Heels clicked against the hard wood floors of the building followed the by the light trot of hooves. The owner of the clicking heels looked down at the small animal that was walking beside her. She had no idea how the pig found her, but it did. With a light sigh, the blond continued to look ahead with her low pigtails lightly swaying behind her. Her grip on the handle of the suitcase in her hand tightened and a small grin formed on her face. Her apprentice was going to lose her nuts at the surprised she had in her hand.
When she got to the room, she pushed open the doors, catching the attention of the woman who was sitting at the table. She dramatically slammed the red briefcase on the table before unbuckling the locks. She then lifted the lid, revealing stacks of cash lying within it.
"What?!" the dark-hair woman exclaimed as she looked at the large sum of money in the briefcase. "C-Could this money be...?!"
"Alright!" the blonde said with a wide grin. "We're going to turn around our luck with this!"
"Where did you even get this much money?!" the ravenette said incredulously.
"Where do you think I got it, Shizune? I borrowed it." the Sannin replied as she shit the briefcase and locked it.
"You can't keep doing this, Lady Tsunade. We barely made it out of the casino last night because of your debt." Shizune argued.
"I would have paid them back." Tsunade said as she grabbed the briefcase and started toward the door. "Eventually."
Shizune sweatdropped as she watched Tsunade walk out the door. "Wait, where are we going?!?" she called out as she rushed behind her.
"To a very special place where I can win a shitload of money." she replied.
Shizune looked at her master. She could tell by the light blush of her cheeks that she had been drinking. She sighed. There wasn't any use in trying to get her master to see reason. When it came to her gambling and alcohol, nothing else mattered and logic didn't exist. She just silently followed the Sannin out of the building. There was nothing else she could do.
"Oink, oink." the little pig snorted as they walked down the street.
"I know, Ton-Ton. I know." Shizune replied tiredly.
They continued to travel through Tanzaku Gai until they finally reached a less populated side of town. They walked down a dirt path until they finally arrived at a large building that was sitting up on a hill. A large torii structure made of concrete stood in front of the set of stairs that led to a citadel like building. The roofs were painted red and the walls were light brown and stucco-like. Trees decorated the lawn and the grass was freshly cut. 'Where the hell are we?' Shizune thought as she turned to her master who was looking up at the place with a grin. Shizune groaned. Why did she get the feeling that she should have stayed at the hotel today?
"Okay! This is the place!" Tsunade announced.
Shizune took a real good look at the place recognition crossed her features and she looked at Tsunade with a disbelieving expression. "Here?!" she exclaimed.
'Here' was the gambling house that was most frequented by the entire town. She continued to stare at her sensei incredulously. She did not understand why she was coming here. Did she not know that she had a ton of people looking for her? She thought the reason for coming there in the first place was to hide from the tax and debt collectors. Not attract their attention. Even Ton-Ton had to sweat-drop and shake her head at the Sannin's lack of tactic.
Tsunade waved her hand dismissively at the woman. "You worry too much, Shizune." she said as she began to walk up the steps. "She should learn to live a little and stop being so uptight."
"I am not uptight!" Shizune said indignantly. "Besides, someone has to be responsible enough to clean up the messes you make."
"Yare yare." Tsunade replied offhandedly. "Just come on. Poker and chilled sake are calling my name."
Shizune huffed as she followed Tsunade up the stairs with Ton-Ton beside her. They continued up the steps until they reached the entrance of the place. Upon entry, Shizune noticed that it was like a large courtyard. Businesses wrapped around the small plaza like a fort wall. People entered and exited different units that belonged to different business owners. The two women walked around the place until they finally at a building with a red sign that had two dice donning each side of the board. In the middle, was the kanji for 'chō' and 'han'.
Shizune looked at the information poster on the wall before stepping back with unbelieving expression. "Eh?! Th-This place has the highest antes...!" she freaked.
"Don't fret over every little thing!" Tsunade said before pushing the navy blue noren aside to enter the place. "Let's go!"
"Oh, dear! Please wait!" Shizune said as she chased after her. Despite of her knowing her master's quirks, he couldn't help but worry for her. She could be so wreckless!
Tsunade walked through the place with her head held high and a strong air of confidence. When she arrived at her destination, she pulled the shōji back, revealing a room full of men. They were all sitting on the floor, dressed in kimono shorts and pants, and had wooden boxes that kept count of their winnings and losses. At the center, was a chabudai that was cleared with exception of a cup for dice and player slots. They all turned to look at the woman, some with raised eyebrows and some with blank expressions.
"Yikes!" Shizune said as she hid behind her master.
The headmaster of the table looked at the woman before his eyes landed on the red briefcase she held in her hand. 'Huh?!' he subtly expressed before his eyes widened and he began to lightly expressed. 'This woman is....!' he trailed off as the woman walked up to the table and placed the briefcase on it. She unlocked before revealing the stacks of cash she had stored within it.
"Would you mind changing all of this money into chips for me?" Tsunade said with a small grin.
"Oh no! She's really going for it!" Shizune quietly spectated as she held Ton-Ton to her chest.
The men at the table began to whisper amongst each other. One gray-haired man in particular leaned toward the head of the table and talked to the headmaster.
"Just who is this? This lady......" he asked.
"You mean you don't know?" the man replied. "She's that woman with the famous alias...."
"Famous alias?" the older man asked questioningly as he turned to look at the woman. "Boss, what's this alias...?"
"The Legendary Sucker." he replied.
The men continued to stare at woman before some began to grin. They knew exactly who this woman was now. Her name was known far and wide. Some licked their lips in anticipation as their eyes traveled to the open briefcase and back to her. You could literally see their pupils turn to cash signs, ready to sate their greed. One by one, the men began to laugh. For those who had already lost much, they saw redemption through playing with the woman. For those who were lucky, they saw a way to rack in more money.
"Oh dear! They're all laughing!" Shizune commented as she watched her master become a laughing stock.
Tsunade was unmoved by their laughter as she pushed the briefcase up. "Well? Are you going to laugh all day or are you going to get me my chips?" she said, adding a little killing intent with her statement.
At this, the men stopped laughing and began to sweat a little.
"O-Of course." the master of the table said as he stood. "It will only take minute." he replied as he took the briefcase and went to the back.
When he returned, he brought with him a book full of chips along with a name card. Tsunade grinned as she received her box of chips. She sat at the table and everyone began to place their bets. Shizune could only sweat-drop at the fact that her master had lost the first round. She sighed. By the end of day, Tsunade had lost more than half of her money, leaving a bunch of happy gamblers at the betting table. Despite of her major loss, the Sannin walked out of the place with her head held high. When she got back to the entrance, she stopped to look at the view from the hill.
"Let's go celebrate with some sake, Shizune!" Tsunade said as she began to make her way down the stairs.
Shizune sighed again as she followed her master without a sound or complaint.
"Bleh, bleh." Ton-Ton oinked.
Shizune looked down at her pet pig. "I know, Ton-Ton. I know." she replied as they headed to the bar they would be spending their evening at.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(A day later....)
Naruto yawned as he woke up. He allowed his eyes to adjust to the morning light before sitting up in the bed. He looked toward the other bed of the room and saw that it was empty and unmade. He sighed as he stood from his bed. It appears that Jiraiya was gone for the day.
Naruto yawned once more as he stretched, feeling several of his muscles pop back into place. He walked into the bathroom and took a morning shower before moving to put on his usual orange outfit. He took the bag of water balloons and rubber balls and walked out the door. After locking the room up, he headed toward the hotel lobby and ate breakfast before leaving.
He sighed as he walked through the streets of Tanzaku Gai. The city was much larger than he formally presumed. It was as if the place had multiple districts or something, much like the Fire Capital. He maneuvered himself through the crowd that was beginning to form on the streets. People were already setting up shop and opening their stands to continue the festival that started yesterday. He could already smell the scent of chocolate and bananas and batter and cooked octopus, and his mouth nearly watered at the smell.
He continued his way to the wall stairs that lead up the cliff that surrounded the city. Once he got to the top, he walked into the small forests, were Jiraiya had taken him to train yesterday. When he got to his training spot that was a good distance away from the city, he placed the bag he was carrying on the ground near a tree and looked around. Once he sensed that no one was around, he created 50 clones.
"I want you all to divide yourselves into groups of ten." Naruto ordered. "The first group, I want you to pair off and work on taijutsu katas. Each pair is to work on a different set of the taijutsu styles we know. I also want you practicing either on the side of the tree or on water."
"Hai, boss!" they said simultaneously before disappearing into the treeline.
"I want the second group to study and work on fuinjutsu. I need at least two of you to continue to study juinjutsu. We will be traveling to Uzu soon to see if we can get anymore information on it." he said.
His clones nodded before leaving the clearing as well.
"Third group...." Naruto started as he unsealed a large scroll from his arm. He unrolled it and pulsed chakra into seal, causing a bunch of things to pop into existence in a cloud of smoke. "I want you going over this paper work. Take notes and sign when it's need. If something needs to be edited or sent, mark it properly before putting it in a separate pile. I will handle that later."
Two of the clones from group three took the bundles of paperwork and left with the rest following.
"Group four, I want you to henge and go back into the city. You already know what to do from there." he said.
They nodded and transformed as they were told. They then split up and ran into different directions toward the city.
"Last group, I just want you to sit here and mediate. I will have something for you guys to do in a little bit." he said, earning nods from his clones.
As they all sat down and meditated, Naruto looked through all the things he had stored in the scroll. Most of it was paper work and fuinjutsu scrolls that he had already given his clones. The rest of it were ninjutsu scrolls, his journal, and his other wallet. He grimaced as he thought about what happened to Gama-chan. The old pervert left him with 300 yen before running off to spend the rest of his hard earned money. Good thing it didn't put that much in there. It honestly made no sense how someone with millions of dollars would spend the money of some poor kid.
Naruto shook his head as his eyes landed on the bag of water balloons and rubber balls. He sighed as he raised both his hands. A perfect rasengan formed in both hands as he effortlessly did the jutsu. After a while, he released one of his rasengan leaving on of them activated. With a little more concentration, lightning began to crack and spark within the blue ball, causing Naruto to smirk. He had been working on the variant for the past two weeks and he finally got it.
"Raiton: Rasengan!" he yelled as he sent his jutsu crashing into a distant tree, completely destroying it.
Naruto lightly panted as he released the jutsu. He was going to have to practice it a bit more to get his body used to it. Adding elemental chakra to his father's jutsu was no easy task. He could only imagine the hassle it was going to be to add wind to it. However, that was a thought for another time.
He was head back to the clearing when he heard the tree top russle. He raised an eye brow as he began to look around. Seconds later, a figure dropped from the trees and landed on the ground gracefully. When he stood, Naruto could finally make out who the person was. A pair of bright violet eyes met his blue ones and the man was several inches taller than himself. He brushed a piece of his raven locks from the front of his face and stared directly at the person in front of him. Neither person said anything for a moment before the fair-skinned male spoke.
"Boss." he finally said.
"Report." Naruto replied.
"I went to Chukyo Palace as ordered and met with Takuma like you said. A very professional man despite of his dealings." the clone said. "I also happened to run into Tsunade-san while I was there."
"Hn. I can't say that's surprising." Naruto commented. "What happened?"
"Well, after blowing all of her money and getting drunk, she tried to leave....without paying the money owed. As you can imagine, Takuma-san didn't take that too well." the clone answered.
"Of course he wouldn't." Naruto said with a sigh. "So what did you do?"
"I purchased her debt." the clone said. "Then I ended up racking over 10x what she owed." he said with a grin.
Naruto couldn't help but smirk as well. "So how much did you manage to win?" he asked curiously.
The clone's grin seemed to widen before he summon a large green scroll. He threw the scroll to Naruto, who caught it before grabbing the paper that was attached to it. His eyes slightly widened at the amount of money on the receipt. His smirk turned into a large grin and he looked back at his clone.
"Damn we're good." he said.
"Damn right." the clone replied. "Along with the money, are the contracts and agreements you wanted. I was able to find out that Nori has some connects in Sora-ku. After my little display of luck in the casino hall, he was more than eager to go into business with us."
"Hn." Naruto replied as he tucked the large scroll under his arm. "Is that all?"
The clone nodded before he paused for a second. He turned to look Naruto directly in the eye, making the blond raise an eyebrow.
"There was someone else following her." he said seriously.
Naruto's eyes furrowed at this information as he took on a thoughtful look. "Were you able to find out who it was?" he asked.
The clone shook his head. "No. Whoever it was knows how to stay hidden. I could barely catch his chakra signature. And he would disappear as soon as I spotted him." the clone answered. "Whoever this is, is a professional."
Naruto didn't say anything for a while. He recalled how he caught a faint chakra signature following them when they arrived to Tanzaku Gai. He hadn't sensed the person since and that fact made the boy a little uneasy.
"I already have an eye in the sky and several clones around the city." Naruto replied as he looked at his clone. "I'll look into once I find what I can from Jiraiya."
The clone nodded. "Will that be all, boss?" he asked.
Naruto nodded. "Good job." he said.
The clone gave a mock salute before dispelling, sending all of its memories to Naruto. After Naruto took the time to organize his mind, he continued his journey back to the clearing where his 10 clones were still meditating. He placed the large green scroll with his rest of his things before grabbing a pack of chakra paper he had picked up a week ago. He took a slip of paper from the box and placed it at the center of hand. He began to pulse chakra into it.
Seconds the paper split into four pieces. One piece crinkled while another burned and the other piece soaked while the last piece turned to dust. The first three didn't surprise him, however the last two caught him off-guard. 'Earth and Water, huh?' he thought to himself as his eyes traveled to the ninjutsu scrolls lying before him.
"Good thing I brought those scrolls, ne?" he said to himself as he picked up one off the earth scrolls he brought with him.
It was a basic E-rank jutsu. He looked at the other scrolls and saw that they were same, ranging from E to D-rank ninjutsu. He shrugged his shoulders before turning to the set of clones that were meditating not far from him.
"Group 5." Naruto called out, catching their attention. "I want you guys to practice these suiton and dōton jutsu scrolls. They are all E and D-ranked so once you get them, continued to practice them until you can do them near perfectly. You already know the next step is to learn how to do them without hand seals so get to it."
They all nodded before they stood. Once they received the jutsu scrolls, they left the clearing.
Naruto resealed the rest of his things into the large scroll, he closed it before making another shadow clone. He then turned to face him.
"Continue to work on Jiraiya's assignment. I'll be practicing elsewhere." he stated.
"Hai, boss." the clone replied.
As the clone went to work on the balloons and rubber balls, Naruto did a hand seal. "KAI!" he yelled as a few seals on his body began to glow.
Naruto felt his body become lighter and it literally felt like he was in the air. He took a slow step forward, knowing what happened last time when he tried to move too fast after releasing his gravity seals. He continued to move slowly until he could walk at a fair pace. He eventually began to run into the forest, gradually picking up speed as he ran. He continued to run until he was a full speed, becoming a mere blur through the dense forests.
He continued his intense training for the rest of day. Jiraiya had dropped by later that afternoon before leaving again to track Tsunade. He wanted to groan at that. As big as Tanzaku Gai was, it couldn't have been that hard to find her. Maybe he was underestimating her skill in hiding and evasion. He returned to the hotel later that evening. After a hot shower, he decided to take a shower, knowing that the next few days was going to be one the most eventful and informal ones yet.