A Dying Gift

Chapter 1

Jiraiya stood atop Gamabunta, his mouth twisted into a furious grin. His left hand was bathed in the Fourth Hokage's blood, his right in the blood of Madara Uchiha. In his hands he held a bundle. Within it was his child, the brown eyed white haired child who gazed up at him in silent rapture. Jiraiya had never been the hero before; he had been overshadowed by Tsunade's medical expertise and Orochimaru's sheer ability to kill. His own student had surpassed him and became a hero of war. Perhaps the most humiliating thing was when his teacher chose his wife as his successor. Certainly he felt pride, how could he not, but there was the hollow feeling in the pit of his stomach "It should be me." But he had found himself clapping and cheering the loudest as she was named Hokage. Now her reign would go down as the shortest ever for a Hokage, a mere three years. Her life taken as she gave birth to her son.

The hand covered in his wife's blood grabbed a syringe the other secured his child, with the needle tearing flesh and a burning flowing with blood. He cried out in pain as Hashirama Senju's cells flooded his system, slowly taking over. He reached out with this new found power, and using the chakra crystal tied around his child's neck suppressed the demon destroying his home. A single word, "seal" spoken with such surety that even the mighty demon trembled. The crystal responded and drew the demon into Jiraiya. But his work was far from over.

The incomprehensible power of a demon completely in his grasp he moved forward with his plan. He had always been a man who listened to legends, he was a writer after all and loved reading other's works. He was a ninja who had seen two wars and had been born shortly after another. He had heard of Uchiha in desperate battles who blinded themselves in one eye to erase moments of reality with an illusion. He had read of how men with access to vast amounts of chakra had created mountains from pebbles.

He had Hashirama's power in his hands, a child who was related to that vary same man. The Senju clan was all but dead, and the Uchiha were growing stronger by the day. There had to be a balance, the Hyuga could not compete, nor could the Kin, Nara, Aburame nor even the Sarutobi if they had three Hiruzen's. It had to be the Senju, it had to be his son.

The power to turn illusion into reality, he had dreamt of using it. As he did he knew he was ending his own life, but seeing the ninja surround him, the ANBU to the lowest genin. He completed his illusion, the passing down a power from father to son, and from son to grandchildren, he created a bloodline something to keep his child and village safe.

His smile turned kind even as his body turned into wood from losing control. Minato, tears in his eyes watched as Jiraiya's spine turned from bone to wood and a great tree grew, leaving only the smiling face and the arms which held his precious child. Jiraiya the Toad Sage died creating a bloodline, a legacy that would never be wiped from the face of the earth.

Minato Namikaze was named Fifth Hokage, taking the title the day after he buried his wife leaving him with little time to mourn her passing as well as the passing of his teacher and Tsunade. He was left with Kakashi and little Naruto. And Kakashi soon came asking to join the elite ranks of the ANBU.

The Fifth Hokage ruled differently than he would have if he had taken the position during the war.

He was far more willing to do what was necessary to protect the village, he had watched his teacher die, his students die, his wife and friends die to protect it, he could never let their sacrifices go in vain. Danzo moved to have the council reinstated, as Hiruzen had kept his teammates on as advisors, Minato scoffed at the idea.

"This is a military base, there is no one higher than the Hokage here, unless the Daimyo is here, and then there is no one higher than he. I need no one corrupting my decisions as to what is best for this village."

Danzo politely stepped down from the request, and had since publically supported Minato whenever the chance arrived, ardent nationalism was a trait he respected above all others after all, and a strong leader who was willing to do anything was perfect for the nation.

At the time when a dispute erupted with the Land of Lightning and troops were mobilized Minato himself led the charge, eventually meeting one of the other villages Jinchuuriki in battle and impressing the man so much he stopped the attack. The war itself ended after a 'full contact' sparing session between the Hokage and Raikage, in an attempt to discover just who was faster. Both were surprised to find that their race ended with a tie.

It was not the kind of diplomacy most people would like, Hiruzen and Danzo both raised eyes at his 'special' brand of politicking. To which his general response was, "Different strokes for different people."

Naruto Senju was the child of two legends, cast into the shadows and left with only a few comforts. Minato saw the familiar unhappiness, the desperate drive to show that he was more than what people thought him to be. The problem? Naruto was seven and the boy seemed unable to properly control chakra and refused to use it in class as well, it was time to take him to the hospital and find the reason.

The doctor, a medic nin who had been through the war with Minato, ran a battery of tests. Eventually she looked up from the papers looking completely perplexed. They stood outside of Naruto's hospital room to talk without worrying the child.

"What's wrong Sora?" The woman looked up at him, her frown deepened.

"We've talked about chakra circulatory systems before right?" She didn't wait for an answer. "Well I've seen scans of several peoples systems before, someone like you who have a large amount of chakra but mostly use hand signs has more build in their core, back and hands. While someone like the Uchiha who use mainly fire element and chakra enhanced taijutsu have strong build up in their hands, chest, arms and legs. The two Jinchuuriki I've seen have had builds that puts others to shame. Hyuga and Kin are the only ones I've seen who remotely approach this. Hyuga have managed to build up all their tenketsu, the main branch more so, they can focus with them far more easily if they are enlarged. The Kin Clan, as you know, manipulates metal they insert into their skin, what you probably don't know is that each piece of metal is attached to a tenketsu point."

"What do the Hyuga and Kin have to do with Naruto?" Concern starting to seep in, Sora gave him a reassuring smile before continuing.

"Naruto's chakra system is built up, about at the same level as yours, which is highly odd in of itself. Further his tenketsu, the nodes themselves are extremely built up as well. Further Naruto has trouble sending chakra through his system because it is escaping from the overly large nodes too soon and getting out of his body without him wanting it to." She paused and looked at the child in his room. "He has to learn to control the chakra even if it's outside of him…it'll be nearly impossible Minato."

Minato thought, he wasn't sure how long he did but Sora waited patiently as he did. "Ah…brilliant."

"What is?"

"Sensei had a plan, you see he was always into the old legends, he used to tell me and my teammates stories from the warring times and even before when we were genin…anyway one of his hobbies was studying the bloodline clans. He was the only one to realize that the Senju actually do have a blood line. You see according to legend the Uchiha and Senju are descendents of the Sage of the Six Paths. The Uchiha inherited the eyes of the sage, while the Senju got his body. Jiraiya realized that this was simply a way of saying that both had bloodlines, the sharingan of course copies what they see but the Senju were masters of their bodies. The Senju could master whatever field they chose to learn, their bodies were able to completely master chakra and they became dominate in whatever style of ninjutsu or genjutsu they chose."

"That still doesn't explain what Jiraiya did."

"Well, he knew that if he made changes to that system he could create something powerful, a body that would naturally adapt to whatever changes he made, which means that all of this, while not specifically done, is part of Jiraiya's plan." Minato smiled proudly at his own words.

Sora shook her head in disgust. "So what you're saying is you have no idea what he did, just that he had a plan in doing it? Are you stupid or just willing to ignore that Jiraiya's actions may have harmed Naruto horribly? Or put the entire village in danger?"

Minato waved her off. "That would be a good point, if he hadn't stopped the demon that was raging through the village destroying everything. The danger of it possibly not working out way the demon who would have stopped at nothing to destroy us all."

"And now we have a boy who has an unknown power and an inability to control his own chakra." Minato simply smiled and went in to take Naruto home.

Sora Uchiha reported her findings to Fugaku who reacted poorly, at best. The news that the Senju clan heir and sole member. It was ludicrous that a lone child with no skills beyond above average taijutsu and weapons skills was considered a clan when compared to the Uchiha. With Tsunade there had been a sort of quiet understanding, until the late in life pregnancy that created a new heir to the broken clan.

"Orochimaru couldn't have finished them all off with his experiments?" He killed nearly an entire generation of their rival clan simply trying to see if he could replicate Hashirama's Wood Release. An experiment had meant more to him than an entire clan. Through mourning and ninja life the rest of the clan had been reduced to the civilian relatives who had been removed from the clan altogether.

Now their rivals had a new bloodline, Sora had seen how the bloodline worked. If the Hokage was too incompetent to see that then the village was truly in trouble. "He is obviously supposed to use nature energy, remember Jiraiya was a sage."

The leader of the clan nodded, it was a useful bloodline and Sora was a trusted source. "Itachi, I want you to find out anything you can about the boy."

"Yes father…"

The dog masked ANBU and crow masked ANBU stood in his office, Dog began reporting as soon as he arrived. "My clan is sending me in as a spy, my father added this to my duties as spy."

"Danzo found out as well somehow, I've already spotted at least one Root member spying on the academy." Crow added, his silver hair marking him as Kakashi.

The Hokage smiled; sometimes it was good that people thought he was slow witted or even stupid. People easily underestimated him and attempted to use his perceived fault against him. It nearly always worked. This time it had been perfect, he had both needed the information on Naruto to confirm his own suspicions and to leak information to the Uchiha to see how they would react.

"Good, keep me posted both of you. In the next few weeks we shall see what happens. Don't worry if anything I'll let them fight with each other instead of Konoha."

Itachi actually chuckled as he disappeared through the window. "Watch him…right?" Kakashi asked.

"Yes. Though he'll know you are." Kakashi nodded and followed after the younger boy.

Minato looked at the sole picture on his desk, one of him and Naruto taken a year before. The boy looked so much like Jiraiya it sometimes hurt to see him smile. "Everything will be ok…I'll find what your father did, don't worry."

A/N: Well, just an idea I've had for a Naruto story.