Fox In The Leaf

Deadlock

~bar~

Both Sanin were sitting at the bar table pouring themselves drinks.

Jiraiya poured himself a drink as he began to speak "So... What did he want?"

Tsunade drank her sake "What makes you think that he wanted anything?"

"Come on Tsunade-hime... You know just as well as I do that he wouldn't come to see you if he didn't want something. So what was it?"

Tsunade couldn't help but smirk at the thought of her former teammate's state when she first saw him...

~flashback~

Tsunade and Shizune stood in an empty alley with a young boy named Kabuto and a hooded figure.

Tsunade scowled at the hooded figure before she spoke "What do you want from me, Orochimaru? Did you think that I wouldn't recognize your foul stench!?"

"Kukuku am I not allowed to see my old teammate?" The words came out oily and

If looks could kill Orochimaru would be dead a few times over but unfortunately, Tsunade didn't have this kind of ability... "Don't treat me like a fool! Now tell me what you want before I turn you into a smear on the ground!"

Kabuto lowered himself into a stance, he even channeled chakra into his palm.

Shizune got into her own stance ready to defend her master.

Kabuto was stopped however by Orochimaru's hand on his shoulder.

Orochimaru took a limping step forward "I require your particular... Expertise, Tsunade."

Tsunade noticed the limp and quirked an eyebrow "Why would you need my help? From what I could tell you already have a medic with you. Why can't he heal your limp?"

Orochimaru moved his cloak to reveal his right leg.

Tsunade noticed that the leg looked like it had third-degree burns but what really caught her eye was the foot. It looked like it was the foot of a corpse as some of it was rotting. This made her feel uneasy at the sight so she shifted her gaze back to his eyes "What stupid experiment did this to you?"

"Kuku this is an unforeseen side effect from a jutsu that I have yet to fully understand. And although Kabuto-san here is a good practitioner of his field even he is unable to heal this type of injury. I need this to be healed for me as it is continuing to damage this body."

Tsunade only scowled harder at the man "And why should I help you? Why shouldn't I just let you suffer from that and hope you die from it?"

Orochimaru smirked at this.

~end of Flashback~

Tsunade got out of her thoughts as she took another sip of her drink "...He wants me to heal him."

Jiraiya knew that there was more to this. "So, what did he offer you in return?"

Tsunade seemed to sober up exceptionally as she thought of the deal "It doesn't concern you."

"I beg to differ."

~Shizune~

Shizune had spent some time trying to find out where Naruto had gone. It surprised her that she had lost sight of the boy since he only had a few minute's heads start. Now walking in the forest outside of town she had seen some damaged trees, which she took as a trail to where he would be. After a bit more searching she found him, or at least ...his clones. She was stunned silent as she could see groups of clones that were doing several things. Some were doing to usual tree walking and leaf exercises, but some were doing them in an unconventional way. She saw that some of the clones were using the tree walking exercise but instead of walking up the tree without using their hands, they were going up the tree with just their hands in a way that made them look like they were doing handstands. Some of them were hanging from branches with just their fingertips, which she could see were coated with chakra. There was one that stood out from the rest though. He was in the center of the training area, keeping himself upright from his fingertip that was pressed against the end of a kunai. She realized that this one was the original and he was doing something that no one ever thought about before. To focus chakra into a single point would be an extremely difficult way of chakra control but it would be exceptionally helpful but the way he was doing it was really risky because if he fell, he would most likely have the kunai stabbed into a part of his body. She was pulled from her thoughts when she saw him extend his free hand to his side with the palm face upward. She watched as chakra began to form in his palm that looked like it was the start of the Rasengan but the color was different because instead of being blue, it was red.