Chapter 25: Honorable Grandson

It had been a day since he was made a ninja (officially after passing his dad's test) and Naruto was still excited. He had met up with the others and he was glad to see all his friends had passed the tests too. He was currently at the Hokage tower getting his ninja picture done for the records. Well actually it was on his third photo, first he showed up with a kabuki mask, then in face paint including over his mask, and both times he was asked to retake it. He swore some people just didn't have a sense of humor, so after cleaning up he took another picture. Although the photographer thought he was pulling another one with keeping his usual mask with the orange whisker marks on it on.

Thankfully after a lot of yelling and some threatening Naruto managed to get his picture done and was now in the Hokage's office giving him the photo. "Well I hope this works Old Man because there is no way I'm doing another."

"Naruto show some respect will you?" Iruka yelled at him, since school was out he was reassigned to the Hokage's office until the new semester started up and he just wished that for once Naruto would learn some respect. He wasn't sure if he got that from his father or he was like that naturally.

"Oh come on you know how we are Iruka-sensei, hell I don't even call my dad Kakashi-sensei," Naruto told him making the older man sigh. "Besides it's hard to respect someone who falls after one move."

Naruto grinned at the Hokage's blush forming on his face as they both knew what he was talking about. The Third gave a small cough to cover it up as he regained his composure. It hadn't been his proudest moment in his life and he was glad no one else had seen it happen. Although he really wished Naruto would stop using that jutsu of his he knew that many of the female population didn't enjoy that although he knew some of the males didn't mind. He was just glad that his student Jiraiya wasn't here to see that since he would most likely use Naruto's female image in one of his books.

What they didn't know was that there was another person just outside of the door, he had been listening to someone who had said they had defeated the Hokage, but he put that aside it just meant that the Hokage could be defeated. He readied his weapon and ran out yelling, everyone in the room turned to see a small boy in a skull cap, with a large scarf running at them.

"Now I got you!" He yelled out only to trip and face plant on the floor as his foot caught his scarf. He whined a bit in pain as he rubbed his face. He blinked back a few tears and saw everyone was looking at him; there was the Hokage, some guy with a scar on his face and a boy that was older than him with a black mask and in some dark and orange clothing.

The Third sighed, "Konohamaru I wish you would stop these little 'surprise attacks' of yours."

"Shut up I will beat you!" he said and looked at Naruto and pointed his finger, "You're the one that tripped me wasn't it!"

Naruto's eye twitched if there was one thing he hated it was being blamed for something that wasn't his fault. "Hey it's your own stupid fault for tripping on your own damn scarf!"

He gripped the kid by the large scarf trying not to smack him, but his dad always tried to teach him patience although it was never easy for him. Just then someone else came in a special jonin that he met a few times from his dad's poker nights. Ebisu had been looking for Konohamaru for the past fifteen minutes and had guessed he was trying another attack on his grandfather.

"Hey I know you," Naruto pointed at the man, "don't you still owe me fifty from the last poker game my dad had?"

Ebisu looked at Naruto and he knew Naruto Hatake, every jonin knew of the 'lucky card devil'. He pushed up his small black shades with a finger. He cursed his luck at running into the little ninja, he had heard the rumours of course about how no one won a game at the Hatake home but he didn't believe it, he still couldn't believe that the boy had beaten him and the others at nearly every hand.

"Oh Naruto I meant to pay that," he said nervously trying to save face as the Hokage and the grandson were looking at him now. "I'll give your father the money the next time I see him, and as for you honourable grandson I wish you wouldn't run off like that. How do you expect me to train you to be a great ninja if you keep running off like that?"

"Wait you're training the brat?" Naruto asked him not sure if the kid was in good hands or not. He knew that his dad didn't think much of this special jonin personally but did respect his training ability.

"Naruto watch your mouth this is the grandson of our Hokage and should be treated as such, do you treat your father with the same disrespect?" Ebisu asked him crossing his arms.

"Only to annoy him or to motivate him," Naruto shrugged and the adult nearly face faulted.

Meanwhile Konohamaru was listening in on the whole thing, so far the only thing he learned about this strange blonde was that he beat his grandfather somehow and beat Ebisu out of money, he wondered how the older boy could do something like that, "Hey you! If you can beat them then I want to prove I'm better than you, if I beat you then that means I can beat them!"

Naruto sighed, "I don't got the time to play kid I'm hungry and there's a bowl of ramen calling my name," he shrugged it off in a Kakashi like manner. Sure getting angry and yelling came naturally to him but over the years he learned that you could get under someone's skin just as much acting as Gai called it 'too cool and hip attitude'. He left Konohamaru there staring at the boy as he just walked by ignoring him, that was something that no one had done to him before he was the 'honourable grandson' and even though he hated the title no one had blown him off like that before.

So he made a plan to follow this genin and see what kind of skills he had and what kind of weaknesses too.

And so Naruto was soon bombarded by a certain boy's attempts at stalking him/fighting him, at first it was kind of funny for Naruto. The boy was pretty bad at hiding, and his surprise attacks were pretty pathetic usually he messed up and it backfired on him. After a few hours of this Naruto was finally at his breaking point, when he saw a square rock with eye holes following him he snapped.

"That's it! Look kid I don't know what the hell your problem is but stop stalking me, and rocks aren't square and have big freaking eye holes!" Naruto yelled at the 'rock' that had been following him.

That was when Konohamaru in a puff of smoke jumped out at him, "Never, I'll beat you and then I can finally beat my grandfather!" He came at Naruto with a practice kunai, those were blunted so they didn't cut a person but still stung when you hit them. Naruto just sighed and grabbed the boy's wrist and effortlessly threw him into the ground.

Naruto stood over the boy who groaned and looked up at the masked boy, "Look kid why do you want to beat the Old Man anyway?"

Konohamaru got into a kneeling position feeling a few aches from his back hitting the ground, he didn't look up at the boy feeling like a failure at not being able to once land any kind of blow. "You wouldn't understand."

"Try me."

The boy paused for a moment and decided he had nothing to lose to he might as well get this off his chest, "Everyone calls me 'Honorable grandson' and never by my own name. No one sees me as me but just as the grandson of the Hokage. I want people to see me for me, I want to be more than just the stupid grandson."

Naruto stared at the boy for a moment before he softened his deposition, "Believe it or not I know what that's like."

"How could you?" Konohamaru asked him looking up wondering if the boy was just making fun of him.

"My father is Kakashi Hatake one of the most famous jonins we have so how do you think I can compete with that so I'm not called Kakashi's kid?" What Naruto didn't mention was his biological father was a Hokage too the greatest of them all. So he had not one but two men he was in the shadow of but that didn't disheartened his resolve to surpass them both.

"And I also know what it's like to be ignored and not to be seen as the person you are," He said a bit more quietly knowing full well how some people saw him only as the Fox and not as its jailor. He looked down at the young boy and he couldn't help that this kid knew some of what he had felt in his life. He was just a boy that was trying to establish his existence was more than just a name someone gave him.

Konohamaru didn't see anything that said that the older boy was joking around with him, in fact he seemed really serious about this. He slowly got up and for the first time he wondered if he had found someone that could understand what it was like to live in the Sarutobi family, having a grandfather that was Hokage was tough plus he rarely got to see his uncle Asuma too. He knew that his uncle and his father didn't get along that well for some reason which sucked because Asuma was one of the few people that treated him other than the 'honorable grandson' which he hated.

But now he might have just found someone else and he looked at Naruto, "Can you help me then? Can you help me get stronger so that people will see me for me?"

Naruto scratched the back of his head not sure what to say he could just blow the kid off but he reminded him too much of well himself to be honest.

"Well...I do have some free time but what do you want me to teach you?"

"Teach me that move you used to beat up Grandpa!" He shouted out.

Naruto thought about that it wasn't something he knew you should teach a kid but on the other hand it would be hilarious to see the Old Man downed again by that move and it would help the kid stand out from his family more too. Naruto smirked under his mask at that and then nodded.

"Alright then let's get started shall we?" Naruto smiled.

-Hot Springs-

"Are you sure we should be doing this boss?" the young boy asked Naruto.

"Well you want to learn how to make a cool henge right? Well you got to learn what to use for it," Naruto explained as they came to the hot springs. "I mean I used the reading material my dad reads as a start but I needed something a bit more to get the right details on the sexy jutsu and where better than the hot springs?"

So far the training hadn't been going as good as Naruto had hoped the boy could henge but they were terrible. Then again he was just as bad when he first started too until he got some help with it. So after getting the basics down it was time to work on the image and he needed to get the kid an idea of what to look like so they arrived at the Konoha hot springs, it was one of the largest ones in the land of fire and had a lot of business.

There was nothing better for a ninja after hard training or a day's work to come here and relax. His dad had taken him here after some intense training many times and so he knew the way around the place.

They walked quietly to it and at first he thought of using a henge to get in through the front into the women's section, but the first and last time he tried that he ended up being beaten and his father called in to give him a punishment for it. So this time he snuck around to the trees in the back where it was safer and easier to spot them. Okay he knew it was perverted but after all he needed references for the jutsu after all but what they didn't expect was to find a man in red clothing, with sandals on and with very long white and spiky hair. The man seemed to be looking through a hole in the wall and making notes it looked like.

"Hey old man what are you doing?" Naruto asked him and the man nearly jumped.

He looked at first thinking he was caught again but sighed and then looked annoyed at the two boys, "Kids I'm busy getting some research material go and play somewhere else will you." He told them going right back to his research. He had came to Konoha to report in like he did now and then to the Hokage and decided a little detour was in order before leaving again.

Naruto crossed his arms at the man, "Hey so are we so move your old ass gramps, I'm trying to teach him a move of mine and he needs to know what to do."

At this the old man looked at the boy with interests and grinned, "Ah so we got a couple of young perverts in training then it's my duty to train you boys in the way of the pervert!"

"We don't want to be 'trained' as perverts," Naruto told him simply, "We just need a little look so he can get an idea and then we'll be on our way."

"Ah kids today have no standards!" he yelled out with tears falling down his face, "Where have the younger generation gone? To think such young boys will never know the full joys of being a pervert it's a crime against nature!"

"Man this guy really is a big pervert," Konohamaru said to Naruto trying to whisper but the old man caught it.

"I'm not a pervert! I'M A SUPER PERVERT!" He bellowed out but that was not the brightest move he made as the entire female group in the hot springs heard it.

"Is someone out there!?" a woman's voice called out.

"If there is they are dead!" another rang out.

"Hey you the Hyuga woman is there anyone there?" at that the boys froze knowing full well what that meant as the white haired man paled, he had missed seeing a Hyuga but then again he wasn't exactly looking at the eyes of the women.

"There's some old man there and two kids!" A woman who had to be the Hyuga clan member yelled out.

"Crap! Runaway!" Naruto yelled out as they made a dash for it. He saw that Konohamaru was having trouble keeping up and he could hear the angry yells and curses of women getting out of the hot springs and the feel of a weapon just passing his head. Apparently there had been some female ninjas that day besides the Hyuga woman too. He knew he couldn't leave Konohamaru behind remembering what the women did to him he didn't want the kid to go through that.

Thankfully he was suddenly pulled up as someone grabbed him by the back of his black jacket as he felt himself going up and then crashing down. He felt something leathery and had bumps on it before feeling like he was going up in the air again and then crashing down. Once he gathered himself together he looked to see that he was on what looked like a giant toad, the white haired man was sitting on it and he saw Konohamaru on the other side. Naruto looked up at the old man wonder just who he was and where he got the toad, he figured it was a summons but he never seen on this big, it was bigger than even Bull the largest dog that his dad could call up.

"It's times like this that making a quick getaway comes in handy," he laughed as the boys started to enjoy the toad ride. By the time they lost the angry mob of woman they slipped off the toad at this point the man looked at the boy more closely. He was really looking at the blonde hair and blue eyes and the mask was also something else that caught his attention. He had been too interested in his research to notice it before but he knew the kid alright.

"Hey kid with the mask what's your name?"

"Naruto Hatake and who are you anyway?" Naruto asked him.

The man smiled and began a strange dance on the giant toad, "I my boy am the great toad sage, a ninja of unparallel power and skill whose good looks make women swoon and enemies tremble in terror, I am a master of seals and the author of one of the greatest series of novels of all time I am the Toad Sannin Jiraiya!"

Naruto and Konohamaru stared at the old man with a deadpan expression until Naruto spoke up, "So you're the one that writes those books my dad loves so much."

"Ah so your father is a fan then well then I guess you can't be all bad," Jiraiya grinned.

"Naruto can we go now?" Konohamaru asked him getting a little creeped out by him. Naruto nodded his head as they turned to leave.

"Well anyways see you around Ero-Sannin!" Naruto said back to him as Jiraiya scowled and yelled at the boy who just laughed running away with Konohamaru.

Jiraiya watched the boy leave and grinned he knew who Naruto was after all not many people had that kind of blue eyes and blond hair. It had been a very long time since he last saw the boy he stopped by now and then to check in on how Kakashi was raising the boy. It was hard to watch Naruto as looking at him made him think of his pride and joy Minato. The boy was so much like him in the looks department it was hard not to feel that pain in his chest looking at the boy. He remembered being there for Naruto's third birthday although the kid wouldn't be able to remember him, and on his ninth birthday he had watched from the shadows as he played with his friends.

It was nice to see him growing up in a loving environment and it was a good thing that he had Kakashi to take care of him. He sighed to himself as he urged the toad to the gates of the city he still had work to do. He had found out what had happened to Itachi and the group he had joined and that wasn't good at all. If they were gathering up the demon vessels that meant that Naruto would be put into danger down the line, plus there were rumours that his old 'friend' Orochimaru was on the move again after all this time. He had a lot of work ahead of him but for a moment he wondered if he should stop by more often, the boy had obviously made genin as he saw what was on the black headband on his head was an indication.

He thought that before he could leave maybe look to see if he could find Kakashi first and have a talk with the man.

'Maybe it's time I stop running from the past,' he thought to himself the chunin exams were a ways off so maybe he'd show up around that time after talking with Kakashi. 'It might be nice to get to know the kid instead of just watching him although I will get him back for that Ero-Sanin crack, I swear I never get any respect.'

-Later that day-

"Okay let's see how that move is now," Naruto asked Konohamaru. It had been an hour since his meeting with that crazy old pervert and now he was seeing the results of Konohamaru's training under him.

The boy nodded and formed the hand seals, "Sexy Jutsu!"

There was a puff of smoke and there was now a knockout of a brunette with long hair and Naruto have to admit the illusion was very good. He was glad he knew that wasn't real or else that would have caused a nose bleed even on him. He smiled under his mask and nodded his approval, Konohamaru reverted back and jumped for joy at this.

"All right now I can use this on Gramps and beat him and prove that I can be Hokage." He shouted out.

"Well true this will 'beat' him," Naruto said to him, "But using this wouldn't mean you're Hokage material kid."

"What!? But if I can beat him then I'm stronger than him and the Hokage is supposed to be the strongest ninja!" Konohamaru yelled at him.

Naruto didn't say anything at first he just walked right up to Konohamaru who looked confused up at the boy. "Idiot!" Naruto yelled out and slammed his fist into the top of Konohamaru's skull, making the boy wince in pain and fall to the ground clutching his head.

"That's not what being Hokage means," Naruto yelled at him and got into a more serious mode, "The position of Hokage is one of strength but there's more to it. The Hokage protects this village and everyone in it and that's why I'm going to be Hokage. I need to be stronger than I am now so one day I can protect and defend my home and the people in it. So I can protect those precious to me like my friends and family. To be Hokage means more than just being strong Konohamaru and you should be Hokage for the right reasons."

"I want to be acknowledged as well but I also want to protect this village even if it means my life. I would die for to protect my village and family can you say the same?"

Konohamaru looked up at the boy and his words reached him, he looked down at the ground that he was sitting on. He never thought about any of that all he wanted was to be looked at as more than just the Grandson.

"Remember who my father is too," Naruto said gently to the boy although what he didn't know was that Naruto was referring to both his fathers. His adopted father Kakashi and his biological father Minato as well, "I have a lot to live up to but you know what? That just means I have to get stronger and go beyond them. I'm going to surpass them, sure you can lay out the Old Man with that move but would it really be a defeat?"

"It's kind of a cheap way to win sure it's fun to pull for a cheap shot but I once did that with a boy named Lee and although I 'won' after it I didn't feel like I won. Because I know that in skills he was hell of a lot stronger than me so you know what I decided? I decided to earn my wins, I don't want to resort to cheap tricks like that so I train very hard to be as strong as I can be. I can't surpass them if I can't match them in their skills first and neither can you."

Konohamaru looked up at the boy at that point and Naruto smiled down at him, "If you really want to one day be Hokage you have to train hard because not only do you have to surprise the Old Man and protect this village, but you'll have to surpass me one day as well."

Konohamaru grinned up at him and stood up he looked into Naruto's blue eyes and he could see the determination there and Konohamaru matched his look. Naruto could see the fire beginning to burn in the young boy's eyes and he saw that his words had reached him.

"Naruto," Konohamaru said to him, "Thanks and you're right. I want to be seen as strong so I'll train hard and one day I promise I'll beat you for Hokage!"

"Good I look forward to it," Naruto laughed and he looked at him as something hit him. "First thing is that you're going to have to change your look, get rid of that skull cap thing it makes you look like a baby and the scarf is way too long."

"Hey my mom gave me this," he pouted and Naruto guessed he couldn't make him give that up. So he did the next best thing. He took off the skull cap and wrapped the scarf around the boy's face. Now his lower face was hidden behind the scarf like his was and he smiled at the boy. Konohamaru smiled back at him.

"Now you look more like a ninja!" he gave the boy a thumbs up.

"Cool so what now more training?"

Naruto shook his head, "Naw actually I was on my way to meet two friends at the park." He saw the downcast look on the boy's face and decided on something, "hey you can come too one of my friends is your age anyway so it's always great to make new friends."

"Really? Cool let's go then boss!" he yelled out.

"Alright but don't call me boss it just feels weird." Naruto said as they started making their way to the park.

"Can I call you Naruto-niisan then?" the boy asked and Naruto thought about it and nodded. He always wanted a little brother and Konohamaru was a cool kid anyway.

"There you are!" Ebisu jumped out of the woods that they were traveling in. "Honorable Grandson I have been looking for you for hours where have you been and what have you've been doing and why are you wearing your scarf like that?"

"Man you ask a lot of questions," Naruto said to him.

"I was with Naruto learning to be a ninja," Konohamaru said to him although he did skip the whole training in the Sexy Jutsu technique since that didn't sound as good as training as a ninja did.

Ebisu crossed his arms, "Although Naruto is a genin and his father is a top rank jonin I so specialize in training ninjas and if you want to be strong I can show you how to get there quickly if you just follow my teachings."

Naruto scowled at that, "Hey there's no quick way to strength at least not true strength that much even I know."

Naruto thought back to lessons he had learned from people like Gai, his father, Lee, Anko and others. They all had to earn their place and no one had given them anything as they had to earn what they had so to him the 'easy way' was never the good way to get to your goal.

Ebisu pushed his shades up higher on his face, "Well be that as it may I am a special jonin for a reason Naruto and I know that Konohamaru can become very strong very fast if he just sticks with my training."

Naruto crossed his own arms not liking the man's attitude now he understood why his dad always said that Ebisu is strong ninja but lacked a good personality he also said something else that reminded him of something that Ebisu tried to keep hidden. He smirked dangerously as his prankster side was getting ideas already.

"Oh yeah what if Konohamaru and I beat you in one move?" Naruto asked him.

"That I would like to see very much young Naruto."

He looked to Konohamaru, "Alright I know what I said but in cases like these they are special cases so let's show him what I've taught you."

He winked and Konohamaru sudden got what he was talking about as he grinned. They both grinned as they made the hand seals and cried out Sexy Jutsu, Ebisu coughed as there was a large amount of smoke and when it cleared his brain froze. There standing there were two young looking very sexy women, a brunette and blonde with the cloud just obscuring their private parts. His jaw dropped as this was not something he had been prepared for.

"What are you looking at Ebisu-kun, don't you like us?" Naruto said in his sexy girl form giving him that cute pout look. That was it for the special jonin as he shot off leaving a trail of blood behind.

The kids transformed back and ran off laughing leaving the man twitching on the ground with a stupid grin on his face.

Next up Chapter 26: Parks and Training