Betrothal
A Naruto fanfiction. By Lackey H
Chapter 12 - Actions
"Hyaaah!" Naruto screamed as the backlash from his Rasengan washed over him like water made of glass shards. His orange overalls gained a collection of new rips and tears in addition to those they were already covered with.
That, unfortunately, was one of the big problems with the second tier of the Rasengan technique. No matter where he aimed, or how well he tried to shield his body, the sheer force of the air pressure from the wind spiral always tore into him worse than any blade could have done. Hopefully when he mastered the technique, by perfecting the third and final tier of the move, he wouldn't have to put up with having both him and his clothing partially shredded each time he used it.
The third tier.
Not that he'd made much progress in that so far, not even non-stop practicing had given him any hints as to how to get it right.
Well. He would.
He would succeed.
Dammit! He was not going to lose the bet he made with that freakishly strong old woman, even if Jiraiya insisted that she was Tsunade, one of the famous three ninja!
Pulling himself to his feet from where the air pressure had sent him sprawling, Naruto held up one clenched fist in front of his face, his eyes burning with conviction. "I will master the Rasengan!" He yelled, his declaration echoing around the somewhat devastated area he had been practicing in.
Minutes later he was flung to the ground, yet more shallow cuts adorning both him and his clothing.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The days were ticking past quite rapidly now. Not that they were any shorter though, it was just that they were so repetitive. Every day it was the same routine for her - wake up, spend several hours teaching, go home and eat, go train with Asuma-sensei and Sakura.
All in all, Temari was of the opinion that life was pretty good. Granted she was still upset over her continued failure to procure a new fan - or materials to make one herself. On the other hand, though, her lack of a weapon was forcing her into training her unarmed taijutsu skills, along with a few basic genin-level ninjutsu and genjutsu. Nothing spectacular, just a simple fire jutsu - nothing more than a small spark really - and some better genjutsu defenses.
Then, of course, there was that.
Her big secret, the special technique she was learning from one of her scrolls, the one skill that she intended to show off at the next scheduled chuunin exam. Well, either then or whenever someone next angered her enough to warrant it's use at least. Still, she had to master if first - at present she could barely muster up enough concentration to get it working whilst standing still when, really, she really needed to be able to perform it mid-combat.
Ah well, she had time enough to practice it away from prying eyes.
"Temari-san!" Temari blinked as she heard her name being called atop the sound of someone beating on the door to her - Naruto's - home. Grumbling she pulled herself to her feet and, letting her currently gathered chakra dissipate harmlessly, stalked out of the training room.
"Temari-san!" Hmm, the voice was vaguely familiar but it didn't sound like anyone that she could recognize very well. The thick wood of the front door muffled the voice enough to make it difficult to tell if it belonged to a girl or a child. This of course was a slight problem, mainly because Temari really didn't feel like answering the questions of the small fan base she had apparently developed amongst her students. On the other hand, she also didn't feel like dealing with the various village girls who were jealous of her, somewhat exotic, looks.
"What!?" Temari swung the front door open wide, her yell clearly displaying her irritation at being interrupted in her training.
The next thing she knew, a bucket of something wet and sticky impacted against her chest, covering the front of her shirt in its contents before falling to the floor, making a pool of sticky liquid around her feet.
Standing as still and as unmovable as a statue of iron, Temari stared into space. Then, slowly, one hand reached up and touched her sticky shirt before then moving to bring a glob of the slimy substance up in front of her face. A small sniff confirmed her suspicion - she had just been covered in what was, apparently, swamp mud.
Very, very, smelly swamp mud. It smelt as if she'd just been splattered in a mixture of rotten eggs, raw sewage and more than a little rotting meat. Given that it was swamp mud, there was the possibility of any of those three things actually being present in it. Naturally, however, Temari had but one thing to say before she spun on her foot and stalked - quickly - to the bathroom.
"Someone is going to pay for this."
If she had stuck around a few moments longer, she would have noticed the pale gleam of two pearly eyes in the shadows of a building across the street from Naruto's home. Also, she would have heard a faint giggle as the two eyes faded from view. That, thought Hyuuga Hinata as she made good her escape, had actually been pretty fun - no wonder Naruto had loved doing such things.
Now then, what would Naruto do next?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Naruto lunged forwards, the arms of the clone beside him blurring as the batted and rolled the ferocious winds that lay on his palm into a perfect sphere. Wide eyed, the medical spy Kabuto could do nothing to avoid the roaring ball of slicing winds as it slammed into his chest - hurling him away from Naruto and biting deep into his abdomen.
Well, actually he had dodged it in the best way possible - by rolling with the blow and pulling away from Naruto in an attempt to lessen the damage. Admittedly, his plan had worked - barely, he still had an abdomen left after being hit. This was, given the sheer power of the Rasengan technique - even in the still unskilled hands of Naruto, an incredible feat in and of itself.
Naruto coughed as his previous injuries, and also the loss of energy from using both Kage Bunshin and Rasengan, catching up to him. A crimson spray of blood erupted from his mouth to splatter upon the dusty rock floor as his body began to give up on itself. His vision dimmed and he began falling to the floor, his last sight being that of Kabuto managing to stand up despite his injuries, then darkness claimed him and he knew no more.
The next thing Naruto knew, was that his room was white. A rather dirty white at that, a sort of cream-like color really, only much, much uglier. "Ugh." he mumbled, "Wh-where.?"
"Don't speak." A soft voice cautioned, "Just rest for a while, you got beat up rather badly you know."
"W-wh. who?" Naruto ignored the voice and tried to pull himself upright, only to find that a tiny poke to his chest pinned him to his bed like a butterfly pinned to a wall.
"I said rest," repeated the voice. "Doctors orders you know."
"She's right you know, heck, I doubt anyone could possibly be more right than her." Came a second voice, one that Naruto recognized as belonging to Jiraiya. "Then again, she does seem to be acting a little senile lately."
"Senile!" Screeched the first voice, which was followed by, as close as Naruto could tell, the sound of violence alongside Jiraiya's voice begging for mercy. "Who's the senile one?" Naruto mentally winced at a particularly nasty sounding series of screams from Jiraiya. "Certainly not me, old pervert!"
Stretching out, Naruto yawned - the exhaustion caused by his continued healing only just no registering in his mind. As he shuffled around slightly to get comfortable, he heard two people leaving the room, the psycho woman and Jiraiya presumably. Idly he noted that he still didn't actually know where he was, or how he got there. Eventually, however, he decided to just not worry about it for the moment, after all, someone was bound to tell him what happened sooner or later.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A few days after the swamp mud incident, Temari had finally gotten the smell of the horrible, sticky, mass off of her. It had been highly embarrassing to have to go through life with the smell that the mud had practically imbued into her - even multiple bathings and scrubbings had failed to get it off on that first day. Whoever had been behind the prank was destined to pay, or at least so she had sworn after finding out how much of the smell clung had to her.
Unfortunately she had yet to find any clues as to who was behind the prank other than a brief tale from Sakura about how she vaguely remembered Naruto pulling off something similar around a year or two ago. Fortunately for Naruto, he was beyond suspicion since he was still miles away from the village.
Or at least he would be if he knew what was good for him.
Nevertheless... Temari, at present, suspected most of the village's inhabitants. Whilst many of the more experienced, or at least open-minded, villagers had decided to just ignore her on the premise that there was nothing they could do to make her leave anyway, there were still some who wished to see her gone.
"Temari-sensei! Temari-sensei!"
On the other hand, however, there were many who wanted her to stay for one reason or another. Amongst these were a handful of academy student, some of whom were in the class Temari taught, all of which practically idolized the blonde-haired girl.
There was only one slight problem. A trifling thing actually, one some people would shrug off with a laugh. Needless to say that Temari, unfortunately, was not one of those people. You see, at the present moment in time Temari was not, exactly, a blonde haired girl. For, due to the machinations of some despicable being - presumably the same one that had been behind the swamp mud incident, Temari's hair was no longer the glorious color of fine sand.
No, right now her hair was, to her disgust, an orange-brown color that was somewhat reminiscent of freshly dug red clay. Apparently someone had pulled a particularly well planned prank by preparing a bottle of the shampoo Naruto used and, somehow, using a variation of Kawarimi no jutsu to switch it with a bottle she had just been about to purchase. Admittedly, the shampoo Naruto used wasn't particularly kind to her hair, but then it wasn't like she had much choice in what she bought. After all, she hadn't yet received any form of pay for the work she was currently doing and, although there was enough food to last her until she did receive it, there wasn't' enough money to spend on trying a different, and more expensive, brand of shampoo.
"Temari-sensei!" The collective voices of several girls cried once more, prompting Temari to spin on one foot to face the speakers.
"What do you want!?" She barked, glaring at them as if she was a monster who's dinner plans included the children standing before her.
When it became apparent that not a single one of the girls was even so much as trembling in fright, the ex-Sand-nin smiled slightly. Granted, the girls were annoying, clumsy and enough to drive anyone crazy but... well, they respected her enough to actually try to learn from her. Around the village female ninja, kunoichi, were in fact rather uncommon. Granted there were women like Anko and Yuuhi who both rose up to Jounin level and, in Anko's case, beyond it. Those women, however, had usually progressed so far at the expense of the things that made most female ninja stop at chuunin level - love, husbands and family for example.
Temari nodded to the girls, causing them to break out into wide grins at her noting of their upholding her first lesson - never show fear. Not that the girls had suffered any difficulty with that... The boys at the academy, on the other hand, still made sure there was something solid between themselves and Temari whenever she entered the classroom.
The leader of the small group of girls, a mischievous girl with black hair - which she had done up in a style similar to Temari's - stepped forwards. "Sabakuno-sensei!" She declared, referring to Temari by her family name. "We delivered the message like you instructed us to!" She reported, both herself and the rest of the group breaking into wide grins. "At exactly three hours past noon Lee-san received, and read, the message you entrusted to us!"
Temari nodded as the girl rattled off a rather large amount of miscellaneous details such as the response to reading the message, the reply they had been given and, surprisingly, a lot of unneeded information. Sighing to herself, the Genin-level temporary instructor leant forwards and poked the girl in the forehead with one outstretched finger.
"You," She began, "Don't need to give me so many details." Almost instantly the loud girl blushed in embarrassment and stared at the floor as the rest of the group closed in - sensing that Temari was going to give them a new lesson. "Remember this girls," she instructed, "During many missions a report to the one in charge of your squad is important. However, equally important is the time wasted in giving the report to them. This is why any report you give should be clear, concise and contain only the relevant information." She glanced at the girl she had just reprimanded and nodded. "Whilst you did get all the important details down, I really didn't need to know what types of flowers were in his room at the hospital - even if they were daffodils."
The girls all backed away slightly and began whispering to themselves as they digested this new piece of advice from the girl - and teacher - that was rapidly becoming their idol. Then, like the ninja-in-training that they were, they vanished. Well, actually they just made a mad dash out of sight, but the intent was there at least.
Actually, one of the girls had remained behind.
"uhm." She was one of the smaller girls, Fuyumi was her name. At least, that's what Temari thought, and felt pretty sure, that it was. The girl was a tiny little thing with wavy shoulder-length white hair that swayed in the wind as she poked her fingers together whilst eying Temari's hair. "Sabakuno-sensei. uhm. your hair."
Temari winced slightly and bought one hand up to tug at the hair that fell in front of her face. Bringing the strands she held into her line of sight she sighed and let go, allowing them to fall back into their natural position. "It's. nothing." She lied, "Just an accident, that's all."
"Well... um... i... I think it looks... nice." Fuyumi stated, before blushing madly and vanishing in a cloud of smoke. Temari raised an eyebrow as the smoke cleared, clearly interested at the fact that the young student could perform such a trick, even when some of the older children from the year above still couldn't.
"Thanks..." Murmured the older girl. "I think."
A few minutes later she was still standing there, holding out a lock of her currently brown-red hair out so that she could see it.
"Dammit." She whispered, "What will Naruto say?"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"So, you're telling me that he's been engaged already?" Whispered the older blonde-haired woman as the party of four strolled down a dusty path that lead to a nearby town. She wore a specially tailored do-gi of a flannel- like material what consisted of black, loose, trousers and a much lighter - almost white - top that was held shut by a black belt around her waist. Over the top of this, fluttering in the wind, she wore a dark red cape-like coat that appeared to be made from high quality silk.
Next to her, Naruto's sometimes tutor - the pervert Jiraiya - snorted in annoyance. "Pfff. Yeah. I don't even think the kid knows about what sort of things this could entail, you know?" Seeing his companion raise an questioning eyebrow, the self-proclaimed 'super pervert' glanced over to where Naruto and his companion's assistant, Shizune, were chatting away. "Dammit Tsunade, he doesn't even know about sex yet. I would have thought that someone should have seen to explaining something as potentially dangerous as that to him given his circumstances."
The woman, Tsunade, glared at the white haired man. "Did I hear right?" She asked, "Did you, the greatest known pervert in the world, just say sex was 'dangerous' ?"
"Hmph!" Jiraiya snorted and stated at the sky for a few moments before his gaze slowly made it's way to being focused on Naruto. "Naruto isn't ready for the complications that could cause. When I found out about this I went straight to the people who arranged this - it turns out that they just assumed he'd wait until he was mature enough to handle the consequences. You know, like children." Jiraiya swung a vicious kick at a pebble on the ground, his foot propelling the tiny rock shard with such force that it blasted into the air like a small rocket. "Didn't those damn fools even think for one second!? How could he possibly know when he will be mature enough when he doesn't even know what it is he should be mature enough for!?"
"I suppose, for once, you're right old man." Whispered the medical legend. "So what do you plan to do about it? He doesn't deserve the problems not knowing could cause, just because no-one cared enough to explain it to him when they should have done." Tsunade smiled slightly as she watched the orange-clad boy wave his arms around as he described what could only have been a fight of some sort to Shizune.
"No," She whispered, "He deserves better than that, a boy like him."
Jiraiya smirked as he slowed his step to fall behind Tsunade slightly. "Well, I'm planning on explaining as much as I can to him when we get to the next town." He muttered, his line of sight travelling down until it rested upon Tsunade's rear. "It'd help to have you on hand afterwards to explain some of the things which happen afterwards I expect. You do, after all, know more about children than I do."
"Well, I am the medical specialist after all." Tsunade replied, moments before her eyes slipped into an exasperated frown. "Jiraiya... If you're staring at me the way I think you are, I'll kick you so hard that you won't be able to think about women in the same way for the next year at least."
The toad-sennin laughed nervously and quickened his pace to walk in front of Tsunade as an effort to convince her that he hadn't been staring.
Such a kick would probably have been worth it when they were younger but now... No. There was just too much between them now for anything like that to be worth it anymore.
"- was this big!" He heard Naruto exclaim, as the hyperactive little ninja hopped into the air with one arm stretched up as high as he could get it. "No, it must have been bigger than that!" Came the annoyed whine as Naruto's feet touched the ground again.
Next to him walked Shizune, wearing her usual body-net shirt underneath a dark colored light kimono. She smiled at Naruto's boasting, nodding every so often to urge him to continue with his - slightly exaggerated - tale.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"She's settling in quite well, wouldn't you say?" Asked the first of the two ninja who, hidden in a hollow they hade made just under the roof of a building, were watching as Temari taught her class at the academy. Both he and his companion had been watching the Sand-nin girl from almost the day she arrived at the village. Well. Actually he, with his enhanced sight, had been doing most of the watching.
"Most of the adults are still against her, but I think there may be enough connections for us to proceed with the plan soon enough." The second watcher, who appeared to be more interested in the people passing in the street below, sighed. "Damn, it'll be good to get out of this hell-hole and head back to the mountains." She winced and pulled a small fan from her jacket and began waving it in front of her face. "It's too damned hot here, I'm not used to being anywhere that snow doesn't fall every day."
"Calm yourself Hokane, I heard that the nine-tails brat and the sennin passed through one of the gambling towns about a week or so from here." He shrugged, "So we wait for them to come back then we need to draw her out alone. Any ideas?"
The woman stretched herself out and began to fan herself a little faster. "Bait, one of her students perhaps? Wait. Actually, we could use one of that group of girls - you know, the one's who seem to follow her everywhere?"
The man grinned. "She does seem to speak with them more than anyone else, doesn't she? Fair enough, when the brat returns you can make the girl wander out - leading our target right into an ambush."
"And then we can finally leave this place!" Half exclaimed, half squealed the man's partner.
"Fair enough." Muttered the man, "We grab her and pass by you-know-who to drop her off. Once that's done we can go home."
Next to him, the young woman glanced around before looking at her companion. "You... can look after things here for a while, right? I... I want to go see something before we have to leave, okay?"
"Yeah, yeah," The man waved his hand in a vaguely dismissive, and uncaring, manner. "Whatever." That said, he turned his attention back to watching his target, blinking only once as the cold chill that was caused as his partner vanished from the hiding spot faster than anyone could see. An act which, of course, meant that air rushed to fill in the space in which she had occupied, causing both the cold chill he felt as well as a barely audible 'pop' of in-rushing air.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Ahhh..." Naruto sighed as he flopped backwards onto the small bed that his room had been furnished with. The room, like all the others in the small travel-inn the group had chosen to stay the night at, was small and contained only the essentials for a nights stay - such as a bed, a small washbasin and a tiny little table. A short walk down the hallway outside the room led to a pair of artificial springs which, while not as good as the real thing, had practically turned Naruto to jelly after a short period of relaxation in their warm waters.
An urgent knocking at the door to his room caused Naruto to roll over and crawl to the door on all fours. After a few moments of scrabbling at a door- handle that was just out of reach, the genin succeeded in opening the door and crawled back to the bed. Behind him followed the unimpressed form of his mentor - a mentally unstable mentor no less - Jiraiya.
"You know," began the older man, " I did tell you not to stay in the water for so long. You're still too small to spend all too long in water that hot."
"Bah." Naruto grunted and managed to squirm his way into a sitting position that left him propped up against the wall at the head of the bed. "You just wait! I'll kick your ass you... open pervert!" The fox-like boy glared at the white-haired toad-sennin, as he attempted to feign innocence at Naruto's yell. "You didn't even get in the water! You just sat there up against the fence!"
Jiraiya merely shrugged and looked heavenwards with what could only be called an attempt at a face filled with purity and light. "There is nothing wrong with sitting against a fence, Naruto."
Needless to say, Naruto wasn't fooled for even a second. Swinging a lazy punch at Jiraiya's leg - a punch which unfortunately never made contact - he opened his mouth and yelled at the older man. "It is when it's the fence between the men's side and the women's side! And you weren't sitting! You were peeping!" The boy sat grumbling for a minute before looking up at his teacher with a questioning look upon his face.
"Why," he asked, "Why do you peep all the time anyway? I... I mean, once you've seen one you've seen it all right? So... what's the point?"
Jiraiya blinked, then fell to his knees and pressed his face up close against Naruto's, their noses almost touching. "You. Idiot." He stated, before retreating to a much more respectable distance. "Do you really think all young women look the same? Are you really that naïve, boy!?"
"Well, uh," Naruto began, before he was cut off by Jiraiya's palm slicing through the air a rather uncomfortably close distance from his face.
"No more 'lil chikadee, it seems you're in need of some eyes on experience in these matters." Jiraiya sighed lustily, "Every woman is like a new day - different and exciting, the way their hair waves in the breeze, the way the light sparkles in their eyes," he grinned slightly. "Even the way the move is amazing... Of course you have the clothes they wear - or don't, as the case may be, and naturally their chests but... that isn't as important as the rest of it."
Naruto looked at his teacher with half open eyes. "Pfff..." He tilted his head slightly, looking away from the old man. "Yeah, right." Suddenly he shot his arm out an pointed at Jiraiya, the tip of his finger less than an inch from the white-haired man's nose. "You're just an open-pervert!" He exclaimed, "And you know it!"
"Ha!" The old man laughed, "Boy, you would sing a different tune if you had but the exper... i... ance." As his voice trailed off on the last word, Jiraiya's mouth widened into a grin. It was, Naruto dimly thought, similar to the sorts of grins he possessed whenever he was planning to pull a prank or something similar.
"Oh no. No. No. No." Naruto waved his hands in front of his face, as if to ward off his teacher. Needless to say that it had about as much effect as an umbrella against a monsoon. Within moments Jiraiya had grabbed the boy by one arm and dragged him out of the room - despite Naruto's protests about the fact that he was clad only in his pajamas.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"... Dammit." Temari's voice whispered across the space between where she sat and where her companion for lunch sat. "Why can't they be back already?"
"Well, last I heard there had been some sort of explosion in one of the big cities east of here." Sakura nodded to herself before returning to munch on the rice-ball she held.
Needless to say, the currently brown-haired, though normally blond-haired girl opposite her frowned. "An explosion? What does that have to do with anything related to Naruto?" She asked, her face slipping into a frown.
"Dear Temari," Began Sakura, causing Temari to almost choke on her own food as she tried to glared at the pink-haired genin girl. "Naruto left east, right? Do you really think it's a coincidence that an explosion just happens to occur in a major city in the direction Naruto was travelling?" Sakura grinned to herself before she dropped the last fact she had overheard her parents discussing that morning. "Besides, according to the rumors several people saw some giant animals fighting each other some distance away a little while afterwards. I'm pretty sure that the old guy Naruto was travelling with is probably of high enough skill to summon something like that."
That got Temari's attention quickly enough, "Giant animals?" She asked, her eyes locked onto Sakura, her gaze as intent as that of an eagle and her voice... well, that would have been just as intent had eagles been capable of speech. "Did anyone say what animals they were?"
Slightly taken aback by the seemingly urgent directness in Temari's voice and attitude, Sakura stuttered a little as she tried her best to remember what she had heard. "A-a... a snake, I remember hearing about that one and, uhm, I think they said there was a slug too..."
"And a toad." Stated Temari.
"A frog or to-" Sakura blinked. Then she frowned slightly, "Hey, how did you know?"
The brown-haired girl grinned and ran one hand through her dyed hair. "I guess it's certain then, Naruto was there - and if there was all that fighting, which then stopped, then he is probably finished and on his way back now." She grinned, baring her teeth in a smile that was both slightly reassuring and slightly predatory, "And as to how I know this? Well, Naruto has summoned a giant toad before - it only stands to reason that he could do it again."
Chapter 12 - ended
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Authors notes: -
Uhhh. damn. This one is late. Yes. Very late. Really late. .
Basically I was under block. Then dead for a while. Then bogged down under an evil, evil, EVIL!Essay. Of evilness. Yes.
(nb: EVIL!Essay bears no relation to EVIL!Manta. Should you actually understand that sentence, then you probably know the same people I know, thus putting one (or is it two?) degrees of separation between us.)
Anyway. I would have extended it a bit longer but, well, this seemed like a good cutoff point and I really didn't want to make you people wait any longer... ^^;;
And, as a last point - yes, yes, I know that it was Jiraiya that summoned Gamabunta in the fight that the girls are talking about at the end. But they don't know that. Temari, however, was present and conscious when Naruto summoned him much earlier though, so it's simple enough for her to put two and two together and get the wrong conclusion there.
Anyway. Whee. My chapter plans got changed. How... fun. But I suppose it's for the best, since I think it was my planning which precipitated the block and deadness in the first place. Dammit! From here on out, now more chapter- by-chapter planning! (Although overall plot arc planning is fine ^.^;; I may be dumb, but I'm not stupid.)
A Naruto fanfiction. By Lackey H
Chapter 12 - Actions
"Hyaaah!" Naruto screamed as the backlash from his Rasengan washed over him like water made of glass shards. His orange overalls gained a collection of new rips and tears in addition to those they were already covered with.
That, unfortunately, was one of the big problems with the second tier of the Rasengan technique. No matter where he aimed, or how well he tried to shield his body, the sheer force of the air pressure from the wind spiral always tore into him worse than any blade could have done. Hopefully when he mastered the technique, by perfecting the third and final tier of the move, he wouldn't have to put up with having both him and his clothing partially shredded each time he used it.
The third tier.
Not that he'd made much progress in that so far, not even non-stop practicing had given him any hints as to how to get it right.
Well. He would.
He would succeed.
Dammit! He was not going to lose the bet he made with that freakishly strong old woman, even if Jiraiya insisted that she was Tsunade, one of the famous three ninja!
Pulling himself to his feet from where the air pressure had sent him sprawling, Naruto held up one clenched fist in front of his face, his eyes burning with conviction. "I will master the Rasengan!" He yelled, his declaration echoing around the somewhat devastated area he had been practicing in.
Minutes later he was flung to the ground, yet more shallow cuts adorning both him and his clothing.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The days were ticking past quite rapidly now. Not that they were any shorter though, it was just that they were so repetitive. Every day it was the same routine for her - wake up, spend several hours teaching, go home and eat, go train with Asuma-sensei and Sakura.
All in all, Temari was of the opinion that life was pretty good. Granted she was still upset over her continued failure to procure a new fan - or materials to make one herself. On the other hand, though, her lack of a weapon was forcing her into training her unarmed taijutsu skills, along with a few basic genin-level ninjutsu and genjutsu. Nothing spectacular, just a simple fire jutsu - nothing more than a small spark really - and some better genjutsu defenses.
Then, of course, there was that.
Her big secret, the special technique she was learning from one of her scrolls, the one skill that she intended to show off at the next scheduled chuunin exam. Well, either then or whenever someone next angered her enough to warrant it's use at least. Still, she had to master if first - at present she could barely muster up enough concentration to get it working whilst standing still when, really, she really needed to be able to perform it mid-combat.
Ah well, she had time enough to practice it away from prying eyes.
"Temari-san!" Temari blinked as she heard her name being called atop the sound of someone beating on the door to her - Naruto's - home. Grumbling she pulled herself to her feet and, letting her currently gathered chakra dissipate harmlessly, stalked out of the training room.
"Temari-san!" Hmm, the voice was vaguely familiar but it didn't sound like anyone that she could recognize very well. The thick wood of the front door muffled the voice enough to make it difficult to tell if it belonged to a girl or a child. This of course was a slight problem, mainly because Temari really didn't feel like answering the questions of the small fan base she had apparently developed amongst her students. On the other hand, she also didn't feel like dealing with the various village girls who were jealous of her, somewhat exotic, looks.
"What!?" Temari swung the front door open wide, her yell clearly displaying her irritation at being interrupted in her training.
The next thing she knew, a bucket of something wet and sticky impacted against her chest, covering the front of her shirt in its contents before falling to the floor, making a pool of sticky liquid around her feet.
Standing as still and as unmovable as a statue of iron, Temari stared into space. Then, slowly, one hand reached up and touched her sticky shirt before then moving to bring a glob of the slimy substance up in front of her face. A small sniff confirmed her suspicion - she had just been covered in what was, apparently, swamp mud.
Very, very, smelly swamp mud. It smelt as if she'd just been splattered in a mixture of rotten eggs, raw sewage and more than a little rotting meat. Given that it was swamp mud, there was the possibility of any of those three things actually being present in it. Naturally, however, Temari had but one thing to say before she spun on her foot and stalked - quickly - to the bathroom.
"Someone is going to pay for this."
If she had stuck around a few moments longer, she would have noticed the pale gleam of two pearly eyes in the shadows of a building across the street from Naruto's home. Also, she would have heard a faint giggle as the two eyes faded from view. That, thought Hyuuga Hinata as she made good her escape, had actually been pretty fun - no wonder Naruto had loved doing such things.
Now then, what would Naruto do next?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Naruto lunged forwards, the arms of the clone beside him blurring as the batted and rolled the ferocious winds that lay on his palm into a perfect sphere. Wide eyed, the medical spy Kabuto could do nothing to avoid the roaring ball of slicing winds as it slammed into his chest - hurling him away from Naruto and biting deep into his abdomen.
Well, actually he had dodged it in the best way possible - by rolling with the blow and pulling away from Naruto in an attempt to lessen the damage. Admittedly, his plan had worked - barely, he still had an abdomen left after being hit. This was, given the sheer power of the Rasengan technique - even in the still unskilled hands of Naruto, an incredible feat in and of itself.
Naruto coughed as his previous injuries, and also the loss of energy from using both Kage Bunshin and Rasengan, catching up to him. A crimson spray of blood erupted from his mouth to splatter upon the dusty rock floor as his body began to give up on itself. His vision dimmed and he began falling to the floor, his last sight being that of Kabuto managing to stand up despite his injuries, then darkness claimed him and he knew no more.
The next thing Naruto knew, was that his room was white. A rather dirty white at that, a sort of cream-like color really, only much, much uglier. "Ugh." he mumbled, "Wh-where.?"
"Don't speak." A soft voice cautioned, "Just rest for a while, you got beat up rather badly you know."
"W-wh. who?" Naruto ignored the voice and tried to pull himself upright, only to find that a tiny poke to his chest pinned him to his bed like a butterfly pinned to a wall.
"I said rest," repeated the voice. "Doctors orders you know."
"She's right you know, heck, I doubt anyone could possibly be more right than her." Came a second voice, one that Naruto recognized as belonging to Jiraiya. "Then again, she does seem to be acting a little senile lately."
"Senile!" Screeched the first voice, which was followed by, as close as Naruto could tell, the sound of violence alongside Jiraiya's voice begging for mercy. "Who's the senile one?" Naruto mentally winced at a particularly nasty sounding series of screams from Jiraiya. "Certainly not me, old pervert!"
Stretching out, Naruto yawned - the exhaustion caused by his continued healing only just no registering in his mind. As he shuffled around slightly to get comfortable, he heard two people leaving the room, the psycho woman and Jiraiya presumably. Idly he noted that he still didn't actually know where he was, or how he got there. Eventually, however, he decided to just not worry about it for the moment, after all, someone was bound to tell him what happened sooner or later.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A few days after the swamp mud incident, Temari had finally gotten the smell of the horrible, sticky, mass off of her. It had been highly embarrassing to have to go through life with the smell that the mud had practically imbued into her - even multiple bathings and scrubbings had failed to get it off on that first day. Whoever had been behind the prank was destined to pay, or at least so she had sworn after finding out how much of the smell clung had to her.
Unfortunately she had yet to find any clues as to who was behind the prank other than a brief tale from Sakura about how she vaguely remembered Naruto pulling off something similar around a year or two ago. Fortunately for Naruto, he was beyond suspicion since he was still miles away from the village.
Or at least he would be if he knew what was good for him.
Nevertheless... Temari, at present, suspected most of the village's inhabitants. Whilst many of the more experienced, or at least open-minded, villagers had decided to just ignore her on the premise that there was nothing they could do to make her leave anyway, there were still some who wished to see her gone.
"Temari-sensei! Temari-sensei!"
On the other hand, however, there were many who wanted her to stay for one reason or another. Amongst these were a handful of academy student, some of whom were in the class Temari taught, all of which practically idolized the blonde-haired girl.
There was only one slight problem. A trifling thing actually, one some people would shrug off with a laugh. Needless to say that Temari, unfortunately, was not one of those people. You see, at the present moment in time Temari was not, exactly, a blonde haired girl. For, due to the machinations of some despicable being - presumably the same one that had been behind the swamp mud incident, Temari's hair was no longer the glorious color of fine sand.
No, right now her hair was, to her disgust, an orange-brown color that was somewhat reminiscent of freshly dug red clay. Apparently someone had pulled a particularly well planned prank by preparing a bottle of the shampoo Naruto used and, somehow, using a variation of Kawarimi no jutsu to switch it with a bottle she had just been about to purchase. Admittedly, the shampoo Naruto used wasn't particularly kind to her hair, but then it wasn't like she had much choice in what she bought. After all, she hadn't yet received any form of pay for the work she was currently doing and, although there was enough food to last her until she did receive it, there wasn't' enough money to spend on trying a different, and more expensive, brand of shampoo.
"Temari-sensei!" The collective voices of several girls cried once more, prompting Temari to spin on one foot to face the speakers.
"What do you want!?" She barked, glaring at them as if she was a monster who's dinner plans included the children standing before her.
When it became apparent that not a single one of the girls was even so much as trembling in fright, the ex-Sand-nin smiled slightly. Granted, the girls were annoying, clumsy and enough to drive anyone crazy but... well, they respected her enough to actually try to learn from her. Around the village female ninja, kunoichi, were in fact rather uncommon. Granted there were women like Anko and Yuuhi who both rose up to Jounin level and, in Anko's case, beyond it. Those women, however, had usually progressed so far at the expense of the things that made most female ninja stop at chuunin level - love, husbands and family for example.
Temari nodded to the girls, causing them to break out into wide grins at her noting of their upholding her first lesson - never show fear. Not that the girls had suffered any difficulty with that... The boys at the academy, on the other hand, still made sure there was something solid between themselves and Temari whenever she entered the classroom.
The leader of the small group of girls, a mischievous girl with black hair - which she had done up in a style similar to Temari's - stepped forwards. "Sabakuno-sensei!" She declared, referring to Temari by her family name. "We delivered the message like you instructed us to!" She reported, both herself and the rest of the group breaking into wide grins. "At exactly three hours past noon Lee-san received, and read, the message you entrusted to us!"
Temari nodded as the girl rattled off a rather large amount of miscellaneous details such as the response to reading the message, the reply they had been given and, surprisingly, a lot of unneeded information. Sighing to herself, the Genin-level temporary instructor leant forwards and poked the girl in the forehead with one outstretched finger.
"You," She began, "Don't need to give me so many details." Almost instantly the loud girl blushed in embarrassment and stared at the floor as the rest of the group closed in - sensing that Temari was going to give them a new lesson. "Remember this girls," she instructed, "During many missions a report to the one in charge of your squad is important. However, equally important is the time wasted in giving the report to them. This is why any report you give should be clear, concise and contain only the relevant information." She glanced at the girl she had just reprimanded and nodded. "Whilst you did get all the important details down, I really didn't need to know what types of flowers were in his room at the hospital - even if they were daffodils."
The girls all backed away slightly and began whispering to themselves as they digested this new piece of advice from the girl - and teacher - that was rapidly becoming their idol. Then, like the ninja-in-training that they were, they vanished. Well, actually they just made a mad dash out of sight, but the intent was there at least.
Actually, one of the girls had remained behind.
"uhm." She was one of the smaller girls, Fuyumi was her name. At least, that's what Temari thought, and felt pretty sure, that it was. The girl was a tiny little thing with wavy shoulder-length white hair that swayed in the wind as she poked her fingers together whilst eying Temari's hair. "Sabakuno-sensei. uhm. your hair."
Temari winced slightly and bought one hand up to tug at the hair that fell in front of her face. Bringing the strands she held into her line of sight she sighed and let go, allowing them to fall back into their natural position. "It's. nothing." She lied, "Just an accident, that's all."
"Well... um... i... I think it looks... nice." Fuyumi stated, before blushing madly and vanishing in a cloud of smoke. Temari raised an eyebrow as the smoke cleared, clearly interested at the fact that the young student could perform such a trick, even when some of the older children from the year above still couldn't.
"Thanks..." Murmured the older girl. "I think."
A few minutes later she was still standing there, holding out a lock of her currently brown-red hair out so that she could see it.
"Dammit." She whispered, "What will Naruto say?"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"So, you're telling me that he's been engaged already?" Whispered the older blonde-haired woman as the party of four strolled down a dusty path that lead to a nearby town. She wore a specially tailored do-gi of a flannel- like material what consisted of black, loose, trousers and a much lighter - almost white - top that was held shut by a black belt around her waist. Over the top of this, fluttering in the wind, she wore a dark red cape-like coat that appeared to be made from high quality silk.
Next to her, Naruto's sometimes tutor - the pervert Jiraiya - snorted in annoyance. "Pfff. Yeah. I don't even think the kid knows about what sort of things this could entail, you know?" Seeing his companion raise an questioning eyebrow, the self-proclaimed 'super pervert' glanced over to where Naruto and his companion's assistant, Shizune, were chatting away. "Dammit Tsunade, he doesn't even know about sex yet. I would have thought that someone should have seen to explaining something as potentially dangerous as that to him given his circumstances."
The woman, Tsunade, glared at the white haired man. "Did I hear right?" She asked, "Did you, the greatest known pervert in the world, just say sex was 'dangerous' ?"
"Hmph!" Jiraiya snorted and stated at the sky for a few moments before his gaze slowly made it's way to being focused on Naruto. "Naruto isn't ready for the complications that could cause. When I found out about this I went straight to the people who arranged this - it turns out that they just assumed he'd wait until he was mature enough to handle the consequences. You know, like children." Jiraiya swung a vicious kick at a pebble on the ground, his foot propelling the tiny rock shard with such force that it blasted into the air like a small rocket. "Didn't those damn fools even think for one second!? How could he possibly know when he will be mature enough when he doesn't even know what it is he should be mature enough for!?"
"I suppose, for once, you're right old man." Whispered the medical legend. "So what do you plan to do about it? He doesn't deserve the problems not knowing could cause, just because no-one cared enough to explain it to him when they should have done." Tsunade smiled slightly as she watched the orange-clad boy wave his arms around as he described what could only have been a fight of some sort to Shizune.
"No," She whispered, "He deserves better than that, a boy like him."
Jiraiya smirked as he slowed his step to fall behind Tsunade slightly. "Well, I'm planning on explaining as much as I can to him when we get to the next town." He muttered, his line of sight travelling down until it rested upon Tsunade's rear. "It'd help to have you on hand afterwards to explain some of the things which happen afterwards I expect. You do, after all, know more about children than I do."
"Well, I am the medical specialist after all." Tsunade replied, moments before her eyes slipped into an exasperated frown. "Jiraiya... If you're staring at me the way I think you are, I'll kick you so hard that you won't be able to think about women in the same way for the next year at least."
The toad-sennin laughed nervously and quickened his pace to walk in front of Tsunade as an effort to convince her that he hadn't been staring.
Such a kick would probably have been worth it when they were younger but now... No. There was just too much between them now for anything like that to be worth it anymore.
"- was this big!" He heard Naruto exclaim, as the hyperactive little ninja hopped into the air with one arm stretched up as high as he could get it. "No, it must have been bigger than that!" Came the annoyed whine as Naruto's feet touched the ground again.
Next to him walked Shizune, wearing her usual body-net shirt underneath a dark colored light kimono. She smiled at Naruto's boasting, nodding every so often to urge him to continue with his - slightly exaggerated - tale.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"She's settling in quite well, wouldn't you say?" Asked the first of the two ninja who, hidden in a hollow they hade made just under the roof of a building, were watching as Temari taught her class at the academy. Both he and his companion had been watching the Sand-nin girl from almost the day she arrived at the village. Well. Actually he, with his enhanced sight, had been doing most of the watching.
"Most of the adults are still against her, but I think there may be enough connections for us to proceed with the plan soon enough." The second watcher, who appeared to be more interested in the people passing in the street below, sighed. "Damn, it'll be good to get out of this hell-hole and head back to the mountains." She winced and pulled a small fan from her jacket and began waving it in front of her face. "It's too damned hot here, I'm not used to being anywhere that snow doesn't fall every day."
"Calm yourself Hokane, I heard that the nine-tails brat and the sennin passed through one of the gambling towns about a week or so from here." He shrugged, "So we wait for them to come back then we need to draw her out alone. Any ideas?"
The woman stretched herself out and began to fan herself a little faster. "Bait, one of her students perhaps? Wait. Actually, we could use one of that group of girls - you know, the one's who seem to follow her everywhere?"
The man grinned. "She does seem to speak with them more than anyone else, doesn't she? Fair enough, when the brat returns you can make the girl wander out - leading our target right into an ambush."
"And then we can finally leave this place!" Half exclaimed, half squealed the man's partner.
"Fair enough." Muttered the man, "We grab her and pass by you-know-who to drop her off. Once that's done we can go home."
Next to him, the young woman glanced around before looking at her companion. "You... can look after things here for a while, right? I... I want to go see something before we have to leave, okay?"
"Yeah, yeah," The man waved his hand in a vaguely dismissive, and uncaring, manner. "Whatever." That said, he turned his attention back to watching his target, blinking only once as the cold chill that was caused as his partner vanished from the hiding spot faster than anyone could see. An act which, of course, meant that air rushed to fill in the space in which she had occupied, causing both the cold chill he felt as well as a barely audible 'pop' of in-rushing air.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Ahhh..." Naruto sighed as he flopped backwards onto the small bed that his room had been furnished with. The room, like all the others in the small travel-inn the group had chosen to stay the night at, was small and contained only the essentials for a nights stay - such as a bed, a small washbasin and a tiny little table. A short walk down the hallway outside the room led to a pair of artificial springs which, while not as good as the real thing, had practically turned Naruto to jelly after a short period of relaxation in their warm waters.
An urgent knocking at the door to his room caused Naruto to roll over and crawl to the door on all fours. After a few moments of scrabbling at a door- handle that was just out of reach, the genin succeeded in opening the door and crawled back to the bed. Behind him followed the unimpressed form of his mentor - a mentally unstable mentor no less - Jiraiya.
"You know," began the older man, " I did tell you not to stay in the water for so long. You're still too small to spend all too long in water that hot."
"Bah." Naruto grunted and managed to squirm his way into a sitting position that left him propped up against the wall at the head of the bed. "You just wait! I'll kick your ass you... open pervert!" The fox-like boy glared at the white-haired toad-sennin, as he attempted to feign innocence at Naruto's yell. "You didn't even get in the water! You just sat there up against the fence!"
Jiraiya merely shrugged and looked heavenwards with what could only be called an attempt at a face filled with purity and light. "There is nothing wrong with sitting against a fence, Naruto."
Needless to say, Naruto wasn't fooled for even a second. Swinging a lazy punch at Jiraiya's leg - a punch which unfortunately never made contact - he opened his mouth and yelled at the older man. "It is when it's the fence between the men's side and the women's side! And you weren't sitting! You were peeping!" The boy sat grumbling for a minute before looking up at his teacher with a questioning look upon his face.
"Why," he asked, "Why do you peep all the time anyway? I... I mean, once you've seen one you've seen it all right? So... what's the point?"
Jiraiya blinked, then fell to his knees and pressed his face up close against Naruto's, their noses almost touching. "You. Idiot." He stated, before retreating to a much more respectable distance. "Do you really think all young women look the same? Are you really that naïve, boy!?"
"Well, uh," Naruto began, before he was cut off by Jiraiya's palm slicing through the air a rather uncomfortably close distance from his face.
"No more 'lil chikadee, it seems you're in need of some eyes on experience in these matters." Jiraiya sighed lustily, "Every woman is like a new day - different and exciting, the way their hair waves in the breeze, the way the light sparkles in their eyes," he grinned slightly. "Even the way the move is amazing... Of course you have the clothes they wear - or don't, as the case may be, and naturally their chests but... that isn't as important as the rest of it."
Naruto looked at his teacher with half open eyes. "Pfff..." He tilted his head slightly, looking away from the old man. "Yeah, right." Suddenly he shot his arm out an pointed at Jiraiya, the tip of his finger less than an inch from the white-haired man's nose. "You're just an open-pervert!" He exclaimed, "And you know it!"
"Ha!" The old man laughed, "Boy, you would sing a different tune if you had but the exper... i... ance." As his voice trailed off on the last word, Jiraiya's mouth widened into a grin. It was, Naruto dimly thought, similar to the sorts of grins he possessed whenever he was planning to pull a prank or something similar.
"Oh no. No. No. No." Naruto waved his hands in front of his face, as if to ward off his teacher. Needless to say that it had about as much effect as an umbrella against a monsoon. Within moments Jiraiya had grabbed the boy by one arm and dragged him out of the room - despite Naruto's protests about the fact that he was clad only in his pajamas.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"... Dammit." Temari's voice whispered across the space between where she sat and where her companion for lunch sat. "Why can't they be back already?"
"Well, last I heard there had been some sort of explosion in one of the big cities east of here." Sakura nodded to herself before returning to munch on the rice-ball she held.
Needless to say, the currently brown-haired, though normally blond-haired girl opposite her frowned. "An explosion? What does that have to do with anything related to Naruto?" She asked, her face slipping into a frown.
"Dear Temari," Began Sakura, causing Temari to almost choke on her own food as she tried to glared at the pink-haired genin girl. "Naruto left east, right? Do you really think it's a coincidence that an explosion just happens to occur in a major city in the direction Naruto was travelling?" Sakura grinned to herself before she dropped the last fact she had overheard her parents discussing that morning. "Besides, according to the rumors several people saw some giant animals fighting each other some distance away a little while afterwards. I'm pretty sure that the old guy Naruto was travelling with is probably of high enough skill to summon something like that."
That got Temari's attention quickly enough, "Giant animals?" She asked, her eyes locked onto Sakura, her gaze as intent as that of an eagle and her voice... well, that would have been just as intent had eagles been capable of speech. "Did anyone say what animals they were?"
Slightly taken aback by the seemingly urgent directness in Temari's voice and attitude, Sakura stuttered a little as she tried her best to remember what she had heard. "A-a... a snake, I remember hearing about that one and, uhm, I think they said there was a slug too..."
"And a toad." Stated Temari.
"A frog or to-" Sakura blinked. Then she frowned slightly, "Hey, how did you know?"
The brown-haired girl grinned and ran one hand through her dyed hair. "I guess it's certain then, Naruto was there - and if there was all that fighting, which then stopped, then he is probably finished and on his way back now." She grinned, baring her teeth in a smile that was both slightly reassuring and slightly predatory, "And as to how I know this? Well, Naruto has summoned a giant toad before - it only stands to reason that he could do it again."
Chapter 12 - ended
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Authors notes: -
Uhhh. damn. This one is late. Yes. Very late. Really late. .
Basically I was under block. Then dead for a while. Then bogged down under an evil, evil, EVIL!Essay. Of evilness. Yes.
(nb: EVIL!Essay bears no relation to EVIL!Manta. Should you actually understand that sentence, then you probably know the same people I know, thus putting one (or is it two?) degrees of separation between us.)
Anyway. I would have extended it a bit longer but, well, this seemed like a good cutoff point and I really didn't want to make you people wait any longer... ^^;;
And, as a last point - yes, yes, I know that it was Jiraiya that summoned Gamabunta in the fight that the girls are talking about at the end. But they don't know that. Temari, however, was present and conscious when Naruto summoned him much earlier though, so it's simple enough for her to put two and two together and get the wrong conclusion there.
Anyway. Whee. My chapter plans got changed. How... fun. But I suppose it's for the best, since I think it was my planning which precipitated the block and deadness in the first place. Dammit! From here on out, now more chapter- by-chapter planning! (Although overall plot arc planning is fine ^.^;; I may be dumb, but I'm not stupid.)