better left unsaid

Chapter 39: Strained Relations

In the firsthand experience of Team 10 over the course of their rookie year as shinobi, it was clear from the things they'd seen or dealt with since graduating that no one ever explained to them exactly what they'd be facing out in the world itself.

From the barbarous and treacherous nature of Momochi Zabuza, to the litany of incredible kekkei genkai of all kinds in the world, to demon containers such as Gaara or Fuu; the past year had been an internship in the insanity that truly sat out beyond the gates of Konoha… and within it as well on second thought.

And another example of that insanity was right below the three youngsters, although this was insanity of their own creation… or at least the creation of one of them.

"Oh my Kami…" Ino said, on her knees as she felt around on the large, rusty red cranium of the toad that they were all sitting atop. From up there she could see all the way from the training field area of the village to the actual village portion of Konoha. It was quite a view, "Goldie-kun, you might have overdone it a bit on this one."

"How?" Naruto replied, almost as dumbfounded as the others at the sheer size of the toad he had called upon, "You all said to summon the boss. I summoned him. You can't say anything now. It wasn't like the strongest toad summon was going to be 'Kichi's size or anything like that."

"Jiraiya get out here!" The titanic toad bellowed, with the sheer force of his voice on its own enough to knock Naruto and Shikamaru down to their backsides on the amphibian's head, "I told you years ago that the next time you pulled a summon-and-dash on me as one of your stupid jokes I would squash you flat!"

Putting aside the thought that a summon-and-dash sounded like a completely awesome prank to pull if he could come up with a funny enough place to do it, Naruto felt it was time to introduce himself to this force of nature, "Uh hey!" Naruto shouted loudly to make sure he got the toad's attention, which he did when he found a long studded tongue completely engulf him as it wrapped around him, eventually holding him out in front of the large toad, "Bleh! What's the big idea?"

Now that he was able to get a frontal view of the toad, Naruto saw that it wore a blue jacket vest and bandages around its torso and had red markings on its head and around its eyes. It also didn't seem too pleased to be holding onto Naruto. Not one bit, "What does a kid like you think you're doing standing on my head?"

"Oh." Naruto said lamely as he rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, "Well when I summoned you… I don't really know where else I would have wound up. I mean, you're huge… sir." Maybe flattering the toad would keep Naruto from getting chucked from there to the Hokage Tower?

The toad stared Naruto down before breaking out into laughter, "Bwahahahaha! Ah, that's actually a good one for once Jiraiya. I have to give you credit for this one… trying to get me to believe that a pipsqueak like this summoned me all on his own."

"Oi! I just haven't hit my growth spurt yet you jerk! It's easy to talk about me being little when you're like a million feet tall!" Naruto snapped at the toad as he remained seated on its tongue lest he fall a very uncomfortable height of at least ten stories to whatever lay below, "And I did summon you. Ero-sensei isn't anywhere near here."

"I let you get away with standing on my head before kid, but I won't have you lie to me." The oversized toad said gruffly, "I'm Gamabunta, the Chief Toad of Mount Myouboku. To think that I would be at the beck and call of someone like you is laughable."

"But I did summon you!" Naruto stressed desperately, "And my teammates are on your head too, you didn't say jack about that!"

"What?"

"Damn you to hell Naruto…" Shikamaru grumbled before noticing that Gamabunta had finally figured the presence of both him and Ino out, "Hi. And if it actually matters, he really did summon you."