Naruto: The Weapon Master
Chapter 20: Training Time and an Angered Reunion
After leaving Sasuke in the care of Gai as he returned back to the Hidden Leaf, Naruto and Jiraiya continued on the road in search of Tsunade for her to become the next Hokage as well as heal the injured which includes Kakashi and now Sasuke.
"Hey Pervy Sage, who were those guys working for and why are they after me?" asked Naruto, Kurama and Chinami were listening with rapt attention to learn more about those two missing Nins.
Jiraiya was silent for a moment as if contemplating whether to tell him or not before finally speaking up "Those two are members of an organization known as the Akatsuki, a group of S-ranked missing Nins. Formerly they were simply mercenaries for hire, but I've learnt from my spy network that they have been going after people with massive amounts of chakra, a jinchurriki to be exact,"
"You mean that they're going after the tailed beasts inside of them? Then that means they'll go after Gaia-chan and Fu-chan!" said Naruto with realization.
"Yes, I've been trying to find out why they're doing so, but I can figure so far is that it won't be beneficial for the whole elemental nations,"
Naruto clenched his fists so tightly that his knuckles turned white, Tora mewed softly as to comfort him "Those guys see the bijuu as nothing more than sources of power, well they're not going to hurt my loved ones as long as I'm still around! I'm not going to let them do as they see fit!"
"Naruto-kun…," said Kurama as tears flowed out when she heard his declaration to protect her and the other bijuu
"Naruto-sama, know that I shall assist you in any way possible," said Chinami.
"Thanks Chinami," thought Naruto before turning his attention to Jiraiya.
"I admire your spirit kid, you have truly inherited the Will of Fire. The major reason why I requested you to join my search was to devoted most of the time to train you to get stronger for your future battles, I can tell that they're going to be the ones for the history books,"
Naruto smirked at his godfather "Well what are we waiting for? Christmas? Let's down straight to it!"
"Whoa take it easy kiddo, first thing you need to know is that while I'm training you, I also need to gather information for Tsunade's whereabouts as well. Word has it that she never stays in one place for too long and tends to change her appearance in order to skip out on her debts," said Jiraiya.
"Okay, but you better not slack on either of those two or else I'm gonna have to bust a cap up your ass," said Naruto with a dark look to show that he really meant it, Jiraiya shivered from the look as it reminded of the time he tried to peek in the women's bathhouse again where Naruto's girlfriends were in at the moment, then Naruto found out and chased him around the village again while swinging the Blades of Athena around.
"Okay okay, I got it. Anyway we're here,"
Jiraiya and Naruto stood before a long railing and looked over to see a large town which was built at the bottom of a large crater. As they walked through the streets, Naruto saw many stalls selling foods, toys, games and other stuff with people buying things and or just conversing amongst themselves.
"Whoa, this place is amazing!" said Naruto with Tora mewing in agreement.
"Looks like there's a festival going on around here, how about some downtime before we can start your training?" said Jiraiya.
"Okay, I could buy some souvenirs for the girls while I'm still here," said Naruto as he opened his backpack to take a frog wallet whom he fondly named Gama-chan which was obviously full of money due to how puffed up it looks.
"Whoa, that's a lot of money you got there!" said Jiraiya.
"Yeah, I've saving some of it from my missions, especially the one when I went to the land of waves," said Naruto with glee.
"But about your inheritance?" asked Jiraiya, not wanting to reveal anything since they're currently standing in the streets where anyone could overhear.
"I don't want to rely on it yet, only when I really need it. Besides it feels good to spend money which you have earned,"
"That's great, you're honoring one of the three prohibitions. If you weren't, I would have taken your wallet for safekeeping," said Jiraiya.
"What are the three prohibitions?" asked Naruto curiously.
"The three prohibitions are temptations that would lead a Shinobi's life to ruin. They're Alcohol, pretty women, and worst of all money,"
"Well you wouldn't have to worry about that, I don't drink yet, I already have girls who love me, and I'm not too materialistic to want to use money to buy a lot of stuff. Besides, I get the feeling that you would have used my money if I gave it to you," said Naruto, narrowing his eyes at Jiraiya who suddenly found the skies interesting to look at "Anyway I'll catch ya later," he walked off with Tora sitting on his shoulders.
"I keep forgetting that he's mentally older than he looks sometimes," thought Jiraiya with a sweatdrop.
Naruto was walking through streets and staring at the stalls when he saw a certain stall that was selling accessories, and saw a few which caught his eye. He walked towards it and was greeted by the owner of the stall.
"Hey there kid, see something you would like to buy for your girlfriend?" asked the owner.
"Yeah, quite a few to be exact," said Naruto looking at the items on the shelves.
"Well go ahead and pick what suits your fancy,"
With Kurama's help, Naruto was able to buy some accessories which he was sure that the girls would love. For Sakura, he bought a kimono bracelet with cherry blossoms on it, a necklace with a lavender flower motif for Hinata, a hairclip which has beetle wings design for Fu, a purple brooch for Ino, a pair of bun covers for Tenten, and a pair of earrings crafted to look like snowflakes for Haku. He bought a red ribbon with cat paw prints for Tora much to her happiness. Then they left to check out the other stalls.
"What do you think we should do next Tora?" asked Naruto, Tora sniffed the air a bit before raising a paw to point at something, he looked to see a food stall where a man was selling salty grilled sea bream on a stick (Shioyaki) "Good idea, let's go get something to eat," Tora mewed in agreement.
After sating themselves with the food from the festivals, Naruto went to play some games and won a lot of prizes which he sealed away in a storage scroll which he intended to give a few to Konohamaru and his friends.
"Where do you think the pervert is now?" asked Kurama with a look of annoyance.
Naruto walked along the street, wearing a fox mask which he bought from a mask shop "Don't worry about it Ku-chan, it won't be so hard to find that perverted godfather of mine," Sure enough, they heard familiar laughter and they traced the source to a clubroom "See what I mean?" they peeked through the curtains to see Jiraiya sitting on a couch with two women on both sides and is visibly drunk.
"What can I say? I love the ladies!" said Jiraiya with a perverted grin on his face, then he noticed Naruto standing at the entrance "Oh hey kid, had your fill of the festival already?"
Naruto and surprisingly Tora were giving him deadpanned looks "That I did, and I can see that you're having fun too. And since we both had our downtime…" Naruto walked over and grabbed him by the back of his collar and proceeded to drag him out of the club despite protests from the perverted godfather.
"Wow how manly of you, why don't you stay for a bit so that we can get to know each other?" said one of the girls with a seductive look in their eyes.
"You stay away from my Naru-kun!" Kurama yelled angrily, even Chinami was glaring at them through Naruto's senses.
"Sorry, but I'm already taken," Naruto said politely before he left as the girls whined in disappointment.
Jiraiya was complaining while getting dragged along the street "Oh come on Naruto! I hadn't my fun with those pretty girls yet!"
"You should talk, you told me about honoring the three prohibitions and yet I find you breaking all three in one go. Seriously what kind of pervert are you?" asked Naruto.
"It's quite obvious, I'm a super pervert!" said Jiraiya with a perverted grin on his face, Naruto sighed to himself wondering why he even bothered himself to ask that question. Soon, they were at the outskirts of the town and Jiraiya had sobered from his drunken state "Now then let's get down to my training,"
"Alright Naruto, just give me a moment," Jiraiya reached into his pocket and took out a scroll, he unrolled it and channeled chakra on one of the seals which released a bag full of water balloons much to Naruto's confusion.
"What are these water balloons for and where did you get them?"
"I sent a Shadow clone to buy them when I was walking around to gather some information, and the reason I bought them was for your training, cause I'm going to teach you one of your father's signature techniques…the Rasengan,"
Hearing that, Naruto got excited "Really? I've read about it, that it was one of the techniques that made him well known during the third great ninja war,"
"That's right, he got the idea from watching one of the Tailed beast use the Tailed Beast Ball and it took him four years to fully master the technique. Kakashi and I were taught the Rasengan by him, and it's only right that I should teach his son the technique," said Jiraiya.
"Alright Pervy Sage, let's get down to business," said Naruto as he reached for the bag and took out a water balloon, although Tora jumped off his hood and maintained a certain distance away from him so as not to get wet in case the balloon pops.
"There are three steps to mastering the Rasengan, and this is the first step," Jiraiya held out a water balloon and bulges could be seen on it until it burst.
"He was spinning the water in the balloon with his chakra," said Chinami.
"I recall among the chakra control exercises, you mastered the tree climbing and the water walking exercise right?" asked Jiraiya, and received a nod from Naruto "Well in the tree climbing exercise, you learn to gather and maintain chakra in one place, and in the water walking exercise, you learn to release a steady amount of it,"
"I think I get it, so I use the tree climbing technique to gather and maintain chakra in my hand, and then I use the water walking technique to release a steady flow. That's how you popped that water balloon, by spinning the water inside of it right?" asked Naruto.
"That's right Naruto, you totally got it! Now let's begin your training," said Jiraiya with a smile.
A few hours later, Naruto wasn't able to pop the first balloon no matter how fast he tries to spin the balloon and it was beginning to frustrate him a bit.
"Darn it, why isn't the balloon popping at all?! I'm I doing something wrong?" Naruto grumbled to himself.
"Naru-kun, which direction are you spinning the water balloon?" Kurama asked curiously.
"I've been spinning it to the left, why?" asked Naruto.
"That explains why you've been having so much trouble, you're actually a clockwise rotation type,"
"What do you mean by that?"
"According to the archives there are two types, one is a clockwise rotation type while the other is a counter-clockwise rotation type. It's important for one to know which rotation type they are, as there as jutsus that require the rotation of their chakra and if you rotate in the opposite direction of your natural rotation type then it will counteract with each other," said Chinami.
"And since I'm sealed inside of you, I could tell by looking at your chakra system," said Kurama.
"Thanks for the help girls, I appreciate it," thought Naruto, he tried it again but this time in the right direction, the water balloon was bulging a lot but it still wasn't close to bursting "Still no good, I must be missing something,"
"Why not ask Jiraiya to show the technique again? you might find out what was missing," said Kurama, Naruto nodded in agreement and got up before walking over to the toad sage who was relaxing against a tree.
Jiraiya looked up to see Naruto approaching him "Hey kid, have you done it yet?"
"Not yet, but could you show me how you popped the water again?" asked Naruto.
"Alright, I'll show you again," Jiraiya took a water balloon and started to spin it again, Naruto watched closely as the balloon appeared bumpy on the surface before it burst, and then he realized what he was doing wrong.
"That was it! That's what I was doing wrong!" Naruto grabbed his water balloon and concentrated his chakra into it, then the balloon became just as bumpy as Jiraiya's before it burst as well much to his joy "Alright I did it!"
"Way to go Naru-kun!" Kurama said happily
Jiraiya was surprised "Wow, so how did you figure it out?"
"Well when I was watching you spin the water in the balloon, I missed the fact that you were spinning in multiple directions while I was only mine in a single direction. So when I asked you to show me again, I was able to find the missing piece to the puzzle,"
"He's really your son Minato, to be able to figure out his problem by simply observing and trying it out," Jiraiya smiled proudly at his explanation "Congrats Naruto, and that means you've completed the first stage and you're ready for the next one. Now let's find a hotel and turn in for the night," Naruto nodded in affirmation and together they walked back into town.
Next day, they were back at the makeshift training ground and this time Jiraiya brought a bag of rubber balls.
"So what's the second stage?" asked Naruto, Jiraiya tossed him a rubber to catch before taking one for himself.
"For this second stage, I want you to pop this one and let me warn you, it's a lot harder that popping a water balloon," said Jiraiya, he held out the rubber ball and started to look bumpy before bursting only that it was with more force than with the water balloon. "If you recall, the first stage is rotation but for the second stage it's force. Unlike the water balloon, the rubber ball is solid which requires you to exert your chakra rotation on it,"
"Okay then, let me give it a shot," Naruto sent chakra into the rubber ball and it started to appear bumpy like before. However instead of bursting like Jiraiya's, it rather popped a hole and deflated much to his disappointment.
"It looks to me like you didn't focus enough power into the ball," said Jiraiya.
"What do you mean?"
"Let me show you what I mean, look at this," Jiraiya held out a blank piece of paper for Naruto to see.
"All I see is a blank piece of paper,"
Jiraiya took out a ink brush and drew something on it before showing it to Naruto, only this time there was a back dot at the center "Now what do you see this time?"
"A black dot at the center, but does this all mean?"
"You see, when you first looked at the blank piece of paper, your eyes roamed all over it. But when I put in the dot on the paper, your mind completely focuses on it which grants spiritual stability. When you were focusing your chakra into the rubber ball, it seemed to me that you were doing it without a target in mind which was what gave you that previous result," said Jiraiya.
"So you mean that the next I concentrate, I should set a target for my mind to focus on in order to channel my chakra properly. But how do I do that?" asked Naruto.
"Like this," Jiraiya took out the ink brush again and drew a small spiral mark on the center of Naruto's palm "Now whenever you focus your chakra into your right hand, you should concentrate only on that mark. Now give it a try,"
"Got it," Naruto took another rubber ball and held it forward, he envisioned the mark behind the ball in his mind and could feel his chakra flowing towards it. The rubber ball suddenly exploded with so much power that it sent him flying into a tree, Jiraiya and Tora ran over to check on him.
"Naru-kun, are you okay?" asked Kurama worriedly.
"I'm fine, just little sore," thought Naruto as he slowly got up.
"Hey Naruto, take it easy," said Jiraiya "Amazing, to concentrate so much power that it sent him flying and even scorched his hands, it kinda scares me to think about the results when he completely masters the jutsu,"
"I guess I completed the next stage right pervy Sage?" asked Naruto with a smile as he felt Kurama's chakra heal his hands.
"That's right, but right now we got to get going, I just received a memory of my Shadow clone that Tsunade has been recently spotted over at Tanzaku town,"
"Alright then, let me just rest a bit and then we can get moving," said Naruto.
Meanwhile in Tanzaku town, Tsunade had just exited from a casino with a serious look on her face, with the raven haired girl who goes by the name Shizune was trying to catch up with her while holding a briefcase full of money which her mistress had won and their pet pig Tonton was close behind.
"Lady Tsunade please wait up, for you to win this much after so long is a miracle. But you don't look happy in the least,"
"That's just it, I never win in a gamble. So for me to win all of a sudden, something bad is about to happen and I can't help but feel this chill crawl up my spine," thought Tsunade "We're leaving this town Shizune,"
"But lady Tsunade this is a tourist resort, so we should take our time to look around and I've always wanted to look at the historic castle,"
"Then look fast so that we can get a move on," Tsunade walked away with Shizune looking at her in confusion.
At the entrance to the town, Orochimaru was leaning against the torii gate while gritting his teeth in pain from his arms.
"Lord Orochimaru, are you okay?" asked Kabuto in worry.
"Let's get this over with, the sooner Tsunade heals my arms then the sooner I can plan to kill Sarutobi and that blonde brat, even if we have to get a little forceful," said Orochimaru, then they continued onwards into the town in search of his former teammate.
Somewhere near the outskirts of Tanzaku town, Naruto and Jiraiya were standing among a few trees and facing each other.
"So what's the final step?" asked Naruto excitedly "Just a little more and I'll able to use the jutsu like dad did!"
"Before we do, let's go over the last two stages. The first was rotation, and the second is power. For the third and final stage, you need to combine the first two stages in order to pass the third stage and master the Rasengan," said Jiraiya, then he took out a balloon, filled it up with air and tied it to prevent the air from escaping, then he held it out for Naruto to see.
"What does it have to do with the balloon this time?" asked Naruto curiously.
"Let me show you what's going on the balloon," Jiraiya held out his other hand and blue spinning ball of chakra took form.
"Amazing, the chakra is rotating very quickly but is still in a perfect spherical shape," thought naruto as he stood mesmerized by the sight of the blue sphere.
"This is what the third stage is about, you are to draw on your chakra's power and rotation to your hand at its maximum, and then maintain it by visualizing a thin membrane for compression,"
"In other words, I keep up the power and rotation which I learned previously, only this time I should maintain its shape within the balloon and not let it pop this time,"
"That's right, let me show you the difference," Jiraiya walked over to a tree and stood before it "When you mastered the first two stages, this is what you would get," he raised his hand and the spinning sphere took form before he slammed it into the tree, leaving a spiral mark on it "But after mastering the third step, this is the result," he held out his hand for the spinning sphere to take form only that it was spinning faster, then he slammed it into the tree again. Naruto was surprised to see the sphere actually grind through the tree before it finally faded away.
"Amazing," that was all he could say at what he saw.
"That just shows why it's an A-rank getting close to S-rank," said Kurama while looking impressed since it's a jutsu derived from her and her fellow tailed beast.
"If you're able to compress the rotating chakra in the palm of your hand, then the destructive power will be at its maximum. But keep in mind that this is the most difficult of all the three stages," said Jiraiya.
"Let me give it a shot then," Naruto held the balloon before him then he channeled his chakra into it began to rotate it, he tried to visualize a membrane to compress the power like Jiraiya said but it was to great and the balloon ended up popping "You're right pervy Sage, it's a lot harder than it looks,"
"Just like I said before, anyway we should get a move on with our search for Tsunade. You can practice on the road,"
"Gotcha,"
Soon they found themselves walking through the streets of Tanzaku, Jiraiya led them to many casinos and other gambling areas with little luck, as they were told that Tsunade was seen but not for very long, Naruto was still practicing the third stage but was not having it easy to compress the spinning chakra in the balloon as it bursts every time.
Later they're in front of an entrance of another casino, looking around for the evasive woman "Hey Naruto, why don't you stay here while I go around looking for information about Tsunade's whereabouts," said Jiraiya.
"Okay Pervy Sage," said Naruto with a nod of affirmation before focusing on the balloon again as Jiraiya went inside.
A few hours later, he came out and found Naruto sitting on top of a briefcase waiting for him which piqued his curiosity.
"Hey Naruto, what's up with the briefcase?" asked Jiraiya.
"While you were gone, I got a bit bored so I wandered of and found myself in another casino. Ku-chan persuaded me to play a game of poker for a bit despite it being my first time, and I ended up winning the first game,"
"Wait a minute, what do you mean 'first game'?"
"Well afterwards, more people joined in to play and I still kept on winning until I won up to one million ryo. That was when the owner of the casino appeared and asked me to leave, and then I came back here after packing the money in a briefcase,"
"Hold on and let me get this straight, you wandered into a casino and played a game of poker which you winded up winning even though it was your first time at it. Then you won a few more games till you earned just about a million ryo just before you got kicked out by the owner for fear of bankruptcy, am I right?" asked Jiraiya with a look of disbelief.
Naruto shrugged his shoulders "That pretty much sums it up,"
"This kid has a knack for gambling, Tsunade might attempt to kidnap him and travel to casinos all over the elemental nations with that luck of his," thought Jiraiya "Alright kid, put that money away and let's get going,"
They continued their search throughout the town, but still no luck. The strangest thing they saw was that a historic castle was destroyed by what the residents were describing as a monster which looked like a giant snake. Hearing this roused their suspicions ad they went to the site of the castle but weren't able to find any more clues. Soon it was getting late and the duo were hungry, so they made a stop at a tavern to get a bite to eat.
"Why do we have to eat here? Can't we go somewhere else?" asked Naruto.
"Normally yes, but it's these kinds of places where one can gather information. A bottle of Sake tends to make a person's mouth loosen a bit to blab out things they're not supposed to say in public," said Jiraiya.
"Alright let's just go in and eat already,"
When they entered the tavern, Naruto noticed that Jiraiya had a look of recognition on his face as he looked across the room. Naruto followed his gaze until his eyes set upon a blond woman sitting next to a raven haired girl and a pig.
"Tsunade!" shouted Jiraiya.
The said person stood up in surprise "Jiraiya?! What are you doing here?!"
Naruto looked closely at the person whom they were looking for "So that is Tsunade huh….the person who could have taken care of me back at the village," he thought with a frown.
"Naru-kun, please calm down. We aren't here to start a fight," said Kurama.
"Kurama-san is right Naruto-sama, you mustn't forget the reason why you sought her out," said Chinami.
Naruto took a deep breath in order to calm himself "You're right, we came to take her back to the Hidden Leaf so that she'll become the next Hokage as well as heal Jiji, Kakashi and Sasuke,"
They went to sit at the table where Tsunade was and could see that she was quite drunk, they ordered for a food and a bowl of milk for Tora.
"It's like a reunion, all the old faces coming back at the same time," said Tsunade.
Jiraiya silently drank his cup of Sake before speaking "You must be talking about Orochimaru, he was here wasn't he?" Naruto frowned upon hearing the name "What was he doing here?"
Tsunade glared at Shizune as if telling her to be quiet "Nothing much, he just dropped by to say hello,"
"She's lying Naru-kun," said Kurama with a glare after sensing her emotions.
"I know, as if destroying a castle is a way of saying hello to someone, there must be something going on that she doesn't want us to know. But we're going to find out anyway," thought Naruto as he frowned at Tsunade.
"So why are you here?" asked Tsunade raising a cup to her lips.
"Sarutobi-sensei sent us to bring you back to the village in order to become the fifth Hokage," said Jiraiya. Shizune let out a gasp while Tsunade almost dropped her cup in shock with what they heard "Surely you must have heard what happened at the village during the Chuunin exams,"
"I've heard about it, in fact Orochimaru told me himself about how he wasn't able to finish sensei off because of a certain interference,"
"True, but because of that sensei was grievously wounded during the battle,"
"Humph," Tsunade grumbled before she glanced at Naruto who was frowning at her "Who is this kid and why is he frowning at me?"
"This is Naruto, and he is my apprentice as well as someone important to me," Naruto smiled softly at that "And the reason he's glaring at you, that you'll soon find out," then Naruto resumed frowning at her.
"Huh then you must be slipping Jiraiya, from what I'm seeing this kid looks like someone who doesn't know his left from his right and he looks like he has a quick temper which could get him killed in battle. A complete contrast from your first apprentice,"
Naruto clenched his fist in anger at the blatant disrespect which she was giving him, something that Tsunade didn't notice but Shizune and Jiraiya did.
"Naru-kun please calm down, don't let your anger take over you," said Kurama, Naruto's fists slowly loosened as he tried to relax again.
"You may say that, but he has proven to be just as interesting as the Fourth," said Jiraiya "Now what do you think about the offer sensei has given out to you?"
"I refuse, why should I go back to that village just to throw my life away just like those foolish men? To me, I'm sure that they had nothing better to do with their lives,"
"How could she say that?! She trying to say that dad was foolish to sacrifice his very soul to protect the village?! To protect me?!" thought Naruto angrily.
He wasn't the only one as Jiraiya was glaring at Tsunade as well "I don't know what happened while you were travelling through the lands, but you've definitely changed if you could say something like that in public,"
Tsunade simply smirked "Years have taught me a great deal and Sarutobi should have known better, which is why I can say this…. To be Hokage is nothing but a fool's game,"
When she said those words, a massive killer intent was felt throughout the tavern, Tsunade and Jiraiya were sweating a bit while Shizune was quivering in fear. They turned to see Naruto looking at Tsunade with rage in his eyes.
"Tsunade, you have no idea what you have just gotten yourself into," thought Jiraiya.
This is Hussbek online with another chapter. It's been a while since I last put up a chapter for this fic, so here you go and I hope that you enjoy it and look forward to the next. Just a heads up for those who might think that Naruto is learning the Rasengan too fast, keep in mind that he underwent proper training after the forbidden scroll incident which includes chakra control, you can check it out on chapter three. Plus I intend to place a few limiters some of the gears which Naruto would gain later in the future so as avoid him being OP. As always read and review.
This is Hussbek from Ghana.
Signing out.
