The training was going mostly well, but to be honest he was reaching the limits of his innate capabilities. Fusing two or more elements is said to be impossible, and Dix understood why. Jiraiya found him heavily concentrating, and even though he was a bit wary of him, he was still the same old pervy sage, so he didn't hesitate interrupting him.
"Come on Naruto, we have to go. I finished my business here. You can continue your training in the next town." he said, then started packing his belongings. Dix did as instructed. He knew Jiraiya was there and expected to be interrupted, so he wasn't even slightly annoyed. Soon they were both ready to continue their journey.
The same happened in a few more villages where they stopped to look for Tsunade. Everywhere they took a break Dix decided to send out a few clones to clean the place up, kill some lowlifes and gather intelligence on his own. He was quite bored, that is why the killing, and also he wanted to know if anything interesting is happening, for example rumors about events he doesn't remember happening in the anime. He was quite afraid of the butterfly effect.
He kinda knew the future, and already affected it very heavily. The timeline was practically shoved aside into a completely new track which only barely resembled the previous. He killed, or more like, sealed Orochimaru, he took care of Kisame, Itachi and Kabuto. These are all key figures in the following events that will define the future.
Because of this he had no idea what kind of differences will happen, some key events that characters make behind the scenes can completely make or break different situations. Even though Dix's strength is almost insurmountable, fate is a cruel mistress. Anything can go wrong, and will most likely will. He was thinking about trying to bend time next to space too, but the task seemed so impossible he had to give up after a bit of trying.
In the end he had to concede and manually make sure everything was going well and as planned.
Thus, he met many figures of the underworld in each and every town he visited. No one was able to give good intel, but he couldn't stop. He had to push forward and look for more clues and info. He met street kids, crying whores being beaten at the edge of the slums, dead or mostly dead littering the streets, all in all he saw the cruelty of humanity at the bottom of society.
In the end, only some low-caliber info managed to reach him, mostly basic things about Akatsuki. It wasn't enough, but there wasn't anything else he can do. Soon as he was doing his own research, Jiraiya shown up to brings news about Tsunade. She was right there in that town, and Jiraiya wanted Dix to help at the meeting.
They didn't actually know where she was, so they had to go around and check a few pubs to find her first. Obviously Dix wasn't willing to dawdle around aimlessly, so he sent out a few sensor clones to look for her, then quickly transported the main and Jiraiya to their destination. When they arrived Jiraiya hunched over a bit like he was tired.
"Damn, kid, this is really hard to get used to..." he said with a bit of heaving.
"Don't be such a wuss, pervy sage. How are you supposed to uphold your reputation of sannin when you can barely stand space-time jutsus?" Dix answered playfully, and laughed a bit, but Jiraiya wasn't in such a good mode.
"Let's just go in..." he said with a big sigh, then walked forward to enter the inn.
Inside they found a kinda modern-looking restaurant of sorts, still wooden and such, but the layout was somehow modern. This reminded Dix of the extreme inconsistencies of this world. It was supposed to be in time around the end of the warring states period for Japan, sometime in the middle ages. Contrary to that, there were pieces of high-tech equipment, for example headphones for long-range communication, television or radio.
Just like that, the inn was modern in layout with different booths for their patrons. In one of those Tsunade was sitting along with Shizune, her assistant, drinking shots of sake, the traditional japanese alcohol. Tsunade turned to see who entered, as she heard a familiar voice from the entrance.
"Jiraiya?!" she exclaimed, simultaneously jumping on her feet and pointing at the pervy sage with her right hand.
"Yes, Tsunade, its me. It took us quite a while to find you. Can we sit down and have a talk?" Jiraiya answered as he approached the two women.
"Hmph... Do what you want." she said, this time quietly, then sat back down herself. Jiraiya and Dix moved to sit down. Tsunade scanned both of them from top to bottom then let out a question.
"Who is this kid? Another student of yours? He looks dumb, why do you keep taking in children like him?" Tsunade was quite rude. She already had a few shots of strong alcohol so she was almost as red as rude. Usually Dix would not care, but for the following negotiation he had to put his foot down. Thus he released a bit of his dissatisfaction he felt upon hearing Tsunade's remark together with his bottomless chakra.
The air got filled with dreadful intent in a matter of seconds and Tsunade went silent immediately, subconsciously she moved her hands toward the nearest knife, a not too durable cutlery. This came as an instinct for her, considering she fought and lived trough the third great ninja war. Sensing the overbearing pressure these instincts came to life again, as she felt fear for the first time in a long while. She went pale as she opened her mouth.
"Who... who are you?" she asked weak in voice.
"He is the new hero of Konoha." Jiraiya said, then placed his hand on Dix's shoulder who was sitting left to him. At the physical contact the incredible pressure subsided, unlike the icy glaring that Dix subjected Tsunade to. She understood she made a mistake by underestimating the 'kid' in front of him. She had to take him seriously.
"Hero of Konoha...?"
"I'm sorry for my rudeness, Lady Tsunade, but I have to make sure you understand my position. I didn't come here to cause friction between us. In fact we came with Jiraiya to ask for your help." This time Dix was the one to talk. He didn't shy away from taking active part in the talks.
"You want my help? What could I possibly help you with? Are you perhaps ill?" Tsunade asked. She looked surprised, but she also always expect something similar to occur at all times. She was the legendary medical ninja after all, its safe to say she is the best healer in the world. Because of this many people from everywhere seek her out to rely on her medical knowledge.
"No, that is not why we came to you. For now we came at the request of Konoha. I mentioned that he is the new hero of the village. This happened last week, when two ninja villages attacked Konoha at the same time. Naruto here showed extreme prowess and managed to stop the invasion all alone, while Konoha suffered no collateral damage whatsoever. None of the troops got as much as a scratch. During the invasion thought, it became apparent that sensei Hiruzen is too old to keep his role as Hokage. There is no better candidate for the role than you. We came to ask you to become the fifth hokage." Jiraiya said, with a serious face and tone trough the whole monologue.
Tsunade was left stupefied at what she heard. "I..." she started, but her mouth was left open without any more words to leave her lips. She wanted to force some sort of answer out, but was unable to think straight for the time, so she closed her mouth then looked down at her utensils, deep in thought.
"Hokage, huh..." she mumbled with only a shallow breath. Everyone around her was quietly waiting for her answer. They pretty much knew what was going on in her head, but they still had to wait for her thoughts to properly organize.
"Why me? If this... If Naruto is so good, why won't he take the role himself? It sounds like he is more than capable." she said, desperate to find any reasons to decline this request. Dix opened his mouth right away to answer.
"Obviously this is impossible. I'm 12, even though my power is overbearing, I am not fit to run a ninja village, I lack the experience and knowledge. Even though I can easily overcome the second problem, my age is still a huge problem. Also I have no interest in a position such as this. Also, we asked you because after giving it a lot of thought, you are the best candidate any of us can think of."
"I would advise you to listen to him. He did a huge favor for the two of us, we are in his dept." Jiraiya added.
"A favor? What do you mean?" Tsunade asked, seemingly surprised and obviously interested.
"He killed Orochimaru."
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I'm sorry for the very long break. I was quite busy with my studies, so I had to stop writing for a bit, but now things seem to settle down once again. I hope to write one chapter every day, but even if I write more, I will stockpile it. Thus, from now on every day there is a maximum of one chapter released.
You find the official discord for the novel here: https://discord.gg/XCEDp7H9tA
Thanks for the read, I'd appreciate if you were to leave your thoughts in the comments and donate some stones.
Cheers! :D