NARUTO POV:
"So, you want me to join you in finding your teammate?" Naruto asked as he finished his 13th bowl of ramen.
At Jiraiya's nod of confirmation, he began his 14th bowl.
"Why though?"
"Even though me, Kakashi and Gai were able to help out with the reanimated hokage, the old man still got hit bad. There's nothing that suggests deadly consequences, but at his age there's no telling."
"Ohh. Is that why Sakura was called last week?"
"Honestly, her water technique is the only reason we've been able to keep the poison of Orochimaru's sword from reaching the rest of his body."
Naruto nodded as he slammed down his finished bowl.
"Teuchi-occhan! I know I paid for the 15th one, but I'll get it after this mission! See ya!"
"Didn't you literally just start that one? Wait 15!?"
Ignoring the bewildered Jiraiya, Naruto got up from his stool and pulled his chunin vest's zipper.
"Let's get going then, Ero-sensei."
"SHOW SOME RESPECT BRAT!"
"are we there yet?"
"No."
"Are we there yet?"
"No."
"man, this is boring."
"it'd be better if there wasn't a blonde tic-tac annoying me."
"I AM NOT A TIC-TAC."
"you know what kid" Jiraiya said as he turned around to meet Naruto's annoyed gaze "why don't you work on some kind of a jutsu while we walk?"
"All of my jutsu ideas need me to stand in one place dattebayo."
"Rasengan doesn't."
"Yeah but I already know the Rasengan."
"you…" Jiraiya sighed and pinched his brows "Do you know the difference between Kakashi's Chidori and Raikiri?"
"Raikiri is sharper, I think?"
"exactly" Jiraiya snapped his fingers "The Raikiri is basically the Chidori, but much more refined."
"What are you trying to say? How do I refine the Rasengan?"
"Well " he said with a grin before opening his palm and creating a Rasengan. "look"
Slowly, the Rasengan began to grow from the size of Jiraiya's palm to bigger than his whole hand.
"Odama Rasengan." (Big Rasengan)
Naruto stared.
"So it's the Rasengan…but bigger?"
"You're really taking out the wind out of my sail here kid" Jiraiya said with a frown "You already know how destructive the normal Rasengan is, so surely you can see how this would be that much better."
"I'm not saying it's bad or weak or anything like that" Naruto defended "just…kind of predictable, I guess?"
Jiraiya sighed
"You're not exactly wrong there. Well, there's another thing you could improve in the Rasengan."
"whuzat?"
"I don't know if you've noticed since you learned it recently, but the Rasengan is actually an incomplete jutsu. It only uses change in chakra shape, not change in chakra nature."
"Oh yeah" Naruto said as he created his own Rasengan "It doesn't have an element, even though it sort of looks like a wind jutsu."
"That's what I'm saying. So, you could try to create add one or maybe even multiple elements to it. Experiment with a mini Rasengan for now, so you can try out a bunch of ideas without wasting chakra, or destroying things."
"Who knew you could teach."
"I TAUGHT THE FOURTH HOKAGE YOU LITTLE SH-"
"Alright! Naruto, go on and go to the hotel room! I, have other matters to attend to" Jiraiya said as he smiled lecherously at a black-haired woman who was winking at him.
"First Jiji, then Kakashi-sensei and then you" Naruto facepalmed "Am I cursed to be around pervs forever?"
"You could join the club?"
"Hell nah. Sakura would almost kill me, heal me back up and then almost kill me again. For the rest of my life"
"Whatever" he said as he walked off "Go practise that 'kuroana' thing you kept muttering about on the way"
"Yeah" Naruto sighed "have fun, I guess."
Naruto was broken out of his concentration by a slight knock.
'No way the perv would be that polite, probably just housekeeping or something'
He opened the door, and had to look a bit higher to look into…
A pair of three tomoe Sharingan.
A very familiar pair of Sharingan.
With a burst of wind, he pushed himself back into his room and broke the window with a quick punch.
The intruder just dusted off his cloak before walking into the room with a quiet "Sorry for the intrusion."
Naruto's eyes narrowed as he saw a…guy whose skin was blue behind Itachi Uchiha with some sort of bandaged club.
"Why are you here, Itachi?" he asked, trying to stall as he spiked Kurama's chakra to alert Jiraiya.
"We are here for what you carry" the man said formally "I am sorry but, you will have to come with us."
Naruto snorted.
"While I appreciate the politeness, I think we both know that I'm not gonna just walk with you to wherever you wanna take me."
"Hey, Itachi-san." The blue skinned man said as he held up his weapon "don't ya think he'd be less annoying if I cut off a leg or two?"
"Very well, Kisame" Itachi nodded as he took a step back to allow his partner to approach Naruto.
With a quick half-ram seal, Naruto brought Kubikiribocho out, and held it in a two-handed stance.
The man's eyes widened.
"Last I saw that, Zabuza-chan had it. Did ya steal it from him or something?"
"he entrusted it to me" Naruto informed the guy who, judging from the scratched kiri headband and what he now figured was a sword as weird as his own, was a part of the 7 swordsmen of the mist, same as Zabuza.
"Oho?" his eyes lit up "if he actually did that, you might just give me some entertainment."
"Not sure how entertaining being dead is" Naruto said as he flared Kurama's chakra again to immediately enter his no-tailed state "Why don't you go on ahead and see?"
With a burst of chakra, Kisame rushed forward, swinging his sword in a wide arc.
Naruto barely managed to block Kisame's strike with his sword, but had to hold back a gasp when he felt the chakra coating Kubikiribocho suddenly vanish.
He threw out his leg, using Kisame's chest as support to kick off and flew out the window.
"Where to?"
Naruto barely managed to put Kubikiribocho's flat side up as the Rouge kiri nin practically teleported beside him and punched him hard enough for the shop he crashed into to collapse.
While the nearby civilians ran away in screams, Naruto got up and took out his twin Katana.
Kubikiribocho was on the ground nearby, snapped in half.
"Hey kid, did you know that your sword there can fix itself by drinking blood?"
"Yeah" Naruto muttered "Zabuza gave me a scroll to learn from, it was mentioned there."
Naruto crouched low enough for his knees to almost touch and brought his katanas back for a quick-draw type attack.
Kisame's eyebrow rose as he saw the sudden rush of black chakra that surrounded Naruto.
"What is that?" he wondered out loud, and looked behind him to see a just as confused Itachi.
"It doesn't matter" he said with a grin "As long as it's chakra, Samehada can deal with it!"
With a burst of speed, he rushed forward, bringing his sword straight down at Naruto's head.
Naruto brought his own swords up in an X shape to catch the thing, and was still pushed enough for him to be practically laying down.
"hey, what is this?" Kisame asked as Samehada started thrashing around in his hand before jumping away and belching out the void chakra it had absorbed.
"You said your sword can deal with it as long as it's chakra" Naruto began as he jumped away and pointed the tip of his sword at Kisame "But that's not chakra. It's the opposite."
Kisame just looked at him blankly before shrugging and raising his fists.
"Whatever kid, you're screwed either way."
"HIKEN!"
The three all had to turn away from the sudden wall of flames that came between Naruto and Kisame
In a flash of motion, Sasuke landed in front of Naruto, picked him up and the two landed back through the hole where Kisame had punched busted through to grab Naruto.
"Sasuke" Naruto gasped "the hell are you doing here?"
"Long story short, I found out that Itachi and someone as strong as him were after you so I wanted to find you."
"Yeah sure" Naruto snorted "I'm the one you wanted to see."
"Do you see me down there?" his friend said harshly "I know I can have tunnel vision when it comes to him, but I'm not that dumb."
"…sorry" Naruto conceded, somewhat touched by Sasuke's affection and somewhat itchy with that explosion sealing tag that was on his shoulder.
Wait what?
With a burst of chakra, Naruto grabbed the tag and chucked it down the corridor just in time for it to explode and create another hole.
"Sasuke." Came Itachi's voice behind them, and the two whipped around to see Itachi already standing there "this does not concern you, fooling younger brother. Get out of the way."
"Itachi" Sasuke growled "I don't know why you're after Naruto, but you're not getting him."
"It's easy to say things" Itachi said quietly, before suddenly lashing out and grabbing Sasuke's right "much harder to actually do them."
A burst of lightning from his arm, and Sasuke managed to free his arm while Naruto created a barrier to block a punch from Kisame on his side.
"Another punch and this comes down kid" Kisame said with a grin as he cocked his fist back to release another blow.
The blow never came.
Kisame's arm was grabbed, and in front of everyone's eyes the walls turned fleshy and the heat in the room suddenly went up.
"Kuchiyose: Gamaguchi Shibari"(summoning: toad mouth bind) Jiraiya said with a grin " good luck trying to escape from the throat of the rock toad of Mount myoboku"
"Ero-sensei!" Naruto called out with relief and released the barrier "Thank god you're here!"
"Thank me all you want later" the man said as he set the woman on his shoulder down "I'm honestly insulted that you thought this beauty would be able to distract me. The toad sage Jiraiya falls victim to no woman's charm! Beauties drop for me like blossoms in a storm!".
A moment of pure silence except the sound of a hand hitting someone's forehead.
"I'm not even gonna say anything" Naruto mumbled through his hand "This old guy is just…"
"We are leaving, Kisame." Itachi announced out of nowhere.
"Hmph."
With a burst of speed, the two turned tail and ran around the corner of the walls that were now closing in.
Jiraiya looked on with a confident smile before he suddenly sprang up in alarm and turned the corner to see a hole with black flames burning.