Again white light formed and the boulder hit the barrier. Again the boulder failed to get through.
"Interesting," mused Tsunade. "So you can throw up a this 'Barrier' jutsu whenever you feel you're in danger?"
"Y-yeah," said Naruto, who might not admit being scared of this old woman - but she'd been pretty darn nasty when she'd beaten the snot (and blood, and various other bodily fluids as far as he could tell) out of their sensei. Combined with her habit of throwing large rocks at him and her manner of addressing him, it made for a Scary Old Woman in Naruto's young opinion.
Of course, Frightened was not the same as Respect.
"I can't keep it up that long," complained Naruto.
"Of course not, you're male," said Tsunade.
Shizune and Kurenai both glanced at Tsunade. Kurenai diagnosing this as Unresolved Sexual Tension. Shizune interpreting it as Still Pissed At Jiraiya Syndrome.
"What else can you do?" asked Tsunade.
"I..." Naruto started backing up at the intensity in the woman's voice. He started checking for escape routes.
"Brat! Look at me when I-" began Tsunade.
Naruto's hands flashed together and formed a cross-sign, the flash becoming literal a moment later as a ball of something formed and shot towards the Slug Princess.
Tsunade dodged, she WAS good at that and when faced with an unknown jutsu it was usually the best move. When she heard an explosion and several trees crashing behind her - she put a checkmark there.
The boy hadn't waited for any particular success of the attack, moving to run instead.
Which had him run directly into Tsunade's legs as she was abruptly in his path.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" predictably screamed Naruto as he tried to scramble back. In panic, certain he was about to die, he reached inside himself and something answered.
It was not, however, the Kyubi that answered.
Tsunade blinked in surprise as wood sprouted from the ground and formed a wall in front of her. "Wood technique?"
Naruto staggered from sudden dizziness, but as soon as he felt the technique go off he simply registered that there was a barrier between him and Scary Old Woman. Time for feet to do their stuff!
The wooden barrier exploded as Tsunade simply punched through it. Tsunade stepped forward, and abruptly found a different barrier.
There were two little girls, trembling and scared, who were blocking her from going after Naruto. One was the black-haired Hyuga girl, the other the redheaded Shidou.
"Shizune," said Tsunade.
Shizune knew the command for what it was. She stopped Naruto by moving in a quick blur, then tripping him.
Tsunade considered the two girls before her, who were now joined by the other two and their dog.
"I'm not going to hurt him," Tsunade tried to reassure the girls. "Look, I've been throwing rocks at that chunin and she's not hurt is she?"
Several glances to the side, and then the four little girls began crying.
Tsunade facepalmed for a moment before glancing to the side. Sure enough, the kunoichi had collapsed at some point. Probably right after she'd taken the fall that Naruto had blocked with his Barrier technique. "Okay. Bad example."
Naruto, in the meantime, had made it to the treeline and was obviously torn between protecting his friends and escaping her wrath.
Tsunade considered how to salvage the situation. Probably beating Jiraiya that severely when they'd just met had been less than ideal for making first impressions. Where WAS that old fool anyway?
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(Posted Wed, 06 Jul 2011 18:12)
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