"Here," Xander said, causing Anko to stop and set him down.

"Here?" Anko asked curiously. "I thought we had to travel a lot farther, I mean, this is scrubland."

"Which counts as white and red," Xander explained as he felt the nature of the ground around him and found something interesting. "Do you guys have a hidden base out here?"

"If there is one, it isn't ours," Anko said, signaling for their hidden escort to be on alert.

"It's old and empty," Xander said. "I'm not sensing any traps either." He approached a sandy hill and slowly circled it. "It's in there."

Anko flashed through a number of hand seals and dove into the ground like it was water.

"That still looks cool as hell," Xander said.

A stone door opened out from the hillside, pushing aside nearly a foot of sand and dirt, revealing Anko with a grin on her face. "Come on in," Anko told him. "I think you'll get a kick out of this."

"What is it?" Xander asked as he entered the stone doorway, noting the glowing seals on the ceiling providing light.

"You tell me," Anko replied, gesturing to the end of the hall where it opened up into a circular room with another exit.

Xander examined the room noting the large circular bed and peeking his head out the other exit and finding a perpetually running shower and toilet. "It's… a love nest!" he said in surprise.

"Probably started out as a campsite," Anko said with a grin, "but after stopping here while on patrol so many times, someone built an underground room for safety and comfort and it kinda evolved from there. This place hasn't been used in decades, but the last couple who used it shed enough chakra that everything is still powered."

"Shed?" Xander asked curiously.

"There are a number of activities that help increase your chakra flow, which also tend to release excess chakra into your surroundings," Anko explained. "Would you like me to show you one?"

"Sure," Xander replied.

Anko gestured and the stone door closed. "I was hoping you'd say that." Her clothes quickly dropped to the floor and she pushed Xander onto the bed.

"Oh," Xander said as he realized what she meant.

Half an hour later…

"And now the place is saturated with our chakra," Anko said smugly.

Xander chuckled. "Glad this place has its own shower."

"Considering who I suspect used this place, I'm surprised it doesn't have a hot tub," Anko said running a finger down Xander's chest.

"I'd ask who it was, but the answers would be meaningless to me," Xander said. "Wanna shower with me?"

"Love to," Anko said, "but we really should spend at least some of our time doing what we're supposed to."

"If they complain, tell them it helps me adjust to the new mana flow," Xander suggested.

"Doubt they'll buy it," Anko said, allowing him to lead her to the shower.

"It's actually true," Xander told her. "I need a little time to get used to each new connection and this seems to speed that up."

"In that case I best get back to work," Anko said with a smirk.

"Nose to the grindstone, that's us!" Xander agreed.

Six hours later…

"Report," Sarutobi ordered, taking a puff from his pipe.

"Xander needed a little time at each stop to adjust to the new mana connection," Anko replied, "but a little physical activity helped speed up the process, so we managed to add five more mana to his pool. He said he can cast the healing spell twice today without a problem."

"When he's finished with lunch, Jiraiya has a handful of volunteers at the hospital," Sarutobi told Anko. "Depending on the results of the first test, we'll gather a group for a second casting."

"Yes, Sir," Anko said cheerfully.

"How would you evaluate him?" Sarutobi asked curiously.

"Powerful, kind, and probably too good to be true," Anko admitted with a sigh. "I mean, how many people do you run into that are exactly what they seem with no hidden agendas or dark secrets?"

"And yet you still chose to start a relationship with him," Sarutobi noted, leaning back in his chair.

"Relationship is a strong word," Anko replied with a wince. "I prefer to think of it as spending time with someone until they reveal they're an asshole. It's just human nature."

Sarutobi nodded. "Humans can be disappointing at times," he agreed, amusement in his eyes. "Dismissed."

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Kurenai saw the stranger Anko had been showing around the village and decided to introduce herself. It was rare to find Anko interested enough in someone to be seen in public with them, so it was probably a good idea to make sure he wasn't a creep.

Two minutes later…

Anko smiled as she saw Xander sitting at the counter talking to a friend of hers but the smile faded as she saw her friend becoming upset and a memory of something she'd done last night arose…

"Hell viewing technique!" Kurenai called out, hands flashing through signs as she cast her genjutsu.

"Kurenai, No!" Anko yelled, as she shunshined into the ramen stand.

"Kurenai, Yes!" Kurenai shot back. "You have no idea what he just suggested!"

"Interesting," Xander said completely unruffled, "but that's not remotely what hell looks like."

"Kai!" Anko called out, breaking the genjutsu. "She wasn't with us last night, that was me using a henge on a clone."

"I know that," Xander replied.

"Then why did you hit on me?!" Kurenai demanded.

"I thought Anko cast it right this time," Xander said.

"I cast it right last night," Anko said with an offended huff. "Henge!" Anko turned into a duplicate of Kurenai.

"I can still see it's you," Xander said. "A transparent layer of color doesn't fool anyone."

"Henge," Kurenai said, turning into a duplicate of Anko.

"I can see through both of them," Xander said.

"Oh," said Kurenai, dropping her henge, with Anko doing the same. "So you hit on me thinking I was her," Kurenai said awkwardly.

Xander shrugged. "I figured if Anko wanted to do a little roleplay, I'm up for it."

"And on that note, the Hokage says everything is ready for you at the hospital," Anko said, embarrassed that Xander hadn't even noticed some of the things she'd used to spice things up the night before.

At the hospital

Jiraiya rechecked his monitoring seals. Even if he couldn't detect everything Xander did when casting a spell, he could detect everything the spell did to a person.

There were thirty people in the room, encompassing a full range of people of different ages, both sexes, and multiple causes of injuries. Despite Jiraiya's belief that Xander was being honest about his technique and its effects, none of the patients were valuable personnel. If it worked on this group, then Sarutobi would allow Jiraiya to bring in medically retired Jounin and Special Jounin.

"Just in here," the nurse said, leading Xander and Anko into the room.

"Jiraiya!" Xander called out cheerfully, as he took in the wide variety of patients.

"Hey, kid," the Toad Sage replied. "I got a room full of patients for you."

Xander nodded. "I also see the monitoring seals, which is good because it'll help me find the limits of the spell and maybe suggest some improvements I can make."

"Let me get out of the way, and you can fire away," Jiraiya said excitedly.

Xander took a deep breath and raised his right hand above his head, white light beginning to gather in his palm, causing it to glow like the sun. He swung his glowing hand in a large circle, leaning down to almost touch the ground, his right leg coming up to counter balance his sharp movement, all while calling out, "Moon healing Escalation!"

A wall of healing magic filled the room in front of him, blinding everyone.

"Holy fuck, that's powerful!" Anko exclaimed. "Also girly as hell."

"You should see the girl who cast it," Xander said, shaking his head. "As a matter of fact…Henge!" With a burst of smoke, Xander turned into an exact duplicate of Sailor Moon.

Anko lost it, falling down laughing while Jiraiya just snorted and went to check his seals. "I didn't know you'd mastered henge," Anko said as she wiped tears of laughter from her eyes.

"Simple spells… or jutsu, I can get," Xander replied, feeling the hair on her head, "though I probably don't do them exactly the same way you guys do them."

Anko reached out and felt Xander's chest. "Yeah, this is a bit more solid than how we do it."

Xander dropped the henge. "I've got the ones you teach pre-teens and some basic elemental attacks down, but I'll have to really study the more complicated jutsu before I can use them."

The patients were examining themselves and each other with broad smiles, everyone glowing with health and even limbs that had been missing were back.

Jiraiya returned with a stack of tags. "This looks great, but there seems to be a mental component as well."

"White mana is also known as Soldier's Mana," Xander explained, "it enhances the qualities you'd expect to see in a soldier. Have one of your mindwalkers take a look and they should be able to confirm it."

"And healing is usually done with green mana," Jiraiya said thoughtfully. "What effect does green have on the mind?"

"It is also known as Nature's Mana," Xander explained, "it enhances natural instincts, so unless you're in the middle of battle it mainly enhances the libido."

"Now that sounds useful," Jiraiya said, looking interested.

"People aren't just interested in sex, they also want kids," Xander said, "so you could have a couple who planned on waiting, changing their mind until it wore off."

"How long does the effect last?" Jiraiya asked, thinking of several possible uses for that side effect as well.

"Depends on the person," Xander said thoughtfully, as he considered his own instinctive knowledge of the subject outside of the confines of the game. "If they really didn't want kids, they would be back to normal in a day or two, but if they found the idea attractive, it could last weeks."

"If we take you out to a forest to connect you to a little green mana, you aren't going to suddenly go kid crazy are you?" Anko asked carefully.

Xander laughed. "While I'm not immune, I can throw off the effect at will."

"Good," Anko said, looking relieved.

"How long would it take you to revise the spell to use green mana?" Jiraiya asked.

"No clue," Xander admitted. "I'm pretty sure I need a lot more experience with healing magics before I can even try."

"Something for the future then," Jiraiya said cheerfully, as he examined various readings with a great deal of satisfaction. "I should have all the tests done by tomorrow, then we can start turning a profit! In the meantime, go out and have some fun."

Xander caught the small bag of money that Jiraiya tossed to him. "I'll be sure to do that."

"Wanna pick up some green mana?" Anko asked.

"I could use some," Xander agreed.

"Good, I'll show you one of my favorite training grounds," Anko said, "and can you use green mana to deliberately set off the baby craze?"

"I think so," Xander agreed. "Why?"

"A couple of pranks and payback for Kurenai," Anko said with a smirk.

"This has bad idea written all over it," Xander said with a melodramatic groan.

"Yes, but in between that it reads 'good time'!" Anko promised, pressing herself against him.

"Can't argue with that," Xander agreed as he let Anko lead him off.

Jiraiya chuckled and signaled for one of the hidden ANBU to stay behind. "You were caught by his jutsu, you gotta be checked as well."

Taking off his mask, Hayate nodded. Taking a deep breath and not feeling the slightest urge to cough, he said unrepentantly, "I've seen enough of the kid to think it worth the risk."

"I figured you might," Jiraiya said with a smirk, taking Hayate's ANBU mask and removing a hidden monitoring seal.

Typed by – Sitheus Maximus / Ipsith