Naruto: Tsunade's Apprentice

Chapter 13: Tsunade's Plan

It had been a few days since the message from Tsunade arrived before Naruto and Jiraiya, meaning the pair had been on the road now for a week. Jiraiya had ignored the letter as was predicted. "Why did you ignore the letter you damn pervert?" Jiraiya looked down at his traveling companion, who was becoming an annoyance. "Because she wrote me that letter to throw me off her trail. She obviously found out somehow that I am on a mission to locate her and she doesn't want to be found" he explained with confidence.

"OR MAYBE SHE FOUND OUT ABOUT THIS MISSION AND IS TRYING TO RECALL US SINCE SHE IS THE GODAIME!" shouted the irritated blonde as his chains once again made an appearance. Jiraiya turned his head back to the road but his attention was firmly on the chains until the blonde would have them receded. He no longer feared the chains, at least externally. On the inside he was praying that the blonde would not hurl them at him again.

Jiraiya replied, "I told you before kid, if she was in Konoha my spy network would know about it." His response seemed to only irritate the blonde even more. Quickly remembering his experience with Kushina, as long as he changed the subject fast enough, she would calm down and not hurt him. He wasn't going to tell Naruto about his parents yet, he wasn't sure the boy would take it well given how he grew up.

He then thought of something, "By the way how did you know the message was from Tsunade before it was even handed over?" Here Naruto looked rather happy as the chains receded once again, "Because she is the Slug Sannin" Jiraiya could slap himself for such an easy answer, "and she allowed me to sign the Slug Contract" finished the blonde, hoping that would get the Gama Sannin to believe him so they could return to Konoha. "Not possible kid, the last person she allowed to sign the Slug Contract was Shizune her apprentice."

"Hey! I'm her apprentice too!" shot back the blonde. "Yeah," Jiraiya said with a wave, "just because you are good at iryo ninjutsu doesn't make you her apprentice" waved off the white-haired man. "I am too her second apprentice!" Naruto was attempted to forego what Shizune taught him about keeping summoning affiliations a secret, despite him already saying that he signed the slug contract, just to prove this pervert wrong but he started to take deep breaths with long exhales to stop himself.

Just as he was calming down Jiraiya asked him, "So how did you know that they liked apples?" This time Naruto kept his eyes on the road, "You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"Oh? Try me." Naruto shrugged. "Tsunade-chan told me" he said nonchalantly. "You're right I don't believe you" replied the Gama Sannin. At that Naruto pulled out the green scroll Tsunade sent him with all his training materials. Opening it up, he held it up so Jiraiya could read it but channeled chakra through his hands, to solidify his grip, and into the scroll to prevent it from tearing if Jiraiya tried to snatch it from him.

Seeing the boy holding out a scroll, Jiraiya put his hand out. "Let me see the scroll" he ordered. "No! replied the blonde adamantly. "There are Clan secrets in here so you can see with your eyes and read the message I'm showing you." Irritated Jiraiya reaches out to take the scroll at a speed Naruto was not prepared for only for him to find he couldn't take it. The scroll itself was stiffer than any metal he had ever come across while the boy seemed to be rooted to the ground like a tree.

"Let … me … see … it" Jiraiya grunted out as he pulled only shifting the young blonde at the shoulders. "NO! See with your eyes not your hand!" retorted the blonde. Not getting anywhere with attempting to take the scroll from him, Jiraiya viewed the message the blonde was showing him. 'The boy is either really strong or telling the truth' thought the Gama Sannin.