"Summoning Jutsu!" Naruto slammed his hand to the ground and felt a rush of vertigo before he managed to balance himself on the massive toad head. Once the chakra smoke cleared, he peered down and promptly felt his jaw hit the toad on its head.
"GAMAKICHI!?" he shrieked.
Another large chakra cloud puffed into existence in front of them, Jiraiya standing on the head of Gamabunta.
"What do you want Naruto?" the giant toad sighed and then narrowed his eyes at the surprisingly young-looking Gamabunta. "And who the hell are you?"
"What's this Jiraiya?" the giant toad bellowed, its hand reaching for the katana at his side.
"Woah, calm down Boss." the Sannin said. "We'll explain everything. Damn, I didn't expect that."
"How can I summon Gamakichi in this size!?"
"Oi, what the hell is that supposed to mean?" the darker toad sniffed. "I've grown bigger since last time; I'll have you know!"
"No, No! That's not what I meant. I mean Ero-sennin and I travelled back in time, and I'm like.. Nine right now. You shouldn't even be born yet!"
"Time travel?" Gamabunta contemplated the possibility, "So who's this?" the old toad stared suspiciously at Gamakichi.
"I'm Gamakichi!" The toad bristled, offended. He was famous! How could nobody know about him!? "I happen to be the familiar of the Toad Sage of Mount Myoboku!"
"I'm the familiar of the Toad Sage of Mount Myoboku!" Gamabunta shot back, insulted by the obvious imposter.
"And I thought I was stupid," Naruto muttered quietly while Jiraiya pinched the bridge of his nose.
"You're both the familiar of the Toad Sage of Mount Myoboku!" Jiraiya shouted, annoyed. "Naruto is my student! We traveled back in time and Gamakichi is your son Gamabunta! Apparently Naruto can summon Gamakichi in his adult form." He took a deep breath and sat down non too gently while Naruto blinked a couple of times before chuckling, sitting down on the head of Gamakichi. "There's two Sages of Mount Myoboku now."
Absolute silence followed Jiraiya's explanation. Then suddenly Gamakichi burst out laughing so loudly that the ground started to shake and the wind forcing the trees surrounding them to lean away from the group. "You never stop surprising me Naruto!" he croaked. "Time travel? I never thought you'd do it!"
"I'm confused." Gamabunta declared.
"You and me both dad." The dark toad croaked and shook his head and let out a sigh, "If I was summon-able in this time then I don't think I'll be able to go back to my Mount Myoboku. Now that I think about it.. That summoning left me pretty dizzy."
"So I guess I have a son, huh?"
Jiraiya snorted, "'one'. More like two hundred."
"And I'm the very best of them all!" Gamakichi declared and bowed extravagantly.
"Gamakichi, would you mind telling the rest on Mount Myoboku about what's going on? We can't have people talking about it openly. As far as people know Ero-sennin is my adoptive father right now." Naruto explained to his familiar who latched on to his every word and nodded.
"Got it. No probs."
"I suppose that was the reason you summoned us then," Gamabunta stated.
"Yeah," Jiraiya nodded, "No fighting today I'm afraid. But you'll probably get summoned in four months or so. Both of you. There's a war coming to Uzu, and we're participating this time around. It's going to be a real bloodbath." he grimaced.
"The destruction of Uzushio, huh?" Gamakichi clutched his sword tightly, "Not on my watch."
"You can fill in Gamabunta and the rest of it."
"Until then." Gamabunta dispelled as Gamakichi saluted before disappearing.
The two shinobi fell towards the ground, landing in a bunch of trees where they steadied themselves for a moment before nodding and heading back out towards Otani Kosami.
After all, they had a sword to get their hands on.
"You know what," Naruto sheathed his newly acquired sword that fit him perfectly, "I feel insulted."
Jiraiya grimaced at the body of Otani Kosami. "I could have sworn this guy was stronger."
The man had barely been able to put up a fight before he'd died. It was beyond anti-climatic and somehow making the long trip feel rather cheap. He'd expected at least a decent fight from the guy.
"How did a guy like this even get the Kusanagi in the first place?" Naruto took out a kunai and squatted down beside the dead man, with swift slashes he began to sever his head.
"Beats me," Jiraiya admitted and pulled out a storage scroll they could deliver it in. "Maybe the bounty was exaggerated. He might have pissed someone off."
The blond boy couldn't help but admit that might be the case. Still, he was a bit miffed at being denied a decent fight. It didn't help that he'd mentally pumped himself up to test his limits. He didn't mean to turn Otani's entire torso's worth of intestines into soup with a single Rasengan.
Like.. he could have dodged.
"Are the drop-off points still the same?"
"Think so but I'm not certain to be honest." He shrugged, "Can't really remember all that well. I have to study up on some of the active locations when we get back to Konoha. I haven't been in this time for almost fifty years or something like that. Damn, I was old.." a small whine tore through his throat.
"Ancient." Naruto agreed.
"At least I lived longer than sensei."
"You looked older than him as well." The boy snickered and earned a wack on the back of his head.
"If Mr. Smart-ass is done, let's get the bounty for this idiot and then head back. I have books to write." Jiraiya tugged the sealed head away and tossed a small fire-jutsu at the remains of Otani before walking away with Naruto closely behind. Naruto in turn was examining his new sword with a critical eye. It was perfect but felt a bit of irritation at seeing the damn thing again. Anything that reminded him of Sasuke pissed him off. It would be interesting to see how he'd get along with the other Uchiha's in the village. Would he want to turn them in to kebab or would he be able to ignore them? That was the question, wasn't it?
Maybe he could feed them to Kurama? He'd be happy enough to eat the lot of them.
"What am I supposed to do now?" Naruto asked after a while, "I'm your apprentice again."
"You never stopped being my apprentice." the man said but then hummed, "But I suppose you could always start with those D-ranks and build up your stamina and muscle-mass. You don't need me for that, right?"
"Suppose not." he agreed. "Now many D-ranks do I need again or is it the same?"
"90 D-ranks, 60 C-ranks, 35 B-ranks and 15 A-ranks. A single S-rank will remove 2 A-ranks, 4 B-ranks, 6 C-ranks and 10 D-ranks." Jiraiya repeated from memory. Mentally he was pretty impressed he remembered that at all.
"So I could technically just do a bunch of S-ranks and be done with it," Naruto said.
"Yeah, that wouldn't be suspicious at all." the man deadpanned while the boy began to scratch the back of his head sheepishly.
"Fair enough."
"You don't have to rush it kid. I'm still getting a genin team and it would be better if you remained chunin until then. Makes it easier for the both of us as well." He popped his shoulder and let out a pleasant sigh, "People will ask questions if you advance too fast. And I bet sensei wouldn't like throwing you in to another rank when you just got to the village. Even if they trust you they still want to get a read on you. My advice is to build a reputation in the meantime. Get to know some people, make friends and help out in the academy or something."
"And prepare for the war coming to Uzu," Naruto added.
"And that." he agreed.
"Maybe I'll try to get some C-ranks in there as well. Wouldn't want to grow stiff from not doing anything."
"Sure," Jiraiya chuckled, "We can do that."
"We?" Naruto grinned wickedly, "I didn't peg you for an errand boy sensei."