The Contract: Arc 1: First Day (1)

The Contract

Chapter 1- Decision

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“You gotta move faster kid!” Jiraiya barked as he sidestepped Naruto’s fist and delivered a vicious slap to the boy’s skull. “And don’t just throw yourself into your attacks, anticipate your opponent’s moves and ALWAYS be prepared to react accordingly! Haven’t you learned anything over the past two years?”

Nothing I couldn’t have learned back home.

Naruto shook his head, physically trying to dislodge the snarky thought as he tried to think up a way to defeat his mentor. He took too long though, and Jiraiya capitalized brutally with a fist almost shearing through his abdomen in retaliation.

“Never drop your guard!”

The blond gritted his teeth, biting back the pain as he grabbed on to the offending fist with one hand and slammed twin retaliatory blows to his mentor’s snarky mug.

It dissolved into mud beneath him.

His eyes widened by a hair and he immediately replaced himself with a tree branch.

A moment later, the branch was skewered by a thousand muddy needles.

‘Fuck it!’ Naruto swore as he imediately began to creep through the underbrush. ‘I need to get my head in the game!’

No offense, man, but is there really a point? I mean, you’re here getting beat up by one man. A Sannin, granted, but just ONE man. Sasuke’s getting his ass in gear with the resources of an entire Village. A minor one, admittedly, but they’ve got their own Sannin and a genius to boot. Not to mention ol’ Four-Eyed Kabuto with his insane skills and, if the Sound Four and the freaky bone guy are any indication, a whole squad of jonin level shinobi. The Perv’s training you like you’re going up against a single enemy while the guy who will be going up against a single enemy’s getting prepped for an all out war.

‘You’re…’ Naruto snapped out of his almost trance-like state with a violent jerk. Realizing how close he had come to agreeing withthe voice in his head, the blond clamped down on all thoughts and focused on taking his mentor down with a vengeance…

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“Come on boy!” Jiraiya whined, chasing after a briskly walking Naruto on his knees. “I need the cash!”

“To chase some hooker, no doubt.” Naruto scoffed as he marched away.

Jiraiya’s expression, though, had gone from pleading to disturbingly perverse. “Oh~ kid you had to have seen her! That wasn’t just some hooker, she was an absolute BABE! Tits as big as my head and an ass you could bounce a coin off! And her legs!”

THIS is what I’m training with? The perverted idiot of the Sannin? So, Sasuke’s getting trained by the genius of the Sannin, a direct contender for the Big Hat alongside the Yellow Flash and the guy that ended the Old Man’s stellar life and we’re getting trained by the Perverted Sannin. Wonderful. No, fuck sarcasm! Even Sakura had a better deal. At least her Sannin won’t bug her for cash so she could go check out strippers and shit. I mean for the love of- Orochimaru’s a fucking genius! He’s on a similar level to the fucking Fourth Hokage! He’s a verified sword master. He knows more ninjutsu techniques than most shinobi ever get to even witness! Sasuke, the angst ridden gay emo gets THAT guy and you’re stuck with the guy who’s biggest claim to fame is that he trained the Fourth? Is there anyway you could have come up with an even worse deal?!

“Shut the fuck up and leave me alone!” Naruto roared angrily.

Jiraiya, who had been caught mid-rant when his apprentice snapped, simply thought he might have pushed the limit and decided to head into the brothel on his own. The madam of the house knew him well and, unlike his busty teammate, he had a reputation for maintaining minimal, if any, debts.

Had he bothered to dig deeper, he might have figured that something was off with his apprentice…

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“So, Naruto, what’s the first thing you wanna do when we get back to Konoha?” Jiraiya asked. Himself and his apprentice were relaxing in a meadow a few miles away from the Land of Bears, taking the day off to relax and unwind. “Me, I’m gonna hit up Tsunade first; see if she’s finally come around to my manly charms.”

“The only thing manly about you is your hair, Pervy Sage.” Naruto shot back with a grin.