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Hokage office

Tsunade smiled happily as Jiraiya announced his return to Konoha by bursting through the window of her office. She allowed the fact that she had been taking an unplanned nap to slip by as she was finally able to see her former teammate after three long years. Since disappearing with Naruto for the training trip, the man never sat foot in the village and his messages were a few. She only got a letter after six months and it really contained nothing but that they were still alive.

"It is okay to say you miss me, hime. I can see it in your face that you're all excited." Jiraiya said with a grin. "No one is watching and I will keep it just between us…"

Tsunade couldn't help but smile. Man, she had missed her former teammate. The Godaime Hokage shook her head before responding with a mask on her face. "As if I would miss a pervert like you."

"You're brutal, hime," Jiraiya said with a hurt look on his face. "And I thought of running back to you with sake from the land of toads just so we could talk about old days and of course how much you have missed me…"

"You brought sake from the land of toads?" Tsunade nearly jumped out of her chair at the thought. She had never tasted anything better than the sake from that land. There was nothing that rivalled it. Kumo had some great imports but they still could not just reach the taste of the sake from the land of the toads. It was something special.

"Yeah," Jiraiya said with a wide grin. "It was given to Naruto, but he didn't take much of it so I took it all for myself… we can drink it later…"

"Why later?" Tsunade asked. She was ready now. She only stopped of demanding that the sage lead her somewhere they could drink in peace when she thought of the that loudmouthed brat. "Where is he anyway? I thought he'd be with you?"

The mood changed slightly. "He said he would join me, but he is in the village. I guess he is at the ramen stand – said he had missed it dearly more than anything," the Toad sage said with a shake of his head. "Hime," the man said in a serious tone. "Naruto isn't the same anymore."

Judging by the tone, she could guess as much, but what? He hadn't looked like someone who was capable of making a change that would get Jiraiya all that serious. He still had to be the Naruto she knew and loved, right? Tsunade shook her head. It was just a feeling, but she was sure that there was nothing really that could make her worry.

"Don't scare me like that, Jiraiya…" Tsunade said even though the man had yet to say anything. it was just that the tone of his voice was something that made one fear for the worst, even if it was Uzumaki Naruto they were talking about.

"A year and half ago, I thought it was best to teach Naruto how to use the Kyubi's chakra with the Akatsuki in mind," Jiraiya started as he took off his upper clothes, revealing a nasty wound on his chest. "I assume that it took deep emotions for Naruto to tap into that power so I loosened the seal and got him mad. This is what happened. I nearly died, hime. It is some miracle that I survived, but it took me about five weeks to recover since we had no trusted medic to do the critical work.

"Naruto said he was conscious when it all happened. He saw himself pummelling me down to death. If it wasn't because I managed to surpress the chakra, he would have ripped me apart. He blamed himself for it. even though I tried to talk him out of it, he didn't listen. But it didn't bring him down, it seemed to make him a lot more determined to control the power and dedicated to becoming powerful or so I thought."

Tsunade frowned. "How bad could it be?"

"Naruto didn't have a lot of people around him when he grew up, hime. It might not be for a long time, but we have grown close and I know he sees me as family and he nearly killed that family he has. I guess I'm to blame because I'd taken on myself to teach him about life and everything else. Aside from that, these three years were not a waste."

"He can't have changed that much just because of that Jiraiya," Tsunade said in a firm tone. She didn't want to believe what her former teammate was telling her. This was Uzumaki Naruto they were talking about. His friend had stabbed him in the chest and yet he still didn't resent him. if that wasn't enough to change him, then, what could have?

"You must be thinking that this is Naruto, the naïve loud mouthed brat you once knew," the toad sage said, "But it is exactly that Naruto that you must be worried. Take the abuse he has suffered in the hands of the villagers, being lonely, being nearly killed by his best friend and someone he saw as a brother. And then he came close to killing me. We must be the ones naïve to think that even after all the experiences Naruto has had he could not change."

Tsunade retreated to her thoughts. Certainly, any normal person would not be the same after all the experiences. The core of their being might not change, but there would still be something different about them. it would be a lie to say that the amount of experiences either her or Jiraiya have accumulated have not influenced them.

Wasn't she the one who fled this village and went on a gambling spree because of her pain. Naruto had also suffered, but after everything, he was still there, smiling as always. She had returned to this village because of him, to think that person would be no more scared her.

Before the Godaime Hokage could offer a response to Jiraiya, there was a knock on the door. "Come in," Tsunade said.

Naruto entered; even though Jiraiya said he changed, seeing the orange in him made Tsunade forget about everything, she was just happy that he was there, before her, still alive and well. That was all she could ask for at this moment.