19

Chapter 18: Too Legit to Quit

'It's about time something like this came up… I'm kind of nervous though…' Naruto's thought to himself as he sat in the trees just surrounding a somewhat secure clearing. After two months of doing C-rank missions with a team he was given a solo B-rank mission of his own. Remembering what Tsunade had told him about one of his teams a few months back, that they had thought he might be somewhat good as an Anbu, he figured this was something of a tryout mission or something. Chunin don't get solo missions, so he figured this was the only thing this could be.

His mission had been to head to a town in Tsuki no Kuni (Land of Moon). Tsunade wasn't very forthcoming with the information on exactly what he was doing here at all, but he figured this wasn't some kind of trap or anything, why would she kill him off? So all he really had to go on was that he had to meet a contact once he arrived. This was the first time he had worked without a team in years and while he wasn't expecting anything anywhere near the borderline suicide things that he had done the last time he had solo missions it was always nice to be ready just in case.

Instead of taking his usual clothing he decided to don his execution gear that he had worn during his escapades in Kumogakure. He doubted that it would really matter what he wore for this job, because as long as he had his hitae-ate he was told that the contact would find him, but hey, why not? After a few days off following the diplomatic mission to Kumo he had been blasted with back to back missions ranging from escorts to bandit extermination. They had been mostly snoozefests, mainly because he had an entire team to help him out. Nothing had occurred the likes of the disaster to Nami no Kuni, thank Kami, but he missed the action.

The only instruction that the boy had received for his mission was to head to an inland town on Tsuki no Kuni and find the bar that had been listed when he first left before burning his mission scroll. After entering the small town it wasn't too difficult to find, as this town was not too large like the coastal towns that the tourist country were more known for.

Upon entering the bar, Naruto had to stop and check back outside to see if he had made a mistake. It wasn't. That was the only bar in the town.

The reason he had to check after first entering was because the first thing that greeted the boy was a loud, boisterous laugh that he was quite familiar with. The sight of spiky white hair filled his vision upon first walking in to add on to the laugh.

"Whoa! Slow down ladies, there's enough of the great Jiraiya to go around!" Jiraiya, as per the course, was surrounded by a bevy of women hanging off of his money- err his every word.

Naruto couldn't believe that Jiraiya was his contact for whatever he was about to do so he simply sauntered past without stirring the man's interest and made his way to the bartender. Pulling off his hood he showed off his hitae-ate in the low light of the bar and sighed as the man looked at him, "We don't serve minors kid, you know that."

Naruto gave him a dry look, "I know your country has a hidden village so you should know better." Naruto flicked the metal on his headband, showing to the man that he was a ninja, "One bottle of sake please, whatever brand you think a kid should be drinking."

The man nodded and turned to grab Naruto's order, "A kid shouldn't be drinking at all. So what's a Konoha ninja doing in Tsuki no Kuni?"

Naruto gave him a wry grin, "I'm on vacation."

Turning back around and pouring Naruto his first cup with a smirk he spoke, "Kid, you're in the wrong place for a vacation. There are no resorts or attractions around here."

Naruto chuckled as he began sipping his drink, "Let's just say I find the charm of the countryside appeals to me more than the beaches do."

The man let out an amused laugh, "You're a strange kid. What kind of kid doesn't like the beach?"

Pointing to himself, Naruto refilled his cup after finishing off his first one, "This one right here."

The banter was stopped short when a hand placed itself on Naruto's shoulder. The guard covering the back of the hand gave away who it was, "Ero-sennin. What are you doing all the way out here?"

Jiraiya had a grin on his face as he sat next to Naruto at the bar, "What? Gaki you don't think it's just a wonderful coincidence that you and I met up here, in this bar, in the middle of nowhere, randomly out of the blue?"

Naruto had to crack a smile at that, "Maybe it's because baa-chan told me that you would be calling for me to start working with me after a few months and the deadline is very close. Add on to that, she said she would clear me for some time off, and she ends up sending me on a mission to the country with more resorts than anywhere else in the Elemental Nations, that kind of tells me something when I combine it with running into you while looking for my Konoha contact."

The older man snatched up Naruto's bottle of sake and looked at him strangely, "You drink gaki?"

Naruto shrugged, "I had my drink with Gamabunta and I actually like the stuff. I don't indulge daily like baa-chan and I don't down two or three in one sitting like you so don't worry."

"I take offense to that kid." Jiraiya asked for another cup from the bartender before pouring himself a drink, "So what have you been doing since I last saw you?"

"I've been just… training. I don't know what to say, I've just been working on regaining my jutsu and my wind affinity. I never found out how to go any further with it so I've just been cutting tons of leaves with my Kage Bunshin since whatever they learn I learn."

Jiraiya nodded, "So how far can you go with you know who right now?" Naruto raised three fingers and continued to drink. Jiraiya stroked his chin, "That's actually very good. You weren't supposed to be able to use that much of its chakra yet. I have to unlock a bit of your seal for you to go any further. Honestly you shouldn't have been able to draw that much."

Naruto frowned, "Drawing that much isn't convenient. If I take any more than one tail it takes way too long to be effective. I need about five to ten minutes of preparation time depending on how much I use. I had to come up with an alternative way of increasing my power in a pinch and even that takes too long to use in the middle of a fight, the upside of it is that it is a fantastic visual distraction, but on the flipside it hurts like hell to use."

Jiraiya grunted in though, "You've been through this in your head quite a bit haven't you?"

Naruto nodded and took another sip, "Every other jinchuuriki out there can wipe the floor with me as I am. I've never said that to anyone in Konoha, but it's true. I went to Kumo, both of their jinchuuriki have absolute control. Like Gaara did, but without the crazy hostile takeover of their demon, hell I'll say that the only reason I beat him is because I had Gamabunta run interference on the simple minded fuck while I woke Gaara up, if I had tried to just fight and match power, even with Gamabunta there we might have lost."

Jiraiya stroked his chin, "I'll loosen your seal and have you work with that. Maybe then you can have an easier time using the Kyuubi's chakra faster."

Naruto picked up the bottle he had purchased and stood, "Well then let's go do this already, Akatsuki isn't going to wait for me to get stronger and this obviously isn't a mission. Is that all we're going to work on?"

Jiraiya stood up after him and led him out, "Nope. You obviously know how to draw upon the Kyuubi's chakra if you've been experimenting with it like you've said so I don't need to give you time to learn that. You can make Rasengan absolutely perfectly so you don't need to work on that, speaking of Rasengan, if we can get through your training the way I anticipate we can then I'll tell you something special about that."

Naruto looked up at the taller man, "So what are we going to do?"

Jiraiya grinned down at him, "You needed to know the next step to furthering your wind manipulation didn't you? Well I'll show you what to do to work on that. You started on it back when you were a kid right?"

Naruto nodded, "Danzo told me about the leaf-splitting exercise a few months before my little incident in Otogakure. I still blame you by the way."

Jiraiya's face fell, 'So you still hate me do you kid?"

Naruto shook his head, "No. Not anymore. If there was anything that I learned in Root, it was that Konoha comes first. If you and the old man thought that I was a threat to the village, I can see why you didn't wait for me to wake before acting. I don't like it, I probably never will like it, and I'll always have some spot in me that resents that, but I understand." Naruto saw that they were exiting the town, "It's why I can forgive my father too."

Jiraiya's eyes widened at that, "Y-You know?"

Naruto gave him a foxy smirk, "Tsunade-baachan never told you that I did, did she? Yeah I know, and I have to say that I need to be more observant. It was staring me in the face every damn day for years and I had to have help to figure it out."

Jiraiya sighed deeply and looked down, "You know gaki, I was supposed to be your godfather."

Naruto didn't bat an eye, "Oh really? That's cool. So I should call you ero-kyoufu now right?" Naruto didn't receive an answer and turned to see Jiraiya staring at him with his jaw dropped, "What?"

Jiraiya wiped the look of shock off of his face, "You aren't upset or even in denial on that?"

Naruto shrugged, "Why would I be? Even if you had been looking for me in Konoha you would have been hard pressed to actually find me and do anything godfatherly with me. I went to Danzo when I was four, I only went to the apartment to keep up appearances with Hokage-jiji, he was like clockwork, it was easy to figure out when he was showing up so I was always home on days when he would visit. I'm not going to be a little punk and complain about why you never came to check up on me, because I never asked to be checked up on, you had your responsibilities and your own baggage to deal with. I did too, and I don't think I want to find out what I would have ended up like if you had been an active influence in my formulative years." Naruto finished with a smirk.

Jiraiya smiled down at Naruto, "So you know about your dad do you? Are you going to follow in his footsteps? You're damn talented kid."

Naruto put on a thinking face, "If you're asking whether or not I want to be Hokage, I don't know. It doesn't seem like my niche in the grand scheme of things."

Jiraiya looked at him in slight surprise, "You're really different from your other self, being Hokage was the thing that drove him. He always said he'd be Hokage and get everyone's respect."

Naruto raised a finger, "And that's my point. I'm not like that anymore. I didn't want their respect by wanting to be the Hokage, I wanted their adoration. I don't give a fuck what the majority of those people think about me. If they hate me, fine, go ahead and hate me, but I want their respect in the purest form, not any kind of love from them. They can sneer at me and say things behind my back all they would like, but when I'm dead they better recognize the fact that I was the best damn ninja that they ever had the pleasure of seeing in person."

Jiraiya grinned at how brash he was being, 'It's almost like how he would talk about being Hokage back when he wore that jumpsuit… I don't even think he knows he's saying it like that.'

Naruto continued, "As long as my name is emblazoned in the history books and a 97 year old Iruka-sensei is still yelling at a classroom full of brats to shut the hell up so they can study Naruto Uzumaki and why exactly he was so important to the village I'll be fine. I want the kids of my generation to sit down with their kids and tell stories of the time that Naruto Uzumaki saved their asses." He chuckled slightly, "I'm kind of already doing that. I've already manipulated the landscape on a massive scale, the crater and the forest of bone near the Valley of the End was made during my fight with Kimimaro Kaguya, it's not as big as the Valley of the End, but it's the best anyone's done in almost one-hundred years."

Jiraiya picked up on something during his monologue, "How did that crater even get there in the first place? The Kaguya clan doesn't have any attacks that could make craters like that."

Naruto pointed to his stomach, "It's a part of the thing that I came up with to make up for not being able to use that much of Kyuubi's chakra. It's strong, but damn does it hurt. It cracked every bone in my body to use. *chuckle* Kyuubi bitched me out about it after the fight."

Jiraiya had a new point of interest now, "You speak to the Kyuubi?"

Naruto nodded, "Yep. When I was little it was a hard-ass, as a matter of fact it's still kind of a hard-ass, but I can't imagine not having it in me. It's like I was never alone, even when I was." Naruto snickered, "By the way, you're on the Kyuubi's top twenty list of people that it wants to eat one of these days."

Jiraiya blinked in confusion, "It has a list of people that it wants to eat? And I'm on it?"

Naruto grinned, "Yep, you're number fourteen because of when you sealed me, that really pissed it off. Jiji is number four because of giving the order. It said I used to be on it, but I ended up getting myself off of it after I unsealed myself."

Jiraiya had to ask, "I know I'm going to regret asking, but who is number one? It's Minato right?"

Naruto shook his head, "Nope, he's actually number twenty and bordering on leaving the list altogether. Number one is Madara Uchiha. The Kyuubi says that it hates that bastard and wants to eat him without chewing so that when it swallows him he can die the slow way. Number two is Hashirama Senju. It says that the tree hugging bastard can go down the wrong tube just so it can spit him up and eat him again."

Jiraiya had to take a minute to picture that and cringed visibly, "Wait, you're not on its list? Why not? You are its prison after all."

Naruto grinned like he had a secret, "Yeah, I'm its prison. I control pretty much everything in my head. Before I started trying to use its chakra when I was a kid I had to make sure I had supreme control of myself. I changed everything in there to better accommodate it. Nobody wants to spend an entire lifetime in a leaky cage in a sewer, and I made some deals with the Kyuubi to make both of our lives easier. Seeing as how having a giant fox in a leaky cage in my head would piss it off unnecessarily, I fixed it. "

Jiraiya and Naruto continued to chat as they made their way into the wilderness of Tsuki no Kuni.

XxX

(Two Days Later)

"We've been walking for two days ero-sennin. Where are we going?" Jiraiya led Naruto through a particularly wilder patch of brush that was beginning to irritate the blonde. He could swear Jiraiya was swinging those branches back into his face trying to be funny.

Jiraiya smiled to himself at seeing that the kid was starting to get frustrated with just walking around, "Calm down gaki. We're here, just head on past this undergrowth here and we'll be there." As they kept moving, a distinct roaring noise became louder and louder.

Jiraiya and Naruto pushed through some more vegetation and stopped as Naruto's jaw dropped, "Whoa… sweet."

Jiraiya could see that Naruto was pleased with his choice of training environment, a river running through the island that was situated in their current position right by a waterfall. Naruto walked over to the edge of the water and looked up at the cascade while Jiraiya walked up next to him, "Yep, you needed one for the next part of your training and staying in Konoha would have been boring. I thought about going to Takigakure, but I don't think they would have let you in just so you could mess with their waterfall."

Naruto nodded, though he was barely listening until his mind registered the word 'training', "So a waterfall is important to my training? Okay, I'll bite, what am I doing with this thing?"

"It's very simple my boy." Jiraiya had a sly grin on his features, "You already know how to split a leaf with your wind chakra. Well this is kind of like that, it's just that instead of splitting a leaf you have to split a waterfall." Jiraiya was eager to hear Naruto's outburst at what he had to do.

"…"

"…"

"…"

But Naruto's face never changed from the slightly dull expression that one had when they were thinking about something. The outburst never came… on the outside at least, 'What the fuck? Split a goddamn waterfall? Who am I, the fucking Nidaime Hokage?'

"Shut the fuck up kit! I'm trying to sleep! He said to cut the waterfall, not stop it you retard. If you're going split the waterfall, just split it and leave me alone." Naruto had mentally stirred the Kyuubi from its slumber, and it was none too pleased.

Naruto turned his venom onto the Kyuubi, 'Oh really Mr. 'I-can-flatten-mountains-and-raise-tsunamis-with-swings-of-my-tails'? Why don't you bring your big chakra conducive ass out here and make me?'

The Kyuubi growled lowly and started radiating chakra, "I'm not a 'mister', you idiot, I'm a corporeal mass of chakra. And come in here and say that to my face ningen and see if you don't leave with more than a few chunks of your ass missing."

Jiraiya snapped his fingers in front of the unresponsive Naruto's face, "Oi, gaki! I think I broke him…"

Naruto however was oblivious to the outside world as he was busy having a territorial pissing contest with a demon of near infinite power, 'Oh I'll come in there, but that's the last thing that your furry ass wants! I'll shove my boot so far up your ass your tongue will have grip!'

"The only reason my tongue would have grip is because I ate your legs and decided to keep your shoes afterwards to chew on! You're obviously forgetting who you're talking to!"

"Gaki!"

Naruto was finally brought back to the world of the waking by Jiraiya shaking him and yelling at him, "What ero-sennin? I was in the middle of something with my inner furball who was being an ass!"

Jiraiya sweatdropped, "Yeah, bitch at the Kyuubi later, we have work to do. Just channel your chakra and try to cut it the way you did with the leaf." He pointed, "You can use the bridge over there as a stable point to stand on."

Naruto nodded, "Who built the bridge on the waterfall? We're in the middle of nowhere."

Jiraiya preened like a peacock, "I built it myself. I found this spot and decided to bring you out here kid."

Someone else decided to chime in once more, "Who the fuck else would have built it you brain-dead hairless ape?"

Naruto growled on the outside, 'I'm sick of your bullshit Kyuubi. Be productive or shut the hell up and go back to sleep.'

Jiraiya tapped Naruto, "Geez, calm down kid."

Kyuubi chuckled and spoke mockingly, "Listen to the hermit kit. Calm down, just calm down! Calm down, just calm down! Calm down, just calm down!"

Naruto's eye twitched, 'Mute.' Naruto sighed in relief as the Kyuubi's voice went silent, 'I forgot I could do that. What the hell is up with him? He hasn't tried to provoke me like that in forever.' Naruto turned to Jiraiya, "Sorry about that ero-sennin. You were saying?"

Jiraiya frowned momentarily, 'He's already showing signs of the added demonic chakra from the loosening of the seal. Maybe I should have waited until after we finished his elemental training to do it.' "Alright gaki, get up there and get started on trying to split that waterfall."

Naruto saluted Jiraiya and scampered to a spot in the middle of the waterfall on the bridge. Pulling his hood up to avoid getting totally soaked he stuck his hands into the waterfall and began generating wind chakra. Naruto could feel the force of the waterfall snuff out the force of his miniscule amount of chakra, "Okay… It looks like I need to come up with more raw force to split this thing. Goody."

Naruto shook his hands dry as Jiraiya came up next to him on the bridge holding an umbrella, "This is more or less a trip to get you started on the training. The entire process could take upwards of a few years to master."

Naruto looked at Jiraiya before forming a cross-seal, "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shadow Clone Jutsu)." Naruto filled the bridge with copies of himself that immediately went to work trying to cut the waterfall, "I just wanted to try it for myself before I had my Kage Bunshin do it. I have something I need to do for myself right about now."

Naruto jumped off of the bridge to the surface of the water and walked to shore before sitting down and getting into a meditative position. Jiraiya appeared at his side, "What are you going to do gaki?"

Naruto looked up at Jiraiya, "I'm going to go into my mindscape so that me and the fox can hash out our little situation."

Jiraiya looked apprehensive, "That might not be such a good idea if its mad at you kid."

Naruto shook his head, "Why not? I mean we've been at each other's throats before but it blows over. We fuck with each other, I stopped being malicious about it years ago." Naruto shut his eyes and put his hands back in the ram sign.

Jiraiya grabbed his hands and broke his concentration again, "Don't. Remember when I told you that I was going to loosen the Kyuubi's seal to give you better access to its power? Well I did it the other night while you were asleep when I said I was going to check your seal. Haven't you felt yourself getting more aggressive and angered easier?"

Naruto nodded, "I figured that puberty was finally starting to make me nuts with all of the shots of testosterone. You're telling me it's because the Kyuubi's chakra is leaking out more steadily now?"

Jiraiya pulled Naruto's shirt up and revealed that the seal was showing even though Naruto wasn't doing anything, "Your body is adjusting to the influx of demonic chakra, though now it's more important than ever for you to control your emotions. It's now far easier for you to lose control when you become angered. You tried picking a fight with the Kyuubi a few minutes ago, I would have slapped you right then if I wasn't sure that it would have made you madder."

Naruto blushed out of embarrassment of being called out like that. It had been months since anyone had called him out for being overly emotional, having been in Root he took it somewhat personal that he was being told that he needed to control himself until he realized that he had been freer with his outbursts than even four months ago.

Jiraiya noticed this, "I'm not saying that being expressive makes you a bad ninja, I mean just look at me!" He said with a stupid grin that got Naruto to crack a smile, "But you've got to know how to manipulate your emotions rather than just go with them or cover them up. If you're mad, learn how to channel that elsewhere, I've seen that you're none too shabby at the trash-talk, that's good. Things like that can help you."

Naruto nodded, "So you don't want me to go into my mindscape, at least not right now anyway?"

Jiraiya patted the boy on the shoulder, "No, don't go in there for a while at least. Probably until your seal disappears from view when you're just sitting idle like now. I'll tell you when it's okay to try." He pulled Naruto to his feet, "Now while your clones are doing their thing why don't you show me what you can do?"

Naruto smirked and started bouncing around in loose stance, "You do know that I'm going to take out quite a bit of aggression on you don't you?"

Jiraiya grinned and crossed his arms across his chest, "You do realize that I'm the strongest ninja in Konoha don't you gaki?"

Naruto rolled his eyes, "There's that S-ranked superiority complex again. I can't wait until one of you guys gets schooled by some low-level nobody that couldn't shine your hitae-ate on your worst day."

Jiraiya barked out a laugh, "It's not like I'm taking you lightly Naruto, I've seen what you can do. Now that was then, this is now, feel free to cut loose and hit me with your best shot."

Naruto looked somewhat apprehensive, "Are you sure? I mean some of my stuff is really heavy. I mean really heavy. And I'm not talking about the stuff you've seen either. I could get you with a lucky shot and you could be a goner."

Jiraiya waved him off, "If you manage to push me that far to the extent that actually you wound me like that then that just means I'm getting rusty and needed the ass-kicking anyway. Now come on kid, you're still ten years too soon to beat me."

Naruto's smirk returned full force as he blurred from Jiraiya's sight. Jiraiya wheeled to the side to block a jumping kick from the blonde. Jiraiya's face held quite a bit of amusement, "Faster now aren't we?"

"I've been training with Rock Lee and Maito Gai for a while now. They said that I was slow… that kind of pissed me off, but damn, the way that they train I'm not surprised." Naruto pulled his leg from Jiraiya's arm and lashed out at his body with a straight punch that Jiraiya parried down. Naruto kept his attack low with sweeps, low kicks, and attempts at body shots, but Jiraiya was way faster than him without the Kyuubi's chakra. Naruto expected as much, but it was still a kick in the teeth to stomach.

Speaking of kicks in the teeth, Jiraiya eventually got tired of dodging and planted the soles of his geta into Naruto's face, sending him flying back, "Don't get lazy with your attack pattern kid. You're not faster than me so you can't overwhelm me like you do everyone else. Fight smarter."

Naruto picked himself up and made three Kage Bunshin before rushing Jiraiya again. That brought a grin back to the legend's face as he found himself in a hodge-podge of a pre-meditated tajutsu assault from the clones and the boy himself. Jiraiya had to admit that the clones were very coordinated, they definitely knew their role in the attack.

Since one hit would dispel them, Naruto had them play more of a pestering role, trying for low success rate strikes from Jiraiya's blind spots. Things like flashy jumping spin kicks and the like, he also had them shouting and yelling. While this was a good way to distract most opponents with the false threat of the clones it also gave away the real Naruto, who was right in front of Jiraiya the entire time, staying out of range of the man's attacks and trying to keep a lower profile by staying silent until he thought that one of his Kage Bunshin feints had enough of Jiraiya's attention to attempt a short rush.

If he had tried this on anyone his rank or below, hell if he had tried this on a few jounin that specialized in flashier arts and weren't good enough at taijutsu to keep the kid off of them he would have beaten them into a bloody pulp fighting the way he was. Unfortunately for Naruto's plan, Jiraiya was fast enough and aware enough to dodge everything and pinpoint the real body. Averting his eyes as a feint of his own to draw the real Naruto in, he grabbed the original's arm while ducking kicks from two of the clones.

He knew this was the original because he pulled him in and drilled him right in the stomach with a powerful shot to send him flying back again. The clones tried attacking all at once but Jiraiya stood between them all calmly and flew through his hand-signs too fast for them to stop, "Hari Jizo (Needle Jizo)!" The clones were dispelled when Jiraiya's hair grew to surround his body and hardened and sharpened to puncture the poor things.

Jiraiya let his hair regress and stood straight up clapping his hands, "That was nice gaki, you made me use a jutsu."

Naruto narrowed his eyes in determination, "Well since you showed me yours…" Naruto made hand-signs and placed his hands on the ground, "Thank you Yugi-chan! Raiton: Kaksen no Jutsu (Lightning Release: Livewire Jutsu)!" Naruto sent out a speedy burst of arcing electricity from where his hands touched the ground in front of him at Jiraiya.

Jiraiya made a 'hmm' noise and jumped high into the air over the crackling electricity before making his own hand-signs, "Katon: Endan (Fire Release: Flame Bullet)!" Jiraiya shot a bullet of flaming oil at Naruto who was still on the ground. Naruto simply darted away from Jiraiya's aim and decided to try and catch him hanging in the air.

Naruto grinned as he made hand-signs and linked his fists together, "Got you hanging ero-sennin, Fuuton: Fuujin Seiken (Wind Release: Divine Fist of the Wind God)!" Naruto shot the attack in the direction of Jiraiya's fall to time it to make contact. Jiraiya saw this coming and shot another flaming bullet at the shimmering wind attack, causing a mid-air explosion that allowed him to land safely.

Naruto snapped his fingers in disappointment while Jiraiya dug out his ear, "Damn gaki, you cleared out the wax with that last explosion."

Naruto shook his head in amusement and flipped Jiraiya off, "Whatever… I'm getting closer. I'm going to knock the hell out of you by the time this is over at least once, I guarantee it."

Jiraiya chuckled, "This lasts as long as I let it last. Don't get a swelled head here. I'm strong enough to kill you ten times over."

Naruto growled and ran in to attack again, "Underestimating me will get you killed!" He threw shuriken at Jiraiya in an attempt to direct his movement a certain way, but Jiraiya just moved aside and let them pass. Naruto grinned and placed his palms together, "Fuuton: Reppuushou (Wind Release: Violent Wind Palm)!" Naruto created an updraft stream of wind that Jiraiya hunkered down to let pass and wait for Naruto's charge, but it flew right past him and carried to the shuriken that Naruto threw, forcing them to sweep high into the air back over Jiraiya's head.

A few more hand-signs from Naruto signaled another jutsu, "Raiton: Kaminari Shuriken (Lightning Release: Lightning Shuriken)!" The shuriken over Jiraiya's head began raining down bolts of lightning that he was forced to dodge. Upon getting out of the storm of electricity he hastily ducked a cutting jump kick from Naruto that would have made good on the kid's promise to nail him with a good shot at least once today.

Jiraiya grabbed hold of Naruto's leg and flung him off hard. He flipped to his feet to see Jiraiya make the boar and tiger hand-signs before slamming his hands to the ground, "Doton: Yomi Numa (Earth Release: Swamp of the Underworld)!" Naruto made a yipe noise and jumped high into the air, but didn't clear enough ground to escape the swamp, "Gotcha gaki!"

'I'm not good at this yet but it should do for this!' Naruto smirked, "You think so? Fuuton: Kaze Wakiokoru (Wind Release: Wind Burst)!" Naruto seemingly jumped on nothing but air and shot himself the rest of the way over the swamp. Jiraiya's jaw dropped until he realized that Naruto was hovering directly over him and was falling fast. Naruto linked his fists together again and pushed them out, "Fuuton: Fuujin Seiken!"

Jiraiya hightailed it out from under Naruto before the ground where he was standing ended up with massive fist shaped marks flattened into the earth. The force of pushing out the jutsu helped Naruto land softer. Jiraiya shouted at the boy, "What the hell gaki? Where are you learning all of this crap? And who the hell taught you any lighting ninjutsu?"

Naruto dusted himself off, "I knew this stuff when I was in Root. I'm just now starting to get them back, and there are still more that I can't do yet, I never could. Danzo had me learn them in the hopes that I could get the control to use them one day. And about the lightning jutsu, let's just say a certain neko in Kumo likes me well enough to teach me some stuff."

By now there were sounds of a raucous crowd, confusing both fighters until they looked at the waterfall and saw the clones knocking off from working on splitting the waterfall to watch them fight. Apparently they were well entertained.

Naruto sweatdropped while Jiraiya guffawed nearby, "Really obedient clones you've got there!"

Naruto palmed his head and dragged it through his hair, "Well I do work them pretty hard so I guess this is okay." He turned to the clones and put on a confident pose, "Who wants to see me kick ero-sennin's ass?"

A loud cheer went up from his clones with the exception of one, "Boooo! Ero-sennin, stomp a mudhole into boss's lazy ass! Always having us do this shit while he gets to fight…"

Jiraiya grinned cheesily at the clone and gave it a thumbs up. The original Naruto was looking at the lone Kage Bunshin blankly as were the rest. Naruto pointed at him, "You shut up." Before the clone could respond, Naruto dispelled him.

Jiraiya turned to Naruto, "What's the matter? Can't take the fact that even you know that I'm going to kick your ass gaki?"

Naruto set himself back into a ready stance, "Hey, I need unanimous support from myself. I can't be telling myself I'm going to lose." Naruto ran at Jiraiya and tried dropping a falling ax kick on him that was dodged. Jiraiya tried to retaliate with a backhand strike at him that Naruto caught in his hands. Jiraiya pulled him back towards him and kicked him in the stomach, forcing Naruto to let go.

Jiraiya kneeled down near Naruto who was coughing heavily on the ground crouched in a near ball, "As if I'm going to let you keep a grip on me and use your scary strong strength to throw me around like a six foot two ragdoll. I'm still physically stronger than you."

"I noticed!" Naruto leapt to his feet and shoved his right hand out at Jiraiya, which contained a familiar blue ball of spiraling chakra, "Rasengan!"

Jiraiya narrowed his eyes and formed his own Rasengan to clash with Naruto's, "I'll show you how it's done gaki! Rasengan!"

The two attacks clashed against one another, both chakra balls grinding against one another forcefully. Naruto held his ground as best he could, but was steadily being overpowered. In a last ditch effort he overloaded his own Rasengan with too much power. Jiraiya saw the evil smirk on Naruto's face and had his eyes widen as he felt the extra influx of chakra. In a flash of blue the technique exploded, throwing both of them off.

Naruto landed in the water while Jiraiya plowed into the trees hiding the waterfall. Pulling himself ashore, Naruto saw Jiraiya slumped against the trees and stood to run his way over to continue the fight before he could stand. As he drew close he skidded to a stop as Jiraiya fell apart to mud. Naruto looked around but was too late as his surroundings changed. Instead of being outdoors near a waterfall he was instead surrounded by pink, fleshy walls.

Naruto tried to punch his way out, but ended up sinking his hand into the wall when Jiraiya's voice rang out, seemingly from outside, "How do you like that gaki?" Naruto's legs began sinking into the ground of whatever he was in, "This is Kuchiyose: Gamaguchi Shibari (Summoning: Toad Mouth Bind)! There's no way out of this, it's the esophagus of the great fire breathing mountain toad. There's nothing you can do, it's over. I could get the walls to digest you if you want to act like you're not beaten."

Naruto sighed, "Yeah… I quit, you win." In a puff of smoke, Naruto was totally freed as his clones voiced their disproval. He turned to them and sighed, "All right guys I lose. Now get back to work so that next time I won't!"

The clones let off a collective affirmative and returned to their task. Naruto walked over to the tree where Jiraiya's muddy replication melted as the man himself came from the trees. Jiraiya ruffled the boy's hair, "Good fight gaki, you didn't do too badly."

Naruto grumbled, "I didn't lay a finger on you, even my double-edged move didn't do anything."

Jiraiya pointed at himself, "S-ranked ninja standing here. I told you what was going to happen. You're good, but not that good. You have way more jutsus than I thought you would. A few of your moves were something incredible for a kid your age, I don't think I'll ever get over just what you can do."

Naruto sighed and walked back to the waterfall, "I guess I'll join my clones on working on the waterfall."

Jiraiya laughed loudly, "Oh now you're all dejected? What happened to venting some aggression on me? I guess you've learned that when it comes to dealing with hotshot know-it-all punks with blonde spiky mops there's no one better than the great toad sage Jiraiya!" He finished while standing in his pose.

Naruto got a tick mark on his head and formed his seal for Kage Bunshin, surrounding Jiraiya in copies of himself, "Oh, yeah, like a bunch of brats are going to beat me up. Oooh I'm so scared."

"Henge! Harem no Jutsu!"

In a puff of smoke, Jiraiya had countless nude blonde women hanging off of him. This was too much for his brain to handle as he launched back into the woods with blood flying from his nose. Naruto dispelled the clones and headed back to the waterfall, "Huh… I should have thought of that during the actual fight."

XxX

(Two Weeks Later)

Naruto had been steadily training with his clones to perfect his nature manipulation, but even with the clones his progress was slow. They were finally making headway, with a cut beginning to form in the waterfall, but there was an agonizingly long way to go if he wanted to master his element.

He had still yet to go speak to the Kyuubi after their little episode because his seal was still visible on his stomach, even when he was relaxing. He followed Jiraiya's advice and stayed put of his mind for the time being.

While he had his clones handle working on the waterfall he told Jiraiya about his interest in Fuuinjutsu and trying to take it up, if nothing else so that he knew what was going on with his own seal. Jiraiya agreed that it was a good skill to have and put him to work, taking him off of splitting the waterfall personally and leaving that to his Kage Bunshin. He had Naruto start straight from the basics, which was getting his handwriting perfect so that he would make perfect strokes with his brushwork when sealing, as even a small slip could be catastrophic.

Much like the work with his elemental training it was bitter work and slow going. Made even slower by the fact that Kage Bunshin would do him no good here. Getting his calligraphy perfect was more along the lines of muscle memory, like learning stances and the like. As thus it was more physical than mental. He could use them later on when he got into the practical education of sealing, but until he wrote clearer than a ten year old grammar student he couldn't.

Jiraiya had left him at their training spot to head towards a town to get more sealing supplies, as he was going to teach Naruto how to make his own ink to seal with. And the boy found himself alone one night by the waterfall.

"Naruto Uzumaki."

Naruto turned towards the source of the voice to find a boy, roughly his age standing in the branches of a tree. He had pale skin, short black hair and black eyes. He wore a collared shirt that cut off at his mid-section along with black pants, black shinobi sandals, and black fingerless gloves. On his back was a tip-less tanto and a backpack that could be accessed quickly in case of necessity.

Naruto was sitting by the water when the boy showed himself. He stayed up in the tree, "Is Jiraiya of the Sannin around?"

Naruto scoffed, "If he was here then you wouldn't even be this close. What do you want? Who are you? And why am I not killing you right now?"

"I am here for Danzo-sama. He has been wanting to get into contact with you for quite some time now." The boy bowed slightly, "I have been given the name Sai for this assignment."

Naruto looked at Sai with an appraising eye and decided to test out Sai's claim to be one of Danzo's men, "So Danzo-jiji decides to send out a gay hood ornament to contact me. Tell him that he needs more girls in Root, it's a sausage fest, I swear."

Sai didn't blink at all, getting a nod from Naruto, "Okay, you're Danzo's. So what's the message? I probably already know, but go ahead."

Sai spoke, "Danzo-sama says that you are no longer one of his tools. You were extremely useful during your time under him, but you're too risky to try and take back now. Besides that, he says that you wouldn't fir back in anyway."

Naruto nodded, "I figured that… He's right, I can't just disappear back to HQ now, I'm too out in the open, and he can't keep risking guys like you just to make contact with me for assignments either, it's too high of a gamble now for him to have me." He looked at Sai suspiciously, "So what does this mean then? Am I a loose end for him and he sent you to try and kill me?"

Sai shook his head, "I am incapable of bringing you down Uzumaki. I was simply dispatched to bring you Danzo-sama's messages. You are by no means expendable. You carry his teachings inside of you deeper than any other, he just cannot risk trying to meet with you himself, it would seem to suspicious, and it is no longer necessary. Even without him you are true to the one thing that he put into you more than anything else, that Konoha comes first, everything we do is for Konoha. To that end he says to you to grow stronger and protect our home. The foundations of the great tree will always be rooted inside of you Uzumaki."

Naruto nodded and turned to return to watching the water when he still sensed Sai's presence, "Yes? Do you still need me for something?"

Sai was still in place from when he first started speaking, "Danzo-sama does have one last assignment for you Uzumaki. It is one that he is certain is well within your parameters to complete."

Naruto turned around and stayed seated, watching Sai carefully, 'One last mission huh? What the hell, why not? One more for old times sake. I owe the old cripple that at least.'

He gestured for the pale boy to continue with the message which he did without delay, "Danzo-sama wants you to do all that is in your power to become Hokage."

Naruto's eyes widened. Root training be damned even though he was in front of one of the operatives, he was surprised as all hell to hear that, "Danzo-jiji wants me to become Hokage? What? I thought that was his kick, why would he want me to do it?"

Sai stared at Naruto emotionlessly, "He has not truly given up. Danzo-sama is getting old Uzumaki. He says that the death of Hiruzen Sarutobi, the last Hokage, showed him his own mortality. He is well aware of the fact that he will probably die before another opportunity to take the position ever shows itself again. You are the closest thing to an apprentice that he has, he has shown you his ways of working, he has shown you what he could about the system of the village. With you in power he would feel secure in the fact that Konoha would have a kage that would truly be strong enough to handle the job, to do what is necessary."

Naruto still couldn't believe it, "Why me? Couldn't he have actually trained someone for something like this?"

Sai spoke again, "Who else would suffice? Even though you have Danzo-sama's backing no one knows it. He could never instill his views into someone and send them into the political world without suspicion arising. You already are mistrusted by a good portion of the population and you are slowly turning that number around, you already have the backing of a few significant names in the village due to your actions and character alone, the entire country of Nami no Kuni sees you as a hero for one, and you are close to the current Hokage herself as well as the children of the Kazekage and the current Raikage favors you. You inadvertently put yourself in the position for this."

Naruto looked at his hands, "Me, the Hokage? It was a pipe-dream of a foolish mindset, not something real. And he wants me to actually go for it?"

Sai turned to walk away, "I have given you Danzo-sama's words to you, but he asked me to leave you with this in case you were having trouble." Turning around to face Naruto he looked at him firmly, "Where there is light, there is shadow. To be a shinobi is to sacrifice oneself. Closing your eyes to the sunlight… Distinguishing yourself in the shadows. That is the true form of a ninja." Naruto nodded in agreement, but snapped his eyes open when Sai continued, "But that is not your destiny Uzumaki. The truth is, you are the leaves bathing in the sun… and I… I am the roots that grow in the dark."

Naruto looked up at Sai who turned and began walking back to the woods. Before he made it to the edge of the trees he turned around one last time, "You have the full support of Danzo-sama and Root. We will be in touch, Uzumaki, do not worry about that. We will not disappear." Sai gave Naruto a closed eye smile that seemed totally out of character and left the area, leaving Naruto alone with himself.

Naruto looked at his reflection in the moonlit water. Splashing the water to disrupt the image he looked up to the moon and sighed, "The last order from Danzo-jiji… Become Hokage or die trying." Naruto chuckled to himself, "Naruto Uzumaki, the Rokudaime Hokage of Konohagakure no Sato. Now that sounds like it would look good in a history book."

Jutsu List

Raiton: Kaminari Shuriken (Lightning Release: Lightning Shuriken). B-ranked ninjutsu. Requirements: Shuriken. Mid-to-long range. The user augments the shuriken with Raiton chakra then throws it above his enemy. This will rain down sever bolts of lightning towards the opponent, opening passing over or hitting them.

Raiton: Kaksen no Jutsu (Lightning Release: Livewire Jutsu). B-ranked ninjutsu. Close-to-mid range. The user sends a visible line of electricity that travels along the ground from the user to an opponent, controlled by the user at a considerable speed. This gush of electricity can only travel to as far as 10 meters.

Fuuton: Kaze Wakiokoru (Wind Release: Wind Burst). B-ranked ninjutsu. Supplementary. This technique isn't so much as levitation, as it is granting the user the ability to seemingly jump while still in the air. Concentrating energy into the feet, the user must create small air bubbles which when bursting will push the feet up causing bursts of movement. Of course, other strong winds can cause the user to go in different directions from what was intended.