"Pervy Sage, Pervy Sage!" Sakura cried excitedly, as she ran towards Naruto and Jiraiya. "I've found out where Lady Tsunade has gone!"
"Now look at what you've done, Naruto— she's not even pretending to be taking me seriously any more!" said Jiraiya, glaring at his pupil. "If that nickname sticks, I am never taking you anywhere with me, ever again."
Sakura had been minding her own business, wandering around town, when a group of thugs had suddenly accosted her— she'd easily beaten them up, of course. It didn't matter if her assailants were fully grown adult men, and she was a young girl— ordinary people didn't stand a chance against shinobi!
"Tsunade-sama is in Tanzaku Town," said Sakura proudly. "I've already packed my bags— when do we leave?"
"Now, just hold on a minute, Sakura," said Jiraiya, holding up a hand to slow her down. "What makes you so sure that she's in Tanzaku Town?"
After giving them a good beating, Sakura had asked the thugs why they'd gone after her, and it turned out that they had been hired by loan sharks— they'd been on the lookout for Tsunade, who had skipped town without repaying her debts, and they had mistaken Sakura for the fifty-year-old woman… somehow.
"…I wonder why they thought I was Lady Tsunade?" said Sakura in puzzlement, once she'd finished recounting her story to Naruto and Jiraiya. "I don't look that old, do I?"
Sakura's story had thoroughly convinced Jiraiya.
After all, he knew that Tsunade liked to use her special Transformation Jutsu to change her apparent age… In reality, she looked like an old granny, due to her abuse of the Creation Rebirth Jutsu which had prematurely aged her, but she would often walk around looking like she was in her teens, twenties or thirties!
"I can think of one reason— actually, make that two big reasons— why they'd think you were Tsunade," Jiraiya chuckled to himself, rubbing his chin. "All right, then! Naruto, run back to the hotel and pack up our things— we're off to Tanzaku Town!"
"But," grumbled Naruto irritably. "My Rasengan training…"
And a few dozen minutes later, Sakura, Naruto and Jiraiya were back on the road, after having wasted an entire week playing around and training. That's not to say that their time had been completely wasted— Sakura and Naruto had both made considerable progress with their Ninjutsu training.
Sakura had furthered her understanding of nature transformation enough to make lightning arc between her hands— though the intensity of the current that she could produce was still not very… lethal.
As for Naruto, he could now consistently pop his rubber ball, though he couldn't make it burst apart just yet. He had run into an altogether different kind of bottleneck than Sakura had— his stamina never ran out, but his body couldn't endure its own chakra. His Keirakukei— his arms' chakra pathways— had grown raw and irritated from overuse, which was apparently quite painful.
"Sakura-chan," said Naruto in a plaintive tone as they walked. "Show me how you did it, again…"
"Hmm?" Jiraiya grunted in surprise. "Naruto, have you been teaching Sakura how to make a Rasengan?"
It wasn't as if Jiraiya held the exclusive copyright to the A-Rank Jutsu— by all rights, the Rasengan belonged to Naruto, since it had been his father who had invented/rediscovered it.
'Sigh,' said Inner Sakura, whining in an exaggerated fashion. 'Looks like the secret is out…'
Wordlessly, Sakura withdrew a rubber ball from her backpack, and within a few seconds, she had made it fly into pieces in her palm. In response, Jiraiya rummaged around in his clothes and retrieved a deflated balloon.
He then inflated it and held it in his palm, before looking expectantly at Sakura.
"What am I doing now?" he asked pointedly, still holding the motionless balloon.
Sakura hadn't learned how to sense chakra yet, but she could put two and two together.
"I can't see inside the balloon, but I suppose you're making a Rasengan in there," answered Sakura. "But since it's not bursting, I'm guessing you've wrapped the spinning ball of chakra in some kind of containment envelope… made out of some more chakra?"
For some reason, Sakura's answer really seemed to rub Jiraiya up the wrong way.
"Correct on all counts," grumbled Jiraiya, before sighing in annoyance. "This is why I hate training geniuses; they always make you look super lame by comparison…"
And having aired his grievances at her, Jiraiya tossed the balloon at Sakura, who hurriedly jumped out of the way before it exploded in her face. However, contrary to her expectations, the balloon slowly floated to the ground, bouncing once or twice, before slowly and harmlessly rolling to her feet…
"The look on your face!" Jiraiya chortled, a look of pure hilarity on his face. "You actually thought I'd throw a real Rasengan at a brat?"
'You just lost your living privileges, old man,' said Inner Sakura coldly. 'Good luck with your fight with Pain, because we won't be giving you any hints!'
Sakura ignored the old pervert's ribbing and picked up the balloon. She then closed her eyes and concentrated.
Summoning more and more chakra through her Keirakukei…
Sending it spiralling out of her Tenketsu…
Sensing that the mass of rotating chakra in her palm was reaching critical mass, Sakura stopped feeding it more chakra. Now, here was the tricky part— creating a thin chakra membrane to contain and compress the roiling chakra within; a veritable storm in a teacup!
'Rotate, Compress, Contain!' Inner Sakura shouted. "Shannaroooo!"
With Sakura's incredibly high chakra control, it was a cinch to create a distinct outer layer of chakra that would not interact with the inner layer of spinning chakra. And once that membrane was created, then she would only have to worry about maintaining it; the spiralling motion within would become self-sustaining!
Even without entering Sage Mode, Jiraiya was still a fairly competent sensor— and so, when Sakura cocked her arm back, ready to throw the fully formed Rasengan concealed within the balloon at him, he hurriedly flickered away!
"Right back you!" Sakura shouted as she threw the balloon.
Once it had left her palm, the protective outer membrane of chakra around the Rasengan rapidly began disintegrating, allowing the spiralling chakra within to rapidly expand and explode outwards!
'Strike!' Inner Sakura cheered, even though the explosion had knocked her on her butt. 'Take that, Pervy Sage!'