A/N: Hi, it's been a while, I am busy, I'll always update. Also, a quick message for ya'll: If you are going to send me questions, just remember that I cannot answer them if your freaking private message option is disabled. Thank you and enjoy!
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK
"Oi, Tsunade, open up!" Jiraiya called out.
The door opened but instead of his fellow Sanin the person standing there was Shizune. "You mean she wasn't with you this whole time?"
"Oink?" TonTon looked up at him.
"No, I thought she just overslept…" Jiraiya scratched his chin.
Shizune shook her head. "No, and by the fact that I didn't see her come out of her room all day and she wasn't even here, I think she went out pretty early this morning. I hope she didn't get herself in trouble… or debt…"
Jiraiya sighed. "Oh, well… I guess I'll go looking for her…"
"And I'll go check on Naruto." Shizune closed the room's door behind her. "I should probably bring him breakfast."
"No need, I already did. He seems to be making progress. I told him to take it easy for a bit but he won't listen."Jiraiya smiled.
Shizune smiled back. "Ok, but I'll still go see if he's hurt."
Back on the field Naruto sat on the ground cradling the purring cat in his arms, starring at the giant rock in front of him… or what's left of it, that is… his last hit blew the rock into pieces, where those pieces flew he had no idea.
"Naruto, are you alright?" He jumped a bit at the sudden voice as he was too focused on the rock.
"Oh, hey Shizune." He turned to face her. "I'm ok, I guess."
"You guess?"
He pointed towards the chunks of the stone. "I did that… I… did… THAT. And it was just after Pervy Sage left, he could have seen it! It was awesome! I don't even know where the pieces went!"
"Wow." Shizune starred at the rock wide eyed remembering the size of it from her yesterday's visit. "Let's hope the pieces didn't land on someone's roof."
Naruto paled. "Uuuhhh… whoops?"
She giggled. "There are no houses in that direction so I'm sure they didn't."
Naruto sighed in relief and nuzzled the cat's back.
Purrrrrrr.
"Uh… Hey, Naruto? Have you… seen Lady Tsunade… by any chance?" Shizune asked awkwardly.
"Huh? You mean you lost the old bat?" He squinted.
"Uh… I – No! She just went out early so I thought you might have seen her!" She waved her hands frantically as her face tinted red.
"Well, she better be around here somewhere cuz if she ran away knowing old man third needs her I'm gonna knock out all teeth out of that drunken grin of hers! Believe it! On top of that she's got my Gama- chan too!" He got up angrily and started walking towards her. "Come on, let's go look for that old hag! She ain't getting away on my watch!"
"But, what about your training?"
He turned to her and pointed at the butchered rock. "Do you see that shit over there? Now come on!"
Meow.
He stopped dead in his tracks and turned to the kitty. He blinked a few times then picked it up before marching back towards Shizune.
Minutes later they were standing in front of his room. "You have to stay here kitty, ok?" He put the cat down to look for his keys but just before he unlocked the door they heard a voice calling out to them.
"There you guys are."
They turned only to see a frowning Jiraiya jumping through the hallway window. "We have a problem."
"What happened?" Shizune blinked in concern.
"I found Tsunade." He continued. "She's at a bar drunk. When I asked her what she was thinking she told me something you apparently forgot to mention." He frowned at Shizune.
She flinched a bit. "Well I… she told me not to tell you."
"This isn't a game of hide and go seek, this is serious." He said sternly.
"Hold the phone Pervy Sage, what's going on?" Naruto interrupted.
"The third Sanin who tried to destroy the Leaf Village…"
"The creepy ass snake guy Orochimaru? What about him?"
Shizune jumped in surprise.
"These two…"
"Oink!"
"These three came across him when they came here and he told Tsunade he would revive her little brother and her boyfriend if she heals his arms… the forbidden jutsu Hiruzen almost lost his life from putting on him."
"What?!" Naruto yelled out.
The Sage then turned towards Shizune. "She says she's thinking about actually doing it… has she lost her mind?! Does she actually believe that he could bring back the dead? If that was possible he would have attacked us with an army of the living dead a long time ago."
"No way in hell can she do that!" Naruto yelled. "Old man put that jutsu on him so he wouldn't be able to attack anyone again! If she heals him the Leaf is gone for good!"
"I'll go and try to convince her to come back again, this time I'll drag her back if I have to. You two stay here."
"But she-"
"There's nothing you can do about it Naruto!"
The blonde flinched back and frowned.
After Jiraiya left he stared digging for his keys again. Having found them he unlocked the door and walked in.
"Could we talk?" He looked at Shizune. "I didn't know she had a brother let alone a boyfriend."
Shizune looked down and walked in. they sat on the beds and she began talking. "Remember when I told you her necklace was cursed?"
He nodded quietly.
"She got the necklace from the first Hokage, her grandfather."
"Woah, she the first's granddaughter?"
"Yes, the necklace is one of a kind, and when she inherited it she gave it to both her little brother and her boyfriend in the hope it will bring them good look as they both had a big dream to achieve. "
"Wait, how did she give one necklace two both of them?"
Shizune's expression saddened. "They both died soon after receiving the necklace…"
Naruto gulped.
"Her boyfriend… he was my uncle… so that's when she took me up as her apprentice. Even though they died in battle, she told me that people believed that it was because the necklace was cursed so she said she would never give it to anyone else… she never even tried selling it when she was in debt. That's why it was so shocking to hear her put it in your bet. Especially because you…" She bit her lip and looked away.
"I what? What?"
"You resemble both her brother and my uncle."
His eyes widened.
"And you share their dream… both of them dreamt of becoming the Hokage one day. That's why she criticized your goal, she doesn't believe in it anymore."
"Oh…" Naruto blinked. "So what do we do now?"
"Let's just hope Lord Jiraiya can talk her out of healing Orochimaru."
He nodded annoyed that he couldn't do anything to help.
They were sitting there in silence and thought for a few more minutes, both petting their little four legged friends until they heard a blow in the distance. They looked up at each other at the same time before rushing to the window. There was nothing there, no smoke or damage, so the explosion must have been far away, but since they could hear it from here the damage it must have caused on that spot must be great.
They both rushed to the door leaving the cat in the room and Naruto jumped through the window Jiraiya had earlier used for entering. Shizune just sighed and followed. After a few minutes they got to the top of a higher building in town and saw a tinge of smoke in the distance. Looking at each other again they nodded in conformation and rushed to the site. It took them no more than five minutes of speedy bolting from roof to roof to get to a large clearing. Jiraiya and Tsunade where standing in front of a curtain of smoke which was coming from a crater that had a surprisingly visible imprint of a fist in the middle of it.
"Pervy Sage!"
Jiraiya turned and frowned. "You shouldn't have come here!"
"What's going on?" Naruto slowly walked up to them along with Shizune.
Jiraiya sighed and looked at the smoke. Naruto raised a brow and looked towards the murky curtain of dust. Once it cleared it slowly revealed two figures standing behind it. An angry looking Orochimaru with his bandaged arms limply hanging down from his slender torso…and…
"Kabuto?" Naruto pointed towards the second figure.
Kabuto's eyes widened before he smiled slightly. "Naruto? What a surprise…"
Shizune glared at the two figures. "You two know each other?"
Naruto frowned. "Yeah, that's the guy who bailed out of the chunin exams and then betrayed our village. Don't listen to anything he says. All he ever said to me were lies." The last word sounded like an angry growl.
"Well, now that we are done with introductions let's get back to business." Orochimaru licked his lips.
"If the business you are talking about is convincing grandma Tsunade that you could bring back the dead, forget about it. I'm sure she's not as dumb as she looks."
Tsunade's head snapped towards the blonde. "How dare you, brat!"
"How dare you?!" He yelled back making her frown freeze on her face. "Are you stupid?! Has he proven to you that he could to this shit? You think if he actually could that the first people he'd bring back were someone who he's got no use out of?! Think about it! Why didn't he revive some powerful warrior from the past or some shit? You'd be dead by then. And don't even let me tell you how dead you would be if you healed him!"
Tsunade's eyes closed and she snarled. What was she thinking? She opened her eyes and looked at the kid as the images of her deceased beloveds appeared next to him. No…
Her eyes glowed with a fire as she, in lightning speed, aimed for the long tongued traitor with her fist. He dodged just in time to not get hurt and another layer of smoke filled the air revealing how the first one was made.
"So that's how it's going to be?" Orochimaru hissed. "Kabuto!"
"Yes." His apprentice bit his thumb and after a few hand signs a giant snake appeared behind them. Then he drew a freshly sharpened kunai out of his pouch.
Naruto repeated his last move and growled.
"No. Stay out of this." Jiraiya said not even turning to look at him.
"Like heck I will."
"Like you said yourself, all he ever told you were lies. You think he was honest about his strength?"
"You think I haven't gotten stronger since then?" Naruto replied.
"Then he probably has as well."
"Maybe in body but he's definitely weaker in the head."
"That I can agree on." Jiraiya smirked.
Kabuto's brow twitched. "You little…" He charged towards the blonde swiftly avoiding the Sage who tried blocking his way. Their kunais clashed together as they glared in each other's eyes. Kabuto's were dark and cruel despite their light color, but Naruto's were still warm and determined but gradually they seemed to darken as he glared his opponent down with the menacing stare of the nine tailed fox. Sensing the increase of chakra Kabuto flinched and backed away. The hairs on his neck raised but he managed to hide his fear well.
"You… you think I don't know what you are… you think I don't know what's inside of you? You think you could scare me?!" Kabuto yelled. "I am way above you, brat!"
"Yeah, you are above me." Naruto replied before smirking. "What are ya, like three inches taller?"
Kabuto growled and charged him again. Their weapons clashed again and again as before Kabuto's free hand started to glow with chakra and he striked towards the blonde who dodged his hand repeatedly.
On the other end of the field a giant toad appeared to battle the snake as their masters battled in out on their own before being joined by a giant slug.
"Glad to see you finally came to." Jiraiya said slapping the other sanin's tongue away.
"Shut up." Tsunade replied after she grabbed the tongue and whipped its owner towards the ground but he landed on the grass and used his now free tongue to pull out his sword.
At the same time, Naruto managed to slice Kabuto's arm but the traitor only used that as another weapon, dipping his fingers in his would and splashing the blood in Naruto's eyes.
"Ahh! I can't see anything!" But before he could wipe the blood off he felt Kabuto's hand make contact with his thigh. In an instant the blonde fell to the ground unable to feel his leg anymore. "What… what did you do?"
But before Kabuto replied he heard his name being yelled out by his master. Turning around he caught the sword his master threw at him and aimed it at the blonde. "This ends here!"
He hadn't moved his sword an inch before he was sprawled on the ground with an imprint of Tsunade's fist on his cheek.
Naruto blinked repeatedly to get his sight back and saw the Sanin standing next to him. She was looking at Kabuto wide eyed as he slowly got up, the mark on his cheek slowly disappearing with a hint of smoke. He chuckled evilly at her shocked face.
Naruto's expression matched hers. "No way! I thought only I could do that!"
"I am a prime medical ninja, there is nothing you could do to hurt me. My level of expertise is high enough to match yours Lady Tsunade!"
And with that he charged her with his chakra hand, but as she dodged on one side she was met with the sword on the other side. The short but sharp blade went through her shoulder as she gasped in pain. The blade was quickly pulled out by a chuckling Kabuto, the feared red liquid spattered on her face and chest. She put her hands on her wound then looked at he traces of red on her shaking palms. Her eyes wide with shock.
Her shoulder healed rapidly but what stayed behind she feared more than any wound…
"…Blood… its… blood…"
"My… blood!"