"It's called 'Dragonball Densetsu' and it was popular about five years ago," said Bulma.
"Could have used more cute girls," complained the old martial artist.
"It was fine as it was," said Umigame, the aged sea turtle who generally just slept all day anymore. Still, he'd woken up for this.
"Ne, Bulma-san," said Krillin. "How do you suppose they're doing? Did you ever make any gadgets that could check up on them?"
"No, dimensional travel is tricky and I don't understand all the math involved," said Bulma. "As to how he's doing... anyone who could give Perfect Cell a wedgie-"
"Considering Perfect Cell didn't wear any clothes, I've always wondered how he managed that," mused the Kamesennin.
Naruto ran up the telephone pole to take a look. "Wow. Konoha hasn't changed a bit!"
"Oh? Then it may not be ready for us," mused Jiraiya aloud. Privately, he wondered how long it would be before someone had to rebuild Hokage Monument. Probably him, but his earth techniques were up to it at this point.
"Is that...?" asked Konohamaru, pointing.
Sakura looked, seeing that there was some orange on the clothing and that there was spiky blonde hair. "It... could be."
Konohamaru's team followed him, Moegi complaining about a catscratch she'd acquired earlier until Sakura glanced back at her. Then she just went to quiet.
There was Jiraiya, except HE was wearing very different clothes too. In fact, they were wearing very similar clothes. Some kind of black boots, closed toe unlike the typical Konohagakure sandal. A pair of sweat-pants. Knotted belt, black. What looked to be a tank top over a t-shirt.
On the back of the t-shirt were different symbols inside a white circle with a thick black border. Jiraiya's read "Toad" while Naruto's read "Kami".
Getting up close to Jiraiya, she realized that HE had changed. He looked younger somehow, and was taller and more muscular in appearance than she remembered.
"Yo," said Jiraiya, grinning in such a way that she lost most of her doubts about who this was.
Taller, more solid looking, and wearing the different clothes - so some doubt remained. "You are Jiraiya, aren't you?"
"Hmmm? Why would you ask that?" Jiraiya seemed genuinely puzzled. "I haven't changed that much, have I?"
Then Naruto jumped down from his vantage point and Sakura experienced all new shock and doubt.
Naruto was at least a head taller than she was, and had somewhere along the line found muscle. Even relaxed as he currently was, she could tell from the neck and parts of the arm that were showing - Naruto had added layers of muscle onto his frame. She was very curious as to what he would reveal in a physical exam. Which would probably be a good idea anyway, as he has been gone for two years. Two very intense years from the look of it.
"Sakura? Yo, Sakura?" asked Naruto, waving a hand in front of her face. "You okay?"
"I..." said Sakura as she shook off the shock. "Okay. You got... taller."
What the hell?! demanded Inner Sakura. How the hell did NARUTO turn into a hunk?!
"Yeah, I guess, it's been kinda busy, what with one thing after another, and our age kind of got jacked around some," said Naruto with a chuckle.
"Oh, well, don't you think I've changed a bit too?" asked Sakura, posing a little.
"Don't worry, you're the same as ever," said Naruto, giving a grin and thumb's up.
Sakura's reaction was sufficient to clue Naruto in that he'd said something wrong, but he wasn't sure what it was.
"Hey, boss! Take this! Sexy jutsu!" ba-domf!
Naruto stared at the result for a moment as if he couldn't quite figure it out.
Poff! went the transformation back to Konohamaru.
"What do you think? Nice hips-waist-bust ratio, right?" asked Konohamaru.
"Man, that takes me back," said Naruto finally. "I haven't used that since..."
"Since the time you tried it on Nappa and he declared you his bitch and prepared to do something to you that is really not intended for polite audiences," said Jiraiya.
"Yeah, thanks Pervy-sage. I've been trying to forget that," said Naruto, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "REALLY trying to forget that. Konohamaru, only use that jutsu when you're sure your audience isn't going to go completely berserk."
"Oh," said Konohamaru, not having expected this reaction.
"But I'll show you a really cool jutsu later," promised Naruto. "This one is just so useful. But you'll need pretty good chakra and control for it."
"Oh?" asked Konohamaru, perking right back up. "What is it?"
"Hey, old man, race you to the tower," said Naruto, who leapt up into the air. And didn't come down. Instead he was more than halfway to the tower by the time Sakura realized what he was doing.
"I said not to show off!" yelled Jiraiya before he too was airborne and moving really fast.
Sakura felt her jaw hanging down slack.
Konohamaru was the first to recover. "That?! THAT IS SO COOL! I gotta learn that!"
Sakura continued to stare as Konohamaru and his team ran towards the tower, then shook herself and began running to catch up.
Tsunade was far more experienced than Sakura. She ran through three dispels and a general diagnostic to make sure that the two were who they said they were.
The results of the general diagnostic jutsu had her go through another check for genjutsu that came up with the same answer as the previous attempts.
"How the hell is Naruto seventeen years old and how are YOU barely forty?" demanded Tsunade. She damn well knew how old Jiraiya was, and the reading she'd gotten had indicated an impossibility.
"Naruto's training journey got complicated," summed up Jiraiya.
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(Posted Fri, 23 Mar 2012 21:37)
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