They had traveled far enough along the West Road for Konoha to fall out of sight when Jiraiya called a halt.
"Hey, Ero-sennin, why are we stopping? Is she here?" Naruto eyed a nearby clump of bushes suspiciously.
"Idiot, if she was this close why would he have waited for you when he could easily get here and back in under a day."
Though, why someone like him would need Naruto for anything…
As Naruto and Sasuke continued to bicker, Jiraiya walked off a bit before summoning a small, red toad wearing green goggles looped about its neck.
"Kousuke, any luck?"
The toad saluted before sketching out a rough map in the dirt of the road; the sight of Naruto sailing clear over his head failed to faze him. As Naruto ran back from where he was hurled from, he spoke up in a cheerful tone, "Peach and I went around Fire Country using the well system and we overheard some folk talking about someone matching her description in this general area." He gestured at the corner of a map, and the route Tsunade had reportedly taken to get there.
"Huh, that's not that far away. Thanks for the hard work, I'll have one of the young ones bring you some curried cuttlefish." He made to dismiss the summoning but stopped as Kousuke help up a hand, though his tone picked up a somewhat sinister edge.
"You should know, Shima-sama wants you to visit for dinner sometime soon; it's been a while, after all. Anyway, I'm off."
As Kousuke vanished in a poof of smoke Jiraiya fought back the urge to gag as his thoughts unwillingly went towards Shima's attempts at cuisine. After regaining his composure, he turned back to where he'd left his two traveling companions only to be greeted by the sight of Sasuke pinning Naruto to the ground by pressing one knee to the back of his shoulder and bending a leg in a rather awkward manner.
With a sigh, Jiraiya reached over and pulled Sasuke off of Naruto by the collar of his shirt.
"Enough of that."
Sasuke detached himself with an elaborate shrug as Naruto leapt up and started dusting himself off, grumbling under his breath about how he 'almost got him.'
"So, Jiraiya, who is this person we're searching for?" Sasuke asked.
"Senju Tsunade, my former teammate." A hand went to his chin, and he adopted a thoughtful expression. "Well, I shouldn't say former… even though we haven't really worked together for quite some time." He made a dismissive gesture. "You know what I mean."
Sasuke's eyes widened slightly at the revelation.
"Yeah, that's my reaction when I see her as well." He clapped a hand on Sasuke's shoulder with enough force to make him stumble slightly. "I like you, kid. Hey, Naruto! We're moving out."
After several hours of light jogging - for shinobi, that is; an untrained person would have been reduced to a sobbing, panting, sweat-soaked wreck in under a minute of attempting to match their pace - the three of them began making their way at a more sedate pade through a festival in the middle of a decently-sized town known for its large entertainment district and willingness to pander to tourists.
"OK, OK, training time!" Naruto let out a loud cheer, drawing bemused looks from passers-by.
Sasuke cocked an eyebrow, interested despite himself. "What's this about training?"
"Alright brats, listen up." Seeing that he had both of their attentions focused on him, Jiraiya took a deep breath and continued, "Now, originally the plan was to come here and take a bit of a break before delving into the information-gathering portion of this trip. However, things" he accented this with dramatic hand-waving, "happened and we lost a couple of days, so, as a result, we're just going to skip the relaxation portion of this trip. Since the two of you would likely just get in the way - Naruto, don't give me that look - I'm going to set you up with some things to do in the meantime… but we're going to need some supplies."
One large bag that was struggling at its seams and a pleasantly surprised balloon merchant later, the three of them found themselves in a sparsely wooded clearing on the outskirts of the town.
By this point, Naruto was nearly vibrating with excitement.
"Hey, Ero-sennin, what're you gonna teach me?!" After a quick sideways glance to Sasuke, he amended, "Us!"
Jiraiya made a show of being deep in thought before snapping his fingers.
"We're going to have a little… competition. I'll assign each of you something to learn and whoever picks it up first," here he paused and, with a flourish, produced a bulging wallet in the likeness of a frog, "wins money!"
"Gama-chan!"
"You really named your wallet? Aren't you supposed to be a shinobi?"
"Shut up, Sasuke! Ero-sennin, give him back!"
"Nope! Well, not until you master your jutsu… and that's if you're first. Who knows, maybe Sasuke here will end up the victor."
Sasuke was fighting back a grin as he watched Naruto teeter on the verge of incoherent rage. Who knew that someone could be even more annoying than Kakashi? His mind was occupied with thoughts of the strange antics of white-haired men as Jiraiya led Naruto out of earshot and, with much furtive looking over his shoulder - what was with this guy -, some sort of conversation involving dramatic hand gestures and a blank expression on Naruto's face was taking place. After some time passed like this, a frustrated Jiraiya, judging by his body language, had Naruto summon a clone, and Sasuke, acting purely on reflex, activated his Sharingan in time to see a glowing blue sphere of chakra get slammed into the clone's stomach and send it flying off into the distance before slamming into a tree hard enough to splinter its bark and dispel the clone. Naruto was then left with the bag of balloons and a determined look on his face as Jiraiya headed his way.
As he drew nearer and was able to see his Sharingan, a flicker of something flashed across his face, but it was gone before he could recognize it.
"Hey, kid, were you able to copy it?"
A blank stare was his only response.
"The Rasengan." He mimed Naruto's clone flying off into the trees.
"Yes, no… maybe?" Sasuke's voice was halting, uncertain, "I was able to see what was done but not how it was done."
Jiraiya nodded as if this made perfect sense.
"This kinda ties in with what I wanted you to learn. Come on, let's go over here. No need to distract Naruto… he does that enough on his own.
"Now, your jutsu will be the Chidori."
Sasuke waited a moment for the punchline. When none came, he gave Jiraiya an incredulous look.
"Was this just some trick to take Naruto's money? I can already use the Chidori."
"Oh, you can? Show me."
So he did.
Jiraiya made a show of examining it from every angle, even going so far as to pour a few drops of water from his flask and watch as they evaporated on contact.
"Hmm, impressive." He pulled out the wallet and was in the process of handing it over when he stopped, as if suddenly struck by inspiration. "Do it again, but this time without your fancy eyes."
Sasuke felt a burst of irritation. "But the whole point of this technique is to use it with the Sharingan."
"Humor me."
With a huff, he deactivated his Sharingan, flashed through the hand signs, and concentrated the chakra in the proper manner to his hand… and there was only a faint fizzling sound. He tried it again, this time much slower and with greater care, and the result was the same. As he looked up at Jiraiya, who was currently looking quite smug, he tried to hide his frustration. It must have shown on his face, however, because Jiraiya chose this moment to speak up.
"How was it you learned this in the first place."
"Kakashi explained it to me and had me-"
"'Copy it with my Sharingan,' right?"
He nodded.
"What a sloppy way of doing things, though I suppose if you were pressed for time it can be excused… and since, as you say, 'the whole point is using it with your Sharingan,' you never noticed.
"Are you going to explain?" he knew annoyance was creeping into his tone, but found it difficult to reign it in. The man was just so infuriating!
"Tell me, have you ever wondered why it is that your sensei, the man known across the Elemental Nations as 'Copy Ninja Kakashi, the man who has copied over a thousand techniques,' only ever uses a select few of these in combat?"
He folded his arms and shifted his weight to one foot. "Because he's lazy?"
"Cute, but no. Sure, you can copy all sorts of things with those eyes of yours, but just because you can mimic it doesn't mean you understand it on a basic level. Yeah, that dojutsu will fill in that gap, but there's always a cost. Maybe it's increased chakra consumption, or it takes you longer to execute, perhaps a lack of power, and so on. The point is that if you want to use that Chidori of yours properly you need to be able to use it without the help of your eyes. You'll be better off for it, and, possibly," he jingled Naruto's wallet, "richer as well."
So that's why he had me drill endlessly on Lee's taijutsu.
"How am I supposed to do that?"
"'Aren't you supposed to be a shinobi?' Figure it out. But because I'm such a nice guy, I'll give you a hint: shape before element. Have fun!"
With that, Jiraiya left Sasuke standing there, looking at his hand inquisitively. He shook his head and made his way back down to the town, but not before summoning two toads to keep a discrete watch on the boys with instructions to summon him in case of a repeat performance by Akatsuki.
You didn't make it to his age in this world without being careful.
They found Tsunade a couple of days later, but the meeting hadn't gone particularly well.
Naruto had taken offense to her shaming of the Hokage position and those who take it up, and the end result was a destroyed stretch of road, a confiscated forehead protector, a prideful boast, and a ridiculous bet: 'Three days, you say? I'll be generous; if you can master that technique in five, then not only will I acknowledge that you could become Hokage, I will give you this necklace of mine. But if you can't' she held up the forehead protector that Iruka had given him 'then I keep this, because a shinobi has no business making promises he can't keep.'
Tsunade's assistant had arranged for a place to stay, seen to Naruto's wounds, and now here they were, the next day, back in that clearing, each working on their respective techniques.
Sasuke was making progress, as evidenced by the flowing chakra around his hand, but without it being converted into lightning the worst it would do was give someone a nasty bruise.
Naruto also seemed to be having difficulties, if the muttered cursing and swath of partially destroyed trees were anything to go by.
Sasuke rolled his shoulders, popped the kinks in his neck and back, and set about bringing lightning chakra out to coat his hand once more, only this time he managed to make it flow somewhat. He concentrated more, and was able to get the flowing motion the deepen until ripples were clearly visible, and he dismissed the chakra once more; he'd need a different approach. Lightning wasn't water, after all. Maybe if he gradually converted small bits of the chakra at a time?
He glanced over to where Naruto was straining to make the Rasengan stable and suppressed the urge to snort. There was no way he would manage it in time without…
It hit him, then, and he pinched the bridge of his nose, took several deep breaths, and counted slowly to 100 in order to prevent himself from stalking off to find Jiraiya and tearing bloody strips off of the insufferable shinobi.
Damn Jounin mind games. I refuse to give that man the satisfaction of a lecture.
"Hey, Naruto!"
Yakushi Kabuto surveyed the scene in front of him with no small amount of amusement.
He had already managed to defeat Tsunade - the one and only legendary-member-of-the-Sannin Tsunade - and was feeling, he felt, deservedly smug, no matter that he had abused a fear of blood to pull it off.
He was a shinobi, after all.
Her assistant had fallen just as easily, his scrambled nervous system notwithstanding, so enraged was she at the handling of her mentor that a simple underground ambush followed by a chakra-enhanced blow to the head had been sufficient to remove her from the fight.
He would have then rained further abuse on Tsunade for having the gall to try and betray Orochimaru, but his initial punch was blocked by the sudden appearance of one Uchiha Sasuke, scowl firmly in place, who caught it on his forearm and only slid backwards a small amount. On hearing a war cry from directly above, he consciously sent the commands that would have, under normal circumstances, tensed the muscles on his upper back, flared his nostrils, and caused his right eye to blink, among other things, and leapt backwards to avoid a vicious axe-kick from Naruto.
And so here he was, separated from his quarry by two Genin who were glaring and scowling at him, respectively.
Kabuto took the ensuing conversation in which he alternately criticized Naruto on his poor form and complimented Sasuke on his improved speed to begin the repair of his scrambled nerves - and that was a technique he simply had to learn; so many possibilities - and to glance over and check on the fight between Orochimaru and Jiraiya to see if he would be needed but it seemed that, crippled and all, Orochimaru was more than a match for a poisoned Jiraiya.
Well, it looked like the two children in front of him were actually going to attack. How interesting.
He watched as Naruto and Sasuke shared a glance, before the latter threw a smoke bomb downward, briefly obscuring them, and several shuriken came shooting out of the cloud directly at his chest. They were sidestepped easily enough, and he heard them embed into the large rock behind him with a series of thunks.
By now the smoke had dissipated, and several Narutos were charging directly at him, while Sasuke wisely stayed out of the fight and remained to guard the fallen Kunoichi behind him.
Letting your idiot of a teammate run to his death, Sasuke-kun? If nothing else, I approve of your pragmatism; no sense in getting yourself killed fighting me!
The Narutos were upon him then, and Kabuto decided to use primarily taijutsu to dispatch the clones, to both give him time to further reverse his scrambled nerves, and to keep an eye both on Sasuke, who could be planning something, and the fight between Orochimaru and Jiraiya, which seemed to have reached a stalemate.
Duck under a flying clone, grab it by its foot and swing it into the path of another, dispelling both, insult Naruto's poor hand-to-hand skills and lack of self-coordination, stab a third clone in the eye, and kick a fourth in the head to send it flying.
Huh, that was the original… and he's getting right back up again. Stubborn brat. Kid needs to learn to quit when he's outmatched.
Kabuto allowed himself a brief chuckle as yet more clones were made even has he dispelled the remaining few around him. He spared a glance at Sasuke -still just watching, standing there with his hands clasped behind his head as if without a care in the world.
Had he been drugged as well?
His attention swung back to Naruto, who had moved his clones into flanking positions and had them charge while he formed a sphere of of rapidly spinning chakra in one hand. Kabuto's eyes narrowed at the sight even as he skipped backwards to cause the flanking clones to change direction and come at him more-or-less head on.
That could be dangerous, have to-
His eyes widened as, once he landed, four sets of hands burst from the earth to grab onto his feet and he connected the initial smokescreen with their proximity to the tunnel he had used to attack Shizune even has he used thrown kunai to disperse two of the clones.
As Kabuto grabbed additional kunai to rid himself of the last two, he noticed out of the corner of his eye the clones that he thought had been meant for flanking grab ahold of Naruto and, with a mighty heave, sent him flying his way.
Shit!
Ten paces away.
He wouldn't be able to rid himself of the remaining clones in time, and he didn't have a substitution prepared.
One arm's length away.
In a last ditch effort to safeguard himself, he used the limited time to focus as much of his chakra as he could to the skin of his torso in the hopes of lessening the damage, cursing internally all the while.
Contact.
The skin of his belly was trying desperately to rip itself apart, and he could swear that his very bones were vibrating due to the shaking he felt in all parts of his body, but his improvised chakra barrier seemed to have held off the worst of the damage. As he was sent flying backward, his plans for tormenting Naruto in increasingly violent ways were interrupted by the faint pop of a henge dispersing behind him, followed by the sound of many birds chirping, first faint, then rapidly growing louder.
The shuriken… a trap, the whole time!
He hurriedly cast his remaining chakra out, questing for something, anything, to substitute with, but he was moving far too quickly and he was still reeling from Naruto's assault and there was no time and
Pain.
Threatening to swallow him whole. How had… oh yes, that's right.
He looked dumbly down at the lightning-wreathed hand protruding from the left side of his chest, as he was reasonably sure that that did not belong there. There was a faint pressure on his back, and he could feel the hand being pulled out - shoving shattered ribs aside, retreating through the tattered remnants of his heart and a lung, brushing against his spine - and he was left with a gaping hole that was leaking a truly alarming amount of blood.
Well, that just wouldn't do.
Kabuto was a medic, and every medic knew that you needed your blood, so he slowly, carefully, cupped his hands under the wound, captured some blood, and gently placed it back within himself.
Much better.
A small part of his mind cataloged for future use the fact that this new shower of blood seemed to have sent Tsunade further into the depths of her psychosis.
He started to make another go of returning blood to himself but lost his balance somewhere along the way and fell flat on his face.
That wasn't meant to happen.
He needed to use his arms to leverage himself back up so that he could finish putting all of his blood back. He needed to remember how to control his arms, because at the moment all he was doing was clenching his jaw and wriggling his toes. He needed-
It didn't take long for Sakura to track him down once they all returned to Konoha, but then again, when it came to anything regarding him, she could be considered an expert in her field.
"Sasuke-kun, nobody will tell me what happened."
In hindsight, the upper branches of a tree within view of his apartment was perhaps not the sneakiest of places to be if you wanted to avoid being found. For wallowing in self-pity, however, there was nowhere better. Not that he would do such a thing.
"Are you even listening to me?"
True, Naruto's plan had worked out, which was no longer as surprising as it would once have been, but to kill a man like that… it was supposed to be difficult. Was this ease in taking life how that man had been able to so nonchalantly murder his entire clan? He looked up from where he had been contemplating the patterns of the bark on the branch he was sitting on, and absolutely did not shrink back a bit in surprise as his eyes beheld the utterly enraged face - as pink as her hair, and any other time he might have laughed - of his teammate.
"Uchiha Sasuke, you will stop ignoring me and you will tell me what happened or so help me…" she went off into a string of increasingly violent and physiologically improbable threats, accompanied by vicious hand movements, and for the first time he began to understand why Shikamaru was so terrified of women.
A placating hand gesture and some calming words later, Sakura was straddling the branch an arm's length away, and fixing him with an intent look.
"Explain."
"Why not ask Naruto?"
"I was going to, but he was helping Ino out in the greenhouses, and I didn't really feel like dealing with her at the moment." And I wanted an excuse to talk to you. "Did you know he liked gardening?"
He didn't, but he nodded anyway, seizing onto the opportunity.
"Well, he does, apparently. Who would have thought someone like him would have the patience for…" she trailed off, and her face began to color again. "Are you trying to distract me?"
There was nothing at all he could say here that would help him, so he remained still and silent.
With a face like thunder, and a posture that clearly broadcast that she would be putting up with any shenanigans on his part to get out of this despite still siting astride a tree branch, she repeated her earlier demand.
He could have escaped, of course… but Jiraiya had said, afterward, that it would help to talk about it, and the man, annoying though he was, had been right about other things.
So he did.
There were only a few interruptions:
"The Senju Tsunade?!"
and
"So Kabuto was a traitor? That bastard!"
and
"That idiotic plan actually worked?"
"I was surprised too, you know."
and
"It had to be done, right? I mean, he was trying to kill other Konoha shinobi, and in the Academy Iruka-sensei always said that, while we shouldn't go searching to end lives, doing it during the course of a mission is perfectly understandable."
His response died in his throat as there was the faintest scuff of sandal on roof tile behind them, done in such a way as to convey how deliberate it was, and that set all sorts of alarm bells ringing, as every Konoha shinobi and trainee - Naruto included - knew that out of deference to the sanity of their civilian populace, travel by roofs was prohibited after dark. It was shortly followed by several more, all from slightly different locations. For someone to be there, now, after all that had happened… A quick glance out of the corner of his eye revealed that Sakura hadn't noticed.
Good.
In what he felt was an exceedingly calm voice given the circumstances, he said, "Sakura, could you do me a favor?"
As expected, she turned to him, bright smile suddenly back in place. "Of course, Sasuke-kun!" Though the extra-sweet voice was perhaps a bit much. No matter.
"You know that stand a few streets north of the hot springs, near the bar with that awful red sign?"
She didn't, but she could find it, and said as much.
"Could you get me some anpan, along with whatever you want for yourself?" He tossed her his wallet and, in the same motion, quickly flashed the signs for intruders and get help.
To her credit, her reaction was limited to a slight twitch of one eyebrow. In that same syrupy tone, she said "I'll be right back, Sasuke-kun! Don't you go wandering off!"
Just before she rounded the corner, five figures appeared before him.
Sasuke scanned them instantly - four were in matching uniforms (tan tunic, black shorts, large purple rope acting as belt to hold it all together, forehead protectors bearing the single musical note of Otogakure), while the fifth, standing in the center, had opted for a light purple shirt and done away with the hitai-ate, perhaps a sign of rank - as he got to his feet and adopted a defensive, but non-confrontational stance.
The one in the center (the captain?) stepped forward and in the light of a nearby street lamp Sasuke noted the two red dots on his brow as well as the trio of curved lines tattooed on his chest.
He spoke, his voice deeper than Sasuke would have expected, in a tone that suggested anything other than instant obedience would be unwise.
"Uchiha Sasuke, you are coming with us."