The three students stood against each other with their backs turned and their eyes searching around frantically the landscape before them. They were in the training grounds and had started their first official battle. flutter A small sound came from a bush that made Jiraiya's eyes fling immediately to the left. crunch The soft pat of a foot crunching on fresh grass reached Tsunade's ears and immediately alerted her senses to a higher intensity. The iridescent cry of a bird left Orochimaru in a wave of ecstasy. Waiting….
WHOOSH. A black figure sprang from the trees and landed abruptly on the ground. Not stopping there, the mysterious fiend began darting around divergently eventually forming a pattern. The trio crowded in even closer to each other. Immediately, they began planning on how to catch their predator. Jiraiya, eyes spinning around wildly, kept an eye on the opponent, still not making his move. Tsunade began to build up chakra and formed a mild barrier. And Orochimaru was devising a strategy.
"Tsunade-chan, Jiraiya-kun, I've come up with two strategies. Pay attention but still keep your guard up. The first plan I'll tell you about is if this guy keeps doing this. The second is for if he attacks or if he hides." The three stood so closely now that they could feel each others' breaths. The figure did not change his pattern of attack once Orochimaru was done explaining. Thus meaning it was time to put plan A into action.
"On my go," Orochimaru whispered. "Get ready; get set….and….go." Each person sprang out into a different direction; Jiraiya to the left, Tsunade to the right and Orochimaru up top.
(Figure) "Hmmmm, it seems they've come up with a plan. I guess it's finally time to pay a little bit attention to them. After all, I am their teacher." Sarotobi causally lifted his head from side to side seeing where they might hide.
"RAAAAAAAA!!!...GOTCHA!"
Jiraiya sprang out from on top of a tree and pounced at Sarotobi. Sarotobi, effortlessly dodging the attack moved slightly backward.
A snake hid under a bush and stuck out its tongue rapidly to take in all the excitement. "When should I go?"
"Hold on a second." Orochimaru picked up the snake and began mutating it with his chakra. The snake became inanimate and very sharp; similar to that of a harpoon. Orochimaru picked up his newly made weapon and aimed. The snake shot through the bushes and went at a staggering speed towards Sarotobi. Sarotobi dived about five feet to the right. At that moment Jiraiya and Orochimaru sprang up from where they hid and said, "TSUANDE, NOW!"
"AAAHHH!!" Tsunade screamed as she charged at Sarotobi with her hand in a fist landing a punch to Sarotobi that made him fly back into a tree.
(zig zag eyes) "Jeez that was a hard punch. Those three are going to kill me someday. But still…the rate at which they're improving is AMAZING. I've never had a group this talented. They'll probably stay in the same three man cell for the rest of their ninja lives." After a small while, Sarotobi recovered and started to brush off the dust.
"Well students, you did very well, all three of you. Excellent team effort and you even managed to land a hit on me. Oh! And before I forget, have all of you been working on your summoning jutsu?" All three students nod in unison. "Good, because today we're going to use them in battle."
"What? Really?! That is SO COOL!" Jiraiya said nearly wetting his pants in the excitement.
"But first," Sarotobi spoke up, "show me your progress. Tsunade, you first."
Tsunade reluctantly bit her thumb and got into stance. "SUMMONING JUTSU!" This time, there wasn't just a cloud of smoke; there was a mountain of it. And there, standing on the grass was a giant slug as big as the enormous trees of the konoha forests.
Sarotobi started to clap and exclaimed, "Very good Tsunade! This is impressive. Now, now! Keep your slug here. We're going to use him in a second. Orochimaru, you next."
"Summoning jutsu." A rather large snake appeared. It was about 20 feet in length and a little more than two feet wide; big enough to ride on anyway. "Jiraiya, now it's your turn."
Jiraiya gave a care free grin and eagerly bit his thumb. "Hehehehe ah man, wait tell he sees this." "SUMMONNING JUTSU!" instantly, the whole of the forest was covered in mist. Out of the white fluff came a huge frog. It was at least three hundred feet tall and hundreds of feet wide. It would be able to crush konoha with the sweep of its fore leg if it wanted to. Strangely enough, the frog wore a robe and held a long pipe in his hand. Jiraiya had an ear to ear grin on his face and excitedly waved up at the giant. "Hey frog boss! How's it going?!"
The frog seemed to hear and cocked his head downward. "Kid, what have a told you about summoning me too much?"
"Hey! It wasn't my fault! It was an order from Sarotobi-sensei!"
"Hmmmm? Sarotobi? Well I'm still angry. Let's get this over with so I can go back."
Sarotobi looked on in shock, "Gamabunta the toad boss? How did Jiraiya learn to summon him? (sigh) this is going to be difficult." "Jiraiya, seeing as gamabunta is too big for our beginning battles with the others I'm going to have to ask you to send him back."
"Awww, but I worked so hard Sarotobi-sensei! I even learned how to ride him!"
"You learned how to ride him?! Now that's something I don't believe."
"O yah?! Let me prove it to you. GAMABUNTA! LOWER YOUSELF DOWN A LITTLE SO I CAN REACH YOU."
"Fine." With one massive leap, Jiraiya just barely managed to make it to Gamabunta's legs. "ok Gama' let's go for a 'spin'.
Gamabunta gave out a wheezing laugh and snidely grinned. "You got it."
BOOM gamabunta all of a sudden jumped a couple hundred feet into the air then sprang out to a giant lake right next to him. It was then that Gamabunta stopped, reared his back legs and started to wildly jump around in circles. Amazingly enough, Jiraiya still rode on Gamabunta's back with his gums flying. After Jiraiya summoned up enough strength within himself he managed to tell Gamabunta to stop.
Jiraiya, obviously satisfied with his work jumped off and landed squarely in front of Sarotobi. Tsunade and Orochimaru stood to the side; Tsunade's mouth agape and Orochimaru standing in silent surprise.
After a moment, Sarotobi got over his shock and cranked his head upward. "GAMABUNTA! I'M SORRY FOR THE INCONVIENCE, BUT COULD YOU SUMMON YOUR YOUNGER BROTHER? AFTER THAT YOU CAN LEAVE."
"VERY WELL." Gamabunta turned his pipe the other way revealing it to serve as a flute. The giant frog whistled a small sharp tune and sure enough, another puff of smoke appeared. It was another toad that looked exactly like gamabunta but was about half his size making him smaller than Tsunade's slug but bigger than Orochimaru's snake.
"Until next time….kid." In the blink of an eye, Gamabunta puffed out and was gone.
Jiraiya sort of stood to himself pouting. "He's not as cool as 'bunta," he murmured, "but…he'll do," Jiraiya said skeptically.
"Students, get on your animal and we will begin." Sarotobi glanced on how each person was mounted on their animal. "No, no, Orochimaru, you don't wanna sit that close."
Orochimaru looked up at Sarotobi with wide curious eyes. "I shall explain. You see, with a snake, where you sit on it is crucial. Where you're sitting is too close and will make the snake irritable. Plus, if your snake falls into a trap you'll be snagged in with it. Where you want to sit is a little more than half way up the snake."
"But, the snakes wiggling will be too wild for me to handle."
"You'll get used to it. For now, just use your chakra to hold yourself in place."
"I understand."
"Good."
"Now I want all of you to understand that this group has learned a very unique jutsu. Not many students or even jounin for that matter actually learn this technique. Before we begin, practice riding on your animals, establish a sense of timing and a sense of teamwork. After that, we'll get started."
The students made quick friends with their animals and were soon ready to start. Sarotobi walked in front of all three animals essentially cornering himself. "Attack me."
"What?" Jiraiya said.
"You heard what I said. Attack me."
"Gama go!"
"Rotsku attack!"
Both animals made a nose dive crash into each other without Sarotobi even making a move.
Tsunade leans over slightly and says softly, "It's our turn now Rin."
"Very well." Rin, Tsunade's giant slug, inhaled deeply and threw the upper part of her body back. Rin momentarily shot out what looked like giant balls of slime head right at Sarotobi. The teacher's eyes widened and without hesitation, Sarotobi leapt out of the way. The perilous ammo hit a rock that Sarotobi had stood in front of and melted it away to nothingness. "ARGH," Tsunade said as she grunted in frustration.
"It was perfect! And still he dodged it."
"Well obviously it wasn't so pe-e-r-rfect if he dodged it." Rotsku, Orochimaru's giant snake slinked next to Rin.
"Hey Orochimaru! Tell you snake to put a sock in it!" Tsunade yelled. Rotsku pocked at Rin with his tongue and then out of nowhere, bit her. Rin shot a couple of her poisonous darts in Rotsku's eyes which made the snake venomous. The pair began fighting like two, stubborn, school boys. The animals' motions were so incessant and awkward that both riders had to use their chakra to hang on.
"Hey... Rin! Please-calm-down!" Tsunade wailed.
Even Orochimaru was trying to talk some sense into his servant. "Stop it Rotsku, this isn't worth it."
"Rin! You're….gonna…throw me….OOOOOOOOFFFF.!" Rin delivered a final twist that sent Tsunade hurtling.
It wasn't for a while until Sarotobi and Jiraiya noticed the fight that was taking place. Gama came over and went in-between the two.
"Rin, Rotsku, stop this immediately."
"Easy for you to say, Gama, ALWAYS the perfect summoned animal."
"He started the fight. I will not tolerate being treated like that."
"WILL YOU TWO STOP?" Sarotobi yelled.
Instantly, the two stopped dead in their tracks with eyes wide. They knew from experience not to mess with Sarotobi.
"The three of you (summoned ones) I mean. You were summoned here to do the bidding of your summoner. So far, you've done a very poor job of that. Any more displays of misconduct and I'll lower your levels a notch. And for you Rotsku, one more notch taken away and you'll be demoted."
Jiraiya spoke up and inquired, "sensei, what do you mean by notches?"
"Good question, Jiraiya. Just what exactly do I mean by notches? Notches are places of rank in the summoned world. The more 'notches' you have, the bigger, stronger, and wiser you are. However, when a summoned one's notch or notches get taken away, they will decrease in size, power but they will gain more sense in the hopes of giving them the thing they need to not make the mistake again. If a certain summoned one is bad enough, he/ she can loose so many notches that they are no longer considered that particular 'rank' and a moved down a caliber. Now that we have this settled let's get back---" Sarotobi looked at the sun and realized it was setting.
"Never mind, we will pick up where we left off tomorrow. Class is dismissed."
Jiraiya and Orochimaru dismounted their animals. All three students assumed a basic chakra forming stance and voiced the word 'unsummon'. All three animals poofed into clouds of smoke and disappeared.
1111111111
A half moon shot brightly in the crisp clear night. Two figures made their way with the already dew-drenched grass into the thick forested area by a river. One of the figures looked up at the moon with gleaming eyes that shone brightly through the darkness; similar to a cat's. When the two had reached their destination, a third figure was standing by the river. It was taller than the others and much bigger in general. Indeed, it was Sarotobi-sensei, Tsunade and Orochimaru. Both were here for their first ninjutsu lesson.
"Good, I'm glad the two of you both made it. Now, because of this training, I will give you guys the day off tomorrow. Before we begin our lesson, let's review some of the key points to first learning ninjutsu. One, to enhance your ninjutsu to the fullest, train in the dark to heighten your senses and give yourself a better chance of being an illusion. Two, ninjutsu is the main jutsu where hand signs and the speed at which your hand can make these signs are crucial. Three, you will be required to learn many advanced and difficult techniques to master this jutsu. And four, not only will you face against some of the most dangerous people in the world who pursue this jutsu, if you go over board with a technique, it can be devastating to the planet's geography."
It was after he had finished that Sarotobi had vanished and taken refuge into the thick unforgiving trees. "Try to find me if you can. You will have till dawn to do so. Begin."
TO BE CONTINUED……….
a/n- some of you might bewandering about the names of the 'bosses' in this episode. If you're a real naruto expert you would've noticed that thost aren't the real names of the giant bosses. The snake (Rotsku) and the slug (Rin) are not bosses and as of course, neither is Gama.