Chapter 11 Back to Wave

The group was nearing their destination, Shikamaru was relieved that the entire journey went without incident. The sea of leaves from the towering trees however, were surrounding the group, and obscuring their vision of how close they truly were. Until Lee made his next jump and was blinded by the bright light of the sun, however he quickly adjusted and landed on the ground in front of him gracefully. Shikamaru and Sakura followed.

Once the team's eyes had adjusted from the sudden change of brightness, they looked at the sight before them. There was the entrance to the bridge, behind the bridge was an amazing view of the entire wave country. It was safe to say the country had taken a 180 on their state of finance, as there were new things added to the bridge that Sakura didn't recall from before.

On each side of the bridge there were large bronze shaded dogs wearing Konoha forehead protectors. The dogs were standing on their hind legs, and in one paw, the dogs held a fan resembling the Uchiha insignia. Judging by how the group could see their own reflections distorted on the towering K9's, it was easy to tell they were polished thoroughly weekly, maybe even daily. What was behind the dogs made Sakura smile, a tall Sakura tree full of vibrant pink petals.

'So the dog is Kakashi-sensei, the fan is Sasuke-kun, and the tree is me…so where's… '

It was then that her eyes finally read the sign above to top of the entrance that was title in gold plated letters 'The great Naruto Bridge'. It was then that Sakura's smile widened and she chuckled shaking her head.

'You deserve it, you baka.'

Shikamaru whistled in awe, "Wow, you guys must really be famous here, hell, they even named the bridge after the knuckle head." Sakura hadn't taken her eyes off the sign, still smiling. She never voiced her agreement aloud.

"Speaking of Naruto-kun where is he? Isn't he supposed to be meeting us here?" Lee asked eager to see his rival and friend again.

"The gaki isn't here." Said an aged yet familiar masculine voice coming from the side of the group. There, leaning against a tree before them, was none other than the legendary Jiraiya.

He didn't seem to change much in appearance from the day he and Naruto left Konoha, his near impossibly clean white spiky hair may have grown a bit, but otherwise he was practically the same.

Jiraiya had noticed Sakura still had a grin on her face, "You know that he still complained that he didn't get a symbol of his own?"

Sakura frowned, yet quickly reformed the grin on her features, "Somehow, that doesn't seem to surprise me at all Jiraiya-sama."

"Do you know where Naruto has gone?" Shikamaru asked, finding this reunion too troublesome and wanted to proceed with the mission. Lee was nodding furiously in agreement to Shikamaru's question.

Jiraiya pouted, 'At least one of them still shows me some respect!' However he quickly recovered and pointed his thumb across the bridge.

"He said he wanted to say goodbye to some brat called Inari, or something like that. You will most probably find him somewhere over there." Jiraiya said, with a hint of annoyance in his tone. With that said Lee beamed out.

"Thank you Jiraiya-sama! HAWWW! Naruto-kun here I come, prepare yourself." He shouted out loud almost as if he was expecting Naruto to hear his claim, and took off across the bridge before the others could say anything, leaving behind the all too familiar dust trail.

Shikamaru and Sakura shook their heads while Shikamaru muttered, "I blame Gai-sensei for this…so troublesome." Sakura grunted in agreement.

Jiraiya's sweat dropped, '…Wow….that's some speed…'

"Will you be coming with us, Jiraiya-sama." Shikamaru asked, almost as if, no… he didn't care what just happened.

Jiraiya took a moment to recover, but eventually replied, "Unfortunately no, this is where I must head off and carry out my business. But if you don't mind I need to burrow your medic for a second." The teens raised their eyebrows in question at this.

Jiraiya smiled sadly and said clearly being over dramatic, "This old body isn't once what it used to be. I've injured my back while trying to keep that gaki settled down." He emphasized this by rubbing his lower back with his arm.

Sakura nodded, although her questioning gaze remained, "I'll take a look at it then Jiraiya-sama. Go on without me Shikamaru, ill catch up with you and Lee-san later." She turned to find Shikamaru was already starting his trek across the long bridge already.

Without looking back he lazily flung his hand over his head as if it was too hard to wave and said through a yawn, "No problem, we will see you later then."

Sakura's right eye began to twitch, as she grinded through her gritted teeth, "Shikamaru…."

Sighing, she turned her attention back to Jiraiya, noticing that his expression was different from earlier. It seemed as if he was preparing himself for something that he knew was going to be long, complicated, and potentially dangerous. Sakura soon figured out just from that look that Jiraiya's back was perfectly fine, he was just looking for an excuse to talk to her about something…classified.