from performing jutsu, he made a deal with lady tsunade saying that he would resurrect both my uncle Dan and nawaki-kun" answered shizune

"And when he gets his hands back shizune, what is he going to do?" asked jiraiya.

"Destroy-destroy the hidden leaf" stammered shizune and then she began to cry and then wailed "I tried to talk her out of it, believe me I did, I did, I did, I did…. I felt too guilty, my uncle loved that village, and you have to believe me!"

"It's not your fault sister, we'll bring tsunade back believe me" said naruto.

"No you won't, you'll die, just like uncle Dan, because your wearing that necklace, that cursed necklace that has tortured lady tsunade for years!" wailed shizune.

"Believe me I won't die!" said naruto firmly, so firmly and assuring that shizune had to look up at him, she saw something familiar in naruto's eyes immediately, a shadow of a person she once knew, slowly she began to stop crying and nodded.

"Come on naruto, help me up, get dressed, we're going after her, where is she shizune?" ordered jiraiya staggering to his feet.

"I'll take you where they were meeting" replied shizune.

"When will this wear off?" asked jiraiya indicating his body.

"Not long, 5 or 15 minutes" said shizune.

"Great, just great" muttered jiraiya.


Naruto, shizune and jiraiya were skimming off through the trees moments later heading towards the outskirts of tanzaku city.

"I hope we are not too late" hissed jiraiya gritting his teeth.

Naruto remained silent; his only focus was on getting there as fast as possible and avenging his best friend for the curse mark that this demon, orochimaru, had placed on him.

Little did they know that tsunade and orochimaru stood facing each other quite a distance away ready to hand over their intended techniques.