"Ero-sennin!" was heard throughout the whole village. Said perverted hermit was currently sitting by a fence peeking through a hole into the female onsen. 'I'm never going to finish my research at this rate,' was the simple thought passing through his mind as he saw the females he was spying on ran away into the dressing room. A short while later the origin of the outcry stood before him.
"What is it gaki?" he asked the boy standing before him, a thirteen year old clad in an orange jumpsuit with bright yellow unruly hair and sapphire blue eyes and sun kissed skin. He was nothing special if there hadn't been for the three whisker marks on his cheek and a more subtle thing such as that he had the strongest bijū sealed within him.
"When are we leaving this place? We've been here for three months now and all you've done is peeping while I've trained on my own," the boy complained, "You said you would train me."
"Alright, alright gaki, just one more day then we'll leave for training." The white haired man said defeated. Up to this point he had avoided the complaints for three months and managed to get a great deal of 'research' done, but it seemed like it had come to a stop. Now he was forced to continue his travels with the brat.
"Good Ero-sennin," was all the boy said before he left. 'Now back to the research' thought the man before he turned around with a lecherous grin to perform his 'research', hoping that the females had returned.
"Damn Ero-sennin, all he does is peek while I train on my own," Naruto said out loud as he jumped through the forest outside the small town where they were staying. He had trained his speed and strength with weights for three months now; wearing the weights at all times so he figured he could perform a test to see just how much he had improved.
"Now where is that block they said was in some clearing here." He asked out loud. He figured he could try his newfound strength against a supposedly unbreakable block that was in a clearing in the forest he heard about from the townspeople. He had reached what he supposed was the clearing but he had yet to find the block. It was a large clearing with green grass and a large pond, but there was no block there.
He searched for thirty minutes, finding no trace of the large block. Sweating in the sun he decided he could as well take a dip in the pond. He quickly discarded his jumpsuit and readied himself for a dive by the border of the pond, not feeling like testing the water first. The air was warm and the sun was shining so the water was most likely a nice temperature.
At first the cool water felt nice to his warm body as he landed in it, but it soon turned unpleasant as his feet after just a few seconds started to numb at a freezing sensation. Looking down he saw a large block, it was not of stone but rather ice. In the ice he could see a sword and underneath there was a large shadow. Soon he felt the numbness from his feet spread from his feet upwards. Naruto quickly swam to the edge of the water and climbed up from the nearly freezing waters. 'I got to get Ero-sennin here, he might know what it is, plus that sword looked neat.'
"Ero-sennin!" the loud voice of Naruto rang out for the second time that day near the female onsen. 'What is it now? I thought I dealt with him earlier,' the white haired hermit thought glumly as he once again saw the females rush off, it had taken them an hour before they returned. He decided the kid better have something good for interrupting him or else he would have hell to pay.
"What is it now gaki?" he asked the boy who seemed to be rather thrilled over something, causing the hermit to become interested.
"I found this clearing in the forest and there was a pond there which I decided to take a swim in but then I found this freezing cold block in there, nearly froze my feet of." The boy said.
"Feh, whatever gaki," the white haired man said, his curiosity dead, as he turned back to the onsen.
"But there is this sword in the block and a blurry shadowy shape." Naruto continued. The man's interest was piqued once again. 'A block with a sword in eh,' he thought. Somewhere in his mind a bell of recognition rang, but he just couldn't place it.
"Show me," he demanded. Soon Naruto led the man through the forest towards the clearing. It took them twenty minutes to reach the clearing with the pond.
"In there Ero-sennin." Naruto said and pointed towards the pond. They both walked to the pond and just as Naruto said there was a block made of some semi-transparent material with a sword and a blurry shadow shape. The white haired man bent down and felt the water, it was near freezing.
"You bathed, in this?" he questioned. Seeing the boy nod he just shook his head. "Well let's see if we can do anything about this now then." He said before he rapidly started to flash through hand seals.
"Ne, what are you going to use Ero-sennin?" Naruto asked, receiving no response from the man he was about to ask more loudly but was interrupted.
"Suiton: Suiryūdan no Jutsu," the man said as a large dragon rose from the pond, draining the small pond completely, leaving a large block of what appeared to be ice in its place. The dragon disappeared through the forest, its purpose fulfilled. The hole left after the pond was about five meter deep and ten meter wide. Both the boy and the man studied the block, its contents more visible now, but still pretty blurry. But they could make out that the shadow they had seen before was a dark clad human with several objects sticking out of him. Nearly at the top of the block was a long double edged sword with a dark purple handle and a silvery blade that gave of a red shine.
"Do you think we can melt that block?" Naruto asked. The sword indeed seemed very fanciful and its apparent owner was most certainly dead by now.
"Only one way to find out," was the reply from the man before he started running through another set of hand seals. "Kuchiyose no Jutsu," he said and a toad taller than the man appeared.
"What are you doing? Are you going to crush it?" Naruto asked.
"No, watch and learn." The man said before going into another set of seals, telling the toad he needed oil. "Katon: Gamayu Endan," he declared as the toad shot oil at the block that he ignited. It wasn't long until the ice started to melt slowly under the fire. Naruto decided to stand by the hole so he could tell the man when to stop so he didn't incarnate the human trapped within the block. It wasn't until five minutes later when he deemed it close enough. As the fire dissipated the toad disappeared in a puff of smoke.
"Um, Ero-sennin you don't think the sword might have melt by the fire?" Naruto asked, remembering the blade that had been lying almost at the top of the block which was decimated so it almost was only a cover around the now obviously male human standing there.
"Logically it should have melted," was the response he got, "I think we should wait until tomorrow before we look through the stuff though, it should still be pretty hot if they haven't melted. So let's head back here tomorrow, I doubt it's going anywhere."
The two males started to walk back, Naruto giving the place a last glance. He really wanted to have a closer look at that sword, it was unlike the sword's used by most ninja, only the stuff used by the seven swordsmen were resembling it, though theirs were as long as it theirs were also arguable much bigger in all other dimensions as well. At least from what he had seen up to this point from the swordsmen he had seen.
The next morning Naruto awoke early and found that his sensei was still asleep. Now he really wanted to go back to the clearing.
"Ero-sennin!" he yelled into the ears of his sensei. With a start the older man jumped out of his futon.
"What is it Naruto? Is Akatsuki here?" he asked his apprentice.
"No, we're going to look in that clearing now." Naruto said matter-of-factly, "So come on."
"Yeah yeah, I'm coming gaki." He said as he walked after his running student.
When they arrived at the place they found in exactly like they left it the day before. Looking down at the dried bottom however revealed that ice had melted completely and lying there was the man, or rather teenaged boy, that had been frozen within the ice cube. Now they could clearly distinguish what it had been that was sticking out around him, it was kunai and shuriken, even a katana was sticking out from his stomach.
"Okay, the guy is definitely dead," the white haired man deadpanned before he and his apprentice jumped down into the hole. After they had looked around a little they found the sword that had been lying atop. Just as Naruto was about to touch the sword a raspy voice was heard from behind them.
"D-Don't… touch… that blade," was muttered in-between ragged breaths. Turning around to find the source they only saw the body of the dead boy. Though they knew that both couldn't have imagined that it was impossible for the dead to speak. However observing the body they saw that every few seconds or so the body moved, only slightly but it was movement, just as if he was alive and breathing. They both cautiously moved towards the body. Naruto carefully laid his two fingers towards the older boy's neck and felt for a pulse from the pale boy. The skin was cold, obviously, but there was a faint pulse from the boy.
"Jiraiya, he's alive but just barely." Naruto said, for once calling his sensei by his name, but given the situation the said man could not rejoice over it but instead he had to think out a way to stabilize the boy. He was no Tsunade, but he figured that heating up the boy and removing the weapons might help.
"Alright Naruto, you remove the weapons and I get some firewood and one of the sleeping bags." Jiraiya declared before the used shunshin to disappear.
Naruto started with carefully removing the weapons stuck in the boy, he could count that there were at least fifteen weapons sitting in various places. Every time he removed a kunai or shuriken the boy hissed, ten minutes later ten kunai and six shuriken later all that remained was the katana. Naruto was about to reach for the handle and draw it out from the boy as he had turned him around to be able to do so when a hand stopped him.
"Don't… It needs to… be there for… else I will bleed… to death." The boy said between his ragged breaths with his weak voice. As Naruto reflected on this he found it strange, the wounds from the kunai and shuriken had healed rather quick, nearly as fast as he himself was healed he remarked. The grip on his arm was weak but he noticed that the boy was slightly warmer than before. Just then with a whirl of leaves Jiraiya appeared behind him with a sleeping bag, a pile of wood and some medical supplies.
"Why haven't you taken out the katana yet?" Jiraiya asked as he deposited the wood and sleeping bag beside the boy.
"He said he would bleed to death then?" Naruto responded.
"What does this gaki know about that," Jiraiya remarked.
"I am… a medic-nin… and I know… I've lost… too much… blood…" was the now very weak response from the boy, growing weaker as he spoke.
"Quick, give him this," Jiraiya said, handing Naruto two red pills. "Now, can we take it out now then?" Jiraiya asked upon seeing the boy swallow the pills. Seeing a nod from the boy he took out bandages and told Naruto to draw out the katana as carefully as he could, as to not cut a wider wound. As soon as the katana was out the cloth around the midriff was taken away and soon thereafter bandaged. As soon as that was done the two Konoha ninja started a fire and had the now sleeping boy in the sleeping bag so he could regain body heat faster.
Two hours later the boy's pale complexion had disappeared and his skin had turned into a healthy color close to that of Naruto's. Upon further inspection on the boy they had found a scratched Kirigakure Hitai-ate on his persons and several scrolls, most of them being weapon scrolls. Naruto was just about to reach for the purple sword again when the boy woke up again.
"Don't touch it," he said without any of his previous weakness in his voice not even looking in his direction, rather looking around in the pit in which he sat. He saw a white haired man turned towards him and behind him was an orange clad blond. When the blond turned towards him he couldn't help but let out a surprised yelp. "Konoha no Kīroi Senkō!" he cried out pointing at the blond, receiving a look that plainly said he thought he was insane. "But you look very short and young," he added with an afterthought.
"Short, I'll give you a piece of my mind," Naruto cried out angrily but was stopped by Jiraiya.
"No he's not the Konoha no Kīroi Senkō. But you seem to know about the Yondaime Hokage?" Jiraiya asked while he restrained Naruto.
"Yondaime? Konoha no Kīroi Senkō is the Yondaime Hokage?" the boy asked perplexed.
"How long have you been in that block of ice?" Naruto asked, now a lot calmer though Jiraiya still kept a hand on his shoulder for safety measures.
"I don't know, I used a jutsu I had read about that forms a dome of ice that can freeze nearly anything in seconds forming an ice prison, though I can't seem to remember it anymore, then it's all blank. Before that I fought against some Kirigakure ANBU that forced me to use that jutsu to defend myself." The boy explained.
"Was there still a war between Iwa and Konoha at that time?" Jiraiya asked receiving a nod, "Then it was around seventeen years ago." Jiraiya deduced.
"WHAT!?" the boy yelled out sitting up, promptly falling back when he felt his strength leave him. "I am only sixteen, that's more than I've lived."
"So you're a Kirigakure nukenin then?" Jiraiya asked him.
"Yeah, after the Mizukage tried to assassinate me I fled. Get this, I a faithful Jōnin, is the target of an assassination. The Mizukage is a real paranoid guy I tell you, soon he's going to try to kill the seven swordsmen too." The boy said.
"So what's your name?" Naruto asked.
"You know, it's impolite to ask somebody's name before you say your own." Was the response he got from the nukenin.
"I am Uzumaki Naruto, future Hokage," the blond declared, "and this is…" he continued but was cut off by Jiraiya. Only one thought crossed his mind 'Oh no, not again,'
"I am Myouboku Mountain's monk of the toad spirits. Also know as the gama-sennin, Jiraiya-sama." The white haired man said as he performed a dance.
"My name is Sūn Sousuke," the boy said.
"Sousuke-san, don't listen to Ero-sennin's talk about his mightiness, he's just a super pervert though he knows some great stuff." Naruto told the boy.
"What do you mean?" Sousuke questioned.
"Just look." Naruto said as he put his hand in a familiar hand seal. "Oiroke no Jutsu!" He declared as he transformed into a beautiful blonde woman. Immediately Jiraiya adapted a lecherous grin as he ogled the transformed Naruto who soon released the jutsu making Jiraiya cry out in disappointment.
"I see," Sousuke said trailing of.
"So how are you feeling Sousuke-san?" Jiraiya asked as he had snapped back to normal.
"Tired and sore, I doubt I am able to move for at least two weeks." He responded.
"Well gaki, seems like we'll have to stay here for some more time then," Jiraiya said to Naruto giving him a grin.
"What!? We were supposed to leave today!" Naruto screamed.
"Are you telling me we should leave him alone here? We can't just abandon the guy when it was we who found him." Jiraiya argued, 'I can't lose this, I want to see more of the ladies here, the next place we're leaving for might make it impossible for me to get any more "research" done.' He thought for himself.
"Fine," Naruto relented, it was all true, they couldn't let him stay behind, at least in his current state.
"Where were you leaving for?" Sousuke asked, he felt bad for making the boy stay since it seemed like he really would like to leave, however the old man seemed less eager.
"We were leaving for Sunagakure for his training, though he can perform it here still." Jiraiya said. "Well we better take you with us now so we can get to the inn."
Naruto was picking up the equipment lying around and put it in a bag but as he was about to pick up the sword he was interested in he was stopped yet again by Sousuke.
"Don't, no one but me can touch that blade unless its sheathed, so if you could take me to it and give me the sheath that should have been on my back." Sousuke explained. It took Naruto some time to find the sheath in question but afterwards he gave it to Sousuke before he lifted the older boy to the place where the sword lay. Soon the blade was within its sheath and handed to Naruto. "There, now don't unsheathe the blade though."