Naruto and Ino are walking down some random road in the centre of the Land of Fire. "That last one was doozy," Ino says with a sigh. "What did you expect? They were informants to one of the most legendary ninjas in the world," Naruto says. They had been walking for a few days and met with three of Jiraiya's numerous contacts. They all had agreed to supply information to Konoha for the foreseeable future even if Jiraiya had passed away. Naruto has appreciated Ino's company. Thanks to her, it hasn't been nearly as lonely as he thought it would be without Jiraiya in the picture. "Will you have a look at this?" Naruto asks his girlfriend. "What is it?" Ino says as she leans closer to Naruto. Her body pressed up against his. Naruto felt his cheeks heating up. Being alone with Ino might be a bit dangerous after all. Ino looks up at Naruto's face. He hadn't said anything since he asked her to look at whatever he wanted. She sees his embarrassed face and gains a cheeky smile. "Ara... little Naruto-chan isn't used to the attention..." She says as she leans in further into Naruto's side.
"Can you focus on what I want to show you instead of teasing me..." Naruto whines and hands over a scroll to the girl. He jumps away from the girl's embrace when she finally takes it. "Moh... here I just wanted to get a little closer to my boyfriend..." Ino says in a fake hurt voice and looks over the scroll's content. "It seems like a pretty aggressive fighting style... What is that "senjutsu" it talks about? And where did you find it?" Ino asks. "Senjutsu was the energy I used when fighting Kakuzu," Naruto says as he places his hands together in front of him. Black markings form around his eyes and on his forehead. "It takes the chakra in the nature around all of us and utilises it to power up my Jutsus, be it Nin-, Tai- or Genjutsu," Naruto explains and walks over to a huge boulder. "Could you lift this up for me?" Naruto asks her. She looks weirdly at him. "Why should I?" Ino asks. "Please just try it... I'll show you how it works," Naruto answers. She walks over to the boulder but doesn't lose her suspicious look. She grabs the boulder and tries to lift it but obviously can't. "Now I'll show you with Senjutsu!" Naruto says as he walks up to the boulder. He refocuses by closing his eyes. Then he grabs onto the edges where Ino had held and lifted the boulder out of the ground. "See it is kind of easy with Senjutsu..." Naruto says and replaces the boulder from where he picked it up.
"And to answer your other question: I made it. I was hoping that you could point out any flaws in it before I start training," Naruto says. "I see..." Ino says as she looks over the scroll once again. "Now that you say it, it lacks a counter for..." Ino starts as she goes over what she knew about Taijutsu. "I see..." Naruto says as Ino finishes her analysis. "I'll polish it a bit before giving it to you again," Naruto says as he takes the scroll back. He goes over the things she mentioned and tweaks them.
Naruto and Ino were meeting up with a contact on the bridge in front of them. "We will do as we did before. I walk in first to establish contact. Then, you can jump in if things go south," Naruto says to his girlfriend. She nods and moves to hide in the shrubbery behind the bridge. Naruto moves to the bridge's centre and leans against the railing, looking over the river the bridge crossed.
"You know... if you stand here for too long, people will get suspicious," A new voice says as he takes his place. He was male and middle-aged. "Hello there, Naruto-kun. It has been a while. You have grown," He says. "Mizunari Utaburo. Two years is a long time at my age..." Naruto says without lifting his gaze from the flowing river. "So it would seem," Utaburo answers. "I am sure you have heard the rumours. Jiraiya died in the line of duty last week," Naruto says. "I am sorry for your loss. I know he meant a lot to you," Utaburo says. "Thank you... But I couldn't have gotten through this without the help of my girlfriend..." Naruto says.
"You shouldn't hand out information like this... I am not loyal to you or your village. I was loyal to Jiraiya. And Jiraiya alone," He says. "I know. I am trying to open up the line of communications between you and me here," Naruto says. "You trying to build up trust?" Utaburo says. "Something like that," Naruto says. "You really are clever... I see why Jiraiya spoke so highly of you..." Utaburo says with a sigh. "Will you continue to supply Konoha information if I were your contact?" Naruto asks the man. "No way... You are too smart. I would feel inferior every time I met you..." The older man chuckles. "Good because I will be Hokage, and leaving to come to talk to you would be such a drag," Naruto says with a smirk. "Hahahaha!" The older man laughs at the teenager's joke. "So I can count on you in the future?" Naruto says as he looks at the man. He was utterly unremarkable with straight brown hair and black eyes. He didn't have any identifying scars and ordinary brown eyes. Naruto mused it was a good thing that he was so unremarkable. It made it easier to melt into the background and get away from pursuers.
"I'll send your new contact as soon as possible. Just a fair warning: If you betray me, your contact or Konoha in any way. I will personaly make sure your death will be the worst thing you can imagine," Naruto says as he begins to leave the bridge. "You don't have to worry about that. Jiraiya and I were good friends. I wouldn't place you or your home in an awkward position," Utaburo says and leaves in the other direction.
Naruto walks up to Ino. "It's over," Naruto says to her. She jumps out from her hiding spot. "Good job. Meeting with these people must be tiring," Ino says as she hugs him. Naruto hugs back. "It isn't as annoying as you think, especially since I get this treatment when I get back," Naruto says honestly. "You little charmer..." Ino says as she rubs her face on his shoulder. Naruto got a report from his clones after they had begun walking again. His clones finally did his little Fuuinjutsu project, and he was going to get to use it in his next battle.
The next few days were the same for the couple. First, meet with a contact, hug, then Naruto would tweak his new fighting style. Now He felt it was time for the physical part of training. He had ironed out the flaws Ino could find, and he would continue to iron the rest out when they showed themselves in actual battle. Naruto was training when he got a distressing call from one of his clones.
"Village is under attack! Pain is leading the assault! Return immediately! We will hold them off as long as possible! " The message said. Naruto tenses up. This was it. Pain was here to collect on the debts he felt owed. Naruto takes a deep breath. He needed to collect his thoughts. "Ino... Do not panic... But we have to get back to the village as soon as possible," Naruto says to his girlfriend. "Did something happen!" Ino says as she jumps to her feet. "I told you not to panic," Naruto sweatdrops. "You telling me that is going to get me more panicked!" Ino burst out. "The village is under attack. We have to hurry," Naruto says as he pulls his scroll to his back. "I would send us back with my Fuuinjutsu but I haven't tried it yet and I don't want to put you in danger," Naruto says cryptically. "You can do that with just Fuuinjutsu?" Ino asks, puzzled. "Just Fuuinjutsu..." He mimics. "You along with the village has such bad concept of what Fuuinjutsu can do..." Naruto says. "What can it do then?" Ino asks as she packs her own stuff. "You missed some stuff here..." Ino says before he can finish. Naruto packs in the stuff he missed. "Anything..." Naruto says with a smile finally.
Naruto and Ino are running. They were running faster than they had ever run in their entire life. "I'll speed us up a bit," Naruto says and closes his eyes. Black markings form, and he scops Ino up and speed up further.
Naruto felt the shake in the ground. It was coming from Konoha. Naruto held back a whine when he felt his clones die. Pain had just levelled the village. Naruto had to bite back the tears. Ino noticed his distressed state. "What happened?!" She asks. "I can't explain... You will have to see for yourself," Naruto says, still fighting back the tears. He got within range to feel the village now, and the lack of presences were very troubling. Naruto stops for a second. "Ino... I'm going to have to leave you here..." He says with a heavy heart. "What!? Why!?" Ino screams in his face. "Sorry I can't let you see the village in this state... I'll fix everything, don't worry," Naruto promises with a serious look. He takes off, leaving a perplexed Ino in the forest.
Naruto made the rest of the trip with absolute focus from Naruto. He was amassing as much nature chakra as possible without his body dropping it all. The markings had never been this pronounced before. Finally, he lands on the wall surrounding the village. It was just as he feared. Pain had utterly levelled the village. Only small sections of the wall were standing. "Ba-chan..." Naruto says as he begins to stretch out his senses. As much as possible. She was in the middle but not hurt. "... But Kakashi-sensei is not here anymore..." Naruto says, and new tears threaten to fall. Now is not the time to think about that. He needs to stop Pain.
Tsunade was looking over the destruction of the village. The village her grandfather built. The village she grew up in. The village where children hope for the future. A single tear rolls down her cheek. She stands up. She was going to fight. Fight for whatever was left. Pain was hovering over the crater. He lands near Tsunade. "Now where is the Kyuubi?" He asks. "If you think Konoha will roll over to your terrorism... Then you are sorely mistaken!" Tsunade says as she readies one of her massive strikes. Pain sidesteps the punch and then pushes her back with some sort of jutsu. Five other Pains land near the Pain that had just levelled the village. "Then so be it..." Pain says and one of the Pains take off towards her.
Naruto lands on top of him with a Rasengan in his hand. "Sorry, I'm late... Ba-chan... You can rest now. I'll take care of the rest..." Naruto says without turning his head away from his opponents. "ANBU, take her away..." He orders with enough conviction to shut the black ops down before they can counter him.
"Please take Katsuyu!" She says as she holds out a small slug. "Thank you. I'll protect what is left of the village with my life," Naruto says as he takes the slug without taking his eyes off his opponent. The ANBU nod and finally take an arm each of Tsunade's and jumps away from the battlefield. "Senju Naruto..." A Pain says. A ripple in the air next to Pain. The orange-masked man from before pops out. "I see it was a space-time ninjutsu you used..." Naruto says to himself. "What are you doing here Tobi?" What looked like the main Pain asks. "This one is strong. Stronger than you think. I'll help with the capture of the Nine-tails," He says in his serious voice.
Naruto readies a few kunai. "Any more allies you want to summon before we can get this underway?" Naruto asks. A blue-headed girl lands near the oranged haired Pain. "What are you doing here now, Konan? I thought you were going," Pain asks his new companion. "I was, until I saw Tobi teleport in next to you," The identified Konan says. "He is right. This one is strong..." She adds. "Very well. The capture will be that much easier then," Pain says. Naruto throws out the kunai in his hands. They all miss or are easily evaded. "You really think that flimsy attack would be enough to harm us..." Pain taunts. "I wasn't trying to hit you..." Naruto smirks. He flashes away from their field of view, and one of the pains takes a heavy blow to the back of his head. "Now then... This is where your ass whopping begins..." Naruto says with a smirk.