~*****~

Worry blossomed deep within my belly as we strolled down the dirt road. I hopedthat Sasuke would be okay. It made me queasy to know he'd been beaten that bad by Itachi. By the one man he vowed to kill none the less. I let out a soft breath of air and gazed back up.

I gazed at the white hair trailing down Jiraya's back, wondering how the hell this old geezer was a Legendary Sannin. Naruto just stared down at the ground as we walked, and honestly, it felt a little too quiet for my tastes. Naruto stopped walking, making me look back at him in curiosity. "Naruto? You okay?" I hum, cocking my head as Jiraya turns around as well.

"Pervy Sage," Naruto starts, his gaze still on the ground. "What exactly do those guys want with me, anyway?" A twinge of pain spreads over my heart as I gaze at him. It seemed to odd to me to know that they were after Naruto and I. Jiraya just remained silent. "Come on, out with it, Pervy Sage. You know, don't you?"

"Don't get the wrong idea. It's not you they want. It's what's inside of you." He answers, casting a glance towards me.

"What the hell is this thing, anyway?" Naruto asked, rubbing his lower stomach gently. "Some horrible demon that terrorized the Leaf Village. That's why everyone is so afraid of it, right? So, why do these guys want it so bad?"

"The Nine-Tailed Fox has appeared in times of consequence, all through the ages. A ghastly spirit destroying all that lays in it's path. As powerful as any act of nature, men trembled before it." Jiraya started to explain. I tightened my hold on my backpack straps, and swallowed roughly. 'Ameonna only wishes to protect the vessel she's in. She's not dangerous unless she's provoked....' "As for what they could want with that malicious monstrosity, that's a hard question to answer, Naruto. I honestly can't say. I suppose with the Nine-Tails sealed up inside you, they might be thinking of somehow seizing control of that power, bending it to their will. It's a bitter pill to swallow knowing that those, too, will be after you two." Jiraya confirms, making me look up. "But that is your fate. Not to worry though. After all, you will have me around!" He gloats.

"Oh well, I'll just have to hurry up and get stronger! No other choice!" Naruto cheers. Jiraya looks surprised. I start to giggle at his gung-ho attitude. "All right! Let's find this Tsunade lady your talking about, so she can fix up Sasuke, and we get down to some serious training!" Naruto declares, and just as he takes a step, he stops. "Wait, us two? What does that mean, Pervy Sage?" Naruto asks, gesturing to myself and him.

"Hm? You never knew? Ren here's in the same boat as you." Jiraya jeers as I start waving my hands around to signal him to stop. "She's got a demon sealed up in her, too!"

Naruto just laughed. "Oh, come on! There's no way that Ren would-" He stops short as he see's my embarrassed expression. "Wait a minute- WHAT?!"

"Eh, heh heh.... Surprise?" I say nervously, holding my hands up.

"Why of all the- I thought we were friends!" Naruto frowns heavily, and I feel a pit of guilt in my belly.

"Now just wait a second, we are friends!" I plead. He just huffs and turns his head from me, a full blown pout on his lips. "Look, I only just found out when we did that mission in the Land of Waves." I explain.

"That was-"

"I know it was forever ago, Naruto, but I was told never to tell anyone. You, Jiraya, Kakashi, and the Grand Elders know. No one else does." I explain again. He just peeks over with one eye. "So how can we not be friends? Jiraya obviously shouldn't have known since he's such a blabber mouth, but not you Naruto!" I praise, and clasp his shoulder. "And in return for being such an amazing friend, how about I treat you to some ramen when we get back, yeah?"

Naruto gasps in amazement. "You really mean it, Ren?! Well all right! Your secrets safe with me!" Naruto cheers with a giggle before striding forward. Jiraya steps up besides me and scratches his head.

"Silver tongued, just like your father...." Jiraya comments dryly.

I hum in confusion and stare up at him.

"Nothing, nothing. Come on!"

~*****~

Naruto hums again as we keep walking. "What now?" Jiraya asks, turning back to us.

"This beautiful woman that you've got us out here scouting for, is she the Tsunade you mentioned?" Naruto asks.

"Hey! Not bad, kid! You're pretty sharp, aren't ya? Why? What's on your mind then?"

"Well, you said she was one of the four legendary Sannin, the same as you, right, Pervy Sage?"

"That's right. What's your point already?"

"How old is she?" Naruto asks, and I fight from knocking him over the head.

"Same age as me." Jiraya smirks, and gestures towards himself. 'I didn't know she was going to be ancient....' I purse my lips before breathing out a huff of air. 

"So, what's Tsunade like, anyway?" I ask, stepping up besides Jiraya.

"Ah, curious about your aunt, huh?" He asks, turning to me. Naruto peers around the other side, equally as curious.

"Mm-Hmm." I nod gently.

"What can I tell you, two...." Jiraya hums, stroking his chin. "Well, for one thing, she's kind of unpleasant. Plus, I guess there's the fact that she's known far and wide as a die hard gambler and all."

My face falls a bit. "Great! This should be a piece of cake, then, if she's as famous as all that." Naruto says.

"Oh, she's famous, all right! You might even call her, 'Legendary'!" Jiraya sounds like he's mocking. And I think I know why. "The Legendary... Sucker!" I nearly trip over a small rock as I despair at the fact that my urge to make bets wasn't just a bad hobby. Jiraya just laughs and ruffles my hair. "But as Legendary a sucker she may be, I doubt she's going to be all that easy to find."

"What makes you say that?" I groan, looking upwards. 

"She's not the type to grow old gracefully. Probably using some kind of jutsu to mask her appearance. She's actually 50 years old, but I'm sure she'll look more like she did in her 20's." Naruto and I both hummed in confusion. "That's not all; The word on the wind I hear of late is she started transforming on the fly, going from her teens, to her 30's, her 40's-- all so she can cut out on any money lender she's in too deep with."

"That's awful!" Naruto groans. "Aww, man. She sounds like a charmer."

"Yeah, well, Tsunade's always loved gambling more than anything." Jiraya comments. I groan again and throw my head forwards, walking with a hunch. "It's too bad she never had any luck-- or skill for that matter." Jiraya stopped and crossed his arms over his chest. "She was made a sucker so many times, the name just stuck with her. But then, she would just borrow money and skip out on her debts." Jiraya sighed in reminiscence. "It brings me back, I tell you."

"Hey! We don't have time for nostalgia." Naruto admonished. Jiraya hummed in confusion. "Come on! Do you have a plan for finding her or what?" Naruto asked excitedly.

"Not exactly. We might have a little work ahead of us. But I'm sure the three of us will come up with something."

"You have no idea how long this will take, do you?" I ask, scratching at my cheek.

"Not a minute will be wasted!" Jiraya confirmed, turning on his heel. Naruto and I hummed in confusion. "All our time on the road will be devoted solely to the two of you."

"To... us?" I hummed, cocking my head.

"We've gotta get you two stronger. Time to train!" Naruto immediately grins and drops his bag, and starts rifling through it.

"What are you doing, Nar- GYEH!?" I flinch backwards at the sight of the green monstrosity. "YOU ARE NOT WEARING THAT THING!"

"I'm with her! I'm not having that!" Jiraya kneels down to the two of us. "I don't want to be seen walking around with someone wearing that, that, that thing!"

"Why not, Bushier Brow-Sensei said this was how Lee got so super strong!" Naruto cheers, wiping his nose gently.

I reared up over him. "IT'S NOT THE FREAKY CLOTHES, YOU DUNCE!"

~*****~

Jiraya managed to talk me out of burning the spandex and we started walking again, and we came upon a large canyon. It was beautiful. "Come on, Pervy Sage! What are we waiting for?" Naruto asked excitedly. "Let's start my training already!"

"All right. Don't get ahead of yourself now. I have to train you while we gather information on Tsunade. Otherwise, it's not going to mean anything to you."

"Gathering information? Like a recon mission?" I inquire, gazing over the railing and at the large city below.

"Woah!" Naruto cried.

"It looks like a festival is going on!" I added, excitement bubbling up from my belly. We didn't waste any time getting into the city.

"Ah man, this is going to be great!" Naruto cheered, looking around like a kid in a candy shop. "I've never seen anything like this before in my life!"

"Downtime is important." Jiraya commented. We both looked up at the old man, cocking our heads. "So have a little fun before we start your training. This festival will be going on for a while. We'll hunker down here until it's over. And then we'll start your training here, too."

Naruto threw his arms up as I started bouncing in my spot. "All right!" We cheered. Naruto was quick to pull out his froggy wallet, while I on the other hand thought it would be wiser to keep it in my bag.

"Oh, baby! That is one fat frog you've got!" Jiraya cheered, pointing down at it. "You're filthy rich!"

"Yeah, I've got a pretty big stash. I've been saving up bit by bit from my missions." Naruto explained, and quickly shouldered his bag, and grasping my wrist to turn around. "Catch ya later!"

"Stop right there, Naruto!"

We both halted and turned to him.

"I'm going to hold onto your wallet for you." Jiraya snapped, grasping the fat frog, and I started to think he was going to do more than hold onto it.

"H-Hey! What do you think you're doing?" Naruto asked, jumping for it.

Jiraya popped open the frog and handed Naruto a couple ryo. "Here, you can have this much to spend."

"WHAT?! Only 300?!"

"I don't wanna here it! Honoring the shinobi's three prohibitions is the duty of any upstanding ninja!"

"The three prohibitions?" Naruto asked in confusion. "What are you talkin' about?"

"Alcohol, Money, and Women." I stated, marking each with a finger.

"Seems like the brains do pass on each generation. How can you not know these, Naruto?"

Naruto gave me a confused look. "The three prohibitions are a trio of temptations that will bring a shinobi to his ruin-- Like I said earlier. The prohibitions are Alcohol, women, and money."

Jiraya nodded his head with each word. "Yeah, well none of those things really apply to me all that much, so we're cool. I mean, I'm underage, so I can't drink yet. I don't really get the whole woman thing. And I worked so hard to save all that I really don't feel like spending a ton of it."

"You little fool!" Jiraya shouts. "Don't take money lightly! Once you start spending, you'll never stop!" I flinched to the side a bit. 'Really? I spend money on ramen, and new clothes when my old ones are too small... I'm always carrying around a pretty fat frog purse....' "Money possess a frightful power. This woman, Tsunade, that we're searching for, has ruined herself with the pursuit of it."

"Pretty big talk coming from someone so addicted to the ladies." Naruto jeered with a pout.

"I'm gonna go see if I can go gather some information. Here, Ren, I want you to hold on to my bag for me, okay?" Jiraya asks, handing me the large backpack.

"Hm?"

"If you happen to get lost somehow, you can always rely on my tracker toad to sniff out my scent." Jiraya explained as Naruto grabbed my wrist and tugged me off. He turned back for a brief second to stick his tongue out at Jiraya.

"Okay, the first thing we can do is get something to eat!" Naruto suggested, looking back at me excitedly.

"Can we get Takoyaki?" I hum, pulling out my pink frog purse. "Jiraya didn't take my wallet, so I can help pay." I suggest.

"No way, Ren. I can't let you pay for anything, ya know? Since you're gonna buy me ramen once we get back and all." Naruto explained.

"If you're okay with it!" I grin, giggling happily once he starts tugging me to the Takoyaki stand. We proceeded to go to stand after stand, until Naruto's arms were full of delicious festival food. "You sure we can eat all this? I mean, I don't want to get fat." I stated gently, popping a sweet dango into my mouth. "Mmm~" I cooed, trying to savor it as much as possible before swallowing. I stop by a stand on the way out to the fields to eat, and stare at the little sloth charm.

"Hm? Whatcha lookin' at, Ren?" Naruto asks, peering over my shoulder. I lift it up, along with a black cat charm.

"They remind me of Sasuke and Shikamaru." I giggle. "Can I get these please?" I ask the vendor. The woman smiles kindly and accepts my ryo. "Thank you!" I cheer, following after Naruto.

"You seem to really like those two, huh?" Naruto asks, looking over his shoulder.

"H-Huh?" I start stuttering. "Wh-What's that supposed to mean?"

"Oh nothin'." Naruto jeers. We sit atop a tall, green hill, and dig into our food. It didn't take long for me to feel satisfied, so I stopped, while Naruto kept eating and eating. "Say, Ren." Naruto starts through a mouth full of apricot candies. I hum while sipping at my water. "Why'd Shikamaru kiss you that day. You know, when we went after Sasuke?"

The water slipped down the wrong pipe, and I started to cough and hack. Tears sprung up, and I pounded on my chest. "J-Jeez, Naruto! Do you gotta ask that so casually?" I whine in a hoarse tone.

Naruto giggled a bit. "Course!"

"Apparently Shikamaru's liked me for years...." I mumbled, pulling my knees up to my chin.

"Well, yeah, you never noticed?" Naruto asked, handing me a chocolate covered banana. I grimaced and took a bite before motioning for him to continue. "Yeah, he's always lookin' at you with those doey eyes you look at Takoyaki with. It got annoying real quick." Naruto explained, and I felt my heart start thundering. I clenched at my kimono as a wave of guilt washed over me. "I may not know much about the whole romance thing, but come on, Ren, you're super dense."

"Look who's talking." I snap, unconciously mentioning Hinata. I slap my hand over my mouth.

"Hm?"

"Nothing! Say, shouldn't we go play some fesitval games?" I asked excitedly.

"Oh yeah! Hold on, I'm almost done!"

~*****~

We played games for a long time. Starting with the ball game, where we had to hit a certain number of bulls eyes to win. Naruto hit the entire grid he had, but I thought it would be funny to one up him. "Bulls eye!" He cheered.

"And the winner is the beautiful, young Kunoichi from the Leaf Village!" The announcer cheered as I held up a peace sign. Three racks were completely bare.

"That's cheating!" Naruto roared at me.

 The next game was gold fishing. Naruto's nets were breaking each time, while I caught fish like it was nothing, and gave them out to children behind me. Naruto tried a ninjutsu, but the vendor stopped him. Apparently the ninja art wasn't aloud.

"They how come she gets to use it!" Naruto jeered, pointing at me. I froze, and the fish flopped off the net and down my kimono. I let out a high pitch shriek before leaping up and dug into it to try and get it out. I ended up smacking my fist against Naruto's face once I did get it out.

After that, Naruto and I went to get masks, which he decided to wear as soon as he got it. I on the other hand, strapped it to my bag. It reminded me of the mask Kakashi had in our house. Naruto tripped on his face, and the vendor decided now would be a good time to warn him. Naruto tried grabbing onto my leg to get up and toppled me face first. I fell with a shriek, and Jiraya's stuff topped out of the bag. "Hey! It's Pervy Sage's checkbook." Naruto said, grabbing the small book. I peered over his shoulder.

"1, 10, 100-- How does he have that many zeroes?!" I yelp.

"Jeez, he should be treating us right now if he's this loaded." Naruto groaned, and helped me pack up the stuff that fell. "Cheap, old geezer!" Naruto reached into his pocket and pulled out the rest of the money Jiraya let him spend. "Not much left. One more stand and that'll be it for the day." Naruto sighed. He looked up and smiled brightly. "Give me a second, okay, Ren?" Naruto asks. I nod and start playing with the sloth charm hanging the silver bracelet on my wrist. "Okay! I'm back!" Naruto cheered, holding up three grilled squids.

"How are you still hungry?!" I snapped.

"Oh, they're not all for me. I got you and pervy sage one too!" Naruto smiled, handing me one of the smaller ones.

"O-Oh... thanks, Naruto. Let's start to look for him." I suggest. He nods and we start trailing around the village.

A loud, creepy laugh echoed through my ears, and I immediately felt ill hearing it. "Huh?" Naruto hummed, leading me into a side shop. And what we see should not be seen by children.

"What can I say!? I love the ladies!" Jiraya cheered loudly, drunk off of foul smelling sake. "Oh, hey kids, had your fill of the festival already, huh?" We remained silent, the grilled squid dropping from my hand as I gazed at the deflated frog on the table.

Naruto squatted down to the frog before getting in Jiraya's face. "I need a refresher! What were those prohibitions Ren talked about earlier?! What's the matter with you?! You're breaking all three in one go, you dirty--" The girls screamed and ran away from the scene.

"Uh, wait, Naruto." Jiraya pleaded as Naruto leaped forward, banging his fists atop his head.

"Wait, schmait! I can't believe you squandered all my hard-earned savings! Stupid, stupid, stupid! " Naruto screamed as I started cracking my knuckles.

"I can't believe the elders thought I'd be safer with a lousy leech like you!" I snarled, joining Naruto in beating him up.

"W-Wait! Ren, Naruto! Not the face! Not the face!" We kept shouting at him, until that squid in Naruto's hand went flying, and hit a man just walking in.

"Watch it! Look what you did, you little punk!" The bald guy screamed. Naruto stopped hitting Jiraya and turned around. "You stained the boss' brand new designer suit, you street rat. You're paying for that, 100,000 large!"

"Wha?! You're telling me that suit cost a 100,000?!" Naruto screams.

"That seems a little bit of a stretch, fellas." Jiraya comments. "You expect us to believe that monkey suit is worth 100,000?"

"You lookin' for trouble, old man? You'll shut your yap if you know what's good for ya." The other one chimed.

"The boss used to be a Chunin from the Hidden Village of the Stones. The Legendary Dark Ninja feared across the land." The bald one boasted.

"Aw, this I've got to hear. Ren's only 12 and she's already a Chunin. The Legendary wait now?"

"You're asking for it, pal. Just keep pushing!" The supposed Chunin screams.

"Naruto, Ren, this is perfect timing. I have a new jutsu I want to show you. Now, pay attention." Jiraya commented, holding his palm out. A blue, spiraling ball of chakra appeared, and it seemed to rotate infinitely.

The man with the expensive suit jumped forward. "Enough already!" The man screamed as Jiraya thrust his arm forward, pushing the ball of chakra into his gut. The man stopped, spun and blasted out of the shop.

"That was awesome!" Naruto and I cheered.

Jiraya caught a water balloon that flew towards him. "And I was holding back." He commented, walking up to the duo. "Oh, you guys are hardly worth the trouble."

The man struggled to stay concious. "Wait a minute, you're the Legendary--"

"Sorry about that. I guess we kind of messed up your stand." Jiraya apologized to the stand owner. The man on the ground held up his wallet.

"Here, this should cover it."

"Ah, thanks a lot." Jiraya pulled out all the guys cash and handed it over. "Now then, my good man. I'd like to buy every balloon you've got, including water balloons. Hows that sound?"

"Fine by me, I guess."

I gazed down at the indentation on the mans guy, cocking my head. 'What an incredible jutsu. It seems like it's more powerful than the Chidori... The Chidori uses a lot of chakra, while this one seemed to use a minimum at best.... I wonder...' I pushed my thumb against my lower lip and hummed lowly.

"Naruto! Ren! Let's get going! Time for you two to train." Jiraya called.

"Yes sir!" Naruto agreed.

We stopped at the top of the mountain. "All right! It's finally time to get down to business!" Naruto cheered.

"Here you go, have a water balloon." Jiraya stated, tossing him a balloon.

"Huh? What the heck is this for?"

"Just think about it. You saw the jutsu I performed, right?" Naruto hummed in agreement. "And how would you describe it?"

"You sent that guy spinning like a pinwheel." Naruto commented.

"Good! Spinning! There ya go!" Jiraya started spinning the water in the balloon without even using his hand. 'Oh, he's using his chakra. That's some serious control. Not even my Kekkei Genkai can control it that tightly.' The balloon pops after a moment of stretching out. "In the tree climbing exercise, you learn to gather and maintain chakra. With the water walking exercise, you learn to release a steady amount of it. Both of those you two have mastered, correct?" I nod as he looks over at me. "With the water balloon exercise, you'll learn to create a stream of chakra, spinning it, as you so aptly put it."

"I'm supposed to create a stream of chakra?" Naruto asks.

"Don't worry. I'll go into more detail on how the jutsu works once you've gotten a handle on the basics." Jiraya started to explain. "First, gather the chakra in your hand using the tree climbing technique. Then release a steady stream of it using the walk on water technique. And finally, use the chakra to push and churn the water inside of the balloon."

"Wait a second, I get it!" Naruto declared suddenly. "So, what you're aiming for, then, is to spin the water inside the balloon until it eventually pops!"

"Wow, I'm surprised you managed to figure that out so quick." I retort, earning a half hearted glare.

"You're starting to catch on quicker. Okay, we'll train until the sun goes down."

"Yes sir!"

"And for you, lets see if you inherited the Senju Kekkei Genkai. Can you use any earth style techniques?" Jiraya asks, turning to me.

"Kakashi hasn't taught me any yet, and it's hard for me to see what he's doing when he uses the Headhunter Jutsu." I say timidly, rubbing the back of my head.

"Hm... Let's try a simple one, okay?" I nod excitedly. He performs the clone jutsu, and a mirror image of himself appears. "You said Head Hunter Jutsu, right? Well, first, let's learn the Hiding like a Mole jutsu. This technique changes earth into fine sand by channeling chakra into it, allowing the user to dig through it like a mole. This effect goes around the body, allowing the user to move freely underneath the ground. Try channeling your chakra and dig into the ground." Jiraya commands.

I nod and kneel down, and press my finger tips against the hard earth below. I let out a sigh and close my eyes. My finger tips tingle with the chakra flooding into them. "W-Woah!" I yelp, having my fingers start to seep into the earth. "It's working!" I cheer.

"Yeah, just like your dad. You're a prodigy alright." Jiraya hums. "Try going a bit deeper, but you've got to keep a steady flow on your- what the?" I start to chuckle as my arms stick fast, and I plop onto my haunch. "Didn't Kakashi praise your chakra control?."

"Well, The Third Hokage had to place a seal on Ameonna. My chakra's been halved." I admit sheepishly.

"Well, let's fix that." Jiraya smirks, and helps me up. My arms strain at the hardened earth before I'm tugged free and set down. "Okay, open your kimono." I just glared at him, puffed my cheeks out, and crossed my arms over my chest.

"No." I reply adamantly.

"Look, I'm not trying to sound creepy, but the five pronged seal has got to come off, so you-"

"It can't come off, all right?" Jiraya stopped speaking and just gazed in confusion. "Look, all I know, is that so that the Leaf Village doesn't come under fire by the Cloud Village, the seal has to stay in place."

"Well, we'll just have to make sure they never know we took it off, right?" Jiraya asked, smiling proudly. "Kakashi told me all about you. You barely get riled up, and you only use the beasts power in dire situations, right?" I nod hesitantly. "Then we have no worry that she'll break free, because you're not going to get into dire situations while I'm around."

"Are you really as good as they say you are?" I wondered aloud, cocking my head.

"Why, of course I am!"

"Because you still seem like a lecherous old man to me." Jiraya fell to the ground, and started grumbling in anger. "But, if you're sure no one will find out, whats the harm." I untied my kimono and let it fall loose.

"Alright, gather your chakra." Jiraya commanded. I nodded and closed my eyes and clasping my hands together. I could feel the subtle chakra flow seep through my body. "Five pronged seal release!" Five finger tips buried into my gut. I let out a gasp of pain, and gritted my teeth as I skidded backwards a bit, before exhaling in relief. "Now we can start training properly." I gazed up at the old man and nodded. I gazed down at my hands, and smiled a bit. Chakra flowed through my body with renewed vigor, and it left a pleasant tingle in its wake. This was going to get interesting.