Chapter 21 - Searching for the Slug Princess
A/N: I finally reached the 300 faves/follows mark with this story (I feel so accomplished :D); for those of you who haven't faved and/or followed this story, however, you still have to do it. Oh, and please keep sending reviews as well.
Please keep sending faves, follows, and reviews.
Disclaimer: Still applies
[Shukuba Town, Land of Fire]
The Following Morning…
Naruto, who went to bed a couple of hours after arriving with his godfather in the small town, woke up shortly before noon; despite the thoughts running through his mind during the night the young chunin managed to get a good night's sleep at the inn he and Jiraiya had stayed in for the night. Naruto got out of bed and, when he looked around the room, noticed that his old pervert of a godfather was not there.
"Jiraiya-san's either asking around for Tsunade's location or he's probably being the old pevert that he always is," Naruto thought to himself as he headed to the bathroom.
After showering, getting dress, and downing a quick breakfast of two cups of instant ramen Naruto retrieved Kurama from his place on the side of the bed where the Uzumaki clansman had placed him the night before. After placing the Tailed Beast/zanpakuto in his usual position Naruto turned to face the door... but didn't walk towards it.
"If those two actually thought that I wouldn't be able to detect them with all that chakra that they didn't suppress then I'm going to be very insulted," Naruto thought just before one of "those" two knocked on the door.
Naruto sighed at this.
"I know that the two of you behind that door are after me so quit trying to be "sneaky". I could sense your chakras from a mile away if I had to," Naruto said in his usual calm manner while still facing the door; the way the he mockingly emphasized the word sneaky in that first sentence underlied his irritation.
One of the two foes Naruto sensed, who was likely the one that knocked on the door, let a out a dark chuckle in response to Naruto's statement.
"It would seem that you derserve your reputation, jinchuri-" the man said before the door to the room the chunin was staying in flew off its hinges; it would've smacked the man in front of it had he not dodged it.
The man moved back down the hallway he was in and turned to look at his partner, one Itachi Uchiha, who had been watching the entire scene unfold and thinking of an excuse to get both himself his partner Kisame to retreat empty-handed.
Despite the fact that the Uchiha was not intending to capture the Uzumaki clansmen, even before his reunion with Sasuke, he still had to make it appear as if he actually tried to do so in order to avoid arousing the suspicions of his fellow Akatsuki members hence why he still went through with tracking down "his target".
Itachi turned to speak to Kisame.
"I warned you that we needed to be more careful, Kisame," Itachi told the former Kiri-nin rather bluntly.
"Yeah... I guess you're right, Itachi," Kisame said in reply as Naruto left the room and came into view.
Naruto turned to face his two would-be "captors", his hand firmly grasping the hilt of his blade in case Kisame made a move; while he knew that Itachi was not going to even try to seriously take him he still kept an eye, so to speak, on the former Anbu captain... just in case.
"Kisame Hoshigaki and Itachi Uchiha... so the Akatsuki sent the two of you, huh?" Naruto asked rhetorically while noting that Kisame's shark-like grin grew wider.
"So you're Naruto Uzumaki, eh? Small wonder that you killed both Orochimaru and Zabuza with that massive amount of power you have. It's too bad but you're going to have to come with us now," Kisame said as if it was an order.
Naruto simply raised his reiatsu slightly at the missing-nin's words.
"I'm sorry to disappoint but I have no intention of walking to my death; if you want me that badly..." Naruto said as a smirk formed on his face; this caused both Itachi and Kisame to enter into a defensive stance.
Neither of the two missing-nins had any idea what Naruto had in store for them.
"... you'll have to catch me and beat me first," Naruto said before he used his flash stepped out of the hallway, shocking both missing-nins, even though Itachi's expression didn't change, with his speed... after they realized that the Uzumaki had left, which was several seconds after he'd done so.
"Such speed... it's even greater than that of his own father; so this is the power of Naruto Uzumaki," Itachi thought to himself.
Itachi's thought process was interrupted when he noticed that he still felt Naruto's energy which gave the impression that he was now somewhere on the outskirts of town. Unfortunately, for the Akatsuki anyways, Kisame still sensed the Uzumaki as well... and immediately ran off to confront him before Itachi could try to stop him.
"Damn it, Kisame; if you try to fight him alone I have a feeling that even you might not survive," Itachi thought to himself as he walked to where Naruto was as the endurance-challenged Uchiha had not fully recovered from his fights with Jango and Sasuke...
[Shukuba Town Outskirts]
With Naruto...
Naruto had stopped flash stepping when he got to a forest clearing not that far from the outer limits, though he was far enough to confront his pursuers without endangering the town. After a couple of minutes of waiting Kisame arrived and quickly unsheathed Samehada.
"Why'd you stop running all of a sudden?" Kisame asked.
Naruto unsheathed his zanpakuto before he answered.
"Isn't it obvious? I ran out of town so that I could kill you without risking the lives of the people in the town," Naruto replied.
"Well aren't we the confident one? Let's see if you can back up that little claim," Kisame stated as he back up until he reached a river next to the clearing.
Kisame then did a series of hand signs as he used the nearby water source to create a large shark-like entity.
"Water Style: Water Shark Bomb Jutsu!" Kisame roared as he sent the projectile flying by thrusting his hands forward.
Naruto simply gripped his blade with both of his hands before generating a familar crescent-shaped wave of reiryoku in his blade.
"Getsuga Tenshō!" Naruto roared as he swung his blade, releasing the attack.
The energy attack easily destroyed the water shark that Kisame had made and nearly hit the missing-nin who had to apply all of his speed, such as it was, to avoid getting injured.
Kisame was shocked at the strength of the attack; though it was obvious that Naruto was holding back a lot the former Kiri-nin could tell that the attack would've killed him if it had hit it's mark.
"How did you learn to use an attack like that?" Kisame asked his opponent; this caused Naruto to have another flashback...
Flashback
[Szayelaporro Granz's Lab, Las Noches]
Three Years Before Naruto's Return...
(A/N: For the many readers who've questioned why I gave Naruto the Getsuga Tensho [even though he first used it in Chapter 6 which means that it was Jmac615's, otherwise known as the original author of the story, idea] this flashback is for you)
"Let's see if this works; please try it now, Naruto," Szayelaporro commanded after he gave the young boy his blade back.
"Ok, Granz-sama," Naruto said though he was skeptical of what the master inventor of the Espada truly had in mind.
The pink-haired 8th Espada had told the young Uzumaki that he had infused his zanpakuto, or at least the weapon part of it, with a special shard that would grant him a new attack once he infused it with said zanpakuto; though Naruto did not really trust the creepy scientist he decided it was best to go along with what his teacher, or at least this teacher, was doing.
To that end Naruto began building up his reiryoku; after he built up enough of his energy Naruto, as per the Espada's instructions, grabbed his sword with both his hands and channeled the energy into the blade. He was amazed by what happened next.
A massive crescent wave of his own orange reiryoku suddenly formed from the built-up reiryoku in his blade, shocking the young boy and causing a smirk to form on Szayelapporo's face.
"Before you use that attack please take note of its name," Granz said; Naruto nodded before he told the ninja the name of the attack, Getsuga Tenshō.
"Now then, young Naruto, please swing the blade at that target right there," the Espada said as he pointed to a part of the wall with a target painted on it.
"Right! (Naruto takes a deep breath) Getsuga Tenshō!" Naruto roared as he swung his blade causing him to launch the wave of energy... and destroying the entire wall in the destruction.
Despite the damage to his lab, or perhaps because of it, Szayelaporro's smirk grew even larger.
"I declare this experiment... a success!" Granz declared before dismissing Naruto, but not before he reminded him to keep practicing with that technique.
As Naruto flash stepped out of Szayelaporro's lab the Espada began thinking about where he had gotten the shard.
"I wonder if Aizen-sama has anymore of these shards from this 'Engetsu' he referred to..." the Arrancar thought to himself as he focused on a different experiment...
(A/N: Engetsu is the name of Isshin Kurosaki's zanpakuto; since Isshin could also use the Getsuga I added this bit to explain how Naruto aquired the technique)
End Flashback
[Shukuba Town Outskirts]
Current Time...
"This attack was a gift given to me by one of my teachers and it's actually one of the special attacks I use the most. That's enough about the Getsuga, though, as it's time I finish you off; with this next attack your life will come to an end," Naruto said before he moved a few feet back from Kisame as he held up his left hand in front of him while he still gripped Kurama with his right hand.
Kisame finally decided to unsheathe Samehada as he prepared for Naruto's attack; the missing-nin was surprised, therefore, when Naruto sheathed his blade... and began chanting.
"The turbid crest begins to blur! An insolent vessel of madness! Boil forth and deny! Grow numb and flicker! Disrupt sleep! Crawling queen of iron! Eternally self-destructing doll of mud! Unite! Repulse! Fill with soil and know your own impotence!" Naruto said; this weird incantation, not surprisingly, confused Kisame.
"What the hell is this gaki doing?" Kisame thought to himself.
By the time Kisame realized that he should probably do something other than stand... it was too late.
"Hado # 90. Kurohitsugi," Naruto said as a ball of black reiryoku formed in his left hand, all while the sky began to darken.
When that ball dispersed the black energy then began to expand and take shape until Naruto had created multiple boxes of this energy, each of them topped off with spears shaped in the form of crosses. These then continued to multiply until there were hundreds of these boxes. Before Kisame could even respond. to the shocking sight around him the boxes suddenly fell upon him, merging with each other until the hundreds of boxes became one giant box with hundreds of cross-shaped spears surrounding the box. The spears then pierced the box simultaneously... with Kisame inside said box; the gurgled cries of pain coming from inside the giant box made it clear that Kisame was hit by the spears.
"Goodbye," was the only thing Naruto said as he calmly turned away from the box... just as it began to dissipate.
When the black box completely vanished Kisame, or at least his now lifeless form, could now be seen alongside an apparently grieving Samehada; the body of the former member of the Seven Swordsmen of the Hidden Mist looked like a piece blue-colored Swiss cheese as the black reiryoku spears had pierced right through the shinobi in at least 20 different places which left no doubt of the missing-nin's demise.
Naruto walked to a nearby tree on whose branches sat a familiar white-haired, perverted godfather of his. Jiraiya looked at the scene in front of him in shock for a few minutes before he finally turned his attention to Naruto.
"Don't you think you went a little overboard with that attack, Naruto?" Jiraiya asked his godson... who simply smirked at the Sannin's comment.
"At least I wasn't fooled by a genjutsu-induced woman like you were," Naruto replied, causing the self-proclaimed super pervert to look away in humiliation for a few minutes before he remembered something important.
"Wait a minute, Naruto; what are you going to do about the dead body that's lying..." Jiraiya said before his voice trailed off.
He was looking at the spot where Kisame's body was and saw none other than Itachi carrying the body of the deceased missing-nin on his shoulders. Jiraiya was about to confront the Uchiha before Naruto intervened.
"Leave him be, Jiraiya-san; he won't be coming back for a while. Besides, we still have have to find Tsunade," Naruto said, getting a nod from his godfather.
As both Konoha shinobi headed back towards the town where they were staying Naruto turned his head to look at the area where the Akatsuki were.
"I guess our meeting will have to wait for another time," Naruto thought to himself before he and Jiraiya head back into town...
[Tanzaku Town, 90 miles West of Konoha]
One Week Later...
Naruto and Jiraiya, after several delays due to the latter's "research", arrived in the popular tourist town; Naruto was surprised, and rather irritated, by the big festival that was going on around him. The fact that the town Naruto was currently in had a reputation due to it's more "adult" amenities only caused the Uzumaki clansmen to question his godfather's motives for coming here; the only thing that kept Naruto from grabbing Jiraiya by his red haori and dragging him out of town was the fact that the Toad Sannin was somehow not getting "sidetracked" by the many women all around them which proved to Naruto, for now at least, that his godfather was focused on something other than his "research".
"Are you sure that she's here?" Naruto asked.
"The people back in the previous town mentioned seeing a woman matching her description in this town; with all the casinos here it's very likely that she's still somewhere in town," Jiraiya reasoned.
Naruto sighed at this; as he had suspected the female Sannin was spotted in a gambling town thought the blinding lights of the casinos had already sent alarm bells ringing in his mind.
"Anyways, we should start looking for Tsunade; assuming that she hasn't already left town she shouldn't be to hard to find," Jiraiya said to which Naruto nodded in agreement.
They soon began searching every casino in Tanzaku Town...
Late in the Evening...
...only to come up empty-handed, much to the frustration of both ninjas.
Naruto was especially annoyed with the lack of progress and secretly prayed that Tsunade would be cooperative... for her own sake.
"We should look for an inn to stay in for the night, Naruto," Jiraiya told his blond-haired godson.
Naruto sighed at this as he and the white-haired Sannin walked through the town's main street and into the western end of town; both shinobi had spent most of the day searching the east side of Tanzaku Town where the majority of the gambling dens were located.
"Fine, then. Let's find one quickly, though, as I'm no mood to deal with your per-" Naruto said before he stopped dead in his tracks.
Jiraiya turned to look at his godson.
"What's wrong, Naruto?" Jiraiya asked to which Naruto held up his hand.
"This chakra... could it be?" Naruto thought to himself as he felt a strong chakra signature.
In order to get a clearer idea of what he was sensing Naruto got on one knee before placing two of his fingers to the ground, much to Jiraiya's confusion.
"Pesquisa," Naruto said softly before a massive radiating pulse through the ground.
Among the many skills, whether hollow or shinigami, he learned at Las Noches the young chunin showed an unusually great affinity towards the sensing ability of the Arrancars. Naruto's skill with the Pesquisa was so great, in fact, that he developed his own unique variant which not only increased the range and accuracy of his sensory pulses but it even allowed him to detect certain things with this ability that even the Espada couldn't, such as a person's physical condition or even a person's next move before they even did it, much like a Sharingan; he usually didn't use the Pesquisa, however, as he had to stay absolutely still in order for it to work.
The unique version of the Pesquisa that Naruto created was the same version that he was now using. After gauging the chakra signature with greater scrutiny the young chunin suddenly smirked at what he felt.
"Jiraiya-san... I think I finally found her..." Naruto said, taking the Sannin by surprise with his claim...
Next Time - The Title of Hokage: Naruto vs. Tsunade