(A/N: Hello everyone, I don't have much to say except to read and review. Now go on and read this chapter.)
Chapter 8
It has been a month since Naruto and Naomi left Konoha. At this moment they were destroying a bandit camp near a city called Tanzaku Gai.
"Naomi-chan, should we stop by in Tanzaku Gai?" Naruto asked as he ripped the head off from one of the bandit's shoulders. "I heard that there were good casinos. And I know how much you love gambling." Naomi said, finished her hand seals and breathed a giant ball of fire. Naruto got excited and started to kill the bandits faster.
It wasn't well known fact that Naruto loved gambling as he rarely lost. He was thrown out of many casinos as he had emptied them. So they cleared the camp quickly both killing over fifty bandits each.
They arrived in Tanzaku with all the loot they could gather from the camp and sold it. With the money that they got they went to a nearby casino. They heard that there was a big poker tournament starting there soon.
The participants were a blonde haired woman with large boobs and a green jacket with a kanji for gambler on its back, a bald big muscled man, a woman with short brown hair, a short fat man wearing a suit and a man in a formal kimono.
Naruto went to the table and joined in on the tournament. The game was more than likely going to be Naruto's victory as all but one had quitted. Only one left excluding Naruto was the blond woman who despite her loses could play for a long time because for some reason she had more money than some clans.
"How about we up the stakes?" Naruto suddenly asked. The blond woman whose name was Tsunade thought and responded "Sure, why not? What are you going to bet?" Naruto didn't need to think long. "If I win I get that necklace and the money on the table but if you win I will give you all of my money and be your servant for a month." Naruto said with a cocky smirk.
Tsunade thought about it and accepted causing her assistant to look terrified. "B-but Tsunade-sama, that is a priceless heirloom and you do remember that it's cursed." She whispered to her. "Shizune I know but I feel like I will win this." Tsunade said and put the necklace on the table. Naruto just grinned.
The match ended in Naruto's favor but only barely. He thanked Tsunade for the necklace and was about to leave when someone came and yelled Tsunade's name. Naruto turned and saw that it was a man, who was closer to fifty years old and had really long white hair and a hitai-ate with two horns on the sides that had kanji for oil. Naruto recognized him as Jiraiya the toad sage.
Then it hit him where he had heard the name Tsunade. It had been nagging him for the tournament. She and Jiraiya were part of the sannin.
Jiraiya went next to Tsunade and asked if she would be the fifth Hokage as Hiruzen started to be too old. Tsunade outright refused and even called the Hokage's fools. Naruto got angry because of that. Naruto may not want to be Hokage but he still held them in great respect even his father.
"Tsunade I give you a deal. I fight you and if I win, then you must be Hokage and if you win then you get this necklace back." Naruto said. "Deal but to make it more interesting I will only use one finger to beat you." Tsunade answered arrogantly. Naruto smirked and went outside to a nearby alleyway.
There he took a fighting stance and motioned Tsunade to start. Tsunade came towards Naruto with a finger flick that he dodged and it hit the ground causing the earth to crack. Naruto intentionally widened his eyes to appear surprised. Tsunade used this moment of distraction to use another finger flick that hit him.
There was silence as the finger hit. When it hit Naruto's head it exploded but nothing came out. No blood, no brain tissue, nothing even his body didn't fall.
Tsunade was shocked. Someone took one of her flicks and didn't even try to dodge. She looked at Naomi who for some reason didn't show any emotion. "Damn that hurt." Tsunade whipped around and saw Naruto holding his head like it was in pain.
"What! H-how did you g-grow your head b-back!" Tsunade yelled. "So, shall we continue?" Naruto asked not caring to answer Tsunade's question and went into his stance. Tsunade shook her head and again tried to flick him but Naruto dodged and punched her stomach causing her to double over.
Tsunade recovered fast and threw a punch that Naruto dodged. "You lost." Naruto said. "What? I can still fight." Tsunade said. "Yes but you used more than one finger." Naruto said back. Tsunade was shocked. She had forgotten that part of the bet and now she had to go back to Konoha and be the Hokage.
With that done Naruto went back inside and started to play blackjack leaving Naomi, Jiraiya, Tsunade and her apprentice outside. "You will hold your end of the bargain Tsunade-san." Naomi said with a glare and went inside with Naruto.
Tsunade stood there for a good twenty minutes before she shook her head and went back to her hotel room muttering something about annoying bets. Shizune followed her immediately and Jiraiya went to do what he always does.
'It seems that I must get her answer sooner than I anticipated.' A mysterious person thought after Tsunade had left.
In the morning after Naruto had done his morning routine and eaten breakfast he felt a surge of chakra coming from outside the town. He ran to his and Naomi's room and saw that she was already up and in full gear. Naruto took his own gear, nodded to Naomi and the both of them went towards the chakra surge.
They arrived there to see Tsunade, her assistant Shizune and Jiraiya fighting against Orochimaru and a gray haired ninja whose name was Kabuto. He had been in the chuunin exam and was the only one who quit after the second part.
Orochimaru was standing on a giant snake with Kabuto. Jiraiya was on a large toad that wore armor that looked like it belonged to a samurai while Tsunade stood on top of a huge slug. Naruto and Naomi decided to watch what would happen. They didn't want to jump there and fight a battle that wasn't theirs to fight unless Tsunade and Jiraiya were losing.
The fight went well until Kabuto appeared in front of Tsunade and slashed open his wrist in front of her causing her to freeze. Kabuto capitalized this and kicked her to the stomach making her fly off of her summoned slug.
Naruto looked at Naomi and ran towards the giant snake which was fighting against the slug and toad. Naomi went towards Kabuto and Tsunade.
Naruto ran up the snake while it tried to shake him off but he managed to get on top of it and punch it to the back of its head. Naruto hit it so hard that it disappeared in a puff of smoke causing him to fall down with Orochimaru.
Orochimaru landed in a crouch. Naruto came down with another punch that caused a crater to form when it hit but Orochimaru managed to dodge it. He opened his mouth and a sword came out of there. Orochimaru controlled the sword with his tongue.
Naruto was dodging swiped from the sword when suddenly the sword extended and cut Naruto's shoulder. Naruto ignored the cut and charged towards Orochimaru who looked stunned for some reason. Orochimaru quickly shook off the feeling and started dodging Naruto's kicks and punches.
Meanwhile Naomi was fighting Kabuto and the battle wasn't going well for Kabuto. It turned out that Kabuto had high-speed regeneration but even it couldn't protect him from some of the hits that Naomi did.
He had burn on both of his arms and cauterized cuts on his stomach and back. He was also breathing heavily. 'Why won't my regeneration work?' Kabuto thought before he jumped back and barely avoided a swipe from Naomi's claw.
Kabuto created scalpels from chakra and slashes Naomi's arm with them. He smirked as he saw Naomi's arm going limp but that smirk turned into a frown when he saw her moving the arm like nothing happened. "That's a nice jutsu you have there. Too bad it won't work on me." She said and then appeared in front of Kabuto and punched him in the face. Kabuto flew down from the slug on which he and Naomi had fought. When he hit the ground a crater formed.
Kabuto rose from the crater slowly and barely dodged a punch from Tsunade who had gotten over the shock of seeing blood. He then had to jump back as a purple smoke came. He was ready to go offensive when he felt pain in his chest. He looked down and saw a clawed hand that had his heart.
"Try to heal that." Naomi said and crushed Kabuto's heart while Kabuto looked shocked at the event.
Meanwhile the battle against Orochimaru was going well for Naruto. He had made numerous small cuts on him and even a few deep ones with his claws. Naruto was just going in for the kill when Orochimaru backed off and a huge cloud of smoke appeared in his place. When the smoke cleared a giant eight headed and eight tailed snake was in place of Orochimaru. Naruto was shocked by the size of it. It was bigger than he in his animal form.
Naruto had to jump back as one of the heads crashed where he was before. "Jiraiya can you hold this… thing back for a while?" Naruto asked. Jiraiya nodded and started to harass the giant snake with his toad while Naruto enveloped himself in the cocoon.
The cocoon opened faster than the one at the stadium. And again out of it came Naruto in his dragon form. He roared and rose higher than the snake could reach. He took a deep breath and spat out a ball of blue fire. Seven of the eight heads of the snake managed to get away but the one that got hit was completely eradicated.
"How dare you hurt me!" The snake hissed at the. Naruto didn't answer and flew in front of one of the heads and started to claw it. He didn't manage to do it for long as one of the tails came and hit him to the head. Naruto flew from the power of the attack but managed to right himself before gravity would affect him.
Meanwhile Jiraiya had gone to where Tsunade was. "Who is that guy?" Tsunade asked. "That's Minato's kid. Sensei told me that he left Konoha after he failed the genin exam after trying three times." Jiraiya said. Tsunade looked shocked. 'No dropout can be that powerful.' She thought as she watched the match between the giant snake and Naruto.
Back in the fight Naruto was dodging bites from the heads and swipes from the tails while trying to fire fireballs at the snake but they didn't hit as the snake slithered out of the way even though it was so big that it could blanket whole towns.
While dodging the attacks Naruto thought 'How am I going to beat that thing? I can't use Imari as the low powered one wouldn't kill it and if I used the stronger only Naomi would survive.' He then started to think different ways to beat the snake.
Not coming up with any fast ways to kill it he decided that if it would come to it he would use his claws and teeth to tear it to pieces. Naruto flew as high as possible without losing sight of his prey and then swooped in and quickly bit one of the heads. The head started to trash around but Naruto stayed on it until he ripped it off. 'Two down, six to go.' He thought and prepared to do it again.
He tried to bite one of the heads but they dodged. 'So that tactic won't work anymore.' He again flew high but this time he pumped chakra to his claws and dived towards the snake. He saw a good spot and used them to cut off two heads.
Naruto then tried it again but only managed to scratch one of the remaining heads. 'It seems to adapt to tactics fast. What exactly is that snake.' Naruto thought. He then got an idea on how to beat the snake. He rose higher than before and started to create a ball of fire that was bigger than what he had ever created, inside his mouth. He then came down fast and when just above the snake Naruto released the fireball.
The snake saw it and tried to dodge but the fireball was too close. "I can't die like this! I haven't even learned all the jutsus!" It screamed while burning in flames that were the second hottest ones in the world. Only the legendary flames of Amaterasu were hotter.
The snake stopped trying to put out the flames but it only managed to spread it until the snake fell down and didn't move. Naruto started to go closer to the snake to confirm the snake's death. Suddenly one of the heads tried to bite Naruto but he dodged and cut the head off causing the snake to finally die.
He then went back to ground and transformed back to human. 'So that snake was Orochimaru. What had he done to himself?' Naruto thought as he walked to the stunned Jiraiya, Tsunade and Shizune. Naomi came to his side and started to drag him somewhere. "We'll take our leave now." Naomi said but before she was able to drag Naruto and disappear Jiraiya stopped her and said "Wait I have some information that will be useful to you."
"Then tell it to us." Naruto said while Naomi still got her hold on him. "There is a group of S-rank missing–nins who, if my information is right, are after the nine bijuu. Their name is Akatsuki and they usually wear a black cloak with red clouds." Jiraiya said. Naruto and Naomi thanked for the information and the disappeared into the forest.
"So Tsunade are you coming back to Konoha?" Jiraiya asked when Naomi had vanished in to the forest. "Sure, that kid won the bet so it seems that I have to go." Tsunade said and left towards the town with Shizune and Jiraiya following her.
Meanwhile Naruto and Naomi were on the road again without any idea where they were going. Not they even cared where they were going. "You sense them too?" Naruto asked quietly. "Yes." She answered just as quiet. "Should we see what they want?" Naomi thought for a moment and then nodded. They went off the road and into the forest to meet the people who followed them.
"You can come out now!" Naruto said loudly. Immediately after he had said that two people came out of hiding. Both of them wore a black robe with red clouds in it. The first one was fairly tall only slightly shorter than Naruto. He looked like Sasuke so from that Naruto knew that he was Itachi Uchiha, Sasuke's older brother. He had black hair with bangs that framed his face.
The other one was over ten centimeters taller than Naruto and had fishlike features. He had blue-gray skin and gill-like markings under his eyes. Naruto recognized him as Kisame Hoshigaki. He was carrying a bandaged object on his back.
"So what would two S-rank missing-nins from Akatsuki want with us?" Naruto asked innocently. Kisame showed a little surprise from the fact that Naruto knew their organizations name but quickly covered it. "You're coming with us Naruto-kun." Itachi said with a monotone. "How about… no?" Naruto said and took his stance.
"Told you he wouldn't come willingly. So can I take his legs off? Samehada is getting hungry and Leader-sama didn't say that he had to be in one piece." Kisame said with a bloodthirsty grin. "Just make it quick." Itachi said. Kisame's grin got wider and he took the object on his back and charged towards Naruto but was intercepted by Naomi.
Naomi dodged Kisame's wild attacks while hitting seemingly unimportant places on his body. They went on like that for a few minutes until suddenly Kisame lost all feelings on his legs and arms. "What happened to my body?" Kisame yelled as he tried to move his arms. "I just temporally paralyzed your body. Don't worry it will go away in a few hours." Naomi said with an innocent voice and tried to stab Kisame in the eye with her claw but was interrupted by Itachi who had stayed behind to watch the battle.
"We're leaving." He said, picked Kisame up and left in a swirl of black feathers. "Was he any challenge?" Naruto asked. Naomi just shrugged and went back to the road to continue the journey.
"What should we do now?" Naruto asked when they had travelled for a few hours. "I don't know. Maybe look for some work in the nearby countries?" Naomi suggested. Naruto thought for a while and decided that it was a good idea.
They decided to go to Kusa no Kuni as it only had a minor hidden village which usually didn't have any ninja who would be stronger than an average jounin.
They arrived there after two weeks of walking a faster than an average civilian's pace and stopping time to time to destroy a bandit camp or two. Right now Naruto and Naomi were inside a building that offered missions to independent ninjas, missing-nins and mercenary groups.
"Got any good missions for us." Naruto said to the man who ran the place. Man didn't say anything; he just took a scroll and threw it to Naruto. Naruto opened it, read it and then gave it to Naomi. She read that the mission was to steal a small statue from a heavily guarded estate and the time limit was two weeks. She nodded and gave the scroll back to Naruto. "We'll take it." He said and left with Naomi.
(A/N: Done and soon this story will be done. What I mean by that is that this story will end at the time skip and in the future I will work on a sequel but not in a few months at least. I want to try something new but also I don't want to write three different stories. More information about my next story will be in the next chapter.)
