Chapter 26 Preparation

The bridge was surprisingly unscarred after the ANBU attack, it seemed Tazuna had fixed up most if not all of the damages done to the surface, leaving nothing but an occasional bump or crack as a reminder the ordeal ever happened.

"So you still use the same shampoo as me eh? It is good shampoo isn't it?" The small dog Pakkun said while looking at the stunned and shaken Sakura.

"Same shampoo...as a dog..." Naruto blinked at his friend next to him.

"Sakura-chan?..."

But Sakura did not respond as she continued muttering the same line over and over again, as if she was rubbing it in to herself.

Naruto scratched his head in puzzlement, "What is the big deal that a dog uses the same shampoo as you anyway?"

Sakura continued muttering but soon froze and repeated the statement, "Dog using...same shampoo...as me?"

She then blinked rapidly at the long overlooked realisation, "You use a women's shampoo!?"

Pakkun shrugged with his paws, "What can I say, they design women's shampoo with stronger fragrance than guys...I am a dog and hold no such shame." Naruto tilted his head and looked at Sakura, eyeing her vibrant pink hair that looked amazingly clean and soft.

'Really? Is i-'

"Naruto!" Sakura hissed in her demonic voice, not even needing to look at him to know what he was thinking.

"I-I-"

She then turned and glared, "Just try and do it...I dare you!"

"I-I wasn't going to do anything!"

"Can we please move on 'kids'." Shikamaru said over a lazed groan.

'Seriously do they ever act like shinobi?!'

"So you understand what you have to do now Pakkun?" Shikamaru asked.

The small dog nodded, "I understand, locate their base then report it back to you or Kakashi?" The dog did the best imitation of a smirk and raised his left paw, as if waiting for something.

"Yes, that's very good. Now go." Shikamaru responded, then knelt down and poked the soft part of the paw.

"...Am I the only one tha-"

"No, Naruto...I have no idea what the hell that was either." Sakura said dryly, both with their sweats dropped.

Lee however was very much the opposite, "HAWWW! Shikamaru-kun that's so hip! Naruto-kun how abo-"

"Hell no Fuzzy Brows!" During the teens little exchange, Pakkun had already returned to his pack of nin-dogs, "Wish us luck."

Then they disappeared, leaving smoke trails leading in numerous directions.

The silent Kakashi spoke, "Well, all we can do now is-"

"Yosha! Now let's train to prepare to whoop thos-" Naruto's outburst was silenced by dong on the head from Sakura.

"Kakashi-sensei is talking Naruto!"

Naruto rubbed his head and gritted his teeth in over exaggerated pain, "That hurt Sakura-chan!" He whined, but Kakashi continued.

"I was saying tha-"

"Don't be such a drama queen baka, I didn't hit you that hard." Sakura said while crossing her arms glaring at the still pouting and rubbing his head Naruto, although he did hold a little grin on his face.

Kakashi's sweat dropped, 'Now look who is the one ignoring me.' Kakashi cleared his throat, and Sakura span to attention muttering 'Sorry sensei'.

Kakashi waited a moment longer just in case, then tried a third time, "I was going to say the best thing to do is just stay alert and wait." Kakashi smirked under his mask when he saw Naruto's shoulders slump.

'How typical' Kakashi inwardly chuckled.

"...But now after giving it some thought, I am sure some training before hand will be useful."

Naruto froze as if his mind hadn't caught up yet, then he beamed, "Yosha! Kakashi-sensei knows best!" The sannin rolled his eyes at the claim.

"Kakashi is only agreeing gaki, because we all know you will run off and train anyway!"

Naruto crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes, "No I would not Ero-sennin! I would have listened to-"

"Lost interest the moment you said 'listened'...the word doesn't exist in your language." Jiraiya countered, causing Naruto to grit his teeth in annoyance, but didn't respond coherently as he muttered curses not loud enough to hear. Sakura's giggling didn't help Naruto at all.

"Shikamaru told us about a field you guys used to spar on earlier, this is where will move to. Naruto, I would still like you to issue some kage bunshin to watch over Wave just in case."

"Hai Kakashi-sensei!"

Sasuke readied himself as Ronan prepared his jutsu, "Katon, Goukakyuu no jutsu!" Ronan roared as a massive fireball shot out of his mouth heading towards Sasuke who had just finished his seal set. "Katon, Gouryuuka no jutsu!" and Sasuke fired a large fireball in the shape of a dragon in retaliation. Even though the jutsu was a higher ranked katon, since Ronan's grand fire ball was much larger in size and power, the jutsu's were at equal force and exploded in a massive ball of flame. Ronan narrowed his eyes though when he saw sparkling chakra flying and heard what sounded like birds chirping.

"Chidori!" Yelled Sasuke, who ran at incredible speed towards Ronan, charging straight through the fire in the process without getting burned.

Ronan snickered at the attempt, and in the last second grabbed Sasuke's wrist. Before he could act next though, Sasuke countered. "Chidori Nagashi!" Ronan was forced to release Sasuke and jump back in time as the entire area around Sasuke shot around with electricity. Sasuke took a knee and began breathing heavy in exhaustion, which Ronan commented.

"I assume that is a jutsu you have been trying to perform correctly for some time?"

Sasuke nodded, "The problem is with using it throughout my entire body, I suffer the effects of the numbness partially. I still haven't worked out how to handle that to use effectively."

"I see the issue though, judging by the name, I assume it's a variation of the other jutsu you used before?" Sasuke nodded, his curiosity perking already.

"Well, the problem is then that you are not focusing your chakra externally through your body." Sasuke raised an eyebrow in confusion at Ronan's explanation, making the older Uchiha sigh, maybe he overestimated Sasuke's intelligence after all.

"Your Chidori jutsu essentially turns your hand into a blade of electricity, when you perform the jutsu you are manipulating your chakra internally and externally unconsciously, meaning that by channelling your chakra internally, you are able to penetrate with the jutsu through many surfaces, without breaking your hand from such a high speed collision. But you still do major internal damage if you were to puncture a target due to the charge of your chakra externally. Your Chidori Nagashi however is a defence mechanism that you do not want to manipulate your chakra internally throughout your body, since it's basically as if you're electrocuting yourself. I assume your arm gets slightly numb but wears off soon once you use the chidori?"

Sasuke gritted his teeth in annoyance that somebody that saw his jutsu only once worked out its problem within a minute, and nodded his head, "...How do I focus my chakra externally?" He grunted, somehow finding this very irritating. Ronan again snickered at Sasuke's display of jealousy, and began his long explanation.

While doing so, Orochimaru gave a satisfied 'Hmmph', "As I would expect from the original captain of the ANBU. He knew the problem just by seeing the jutsu once, probably used to it by helping his subordinates with their own jutsu's." Orochimaru concluded with a smirk.

Thomas had long returned from his 'check' and was sitting on the same branch as Orochimaru and decided to voice his own opinion, "Your apprentice should learn to control his temper. It's because of that he always will fall for petty tricks by his opponents...or in his own stupidity, fall victim to being manipulated for the rest of his life." Thomas didn't react in time as the sword of Kusanagi shot past him, leaving a faint cut across his nose and cheeks, and impacted on the tree hard.

"Maybe you should learn what to say aloud and what to keep to yourself." Orochimaru hissed, while Thomas casually rubbed away the blood that was forming along the cut.

"Orochimaru, I hope you have a good reason for attacking my lieutenant." Ronan roared from below Orochimaru feigned innocence with his disturbing toothy smirk.

"I was simply giving your lieutenant a lesson in manners."

Ronan shook his head in detest at the response then turned to Thomas, "Has Araiki returned from his surveillance yet?"

Before Thomas could reply, Araiki shunshined in front of Ronan, Judging by his alleviated breathing it meant that he had rushed back here as quick as he could.

"We might have a bit of a problem."

"Hmm...destroyed trees, cracks in the ground, craters...Sakura we have talked about this." Kakashi said teasingly to the now embarrassed girl.

Jiraiya continued on as if he never heard the joke, "Kakashi, I assume you can watch your two students while I take care of the other two?" Kakashi nodded, but Naruto pouted.

"Ero-sennin, why are you abandoning me?!"

Jiraiya did not portray any emotions and responded, "Two years of you is more than enough to last a lifetime of therapy ..."

He then turned nervously to the now waiting expectedly Sakura, "You...just scare me."

Naruto had to use a kage bunshin to help him hold Sakura back this time, "SHANNARO! I WILL GIVE YOU SOMETHING TO FEAR ERO-SENNIN!"

Jiraiya took the opening Naruto had granted him and shunshined to the other side of the field, with Lee tailing behind him and Shikamaru casually walking towards them looking at the clouds. Kakashi ran a hand through his hair, "I will watch over you two and help you out with that rasengan you are working on."

Sakura eventually calmed down, "Hai Kakashi-sensei, how is your hand Naruto?" Naruto presented his unbandage and fully healed hand.

"Its fine Sakura chan, I heal fast remember?!"

Sakura nodded in acceptance, "Whenever you're ready then."

Naruto nodded and created the sphere, Sakura began pouring her chakra into it increasing the tennis balled sphere to a soft ball. Kakashi stood around a meter back with his sharingan visible and watching.

'That jutsu definitely requires a great deal of coordination, I am impressed that the jutsu actually is stable. I do however notice a problem...' Sakura then made the rasengan spin very fast and kept it at that speed.

"Kakashi-sensei we need a mud wall." Kakashi nodded, keeping his thoughts to himself for now, and ran through the seals at amazing speed. Sakura and Naruto both lost concentration though when the mud somehow went through his mask without leaving a mark, causing the rasengan to disperse.

"...Is that mask a genjutsu?" Naruto asked in deep suspicion on the navy coloured material.

"What are you talking about Naruto?" Kakashi asked scratching the back of his head, feigning ignorance with his U shaped eye.

Sakura groaned now in annoyance, 'Another mystery to refuel the 'what is behind Kakashi's mask' case.'

"Naruto focus, we can worry about that later." Naruto blinked a couple of times still in suspicion and then turned back and nodded. They recreated the rasengan, and when Sakura was satisfied with the speed, she removed her palm.

"Go for it Naruto." Naruto turned and slammed the toruko rasengan into the wall, drilling through with ease. The rasengan dispersed after 7 seconds, beating Naruto's old time. The impact damage itself was quite wide, and the damage was quite consistent until the end of the drilling.

Naruto grinned at their handiwork, "It's getting much better Sakura-chan!" Sakura shared a similar expression.

"Shall we attempt using more chakra then to get it up to the normal size?" Naruto nodded with excitement but Kakashi added in seriousness.

"You may want to be careful though, I can see with the sharingan that you're guiding Naruto's movement with the chakra. The problem with a larger rasengan is it will be much harder for Naruto to find your chakra unless you match the amount you're pouring into it with the size. You at the moment are using a large amount to help Naruto see the chakra, the problem will then be you will run out of chakra fast, very fast with a full sized one."

Sakura replied, "I understand, we will have to address that problem next, at least let us get the jutsu working with the current amount of chakra I have to use first. Just give us some more time sensei."

Kakashi nodded in understanding. Naruto started forming the sphere again, this time at close to its normal large size. Sakura then placed her palm over it and poured her chakra in as well, making it increase roughly to the size of a basket ball. The rasengan glowed violently with its more green like colour, with the light reflecting in both of their determined eyes. The sphere was spinning quite slow, Sakura and Naruto shared a glance, and then Sakura slowly began increasing its speed. Within moments the rasengan was spinning at the same speed that Naruto normally could do.

"Naruto, you're not keeping up with Sakura's chakra." Kakashi said in slight worry, Sakura quickly slowed down so Naruto could keep up, although it was noticed the green sparks of chakra shooting out of the spinning sphere.

They both released a large breath they held in when the rasengan stayed stable and settled, "That was close, good call Kakashi-sensei." Sakura said still in concentration.

'If it becomes unstable at this size, we are both going to get hurt.' She thought, now aware how dangerous this task was.

"Sorry Sakura-chan I just can't keep up when it's this size." Sakura's brows furrowed in thought.

"Do you still know which direction I am trying to push your chakra though?" Sakura wondered.

Naruto replied, "Yep, I still know the direction you're trying to push the rasengan, so you don't need to use anymore chakra than you already are using Sakura-chan. I just can't keep up." Sakura stared into the green light emitting from their rasengan. "Maybe you shouldn't change your direction entirely Sakura." Sakura looked wide eyed in confusion at Kakashi.

"I can see that when you change the flow of your chakra, you change the direction almost as if it was the opposite. With the larger rasengan, when Naruto can't keep up, it's almost as if both your chakras are colliding head on, instead of pushing. Maybe you should try changing the flow at a less opposite direction."

Sakura blinked, then after several moments nodded her head in understanding as she tried increasing the speed again. Within a few more attempts for Sakura to get the concept, they reached back to the same speed they were at previously and both turned their heads in both excitement and worry.

Kakashi gave them the thumbs up, "Very good, it's much more stable, while the chakra is still colliding, it is not exactly like a head on collision, more like sliding. Although..." as Kakashi said that a loose spark flew out from the rasengan causing both teens to widen their eyes, "As you can see it's still unstable after a period of time." Kakashi said. Sakura dropped the speed before anything else unexpectedly happened.

Naruto couldn't hold back the large smile draw across his face.

"We are really getting somewhere Naru-" Sakura suddenly stopped her praise when she felt very dizzy and swayed a bit. Naruto immediately dispelled the jutsu and looked at Sakura in concern resting his hands on her shoulders to keep her from swaying.

She wasn't anywhere near the point of fainting, but she did look quite exhausted and was lightly breathing in and out of her mouth.

"I see...what you mean Kakas..Kakashi-sensei, that really does use a lot... of chakra." Sakura said in between breaths then turned to Naruto and smiled.

"Sorry Naruto, I cannot keep up with the chakra requirements for rasengan. Even though I am only using a fraction of the amount your using, it practically drains me when it's that size."

She then glared at him, "I am ok baka! So wipe that pathetic look off your face!" Naruto scratched the back of his head and smiled while dropping his hands.

"Sorry Sakura-chan, but Kakashi-sensei is right, we need to work on your chakra requirement...I can tell Sakura-chan that at the moment you are using over half the amount of chakra in the rasengan...and the result is very dangerous for you." he voiced with concern.

Sakura took a deep breath and then grinned, "Next time, we will see just how little chakra I need to use for you to be aware of its presence. If we can at least half the amount in that size rasengan, I should be able create maybe four or five before I am down to around enough in reserves for healing only."

Sakura then had a brainwave, "Were you ever aware of your chakra presence in the rasengan Naruto?"

Naruto nodded, "I had to concentrate my chakra into the centre of my palm during the second test for rasengan" he explained.

Sakura's eyes narrowed in thought, 'Maybe...'

Sakura then looked up to Naruto, "You should try oodama rasengan again with the knowledge you have Naruto."

Naruto's eyes widened, then he grinned, "If I concentrate on the chakra source between me and the kage bunshin I should be able to keep it stable for longer!"

Sakura nodded in approval, "That is what I am thinking."

"...Oodama rasengan?" Kakashi asked lowering his forehead protector over his sharingan.

"Didn't Ero-sennin tell you anything about my training Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto asked in surprise.

Kakashi shook his head, "All I heard from him was his crying about being called Ero-sennin by Sakura." Sakura rolled her eyes while muttering something about 'he deserves the name'.

Sakura decided to fill Kakashi in on Naruto's training to control the Kyuubi's chakra better, and how he created oodama rasengan.

"I see...this is something I must witness."

"Please take several steps back Kakashi-sensei, Sakura-chan." Naruto said while he concentrated and appeared deep in thought. He reopened his eyes to reveal red slits, and then formed his signature seal with his two clawed fingers. "Kage bunshin no jutsu!" He said in his semi demonic voice, and a doppelganger 'poofed' into existence.

They then took their familiar standing side by side stance in front of the partly damaged wall and placed their palms out in front next to each other and started pouring as much chakra as both Naruto and the clone could into the rasengan. It had reached its full growth, and Naruto closed his eyes in concentration. He opened them soon after and huffed.

"Something wrong Naruto?" Sakura asked as she approached the real Naruto's side. Naruto furrowed his brows over his crimson slits.

"Something seems wrong Sakura-chan, I cannot feel the clones presence." Naruto dispelled the large ball, emitting a shockwave that blew his streamer like forehead protector ends back, along with Sakura's hair before settling.

"The problem is the clone's chakra signature and yours are the same, meaning it's like you're looking in a mirror, seeing only yourself." Naruto rubbed his forehead at Kakashi's explanation.

"I really don't understand then, how am I able to do rasengan's normally with my kage bunshin's, but still have issues with this?" he asked in frustration.

Sakura averted her gaze, 'Of course...how did I miss that?' she then looked back up.

"Maybe it is similar to how we originally started off with toruko rasengan Naruto." Naruto blinked, returning to his blue orbs showing his confusion.

Sakura continued, "While controlling another chakra source is hard, using your own is much easier and is done without much thought...Like how we only could control a slower spinning rasengan at the start, your limit was the size of the rasengan you could achieve now."

Naruto nodded in understanding. "But why is it I cannot use oodama rasengan so efficiently then?" he asked in hope Sakura knew an answer.

Sakura narrowed her brows in deep thought, "It could be similar then to what we discovered now, the more chakra you use, the harder it is to keep stable. This is the reason why you require a clone isn't it?" Naruto nodded.

Sakura's eyebrow rose, "Oodama rasengan doesn't rotate as rapidly as your normal ones, does it?"

Naruto nodded again, "Yeah, it's because I have to try and rotate the sphere with me and the clone's palm." Naruto responded.

Sakura rose an eyebrow with an idea, "Have you ever tried using a second kage bunshin to try stabilising the sphere? "

Naruto nodded and nervously chuckled, "Let's just say, that once the clone dispersed, since the rasengan no longer had the extra hand...it kind of backfired fully...on me."

Sakura gasped and widened her eyes in partial shock. "Ok...that is a bad idea then." She said conclusively with Naruto nodding his head frantically in agreement.

Sakura reached into her weapons pouch and pulled out her bottle and drank a couple of mouth full's before another idea hit her.

"Create a rasengan in your palm." Sakura instructed after her drink, quickly adding before Naruto could create a kage bunshin "By yourself."

Naruto blinked in puzzlement, while Kakashi decided to speak what he had taken from her suggestion.

"The only way I really see you completing the jutsu Naruto, is to improve your ability with creating a rasengan on your own. Since this oodama rasengan is done with your palm, it would mean you would have to learn to create an effective rasengan in your hand to improve its damage and stability."

Naruto finally gave a convincing grin, "Ok, I understand." Naruto was about to start, until he felt Sakura's hand rest on his shoulder.

"Just a second. Before you attempt to just start off right away with an ordinary sized one, and result in it dispersing in your face, I suggest you start off small and work your way up Naruto." Sakura instructed neutrally as she dropped her hand. Naruto couldn't help but chuckle at Sakura reading his mind and stopping him from doing something stupid.

"Got it, good idea Sakura-chan."

He then formed a rasengan in his palm, it was the size him and Sakura first started with.

His eyes narrowed though when it dispersed, "Slow down the speed Naruto...it's not a race."

Sakura said through a small grin, 'He always wants to push himself too far at the start.' She mused somehow in pride for Naruto's methods of training. Naruto nodded and tried again, this time at a slightly slower speed. He groaned while muttering 'This is hard' then turned and slammed it into the wall, only to be greeted by the familiar spiral crater of when the rasengan wasn't stable enough.

Naruto cringed and tried several more times, until he now had a much slower rasengan in his palm, but was able to deliver a satisfactory result. Somehow Naruto felt disappointed as he looked at his limit, "You sometimes have to crawl before you can walk Naruto." Sakura said calmly.

Naruto pouted, still feeling like he let himself and everybody down while looking at the miniscule crater. He didn't speak, but his disappointed expression made all his feelings clear to his teammate.

Sakura sighed and decided to share her own little story, "When I first was learning how to use my chakra enhanced attacks-" Naruto raised his head in interest. "-Tsunade-sama demonstrated to me the power of the attack...by flicking her finger at a large boulder, shattering the thing like it was glass."

Naruto winced in memory to when said Hokage had flicked him across a street but nodded, "You want to know what my limit was at the start?" She said neutrally. Naruto waited in interest, as Sakura approached the mud wall and punched the wall hard, but Naruto gasped when all he saw was a small crack trace where her knuckles had collided. "That." She said flatly and turned back to see his stunned face.

"Of course I wasn't satisfied with that, and as you know, the more powerful an attack, the more chakra usually is required, so guess what I did?" she said with a knowing smile. Naruto gasped in shock.

"You didn't..."

Sakura nodded with a widened smile, "I used more chakra into my punch when Tsunade-sama told me that it is much harder to control and guess what happened?" she said again rhetorically while she looked down at her hand, as if remembering the result.

Sakura sighed, and voiced the result, "I broke every bone in my entire arm." Naruto gasped and Sakura looked away in partial embarrassment.

"Tsunade-sama...wasn't very happy with me when she healed it." Sakura muttered.

She then turned her head back to Naruto, "But I built up over time with my training, and while I am still nowhere near the point of even flicking my finger at a rock and destroying it...I did get this far." Sakura said with a large smirk as she span around and in a blur, smashed her fist again into the wall, causing a violent explosion as the wall shattered away to nothing but rubble of dust.

Naruto gasped again loudly in shock, and Sakura turned with a smile, "That was my result from two years of training Naruto."

She then added after a pause, "Consider your current palm rasengan as the starting point like my dent in the wall was...and your oodama rasengan as that-" She pointed at the rubble. "-With the result of training." She finished conclusively.

Kakashi couldn't resist the applause with his clapping and his genuine U-shaped eye smile, "You would make a great teacher you know Sakura." Kakashi said proudly to his now blushing student who muttered 'thank you sensei'. Naruto's eyes were frozen in realisation and understanding, until they narrowed and his mouth formed a teeth revealing wide smile.

"Yosha! I will start from the beginning and master the rasengan without the use of kage bunshin's. I will not stop until I can keep the oodama rasengan stable enough for it to be the awesome jutsu it will finally be!" He beamed loudly while raising his fist in the air as if addressing a crowd...even though it was only just two people.

Naruto lowered his clenched fist and reduced his smile to a grin, Sakura decided to add to his statement, "The toruko rasengan is the building block to helping you with your control Naruto, since you have to concentrate heavily with your chakra to coordinate with mine...both trainings will complement each other."

Naruto nodded furiously, "Yosha, the toruko rasengan is the key...if you don't mind helping me...Sakura-sensei." Naruto said with a beam and light tease. Sakura laughed with a minor blush on her face.

"Of course I will help, but if you ever call me that again, you are on your own baka!"

"So, they have reinforcements do they?" Ronan asked, more in amusement than expected frustration.

"Hai, Jiraiya has returned to the jinkuriki, and it seems Konoha sent Hatake Kakashi." Araiki reported. Sasuke didn't show any interest at the mention of his old teacher's name, and was more interested in his practice of using chidori nagashi.

"The return of the sage is going to be a problem, as for Hatake, he is nothing without his 'gift'. He will never be able to stand up against a true Uchiha."

"That is not the real problem though." Araiki said, with a hint of fear in his voice.

Ronan raised his eyebrow, "I am listening." He said in a demanding tone, almost like a father waiting for their guilty son to confess.

Araiki didn't budge, "Hatake has summoned nin-dogs to track us down, while I was nowhere near their area, they seem to be moving towards my general direction, which means..." Ronan formed a scowl.

"You forgot your mask back at the bridge didn't you!?" Ronan whispered in his silent fury, which Araiki didn't respond to.

"You are lucky we are old teammates Araiki...or I would personally kill you right now." Ronan said staring straight into the byakugan users eyes with his own sharingan eyes.

Ronan dropped his hard glare, "No matter"

Araiki lost balance at that, "W-What!? They will discover our base camp if we do no-"

"I do not have a problem with them coming to us, do you Orochimaru my humble guest?" Ronan said sarcastically looking up at the very widely smiling face of the snake man.

"Kukuku, so it appears I get to have another bash at Jiraiya, and this time he will have little Naruto-kun with him. I wonder how well he will hold out against Sasuke-kun now, hmm."

Ronan narrowed his eyes to a glare, "Sasuke will help...but you will do no such thing, like I told you before you are the last person I would ever trust to have fighting with me." Orochimaru's smirk widened at Ronan's order.

"So cruel...yet so clever, fine by me."

Ronan looked back in interest at Sasuke's reaction to that comment and when he found Sasuke not seem to care, he asked, "Tell me, this time without lying. What is the jinkuriki to you?"

Sasuke glared hard at Ronan, "...Uzumaki Naruto was part of my team when I used to be in Konoha, along with Haruno Sakura and Hatake Kakashi. I severed my bonds to him and the others before I left Konoha around two years ago."

"Sasuke-kun, you seemed to forget to mention that Naruto-kun was your dearest friend, and he is still after you to bring you back, regardless of how 'severed' those bonds are." Orochimaru said in amusement joining the group on the ground.

'Hn' was Sasuke's only response, although the traces of anger were present within the otherwise stale word.

Ronan's eyes flickered at the news, "Well now...that is something very interesting indeed."

"Alright, I want to know...how the hell did Tsunade promote a lazy bum like yourself to chuunin? And even considers you a Jounin on some levels? I think Tsunade needs to cut back on the sake if that's what she sees in you." Jiraiya said in frustration with his left eye twitching as he glared daggers into the day dreaming Shikamaru. Shikamaru didn't seem to care at all, although the word 'troublesome' was heard coming from his direction.

"Shikamaru-kun may not look it Jiraiya-sama, but he is an excellent strategist, and focuses strongly on the mission when he is needed the most." Lee defended the shadow user, clipping his spear back onto his belt.

Jiraiya sighed, "You Lee, are far too loyal to your comrades for your own good, are you trying to tell me you approve of that?!" Jiraiya pointed his finger over his shoulder at Shikamaru, who very coincidently decided to yawn and stretch. If anything it's almost like Shikamaru was HELPING Jiraiya prove his point.

Lee smirked proudly, "We all have our things that we do in our own time Jiraiya-sama. I for example train, Sakura-san enjoys reading her medical books, and Naruto-kun loves playing pranks. You, yourself like writing those perverted novels that Kakashi-sensei reads in his spare time." Jiraiya literally fell over at what Lee said.

"W-Who told you about that?" Jiraiya staggered out, trying as best as he could to ignore Shikamaru's burst of laughter.

"Why, Sakura-san told me of course." Lee stated innocently with a shrug.

'That girl is going to destroy my fame!' Jiraiya cried internally.

"Moving on, do you at least agree with me that he should at least do some training?"

Lee nodded, which made Jiraiya's eye twitch, "...You know all of this could have been avoided if you just said 'yes Shikamaru-kun should do some training'?!" Jiraiya was about to continue his scolding until a very familiar voice shouted in the distance.

"Hiden taijutsu ougi!"

Shikamaru was up like a lightning bolt and had his shadow stretch out covering all angles within a five meter radius. Shikamaru's pupils had dilated completely covering his eyes, and his shadow then began sweeping the area for where the noise came from.

Jiraiya went agape, and then turned his head in question as to what caused Shikamaru to practically go into a type of absolute defence mode. He saw Naruto had attempted some strange jutsu he didn't recognise on Kakashi, but Kakashi dodged in time like his life depended on it.

"That was very dangerous." Kakashi muttered, while pointing an accusing finger at the disappointed blond.

"Naruto, I thought this was a training spar, why use 'that' jutsu on a comrade?!" Kakashi near shouted in offense.

"You didn't think of that when you did that to me, it's time for revenge!" Naruto answered as they continued their spar.

Jiraiya didn't understand at all what had happened, but when he turned back Shikamaru was sighing in relief and back to watching the clouds.

"Oh I give up. Lee, let's see what you can do against one of the legendary sannin!"

"Hai, Jiraiya-sama. Let's battle in the beginning and end of our youth's!" Jiraiya was about to grin, until he just realised what Lee just implied with that line and growled out in response.

"WHAT THE HELL IS WITH YOU KIDS?! I AM NOT THAT OLD!"