AN: Chapter title: The Search: Back On Track!

"So, how does it feel to be back on the road?"

"You still haven't told us where we going."

"Fair point."

Jiraiya promptly walked ahead, didn't bother hiding his chuckles at the glare he could feel on his back coming from his blonde traveling companion. At least Fu remained cheerful next to Naruto, had shouldered her pack with a smile unlike the blonde. His face was contorted into a grimace at worst, a frown at best.

"This is a waste of my time." Naruto may have spoken such words to himself but he didn't drag his feet, kept pace with the white-haired Shinobi leading the way out of nothing but stubbornness while Fu half walked/half skipped at his side. The blonde clearly disliked not knowing where they were heading but he also seemed to be of a mind that he wouldn't ask where they were going.

Which only caused him to be further annoyed at not knowing where they were going.

Yet, he still didn't ask where they were going.

It was a vicious self-sustaining cycle.

Jiraiya only kept leading the two Jinchuriki down the well-traveled road.

After the two groups of Hidden Grass Shinobi had passed through it yesterday, Iba and the remaining samurai of the Shiranui Group had set out earlier today down this same road. Jiraiya had spent their last few hours at the camp speaking with the last remaining Medical-nin before seeing her off opposite the road the three Shinobi walked now.

Jiraiya had given the dark-haired woman a wink that she had answered with a scowl before heading off.

"This isn't a waste of time Naruto! It's a fun adventure!" Fu kept pace at Naruto's side with her own pack on her shoulders, a wide smile on her face. "It's like we're on a quest!"

"I have no need for a quest." Naruto only shook his head at her words but he wasn't mocking her. "The only good thing from this latest delay was the chance for my Praetorians to at last catch up to us." He was departing without his bodyguards yet again, would leave them behind with their new orders.

An honor guard of his Praetorians would oversee the burning of the pyres, disassemble them once the embers cooled and collect the ashes for internment with the rest of the fallen. An Optio and a handful of his men had departed with Iba and would be responsible for establishing proper lines of communication between the Legion and the Shiranui Group at a later date. His Legate would also have a message waiting for him upon his return, a Contubernium responsible for escorting Caesar's personal message to the Legate back to the tower.

The rest would continue their tireless search for 'Unlucky': Tsunade of the Sannin. The Centurion he had placed in command of so many Centuries would break his remaining Praetorians into their Contuberniums and split them between following Caesar and continuing their search for Jiraiya's missing teammate. Caesar still aimed for his magnificent Legion to find her before the Toad Sage, could bring an end to this pointless search, and return to the current heart of his Empire and command center for his Legion. The Hidden Grass would simply be another location searched up and down, one of many lands searched by this point. With how far the majority of his veteran Praetorians and the Legionnaires of his Sixth Cohorts had been spread, Caesar was sure her location would be discovered any day now.

'And once they find her, this nonsense will finally end.' He had ordered his Praetorians to join the search soon after his departure for a reason after all. Even only a few days after leaving the Hidden Leaf Village, he had grown irritated with how the Toad Sage had chosen to go about this search.

Mindless wandering, the Toad Sage's constant looks at a Caesar just like the one from morning they had left the village, and the mess of feelings such looks brought on now that he knew why he looked at him in such a way.

That he saw his father in him…

Naruto could do without any of it.

Unfortunately, neither his Praetorians or his Legionnaires had anything to report yet. The woman was difficult to find, doubly so with neither he or his Legate present to oversee their efforts. As great as his Legion was, this was a task they were almost ill-suited for. At least for now.

He would be sure to have his Legate begin new training for the entirety of his Legion.

"Oh! So that's their name?" Fu's smile was wide as she spun on her heel on her next step and chose to walk backwards to face Naruto. "I like their purple cloaks! Could you get me one? Oh! How about a green one?"

Blue eyes were focused on her for a moment. And a grin stretched across Naruto's face a few moments later. He threw his head back and laughed long and loud, earned a look even from Jiraiya at his sudden outburst. Fu's smile slipped off her face for a moment before it was back long enough for her to pout.

"Hey! That's not funny Naruto! I was serious! A green cloak would totally go with my hair!" 'What's so funny?' He had never reacted like this before.

Naruto only continued to laugh. His blue eyes were bright with mirth as his laughter only kept going and going.

"You alright there Naruto?" Jiraiya figured the blonde Chunin wouldn't pass out just from laughing. Probably.

The blonde still didn't stop.

"Come on! Stop laughing!" Fu made a gamble and decided to grab him. Not an outright grapple or an attack. She didn't like her chances in a test of strength against the blonde. She acted like the little sister clinging to their older brother, the younger sibling bothering their older sibling. Like she had seen so many times.

Naruto didn't throw her off as one hand weakly hammered against his Flak Jacket in mock fury. He finally looked to be done with his laughing fit at least. The blonde patted her on the shoulder.

"A green cloak is ill-fitting for you Fu." The blonde Jinchuriki offered a mild chuckle as he gently pushed her ahead using the hand on her shoulder. "If I gave you such a thing, I would need to command a Green Legion as well as my glorious Orange Legion."

Again, he chuckled. It was at least not another laughing fit but he clearly found what he said hilarious.

To the confusion of his two companions on the road.

'…What?' Jiraiya and Fu didn't know they were of the same mind at the moment.

Fu recovered faster than Jiraiya, put an eager smile on her face. It wasn't even fully fake. This was an opportunity.

"OH! Does that mean I can have an army too! Can you show me your technique? Please? Please? I promise I won't fight you!" 'Is it this easy?' Fu felt the heavy weight of a stare on her back, did her best not to show how much it made her want to shiver as she jumped up and down in front of Naruto. "A Green Legion would be so cool! I could be as cool as you!"

'Was it really this easy?'

"Perhaps another time." Naruto patted her on the shoulder before he spun her around. His eyes flickered to his extended arm, the seal that could so easily burn to life at his command. "Perhaps…"

Would it be worthwhile to fully share such a power?

He shook his head. His blue eyes burned behind Fu, behind Jiraiya.

'No. What am I thinking? Not even Sasuke has the right to such a thing. Why should she?' His sense of kinship with her or not, there were limits. He looked to his arm once again. 'How would I even instruct her?'

"Come on! There's gotta be something besides ANOTHER Clone Technique! How about something cool?"

A Caesar forced down the memory of before.

Before his brothers.

Before his dream.

"Toad Sage!" He focused on the present when he called out to the one in charge of this endless wandering. If nothing else, it was something to focus on instead of a past better left ignored.

"Yeah?"

"I need information before we continue any further. If I am to make proper use of my Legion I must know: Where are we going?"

Jiraiya couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at the fact Naruto had finally asked the question.

'Didn't think he ever would.' The Toad Sage almost shook his head. "Back to the Land of Fire. We're heading straight for Tanzaku Quarters."

"…You aim to lead us to that gambling den? That's been our destination this entire time?" Naruto's distaste at the reveal was astoundingly clear. He knew plenty about that place and held little interest in ever seeing it. He looked tempted to stop here in the middle of the road, refuse to continue judging by the grimace crossing his face. "What? Are you aiming to indulge in your perverted antics there? Buy the company of some whore for the night?"

"Don't tempt me." Jiraiya chose to joke, laugh at Naruto's words. "But we're going there to find Tsunade. I've got good intel that she'll be there soon enough. We'll get there after her so she's got a chance to get herself into a good mood. Best time to speak with her is after she's lost a fortune and looking for a place to hide out from her debt collectors. I like to call that leverage."

Jiraiya thought back to happier times.

"Really Tsunade?" The pale Shinobi's palm had an up close and personal meeting with his face. "That was for our entire budget."

"Hey! It's not my fault! That game was rigged! Tell him Jiraiya!"

"Oh, now it was rigged? What happened to 'I can get this sucker for everything he's got. Just watch me'. Huh?"

"Oh quiet you! You two can go and make it back if I make such bad decisions!"

""You do.""

"I said quiet you two!"

'Those were the times.' They had all been teenagers back then, out on some random mission he couldn't remember the details of except that it took them outside the village. Hiruzen's training had been put to good use by all three of them to succeed at anything they put their minds to but Tsunade's gambling and poor luck had left them penniless still days from the Hidden Leaf. And the Slug Princess had decided that her two teammates would find a way to get back the money while she looked for another game. The first of many such occasions.

He had thought they would continue like that until they were all old and grey.

And then the war had begun. They had been sent to battlefield after battlefield, battled across the different fronts together as often as they were on their own.

And then Dan's death. Nawaki's. Tsunade couldn't stay, had been consumed by her grief even then.

He hadn't seen the roots of Orochimaru's madness either.

He had thought the three of them would be friends for the rest of their lives.

Naruto's grimace only increased. Even Fu had an actual frown on her face.

'So those stories are true?' The green-haired Kunoichi had heard plenty about the legendary Medical-nin from the Hidden Leaf and little of it painted her in a positive light. By the look on Naruto's face when she glanced to him, he seemed to share her new distaste for the woman known as the Slug Princess.

"She's a gambler? The woman we've been after all this time is that pathetic?"

"Don't say that Naruto! I'm sure…she's…"

Pressure.

Their lives were threads under a razor-sharp blade.

Death. Death was before them.

Images of their grisly demise didn't flash to their minds. Visions didn't render them blind to the world as their bodies believed themselves to die over and over again.

Death simply was. The inevitable end.

Life was no more.

And it was gone.

Breathing was easy.

Neither Fu nor Naruto were fully aware still. Red had crossed their eyes, Chakra burned around the Uzumaki who called himself Caesar and it buzzed around the Takigakure Kunoichi. Neither of them noticed it. Fu didn't notice that she had latched on to Naruto's arm hard enough for her sharpened nails to bite through his sleeves. Naruto didn't notice the claws his hands had become nor the fact that they had punctured the skin of his palm. Rivers of blood ran down each of his fingers, the involuntary tensing of his fist drawing out a fresh run of red.

Jiraiya forced himself to calm down. He had reigned in his Killing Intent as quickly as he could recognize it.

"…Sorry about that." He didn't face the two. Whatever jovial expression he had worn was gone. His face was eerily blank, empty of anything but the cold rage burning in his eyes. "I don't like hearing people talk about my teammate like that. I just…lost it for a second there." He released his rage, he allowed it to burn before he smothered the flames. It wouldn't do him any good. Not here. Not now. "Let's all just try not to have that happen again, alright?"

Two pairs of red eyes settled on his back.

Slowly, gradually, the bubbles of red Chakra around both began to recede. As they came back to themselves, as their heartrates calmed, they could control themselves once again.

'I…I couldn't…The Toad Sage…Jiraiya…So easily…That doesn't make sense! A Caesar is never afraid!' He didn't speak, didn't shout. He had to all but bite down on his tongue to keep his mouth shut but he said nothing. 'I was caught off guard.' He had to have been. 'I was caught off guard. He surprised me. I…I was a fool to relax. I'm away from my Legion. From my brothers. I was a fool to let my guard slip.'

A Caesar didn't acknowledge that the results would've been the same even if he had drawn his sword, been ready for battle against the Toad Sage.

He had been caught off guard.

It was the only way for him to make sense of what happened.

Such a "fact" allowed him to control himself.

He couldn't stop the wince when he pried his bloody hand open, pulled the already shortening nails free of his own skin. The fresh wounds there burned but they would be gone soon enough. The blood on his hand wasn't that great of a concern to the blonde.

Naruto's focus was fully on Fu. She couldn't fully suppress the trembling of her body.

Her orange eyes were wide, her hand still trapping his arm in an iron grip. He could feel his sleeve warm.

'That…He didn't even do it on purpose…That was the strongest Killing Intent I've ever felt…' A part of Fu still felt like curling into a ball and sobbing on the ground, just collapsing and breaking down. 'He…He's a monster…'

For the first time, she could understand just why the title of Sannin had been such a big deal.

If the three were famous for their equal strength than the rest of the world was lucky that the Sannin had fallen apart. The Hidden Leaf could've had three absolute monsters on their hands if that wasn't the case.

Travel amongst the three Shinobi had been awkward all day.

Since Jiraiya's unexpected surge of Killing Intent, the reaction of the two younger Shinobi to a glimpse of the Toad Sage's power, conversation had been nonexistent.

Naruto's blue eyes alternated between focusing on the road ahead to glares directed at the Toad Sage's back. Glares the older man ignored whenever he felt them.

Fu's orange eyes stayed focused on anywhere but Jiraiya. She stayed close to Naruto as they traveled, kept him between her and the older Shinobi.

'Can't say I'm surprised.' Jiraiya continued on ahead and withheld the urge to sigh. He had lost his temper. He hadn't expected to but he had when he had heard what the two had said. 'Tsunade's always been a sore spot for me and hearing what they said…'

He had heard worst over the years of course. Enemies taunting him, foreign Shinobi trying to get a rise out of him, arrogant rookies trying to make a name for themselves.

He hadn't let himself fly off the handle like that in years.

But hearing Naruto of all people say something like that about Tsunade…

'I can't let that happen again.' The white-haired Shinobi resolved to keep his emotions in check better. 'He's just a kid after all. He doesn't know what he's saying.'

Jiraiya glanced up at the sky, the orange and red above their heads.

"Might as well set up camp before we lose all this sunlight." Jiraiya headed off the road and into the trees, was familiar enough with the area to have a few spots in mind. Naruto and Fu followed him. At a distance. He didn't bother with sighing, just set his pack on the ground and stretched once he found a decent enough spot. "I'll get some wood for a fire. You two get comfortable."

He left the two alone. He didn't need to but he figured they could use some space.

Naruto dropped his pack off his shoulders to the ground.

Even after hours of walking, of traveling with the Toad Sage, he was still furious. The more he replayed what happened in his mind, the more he relieved that moment from earlier, the greater his fury grew.

He had thought the Toad Sage was a joke since he had undergone training with the man.

He had thought the Toad Sage was someone only useful for a handful of things.

He had thought the Toad Sage was inferior to a Caesar.

He had been wrong.

He had been the one inferior to the Toad Sage.

He had been the joke the entire time.

"I can't believe this." Naruto spoke to himself more than Fu. She had stayed at his side the entire day, her subdued nature a first in all the time they had traveled with the green haired Kunoichi.

By the time Jiraiya returned, their basic camp had been set up for the night.

'And no change.' There was still tension between the two younger Shinobi and himself. Even after a decent meal and more than an hour, there was no change to it. 'This is just great.'

He leaned back in his seat across from the two. Naruto still shot a glare at him every few minutes, Fu refused to meet his eyes and stayed close to Naruto on the fallen tree they were sitting on.

As things stood, this looked like the new norm.

Fear and anger. Distrust. Suspicion.

None of it would do any of them any favors. Especially once he took them to Tsunade. She would notice and he didn't need her on guard around him.

His mission to bring her back would only be made harder than it already was if she saw this.

'Might as well try to fix this. Next time, I've got to keep a better handle on my temper.' Yet more reason for him to take a more serious look at his old Sage training. He had to get himself under control so something like this wouldn't happen again.

Even he hadn't known that Tsunade was such a sore spot for him.

Jiraiya telegraphed his reach for his discarded pack, dragged it over to his seat so he could rummage through it. He wasn't blind to the way that both of the younger Shinobi across from him nearly jumped out of their seats, their eyes watching his every move.

He didn't blame them.

"I messed up today." The white-haired Shinobi's hand emerged holding a weathered kettle as he spoke, set it down next to him before his hand went back into the pack and pulled out a trio of metal cups and a wooden box. "Things have been…tense since this morning. I figure why not take a chance to clear the air between the three of us? After all, we're going to be traveling with each other for quite a while longer." It was the work of less than a minute to pour water into the kettle and set it over the fire.

The water would take time to boil and he leaned back on his seat.

"I'll be the first to say I lost my temper. Like I said, I'm not a fan of people badmouthing my old teammate. She's made her mistakes, no one who gets as old as us lives a life mistake-free, but she still deserves your respect. Especially you Naruto. She's an experienced Shinobi of the Hidden Leaf Village and your senior." Jiraiya didn't miss the renewed glare Naruto shot him.

He wasn't surprised by the glare but the red eyes weren't something he was expecting.

"You mistake yourself Toad Sage. I am Caesar. I give respect to no one. It is earned." Naruto looked to be even more on guard than before, anger flashing across his face. "What has she done to earn my respect?"

"This is not an argument Naruto. But I'm not looking to make things any more awkward than they already are. Once we meet her, feel free to ask her about everything she's done. I'm sure you'll change your tune." The white-haired Shinobi spared a glance to the kettle before his eyes turned back to Naruto. His eyes were still red. "Fair?"

His answer was silence.

"…Fair." Naruto couldn't look more annoyed as he growled out the word.

Jiraiya watched Fu as she glanced to Naruto. Even she seemed surprised at the turn his mood had taken, how furious he seemed.

"…Do you have any stories about Tsunade! Maybe they'll help." Her voice started off weak but she settled on cautious excitement. Jiraiya spared her a look. He was looking for something on her face and she didn't know if he found it or not by the time a wide, and fake, smile crossed his face.

"I've got plenty of stories about the Slug Princess! She may only be half as famous as me but she's almost as great."

Naruto nearly scoffed at his words but his blue eyes settled on Jiraiya across the fire. An eager, and fake, smile stretched over Fu's face as she leaned forward and clapped her hands together.

"You should tell us something super embarrassing about her! We can use it for blackmail!"

Jiraiya chuckled.

"Not just yet. Besides, if I told you any of those stories, she'll kill me. Her fury's legendary after all. But that doesn't mean I don't have some good stories!"

It was easy to embellish a couple things, exaggerate others, to turn their time at war into something entertaining enough. Bad rations, Tsunade beating him over the head after he had rushed off to another front, their rare downtime. It made good stories to tell Shinobi but would horrify civilians.

Fu laughed, giggled, asked 'Really?', said 'Wow!' at all the right parts. She even laughed so hard that she snorted tea out her nose.

Naruto was silent but he was at least paying attention. His expressions ranged from bored to intrigued to disbelieving.

'That's gotta count for something, right?' Jiraiya was fine with believing that.

They could all drink tea while he told stories and he could think that this was enough to smooth things over.

Maybe even he could manage an earnest laugh tonight.

As unlikely as it was to happen.

Hollow laughter and empty smiles were all the stars above bore witness to.

AN: 1/4 chapters for this update.