The next day, Naruto reported to Tsunade and Shizune's hotel room. Shizune answered the door.
"Hello, Naruto-chan," she said. "Just allow me to get my things and then we can go somewhere for me to teach you."
The dark-haired young woman ducked inside the room and then returned carrying a bag with a shoulder strap. She led Naruto to the forest just outside of town. The older woman was pensive and silent as they walked. She stopped in a small clearing.
"I hope you don't think too poorly of Tsunade-sama," she said. "She's had a hard life so she comes off as abrasive. She's really much kinder than she appears at first."
Naruto snorted. "It can't have been harder than my life and you don't see me running from my responsibilities."
"Tsunade-sama's brother and fiancée both died chasing the office that you want her to fill within weeks of giving them that necklace that's attached to the bet. She feels that the necklace is cursed and that it was her fault they died."
"At least she had someone," Naruto said darkly. "Do you know how many close friends I had before I became a genin five months ago?"
Shizune shook her head.
"None," Naruto said. "I don't feel a lot of sympathy for one of my only living relatives who chose to run away. If it weren't for Old Man Hokage and a couple of ramen chefs, all three of whom were too busy to really look after me, I would have committed suicide by the time I was six."
Shizune looked horrified and embarrassed. "Do you mean to hold a grudge against her then?"
Naruto shook her head. "It's not in my nature to hold grudges. I'll forgive her when she stops running away. I've already forgiven Ero-sennin for being a lousy godfather." She smiled brightly. "Enough angst! Teach me the technique!"
Shizune demonstrated the two hand seals and showed her what to do. Within an hour Naruto had it down.
"Good job, Naruto-chan," Shizune said. "However, that was the easy part. For the next part, we need to catch some fish. I think I saw a pond over this way."
They spent another hour catching some fish at the pond.
"Now that you know how to create medical chakra, you need to learn how to use it. For this part, we'll leave one of the fish in the air for a few minutes—long enough to injure it. You'll use the technique to heal it."
Shizune was correct in that using the medical chakra was much harder than creating it. However, Naruto had excellent chakra control and she managed to do it three times in a row by the end of the second day.
"I can't believe you did it!" Shizune said. Nobody has ever learned the Mystic Palm Technique so quickly!"
Naruto chuckled. "I have a little bit of an advantage when it comes to learning techniques, Shizune-neechan. I have the chakra of the Mother of Chakra, so chakra techniques come naturally to me."
"Mother of Chakra?" Shizune asked.
"Outsutsuki Kaguya, the mother of the Rikudo Sennin and the progenitor of the Uzumaki, Senju, Uchiha, Hyuuga, and Kaguya clans. She was the first human to have chakra."
"How did that happen?" Shizune asked.
"I'm not sure," Naruto replied. "I've been told this process happens regularly with powerful people who have unfinished business when they die. As far as I know, I'm Kaguya's first transmigration, but her grandsons, Outsutsuki Indra and Asura, transmigrate frequently. Their previous transmigrations were Uchiha Madara and Senju Hashirama."
"I've heard of the First Hokage and his rival of course, but I've never heard of Indra or Asura before," Shizune said.
"They were the Rikudo Sennin's sons. Indra was the progenitor of the Uchiha clan and Asura was the progenitor of the Senju and Uzumaki clans."
"If the Senju and Uchiha clans are related, why did they spend so long fighting?"
"A squabble over inheritance," Naruto said. "The Uchiha are descended from the elder son, but the Rikudo Sennin named the younger son his heir. Indra ended up disagreeing violently with that decision and his descendants followed suit."
"How sad," Shizune murmured.
Naruto nodded.
"Hey, Shizune-neechan?" Naruto asked. "Can you do me a favor?"
"What's that, Naruto-chan?" she said.
"Can you not tell Baachan or Ero-sennin that I've won the bet?" Naruto said with a smirk. "Call it my revenge, but I want her to think she's won and then snatch it away from her at the last minute."
"I really shouldn't. . ." Shizune said, "but I will."
Over the next few days, Shizune and Naruto continued to meet. Shizune taught Naruto other medical ninjutsu: a diagnostic technique, a bone-setting technique, and a poison-leaching technique. None were as difficult as the Mystic Palm, but it was generally felt that if a medic nin could not learn the Mystic Palm, it was not worth teaching them the others.
Naruto grew to like the dark-haired young woman and enjoyed their time together. She was ecstatic that she would be returning to Konoha with them. Shizune was turning into an older sister figure, just like Ayame.
In her spare time, Naruto worked on getting familiar with her newly discovered bloodline ability, Shikotsumyaku. She figured out two applications for it. She could make bone protrusions extend from her palms and use them like built-in kunai. The other thing she could do was to make bone spurs curve out of her body at regular intervals. These acted as protection against slashing and clubbing attacks, but would not do much against lunging attacks. She thought that eventually she could make her palm bone spurs act like swords if she could figure out how to shape them better.
The day the bet was over, Naruto approached Shizune and Tsunade's door, wondering if she should let the old lady know she had won yet. When she knocked on the door, nobody answered. This had not happened before, so Naruto opened the door, finding it unlocked. Inside she found Shizune lying unconscious on the floor.
"Shizune-neechan!" Naruto exclaimed.
Naruto ran to her and used the Diagnosis Technique on her. The dark-haired woman had a mild concussion. Naruto quickly healed it with the Mystic Palm.
"What happened, Shizune-neechan?" she asked.
"Tsunade-sama got into an argument with me and she knocked me out," Shizune admitted embarrassedly.
"I was afraid of that," Jiraiya said from the doorway. "We went out drinking last night and she slipped me something. I just woke up, but my chakra control is still being effected by the drug."
"I'll find her," Naruto said.
She made six Shadow Clones. The clones activated their Byakugan and then ran off in different directions.
Shizune diagnosed Jiraiya. "I can't do anything to help you, Jiraiya-sama, but you should metabolize most of it on your own within 30 minutes."
After ten minutes, Naruto felt new memories enter her head. "Found her," she told the others. "She's meeting Snake Eyes at the castle ruins. Kabuto is also there." She frowned.
"Who's Kabuto?" Jiraiya asked.
"He's an older Konoha genin I met during the Chuunin Exams," Naruto said. "He seemed like he was helpful, but he was skilled enough to suppress his chakra despite failing the Exam for the six times before withdrawing before the preliminaries this time. He said he was low on chakra, but he was suppressing same as before."
Jiraiya grimaced. "Sounds like a mole. Let's go. Expect the worst and pray it hasn't happened."
As they raced to the ruined castle, Naruto got another blast of memories from a clone. "She's engaged Snake Eyes and Kabuto in a fight."
The other two sighed in relief. They arrived in time to see Kabuto slice his palm and spurt blood all over Tsunade. The Slug Princess shrieked and recoiled.
"Still has Hemophobia, huh?" Jiraiya muttered.
"Unfortunately," Shizune said.
"I'll handle, Snake Face," Jiraiya said. "You handle the lackey, Shizune-chan. Naruto-chan, I want you to hang back and support Shizune-chan. Don't go high order unless absolutely necessary. We don't know if Itachi and his partner are hanging around, but if they're close it would attract them."
Naruto grimaced. "Got it, Ero-sensei."
"Yes, Jiraiya-sama," Shizune said.
Jiraiya sped toward Orochimaru.
Shizune threw shuriken at Kabuto to get him to back away from her teacher. The boy jumped back. Shizune blew a purple cloud at Kabuto, which engulfed him. Naruto saw him sink into the ground with her Byakugan and lunge toward the dark-haired girl's feet through the ground.
"Underneath you!" Naruto shouted, but Shizune was too slow.
Glowing chakra blades nicked her ankles. The glasses-wearing boy gloated as he rose from the ground. "I've severed your Achilles tendons with my Chakra Scapels. You're out of the fight, my dear."
Naruto activated her Sharingan and made a dozen Shadow Clones. She launched her bolas at the traitor. He sank into the ground again to avoid them.
"I'll admit that you're pretty good for a genin, Naruto-chan," Kabuto said with a smirk as he rose from the ground, "but you're no match for me. I'm really the equivalent of a high-level jounin like your sensei, Sharingan no Kakashi."
Naruto shrugged. "Maybe you're a jounin in a third-rate village like Oto, but I figure that turning traitor was the only way you could advance."
The boy chuckled. "You can't betray what you were never loyal to. I think you'll find that Oto is more powerful than you think. It doesn't have pointless morality holding it back."
Naruto chuckled in return. "You don't know how glad hearing that makes me feel. Konoha has no need to fear a few lone wolves and a bunch of cannon fodder."
"Ah, yes," Kabuto smirked. "Konoha's vaunted Will of Fire. How did that work out for you growing up, Kyuubi Brat? I heard you made your first friend only a few months ago."
"At least I have friends and I'm more than a lackey. How do the Snake Jerk's boots taste? Or do you prefer to lick something else?"
While they had been bantering, Naruto and Kabuto exchanged volleys of bolas, kunai, and shuriken. Naruto exchanged with her clones using Replacement, so that Kabuto did not know where she was.
The tempo of the fight changed and Kabuto lunged at the clone that was between him and Shizune. The clone "popped" and Naruto lunged at the boy with her Shikotsumyaku. The bone pierced the traitor in one of his kidneys. One of Naruto's clones replaced her before her opponent could retaliate.
"Another bloodline, Naruto-chan?" the boy said. "I really must talk to whoever did this to you." He chuckled. "You'll find that I'm very familiar with the Shikotsumyaku and that you don't know enough to use it to its full potential."
Naruto was surprised to see Kabuto shrug off what should be a fatal strike.
Kabuto continued to target her clones, Naruto swapped between them and calmly waited for a chance to strike. She saw an opening. This time she pierced the back of his ribcage and swore she got his hear. However, Kabuto twisted and aimed a strike at her with his Chakra Scalpels. With her bone weapon caught in his ribcage, she was vulnerable. Only a quick Replacement saved her from a debilitating wound.
Naruto discontinued the use of her newest bloodline ability. She could not afford to be caught like that again.
"You continue to surprise, Naruto-chan," Kabuto said condescendingly, "but I'm afraid that your excellent hit-and-run tactics won't help you any longer."
"And why is that, Boot Licker?" she asked. "I can keep doing this forever."
"Can you?" he asked archly. "I know the Leaf's weakness."
He advanced toward Shizune again. The older girl was using the Mystic Palm on her ankles, but tendons were not something that could be healed in a few minutes.
"Replace the friendlies!" Naruto commanded.
A clone Replaced Shizune, but Tsunade remained in place. Naruto grimaced. Tsunade must have too much chakra for one of her clones to Replace unwillingly.
Kabuto advanced on the unresponsive Slug Princess. Naruto Flickered behind Kabuto, but instead of stabbing him with her bone bloodline, she slammed a Rasengan into his chest from behind just as he was about to stab her with his Chakra Scalpel. He lost control of the technique and instead of damaging her tendons or organs, it cut the flesh of her arm.
Naruto called forth the Mystic Palm and healed the wound. "Looks like I win our bet, Baachan," she said.
"What?" Tsunade started and stared at her and then noticed her wound closing. "I guess you did."
"Cheer up Baachan," she said with a cheeky grin. "Making the impossible happen is my specialty."
All of the sudden, Tsunade shoved her, and Orochimaru's Kusanagi grazed her ear. The Byakugan's blind spot! It figured that Orochimaru would know about it!
"You're more trouble than you're worth, Brat!" she heard him say. "Time for you to die!"
"You won't lay a finger on her!" Tsunade shouted. "For my first act as Fifth Hokage, I'm going to do what Sensei should have done long ago and put you out of our misery!"
The diamond on Tsunade's forehead dissolved and lines and characters spread out from the location. She lunged for the snake-eyed man who was wielding his sword with his tongue.
Surprisingly Kabuto was on his feet again and retreating with Orochimaru. She examined the chakra flow through him and noticed that he had medical chakra flowing through him continuously. She grimaced and thought that she would have to decapitate him to put him down.
All three Sannin and Kabuto used the Summoning Technique. A giant slug and toad faced off against two giant snakes, each with a person on their head. Jiraiya must have gotten most of his chakra control back.
As the four faced off, Naruto helped Shizune to her feet. The other girl had just finished healing her tendons. The two of them watched the fight. For a second it seemed like the biggest of the snakes had the Toad Boss in a tough spot, but Tsunade grabbed the toad's sword and pierced the snake's mouth, pinning it until it dispersed back to the summon realm. Orochimaru took the opportunity to flee pulling Kabuto behind him with his tongue.
"Gross," Naruto muttered.
Shizune wordlessly nodded.
Jiraiya and Tsunade approached. Tsunade took off her necklace and put it around Naruto's neck.
"I can't believe it, Brat," she said, "but somehow you did it."
Naruto giggled.
"What's so funny?" Tsunade asked.
"She learned it by the end of the second day, Tsunade-sama," Shizune said.
"What!?" the Slug Princess exclaimed.
Naruto grinned cheekily. "I wanted you to think you had a chance, Baachan."
A vein in Tsunade's forehead throbbed. "Don't call me that, Brat!"