Race against time

               Tsunade sat deep in thought in her office, as hokage it was her job to keep the people safe and now that she had reached the peak of her power she had to leave the fate of the village to they next generation she saw grow up and help nurture. As emotions of worry and doubt flooded through her head she said to herself "i have to trust does kids, they would have to train hard and i might also have to accept the offer that orochimaru gave me, because if i'm being honest there's no way that they are going to be able to close such a wide gap in a couple of months. For Naruto and Sasuke it's going to be possible for them but only because they are the reincarnation of the two sons of the sage of the six paths, for the rest of them they are normal ninja and even if they take their techniques to their absolute peak i can't shake of the feeling that we may still lose and the fact that i have reached my ceiling frustrates me the most. In the end i guess orochimaru was right, it's all or nothing and as the acting hokage of this village i must protect it." she then sighed and said out loud "man i really wish kakashi was here instead of wondering about in the land of lightning."

               Meanwhile, Naruto and lee where sparring against one another in an open field at the border of the land of fire, Naruto had asked lee to help him with the weights training that lee and guy sensei both use to increase the speed, stamina and reaction time. Lee being glad to have a sparring partner had taken Naruto up on his offer and they started by gvng naruto bracelets for his arm and legs and a belt for his waist each weighing around 40kg, at first it took a great toll on Naruto to even walk and when he heard he had to sleep with the weights on he began to have second thoughts about the training but whenever he had doubts he heard kurama tell him "if you decided to give up, you will be letting you're entire village down" and he will immediately find his resolve to keep on going . 

                    By the time the fourth day rolled around Naruto had gotten used to the weights and when lee noticed he said to Naruto "good, since you have gotten movement down it's time we have a little sparring match to test if you are ready to move on to the next step, remember that in this match no use of ninjutsu is allowed only pure taijutsu." Naruto smiled and nodded as he dashed towards lee, Lee seeing Naruto's determination smiled back and while charging at him said "let us burn with the passion of youth" he then jumped and tried to land a drop kick on naruto which he blocked and in retaliation, naruto gave a left hook to lee's side as it was left unguarded after the drop kick. Lee feeling the pain of Naruto's punch leapt back wards and said to himself "i dropped my guard there for a second, i have to be more careful next time." He then dashed towards naruto with amazing speed but naruto's eyes could still follow it but when he tried to block lee's kick, he was too slow and the kick landed on him square on his jaw. After receiving the kick naruto staggered backwards and said "my body's reaction time is still to slow" he then rushed at lee and started giving a barrage of punches, all which lee dodged and responded to it by giving naruto a jab aimed for his neck but naruto used his hand to block it as lee said "see, you're beginning to get the hang of it" he then jumped and started rotating at high speed mid air as he said "leaf helicopter, he then landed a rotating kck on naruto which sent him flying in the air but before naruto could react he undid the bandages on his arm as he jumped into the air and grabbed naruto, he then started spiralling downward as he said "primary lotus" and let go of naruto as his head crashed into the ground at a very high velocity. Naruto stood up from lee's attack with a few bruises as he dashed towards lee once again but this time he was faster, he then landed a punch on lee that sent him flying backwards but he immediately regained his footing as both of them then flung themselves towards each other and started clashing fist for fist and for about an hour they were evenly matched with neither of them ready to give up nd after a while they disengaged from each other and flung themselves towards one another for what will be their last clash, they both stretched their fist forward and landed a blow on each others face simultaneously causing both of them to fall with their backs on the floor as lee said "well, step one of your training is complete, you are now as fast as you were before, so if you pull those weights you're speed and reaction time would have multiplied by four fold." Naruto then responded by saying "thanks bushy brow" before both of them passed out from exhaustion.

                           Sakura on the other hand was training with Tsunade, they had been doing a sparring match of their own and they were sitting on the floor completely exhausted with dirt all over their bodies when Tsunade said "i've taught you everything i know sakura you have even surpassed me already i couldn't be more proud, with that being said you have to become way more stronger if you are going to be able to handle this threat. I'm going to send you to lady kasuyu's place, there she would teach you how to use the byakuya seal on your forehead to its fullest potential, something that i could never do." Sakura on hearing this asked curiously "what do you mean using my byakuya seal to its fullest potential, i thought i was already wielding it's full power." Tsunade hearing what sakura said chuckled and said "well you aren't neither am i, to use the byakuya seal to its fullest extent you will have to learn to store nature chakra in your seal but that's the easy part, the hard part is when you release the seal  you would have to merge the nature chakra in the seal with your own chakra to essentially create senjutsu chakra and once that's done you would be at least ten times stronger than you are now. I couldn't achieve this because it took me too much time and effort to blend my chakra with nature chakra so in the end it didn't pay off cause in my case the amount of prep time needed isn't worth it for the strength increase." Sakura after hearing what Tsunade explained then asked "if you couldn't do it what makes you think that i can," Tsunade then smirked and said "it's because your chakra control is way better than mine, it's even better than naruto's and he is already a perfect sage so i believe in you and i know that unlike me, you are yet to reach your full potential" Sakura after hearing this smirked and said "alright lady Tsunade, if you think that i can do it i will give it a try" Tsunade then said "that's the spirit, i will take you there tomorrow."

                     Ino, Shikamaru and Choji were walking on the streets of the village when choji asked in a worried tone, "hey shikamaru, how do you think we will be able to get stronger in two months time. I don't know about you guys but i'm pretty sure that i've reached my ceiling, when it comes to my akimichi clan jutsu i am already the best so i've really hit a wall." Shikamaru then responded by saying "it's not only you choji, ino and i have also reached our ceiling. The only way we will be able to contribute the team is if we conition ourselves so we don't lose any of our current strength and we also work on new ways to use our techniques in conjunction. Also, we will need to tell the others about the coming threat cause i know people like shino will always be able to rise to the challenge."  Ino then nodded her head in agreement as she said "alright then, let's get going." they then went to a place where the aburame clan reared insects and surely enough, shino was there with his dad observing the growth of their newest and by far strongest bugs the Aburame had ever produced.  Shino on seeing his friends waved at them and said "hey guys, what you doing here i'm pretty sure that none of you like bugs." Shikamaru then responded by saying "it's about the jashinists, i know that word would have gone round by now but we need all the help we can get so we came to inform you that we have only two months to become as strong as naruto was in the war or else we wouldn't stand a chance against the jashinists. We came to tell you cause i know that you are one of the villages greatest assets and we could really use your help, i know it's a drag but we got to do it anyways." Ino hering this said "well, we just started breeding new bugs so i'm sure they can come in handy, i guess i have to start training then." Shikamaru hearing that smirks and says "hey, could you also tell kiba about what's going on, i doubt he would be of any help but tell him anyways cause he might just surprise us,"  Shino just nodded his head in agreement and went back to continue inspecting the bugs. Shikamaru, choji and ino then left to go to their own training grounds where they would work on new moves an formations, as they were going choji asked "so shikamaru, i know it's silly to ask now but you had already planned this haven't you," shikamaru just responded by smiling and saying "i don't know choji, don't bother yourself with that." They then arrived at their training grounds  ready to start their training and with the will of fire strong in their hearts they had inherited the resolution to never give up.

                  Kazui was hard at work in the base of operations of the jashinists, they had given him his own lab in which he would be able to work in peace and on his working desk he seemed to be putting the final touches on a device which we could only assume was the device that was going to be used to track down lord jashin, meanwhile in a separate room, Kan was staring down at someone who was lying on a sick bed, the room wasn't well light so only his figure could be seen as Kan said "i promise you brother, i will do whatever it takes for you to be healthy again. We are already very close to accomplishing our mission of resurrecting jashin, when that is done i will ask him to give you immortality just like he did for hidan, cause if you're immortal no matter how many dead cells your body may have it won't affect you. Just hold on brother, the time is nigh." He then walked out of the room and as he opened the door to leave, he saw Sue waiting for him outside the door as she said "You were talking to Aoi again weren't you. look Shigaraki, i promise you that we will save your brother so for now we just got to focus on our mission okay" Kan then nodded his head as he said "thanks sue, but Aoi and I abandoned that last name ages ago " he then walked away leaving Sue to be staring at him as she said to herself "I want nothing more than for you to be at peace with yourself shigaraki"