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Chapter 78- The time is near! How will Tsunade decide?

'Normal thought…"

"Kyuubi/ Bijuu speech…"

'Kyuubi communicating with Naruko inside her head…'

'Kyuubi's thought's, Naruko can't hear…'

"Normal speech…"

Jutsu name…

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In the morning…

Jiraiya yawned as he sat up in his bed, just to have unbelievable pain sear through his head. "Oww… My head…. Urgh, that Tsunade…. I feel so rotten! It's her damn fault I've drunken so much sake…" He groaned and whined over the fact that he has a bad hangover. Just then, he looked to the bed next to him and saw it was still neatly made and Naruko's yukata was still laying cleanly folded on it. He sighed at that. 'That Naru… It seems she never came back last night…' Jiraiya just sighed again and winced slightly as he stood up and walked to the window of their room. He looked outside to the town and a small fond smile slipped on his face. "You're such a fool, Naru-chan… You don't even know when it's time to end the training for a day…" He shook his head in fondness. 'That's reminds me of a certain someone that used to the same thing… Am I right, Minato?'

With Tsunade…

Tsunade walked through the village while ignoring her surroundings and looking to the ground thoughtfully. She thought about Orochimaru's offer… About his threat to Konoha, about Shizune warning her of Orochimaru's cunning offer… She walked into a casino and started to gamble half-heartily. Tsunade remembered what Jiraiya said about the village wanting her to become the Hokage, then she was yet again reminded of the past Hokage. At last she remembered Naruko's determination and her little fight with her, and also Dan and Nawaki.

The second night after the bet with Tsunade…

Naruko panted heavily as she was laying utterly exhausted on the ground and stared at the trees with not-fully finished Rasengan swirl marks all over them. "J-Just a bit more… I just have to get it a bit more… I swear I will win this bet for you all!" She shouted determined as she remembered her precious people… There's just no way of her failing.

Kyuubi just rolled his eyes at that. 'Just stop with being stupid and see the fact that you will not make it in time, geez! Because of your damn training, you overexert yourself greatly and it's really a pain in the as- I mean it's really annnyoing to heal that, you know?!' He snapped at her, stumbling slightly over his words as he caught himself in the last minute. 'That was close… I almost cursed badly in front of the brat- Not like this really would interest me….'

"…You know I have to win this bet, no matter what, Kyuu." Naru just told him seriously before she closed her eyes in exhaustion as she tried to calm her breathing down.

Tsunade watched her from far away and her eyes softened for a split second before she stared sadly and uncertainly to the ground. She quickly turned around and walked into a gambling hall, still thinking about Orochimaru's offer… That included her having to provide living sacrifices.

And so… Another day passed by… Now, in the morning of the third day…

Naruko let out a battle cry as she drilled her almost finished Rasengan into a tree that already had deep craters in it. Wood splintered, and a dust cloud was whirled up as another deep crater now appeared in the tree where Naru had just touched it with her Rasengan. She panted and looked seriously at the deeper and better shaped crater in the tree. 'I'm slowly getting to it… I just have to compress my full chakra more and contain it in the perfect shape of a sphere….' Naruko took a deep calming breath and straightened herself. She closed her eyes and concentrated heavily. Then, her eyes shot open and the Rasengan started to form in the palm of her hands. Sweat started to run down her face as she tried to charge at the tree again, just for her knee to collapse under her. She gritted her teeth at that and memories of her precious people shot through her. Naru narrowed her eyes utterly determined an stemmed herself right up again and charged at the tree with a loud battle cry.