NARUTO: LIGHTNING AND ROSES CHAPTER 56 (Patreon)

Chapter 56

SHINSO KEN

Shinso raced past the trees. His body was a blur as he molded chakra in his veins and chased a very significant chakra signature. He had been tracking Jiraiya-sama throughout the day, trailing the man as he went about his day.

He had been quite surprised when he had seen Jiraiya take Naruto to the cemetery of the Fourth Hokage. Moreso, when Naruto had begun crying as he read the name chiseled next to Minato Namikaze.

Kushina Uzumaki.

This meant that the kid knew. It was good for Naruto to know about his heritage. But all those thoughts would come later as Shinso stopped on a tree branch and fully released his chakra. Eyeing a very normal shadow of a tree in front of him.

“I believe that you should come out of that shadow. I can already sense you. Jiraiya-sama,” there was a snort, and the shadow extended, and a human began to appear from its edge. Jiraiya-sama was not confident in his espionage skills over nothing.

The man had an arsenal of obscure techniques to do his job. He snorted as he looked at me with narrowed eyes.

“Do you really think you can stop me?” he bragged somewhat as he let go of his own chakra and focused his vast reserves on me.

The world tightened as my body felt alarm bells ring at such aggression. Jiraiya, the Toad Sage, was an S-ranked monster forged in the heathen of two great wars. And it showed, despite knowing that there was little chance that the man would attack me, my body tensed as my own chakra rippled.

But I could not back down. So, I let go of the buckles on my own substantial reserves, and the two forces clashed. It was a bit rewarding to see his brows rise in surprise at this.

“Alone, I may fail,” I answered his earlier question and began to mold lightning nature chakra, and bolts of lightning began arching over my body.

“But I assure you I can hold you long enough for Tsunade-sama to arrive,” I said emphatically, and the man’s gaze narrowed down further. The clash of our chakras continued without any of us backing down until the aged shinobi just sighed and controlled his chakra.

“Why don’t both of you understand anything?” he said as he just shook his head in a somewhat resigned manner.

“We do!” Shinso answered as he reeled in his own chakra and jumped down the tree to stand in front of the white-haired Sanin.

“It’s just that we value you more than you think. Going into Ame alone is a very dangerous undertaking. Something that could end up in a disaster,” the kid said, and the man simply sighed, but then he shifted swiftly.

SHinso raised both my hands to block out the attacks. His enhanced senses paid dividends as he held both of Jiraiya-sama’s hands. Blocking the intended attack.

“As I said, it’s futile. You aren’t going to Amegakure on my watch,” the kid said as he looked the Sanin straight in the eye. Though, the man did not back away.

“Now, Tsuanade-sama shall be here in two minutes. And I can assure you, she will find an appropriate punishment for you if she finds out that you had tried to run away,” the man did not evade the young prodigy’s gaze as he questioned.

“So, what do you propose?” Shinso just smiled as he pumped chakra into the veins.

“Well, I have always wanted to spar against you. This way, I shall have faced all three of you in combat!” Tsunade’s apprentice replied with a smirk, and the man gave me a smile as chakra began to rile up his own chakra.

“Well, then, I shall grant you your wish!” and the Sanin suddenly inhaled a mouthful of air.

“FIRE STYLE: FIREBALL JUTSU!” and Shinso let go of the arms and was immediately devoured by the Earth underneath.

“EARTH STYLE: HIDING LIKE A MOLE!” and the huge ball of flames devoured the area where the kid stood moments ago. Jiraiya felt chakra beneath him and pushed chakra to his feet, and stomped hard on the ground.

CRACK!

And the ground cracked as he jumped away. Though before he could land, he had to use another technique to black out a huge stream of lightning heading his way.

“NINPO: NEEDLE JIZOO!” and the man was encased by his hair as a lightning-coated blade clashed against his chakra-hardened hairs.

Suddenly the expanded hairs imploded and began to throw a shower of senbon-like projections around the whole area.

“LIGHTNING STYLE: LIGHTNING CAGE!” and the sword was planted at the apex of a triangle with two others as lightning arched between the two others and blocked the storm from reaching the person in the center.

Jiraiya was impressed by the kid as he landed on the ground.

“Ahh, you are quite good. But I believe that you are a little too early to challenge me!” and then he clipped his thumb and began making handseals. Shinso recognized the move as his three swords moved and raced towards him as he formed handseals.

“NINPO: INCOMPLETE TRANSFORMATION!”

And Shinso’s body shifted as his torso divided to give rise to three projections.

“I would say a couple of lifetimes too early, at least!” finished the legendary Sanin with a shout as he plunged his hand onto the ground.

“SUMMONING JUTSU!”

0000

TSUNADE SENJU

Tsunade’s temper flared up as she looked at her student. Shinso had just barely recovered, and today, he was once more covered with bandages. All of which were the results of his last night’s excursion against her teammate.

The kid was aware of his misdeed and was looking down. Unlike her lecherous teammate, who stood on the side, similarly covered with bandages underneath his clothing. Jiraiya may seem fine, but he had taken quite a beating last night. A fact that she was quite proud of, given that it was her student on the other end. Not that Shinso had won or anything; the kid had lost, but he had taken his share.

“Honestly, I am not sure what I should do with the two of you!” she began as she glared at both of them.

“The whole Intelligence division was in a mess. Reports from the border division had been red flags, and they came very close to declaring an evacuation emergency,” and that was not the only headache. Even ANBU had gone on high alert as it was thought that perhaps Konoha was being invaded.

Though, in the end, it was just too idiots duking it out. Though more like one idiot and her apprentice.

“Hihi! Well, it perhaps gave their capabilities a check in case of emergencies. Perhaps we can let go of this month’s emergency drills,” Jiraiya proposed with a laugh, and Tsunade did not find it amusing, given by her constant glare.

“Well, then, I have an appropriate mission for you. You are to work with the Intelligence division to root out all the inefficiencies in Konoha’s security seals. After all, yesterday was somewhat of an emergency drill right,” she finished with a smirk and Jiraiya immediately lost his smirk.

“No! No! How can I do that? Don’t you know that I have an apprentice of my own! Plus, I have a lot of research to catch up on….”

“Jiraiya!” she cut him off, and then with a sinister smile, Tsunade gave another proposal.

“Then why don’t I rope in ANBU as well? The ANBU commander has been asking for….” But before she finished, Jiraiya was already at her office’s door.

“Ohh, It seems I can not hear you. But don’t worry. I am sure Shikaku and I will figure it out.”

BANG.

And the man was gone as he closed the door with significant force. She smirked at his antics. She then leaned back in her chair and looked at her apprentice.

“So, he tried to run away yesterday night!” and her student nodded.

“Yes, but as I said in my message, I was able to track him down and stop him,” and Tsunade just sighed. It seems it was a good idea to put Shinso on Jiraiya as well. Well, it seems the ANBU will need to up their training if Jiraiya could fool them so easily.

“Still, you shouldn’t have fought him like that. Your clash almost started an emergency within the village,” and the kid was embarrassed enough as he did not make excuses.

“I am sorry about that. But still, I felt that this was a good opportunity to test against the only remaining Sanin,” and Tsunade nodded at that as she remembered that the kid had faced Orochimaru twice now.

She also sparred with the kid in training every week, thus leaving Jiraiya as the only person he had not fought.

Well, perhaps it was not all a waste.

“So, how is he?” she asked with a smirk, and the kid finally looked up and stared straight into her eye as he answered.

“He is strong! Very Strong,” and Tsuande snickered at that. Of course, he was. While all three of them were teammates and considered equal in strength, Jiraiya was perhaps a tad stronger than both her and Orochimaru. While she focused on iryo-ninjutsu and Orochimaru had a perverse attachment to science. Jiraiya’s strength lay in his combative ability.

“Well, from what I observed, you did quite well against him. Even the ANBU captain was highly impressed by you,” she praised the kid, and the kid smiled as he thanked her. But then she asked the question that had plagued her mind.

“Do you think he can take on Pain?” and the room lost its previous cheer. Tsunade had her own opinion on this. But she just wanted to hear someone else’s thoughts on this. And she could see the gears turning in the kid’s head as he considered everything before he minutely shook his head. Confirming her own analysis.

Tsunade sighed at that. It seems she was not overthinking this.

“While I am not too sure, I would say no. Though, I do think that if he were to go all out, Jiraiya-sama could perhaps face him on even footing.” Shinso concluded, and Tsuande nodded her head.

“Well, but if he goes to Ame, he won’t be facing Pain only,” she finished, and the Shinso agreed with her.

“Well, keep an eye on him. I don’t think he will try again, but I will not take any risks. Now, why don’t we move to the training grounds? I have thought up the next step in your training,” she finished as she began to get up from her seat.

The kid perked up at that.

“May I ask what it is, Tsunade-sama?” he asked her as they left her office. And Tsunade smirked as she answered.

“Well, I believe it is time Konoha got another sage. Perhaps Jiraiya would lose some of his smugness when we have another Sage to replace that idiot,” and Tsunade did not miss out on the widening of the kid’s eyes.

Well, let’s hope her gamble was right. Katsuyu had agreed to accept Shinso as a contract holder and was quite excited as well. A Sage of the forest. It had been years since someone had risen up to that title.

Well, years since her own grandfather had achieved that title. Well, we shall see. We shall see.

0000

I don’t believe that Hashirama just learned sage mode on his own. Even the sage of six paths the progenitor of all shinobi, learned from the frogs. And there are only three places where one can learn sejutsu giving us an inference that he learned from Katsuyu.

Perhaps she was not her summons, but still, Katsuyu lives in a forest, and Hashirama uses Wood style. Coincidence. I think not.