Training With Orochimaru Before Diplomatic Mission to Suna - Interlude Part 2
"She just utterly destroyed the clearing," Naruto said to his teammates after slurping down a mouthful of ramen.
"While you had your eyes closed? And you didn't hear anything?" Shikamaru asked. His much smaller bowl already empty, as compared to the much larger collection of large bowls in front of his blonde teammate.
"Is it possible she had used genjutsu? Why? Because she could have already destroyed the clearing and then just dropped the technique while you were blindfolded. A lesson in trickery perhaps?" Shino spoke up, finishing the still-steaming contents of his second bowl of ramen. Naruto tried not to notice the small bugs crawling in or around his bowl. He normally had no qualms with his teammate's bugs, but he stood firm on bugs not belonging in ramen.
"First, who uses the word trickery?" Naruto asked causing Shikamaru to chuckle lightly, but Shino only cocked his head to the side as if he didn't get the joke. A trick that both of the bug-nin's teammates knew he utilized to turn the tables on a joke being played on him.
"And secondly no." Naruto continued on, not willing to let his bug using teammate win again. "I'm certain that isn't how she did it. At least not directly how she did it. Not only would it not really match up with her normal teaching style. It wouldn't really fit the lesson she was trying to teach me." It had only been five or six hours since his training with Orochimaru that day, and he still wasn't certain what she wanted him to actually do.
It seemed obvious, of course. She wanted the blonde to either deconstruct however she did that to him, deafening him through chakra maybe? Or she wanted him to find a counter to the technique. But even that didn't seem right. It seemed both too straightforward and not-straightforward enough for the snake.
He had no idea how she really did it, and he wasn't certain how to go about really finding out. So he would need to find a way to counter the technique. But then he would be doing so blind. Could the location have been a hint of some sort? Or could it have been what he thought it was originally? Just a new location that Naruto had absolutely no experience with, while also being a place she could use to make a statement. A very destructive statement.
'Perhaps that's it?' He thought to himself. "What if she brought me there because I wouldn't know it enough to notice or detect her technique affecting me?" That could be it. He wasn't certain what her technique was, but it might rely on depriving him of some type of auditory stimuli, which wouldn't work as easily on a location he would recognize the sounds of.
He could be correct. But he needed to work on this immediately. He had an idea that could help him, something he had done sort of accidentally while training with Jiraiya and utilizing his Naginata.
The blonde jumped up from his chair and disappeared through the ramen stands flaps, he had work to do.
A befuddled Nara and Aburame were left sitting at the bar stools, exchanging glances as they attempted to figure out why the blonde would leave in such a hurry. "Troublesome blondes, complaining about training with two Sannin and then running off" were the last words Naruto heard from the posture-slackened Nara in his abrupt departure.
"Did he pay his bill?" Asked Shino pragmatically, both of them looking back and forth between each other before the ramen chef's daughter slid a piece of paper across the bar surface.
Chapter 11: The Drunk One
Their relatively fast travel pace set the trio to arrive in the resort town fairly quickly. Jiraiya's information placed Tsunade here for a much longer time frame than she would normally spend in one region, let alone one town. Mostly due to a festival and large gambling tournament coinciding at the same time. Her renown in fire country making debt collectors much more cautious definitely doesn't hurt either, she had a lot more freedom to maneuver in Fire country than most other locations.
The large resort town was as busy as one would expect from travelers and locals alike flooding the streets and businesses along the main drags. Even lazy glances down smaller streets showed areas that normally saw little foot traffic were still packed with festival goers and venders. Merchants called out from booths offering everything and anything under the sun, at a 'reasonable' price of course. Colorfully decorated paper umbrellas, festival masks, booths with games swarmed by children, and too many carts full of desserts for Naruto to keep track of.
The crowds gave their small group a respectful distance, not a lot, but enough that Naruto could twist and raise his arms without accidentally elbowing a civilian. Although, he didn't know if it was just due to their obvious association as Konoha ninja; them possibly recognizing two of the Sannin, and the general respect and fear that comes with the renowned titles; Orochimaru looking like well, Orochimaru, both terrifying and stunning civilians; or simply because Naruto was openly carrying a small armory on his person.
With three different long nodachi slung horizontally across his back, his Jishaku on his dominant hip and two wakizashi stacked on the opposite hip. His two 'Masters' having conspired with each other during their trip to assign him increasingly difficult chakra smithing exercises for him to complete while they travelled. Which resulted in him carrying far more physically dense weaponry than he was used too.
He was probably carrying an extra hundred pounds of steel at the moment rather than how he normally transported the steel either in its raw form or sealed on his personage, which was most likely part of their plan the whole time. Having him forge and reforge the weapons again and again while tree hopping had been difficult, but Naruto had been internally adamant on the quality of his work not faltering. Resulting in him forging some very dense weapons, densities that would normally be physically and metallurgically impossible. Each weapon most likely weighing two to three times heavier than a normal variation would. Too heavy for actual combat use, 'although not useless for weight training,' Naruto thought to himself. He made a mental note of that idea for later, not a very original idea, but originality meant little in the ninja world, as long as it garnered results.
Jiraiya's large hand hitting the back of his head pulled his focus back to the external world. They stood in front of a large casino, a grand traditional garden served as a colorful and surprisingly serene entrance to the gambling resort. Like putting a beautifully painted mural on a whorehouse. The large ornate red wooden doors were open like a gate, allowing swathes of people to constantly filter in and out.
"Home to the best high roller accommodations anywhere in fire country outside the royal capitol." Jiraiya shaded his eyes as he spoke, like a civilian looking at something in the sunlight, even though they were in the shade. Although, Naruto knew he wasn't just shading his eyes, he was channeling chakra to them to help him scope the location out in detail that would make anyone but a Uchiha or Hyuuga jealous, and he needed to limit the amount of unnecessary light hitting his now delicate eyes.
Orochimaru didn't wait for her former teammate to finish his reconnaissance, she strode forward through the crowd of people like a snake in tall grass. Weaving through the crowd entirely unnoticed, parting groups of people as easily as blades of grass. She dismissed the scrutinizing glances from the security guards at the doors, two rather large men dressed like samurai each with a wakizashi on their hip, with a quick yet withering glance. Her Konoha headband and terrifying demeanor letting them know that she was not to be grouped with the common rabble.
"Ha, here I am gathering intelligence, and the cocky snake just waltzes in and immediately grabs the right attention." Naruto had no idea what his Sensei's words were implying. He swiveled his head, looking for the attention Jiraiya was talking about and finding nothing. The only people he could tell had noticed Orochimaru were the two guards, and he wasn't sure how that was a good thing.
"It's not necessarily about who literally sees her, well not in the normal way. She was seen, you get it?" Jiraiya said, keying in on his students lack of understanding. He had started to get very good at that.
The blonde most certainly did not, 'get it'. If anything, he was more confused than when he started. He followed the Toad Sage towards the doors, this time the crowd parting like previously to give Naruto, or at least the many sharp pointy things on Naruto, some extra personal space. It seems they were not slipping in like Orochimaru. But Naruto assumed the two more experienced ninja had some sort of plan, or at the very least an understanding.
The two guards at the gate noticed the walking display shelf that is Uzumaki Naruto before either of them reached the doors. The Chunin expected this however, and made a show of having the excess weapons on his body efficiently melt down and disappear into his clothes, leaving only the Jinshaku on his hip.
Ever since Suna, the Uzumaki had very much started to like carrying his favorite creation on his hip. It certainly helped that he thought it made him look cool and a little more imposing, not that he would ever, ever, admit that out loud. Lest Shino or Shikamaru hear word of it and redouble their efforts on calling him a sword nerd. He was not a sword nerd damnit!
Besides, if anyone was a sword nerd it was that Tenten kunoichi on Team Gai. She had been all but stalking him after the exams in an attempt to find his 'hidden' workshop, which is not at all hidden. As well as to talk his ear off even more about his "art" as she liked to call it, which he would appreciate more if she didn't say it every other word. If she would just ask, he would have kindly shown her his workshop, but at this point he thinks it's become a game to her, and Uzumaki Naruto hated losing.
The guards became visibly less alert as the extra weapons disappeared from his form, but still continued their healthy clip towards the two. "You there, boy. No weapons allowed on the resort's premises."
Naruto thought that was a pretty stupid rule. They lived in a world where humans could break the sound barrier, turn invisible, and breath fire. Not to mention how many weapons shinobi keep hidden on their persons, kunai and senbon, explosive tags, razor wire, the list goes on. But Kami forbid if one of those people wants to bring a sword in, that might be dangerous.
Naruto thought for a moment that Jiraiya would handle this, but the much taller man just looked down towards his charge with a look that said 'eh'.
"First off, I'm not a child. Second, the man I'm with" he said gesturing to the white-haired Sannin next to him. "Could probably level this city, and you want me to put my sword away? We are walking weapons, whether or not I am openly carrying a sword." The two, definitely not real samurai, just looked back and forth between each other for a moment before their grips tightened on their shorter swords. Obviously, they were used to dealing with civilians and not shinobi; civilians who obeyed authority, especially when that authority came at the end of a blade.
But Naruto could tell the two were not true kenjutsu practitioners. Every move they made screamed it to the blonde smith. How they stood flatfooted, how their weight wasn't balanced to adjust for the weapons they carried, even the way their eyes scanned the two ninja pair in front of them. They hadn't even cut the scabbard of their blades, as partially removing the blade with your thumb allows for a quick and clean draw that won't damage or dull the blade.
The casino guards did their best to look threatening, standing taller and puffing out their chests a bit, obviously they felt their authority had been threatened by this kid who barely looked into his teens. "Look kid, you don't want to challenge two samurai to a sword fight. Just go put the weapon away and come back, or remand it the the Casino. You can get it back when you leave." Naruto gave them an additional once over, like a merchant appraising cattle, wanting to be certain he had appraised them perfectly.
"You" he said pointing his finger into both of their faces, "are not samurai." Not at all what they expected to hear from this seeming child in front of them. Their eyes gained a hint of steel that Naruto did not miss, these men may not be samurai but they have certainly seen combat in one form or another. "For one, your armor is so wrong I don't even want to start. And two, any samurai who rested their weapon like that would have never been given them in the first place."
Confused once again, they both glanced down to their weapons to see what the little kid meant, when they realized both blades were gone. Having just slid out of their scabbards and towards the blonde, who deftly grabbed them out of the air.
"Losing a weapon to a child 'enemy'" Naruto said, using finger quotes when he said enemy. "Not something any honorable warrior could abide by. And any samurai worth their salt would know you don't carry or store it blade side down." The two were left sputtering, looking towards Jiraiya to control him as if he was the kids father. The legend only guffawed at their looks.
They soon realized they had been beat, and allowed the two through with no further altercation after Naruto returned their weapons.
"The hell was that gaki?!" The Sannin half whisper-yelled half laughed at him.
"What? I thought you were testing me or something?"
"Why in the hell would I be testing you?"
"Orochimaru-Sensei does it constantly, even when we are in public, I thought-"
"Well no. Unlike my weird teammate, I do not turn everything into some psychological exam. Did you have to mess with them so much? I swear I thought you were gonna stab one of them."
"I was ready to." The jinchuriki half joked in his response. Until he saw the look the white haired man directed at him. "I'm joking. Mostly." He paused, but the older ninja's look continued. "At worst I would have stuck them together or something, they were pissing me off. Not like they have any actual recourse. What idiot tries to take a Konoha shinobi's weapon in fire country?" He wasn't wrong, well at least not legally, morally it was more of a grey area.
But in fire country an active Konoha shinobi is an indirect arm of the Daimyo himself. Impeding their business was akin to impeding his business, and one does not impede the business of the highest lord in the land and come out unscathed.
Naruto just shrugged his white-haired sensei's gaze off. Eventually continuing forward in their search for either of the two female Sannin.
One might think it would be much more difficult to find two legendary ninja in such a massive casino and resort complex. But as it turns out, all you needed to do was wait. A massive crash could be heard throughout the casino, accompanied by frightened shrieks and shattering glass.
Jiraiya and his young ward were able to find the source of said crashing quite easily. A poker table having gone through a wall of the casino's main floor, leaving an almost perfectly circular hole before it landed on top of another table game the Uzumaki didn't recognize. The glass shattering appeared to mostly be people's drinks hitting the floor, rather than anything truly large or dangerous shattering.
"Seems like Rochi-Chan found Hime." Jiraiya giggled, confusing the hell out of Naruto. That could have killed someone, and Jiraiya thought it was funny? He looked horrified for a moment before a grin worked its way across his face, raising his whisker marks in a conspiratorial manner.
"I'm gonna tell Orochimaru-Sensei what you called her." Before dashing off across the room and hopping through the impromptu 'doorway' now located in the wall. Jiraiya's face dropping as soon as he realized what his student said, before scurrying after him. Promises of cool jutsu in exchange for his silence forming on his lips.
A flurry of the casino's armed men finally reacting and following after the large white-haired man.
The high-roller room was luxurious to put it mildly. Traditional paper walls were built to cover the normal wooden walls that decorated the rest of the casino, painted with depictions of intricately detailed dragons and floral imagery. Other decorations were in the same style, seemingly focused on cultural symbols for good luck. The irony of a casino wishing it's high rollers good luck was not lost on Naruto.
The room was massive, with six smaller tables dotting the sides of the room and a very well stocked bar occupying the far wall from the hole in the wall. Although, the room only had four gaming tables in the center of it. Well three tables and a spot where a fourth definitely had been only moments earlier. This was obvious from the startled looking high-rollers still seated in their very comfortable looking chairs. A woman Naruto had to assume was Tsunade, based on Jiraiya's 'generous' descriptions, was still seated with her hand outstretched in what was probably the motion that sent the table through the wall.
"Who the fuck are you?" She asked, looking right at Naruto.
"The unlucky S.O.B charged with bringing your haggard ass home." Was the last thing Naruto heard himself or anyone else speak before Tsunade's fist met his face. He then disappeared in a blur most of the room couldn't even hope to follow.
Jiraiya entered the room through the hole in the wall just as Naruto was sent flying through a different wall. This time ending up outside the casino as opposed to in another gambling hall. "Could you not kill my student Hime?"
Now that gave Tsunade some pause. She hadn't expected Jiraiya to be here as well. Especially not with Orochimaru and some mouthy blonde brat. "Student? You better not be filling his head with your perverted nonsense." Her words causing the toad ninja to deflate partially, he looked like he was ready to defend himself but another voice cut him off.
"Hmm yes, Naruto-Kun's untimely maiming would be quite… wasteful." Piped up Orochimaru, who had somehow already acquired a seat beside Tsunade in the short time since she left them alone at the front of the casino. How she already got invited into the high rollers suite was beyond Naruto.
Tsunade only grew more confused at her words. She had only just heard of Orochimaru's return and now she was suddenly here with Jiraiya and just who in the hell is this blonde kid? Why did two of her teammates have some vested interest in him? Before her line of questioning could continue a familiar voice broke back in.
"Fuck the mission I'm gonna cut her!" Were the vicious words of one Uzumaki Naruto, slipping back through the Naruto shaped hole in the Casino's wall.
Before Jiraiya or anyone else in the room could begin to take him seriously he moved towards the slug summoner in a well practiced flash. His fist already raised and covered in his semi-fluid steel armor. Both Jiraiya's and Orochimaru's eyes widened as Tsunade raised her own fist to meet Naruto's.
Much to the surprise of everyone in the room, bar one Uzumaki Naruto, the blonde was not sent on a one way ticket back to Konoha courtesy of Air Tsunade. Instead his armor allowed him to absorb a very significant portion of the blow. Although, his arm did still begin bending under the force of the blow, and his body followed suit. Knees bending to accept more of the force before dispersing it into the ground below him, causing the floor and ground beneath to crater somewhat. Before he dropped low and practically rolled around to her unguarded backside, a short-sword forming in his off-hand as he drove it in towards her midsection.
Too the other occupants of the rooms further surprise, the weapon actually struck home. The blade probably only stabbed in half an inch right below her bottom rib, before her flat palm swung back going through the blade like a child karate chops through a thin wooden board, causing it to snap and promptly shatter.
But shattering the sword was only Tsunade's first move. With a twist of agility that even managed to surprise and impress Orochimaru. Tsunade managed to spin to face her attacker, knock the blades semi-fluid handle out of his hand, and grab him by his throat with the now very bloody hand that had previously met the Uzumaki's own fist.
"You are going to get it now you little shit. I'm gonna hit you so hard your great grandchildren will still be walking bow-legged. I'm gonna knock you back to last week so you'll have plenty of time to think about why you should respect your better." She said with a grin that would probably look a lot nicer if the rest of her face wasn't in a terrifying display of displeasure.
"Hime, wait!" Jiraiya all but demanded. Causing her fist to stop in motion, still cocked back and ready to cost Naruto a lot of money in medical bills. Orchimaru simply kept on smiling from her seat beside her female teammate.
"What!?" The legendary blonde asked. Glaring at Naruto for another moment, who only glared right back at her, before she turned her head to look Jiraiya in the eye. "What could possibly be important enough to prevent me from teaching your student the most important lesson of his life?"
"Other than it being the last lesson you'll ever impart?" Questioned the white snake. Who had, up until now, been content to keep quiet while the possible maiming of her shared mentee played out in front of her.
Orochimaru's interruption was finally enough to give Tsunade some pause. She followed the line of sight of everyone else in the room, including her very terrified civilian card dealer, to discover around ten very sharp shards of the sword she had just shattered hanging in the air directly behind her. Her only response to having quite possibly lost this little 'spar' was a small raise of her eyebrows as she turned back to Naruto. A smirk would probably be visible on his face, but the bruising from her first punch had started to form, making it hard to tell.
She made a point of visibly weighing her options, quite literally seeming to gauge Naruto's weight in her hold, before she eventually released her hold on the Chunin's neck. "Fine, the brats future children get to walk straight." Allowing him to drop to his feet, and the sword fragments to quickly fly back to the blonde, seemingly disappearing as soon as they met his clothes and skin. He made a show of dusting himself off, straightening out his vest, and wiping the blood off his forehead that had just started to drip into his eye.
"You could at least heal the idiots injuries…" Jiraiya said, breaking the tension that had settled onto the room's occupants. But Tsunade had frozen in place. Her eyes locked on the Uzumaki's face. They didn't move from the spot, tracing each rivulet of blood trickling down his face.
"I could" she eventually replied, nodding her assent as she broke out of her stupor. Yet still not moving to do anything other than looking away from Naruto in general.
This is the moment that the casino's armed guards decided to finally peek their heads through the original poker table sized hole in the wall. Of course it was the two men that had 'harassed' Naruto when he entered the premises.
The gruffer looking of the two 'Samurai' saw Naruto and scowled even deeper than he already had been.
For his part, Naruto managed to look both abashed and indignant, before he held a hand out pointing to Tsunade. "See, I told you!"
"H-how could you do it Rochi-Chan?" The drunken slug Sannin's words were slurred but still pretty well articulated. When you are a medic of Tsunade's caliber, drunk and sober are only a technicality, even at her most drunk she had the ability to balance her internal chemistry to make it almost meaningless, and she could sober up in under thirty seconds if she really wanted to remove the intoxicant.
"Do what exactly Hime?" Orochimaru hardly missed a beat, as if it hadn't been over a decade since the two communicated in person.
"You know exshactly what I mean. How could you give everything up for that village? You were a traitor of the highest order for years, they hated you, vilified you. So you could do what? Kill Danzo?"
"Hime, we both know I'm a snake at heart. The worlds opinion of me means very little to me, as long as they know I have a deadly bite" she let a toothy grin mar her symmetrical face. "And I was more than able to find benefits in existing outside of the traditional village system." Tsunade laughed at this, of course Orochimaru would find a way to benefit from this, she always did. "Besides, you and I both know that Danzo needed to be contained. And I just so happen to be uniquely suited to make sure he went down. Imagine the further damage he could have caused if he went unchecked."
Tsunade nodded at Orochimaru's words. She may have very little love left in her heart for Konoha, but she knew that it would be much better off without Danzo. He was once a staunch protector of her beautiful walls, but lost sight in his old age. When he should have been preparing for the next generation, he instead focused on the 'benefits' for the village if he was in power.
The Slug Sannin downed an extra large saucer of sake, probably the reason she chose this dive bar in such an otherwise nice resort town. A sigh escaped her lips after she downed the stout drink before she slumped forward into the booth table separating them. Pushing her bust up, much too the enjoyment of the few other male patrons in the establishment. "So, what's up with the kid? You were never one for hard-ass apprentices. Little Anko-Chan certainly wasn't anything like that. And I know how much you hate sharing."
"He's much better when you don't give him so much attitude," she paused for a moment before continuing. "Or punch him through walls..." The blonde just rolled her eyes at this, if she hasn't earned the right to have a little attitude then no one has. "He's Naruto Uzumaki…"
The name reveal paused Tsunade's sarcastic gestures in their tracks, "Kushi-Chan's kid?" Orochimaru gave a quick subtle pulse of chakra and glanced around at her surroundings. Confident in their relative surroundings, she nodded again to confirm her old teammates words. Tsunade barked out a single laugh. "Explains the flying sword fragments, the kid's probably some crazy fuinjutsu genius with those genes. But that still doesn't explain the attitude, at least not that kind of attitude."
"According to my own sources and Hiruzen, he has gotten a lot better. He used to be such a hardass, like it was the only thing he had. Kakashi did a pretty good job helping him socially after his first team was killed, and Jiraiya helped as well, surprisingly. And he's not a sealing genius, although he'll still probably be running circles around all three of us in a few years."
"Really now?" Disbelief obvious in her tone.
"The kid helped Jiraiya put Rasa down in the Chunin exams. That being after he tossed Suna's jinchuriki around the stadium like a ragdoll." Not exactly how the fights went down, but not much of an exaggeration. And it certainly took the swagger out of Tsunade's visage.
"And is he…" she trailed off as she moved a hand down to her stomach with a circular motion, asking if he was the container. Orochimaru didn't even need to nod her head to confirm it. It was information Tsunade already knew, an Uzumaki, son of Kushina, he was almost certainly the only person in Konoha who could safely contain the Kyuubi for any extended length of time.
The legendary blonde started to nod to herself, as if his status as a container explained his surprising strength. Only for Orochimaru to shake her head, already knowing what her teammate had started to assume about her student. "He doesn't utilize his, prisoner, if that's what you are thinking. He's a weapon smith. Hell 'weapon smith' is underselling him, the kid might be the most advanced researcher into Chakra Smithing on the continent."
This both answered some questions Tsunade had about their little spar, and yet confused the slug Sannin. It certainly explained the trick with the metal he used to surround himself and where the impromptu sword she broke appeared from. But, a jinchuriki was supposed to be incredibly dangerous from the boons of their position. Tonnes of chakra, higher damage thresholds, bijuu enhanced abilities, hell the chakra cloak alone is enough to melt through most Chunin squads. They were built to be human weapons. Living embodiments of the modern ninja lifestyle, death on demand. She pondered this information longer before speaking back up. "A hard life for an undeserving child. Another reason to hate the system."
"Unlike you he never had a choice, yet he's been able to make the best of it. If I was a sentimental emotional idiot I would be proud of him for it." Tsunade didn't much care for Orochimaru's not-so-subtle implication about her leaving Konoha when she talked about Naruto's choice in the matter. But there wasn't much she could do about it, she just up and left her home village so she lost the right to be indignant about it years ago.
Orochimaru went to refill her empty saucer from the cheap bottle provided by the bar, only to find it empty. "Well Hime, while you are at it, why not utilize those bags you call breasts to get us another bottle?" Tsunade didn't even blink at the lighthearted insult, Orochimaru being the only person in existence who could say that to her and not end up a bloody smear in the next town over. Instead, she simply leaned forward, her bosom once again pushed up by their wooden table, and gave a friendly smile and wave at the bartender. Who gave in without hesitation, bringing the two terrifying legendary beauties another battle of sake each.
They shared a laugh over how easy it was to manipulate men, before they decided to forgo the saucers and began drinking straight from the bottles. Reminiscing about the past.
The Toad Sage assisted his black and blue student down the road towards the hotel Tsunade was supposed to be staying in. He had figured it was for the best that Naruto went to get some rest. And by that they meant that Naruto further antagonizing Tsunade probably wouldn't help the overall mission.
They got more looks than they had when walking through the crowds earlier. But it was safe to assume that was more due to Naruto current state. Most of his injuries had healed by now, but there was still a good amount of blood and some of the worse bruising remained. Which was probably quite a sight for most of the civilians. A few of them even looked more than a little concerned for the blonde, who had no idea how to feel about the attention, figuring that ignoring them was probably fine.
They eventually arrived at the hotel Tsunade was staying at. The casino connected to the left side of the hotel let them know that Tsunade probably got her accommodations comped, seeing as her reputation for losing made her a cash cow for places like these. A feminine voice rang out as they entered the lobby "Jiraiya-Sama?"
Naruto practically spun on his heel to meet the source of the voice. A younger looking woman's gaze met his almost immediately. She was probably in her mid to late twenties at the oldest. Straight black hair framed her face, with a dark colored med-nin uniform. And Naruto thought she was clutching a stuffed pig to her chest, only to hear a not so soft oink emanate from the little animal.
"Shizune-Chan?" The toad ninja responded, momentarily caught off guard. He looked at her for another moment, mentally adjusting her face in his mind. "Shizune-Chan!" He reiterated, this time much happier. He reached out to grab the young woman by the shoulders, who did not flinch or hit Jiraiya, surprising his blonde student. "Look at you, all grown up. A real woman. Tsunade really rubbed off on you-" the smack that followed was quick and loud.
"That's more like it," Naruto said, relief in his world view being reaffirmed was evident. Unable to believe even for a moment that his male sensei could not be a pervert for more than ten seconds.
Shizune looked down at Jiraiya's young accomplice to see the state of his face. Her own facial expression immediately falling when she saw the state of the young blonde's bloody and bruised visage. "You should see the other guy," Naruto smirked to her. Causing her head to tilt sideways in confusion.
Jiraiya put a hand on Naruto's back, patting his student. "Heh, chip off the old block." He laughed like a parent remembering a young child's past mistakes. "Your master seemed to have taken a liking to him as a punching bag."
This caused her to nod in understanding. "He is your student after all, Jiraiya-Sama." Who just chuckled good-naturedly in response, Shizune joined him in a small laugh about her sensei's antics, even if she tried to stifle it.
Eventually she raised her hands and took a step towards Naruto, who did his best to not flinch or react violently as she touched him. He knew who she was, her file may not have had a recent picture, but did have information on her role as Tsunade's best student and apprentice. A green glow emanated from her hands as she held his head in place with one hand and inspected his injuries with the other.
"Hmmm, multiple green stick fractures along your jaw and nose. Most of the bruising and swelling is already going down, but I can speed most of it along. She must like you a whole lot to leave you without any compound fractures or breaks."She kept inspecting him, her hands making minute movements following the contours of his face before noticing the drying blood. "Who's blood are you covered in?" She asked confused. There wasn't a single visible laceration on Naruto's face that she could find.
"Mostly mine, Tsunade probably got some of hers mixed in their somewhere."
Perplexed would be putting it lightly. Shizune was beyond baffled. "You- you cut Tsunade-Sama?" Even her experienced hands froze in their medical ministrations upon hearing this.
Jiraiya picked up on her not very subtle surprise. "She didn't take the sight very well. I assume she hasn't made any progress on that front?" Naruto would have turned his own gaze to see Jiraiya if Shizune didn't still have a firm grasp on his skull.
She only shook her head at his words, a dour look painting her face and eyes. "Tsunade-Sama is a truly great medical ninja, but she can't heal mental scars as well as she can physical ones." After a momentary pause she looked back down at her impromptu patient. "You'll be fine. I've accelerated the fractures mending rate and started the proper blood flow under the bruising, it should be gone in under an hour." Her hands loosening their grip, one of them trailing through his hair and ruffling it like an older sibling might do to a younger one.
Naruto nodded his thanks to the kind woman. His hands coming up to study what she had done to him as well as to fix his hair after she messed with it. He also wanted to ask what they were talking about, but even his socially inept self knew that it was a tender subject.
"She must like you a lot to leave you so unscathed." Jiraiya laughed again, this time a much louder and sharper sound. He obviously found her statement to be ridiculously funny. Surprisingly, Naruto found himself joining in with his sensei. The man's laughter was truly infectious, even when the blonde was in a bad mood.
"She shows her love in mysterious ways. Punched me through a load-bearing wall of the casino and nearly crushed my windpipe in her hand." Jiraiya was still laughing, this time at Shizune's partly horrified and partly exasperated face.
"Don't worry your coin purse." The large man said, which surprisingly did a lot more to calm the medical kunoichi than Naruto thought it would. "Hokage-Sama saw fit to allocate a rather large discretionary fund for this mission. In his own words he figured "my wayward student would throw a tantrum like a drunken toddler and I would hate for you to be stuck footing her bill." So we were able to smooth things over with the casino." Naruto scoffed at that. To say they 'smoothed things over' would be more than a bit of a stretch. It cost them 5 million ryo just to shut management up, and they were all banned from the location for life.
Shizune just turned her attention back to the blonde in front of her at this. This time inspecting him much deeper than she had earlier. Looking him up and down, probably looking for an injury she might have missed previously. If Tsunade really hit him that hard, he should be a lot worse off for the wear. But she couldn't find anything out of place.
"Don't worry about him too much. He heals quickly. Side effect of being such a gaki." Shizune brushed her fears aside, seemingly content with the blonde's physical health. Who managed to give his own sensei an indignant look.
"Hai, hai. Let me show you to our suite. We have plenty of extra room to fit you two. It's the least we can do to repay you. Where is Shishou?"
"Oh, Hime is out drinking with Rochi-Chan." Shizune momentarily froze again, 'Orochimaru was here as well?' But she quickly got over her surprise at the Hokage sending the two other Sannin after her master, as that could only mean one thing. Showing her two guests up to their now shared suite of rooms.
'Perhaps I will finally get to see home again.' The legendary medic's apprentice thought to herself as they followed her up the stairs.
Ha, you thought you were only going to get that shitty interlude from before? Nah, I just didn't like having two of them in one chapter. And I figured it would be better to combine a little Lore information with the early training with Orochimaru and Naruto so that we could get a look at how they interact.
Although, everything else I said at the end of last chapter still stands. Just felt like I shouldn't make you wait so long for such a short and boring chapter after I already did that to you pretty recently.
Shit ramps up next chapter, and you get to see some of Naruto improvement since the Chuunin exams and having two Sannin torture (read as 'train') him.