Chapter 41
Tsunade
"the mission is, to heal Ranmaru and allow him to walk freely again"
The room was enveloped by silence. Those who knew Naruto well enough were shocked at how formal he was, and those who didn't know him that well were watching Ao and waiting for his answer.
Raiga stepped forward "Ranmaru hasn't been able to walk since before I've met him. What makes you think there is a doctor who will give him that freedom back, in a small town like this no less."
"Tsunade Senju" Haku spoke up from his position on the couch. "a few hours go, on his little town bankruptcy raid, Naruto came across arguably the best medical ninja in the whole continent. If there is a chance of Ranmaru being healed, this is it."
"that's impossible, Tsunade Senju hasn't been seen in over 16 years. Not even the Leaf has been able to find her. The mission has been completed, I'm not taking any unnecessary detours." Ao stated, missing the slight hope fading from Raiga's eyes, "Request De-"
"approved" everyone's head snapped to look at Mangetsu. "I trust Naruto. If he says Tsunade is in this town then she is." The Hozuki smiled at Naruto "besides, it's better to have tried and failed than to not try and missing out on any chance of succeeding."
Ao bowed his head "very well."
"We will search for her tomorrow, everyone get a good night's rest"
Xxx
The group of 8 standing outside the inn drew the attention of many on during their morning activities. Most of the attention were due to either their attire or their large variety of hair colour.
"Ranmaru, can you search this town for a large source of chakra? Make sure to closely sense each source since as a medical ninja, Tsunade is very skilled at hiding hers."
"I understand, do you have a picture of her?" Ranmaru asked.
"why do you need that?" Mangetsu asked.
"Ranmaru's sensory technique is different to other ninja. He doesn't exactly "sense" their chakra, more like he projects his mind and actually sees them himself. If he is searching or a specific person then having a reference is the best way."
"I see" Haku muttered "so it's like how a civilian would search for someone they know, but on a much faster speed because he doesn't have the same physical restrictions. Well we don't have a picture, but we have something better."
"We do?" Naruto asked blankly.
Fu slapped him on his head "your transformation you idiot"
"oh! Then why didn't you just say so!" Naruto placed his hands together "transformation" he said and in a puff of smoke, Naruto disappeared and a blond lady with twin tails, green jacket and a huge bust appeared.
"that's Tsunade alright" Mangetsu nodded. "you got that Ranmaru?"
Ranmaru nodded and closed his eyes.
"why did you ask Ranmaru to do it?" Raiga asked "I'm sure you or Ao would have had it easier?"
"My sensory range, though it may be high and accurate, is near impossible to find a suppressed chakra in a town with so many civilians. Since Ranmaru was able to sense my supressed chakra back at Katabami while Ao couldn't, I'm assuming that he has a sensory range that is higher than Ao. Besides, this is good practice for him" Mangetsu winked.
"found her. She's with another lady with black hair and… a pig?" Ranmaru paused for a second before his faced turned to one of shock "and I think she sensed me sensing her! She is heading in the opposite direction of us" Ranmaru pointed to the west gate of the city "in that direction"
Naruto cursed and dispelled his transformation "let's go!" he shouted and rushed in the direction Ranmaru was pointing.
The older shinobi looked at each other before following Naruto. In that direction was the woods they came from. If a fight broke out, Tsunade would have the most advantages in that area.
Xxx
"there's no way he could be her kid. There would be no way the Old Man would allow their kid to be running loose like this." Tsunade scowled as she thought to herself. Ever since their meeting the night before, the image of a little blond kid plagued her mind. His voice overlapping with two others. Suddenly, she felt a wave of chakra wash over her. It was a small wave, almost undetectable, but Tsunade didn't survive the third shinobi war and come out as one of the Sanin without being unable to detect a sensory technique. "Shizune. We're leaving" the blond said. There was no room for argument and the black-haired woman knew it. It wasn't a request, it was simply a statement, like the sky was blue. It was a tone that Shizune hasn't heard in many years.
"yes, Lady Tsunade"
Xxx
Tsunade growled. They left the inn as soon as they could, but just as they began to move, Tsunade knew they were going to be followed. "he's persistent" she muttered and picked up her pace. Even then, it seemed that her pursuers were not going to let her go so easily.
Several minutes later, they caught up.
Xxxxx
"be on your guard. Tsunade is a formidable ninja and has no reason not to attack us. Other than that, she has a reputable temper comparable to that of the Raikage. One wrong move and you will be nothing but a stain on the forest floor." Ao stated as they approached the location of the Sanin.
When they got within 100 meters of her, she stopped. Being ninja, this allowed them to easily surround her within a second.
"don't bother hiding" she said "I've known you were following me since you sensed me"
Raiga was the first to step out from his hiding place "now isn't that interesting. I believe I said something similar when you guys came to talk to me"
One by one, the other ninja revealed themselves from their hiding places with the exception of Naruto and Mangetsu who made a little show of crawling around the trees and over rocks in their liquid forms before reforming themselves next to the group.
Tsunade raised an eyebrow at the performance "Two Hozuki? I haven't seen any of them in a while. I didn't know you were one, Naruto."
"that settles it. There is no way he is their kid. Neither of those two were Hozuki." She thought to herself "yet something doesn't feel right"
Naruto stepped forward "Lady Tsunade. I have come to ask of you to heal one of my friends…" Raiga knelt down and slowly set the bag on his back on the floor of the forest and unzipped his bag fully to reveal a boy inside "his name is Ranmaru."
Raiga reached into the bag and helped Ranmaru out. "he has been weak since before I met him 5 years ago. You are the best medic in all of the elemental nations. Please, give him his strength back" Raiga bowed, still holding Ramaru's hand in his own.
"Raiga Kurosuki, the Thunder of the Hidden Mist. Tell me, why should I help you when I haven't even helped my own village in the last 16 odd years?"
"I know that I may have performed many inhumane and unforgivable acts during my career, but that had nothing to do with Ranmaru. Ranmaru is innocent, so don't do it for a killer like me, but do it for an innocent boy who does not deserve to be confined and restricted his whole life."
"Please Lady Tsunade, name your price" Naruto spoke up.
"you will answer all my questions along with a sizable payment" Tsunade said.
"I will answer all your questions as long as it does not include confidential information and provide the payment" Naruto negotiated.
"where will you get the money" was the thought of everyone there.
Tsunade once again looked at Naruto before sighing "Fine. I will take a look at him, but I can't guarantee that I will be able to restore him to full health. The longer the illness the harder it is to treat." She said before turning back the way they came "I'm not doing something as important as this in anything less than a hospital, even if it is a civilian one." Was her only explanation.
Xxxx
Hours later, Tsunade came out a private room in the hospital of Tanzaku town "Raiga, have you ever tried to ask any other doctor to treat him?" she asked as she wiped off some of her sweat.
"I left Mist the same day I met Ranmaru and I've been on the run ever since. I've only been able to get civilians to look at him and they all said it's a new type of illness that they've never seen before and none of their treatments worked." Raiga answered "what did you find?"
"no wonder he's still sick" Tsunade muttered "it's just a case of minor bloodline poisoning. It's rare and only occurs in shinobi. For whatever reason, the chakra mutates the blood and the blood becomes poisonous to the person. Ranmaru is lucky he doesn't use his chakra often so the poisoning is much easier to treat. Or else, like most of the Kaguya, he would have fallen beyond even my expertise. For now I've extracted all the poisonous blood from him. All that is left to do is training his underdeveloped and deteriorated muscles from being unused for so long."
Raiga dropped his head, partly in shame and partly to hide his look of relief.
"now as for my payment," Tsunade grinned evilly "Shizune, how much money do I owe?"
"You can't be serious Lady Tsunade! Charging them over 70 million Ryo for a procedure like that! And to a child no less!" Shizune protested.
"oh of course not Shizune. I'm not that heartless. I'll only charge them 1/10 of it" the legendary sucker replied smugly. "of course, if you can't pay the price of 7 million Ryo, you can always come with me and slowly work it off. It's not that bad once you get used to it, just ask Shizune!"
Naruto stood up "sorry Lady Tsunade, I'll have to reject your generous offer, as tempting as it seems," the blond slowly reached into his pocket and pulled out a large scroll and unravelled it, "a deal is a deal."
Everyone watched as Naruto bit his thumb and swiped it across seven of the eight seals located on the scroll. In a poof of smoke, the scroll was covered and its contents hidden. When the smoke cleared, it was reveal that inside the seals in the large scroll… was another scroll!
Xxxxx
*inside a random room in the Leaf academy*
A certain gravity defying grey haired masked man sneezed, drawing the attention of all the Jonin in the room. "I feel like I've been ripped off" he muttered to himself.
"KAKASHI MY ETERNAL RIVAL! HAVE YOUR FLAMES OF YOUTH BEEN COOLED DOWN TO SUCH AN EXTENT THAT YOU HAVE BEEN OVERCOME BY A MERE COLD? THEN I, THE BEAUTIFUL GREEN BEAST OF THE LEAF, SHALL CHALLENGE YOU TO A HOT PEPPER EATING CHALLENGE TO REIGNITE YOUR FLAMES OF YOUUUTHHH!"
"are they always like that?" the Sand Jonin asked out loud.
"yes" came the unanimous response of all the Leaf ninja in the room (and the hidden ANBU agents).
Xxxx
*back in the hospital of Tanzaku town*
Resisting the urge to shout "copyrighted! Don't sue me!" at the top of his lungs, Naruto reached down and picked up the seven scrolls "Seven million ryo, as requested." He said with a bow.
Everyone stared at him in shock.
"where did you get that kind of money Naruto?" Fu asked.
Naruto looked at her sheepishly "yesterday. I may or may not have gotten kicked out of a casino… or five… for causing them to go bankrupt."
Haku facepalmed "only you would have insane luck like that Naruto…"
"R-right…" Tsunade coughed to regain her composure "as for my questions… my first question is, who are you?"
Naruto looked at his siblings in all but blood "I am Naruto, adopted son of Zabuza Momochi, brother to Haku and Fu."
"and your birth parents?"
"confidential"
Tsunade placed her head in her hands "that didn't help me at all" she muttered. "Wait, Zabuza Momochi? As in the Demon of the Hidden Mist? How did that happen?"
"it's a long story" Naruto, Haku and Fu chorused.
"well, that's about it. Shizune! I'm 7 million ryo richer and I plan to get some quality booze tonight. Don't try and stop me"
"yes Lady Tsunade" Shizune wept and followed her master out the door and simultaneously released the genjutsu on the civilians inside the hospital.
Xxxxxx
AN: and this will officially mark the end of the bridge between the Raiga arc and another training filler. After the training filler will be the Snow/Spring arc (due to popular demand) and I do plan a plot twist in it ?.
Chojuro: Hey! I didn't get any lines in the chapter! I beat everyone just forgot about me!4
Jackalope33: you were... uuhh… in the corner doing the important job of keeping Tonton company!
Tonton: Oink!
PS: if anyone is able to find me a Naruto world map (with all minor villages and as many towns as possible) I would be really grateful.
PPS: can anyone confirm how much Ryo are actually worth compared to real life? I don't want to accidently pop up with "1 mil ryo can buy 100 high quality weapons" meanwhile it is actually like 1/5 of the cost of 1 of them.
PPPS: this chapter may be the last chapter for a month or two. No, I am not abandoning the story. I am starting exams next week (oh joy) and off to holiday overseas almost right after. I will see if I can squeeze enough creative juice out my brain for one last chapter (like early Christmas chapter) but it is just going to be another training chapter.
Reviews:
Specterchilypeper: thanks and lol, make them unicorns that can turn back time and do whatever they want
Ladygoddess8: well as you can see here, most of it is probably going to killing Tsunade's liver xD, as for the last million, yeah I'll need to confirm the actual value compared to real life (like 5000 ryo = $5 based on how much dango cost in real life and how much Anko gets them for etc) before I do anything with it.
Noahendless: it may be a bug or something but I can see a youtube video above your name (still in the review box) lol?
Wyrtha: well as you can see, Tsunade has her suspicions but like in Canon, she doesn't recognize him or his name.
As for the leader, I'm not sure either, I've got memories of reading both of them as being leaders of the seven swordsmen, but that may have just been from other fanfiction (^.^ll) since neither of their wiki pages said anything about it. The only real hole I see in your theory of Zabuza's skill eroding is that I think since he has been constantly on the move and fighting off other hunter nin/whoever else would have helped him keep his edge or even get better at it. Definitely agree with you on Kakashi's skill being upheld due to ANBU and Gai though, and yeah, Wave Kakashi is definitely weaker than ANBU Kakashi.
BlackDragonShinigami: yup. Wouldn't exactly say "use" though Xd
(Guest) Gaganta: Honestly most of my information is second hand things I pieced together from multiple cross referencing from different authors and random videos (and honestly some of them left me confused AF).
Itachi didn't one shot him with Amaterasu, that would imply that Yagura was defeated. From what I saw, Itachi and his buddy (guy I don't remember who somehow has Zabuza's blade) lost the battle with Itachi fleeing and his buddy dying. My argument for base Minato hitting Obito has been and always will be that Minato was much more experienced and surprised a cocky Obito while Naruto doesn't have the same advantage. Biju mode gives him a huge strength and speed boost (still not quite Hiraishin speed though) but he doesn't have the element of surprise, the experience or Obito's cockiness.
Yeah I must have gotten my knowledge mixed up in another fanfiction with that. Actually now I need to watch all the episodes just to filter what was fanfiction and what was canon. BTW: my logic was under the assumption Zabuza fought Yagura to almost a standstill and not just get beat around and let live just for kicks like Hashirama did to Kakuzu.
Remember that Itachi is stronger than Orochimaru by a decent margin (cutting his hand off during his time in Akatsuki, weakened Itachi sealing newly reformed Orochimaru with Totsuka Blade). And if you want to compare Naruto to Yagura, it's a bit unfair to go 3 tails Yagura vs 9 tails Naruto. If you look at it say, 3 tails Yagura vs 3 tails Naruto, Yagura stands a pretty decent chance of winning due to version 2 and being a kage level shinobi anyways.