Sozen the Ghost Shinobi

Chapter Eight

✦𝕊𝕖𝕒𝕣𝕔𝕙 𝕗𝕠𝕣 𝕋𝕤𝕦𝕟𝕒𝕕𝕖 ℙ𝕒𝕣𝕥 𝕋𝕨𝕠✦

Tsunade glanced at the boy, nothing seemed wrong with him asides from the fact he looked exhausted. Sozen was becoming livid without even knowing so he had to focus on his wording.

"When the Third Hokage died, I was there trapped with Orochimaru. Unforgivingly, my Fujimoto curse activated despite his best attempts to seal it in the Chunin Exams. I have a bloody horrific seal on me that not even Jiraiya can break with his knowledge, no has been able to relieve me of that man's mind," Sozen started to lose his composure, it had been a long time dealing with such crap.

Tsunade was speechless for a moment, as was Jiraiya who only wished he had been able to help the kid as he stood in the doorway.

"Get your friend to master that Jutsu and I'll throw you in the deal," Tsunade gritted her teeth.

She walked up to Sozen and pulled his collar down to look at the mark but became speechless again as he lifted his shirt to reveal strained sealing marks. Even Jiraiya was shocked to see how strained they were, it was apparent that someone was forcing the seal and given Sozen's appearance one had to assume Orochimaru merely chose to torture the boy.

"You know, his chakra's scent is on you, Tsunade. Did he want his arms back?" Sozen whispered before Tsuande slapped him with such force he was sent flying.

Barely recovering from the hit, Sozen landed on his feet before falling over.

"Right, see you in a week," Sozen coughed before staggering away.

For the next week Naruto trains, and each day he puts larger and larger dents into the trees he's training with, indicating that his Rasengan is gaining more power.

On the final day, Naruto doesn't return home at his usual time, and Shizune goes to see what happened to him. After finding a tree to be broken in two and Naruto passed out on the ground, Shizune takes him home to rest.

At the same time, Jiraiya and Tsunade meet again for drinks to discuss Naruto's progress. While Jiraiya isn't looking, Tsunade slips a powder into his drink, and after drinking it he passes out. Tsunade returns to the hotel to see if Naruto has perfected the Jutsu, but only finds him in bed, causing her to realise what a ridiculous bet it was that she had made. Shizune, meanwhile, pleads for Tsunade not to go through with Orochimaru's deal, willing to kill herself in order to stop Tsunade. Tsunade knocks Shizune unconscious and leaves to meet Orochimaru. Sozen only prays that in his state she was still unable to detect him following her for the past week.

✦𝔻𝕖𝕔𝕚𝕤𝕚𝕠𝕟✦

Tsunade and Orochimaru meet at the site of their last conversation, and Tsunade agreed to heal Orochimaru's arms if he promised to leave Konoha alone. Orochimaru agreed to the stipulation, and Tsunade approached him, preparing her healing Jutsu. Before she can make contact with Orochimaru, Kabuto appears and throws a kunai between them, forcing the two to separate. Orochimaru, realising what Kabuto has done, asks why after coming so far Tsunade was betraying him. Kabuto notes that because both he and Tsunade are Medic-Nin, he could notice the subtle amounts of killing intent within her Jutsu.

Sozen sighs at the woman's misfortune, he may need to step in. At least a Medic-Nin would be on his side for damn once. Orochimaru laments Tsunade's decision, even saying that he really had intended to stay away from Konoha. Tsunade dismisses this as a lie, yet says she had been willing to believe it if it meant that she could see her loved ones again. Because of Naruto, however, the dreams of Nawaki and Dan returned to her, and thus she couldn't bring herself to turn a blind eye to Orochimaru's goals of effectively destroying the hopes that they had had.