Chapter 33: Something in exchange

Rasa finally arrived at the place where the Kumo ninjas were facing Tsunade and Orochimaru.

The fight was still pretty tight and wasn't likely to end any time soon.

Rasa took the opportunity to slip unnoticed and search for the number that belonged to the dead Suna ninjas.

After checking them, he found the number 4.

'Apparently, they didn't even have time to take the number' thought Rasa when he saw that the Sannin group had not even looked for the number of these ninjas.

With this number, Rasa fulfilled all the requirements to pass the exam with his team.

Still, he planned to play a little trick on the Sannin group.

After all, he might not be related to these Suna ninjas, but they were still ninjas from his village.

He could at least give Jiraiya's group a bit of a hard time.

Determined, Rasa didn't waste any time and silently grabbed the injured and immobile Jiraiya.

Jiraiya despite being immobile tried to resist being carried by him, but without giving him time to do anything to ruin his plans, Rasa hit him with enough force to knock him unconscious.

The last thing he needed was for Jiraiya to somehow miraculously manage to overcome the effects of the poison and being a character so similar to Naruto, Rasa preferred not to take any risks with him, many absurd things could happen with such unique characters.

Once he knocked Jiraiya unconscious he made sure to leave a note in his place.

A few minutes later Rasa was in a small cave among the rocky mountains next to an unconscious and injured Jiraiya.

He was waiting for Tsunade.

Even though the fight between the two future Sannin and the Kumo ninja seemed to be equal, Rasa knew that Orochimaru and Tsunade should not be showing all their skills and it was likely that they would use some move that would end up winning the fight in the end.

He didn't have to wait too long for Tsunade to finally appear and enter through the cave door.

She looked completely pissed off and tired.

By using the multiple gold dust eyes he had watching outside the cave, Rasa searched for Orochimaru and discovered that he was standing at a quite far out distance from the cave, just as he had told them to do.

"Wow, looks like you guys are smarter than I thought, I'm glad to see that you followed the instructions that I left in the note" commented Rasa to Tsunade when he saw her enter.

"Tsk, as if you had left us any other choice with your dirty tricks," Tsunade said with disgust and anger.

"I guess you didn't like me much," Rasa remarked calmly again.

"Why should I like someone who does something as low as silently taking a wounded ninja in the middle of a fight and then using him for other purposes."

" Yeah..., that makes sense. Still from my point of view, I could have taken advantage of the situation to simply kill him and avenge my dead village ninjas" Rasa refuted causing Tsunade to look at him with irritation.

"Listen, if you are ready to fight someone, you are also ready to die, as a ninja you should know that. I have nothing against Suna, they were the ones who rushed at us trying to kill the idiot you captured" clarified Tsunade trying to reason with him.

She knew that her situation was not favorable, if he wanted he could kill Jiraiya at any moment, Orochimaru was too far away to plan a rescue and she alone was too tired to be able to take care of him and prevent him from killing Jiraiya as well.

'So that was their purpose, to kill Jiraiya..., it makes sense, he's the only one that Konoha wouldn't make such a fuss over since he's a civilian ninja and unlike Orochimaru, he's still not considered an important village ninja' thought Rasa understanding things a bit.

'But this was not planned by the Kazekage, he wouldn't have taken the risk of the clan patriarchs finding out that he was using their ninja to kill one of the Hokage's disciples when the council hadn't allowed it..., that only leaves the patriarchs themselves. Yes, they should act on their own' Rasa understood.

Tsunade became more and more desperate and irritated as she watched the silent and thinking ninja in front of her.

He hadn't said a single word, it seemed as if he had ignored her completely and that was getting on her nerves, but she knew she had to keep calm or Jiraiya might die.

'Tsk, that idiot always gets us in trouble' Tsunade mentally complained as she kept waiting for the ninja in front of her to say something, she didn't plan on interrupting him in his thoughts, he might take it the wrong way and who knows what might happen next.

"Hmmm, well I might agree to what you say, but still you can't expect me to hand over your teammate to you without getting anything in return."

"What do you want in return, our number?, money?, the Senju have a lot of money, you can earn a good sum for that idiot, too..." began to say Tsunade all she could offer him in exchange for his teammate.

The moment she saw that the ninja was willing to negotiate, she took the opportunity to tempt him, perhaps what he asked would end up being excessive, but the Senju could pay almost anything.

And she wouldn't hesitate to do so, Jiraiya may be an idiot, and a pervert but he was still her teammate and a good friend.

Rasa just smiled in amusement as he listened to the different things Tsunade was offering for Jiraiya.

If it were any other Suna ninja he might be very tempted by what she was offering, but there was only one thing that might interest him out of everything she was offering and that was Jutsus.

But the Jutsus he wanted was not something Tsunade could provide him without the authorization of the Senju and the Hokage, which would not happen today.

"Everything you are offering is very interesting, but sadly for you, you are offering it to the wrong person," Rasa said with a smile when suddenly his eyes turned golden and the next moment a large amount of gold dust appeared in his surroundings.

Surprised, Tsunade opened her eyes wide as she saw the golden eyes of the ninja as well as the movement of the gold dust.

The gold dust formed two hands that appeared to be made of pure gold, and on each hand was a number, the number 4 and the number 21.

She had heard of a ninja who used a Kekkei Genkai with which he controlled the manipulation of the gold dust.

To her, the idea that a ninja from a village as poor as Suna would use movements that involved gold had seemed absurd.

While Jiraiya had found the idea of manipulating gold awesome, he kept talking about how cool it would look.

Orochimaru on the other hand was more interested in the properties of the ninja's ability and was also the best informed about this ninja, she remembers him mentioning that he wasn't just any ninja from Suna, but that he was the only disciple of the Third Kazekage and an Anbu ninja of only 9 years old who was already at the level of a Chunin.

Something very impressive for such a young ninja, although she and Orochimaru were also at the level of an average Chunin at that age.

If it wasn't for the Third Hokage wanting them to participate in these exams, the three of them could have certainly become Chunin at the age of 11.

"So you are Rasa, the genius of Suna and the disciple of the Kazekage," Tsunade commented, not very impressed by their titles.

And even though it was remarkable the movement of the gold dust along with the golden eyes that Rasa had, she didn't let any interest be shown in them.

"It seems you at least know me, although it is fair to say that I am still not as well known as the great Princess Senju, granddaughter of the ninja god Hashirama Senju, a disciple of the Third Hokage, and one of the future pillars of Konoha," Rasa said in amusement as he pretended admiration as he spoke her titles.

Tsunade grimaced with annoyance, she knew he was just teasing her.

"Yeah, yeah, so... what could the Kazekage's direct disciple want?" asked Tsunade finally not knowing what he could possibly ask for Jiraiya.

It took all her patience and control not to jump up and punch the 9-year-old boy who was blackmailing her.

She was quite frustrated, it would have been much easier if it was any other ninja, she didn't care if she had to lose a good sum of money, but now the situation was different.

The Kazekage's direct disciple was not likely to be interested in money and even less being able to have a Kekkei Genkai with which he can manipulate gold dust, it was obvious that he had no lack of money.

"Well..., actually there is something I might want in exchange for your dear teammate..." said Rasa with a smile as Tsunade listened to him with attention.