Chapter 15: Finding a Lost Slug

Posted: August 19, 2013

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto

Hey everyone, here's the next chapter. In response to those questions I asked last chapter, here are some of the decisions I've made. Naruto will be using his dad's kunai with chakra conductive metals and he will be able to use water jutsus (making him able to use wind, lightning, and water…the second element won't come until late genin and the third will probably come around the time he would have left with Jiraiya in the origina). I'm going to stick with cannon regarding Sasuke and give him a chokuto. I ended up getting a few good suggestions for Hinata and I've made my choice for her weapon. This will be revealed once she begins working with said weapon (probably in her early genin months). If anyone's going to end up inheriting Kushina's sword, it will be Naruto's sibling.

Before I begin, I want to give an explanation on how I am handling chakra natures in this story. Everyone can use any chakra element. But the ease of learning the elements is dictated by their affinities and how many elements they know. Everyone has a primary element that is easier to master than any other element for them and should be their strongest element. Everyone also has one or possibly two secondary elements that are easier to learn than the other two or three elements, but won't be as strong or as easy to learn as the primary. Naruto's primary is wind with lightning and water as secondary. The more elements a ninja knows, the harder it is to learn how to use other elements. In short, the first element is not too difficult to learn and neither is the second (although it is harder than the first). The third is still possible but it is much more difficult. It is extremely difficult, but still not impossible to learn a fourth, although it usually requires some special trick or ability (ex, Sharingan). The fifth is nearly impossible unless you have the Rinnegan or are that one girl from the Sora filler arc with that weird reaper jutsu (sorry, but I can't remember the name).

Anyways, that's it for now. Onto the story.

Two travelers moved quickly throughout the trees on their way towards a city on the boarders of the Land of Fire and the Land of Grass. One blur of red, followed closely behind by a blur of orange, leapt from tree to tree.

Normally, Jiraiya would have a hard time believing a kid could keep up with him, but then again this was Naruto he was with…time traveler and the same one who could somehow outrun all of Konoha's ANBU.

"Alright Gaki, we'll stop here for the evening," said Jiriaya as they came to the outskirts of a traveler's village about halfway between Konoha and the border of Kusa and their destination.

"Wow, we're moving a lot faster than we did last time," said Naruto.

"Really? How long did it take us to find Tsunade last time?" asked Jiriaya.

"Let's see. It took me three weeks to get the Rasengan down, with one of those weeks being after we found Tsunade so two weeks," replied Naruto.

Jiraiya didn't hear anything past getting the Rasengan down in three weeks. "Wait…you mastered the Rasengan in three weeks?"

Naruto grinned. "Yep!" Jiraiya mentally sighed, wondering what exactly this kid was capable if he could learn an A-rank jutsu in a matter of weeks, one that took Minato 3 years to invent and himself 4 months to learn.

"Anyways…why don't you go and find us a room and I'll be right over as soon as I…" Jiraiya's gaze shifted towards a sign with a silhouette of a woman on it. Naruto was doing everything possible to resist face palming himself.

"Next thing you know, he's going to ask me to hand over Gama-chan," thought Naruto, instinctively securing his frog wallet.

About three hours later, a 9-year old blonde was dragging an overgrown pervert out of the local brothel.

"Aw come on Naruto. Can't we have a little fun before finding Tsunade?" pleaded Jiraiya.

"That would be the case, if it wasn't MY money you were trying to spend!" shouted Naruto. By the time he had dragged Jiraiya out of the bar, the perverted sage was already trying to make a move on Naruto's Gama-chan.

"That's no way to thank me for teaching you an A rank jutsu," said Jiraiya, trying to play on Naruto's consciousness.

"Yeah, and I already paid you for it. Besides, I could get it from my dad for free if I had to," replied Naruto. "So are you actually going to teach me something on this trip?"

Jiraiya sighed. "Can't even let me have a little bit of fun. I promised you I'd teach you something. So what did you learn from me when I took you on that three year trip?"

Naruto thought a moment. "You know, besides improving my taijutsu a bit, I didn't really learn much besides how to make a bigger Rasengan. That and you tried to teach me how to control Kurama's chakra and how to resist genjutsu, but that didn't really work out too well."

"And my chakra won't be an issue for you this time around. Not to mention, with the two of us working together, that should take care of any genjutsus as well," spoke Kurama.

"And Kurama just told me I'm not going to have to worry about genjutsu or his chakra getting out of control," said Naruto.

"Really? That's it?" asked Jiraiya amazed. "You had three years to train with me and that's all you did?"

"Well, that's kind of all you taught me," said Naruto.

"What the hell? I didn't even teach you fuinjutsu or get you started on elemental manipulation?" asked Jiraiya. Naruto shook his head.

"What did we do all that time?" asked Jiraiya. Naruto just shrugged.

"I find it hard to believe that someone who learned the Rasengan in three weeks only learned that much in three years," said Jiraiya.

"I don't know. I mean, there were times when you would get distracted by those books and such, but there was still plenty of time where we were training," said Naruto.

"Still…" Jiraiya trailed off. "Okay, we're going to start your training now! After all, I am the Legendary Toad Sage of Mount Myoboku, the Great Jiraiya! I can't be having one of my apprentices falling behind on me!"

"So that means you're going to teach me something cool?!" exclaimed an excited Naruto.

"It won't be cooler than the Rasengan, but it will begin to expand your range of jutsus," Jiraiya said. "Although, I suppose we could start with this for today."

Biting his thumb and slamming his hand into the ground, a large toad appeared with Jiraiya sitting on top. "Normally, there would only be two toad summoners allowed. However, Fukasaku, Minato, and I believe it's best to make an exception."

"Yes! Toad Contract!" exclaimed Naruto as the large toad unfurled the scroll that it was holding in its mouth.

"I take it you know what to do?" asked Jiraiya. He got his answer as Naruto has already begun signing his name on the contract. "Okay, let's see what you've got Gaki."

Naruto nodded, confident that he'd do it this time around. "Kuchiyose no Jutsu!"

The smoke cleared, revealing that Naruto had in fact managed to summon…a tadpole.

"What the hell is wrong with these stupid frogs?!" shouted Naruto in frustration.

"I apologize for being so ungraceful," spoke a voice that came from beneath Naruto and Jiraiya. When Naruto looked down to see where the voice came from, he noticed that the 'ground' had somehow managed to turn purple.

"Woah…" It took a moment for Naruto to get his bearings, but he soon realized that he had summoned the tadpole along with another toad, who he was now standing on top of.

"The Gaki summoned Gamaken? That's certainly surprising," thought Jiraiya in amazement.

"You must be Naruto, Minato's tadpole. Fukasaku-sama informed us that you'd become our third summoner," spoke Gamaken, as he looked at Naruto who was in between the large toad's eyes on the top of his head.

"Umm yeah. Namikaze Naruto, nice to meet you," grinned Naruto.

"I am Gamaken. I will look forward to being summoned, but I must warn you that I'm rather ungraceful."

"Heh, typical Gamaken," thought Jiraiya. "Speaking of Minato, I wonder how he's doing with the senjutsu training?"

"THWACK!"

"Ouch!" shouted Minato as he felt the blunt end of Fuakasku's staff smack against the back of his head, knocking out all the collected natural energy and stopping the toad transformation.

"You've gotta remain absolutely still, Minato-chan," spoke Fukasaku who leaned on his staff. "Come on, I've got an idea that will help."

Fukasaku led Minato to the area of Mt. Myoboku that had a bunch of towering and sharp spires jutting out from the earth.

"Now grab a stone pallet and balance upon it atop one of those," said Fukasaku, pointing to the top of the spires.

Minato's very first attempt at balancing himself atop one of the spires ended as anyone would have expected…with him falling off. However, before Minato could connect with the ground, he disappeared in a flash of yellow. Thank you Hiraishin.

Konoha,

"I wonder how Naruto-kun's trip is going?" thought Hinata on her way back from the academy. It had been a few days since Naruto and Jiraiya left on their quest to find the Slug Princess and Hinata was amazed that Naruto was getting something along the lines of missions already, despite only being an academy student. However, she figured there had to be a reason why Jiraiya-sama had to have picked him specifically.

Arriving at the Namikaze estate, Kushina was already in back setting up what would be needed for today's training. For the past few days, she had been working on some chakra control exercises (she could now walk up walls and stand on water like both Naruto and Sasuke could) and showing Kushina what she knew in terms of taijutsu. Kushina had to admit that Hinata's taijutsu was nowhere near as bad as the Hyuga clan made it out to be. In fact, there was enough there that Kushina felt she could begin to work on developing a taijutsu style that mixed the Hyuga style with her mother's taijutsu and weapon stylings. Oh yeah, the Hyugas would seriously regret tossing her out when she was done.

"Ah good. You're home so we can get started," smiled Kushina as she led Hinata over towards a small stream that flowed through the back of the Namikaze estate. "I've been thinking about it, and I feel it would be best to leave any wind manipulation to Minato once he gets back, so we're going to work on water first."

Hinata merely smiled and nodded. It didn't matter that much what Hinata knew as Kushina had emphasized that she would need to become proficient in both wind and water before they began to hash out the foundations for Hinata's own personal style and she understood that Kushina wasn't the wind user in the family.

In only a week or two of instruction, Hinata had already taken a liking to Kushina's teaching styles. The redheaded woman was much more helpful and patient (Minato had a hard time believing that one) when it came to teaching her goddaughter. If Hinata messed up, she wouldn't be scolded like her ex-clan would have done but instead Kushina would tell her that she was doing a good job of improving and give her a hint on how to take it one step further each time.

"This job certainly is much more relaxing now that I know how to handle that accursed paperwork," said Hiruzen as he let out a sigh before tucking an orange-colored book back into its hiding spot in his desk. A few seconds later, the door opened and his wife walked in.

"Any word from Jiraiya-kun on Tsunade-chan?" asked Biwoko.

"No, but I'm hoping that they'll find her soon," replied Hiruzen. "I've got a feeling we really will need her."

"I still can't believe little Naruto-kun is actually a time traveler," commented Biwoku. With Minato and Naruto's permission, Hiruzen had let his wife in on the secret. Although she was not included in the main group, the fact that she had been given the knowledge of Naruto's endeavors showed that Naruto and his family had a great deal of trust in the elderly woman.

"Hard to believe, I know. But had Naruto have not come…"

"I know. I would have died to that man," said Biwoko.

"And for that alone, I am grateful to Naruto-kun," smiled Hiruzen.

"I know. I'm glad I got a chance to meet our first grandchild. And apparently Asuma-kun's going to have a child in a few years. Oh I can't wait to see him or her," squealed Biwoko. "I'm going to see how Kushina's doing. It sounds like the morning sickness hasn't been friendly to her."

With that Biwoko left her husband to the 'mounds' of paperwork on his desk which had been reduced to only about two dozen documents that needed his approval and the ones the shadow clones felt the need to bring to his attention and not sign it themselves. Hiruzen kicked back in his chair before opening a secret door in the Hokage's desk, revealing a storage seal. Pumping some chakra into the seal, a small orange book appeared. "And finally, some time to finish Icha Icha Paradise."

"Hiruzen…" the voice of his wife called out from everywhere. "You had better not be reading those smutty books!"

Itachi had arrived near the academy just in time to see his younger brother running for his life from…yep, a mob of ravenous and horny fangirls (okay, maybe they weren't horny yet. Give it a few years).

Itachi just signed. "Ever since Naruto-san left on his trip to find Tsunade-sama, the fangirls have been dedicating all their attention to Sasuke," he thought. "Little brother, I do not envy you and I know your pain." A flashback in Itachi's head occurred, revealing a younger Itachi trying to outrun every girl from his class with a crush on him.

"Oh Itachi-kun," chirped a feminine voice from behind Itachi. Itachi paled at the voice and the suffocating smell of perfume coming from the direction of the voices. Slowly he turned around to see about half a dozen 15 year-old kunoichi from his Academy class, and boy were they horny. These were the biggest fangirls for Itachi. ANBU had given him an escape from them, but now that Itachi was working with the ANBU less and less due to a certain situation regarding a time traveler, he now had more time to get acquainted with potential girls…or in his case, try to get as much distance between them as possible.

"Niisan!" shouted Sasuke as he watched his brother dart away in a full out sprint. In moments, both Uchiha were running side-by-side, trying to shake off what was now a pack of roughly two dozen fangirls.

"Talk later, Sasuke. Run now!"

"Oh yeah. She's definitely here," commented Naruto as he and Jiraiya entered the city where Tsunade had last been spotted. Numerous casinos and bars lined the main street, and so did a not-so-respectable number of brothels. Jiraiya was already staring and drooling at the places where he could certainly go for some 'information'.

"Okay kid, why don't you go and find us a room and I'll see if I can gather some information on where Tsunade is," commented Jiraiya.

"I know what you're going to do! What do you think I am, nine?!" shouted Naruto.

"Umm actually…"

"Never mind," groaned the nine-year-old Naruto. "Can we actually just find Baachan instead of new material for your smut?"

"Fine, just go and find us a hotel room while I get us something to eat," surrendered Jiraiya as Naruto's stomach let out a sizable growl.

About thirty minutes later, Naruto was walking through town, trying to find where Jiraiya had disappeared to when he heard an all too familiar laugh come from inside one of the brothels. Stepping inside the door, Naruto saw an all too familiar sight…Jiraiya sitting in a comfortable chair with two scantily dressed and rather busty woman on either side of him and a few bottles of alcohol on the table in front of him. Jiraiya had a noticeable blush on his face and was laughing it up like well…a pervert in a brothel.

Naruto simply deadpanned before walking out, having realized just how pointless it would be to yell at Jiraiya. Sure he could have gone in there and made a scene, probably resulting in Jiraiya earning a few dirty looks, but frankly there were at least another 12 brothels on this street and he knew that if Jiraiya got kicked out of this one, he would just go to the next. Naruto would have to find another way to keep the super pervert from perving the entire trip. Still, his stomach was killing him for some food and Naruto gave in to go and find his own meal.

"Damn pervert…what the hell does he think he's doing? We're supposed to be here on important business, yet all he ever does is fool around," groaned Naruto before taking a bite of the dish that was set in front of him. Naruto had found a restaurant with a small bar in it as well. He wasn't able to sit at the bar, but there was a small table for him and the food tasted pretty good.

"What good are perverts for?" said a voice from the booth right behind Naruto. The voice sounded feminine. "I used to have this one acquaintance of mine. Huge pervert. He was so much of a pervert that he even went around proclaiming himself as a super pervert!"

"Wait, that voice…" Naruto turned around to see just who he was talking to and to his delight, it was none other than. "Baachan!"

The sound of shattering glass echoed through the room and a sense of dread told every male in that room to leave. Being as ignorant as ever, Naruto just smiled at Tsunade.

"What did you call me?" growled the recently found Slug Sannin.

"Tsunade-baachan! IT's great that I found you! Now we can grab Ero-Sennin before he blows even more money in that brothel and go back to Konoha!" chirped Naruto.

Naruto's usual sense of cheerfulness was quickly squashed as Tsunade stood up, leveling a wall that was right next to her, sending a clear warning sign to Naruto. Naruto quickly made a break for the door with an enraged Tsunade right on his tail.

"Buhi."

"I know Tonton," sighed a younger woman with black hair, who was holding a pig.

"Hahaha! Oh yeah, you girls are simply magnificent!" laughed an intoxicated white-haired pervert.

"Oh please Jiraiya-sama, you just know how to show a lady a good time," giggled one of the women that was catering to Jiraiya. "How about one more bottle and then we can take this somewhere else?"

"Ooo, that sure sounds fine to me, hehe," giggled Jiraiya just as an orange blur raced into the building and behind Jiraiya.

"Help! She's going to kill me!" shouted Naruto.

"Oh Naruto? What are you doing here? I thought I told you to go and find a room?" said Jiraiya, trying to shove Naruto out so that he could continue with his 'information gathering'.

Before Naruto could even say something else, the door to the building shattered and in marched a blonde with a very very large chest and a desire to kill a certain blonde.

"Tsunade?" asked a surprised Jiraiya as he took another sip of sake.

"Jiraiya? What the hell are you…never mind. Just let me through to that brat!" demanded Tsunade, pointing to the orange and blonde boy behind Jiraiya.

Jiraiya, in his drunken state, contemplated actually letting Tsunade through to her target.

"Remember, if you let me get hurt, Kaachan's going to kill you!" reminded Naruto. Jiraiya gulped, caught between a rock and a hard place. It was either be beaten to death now by Tsunade or be beaten to death later by Kushina, whose hormones were raging completely out of control at this point due to her pregnancy.

"Jiraiya, who is this brat?" asked Tsunade. By now, Tsunade had managed to scare away any girl even remotely near Jiraiya, leaving just Tsunade, Jiraiya, Naruto, and a panting Shizune who had just caught up with her master.

"Tsunade-sama…what are you doing?" panted Shizune.

"So you going to tell me who the brat is or am I just going to have to beat it out of you," threatened Tsunade.

"What did you do?" Jiraiya asked Naruto.

"I just called her Baachan," said Naruto.

"Sigh…I told you she'd kill you if you called her that," replied Jiraiya. "Just great. I've gotta choose between Tsunade and Kushina…"

The last part immediately caught Tsunade's attention. "Wait…did you say Kushina?" asked Tsunade. She then took a good hard look at Naruto before rushing at the blonde, pushing Jiraiya aside and flat on his face, and then doing what Jiraiya could only dream of.

"OH MY GOD…Naruto?!" squealed Tsunade as she wrapped the blonde in a big hug, pressing Naruto's face deep into her cleavage.

"Umm Tsunade-sama…" said a confused Shizune, tapping her master on the shoulder. "Who is this kid?"

"He's the son of one of my students and also my godson," chirped Tsunade.

"Wait…godson?! Tsunade-baachan's my godmother?" asked Naruto to himself.

"I should have noticed immediately. You distinctively look like your father, but I still should have noticed after all the pictures Kushina sent me," said Tsunade. "So what brings you here? Surely you aren't trying to corrupt my godson! Oh just wait till Kushina hears about this."

Jiraiya paled a shade whiter than Naruto had ever seen. "We came here to find you, Baachan."

A tick mark appeared on Tsunade's head. "Watch it brat. You may be Kushina's son, but call me Baachan one more time and I'll send you back to her in a body cast."

"Meh, I'll call Ero-Sennin Ero-Sennin until he stops being a pervert and I'll stop calling you baachan when you stop being old," replied Naruto.

"Let's take this somewhere else where we won't completely destroy an important and respectable business in this town," said Jiraiya.

"Because only you would see this as an 'important and respectable' business," said Tsunade. "Fine, the perfume is getting rather suffocating anyways."

Relocating to a nearby bar,

"You want me to what?!" shouted Tsunade.

"You heard me. We came here to bring you back to Konoha," said Jiraiya.

"And just why do you think I'd go back?" replied Tsunade.

"Because you've been summoned back to resume your duties as a ninja to the village," said Jiraiya.

"I'm not going back, not after…" Tsunade trailed off.

"Sensei let you leave the village nine years ago to take some time and clear your head. I know loosing Nawaki and Dan were hard for you. Believe me, I saw how much pain you were in," said Jiraiya. "However, 9 years…you've been away for 9 years. Don't you think it's about time to move on?"

"Nope," said Tsunade. "I'm not ready. What has that village ever done for me? And what exactly does the village want with me? As far as I know, the village is as strong as ever. What difference would it make anyways?"

"Tsunade, Sensei and Minato want you to come back and take over the medical programs. They believe that perhaps it's time to put some of your ideas regarding the medical program into effect and who better to lead the program than the best medic in the 5 Great Nations," said Jiraiya.

Tsunade took a good hard look at Jiraiya and her teammate's accomplice. "So you come all this way just to tell me that the hospital can use my help? And what's with the brat? He looks like he's still in the academy."

"What, I can't bring my godson along to meet his godmother?" asked Jiraiya.

"Okay Jiraiya, what's really going on?" asked Tsunade. She knew her teammate all too well to know that Jiraiya was hiding something. "What's the real reason you came to find me? If you think I'll come back just to resume my duties at the hospital, you're wrong."

"You know me too well," said Jiraiya. "Fine, there's more, but it's not something that can be discussed in private. Don't worry, if you come back to the village, you'll find out."

"You're skipping around the point. Why would I come back to the village in the first place?" asked Tsunade. "How big is this thing you're hiding?"

"Big, Hime. Believe me when I say the future literally does hang in the balance here," said Jiraiya. "All Sensei asks is that you return to the village to hear us out."

"And what if I don't like what Sensei wants?" asked Tsunade.

"Then you're free to go," replied Jiraiya. "But why don't I tell you a little about what sort of freedoms you'll be given regarding the village's medical programs. First, you'll be able to do whatever you want to the hospital. The standards of the hospital and med-nins will be completely up to you."

"I've always believed the village's medical program was slacking a bit," said Tsunade. "But that's still not enough."

"Fine, then what about starting up a med-nin training program in the Academy," replied Jiraiya. This caught Tsunade's attention. "You'll be allowed to pull students who have potential to be med-nins into this program in the academy. You'd start with Naruto's class and I can already say that there are quite a few potential candidates that I can think of."

"Hmm…" Tsunade was in deep thought.

"It'd be one very big step closer to your dream of having a medic on each squad. Sensei would even allow you a huge say in the making of the genin teams, giving you the ability to fit your students into each team," explained Jiraiya. "You could personally see yours AND Dan's dreams of having a med-nin on each squad come true." Yes, Jiraiya had hit that chord. Now the only question was how would it affect Tsunade? True, it was a gamble. It could either cause her to distance herself from the village more, or it could actually help in bringing her back.

"…"

"Tsunade-sama?"

Memories of her beloved flashed into Tsunade's head. The very memories of the first time her and Dan truly met after he had put forth his full support for Tsunade's idea of placing a medic on every team. That had quickly become a dream the two of them shared and was one thing Dan had promised to do when he became Hokage. Unfortunately, that dream of theirs never happened. That had been the breaking moment for Tsunade and had caused her to shun the village.

"Would more med-nins really have saved Dan?" asked Tsuande rhetorically.

"I can't say for sure, but even you kept saying that if only you got there faster, you could have saved him. If he had a medic on his team, he could have lived," said Jiraiya. "We were 20 minutes away when news of Dan's injuries reached you. If there was a trained medic with him, especially one trained by you, yes, I think he would have lived."

Silence as tears came to Tsunade's eyes.

"Hime, Dan and Nawaki's deaths weren't your fault. I know there's nothing you can do to bring them back, but perhaps you can still carry on their dreams, to help protect everyone. Perhaps more medics is the answer. And if that is the case, who better than make it the answer than you," said Jiraiya.

"Kaachan's also pregnant," added Naruto. Jiraiya on the other hand, was hopping that wouldn't come back to bite them.

"Hmm…you know, it would be nice to see those three again," replied Tsunade as memories of her own genin team came to her mind. "I wonder how Kushina, Mikoto, and Hikari are doing?"

Yep, Naruto really didn't help the situation. "I'm going to have to tell her now or risk everything falling out when she hears the bullshit from Hiashi himself."

"Hime…Hikari's dead," said a hesitant Jiraiya.

"What?! How?" asked a startled Tsunade.

"She died of complications from giving birth to her second daughter," said Jiraiya.

"No! She couldn't have!" exclaimed Shizune. "I was there myself. In fact, I delivered her second daughter."

"Really? When did you two come back to Konoha?" asked Jiraiya.

"I never went back, but Shizune…"

"We received a request from Hikari to come back to help with the birth of her second daughter. Tsuande-sama still didn't want to return to the village, so I went in her place. I was the one to deliver the daughter and I know for a fact that she was in 100% health afterwards," explained Shizune.

"Hmm…you know, I wouldn't be surprised if some sort of foul play was involved," said Tsunade. "I never liked those Hyugas and even I was against Hikari and Hiashi marrying."

"Does this have something to do with them never letting you train one of them as a medic?" smirked
Jiraiya.

"That's one of the many reasons. They've got a pole shoved so far up their asses. They think their oh-so-special bloodline is 'above the realm of medicine'. Their Byakugan would be a perfect surgeon's tool! But they would never let their precious eyes be used for such 'menial uses'," spat Tsunade.

"Well then, what if I were to say that there WAS a Byakugan you could train as a medic," smirked Jiraiya.

"Go on…"

Jiraiya told about the story revolving around Hikari's very daughter, Hinata, and by the end of Jiraiya's story, Tsunade was ready to kill someone. "Fine, I'll come back, even if it's only just to kill a few Hyugas!"

"Tsunade-sama," groaned Shizune at her master's temper.

"And to listen to what Sensei and Minato have to say?" asked Jiraiya.

"Oh, about that…so what's the big deal anyways?" asked Tsunade.

"Not here, Hime," said Jiraiya.

"You know, if you want me to come back, then tell me what the big deal is or all I'm going back for is to rip those poles out of Hyuga asses and maybe talk to Kushina about taking on Hinata as a second apprentice," said Tsunade.

"You'll find out when…"

"No, she can hear us out," said Naruto. "I trust her."

"Fine, but not here. We need to go somewhere where I can activate the privacy seals," said Jiraiya.

It took Tsunade about 15 minutes to recover from her stupor. The blonde brat, her godson, was a time traveller? It sounded completely unbelievable. "I'm not buying it."

"I figured as much," sighed Jiraiya, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"First, time-travel's impossible," said Tsunade.

"Not to the #1 Most Unpredictable Ninja! –ttebayo!"

"And two, Kushina's the jinchuriki of the Kyuubi no Yoko," said Tsunade just at the very moment Naruto revealed his stomach to show Tsunade an incredibly powerful and complex seal that could only mean one thing.

"T-then K-kushina i-is…" Tsunade stuttered, fearing the worst.

"No, Kaachan's perfectly fine. In fact, she's finally glad to have the big Fuzz But out of her," said Naruto.

"Say that again and I'm going to eat you," threatened Kurama.

"Oh we all know you're a big softy, FUZZ. BUT." Taunted Naruto.

"How long before this damned seal can be removed? I can't wait to rip that smug little mouth clean off your face."

"But if all of you are working on this, then why do you need me?" asked Tsunade.

"Because, Akatsuki's a serious threat and we need everyone we can get to combat them," said Jiraiya. Tsunade just sat there in silence. "Hime…please."

"I have important business to attend to, and I don't like making people wait," groaned a cloaked figure with a straw conical hat. "We're supposed to meet up with our client. Why must we take this silly detour, Orochimaru?"

"Kuku, there's a girl who has my interest. She currently resides in Kusagakure. I intend to acquire her abilities," chuckled a snake-like man, also wearing a black cloak with red clouds and a conical straw hat.

"For your own sake, you'd better hope the client doesn't demand a lower price for being late in taking over this nation, or else I won't be the only one after your ass," threatened the first cloaked figure.

"Sasori, I'm not afraid of Kakuzu. And don't worry, it won't take long for me to acquire this girl," hissed Orochimaru.

"You'd better hope so. You know I don't like to make people wait," replied Sasori.

"I thought we were heading back to Konoha," groaned Tsunade as she, Shizune, and Tonton trailed behind Jiraiya and Naruto.

"Sorry Hime, we have a few other errands that need to be taken care of," said Jiraiya.

"Then why couldn't you have come to get me AFTER you took care of them," growled Tsunade.

"Hey, knowing your luck, you'd have left already with a dozen new debtors on your tail. Even my spy network wouldn't know where you had gone," grinned Jiraiya.

"Hmph. So where are we going?" asked Tsunade.

"Kusagakure. It's actually an errand for Kushina. Apparently, there's an Uzumaki in Kusa and Kushina wants us to bring her to Konoha," said Jiraiya.

"Don't worry Baachan, what's the worst that could happen?" grinned Naruto.

"Will you stop with the Baachan crap? I'm not old!" shouted Tsunade.

Author Notes

Well, that's that chapter. Hope you enjoyed. Sorry it was short, but things will be getting a bit more exciting here soon.

Okay, I want to make one thing clear. I DO NOT AGREE with Kishimoto making Tobirama the initial user of the Hiraishin. I will be making it so Minato's the original developer of the Hiraishin.

Anyways, that's all. Please review.