The Will Of Fire

CHAPTER 12

Naruto: A New Path

Search for Tsunade Arc

Ch. 12 Tsunade's Dilemma

Naruto walked through the busy streets with a smile on his face. He had been persuaded to buy a lottery ticket by an old sweet lady and he had won. Now Gama was full and happy. All he had to do now was hide this fact from Jiraiya since the perv had a knack for stealing his money. He didn't understand why he just took the money from him, if he was as big of a success as he claimed then why did he need to steal from a thirteen-year-old. Thankfully ever since they had arrived to the village where Tsunade was said to be, Jiraiya had left him alone to focus on his search for Tsunade. Naruto didn't mind Jiraiya's absence but he had a feeling that Jiraiya wasn't just looking for Tsunade, knowing his sensei he was probably out on bars stalking woman.

It had been five days since the Akatsuki attacked Naruto. Naruto and Jiraiya had arrived on the village only two days prior meaning that Jiraiya had been looking for Tsunade for the past three days. The first thing Naruto noticed about the village was that it was old. It was filled with old buildings but they were still in good state, unlike his apartment complex. The second thing he noticed was that the village was way too crowded. There were houses almost everywhere and the streets were filled with shops and stands making it look like there was a kind of festival going on. Regardless, Naruto thought that it was a nice village.

"What now?" Naruto asked himself with a sigh. He took out a balloon and filled it with air before putting it on his right hand. He held it as he walked with a slight look of concentration. Inside of the balloon was a perfect ball of chakra meaning that the third step had been mastered.

It had only taken Naruto two days since the Akatsuki's attack to learn the last step. Jiraiya was impressed and told Naruto to practice more with the Rasengan so that it would come naturally to him. The sage still had spars with Naruto but had now allowed the use of ninjutsu. Jiraiya had also told Naruto to use his jutsu in creative ways, meaning that he had to find more uses for it rather than just attacking. The Chunin thought that he was improving and couldn't wait to get home and show Ino all of his progress.

Naruto smiled at the thought of Ino. She had accepted him for who he was and didn't fear him because of the fox. He hadn't known until then just how much Ino meant to him. The thought of losing her terrified him for reasons he didn't know. The blond wondered what Ino was doing at the moment. She could be in the middle of a mission at the moment or maybe helping her parents with the shop.

'It's so boring without Ino here,' Naruto thought as he continued to walk through the busy streets.

Back in Konoha a blonde was having similar thoughts. Ino was sitting behind the counter of her parent's flower shop. She didn't understand why they didn't hire workers since they were out almost every day but she was still glad to help them out. There weren't many people going into the shop which led to Ino getting bored, which led to her mind to wonder, which led to her thinking about Naruto.

It had been a week since he was gone and she was getting a little worried. She knew it was stupid to worry for her friend, he was with a legendary ninja after all, but she couldn't help but feel worried. Naruto had become a very dear friend and she would be crushed if she found out something happened to him. He was being targeted by Itachi of all people, a traitor who was even stronger than a Jonin.

'Bad thoughts, bad thoughts! Naruto's okay and he'll come back in no time,' Ino reassured herself, 'He has to see how much I've improved.'

True to her word, Ino along Choji and Shikamaru had kicked up their training. They now met for training whenever they had time off and train for a few hours. Shikamaru would be the first one to leave after two hours saying that it was too troublesome. Choji would leave next since his he was needed at home, he never said why exactly but he still left. Ino would train after the others left and was starting to show improvement.