"You need to see Tsunade?" the Third asked.
"Yes, sir. My regular eyesight is failing, and fast. If anyone can help, it's her," Itachi replied.
The Hokage sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "I can understand your coming to me, since I'm pretty much the only one she'll listen to. Look, I'll write a note asking her to do it, but I can't guarantee that she'll agree to it. She long since resigned her commission from the Ninja Corps, so I can't order her to do anything. Honestly, though, I don't even know where to find her." He suddenly began to cough violently, causing Naruto and Sasuke to rush to his side, rubbing his back and asking if he was alright. Spitting into a trash bin under his desk, he replied hoarsely, "I'm alright. Just my old age..." His mind kicked him again for lying, but he knew he had no choice. Straightening up, he said, "Naruto, go find Jiraiya. I'm sending you two to locate Senju Tsunade and bring her back to the Leaf Village. You're to leave immediately; don't return for confirmation." He scribbled a quick note and handed it to Naruto. "Give this to Jiraiya."
"Y-yes, sir!" Naruto replied, surprised by the haste of the action but filled with enough concern for the elderly man to run out at full speed.
"Lord Hokage-" Sasuke began, but was silenced by a look from the older man.
"I appreciate the concern, but our concern is to retrieve the third Sannin. You may leave now; you can wait outside for Itachi," the Hokage said in a tone that brooked no argument. When Sasuke slipped out, the Hokage sighed and relaxed. "I was hoping to hold out a little longer."
"What has happened, my lord?" Itachi asked, concerned for his leader.
The Hokage showed Itachi what he had spit into the can. It was a wad of tar-black goo that just sat there, unmoved and unmoving. "I fear my old smoking habit has finally caught up with me."
"Why have you not gotten treatment?" Itachi asked.
"My time is over, Itachi... the loss of my wife, the invasion, Red Dawn; all of it points to my own demise," the Hokage stated.
The young Uchiha nodded. "I see... and you wish Tsunade to take up the reins?"
"Yes. You're still officially a rogue, Kakashi's not mature enough, and both he and Saito are still teaching their teams. Besides, if anyone can cure me, it's her." The Hokage closed his eyes. "Stay close, but not close enough to draw suspicion from the spies."
"Of course. I'll be near the border with Tea Country; Sasuke will know where exactly," Itachi said as he bowed and, after once again disguising himself as a civilian, excused himself from the room.
The Hokage shook his head as he began to write a new farewell speech, not knowing if he would even finish it but also knowing that he'd need to have something planned out. He glanced at a panel in his desk, wondering if he'd get the chance to tell Naruto the whole truth. A week out, and the committee still hadn't sent word on who got promoted to the rank of chunin, so he prayed that Naruto would be promoted just so he could see the relief on the boy's face before he died. He looked over at the calendar and frowned, seeing how close the trial was, and he prayed some more that Naruto would not be banished; he would do all that he could do to help the boy, but it was clear that he would not have much sway, given his health and the fact that he'd let Orochimaru invade the village in the first place.
…
Jiraiya read the note and glared holes into it. 'What are you thinking, sensei? Tsunade might come to heal at least you, but she'll never want the job of Hokage, nor will she support Naruto. The trial is coming up. There's no time to make any sort of impression with her. Still, there's no time to even debate that, if what Naruto said is true...' He then turned to Naruto. "You ready to go?"
"Yes, sir!" Naruto stated stiffly, his eyes shimming with determination as he looked out into the distance. "We'll get Lady Tsunade and get both the Hokage and Itachi healed!"
Jiraiya nodded and turned to Saito. "I'll be back with your student soon."
"Godspeed, Master Jiraiya, Naruto," Saito responded, nodding once in understanding. With that, the Sannin and his apprentice leaped off at top speed, determined to find Tsunade and save the Hokage.
…
"So, Pervy-Sage, what does Lady Tsunade look like?" Naruto asked.
"Well, I haven't seen her in over ten years, so I don't know how much she's changed, but she's got blond hair like you, is taller than the average woman, and-" Jiraiya had to stop himself from continuing, remembering Iruka's and Sarutobi's warning regarding unleashing said woman on him. "Well, she's an impressive ninja. Doesn't use a lot of ninjutsu, but her medical skills are top-notch and she can hold her own in a fight; even I would be hard-pressed to defeat her in a duel."
"Wow, she sounds really strong, if she can go toe-to-toe with you!" Naruto exclaimed. "She's the First Hokage's granddaughter, right?"
"Yup, she's a Senju," Jiraiya replied, "though she didn't inherit her grandfather's Wood-style jutsu. It was a rare mutation that, unlike the Ice-style jutsu that Haku possesses, was not passed on to his children."
"How come none of Lord Hashirama's children became a Hokage?" Naruto asked. "The second Hokage was the First's brother."
"They all died in the wars or did not want the position," Jiraiya answered. "Not everyone can be a leader, Naruto. It takes a special talent for it that not many people have. Take me, for instance: I wasn't very keen on taking another student, especially with what happened to my last one, because I might be able to mentor but I am not an effective leader. People do not follow me easily."
"Well, if you'd lay off the whole perverted mask thing you've got, people would trust you more," Naruto pointed out.
Jiraiya shrugged in response. "Maybe, but I happen to make a very good living off of being a pervert. Being an international spy doesn't exactly give a stable income, if you know what I mean."
"I liked your first book," Naruto replied. "I need to finish it, 'cause I fell asleep while the Hokage read it to me, but I enjoyed it. Why not write more of those?"
"It flopped," Jiraiya said. "It's the one I'm most proud of, the one I poured the most of my soul into, but after it got poor reviews and didn't sell well, I figured that if I couldn't write action I could write sex; that always sells."
"But don't you see what it's been doing to you?" Naruto asked. "I can tell that you're a good guy, but no one will take you seriously because you don't even take yourself seriously, and the only time I take you seriously is when you talk about ninja stuff."
"Maybe you should be a psychologist, kid," Jiraiya noted.
"Ino's dad- he's the guy I get my gardening stuff from; he's really smart, though some of the stuff he talks about goes over my head, but what I said is just common sense stuff," Naruto insisted.
Jiraiya nodded. "How would you like to learn a jutsu that the Fourth learned?" he asked, hoping to divert the uncomfortable conversation.
"Of course!" Naruto replied.
"Good. Pay attention, okay?" Jiraiya said as a blue sphere formed in the palm of his hand. "This is the Rasengan. You'll need a lot of chakra control to pull it off, but I've got a couple of exercises that you can use to help you in forming the ball and keeping it formed." He pulled a balloon out and quickly blew it up. "Now, what I want you to do is to spin the air inside with your chakra. Concentrate on expanding the balloon with both your chakra and the air without popping the balloon. We'll take on the next exercise once you've mastered this one."
…
The next day, Naruto and Jiraiya were talking as they walked along the path between the Leaf Village and Tanzaku Township when Naruto's voice got low and he asked, "Pervy-Sage, am I really a demon?"
Jiraiya paused and looked down at the blond. "Of course you're not a demon. Why would you ask something like that?"
"Because when I fought Gaara and I accessed the 'second chakra source', I met the Fox," Naruto replied. "I don't remember what was said, but now I get why I was always ignored or attacked. They see me as the Fox."
"Naruto," Jiraiya said, "you should already know that who you are isn't determined by anything but what you do. Unfortunately most people don't see it that way, but believe it or not there are those who know the truth and still care about you."
Naruto snorted and replied, "Yeah, I know the Old Man does, as does Iruka. I know you do, too, but that's it."
"Do you really think Lord Hiashi would expose his family to danger if he thought you were the Fox?" Jiraiya asked. "Also, have you noticed any of your classmates being skittish around you, or anything like that?"
"No- wait," Naruto said, "you mean that they found out?"
"After your battle with Gaara, it's probably obvious to all of them, especially Shikamaru," Jiraiya replied.
Naruto frowned and muttered to himself, "But none of them have treated me any differently…" He then looked up at Jiraiya and asked, "Why haven't they said anything?"
"The Third's Law, remember?" Jiraiya said. "No one is to speak of it unless authorized by the Hokage. A recent addendum has given me freedom to speak about it to those of my choosing. At this point, though, the law is going to have to be nullified, at least to some extent. Too many people know."
"… This is all my fault…" Naruto said, hanging his head. "If only I had thought of something else, none of this would be happening…"
Jiraiya barked a laugh and replied, "I don't think I've ever seen you like this before… and it's unbecoming of you. What's done is done; let's move forward. I'll let your friends know that you know and that you all are allowed to speak of it – in private, of course."
…
Two days passed by, punctuated by the popping of balloons and groans of frustration, but eventually Naruto figured he had a firm grasp on it to try the rubber ball exercise. "Now you have to figure out how to shape your chakra into a sphere, and the ball will serve as a mold of sorts to help you get a feel for it. This time, though, you want to destroy the rubber ball without losing the shape of the Rasengan." This took another couple of days, but Naruto never gave up and, to the amazement of Jiraiya, finally figured it out well enough for the next step. "In order to make the Rasengan, you need to combine the two exercises together, without the aid of the balloon or ball." Several days and ignored warnings later, Naruto was sporting bandages on his right hand and arm that had been dressed with aloe to soothe the burns inflicted by the rapidly-spinning chakra.
As they finally walked into town, Jiraiya sighed and said, "We'll begin once you get healed; tonight we shall feast!" With that, Jiraiya practically dragged Naruto into a bar and sat the both of them down at the counter. "Martini on the rocks, and a hot chocolate for my friend!" The barkeep took a look at Naruto, but when he saw Jiraiya's headband he nodded and got the requested items for the Toad Sage.
"Uh, Pervy-Sage, why are we in a bar?" Naruto asked, but was summarily hushed with a finger from Jiraiya. Despite having gotten their drinks, Jiraiya didn't even touch his, but conversed with the barkeep. Naruto decided to pull out the rubber ball and work on the technique while letting his drink cool and for Jiraiya to let him talk. Meanwhile, Jiraiya had set up an empty glass and began to move it so that he could see everyone in the bar. He smirked as he caught sight of someone and thanked the bartender, paying for the drinks and information before standing up and walking over to a corner table. Naruto, seeing his teacher on the move, naturally followed behind and when they came up to a pair of women he figured that Jiraiya was being a pervert again, but decided to keep his mouth shut as he listened in.
"Come on, milady! We're never going to pay back our debts if you keep spending anything you win on booze!" the younger black-haired lady was saying.
"Aw, don't be shilly, Shizune!" the blond-haired woman responded, clearly more than simply buzzed. "You need to lighten up! Sheize the day!" She took another sip from a jug of what Naruto could only assume was liquor, but she quickly spit it out when she finally noticed Jiraiya.
"Heya, Tsunade! Glad to see all three of you are doing well!" Jiraiya exclaimed.
"Shtill referring to my breashts as sheparate entitiesh, Jiraiya?" Tsunade snapped, clearly not happy to see her old teammate. "Why do you have to dishturb my shelebration?"
"It's about the Old Man... he's dying, and he needs you to heal him," Jiraiya replied.
The way Tsunade reacted, though, shocked Naruto to no end. "Of courshe that curshed poshition finally got to him! Shervesh him right for taking it up again!"
"Come on, Tsunade, don't you have any feelings for our teacher left?" Jiraiya asked.
"Of courshe I do! But he wash going to die a horrible death anyway when he deshided to acshept that curshed position; why should I bother going back to that hellhole jusht to shave him?" Tsunade exclaimed, only to dodge a rubber ball aimed at her head.
"How DARE you talk down about the Old Man like that!" Naruto shouted, his rage clear even to the drunken Sannin. "He trained you, for crying out loud! That doesn't mean anything to you, though, does it!? And the honorable position of Hokage!? You'd dare to defile it with your crude remarks!" Turning to Jiraiya, he said, "Come on, let's go, Pervy-Sage. She's no Sannin; she's nothing but a shriveled-up old hag!" Naruto, however, was wholly unprepared when a fist collided with his face and sent him flying farther than he'd have ever thought possible from such a slender arm, going through the wall and into the building opposite the bar.
"Tsunade!" Jiraiya rebuked her, "he's just a genin! Don't use so much of that monstrous strength of yours!"
"Old enough to be a ninja, old enough to die," Tsunade retorted as she stumbled out of the bar toward where Naruto had landed. Seeing the unconscious boy, though, made her realize who he was. "Wait, is this Minato's brat?!"
"Yeah," Jiraiya responded. "You didn't know?"
"Those bastards told me he was stillborn and that Kushina died at the same time!" Tsunade roared. "I swear, when I get there heads will ROLL!" Of course, after saying that she fell down, the alcohol finally taking full effect and knocking her out.
Jiraiya sighed as he picked up both Tsunade and Naruto. "I guess we'll be spending the night here. Shizune, do you two have rooms at the inn?"
"Yes, Master Jiraiya," Shizune replied. "I'll put Lady Tsunade to bed."
"When she wakes up, ask her to heal Naruto's arm," Jiraiya asked. "I've been teaching him the Rasengan, but he tore his arm up pretty bad and I've forbidden him to continue learning it until his arm heals."
"I will," Shizune replied as they walked back to the inn.
…
Tsunade frowned as she worked on Naruto's arm, marveling at how much he resembled his father. Beforehand, Jiraiya had informed her about Naruto's "inheritance" and it took everything in his power to keep Tsunade from marching to the Leaf Village to kill everyone there. 'Brat... why do you care so much for a town that hates you so much?'
Finally, Naruto began to stir; his head had already been healed, but there wasn't much Tsunade could do for the throbbing pain that Naruto began to moan about. When he opened his eyes, he took one look at Tsunade and said, "I don't want someone who hates the Old Man to treat me. No matter how long it might take, I'll heal on my own, so go punch something else."
"Shelve your pride, brat," Tsunade replied. "I promised I'd go heal Sensei, and I intend to do just that. Besides, left to heal normally you probably wouldn't be able to use jutsu anymore."
"Wait, what?" Naruto asked, confused.
"While you were learning the last part of the Rasengan, you tore up not just skin skin but your chakra coils in your right arm. Without proper medical attention they would've been misshapen and useless," Tsunade informed him. Naruto sighed and stared up at the ceiling, but didn't refuse her help anymore. "Look, I said a lot of things last night that you didn't need to know about, and while I won't take them back I'm sorry you had to hear them."
"You've had a hard past, I'll bet," Naruto replied. "Welcome to the club; I'll get a T-shirt made for you."
"Cheeky brat," Tsunade remarked.
"Bitter grandma," Naruto replied. Both of them began to glare daggers at each other for a moment, then huffed and turned away.
"Geeze, if I didn't know any better I'd say the two of you were related," Jiraiya, who'd walked in the room in the middle of the conversation, commented humorously.
"Too bad for you, huh, Jiraiya?" Tsunade replied.
Jiraiya almost said, "No, too bad for you," but he knew that he'd only be opening another can of worms, so he asked, "When will you be finished with Naruto? We need to get back as soon as humanly possible."
"I'm almost done with the brat's arm; we can leave right now, though, since the rest I can do while we walk," Tsunade replied.
"Okay." Picking up his backpack, Jiraiya said, "I'm gonna go pick up some stuff for the trip back. I'll be back in about half an hour, so you two should pack up as well." He then excused himself from the room and left.
Tsunade turned back to Naruto and began wrapping his arm up. "I'm done with your coils, but the burns will have to wait until after I heal Sensei."
"Tsunade, did Jiraiya mention that the Old Man wants you to replace him as Hokage?" Naruto asked.
"The answer should already be obvious, but I'm not going to sign my own death warrant," Tsunade replied, and Naruto could hear the bitterness in her voice. "You shouldn't be so willing to die, either."
"I won't give up," Naruto resolutely replied.
"Why? Jiraiya told me about your prisoner and how the villagers have treated you. Why waste your time protecting people who don't even care one whit about you?" Tsunade asked.
Naruto sat up after Tsunade taped up the bandage and slipped his shirt and cloak on while saying, "I protect the people who I care about, who have cared about me regardless: the Old Man, the Ichiraku family, Iruka-sensei and my other teachers, my brother Sasuke and my other comrades, Hinata, and others who haven't short-changed me. The rest will see me and eventually come around, and those who don't… Well, their opinion about me doesn't matter much at this point. By the way, do you have anything to read? I probably can't practice the Rasengan right now, and there's no lakes nearby for me to practice water-walking."
"I'll look in my things," Tsunade replied as she stood up. "Tell you what, I'll make you a deal: if you can master the Rasengan in a week, I'll agree to stay on and become the next Hokage."
"I'll take that deal!" Naruto agreed, shaking Tsunade's hand.
Tsunade smirked and turned to walk out. "By the way, nice cloak. Looks really familiar."
Naruto couldn't respond, though, because the door closed shut as soon as she'd finished speaking, so he busied himself with making himself a bowl of instant ramen and another fantasy tale. This one had ogres and talking cats and other crazy things he could never have imagined, but he had to admit that he enjoyed it. Before he could take a bite of his ramen, though, there was a knock at the door, and when he went to open it he was shocked. A raven-haired man stood in the doorway, glaring through his glasses at Naruto and his scratched Rock headband reflecting the candlelight in the hallway. "... Can I help you?" Naruto asked.
"Yes," the man replied. "I was sure that I would find the pervert or the psycho here, but I think your head will do just fine." One of his swords came out and sliced through the door, but when it hit Naruto the boy disappeared in a poof of smoke. "Shadow Clone? He must be his son... Soon they will see that I was right. The Rock Village will be avenged."
Naruto, in the meantime, was thankful for the work Tsunade had done on his arm. "Better not try that again... might mess up my coils again," he muttered to himself as he ran. An explosion, however, caught him off-guard, and he turned to see Tsunade fighting off the strange Rock ninja. Sending a Shadow Clone to get Jiraiya, Naruto tried to jump into the fight, only to get knocked away by the mysterious ninja.
"Sannin Tsunade, your life is forfeit!" the ninja shouted. "Earth-style: Stealth Rock jutsu!" As Tsunade moved forward, she found herself colliding with several rocks floating by what she assumed was magnetism and hidden by a genjutsu that refracted light around them.
"Not bad... for an amateur!" Tsunade replied as she punched the ground, making rocks explode outward and the whole land, it seemed, shake and shift underneath them. The floating rocks were blown away when other rocks collided with them, and the subsequent explosions kicked up a lot of dust and made it seem as if a sandstorm had blown into the town. This, however, proved to be a bad thing for the Sannin as she began to get pounded from what seemed to be everywhere at once. She flew out of the settling cloud, but righted herself and landed. "Is that all you have?"
"Do you think I would fight you without knowing your weakness?" the rogue replied as he slashed open the palm of his hand and smeared it on his short sword. Tsunade took one look and went into psychological shock from the sight of blood, which had long since been her Achilles heel and one reason why she stopped practicing medicine.
"The legendary Tsunade of the Sannin, taken out by a mere drop of blood," the Rock ninja scoffed. "Pathetic! I guess I'm making some Sannin-kabobs with a side of milk today!"
As he stood over her and raised his sword to skewer her, he got kicked backward as, out of nowhere, Naruto appeared and had delivered a swift kick to his chest. "Don't you dare touch her!" Naruto shouted.
"Fine, if I can't have you yet, Tsunade," the ninja replied, "then I'll just have to take HIS son as compensation. Imagine what the Rock Village will do when they find out that he had an heir after all!" He laughed maniacally and went after Naruto, but again only destroyed a Shadow Clone. "His chakra stores must be depleted now; two Shadow Clones is no mean feat, but even the most experienced jonin can usually only pull one off during battle." He turned, saw the boy standing off in the distance, and began to quickly close the distance, though he was surprised to see another one standing next to him. "Do you have a death wish, boy? Three Shadow Clones is impressive, but you've got to be out of chakra by now, and without even having landed a good blow!"
"That's what you think!" Naruto shouted as he held his right arm in front of his Shadow Clone, who began to move his hands over it rapidly. A blue orb appeared between the hands, shocking both the assailant and Tsunade, as well as Jiraiya, who'd just arrived. "Take this: Rasengan!" Both he and the Shadow Clone launched forward quickly, using an explosion of chakra off his feet to propel him faster, and they collided with the Rock ninja. He smirked as the ninja was launched backward, the Rasengan drilling against his abdomen as he flew right out of the village and into the forest beyond, where it exploded.
"Impressive, brat," Tsunade said. "And to think you did that with newly-repaired coils. How did you think to use the Shadow Clone to help forming it?"
Naruto shrugged and replied, "I knew I couldn't do it on my own, but I had to help you somehow, so I decided to try forming it with a Shadow Clone, since I already know they can mold chakra."
'He really is his father's son,' Tsunade thought as she ruffled his hair. "Well, fair's fair. You cheated, but still managed to pull off a Rasengan, so I'll become the next Hokage. Also, here's a gift, for saving me." She took her necklace off and put it on Naruto. "It was a gift to me from my grandfather, Senju Hashirama. Take good care of it."
Naruto's eyes shone as he examined the necklace. "Incredible..." He looked up at Tsunade and hugged her. "Thank you!" Tsunade found her nearly-forgotten maternal instincts kicking in as she hugged him back.
"Lucky..." Jiraiya muttered as he turned around. "Still, that ninja... he looked very familiar." Looking around, he saw Shizune coming with her's and Tsunade's bags. "Well, that was enough of a distraction. Let's get back to the Leaf Village."
…
While this was all happening, Sasuke found himself pacing back and forth in his training field while Ino watched and Shino practiced with a newly-bought zanbatou. He was worried for the Third Hokage, his brother Itachi, and his new brother Naruto; despite the legendary skills of Jiraiya, Sasuke knew that the Sannin had their fair share of enemies and prayed that Naruto would not be used as a hostage or anything.
"Sasuke, stop pacing," Ino said. "You're making me nervous, and you're wearing a hole into the ground."
Sasuke looked down and frowned as he saw that he had, indeed, begun to dig a hole in the ground, up to his ankles, with his pacing. "Sorry, Ino... I hate worrying. The nice thing about the avenger attitude is that I didn't have this kind of anxiety. I guess it's better, though, than obsessing every day about attaining revenge."
"You have learned much," Shino commented as he continued to practice. "I will freely admit that this new you is far more preferable to the old you."
"And I'm glad you talk more," Sasuke said. "I hardly ever remember you speaking during class."
"You can thank Naruto for that," Shino replied. "We admittedly do not spend much time together, but he values my opinion, as evidenced by his asking me many questions on different subjects. This has made it easier for me to speak out on matters that I would otherwise ignore."
Ino nodded and added, "Yeah, he's like that with me, too. He made me think a lot about things I took for granted, or things that I thought were none of my business. Anyway, Sasuke, don't worry so much. Would you mind helping me out with a jutsu I'm working on?"
Sasuke gave her a blank stare. "You tell me not to worry and then ask me to help you work on a jutsu? If it's a family jutsu, then I have every reason to worry."
"That's what I said, as well," Shino interjected. "With all due respect to the Yamanaka family, I can't imagine anyone wanting to be their test-dummy."
Ino sighed. "The both of you worry too much. It's just a genjutsu, aimed at disorienting an opponent by planting a thought inside his head to make him think something is there that isn't, or something that isn't there really is."
Sasuke continued to stare at her, but finally gave in and said, "Alright, but I'm not moving from this spot. How does it work?"
"Well, I kind of have to make eye contact, so I couldn't use it against someone like Itachi or someone who's too fast for me to lock eyes with, but I'll try to iron that out as I work on it," Ino answered. "Anyway, I use an image from my mind and use a swapping technique similar to the Mind Transfer jutsu, but instead of overpowering their mind and controlling them I simply either place an image into their mind or take it out. For instance, say I throw a kunai at them, I can theoretically make them think that I never threw anything at them."
"Ah, I got it," Sasuke said. "Pretty useful, if you can pull it off quickly." Suddenly, without warning, Sasuke saw a kunai flying at him and ducked, only to not hear it go by. He turned and saw nothing, then looked at Ino. "Did you just do it?"
"Yeah; I kind of had the chakra stored up, and the hand signs were already done," Ino replied sheepishly. "I wanted to know how long it would take before it took effect, and if there would be any side-effects. Thankfully, it went off without a hitch."
"... What kind of side-effects?" Sasuke asked, narrowing his eyes suspiciously.
"Well, anything from the wrong image inserted to completely scrambling your brains and turning you into a vegetable," Ino answered.
"..." Sasuke could feel his eye beginning to twitch, but without any verbal response all he could do was simply stand there, not knowing how to respond. Ino chuckled nervously when she saw his eye twitching and began to walk backward in an attempt to slowly escape, but Sasuke would not have it and began to chase her across the village.
As he watched them run off, Shino muttered, "If I were Shikamaru, this would be where I would say 'Troublesome...' and get back to my training. As it is, though..." He looked at his shadow to determine the time and nodded. "It's time to go visit Kin."