Chapter 24 Toruko sphere

Once the day went by, the group decided to wait for Kakashi at the border of Wave by the bridge entrance. Shikamaru was resting against the dog statue again, looking up at the clouds, while Lee was doing some bizarre exercise after announcing if he didn't do 600 push ups, he would run 300 laps of the town.

The other three were in a deep discussion that Shikamaru classified as 'bothersome', "Well...there's nobody else around here, so come on and show me it already!"

Naruto's eye twitched at Jiraiya's persistence, "Ero-sennin, we are shinobi, not circus clowns!" Sakura nodded firmly in agreement. Jiraiya sighed, he probably was never going to see this 'flying rasengan' in person.

Naruto gave a confused gaze as if he was thinking of something, "Ero-sennin. Is it possible for Sakura-chan to knock other jutsu's out of a users hand like say, Chidori?" Sakura's eyes widened, and then began thinking the same question as well and looked to Jiraiya for an answer.

Jiraiya scratched his head, "Although you won't show me this 'flying rasengan' I am going to have to say no, rasengan probably is the only Jutsu that Sakura would be able to do that to." Seeing the still puzzled looks on their faces, he decided to continue.

"Chidori would never be possible, as it is not a physical ball of chakra, but turning a users hand effectively into a blade. Rasengan on the other hand, is completely external once it is formed in the palm. Finally the more real reason I believe rasengan is the only jutsu, is because rasengan doesn't use any element, similarly, chakra controlled attacks usually do not use any element either. If you were to say, try and punch a suiton water blast technique, you wouldn't be able to knock it back because of the fact the jutsu is composed of water. Another example is when water clashes with a fire jutsu, unless you have some strange kekkai genkai, it is impossible to do so."

Sakura nodded her head, "Hai, I seem to understand what you mean, and it does make sense." Naruto followed in agreement.

Jiraiya decided to shift to a more serious topic, "So I assume nothing out of hand happened with the Kyuubi?" Naruto and Sakura turned to each other for silent confirmation, but Sakura looked back at Jiraiya.

"No, the only times Naruto used it was when I asked him to show me what he had learnt with you, and when he was fighting Wani. Both of those times Naruto was calm and didn't lose his temper."

Jiraiya nodded in understanding and acceptance of the circumstances. "Still haven't worked out the backfire yet for oodama rasengan?"

Naruto shook his head, "The problem clearly is I cannot get it stable enough, so instead of knocking the target back when I hit them with it, it explodes."

Jiraiya's eyes narrowed in thought before he turned to Sakura, "I think the problem is lack of chakra control, the Kyuubi is partly to blame for that, as controlling large amounts of chakra is a lot harder than normal. Did Tsunade show you any techniques to improve your control?"

Sakura shook her head, "I had good chakra control to begin with because I had a very little amount of chakra. While training with Tsunade-sama though, I got better with my control with my medical jutsu training on fish. While I still do not have enough chakra as say, Kakashi-sensei, I still have enough to summon a miniature version of Katsuya-sama twice and perform other jutsu."

Jiraiya nodded again, "Hmm, summoning indeed does require a lot of chakra, you cannot summon Katsuya in her full form?"

"No, Tsunade-sama believes I would only just have enough chakra to do that in maybe 3 years time, but the problem is I would probably die from chakra exhaustion once I perform it."

Jiraiya's eyes narrowed further.

'maybe....'

"Both of you stand to the side for a minute." Jiraiya instructed. Neither teen had any idea what he was thinking but did as told.

Jiraiya ran through seal and announced, "Doton Doryuheki no jutsu!"and he spewed out a line of mud, which soon formed into a solid wall that was slightly taller than himself, but was roughly 6 feet long.

"Naruto, I want you to perform rasengan on this side-" Jiraiya pointed to his right "-While I do the same on the left." Naruto stood dumbfounded at what he was asked.

"I'll explain later, just do it." Jiraiya instructed.

Naruto created a single kage bunshin and started forming rasengan, Jiraiya like so, stuck out his one palm and formed his own.

"What do you notice?" Jiraiya asked looking at Sakura. Sakura glanced at both of the rasengan's and noticed right off the bat.

"Naruto's Rasengan seems larger, but he requires a kage bunshin to rotate the sphere."

Jiraiya nodded and then turned to Naruto, "Ready, gaki?" Naruto smirked, although he had no idea what Jiraiya was thinking, the thought of a standoff somehow deeply amused him.

"Yosha, let's do this Ero-sennin!"

Both rasengan's collided with the earth wall with a loud explosion, as debris flew wildly as the rasengan's drilled into the wall, also creating a thick layer of dust. Naruto had pulled back after 5 seconds though, and Jiraiya kept going, showing practically no end. The end result was Jiraiya finishing after 12 seconds.

Naruto hung his head in shame, 'Defeated by Ero-sennin, bah!'

Jiraiya rubbed it in by rubbing his hands clean of dust and chuckled. "Still can't beat me in anything gaki."

Jiraiya then gestured Sakura over to have a look, "What do you see and what did you notice?"

Sakura approached the wall and looked hard at both impacts.

Her eyes widened, "Naruto's...area of effect was smaller, and seems to shrink really fast as the impact deepens, where as yours was consistent. Then there is also the length of time between how long the rasengan's lasted...the only reason your rasengan stopped was because you wanted it to." Jiraiya nodded his head.

"When Naruto learnt how to perform rasengan he had to pass three tests. The first test relied on his ability to change the direction of his chakra flow rapidly. Since Naruto does not have that level of control, Naruto has to create a kage bunshin to focus solely on this task, hence why he cannot create a rasengan in his palm as fast as me. In saying that, because the clone disperses before Naruto hits the jutsu on a target, the rotation eventually comes to a stop, this in combination with the slower rotation speed is the reason for the short time. The slowing down motion is also the reason the damage is not consistent, since I can continue to rotate the rasengan while it is in use." Jiraiya paused before continuing.

"As for the second test Naruto makes me looks like an idiot. That test was pouring solid power into the jutsu, hence why Naruto's rasengan is the size of a very large basket ball compared to mine, since he has more chakra than me. The problem with that though was the third test, stability. This in a sense is chakra control...I wonder what would happen if he didn't have this 'control' problem."

Sakura's mouth began to hang in realisation, 'He does not mean...he wants me to-'

"So you are saying Sakura takes the place of the kage bunshin and using her superior chakra control, she can help Naruto speed up the rasengan's rotation, making it last longer and deal a lot more damage. Sakura can also help stabilize it for longer too." The three turned to see Shikamaru looking at them. "That is what you had in mind I assume Jiraiya-sama?"

Jiraiya smirked, "Indeed it was."

Naruto blinked several times, "Sakura-chan could help me make my rasengan match yours?!" He nearly shouted but then he looked blank when Jiraiya shook his head and chuckled.

"Gaki, Sakura's chakra control gives THE HOKAGE a run for her money, it will not match mine. It could possibly obliterate mine!" Naruto looked shocked but Sakura was the opposite and was waving her arms wildly.

"Wait wait! I do not have the chakra to use rasengan! There's...no way I could do that."

"Is this the same person that beat me in shogi? Because you're acting like an idiot right now." Shikamaru sighed as he would have to explain.

"Medical jutsu is one of the most complex jutsu's to use. There is a reason only very few shinobi can use it. Because it requires a great degree of chakra control, since one slip up could kill a person their treating. To put it more simply, it is a lot easier to destroy something than to fix something. While I don't know any medical jutsu's that require motion, with somebody of your calibre in control, it should not be hard to grasp at all. You also forget that Naruto is still the one pouring in the most chakra, so while you would not have enough chakra to perform rasengan effectively yourself, with Naruto it is possible." When he saw Sakura's unconvinced face he sighed muttering 'troublesome'.

"Let me make this easier, Lee!" Shikamaru shouted at the still exercising Lee.

"Yes Shikamaru-kun!" Lee barked at attention.

"Go into town and purchase several tennis balls, and bring it back in no less than three minutes. Or you will have to run 400 laps around the town!"

"HAWWWW! I WILL DO IT IN TWO MINUTES SHIKAMARU-KUN!" and Lee was off, leaving his weights behind.

The others just looked at Shikamaru, '....Did he just...'

In just over a minute Lee was back with a large bag. "Here you are Shikamaru-kun! " Lee announced, handing the still laying down Shikamaru the bag, then resuming his push ups. Shikamaru pulled out a tennis ball from the bag and threw it to Sakura who caught it dumbly.

"Spin it!" He said dryly while returning his gaze to the sky. Sakura was still recovering slightly from Shikamaru's actions but soon looked down at the tennis ball.

Jiraiya decided to help her out, "You fill the ball with chakra, since there is nothing inside but air, you will be able to rotate it in your palm. Once that is done you can then manipulate the direction of your chakra, I assume you already know what direction your chakra spins?"

Sakura nodded, "Hai, clockwise."

Jiraiya grinned, "Interesting, you're the same as Naruto. Since you know this already, you might even get this on the first try then."

Naruto shouted through gritted teeth, "You never gave me that advice off the bat when I was learning how to do the rasengan Ero-sennin!"

Jiraiya in turn matched his shout, "You were learning how to use the rasengan! She is just learning how to rotate her chakra, either way she is doing this to help you gaki! Now shut up and watch!"

Naruto blinked several times until he realized that he was right, "Sorry...go for it Sakura-chan." Naruto said with a grin.

All eyes were now on the growing nervous Sakura. 'Ok...pour my chakra into the ball, it should then spin clockwise.'

She watched as the tennis balls carpet like surface began to tickle against her hand, as it span very slowly in a clockwise direction.

"You need more chakra than that." Jiraiya stated simply, which as she complied, the tennis ball now picked up speed.

"Is that enough?"

"Yes, very good, continue."

'Now manipulate the chakra in the ball to spin...up.'

The tennis ball began spinning on the spot as if it was trying to roll off her hand, but it didn't budge, 'Now spin it backwards.' The ball then began spinning backwards, but since the ball didn't stop moving, it was practically impossible to tell to the untrained eye.

Jiraiya picked it up straight way however, 'Now counter clockwise.' she mused, as Sakura continued to repeat the same step again for each different direction.

Jiraiya nodded in approval, "Very good, so you can change the direction practically on the spot, as expected from a medic-nin. Now the question is how fast can you change that direction numerous times?" Sakura closed her eyes in concentration, while the growing interested Shikamaru from his prone position was now watching in anticipation, Lee even stopped to watch. Naruto remained silent and watched in awe.

'Sakura-chan really is amazing, for her to be able to do that means she already would have raced through the first test in a matter of seconds...'

The group gasped when the ball began smoking in Sakura's palm, the ball was spinning wildly in a direction that could not be determined, it was changing that fast. Sakura couldn't take it anymore and released her hold on the ball as it spun violently and landed on the dirt and deflated from a burst in its side from the pressure.

Sakura looked at the burnt marks on her palm and chuckled, "I-I...I guess I better wear my gloves when trying this." Sakura laughed nervously, flushed in embarrassment at everybody looking her in complete bafflement. The group still was in shock, but Naruto broke out first.

"Sakura-chan that was amazing!" He practically yelled at his friend with his fox like smile as wide as ever. The others just nodded their heads dumbly in agreement.

Sakura soon healed her burns and looked at the still agape Jiraiya, "What's next, Ero-sennin?" Sakura asked innocently. That comment shook Jiraiya out of his shock almost instantly.

"Now I guess we try the real thing-"

"What about making the tennis ball explode like the second test was for me?"

Jiraiya grumbled at his student, "She isn't learning how to do it gaki! She is learning how to just rotate her chakra!" Sakura nibbled on her lower lip while the two continued their arguments back and forth.

"Can I try?"

Both turned their heads to see her shrug, "There's no harm in giving it a go is there?" Like clockwork, Shikamaru tossed another tennis ball, but had to toss a second when Jiraiya prompted.

"If you insist. You were able to fill up enough chakra to spin the ball at your leisure...now I want you to fill up enough chakra to make the tennis ball explode." Jiraiya then demonstrated with the tennis ball in his hand, which did similar motions that Sakura's did before, but in a matter of a second exploded to reveal the spiralling chakra.

Before she could ask any questions, he added, "You have to completely explode it, not put a hole in it like the first one."

Sakura nodded and stared into the green ball in her now gloved hand, 'Build up enough chakra to make it explode...ok.'

Sakura was met with failure though when the same thing happened again...and again, "It's a lot harder than it sounds." She stated in frustration, while snatching another tennis ball thrown her way.

"Are you concentrating your chakra on one spot?" Sakura turned to her team mate in puzzlement, as he lifted his own hand and explained.

"Ero-sennin told me that you need to focus all your chakra on one point-" he pointed to the middle of his palm to demonstrate, "-Maybe you should try that?"

Sakura still held a puzzled expression, so the blond looked at Shikamaru.

"Marker!" The Nara blinked at his instruction, but reached into his weapon pouch and pulled out what he had asked for.

Jiraiya just stood and watched in pride at his student, who asked Sakura to remove her glove, 'Hehe, maybe you haven't destroyed Minato's honour after all.'

"Concentrate on that point there Sakura-chan, it will help."

Sakura nodded and grinned, "You sound like you have taught this to somebody before." The blond scratched his head with a sheepish grin.

"I may have shown err, somebody else, but go on and give it a try."

Sakura nodded and got to work, 'Concentrate...' The tennis ball began spinning in her palm again, and within moments, showed signs of starting to expand, although its bindings tried to keep it shrunk. Within moments it popped like a balloon in her hand, revealing a green spiralling sphere.

"You did it Sa..kura..-chan?" Naruto trailed off, as he watched the small sphere shrink into nothing. Jiraiya sighed, while Sakura sheepishly rubbed the back of her neck feeling disappointed.

"I hope this debunks it for you gaki, she doesn't have sufficient chakra to maintain such a build up for rasengan to even last a second, not like the sphere she made would cause any significant damage."

Naruto blinked blankly and watched Sakura frown, "Sorry to let you down Naruto."

The blond blinked again at how flat that sounded, but grinned in assurance, "Don't worry Sakura-chan that never was the point to begin with."

"...Can I still help Naruto with this?"

The sannin gave the thumbs up, "Of course you can! Remember, he is the one doing all the grunt work after all!"

Focusing more on his scheme now, Jiraiya got them ready, "Naruto, I want you to use as little chakra as possible, if this doesn't work, you will hurt Sakura a lot more than its going to hurt you." Jiraiya said seriously and with a solid gaze. Naruto's eyes widened in shock but he nodded.

Jiraiya then turned to Sakura, "The same goes with your rotation, if you spin a Rasengan as fast as you did with these-" He pointed at the collection of deflated tennis ball at their feet while continuing. "-Naruto will not be able to keep up, and you are going to literally drill a hole into Naruto's palm, or give him the worst chakra burns I have ever seen."

Sakura gasped lightly and then met Naruto eye to eye asking the silent question of trust, "...I am ready if you are Sakura-chan!" Naruto brightly beamed.

Sakura returned the gesture, "Let's give this a shot, Naruto."

Naruto placed his palm out and began making the familiar sphere of the rasengan. It was roughly the same size as the tennis ball. Sakura hesitated for a second but then placed her now gloved hand over the top of the rasengan. And both teens shared a brief glance and nodded to each other, and then Sakura took action. The rasengan illuminated into a bright turquoise colour, and was spinning noticeably faster than earlier.

Jiraiya gave close observation on the rasengan, "It is rotating far too fast Sakura, it is too much for Naruto to keep stable." Sakura nodded, and tried reducing her speed slightly. The rasengan suddenly dispersed in their hands, fortunately not hurting either of the teens.

Jiraiya nodded as if understanding, "Hmm, it seems that Naruto cannot keep up with the sudden change in speed...let's try it again but for this attempt, go at the pace you just attempted Sakura."

Sakura nodded her head and looked at Naruto giving her the signal she was ready to try again. Naruto began forming the rasengan as Sakura placed her palm over it and began rotating the ball. Jiraiya again kept close watch to see if he approved it 'stable'. The rasengan didn't seem to show any signs of instability, and it appeared solid.

Jiraiya grinned, "Well...go for it gaki!" he instructed. Sakura removed her palm as Naruto turned and slammed the tiny spinning vortex into a part of the wall that wasn't damaged.

The Rasengan impacted against the wall, causing dust to pick up as it began to drill into the wall. The rasengan dispersed after four seconds and Naruto stood back as Jiraiya inspected. Jiraiya faced the waiting pair and grinned "Not bad, it's a work in progress. It didn't last as long as Naruto's normal one, but only by a second at most. You can see that the damage was quite consistent till the end, and created more impact damage than the actual size of the Rasengan. The explanation to the short time was because of the slower speed than normal."

Sakura nodded and asked, "Why exactly is this much harder than it sounded Ero-sennin? I thought I was just taking over a kage bunshin's job?" Jiraiya winced at the name but responded after a moment's thought.

"My theory is it's because your chakra signature is different from Naruto's, as everyone's signature is unique. The kage bunshin has the exact same signature as Naruto, meaning Naruto is just manipulating his own chakra, not yours as well."

Naruto narrowed his brows, "But I thought Sakura-chan was handling that task." Naruto asked while scratching his head, Sakura nodded in agreement.

Jiraiya placed his index finger up and grinned, "You still need to help, two signatures working together in coordination with one jutsu is very complicated to achieve. Sakura doing the job alone will only result in what you have achieved now, with minimal progress."

Sakura blinked and widened her eyes in realisation, "This is to help Naruto improve his chakra control!?" she half shouted in surprise.

Jiraiya nodded, proud to see one of them worked out his plot, "Yes, there is the possibility that with this training, Naruto will be able to improve his rasengan further, as well as possibly improve his stability with using oodama rasengan."

Naruto went slightly agape in realisation before turning his head to Sakura and grinned, "Looks like we get to create an awesome S ranked jutsu together Sakura-chan!"

Sakura shrugged, "Baka, it isn't even matching yours in strength at the moment." She said teasingly, although her grin twitched into a full smile.

"We will have to work on it more later." Sakura admitted.

"Hell yeah! and out of all this I improve my chakra control, thanks Sakura-chan!" Naruto beamed.

Sakura shook her still smiling head while muttering her usual 'baka'. Lee and Shikamaru resumed what they were doing without bothering the three in their discussion.

"Well...even though this is just a training jutsu, I guess it would only be right to give this jutsu a name. What shall this jutsu be called I wonder?"Jiraiya stated rhetorically. Naruto and Sakura turned to each other and then in a moments time grinned, then in near perfect union they announced their choice.

"Toruko Rasengan!"

Jiraiya nodded his head in approval, 'Turquoise Rasengan hey? It could work indeed...'

Jiraiya payed attention now to the wall he made, "Well now...what to do with this wall here, I am sure the locals will not like it being here next to their bridge." Naruto's chuckle made his ears perk.

"Ero-sennin...we can take care of it, eh Sakura-chan?"

"...Looks like you will get to see what you have been wanting to see after all Ero-sennin."

Jiraiya didn't seem fazed by the name, but took several steps from the side, "This will be very interesting indeed, no?" he said in anticipation.

Naruto looked to Sakura who then nodded and grinned, "I suppose the excuse will be now its training." She chuckled.

"It already was training for sieging the enemy."

"Naruto...Don't start that again, and just get rid of that troublesome wall already." Shikamaru muttered to nobody in particular.

Naruto turned and faced Sakura as he began forming the chakra sphere in his hand. Sakura in turn placed her palm over and created the toruko rasengan, still the same tennis ball size. Naruto then stepped to the side with the rasengan still in his palm and allowed Sakura a clear shot at the wall. Sakura with surprisingly fast speed, collided her fist with the rasengan, sending it shooting in a blur towards the wall. On collision there was an explosion, and Jiraiya jaw dropped when the rasengan had broken through the entire six foot length wall. It then continued for several more meters before dispersing with a thick teal haze.

A fair large chunk of the wall was destroyed due to the high speed, but there were still enough remaining in the pairs eyes to justify a second one. Jiraiya went agape yet again when it he saw the same thing happen again, this time leaving nothing but rubble that a quick suiton could clean up.

"If this is the sorts of things my students get up to when they're bored, I might have to start arriving late more often." Said a voice from the side of the group, all turned their heads to see Kakashi in the tree with his U shaped smile.

"Yo!"

"YOU'RE LATE!" Roared in perfect synchronisation the remaining half of team 7.

"Sorry for being late. You see I-"

"Save it Kakashi, we all know that's a lie." Shikamaru frowned.

"Good to see you're doing well too Shikamaru." Kakashi said sarcastically with a smirk hidden under his mask.

Kakashi then approached Naruto and ruffled his spiky hair, "Well, you certainly have grown Naruto." "Hehe, it's great to see that you haven't changed at all, Kakashi-sensei-" Naruto's eyes widened when he remembered something, "-Oh! I have something for you Kakashi-sensei."

Naruto then presented the orange book Jiraiya gave him. Kakashi emitted a squeal that nobody thought was possible from such a man.

"Is....is that?!-"

Naruto gave his traditional fox smile, "Yep. It was originally meant to be a gift when I returned to Konoha early, but since your here I figured why not." Kakashi snatched the book and gave it a very disturbing embrace that somehow made Sakura see red.

'Pervert!'

"Kakashi, while I know you are deeply infatuated with my writings, don't forget the reason you are here for, before you suddenly disappear 'in the road of life' so to speak." Jiraiya teased. Kakashi's shoulders slumped, he would have to read his new book later.

"Hai ,Hai, I understand." he said flatly.

Kakashi almost instantly cut his childish act and became serious, "I trust Hokage-sama's messenger toad already delivered the message before my arrival."

Jiraiya nodded, "Uh-huh, it's great that you were able to get a hold of those reports. They will without a doubt help us in the long run."

Kakashi then looked at the group around him, "Ok, let's make a start on going through those reports."

'Finally, we have made it back.' Ronan mused to himself. Ronan and his team of three other ANBU stopped outside the entrance to the cavern, while he opened the entrance. Once the door had opened they made their way down in silence. When they reached the bottom and entered the hide out Ronan quickly jumped to the ready when he saw who was also there other than his other team mates.

"Orochimaru...what are you doing here!?" He hissed through his mask.

Araiki put his hands up, "Easy Ronan, he is not he-"

"Is this your doing Araiki?!" Ronan spat out in disgust, Araiki's eyes widened when he noticed the chakra building up through Ronan's mask, the cause being his sharingan activating no doubt.

Thomas intervened with his unnaturally neutral voice, "Ronan, you really should listen to what Orochimaru is offering us, he-"

"I do not care what he thinks...leave now you old snake, or I will show you just how much I do not care for your title as 'one of the legendary sannin'."

Orochimaru smirked, "Interesting that you share Konoha's hate against me even when you are an outcast as well." The Uchiha showed no reaction to his statement, so the Sannin continued, "I am here because I wish to help you in your goal to eliminate Naruto-kun."

Ronan said nothing, so Orochimaru continued with a widened smirk, "We both want the Kyuubi child dead, your reasons for perfectly justifiable vengeance, mine for getting revenge on the organisation that I cast myself out of long ago."

Ronan snickered, "I frankly do not care what your ideals are, whether you want the Jinkuriki dead or alive it doesn't matter in the slightest...now get out!" Ronan began reaching for the hilt of his sword.

Orochimaru glared, "I also have someone with me that shares your personal goal to avenge the slaughter of your clan...by Uchiha Itachi!"

Ronan's arm instantly stopped and didn't say anything for several moments, 'What does he mean...'

"...I am listening...." He grunted in annoyance.

Orochimaru chuckled, "You may come on out, Sasuke-kun."

'Sasuke?!'

Said Uchiha appeared almost out of nowhere standing in front of Orochimaru, with his Sharingan showing.

Ronan snickered as a memory flashed over his eyes behind his mask at the person standing before him, "Oh?...Itachi's little brother, I knew your father very well...tell me, what is your primary goal?"

Sasuke didn't even stop to think and said in a strong and confident voice, "My ambition is to kill my brother, he will pay for what he did to our clan that night!"

Ronan snickered again, "And just how do you plan to do this...since I already could have killed you right now."

Sasuke's eyes suddenly widened when he felt 'it' the deep genjutsu that he was already placed in, 'When did he place me in that?!'

"Well well...you do not seem as hopeless as you look." Came a voice behind him once the genjutsu was lifted, to reveal Ronan was already on top of him, with a kunai pressed at his throat.

"Orochimaru, I am going to assume you want me to teach this boy how to use his eyes in the way only an Uchiha would know?"

Orochimaru nodded while licking his chops with his snake like tongue, "In return I will offer you my sub ordinates to assist you in your mission to kill the Kyuubi. You will find while Sasuke-kun does not know how to wield the immense powers of the sharingan effectively, since I am not an Uchiha, he excels in the areas of ninjutsu and taijutsu."

"I will be the one to judge that, and as I have just discovered he relies too much on his eyes to alert him on his opponent's actions, and has severe issues dealing with genjutsu via doujutsu." Ronan concluded, earning a hard glare from Sasuke, which somehow amused him.

"I will teach him, but I will not accept your help. You are known for your...treacheries, and I am no fool like the Sandaime was."

Orochimaru laughed at Ronan's claim, "It seems my reputation is known even by the supposed dead. Very well then, I accept your conditions."

Ronan then reached for his mask and pulled it off, revealing his surprisingly unscarred and clean shaven face. His jet black hair was pushed back and reached to the tip of his back. He then met Sasuke's glare with his own, sharingan to sharingan.

"Tell me, what the Jinkuriki is to you? " Ronan whispered, seeing an emotion flicker over the young Uchiha's sharingan.

"Hmmph, nothing more than a memory of my weakness. I do not care what happens to him" Sasuke said void of all emotions, although Ronan chuckled very darkly.

"Sure, whatever you say. " He responded, causing Sasuke to harden his glare even more as if in challenge.

"Regardless, this has nothing to do with the Jinkuriki, but with the honour of our dead brothers and sisters, those who were betrayed like your father by the person they trusted the most."

Ronan no longer whispered as his sharingan eyes almost glowed in his anger, "Together, we will achieve the goal that we share in common. We will kill the traitor to our clan, we will kill Uchiha Itachi!"

The group had returned to the hotel and once Kakashi got over the shock that it was named after him, they had set up in the dining lounge. Jiraiya and Kakashi were looking through the profiles of the MIA ANBU, along with Shikamaru keeping a close eye. The other three were sitting and waiting patiently, when occasionally either of the older shinobi would declare their information aloud.

"Uchiha Ronan." Kakashi said aloud in recognition, Jiraiya stopped looking at his own report and frowned.

"The original captain of the ANBU? Oh I have heard of him."

Kakashi nodded, "The other ANBU used to talk about him, it seemed he was practically the second in command of the Uchiha clan to my understanding. He was a natural genius, and unlocked the sharingan at the age of 9. While the information on his family is unknown, he was said to be related to Fugaku, Sasuke's father in some way."

"What are the chances that he is still alive?" Shikamaru asked in interest.

Jiraiya responded with a groan, "The chances of him surviving is the same as any other member, but if I was to say who of them had the highest chance of surviving...it would be him without a second thought."

Jiraiya continued reading and smirked, "Well I found our Hyuuga member." Lee and Shikamaru were now very focused on Jiraiya, who was still reading, "The man was once part of the same genin team as Ronan. Araiki was never a part of the main house, but was part of the branch."

Lee narrowed his eyes in confusion, surely he didn't miss something that day on the bridge, "But he didn't have a seal...I am certain of it." Jiraiya scratched the back of his head in thought, but Shikamaru already did his thinking but needed to ask a question first.

"Is it possible to remove the seal?"

Jiraiya exchanged a look with Kakashi, who too wasn't certain. Jiraiya took a wild stab,"...It may be possible, I am not very familiar with how the seal works in its design, but if I was to put my finger on it...yes, I believe it would be possible but it would requ-"

Jiraiya stopped in surprise, but then formed a scowl, "-It would most likely require the use of forbidden seals. The only madman I know that would even attempt using them would be my old team mate."

Jiraiya said in disgust, Kakashi answered the question the others were thinking, "Orochimaru..."

Sakura and Naruto unconsciously tensed at the name of the man, if that's what he really was, who took their teammate away from them. Jiraiya continued in a frown in recollection of the snake sannin's ways.

"Orochimaru is not the kind of person that would do something as major as removing that seal for free. I wonder what Araiki had to offer or do in order for Orochimaru to remove that seal?"

"Study the secrets of the byakugan?" Shikamaru suggested.

Jiraiya shook his head then looked at the tensed Sakura and Naruto, "As we know, he only has his interests on one kekkai genkai, the sharingan." Sakura winced but nodded her head with Naruto in agreement.

Feeling it would be wise, Jiraiya decided to drop the topic from that point, "I will try to keep an eye out for the other guy, how did you describe him again?"

Sakura shook herself out of her state and responded, "He had short brown hair, with brown eyes. He was roughly Kakashi-sensei's height, but the most unique thing about the man." Sakura paused briefly to conclude her thoughts before returning her gaze to Jiraiya.

"Was his personality, the way he talked. It was almost like the person...didn't know how to show his emotions, even when his arm was being burnt, he didn't react in a way I would have expected at all....and that smile-"

Sakura winced at the memory of that sickening smile, "-He was very strange." she concluded.

Jiraiya nodded, "Somehow, I don't think we are going to find him in these reports." Sakura raised an eyebrow but waited for Jiraiya to continue.

"If what you say is true about him in regards to his emotions, then I have a gut feeling he is from a group more secretive than ANBU." Before anybody could ask, Kakashi again answered for them.

"ROOT, a special group of ninja that are trained very harshly to kill their emotions. It was done so they could become more efficient at their duties, it is founded by the elder of Konoha, Danzou."

Sakura's eyes widened in familiarisation at the name, "Him?!" She said over her gasp.

"Do you know him?" Sakura quickly nodded to Kakashi's question and began.

"Unfortunately yes, Tsunade-sama talks about the creep all the time, I even met the man when he came to discuss with Tsunade-sama about something...the man seems very cold and secretive...he freaks me out."

Jiraiya smirked, "That sounds like the heartless bastard I know. But if this person you fought indeed was from ROOT, then I am now questioning the man's loyalties."

"Is it that hard to believe that this potential member of ROOT wouldn't be out for revenge either?" Shikamaru asked.

"No, it is not that unrealistic to see happen, but a member of ROOT to my understanding is very loyal to their boss." Jiraiya explained.

"Why would he be after me?" Naruto said suddenly surprising everyone in how serious his voice was.

Kakashi and Jiraiya again exchanged a look at each other as if asking the same thing, 'Should we tell him?'

Jiraiya nodded his head to Kakashi, who turned and looked at Naruto, "When the Kyuubi was sealed-" Kakashi continued talking even though Naruto winced. "-Danzou fought with the council to try and effectively turn you into one of the members of ROOT. His argument was, and I quote 'We have a weapon now that will cause our enemies to cower in fear. Let us create the most powerful jinkuriki by putting him in my care'."

'M-Me?! A weapon...'

Naruto was in too shocked to speak, and broke eye contact with Kakashi to find the table's patterns suddenly very interesting. Lee looked at Naruto in concern, while Sakura was desperately tiring to keep herself under control from her anger but she couldn't hold back any more when she hissed out with venom, "What sort of a bastard would try to do that to somebody?!"

"Danzou essentially is hooked on war, he doesn't care who gets hurt or killed as long as he sees victory. This attitude is one of the many reasons Sandaime fought him every step of the way, which is the reason why you are still who you truly are now, Naruto." Jiraiya smiled at his student, who had now turned his gaze to look at his sensei's.

'Arigato jiji...' Naruto mused while only smiling in gratefulness for the late Sandaime.

When Shikamaru had concluded Naruto was ok, he decided to add his input, "It seems this man sounds like the type of person that would happily sacrifice his subordinates without missing a heartbeat. He would rather see his so called weapon be destroyed than fall into the hands of his enemies."

"I said the same thing to Hokage-sama, which is why it wouldn't surprise me if Danzou is somehow involved." Kakashi stated.

"What is our next move?" Sakura now asked, growing impatient with just sitting here and doing nothing.

Shikamaru promptly answered, "The three of us will continue going through this report, even though there is now a chance that there may be members that are not listed in the documents, it will still give us a few leads on whom we might be facing. Once that is done we will move on to the troublesome matter on how we will track them down, although I already have a good idea how we will do that." Shikamaru smirked at the few eyebrows raised in question, but chose to avoid the matter.

"You three do not have to be here though. If you are interested to go training as I am sure Lee is, I spoke to Tazuna-san and he has granted us control of the park that is not even four minutes away. I suggest though you control yourselves though, not referring to anybody in particular." The gaze towards Sakura made it obvious though who he really meant.

Sakura looked between Lee and Naruto who began showing the signs of their excitement at training and sighed at the implication, "Something tells me if I don't go, one or probably both of you are going to end up killing yourselves in your little spar that you both are probably brewing right now. Guess I don't have a choice in this matter."

Sakura however, was practically having the conversation with herself as Naruto and Lee already started voicing what she predicted, "Yosha! It's time for rematch Fuzzy Brows, this time the result will be you needing Sakura-chan's attention."

"Let's go Naruto-kun! Now is the time to train and become strong while we are at the-"

"Spring time of our youth...we know already Lee, just shut up and go." Shikamaru said rolling his eyes.

"What a troublesome pair."