Chapter Twenty-two: The Mark

Tenten was slow to wake up the next morning. She was still in the hospital; the doctors had kept her for observation overnight, partly in retaliation for her slipping out of the stadium infirmary during the middle of the battle she was sure. The sun was well on its way to the noonday peak, bright beams of yellow light pouring in her window. As soon as she was awake enough to start processing sensory input, she detected the unmistakable scent of sesame dumplings, her favorite food. It was obvious that Naruto had been by earlier, but he was gone now. Opening the box, she discovered that there was a handwritten note inside. Unfolding the missive, she perused the page.

My lovely Tenten-chan,

I suspect by the time that you wake and read this, I will be well on my way away from Konoha with Ero-sennin. He and I are going to look for some old lady named Tsunade to bring her back and get her to fix the Old Man up. Apparently, he was badly hurt by that son-of-a-bitch Orochimaru during the invasion, and she is the only one who has a chance of making him better.

I dropped by early this morning, but you were sleeping, and I didn't want to wake you. I dunno if the dumplings will still be good by the time you wake, but if they are, don't gorge yourself. You are almost as bad as Hinata is with cinnamon buns at times.

Anyways, I am going to be gone for a while, maybe up to a month, depending on how long it takes us to find this hag. Ero-sennin says she used to be a teammate of his, so she has to be positively ancient by now. Can't be too many sixty-something-year-old ninja-medics about, so I hope this won't take long. In case it does, though, remember I love you and take it easy. I want to see you out of the hospital by the time I get back. Listen to the doctors and don't push yourself.

Got to go. Ero-sennin is getting impatient, and wants to make it to Otafuku Gai by tonight, so I will end it here. See you when I get back.

Love,

Naruto.

Tenten read the letter through a second time before folding it up and putting it back on the nightstand. She helped herself to the dumplings, licking her fingers clean. Eventually a nurse came by to check up on her. After examining her wound, she was pronounced healthy enough to check out.

Konoha had suffered significant damage during the invasion, from the huge snake summon and from the invading ninja. Casualties had been minimal. Less than fifty Konoha shinobi had been slain and only about one hundred thirty civilians, mostly from collapsing buildings and secondary effects of combat, due in no small part to Naruto. As she dashed along the dirt roads, it seemed that every third or fourth building had been burned or damaged. The streets were only moderately packed, most civilians sifting through the wreckage and ninja were just getting into recovery mode.

Either way, she was able to make it back to her house in good time. Most of the buildings on her block had only received moderate damage, but it looked like this was one of the sectors of town where one of Naruto's hunter-killer teams had fought, judging by the blood spattered everywhere. Crews had already been though and recovered any bodies, but there were still telltale signs of a killing field. Arriving at her home, she stepped through the hole where the door usually was.

The damage was mostly superficial it seemed. The door was missing and the large windows to look inside the store had been shattered, some of the shelves inside had been damage, but other than that the store was in good condition. "Hello? Mom? Dad? Anyone here?" No one answered so she checked the rest of the place, but there was nobody home. She hadn't seen the casualty lists yet, but it didn't seem that anyone had been killed here. If her parents had been critically injured, she was sure that someone at the hospital would have notified her, so that left them either alive and healthy, and not at the store right now, or dead. She knew better than to try to see Hinata at her home, so that left Anko. Replenishing her supplies in her room, Tenten left a note for her parents in the register letting them know that she was alive and well, should they come home while she was out.

Anko's home was in the area that had suffered the most damage from the snake summon. Tenten stumbled to a halt when she reached the lot where the house had stood. It looked like a thirty-foot steamroller had passed through, which was exactly what had happened. Anko was sitting in the dirt in front of what was left of the porch, the concrete steps leading up to it about the largest piece of the house remaining.

"Hi Anko-sensei," Tenten said when she got within earshot.

"Afternoon Tenten-chan," Anko replied quietly. Tenten sat down on the steps next to Anko and said nothing. The pair remained like that for a few minutes.

When it seemed that Anko was satisfied to just sit silently, Tenten spoke again. "Are you okay? I didn't see you at the hospital."

"Nah, I broke my arm, and got a few scrapes, that's all. I barely even got to fight at all, thanks to Naruto. Damned brat made so many clones that I couldn't find anywhere he hadn't been, it seemed. Broke my arm when a building fell on me. Some moron set it on fire."

Now that she took a closer look, she saw a lump forming over one eyebrow and a number of superficial cuts decorating her arms and legs. Her hair seemed to be slightly shorter than before too. "How are you feeling? You don't look too great."

"I'm fine. Spent most of the night with recovery teams. Snakes can smell almost as well as dogs, you know."

"Gotten any sleep?"

"A couple of hours in the hospital lobby, 'fore they kicked me out 'coz they needed the room. Just been sitting here since then."

"Want help looking through the wreckage?"

Anko shook her head silently. "No, I can do it myself."

Leaning in close, Tenten put a hand on her shoulder. "Anko, are you okay?"

"Yes. No. Hell, I don't know." It wasn't until Anko's shoulders started shaking after putting her head down on her knees that Tenten realized that Anko was crying. Not really understanding why Anko was crying, Tenten hugged her from behind anyways.

Looking up, Anko started talking again. "You know that this was my first home? My parents both died when I was an infant, so I lived in the orphanage until I graduated from the Academy. After that I lived in an apartment in the Schoolyard. When I adopted Naruto, the Hokage bought me a house. I told him he didn't have to, that it was too much space, but he did it anyways. I never really understood why he did until Naruto started growing up. By the time he entered the Academy, I was glad that the Hokage had made me take the house. I dunno what I would have done if we had been living in an apartment. Probably would have been kicked out inside a week from the noise complaints." Wiping her eyes with the heels of her palms, she let out a self-depreciating laugh. "I don't know why I am letting this bother me so much. I haven't cried in years."

"Like you said, this was your home Anko, yours and Naruto's. It is okay to feel sad about it being destroyed."

"I guess." Pulling Anko up by the arm, Tenten and Anko began to sift through the debris.

OoOoO

The morning after he and Jiraiya left Konoha found Naruto sitting cross legged on his bed, resting his hands on his knees, palms up. After a moment, a blue ball of chakra swirled into being in his left hand. Moving his gaze to his right hand, he slowly and carefully started channeling chakra to his palm. When the chakra to become visible, he furrowed his brows in concentration, trying to keep the chakra under control. Just as he was about to add the third step, someone knocked on his door. He had locked it behind him, so he went to answer it. Figuring it was probably Jiraiya coming back from wherever he had gone or one of the women, he didn't bother to check the peephole before he opened it.

The figure blocking the doorway was most definitely not Jiraiya. In fact, with the three tomoe lazily circling his pupil in the red iris, the only possible person he could be was Itachi the Clan-killer. Given the massive bandaged-wrapped sword his partner held, he was accompanied by Hoshigaki Kisame, the Monster of the Mist.

"Uzumaki Naruto, you need to come with us."

The hypnotic swirl of Itachi's eyes prevented him from answering, and almost prevented him from defending himself.

'Fast!' Naruto thought as he parried a punch to his solar plexus. It was a damn good thing that he had trained his taijutsu to the point where it was instinctive, because he would have never been able to do anything otherwise. Jumping back from Itachi's follow-up, he rolled across the bed and retrieved his zanpakuto. He didn't draw it immediately when he saw that Itachi had not pursued him into the room.

"Good morning Sasuke-kun. It has been a while."

In the room, Naruto couldn't hear what Sasuke said in reply, but he recognized the blur that impacted Itachi as his former classmate, his right hand surrounded by a corona of electricity. Itachi quickly overpowered Sasuke, pinning him to the far wall and staring into his eyes.

Naruto had bigger problems though. The only good thing was that Kisame's was huge, so it was unlikely that he would be able to use his bandaged weapon.

Growling, Naruto started to tap the Kyuubi's chakra, but as it started to manifest outside his body, Kisame swung his wrapped sword in a diagonal slash, somehow dispersing his chakra. "Heh, by the way, my Samehada here eats chakra. And it is hungry, so please keep doing that."

Awkwardly swinging his blade at Naruto again, Naruto could barely get Kitsune into a position to block. But all of a sudden, a large toad appeared in a burst of smoke, crossed arms stopping Samehada completely. "As I thought," a voice said. "It would seem that you guys really are after Naruto." Still trying to shake the shock of having the Kyuubi's chakra so easily countered, Naruto looked at Jiraiya.

'After me?' he thought.

"Yes," Itachi replied smoothly, stepping back through the hole he had created. "We were ordered by the upper echelons of the organization, Akatsuki, to take Naruto-kun. He is the container of the Kyuubi no Kitsune, and is very important for our plans."

"Well, that is unfortunate, as you two will die here, by my hand before you get to touch him. Summoning: Toad Mouth Bind! See, the thing is that you are already in my stomach." Jiraiya grinned as the two missing-nin found that the floor had entrapped their feet, rendering them immobile. Ripping their feet out of the floor nonetheless, the two ninja dashed around the corner, immediately retreating. Jiraiya scowled as he saw that one of them had somehow burned a hole in the wall, despite the fact that Iwayado was supposed to be fireproof. Examining the obsidian flames more closely, he sealed them into a scroll to study later. Any kind of fire that could burn a hole through Iwayado was definitely worth looking into.

Stamping a foot on the floor when he got back to Naruto's room, he reverted everything back to normal. "Everyone alright?"

"More or less," Naruto replied. "Did you get him?"

"Nah, he got away."

Shaking his head, Naruto went to check on Sasuke. Physically, he was fine. Some bruises, maybe a cracked rib was all he suffered, but his eyes were out of focus and he did not respond to anything Naruto did or said. His attention was called back to where Jiraiya was when he was knocked off his feet by a green blur. It turned out that Gai had followed Sasuke, and leaped before he looked so to speak. After a minute of chatter, Gai lifted the comatose Sasuke and headed back to Konoha.

"I think we should follow his example, let us get out of here before anyone come up to see what is going on." The pair quickly gathered their belongings and slipped out of the hotel without signing out. But as Naruto stepped into the hallway, he saw Jiraiya slip a large purse of money into one of the drawers in the nightstand.

Casually strolling along the street, nobody said anything about what had happened in the hotel. Jiraiya kept glancing down at Naruto, who was walking like a man about to do murder, wondering when Naruto would say something. It wasn't long.

"As soon as we find some place to stay tonight, I'm going after him. I got a score to settle with him, and I intend to take care of it."

"And how do you plan on doing that? Do you have any idea where he went? Besides, Uchiha Itachi is an S-rank ninja.

"So? He is strong. So am I."

Jiraiya sighed. "Kid, strong doesn't even begin to cover it. S-rank ninja are not ordinary ninja. There are less than twenty S-rankers out of the hundreds of thousands of ninja in the world. The difference between an A-rank ninja and an S-rank ninja is the same as the difference between an A-rank ninja and a D-rank ninja. Us S-rank ninja are in a class all of our own, quite literally the strongest humans on the planet. Konoha only has three S-rankers, Me, Tsunade and the Hokage. In most ways, it is easier to become a Kage than to gain an S-ranking. Plainly put, if you were to go after him as you are right now, he would kill you out of hand."

"Then I need to become an S-rank ninja also. That guy... His type always gets away with anything they want. I have to become powerful enough to fight people like him."

"Easier said than done, brat. S-rank ninja aren't a dime-a-dozen. As I just said, they are quite literally the most dangerous people on the planet. You do not go up against one of them without an S-ranker yourself, or a hell lot of preparation. There are Kages that aren't as strong as these guys out there. And before you go getting ideas, it takes decades in most cases to achieve S-ranking, and it is quite possible that you never will. Other than Itachi, whom you just met, and a guy out of Iwa by the name of Deidara, there isn't a single S-ranking ninja under the age of thirty. So do not think that you will be able to face off against that guy anytime soon."

"Can you train me to become strong enough to handle that bastard?"

"I can try, but a lot of it will depend solely on you."

"I can handle whatever you can throw at me."

"Heh. So you may think." Jiraiya put one hand to his chin in a thoughtful manner for a few seconds. "Naruto, how would you like to become my apprentice?"

"What do you mean? I thought I was your apprentice already."

"No, not really. I have been teaching you stuff off and on for the last couple of months, but I have never accepted you as my apprentice."

"What about all that stuff you have been teaching me? Sealing and the Rasengan?"

"I have only taught you stuff that was not proprietary, so to speak. There are far too few sealing adepts out there in the world, so giving it one more is a good thing. And the Rasengan was your father's technique, and is rightfully part of your inheritance. Other than that, have I taught you any of my ninjutsu?"

Naruto thought about it for a moment. "No, but I always assumed that you either didn't see the need or were too busy."

"The only things I have passed on to up until now were techniques that were never mine. But if you accept my apprenticeship, I will teach you everything I know. That includes the Toad Summoning Contract, unless you have already signed your mother's snake contract."

"No, she wanted to wait to see if you would ever offer to let me sign the Toad Contract."

"Smart woman. I don't mean to say that the snakes are weak, because they are far from it, but the toads have some very, very powerful techniques and are a little more combat-oriented, which makes them slightly more useful. Anyways, back on topic. If I do take you as my apprentice, you will become my heir, and that means taking up my responsibilities as a sage when I pass on. I am an initiate in close to two dozen religions, and you will be too when your training is complete. You will not like some of the stuff that you will have to learn, but you will learn it. If, at any point, you refuse, then I will dismiss you as my apprentice at once. I will have to know that you will obey me absolutely. There are things too dangerous for me to teach you without such an assurance. Can you give me your word on that?"

"Yes, I swear that I will obey you absolutely and unconditionally, on pain of death."

"Good, I will hold you to that," Jiraiya replied solemnly.

Stepping into an empty alleyway, he summoned a red toad with black flame markings on its head and back, the strange toad spat a scroll at Naruto. Unrolling the scroll, he saw five names written in blood, as well as a hand print under each one. Looking up at Jiraiya, he hesitated. Jiraiya scowled immediately at Naruto's wavering. "Sign the contract now Naruto. If you cannot do even this, then I have been wasting my time."

Hurriedly waving his hands, he spoke quickly. "Ah, no that isn't it. I was just wondering which name I should use, my birth name or my married one."

"Oh, okay, that is a good question. Use your birth name. There are reasons behind this, which I do not have the time to explain and you do not have the knowledge to understand the answers."

He bit his index finger and scrawled his name with his bloody finger, and then pressed his handprint onto the paper under his name. Sitting back on his haunches, the toad that Jiraiya had summoned slurped the scroll back up and desummoned.

"Hey, Ero-sennin, can Hinata and Tenten sign the contract too?"

"No. The toad are extremely selective on who they will allow to summon them. There can only be two summoners at the same time."

"How come?"

"Dunno. I was told to never allow more than two people to hold the Contract at the same time, and I have respected their command. As you will, if you ever inherit the Contract. Anyways, there is a little time before we should go to sleep, so let's find a new hotel and I can begin your apprenticeship.

OoOoO

Later that night, Jiraiya and Naruto sat on Naruto's bed in his room. "Before we left Konoha, you came to me and asked me to seal the Kyuubi away permanently. I refused, and told you that I would teach you to control it. But before I can start, there are some things I must tell you first.

"The first thing you must learn is the origin of the Tailed Beasts. There are dozens of theories pertaining to their origin because no one really knows. Some believe that they are gods, or demons, come to test us. Others say that the Sage of the Six Paths created them. The theory that the sages subscribe to is that they are the product of humanity. They are the physical manifestation of the negative emotions we experience. Each one of the Nine embodies one of the nine cardinal sins, and often have powers tied into their nature. The Nine are as follows: the One-Tail is envy; the Two-Tails is greed; the Three-Tails is lust; the Four-Tails is gluttony, the Five-Tails is avarice, the Six-Tails is sloth, the Seven-Tails is fear; the Eight-Tails is pride. And as you are well aware, the Kyuubi is wrath, or hate depending on who you ask

"The Kyuubi's power is of two parts: its chakra and its will. Whenever you draw on the Kyuubi's chakra, you also pull on its will. Its will is nothing more than one huge mass of rage. As the Nine are the physical representations of our baser emotions, they are simultaneously far more powerful than any human could ever hope of becoming, and weaker than the newest genin. Because they can only ever experience a single emotion, which can give them an unparalleled drive, a single-minded determination dwarfing anything a human could have. At the same time, that determination comes at the expense of creativity. For example, while the Kyuubi had power enough to topple mountains, it could have never contemplated that a human could seal it away. Always remember that, no matter how powerful the Kyuubi may seem you are always greater than it, in mind and heart.

In any case, when you draw on its chakra it will use any hate you have hidden in your heart to latch on to the chakra that you are pulling into you and try to overwhelm you and take control. The only way to gain complete control over the Kyuubi is to deny it the ability to 'hitch a ride,' so to speak, into your heart, and to do that you must rid yourself of any hatred you hold, to anyone, or anything."

"How am I supposed to do that?"

"You can't. At least, not right now. There are a few places in the world where it is possible to face your inner self, the Falls of Truth in Lightning Country and Waterfall Country, the Cave of Sin in Earth Country and the Devil's Oasis in the Wind Country. Right now, all of them except for the Falls of Truth in the Waterfall Country are inaccessible to us because of the relations between our countries. As we cannot go to any of these locations, I want you to meditate."

"Meditate! You have got to be kidding me."

"I am not. I want you to mediate, try to center yourself, and keep yourself there, all the time. You have to learn to control your emotions, in every kind of situation. I want you to use a particular mantra while meditating:

There is no emotion, there is peace.

There is no ignorance, there is knowledge.

There is no passion, there is serenity.

There is no chaos, there is harmony.

There is no death, there is the Force."

"The Force? What is that?"

"There is an order of warrior-monks called the Jedi in the Demon Country where they believe that there is an energy that connects all living things to one another. It is not a religion, precisely, but more of a philosophy. They call it the Force, and can do some pretty interesting things with it. That mantra is called the Jedi Code, and is the core set of rules that govern all Jedi. Normally, the way of the Jedi would not be well suited for a shinobi, because they are protectors, both spiritual and physical. They see their role in this world as guardians of good, which is, for a shinobi, utterly laughable. One of the principles they teach is mastery of passion with reason and knowledge. They do not eschew emotion entirely, because the only people who do not feel emotion are those that are dead, but having the ability to control it. Given your situation, in this case, their philosophy is pretty well suited to your needs."

"You said that they use this Force. Can you use it, or teach me to?"

"No, only certain people are born with the ability to use the Force. There were only about a dozen disciples when I was last there, as they do not find many people who are Force-sensitive. If you want, I can teach you more about their beliefs if you want later. But for now I want you to meditate using that mantra. Whenever you find yourself growing agitated, calm yourself by reciting it. Begin now while I explain it line by line."

Naruto nodded and folded his hands in his lap, closed his eyes and began reciting the Code mentally. His breathing evened out and he slowly relaxed, until he had let all his limbs go limp. Jiraiya nodded to himself when his student had centered himself.

"There is no emotion, there is peace. Emotions are a part of living. This tenet does not say that emotion does not exist but that it ought to be set aside. You must understand your emotions before they can be moved past. Unless you can confront your thoughts and feelings, you will never achieve peace. This is critical for you, because if you cannot learn to understand and move past them, you will never gain the control you seek.

"There is no ignorance, there is knowledge. You must be circumspect and try to understand the world that surrounds you. Ignorance exists: anything else is a flat-out lie or gross misunderstanding. Simply ignoring facts that do not fit with your viewpoint is stupid and dangerous. Ignorance is a part of life but it is not to be feared. This tenet also reminds you that knowledge can be taken from the most unusual places and that you must keep your mind open and be willing to accept what you otherwise might see as unacceptable. Essentially, it means that you must use rational mind and your intuitive mind in order to find the truth, even if the truth is something that you might find distasteful, or against what you believe.

"There is no passion, there is serenity. The third tenet is not just a repeat of the first. It refers to situations of extreme stress in which you might be tempted to react strongly, or be so focused on the task to the exclusion of everything else, including the goal. You must always act with a calm hand and an even temper. "When in doubt, stay your hand", study each situation with a clear mind and reasoned thought, not with a mind filled with passion. Uncontrolled passion is more dangerous to you than any jutsu, so you have to be able to sort what is true from what is not.

"There is no chaos, there is harmony. This tenet is a little more esoteric, in that this statement reflects the one of the principle beliefs of the Jedi Order. The Jedi sees connections in everything, interdependence in everything. Everything exists in balance. Every event has purpose; nothing is irrelevant, including death. Tragedy happens; it is only with the realization that tragedy is another part of life can you find a balanced and realistic view of the world. You must understand that nothing happens without a reason, and in understanding that reason will you be able to exert control on your surroundings.

"There is no death, there is the Force. This is the most basic of all Jedi beliefs, the core of their Order. The Jedi believe that everything exists in duality, that death is a necessary component of the cycle of life. You must not fear death, but be ready for it at all times. You cannot be ruled or obsessed by it. It is easy to fall and fail, but you must be able to rise up again without distraction and move past it. Death is inevitable, but it is not final. As long as there are people who remain behind when you die, you will never cease to be completely. Another of their sayings is that fear leads to anger, and anger leads to hate, all three emotions that are exceptionally dangerous to you."

Jiraiya could tell that his student had been listening to him while he had been speaking because his expression changed from careful neutrality to one of serious meditation. Jiraiya had been using the Jedi Code himself for decades and helped him focus himself before battle. The Jedi were an ancient order, and there was some evidence that they preceded the formation of the Elemental Countries, or at least the samurai. The samurai used a boiled-down code that was almost identical to the Jedi Code. It went as follows:

Emotion, yet peace.
Ignorance, yet knowledge.
Passion, yet serenity.
Chaos, yet harmony.
Death, yet duty.

They had replaced belief in the Force with belief in duty, but the rest was the same. Carefully slipping off the bed, Jiraiya slipped Naruto's wallet into his pocket and left to continue the hunt for his former teammate, leaving Naruto to his thoughts.

Contrary to what Naruto thought, he did not visit bars and brothels purely for pleasure. Men let slip information they did not intend to, and told secrets they were not supposed to know to other drunkards and sexual partners. The next few days progressed in the same manner, traveling from town to town, following rumors of Tsunade's travels. It was difficult to be sure exactly where she had been because of her habit of altering her age and appearance on a regular basis, but Jiraiya thought that they were closing in on her.

Finally, ten days after he and Naruto had set out after Tsunade, they entered Tanzaku Gai. The owner of a casino in the previous town had ended up chasing a Tsunade who appeared to be in her early thirties out and he had heard her shouting to her companion how Tanzaku Gai should be a mite friendlier than that town had been. The fact that there was a semi-annual festival being held supported the notion, although to be fair, there was usually some kind of festival being held.

It was early evening by the time they arrived and Naruto was hungry. Naruto had been doing well with his mediation, quickly memorizing the Code and reciting it often to focus himself. Right now, the most dangerous thing to Naruto was uncontrolled emotion, and he had been making real headway on gaining a handle on his emotions. The real test would come when Naruto and Tsunade first met, as the pair was guaranteed to clash. Naruto could keep calm when he knew he was under scrutiny, but the real test would come when someone pushed his buttons for real.

Master and apprentice stepped into a pub as the sun was starting to sink below the rooftops. Jiraiya paused for a second, making sure that he was actually seeing Tsunade. "Tsunade-hime! Long time no see!"

The moment Tsunade saw him her head dropped into her arms. "Go away Jiraiya," Tsunade muttered from behind her arms as Jiraiya slid into the booth after Naruto.

"Aw, is that how you greet an old teammate after years of separation?"

"Jiraiya..." Tsunade growled. "I really do not want to have to put up with your crap right now. So spit out whatever you have to say and get the hell away from me."

Letting the easy smile slide from his face, Jiraiya locked his fingers together and leaned on his elbows. "I don't know if you have heard, but Konoha was attacked recently, by Orochimaru's personal village and the Sand. Sensei has been seriously wounded and needs you to come heal him."

"I refuse. There are plenty of doctors in Konoha. Surely one of them can fix him up."

"No they can't. It seems that Orochimaru has found the Kusanagi somewhere and wounded Sensei with it."

"The Kusanagi? Is it authentic?"

"It would seem so. The poison that has infected Sensei is beyond anything our doctors have ever seen. We need you to come back to heal Sensei."

"Why would he want that? So that he can continue being Hokage? It is a crap job. He should be glad to be dying. Why the hell anyone would want to be the leader of that piece of shit town is more than I can fathom."

Tsunade took an unhealthy pull straight from the bottle of sake so she didn't immediately notice Jiraiya's hardening expression.

"You are obviously under the influence right now, so I am going to ignore what you just said. I know that you lost your nephew and fiancé, but you are the only one in the world that has a chance of healing Sensei. So you need to get your stuff and be ready to leave soon. No one is saying that you have to stay permanently, just long enough to fix out teacher, and then you can go."

"I swore that I would never set a foot inside that wretched place ever again. Find someone else to fix the old man."

Naruto curled his fists on the table and glared at Tsunade. "You have got to be shitting. Your teacher and Hokage are on the brink of death and you refuse to help him? I have heard you are many things, Senju Tsunade, but one thing I never thought you were traitor. I am glad that Tenten-chan was still stuck in the hospital when we left. She has always admired you, idolized you, but I can see now that you are nothing like the legendary ninja that she wants to be some day."

The dark haired woman sitting next to Tsunade was making covert motions trying to warn Naruto, but he ignored her. "Careful what you say brat. I may be a drunkard and a gambler, but I am ten times the ninja you are."

"I don't see a ninja here. All I see is a broken old woman, hiding behind a mask, unable to face the past, running away from ghosts."

"Brat," Tsunade growled, but was ignored by the blond boy.

"I am telling you that the Hokage need your help, and you are going to give it, one way or another."

Suddenly, Tsunade threw her head back and let out a raucous laugh. "Brat, if nothing else, you have balls. You know I think I am beginning to like you."

"Hyuuga Naruto."

Pulling her head down to look at Naruto she blinked in confusion. "What?"

"Hyuuga Naruto. That is my name. There is only two people allowed to call me brat, and you are neither of them."

Grinning drunkenly, she leaned forward. "Okay then Hyuuga Naruto. What makes you think that you can force a legendary ninja like me to do anything?"

"I can do it because you are a coward. I insult you to your face, yet you pretend that it is a joke and try to laugh it away."

Draining the bottle of rice wine in one long pull, Tsunade wiped her mouth on her arm and stood up. "Okay, Naruto-san. Since you seem to be so intent on a fight, you got yourself one. You and me, outside, right now."

Shizune tried to reason with her master, but the bond female ignored her. Jiraiya grabbed Naruto's arm as he passed, holding him back. "Naruto, do know what you are doing? It may not seem like it, but Tsunade is an S-rank shinobi, and extraordinarily skilled in close-range combat. It is not too late to apologize and back out."

"That hag has insulted the Hokage, the Hokageship, Konoha and Tenten. She has gotten her way for so long just by browbeating people into submission with her name. I am going to show her that there are some things that she cannot get away with." Jerking his arm out of Jiraiya's grip, he stalked after Tsunade.

"Naruto, remember your control."

"Don't worry Ero-sennin; I am one hundred percent under control."

Jiraiya got outside just in time to hear Tsunade announce the stakes. "One thing before we get started. What is it about the word 'Hokage' that gets you so riled up? It wasn't until I insulted the Hokage that you really got mad."

Letting an angry grin curl his lips he replied, "That is because it is my dream to become Hokage! And I refuse to allow anyone to badmouth the title!"

Tsunade involuntarily took a step back at Naruto's tone. The tone of his voice, his stance, even the look in his eyes, they were exactly the same as her dead nephew and fiancé when they talked about becoming Hokage. "D-don't joke around. There is no way a no-talent kid like you could ever hope to become Hokage."

Growling, Naruto charged a Rasengan in his right hand in an instant and charged Tsunade. Blinking in surprise, she struck the ground with a single finger, opening a fissure right in front of Naruto, causing him to lose his footing and drive his Rasengan harmlessly into the ground at her feet. He couldn't hear what Tsunade said to Jiraiya because of the ringing in his ears from the close-range detonation of his Rasengan, but when he did gain his feet, Tsunade was facing him again.

"Tell you what kid. I will give you one week. At the end of that week, I will fight you again. If you can get me to use more than one finger to beat you, I will give you this necklace and acknowledge you have the potential to become Hokage."

"Eh, that necklace looks kind of tacky."

"Don't knock it Naruto. That necklace is worth enough to buy three gold mines and the mountains on them. It is an heirloom from the Shodai Hokage, made of an incredibly rare and precious ore."

"Fine then. We'll meet back here in exactly one week." Holding out his palm he spat on it. Grinning, Tsunade did also and they shook.

When Shizune and Naruto had left, Jiraiya said, "You know, that probably wasn't a good idea."

"What wasn't a good idea?"

"Betting with Naruto. He is no ordinary genin. I would say that he is easily at chunin strength, hell, there are one or two jounin I can think of that he could a give a run for their money. You know he is the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki, and he knows the Shadow Clone Technique, and can use it with incredible facility. His taijutsu is nothing to sneer at and he isn't too shabby with his sword either. Konoha was assaulted with the full strength of both Oto and Suna, and I would say that it isn't much of an exaggeration to say that if it wasn't for him, Orochimaru would have had a good shot at sacking Konoha. So I would be very careful, were I you, the next time you fight him." Tsunade was left blinking as Jiraiya waved goodbye and left.

Jiraiya stuck his hands in his pockets and whistled tunelessly while he wondered what Naruto would come up with to fight Tsunade with. He had taken a serious disliking to the woman, so he had no doubt that it would be impressive. In fact, he became even surer of the fact when the boy insisted that he train privately, adamant that he keep whatever he was working on secret until he could reveal it for the first time against Tsunade. Given what he had seen of the kid so far, he was sure it would be a good one. Naruto had many faults, but tactical idiocy and rigid thinking were not among them. Jiraiya would be very surprised if another ten years passed and Naruto was not Hokage.

The kid was a tactical genius and used ninjutsu in ways that boggled the mind. His affinity for the Shadow Clone Technique was quite frankly scary. Suffice to say, he was looking forward to see what Naruto would come up with.

OoOoO

Seven days after Tsunade issued her challenge to Naruto, Naruto and Jiraiya were waiting outside the pub that they had found her in. There were a few pedestrians out, but all kept as far away from the blond boy as they could. The way he was clenching his fist, no one wanted to get within reach. Finally, Tsunade and her black-haired apprentice Shizune showed up.

"Once chance to apologize, granny, before we do this."

"Yeah right. Remember, all you have to do is get me to use more than one finger and you win." Naruto didn't reply, simply cracking his knuckles. Tsunade blinked in surprise when she realized that he was fighting to do serious injury. Apparently, she had pissed him off even more than she had thought.

Naruto displayed considerable mastery over the Rasengan, as well as other techniques. Naruto seemed to operate his clones in teams. Half a dozen jack rabbited about with a Rasengan in one hand, trying to catch her with one. A second team tried to keep her off balance with well placed, low-powered Pressure Bullets. And the little turd was fast, especially after he donned a black and white outfit. All in all, he was far more skilled than she had thought initially.

Even fighting seriously as he was, she was able to easily keep out his reach. His height and arm length had him at a serious disadvantage, but he was able to compensate somewhat by using the Shadow Clone Technique. It was obvious that he excelled in fighting at close quarters, inside his opponents guard, so she kept out of his range, using her height to her advantage. If he was able to get close in to where he could use his fists to maximum effectiveness, she could face some actual danger.

But Jiraiya had not been exaggerating when he said that the boy was easily at chunin fighting strength. He played to his strengths, fighting low, not over extending on his attacks and waiting for her to slip up before he made his move. It was a smart way to fight, especially against an opponent bigger and more skilled than he was, but it would not win him the fight. Grinning, Tsunade decided to show him why she was one of the Three.

Forcing him back, she waited for him to leap forward again, before she poked the ground, causing a large fissure to open up, like she did last time. Naruto had learned from his last fight with her though, and dodged it easily.

Standing straight, she put her hands on her hips; she faced the black-clad boy. "I will admit that you have some skill, but you are nowhere near my level. Give it up now before I embarrass you."

"Not a chance granny. I have spent the last week working, developing a new technique. I didn't want to use it off the bat, but I see that I am going to have to now."

"Really, a teenage brat like you has invented a jutsu in a single week? This I gotta see." On the sidelines, Jiraiya leaned forward, wondering what Naruto was going to pull out of his sleeve.

Closing his eyes, Tsunade cocked her head when the black-and-white clothes dissolved, floating up and away. He sheathed his blade, forming a Rasengan in one hand.

"Yeah, you already showed that you can use the Rasengan, but…" Tsunade left her sentence incomplete as Naruto charged.

"Uzumaki Secret Technique: Typhoon Palm!" Tsunade backpedaled when Naruto jumped forward, the chakra being channeled into the sphere in his palm suddenly shooting forward, a hurricane in miniature extending from his palm and reaching straight for her. To her experienced eye, she could tell that it wasn't elemental manipulation. The only thing she could think of was that he had somehow managed to unleash the hurricane compressed into a sphere that was the normal Rasengan, and channel it into a lance. Tsunade leaped over his viperously fast thrust and drove him into the ground by planting one hand on the crown of his head and vaulting over him.

His hand drove into the ground like a hot knife through butter, burying itself to Naruto's elbow, throwing up a plume of dirt that obscured the view of the battle momentarily.

On the sidelines, Shizune turned to Jiraiya. "Did he just do what I think he did?"

"If you think he managed to half-ass a Rasengan, and not have it blow up in his face, then yes he did." There were times that Jiraiya sincerely regretted not getting himself involved with Naruto sooner. This was one of those times. Only Naruto would be able to take a technique that involved shape manipulation so complex that it took most years to master, and alter it so radically in a single week. A sphere was the easiest shape to mold chakra into, one reason why the Rasengan was a sphere. Channeling the Rasengan into an lance like that involved a level of chakra control that frankly boggled the mind.

Jiraiya knew that Naruto's control was certainly above average, mastery of the Rasengan proved that, but his Typhoon Palm was on a whole other level. Jiraiya doubted that he himself could do it.

Extricating himself from the hole, Naruto was smiling. "I win." Tsunade quirked an eyebrow at him before she realized what he meant.

"Sonuvabitch."

"You got your things packed Tsunade-hime?"

His former teammate sent him a glare, but nodded. "I hadn't quite planned on leaving with you, but I wasn't intending to stick around here much longer."

"It is still early in the day. We could make it a good distance yet."

"I see you aren't going to give me the chance to run off."

"Nope. You agreed to come with us, and I am going to make sure you do."

"Yeah yeah. I promise I will not try to give you the slip either. I made a promise, and I will honor it. Just let me get my stuff from my hotel and we can leave. Besides, this kid has proven to be quite interesting. He beat me fair and square, so I might as well tag along so I can see this Tenten-chan of his. If she is half as good as he is, they should make quite a pair."

"Trio. The kid is married to the Hyuuga heiress, of all people. Tenten is his girlfriend."

That got both Tsunade's and Shizune's attention. "They know he is two-timing them?"

"Oh yes, they do. The way I hear it, the whole thing was his wife's idea."

"Really? Interesting." Maybe spending a little time in Konoha wouldn't be as onerous as she thought.