"Lady Tsunade, this winning streak is amazing!" says Shizune, probably pleased that they actually have money in their pockets.
"I know, and that's what worries me," says Tsunade. Tsunade never wins unless something bad is about to happen. So long as she is losing, all is as it should be. But on the off-chance she will win something without the negative repercussions, Tsunade keeps gambling.
"Lady Tsunade, is it?" says a deep voice from behind her.
Tsunade turns. There is a tall man wearing a full-face mask and a form-concealing cloak standing in the road. "Who are you?" demands Tsunade, ready to fight if necessary.
"Who I am is only your business if you agree to my proposition," says the man evenly.
"What proposition?" asks Tsunade, suspiciously.
"I can bring Dan and Nawaki back from the dead if you agree to help me create a perfect world free of wars, death, pain and sorrow," says the man. "You are one of the two remaining Legendary Sannin, and I need powerful allies."
"Two…?"
"Orochimaru is dead," says the man. "You and Jiraiya are the only two left."
"So why aren't you approaching Jiraiya then?" asks Tsunade.
"Simple," says the man. "I need a good medic."
"No way," says Tsunade. She is not buying this. "The dead cannot be brought back, and there is no way a world like the one you described is possible."
"If you need more incentive," says the man. "I can pay off all your gambling debts."
Tsunade is tempted.
"I will give you a week to decide," says the man. "Meet me outside the North side of town at noon in seven days. If you do not come, I will assume you have refused my offer. If you refuse my offer, I will kill you and Shizune." The man shunshins away.
"What are we going to do with her if Jiraiya refuses to look after her?" Kazama whispers. "That poor child is scared out of her wits and she just lost her mother. There is no way I am going to let her anywhere near Jiraiya if he scares her even a tiny bit!"
"Calm down, Kazama!" whispers Arashi. "I'm sure nothing bad will happen. We could always offer to let her live with us while Jiraiya's doing his spy work."
"But we're getting too old to look after another child!" protests Kazama. "Especially one as young as that!"
"I'm here you know," says Iruka from the other end of the dining table. Kimiko is sleeping in Naruto's bed. The poor child is totally worn out from her long trip to the Hidden Leaf. Iruka is sure she has no ninja training at all. "I can help you look after her."
Kazama and Arashi turn to look at Iruka.
"I suppose so…" says Arashi thoughtfully. "But where will she sleep if she stays?"
"Good question," says Iruka. "I could always leave home, you know…"
"Don't be silly," says Kazama. "Naruto would never allow it."
"Well, there is plenty of land around the house," says Arashi. "We could build onto it."
"That's true," says Kazama, nodding. "Or we could move…"
"Don't be silly," says Arashi. "Naruto would never stand for it."
"I could hire a studio in town and put her in the music room," suggests Kazama. "But I suppose that's not a very good idea, since the music room is meant to be a sitting room."
"We could build on and build a proper music room," says Arashi, sticking with his theme of building on. "And we could build a room for Jiraiya to use as well…"
"I'm not so sure I like the idea of building on," says Kazama. "I think we had better wait and see what Naruto thinks."
Iruka laughs. "I think we can all agree on one thing: Naruto runs our lives."
"I've located Tsunade," Pervy Sage tells Naruto. "We have to get moving."
"But you still haven't shown me the third stage of training!" whines Naruto.
"Fine, I'll show you," says Pervy Sage. "But you'll have to practice on the road. We really don't have any time to waste. Tsunade might leave that town, and then we'll be back to square one."
"Whatever," says Naruto, who is secretly very, very scared that Sasuke is dying right that second.
Pervy Sage pulls out a balloon and blows it up, making a round ball. "This is the third step," says Pervy Sage, holding out the balloon in his hand.
Nothing happens.
Naruto waits.
Still nothing happens.
"Nothing's happening," says Naruto, disappointed.
"Something is happening," grins Pervy Sage. "Inside the balloon. Watch on this hand what is happening inside the balloon." Pervy Sage holds out his other hand, and forms a glowing blue rasengan on it.
Naruto stares at the jutsu, noticing that it is a condensed ball of chakra spinning this way and that. Naruto wonders why it isn't popping the balloon, but is too busy staring into the fascinating depths of the glowing ball to say anything.
"Naruto? Earth to Naruto!"
"Huh?" Naruto looks up at Pervy Sage.
"Don't you wanna know how I did it?" Pervy Sage asks.
"Yeah!" Naruto grins up at Pervy Sage. "This is so cool! Show me, show me!"
"Well," says Pervy Sage. "The key is to build up the chakra the same way you did to pop the rubber ball, with the same amount of power. But you have to keep it inside the balloon. Imagine a thin layer between the balloon and the chakra and keep all the power contained inside that layer."
Naruto cocks his head to one side and screws up his eyes. "Why?"
"Observe," says Pervy Sage, tossing Naruto the balloon. "This is what the result of the first two stages looks like without the ball." he forms a swirling ball in his hand and slamming it into a tree. The ball of chakra leaves a spiral in the tree's bark. "And this is what the complete Rasengan looks like," says Pervy Sage, forming another perfect sphere of chakra in his hand and slamming into the tree. The rasengan burns a huge hole in the side of the tree.
Naruto gapes in awe. This is such a cool jutsu!
"In order to harness the amount of force the Rasengan needs," explains Pervy Sage. "All that power needs to be contained into one concentrated attack. If you can form it without breaking the balloon, then your Rasengan is complete."
Naruto looks at the balloon in his hand, then at the Rasengan in Pervy Sage's hand. Being very careful to concentrate, Naruto starts building up chakra like he did for the last two steps. But when he tries to contain it, the chakra escapes his control, bursting the balloon with a loud bang.
Naruto stares at his hands, which are shaking from the effort. This step is on a whole other level!
Nagato is bored so he decides to go for a walk through the Hidden Leaf. After wandering around for a while, he finds himself totally lost. Well, he could probably find his way pretty quickly if he jumped onto the roofs, but the houses in this area are so far apart that it would look odd for him to run across the rooves. At a guess, Nagato would say he is in a residential area, and probably a rich one at that.
Ah well, Nagato doesn't have anything to do until Jiraiya sensei gets back, so he wanders around aimlessly.
Nagato has been wandering around for the better part of an hour when he sees a house with the Uzumaki clan symbol painted above the door. The symbol looks like it was slapped on by an excited seven-year-old and left there.
Curious, Nagato stops and looks at the house. It is two stories high, red and white, and has a rather large section around it. A well-groomed path leads to the front door. Sitting on the front steps with a toad plushie in her arms is a little girl with black hair and golden eyes. She is wearing a purple jacket and matching purple pleated skirt with black sandals.
"Hello!" Nagato calls to the girl, raising his hand in greeting.
The little girl freezes.
Nagato stares at the kid, confused. He isn't that scary, is he?
Then a young man with a scar across his nose wanders around from the back of the house, a pile of what looks like kids' school books in his arms. He sees Nagato and grins. "Nice hair."
"Thanks," says Nagato. "I grew it myself."
The little girl giggles.
"I'm Iruka Umino," says the young man. "And you are?"
"I'm Nagato Uzumaki," Nagato introduces himself, grinning, because this is a real, live Umino. "I'm the new leader of the Hidden Rain. I'm just killing time until Jiraiya sensei gets back from wherever he's gone off to. Lord Hokage didn't say, but we haven't seen Jiraiya sensei in ages so we're sticking around."
"We?" asks the Iruka.
"Oh, me, Konan and Yahiko," says Nagato. "I let them have some space to do what married couples do."
"Nice."
"Who's the kid?" asks Nagato, curiously. "She seems familiar, somehow…"
"She's Jiraiya's illegitimate love-child," says Iruka. "She's staying with us until he gets back."
"Jiraiya sensei...has...a...kid…" Nagato cannot quite believe his ears. She's so young!