AN: Chapter title: The Search Interrupted: Sidetracked Part 1

Grunting filled the forest around the traveling pair of Shinobi.

"I'm surprised you're still going."

"I don't get tired easily Toad Sage."

"Fine, fine, show me up in endurance but I've got you in length."

"Really? You're getting that desperate?"

"Desperate? I'll have you know I've been doing this for more years than you've been alive! Technique matters here Naruto."

"If you insist. How does my technique look then?"

"Alright, alright. I'll give you the win kid."

Jiraiya only laughed as he finally dropped from the tree branch he had chosen for their rather impromptu pull-up challenge. Their morning training had somehow devolved into talk of which of them had more stamina than the other, a few cracks at Jiraiya's age that the older man had laughed off. Jiraiya had been against Naruto's first suggestion of a fight and had eventually talked him into something around an exercise. Naruto had thought for a moment before deciding on pull-ups. Over the next near hour, they had both gone up and down on their selected branch at a steady rhythm. He groaned as he stretched out his tired and sore arms. Naruto hung from his own selected branch a moment longer before he dropped to the ground as well.

While the older Shinobi could have kept going if he really felt like it, he also knew just how insane an Uzumaki's stamina could be. He had memories of Kushina beating him in a fair number of challenges back in the day, from Chakra based ones all the way to hanging by their fingertips above a pot of boiling water.

'That was a helluva day.' It was the last time he had let himself get drunk with Kushina, before she and Minato had planned to have a family. After that, an invitation to go drinking with a pregnant Kushina would've been tantamount to asking Minato to kick his ass.

Over the years, his number of drinking buddies had dwindled further and further until he could count them on one hand. It was a sad part of life.

"You did your best Toad Sage." Naruto stretched as well, was good at making it seem like he wasn't as tired as their challenge had made him. He turned to the pile he had thrown at the base of the tree, his Flak Jacket and equipment gathered there as well as the top of his outfit. Jiraiya had created a more orderly pile at the base of his own tree, set the large scroll he wore on his back on top to keep the wind from blowing any of it away. "Now, I get to name the next challenge."

"That was the deal." Jiraiya finished dressing quickly, turned to Naruto as he grabbed the belt holding his sword and the small blade he and the rest of his clone army carried. 'Still wondering what's that for.' He hadn't seen the Chunin use it yet, was curious if it was just for show or if it was something he knew how to fight with. "So, what is it going to be tomorrow?"

"…I don't have something yet. Give me a minute Toad Sage." Naruto rolled his shoulders, looked up to the sky through the trees. He wouldn't admit it but his mind was painfully blank. "Hmm. This may take a while."

Jiraiya laughed at the Chunin's answer, figured as much. It was hard to focus on two things when one of them was bring in a pull-up contest.

"Well, while you do that, I'm going to start on getting some breakfast." The white haired Shinobi headed over to the embers of their campfire, relit after a moment of work. It would be a while before the water would be heated enough. The Chunin with him gave up on trying to figure something out and joined the older Shinobi at the relit campfire.

Until they could get water boiling, Jiraiya focused more on drinking some water after their morning workout. When he offered the canteen to Naruto, the blonde accepted it without question. Once he was satisfied, and the canteen was near empty, Jiraiya took it back.

'We've been at this for a week by now. She's probably caught on at least a little to what I'm planning. But is she really going to show up at Tanzaku? What's drawing her there of all places at a time like this?' He knew she had fallen into a cycle of gambling and drinking, had some firsthand experience of it with the woman herself, but there were countless gambling dens around the Land of Fire alone.

'What's so special about it?' He prided himself on knowing information but this was something he had no information on. 'Why is she going to risk making a habit if sensei knows about it?'

He had called in a few favors from Gamabunta and had dozens, if not a solid hundred, of toads out and about in the Land of Fire. They had been busy, hopping from place to place in an attempt to cover nearly every gambling hole in the country. So far, they hadn't caught sight of Tsunade or her student, Shizune.

If the situation was different, if he had been looking for her for a personal reason instead of a mission from Hiruzen, he would be impressed.

'She's not a bad teacher.' Tsunade, for all her fall into her vices, for how her grief had drowned her, hadn't seemed to slack off in training Dan's niece into a more than capable Shinobi. 'Wonder if that helped her.' Teaching a student, passing on all the knowledge one had gathered, had a unique feeling to it.

Jiraiya himself had seen it firsthand, had experienced it with his own pupils. No matter the grief he carried at of having lost so many of his students, he couldn't find it in him to regret training them, in teaching them not only how to fight but, at least in his mind, how to live in this world of hatred and violence.

'Maybe that's the answer?' As difficult as finding Tsunade would or would not be, the truly hardest part of the mission assigned to him would undoubtedly be actually bringing her back to the village. 'I could offer to help her get that medical program she had in mind off the ground, convince her to put her talents to good use?'

Even the brief time he had spent with Shizune was enough to see how competent the woman was, how she excelled not only as a Medical-nin but as a Shinobi as well. She wasn't a monster in a fight but she was intelligent, was crafty, and had the skills to keep herself alive. And she had learned everything she knew from Tsunade. While she wasn't her equal in either the medical field or in Shinobi skills, Jiraiya would never underestimate the woman.

That was a swift way to end up either dead or dying.

'But what if that doesn't work?' Jiraiya didn't enjoy the idea of a fight between him and Tsunade but, if she refused his offer, he would need to use force. He spared a glance to Naruto. 'Maybe seeing that I'm traveling with the Jinchuriki will get her to listen to me?'

He just as quickly tossed the thought out.

'No. She's not stupid. She knows what it takes to control a Tailed Beast, won't take him seriously but she won't write him off as a joke either. I don't even know if she's got something to suppress the Chakra of a Tailed Beast.' When it came to knowledge of the human body and the Chakra Pathway System that existed within it, he was leagues behind Tsunade and Orochimaru.

At best, he knew First Aid, knew how to patch himself up and stay in a fight.

'This is going to be a headache.'

He withheld the desire to sigh at the mess that awaited him as the water began to boil in the midst of his thoughts. He was about to move but Naruto was a step ahead of him, already pouring a few of the packs of ramen they had gotten from the last village into the pot.

"So, excited to see a place like Takigakure? Most foreign Shinobi don't really get a chance to get even a glimpse of the place." 'And its bad enough we've been invited.' The messenger had approached them just yesterday, right before Jiraiya had decided to settle down for the night. After the Jonin had almost snuck up on him to deliver the message, they had traveled for an hour more to put distance between them and the village. Jiraiya had done his best to put any attempt to follow them firmly in the futile category but covering more than just his own tracks wasn't easy.

Jiraiya didn't exactly like camping this close to a known enemy, camping in what was very possibly enemy territory, but he didn't have much of a choice.

Takigakure was expecting them tomorrow. Leaving in the middle of the night would paint them as either cowards, give rise to too many rumors to put down, or have Shinobi feeling slighted, feel that they have to send a message in another way.

He was trying to curb any violence in a time of turmoil for Konohagakure, not cause it.

"You told me they built it around a giant tree, it doesn't sound that interesting." Naruto appeared to be more focused on stirring the noodles in front of him than he was with talking about their impending visit. "From what I can remember, they didn't do that well in the Chunin Exams either. I don't even think one of them made it into the Second Stage."

"Believe it or not, that's a habit of theirs." Jiraiya had seen it time and time again over the years.

"They pursue mediocrity?" Naruto shook his head. "How pathetic."

"Don't jump to conclusions that quickly kid. You're a Shinobi before anything else and that kind of mindset will get you killed." Jiraiya felt now was a good time for a lesson as he settled in his seat on the ground. "Takigakure is one of the only village that has the reputation for producing high quality Jonin. Ever heard the saying quality over quantity? That village is the personification of that. They're not as brutal as Kirigakure used to be with that 'Bloody Mist' mess but they don't slack off when it comes to training. On average, I would be willing to wager a Jonin from one of the Five can't really measure up to one from Takigakure."

Naruto didn't bother with hiding the disbelief covering his face, seemed set to disregard the words of the other Shinobi entirely as he turned back to stirring the pot.

"What makes it so unbelievable?" Jiraiya could at least use this chance to delve into the mindset of Naruto Uzumaki once more.

"It's just…" Naruto paused in his stirring, turned his focus back to where the Toad Sage sat across from him. "If they possess such strength, why not claim a title befitting them? If what you say is true, than there should be no reason why one of the weaker villages hasn't been replaced by Takigakure. While you've told me about the threat of Iwagakure and how Kumogakure has remained strong, Kirigakure has been in turmoil. Why not destroy such a weak enemy, claim a position in the Gokage? If they're as strong as you say, possess such elite and highly skilled Shinobi, they would have no difficulty in accomplishing such a thing." A frown crossed Naruto's face. "To have power and not wield it, not claim what is rightfully yours, it can only mean such strength is an act. To spread such lies is a fitting tool of the weak, they only way to stand amongst the strong."

"You've got a pretty odd way of viewing strength Naruto. Just because you have it doesn't mean the right answer is always to use it. In my experience, that's rarely the case." Jiraiya shook his head. "As easy as it is to have strength, there's countless ways to lose it. Getting into a war to claim a position you don't need, that will only hurt you in the long run."

The Uzumaki nearly scoffed. "That is why you must remain strong Toad Sage. You can't allow your enemies to believe you are ever weak."

"So you're supposed to live your life faking it? Didn't you just say that's a tool of the weak?"

Naruto didn't seem that accepting of a hole being poked in his logic, fell silent. There was a sullen air to his stirring as it resumed.

"I'm not saying there's never a chance to show off what you can do, half the reason we've structure the Chunin Exams the way they are is to show off without going to war. As deadly as those things can be, they're preferable to even two of the Five getting into a war with each other. You've just got to understand Naruto, violence creates a cycle. Even if you only mean to fight once, to prove a point, to protect someone, you can just as quickly get locked in another battle. And another battle. And another. Eventually, you could be so embroiled in them that you'll forget why you started fighting in the first place. As Shinobi, violence is a tool we use. Not something we're used by. You need to remember that."

Naruto broke his brief silence.

"Why are you so invested in giving excuses to weaklings Toad Sage?" The blonde was frustrated, from his voice to the tension taking hold of his body. He was borderline snapping at the white haired Shinobi, the blonde rather lucky that the man was easy going even in debates like this.

If he wasn't, this could have gone from a verbal spar to a physical one.

"Easy there kid." Jiraiya pointed to Naruto, more specifically, to the seal both knew laid invisible on his stomach. "If Takigakure's as weak as you say, that this is all just a cover to hide how weak they are, how did they get their hands on the Nanabi and, more importantly, keep it under control for so long?" From the look Naruto gave him, it was news to him.

"They have a Tailed Beast?" Naruto's eyes suddenly shot towards the village that they would be heading towards soon enough.

As much as Jiraiya didn't like it, he couldn't exactly ignore the invitation they had been given.

"I'm not quite sure how they managed it but the First Hokage definitely didn't plan on them getting one when he handed out the other eight. To this day, I don't think anyone knows how they managed to pull off a feat that impressive. Or how they've managed to keep it as long as they have." Jiraiya himself had tried to figure out at least who the Jinchuriki was a few years back and he had come up empty. Takigakure guarded that secret closely, kept it from outsiders and spies. He had given up instead of starting to capture and interrogate Shinobi, the Shinobi not in the habit of increasing tension between villages if he could help it.

'Still not sure what it would've taken to get them to talk either.' While he wasn't above torture, he didn't resort to it as readily as some in his position would. Scare tactics were more his experience, things most Shinobi could see through once they calmed down.

He focused his eyes on Naruto instead of his handful of infiltrations in the past, saw he had the Uzumaki's undivided attention. "Once we head there, I don't want you slacking off. I don't know if they know you're the Jinchuriki of the Kyubi but I've got no information on who exactly has the Nanabi. They may be a master of the Tailed Beast's Chakra or still be learning like you. Neither of those two are that preferable. Our best-case scenario? They're a baby so they won't be a problem for at least ten, fifteen more years."

Jiraiya didn't like the look that came over Naruto's face in that moment, the excited grin that took hold of him.

It was only a sign of bad things to come.

"Now that is something worth seeking out." Naruto dropped the spoon into the pot, rose to his feet. He seemed to have ignored the last few things Jiraiya had said, had focused on the fact that there was a Jinchuriki above anything else. "If we're here as a show of force, it's only fitting that Takigakure have a glimpse of my Legion." He lifted his arm in front of him and Jiraiya could almost taste the Chakra filling the air.

He pushed Naruto's arm down before he could do anything with the seal on his arm.

'Still going to have to ask him about that.' For now, he ignored it.

Now wasn't the time to play a game of half-truths with Naruto, puzzle over what exactly he could do with that seal of his. While he was sure the boy wouldn't lie to him, would see it as beneath him, he didn't care to spend the next few hours trying to piece everything together.

Besides, what mattered now was stopping Naruto's attempted show of force.

"That's not happening. We're keeping our little visit nice and quiet." Jiraiya's words earned a glare from Naruto, red eyes meeting his own. At the clear sign of the Kyubi's Chakra, of Naruto drawing on such a power, the Shinobi scoffed. His reaction clearly surprised the blonde, red eyes widening. Jiraiya was sure he had never encountered such a reaction in his brief time as a Shinobi. The way the Chunin had started to carry himself since he had created his Kinjutsu had made others treat him as if he was far older than he was. Jiraiya wasn't like most Shinobi in the village. ""hat eye trick of yours may work on the kids you've been dealing with but I've been at this for a long time Naruto. Like I said, we're not looking for a fight while we're out here. We're making the rounds, that's it."

"You're the one who told me we're traveling this far out to prove to the rest of the world that the village remains strong after the attack, that we have crushed our foe. How are we do that if you refuse to enter battle, if you deny me the same? If we shed the blood of such a renowned village as Takigakure, if I crush the Jinchuriki, our strength will be assured to all of Konohagakure's enemies. No one would challenge us, would dare to consider it." Naruto didn't back down figuratively or literally, stood his ground after recovering from his surprise. "I can call an army to these woods in a moment. We could attack by the end of the hour. We'd crush them by the end of the day."

"And that's not how we're doing this." Jiraiya laid a hand on Naruto's shoulder. Instead of ordering him or forcing him to listen, he would talk to him instead. "I've done this before Naruto, more times than I can count. There's a reason we do it this way. View it as another way to show strength if you want, the ability to fight but choosing not too."

The Chunin clearly didn't like it but Jiraiya considered the conversation over as he squeezed his shoulder before he turned and headed back to the campfire.

"Once we eat, we're heading out." He dropped down to his seat on the ground, gathered a bowl. "Let's try to be on our best behavior, ok?" He offered a smile to where Naruto still stood at a distance.

The Jinchuriki closed his eyes, opening them to reveal blue having returned.

"I…will try it your way."

"Good. Now, let's eat. I'm starving."

AN: This was not within 1-2 weeks. This was not originally going to be chapter 104. Problems arose with getting the original chapter finished (again) and I had to push it down the line to another update (again). It may come out later this week as a shorter chapter.

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