A/N: I promised it to be a little faster, and wound up taking it a little slower.

In any case, I hope this is still up to par.

…

[Hi no Kuni Wilderness]

Naruto sat in the forest, resting after multiple back-to-back casts of the same Jutsu, as well as using basic White mana manipulation to heal himself.

Jiraiya stood by, watching him carefully as he recovered.

He was on his last ropes; only a day left, and he needed to get the Jutsu right. Failure would've killed any future Konoha would've had, paving the way for someone like Danzō to take the reins, if not someone worse. That was something he could not abide - he'd only been back in Konoha since his return to the Plane for months, and he'd already noticed the potential for the village to be even greater…potential that would've been wasted should Danzō take the helm.

To be perfectly frank, Naruto knew of people with Blue, Black, and White mana in their aura, and knew that they weren't all inherently evil; but Danzō represented all the worst aspects of his colors, with very little redeemable about him. For this reason alone, he was motivated to take on the exercise with a fervor not too different from Professor Cao's lessons.

Jiraiya had assigned him the task of getting the Rasengan to a point where he could do it right, and increase his casting speed and the power output. The first two days of the serious training were spent trying to get him to learn the manifold techniques to perform the Jutsu…all to obliterate a tree.

The shape manipulation exercise was the first thing he did right; shape the chakra into a ball without bursting the water balloon. It took a cat playing around with a spare water balloon to inspire him to find a workaround to the exercise. It also helped that his learned ability to manipulate mana gave him some insights on this trick; while mana manipulation was a more intuitive and mental exercise, chakra manipulation was more skill-intensive and required practice. Still, he could almost weep for the number of water balloons he detonated before he found his feline inspiration.

The other exercise was to burst the rubber ball with an excess of chakra; that had been difficult, but Naruto could see why. Rasengan was obviously a highly powerful Jutsu, which necessitated that he draw generously from his more-than-ample supplies and to keep it stable even for a moment. It was a very hard and yet so very simple exercise; the rubber ball was obviously more difficult to burst than the water balloon…all it took was effort. In that way, Naruto took inspiration from the Fireball spell he'd learned from his visit to Toril, coupled with his workaround by tapping the ball into shape for stability. With that in mind, he was able to graduate from simply deflating the ball to outright detonating it like a bomb.

The real challenge, however, came with putting the two lessons together properly to form the sphere; it was a matter of combining control with power output. At. The same. Time.

It was very difficult to output power while trying to control the shape of the sphere simultaneously and keep it stable.

Perhaps if he were more familiar with the Jutsu as Jiraiya was, he'd be able to keep it stable for a meaningful amount of time. He could very easily attempt to do this with the aid of a Kage Bunshin, but it was very likely that Jiraiya had intended for him to perform the Rasengan one-handed…and in that aspect, he was right. A Kage Bunshin would indeed expedite the process, but he'd need to learn to do it one-handed eventually, as the way he was doing it only served to get the concept hammered into his mind. From what he understood, the short-ranged nature and high chakra demands of the Rasengan meant that it was largely intended to be used as a highly destructive riposte…though he'd handled shields of all sizes long enough to know that even a defensive tool could be turned towards offense in an instant.

That said, he'd spent the past four or so days putting the two lessons together with an incrementally improving level of control and efficiency. The trees he'd practiced the Jutsu on had spherical cavities bored into their trunks with swirling cuts indicating the helical motion of the Rasengan - overtime, the cavities increased in diameter as bigger holes were gouged into the trunks of different trees.

If Naruto didn't have his foundational understanding of, and access to White mana to fix the damage to his hands, he was certain the tremors would have been worse. Add to this, if he didn't fix them himself, he would've been burning time unnecessarily, when the deadline was nearing its head. As much as he wanted to give his hands a comprehensive repair via archaeomancy, he needed to build up the muscle memory in order to remember what he did right, and to get used to the ensuing blowback of the Rasengan.

"Well, I've got to hand it to you…I don't like how you put yourself in danger learning Rasengan on your own, but I do see that you've improved with every use," Jiraiya noted, "Ready to try again?"

"You know it." Naruto uttered under his breath.

His last attempt had shown that he was still on the right track, as he'd put a hole clean through the tree. In order to win the bet, he needed to get past simply putting holes into the tree so that he could outright obliterate it in a single blow. He had one day to show Tsunade that he could put the proverbial money where his mouth was, and to show her that she still had a story to tell.

Naruto channeled chakra into his hand, pouring more and more power into the ball while beating it into a spherical shape. The ball of energy transformed, its form kept nice and tight with every tap on every side. In a way, it was not too different from crafting a new ball stake from scratch using a hammer and tongs; the only difference being that he was shaping the ball out of chakra, not metal. He was losing chakra, but he needed to strike while the iron was hot; if he failed to obliterate a tree this time, he would lose the bet…whatever future he intended to pursue in the plane would be lost, and his story would end then and there.

As the sphere increased in size, Naruto's taps increased in tempo to keep the sphere stable, slowing only when his ability to rein in the ball stabilized. He felt the sphere's form solidify with every strike…as if no matter how much chakra he poured in.

He then sighted his target: a tree with a trunk about as the one he'd used for the tree-climbing exercise, though not as tall. Still, it was a make or break moment for him…it was all or nothing as he drove his Rasengan into the trunk of the tree. The sphere of chakra ripped into the trunk, boring a large, spherical hole inside before it snapped in half.

He did it. He hadn't obliterated the tree, but he was still well on his way to perfecting the Jutsu. All he needed to was to speed things up…

His victory was short-lived as he blacked out, the strength in his limbs leaving him.

…

[Kitsunebi Forge]

Tenten enjoyed a cup of tea in the waiting room with Hanabi.

With no Hokage in the office, that meant that the two of them needed to be on the lookout for any potential thieves…especially considering nobody was hired to fix the door that was destroyed by the robbery yet. Ironically enough, it was the absolute lack of a Hokage that allowed them time off to keep an eye on the forge, as more shinobi were needed to guard the village while Konoha was in such a vulnerable state. With no Hokage in office going through the missions and assigning them, her team had the time to recover from the Chūnin Exams, and thus it gave her the time to help Haku protect the forge while Naruto was gone.

However, she needed to be discreet. If she was obvious about her vigil, she was very likely going to be ambushed…though fortunately for her, the fact that Haku was able to repel the last round of thieves practically served as a deterrent. For that reason, Tenten was able to rope in Hanabi to help her watch over the store while Naruto was gone - mostly to take her mind off the fact that Sasuke was beaten senseless by his own sister.

She would've gotten Hinata in on the job, but the elder Hyūga twin was out on a mission. Money needed to keep flowing into the village, especially to enact repairs after the fiasco caused by the Oto-Suna Incursion.

As soon as he got back, Naruto would be in desperate need of proper security very soon - and the sooner patrols were put in this part of the village, the better. As it stood, a weapons shop was already a very juicy target for a robbery…and knowing what she knew of the quality of his work from her spear Ryūsei, she could completely understand why it was such an attractive target. The quality of regular, factory-made kunai and shuriken were already good enough without being pricey, as they were intended to be used then discarded without a fuss…but Naruto's blades? Tenten would not be surprised in the slightest if they were capable of -at the very least!- cutting into a Shinobi flak jacket even without magical enhancements.

Her thoughts were interrupted as she watched Haku drag a mannequin out from the back of the store before pulling off the tarp. It was not a full harness of o-yoroi like the ancient Samurai would've worn, just a simple cuirass, a pair of vambraces, and greaves, each piece made from a single piece of steel and then given a mirror polish.

"Naruto's making armor now?" Hanabi asked.

"It's a service he was planning to offer when he gets back," Haku replied, making sure the stand was properly assembled before inspecting the pieces of armor glistening in the sunlight, "He won't be making whole sets of armor all the time, but he's planning on taking commissions for bits and pieces. A gauntlet here, a pauldron there, maybe even a helmet or two depending on the client."

Tenten huffed in amusement. "He's gonna have a hard time selling that; most Shinobi wouldn't go for any protection more than a flak jacket."

"That's exactly what I said," Haku replied, no doubt admiring the quality of the work, "I've told him that armor wouldn't sell very well in this world. His response? He's already doing the work of a tailor for each of the weapons he makes for his clients, he might as well do the job properly for armor as well…so he took a few short rods of steel, turned them into extra attachments for the anvil for curves, and got to work on this sampler. Didn't take too much time for him to make considering how he uses magic to help shape the metal without enchanting it." She then turned to face Tenten with a witty smirk on her face, running a cloth ruler through her fingers. "I could take both of your measurements now if you'd like, and keep that on record for him."

Hanabi looked at the ceiling, rubbing her chin in thought. "Maybe I can put in an order for gauntlets or even bracers when he gets back."

Tenten raised her hand, waving in the negative. "Thanks, but I'm a weapons girl, especially for Shinobi weapons. So I'll pass…" Her voice trailed as she ruminated on the image of Naruto taking her measurements for certain pieces of armor…albeit in a more intimate setting. "…for now."

…

[Tanzaku Gai]

Jiraiya walked down the street, a somewhat triumphant smirk on his face.

It'd been days since Naruto started his training with the Rasengan, and he'd been making a good amount of progress in doing it properly.

Truth be told, while he was still angry at the amount of danger that Naruto put himself in when trying to recreate it on his own, he was also quite impressed that he was able to do it at all…imperfect as it was.

Within the first few days, Naruto was able to get down the foundational knowledge for doing a proper Rasengan; first the water balloon, then the rubber ball. All in all, he was making good progress…three days in, and he was getting the hang of casting the Jutsu that his father had created. Perhaps he was applying what he knew of manipulating this energy known as 'mana' to chakra manipulation, Jiraiya didn't know - all he knew was that the boy was getting better. Still, it was a stroke of genius to use a second hand to practically tap the ball into shape…and to think, he was inspired by a cat playing with a water balloon - a cat!

The main problem, however, was stability - the crux of why Naruto's attempt at recreating the Rasengan on his own was far from perfect, and the necessity of using a second hand to tap the ball into shape was, at the end of the day, a crutch. As it stood, Naruto was putting a lot of holes in trees; holes that increased gradually in size with every attempt…and he did so without a complaint. Though given Naruto's exploratory nature, it was only a matter of time before he found a way to perfect it…potentially even find a way to enhance the way the Jutsu was done.

Assuming of course, he won the bet. He had a day left before the bet concluded…which meant that he had a day to perfect the Rasengan, or else he'd forfeit his career as a ninja and Tsunade would not become the Hokage.

His thoughts were interrupted as soon as she saw Tsunade sitting at a stand, sipping away at saké shots with edamame on hand.

Speak of the rumors, and shadows appear indeed.

Ever since she'd lost her boyfriend and her brother, she'd always been like this. Might as well keep her from drinking herself into a stupor alone.

"Mind if I join you?" he asked.

Tsunade looked towards him, a quizzical look on her face before motioning him onto the seat next to her.

"He really doesn't give up, does he?" Tsunade asked.

"Well, you know his parents," Jiraiya countered, "Once he's made up his mind about something, he's not gonna stop until he achieves it."

"Tell me about the boy, Jiraiya," Tsunade huffed in resignation, "Tell me about what had happened to him in the seven years he's been gone."

"There's really not much I can tell you that I'm sure about," he replied, "All I know is based on what Sarutobi-sensei told me. What I can tell you is that in his seven-year absence, Uzumaki Naruto had disappeared at the age of nine, and had allegedly seen and done a lot by the time he found his way home as a sixteen-year-old."

It was there that Tsunade was told, in summary, of the journeys of Uzumaki Naruto. From his transportation to the world of Arcavios and his education therein for the first three years, to spending the next four years visiting many other worlds in his journey to find his way home. He'd evidently been to so many places that he could very easily start his own travel catalog - places like Kamigawa in its Neon Dynasty era, the guilds of Ravnica, even the supercity of Capenna.

He told her of the conflict that Naruto took part in, aiding a resistance against an army of undead horrors so great that it consumed no less than thirty-six different worlds in the fires of war that threatened to rend the fabric of reality. It was a war supposedly so great that it eclipsed the Sengoku Basara, and all three Shinobi World Wars thus far by sheer brutality and devastation alone, and it all unfolded within a matter of months. Jiraiya admitted that he had no idea if this "New Phyrexian Invasion" had actually occurred, but the fact that Naruto's first instinct was to reach for a weapon upon being suddenly awakened had confirmed to him that the boy was, at the very least, involved in a most terrible conflict. It was, after all, exceedingly difficult to fake that kind of trauma.

Seven years spent away from this world, four of which were spent actually finding his way home…that was something even Jiraiya was not certain he would have endured without breaking in despair. All in all, the tale of Uzumaki Naruto's odyssey through the multiverse sounded like an epic in its own right - a tale of legend that, if the boy could prove it, was worthy of the likes of Senju Hashirama and Uchiha Madara.

"That's a good story, and it explains his skill," Tsunade noted, "True, I kicked his ass, but to his credit, he knew full well what he was doing when he and I fought blade to fist - you can't learn prowess in the academy. Other than that, I see no reason for you to take on Uzumaki as an apprentice. If what you're saying is true, then his travels have made him arrogant."

"He's young, and he's obviously seen a lot wherever he's been," Jiraiya defended, "There's still plenty of potential if I can just hammer the humility into him."

"Again, what I've told you is based on what Sarutobi-sensei told me…which in turn is based on Naruto's account. Therefore, I can't tell you for sure if the boy was lying, brainwashed, or just plain insane when he spun that yarn to Sensei. Then again, there's the things that've been happening recently…"

That last part was a slip…Jiraiya had not meant to let it out, but he did.

"Something you're not telling me?" Tsunade asked, looking at him with curiosity clear in her gaze.

Heaving a sigh, Jiraiya steeled himself - once words leave the mouth, there's no taking them back. Might as well come clean with her now that he's been caught. "It all started when I received intel about a lion-man that was seen hanging around in Naruto's forge, and then camping out in the Hi no Kuni wilderness. I kid you not, it was a hulking, humanoid being with a lion's head, covered in white fur and all. Turns out that said lion-man was Naruto's interdimensional friend Ajani Goldmane…who has now gone wandering after the Chūnin Exams, evidently with the intent of exploring our world.

"At first I thought that instance was a one-off, that interdimensional travelers would be a rarity…until something curious came to my attention a little later on. Some rich fathead put out a mission to catch a bird with gold-dusted feathers…and not 'gold,' like golden yellow, I mean feathers that look like they're lightly dusted in actual gold. At first, I thought the rich guy was crazy, until Naruto came to me with this…"

He pulled out the netsuke charm Naruto had found just before the encounter with Tsunade, allowing her a closer look to inspect the feathers. He told the boy he was going to borrow it to possibly help convince Tsunade, if necessary. "He found this netsuke a few days ago and then brought it to my attention. Sure enough, those were the exact feathers that I've been hearing about; Naruto said that they belonged, not to a bird, but to something he obviously encountered in his travels called an 'angel.'"

"And you believe him?" Tsunade asked.

"Naruto's given me no reason to doubt what he's said thus far," Jiraiya admitted, "Given the evidence of what had been happening as of late, we can expect more interdimensional visitors in the future. If that's the case, then my spy network's gonna be a whole lot busier in the future - to start with, we're gonna have to figure out which visitor is dangerous and which is not. And at the same time, we're gonna have to make sure nobody on our end tries any funny business with them, even if it's the Daimyo of Hi no Kuni himself."

Tsunade turned her attention back to her saké saucer, letting out a cold laugh before downing the contents in a single gulp. "What times we live in - first we have unexpected reunions, and now you tell me to expect interdimensional travelers. If anyone else told me this, I'd have thought that someone spiked their saké with something strong and then promptly asked them for a taste."

"Yes, about that," Jiraiya noted, "I noticed one of Orochimaru's snakes in the city…from that, I can only assume he had words with you."

"None of your business," she replied curtly, "You worry about your pet project, I'll handle myself,"

Jiraiya looked searchingly at Tsunade, wondering what it was that transpired between her and their former teammate. The Namekuji-sennin was very careful with her movements, which meant that his spy network was unable to get so much as a snippet of what was said between her and Orochimaru.

The only question he had in his mind was 'what did Orochimaru want?'

Jiraiya sighed and waved to the server for more snacks to eat with the saké.

"I sure hope you know what you're doing," he cautioned, taking a swig.

Within seconds of downing that shot, he felt something wrong as strength left his arms, causing him to drop the cup on the counter.

Realizing what was going on, he glared at Tsunade, his vision blurring.

Before he could say a word, his world went dark.

…

[Somewhere in Kaze no Kuni]

Gaara stared into the campfire in contemplation with his siblings and his commander asleep as he kept watch.

They were making their way back after a most unusual mission.

With the Kazekage dead, it was up to the village elders to assign missions, which still gave him an opening towards redemption.

It was slow progress, but it was still a chance for him to tell his own story, not the one that was told by his father. The village would need a Kazekage, and he would need to step it up in order to lead it into a better future…to do that, he would need trust from the villagers.

The mission in question was a relatively simple one. A bandit gang had been terrorizing the borderlands between Kaze no Kuni and Hi no Kuni for quite some time since news of Rasa's death had returned. The Sand Siblings were to locate the bandits' base of operations, and deal with them so that the neighboring village could live in peace…it wasn't a high-paying mission, but as it just so happened, the village in question was a farming village that Suna depended upon.

The only reason the bandits were able to get away with their crimes was that being based in the borderlands between Hi no Kuni and Kaze no Kuni meant that a full-on response risked provoking war between the two countries. For that reason, Gaara and his siblings had been sent to deal with the mission while Konoha was in the middle of resolving her own succession crisis. If they made any noise so close to the Hi no Kuni border, the odds were good that Konoha would sue for war…justifiably in retaliation due to Sunagakure's hand in the Oto-Suna Invasion during the Chūnin Exams.

It wasn't long until the siblings found the camp that the bandits had settled in. Everything was quiet until they moved in to investigate…and encountered a traumatized individual - the scruffy and dirty appearance of their clothes were signs that the person they'd rescued was one of the bandits. The bandit's terror was evident from the sorry state his pants were in, emphasized both by the stench and the fact that he was screaming at them to run away.

The bandit simply ran on. The problem was that by the time he finally left, the damage was already done, as Gaara and his siblings quietly asked each other one simple question: "just what could have been so bad that a bloodthirsty bandit would flee, with such terror in his step?"

Their question was answered as soon as they walked into the camp. To say that it was a slaughter would've been generous - none of the bandits in the camp was alive to tell the tale.

Deep cuts into the torso, dismembered limbs, even a few decapitations here and there. So much carnage, and not one body was left completely intact…however, the strangest thing were the wounds. From the aftermath of the damage, it was quite clear that the incident had happened not more than a few hours ago, given the number of vultures that they'd scared off…not a surprise, as the wounds looked to have been cauterized by an extremely hot blade, one hot enough to sear through steel, and into the victim. These wounds went beyond the damage done by a straight chakra blade, and seemed to have been done by a Katon-infused blade. Neither of the Sand Siblings were aware of any Ninjutsu that could create such a blade, doubly so since the Shinobi of Kaze no Kuni specialized in Fūton Jutsu, and Baki was present.

Being skilled in Taijutsu, Baki noted the subtle hints of footwork in the carnage. Whoever had beat them to the camp was so skilled that he practically danced circles around the bandits as he cut them down with impunity. Studying the cuts in the tents, as well as the way the corpses were brought down led him to conclude that the attacker was not a shinobi wielding a pair of kunai or even Taijutsu, but a grandmaster-level swordsman…doubly so as the way the bodies were positioned implied that they were cut down by a highly skilled, highly efficient warrior. He also admitted to the niggling sensation in the back of his mind that told him that the movements he noticed in the aftermath of the carnage were beyond skill alone - that this was skill backed up with actual talent for the blade.

The only person that Baki could think of that held such mastery of the blade was the legendary samurai blademaster Mifune. However, the general of Tetsu no Kuni was still in his homeland last anybody heard…and even if this massacre was well within his capabilities, Mifune was very likely tied up by his responsibilities as a general. Thus, it left a question unanswered as to what bladesman was responsible for cutting down so many bandits in one go.

Gaara had no idea what had happened. The only witness they had to the massacre of the bandit camp had fled to the desert, and was very likely going to be eaten by it…though given what he'd seen, he couldn't fault him. Perhaps the bandit preferred death by the desert than being slain by whatever, or rather, whoever it was that slew his compatriots.

Either way, it was very likely that this would not be allowed to slide, and the elders would want to investigate…to find out who meted out this bloody act of vigilantism upon the bandits. But for now, he and his team would have to return to Sunagakure in order to not only collect their pay, but to await further orders.

…

[Wilderness of Tanzaku Gai]

Naruto sped through the forest surrounding Tanzaku Gai.

As soon as he'd awakened, he found Shizune unconscious in her room. The terror in her eyes, combined with the realization had told him plenty…Tsunade was here, and she tried to stop her.

Before she could run away without an explanation, she was stopped by Jiraiya; weakened when Tsunade slipped a poison into his saké when he wasn't looking. It was then that she told him and a weakened Jiraiya of what had transpired: Orochimaru had indeed appeared in Tanzaku Gai, with his apprentice Yakushi Kabuto in tow…and his arms damaged beyond what a regular ninjutsu could repair. To that end, Orochimaru offered to use the Edo Tensei to bring back her lover Dan and her younger brother Nawaki in exchange for healing his arms.

Jiraiya had expressed regret at the possibility of having to kill Tsunade…though he'd made it clear that he'd only do it if she was truly going to go through with the deal.

The first stop was to the agreed meeting place. Nobody there, but the sound of conflict had drawn them out to the wilderness, forcing Naruto, Shizune, and Jiraiya to make their way towards the commotion.

"Feel any better?" Naruto asked in between steps, watching as Shizune supported Jiraiya's weight.

"I think I can move on my own now," Jiraiya replied, "We need to hurry…Orochimaru's on par with both me and Tsunade - he may be crippled, but he's still very dangerous.

The three of them continued, following the sounds of combat ahead. As they neared a clearing, they watched as Tsunade did battle with a platinum-haired youth along with a pale-skinned man with long, dark hair. Knowing that they would come to blows, Naruto summoned his sword-spear, as the three of them came between Tsunade and her opponent.

"The hell are you three doing here?!" she barked.

"Backing you up," Jiraiya replied.

"You needn't have bothered!" Tsunade replied, "I'm not gonna stop until I rip his smug head off!"

Tsunade pushed aside Jiraiya, Naruto wisely stepping aside to avoid getting hit. As she approached him, the bespectacled Shinobi did something Naruto never thought anyone in their right mind would do: he slit his wrist, his wound gushing with blood.

The effect it had was quite instantaneous, as Tsunade froze in place upon being coated in blood, allowing the bespectacled Shinobi ample time to punch her hard enough to send her flying. Shizune was quick to catch her master, and Naruto moved to reinforce her. He then looked towards Tsunade, watching as she was wracked with tremors. He sighed emphatically - Shizune had told him of this: the trauma of losing her loved ones was so bad that the Sannin suffered from hemophobia.

He then turned to regard the bespectacled Shinobi.

"Uzumaki Naruto," he noted, popping a pill into his mouth, "We finally meet face-to-face."

"You speak as if we know each other," Naruto replied, readying his grip on his sword-spear for battle.

"In a way, we do," snarked the bespectacled Shinobi, "The name is Yakushi Kabuto - apprentice, and spy of Orochimaru-sama. My mission was to spy on Uchiha Sasuke during the Chūnin Exams as a possible replacement body for my master…but during my mission, I saw you in the hospital using strange Jutsu that nobody had ever used before. Makes me wonder as to what you went through to learn them."

"You'd be bored to death by the tale," Naruto snipped.

"Don't take him on," Jiraiya advised, "He'll murder you in ten thousand different ways. I'll handle Orochimaru, Shizune will take care of Kabuto - you protect Tsunade."

He didn't bother arguing; he knew nothing about the way Yakushi Kabuto fought except that he was not afraid to fight dirty…in that way, it was no surprise that his aura was tinged with both Blue and Black mana, much like his pasty-faced master, who was undoubtedly Orochimaru.

Jiraiya and Shizune charged their assigned targets while Naruto summoned a phalanx of Kage Bunshin armed with sword-spears to protect Tsunade on all sides, forming two rings. The outer ring kept vigil on the battles happening outside, while the remainder kept their attention to whatever was going on inside the ring, in the event that someone decided to attack from within the perimeter.

The battle unfolded as both Shizune and Jiriaya did battle with their respective opponents.

As soon as the battle commenced, Orochimaru and Kabuto worked together to summon snakes, upon whose heads they rode into battle. Unfortunately, Jiraiya put a stop to that line of thinking, conjuring forth a muddy pit to trap the titanic snakes, forcing the two rogues to fight on foot.

Orochimaru had proven to be quite an able combatant despite his handicap. Naruto noted the swordplay in the man's steps as he used the snake in his gullet to handle his sword, turning the entirety of his body into one large sword arm. The blade he wielded was a long, slender, double-edged weapon with raised quillons and a magatama embedded in the quillon block - while the rest of the hilt was hidden away, Naruto eyeballed it to be well within the length tolerances for a bastard sword.

Jiraiya's moves, by contrast, seemed a little more brutal…though he'd known enough from experience that hand-fighters could be just as deadly as a weaponmaster. Naruto had run afoul of a number of particularly nasty monks during his time in Toril, and knew firsthand how magic-infused punches could hurt. Granted, Torilian monks wielded ki instead of chakra or mana, but it still applied…and in a way, Naruto would not all have been surprised if Jiraiya fit in Toril more as a monk.

Shizune and Kabuto however, was a very excellent display of their knowledge in medical sciences…where they differed was that Shizune did her best to keep Kabuto within mid-range as she wielded the launchers mounted on her forearm, firing volleys of what had to be toxic needles at her opponent. Overall, it was an evenly-matched fight…until Kabuto used a Jutsu to burrow under the ground - within the next few seconds, he cut into both of Shizune's ankles before making a beeline towards Naruto.

He did not need to wait for an order to make his next move: he turned towards Tsunade, channeling White mana into his hand before casting his spell.

"Boon of Safety!"

The spell took effect instantaneously, creating a door-sized shield over Tsunade as Kabuto loomed over her. The door of White mana did its job in stopping his attack, buying Naruto and his Kage Bunshin enough time to reinforce Tsunade while pushing back Kabuto with a well-coordinated volley of thrusts. While the rest of his small army pursued the attacker, Naruto took a handful of clones and formed a wall of spearmen around Tsunade while watching the rest of his clones deal with Kabuto. The bespectacled Shinobi was able to dispel most of his doppelgangers pursuing him - not as quickly as Tsunade did, but he still made rather good progress.

Once he'd finished off the majority of the pursuing Kage Bunshin, Kabuto made another run at Tsunade, cutting down more in the process. The second he neared his charge, Naruto used a basic Red cantrip on himself, enhancing his movements with a burst of speed before thrusting the tip of his sword-spear at his opponent, forcing him back. In return for his temerity, Kabuto cut down the rest of his doppelgangers, forcing the battle to be one-on-one as the two of them battled it out - the bespectacled Shinobi on the offensive, while Naruto stayed on defense. Lessons learned from fighting Kamigawan ninjas, as well as his recent fight against Jiraiya hammered home the necessity of fighting in 3D space, keeping his head on a swivel as he defended against Kabuto's attacks.

There was a break in the fight as Naruto caught Kabuto with a block using the haft of his sword-spear, giving him ample time to land a kick on his opponent in the abdomen. He'd landed that kick just in time to avoid much worse than a cut on his robe - with the space he created, his sword-spear was held in a low guard with a hand free for spellcasting if necessary.

With the break between the two of them, Naruto and Kabuto had a chance to recuperate as they sized each other up, giving Naruto an opportunity to assess his opponent using what he'd learned from his slain Kage Bunshin. Kabuto's hands were empty, but between his bobbing and weaving, his feinting, and the kicks he doled out, Naruto noted that the chakra engulfing his hands were honed into razor-sharp blades. Going by his footwork, his speed, how he sought to close the distance between them, apparent lack of grapples and the small reach of his strikes, these were not the moves of a hand-to-hand fighter. No, Naruto deduced that he had to approach his bespectacled opponent as he would a dagger fighter.

Add to this, Kabuto's movements, clumsy as they were from whatever Tsunade did to him, were still built upon experience, allowing him to exploit openings in Naruto's spearmanship - by no means was Naruto slow, it's just that Kabuto was faster due to the use of that Jutsu he used. Exacerbating the situation was that Kabuto was regaining control of his motor skills as the fight dragged on…in a way, Naruto was impressed with how fast of a learner his opponent was.

He would either need to switch weapons or play more defensively this time if he intended to end this fight. Fortunately, the lessons learned in Professor Cao's classroom had allowed him to survive any fight with a combination of both spell and steel. Unfortunately, given the nature of his plane, he didn't have time to cast his more powerful spells, limiting him only to faster spells.

The most definitive advantage he had over Kabuto weapon-wise, was that the length of his sword-spear was such that it allowed the wielder to create breathing room for more definitive power-strikes. Thus, the flow he had been using, as well as his tactics needed to be adjusted to outpace his opponent's momentum…or at the very least to take it back from him.

"Not bad," Kabuto observed, "Though honestly, I doubt you're showing your entire hand."

"Naturally," Naruto countered, twirling his sword-spear.

Yes, he would indeed have to play defense…to become the eye of the storm, as Professor Cao had put it.

"Just leave me be and get the hell out of here!" Tsunade commanded, her voice tinged with desperation, "You still have a life ahead of you! Don't you want to find out the ending to your story!?"

"And so do you," Naruto replied calmly, his attention still on Kabuto, "It shouldn't matter what kind of ending you get, so long as you live your life and see it for yourself. My story is my own, and I'll own whatever ending comes my way in my final chapter - but you? You still have plenty of life left - you still have many chapters to go before you discover your ending. Personally, I want to hear the story of the woman who rose above her pain…who found the courage to live life again and continue writing her story with every breath she takes."

Kabuto scoffed. "Sadly for you, I intend to end both of your stories here and now."

Naruto tightened the grip on his sword-spear, his muscles taut as he readied himself for whatever Kabuto was about to throw his way.

Kabuto resumed the fight by summoning a viper from his hands, and sent it flying towards Naruto at speed. Before the fangs could reach him, Naruto cleaved the snake in twain, and in that same movement, he thrust the mana gem pommel at Kabuto before swinging the entirety of the polearm to create space as he was forced back. As he retreated, Kabuto sent a salvo of kunai flying at Naruto, who deflected the blades with a twirl of his sword-spear - he then charged White mana into the haft of his polearm, the runes on the haft pulsating with white energy before throwing his sword-spear into the ground in front of Tsunade, the blade planted into the ground. The enchantment had taken effect just in time to stop Kabuto from attacking her with a salvo of kunai and shuriken, a bubble of white energy emitted from the spear deflecting the projectiles.

"What trickery is this?" asked a confused Kabuto.

"Just a simple barrier cantrip applied on my sword-spear," Naruto taunted, summoning his war sword along with five Kage Bunshin, "I'm not letting you out of my sight, so you may as well continue our dance."

The plan was quite simple: Naruto needed to hold Kabuto down in order to end the fight definitively.

Naruto's steps were aggressive this time, working in tandem with his doppelgangers in hopes of tiring his opponent out, forcing Kabuto on the defensive this time. The four of them worked together, wiser from the last time they clashed, the runes on their war swords taking on a furious green glow to avoid standing out while enhancing the cutting power of their blades. Kabuto, however, was able to keep up, being able to dance around the strikes and match the six Narutos' steps, though he was unable to edge in a response in the meantime. Throughout the fight, Naruto wove in and out among his doppelgangers, confusing Kabuto with a sort of cup-and-ball game as he tried to discern which was the true Naruto.

Tired of being on the defensive, Kabuto whittled away each of Naruto's Kage Bunshin, striking each in the face while taking care to evade the glowing sword blades. However, that was all the opening Naruto needed, as he used the smoke left behind to cast his spell.

"Entangling Vines!"

Within seconds, thick, woody vines wrapped around Kabuto's ankles and wrists, anchoring him to the ground as they pulled down taut. That he was unable to escape using the Kawarimi no Jutsu elicited a degree of smug satisfaction in Naruto as his bespectacled opponent struggled to extricate himself from the lianas rooting him to the ground.

However, the fight was far from over - the Entangling Vines enchantment was only a temporary measure to stop Kabuto from moving.

He needed to end the fight now.

With his opponent pinned down, Naruto worked quickly, summoning another Kage Bunshin before gathering chakra into his palm. As he pushed all the chakra he had into the ball, the Kage Bunshin was free to use both hands to tap the sphere into shape - he did not skimp on chakra, and the doppelganger's tapping accelerated as the ball expanded. With his best attempt at Rasengan complete, Naruto charged his opponent, slamming the ball into Kabuto's abdomen just as he'd managed to tear himself free of the vines.

All the force of the blow had transferred into the liberated Kabuto, sending him flying.

…

Tsunade could not believe it - the brat had done it.

Within the span of ten days, Uzumaki had perfected the Rasengan.

While he still required setup to do so, the fact of the matter was that he'd perfected the Rasengan, therefore winning the bet.

Given how drained he was from using the Jutsu properly, he would still need practice - but if Uzumaki managed to live past this day, that wouldn't be a problem.

It was at this moment that Tsunade saw an image in her mind of both Dan and Nawaki standing before her, their backs to her just as Uzumaki's was…and for a moment, she thought she saw a road ahead of them. There was no sense of finality to this road they were walking, just a path into infinite possibilities - of a future unwritten, a tale yet to be told. It was also at this point that her mind raced with questions she hadn't asked herself in a long time.

Was she wasting her life mourning the loved ones she'd lost?

Could she have spent her time writing her story, as Naruto had put it?

"Naruto-kun!" Shizune cried out.

Tsunade was brought out of her thoughts when she spotted Naruto swaggering in exhaustion. She was fast enough to catch Naruto as he was collapsing, undoubtedly from the blood loss, catching him before he hit the floor and suffered a concussion. His breathing was fine, just exhausted from using too much chakra in one instance for the first time…fox-enhanced coils or not, one's chakra supply was finite. Still, he needed to be healed of the strain he'd suffered from performing the Rasengan the right way for the first time.

She channeled chakra into her hand, and worked the Shōsen no Jutsu to heal any internal injuries and strain caused by his performance of the Rasengan. With that done, she took off the pendant from her neck, and placed it around Naruto's - he'd won it fair and square after all.

What happened next unfolded within seconds: her former teammate had rushed the two of them, the blade of his accursed blade Kusanagi jutting out from his mouth. Trained eyes led to the realization that the snake wasn't targeting her - he was aiming for a kill-shot on Naruto. It didn't take long for her to get in the path of the blade, preventing its tip from ever reaching Uzumaki; despite the searing pain of the stab, she found the strength to endure as the blade of Kusanagi ran through her chest, even penetrating her heart. She saw the look of shock in Orochimaru's face as he stopped short of driving the remainder of his blade through her chest.

Extricating the blade from her wound and retracting his blade, he looked back at her quizzically. "I hadn't intended to kill you, but you seem interested in saving this kid that you didn't care much for. What changed? Have you come to care for Konoha again?"

"Maybe I have, maybe I haven't," Tsunade countered, firmly and with determination in her voice, "But one thing's for sure: I'm done letting the pain of the past hold me back. Whether or not becoming the Hokage is in the cards for me, I will live my life again until the day of my final chapter - I will see my story through to the end so that when my time comes and I see Dan and Nawaki again, I'll have one hell of an epic to tell them."

There was no mirth in Orochimaru's fanged grin, no humor - just scorn. "Then I'm afraid I'm going to have to cut your story short…and when I'm done with you, I'll see to it that the boy's story ends this day."

"The only ending you'll be seeing is your own." Tsunade growled, the markings from the diamond marking in her forehead expanding. As she did this, her wound had regenerated until not even a scar was left behind.

"Tsunade-sama, no!" Shizune cried out.

"Shizune, watch out for Naruto-kun," she ordered firmly, hands clenched

Tsunade flew through hand seals, eliciting a look of shock on Orochimaru's features as he leaped back. "Kabuto!" he called out.

The bespectacled Shinobi was quick to recover from the injury caused by the Rasengan he'd taken. He wasn't completely healed, but he was still in good enough condition to aid his master by drawing his blood with a kunai, then performing the Kuchiyose no Jutsu on his behalf. Out of the smoke came a purple snake with green eyes and horns streaking backwards…a slithering creature she knew full well as Manda, the boss summon of the Snake Contract.

By the time she'd completed the sequence of hand seals, Tsunade summoned her own beast, her most trusted of partners: Katsuyu, the ruler of Shikkotsu Forest and the boss of the Slug Contract. However, she was not alone in this, as she noted that off in the distance, Jiraiya had summoned the boss of his own contract: the Toad boss Gamabunta.

Perhaps this was the climax of the chapter she was living.

But one thing was for sure: she wasn't going to let anyone or anything dictate the way she wrote the story of her life. Her life was suffering a major case of writer's block due to the pain and trauma she suffered.

Not anymore.

Today was the day she took back control of her story.

…

Naruto's eyes fluttered open to a most unexpected sight.

A snake, a slug, and a toad dressed in a haori, all of titanic proportions, all doing battle with each other. Orochimaru stood on the snake's head, while Tsunade commanded the slug and Jiraiya did the same with the toad.

As he sat up, Naruto found a black-sleeved arm pulling him down.

"You've done enough," said the voice of Shizune from behind, her tone gentle and placating yet every bit as firm as her grip, "You've fought for Tsunade-sama and given her a reason to live; now it's her turn to fight for you."

Naruto would have fought her grip, would have insisted that he join in, but a cursory glance at Shizune said it all. Such determination and devotion was written on her face - it was admirable that she would hold fast to her master's command despite clearly wanting to join the fight herself.

It was at this moment that Naruto reluctantly agreed, relaxing body ever so slightly. His muscles were kept just tense enough to aid Shizune in battle at a moment's notice should the worst come to pass and Tsunade and Jiraiya were defeated.

"Manda, snake king of Ryūchi Cave; Katsuyu, slug ruler of Shikkotsu Forest; and Gamabunta, boss of the Myoboku-zan Toads," Shizune explained, "All three of them are the apexes of their respective contracts, and each of them are the strongest that the Sannin could summon. The three of them in battle is a clash of the ages that may never be seen again."

Naruto was silent, watching the fight unfold with rapt attention.

The slug was easily formidable as it avoided taking any serious hits by breaking down into pieces before reforming in a different location, then spraying the purple snake with a sickly green liquid. The toad however, was more direct in the way it did battle, slashing at its opponent with what could only be a massive tantō befitting its size.

The fight had come to an end when Katsuyu found an opportunity to pin down Manda, giving Gamabunta the opportunity to drive the tip of his tantō into the snake's head. There was no limit to the fury in the snake boss's eyes.

"You'd better hope we don't meet again, Orochimaru," growled the snake in a clearly masculine baritone, "If I ever see you again, I'll eat you before any tributes you bring."

Manda disappeared in a massive smokescreen, Orochimaru having disappeared without a trace

As Jiraiya and Tsunade approached, Naruto processed everything he'd witnessed thus far.

It was as though he were seeing an epic battle between three Planeswalkers, each having summoned the strongest creature they had access to. He could only guess as to the sheer amount of mana, or in this case chakra, that summoning such titanic creatures would require - Naruto estimated that it had to be staggering.

He was, however, able to note that the summoned beasts of the Sannin were nothing like his own summons - creatures and beings summoned by a Planeswalker were constructs of memory and mana, retaining the strength and power of the originals. These titanic beasts doing battle before his eyes, however, were no mere memories: they were living, breathing creatures with their own wills. Naruto noticed the sheer malevolence in the snake's eyes as it tried to fight off the double-team it was forced to deal with - there was a clear rivalry between the three of them.

Perhaps there was much more to learn in his home plane, after all…and perhaps this could help him with his ambition to at the very least open up a mage tower in Hi no Kuni to teach future mages.

Whatever the case, it was clear that his story had yet to begin on this Plane, and he would see it through to the end.

…

A/N: …and now we're done. Hopefully the next writer's block won't be as bad.

So many things happened in this chapter, and it's not even a fighting episode.

I plan for the next chapter to be a bit faster-paced, but I expect to try a take on the reunion of the Sannin…

As to the emphasis on Yami-ō, I'll leave it to speculation as to who will be its owner.

…

Vocabulary/Translations/Notes:

Oyabun—that's the boss of a yakuza (the Japanese mafia to the uninitiated).

…

Cards used:

Boon of Safety (White)—Instant

Put a shield counter on target creature. (If it would be dealt damage or destroyed, remove a shield counter from it instead)

Scry 1

…

Entangling Vines (3)(Green)—Enchantment - Aura

Enchant tapped creature.

Enchanted creature doesn't untap during its controller's untap step.