Once again I apologize, but it's the holiday season and... I have no real excuse. Youtube is a powerful ally and a deceptive villain. Now, this is Chapter 20 of my story of "Delusion Crap" as one reader called it. Likemereet it's nice to know that while you may have seen my story as shit, you still took the time to read those 19 chapters just to make sure each one was delusional crap. Now, in a world where depression is quite an issue. I don't believe telling me to kill myself is a very smart thing. If you haven't noticed yet, we're trying to look for the positive in today's world, not squash it. It's even better that you did it to a first time writer. Congrats. Now, Enough of that. For the rest of you who have given constructive/positive comments or have kept to yourselves. I thank you. IF you wish to see better quality, actually tell me what is wrong and I'll try to fix it. Please enjoy chapter 20 of "Team Celestial"!

Maybe we'll get the rights to Naruto over the holidays, but until then. I still don't own Naruto

{=}

After losing Tsunade, Naruto retreated back to the hotel room, entering his mindscape. "Ha, I didn't think you'd be smart enough to come in here".

"I'm not that dumb! Anyways, I can create training dummies right?", as Naruto said this, training dummies appeared before him. "Oh… cool!". Naruto created 10 clones and got to work. Kurama was able to make a sound barrier, allowing him to sleep as his host worked. Naruto went at it for 4 hours until Kurama kicked him out to rest. Barely any progress was made on completing the jutsu. Naruto passed out instantly, having only an hour passed in the real world. Jiraiya was surprised to find Naruto passed out on the bed, thinking the boy would've gone somewhere to train and worked non stop.

'For someone who just made a near impossible bet with Tsunade, he's acting pretty confident in his abilities of mastering the rasengan'. Jiraiya didn't wake him though, having faith that his student knew what he was doing. He shrugged off his concerns, grabbing a notepad, and a giddy gleam coming to his eyes. 'Time to find some research!'.

{])/\_([}

Being able to train in his mindscape, Naruto was able to get 42 hours of training in a day with plenty of time to eat and sleep. Of course no one was aware of this, to the rest of them it looked like all Naruto did was sleep and meditate all day. Tsunade actually felt lucky for once, gloating to Jiraiya about how this might be the easiest bet she's ever won. Shizune took the week to debate within herself over whether or not she should stay with Tsunade or take charge of her own life.

It was the fifth day that Naruto finally had success, now able to make the jutsu with a clone, but unable to make and sustain it by himself. It was here he took to asking Jiraiya for advice.

Naruto found Jiraiya in the forest spying on a group of girls playing in a stream in skimpy swimsuits. "HEY! PER…" Naruto didn't get to finish his sentence due to Jiraiya's hand over his mouth. Jiraiya was sweating bullets at this point.

"Could you have a little respect for me you know!" He growled, making sure to keep his voice low.

"Hard to respect a man who's this big of a pervert".

Jiraiya sighed, "How are you not going through the horny teenager faze? Theoretically the roles here should be reversed!"

Naruto shrugged, "I've never tried. Can't want what you don't know about". Jiraiya's mouth dropped, not able to believe his student didn't know the joys of viewing the female body. Jiraiya sent a silent prayer for the pervert god to forgive Naruto.

Then Jiraiay realised what Naruto said, "wait, you've never looked peeped before?". Naruto shook his head. "Looked at dirty magazines?". Naruto shook his head. "Read a porn book?". Once again, Naruto shook his head. Jiraiya nearly died of a heart attack until a nasty little thought came through his head, 'that just means I can teach him about this on our training journey. Hehehe, he'll thank me later'.

Needing to get to the point Naruto, caught Jiraiya's attention again, "So pervy-sage, I can make a rasengan with the help of a clone, but I can't seem to figure out how to do it by myself like you do, could you help me out?". Jiraiya's once again widened in shock, the idea that his student had mastered the technique already was almost unfathomable. Almost. He asked for Naruto to make one to demonstrate. Just as Naruto explained, with the help of a clone he was able to make a rasengan, but he couldn't move much with it once the clone stopped stabilizing the jutsu. Only 3 seconds at most, but still impressive.

"I want to be able to do it without a clone, and more importantly, be able to keep it going for longer than 3 seconds. Do you have any tips to help me?"

"Woah woah woah, all you've done for the past 5 days is meditate! How have you gotten this far?".

'Do I tell him about my mindscape?'

'He already knows about me. There's no point in hiding me from him. I also trust him more than the other humans'.

Naruto took a breath to steady himself. "I guess since I have the Kyuubi in me, I can access a mindscape where time is different there. I've spent days there, and then I leave to rest and eat before continuing".

Jiraiya's eyebrows raised at this. Finding the idea incredible! 'The implications of this. If he found a way to bring others with him, that could mark the difference between a victory and loss in battle planning!'. Looking back to Naruto, Jiriaya had millions of ideas run through his head on the amount of training that could be accomplished.

Naruto waved his hand in front of the old pervert saying, "pervy-sage?... Pervy-saage?... Naruto to pervy-sage….".

Jiraiya snapped out of his thoughts and returned them back to the present. "Yes, yes. I'll help you. Umm. Let's see". Jiraiya looked around while he tried to remember some of his techniques to help focus chakra. Spotting a leaf, he thought of one. "Okay, take a leaf and place it on your palm". He followed this by demonstrating. "Keep your hand wide open, and chakra chakra into the leaf to keep it sticking to you as you turn your hand over. Once you do this, do it on your forehead. Once you do that, do it with a kunai, but only with your hand. If you're still really struggling with the rasengan, move the kunai to your finger like this. You should have plenty of control by that point". Like with the leaf, he demonstrated with a kunai too.

"Thanks Pervy-Sage. Oh, and if I were you, I would start running. Girls can be even quieter than a shinobi if angry enough". Naruto then leapt away. Jiraiya sighed as he turned around to face the 5 angry young women who now had jackets or sweatshirts to cover themselves, who were cracking their fingers, ready to pound him like ground beef. Jiraiya gave a sheepish smile before running off. Not at full speed of course, he knew he was doing something morally wrong. So he would give them a chance. That and he found pleasure in the beating sometimes. Jiraiya did draw the line at some things, but masochism was not off the list.

]

Day 4

Tsunade once again had lost Shizune. Though, it seemed to be easier than usual to do so this past week, it made Tsunade a bit concerned, but not concerned enough to not enjoy her freedom. Once again she could find a bar to get wasted at! She was on her 13th shot of sake when a young man with grey hair took a seat to her left.

"Trying to drown the pain, Tsunade?". Tsunade's hand froze and her eyes narrowed, starting to sober in preparation for an attack.

"What would you know about my pain? I could've lived the most carefree life until now"

"Oh? I think Dan and Nawaki would say otherwise"

Within less than a second, Tsunade had placed her sake =ack on the counter and had a hand around the young man's throat, threatening to crush it. While he struggled to speak, the man continued. "Ha ha, see. You know pain. And I know a solution to that pain. How would you like to see your precious Dan and Nawaki again?".

Tsunade's eyes went wide at the idea, but then narrowed again. "And how would you be able to do that? You're not even half my age".

"I may not be, but Orochimaru is".

Once again, Tsunade was frozen in thought. 'Orochimaru? Here? That bastard!'.

After a minute of thinking she responded, "What's the price".

The young man smiled at her, Tsunade was disgusted with how empty it was and how practiced. "All you have to do is heal him. Heal him and you can have your precious brother and lover back". You have till the end of the week to decide, we'll be waiting by the east forest when you're ready".

Tsunade let go of the man, allowing him to walk away, and giving herself the solace of silence to think. 'Three days is not a lot of time, Orochimaru must be desperate'.

Thankfully, she didn't notice the toad in the ceiling rafters who had listened to the conversation. The same toad summoned a smaller one to send to Jiraiya, making its report as his spy.

]}{]

Day 6

Shizune had been lost in thought when Tsunade had been able to slip away, again. She had been plagued by the idea of independence since Jiraiya had brought it up. 'Could I really leave Tsunade after all this time? It would've had to have happened eventually right? I've wanted to make a life of my own and find someone to love for so long, but I had never been able to leave Tsunade before. Can I do it this time?'. The idea of freedom was so tempting, but her loyalty to Tsunade came as its counter. Tonton was worried about her, having taken notice of her change and hoping something bad didn't happen.

Wandering through the town, gave her time to think. Although, she had no awareness as to where she was going. When she finally did take in her surroundings, she found himself on the edges of a small valley by the town that had a multitude of trees in it. There she saw Naruto training to keep a kunai standing upright on his finger. Out of curiosity, or needing a break from her previous thoughts, she decided to watch.

Naruto had his back slightly turned to her so he wasn't aware of her presence.

He had lost his concentration for a second and the kunai fell, cutting his finger as it fell. He pulled his hand in pain, and Shizune was preparing to get up to heal him when she saw that the wound was healing by itself at an impossible rate. Sitting back down, she tried to rationalize how Naruto could have healed that fast.

She was interrupted when an explosion went off and Naruto went flying. She didn't move this time, and instead watched. Wondering what had happened. She got her answer when Naruto attempted, once more, to form a rasengan with one hand. And once again he was sent flying. In a burst of rage, Naruto made a rasengan using two hands and ran off a small rock ledge, slamming it into the ground when he landed.

When the dust cleared, Shizune was amazed by the power. A crater twice as wide as she was tall formed, while only a few feet deep, all the rocks and trees that had previously surrounded him were disintegrated by the forced.

Naruto then took a deep breath to calm himself, and walked back over to the kunai and practiced again, this time making some clones to practice with him. She continued to watch him, curious about just who this little punk was. She was especially confused when he looked to the sky, let out an annoyed grunt and then went to meditate. His clones continued their work as he did so.

Seeing as nothing interesting was going to happen for a while, Shizune got up to leave, planning on checking in on him later. 'Only one day left, and he's technically learned the jutsu, now he's just doing the finishing touches at this point'. When she returned later, after spending the afternoon looking for Tsunade, she still found him meditating, although with only one clone left now. When the clone poofed away after failing with the kunai, Naruto woke up. Then, as if he had been working on control for hours longer than he had actually been, he formed the rasengan with one hand! Shizun was speechless. 'How did he improve so quickly? And those clones didn't have the control. How is he able to do it now, when all he did was meditate?!'.

Shizune must've stepped on a branch or Naruto had finally decided to take in his surroundings when Naruto shouted "HI SHIZUNE! DID YOU SEE WHAT I DID?! I MADE IT! I MADE IT! AND WITH ONLY ONE HAND!". His enthusiasm brought a smile to Shizune's face. "HA HA! BA-CHAN WON"T LAUGH AT ME NOW!".

Shizune sighed as Naruto continued to call Tsunade grandma, though she did think it was endearing.

With his adrenaline from mastering the rasengan, Naruto got an idea. "Hey Shizune! Do you have any cool jutsu too?!".

'Does this kid ever stop?!'

Shizune was startled by the question at first, people didn't really ask for her guidance or thoughts. "Ahhh, ummm. I don't really use ninjutsu, but….ah… I think I have an idea of what I can teach you". Naruto comically plopped onto the ground, sitting cross legged and ready to learn anything from Shizune.

"So, since I learned from Tsunade about medical ninjutsu and salves, I also learned about poisons. Instead of ninjutsu, I use poison to coat the needles I use in combat. The deadlier ones are too dangerous without extended training, although I think I can teach you a paralysis poison for now".

Naruto waited for her to continue. And so she did, explaining what plant to use and how to process and apply it. Naruto absorbed every piece of information. He struggled with identifying the plant for a little bit, but by the end of the day, Naruto could make a paralysis poison from scratch and safely apply it to his weaponry. Shizune took a little pride in herself when they finished.

"Hey Shizune-chan, can you teach me more when we get back to the leaf?"

Shizune froze at the question, the question that had been plaguing her throughout the week had found her again. But then she remembered that she wouldn't be leaving Tsunade. The thought comforted her and allowed her to smile and say, "you betcha Naruto".

Naruto flashed a smile and turned back to admire his work. His poison now in a vial.

The two parted ways as the sun began to set. Shizune went to go find Tsunade, and Naruto to get in some extra training with Kurama before going to sleep. Little did Shizune know, Jiraiya had already set off to find the busty blonde, and had fallen to her trap in the process.

(]}{[)

Jiraiya had followed Tsunade into a bar and took the seat next to her, waiting for her to give him some sort of recognition.

"What do you want, Jiraiya? It may have been 24 years since Dan has died, but that still doesn't mean I'll consider you even for a second".

A sad smile formed on Jiraiya's face. "I know. I knew since the moment you met Dan, that I would never have a chance".

Tsunade raised an eyebrow at this. "So why do you continue to try and fail to win me over?".

"Because I'm not one to give up on my dreams". Tsunade didn't know whether that was a statement or a jab at her, but Jiraiya continued before she could make a comment.

"You know, I would've never become the Toad Sage if not for you… I wanted to impress you so bad, I did one of the dumbest things ever. And then after, I trained day and night to earn your favor. But, it never came…*chuckle*... Maybe it was because of my perveness or maybe I just never had a sliver of a chance, but I still kept on fighting. But it didn't matter, you never looked at me, you were always watching him. Orochimaru was all you cared about back then. To think what's become of us now. Honestly, only one thing has changed. Now we want to kill Orochimaru, and instead of only a few feet, you could launch me to the next town…".

Tsunade frowned when he didn't say anything about himself, "And what about you, you toad? You've changed over the years".

Jiraiya's sad smile persisted, " No, I haven't changed. After all these years, my body might have changed, but my goal remains the same".

Somewhat scared to ask the question, Tsunade asked "Well why don't you find a different goal? I'm sure you've met plenty of nice women on your journey who you could've settled down with".

This time Jiraiya chuckled, making Tsuande uneasy with how he was acting as if he had already lost everything. "You see, the toads said I was to train a ninja who would become the savior of this world. So, I did everything I could to prepare for that, and swore off marriage. Not that I ever found someone who I was genuinely interested in. But that wasn't until I was at least oh… 27. Before that I only had one reason to live. You. You may have been with Dan at the time, but I still loved you. It saved my life on multiple occasions".

Tsunade raised an eyebrow, confused and worried about what Jiraiya was implying. "How did your desire for me save you?".

"Tsunade, since I was seven, I had thought about and planned to commit suicide, 37 times. And that's not even counting the amount of self harm I did. Like you said, I was an outcast. Mistreated by the village and forgotten by most. And the only thing that stopped me from finally doing it, was the idea that I might have still had a chance. Huh, it's funny that I never thought about what would've happened if I did die. To be honest, I think it's because I don't think you would've cared very much. I only stopped after I was given a new goal by the toads".

Tsunade whipped her head away from her Sake, a startled and hurt look on her face, "Why would you ever think that?! Of course I would've been upset, you were and are my friend!".

"Tsunade, at the time I was in no way meaningful enough to you for you to remember me after a year or so after my death as anything more than an annoying teammate. I'm pretty sure the only way I'm meaningful to you now is because I'm the only member of our squad who isn't dead or has gone rogue".

Tsunade remained silent. Finding herself having to question her own feelings, hoping that he wasn't right.

Jiraiya took this moment to get to his main purpose, "I come to you as the last of your team who you can talk too, to ask that you don't go to Orochimaru. He may offer you to bring back the dead, but it is not what you want. He tears souls from their rest to torture them back into this world to do his binding… Also, in order for him to bring back a soul, he must take a soul. For every person he brings back, he takes another one out. If nothing else, please don't be selfish enough to take the life of another to bring back someone who has already been laid to rest".

Jiraiya gestured for some Sake of his own as Tsunade processed his words. She answered his gesture, and gave him a shot bowl of Sake, slipping in a sedative in the process. Jiraiya drank the Sake, without a clue of the drug until it was too late.

His vision became more messy, and his head became dizzy. He looked at Tsunade with a look of betrayal and reached out for one last attempt to stop her before he collapsed on the floor of the pub.

Tsunade fought back tears as she dragged him to a booth to sleep in, her guilt weighing down on her like a pile of bricks. Heavy, and sharp. Turning to the exit, Tsunade felt a tear escape. She had never known how Jiraiya felt, only seeing the mask he wore to hide his pain, and now that she did, she had never felt more awful of a person.

'C'mon Tsunade! Pull yourself together. Orochimaru capitalizes on weakness. You can't be all teary eyed when you get there'. She wiped away the tear, throwing it to the ground. Tossed aside without a second thought. 'This is a once in a lifetime opportunity, I can't just walk away from it. I'm sorry Jiraiya, but I need to do this, and I can't have you interfering'.

]

When Tsunade arrived at the east forest, Orochimaru and the young man were already there.

"I'm glad to see you Tsunade. It's been so long since we last talked". Orochimaru's words held no genuine emotion, just selfish desire.

"What do you want, snake?"

Orochimaru's smile sent a shiver down Tsunade's spine. "Getting to the chase I see. Someone must be very desperate... You see, after a little tussle with our dear Sensei, I've appeared to have lost control of my arms. I require you to heal them, and in return, I'll bring back your dear little brother and lover".

Tsunade paused for a moment, second guessing her decision. 'No! You've made your choice, there's no going back now'. "Show me your arms".

Orochimaru's smile resembled the cheshire cat, mocking. He held out both arms, seemingly singed from the elbow down. After briefly analyzing the situation, Tsunade's hands glowed it's iconic green and she went to work.

A few seconds into her work, the young man swiped at her with a scalpel.

"Kabuto! What do you think you're doing!"

'Dammit, that brat is a medical nin'

Taking a defensive stance in front of his master, Kabuto answered, "She was not healing your arms, but damaging them even more!".

Orochimaru's eyes widened with anger, "It seems I misjudged you Tsunade. No matter, I have other ways around this, but before that, I'm going to kill you first".

Orochimaru rushed forward, forcing Tsunade to leap backwards to avoid him sinking his fangs into her neck. Orochimaru continued to race forward, aiming to meet her when she landed. Tsunade had other plans, slamming a heel into the ground and cratering the area around her. Orochimaru leapt into the air to avoid the impact and started an attack of multiple kicks on Tsunade, shock waves being sent off with every blocked attack from both sannin.

Kabuto watched in awe at the raw power Tsunade still had after decades of not being in the field. Eventually though, Orochimaru's lack of arms caught up to him in a taijutsu battle and Kabuto had to intervene.

Making it a little easier for himself, Kabuto used his chakra scalpels to mess with Tsunade's nerves. While it did stun her, giving Orochimaru enough time to retreat, it didn't last for long, and eventually Tsunade was coming at him with vengeance. He quickly learned blocking would not be an option for him, and that he'd have to use the small advantage of speed he had to dodge the best he could, launching strikes of his own when he could.

Eventually he was able to land a strike on her heart, spazzing it and forcing her to her knee. Kabuto smiled and capitalized on it with a finishing blow, or at least tried. Tsunade's expert control of her chakra allowed her to quickly heal her heart and dodge his attack, chopping the back of his neck in the process.

Now it was Kabuto's turn to fall, his body in shock and his nerves on fire. Tsunade continued to push forward at Orochimaru when a giant snake nearly swallowed her whole. Instead she was just barely able to dodge the mouth, though in the process she ended up taking the brunt force of the snake's nose, sending her flying across the field, leaving a trench in her landing.

'This is quite the predicament. At least I took care of the kid. Should take a while before he fixes his nervous system'.

Tsunade was proven wrong when Kabuto came from nowhere, trying to slash her with a kunai. 'What?! Damn, this kid is good. Guess I'll have to put him out the old fashion way'. Dodging another slash, Tsunade was able to kick Kabuto into a nearby boulder, following it with a punch that'll send Kabuto into the next 2 weeks.

Kabuto, though, had other plans. Seeing the raging sannin charging him, he took the kunai and sliced his hand, flinging the blood in front of him, and making Tsunade freeze. An evil smile danced across Kabuto's face as he stood before Tsunade and kicked her back. Now it was Tsunade's turn to be the ragdoll that got thrown around. Kabuto was about to through the finishing strike with a chakra scalpel when he felt a hand holding his arm back.

"You know. For a kid your age, you've got a lot of skill. But you're still naive".

Kabuto turned to see the hard face of Jiraiya. Jiraiya pinched a nerve on Kabuto's neck, canceling all chakra and then tossed Kabuto back towards Orochimaru.

"When Tsunade rewires your nervous system, it's not just your control on your body parts. She also canceled your feeling of pain". Jiraiyra pointed to Kabuto's hand. "You cut your hand, imagining the pain that went along with it. However, without knowledge of the actual pain, you cut too deep, and will soon pass out due to blood loss".

Kabuto's eyes went wide, and he wiped his head down to his hand to see that it was not gushing blood, but was exactly what he had thought he had done. In this split second, Jiriaya rushed forward, landing three punches before kicking Kabuto even closer to Orochimaru.

"You also let down your guard. Fatal mistake, but one that I decided to let you off the hook for this time".

Kabuto scowled at the white haired toad sage. 'That motherf*er. Damn that hurt!'.

Kabuto tried to stand once more. "Stop Kabuto", Orochimaru ordered. "You are not ready to fight right now. Heal yourself and then join me. Tsunade's little brat is soon to turn up if Jiraiya found her so quickly". Kabuto bowed his head and went to work, healing his bruised ribs and cut, fixing his nervous system more thoroughly than his patch job from earlier.

"I see sensei really did rip the soul of your arms out. How does it feel to never be able to make jutsu again?", Jiraiya sneered.

"This is but a minor setback. Even without arms, I'll be more than capable of dealing with you"

The two launched towards each other, Jiraiya using some small ninjutsu along with taijutsu. Orochimaru's wit and various surprises was the only thing keeping him alive. The two launched themselves all across the field.

Just as Orochimaru said, Shizune had shown up soon after the battle had started, Naruto in tow. After assessing Tsunade, Shizune went to join the fight. "Naruto, you guard Tsunade!". In a rare moment of being serious, Naruto listened. Standing guard before the paralyzed Tsunade.

Shizune was cut off however by a fully repaired Kabuto. Kabuto had tried to finish her quickly with a chakra scalpel to the neck, but Shizune wasn't the apprentice of a sannin for nothing. She ducked and sent a kick into his gut, sending him back and in perfect range of the needle launcher she kept strapped to her forearm, hidden by her kimono. Kabuto used a kunai to deflect. In his deflection, he took note of the poison that coated them. Though he wasn't able to tell it's toxicity.

'Doesn't matter. It doesn't look like she can easily reload so those will probably be the only poisonous ones'. With two kunai, he was able to close the distance between himself and Shizune. While she was trained, Kabuto was far more experienced in close combat and was able to close Shizune's nervous system by tapping her limbs with his chakra scalpel hands and she collapsed. Fortunately for her, Kabuto had more important things and left her for Tsunade.

Naruto took a deep breath and remained calm as he waited for Kabuto. Kabuto almost laughed when he saw Naruto act in such a manner. "You may be acting like a ninja, but you're still the little brat from the exams". Kabuto leapt into the air, preparing to strike Naruto upon landing with chakra scalpels at the ready.

Naruto smirked. 'You're going to need to go into fox form if you hope to beat him'.

'I don't need to beat him. I just need to hold out till Ba-chan gets a hold of herself. As much as I want to, she needs to have this battle'. Kurama was surprised by Naruto's maturity, then he peeked into Naruto's thought process a little more and realized that Naruto just wanted to see Kabuto get pounded by her fists.

As Kabuto was about to strike, Naruto released his weight seals, barely dodging and throwing two punches to Kabuto's side before putting on his invisibility jutsu and jumping to a safe distance.

While he couldn't see him, Kabuto was able to see the imprints on the ground and continued his assault, catching Naruto off guard and landing some strikes on Naruto's limbs. Naruto leapt in retreat, staggering as he came for a landing, his nervous system disrupted. 'Damn he's good. And if he had those cards at the exams, he probably has knowledge of all my jutsu before taking the tests. That only leaves me…the rasengan'. Naruto had an evil smile crawl across his face as he started thinking of a way to set up his attack.

Kabuto didn't give him long, continuing the attack and this time aiming to kill. Naruto decided to make some shadow clones to buy himself some time. 30 should be enough to stall for some time.

Kabuto scowled at the sight of the clones, 'To hell with this kids chakra!'. Conserving his chakra, Kabuto opted to use kunai to deal with the clones as quickly as he could.

The Original Naruto stood on a rock watching the scene, trying to think of a way to get Kabuto in a place where he could properly use the rasengan. As he watched the battle, Naruto noticed that Kabuto wasn't stopping his strikes once the clones poofed. Continuing the swipe as if they were never there in the first place. Naruto had an idea.

"Hey Granny!"

Tsunade snapped her head up to look at Naruto, hanging desperately on his words in hope that they would get her out of the hellscape of her mind.

"I hope you remember our bet, because you're going to need to pay up soon!"

As she listened to his words, Tsunade was shocked when he finished. THey were the exact same words that her brother would say to her with their bets. Taking another look at Naruto, she saw how similar he was to her brother. When Naruto leapt into the chaos with his clones Tsunade fully broke from her traumatized state, standing at the ready, watching for what Naruto was about to do.

Kabuto had finally mowed through all the clones, leaving one Naruto left. "It looks like this is the end for you Naruto. I through a kunai at you when you rejoined the battle just to make sure, but it seems you really are dumb enough to try and take me in a fight. As fun as it was, I'm afraid it's time for it to end".

Kabuto then launched forward, his left hand channeling a chakra scalpel. Naruto froze in the heat of the moment and took the scalpel to the heart. He coughed up blood as his heart was being delicately sliced apart.

"You know what the best part of this is Naruto?... Instead of a funeral for you, Konoha will rejoice at your death. And me, their hero"

Naruto looked at Kabuto with hard eyes, struggling to stay standing. "That may be true…*cough*... but at least I didn't get pummeled by a kid half his age. Kabuto almost laughed when Naruto said that he pummeled him. Then he heard.

"Rasengan!"

Kabuto whipped his head to the sound, finding a final Naruto clone with a rasengan in hand, shoving it into his chest. Kabuto was sent flying across the field, into a boulder after making a trench through the dirt. The clone poofed away, having ran out of chakra and Naruto smiled. "Told you you got pummeled", he said, before collapsing onto the ground.

Tsunade rushed over, demanding that Naruto stayed alive. She no longer was paralyzed at the sight of the blood that Naruto was coughing up. All that mattered to her was saving the boy who reminded her so much of her little brother. As she worked she tried to talk Naruto away from death, demanding that he come back to them, a few curses thrown in there as well.

Seeing that Kabuto had been defeated, Orochimaru knew the battle was over. Using a poisonous gas as a barrier, Orochimaru separated himself from Jiraiya and ran over to his minion, "You may be able to heal, but Tsunade has finally come to her senses. You'd die within 3 seconds". Without a word, Kabuto listened, running the best he could in his weakened state into the forest.

Jiraiya scowled, tempted to give chase, but when his eyes fell on Naruto all thoughts of hunting his former teammate vanished. 'Damn it! What did that idiot do now! I swear if he got himself killed'.

The last time Tsunade had been so focused since Dan's death. Shizune had been able to fix her nervous system and had come alongside Tsunade with worry. Jiraiya arrived soon after. They all held their breath as Tsunade dropped her hands, having done all she could've on Naruto. No one moved a muscle, the silence choking them.

Thankfully, the silence was interrupted by Naruto coughing and gagging as he tried to regain his breath. "Took you long enough Ba-chan". Jiraiya laughed, and Shizune sighed. Tsunade smiled and she hugged Naruto, knowing this time, she had been able to save someone this time. After a few seconds, Naruto started to struggle, finding himself being suffocated by Tsunade's chest. Jiraiya found himself a little envious.Shizune sighed, tapping Tsunade on the shoulder so Naruto could breathe again.

Tsunade gave a sheepish laugh, releasing Naruto and standing up. Naruto wobbled a little as he got on his own feet. When he found his balance again he checked himself over. While having no physical injury, his shirt was soaked with blood and had been ripped open by Tsunade when she was healing him. 'Hinata's not going to be happy with this. Maybe I'll be able to get home before she notices. Thankfully I brought a spare shirt'.

When they had heard from Jiraiya that Tsunade needed help, they had left Tonton in the apartment. Unfortunately for Naruto, It seemed that Tonton was drawn to his bag and found the stink of his only other shirt to be incredible. Little to say that shirt was seen later that day in little orange turds. Naruto sighed in defeat.

'Great! The pig ate my spare! What the hell? I guess I could go back shirtless with the jacket. It's not the worst thing, but now Hinata is going to be twice as mad about me losing two shirts! Now I only have 3 left! And two are casual wear!'.

Naruto sighed in defeat when Tonton looked at him with a little piggy smile. 'Damn you're too cute'.

After a day of rest, the group set off to Konoha, a new Hokage in tow.

On the way Shizune talked with Naruto about poisons, expanding his arsenal by 2 by the end, now with a poison that would blind or knock his victims unconscious. Nothing purely deadly yet.

Tsunade and Jiraiya talked, rebuilding the weakened bonds of their past. Jiraiay throwing in a few flirtatious comments every now and then, Tsunade even blushed at one or two, not that Jiraiya noticed. He had come to expect rejection so much that he imagined it, keeping the constancy of rejecting in his mind.

___

When they arrived at the gates, they were welcomed by Team 7 and the Council. For many it was a once in a lifetime experience, seeing two sannin at one time, though they didn't show it, their pride taking precedence over their emotions.

Naruto was confused to see Anko with his team, she gave him a mischievous smile and waved when he looked over. Sasuke gave a small smile, Kakashi acted indifferent, nose buried in his book. Hinata however looked like an angry mother. Calm, and asking questions to which the answers were set in stone.

"Why don't you have a shirt on Naruto?"

"I ahhh… ummm… it got ripped up?"

"And did you bring another?"

"Yes"

"And what happened to it?"

"The pig ate it?"

A tick formed on Hinata's forehead. "Why can't you take care of your clothing! The ripped shirt I can understand but the pig? Really! It probably ate it because of how little you wash it!".

Naruto gulped, scared of what Hinata would do. Tsunade, Shizune, and Jiraiya smirked at the interaction.

Hinata sighed in frustration. "You should have one shirt left right?". Naruto nodded his head in confirmation. "Okay, get home and put it on. Take a shower before you do though! You smell like you died and came back to life. Then we can go get you some new clothes! You're lucky I have the day to myself today. Or should I say I'm lucky, you probably would've gotten something disgusting again".

Naruto deflated at the jab at his fashion sense. Anko laughed and Kakashi smirked, they knew how bad Naruto's fashion was, and they wholeheartedly agreed with Hinata. Sasuke bowed his head in admittance, while he had never done anything about it, he had always known that Naruto's fashion sense was the worst in Konoha.

Shizune and the Sannin raised an eyebrow in curiosity, 'What did he wear before Hinata helped him?', they thought in unison. And that's all they got to have for thinking about Naruto's fashion for the council had decided Team 7 had had enough and now they had to get to business. Tsunade sighed, following the council towards the Hokage tower. Jiraiya giggled and was about to go off to his own… business. when Shikaku turned back and shouted "Oh yeah! Jiraiya, you're needed too!".

Jiraiya flopped in defeat, trudging his way to follow the group. Shizune giggled at the sight. Hearing the giggle, Jiraiya remembered something and ran back to Shizune to whisper. "Well now that we're here, that man over there is the one and only Kakashi. While I deal with council garbage, how about you introduce yourself. Who knows. Maybe you'll even score him tonight and keep him afterwards if you play your cards right".

Shizune's blush went from her nose to her ears. Before she could pound Jiraiay, he shunshined away, leaving her with the image of his cheeky little smile.

Kakashi actually looked up from his book. He didn't hear the message, but he did pick up on his name. Actually looking at her, Kakashi noted that Shizune was quite pretty, even finding the blush cute. Though that was it. He shrugged off any other thoughts. "Alright team, you know the drill. 8 tomorrow! For now, I'm going to let you have the rest of the day off. Oh, Sasuke. Haku came earlier looking for you. Said something about meeting up later… I don't know. I suggest you ask him to make sure".

Sasuke's face tinted pink, and he smiled. Not one to waste time, Sasuke shunshined away. Naruto's jaw dropped. "When did he learn that!".

Anko laughed, "You've been gone for nearly a month buddy. There's been a few changes. For starters, I'm helping with your training. We'll catch up on the rest tomorrow".

Naruto shivered at the thought of Anko helping with training. He suddenly decided that now would be a great time to go take that shower and he raced off. Zooming through the streets of Konoha, dodging the crowds and bottles or fists sent his way.

Anko raised her eyebrows in surprise. "Damn, that kid's good. I wonder why he doesn't have his own fan club. Right Hinata?!".

Hinata turned pink. Once more Anko laughed. Thankfully Kakashi and Sasuke had left. "Anko-sensei!". Anko hopped onto the roof of the nearby building, Hinata giving chase, hoping to extract some revenge on her.

!_!_!_!_!_!_!_!_!_!_!

Welcome to the end! Now, the christmas special will probably be on christmas day. It's going to have to be outside the plot so it will be the same characters, but the story won't connect to the plot. Gives me more ability to mess with certain characters if you know what I'm saying. Besides that, as always, leave a review if you would be so kind. I really look forward to them. Well, most of them. Anyways, Enjoy your holiday, whatever you celebrate and remember to stay safe. Not just for yourself, but for others.