The Message! Bitter/Sweet Rivals!

Hiruzen sat at his desk, signing papers like always. At first glance one would think that he was carefully reading the papers before he signed them. His pace was slower than usual, and there was so much paper that he had a couple of large stacks on the floor. In reality, his mind was on everything except the papers.

The old man was anxious. His student was out with Naruto for two weeks and he hadn't heard anything from him yet. He didn't doubt the power of the Sannin, he just knew that the man wasn't invincible. Even with all of Jiraiya's power he would be helpless if he were to take on numerous S ranked shinobi while also protecting Naruto.

He was also curious of the progress the boy was making. Everyone knew that the sage was a great teacher, he was not only trained by a Hokage but he taught one as well. He knew Naruto was stubborn but the old man had a thing for bringing the best out of people.

He was also worried that the boy may miss his fight. Although he admitted that Neji was leagues ahead of Naruto in just about everything, he was certain that Naruto would find a way to win. Naruto had that effect on him, he could never doubt him in the most dire situations.

Hiruzen sighed as he rubbed his temples. He swore that he could feel wrinkles forming on his face. He assured himself that he would retire after these exams and find him a replacement for the position. He could see the leader of the Nara clan taking his position or even Kakashi, but they both were too lazy for the job. Jiraiya would flat out deny him and those were his only three candidates. Regardless, someone else was going to wear this hat.

Hiruzen slightly raised his eyebrows as he heard a poof on his desk. He noticed a red toad with blue markings above either eye and on the top of his head. He also had a pair of green goggles hanging around his short neck.

"Yo! How are you doing, Hokage?" the toad asked in a cheerful tone.

"I'm fine Kosuke," he said, with a forced smile. "I'm hoping you bring good news from Jiraiya?"

"Yep!" the toad said aloud with pride. "He told me to tell you that everything's OK on his end. Him and Naruto met some people and are traveling together with them. They're on a journey that will be used as a learning experience for the tadpole. The kid even has a rival. He says the rival could probably become a Chunin with little effort."

Hiruzen nodded.. "Has he been continuing to train Naruto?"

The toad rubbed his chin in thought as he began to speak. "Hmm, when he summoned me he was riding in some type of machine with an old man and a hot chick." Hiruzen's face turned red at the mention of the girl. "She'd really hot, I mean like a fire jutsu wouldn't compare and-"

"Where was Naruto?" Hiruzen asked to change the subject.

"Well I'm not sure which one is Naruto, but he had a black haired boy and a blonde boy chasing them. The both had weighted seals on their head, so they're obviously training."

Hiruzen tapped a finger on the desk. "And has he encountered Kurenai?" Hiruzen asked to change the subject.

The toad snapped his fingers like he had an epiphany. "Ah, the kunai lady! Yeah, he said to tell you that she should be here any day now. She is also bringing two new people, one prisoner, one potential genin. He said that she will brief you on all of the details of their mission."

Hiruzen continued to stare at the toad as he thought. "Is there anything else?" he asked with a hint of hope in his eye.

The toad began to rub his chin again. "Nope, I think that's it." Hiruzen's eyes drooped as he heard this.
"No, wait! He also said that this new book of his will be better than all the others combined!" At the mention of the book, the old mans eyebrow twitched. He forced himself to not smile as he nodded at the toad, which dispersed with a wave.

Hiruzen finally allowed a smirk to cross his face. He was happy that everything was going well, and even more happy that everyone successfully made it back safe. He could finally release a sigh of relief.

His smile widened even more as he thought. "I can't wait to read this new book!" he said to himself much louder than he anticipated as he continued to read through a paper.

XxxoxxX

Jiraiya was laid in the hot tub sipping on sake. This vehicle was amazing! It had an inside bar, a jacuzzi, and even a pole for women to do Kami knows what on it! He tried to coax Bulma into joining him in his tub, but she declined rather harshly.

Bulma made herself the designated driver. She was extremely annoyed by the two old geezers, their attempts to get with her were terrible. She wished that the two boys were on the inside with her.

Bulma kept her eyes on the thermometer and realized that the temperature was increasing rapidly. "Whoa! It's 115 degrees out there!" she exclaimed.

"Oh really?" the old turtle hermit said as he jumped beside the girl. "Then maybe you should take your shirt off, then you'll cool do-argh!" Bulma smashed on the breaks, causing the old man to fly face first into the windshield. A trail of blood was left smeared on the glass as he slowly slid to the ground.

Bulma opened the door and ran outside. "Goku! Naruto! You can ride on the inside now!" she yelled back. Bulma heard a laugh and soon saw two trails of sand running into her direction. The first one reached her, and a couple seconds later a tired Naruto did the same.

Goku giggled as Naruto fell to the ground. "What... are... you...?" Naruto asked the boy. Goku simply stared at Naruto over his head.

"Get up, Naruto! I've been running all day, I'm hungry!" he said.

Naruto's stomach growled as well. He struggled to his feet. It was amazing how much stamina his new friend possessed. At first Goku struggled a little, but after a few hours, he was moving like nothing was holding him back. Naruto still struggled a bit to move. He wasn't going to show it in front of Goku, however.

"Come on! This baby even cooks for you!" Bulma said happily.

Both boys faces lit up. "Really!" they yelled. Before Bulma could respond, she felt a burst of wind blow past her. She turned around and saw that both boys were already inside, sitting at the table.

Bulma shook her head and couldn't help but to smile. She pressed a button on the monitor. A loud beeping could be heard, and then a mechanical voice. "What will you like to eat today?" it said.

"Fish!"

"Ramen!"

"Bulma!"

Everyone's eye twitched at the response of the old turtle hermit. Bulma's face turned a dangerous red as she quickly approached him and began pummeling the old perv while shouting obscenities. Naruto and Goku laughed at the sight, while Jiraiya grimaced. This reminded him a lot of his old teammate. The ferocity in each strike was tremendous.

After five minutes of an old man getting beat bloody by a teen, they heard a beep. "Your meals are done," the voice said. The table opened up and out rose a feast that caused everyone's mouth to water. There in front of them was a full buffet. There was many flavors of ramen, as well as types of fish. Stewed fish, baked fish, fried fish, the list went on!

Before anyone could let out a single word, both boys were stuffing their faces with food. Bulma stared at the two disgusted as they wolfed it down. It didn't seem like they were chewing in the slightest.

Goku looked up at Bulma. "Wanna bite?" he asked in between biting a chunk out of a large grilled salmon. He held the fish towards her and she almost barfed at the dead look in its eyes.

"Uhhh... no thanks," she said slowly. Goku shrugged his shoulders and stuffed the entire fish into his mouth. When he pulled the tail back out, all that was left was bone.

Jiraiya smirked at seeing the two boys eat. The boys needed all the energy after the intense training they did. He walked towards the boys and sat at the table.

"How was the training?" he asked with a smirk.

"It was awesome!" Goku yelled without stopping his onslaught of eating.

"It was torture!" Naruto yelled. "It's one hundred freakin' degrees out there!"

Jiraiya nodded. "Being a shinobi means that you'll be exposed to many different elements. The heat, the cold, the rain, it doesn't matter to the other shinobi."

Naruto grimaced as he thought about what the man said. "Well, what about all of that running?" he asked. He wasn't going to let the old pervert win tis argument.

"Well," Jiraiya said as he grabbed a bowl of ramen, "as shinobi, it's not uncommon for us to run long distances. Maybe your mission is to deliver a package in a certain time, maybe you must run from a shinobi that is over powering you, who knows. It's things like this that we shinobi must deal with."

Naruto glared at the old man. He crossed his arms over his chest. "Well, I won't have that problem. No ninja will ever make me run away."

Jiraiya smirked at the kid. "Yeah, but a girl may."

Naruto began blushing as Bulma began laughing at the two. He jumped on the table, knocking some plates onto the floor. "I will never run from a girl! Only wimps like you would!"

"Blah blah!" Jiraiya said as he continued to slurp his ramen. "Why don't you and Goku go and wash youselves. You're stinking up the whole van!"

"OK!" Goku yelled as he finished chewing the last fish. He quickly dropped his clothes on the spot and toook off towards the bathroom. "Are you coming Naruto?" he asked as he reached for the door.

Naruto blushed and turned away. "As if!" he said defiantely.

"OK!" Bulma said as she finally stood up. "It's time to continue this trip!"

Naruto watched Bulma walk towards the driver's seat. He admired the sway of her hips and couldn't take his eyes off of her. He had to admit that she was by far the prettiest girl that he'd ever seen.

"Pick your mouth up Gaki." Naruto flinched and looked towards a smiling Jiraiya.

"Wha? I wasn't-"

"Save it," Jiraiya said with a smirk. "I remember my first love too."

Naruto rose to his feet and stormed away from the table as he heard the vehicle engine start up. He had to get away before he became just like his sensei.

A pervy genin.

XxxoxxX

Sasuke was running for his life. He dodged jutsu after jutsu, but they just continued to fly at a rapid pace.

His sharingan was blazing wildly to aid him in his escape. When he felt his attacker take a slight pause in his jutsu, he decided to do his own.

"Fire style! Phoenix fire jutsu!" Sasuke felt a rapid flurry of fire at the oncoming shinobi. As he saw the fire consume the man, he swiftly turned around to block the oncoming kunai.

In a flash, he was caught in a heated battle of taijutsu. He threw more attacks, but landed much less than he expected. He feinted with a right hook, but pulled back and sent a left kick, which was blocked by his attacker.

He threw a series of punches, each aimed towards a different target, yet he couldn't land a single punch.

He then saw a punch coming out of the corner of his eye. He could see it as if it were in slow motion. He leaned back to avoid it, but was knocked onto the ground with a ton of force. He flipped back onto his feet and reared back a punch, but was shocked as he felt a punch meet his with more force.

Sasuke pulled back his fist and threw kunai at the shinobi, whom dodged the with ease. He quickly went through seals again. He glared as he saw his opponent doing the exact same seals in front of him.

"Fire style! Fire ball jutsu!" they both yelled. Two equally large balls of fire met and caused a loud explosion. Sasuke looked around for his opponent and ducked as he felt a kick coming in his direction. Kicked backwards towards his attacker, but it was blocked with ease.

Sasuke growled. He refused to lose! He released a battle cry as he swung with everything that he had. He smiled as he saw his fist going to connect with the mans cocky smile, but growled as the man ducked. Sasuke released a groan as he felt a swift punch to his stomach. He sank to the ground and gripped his stomach. He opened his eye and felt a kunai pressed to his neck.

"You're dead," he heard the lazy voice say. The figure then dissapeared in a puff of smoke, as another appeared beside him reading an orange book.

Sasuke growled as he sat up. "I can see the attacks coming!" he said with a growl. "My damn body just won't react in time!"

"Then get better," Kakashi said without lifting his face. "train your body to move at greater speeds. It's pointless to see an attack if you can't dodge it."

Sasuke grit his teeth as he stared at the man. He didn't need him to point out every flaw he made, he knew that he wasn't perfect!

"Oh, and by the way," Kakashi said while still reading, "I heard that Naruto is doing pretty good." Sasuke tensed up at the mention of his teammate. "He took on a B ranked shinobi and actually won."

Sasuke grit his teeth. Naruto was actually progressing, and maybe faster than him! It must be the training from the Sannin that did it, he was sure of it.

Sasuke forced himself to his feet. He got into his fighting stance. If there was one thing that he would prevent at any cost, it was letting that idiot be stronger than him.

"Again!" he yelled as he charged at his sighing sensei.

"Perfect," Kakashi said with a small smirk as he got on the defensive.

XxxoxxX

"Is... is that fire?" Bulma asked. The group was looking towards a mountain that seemed to be covered in... well, fire.

"So it seems," Master Roshi said. "I wonder what caused it."

"Maybe there was a great battle here," Naruto piped in. "Maybe it's still going on!" he yelled excitedly.

"I doubt it," Jiraiya said as he stared straight ahead. "I don't sense anything unusual happening."

As the group got closer to the mountain they could really see the magnitude of the flames. The fire consumed an entire mountain!

"I hope that student of mine is alright..." Roshi said in a grim tone.

Jiraiya pat the old man on the back. "You know that a little fire won't hurt him. He could probably take me on, on a bad day of course."

"Well, we can stop right here, because I'm not getting the RV close enough to fry the tires!" Bulma said as she came to a halt.

As the doors opened, the two boy rushed out.

"Bet ya I'll beat you to the Dragin ball! Naruto yelled as he took off in a sprint.

"You're on!" Goku yelled back as he took off behind him.

"Wait guys! You forgot your sunscreen!" Bulma yelled to deaf ears. She sighed as she saw the boys didn't slow down one bit. "Well, do you guys need any-"

Bulma turned towards the old men and saw both of them laying with their shirts off. "Yes!" they said in unison.

Bulma shuddered as she looked at the old men. "Goku! Naruto! Wait up!" she yelled as she took off behind the boys.

XxxoxxX

"What are we going to do, Yamcha?" the small blue feline, Puar, asked his friend.

"We wait," Yamcha said. He smirked as he saw Goku and Naruto leaving the stopped vehicle. "We just have to get the girl all alone."

"Do you know the old men?" Puar asked with curiousity.

Yamcha nodded. The bald one is Master Roshi. He may be the most powerful man in the world, possibly. HE is the creator of the Kamehameha wave, one of the most deadly tchniques in the world. The other is Jiraiya, Sannin of the Leaf Village. He's the student of Master Roshi and the current Hokage, as well as the teacher of the late Fourth Hokage."

Puar started sweating. "So... you can't win?" he asked with his high voice.

Yamcha shook his head. "No, but I know their weakness." A smile spread on his face. "All it's gonna take is a little help from you Puar."

Puar looked confused at the bandit. "What are you talking about?" he asked. Yamcha slid towards his partner and whispered in his ear.

"Ahh!" Puar said with a smile. "Just give me a minute!"

XxxoxxX

And that wraps that up. Not much action, but hey at least its something.

XxxoxxX

Goku: 8 (with weights)

Naruto: 4(with weights)

Bulma: 3

Yamcha: 9

Roshi: 95

Jiraiya: 84

Sasuke: 11

Sasuke (with Sharingan): 14

Kakashi: 54