Chapter 9: A battle of Giants

Naruto and Shizune walked at a steady pace as they made their way to the hotel in the center of town. "You shouldn't judge her too hard. Lady Tsunade has had a hard life. I'm surprised she even put that necklace on the line for your bet." Shizune had spoken in defense of her master.

"What's so special about the necklace aside from the sentimental value?" Asked the curious blond.

The raven-haired women took a moment to respond as the pair made their way through the crowds of people. "That necklace is cursed." The blond raised an eyebrow at the older woman a silent prompt for her to explain. "She received that necklace when her grandfather, Lord Hashirama, died during the first war. She passed down the necklace to her younger brother Nawaki when he told her his dream was to become Hokage like their grandfather." The blonds eyebrow stayed raised. "It was a way to show him that he believed in his dream. This was right at the beginning of the second war. Tsunade's brother Nawaki died the very next day." Naruto stayed silent as he listened to the story, occasionally nodding to show that he was paying attention. "This caused her to advocate for at least one medical ninja to be on a squad to prevent more battlefield deaths. She campaigned for her cause for months but the council said it would be too difficult to train new medics properly especially during a war. She was in a horrible depression for months until she met my uncle Dan. The two shared the same goal of having a medical ninja on every squad. My mother had died on a mission and Uncle Dan always blamed himself for not being there to heal her when she got hurt. He agreed with lady Tsunade that if every squad had a healer many lives could be saved. They dated for a year before becoming engaged." Shizune took another breath before continuing her tale. "Eventually Uncle Dan told lady Tsunade about his dream of being Hokage." Naruto was starting to see a pattern. "She gave him her necklace one final time to show her support of his dream." Shizune had a sad smile on her face. "He died in her arms a week later. His team had managed to drag him back to the Leaf village gates where lady Tsunade began to heal him after his squad was attacked. She managed to stop his bleeding but it was too late. He had lost too much blood. Lady Tsunade developed hemophobia after that moment, a fear of blood." Naruto frowned when he heard that. "So now Lady Tsunade thinks anyone who isn't her that wears the necklace will die."

"Smart, either she wins takes my money and never sees me or she gives me a necklace that will kill me." Shizune started waving her arms around in a panic.

"No! No! It's just that you remind her of them. Your dream of being Hokage must have made her nostalgic, she wouldn't try to curse you." Naruto waved her off.

"I was kidding, I don't believe in something like a curse. It doesn't change anything though. At the end of the day, she gave up instead of continuing to fight for her dream and mocked all her loved ones when she spits on the title of Hokage." The two were quiet as they made it to the hotel. There were people of various ages scurrying along as Naruto rented a room for the next couple of days. "If it makes you feel better, I'll prove the curse wrong when I win the bet." Shizune, who had been in a somber mood, smiled as she made her way to her room as her pig following behind her.

Naruto went to a nearby store once he had seen his room. He bought four packs of 100 balloons and went to a clearing close to town. Naruto created 50 clones and handed them a bag of balloons. Naruto himself started working on his physical training to work on his speed as he thought of all his recent encounters. 'First Orochimaru, then Itachi and Kisame. I can't keep up with them. If they hadn't been playing around with me I'd be dead.' The whiskered blond spent the remaining daylight out in the clearing training. At sundown, the blond dispelled all his clones and tested a Rasengan to see how far he had gotten. Naruto saw he could form the Rasengan in about 5 seconds could hold it together for another 15 before it destabilized.

"Good job kid! It took me 6 months to learn that jutsu and the forth 3 years to make." Jiraiya was on top of a boulder with his notebook out as he wrote. "Looks like you won the bet on the first day." Naruto shook his head at Jiraiya's statement.

"No, I need to perfect this jutsu. I need to be able to form it in a second and have it stabilized indefinitely." Jiraiya let out a whistle at the blonds remark.

"That's a lofty goal. Under normal circumstances, it would take months to do that and you only have till the end of the week, which I remind you is three days from now." Naruto didn't say anything as he formed 10 clones and dispelled them as he raised his eyebrow at Jiraiya who had a sweat drop forming on his head. "Right, your shadow clone training. We'll let's go to the hotel for the night and rest up."

"Right, let's go." Naruto returned to the clearing for the next 2 days as he continued to train physically while his clones worked on forming the Rasengan. With the abuse of the shadow clone, Naruto had managed to form the Rasengan in 1 and 1/2 seconds and could hold it for 10 minutes straight. The training was pure chakra manipulation and was doing wonders for his control. Naruto meditated every night before bed and would try to coax his tenant into conversations (they were very one-sided as the fox rarely spoke). Naruto was in his room meditating when he was awakened from his meditation when his sensei entered the room.

"I'll be back later kid, I'm going to go eat out with Tsunade tonight." Naruto barely acknowledged the old toad sage as he left and soon after the blond fell asleep.

Naruto woke up when he sensed someone enters his hotel room. 'Not happening again.' Thought the blond as he moved swiftly and grabbed the kunai he had stashed under his pillow. He jumped out of his bed and pushed the intruder into the wall with the kunai descending to the intruder's neck. The kunai stopped a millimeter from their jugular as Naruto saw who the intruder was. "Shizune? What are you doing here? You're not trying to kill me are you?" The raven-haired woman was wide-eyed as she stared at the blond in \shock.

"Lady Tsunade is on her way to meet Orochimaru. I was trying to find lord Jiraiya but I couldn't find him anywhere." Naruto grit his teeth in anger at the mention of the snake sannin. "We need to go after her, Orochimaru is hurt from his fight with lord third and sought her out to heal him." Naruto quickly changed from his sleepwear into his regular clothes, The two found Jiraiya slumped in the hallway. "Lord Jiraiya! Are you ok!?" Shizune rushed over to the white-haired sannin.

"I'm fine, Tsunade slipped a drug into my drink last night it's thrown my chakra control out of whack." Shizune placed her glowing green hands on his chest.

"I've accelerated the healing of the poison but it's all I can do for now." Jiraiya nodded at the dark-haired medic as he got up slowly.

"Right, let's go we don't have time to waste here, we need to find Tsunade." The trio quickly went out and followed Shizune to where Orochimaru told her and Tsunade he would be at to hear the female sannin's answer. Naruto noticed it was a barren field with splotches of green here and there, there was the occasional boulder laying about as well with a single tree's sprinkled around. Off in the distance, the trio noticed Orochimaru, Tsunade, and Kabuto. The blond saw Orochimaru was standing away from Tsunade and Kabuto, his hands were wrapped in bloody bandages, his arms hanging uselessly at his sides. Naruto could see the tips of his fingers sticking out of the bandages, they were a sickly deep dark purple in color.

'That's unnatural.' Thought Naruto as he noticed Kabuto had stabbed himself in the hand and splashed blood all over Tsunade who froze. 'Damn it! What kinda medic is scared of blood.' Naruto quickly body flickered in front of Tsunade as Kabuto came closer to finish her with his kunai. Naruto brought out his own kunai as he deflected the strike and tried to roundhouse Kabuto who jumped back to stand next to Orochimaru. Shizune and Jiraiya landed beside the blond as both sides stared each other down. Naruto saw the snake start to smile and he felt his blood boil as he started to sub-consciously release killing intent. The snake sannin's yellow eyes glowed with malice when they landed on Naruto.

"My my my, I didn't expect to see you here Naruto. I got to say you surprised me at the chuunin exams. All the information I had on you said you were the dead last. I was honestly impressed when you survived a strike from my Kusanagi." Orochimaru chuckled as Naruto grabbed his chest where his scar was. Naruto took his eyes off the traitor sannin and glared at Kabuto.

"So you were working for the snake all along huh, Kabuto." The youngest of the medics let out a smile as he lifted his glasses with his fingers, the sunlight reflecting off them obscuring his eyes.

"Indeed, I have been loyal to Lord Orochimaru since I was a small child. I must say you surprised me too, out of you and Sasuke one would assume the rookie of the year would be the first to be promoted instead of the orphaned loser." The blond narrowed his eyes.

"Sasuke is an unstable child."

"Oh? And you're not? Lord Orochimaru told me what happened in the forest of death, how you were abandoned by your teammates even when you heroically came back to help them." Jiraiya had a concerned look in his eye as he glanced at his student. "But, to be fair to your teammates, you were the most expendable one and when compared to the treasure that is Sasuke well." Kabuto shrugged as before continuing. "There's a reason he's called a genius." The blond's eyes shifted from his normal blue to purple as specks of red started to bleed through. His pupils becoming slits as his anger started to rise.

"Calm Down." Naruto was snapped out of his anger by the voice of the Nine-tails. He took a deep breath as his eyes returned to their normal blue but remained as slits. Naruto dashed at the young medic and tried to take advantage of him still having his left hand damaged. He reached Kabuto who attempted to kick him but Naruto grabbed his leg and threw him away from Orochimaru. Naruto turned around just in time to cross his arms as he was sent flying by a kick from the snake sannin. Naruto landed on his feet as he watched the two male sannins engage in a taijutsu match.

"you keep impressing me Naruto." The blond turned from the two S-class ninjas fighting back to the young medic, Naruto let out a small tsk when he saw his arm was completely healed.

'Damn.' Thought Naruto.

"You've grown an incredible amount in such a short time. I can't allow you to get any stronger than you already have, you could be a real hindrance. You already messed with my master's plan during the chuunin exams." Kabuto blurred forward as he brought his glowing hand down to hit Naruto. The blond was barely able to react in time as he jumped up. He coated his foot in earth chakra and axe kicked the medic. Kabuto grabbed him by the ankle and threw him at Shizune and Tsunade. Naruto tried to land on his feet only to notice he couldn't move his foot as pain shot through his leg. He rolled on the ground and quickly stood up as he created 10 clones. Kabuto saw he was favoring his left leg. "I see you noticed. My chakra scalpel allows me to injure my foes from the inside. When I grabbed your ankle I severed your Achilles tendon." Naruto felt the nine-tails chakra move to his heel and felt the pain subside. "Face it Naruto, you'll never be Hokage." Shizune stood in front of the two blonds as she brought out her senbon.

"Stay back, I'll handle this, protect Lady Tsunade." Naruto saw Shizune dash and soon the two entered a deadly dance as the two medics avoided the others chakra scalpels. Naruto grit his teeth at being unable to keep with the older ninjas speed.

'First Orochimaru then Itachi and Kisame. Now Kabuto too. I need to get faster.' The blond saw the that Jiraiya had made a giant mud-pit and as he avoided a super elongated sword from Orochimaru. Naruto looked back at the two medics and saw Kabuto had managed to catch Shizune on the shoulder as her arm fell to her side useless. Naruto threw a Kunai at Kabuto who caught it mid-air and threw it back. Naruto avoided it and Kabuto ran at the immobile Tsunade. Naruto body flicked in front of Kabuto who was caught off guard that the blond could move and received a right hook to the face because of it. The clones of the blond took advantage and held Kabuto immobile.
"Hey, Tsunade. I won our bet." The blond sannin looked up for the first time as she saw the blond holding out a perfect Rasengan. Naruto saw the Kabuto's eyes widen as Naruto Slammed his Rasengan into his chest. The Rasengan tore through his shirt and ground away into his chest before he was blasted back into a boulder where he slumped down blood dripping from his mouth.

"You know. You remind me a lot of sensei and my uncle. They were always so serious and determined to never have anything stand in the way of their goals." Tsunade reaches into her shirt as she pulls out her necklace and puts it on him. "You won the bet brat." Tsunade reaches down and kisses his forehead. Naruto blushed for a second before his eyes widened, he pushes Tsunade away just as Orochimaru body flickered next to the two blonds as he tried to impale them, the sword slashes the whiskered blond's chest as he was thrown back several feet. Jiraiya appears beside the snake sannin and kicks Orochimaru away. Tsunade seeing the blond bleeding freezes for a split second before she rushes in to heal him. Naruto laid on the ground as the blond sannin closed his wound the poison on Kusanagi making it impossible to fully heal.

"That bastard has now ruined two of my favorite jackets." Naruto said as his bleeding stopped and was hugged by a shaking Tsunade.

"Why did you do that. I thought I had killed you by giving you the necklace."

"No, If anything it saved my life." Naruto reached up with his right hand to hold the necklace. "It deflected the initial stab and caused it to be a slash. Besides, you may not be living in the village anymore but you're still a comrade and a member of the leaf. I want to follow the steps of the third and he taught me every member of the village is part of the Hokage's family. I would give up my life protecting them just like he did." Tsunade saw the pure fire of determination in his eyes as she nodded.

"Sarutobi-sensei died for nothing." Both blonds looked at the Snake sannin who was next to a shaky Kabuto who was clutching his chest as he healed himself slowly.

"Explaining why sensei died to you would be pointless." Jiraiya said as he landed between the blonds and his traitor teammate.

"you're right I wouldn't understand why he would waste his life protecting that pathetic village." Naruto glared at the sannin and watched as Tsunade blurred forward and delivered a devastating axe kick. The attack caused a massive crater on impact and it felt as though she caused an earthquake. The whiskered blonde's eyes widen at the size of the crater.

'I knew she had super strength but this is ridicules!'

"Enough talk Orochimaru. It's time to end this." Jiraiya stepped up next to Tsunade as Shizue rejoined Naruto behind their senseis.

"That's right. You'll pay for what you did to sensei and the leaf." Tsunade glared at the two traitors as she released copious amounts of killing intent. Orochimaru simply looked at Kabuto who nodded and bit his thumb. He pulled up Orochimaru's bandage in his right arm revealing a snake Tattoo and smeared the blood over it. The two loyal sannin knew what was about to happen and also bit their thumbs as they went through hand seals rapidly. There were three simultaneous shouts.

"Summoning Jutsu!" Tsunade and Orochimaru summoned two giant animals. Orochimaru and Kabuto stood atop a purple snake, Tsunade stood atop of a massive white slug with blue markings running along its side. And Jiraiya.

"Yo!" The small rust red toad waved at Naruto from his spot next to Jiraiya.

Naruto couldn't believe his eyes. His sensei had summoned Gamakichi. "You've got to be kidding me!" Jiraiya screamed.

"Hello lady Tsunade it's good to see you. " The slug said to her summoner.

"It's good to see you too Katsuyu."

"Orochimaru! I want at least 100 sacrifices for summing me!" Naruto saw the giant snake yell at his summoner in anger.

"I can't believe I summoned you Kichi." Jiraiya groaned as Naruto walked up to Jiraiya as he bit his own thumb.

"I knew you were old sensei but having performance problems already?" Shizune blushed at the blonds words as Jiraiya just gaped at him. Meanwhile, Gamakichi was laughing his head off. Naruto gathered chakra before slamming his hands on the ground. "Summoning Jutsu!" There was a giant plum smoke which quickly dissipated to show Gamabunta.

"Pops!" Gamakichi waved hello at his father from his nose.

"Kichi? What are you doing here? Manda?! Katsuyu? JIRAIYA!" Naruto jumped down onto Bunta's nose and picked Gamakichi up.

"Chief, I summoned you, Jiraiya had his chakra control messed up and was only able to summon Gamakichi here so I brought you out so you could support him against Orochimaru and his summon." The chief toad looked at the blond who had placed his son on his head.

"Very well, since it's you and you summoned me for something important I'll help. Looks like the missus is getting a new snakeskin wallet today!" Naruto jumped down to stand next to Shizune as the old teammates stared each other down.

"It's been almost 15 years since we've all been together like this." Orochimaru spoke.

"And this will be the last time too. You're not leaving here alive." Jiraiya threatened.

"Come now, Jiraiya we've had this song and dance before, besides. If sensei couldn't beat me what makes you think you can?" Manda who was watching the exchange had to slither away to dodge a giant blob of acid from Katsuyu. "All ways the impatient one Tsunade." Orochimaru taunted.

"Stop wasting time, Jiraiya let's go!"

"Right." Katsuyu spat more acid as Manda weaved around them going for the perpetrator only to stop short when Gamabunta tried to jump down on him, blade drawn. The exchange continued for a while. Gamabunta using his jumping ability to avoid strikes from Manda and at the same time using his mobility to cover Katsuyu when Manda got too close to her. Katsuyu herself was acting as long-range support for Gamabunta and Manda used his superior speed to dodge all attacks. Eventually, Manda was able to use his superior speed to wrap around Katsuyu who split apart into countless smaller versions of herself. Tsunade took the opportunity to punch Manda away.

"Bunta! Oil!" Gamabunta nodded at his summoner seeing an opening to end this fight and put his blade down to go through hand seals.

"Fire Style: Fire Bullet!"

"Ninja Arts: Toad Oil Bullet!" The two techniques combined with a towering inferno and the body of Manda could be seen in the flame withering in pain. Naruto watched on as he and Shizune had been forced to jump away to a safer distance because of the scale of the attacks. Gamabunta and Jiraiya got closer to the burned body of Manda once the flames ceased. Naruto saw that parts of the skin were collapsing in on themselves as his eyes widened in realization but before he could worn his sensei and Gamabunta Manda blasted out of the ground fangs poised to strike at Gamabunta.

"Not so fast!" Tsunade shouted as she grabbed Bunta's blade that he had set down to do his jutsu and used it to skewer it through Manda's mouth immobilizing him. Orochimaru yelled in rage as he wrapped his tongue around the medics throat and swung her around before slamming her into the ground. He tried to reel his tongue back but couldn't. Tsunade had a vice grip on his tongue as she gave a mighty pull. "Get over here!" Orochimaru flew to Tsunade who unleashed a crippling blow to the snake sannin's face. Naruto heard his skull crack as he was launched away and rolled lifelessly on the ground. Kabuto who was still on Manda quickly made his way to his master's side.

"Damn you Orochimaru, If you ever summon me again I'll kill YOU!" Manda roared as he left, leaving behind Gamabunta's sword. Naruto watched the corpse of the sannin closely his instincts telling him he wasn't dead yet.

"It's over." Shizune whispered to herself as she made her way to her master.

"You owe me some sake Jiraiya!" Gamabunta yelled at toad sage.

"WHAT! But I didn't even summon you!"

"You're right, you summoned my SON TO THE MIDDLE OF A BATTLE! YOU OWE ME FIVE BARRELS OF SAKE YOU IDIOT!" After informing his summoner what he owed him Gamabunta puffed away shortly followed by Gamakichi. Katsuyu seeing all other summons leave, bid a short goodbye to Tsunade and left as well. Everyone was on alert as Orochimaru's body moved. His jaw dislocated and opened to an inhuman degree as a perfectly unharmed sannin slithered out.

"Brutal as always Tsunade, you haven't changed at all have you?" Naruto rushed forward to take out Orochimaru as he was still getting out of his old body but was stopped by Jiraiya.

"Don't go crazy. He'd wipe the floor with you." Naruto nodded grudgingly as Kabuto came to stand next to Orochimaru as he fully extended to his full height.

"It's a shame you had to oppose me Tsunade. You would have lived a longer life." Orochimaru sighed as parts of his face started to peel away. "Regardless I have other ways to heal myself." It was the face of a woman who stared back at the group as Naruto felt a shiver run up his spine.

"What have you done?" Jiraiya gasped. Orochimaru didn't answer only smiled at his old teammates.

"It's been a fun reunion but I must be off." Orochimaru and Kabuto sank into the ground and all that was left was the decomposing body Orochimaru had shed. There was silence for the group that was interrupted by Naruto huffing angrily.

"That's two scars he's given me." Naruto looked down to his new wound which crossed over his old scar making an X pattern on his chest. The others relaxed as the situation became less tense.

"You're lucky you've walked away from both encounters alive brat." Jiraiya said as he ruffled his student's hair.

"Let's go back to the hotel, I can treat your wound better there and give Jiraiya the antidote for the poison. The group made it to the hotel as everyone patched up any wounds they might have and Tsunade tried to get rid of the younger blonds new scar.

"I've managed to heal you as best I can, unfortunately, the poison on Kusanagi didn't allow me to close it before it scarred over."

"It's fine, it's not like the scar will change anything." Naruto replied. The blond turned his head to his sensei who was giggling mightily.

"Oh, but it will, don't you know chicks dig battle scars. I know you spent the night with the young Yamanaka heiress before we left for the mission. I'll bet she'll love the new scar." Jiraiya continued to giggle as he brought out his journal. "I can see it now, Make-out Tactics: Golden Romance!" Naruto flushed slightly before yelling at Jiraiya.

"First of all how do you know about that!? Second, me and Ino aren't like that ya perv!" Tsunade seeing her young charge being harassed walked over to the giggling pervert and sent him through the wall.

"Enough of your antics Jiraiya, Naruto's love life isn't any of your concern."

"I don't have a love life!" The whiskered blond shouted as Shizune giggled to herself as she watched on. The group eventually calmed down and they all left for the leaf at noon. Jiraiya lead the group, he was nursing several bumps on his head, followed by Shizune and her pig Tonton. The two blonds were in the back as Tsunade wanted to speak to Naruto.

"I want to thank you." Naruto walked at a leisure pace as he glanced at the older woman.

"For?"

"For reminding me about my will of fire. I lost myself in my grieving and not one of my loved ones would have wanted that. My brother and Fiancé both wanted to be Hokage and both sensei and grandfather wanted to protect the village so others could live peacefully. So, I figured the best way to honor them would be to follow in their lead, I'll be Hokage for now. At least until you're old enough to take the hat." Tsunade smiled at the young blond as he nodded tearfully at another person believing in his dream. After 2 days of travel, the group made it to the gates of the leaf village as he heard Tsunade whisper to herself. "I'm home."