Jiraiya stood in front of her path to leave, "Tsunade. Like I said, the elders have chosen you as our next Hokage. Now that we've caught you we're not just going to let you vanish again. We'll stay on you until you decide to come along."
Tsunade scoffed and turned away, looking out at the road. She saw the marking from the attempted Rasengan and looked back with a devious smirk, "Alright since you won't just leave how about we have a little wager."
She walked over to the injured Naruto, "That move you tried to use on me back there. You know it was once used by the Yondaime Hokage. If you can master that move in one week then I'll give you the necklace I'm wearing and I'll return with you to Konoha. If you fail then you'll give me all of your money and give up the mission."
Naruto looked at the necklace and back up at her, "Deal. One week. I'll learn how to perform the Rasengan in one week or we'll go home without you."
Tsunade had a victorious look on her face and turned to leave, Shizune in tow. Naruto got Jiraiya to help him walk down the street as they went to get their own hotel room, "Are you going to be alright gaki?"
Naruto's teeth were gritted as he tried his hardest to stay upright with Jiraiya's assistance, "Yeah. I just need to sleep it off for the time being, I'll be fine in the morning. I'm okay."
Jiraiya rolled his eyes as they hobbled down the street, "You know I kind of wasn't kidding back there kid. You're my hero today. That sight you gave me, absolutely glorious. I've wanted to see that again for over fifteen years and I finally have. The best part; I didn't even get beaten up for it this time!" Jiraiya finished with a lecherous grin on his face.
Naruto sweatdropped, "That's… great ero-sennin. Glad I could help, I guess."
XxX
The next day Naruto was awakened from his deep slumber by a knock at his door. Lumbering over to the door he opened it to find Shizune, "Shizune-san? What is it?"
She came inside and looked him over, noting the fact that he was shirtless and had scars littering his body, "Are you sure you're okay from last night? Tsunade-sama has liquidated men using less force than she used on you."
Naruto sat on his bed and stretched, "I'm fine, I've had worse. So what do you need? I need to go train for this bet already."
Shizune rubbed her arm awkwardly, "That's what I want to talk to you about. I don't want you to think of Tsunade-sama as a bad person, she's just bitter."
Naruto nodded, "Because her brother and lover were killed during wartime. I know."
Shizune's eyes widened in shock, "How do you know that?"
Naruto shrugged, "The guy that trained me made me learn all kinds of stuff about Konoha's famous ninja."
Shuzune looked at him strangely, "The academy in Konoha sure goes over some classified things these days..."
Naruto chuckled darkly, "No they don't. I didn't learn that in the academy. I learned things of that nature elsewhere."
Shizune recovered admirably, "Well if you know that then you must know that that necklace is cursed. It will kill anyone who wears it other than Tsunade-sama."
Naruto stood up and walked towards the door, "Well then I guess I'm next. Because I'm winning this little bet of ours, so tell her to get all of her affairs in order and get ready to go back to Konoha. I'll see you later Shizune-san."
Naruto left Shizune sitting in the room as he left the hotel entirely.
Naruto made his way to the outskirts of the town where he found Jiraiya sitting against a tree waiting for him. He had a smirk on his face, "Kid you must have the biggest set on you. You made a bet like that with Tsunade."
Naruto smirked at him, "Well I have a week to train my body back up to normal. It won't be even a drop in the bucket to what I need, but free time is free time."
Jiraiya looked at him strangely, "Kid you need to work on the Rasengan and win this bet. You can wait to do everything else right now, finish the jutsu and then do everything else."
Naruto looked at him mischievously, "Oh you mean this Rasengan?" Naruto formed the perfect blue ball in his hand and pushed it against the tree Jiraiya was sitting against, forcing it to explode in a shower of bark and wood chips.
Jiraiya looked at him stunned, "You finished it?"
Naruto grinned widely, "Deception is just another tool of the game. When I fought her last night I used it as a distraction. I just needed to get her attention so my clone didn't really focus on the attack. I can do the Rasengan, but showing her that I could last night would have done no good. She would have just made another 'impossible' bet that I would have had to actually work at."
Jiraiya was still confused, "Well why didn't you just show her last night?"
Naruto gave him a dry look, "Ero-sennin I was seeing sextuple last night. She gave me a concussion, I still feel my head pounding even today. There was no way I could focus to show her the finished product last night after the bet was made."
Naruto stretched out as he prepared to work, "I'll just milk this for the week of training I can get in and show her on the last day. I don't have to tell you to watch her, you know she's a flight risk."
Jiraiya looked at Naruto seriously, "Yeah. There's a good chance Orochimaru is here as well."
Naruto stopped stretching to look up at Jiraiya, "Really? Well then that's all the more reason for me to get to work now isn't it?"
Jiraiya turned to head back to town with a grin on his face, "Damn brat is going to be stronger than all of us one of these days."
XxX
Over the course of the next week Naruto threw himself into training as hard as he could. Regaining intense control of his chakra was his primary concern, he trained in this facet by way of mass kunai balancing. He attempted to reacquaint himself with the movements of swordplay once more, but until he could get in some decent sparring there was only so much he could remember.
He still needed weights to get his speed up, and he figured his strength was alright for now. Not being able to activate his true levels for years did a number on his muscles.
Contrary to popular belief, gravity seals aren't really a form of training. The seal weighs you down by connecting to your chakra and manipulating how much you would be able to pump to your muscles, decreasing the greatest amounts that you attempt to generate. Depending on the nature of the seal it could seal away any percentage of your maximum. The difficulty and obscurity of the seal gave rise to the rumors of it being used as a training method.
Jiraiya had been using the seal in combat for decades since he had discovered its uses. When Jiraiya came across a powerful or dangerous ninja that he didn't necessarily want to kill he would sometimes place the seal on them to make sure they couldn't challenge him again. Most of them however never realized this and went the rest of their careers lagging in their physical skills unknowingly until they were later killed in battle.
Naruto had to sigh in relief when he realized that Jiraiya had placed something like that on him, 'Who knows what may have happened if he had kept it on. With dangerous ninja after me and me lacking the ability to get faster or stronger I would have been a dead man.'
At least he still had enough speed to deem manageable against most opponents for now anyway. He found that he was as fast as Rock Lee with his weighs off. Naruto chuckled when he though of the boy, "Now that would be a hell of a spar."
He then realized that Lee had been crippled by Gaara during the exams, and that stoked his resolve further that Tsunade wasn't going to get out of this bet with him, 'If anyone can help Lee get better it's her. Just another reason to drag her back, kicking and screaming if I have to.'
Naruto rubbed his hands together as he felt a familiar presence at the edge of the woods, 'Okay, kill two birds with one stone. Train this jutsu of mine and rattle her with my training. Serves her right for trying to spy.'
Naruto made a mass of hand signs and drew his hands apart as wind whipped around them. He turned to a boulder and thrusted out his fists pushed together at the thumb and index finger, "Fuuton: Fuujin Seiken (Wind Release: Divine Fist of the Wind God)!" A fierce wind pushed from his fists and impacted hard against the boulder, leaving the imprint of his two fists the size of his entire body.
Naruto smirked as he felt Tsunade leave the area of her hiding, "Alright. Finally, one down, eight more to go. I'm getting all of my jutsu back. Just wait till I bust out the big ones."
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