"GAAAAAAAHH! Why is this so hard?!" Naruto growled looking at the water balloon in his hand.
"It's supposed to be hard, just keep trying. You won't be able to learn the Rasengan if you don't burst the balloon first."
"Alright, alright, fine! But I still don't get what a water balloon has to do with an amazingly powerful jutsu!"
"I already told you, once you burst the balloon with just your chakra it will mean that you have achieved the required amount of control over it."
"Whatever." Naruto snickered and focused on the balloon again.
Jiraiya sighed rolling his eyes. Looking forward he brightened seeing a high metal sign. "Ah, here we go."
"Hm?" Naruto looked up from the balloon and read the sign. "Atofuku town? Is that where we're headed?"
Jiraiya sighed again. "It's Otofuku town… and yea, that's where we're going."
Naruto frowned but then brightened. "Say, Pervy Sage!"
The Sanin growled. "Will you stop calling me that already?"
"Why? You are a Sage and a perv. Makes sense to me." He grinned mockingly.
Jiraiya sighed even louder. "Keep walking."
"So, why did you pick me?"
"Hm?" Jiraiya turned to him with a raised eyebrow.
"Why did you pick me to go on this mission? And why are you training me still? You had a chance to ditch me, ya know."
Jiraiya stopped, especially after hearing the quirk at the end of his sentence. "Well, if you really want to know. A long time ago the Forth Hokage was my student."
"The Fourth was your student?" Naruto looked up at him.
"Yes, and you pay such a striking resemblance to him, it's almost laughable." He continued walking. "Sorry that's the only reason I got for ya."
But Naruto was still standing there frozen. "I'm… like the Fourth?" He blinked before grinning widely. "YEAH WOOHOO!" He jumped around and threw the water balloon high in the air startling Jiraiya with his cheering.
"What?!" The Sage looked at him in confusion.
"I'm like the Fourth Hokage! I knew I was awesome!"
Suddenly the water balloon he threw above him… landed right on his head and burst, sending waves of water all around him.
Jiraiya burst out laughing.
Naruto spat out some of the water and glared at him. "Hey! You're laughing at the Hokage here you old perv!"
Jiraiya snapped towards him. "You clumsy little brat! The only resemblance between you and the Fourth are your blue eyes and your spiky blonde hair! You don't have a drop of his talent!"
"What did you say?!" Naruto yelled in anger as his wet blonde hair drooped over his eyes.
"Shut up already and just keep walking! I want to get to Otofuku TODAY!" He almost jumped in rage and marched away in the direction the sign was pointing.
Naruto took off his partly wet headband and brushed his hair away from his eyes. Grumbling curses under his breath, he continued after the Sanin.
Getting into town after a while, Jiraiya suggested that they separate in order to cover more ground, giving them a chance to gather more information, but the sly smile and blush on his face… and the fact that he was heading towards a bar with a painting of a busty woman above the doors told Naruto exactly what the Sanin was up to. He sighed in annoyance and looked around.
"Can't believe the old man… well then, if he's not doing what he's supposed to on this mission why should I? I'll just go find somewhere to try and burst this bubble… but… the sooner I find this lady the sooner I'll get back to Hinata… AGH! Too much thinking!"
He gripped his blonde spikes in frustration but a raspy voice drew his attention. "Hello there, young man."
He looked in the direction of the voice and saw a small booth with an old lady waving at him. "Have you ever scratched a lottery ticket? Want to test your luck?" She smiled holding up one of the tickets laid out on her booth.
"Sure, why not." Naruto shrugged.
He walked up to her booth picking a ticket.
"Take a coin from your wallet and scratch it. If you win you get a prize but if you don't I get to keep your coin."
Naruto nodded and pulled out Gama-chan. Taking out a big coin he scratched the ticket, his eyes widening as a number and a several zeros appeared as he scratched. "Oh, man."
"Oh my, what a lucky boy you are!" The old lady clapped giving him a gentle smile. Taking the ticket she scribbled something on it before going behind the booth. She returned a minute later with a nice amount of cash in her hands.
"Here is your prize! It has been a long time since someone won this amount, spend it wisely, young man."
Naruto stood there frozen with his wallet in his hands. The lady gently took the wallet from him and shoved the money in it. Patting the stuffed froggy she gave it back to him and smiled.
Naruto grinned at her. "Wow, thank you!" He reached back into his wallet and pulled out a few of the bills. "Here granny, I think you should keep this!"
"Oh! What a nice boy!" she grinned happily.
Naruto chuckled with a blush and waved her goodbye.
A few hours later he was laying on the ground in a grassy field outside of town. Breathing heavily he looked at the deflated balloons around him.
"Ah, man this is hard… Pervy Sage is probably playing me with this crap."
Meow.
"Huh?" He looked up seeing a white cat with orange spots rubbing up against his pant leg. "Get outta here, kitty. I'm try'na train." He wiggled his leg making the cat skip away from him.
He didn't like cats, mainly cuz they didn't like him. No matter which cat he looked at they all made him think of Tora.
However, the kitty didn't go away, she slowly walked towards the few water balloons left undamaged and started playing with one of them.
"Hey, let go of it." Naruto lamely ordered the cat trying to get on his feet.
The cat didn't listed and kept dribbling the balloon from left to right until it burst and the sudden splash of water made the cat screech and run to hide being Naruto's back.
"Heh, told ya." Naruto's eyes widened. "Wait… that's it!"
Somewhere in the middle of the town Jiraiya was sitting in a lounge, drinking with a few pretty ladies.
"And then I told them to get lost and never come back! AHAHAHAHAHAHA!" The Sanin finished his story making the ladies laugh, however the laugh finally stopped when a yell was heard in the lobby.
"Hey, kids aren't allowed in here!"
"Do I look like I give a shit?!" A familiar voice yelled back at the man behind the register.
"What on Earth is he doing here?" Jiraiya raised an eyebrow.
Naruto angrily stomped into the room. "Finally Pervy Sage, I've been lookin' all over for ya!"
"Didn't I tell you that we'll meet at the dumpling shop when the sun goes down?" Jiraiya scolded him.
Naruto blinked in disbelief. "The sun went down a long time ago you perv! I got tired of waiting for ya cuz I finally mastered the first phase so I went searching for you! And guess what? Whenever I would ask people if they've seen "Lord Jiraiya" they wouldn't know who the heck I was talking about, but when I asked about an old perv with white hair they told me you visited every boob bar in town! Is that what you were doing all day?!"
"Listen brat, these kind of places are best for gathering information!" Jiraiya said proudly.
"So what important information have you gathered so far then, huh?" Naruto crossed his arms.
"Uh, well… I… I know she hasn't visited any of these bars in a long time which means that she's probably not in town anymore."
"And we're still here because…?"
"Well… uhh…"
"And an old lady would visit these bars because…?"
"Ehh… well…" Jiraiya paled.
"Unbelievable… this isn't a game pervy Sage! Old man third Hokage could be dead by now and you're messing around!" Naruto yelled with tears threatening to fall.
The three women who were seated around Jiraiya and who were watching this go on, got up and all embraced the blonde.
"Awww, poor little baby. Is your grandpa ill?"
"Cuties like you shouldn't cry."
"What's going on between you two?"
Naruto blinked and blushed. The women weren't being inappropriate on anything but it still felt weird.
Jiraiya looked at the scene in disbelief. "But… my ladies…"
"Let's go Pervy Sage, I wanna find this old lady and go back home to my girlfriend, believe it."
The three women let go of him and squealed. "Awww, he has a girlfriend, how cute!"
Minutes later the two were walking away from the bar.
"What the heck just happened in there…" Jiraiya mumbled to himself.
"I can't believe how much money you spent in there…" Naruto thought about the bill the guy gave to the sage as they were walking out. The numbers made him dizzy. "I'm sleeping with Gama-chan under my shirt tonight, don't you dare take any of mine!"
"Like you have any money anyway." Jiraiya looked away.
"I won big on a lottery ticket today when you left me all alone." Naruto grinned smugly.
Jiraiya's head snapped back towards him. "What?"
Naruto stuck his tongue out towards him and turned away. "Hmph!"
The next day when she sun rays snuck through the curtains, Naruto stirred in his sleep in a room they checked into. Rubbing his eyes he looked next to him at the still sleeping Sage who was snoring loudly. He got out of bed and put on his shoes, walking out of the room he didn't even bother to try and close the door quietly. Looking for the bathroom he walked through the hallway, yawning and rubbing his eyes again to try to get the blurry sleepiness out of them.
Meow.
He looked at the main entrance and saw someone familiar sneaking into the motel.
"Hey, little buddy. How'd you find me again?" He crouched down to pet the cat who purred against his touch. He smiled happily. Looks like some cats liked him after all.
After waking himself up with some cold water he returned to his room, the cat following behind him. Walking in, he saw that his teacher hasn't woken up yet. Grabbing one of his water balloons he burst it above Jiraiya's head. When the splash of water hit his face, the Sage jumped out of his sleep and shook his head.
"What the…?"
"We need to get going." Naruto replied. Taking another balloon he moved his hand around it and burst it again then he looked up at the wide eyed yet still sleepy Jiraiya. "What's the next phase?" He grinned.
"I'll tell you after breakfast."
After visiting a small restaurant the two were on their way again. Jiraiya stretched and yawned again.
"Geez, still sleepy?" Naruto commented. "How much did you drink last night?"
"Not enough, because you interrupted me."
"Can you be useful and show me the next phase? I don't wanna be lazy too."
"Just explain to me how you managed to master the first one?"
"This guy helped me." Naruto lifted the cat which was still following them and cradled it in his arms. "He played with my balloon and he tossed it left and right and it burst, so that made me think that I needed to get the chakra to go in all directions at once to get the balloon to be bumpy like it was when you did it and not smooth, and it worked!"
"Clever. By the way, that cat is a 'she' not a 'he'.
"Huh? Oh, so you're a girl, huh?" He smiled at the cat who gave his chin a gentle lick.
Jiraiya chuckled then pulled a rubber ball out of his coat and tossed it to his student. "The next phase is bursting this."
"What? Are you serious? Another ball?" Naruto complained.
"The last phase was easier because you had the water in the balloon which made it easier to gather your chakra as the water allowed you to get the chakra to flow through it making it into a sphere. However, this time there is no water so now you need to do the same thing without a medium guiding you chakra. It needs to look like this."
Jiraiya pulled out another rubber ball and held it in his hand. Focusing his chakra the surface of the ball became bumpy and it burst into pieces.
Naruto put the cat down and tried to do the same thing as with the water balloon but all he managed to do was to put a little hole in the ball and deflate it. "What?"
The ball is much firmer than the thin and weak water balloon. You're going to need to get your chakra a lot denser and stronger in order to pop this one.
"Ahhg, man!"
"The Rasengan is an A-rank jutsu. It took me years to master it so complaining won't take you anywhere."
"Years?!" Naruto's jaw dropped. "I can't wait that long!"
"Then get to it."
They walked past a toy stand and he pointed at it. "Go there and buy a bunch of these balls and practice, I'll go into town to find leads on Tsunade."
"Leads or ladies?" Naruto frowned.
"Leads." Jiraiya replied seriously as he remembered Naruto's outburst at the inn yesterday.
"This isn't a game pervy Sage! Old man third Hokage could be dead by now and you're messing around!"
It hurt him to admit that the kid did have a point.
Hours later Jiraiya made his way to the field his student went to only to find him slumped against a tree.
"Have you made any progress?"
Naruto jumped startled. "No… I just managed to make the hole bigger but I can't make the darn thing explode." He slowly got up on his feet visibly exhausted. "What about you?"
"I talked to several people who said they saw her in the furthest part of town so we will head there tomorrow morning."
"Great." Naruto panted.
Jiraiya turned to leave only to be stopped by the voice of his student.
"You're not gonna stay?"
"I can't babysit you kid, you need to learn this on your own, I've got my research to tent to."
"I know but… never mind…" He turned back to his rubber balls.
Jiraiya frowned and walked away.
Naruto sat on the ground and looked at the ball in his hand. A fluffy paw appeared on it. He looked at the cat and smiled. "At least you want to spend time with me." He scratched the purring cat's ears. It was almost like… the cat was smiling at him too.
Morning hit the town again and the hung over Jiraiya woke up in his bed. Looking at the bed next to him he saw that it was empty and the sheets along with the boy's pajamas were in the same position they were in last night, which means… the kid didn't even come back last night.
Arriving at the place he left him at he saw the blonde laying against the tree with the cat curled up in his lap.
He smiled before waking him up. "Hey brat, wake up, will you?"
Naruto opened his eyes and squinted as they adjusted to the light. "Pervy Sage? What time is it?"
"You slept here last night. That could be dangerous, you know?"
"I passed out. I'm trying ok?"
"I know you're trying to master it soon but that might not be possible."
"I know…" Naruto leaned his head against the tree in disappointment.
"Here, you need to eat." Jiraiya handed him a bag of food.
After finishing his meal Jiraiya noticed the sudden burst of energy that appeared in his student. "All it takes is some food… just like his mother."
Naruto fed the last small piece of meat to the cat which happily ate the whole thing.
"Here, before it melts." Jiraiya opened a double bright blue popsicle and popped it in half handing one to the blonde.
Naruto grinned and took it.
"I'll stay here to overlook your training for a bit then we'll head out."
Naruto looked up at him swallowing a bite of the popsicle. "Really?"
The Sage nodded.
"Awesome! Let's go kitty!"
Jiraiya smiled at his student.
"Who knew he would turn out exactly how you wanted him to be, Kushina? Despite being treated like an outcast his whole life, he didn't let anything break him."
He was brought back out of his thoughts by Naruto's voice.
"Can cats eat popsicles? She's looking at me all weird."
Jiraiya blinked for a second before he burst out laughing.
"Always putting everyone else before himself… Minato… I know he would have made you proud."