Naruto slumped against a tree and sat down as he saw Jiraiya talking to Maito Gai, with Sasuke over his shoulder. Itachi had really done a number on that kid and Naruto knew it was mostly his fault, but defended himself with the fact that Sasuke either didn't notice or didn't care that Itachi was in such a pissy mood. And what kind of genin tries to stay and fight Itachi Uchiha by choice? Itachi looked pissed off when he beat Sasuke too, Naruto called his bad on that…
Naruto had gotten his ass saved by Sasuke's 'assistance' and he knew it. It had given Jiraiya enough time to find him and drive the nuke-nin duo off before they could refocus on him. Thank goodness the old sage could back up all of that posturing with skill.
"Gaki, come over here!"
Naruto stood and walked over to Jiraiya and Gai. While he was pissed off at Jiraiya he had to admit, without his timely interference he would have gotten turned into hamburger. Gai gave Naruto a blinding smile as he got close, "Yosh Naruto-kun, you have certainly shown yourself to be quite flushed with the power of youth today! Holding off those two like you did!"
Naruto looked at Gai strangely, "Thanks Gai-san. I was useless though. They could have killed me whenever they wanted, they needed me alive."
Gai shook his head, smile still in place, "And you are alive are you not? And that means you have another day to get stronger! Another day to prepare yourself and make sure this doesn't happen again!"
Naruto smiled faintly, "You're right. I need to worry about getting ready for the next time something like this happens." Naruto clinched his fists, 'There's no way that guys like that are going to get the drop on me ever again…'
Gai shifted Sasuke on his shoulders, "Well I do hope that you two are successful in your mission, we could use her expertise for more than just Sasuke-kun here. Kakashi got hit as well."
Naruto looked at Gai, "Kakashi made eye-contact?" Gai nodded and began reaching for something on his person.
Jiraiya grabbed Naruto by his shoulder, "We should go kid. We'll lose the trail if we stay after all of this."
Naruto grunted as Jiraiya pulled him away, "Uh, later Gai-san. Tell Rock Lee, and Tenten I said hi!" Gai gave him a thumbs up and a smile in return before turning to blaze a trail back to Konoha.
Naruto noticed Jiraiya was hurrying him away, "Why are you pulling me so fast ero-sennin?"
Jiraiya looked down and back out at the road ahead, "He was going to give you one of those God-awful jumpsuits kid. There was no way I was letting you go back to such horrendous clothing after you just started looking decent."
Naruto scoffed and slapped Jiraiya's hand off of his shoulder, "Don't touch me. You aren't off of the hook yet. You and the old man screwed me over, I'm a joke in Konoha these days because of what you guys did. Itachi and Kisame treated me like a piece of crap back there, and while it helped keep me alive and out of their hands, it was insulting."
Naruto grumbled as he stomped down the road, "I've got at least two S-rank nukenin after me and I'm a sitting duck if they decide to get serious on me. We seriously need to finish this mission so I can work on getting back up to snuff."
Jiraiya shook his head as they traversed the roads.
XxX
Naruto had calmed down over the course of the next few days. He was still incredibly testy due to still not finding any time to train himself properly. Jiraiya tried to placate him by saying he had proven himself to be far stronger than a genin should be, Naruto countered by blankly stating that he wasn't supposed to be at genin, he was Anbu level at 8.
Jiraiya didn't like Naruto fretting over his skill level like this, but then he remembered what he met Naruto doing, infiltrating an unknown country. When he saw Naruto again at the hot springs years later he was rather underwhelmed. After taking the Gogyo Fuuin off of Naruto and watching him immediately stand on water he wasn't surprised, he figured he subconsciously knew how to do it already.
What had been done to him was a damn shame, and he had every right to be angry. Years of blood, sweat, and tears… Ok not so much tears if he was trained by Danzo, but everything else, all of that was spent to give him his strength, and to have a considerable amount of it ripped away by the folly of a pair of old men? Jiraiya knew he would be in an uproar about it too if it were him.
And he knew Naruto had all the reason to worry about it. He had just been attacked by two of the most infamous ninja actively listed in the bingo book and only sheer folly on their part and raw luck and hard-nosed skill from his got him out of it. His teammate had been injured in the fracas as well.
Jiraiya looked at the boy who was practicing running through hand-signs quickly, "Hey kid, don't worry about your teammate, he'll be fine."
Naruto stopped working on his hand-signs and looked at Jiraiya, "Oh, that. Meh, it'll be good for him. A little beating every once in a while builds character." Naruto shrugged when Jiraiya stared in shock at his nonchalant attitude, "What? It's how I was trained. Getting your ass kicked makes you really want to avoid getting your ass kicked again so you do what you can to improve, it's good for him."
"Huh, well yeah that does make sense." Jiraiya nodded in agreement to Naruto's logic, "Alright then, let's go find Tsunade!"
Naruto almost stumbled, "Tsunade? As in your old teammate, best damn medic-ninja ever, gambles like shit, Tsunade?"
Jiraiya chuckled at his description of her, "Yeah that's the one kid. Though, I think you should refrain from using that last one in front of her unless you want to end up a smear on a wall." Jiraiya pulled out a picture of her and handed it to Naruto, "We're to find her and bring her back to the village."
Naruto put the picture in one of his pockets and kept up with making hand-signs that looked like a blur. Jiraiya saw him resume his task, "Hey kid, how about I give you that jutsu now. I guarantee you don't know it, and it could be useful to you. You can even train with it while walking like you are right now."
Naruto thought for a moment, "Sure why not? It's not like I can go out of my way to handle any other kind of training while we're out here."
Jiraiya grinned, "Good choice kid. I promise you won't regret it. We'll start when I can get the necessary supplies."
XxX
Naruto and Jiraiya came upon a town where a festival was taking place. Jiraiya suggested he take this time to relax and they would pick up with the search soon while he would go and get some information on where she was.
Naruto agreed and ditched Jiraiya before the latter could try and mooch off of his money.
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