Chapter 860 : Complications!

“A few hours ago, Sasuke was kidnapped by Orochimaru.”

Naruto and Sakura's eyes widened! They neither could nor wanted to believe their ears. With a quivering voice, Sakura asked, “What did you say?”
At the same time, Naruto asked, “You're kidding, right, Sensei?”

Kakashi didn't answer. Seeing his expression, Naruto questioned angrily, “But why? Why would that snake kidnap Sasuke? And why did Sasuke let himself be kidnapped? How did Orochimaru even enter the village?”

Kakashi sighed, “We don't know everything ye…”

Cutting him off, Naruto emotionally exclaimed, “We have to bring Sasuke back!”
Sakura immediately added, “Yes Sensei. We have to rescue Sasuke!”

Kakashi assured his students, “Don't worry. Lady Tsunade is working on it. Once we have some clues, Lord Jiraiya will head out to look for Sasuke.”

“Pervy Sage? I'll go with him too!” Without waiting for Kakashi to say anything, Naruto immediately left. Sakura ran after him too since she wanted to join the mission as well. Left alone in the training ground, Kakashi could only sigh.

——

For three hours, Naruto hounded the poor ninjas and Anbu stationed in the Hokage Building by relentlessly pestering and complaining! Finally, Jiraiya exited the meeting room along with Hiruzen and Tsunade. Before any of them could escape, they were ambushed by the blonde knucklehead.

“Pervy-sage! Let's go and rescue Sasuke-now!” Naruto exclaimed loudly as soon as he saw them. Jiraiya, Tsunade and Hiruzen's eyes twitched as Naruto ignored everything else and began pestering them. He once again attracted weird gazes from everyone else. Had the situation been normal, Sakura would have been self-conscious. However, Sasuke's kidnapping made her forget about everything and she looked at the three leaders of Konoha with hope in her eyes.

Finally, Tsunade sighed and said, “Calm down, Naruto. Follow me.”

The five of them left towards Tsunade's office. Inside the previous meeting room, the Fuinjutsu Grandmasters breathed a sigh of relief.
“Luckily he didn't enter this room. I don't know how Fujin deals with that kid on a daily basis and still concentrates on Fuinjutsu.”
“From what I heard, Fujin is even worse. It can't be a coincidence that all his students are so good at pranks. Even some of my students fell for their pranks. If they devoted half the time they spend preparing their pranks on learning Fuinjutsu, they might have already been a Sealmaster.”
“Hmm, perhaps Fujin concentrates better when there's chaos. Whatever be the case, I'm leaving before they change their mind and return here. We will discuss the formations tomorrow.”
In a few seconds, every Fuinjutsu Grandmaster disappeared from the meeting room. While they didn't hate Naruto, they had no intention of dealing with his idiosyncrasies.

——

As Tsunade sat down, Naruto complained again, “This is no time to be sitting, Granny! We have to rescue Sasuke right away!”

A tick mark appeared on Tsunade's forehead. She asked, “Do you know where Sasuke is?”
Naruto replied, “I don't, that's why we need to find him!”
“Where will you look for him?” Tsunade asked, still annoyed.
Without a moment's hesitation, Naruto answered, “Everywhere! I'll find Orochimaru no matter where he's hiding!”
“How long will it take for you to search everywhere?” Tsunade asked for the third time.
Naruto obviously didn't have an answer. However, it didn't matter because his annoyance was far greater than Tsunade's. Whatever little patience he had ran out while answering those few questions.

He exploded, “This isn't the time to be wasting on silly questions, Granny! We need to act.”

Finally, Jiraiya sighed and muttered, “That's exactly why you need to know the answers to those questions, Naruto. Search blindly, and you won't find Orochimaru even if you look for him for a hundred years. Is that what you want?”

His question finally calmed Naruto slightly. Before he could say anything else, Tsunade said, “Orochimaru kidnapped Sasuke because he wants his body. However, he can't take Sasuke's body for another 3 years according to our calculations. Meaning, we have 3 years to find him. We could either search for him properly and rescue him in these three years, or we could panic and search blindly and let Orochimaru take over Sasuke's body and kill him. What do you want, Naruto?”

Unable to argue with her logic, Naruto could only answer in a soft voice, “Search for him properly.”

Tsunade said, “Good. Let us deal with it. Jiraiya will go after Orochimaru once we reduce the search area.”

Without wasting a beat, Naruto said, “I'll go with Pervy Sage to rescue Sasuke!”

Tsunade frowned, but Jiraiya was intrigued. He thought, ‘Take Naruto with me again? Hmm, this might be a good opportunity to train him while letting him see more of the world.’

Before he could say anything, Sakura added, “I want to go too!”

Jiraiya turned his gaze towards her, ‘Hmm, but looking after two kids will be difficult, especially if I run into Orochimaru or Akatsuki.’

Hiruzen coughed, “This isn't a picnic. If you slow Jiraiya down, tracking Orochimaru will become more difficult. And, so would rescuing Sasuke.”

His words drowned the desire of the two kids. Unlike Naruto, Sakura knew very well how weak she was. Suddenly, Jiraiya said, “I'll take Naruto with me. I can train him while searching for Orochimaru. Perhaps I could lure someone else out too…”

Hiruzen realized, ‘He wants to take out some Akatsuki members while tracking Orochimaru.’
Tsunade thought, ‘That is risky. However, it might be the best way to reduce Akatsuki's strength. Once we sell the information Fujin gained, the other villages will be forced to take action against Akatsuki too.’

Naruto's mood cheered up a bit. Sakura wanted to say something, but she stopped and looked at Naruto. The memories of his battle against Neji surfaced in her mind. She thought, ‘I can't even compare with Naruto. I'm not strong enough. If I go, I'll only get in their way.’

Silently, Sakura became determined to be as strong as her two teammates, a change that didn't escape the eyes of Hiruzen and his students.

With Naruto calmed down, the village began focusing on two new tasks. The Fuinjutsu Grandmasters began wholeheartedly working on overhauling the village's defense mechanisms. At the same time, every intelligence network of Konoha was activated. Shikaku was tasked with reducing the search area so that they could track Orochimaru faster.

Of course, either of these tasks needed a long time to succeed. Tsunade was patient, though another matter troubled her. Another day had passed, yet Fujin hadn't left his house! His status was still unknown and his house was no easier to enter.

——

In his basement, Fujin still sat in a meditative posture, his mind entirely focused on his inner world. In his inner world, Fujin was still floating on top of the lake with his eyes closed. The chakra in the lake had decreased by nearly a quarter.
The light emitted by the sphere floating in the sky had dimmed substantially. If not for the darkness in his inner world, it would have been almost invisible to see. A few seconds later, the dim light also vanished as the sphere once again became nearly invisible.

Fujin finally opened his eyes and breathed a sigh of relief. He muttered, “Finally…”
Fujin inspected himself while analyzing, ‘I didn't think mere chakra of a Tailed Beast would have so much resistance… I'm so glad that events in the Chunin Exam happened as I recalled. If I had made a move on Gaara and sealed Shukaku in here, I'd be in deep trouble.
I was too naive. Even Akatsuki needed nearly 3 days just to extract a Tailed Beast from its host without killing the Tailed Beast. And, they were supported by several rank S ninjas and the Gedo Statue. I might need a long time to refine its chakra, assuming my inner world isn't destroyed by then… I'll have to be a lot stronger before I make a move against Tailed Beasts. At the very least, I need to master Senjutsu first…
There's also the matter of the chakra lost. I didn't expect to lose so much of Shukaku's chakra while refining it. Nearly 60% of it was lost while I refined it. Only slightly more than 40% of chakra was absorbed into my body. What a gigantic waste…’

Even though Fujin's calculations were off and there were several complications, not a single frown appeared on Fujin's lips. Instead, a smile was plastered on his face! Regardless of the complications, the Myriad Tetragram Seal was a success! Fujin could feel the power coursing through his body!

Fujin concluded, “My chakra reserves have increased once again, this time by over 70%. Though it's a shame it didn't increase by 170% as I expected, this isn't bad. Compared to before I increased my cellular activity, my chakra reserves are up by 127%!”