Naruto: A New Perspective

Chapter 32

Naruto could have kicked himself for being so stupid. His failings on the second step of Rasengan had been completely psychological. In order to pop the ball, he had to push as much chakra as possible, he had to go to the absolute extreme, ignore the pain that screamed in his arm as he did so and destroy the objective.

It had taken him another five days to realize it, and he kicked himself mentally for every one of them. It couldn't be helped however, now he was moving on to the last stage. Now that he had power and rotation combined, he had to control that power while keeping the maximum rotation. Jiraiya filled a balloon with simple air, and now his goal was to not pop the balloon.

This step was simply infuriating. Not only did he have to constantly refill the balloons with air, but his bunshin had a tough time performing the technique as well, the power overload was simply too much for them, they always popped after two or three tries because of the strain on the arm. Naruto often called Kage Bunshin the coolest technique ever because of all of the potential it had when it came to learning basically anything, but the limits here were driving him insane. He had come to depend on his bunshin to make it so he could learn anything extremely quickly, because then he could just move on to the next lesson.

It wasn't happening here, as they traveled for the next week looking for Tsunade, Naruto fought to control the rotation while adding power. The only help his bunshin could provide was to perform the first stage over and over, to give him complete mastery and control of rotation. Jiraiya had taught Sakura the water technique he used to fill the balloons, and she served as his balloon filler now. It actually turned out to be good training for her, although Naruto often had to summon a toad to carry the girl when she exhausted her reserves.

His improvement was slow, Naruto could hold the imperfect technique for about three seconds within the balloon, and then it popped. Still, at least he was making progress, unlike the search for Tsunade. Every town seemed to just hold another clue; the Slug Sannin always seemed to be a step ahead of them. Jiraiya was sure that they were catching up, and set them at a run to the next city, Tanzaku.

Training and running was difficult, but Naruto somehow managed it, even though his time for keeping a stable Rasengan decreased to two seconds maximum.

"I- hate- riding- toads!" Sakura yelled, her words spoken with each hop that Gamakento, Naruto's summon, took. The toad was brawny, big enough to ride, skilled with his twin katanas, and took orders well. He was one of Naruto's favorite toad summons and he took great pleasure in using him in a fight against Jiraiya. He had also become Sakura's ride whenever the girl got tired. Jiraiya had them running for five straight hours, and Sakura couldn't keep up the pace he set after four, but Jiraiya didn't want to slow for her, not when Tsunade was so close.

"A little farther now." Jiraiya replied tersely, "We have to find her soon; this little trip is taking too long."

They arrived in Tanzaku Gai several minutes later, bypassing the gate guards easily and entering the stone walled city. The marketplace was their first stop; Jiraiya would be meeting a contact there to see if Tsunade was still in town.

"Nice place." Sakura commented mildly after Jiraiya had left them to meet his contact. Sakura eyed some of the stands in the area, selling and trading for goods from all over. She saw Cloud country spices, precious stones from Rock country, and beautiful clothes ranging from dresses to practical wear from Fire country.

"I wish I brought some money," Sakura continued wistfully, "Konoha's markets are bare compared to this."

Naruto noticed the same stuff Sakura had, but he didn't really care for any of it. In Konoha, all he cared about was getting enough to eat, everything else was just useless.