Chapter no.6

Neji groaned and shook his head as he watched him take off at a speed that would give the Yondaime a run for his money.

To top it off, the fact that she hadn't had anything to drink in the past seven hours made it all the more unnerving when a blonde menace barged into her office while she was working on some paperwork.

Naruto charged through the entrance of the building, slamming the door into Gai as he exited and pinning the jounin to the wall in the process. "Baa-chan!" he yelled as he skidded to a halt with a broad grin on his face.

She stared at him in bewilderment as she asked, "Naruto?" Hashirama and Tobirama were standing on either side of her and mimicked her expression almost word for word, while Tobirama simply raised his eyebrows. "What's-"

A flustered Neji burst in after him. He bowed at the waist and apologised to Tsunade-sama, saying, "I'm sorry, Tsunade-sama!" "Naruto is not in good health."

Gai slithered out from hiding behind the door while rubbing his nose and uttered "Uggh." "Ah! My younger students have successfully completed their volunteer work."

Naruto turned and gave Neji a dark look. He said, making the word "indisposed" with his fingers as an illustration, "I am not indisposed." "I'm perfectly yucid."

"Do you mean 'lucid'?" Neji gave a raised eyebrow in response.

"Shut up."

After them, the remaining members of Team Gai entered, appearing embarrassed. Neji began his statement with, "I am able to deliver the mission report."

As Jiraiya swung in the window, there was a tapping sound heard on the roof. He inquired, "What the heck is all the commotion about?"

The Hyuuga heaved a sigh and resigned himself to the fact that he would be constantly disrupted in his work. Instantaneously, Naruto's demeanour changed for the better, and he dove headfirst into the man with all of the fervour and enthusiasm of someone who hadn't seen a loved one in a long time. "Ero-jiji!"

"Eh?" Jiraiya looked down at him as he wrapped himself around the sannin's torso, his mouth agape as he did so.

"You were on my mind!" Naruto uttered those words, his voice obscured by Jiraiya's haori.

"Y-you did?" The eyes, which were round and watery, appeared once more. "M-my adorable little student has in fact been looking for me!" He sobbed, returning the embrace in a manner that eerily brought TenTen's memories of Gai and Lee to the forefront of her mind.

When Lee started to sniffle, the kunoichi stiffened their bodies. He exclaimed, with a touching amount of emotion in his voice, "Such love between student and teacher." He was crying. "It's such a stunning view! Gai-sensei, isn't it?!"

The man's fist was trembling violently. The darkness that surrounded him obscured his eyes in a manner that accentuated the bowl shape of his haircut. "It... it is!" he exclaimed as he started to cry. Oh, Lee, I can't wait to celebrate this holy connection with you if you'll just jump into my arms!

"Gai-sensei!"

"Lee!"

"Gai-sensei!"

"Lee!"

TenTen and Karin retreated to the back corner of the room, hiding behind Neji as they cringed. The young man reached up and rubbed one of his temples before closing his eyes in bewilderment.

"...what exactly is going on at this very moment?" Tobirama uttered those words while completely at a loss for what to say next. His words fell on deaf ears.

After a prolonged struggle, Kurama was finally able to get in behind them and came to a stop in front of the desk. "I am the Ryuushii no Gogo!" The red eyes and thick whisker marks were visible to everyone in the room who had not previously occupied it before he roared in a voice that was slightly deeper than Naruto's. "Have no fear!"

He went into a tailspin and crashed into the wall, sliding down it until he was scattered across the entranceway, and then he spun around again.

"Hey!" Naruto jerked back and stared up at Jiraiya with wide eyes after he let out a gasp. "I have another kekkei genkai too!"

"What? What exactly is it?"

The events of the mission were jumbled up in Naruto's disjointed thought process, which jumped around from one to the next; somewhere between his brain and mouth, the information got mixed up. "The guy we were fighting bit me," he said with a triumphant smile, thinking that would explain it. "The guy we were fighting bit me," he said. "The guy we were fighting bit me."

Jiraiya's eyes widened in bewilderment as she was momentarily diverted from the topic of conversation. "Bit you?"

"Yeah!" Naruto pulled his collar to the side, exposing the bite mark on his shoulder. Despite the fact that he possessed Jinchuriki, a mark left behind from healing someone was irreversible, just like the one Karin had. "He said that I was...delicious?" he asked.

Jiraiya froze. Gai and Lee froze mid-embrace. Everyone froze. He croaked out, "...what?"

Karin began, with drops of sweat falling from her forehead, "It's not what you think."

You sent him on a mission with a pervert? "You sent him on a mission with a pervert?" The scream that Jiraiya let out caused everyone in the room to flinch. Tsunade had a momentary chuckle to herself when she realised that Jiraiya, of all people, had labelled someone a pervert.

She started off by saying "Raiga of the Seven Swordsman."

Neji spoke up at the same time and announced, "He was defeated."

"That wraps it up!" Jiraiya physically threw Naruto over his shoulder and then ran for the window once more, pausing only momentarily about halfway out of the room to point an accusatory finger at Tsunade. "There will be no more missions outside of the village! Tsunade, I had no idea you were going to do something like this!"

He bolted like a rabid animal from the dungeon.

"So...it doesn't appear that he molested you..."

"No, he just stole my chakra. Evidently, I now have the ability to heal people. However, the grogginess is a pain in the neck."

"…you did not just make that pun."

"I just made that joke for the second time," the speaker said.

Jiraiya made a downward motion with his hand across his face. As Naruto shoved another piece of pre-packaged dango into his mouth, he pondered the reason Jiraiya had booked a hotel room in the first place. It made sense when you considered how little time he'd spent in the village prior to beginning to train Naruto, but after he did start to train Naruto, he hung around quite a bit.

The man mumbled, "I'm still not happy," as he slumped into his chair, crossed his arms, and cast a sullen glance at the people seated around the table.

Because of Kurama, Naruto, fortunately for him, did not suffer from nearly any of the symptoms associated with having a hangover. He had no idea where the fox had gone, but he assumed that he must have been searching for something to eat. It had been a few hours since Jiraiya had started staring at the ceiling of her room in an attempt to shake off the effects of the wine.

Naruto wore a frown. "Was that a real hug from me?"

Jiraiya smirked at him. When he was victorious in a game of shogi, he always wore that same smirk. "Yes," he replied, showing off his sense of superiority, "and I got it on camera."

Naruto's face turned white. "What, are you kidding? How?"

"Kage bunshin, you obnoxious brat. You are not the only person who is familiar with that strategy."

"Whatever," Naruto muttered under his breath. "Shouldn't you just get an apartment, ero-sennin? Your worthless and trashy books almost certainly do not bring in enough money for you to pay the weekly hotel rates."

The word "trashy" caused a slight twitch in Jiraiya's head, but it was only a slight twitch; he was getting better at repressing the cloud of depression. "Probably."

I'd offer to let you use mine, but it's ridiculously small, and I've been known to mess up there.

Jiraiya gave him the curious look of a raised eyebrow.

"I think you might hit the ceiling in the bathroom," Naruto mused. He cocked his head to the side and gave Jiraiya a look with his eyes narrowed. "Do you not have anything in particular that you ought to be focusing on doing right now? We've been here for hours."

The man scoffed and responded, "No." "You know what, brat? I don't go knocking on the door of my spies every single day."

"How did everything turn out with the Hyuuga?"

"The conclusion of the hearing will be next week. You are cordially invited. Joy."

"Hm." Naruto cast a quick look up at the ceiling.

"You're really trying to get away from something, aren't you?"

"A number of things. Iruka-sensei will be freaking out about the biting rumours, and I have to bring Madara to meet oji-chan. First of all, I have to bring Madara to meet oji-chan."

"Happy fun times. Is there any new information that he has provided regarding Akatsuki?"

"To be honest, no. The majority of the current membership was formed by the Tobi individual he put in charge. He has been dead for too long to be aware of current hideouts and other things."

"What exactly is the deal with this Tobi's identity?"

"Said that it was some Uchiha that he discovered close to dying. Given that it was a war, that makes perfect sense." Naruto gave a small shrug.

Jiraiya let out a sigh and rubbed his nose as he did so. He pushed his chair back, stood up, and motioned for Naruto to follow him, but all he got in response was a blank stare from his friend. "Gaki, come on now. It is probably best to put off our responsibilities for a little while longer."

"What exactly are we up to?"

"The process of locating an apartment."

In a different location, Kurama could be seen staring up at a billboard advertising Icha Icha with a clear expression of disgust on his face. He muttered under his breath, "Humans are revolting."

He turned his back on it and continued to make his way down the alleyway that he had found himself in. Beyond that, he didn't remember much at all. "I am the one known as the Kyuubi no Yoko! Fear me! "But he couldn't help but feel that it had been one wild ride all the same.

Ah, wine. He'd forgotten how mouthwateringly delicious it was.

"Naruto?"

At first, it didn't occur to him that the person who was speaking to him was actually talking to him directly. "What up, Naruto?"

Kurama came to a halt when he realised that he was, in fact, inhabiting Naruto's body while he was in the kage bunshin form. When he turned around and saw Team Kurenai walking towards him, he immediately froze and let out a curse.

"How are you doing, buddy?" Kiba signalled his presence with a wave. Akamaru tilted his head and yipped. Kurama muttered an expletive about the mutt in his head. "Eh? What exactly do you mean when you say that is not Naruto?"

"Um," the wise Kyuubi no Yoko responded after a moment of consideration.

"Naruto-kun?" Hinata inquired with some trepidation.

"I have a... thing to do, that's normal for humans—human shinobi—shinobi to do, that they do a lot," Kurama stuttered out. "It's something that's normal for humans—human shinobi—shinobi to do."

"That is completely typical." To tell you the truth, he was a Bijuu, but even he was being thrown off by the creepy Aburame's stare. "Goodbye!"

He dashed in the opposite direction and, after turning a corner, pulled out a kunai to defend himself. As Kiba peered around the corner, the man stabbed himself in the eye and then vanished, leaving behind nothing but a trail of thin wisps of smoke in his wake.

The Inuzaka muttered to themselves out loud, "Weird."

"I'll have to remember to invite him over for dinner later on," you say.