"She's strong," Naruto started, frowning as he remembered his fight with Guren. "Before I had even entered the fight she managed to take out Shikamaru, Chouji and Kiba. As I said before she uses Crystal jutsu, which apparently is a combination of lightning and earth. Most of her attacks were similar to earth jutsu, though she could also create crystal spears in the air and hurl them at me. Several of her techniques were extremely powerful and I suspect they have a high chakra cost to use, so she probably has higher than average reserves. She also has a very high level of taijutsu, she was more than capable of keeping pace with me. I would even go so far as to say she was way out of my league, as it was the only reason our battle ended in a stalemate was because she had underestimated me."
"Is this her?" Tsunade took a slip of paper from a file Shizune handed her. Placing it on the table she slid it over to Naruto, who picked it up and saw a picture of the very same woman he had fought. He saw that, aside from the picture, there was very little information on her. Only a few lines about her being sighted in a small town in some country he had never been to.
"Yep, that's definitely her." Naruto set the sheet back down and looked at Tsunade with a frown. "I can't help but notice you don't have much information on her."
"That's because we don't know much about the ninja under Orochimaru's command beyond Kabuto," Tsunade said. She grabbed the sheet again and gave it to Shizune, who placed it back in the file and made to return the file to it's drawer. Turning back to look at the blond before her, she continued. "The only reason we even know of this one is because she was sighted during an incident in Suna No Kuni and was apparently responsible for the destruction of several small villages. The only thing Jiraiya was able to learn after that was that this woman, Guren, is apparently Orochimaru's most elite fighter."
"Ugh... so you're telling me I went up against the second strongest person Orochimaru has to offer next to himself." If that was the case then he was lucky to survive. Never in his life had he been more thankful that a lot of people still tended to underestimate him.
"That is exactly what I'm telling you."
"I guess that means I need to train harder," Naruto determined, making Tsunade and Shizune look at each other before smiling. "And speaking of training, just when the hell can we expect to get Ero-Sennin back? I mean, I was supposed to be on a three year training trip. Yet it's only been a few months since I left."
"Unfortunately, we have no clue when Jiraiya will be returning from... wherever he is," Tsunade grimaced a bit. For some reason, it was really hard to lie to Naruto. Not that she couldn't do it, but in that she didn't like doing it. Shaking her head and thoughts inside of it away, she continued. "Which is why I figured I would give you a mission that should take quite a bit of time to accomplish."
His curiosity getting the better of him, Naruto couldn't help but ask, "What kind of mission are we talking about?"
"A solo mission," Tsunade said, almost smirking when she saw Naruto's eyes light up. No matter how mature the brat tried to act, the thought of a solo mission was enough to send him into a fit of daydreams. No doubt of rescuing princesses and damsels and the like. Reaching into the bin for the mission contact she was thinking of, Tsunade eventually found it and set it out in front of Naruto.
Eager, the blond quickly snatched it up and began scanning the contract. "A request from Tori No Kuni?" Naruto frowned as he tried to remember his geography lessons with Anko. It was ridiculously easy – painful as well – and with a shiver at remembering the senbon that had gotten stuck in his ass for getting the location wrong, Naruto figured out where Tori No Kuni was. "That's pretty far from Konoha."
"That was our first reaction as well," said Shizune, speaking up for the first time since Naruto started giving his report.
"An apparition in the form of a cursed warrior is terrorizing the people and giving rise to wicked rumors..." Naruto took several seconds to think about what this statement meant. After a while a small shudder escaped him. "T-They don't mean there's some kind of ghost haunting them, do they?"
Seeing the way the blond shivered caused Tsunade to lean more of her weight onto the desk, a smirk on her face. "They believe it's the ghost of a long dead warrior whose come back to haunt them. Why? You're not scared, are you?"
"Pffftt! As if I would be afraid of some dinky old... g-ghost." Naruto tried not to let the cold chill get to him as he rolled his eyes. When did it get so drafty in here? Shaking himself out of his funk – and completely missing the amused glance Tsunade and Shizune shared – he said, "It's probably just some idiot in a costume trying to scare the people. So what does this 'Cursed Warrior' look like?"
"The only description we have to go on is that the Cursed Warrior is always seen wearing white Samurai armor," Tsunade said, hiding her amusement. "Anyways, because of how far out this mission is, as well as the fact that all of our Chunin and Jōnin are on missions and the few genin who could have taken it have been taken out of commission, you're really the only person we have for this mission."
"Right, I should have figured it was something like that," Naruto said with a sigh. So much for his thinking that Tsunade had given him this mission because she felt he was the best person for the job. Straightening up, he looked back at the blond woman to say, "I guess I don't have much choice but to take it. It's either do this or sit around doing nothing while I wait for Ero-Sennin to return." He couldn't train here, the few techniques he was working on on his own were incredibly dangerous, not to mention he didn't want others to know about them until he was sure they worked. Maybe not even then. After all, he needed some trump cards to use against Akatsuki.
"Since I'm ordering you to go you don't actually have a right to refuse anyways," Tsunade stated, her left eyebrow twitching at how Naruto spoke as if he could just refuse a mission she gave him. "Anyways, you are to meet Chishimo, the man who paid for this mission at the North Gate in one hour."
"Yosh!" Naruto snapped off a salute before he got a move on, hopping out the window instead of taking the door.
"Dammit, Naruto!" Tsunade shouted as moved over to window and watched as the whiskered blond landed on the adjacent building, where he began hopping from roof to roof. "Don't pick up Jiraiya's bad habits!" While she couldn't be certain, she was almost sure she heard Naruto laughing at her. Or maybe it was just the wind. "Stupid brat, always acting like an idiot... stupid Jiraiya for letting Naruto pick up his bad habits. When I see that damn pervert again, I'm gonna make him sure he understands what will happen if he corrupts Naruto."
Somewhere in Tsuchi No Kuni, Jiraiya shivered. For a moment there, he believed death had touched him.
Naruto's journey to Tori No Kuni started the moment he reached the North Gate. Chishimo, an earnest looking man in his mid-twenties with brown hair and dark eyes covered by a pair of glasses had already been waiting for him. After signing out the two left Konoha and began their very long walk.
And Naruto was bored. Ever since his graduation, the blond had worked very far on keeping himself from acting out like he used to, and while he still did it on occasion, the instance were getting more and more rare. While he had calmed down much from his hyperactive self since his graduation, there were very few things that actually caused Naruto's conscious to waver. Walking at a civilian's pace to a land that would was so far that in doing so would take a month to get there was one of those things.
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