Chapter 23 – Fools

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[Tanzaku Town, Land of Fire]

Current Time...

The fight between Naruto and Tsunade, if anyone could call it a fight, had been going on for 5 minutes now and, to the surprise of everyone minus Jiraiya who was also witnessing the battle, Tsunade was clearly getting the worst of it. The medic-nin had been so badly beat up that she looked as though she needed a medic while Naruto, who didn't even appear to be fazed in the least by this "fight", decided to irritate Tsunade even further by pulling out a copy of Jiraiya's first novel, Tale of the Utterly Gutsy Shinobi, and proceeded to read it it while fighting the Slug Sannin not unlike what Kakashi did when the the leader of Team 7 first fought the then genin of Konohagakure (though Naruto's book was obviously not pornographic in it's nature like the books that his jonin squad leader read).

Tsunade obviously didn't take too kindly to Naruto's sudden lack of focus during their fight and she made it very clear to the Uzumaki-Namikaze clansman.

"Stop reading that damn and focus on the fight, damn it!" Tsunade hissed as she charged at Naruto.

As Naruto sidestepped to the right of the oncoming left punch the young chunin sighed at this attempt at another futile frontal attack.

"If I can beat the crap out of you while reading a book why should I focus only on this sorry excuse for a fight?" Naruto asked in a rhetorical and mocking manner.

Before Tsunade could respond to this retort the young Konoha-nin used the opening created by his evasion of the Sannin's jab to drive a a left roundhouse kick into her stomach; though Naruto held back most of his strength in this kick, as he had done with most of his attacks since he returned to the Shinobi World, it still sent Tsunade flying back at least 200 yards before she ended up on the ground face first with a few of her ribs cracked.

As the female Sannin struggled to get back on her feet Naruto snapped the book he was reading shut as he turned to face Tsunade.

"Are you done yet?" the young chunin asked; the Slug Sannin, not to anyone's surprise, refused to even consider giving up.

"This fight is not over yet, you little gaki," Tsunade said bluntly as she was determined to make the young shinobi regret his words back at the pub.

Despite Tsunade's determination, however, the reality of the situation was that the Sannin had no real chance of winning this fight. Even if Tsunade had been in her best condition, which she was not due to druken rage that she had fallen into before this "fight" started, her opponent would've still been defeated her with almost no difficulty due the massive difference in their powers. After all, if even Orochimaru was defeated in battle by Naruto without the boy receiveing so much as a scratch as a result of that fight how would either Jiraiya or Tsunade, who were supposedly on a equal level to the fallen missing-nin, be able to fair any better than their teammate?

Naruto was aware of this and, in fact, he could have ended this "fight" before Tsunade realized what had happened to her (without killing her, of course) even with the restrictions placed on him by the requirements of the mission as well as those he placed on himself. There was a reason that the chunin allowed his fight to drag on, however, and he decided that it was about time to reveal that reason as he sidestepped one of Tsunade's kicks.

"You know something, Tsunade? I've gotten sick of this 'fight' since you can barely do anything. So why don't I wrap things up right now?" Naruto asked as though it were a challenge.

Before Tsunade could even respond to his challenge Naruto used a palm strike to push Tsunade away several feet.

"Now it's time to see how she'll respond to this; if she can't deal with it then we'll have to find someone else to take the Old Man's place," Naruto thought to himself as he brought his left thumb closer to his mouth.

Naruto's movement, along with his expression, caused Jiraiya to raise an eyebrow at the chunin until his eyes widened at the realization of what his godson was doing.

"Now I get... this is a test Naruto had made for Tsunade. What he's doing is little harsh but I'm guessing that was the idea; there's a great risk with what he's doing but, then again, there's a risk to everything when it comes to Tsunade. Minato... you really did make the right choice in placing your faith in Naruto. I just hope he doesn't get too carried away," Jiraiya thought to himself, having learned a lot about his godson in the time they spent together including a bit of how his godson's mind worked, as he noticed that Naruto bit his thumb.

The bite wasn't that hard but Naruto made sure that it was enough to draw blood and, when he saw that the bite mark was indeed bleeding (not much, of course, but enough that it was noticable), he placed that hand in front of him in an out stretched position; he had the open palm of his bleeding hand aimed at Tsunade in a position that guaranteed that the Sannin would clearly see that blood.

"Now then, Tsunade; should I use my blood-enhanced attack right now or should I wait for you to attack me first?" Naruto asked in a mocking tone as he made sure that Tsunade clearly heard the word blood when he spoke.

Despite the rhetorical tones of that question Naruto was expecting a response, whatever it might turn out to be, from Tsunade. After a few minutes of silence Tsunade registered what she saw and heard. What happened next took both Jiraiya and Shizune, the latter of whom was about to call Naruto various "unpleasant" names when he appeared to be attempting to use Tsunade's fear of blood against her just to gain an edge, by surprise.

The young Konoha-nin smirked when he saw that Tsunade clenched her fist in before fixing her eyes, which were full of rage, on Naruto rather than the bloody palm.

"I am going to kill you, Uzumaki," Tsunade hissed very slowly before mustering all the strength she had left and began to charge at Naruto.

Before she could even take two steps, however, she suddenly felt someone grabbing her left arm at the wrist and holding it out to her side which stopped the Slug Sannin in her tracks. Tsunade turned to face the one who was restraining and was taken aback to find that Naruto had gotten behind her without her even noticing. Tsunade turned to see the spot where "Naruto" was before just in time to see that "Naruto" disappear instantaneously. Tsunade could not help but be amazed at what she just saw, though she refused to show it, and immediately realized what had happened.

"He's fast enough to create an afterimage? The speed he has is unreal; he might be even faster than Minato," Tsunade thought as Naruto spoke to her in a calm, almost playful manner even as he was still holding her arm.

"I think that's enough of that, Tsunade," the young ninja said as he released his grip on Tsuande's arm.

Naruto waited until Tsunade turned to face him before he continued speaking.

"Do you just realized what you did just now, Tsunade?" Naruto asked; this question confused the female Sannin greatly.

"What are talking about, gaki? All I tried to do was to charge at you for another attack before you used whatever technique that you planned to do with that blood stained hand..." Tsunade said before her voice trailed off; her eyes widened at the realization of what Naruto was talking about and what he had done.

Shizune as she looked on at the young chunin also realized what had just happened.

"I see... Naruto-san was trying to find out if Tsunade-sama could get past her fear of blood by provoking her to the point that the only thing she should feel was rage. Those insults on her, Nawaki, and Sato-san were nothing more than a means to get her as angry as possible while his actions in this fight were meant to anger her even further before he drew his own blood; by insulting the memories of those she cared about most he wanted to see if Tsunade could fight on even when she saw the object of her greatest fears. I'm certain that part of the reason was to see if she was truly worthy of being the Hokage; however..." Shizune thought to herself as she turned her attention to her master.

"...Tsunade-sama made her point very clear when she said that she refused the offer to become Hokage; Naruto-san is aware of this and yet he went to all this trouble to test Tsunade like this. Is there another reason he did this?" Shizune mused; unbeknownst to Shizune she was about to get her answer when Naruto turned to speak with Tsunade.

"Back in that bar where we found you and Shizune-san you said that those who dream of becoming Hokage are fools, correct?" Naruto asked, though he already knew the answer to that question, to which Tsunade simply nodded as she was still simmering from all that the Uzumaki-Namikaze clansman had said during their fight.

"If by fool you meant someone who takes dangerous, even life-threatening, risks for the sake of their dreams, which we both know is what you meant, then let me ask you something; don't you think that's the type of person who has to be Hokage?" Naruto asked, stunning Tsunade, Shizune, and even Jiraiya, as Naruto continued with his little lecture.

"Last time I checked the Hokage is someone who must lead for the village, through times of peace and times of conflict, and must be willing to give everything, even his or her life to protect the village; do you honestly think that someone who wasn't a fool should be the one to be Hokage when they only care about themselves? Do you think that selfish cowards like Danzo should be allowed to became Hokage? Kami knows what would happen to Konoha if he was put in charge. Those type of people are the ones who rather would take an entire orphange hostage in order to live rather than fight an enemy to the death to protect the village and are the last type of people who would do what was best for the village," Naruto said while referring to the member of the civilian council who was the "former" leader of the now "disbanded" ROOT Division within Konoha's Anbu Black Ops and was known as the "Darkness of the Shinobi."

Naruto had not spoken with Danzo personally but he knew enough about him to know that the Shimura clansman was trouble and was not afraid to make his distrust of the village elder known to everyone (including Danzo himself, albeit indirectly, during one of Naruto's recent confrontations with the civilian council). The young chunin knew that Danzo was afraid of dying which was the main reason why Naruto brought him up in the little lecture he was giving Tsunade so she could understand his final point.

"Those qualities of selflessness and a willingness to sacrifice everything for what you care about are the reasons why someone like my dad and your grandfather were chosen to become Hokage. So yes, you could say that people like me are fools for having that dream; the way I see it, however, it takes a fool to be a strong Hokage... just like how it took a fool to help you past your of your fear of blood. While Jiraiya-san and I wait for you to change your mind think about what I've said... before you decide to badmouth the Hokages," Naruto said before he finally left, without saying another word, the area to head to the hotel Jiraiya had checked into before he and Naruto had begun their search for Tsunade.

As Tsunade thought about what had just happened the Sannin finally fell her to her knees as a result of her injuries and exhaustion, causing a concerned Shizune to run over and began to heal her master's wounds. Jiraiya walked up to his former teammate who did not fail to notice her fellow Sannin's smug look if her glare was a sign of anything.

"Not... a... word... Jiraiya; unless, of course, you want to relive what happened to you when I caught you peeping on me in the bath houses," Tsunade warned, causing a sweat drop to form on the back of Jiraiya's head.

When Jiraiya didn't say anything in response Tsunade sighed before she continued.

"He's a lot like his dad Minato, isn't he? I guess your old student made the right choice in sealing the Kyubi in him after all," Tsunade said to her fellow Sannin.

"It appear so... though I'm still at a lost as to how he has grown this much; whoever his teachers were they certainly knew what they were doing," Jiraiya said, still wondering who it was that had trained his godson.

Jiraiya almost didn't hear Tsunade's next words.

"I know I'm going to regret this later on... but I guess Naruto has a point. (she sighs) Tell me where to meet up with you tomorrow; I'll accept the council's offer to become Hokage. Oh, and give this to Naruto now when you get back to your hotel," Tsunade said as she reached for an item that caused the eyes of both Shizune and Jiraiya to widen in shock.

[Akatsuki Hideout, Unspecified Location]

Meanwhile...

The large cavernous hideout was currently occupied by only one flesh-and-blood member of the fearsome criminal organization that owned it: Itachi Uchiha who, after reporting what had happened during his "failed" mission to "capture" Naruto, was now in a meeting with his fellow Akatsuki members who appeared in the form of holograms.

One of these holograms, that of a man whose most unusual feature were the purple eyes with a rings that spread out from the pupil, belonged to the man known as Pein, the recognized leader of the Akatsuki. As the leader of the criminal organization listened to the Uchiha's repoer he could not believe what what he was hearing; though his expression didn't show it from what could be seen of him in his holographic form his voice expressed that disbelief just as well.

"Are you seriously telling us that a 13-year old boy, albeit one who's the Kyubi's jinchuriki, was able to defeat Kisame, take his Samehada without so much as getting a scratch, and that he did all of this with only one attack?" Pein asked.

Itachi nodded in response to the man's question; he had made a point to try to retrieve Kisame's blade after he had left the former Kiri-nin's body with Zetsu but, when got to the spot where Kisame died, he discovered that Naruto and Jiraiya were already sealing the sword into a scroll to take it with them.

"Yes, Leader-sama, although it's hard to believe the jinchuriki was able to effortlessly defeat Kisame; from the little that I saw of his skills he's probably more powerful than all of us... put together," Itachi said, shocking everyone with that claim.

The fact that Kisame lost to the young Konoha-nin was shocking enough but for Itachi, of all people, to make such a claim was enough to make everyone's hearts (all 12 hearts when one counts the four extra hearts that Kakuzu had) grow cold if they hadn't already lost their warmth. Unbeknownst to everyone else Itachi was actually relieved to see that his fellow Akatsuki members were a bit unnerved by what they had just learned since that would inevitably lead to the postponement of the group's hunt for the jinchuriki. No one in the group had anticipated that they would have to deal with such a strong foe which meant that plans would have to be changed and methods of capture would have to be adapted to capture Naruto, all of which took time.

Itachi got out of his thoughts when he heard Pein speak.

"We have lost one of our first and most loyal members; the loss of Kisame is a great blow to the Akatsuki and is something that cannot be overlooked. We will have to delay our plans for the capture of the other Tailed Beast; we'll also have to find a new member to take Kisame's place," Pein said.

Itachi, though he didn't look interested in what was being said, was suddenly dreading what was about to happen. There was only one person at this time that the leader of Akatsuki would want to have for Kisame's replacement and the former ANBU Black Ops Captain knew how unlikely the chances of recruiting her actually are. Just finding her would be a next to impossible task and, even if the Akatsuki did locate her, convincing her to join a group that was potentially hostile to her village would be an even more impossible task than tracking her down. After all, even though she was a missing-nin it wasn't something she lived with by choice and, despite being on the run for almost 13 years she would probably rather die a shinobi of Konoha than live to become an enemy of the village...

Next Time – The New Arc: The Lost Uchiha

IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT THIS STORY (READ THIS... OR ELSE):

As I'm sure many of you readers are aware Sasuke is not going to be an evil bastard in this story and, as a result of this, there will be no Sasuke Retrieval Arc. Since there will be a timeskip, however, there will be an arc that will replace the aforementioned arc in order to make the idea of a timeskip (yes there will be a timeskip) more believable (all things considered) which ties in to the Uchiha OC that was the focus of a poll that I made a while back (yes the voters choose to give the OC a chance and, yes, she's the only other OC in this story besides Tiraran and Jango). This is a warning for those who were either unaware of the poll regarding the OC, wanted to know what I planned to do after the Search for Tsunade Arc, and for those who might question the idea of either a new arc, OC (who will only play a moderate to minor role in this story beyond this new arc), or both.