A moment later, Naruto heard the sounds of sobbing and weeping from behind him.
"…Please kill me," Ryota cried with tears pouring down her face. Naruto stopped where he was as she continued, "…Please…I can't bear the shame of returning back after what happened!…I beg you…just end my life…"
Naruto stayed quiet momentarily before he decided to speak, "I have no need to kill you; humbling you the way I did satisfies me enough as it is. What you choose to do now with your life with its consequences is your choice."
Saying what he wanted to say, Naruto turned forward and continued walking away from her with his two scrolls and on his way to the tower. Ryota lowered her head as she cried again, almost refusing to believe how accepting the mission to retrieve Naruto had ultimately sealed her fate alongside his should anything fatal befall him.
(Later That Evening)
Naruto arrived at the tower. He opened one of the numerous doors and walked in. What greeted him was an empty room with a board on the wall. He read aloud, "A balanced person needs both heaven and earth. If you have heaven, but not earth, run in the fields and gain strength. If you have earth, but not heaven, go to a wise man and seek help. When you have gained them both, use them well."
What does that mean, Naruto wondered. Yondaime chose not to answer that for him, wanting Naruto to figure it out for himself.
"I have both the heaven and earth scrolls," Naruto said, "I'm taking it that it means that I'm supposed to open them here. It's worth a shot."
Naruto opened the scrolls at the simultaneously. Realizing that they were summoning scrolls, he placed them on the floor in "X" each other. A puff of smoke later revealed a smiling Jiraiya, who was caught off guard but Naruto's new physical appearance and clothes but managed to control his surprise.
"Excellent work, Neo Yondaime. Congratulations on passing," Jiraiya said.
"Ero-jisan," Naruto exclaimed, "What are you doing here?"
"To welcome you, and explain that," Jiraiya said and pointed at the board, "It's a poem that we use to explain, very simply, how you should train. The heaven it refers to is skill and experience. The earth is strength, speed and stamina. If you have skill, then train your body. If you have strength, then seek help to train your skills."
Naruto simply nodded, "Am I one of the first to be here?"
"No," Jiraiya answered, "In fact you're the last one here. All of the other teams came before you."
"What," Naruto retorted, "Damn that Anko-chan! Knowing emo-Sasuke, he won't let me hear the end of it. He'll be calling me dead-last indefinitely!"
"Speaking of that spoiled brat," Jiraiya said, "Both him and his team ran into a Kusa-nin earlier today…he was Orochimaru in disguised."
Naruto's head shot up on hearing that.
"Damn it," Naruto swore, "I knew there was something off about that Kusa Genin when I saw him earlier that day at the entrance gate of this forest! I just couldn't put my finger on it! If I'd have known-"
"It's not your fault so don't blame yourself gaki," Jiraiya assured, "He slipped passed all of us without our notice. So we all share the blame in all this."
"Why did he attack Sasuke and his team," Naruto asked, "What was his plan?"
"We're not sure yet," Jiraiya said, "Besides planning an invasion against Konoha, we don't know for what purpose he attacked and branded Sasuke with a cursed seal."
"You mean the same one that bastard gave Anko-chan," Naruto asked.
"So she told you about it," Jiraiya realized, "I'm surprised really. Her history with Orochimaru isn't something Anko takes pleasure discussing with practically anyone. (Grinned) You must have made quite an impression to move her to tell you about it."
"Sure I did," Naruto remarked in sarcasm, "By the way, where's that Snake bastard now?"
"…We don't know," Jiraiya sighed, "He escaped before the ANBU and Anko appeared on the scene. Sasuke was out of control when they came across him. It was clear that the cursed seal was having psychological effects on him. Luckily, they managed to contain him enough to neutralize his instability."
"Any 'casualties'," Naruto asked.
"By Orochimaru, beside that Kusa Genin he killed, none," Jiraiya continued, "The only ones who are capable fighting Orochimaru on even grounds are Sarutobi-sensei, Tsunade, you and myself, and I'm sure that Itachi himself can do the same. For anyone else, engaging Orochimaru is suicide."
"…I see," Naruto remarked.
"So until we know something more about Orochimaru's hidden agenda with regards to Sasuke," Jiraiya said, "We have to play things safe and keep things on a down low. Understand"
Naruto nodded wordlessly.
"By the way gaki," Jiraiya said, "You can drop the henge. Though I will admit that I'm impressed with the look you gave yourself for this part of the exam. You really got the spirit of a jungle forest ninja."
"Ahh…ero-jisan," Naruto replied while scratching the back of his head, "There's something you should know…"
That was when Naruto went into details explaining to Jiraiya everything that happened in the No Return sector before arriving at the tower. Jiraiya listened to Naruto's every word as the boy was allowed to speak. Thought it went without say that Jiraiya was stupefied at what Naruto explained to him in regards to his physical change however, Jiraiya laughed and applauded lecherously upon hearing how Naruto groped Ryota as a distraction before placing his jutsu marker under her rear. And when he explained his previous encounters with her and how he performed Kakashi's 1,000 years of pain jutsu on her in their second encounter, Jiraiya told Naruto that he couldn't be more proud of the fact that he found use of being a pervert as an attack strategy.
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