Naruto: Tsunade's Apprentice

Chapter 16: Reunited

Tsunade and her retinue finally reached Tanzaku Gai, though they did so a day earlier than expected. They stopped to allow the Anbu to change their attire so as to not be seen as shinobi. Unexpectedly however there was a small poof of smoke that put everyone on guard. when the smoke dissipated it revealed Katsuyu at about the size of a horse.

Tsunade was the first to speak. "Katsuyu, what do you need?" she asked in a tame but surprised tone. With a bow Katsuyu spoke, "I apologize my Lady but Naruto request I summon him to you immediately. He is currently in Shikkotsu Forest awaiting his summon." Tsunade immediately began to panic internally while on the outside she appeared to be as calm as can be. "Then let us not keep him waiting. Please bring him here Katsuyu" spoke Tsunade. "Yes my Lady" said the white slug as she bowed.

There was another poof of smoke out of it came a spiky headed blonde wearing a white kitsune mask with red detailing on the side of his head and an apple in hand. When he caught sight of Tsunade, Shizune, and Tonton he let out a large sigh of relief. "Thank you Katsuyu-chan" said a grateful blonde as he gave Katsuyu the apple, who gladly accepted it. "It was no trouble Naruto-san" replied the white slug.

Tsunade then asked a question that many wanted an answer to. "Naruto-chan what happened?" Naruto looked a little sheepish. "Um well me and Jiraiya reached this town called _ where I got his kitsune mask" he said happily as he pointed to the mask in question. "After I got it, he took my wallet and used my money to pay for our hotel claiming that I need to help pay for things on the mission. I told him that since he was squad leader, he could get reimbursed when we got back to Konoha as additional expenses but I think he was just out of money from spending it on alcohol and 'arm candy'" he explained.

Tsunade's eyebrow imperceptibly twitched when she heard that Jiraiya took Naruto's money. She would be having words with her former teammate when she sees him again. "Well after he paid for the hotel with my money this woman in a tight red dress walked by. His jaw hit the floor and he left me alone and told me to go to the room without him. I locked the door and was really frustrated because he wanted to go skirt chasing again" Naruto said with a huff. All the women in the group slowly began to radiate auras of malice. Some because Jiraiya would abandon his duty as squad leader to chase a woman and others because he would leave his teammate, one he requested to bring with him, behind for a woman who could have been used to try and separate them and kill them.

"Well, their came a knock at the door. At first, I thought it was the pervert because he knew which room was ours but then I got suspicious as he would have his own key so why would he need me to let him in? So I used sensory ability to check the door and found out it was the same two chakra signatures that had been following us for a few days. One was almost as large as yours Tsu-chan but he was putting more chakra towards his eyes meaning he probably had a dojutsu. The other was big, like really big. So big it was larger than yours Tsu-chan" he explained to the group, even using his arms to help explain how massive the chakra signature was. "And they even had a sword with its own chakra system. I mean what sword has that?" asked an excited Naruto.

That last detail really surprised the group. There was only one sword known to have a chakra network of its own but it could have been claimed by another, they need to at least have a description of the owner to confirm their suspicions. "Naruto-kun do you know what the wielder of the sword looked like?" asked Shizune. Naruto looked contemplative for a moment before answering. "Yeah he had blue skin, spiked up blue hair and really sharp teeth" spoke the younger blonde. That told the group immediately who Naruto encountered. Kisame Hoshigaki, the Kirigakure no Kaijin. At that the entire groups eyes widened. Naruto was attacked by an S-ranked missing nin! Now it came down to why Naruto was sought out by such a person as Kisame had abandoned Kiri before the start of the civil war.