Blankets of Snow covered the village making it a winter wonder land. However, it's was not the usual cheeriness that filled the air. The atmosphere was dank, cold, and dreary; an uncommon winter. Everyone bundled up together in there warm clothes and set out to get things done quickly and be by the fire. Even in this time of seasonal hardship, the shinobi continue to train.

"HA!" Tsunade shot a foot up into the air then brought it back down with a resounding smack on the polished wood floor. The dojo she had inside her house was quiet extensive and fully equipped. Sarotobi sat at the side patiently watching. Because Tsunade wanted to be a genjutsu user, this was the best time to start training. It was especially hard to concentrate the special energy needed for genjutsu when it was cold. Thus, once you hurdled the biggest mountain it was all down hill coasting from there. With patient eyes, the teacher watched his student with hope and yet disappointment. Although he admired Tsunade for trying to master the hardest of jutsus, Tsunade did not possess the correct kind of chi to perfect the art and was really a taijutsu learner. Sarotobi felt that there was more than a good chance that teaching Tsunade genjutsu would be a wild goose chase.

1111111111111111111111111111111

"WOOO! SNOW! SNOW! SNOOOOOOOOWWW!!" Jiraiya busted with excitement as he pulled on his layers of clothing to play outside. Winter was his favorite season despite the cold. Jiraiya's mother looked on at her son smiling at his joyous behavior.

"(sigh) Ahhhh, if only I could enjoy things like a child does…" here, Jiraiya's mother paused, "Jiraiya, why do you like the snow anyway if you hate cold whether?"

"BECAUSE!" he exasperated, "you can do all sorts of stuff with snow! You can…have snow ball fits! And, and make snow angels! And make buckets of snow to pour on teachers! And you can eat it!...although I wouldn't suggest doing that… AND!—"

Jiraiya's mom gave a hardy laugh and said, "Alright, alright! I now know why you like snow. Go out and fun. And remember, be back by dinner"

"Ok! Bye mom!" Jiraiya said as he waved out the door.

As Jiraiya frolicked in the snow, he reminisced on the memories that he had collected over the past fall. Of course, his favorite memory of all was how he had become master of Gamabunta. Now there was a story to remember.

11111111111111111111111111

It was a hot sunny day when the leaves were just beginning to change colors. Sarotobi sat in the shade watching Jiraiya attempting to do the summoning jutsu. And, once again, Jiraiya had summoned a half formed frog. Sarotobi shook his head in frustration.

"No, no, no, no! Jiraiya I've told you a million times that you have to summon with a focused chakra point! All you're going to get by focusing random spits of chakra you're producing is those half formed frogs!

Jiraiya pulled his hand from the ground in frustration and snapped back, "yah, I know old man! It just doesn't work! There's gotta be some sort of trick to how you're doing this!"

"There's no trick. Now, do it again."

"Fine," Jiraiya said through gritted teeth. "Summoning Jutsu!"

POOF

This time around, Jiraiya got a tad pole. A look of utter bewilderment took over Jiraiya's face. "HOW THE HELL DO YOU GO BACKWARD?"

Then, Jiraiya got really angry. He built his chakra for what seemed like hours and soon enough had a big blue light emanating from his palm. "SUMMONING JUTSU."

From there on, it happened in slow motion. Sarotobi's eyes widened and made a desperate attempt to flee the scene. Jiraiya looked on at the ground in anticipation.

All of a sudden, the entire konoha forest was covered in smoke. Jiraiya looked around to see where he was but all that was visible was a patch of sky. "What the hell? Why aren't there any trees? And why is the ground so…bumpy…and red?"

The smoke cleared and revealed to Jiraiya that he was hundreds of feet up from the forest. Jiraiya started to panic. He looked around and about to see if he could get his bearings when a booming voice interrupted his internal turmoil.

"Where am I? Hokage?! Hokage get over here! I demand to know why you summoned me!"

"Jiraiya muttered to himself, "hokage? He's talking about Sarotobi? But…Sarotobi summons lizards." Jiraiya paused for a second to climb over the back of the giant he was on. It was defiantly a toad, no tail, bumps everywhere, and was a mucky reddish brown. Jiraiya climbed over the huge creature so that he was placed at the head. The boy let himself down upside down and asked, "You're looking for Sarotobi eh?"

"What's this? An insect?" Gamabunta placed a hand over his head to smack the annoying pest off but barely missed as Jiraiya did a huge leap to the base of his nose."

"Hey! I'm not an insect! I am your lord and master! I summoned you!"

Gamabunta let out a thundering roar of laughter. "You?! Summoned me?! You're barely old enough to feed yourself let alone summon the great Gamabunta. Now where's the hokage?!"

"Wait a minute! I'm the one who summoned you! You have to obey ME. Besides, Sarotobi isn't that great. I'm way better."

"Heh. The hell you are. And I don't know who this Sarotobi is but he sounds unimportant."

"Well then…what are you talking about when you say you want to see the hokage? Sarotobi's the hokage! How could you not know that?!"

Gamabunta raised his eye brows in frustration and belted, "you idiot! There is only the one and only hokage! He's the first of this kind! Now where is he?!"

Jiraiya's face was plastered over with shock. "Are you saying you're looking for the first hokage? He's been dead for ten years!"

"You lie! He only just summoned me five minutes ago, how can he already be dead?"

"You're just a poor keeper of time. Anyway, I wanna go on a walk, giddy up!"

At this remark, Gamabunta's face glowed an even deeper red. Then, Gamabunta gave a sly smile and replied, "You wanna ride? Ok, I'll give you a ride!" Within seconds, Gamabunta launched himself hundreds of feet up into the air, causing Jiraiya to become flattened like a pancake.

After several failed attempts to get up, Jiraiya finally managed to stand on two feet. Then, with a shaken voice he said, "y-you…are m-my servant. Deal with it!"

Gamabunta jeered and sneered back, "I don't give one foot if you're my master! You can barely ride me and as a result are weak and do not deserve my respect."

"O yah! Challenge me to something and I'll beat up to it you fat tub of lard!"

"Hmph, fine. If you can trip me, then I will become your servant."

"TRIP YOU?! HOW THE HELL AM I SUPPOSE TO DO THAT?"

"Well I guess you're not my master after all are you? And by the way, I'll be chasing after while you figure out a way to trip me."

"What?! That's not fair," at this, Jiraiya began to pout and muttered, "YOU're a cheater…BUT I'LL STILL BEAT YOU ANYWAY!"

"Three, two…."

"WAIT DON'T I GET A HEAD START?!"
"GO!"

Gamabunta plunged forward with such ferocity that the earth shook. And of course, Jiraiya moved his chicken legs as fast as he could. As he was running, Jiraiya began to think frantically. "WHAT DO I DO? Do I summon a giant foot? No, no…even I'll admit that's stupid. Ummm hey! Maybe I could get Tsunade to wrestle with him…she's definitely ferocious enough to take the giant toad on. Nah, she's too small…well then how the hell do I trip this guy? Put shoes on him and tie his laces together? Wait a second….THAT'S IT!"

As a stroke of genius hit Jiraiya, he scrambled for the village in an attempt to get the one thing he needed to fell his opponent. However, seeing as this would damage the village, Jiraiya attempted to run around in circles trying to get people's attention.

1111111111111111111111111111111

Tsunade was outside of her house when she began to feel the earth rumbled. Wondering what it was, she looked up and around her for an explanation. Tsunade stared in bewilderment as she saw a giant frog, or was it a toad? rambling around konoha. Then, Tsunade started to hear a familiar voice calling her name—Jiraiya's.

"The dope," she thought, "What did he get himself into this time?"

"STUNADE! GLAD I FOUND YOU! I NEED SOME ROPE! HURRY!"

"What? You need some curry?"

"NO! I NEED ROPE! HURRY!"

"Ok just a sec…how much rope do you need?"

"ALL THE ROPE YOU'VE GOT!"

As Tsunade went into the house, Jiraiya had to make another circle around the village so as not to destroy it.

When Jiraiya had made another round about the village, there was a huge pile of rope waiting for him; the pile was almost twenty feet high. With difficulty, Jiraiya managed to catch all the rope and made a bee line for the forest. He needed at least ten seconds to tie the rope and saw no hope for distraction when Sarotobi and a few men came running to help contain the situation at hand.

Jiraiya began waving his hands around wildly trying to flag down Sarotobi and his men.

"SENSEI! LEAD GAMABUNTA OFF!" Sarotobi gave a comprehensive nod and flagged down a signal towards his men. Sarotobi bit his thumb and performed the summoning jutsu at lightning-fast speed. "I hope this works…."

A giant cloud of smoke instantly appeared out of no where and covered konoha. When the smoke cleared, it was Sarotobi's giant lizard, Ekibunta.

As Sarotobi was distracting Gamabunta, Jiraiya dashed around the humongous, ancient trees of the konoha forest. The finished product was a giant, messy looking wire. Jiraiya's face sported a look of doubt. "Well, at least I had a good life."

Then, Jiraiya turned around to face the two giants battling hundreds of yards away. After contemplating how to get Gamabunta's attention, Jiraiya found a way to lure him into his trap. "HEY, UGLY TOAD! YOU WANT ME? COME GET ME," Jiraiya yelled as he pulled down his pants and bellowed, "YAH, YOU WANNA PIECE OF THAT?"

Instantly insulted, Gamabunta turned his attention away from Ekibunta and stated rampaging towards Jiraiya. Sarotobi merely looked on in awe at his student's idiocy.

"DARE TO MOCK ME WILL YOU? YOU FOOL. I'LL MAKE YOU PAY FOR THAT!"

Just as Gamabunta was about to flatten Jiraiya to a pancake, he tripped over the massive rope and made the earth shake again. When smoke cleared, it revealed Jiraiya's victory. Gamabunta had not only tripped, but did a face plant as well. Jiraiya had a smug look on his face as he walked up to the toad's beady eyes. "How was that? Am I your master now."

Gamabunta grunted while he slowly picked himself up. After awhile, a slow smile crept onto his face when he replied, "yah, you've earned it. I'll see you later…kid."

Without another word, Gamabunta disappeared the same way he came.

As Jiraiya laid in the snow, he looked on his other memories on the past year with nostalgia. He had already learned so much from the time he had started. He was now more than ever certain that better things were yet to come.

TO BE CONITNUED…..