A Nugget Of Advice, Chapter 13

A week after the incident…

Longest week of his life. Felt like a year had happened, yet it had been only seven painful days. Seven fucking embarrassing days. His pride was stripped away, but his fury only had grown in spades.

He growled, listening to the machinery beeping in his hospital room as he laid on his bed. Once again, he was here in this stupid place and not outside doing what he needed to do. He needed to train. He needed to get stronger, and he needed to find Itachi again and fight him. Though, that last thing was probably not going to happen until later on, because Itachi was outside the village, outside his grasp.

Itachi had come to Hi no Kuni for some shit Sasuke couldn't remember now. All he could remember Itachi breaking his arm and hand, and beating him down like he was a child again. And what did he say? He said Sasuke lacked hatred? The man must have had known how he felt. Sasuke woke up every more thinking about the murders of his father and mother, and cousins, and aunts and uncles, and all the children of the Uchiha Clan. He went to team practice and trained on his own with the intention to one day kill that thing that once was his brother. He went to sleep thinking about that full moon night, and the stench of blood in that house. There were nights he couldn't sleep because he sat up thinking. All he could think about is Itachitachitachi. How could he possibly lack hatred? He was Hatred Incarnate.

He hated his- that thing that wore his brother's skin. Sasuke would hate the bastard until his wretched demise and Sasuke's own death.

But Sasuke was weak. He still wasn't strong enough; he had yet to fully matured his Sharingan, still stuck on Stage Two. He had completely figured out all the techniques he could from the scroll he had dug up from his family's archives about Fire Release ninjutsu. He had learned some of the ninjutsu from that scroll Kakashi gave for his Lightning Release affinity but not all of them, and molding and using that type of chakra was still new to him. Even with learning how to use the Chidori, Itachi put him down so quickly. He could not get his mind off his recent defeat. Itachi treated him like he was nothing. All the training he had done during that intense month with Kakashi-sensei was nothing.

Goddammit, that battle was on his mind ever since Naruto carried him away.

'Naruto.'

The thought of that idiotic blond pissed him off.

Everything seemed to have been going so well with that blockhead. Not only was he now a chūnin, but now he had saved Sasuke not just once, but twice this past month. Unacceptable. Simply unacceptable.

Yet, Sasuke could not convince himself that the rank did not matter, because, in a way, it did. Sasuke did not care to become a chūnin. He didn't enter the Chūnin Exams to become one; he simply wanted to fight powerful opponents and that's it. Yet, despite having a little scrap with Lee and-

He winced, thinking back of the pain of having Orochimaru's mark on him, and the seductive whisper of a snake in his ears.

He banished the thoughts and remembered what he was seething over. Naruto's rank, again, shouldn't matter – but it did. If Naruto was still like him – a genin – he wouldn't have taken it so hard, he thought. The rank was a sign that Naruto was becoming stronger, and he feared that Naruto was now stronger than him. Sasuke knew he probably shouldn't feel like that. He knew he should feel happy for his friend achieving a promotion. After all, despite everything about Naruto that Sasuke hated – his incessant need to push Sasuke's buttons and argue about stupid shit – Sasuke could not deny Naruto had become one of his best friends.

But he could not live with the possibility that Naruto had grown stronger than him...

And he bet Naruto just loved having a 1-up on him. He remembered so vividly how the blond idiot bragged the last time they were in Sasuke's hospital room about his promotion. 'Fuck that promotion. I bet it still doesn't matter. I bet I can kick his ass still during a spar.' Yeah. That blond idiot wanted to fight him again, didn't he? All he had to do was fight him again, and show him up.

Then things would be good again. Then he would know where he stood. He could take being beat by Rock Lee in taijutsu (because that's all the bastard had) or Gaara (because there was something about him and the way he transformed), but he couldn't lose to Naruto.

He couldn't lose to Naruto.

"Absolutely not," was the cry that came from the mouth of his female adviser, Koharu.

Jiraiya had already seen it coming, ready to retort. "Councilor Koharu..."

"Jiraiya, why do you insist on allowing the boy-"

"Naruto," Jiraiya corrected the woman, narrowing his eyes. "Naruto is his name. Would it kill you to at least refer to him-?"

"-So many missions outside the village?" Koharu finished, going on as if the Hokage didn't just interrupt her.

"And why do you insist on trying so hard on keeping him here?" Jiraiya asked rhetorically. He rolled his eyes. "He is a chūnin now. He's going to have to leave the village."

"Hokage-sama, the Akatsuki has been an organization we've been investigating for years. You should know – your own spy ring has been scrambling to get any sort of piece of information on them. They are a group of missing-nin of unknown quantity that clearly has dangerous shinobi under their wings, such as Kisame Hoshigaki and Itachi Uchiha, working together to achieve the goal of capturing the jinchūriki."

The Godaime Hokage nodded at his other adviser. "Understandable, Councilor Homura. However, I still believe Naruto should do just fine. Especially when he has a team with him."

"You 'believe?' Oh, if we are to do things on mere belief, this village would have been destroyed decades ago," Koharu spat, to which Jiraiya pinned a glare at her.

"Councilor, I would suggest you remember your place and know who you are addressing. I am not any sort of green, wet-behind-the-ears ninja who was chosen to be the leader of the village merely because I was the strongest this place had to offer. I have had many decades of active service to Konohagakure before I became the Hokage. I do not think everyone in this room can attest to that." That silenced Koharu shortly, who didn't look quite cowed as a defiant look was still on her face but she did not dare speak.

Jiraiya continued without further interruption. He then grabbed a crystal ball that was on his side. "You remember this ol' thing Sarutobi-sensei had before, elders?"

"The crystal ball that… allowed Hiruzen to check in on Naruto Uzumaki." Homura stated, knowing fully well what Jiraiya was going to say. Koharu nodded in agreement. The crystal ball served as a medium for a technique the Sandaime Hokage created before called the Tōmegane no Jutsu. It seemed Jiraiya had gotten his hands on the technique. If one had a target's chakra signature, they could track said from a far range. Hiruzen even reported that he had Naruto's location and had a visual on him even as far as Nami no Kuni, which was a small island just off the coast of the larger Hi no Kuni. It was an impressive technique.

Though, it did little to soothe their concerns or convince them that their jinchūriki would be safe from any sort of harm.

The Hokage smiled. "Naruto will be just fine. With the Tōmegane no Jutsu tracking him, a scroll I'll prepare in case he and the team I will assign him on come into trouble, and my watchful eyes, he will never be too far away so he'll be fine."

"But why the boy, my lord?" Koharu spoke up again. "An ANBU team would have a better time dealing with Tsunade."

"We don't need to 'deal' with her. We just need someone that can talk to her."

"And Naruto Uzumaki will succeed in this 'talking mission' that even our best negotiators have failed at?" The elder woman scoffed, once again becoming vocal. "What makes him even qualified for this mission? He is barely qualified to be a chū-"

"Perhaps you should keep your opinions to yourself, Utatane." The Hokage's eyes turned cold and his mouth in a rare, serious frown. It was a far cry from the usual jovial face of the toad sage. The councilor woman stopped commenting and returned to silence. "Councilors, I was merely being cordial and allowing you to know beforehand that I was sending Naruto and a team after Tsunade. I was not looking for your approval."

"T-Try to see it from our side, my lord," Homura tried again, a bead of sweat on his cheek. Jiraiya may have had his quirks that the Council quite didn't care for, and at times one could mistake the man as a buffoon, but that was a foolhardy assessment. With that deadly release of killer intent, even people as journeyed in their shinobi careers as him and Koharu were, anyone could become shaken by it. And Jiraiya's comment about him being a recently active shinobi wasn't a comment Homura dismissed. "Our best negotiators could not get Tsunade to come back to the village. Even you, her own teammate, could not convince her to come back to the village. You must admit that it seems like an impossible task for young Naruto."

Jiraiya then chuckled. The air around the room seemed to lessen, as the elders blinked confusingly at the Hokage. "Ah, but you two haven't been in Naruto's presence for very long. The kid grows on you quickly. I'm betting that Tsunade is going to play right into his hands."

Both of the elders frowned more deeply. "How can you be so sure?"

"Just trust me," Jiraiya resisted the urge to say, 'And stop questioning me, you idiots' out loud. Though, it would have been in his right. This council was too used to speaking their mind. This village was run by one person, not three. Sooner or later, he would have to remind them of such.

Though they seem to get that the decision was already set in stone. The councilwoman spoke up once more with a question. "When will Uzumaki and his team leave for Tsunade?"

"We all know that it will take some time to find Tsunade anyway. I think it'll be about a week or so until we get her location. Who is to say? However, all I know is we got one of our best shinobi in the hospital in a genjutsu-induced coma and the rest of our best is still recovering from crippling injuries from the invasion almost a month ago. We need Tsunade back as soon as possible."

Koharu and Homura both seem to want to sigh in defeat, as both of them knitted their brows. "I understand, Godaime-sama."

"As do I," Homura chimed in, his reluctance clear in his voice.

"Good. That's all from me. We're going to wrap this meeting up soon; I need to take a lunch break already."

"Hokage-sama, if I may," Homura started.

"Go ahead," Jiraiya allowed, holding his face up with one arm on his desk.

"How is young Naruto's training going with his bijū?"

"It's going fine. As you know, me and Operative Tenzō have been practicing with him twice a week trying to get him used to the Kyūbi's chakra. Currently, Naruto is working on trying to draw out and use at least a tail's worth of power." The white-haired man frowned as he folded his hands on his desk and sat up straightly. "Why do you ask?"

"Perhaps we can help a bit. We have information on how to train a jinchūriki properly."

"Information that seems I never received until now." Jiraiya's frown seemed to get deeper.

"We did not know whether or not you would be like Hiruzen and refuse to train Uzumaki in the way of using the Kyūbi's power," Koharu said this as if she wanted to shrug nonchalantly.

Jiraiya's nostrils flared in anger. This old hag really was getting on his last nerves with her casual ways. Matter of fact, both of these old decrepit fucks were getting under his skin too much today. Enough was enough. "Councilors, let's get one thing straight. I am not Hiru- no, I am not the Sandaime Hokage. I am Jiraiya, the Godaime Hokage. I understand the importance of training Naruto how to use that power and I understand Naruto needs to be able to use that power like how a Hyūga must rely on using his Byakugan in battle or how an Inuzuka's best tool is his dog. You knew that as well, but yet you held in this information for me until now." Jiraiya stood, and the elders finally remembered they were in the room of the Hokage. The new Hokage.

"I am now the Hokage, elders, and I know you two do not like me much, but I am the leader of this village. The Sandaime wanted me and you wanted me too as you did not object when I was appointed as leader. My word is law and unlike the Sandaime, we are not bound to each other as 'old friends' or 'old teammates.' If I wanted to, I could have you two removed as my advisers for your willful, constant disrespect for me," Both flinched at his words. "The only reason I have not because, even though you try my patience many times since I took up the job, your expertise and many decades of being the two behind the Sandaime's every action is to be lauded. However, you will come to either respect me or fail and I will find someone else to do your job correctly. I am a nice guy, my elders, and I usually like honesty and forthcoming from my subordinates but remember your place because I sure as hell know mine."

"Now," the oppressive air disappeared as Jiraiya sat down in a huff. His eyes flat and hard as he stared back at the two older retired shinobi in front of him. "You will give me everything you know about this training, where did it come from, and what we can do to get Naruto's control over the damned fox up to par."

Naruto found himself sighing in exasperation, resisting the urge to fall to the ground in stark exhaustion. It wasn't every day your Hokage/teacher took you out on a field trip inside the country to a large forest to train and train you how to summon a gigantic animal by throwing you into a chasm full of jagged rocks. Naruto resolved that one day when he became strong enough to beat Jiraiya in combat, he would absolutely fuck him up in return for what he did.

The gigantic grumpy old toad nodded down at him in acceptance and begrudging respect. "Guess ya weren't lyin' when ya said ya had what it takes for ma challenge, runt. Well done. I accept ya as ma summoner and all but next time ya summon me, ya best get ready ta have a drinkin' challenge with me. Stay out of trouble, brat, and Jiraiya, try next time not ta throw him and me inside a fuckin' chasm, a'ight?"

The Hokage waved him off. "See you later, Gamabunta."

Gamabunta disappeared and that was the cue for Naruto to collapse in a sweaty, tired heap. Spending at least an hour doing chakra control exercises, then trying another hour trying to get down summoning different toad summons, almost having no more chakra do any sort of summoning, then having to rely on the Kyūbi's chakra to summon Gamabunta after being thrown into a chasm, meant Naruto barely had any sort of energy to do anything. All he wanted to do was go home and rest.

Jiraiya easily turned over the exhausted Naruto and sat him up. "Here, swallow this."

Naruto was forced a military rations pill, or loosely-termed "soldier pill," that quickly replenished his diminished chakra reserves and jolted him back with renewed energy. Despite this, Naruto wanted today to end and did not welcome the new energy he felt. That just meant more training – or slave-work, whichever you wanted to call it.

Naruto sighed, "What's next on the agenda, Jiraiya-sensei?"

"Why sound so dour, Naruto?" The man guffawed. "I thought you would love to learn some more ninjutsu, kid. Especially with this new one I'm about to show you. This technique is the move the Yondaime himself was famous for."

Jiraiya then held his palm out, and a sizable blue ball of chakra was shaped in his hands. Naruto's eyes widened. "N-No way."

"Ahhh, you recognize this move, huh?"

"Of course! It's the freakin' Rasengan!" Naruto's eyes shined in awe. Just like the Hiraishin no Jutsu, the teleporting ninjutsu that the Yondaime Hokage was so famous for, the Rasengan was just as known and attributed to the Hokage Naruto thought was the coolest of the Hokage.

"Do you recognize what can it do?!" Jiraiya then pivoted and slammed the ball into a tree, grinding through the bark and wood of the tree like it was paper.

"I'm going to learn that?!"

"I didn't stutter, did I?" Jiraiya chuckled, the ball in his hand dissipating. "Alright, settle down now. It's not like you're going to have this much exuberance when you start learning."

"Why? What's wrong?"

Two hours later, when the sun was coming down, he knew what was wrong. Jiraiya, who was resting on the tree, got up and dusted off his green pants. "Alright, Naruto, time to go back to the village. I just wanted to get you started on the technique and I'm getting quite bored watching you dick around with the balloon."

"Fuck you, Sensei." Naruto eloquently commented.

"Sorry, Naruto, if you were born perhaps Naruko and were a bit older, I'd give you a go." The white-haired man rebuked cheekily.

Naruto's face squinted up in disgust. "I should start calling you 'Ero-sensei' for that one, you fucking degenerate."

"Watch your mouth, you little brat. Don't get salty with me because you can't even get past the bursting stage." Jiraiya shook his head in annoyance. "Didn't you say you'll have this down in a jiffy? I still don't see any sort of progress done."

"You didn't even get me tips on how to do it! You just told me that I needed to burst it with my chakra!" Naruto howled.

"Did you even ask? I don't remember you askin'." Jiraiya had a thoughtful look on his face, but couldn't hold up the serious face as Naruto's growls began again. The man laughed gleefully. "Alright, alright. Maybe I'll give you a pointer or two but truthfully, you're supposed to be learning how to do this on your own through trial and error. Now, how are you shaping the chakra?"

"Huh?"

"Which way are you turning the chakra? Show me the balloon you're using to do the technique." Naruto presented the red and gold color balloon with water filled inside it. "Now, turn the chakra. Tell me which way you're doing it."

Naruto did as he was instructed. He thought it over on which way he was doing it before giving out an answer. "Erm, I think I'm doing it to the left."

"Hmm, come over here. Gimme your head." Naruto quirked an eyebrow up but obeyed, feeling Jiraiya's hand in his hair. "Are you left-handed or right-handed?"

"Right… Wait, what? You're saying because I'm a righty it's not working?"

"Sort of. I'm more saying you're going against what you usually do normally with your chakra or how you do things in general. You got your chakra working against itself. You see, the easiest way to move and build up chakra in the body is to move it in a spiral like a spring. Whether the person's chakra spins to the left or the right depends on the person, much like being left or right-handed. A good number of people are right-handed and right-handed people are usually right-rotation types with their chakra.

"Just think of it like this. If you're a right-rotation typed and you're spinning your chakra left, the technique is going to be harder than it's supposed to be."

"So, how the heck can you tell I'm a right-rotate type or whatever it's called?"

"You can tell by the way your hair grows. If it grows left, you're a lefty. And if right, you're a righty. Most of the time, it's the same with your hand. Like I said: most people who are righties are right-rotation types. You know, normally, the average joe would have figured that out on their own given some time, but in your case, I think you needed a little more help."

"H-Hey, are you calling me stupid?" Naruto asked, almost whining.

"Maybe a little. I kid, I kid." Jiraiya stifled some laughter at Naruto's downtrodden face. "Ah, to be honest, I thought this would be perfect for you. It doesn't require hand seals which you admitted you aren't too great at doing yet. It just requires a good deal of chakra and some control, which if you keep trying to learn, you'll have better chakra control in no time. You already learned a bit about shape manipulation since you learned how to use Earth chakra and stuff, and you're a kinesthetic learner instead of a person who listens to instructions or watching demonstrations. You're the type that needs to do it instead of being shown or read about it."

Naruto blinked owlishly. It was surprising that Jiraiya knew that much about Naruto even after a little bit of the time he's been learning from the man. The man, despite his quirks, wasn't that bad of a teacher at all. He looked down at the balloon thoughtfully, only replying with a somber, "I see."

"Ah, don't feel too bad about mastering this technique slowly, kid. The Yondaime Hokage took three years creating and mastering this technique. Don't feel too discouraged not getting the technique down too quickly."

"Oh? But the Yondaime ain't me, old perv!" Naruto smirked confidently. "I'll have this technique down quickly, just count on it!"

Jiraiya patted Naruto on his back with a grin on his face. "That's the spirit! Now, remember what I said. In order to do it, you must rotate your chakra in a certain direction your chakra is used to."

"So, what you're saying is I should spin my chakra right?" Jiraiya nodded. Naruto blinked and tried again by applying chakra to the balloon. Naruto gritted his teeth, but besides the familiar erratic movement of the water inside the balloon, nothing happened. Naruto sighed, and slumped his shoulders in defeat. It seemed like he wasn't going to get it down tonight. He then offered the water balloon back to the Hokage.

Jiraiya shook his head. "Keep the balloon. Matter of fact," Jiraiya took out a scroll from his back pocket and unraveled it on the ground. He then placed his hand on the seal of the scroll and out of it, a full brown bag came out. "This is a scroll containing some extra balloons just in case you somehow end up breaking your balloon without using chakra by tripping on it or some other shit. Good luck, kid."

Jiraiya resealed the scroll and handed it to Naruto, who nodded. "Alright!" Naruto smirked. "You'll see, I'll show you!"

Jiraiya waved him off and started walking towards the village. "Yeah, yeah."

It took them a little bit to get back, but after thirty minutes, they were back in the village around 7 pm. Jiraiya and Naruto decided to split for the day. Despite knowing he probably should just relax for the remainder of the night, Naruto still wanted to train on the balloon again. Well, the balloon was small enough that he probably could train at home, so after he got a bite to eat for dinner – like several bowls of ramen – he could practice for some few more hours and go to sleep.

As he was finishing the last bit of his final bowl of noodles for the night, Naruto thought about the balloon again as he swirled his broth with his left hand. His right hand was holding the bowl steadily. "What's the secret to this move? How can I do it? Every time I tried to do it with one hand, it always fails. It's stupidly hard to summon the chakra and then spin it with one hand, so how can I…?"

Then Naruto trailed off as he thought about an exercise from last month that dealt with a similar concept to chakra moving like the first step to the Rasengan.

If he couldn't do it with one hand, then…

"That's it!" He yelled, alerting Ayame and Teuchi who were still cooking in the back.

"Naruto-kun? What happened?"

"Gotta go, thanks for the meal!" Naruto then put his money down he owed and ran with the scroll he had in his back pocket. He had this down, he just knew it. When they met back in the training grounds they usually used in the village, Naruto would blow Jiraiya's mind away.

"Very nice. Now, do it over again without your other hand."

Naruto frowned. "That… You didn't tell me there was a stipulation to how to do this."

Naruto had thought he had it solved. Instead of using merely just his right hand to do it, he used his right hand to generate and control the flow of chakra and his left hand to spin the chakra. It was enough to break the balloon. He thought it was a clever way to do so.

Jiraiya did so too, who whistled impressively before being a bearer of bad news. "It is indeed a very inventive way to do it. But, the Yondaime could do it one-handedly and so can I."

Naruto growled, "What about this then?" He then formed a shadow clone with a hand seal. Naruto held his hand out a fresh new balloon and then had his clone spin the water inside with two hands hovering over the balloon. The clone popped as soon as the water popped.

Jiraiya was even less impressed. "That's worse. Doing it with a shadow clone is more time-consuming for a technique that is supposed to be fast to form and require no hand seals. How long did it take you to form a shadow clone and then spin the balloon's water? A minute? That's too long in battle."

"But that shouldn't matter. I did it correctly."

"So what? You can't supplement control for power, kid. Using your left hand to solve your problem is inventive but it's a time waster. Every time you use this technique, you're going to sit there and uses your left hand or a shadow clone just to spin the chakra for you?" Naruto's response was silence. "Well, sorry, kid, but no newer ninjutsu for you. Today, we're not going to work on the Rasengan anyway. We're concentrating on learning more how to control the Kyūbi's chakra once more." Jiraiya snapped his fingers, ignoring Naruto's disappointed look. "Tenzō, get ready."

Naruto was on his way home until he saw Ebisu and Konohamaru. He remembered that Ebisu was the personal trainer of Konohamaru, so of course, both of them would be together. It seems like Ebisu was lecturing the young academy-student who was looking annoyed and barely paying attention. Naruto didn't think there was any harm in saying "Hello" to the two, so he walked towards them. "Evening, guys!"

Konohamaru's eyes lit up in mirth when he saw his older brother figure come up to him. "Boss, yo!"

"Ah, Naruto-kun. Good evening to you." Ebisu gave a small smile. "How are you?"

"Yeah, Boss! Whatchu up to?"

"Just came from some training!" Naruto put his hands over his head and adopted a casual stance. "Seems like you were doing the same thing."

"Bah, more like this guy was lecturing me all day." Konohamaru sighed petulantly. "Same annoying-ass Ebisu!"

Naruto decided to knock some sense into the younger boy, literally. Konohamaru cried, holding his head as Naruto rapped his knuckles on his head. "Hey, what did I do?!"

"You moron! The guy is right in front of you. Show some sort of respect!" Before Naruto probably would have let his younger friend say something about Ebisu without blinking about it much but since Ebisu took the time to train Naruto for the month, Naruto had a newfound respect for the man.

"That is quite alright, Naruto-kun. There is no need for violence," Ebisu stated disapprovingly, though Ebisu's amused smile did seem to have some sort of appreciation for Naruto's actions. "We've just finished our session. How are you? Did you need something?"

"Ah, not at first, but," Naruto thought about it a bit before bringing up a water balloon. "See, I'm trying to pop this balloon with my chakra by using the water inside. It's an exercise I'm supposed to do in order to learn a technique."

"Ooh, that's cool!" Konohamaru sounded off, his lips in an "O."

"Hmm," Ebisu put his finger on his chin. "And how are you supposed to move the chakra?"

"The old perv told me to spin it to the right. I can't use two hands and I can't make a clone, so I got to do it with my right hand. I been at this for the past week, and I've been doing it as fast as I can, but-"

"As fast as you can?" Ebisu parroted in an interruption.

"Er, yeah."

"Well, how about slowing it down?" Naruto blinked at the tokubetsu jōnin. "You said you're doing it as fast as you can, but maybe you're doing it too fast enough for it to work correctly. This sounds similar to something you had to do before during your ninjutsu training a month ago. Have you attempted doing it as slowly and as controlled as you can?"

"Wait, you mean-?" Was it that simple?

Ebisu nodded. "Just like how you were doing during our training with your earth release chakra and making the triangle, you probably could do the technique easier by using two hands or make a clone and have it turn the chakra while you generate it yourself, but in a life or death situation you might not have time to do this. Instead, why not just generate the chakra and slowly turn it until you get used to the timing of it?"

"Wait, Ebisu trained you, Boss?" Konohamaru blinked in surprise. "When was this?"

Naruto ignored his younger friend and stared at the balloon and started concentrating, closing his eyes. In his mind's eye, the chakra was placed inside the water and started turning to the right slowly, carefully. It was gentle and he was quickly getting used to the speed but it wasn't going to be enough to break the balloon with the water inside. He needed a torrent inside of a small spin. The balloon started moving in a pace, unlike the erratic moving it did before. "So, how the hell am I going to break it now? This won't be enough."

"Remember what I told you before: you need to work on the speed and that comes with practice. Start slow, and steadily increase the speed. Concentrate. There is no need to rush it. I think you are more concerned about doing it fast instead of actually doing it. Speed is important in battle, but you are not in a battle. Slow. It. Down." Ebisu stressed the last part especially.

Naruto bit his lip and sighed, knowing Ebisu was right. Naruto wanted to just be done with this move already. "Alright, Ebisu-sensei. I'll try."

Ebisu smiled. "Do more than try, get it done."

"Thanks for your help." Naruto smiled. He turned his pleased expression to his younger friend. "And that's why I said you should respect Ebisu-sensei a bit, Konohamaru! For a closet pervert, he's not half-bad!"

Ebisu looked scandalized. "W-Wait! I am not a perv-!"

Konohamaru rolled with Naruto's joke, rubbing underneath his nose with his index finger and a boyish grin. "Heh, alright, Boss. I guess if you tried it, I can give this bozo a chance too."

"M-My word! Why, I never-!"

Naruto waved his hand at the two as he walked the way, listening to Konohamaru's giggling at Ebisu's sputtering.

Jiraiya smiled as Naruto finally had the first step of the Rasengan down, impressed it only took Naruto a few days. "Good. But here's Step Two: Power. We're not going to use a balloon. Instead, we're going to use a rubber ball – much harder to break than a balloon. All you got to do is add more chakra to increase the volume and density of your chakra in the object to break it."

He threw him the ball, and Naruto started getting to work, but it was clear after a few hours, he wasn't close to the solution. Jiraiya stopped Naruto after a while and Naruto had once again had to do the usual: play with his bijū's chakra. At least it didn't take any longer to summon his demon's chakra than it did when he first did it weeks back.

Still, Naruto was determined to keep trying with the Rasengan on his time. He spent the rest of the week trying on this step. More chakra, more chakra he poured inside it and spun it slowly and slowly until he increased the speed. He concentrated on the spinning, focusing it into one place until finally, the ball exploded in his hand. He got down this step down by the next time he and his Hokage/teacher met.

"Very impressive, Naruto," Jiraiya smirked and gave him the instructions to the last step. "Last step: Containment. Combine both steps you learned before but instead, you're going to use a balloon to not break it."

"Not break it?"

"Not break it. You're going to spin the chakra inside and generate enough chakra inside it so it can maintain. You must maintain the chakra inside it perfectly so the balloon does not pop. Once you can handle that down, you'll have the Rasengan all set. Now, get to it, kid!"

Of course, Naruto didn't get that done at all that early and Naruto spent another few days trying to get it down. Jiraiya stated he would not give Naruto any more tips on the Rasengan – not like Jiraiya was doing much help there – during their set training, so Naruto spent his off time trying to do it.

Besides that, Naruto had his own training beyond the Rasengan to do. As he formed a clone to deal with that aspect of his Rasengan training, hearing the balloon popping and the clone's exasperated cries, Naruto glanced over at another scroll he had.

"Okay, so let's read the old man's ninjutsu again…" Naruto muttered, moving his fingers down the paper scroll that was given to him. He was in his team's training grounds "Okay, the first ninjutsu: Doton: Doryūheki. According to the scroll's writing, 'This technique enables the user to create a solid wall of earth as a means of defense. Hand Seals: Tiger, rabbit, boar, and finally, dog. Either the user can create the earth themselves by converting their chakra into earth chakra, or use preexisting earth to do so.' Well, since I have been taught to use preexisting earth to form my techniques, I am going with the second option. For now, anyway."

That reminded him: he needed to find someone who could cover his Earth Release ninjutsu training. Maybe he could ask Jiraiya since the man did promise they would train Naruto in things other than using his demon's chakra. However, he had a feeling a bulk of Jiraiya's training was to train him enough so he could control the Kyūbi's power.

He probably needed to progress in his train a bit more by himself, he reasoned. Using his clones could help cover a bulk of stuff he needed to go over, and Jiraiya stressed always using them to help him get stronger in a shorter amount of time. The more clones, the better, he thought to himself. 'Yeah, screw what Ebisu-sensei says.'

He was sure Ebisu meant well, but Naruto truly did not see the point of not using more than three clones. He never felt any sort of "psychic backlash" where dispelling so many clones at once had hurt him. He summoned so many clones at once before, especially when he fought his former teacher, the traitorous Mizuki, and he didn't think they dispelled one at a time, but rather all at once.

So, he concluded that he either A) was immune to a psychic backlash or B) there was no psychic backlash for him to begin with. Either way, he was going abuse the hell out of this.

He realized that a lot of these techniques he was supposed to learn required greater chakra control. This was something Ebisu-sensei stressed anyway, so that meant he would have to start setting sessions of his training dedicated solely to increasing chakra control and find different other ways to help with chakra control.

If only he had the same amount of chakra control of others. Like Sakura. He bet the intelligent girl could do it easily and even figure out the Rasengan easily.

Then again, he thought to himself as he put down his scroll, don't I need to have smaller chakra pools? Like, I read up before that the smaller amount of chakra a person has, the easier you can control it. So, that would mean that Sakura's chakra control is only great because of the small amount of chakra she has…

Speaking of Sakura, he hoped the pink-haired girl was fine. Well, he guessed she was because not even three days later after the incident with the missing-nin, she went to see Sasuke in the hospital. That wasn't what Naruto did, however. He was instead trying to focus on his training. Taking a break wasn't what he was looking for today. What happened weeks ago was still fresh on his mind.

Besides, he would see Sasuke soon enough.

He reread the scroll and started to do the hand seals – first, tiger, then hare, boar, and finally, dog. Then, he slammed his hands on the ground and watched a solid, but jagged rock wall come up in front of him. It was quite large, and it looked like it could take a few ninjutsu if need be, but the wall was made with as little chakra as he could use. He dispelled the technique, cutting the link between his chakra and the wall, and redid the technique.

This time, as he slammed his hands to the ground, he pumped as much chakra as he could, and found, to his amazement, a larger and sturdier wall was created from the ground that stretched much further than the first wall he made. Thankful that he was in a clearing, and nowhere near the trees in the training ground, he allowed the technique to finish.

He smiled, patting himself on the shoulder. That was another technique down and he had learned it so quickly without his shadow clones. Either these techniques were too easy, or learning earth release techniques really was starting to become like second nature to him. That was the third technique he had finished from the scroll the old man, Sarutobi, gave him before his death this week.

He had all day to train too. The stronger he could get, the better he could protect his-

"Naruto Uzumaki, good morning."

Naruto flinched, before relaxing when he saw an ANBU that he recognized. It was Tenzō – the ANBU that was assigned to help with his training with Jiraiya. "Um, good morning? It's not 2 pm, so I'm not supposed to meet Jiraiya-sensei yet."

"I am here to tell you that your training will not happen today."

"Why?" Naruto blinked.

"You instead have been assigned to a mission."

"Ah, I see," was merely what he said before Tenzō put a hand on his shoulder and Naruto was teleported to the office of the Hokage.

Jiraiya's grimace was the first expression Naruto saw in the room. Then, he saw the elders standing behind the Hokage with a similar expression. Then came five other people he recognized – Shikamaru Nara, Chōji Akimichi, Kiba Inuzuka, Shino Aburame, and Neji Hyūga, who stood farther from the group of others. Naruto didn't care much for Neji, so he didn't bother thinking about the older teen anymore. He did however briefly nod at his former peers at the Ninja Academy. He then bowed to the Hokage. "Hokage-sama! Good morning, sir."

"Ah, Naruto. It's good that you're here. As I'm sure Tenzō has told you, you and the other young men here are being sent on a mission." Jiraiya folded his hands and placed his chin on top of them. "I will be frank with you gentlemen, this is going to be a mission that, while not exactly excessively dangerous, isn't quite suitable for two genin and two newly-minted chūnin, but thanks to the village invasion we had last month, a lot of our manpower has been diverted to other missions. Plus, I find you guys to have the skills needed for this mission." The man then coughed.

They waited patiently, until Jiraiya poured himself some water, and drank from a cup. He cleared his throat. "Ah, excuse me about that, but yes, you four will do for this mission. You lot all have great tracking skills here; Uzumaki with his shadow clones, the Inuzuka, and the Aburame with their natural skills to track targets with their insects, and the Hyūga with his Byakugan. The leader of this mission will be you, Shikamaru Nara."

The black-haired teen didn't look too pleased with that but nodded. "And what does this mission entail, Hokage-sama?"

"You're going to be tracking down my old friend, Tsunade of the Senju Clan."

End.

A/N: Sorry it took so damn long to deal with this chapter, and even longer to finish essentially a filler chapter, but I was agonizing on how to deal with a lot.

First, after I took a break from the story for a bit, I was trying to take this story into the territory of the Search for Tsunade Arc, but I was stuck on making the decision to make Itachi good or bad. Unlike canon, I wanted to make it clear whether or not Itachi is good and I wanted to showcase that early. I was going to originally have Itachi and Jiraiya have a conversation about it over lunch or something, but I decided against it after I didn't like how I wrote it.

Then I originally wrote Naruto meeting Tsunade and I hated how they came out, so I decided to rewrite it, and so, I restarted it. Now, we have this chapter. I'm happier on how it came out but I understand it isn't the most action-packed of the chapters I wrote. And it is mostly just covering Naruto's relearning of the Rasengan. Nevertheless, we'll get back to the action soon.

About Ebisu though, I know a few reviewers were concerned that I was going to nerf the Shadow Clone but that was never my intention, merely that Ebisu believed there was a mental strain for people and usually, that is the case, but Naruto is immune to it, or isn't as bothered by it as they claim he is in canon (even though Naruto can spawn massive amounts of clones at whim, especially in the beginning where Naruto makes so many clones to beat the crap out of Mizuki with little-to-no issues).

Anyway, I'll try not to take so long with the chapters now. See you soon.

Translation List:

Doton: Doryūheki – Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall

Hiraishin no Jutsu – Flying Thunder God Technique

Rasengan – Spiraling Sphere

Tōgemane no Jutsu – Telescope Technique