CH 20

The walk back to Konoha had been entirely uneventful, entirely, and this is what terrified Jiraiya more than anything else. Naruto had said no more than five sentences to him over the course of the trip home. And whenever he did it was simply business. He spoke to Tsunade and Shizune on a regular basis, he had gotten along quite well with Tsunade's dark haired attendant, go figure. But whenever Jiraiya would try to jump into the conversations Naruto would either end them, or simply box him out. Apparently he had been telling the truth and no just shooting the shit when they started. He would be professional because they were on a mission, and now that it was all but over, Jiraiya was starting to see just how Naruto was feeling about him.

Upon their arrival in Konoha they all headed up to the Hokage Tower to get Tsunade introduced and situated, grilling by the Sandaime's old advisers included. Konohamaru didn't really take kindly to someone replacing his grandfather's position so he holed himself up inside the office, barring entry with traps and blocking the door. Somehow he ended up keeping people out all day long.

Upon being informed by Konohamaru's friends, Udon and Moegi, Naruto just walked up, Sparta-kicked the heavy oaken door off of the hinges, sending all of the stuff behind it flying, walked through the office using the door to block all of Konohamaru's traps, and dragged the kid out by his collar.

He chose to do this himself because he knew Tsunade would have done roughly the same thing if she really wanted to get into the office, and she might not have been so nice about it. Naruto took Konohamaru to the top of the Hokage Tower and sat him down to talk, "So, what the hell is wrong with you kid."

Naruto got a tick mark on his head when Konohamaru clammed up and pulled his knees to his chest, "Okay, you can either tell me and we can talk this out, or I'll just do like my trainer did for me when I was a kid and beat the crap out of you until you forget why you're all mopey in the first place."

Konohamaru paled when a mild amount of killing intent began leaking out of Naruto, "What happened to you boss? You've been different since the chunin exams."

Naruto sighed, "It's a long story and because I know what's wrong with you it might make you even more pissed off then you already are, for one reason or another. Now don't change the subject, what's your malfunction today?"

Konohamaru snapped at him, "I thought you already knew."

Naruto answered back snippily, "I do I just want to hear it from you. Facing up to your own problems is the first step towards moving past them."

Konohamaru looked up with tears in his eyes, "What if I don't want to move past them? I don't want to move past my grandfather boss." Naruto stayed silent and let Konohamaru speak, "Everyone is moving on, going forward with everything. It's like he was never here, he was the Hokage boss! And everyone's going to forget about him!"

Naruto steeled himself, he really didn't feel like touching anything that involved Sarutobi with a ten-foot pole right then, but this kid needed him, and being a ninja means doing things that you don't want to for the greater good, "Look Konohamaru, he was the Hokage for many years, longer than anybody else, he had a long reign, and he's done so much for this place. I'm sure everybody has a stand-out memory of him." Naruto then grumbled under his breath, "Kami knows that I do…"

Naruto shook off that dark line of thinking, "The point is that someone that has touched so many people can never truly just disappear. Trust me brat, chances are that they'll be talking about him long after we're dead. You can go up to just about any of the ninja in this place and the majority of the civilians and they can probably give you some stories."

Konohamaru started drying his eyes, "What about you boss? What kind of stories do you have of grandpa?"

Naruto held back a frown, "I don't think you're old enough to hear about my story of the old man. Maybe one day I can tell you, but it's better that I don't right now." Naruto patted Konohamaru on the head, "Do you feel better now?" Konohamaru nodded, "Are you going to cry a bitch around me again anytime soon?" Konohamaru shook his head, "Good!"

Naruto picked the kid up and sent him off on his way. He made his way back to Tsunade's office where she had a mass of chunin picking up the mess left by Naruto going hard on the door. Seated behind what was soon to be her desk she smirked upon seeing the young shinobi enter, "Nice mess gaki. Why did you kick my door?"

Naruto raised an eyebrow, "Two reasons; you would have done it yourself eventually and… Honestly I've wanted to do that for years, that just gave me an excuse."

Naruto took a seat as the last of the mess was cleaned and the door was put back. Tsunade took on a business face when the door was shut, "So what's going on with you and Jiraiya? You weren't speaking to him at all on the way back."

Naruto locked eyes with the older blonde, "Are you sure you want to hear this? It's not something really vital for you to know. And I'm also pretty sure it's a village secret, probably above me being the Kyuubi jinchuuriki."

Tsunade's eyes widened momentarily before she smirked, "Well I'm going to be Hokage now right? What's a village leader without a few dark little secrets?"

Naruto chuckled, "Get comfortable because you're going to be sitting there for a while asking me questions and stuff."

Tsunade frowned and pulled a bottle of sake from the desk. Naruto sweat-dropped, "Wow, you certainly stashed that quickly didn't you?"

Tsunade scoffed as she pulled out a cup, "It's not mine smartass. Sarutobi-sensei left it there before I ever even got here."

Naruto sharply inhaled breath, "That's right, the old man did train you three twisted sannin didn't he? That might make this an uncomfortable conversation." He snapped his head around, "No Anbu guards?"

Tsunade shrugged, "I'm not Hokage yet kid, I still have to get through coronation first. It's just us for now."

Naruto kept silent as he thoroughly checked the room before he looked to Tsunade once more, "So did ero-sennin tell you anything about me?" Tsunade nodded, "What do you know?"

Tsunade poured herself a cup, "Other than the stuff that I already knew he let me in on your base character and stuff. Apparently he left out the scary-battle phase part."

Naruto clinched his hands together as he set his chin on them, "That's because he didn't know about it. I didn't used to be a goofy loud fuck-up until a few years ago. I was more like I am now, calm, collected, focused, and I had something of a mean streak too."

Tsunade looked confused, "So your personality changed? How is this a secret?"

Naruto shook his head, "It's not that my personality evolved, it's how it evolved. Haven't you noticed that I'm too good for my own good at fighting? I shouldn't have been able to stop Orochimaru's surprise attack on me back in Tanzaku Gai if I was just a genin, hell, even a chunin. I was spamming jutsus that I shouldn't know how to do and fighting on par with a jounin-level ninja."

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