A/N: Hey there! Sorry for not updating so long. I actually had this written right after I posted Chapter 43, but a Trojan wrecked my file. Then I had to leave for my vacation and was gone for two weeks. I only came back a week ago wherein I immediately began to start this chapter from scratch. Anyway, thanks to Primus2021 for his/her ideas on the genjutsu (A/N from Chapter 8). Now on with the show!
A Fox among the Hounds
Deal with the Devil
In a seedy bar in downtown Tanzaku Town, a blonde woman sat by her lonesome, drinking.
After her eventful encounter with Jiraiya and Naruto, Tsunade Senju needed a little bit of something to clear her head; and for the last twenty-five years, it had been alcohol. As soon as Shizune and Tonton were out like a light, the older woman would sneak out and splurge on the happy juice.
"Thought I'd find you here," said an oily voice.
A small crack appeared on the sake bottle as Tsunade tightened her grip on it.
"Orochimaru," she hissed.
"I have a proposition for you."
Tsunade glanced down at the Snake Sannin's purple arms and back to the freaky man. "No," she said. "Now drop dead."
At the comment, Orochimaru's apprentice- a bespectacled boy with silver hair- opened his mouth to protest, but the older man raised his hand to stop the boy.
"Tsu-hime," said the snake-man with fake sadness. "Are you really that cruel to deny a friend's request?"
In the blink of an eye, Tsunade grabbed the collar of her former teammate.
"You slimy bastard," she snarled. "How dare you call yourself a friend after all what you did? And what makes you think I'd even lift a finger to help you?"
"It was necessary at the time, Princess," said Orochimaru with calm bearings. "And if you help me, I will reward you generously."
"Nice try," said Tsunade. "But you can't butter me up. Nothing you could possibly offer would make me heal your arms."
The nasty smile usually on Orochimaru's lips grew even nastier still. "What if I said that I could bring back Dan and Nawaki?"
The pressure around the Snake Sannin's collar increased and Tsunade's left hand curled into a fist.
"Don't even think of defiling the rest of my loved ones into one of your mindless meat puppets," snarled the Slug Sannin. "You've already done enough with my grandfather and great-uncle."
"But don't you want your lover and brother back?"
Tsunade's grip faltered. "I…"
By now, Orochimaru's smirk was beyond unpleasant. He had struck Tsunade at her most vulnerable. Now all he had to do was to reel her in…
"Tell you what," said the snake man, smoothly plucking Tsunade's fingers off his collar. "I'll give you a week to think about it, no pressure. After seven days, we shall meet again. Tata for now, Tsu-hime." He disappeared, leaving his former teammate angry and conflicted.
"RASENGAN!"
Chakra burst out of Naruto's fingertips as the blond made another attempt to form the energy sphere. However, instead of taking the shape of a spiraling orb, the chakra flared wildly until Naruto willed to cut the chakra flow to his hand.
"Where is that no-good Ero-Sennin when you need him the most?" the blond rookie whined, flopping onto the grass.
"Bark, bark, arf…" (trans: "Knowing him, he's probably harassing the local girls again.")
"One of these days, that old codger is gonna get what's coming to him!" Naruto grumbled, getting up and going back to his training. "And I'll be the one who'll give it."
Aomaru rolled his eyes over statement, when a foreign scent wafted through the air. He sat up, sniffing and barking; but as suddenly as the scent appeared, it dissipated.
"What is it, boy?" Naruto queried, running towards his partner.
The small dog simply stood on his hindquarters, sniffing the air around him, barking still.
Understanding the message his partner was trying to convey, Naruto sniffed the air as well, but found nothing out of the ordinary. Deciding to call it a day, the blond Inuzuka and his dog went back to town to look for a perverted Sannin to pester.
Shizune sat among the trees watching Naruto attempt to perfect the Rasengan. Hiding her chakra signature had been no problem; but with her quarry trained in the ways of the Inuzuka, Shizune had to find a way to block off the Inuzuka duo's powerful sense of smell. Fortunately, the young medic was an expert in poisons and tonics and had whipped up a potion to mask her scent.
When the red dog sensed her, she realized that the potion had worn off and took another dose of the liquid, masking her scent once more. Thank God the potion was of the potent, fast-acting variety.
As soon as Shizune peered through the foliage once more, she noticed that the blond and the red dog were leaving. As they left, she had noted that the blond's progress had been fairly slow in the last three days. At the rate he was going, Tsunade might actually win a bet for once.
Jiraiya took a swig of sake. "Ah, that hit the spot," he grunted.
"Yep," Tsunade agreed. "Nothing slakes your thirst better than good sake."
It had been more than six days after the Slug Sannin had reunited with her old teammates and Tsunade had a lot on her mind. After her bet with Jiriaya's apprentice and Orochimaru's offer, it had been a hectic week for her, and the only thing that could calm her nerves was alcohol.
"Did something happen?"
Jiraiya's voice snapped Tsunade out of her train of thought.
"Not really," murmured the middle-aged blond, taking another sip.
"Do you think you could really fool me, Tsu-hime?" said Jiriaya. "I'm a spymaster, and I can read people just as you would with a book. What's really up?"
Tsunade laughed a bitter laugh. "You always had to be the people-person, didn't you? Guess, there's no use hiding it… …I met Orochimaru last week."
"And?"
"Still a bastard. Wanted me to heal his arms and all. Then he said he'd give me a reward."
The Toad Sage gave her a critical eye. "What kind of reward?"
Tsunade remained silent.
"What did Orochimaru offer?" Jiraiya repeated.
"Dan and Nawaki," Tsunade replied with resignation.
"So you're going to do it, huh?" asked Jiriaya. "You're gonna heal the teme's arms?"
"I guess so…"
"What do you mean you 'guess so'?" Jiriaya cried, standing up. "It's either you do or you don't; and if you do, I swear-" Suddenly, he silenced in mid-rant and fell to the ground, unconscious.
Tsunade stood over the prone form of her teammate, an empty syringe in hand. "I'm sorry Jiraiya, but a woman's gotta do what a woman's gotta do," she whispered, before fleeing into the darkness.
"Hey buddy…"
"Yo!"
Jiraiya groggily awoke to the sensation of being nudged continuously. As he opened his eyes, he found the barkeep looming over him.
"Sorry mac, but you gotta go," said the man. "It's closing time."
As the Toad Sage got up, he found himself rather off-balanced. Just then, the events that had transpired last night came crashing back to him. The drink with Tsunade, followed by an argument, and then, everything going black; it boiled down to one thing- Tsunade had drugged him.
Getting up on shaky feet, Jiraiya ambled off to alert Shizune and the Inuzuka duo that Tsunade was in one sticky situation.
Naruto was beyond exasperated. He had tried and tested all the possible training techniques, including the Kage Bunshin training technique that he had read up in the Forbidden Scroll when he had ambushed Mizuki. A guy could only take so much.
Wait a minute. One guy… He had been going on about it the wrong way. Then an idea struck him…
He tossed a soldier pill towards his partner. "Yo Aomaru, catch!"
The dog caught it, and Naruto made the necessary hand signs followed by the words, "Juujin Bunshin no Jutsu!"
Aomaru disappeared in a puff of smoke, only to reappear as a feral clone of Naruto.
"Now we're talking!" cheered the blond. "Alright Aomaru, this is what we're going to do. I'm going to make a chakra shell, and you're going to swirl some chakra inside. If we get this right, that bet is as good as ours."
"Why do I have to spin the chakra?" whined the beast clone. "Why not just get one of your Kage Bunshin to do it?"
"I would, but you're faster. With your kind of speed, you could whip up a chakra typhoon within seconds. Now let's do this!"
But before Naruto could test his theory, there was a rustle, and Jiraiya came stumbling out of the bushes, looking like he had seen better days.
"Ero-Sennin? What in the seven hells?"
"Naruto, come with me quick!" the Toad Sage ordered.
At the urgent tone in Jiraiya's voice and his current appearance, Naruto knew that there was something wrong. Very wrong.
"What happened?" he inquired.
"Tsunade's run off to Orochimaru."
"WHAT!?" yelled a feminine voice.
Tsunade's student leapt down from the trees, right in front of the Toad Sage and the Inuzuka duo.
"How long have you been there?" Naruto asked. "Were you spying on us?"
"That's not important right now!" Shizune snapped. She turned to Jiraiya. "Where's Shishou?"
"I don't know," the Toad Sage replied. "She knocked me out, and when I woke up, she was gone."
A wave of despair washed over Shizune until she remembered that there was an Inuzuka duo in the vicinity.
"Naruto," she implored. "Is there any chance that you could find Shishou for us?"
"You bet!" said the cheerful blond. "I just need a scent sample and Aomaru'll do the rest."
Shizune pulled out a hand towel. "Will this do?"
Aomaru brought his nose to the towel before running off and barking.
"He's found a scent!" Naruto yelled. "Come on, let's go!"
"Orochimaru."
The addressed man looked up to see the female member of his former team before him.
"So Tsu-hime, have you made your decision?" he asked glibly.
"Yeah," Tsunade muttered. "Gimme your arms."
The snake man eyed her warily. "So you are going to heal me." It was more of a statement rather than a question.
"No duh." Channeling healing chakra, Tsunade was about to work on her former teammate's arms when Kabuto walked into the room. Suddenly, the silver-haired boy tackled the older medic away from his master.
"What is wrong with you?" Tsunade snapped at the Yakushi boy. "Can't you see that I'm trying to heal your master?"
"Heal him my foot," spat Kabuto. "If you must know, I'm a medic too, and I can see your killing intent mixed with the healing chakra."
Orochimaru looked at Tsunade with dangerous eyes. "Is this true, Tsu-hime?" he asked in a sickly sweet voice. "Were you really going to betray me?"
Tsunade inwardly cursed Kabuto for his interference. "You know what they say, you snake-bastard, it takes a traitor to kill a traitor."
Orochimaru clicked his tongue in displeasure. "And to think we were becoming chums. Kabuto, destroy her."
Kabuto obeyed and went for the Slug Sannin. For the first thirty seconds, Tsunade dominated the fight until Orochimaru gave the signal.
Using the Shousen no Jutsu, Kabuto slit his wrists and bright red blood oozed from the cuts. After draining out a substantial amount, he doused it over the master medic. Finding herself drenched in blood, Tsunade's hemophobia kicked in, and she froze up, allowing Kabuto to unleash his punishment over the older woman.
Just as Kabuto was about to deliver a particularly nasty blow, he was suddenly barreled by a red, snarling ball of fur, and his arm was subsequently hit by a few senbon needles.
"Back off from the granny, teme!" Naruto yelled. Fur bristling, Aomaru leapt off Kabuto and snarled at the evil Sannin and his apprentice.
Orochimaru sneered nastily. "So the cavalry has arrived, eh? Nevertheless, I shall have the pleasure of annihilating you as well! Kuchiyose no Jutsu!"
Using Kabuto's arm, Orochimaru used his apprentice's blood to summon Manda- the Alpha Summon of the Snakes.
A/N: Now things are heating up. Again, I apologize for not updating for a long time. I hope I got this chain of events right. I really went through the trouble of researching a.k.a. asking my cousin to get this right. Stay wired for the next post.
P.S.: I just thought of another story idea. I'm thinking of writing a prequel which tells the story of Tsume Inuzuka's youth. Working title- The Tale of the Claw.
Laters!
-JW
