Night, an Unnamed Food Street
"Wow, this looks delicious! Boss, give me one skewer... no... five skewers! And this... and this... five of each of those, too..." A pink-haired girl stared at the food stall, where various delicacies were being grilled over charcoal, her hand involuntarily wiping away the drool at the corner of her mouth.
"Are you alone? Can you eat all that?" the stall owner asked, looking at the petite girl.
"If I couldn't eat it, would I order so much? Hurry up..." The girl looked at the food so close at hand, her stomach rumbling, and drool started to flow uncontrollably again. She quickly wiped it away.
Strange, why am I drooling so much today? I can't seem to wipe it all away... the girl thought, puzzled. ...But never mind, I'm about to have a feast...
"That'll be 120 ryo," the stall owner said, after packing up the skewers the girl had ordered.
"Just a moment," the girl hurriedly reached into the ninja tool pouch at her waist. "Huh? Where's my money? Huh? My wallet!!!"
The girl hastily pulled off her tool pouch and discovered a large gash in it. Everything inside was gone. She was furious! The food was right in front of her, but she couldn't eat it. Her stomach grumbled even louder in protest.
"Hey, kid, do you have money or not? If you don't, don't hold up my business..." The stall owner, seeing the girl fumbling around for so long without producing any money, had a pretty good idea of what was going on.
"What do I do, what do I do...? Damn it, at a time like this..." She wiped away more drool, looking longingly at the skewers that seemed to be beckoning her, "Come eat me!" But she couldn't.
Fine, I'll just take it and pay him back later when I catch the thief! The girl looked at the stall owner, steeled her heart, snatched the skewers, activated her Lightning Release Chakra Mode, and vanished in a flash.
Only then did the stall owner react, yelling, "Thief! Thief...!"
The people nearby saw what happened, but they advised, "Just let it go. That was a ninja. It wasn't that much food anyway. If you get on a ninja's bad side, you'll be in trouble."
The stall owner could only curse under his breath and accept his bad luck. He'd never seen anyone who could eat so much, a whole thirty skewers...
Meanwhile, the girl, having snatched the skewers, ran while eating. The wind whistled past her ears. She pulled out her favorite, a grilled squid, and took a big bite. Unexpectedly, the grilled squid let out a scream.
"Huh? Is this squid still alive?" The girl looked at the squid in her hand, puzzled. But her stomach grumbled again, and she decided not to worry about it. There were plenty of strange things in the ninja world.
She took another bite, and the squid screamed again. But the girl was so hungry she couldn't be bothered anymore and started tearing at it. "Huh, this squid is really strange. Not only does it scream, but it's also really tough. I can't even bite through it."
"Help me!!!"
Unexpectedly, the squid spoke in a human voice. But the girl was so famished that her eyes were practically blazing with a feral hunger. She didn't care if it could talk; she was going to eat it.
"Sakura-chan, Sakura-chan... I was wrong...!"
"Hmm? This squid even knows how to beg for mercy. But how does it know my name? Could it be an enemy's transformation?" The ravenous girl was none other than Haruno Sakura. Thinking the grilled squid in her hand might be an enemy, Sakura unceremoniously threw it to the ground and started stomping on it.
Unexpectedly, the squid sprouted legs and ran. Seeing this, Sakura was furious. She was starving, and the hard-won squid wouldn't even let her eat it! She chased after it, punching it left and right, giving the grilled squid a thorough beating.
Suddenly, the skewers that had been scattered around during the squid-beating came to life, turning into white fur and binding Sakura. Her vision went black, and she couldn't see anything. She strained to open her eyes, and the scene before her changed. It was still evening, not yet dark...
Sakura saw herself being restrained by Jiraiya's hair. She was straddling Naruto, who had a bruised and swollen face and was looking at her with fear, his expression like that of a wronged and aggrieved wife.
"Where's my grilled squid?" Sakura asked Naruto and Jiraiya blankly.
Jiraiya, hearing Sakura's nonsensical question, grew even more tense. He unconsciously tightened his Needle Jizo's hold.
"Ow, ow, ow!" Sakura cried out in pain, yelling at Jiraiya, "Hey!! Pervy old man, are you trying to kill me?!"
"Do you even realize what you just did?" Jiraiya asked nervously.
"What did I do? What did I do?" Sakura asked innocently.
Actually, seeing the bruised and swollen Naruto and Jiraiya on the ground, and combining that with the scene that was probably a dream, Sakura had a pretty good idea of what had happened. But she couldn't possibly admit that she'd been so hungry in her dream that she'd bitten Naruto like that.
"You bit Naruto really hard twice, and then you beat him up," Jiraiya said sternly.
"So that's why the squid was so tough... I couldn't even bite through it. It was raw meat," Sakura muttered quietly.
"What?" Jiraiya clearly heard her.
"Nothing. I said, let me go. I won't bite him anymore. He doesn't taste good anyway..." Sakura said to Jiraiya. "Naruto looks like this now, I need to heal him."
"Haha, you really were dreaming," Jiraiya's expression changed, and he laughed. He wasn't stupid; he'd just sensed Sakura's chakra, and she didn't seem to be under the influence of a genjutsu. Then, hearing Sakura talk about squid and it not tasting good, he'd pretty much figured out she was dreaming.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah... so hurry up and let me go," Sakura said impatiently.
After Jiraiya released his ninjutsu, Sakura looked at Naruto's miserable state. She pulled open his collar, and sure enough, there were two sets of teeth marks on his neck. The bite marks were bleeding; it seemed she'd bitten him quite hard.
"Sorry, Naruto..." Sakura felt quite embarrassed. She'd had a dream and ended up biting the person who'd carried her all the way like this.
"It's okay, Sakura-chan. We're almost at a town... There's food there..." What else could Naruto do? He was also very helpless, but he could only forgive her. Who made Naruto like Sakura-chan the most?
"So, your Mystical Palm Technique is pretty good. It seems you learned a lot from Tsunade," Jiraiya said, praising Sakura as he watched her use the healing jutsu.
"Then what are you going to teach Naruto...?" Sakura had fallen asleep after climbing onto Naruto's back and didn't know what had happened afterward.
"Right! Pervy Sage, what ninjutsu are you going to teach me? We're almost at a town, you can tell me now, right?" Naruto immediately perked up at the mention of ninjutsu. He'd been holding back all the way.
"Oh ho ho, don't be so impatient. Look..." Jiraiya stopped stalling and extended his right hand, forming a blue sphere of chakra in his palm. "This is the ninjutsu I'm going to teach you. It was developed by the Fourth Hokage..."
Then, Jiraiya walked over to a tree and pressed his hand against the trunk. A large hole was instantly blasted through the tree, which was wide enough for two people to hug.
"How about that? This is a seal-less ninjutsu. It's perfect for someone like you who can't remember complicated hand seals and has a huge amount of chakra..." Jiraiya said with a smile.
"Wow...! Pervy Sage, how do I learn this jutsu?" Naruto's eyes were wide with excitement. Sasuke had learned Chidori from Kakashi-sensei, but Naruto didn't have any powerful offensive ninjutsu. That's why he'd been training so hard lately, but without much success.
"How do you learn it...? You gather chakra in your hand, release it outward, control the chakra to compress and rotate in an irregular motion, and maintain the chakra output to keep its shape. That's it," Jiraiya thought for a moment and said.
"...Just like that?..." Naruto was dumbfounded.
"Yep, just like that..." Jiraiya shrugged.
"......"
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